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C OM P U T E R P L A Y ER !

JA N U A RY 1 9 9 7

CANADA COeePUTE. < 8.C. ' DI T I O N

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fouuoeesKentLiqinChen, Li Ding PuRUsNRR Douglas Alder EOIToR-IN-Cuter Mara C>ulens,edltoiNtcpon.corn MNlaciuc Eotroe Lara ThaisKing Cot T EDITORWilliam Wood AssocIRTR EOIToR Myles White, Alan Zisman EOITORIAI.AssisTNIT Lauren Blankstein EOITORtat INTRRN jason Chiles ART DIRECToRJennifer Hanlon Scott PRoouclloN Helga Stitt, PaulVanElsberg, SusanMagil, Angela

hen BiU Gates asksWhere do you want to go?', I say Where am I?'" With these words, Thomas Koulopoulos, the president of Delphi Consulting Group and moderator of the Crystal Ball panel at Fall Comdex, Las Vegas, flashed a familiar image of a desktop cluttered with spreadsheets,word files,and a hrovvser onto the screen. The audience burst into Laughter and relaxed. It was nice to know you weren' t alone in thinking that technology isn't as stra'. ghtforward as the gurus proclaim. >althoughtlie room was packed with hundreds of info-hounds eager for a preview of the future, when K<>ulopoulos asked lor a show of hands. only 24 individuals admitted to being "geeks."This may or may not be odd, considering Fall Comdex is the largest computer trade show on the continent, and that at the close of 1996 prettv well everyone has in some way been drawn into the frenzied world of technology.

So when the panel of futurists kicked off with a discussion on the importance of "ease of use," the tol>i:: hit home.

lori, SherlyHo, KarinHartwig, ErnestStelzer CONTRotteRChrisM cPhie Aomtrnsiuc Ates jamie Leighton,jamieCotcp.ca Randy Chaster,randyCa >tcp.co Frank Houston,frankiotcpon.corn Marsha Miller,morsha@tcpon.corn AccouNTINc Farida Aini DisTRIRirnoN Har PalSingh Khalsa AoouT TueComa This month'scoverwasdesignedbyPaul VanElsberg fs retouched inPhotoshop 3.0. Compostiion I's typewe~acreatedinAdobeillustrator5.5. Thisimage, shot byjohnNa<vali, featuresRobbi Jayasthegirl who can see the future,

Computer Pluyert (CanadaComputes!BCedition) is published

monthly by CanadaComputer Paper inc.

425 Carrall St., Suite 503 Vancouver, BC V6B 6E3 Tel:(604) 608-2688 Fax:(604) 608-2686

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Tel: (61 3)789-6431 Fax: (613) 789-6433 Quebec lflclol 360 Notre Dame Quest., Suite 103 Montreal, CJC H2Y IT9

When we look at today's teclu>ologq — the cluttered desktops, the t u rtlish Internet connections, the complicated bn>w-ser configurations, the computer crashes — are we able to consider where we wanr to go?

According to Paul Saffo, director of California's Institute for the Future. we are obsessed with t oday's tools precisely because they do not fit i nto our lives.

Transl' ted, this means w'e're thrilled by faster modems, bigger monitors, and fancier suites.

Tel: (514) 843-4770 Fare (514) 843-34B4 Copyright 1997 Canada Complstor Paper lnc. unless otherwisespecified.

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Thepublisherresenesthen'ght torefusesexist, racist, or <>thenvise offensiveadvertising. Thepublisheralsoresene> the nght tobethefin<>Pjudgeofwhat ii upproprlote.

ANNouNCEMeuTs: pressreleoses@tcpon.corn You ASKSUs: yaucltcpon.coin FEBRU ARY1996 ISSut: Games!

AD DEA DUNE: Tuesday, january 14 DlsTRIU B TloN: Friday, january 31

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C OM P U T E R PL A Y E R !

precluded.

When the Crystal Ball panelists got around to their predictions, where we would be became no less important than how we w<>uid get there. Because if the arrival is successfuh the tool will become invisible, they say.

Foolproof?

It used to be so simple. You'd spill coffee <>n your floppy disk and ruin the file. You' d forget to backup the internal hard drive and lose aU your work.

Now we have hardware, software, and Internet problems that eclipse the already serious difficulties with ABMs, computer viruses, and information overload. If things keep changing at this pace, one w<mders whether we'U make it through the I()9S days I<> the year 2000.

According to many futurists, h<>wever, by the millennium, many of the new technolo-

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In fact, even Byte magazine's peek into the future revolves around the term "ubiquitous," as aresultof ease-of-use.

Mare Andreesen, vice president of technology for Netscape Communications, predicts that, in five years time, "the Internet will have begun to disappear, like electricity and telephony, into the woodwork. And it will [be accessible] ever»~here, in vvired or wireless form."

Regarding the next wave of computing, Jerry Rogers, president and CEO nf Cyrix Corp., says "the human interface will finally fulfill the ease-of-use model for everyone to feel comfortable. The interface will consist of sophisticated speech recognition and synthesis and virtual reality."

The dim past If these experts are even partly right, then if we just wait, the wagons wiU eventually become cars. the h<>rses wiU be let out to graze, and we' ll forget why we ever adopted the term "horsepower." More concretelywe' ll forget why we called what we see on the monitor a "desktop," why a Web site was caUed a"page,"and what logging off was aU about.

At that point. my neighbour will have no recollection of "Rolodex," using a computer will be as simple as driving a car, and my GPSequipped laptop will let me know where I IfntU then. we can only dream about the future and keep "wow-ing" the improvements asthe come.

Happy NewYear!

gies should have become transparent. Like the phone, car, and light switch today, inslr«ctions uill no longer be necessary!

The facts as we understand them..

Subscriptions:$24.9S (includesGST)a year.

Americansubscriptions:US$60

ComputerPloyer!

45 Carral Street, Suite 503 Vancouver, BC V6B 6E3

not necessarily because they' re great, but because we' re not content with what we have.

For example,. my next-door neighbor w<>uld prefer a GUI that looks more like a R<>Index, wit h s i m pler flip-through o ptions. My sister would like t o skip browser configuration, so she wouldn' t have to call on our resident techie just to surf.

For my part, I would have liked my notehook computer to kn<>w I had arrived in Vegas. This way, the tedious attempts to log <>nto the Toronto network — while avoiding the long-distance charges — could have been

One of our staff has drawn our attention to an article in the October 1996 ssue of Tor o n to C o m p u tes! by Christopher Guly about a software program that we developed for the FBI We are very pleased to get free publicity, but would like to point out a few inaccuracies ir Lis article.

CIVER-PSYCH is a clinical decision-support and electronic record processing system that was developed by Civerex Systems Inc. for use by mental health professionals. Since it was launched in May 1995, over 1,000 copies have been distributed to over 20 countries.

The productthat we developed for the FBI is an adaptation of CIVER-PSYCH butit is NOT called CIVER-PSYCH . The FBI product is c alled th e P sychological Profiling Mod u l e for HOBAS (Hostage/Barricade Data System) and was designed for use by hostage negotiators.

CiverexSystems Inc.is an affiliate ofJayKell Technologies Inc., a federally-incorporated software development company that was formed in 1990. Jay-Kell Techn<>logies Inc. have a staff of seven-. Civerex Systems Inc. was formed in 1994 to specialize in

Mara Culens

editorotcpon.corn

the development of medical diagnostic software. It was NOT started out of our basement but shares office spacewith JayKell Technologies.

If you would like any more information about oursoftware products,please give us a call at (514) 650-1005.

Jean Kelly, President

The Cede I am writing to you about statements made in the article on page 16 of the December issue of Toronto Computes!.It stated that supporters of the Canadian Association of Internet providers voluntary code of conduct are "hoping it will p ave the way f o r regulation of the Internet."

In fact, its purpose is to eliminate the need for inandatory government imposed reguhtion. The code defines an initial set of voluntary industry guidelines regarding a number of legal issues.

While we agree with Mr. Carroll that information flows freely in the world of the Internet, a very small percentage of that "information" may violate copyright laws, the criminal code and other laws of the country. The code addresses those situatiotls.

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.ate ' Lima Olsgraced! c on t i n u e d

f r om pag e&

Unfortunately, the article did not actually list the code, so that TC! readers could not examine it for t h emselves. The full c ode i s a t CA I P ' s w e b s i t e (h t t p : //sE~ . c aip.ca).

Ron Kawchuk

Electronic Banking

I have been self~mployed as a Macintosh computer consultant for several years, with operations based in Mississauga.

As a Certified Macintosh Evangalist:-), I feel compelled to correct myths and misconceptions in the media regarding the Macintosh platform. When I n o t iced a " Macintosh Misconception" in Paul Lima's November 96 article Demand for used computers grouf-

I' ve been reading free local computer magazbies for quite some time now, and (IMHO) I think they provide invaluable information a bout the computer i ndustry fo r l o w e r mainland residents. H o w ever, I' ve been waiting for an issue that will cover home bar)king. I k now that there has recently been a greatdeal of ads in the newspapers about home banking offered by many banks.

Personally, I would like to see an issue which will cover all the banks that offer this service. How it is offered (ie. over internet or a diai up line), what options are available (i.e. stock and mutual fund monitoring) and how much it will cost? P referably, aspects of security will be mentioned.

Do you think home banking will ever be (liscusse(lt Terry Hui

ing for indi()ideals, schools, I wrote a short note to him.

I demand a "public dressing down" of Paul Lima, one of y ou r b e tter c ontributors!

(Please take this demand in a humourous vein). This request is at the insistance of Paul himself.

I have successfully installed the latest Mac operating system (7.5.5) on Macs that are 5 years old. Any Mac that contains at least a

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68030 Motorola CPU is capable of running 90 per cent of the "features" contained in the latest OS, and that includes PowerBooks as well. Call me biased, but the Mac interface is (still) far more (Bill Gates be damned) userfriendly than any other operating system available on the market.

I feel much better now: Thanks for a great paper.

StevePatterson,viathe Internet

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Also in the November issue, the fust item in the Bnefs sedion mentions kxker fromQuantum Press inc. The e-ma)l address fisted is no longer available and any interested readers should contact Smtt Norwood (416)225-5255.

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C OMPU TE R

P L A Y E R ! JA N UA R Y 1 9 9 7

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three-yearold Vancouver software company calling itself FamnyWare Products Inc. is betting the farm on future demand for consumers to view the WorldWide Web on their

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W ecarryboth ChineseandEnglishtitles.

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archiving capabilities. "We're hearing more

tion, and fashion shows. Last month's sched-

and more people complain about how difficult it is to find and archive information on the Internet," says Michael Brown, President of FamilyWare."Family Central provides a front end to the Internet that'sboth exciting and easy to use."

Based mostly on interactive images, the Family Central features literal and clickable graphical illustrations when users enter the site, which includes entertaining and informational topics such as "My House" and "Vancouver ata Glance" for access to areas deeper within the site. Using MS Explorer's proprietary zooming features, users can zoom in and out of scenes and negotiate virtual rooins where they can dick on particular links for more information or obtain inform ation onproducts featured. From there,visitors to the site can build their own libraries of links to their favourite areas.

FamilyWare's rationale for development of this new type of Web site product is in making the Internet accessible to people who can't afford their own computer, and to make Internetaccess as easy as using your TV's remote control.

For more information on FamilyWare, see their Web site at URL http: //www.familyware.corn.

uled events included live broadcasts to MuchMusic and the Internet, as well as live jazz and flamenco performers.

Sponsors for th e c afe i nclude Silicon Graphics, NetPower, and Electronic Arts Canada. Web visitors can obtain more information about the Vancouver Film School at http: //www.multimedia.edu/ or t heir Web Cafe at http://www.thewebcafe.com/ or by e-mailing infoithewebcafe.corn

VFS's million-dollar "Media Cafe" The Vancouver Film School last month launched their S I-million Web cafe as a "celebration of media and technology," according to David Baker, head of the school's multimedia campus. The cafe, situated on-campus at 390 West Hastings, consists of 14 stations hooked into the World Wide Web and boasts

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Advantage offersfree seminars Advantage Computers Ltd. has begun offering a series offree day-long seminarsincluding a free lunch. Last month's seminar, presented by the company's own networking guru, covered topics such as local- and wide-area networks, remote access, Internet security, and glimpses into emerging network technologies.

Although the company's main goal is to stimulate sales of its Macintosh line of computers, the session offered some valuable information for network enthusiasts and insights into some of the latest technology innovations. Advantage also expects to have relocated to their new downtown offices this month, making the seminars more convenient for corporate customers.

For information and online registration for upcoming seminars, check out their Web site at http://www.advantage.corn/seminars/ or send e-mail to seminarsisadvantage.corn Steve Bain is a writer in Yancouver, Canada. He can be reachedon CompuServeat 72623,1233 oron the Internet at Steve@helix.net +

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operating at speeds up to 340 times faster than run-of-the-mill 28.8 modems.

Referred to as fhe "data bar," it overlooks a 150-seat, licensed restaurant, bringing new meaning to "out for a byte."The cafe also features a state-of-the-art multimedia sound system and video studio.

Hourly rates for using the new facility are set at six dollars for school members and ten dolhrs for non-members. Patrons can surf the Net, create digital documents, send e-mail, chat online, or just play a video game.

The film school's operators also hope their new high-tech venue wirr be used for such events as movie shoots, rock-video produc-

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living room television. Also, in a vote of conflidence in the p opularity of M i crosoft's WorM Wide Web browsing software, their products incorporate many features and effects compatible only with the latest version of Internet Explorer (version 3.0).

Last month,FamilyWare launched a preview of their products from their Web site, Family Central (http: //www.familycentral. corn/), which will be available for free viewing until the end of February. Following this trial period, users will pay a flat annual fee for full access to Family Central's features.

The company is touting their Web products as being very intuitive, with superior

J A N UA RY 1 9 9 7

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a re de v e l e p m e n t held in Washington, DC, from October 28 to November I — and they reveal the heart of development as it stands today.

First, I-Nets (internet, with its worldwide connections, and intranets within companies) ate becoming the preferred method for distributed

threMay tutorials with hefty US$300-$1,000 pricetags,where attendees hear some ofthe best minds in the industry, such as Larry Constantine, Bruce Eckel, Larry O' Brien, and Roland Racko, among others. Five major trends were discernible at this year's show-

• • By JACQUES SURVEYER • •

The Software Developers Conference '96 East provides a endow on the latest trends in development software.

Most sessions here are one-,two-, and

information access. More than one seminar cited low start-up costs, ease of use, and open, cross-platform availability of key tools.

Second, those I-Net sites are rapidly changing lrom passive info kiosks into active transaction mails with the help of database, security, and Wit e too l s f rom Borland (Intrabuilder), Bluestone (Sapphire), IBI-5thLevel (Quest), Haht (HahtSite), and Speedware (AutoBahn), as well as from heav)weights like Microsoft, Netscape,and OpenMarket.

I -Nets ( I nternet, w i t h i t s worldwide connections. aild intra nets within are becoming the preferred method for distributed infor-

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Third, the language of the Internet is Java.

The language of open, cross-platform computing is no longer C or C++; it is Java.

The flood of tools for Java was notable. In Java compilers an d I D E s ( I n t egrated Developmetn Environs) alone, there were some very i m p ressive ne w p r o ducts.

Asymetrix' SuperCede (due in January) currently holds the code-speed crown, but Microsoft's J++, with it s learning-friendly developer's interface, and Symantec's power' ful Visual Cafe (both available now) will give SuperCede a run for the money.

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ject management were nowhere to be found.

This was surprising in the latter case, given the constantly repeated message that the best development practices start with good project-management tools.

Nonetheless, a sutecobe~ i c b ook on software project management was unveiiled at the show — Steve McConnell'sRaptd Devetopment.

In the same thorough yet revealing manner as his Code Complete, McConnell shows what reall y works in software projects — a must~ f o r MIS executives and project managers.

Finally, this show covered its own potential demise — the Internet access, bee downloads, media authoring, and CD-ROMbased learning tools avaih&le will obviously sap away cus. tomers,until shows like this readjust their priceto4earninr~perience ratios. O

Givethem Power,Hope,and Knowledge.

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About a year and a half ago, a mailing '-'Went out in New Mesico for the guardian af an individual to hring him in forrregistration in kindergarten. The individuiil in Itfestion had no tlarent nr guardian, sin'i,e ,he Ias lfl5 years old. This is a very sInall i

=-:,lnstanEe l}f Ihe hlggest, njessiest'; '"anlf:

miist intractable ijrohfem of the nejIt fel' i .= y ears: the coming af the year lll8$;.„===.-~

e o By ROBERT SLADE ~ + 4

A lof of people likely breathed a siyh ef relief when f984 came and w8nf, Bnd George OrMfelts predictions of soci8fal confrol had not arrived. On fh8 ofher hand, maybe Blg

,

Brother wasn t as formidable a presence as his hffle computer brother — and new HAL and his kind seem poised to become a realpresence in our world, come 288f.

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he trouble, known in geek shorthand as Y2K;:is . that a great many programs have-been sjvntteq.

that only considerthe last bvodigits of the'year' '

part of the date — for example, "97'. in the cas'e'of 1997. When the centuiy (and the miittnium) fons over to 20IS, the cllrrent date wel sxfdeniy become less than previous dates. Any program that calculates interest, due dates, or anythirig else based on elapsed timecanfaH.;.:-.~ -" -;~„.-=:.=-„: .-.;~Tomake the situatjon::worse, many:."of:the pro.' grams hardest hit bythe Y2K ptebjern «re older, legacy sys-'-'tens. Banking systems, to give only one example, are com.- posed of literally hundreds, if not thousands, of interrelated . It is not enough to simply make a change in: the date formaL Each module must be examined to see how,it uses evetyother module that might use adate, and alsoto see how it looks atevery data record that might contain a date. =~

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It's a dull |oh, hut...

Y2K is not an "interesting" problem in computer terms,since it simply involvescomputer maintenance-programming "bull work. AII programshave to be checked to seewhether they (in ternally)usetwo-digit year dates, and then the whoieprogtam (system, if programs are linked together) has. to.be «hecked for every spot that usesthe date nelds-grunt work, plain and simple.

An Arthur C. Clarke/Gentry Lee collaboration about raising the Titanic hasone of the charactersget dchoff a "virus'that magically runs through programs to fix the Y2K problem, This is purefiction: it would be impossible to predict the outcome of such aprogram, but it would, in an likeltood, make the problem far worse.

Y2K is also not a new problem. Programmers have known about it for years. In fact, there is aminiature example of Y2K every four years: Leap Year. Every February 29, youind f an instance of some technology that hasfailed to dtmil with it Last year, for example, the ArizonaState Lottery installed new terminals for an its locations. On February 29, it was:%end that. gone of the terminals would recognize or adept the

C O M P U T E R P L A Y E R!

J A N U A RY 1 9 9 7

• • By CHRISTOPHER GULY • • Friend or foe? A lot of people wonder as they watch, and participate, in the techn~volutionary ndyssey leading up to the next millennium.

Until just recently, Ottawa computer-books tore o w ne r To m Sieciechowicz felt that his retail business was quickly becoming an oxymoron. Last faiI, he had little choice but to catch up with customer demand and created a Web site (http: //www .computerbook.corn/) t o sell his products s e online.

"I think it's only a matter of time before consumers will be able to enter virtual retail space and walk down a corridor, open a book, and decide whether to buy it or not," says Sieciechowicz. "When I will be able to buy a suit and get it tailored t o my mea s urements through a computer, I think the days of the shopping mall are almost over."

In a speech to US retail executives in early 1995, Wendy Leibinann, president of WSL Marketing Inc., predicted that turn-of-the-century shopping will look something like this: "Open the screen, highlight the store name, enter your store debit-card number, and begin. Pick your category, scroll down the menu, pick your brand, check the price, select the quantity, aisle by aisle,

category by category, until you finish your shopping list and enter how and when you want the merchandise delivered. Think it won't happen?

Think again. Consumers have no time."

Cassandra complex cashes in Vancouver-based futurist Frank Ogden (at Web site http://www.drtomorrow.corn/I was preaching that kind of mes. sage a couple of decades ago to some audiences who viewed hun more as a screwball George

Jetson wannabee than a realist.

Now, the 76 year-old is iespected as a visionary. Corporations line up and pay Ogden big bucks — enough to earn him almost USS 500,000 annually — to hear Dc Tomormw's" apocalyptic message of 21st-century living.

"Virtual reality is going to change our education system," says Ogden matterof-fitctly. Y o u' re going to have brain surgeons who will have been able to practice on a virtual subject 100 times more than t h ey would have been able to as interns working on a few patients or cadavers.

"Now, it's not unusual to take a flight where the co-pilot may have only

trained in a simulator and never actually flown a plane before. But that person will be better trained, because they will have been exposed to a lot of more than someone who trained in the air — how to handle engine problems, a seagull crashing into the windshield, an undercarriage that won't go down, and a washroom catching on fire, ati at the same time."

Colin Ware, a professor of computer science at the University of New Brunswick in Fredericton, is developing user interfaces for interactive 3-D graphics. One of his projects involves a "bat," the likely successor to the mouse, that encodes hand position and moves objects around in 3-D graphicsworkspaces.Ware believes 3D computer images will be as commonplace as colour is on desktop computers.

Virtual room, virtual view?

"In the next three years, you fe goillg to see people adopting a virtual workplace„" he says. "Instead of having desktop documents and folders, you will have a set of rooms to navigate through." x Will the trappings that come with virtual technology be too cumbersome for consumers? A lot of people, especially in an

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Canon BJC240 Color Printer .....$245 Canon BJC4100 Color Printer ....$299 Color Cartridge (BJC210) ...... . .$25 Brother HL641 300dpi 6PPM.....$365 Brother HL730DX 600dpi 6PPM ..$429 Brother HL760DX 1200dpi 6PPM .$535 Bro. HL16601200dpi 17PPM ...$1379 IC-100 Scanner 400 dpi .... . . . . .$99 IC-150 Scanner 400 dpi OCR ....$119

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A sso c i a t e e d i t o r M y l e s W h i t e h a s p u t f o u r f l a t b e d

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i s th e b e s t . I n t e r e st e d c o n s u m e r s , t a k e n o t e .

the user extensive options for pre-correcting an image, it was still no match for the HP DeskScan II driver's ability to automatically select the correct image type and exposure.

One interesting note: Agfa quotes only "estimated street" prices, but where we checked, the prices were higher — $1,295 and $1,425 respectively.

More info: 1400-268-1331 or http: //www.agfahome.corn/

Hewlett Packard Scan)et 4C • ~ By MYLES WHITE•

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he ground rules for the testing were as follows: In order to keep as flat a playing field as possible when testing our candidate scanners, we decided to use the same computer — a 486 DX4/100 with 16 MB of RAM, running Windows for Workgroups 3.11, and equipped with a 16-bit, standard ISA bus, Future Domain SCSI adapter — for all tests, on the theory that this still represents the largest number of computer/operating system combos in use.

Images from a 3 by 5-inch black-and-white photograph (B-bit, 256 levels of grey), a 6 by 8-inch line drawing (2bit black and white) and a Ci by 8-inch, three-dimensional object (in this case, an Artisoft network card, 24-bit full colour) were scanned into both Corel PhotoPalnt 5.0

The Agfa StudioStarLE. and b1lcrografxPhotoMagic. Each object was scanned three times at 75, 175, and 300 dotsper-inch (or in the case of the Agfa Studio Star, the nearest line-per-inch equivalent) and the average time for each scan was used to create the accompanying chart.

During the testing, we discovered a couple of important points to note. While a good TWAIN driver won't necessarily improve a slow scanner, an unsuitable driver can slow down a good unit. We used the older, 16-bit version (2.1) of the DeskScan II driver left over from another test in the first round of HP 4C tests. The test times were so remarkably faster than the competition that we decided to ie-test it, just to make sure our eyes hadn't played games.

In the second round, we installed version 2.3 of the DeskScan II driver, which shipped with the 4C, and immediately ran into trouble. Not only were the scans taking two to three times longer, but some at higher res. olutions were crashing our test system. When we reloaded version 2.2 drivers supplied by the company, the problems went away, although the scan times were C OM P U T E R PL A Y E R !

JA N U A RY 1 9 9 7

still slightly higher than the original tests.

According to HP, DeskScan II 2.3 is a 32-bit application optimized for Windows 95 and is less suitable for use under Windows 3.x.

Why isn't a 1 6 -bit version also include d? Damned if w e know.

Your c o mputer's speed and its components can also drastically affect scanning performance. While we didn't completely re-test all of the units under other conditions, we did try out the Agfa StudioStar on a 200 MHz Pentium-based system with 32 MB of RAM and an Adaptec 2940 Ultra Wide SCSI adapter,A scan that had taken 295 seconds (nearly five minutes) on the 486 DX4 took only 45 seconds on the faster system.

Our scanners were tested on a PC, but all are available with options for the Mac e n v i ronment.

Here's are brief precis of the features in our tested scanners:

And the winner is...the 30-bit ScanJet 4C from Hewlett Packard. Once we reverted to an older (I Ci-bit, pre-version 2.3) DeskScan II driver set, the 4C produced both impressive test times and, more importantly, nearly perfect images without the need for a lot of pre-scan tinkering with image quality correction. Like the StudioStar, the HP uses 24-bits for colour (16.7 million) and the additional 6 for shadow/highlight resolution. It also employs 10 bits for scanning greyscale images instead of the standard 8, which gives, in effect, 1024 shades of grey, although only 256 shades make it to screen (the additonal two I bits are used to refine shadI I I I ow/hig\iiight).

Aside from its speedy hardware, however, the automatic preview, image type, exposure, and image-size detection saved even more time.

The 4C comes bundled with Corel'sPhotoPai nt 5 ptus.

Visioneer's PaperPort for document image filing, Caere OmniPage LE OCR software, and a direct-to-printer "copi-

Agfa-Bayer Studio Star The 30-bit StudioStar ( 24 hit s u sed f o r colour, with an addi4I! • t ional Ci u s e d t o resolve shadows and highlights) comes in two models. The $1,195 StudioStar LE comes with Adobe PhotoShop LE (limited edition) while the full version of the Adobe product ships with the more expensive ($1,395) StudioStar Full.

Both models ship w ith Agfa products including FotoSnap (a simple TWAIN driver), FotoLook (the advanced TWAIN driver), FotoTune (a calibration utility to match screen and scanner colour values), FotoFlavor (a filter utility), SOFT copy (a direct-to-printer "copier" application), and Caere OmniPage Limited Edition OCR (optical character recognition software).

The StudioStar was the runner up in our scanner challenge, both because of its speed (slower than the HP 4C) and its FotoLook TWAIN driver. Although FotoLook gives

If you look through the US glossy magazines for flatbed scanners, there appears to be more of them than we' ve featured hete — and there are. Gut criteria narrowed the field. Mle asked neatIy 20 vendors to send us a unit that was flatbed, produced colour, had a list price under' Can$2„000 (and would be available in Canada by this

month), could run on at least a PC, wasTWAIN compatible, and had drivers currently available for both Nndows 3. I and%ittdows 95. Sy the time the dust settled, only six models retnained standing.

Two of them didn't make it here in time for our test challenge, even though the manufacturers, Nikon USA

(ScatlTouch 110) and EpsonCanada(Expression 636), had been sending uspressreleasesabout them for over two months prior to our request (which was sent nearly a month before we were scheduled to begin testing).

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office environment, are going to have difftcutty with virtual-reality helmets, goggles, and glove. But I think they won't be necessary as the technology evolves," says%are.

Ogden agrees. "There are headbands you can wear that transmit your alpha-beta waves i nto a computer an, through a t ype o f biofeedback and relaxation, you can only think a computer to do something," he says.

"But that can be slow and it's not likely to catch on."

Faster, simpler, and easier technology in an integrated system is what the market and the consumer are g o in g t o pu r s ue, says University of Ottawa electrical engineering professor Nicolas Georganas. "Videotron in Quebec is already talking about introducing a box that their customers would place on their television sets, and which would give them phone service, cable-TV, and Internet access fortele-shopping," says Georganas, who heads the U of 0's multimedia communications research lab.

"At first, it could be costly. They did that in France,where people can make train,hotel,

and theatre reservations online, but the consumer had to pay for each service separately and the company took ten years to pay off its investment."

That old human touch O f course, academics like Georganas also see the Internet cutting into their classroom territory. So far, he isn't worried."There will be more courses available, but the human contact will still be there, where a student and an instructor will be able to engage in two-way conferencing."

British science historian James Burke is

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currently looking at the viability of an application using C D-ROM technology and modems called "hypermedia webs."Through them, students would be encouraged to make their own "personal and idiosyncratic connections between data." As a result, knowledge acquisition would be driven by the user's interpretation of information.

"If we don't teach our kids to think like that," Burke told Ma c lean's in 1 9 9 5, "it would be like nobody having bothered to teach a kid to read once Gutenberg printed books." +

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C OMP U T E R

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JA N UA RY 1 9 9 7

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er" application. True resolution goes up to 600 by 600 dots per inch, so~ inte r p olation up to 2400dpi.The 4C can be found on the street for between $1,168 and $1,298.

There is also a little brother, the ScanJet 4P, limited t o 2 4 -bit c o l our s canning, 8-bit greyscale, a maximum optical resolution of 300 by 300, and without PbotoPaint in the bundle. It's priced between $679 and $759.

Automatic document feeders and transparency adapters are available.

More i n fo : 1 -800-387-3867 o r ht t p : // www.hp.corn/

Kye international Genius ColorPage SP2 Although the least expensive of the models we tested. the 24-bit ColorPag» SP2 still turned in respectable scanning time performance (it was next fastest compared to the HP 4C).

The PC version of the SP2 comes with ImagePals GO! I mage editing software (requires Windows 95), Photolmpact SE editing software (Win 3.x), a generic OCR appllication, and ScanWizard TWAIN driver (the same package that ships with the Microtek E6 below).

With a 24-bit scanning engine offering a maximum of 300 hy600 dpi (4800 by @800 through software interpolation), the SP2 had trouble rendering colours accurately without a lot of pre-scan correcting and did the least satisfactory scans of our three.dimensional test object. The length of its scans is also limited to 13.5 inches instead of a full 14.

Nevertheless, it's w o r t h c o n sideration when cost is a major factor and you ne«d the flexibility of a fl a t bed scanner. Available options include a transparency adapter and automatic document feeder for batch OCR p rocessing. List. price: US$299, with t h e

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Canadian street price around $549.

More info: I - 8 0M 56-7593 o r h t t p :// www.geniiiskye.corn/

Mlcrotek labs Microtek E6 The 30-bit M i crotek Labs E 6 ( 1 0-bit greyscale) was neither fish nor foul. It's more expensive than the (unius SP2, but ships with identical I'WAIN software and was, on average. the slowest of the four systems we tested. Despite its more robust resolution (600 by 1200 optical. 4800 dpi interpolated) anil higher bit-rate. the quality of the images w as only slightly hetter than that o f t h e Genius and was in no way comparable to the HP 4C or Agfa SiudinStar.

O ur particular E6 came b undled w i t h Adnbe Phr>toSbop (full version — although the serial number was nowhere to be found and it wouldn't install), ImagePals GO! 2, and Caere Ominpage LE OCR software. Its list price is $1,179 (about $1,100 on the street).

A "Standard" version, with Photolmpact software instead of PbotoSbop, is listed at $889 (nearer $795 to $829 on the street).

At 8.5 by 13 inches„ its available scanning area was the smallest of the four models tested.An automaticdocument feeder ($579) and transparency adapter ($449) an. also available.

More i nf o: 1-80 0 -654-4160 o r http: //ss~ m t eklab.corn.

The Inevitable snag» When conducting our scanner tests, several items. both good and bad, were worth special mention.

Although there isn't any corporate connection b e t w ee n K ye I nte r n ational (Genius ColorPage SP2), and Microtek Labs (E6), they both shop at the same softw are source (tire name o f w h i ch, w e weren't told). The ScanWizard TWAIN driver for b ot h u n its was identical — same look and feel, same icons, same features, and the same p r oblem. Both c r ashed regardless of the base application into which the image was to be scanned if the "live preview option (changes the preview image as various corrections are made to it) was left turned on and we attempted to switch between greyscale and 24-bit colour modes — producing an "out of memory" message and a General Protection Fault.

As mentioned above, Hewlett Packard's DeskScan II 2,3 driver is a 32-bit application optimized for Windows 95 and is awful when used in Windows 3.1 (we suggest you keep your operating environment in mind and beg HP for an earlier, 16bit version of the driver if planning to use it under Windows 3.1). Using the proper driver, it was overall the best of the breed.

Its automatic preview feature took time to resolve with each scan, but its time-saving automatic exposure detection, image-type detection, and image-size detection were excellent and so were the results.

Our line-art example gave all of the units the hardest time. Although we scanned it as black and white line art, it actually had a spot-colour area as well as thin black lines.

All of the units except the HP produced drop-outs in 4 point lines at 75 dpi. Only the HP could "drop back" to less than 24-bit colour to easily pick up the coloured portion of the drawing. When scanned in full

24-bit colour (the only colour option the others offered), only the HP picked up the coloured area w i thout p r oducing colour. where there was none. The other three units gave the thin black lines a variety of rainbow hues.

Only the HP didn't offer descreening or some other form of' noise reducgon. Descreening allows you to take high-resolution scans of material ftom a variety of paper stocks without picking up the weave of the paper along with the image.Agfa handles it by allowing you to adjust the "line per inch" settings until the unwanted information goes away, while the Scan Wizard driver with both Micnitek E6 and Geniu~ ColorPage SP2 have pie-set values (e.g., newspaper, magazine, art magazine).

We scanned a 3-D object because many people, such as coin collectors and others (as well as writers who scan software boxes), do. That's why its important whether the scanner's cover can be removed. Only the Genius ColorPage SP2 has a cover that's permanently mounted. Although it does have a bend in the middle, it's still not as convenient as being able to do away with the cover altogether.

Aside from image editing and OCR software, Microtek included one other noteworthy application. Quick Panel is a set oi four buttons that will direct a scan, without starting a full-screen version of the supporting application, directly to your printer, or to a file supported by your p r inter, fax machine, or drawing application. It's a neat twist on the TWAIN concept of being able to scan directly into an application without starting a second program to process the image. In this case, you can process the image without starting the program. Neat trick.

In the end We subjected the four flatbed, single pass, SCSI-based scanners to a grueling series of scanning tests and, although the Agfa Studio Star, Microtek E6 and Genius ColorPage SP2 all merit consideration, the HP 4C picked up all the marbles.

Producing a good scanner is a balancing act. It requires not only good hardware, but also the right marriage of hardware with software drivers, and the Hewlett P ackard aced th e c o mpetition o n b o t h grounds.

To begin with, the HP 4C is fast, often two to three times faster than the competitors in our tests over all image types and a range of resolutions. It's also smart. While the Agfa S tudio Star di d b e t ter t h a n e i t her t h e Microtek or Genuis when it came to repro. ducing original colours without a lot of fme tuning in the TWAIN driver, the HP managed this feat consistently, based on its own internal sensing and automatic exposure adjustment.

Rarely did it miss correctly detecting the type of image to be scanned (from a long list, including black-and-white line d r awing, black-and-white photo, colour drawing, 16 million colour drawing, colour photo, and v ariations o n ea c h) . P r eviewing w a s refreshed automatically each time a scan was requested (the others required it to be triggered manually each t ime and c o uldn' t d etect what t yp e o f i m age was t o b e scanned). +

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',~,:<. '"."',~.:>":,:t%%l .g, + %P,>;.::,,;,.:'.":," ""': crack thelargest fraud ring in Canada. ":::.;:; ."::;=:;:':: Q k : :,,;-:.,;,""' "The point here is that we' re not talking ;:<;:':;-;.;.,;;.",:-;,::.;:: '

• • By ANNA DWYER •• Crime investigators in Canada have seen the future and it's all high-tech. Police departments, insurance companies, and forensic accountants «re turning to computer analysts to crack sophisticated fraud rings «nd trace elusive offenders.

Insurance fraud in Canada cost the industry $1.3 billion last year, according to the Canadian Coalition Against Insurance Fraud, and white-collar crime is estimated at nearly $20 billion each year. Most of the money is never recovered and few suspects are investigated — due partially to policing cutbacks and partially to the technical complexity of corporate crime.

Most people will shrug this off, because they see fraud as a victimless crime, says Jim Adams, special investigator for the Insurance Crime Prevention Bureau (ICPB). If recent trends are any indication, however, fraud comntitted by organizedwrime rings is becoming quite violent, mith links to other criminal activities, including sophisticated credit-cards seams and gun-smuggling operations, he adds.

"What t,'ze industry is missing here is that everyone has their little SIU (special inves-

about someone increasing the size of a TV from 16-inch to a 2w-inch on a claim. We' re saying this has far more reaching implications than insurance companies and we' ve been saying this from day one.

Last year, Adams and Muir exp<>sed Project Langchow, a metro-based fraud ring that scammed atleast29 Ontario u»urance companies out of an estimated $12 milli<>n. The investigation also u nc<>vered fraud l i nks between policy holders and government agencies, such as Social Services and Workers' Compensation.

"It's all part of the mindset that the system is geared to deal with individual claimants, one guy at a time," Muir suggests.-No one has been able to connect multiple claims n>gether within the industry as a whole."

Until nom. The ICPB has set up an elaborate database system that allows investigat<>rs to connect multiple claims to a common element — such as a mailing address or a telep hone number — and add photo IDs t o claims files.

Countering violence Police departments have set up similar central database systems, which they hope will eventually contain DNA fingerprints of convicted sex offenders. This latter system, devel-

oped in l 992 by the RCMP, will become mandatory in Ontario this faH as a result of a provincial review of the Paul Bernardo investigation. This national tlatabase, the Violent

Crime Linkage Analysis System (ViCLAS), tracks violent crimes across the country, using database systems to establish connecti<>ns to various police jurisdictions.

Such a system mould have led detectives to the many police departments that had previously investigatedBernardo, now serving a life sentence for the murders of K r isten French and Leslie Mahaffy, says Detectivelnspector Kate Lines,head of the OPP's Behavi<>ural Sciences Unit in Orillia. A recent IN. rape investigation mas solved in one hour using this system, although the rapist eluded police for m<>nths.

T he insurance industry also l acked t h i s t echnology, however. w he n t h e IC P B received its first Langchow related complaint two years ago. The ICPB investigators, both

former police officers, had only a basic understanding of computer systems at the time. Their "equipment" consisted of a ruler, a pen, and a coffee mug, Muir recalls.

'I'he coffee mug was used to trace circles on white paper, which were connected by pen mark».

The diagrams represented each of the suspects, who were using numerous aliases. The primitive diagrams eventually covered four walls and a window.

Getting the righttools Seven months and a storage room full of data later, the ICPB decided the complex rela-

IJNgYj R <OgD~U U C ~ i JN>'l e ~ ! '

tionships of this ring could not be unravelled with the human eye alone. The result was an investment of more than $40,000 in customized computer database systems, scanners, and laptops, as well as combined investigative forces with several provincial police departments.

With the stroke of a keyboard, investigators were able to prove instantaneously that suspected members of the ring were using multiple identities. This was a surprise to the two investigators, who were used to doing detective work the old fashi<>ned way.

"When I was in the police force I could jump on my hot rod after work to f<>rce the images of that day's autopsy or arrest out of my mind. But with this I'd wake up in the middle of the night seeing nothing hut circles and squares," iviuir notes, referring to the

numerous computer generated di agrams used in the investigation.

"It was a hell of a story; not somethingI would have believed ten years ago."

Charges have been brought against professionals in the legal and medical communities, as mell as auto body shops, therapists, and dozensof policyholders as a resultofthe two-year investigation. Those involved with the scam are believed to have used bogus companies and elaborate combinations of their names and addresses in order to file numerous claims for a single accident. Even as they face criminal charges, there are still doubts about the true identities of some of these claimants. +

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Seeing spots?

cont i n u e d f r o m p a g e 1 Z date. The entire day's business, estimated at

There is a kind of non-issue addendum to Y2K:

roughly a million dollars, was lost.

Leap year problems aren't rare, either: Excel has a variety of known bugs with respect of February 29 (just for your information, every four years is a leap year, except for every hundred years, which is not, except for every four

the sun-spot cyde. Some people might remember from high-school astronomy that sun spots, and solar electrical activity, vary on an 11-year cycle. We are currently on Cycle 23, which will

reach its peak in, you guessed it, AD 2000.

Some doom-andgloom specialists are pointing out that the new electronics technologies that have been developed in recent years will have a

baptism by solar flare then. Amateur astronomers regard these with some bemusement: they are looking forward to the observations that can be made.

warnings

I would say that the real story of Y2K is question as to why management types have left a known

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The joke about Bill Gates' reaction to the end of the world might well have a new punch before too long — with some MIS executive stating "and the great news is that we won't have to fix

the Year 2000 bugs!"

Spreading the Nord virus Of more immediate concern is that there is news from those fun guys and gals at Microsoft!

0!Ice 97 will include VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) 5.0 as the scripting and integration language for Access, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word. Not only that, but Microsoft has followed up on its promise to license VBA to other ven-

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dors: upcoming releases of I/isio (Visio), Chameleon(NetManage), Photoshop(Adobe), and even AutoCAD(Autodesk) will use VBA 5.0.

To date, with the possible (although unlikely) exception of the recent Excel macro virus, successful macro viruses in the wild have been confined to WordBasic, and thus only affected Word. VBA, however, will automatically convert WordBasic

macros to VBAmacros on the fly, so Word macros viruses will continue to propagate on through Olce 97 and other VBA 5compliant applications.

In addition, VBA macros are stored in a different format than WordBasic templates. Existing macro virus scanners, therefore, will not be able to detect macro viruses in the new VBA format once they

have been (automatically) converted. Scanner developers are aware of the problem, and working on it, but there will be a period of vulnerability for a time after the release ofOffice97.

More fun foryears to come Technical-support departments and MIS man-

agers face some additional problems this year.

With the introduction of Windows 95, support for DOS and Windows 3.x began to fade. After some time with the product, though, it is becoming clearer that Windows 95 is not as compatible with

Quicken 6 includes over 30 shortcuts Sc improvements!

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variety of smaller companies willing to support it, Linux is showing surprising strength.

And just when you thought diskette wars wereall over (remember the 2.88 megabyte disks?), they have erupted all over again. CD-ROMsachieved market dominance in distribution media just in

time to face an onslaught of options challenging the CD-R. Zip, Jazz,new generations of magnetooptical: every new issue of the computer magazines has a new player announcing its entry into the removable-storage market.

The first DVD (digital video disk) drives are starting to appear, despite the fact that a standard has

not yet been decided. After all, when you canput five gigabytes on a single disk, why wait, right?

Robert Slade is a data-security consultant, and therefore a confirmed pessimist. Hecanbe reachedat robertsiadeoisxa ... if rething crashes. +

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V E R H A U L I N G • • By CHRISTOPHER GULY • •

For Scott Remborg, convergence means information will be processed faster. "And faster means more efficient in delivering information with better quality," he says.

Going faster doesn*t necessarily mean the more traditional forms of media — including publishing, radio and television — are going the way of the dumpster, however.

Radio and TY offer a form of l ifestyle structure that t h e Internet, so far, does not.

of lifestyle structure that the Internet, so fitr, does not."People will have their supper and put the dishes in the washer in time to watch the six o' clock news on TV," he says.

"In my case, I will force myself to wake up at eight o' clock in the morning to make sure I hear the news on the radio."

sion with the specialty channel's US counterpart, found at http: //www.discovery.corn/ More importantly, EXN marrieslV to theNet.

Nevertheless, the purveyors of the more traditional forms of media ate starting to take more than just a peak at the expanding multimedia universe.

washer in time to watch the six o' clock news on TY." Over at Canada's Discovery Channel, executive producer Paul Lewis will spend $5 million over the next five years for a Web site, launched on O c tober 31 , c alled The Exploration Network (EXN). The site is located at http:/~ .ex n . net/ On a name-recognition level, Discovery added the Web site to its existing one (http: // www.discovery.ca/) to avoid any further confu-

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great story-telling on our n etwork," he explains."What we' re trying to do is take the best of both media and crunch them together."

Not fade away Retaining, not abandoning, traditional forms of media issomewhat the message James Marsh also brought to the Ottawa gathering.

As editor-in-chief of McClelland 8r Stewart's Canadian Encyclopedia, Marsh has shepherded the publishing house's first print edition in 1980 through to its new all-in~ne CDROM format.Books, as far as he's concerned, will never become obsolete.

The packagein which they come, howeveron CD-ROM or over the Net, for examplewill likely adapt to emerging technologies.

"My concern is that producing new media should follow a publishing, rather than a broadcasting model," says Marsh. "Television can be very easily controlled by advertisers.

In fact, the great genius of television is in the ads, not in the programming. You can't say that about book publishing. There is a solid relationship with the creative community thatvery few broadcastersenjoy."

Like Lewis and Remborg, Marsh agrees that the one thing the Internet and new media offer the publishing world is unmatched access. "With a CD-ROM, you can automatically search a word through the entire data-

Keeping up

"People will have their supper and put the dishes in the

"I don't think books are going to go by the wayside. When I sit on the john, I need something to read," jokes Remborg, senior vice president at Medialinx Interactive (a Torontobased telephone utility/new-media venture), who was in Ottawa recently attending the New Media '96 conference.

On a more serious note, however, he acknowledges that radio and TV offer a form

T H E

Kxylol'atioe lletmol'k "Let's say we run a documentary about the Galapagos Islands," explains Lewis, who was among the guest speakers at the New Media conference. "As an EXN-enhanced program, the Internet user can learn more about a particular animal featured on the TV program.

Or, perhaps, download the complete interview with the scientist at the Galapagos researchstation when only 30 seconds was used on the documentary.

"EXN may also offersidebar stories on Charles Darwin, the first scientists to land on the Galapagos, or a detailed account of his mission aboard the ship, the Beagle."

EXN also features an Amazement Park, which lets visitors go on a "cyber-safari" and drop in on the online "technology hall."

Lewis emphasizes, however, that The Discovery Channel Canada will not abandon its TV mandate, let alone produce Net-specific programnung."We have beautiful images and

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base and get a list of articles, which you can't possibly do with a pile of encyclopedias and dictionariesno matter how big the index."

Marsh says McClelland Sr Stewart plans to introduce an online system where Net users can download updates to their existing CDROMs. Ultimately, that w o n' t

change much, offers Remborg, since encyclopedias, by t h eir nature, are archival records.

"They get old real quick," he says.

"In fact, I think you will soon see CD-ROMs being transformed so that they' re all on a central network.

Here comes the flood After all, the continuing deluge of information coming into homes

and officesacross Canada willfind consumers demandingfastand uptcwlate information, says Remborg.

"You don't see people buying books these days. They want their information now and as phone utilities start to offer wider bandwidth into people's homes, consumers are going to expect that fast delivery of information."

He sees tomorrow's information

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Nova Scotland more than the Iessthtahalf numbers of adults living in Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, aad ¹w Brunswick "" " ' 'In British Columbia, % per cent said they were computer literate, whge the nutabers were 60 per cent in Ontario aad 64 per cent — the highest rate — in Alberta.

Acttaa the couauy, Swam says that a bit mote than hrlf the Canadian popula6aa cm use a computer. 4

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interactive~ ' Indus -: ar)leverytlnc agreesi::thae email„ , eteative developers.':::-ire th&:.

Steaat ihat4tVCS,dii,'~ . Ilrr -whe.-'sritne - breat rt e'-'15'-aiso--'.acknowledged that the market demands from these developers a keen sense of business savvy if they want to survive.

Those paving the way to the brave new future are the "infopreneurs." the iconoclastic developers of multimedia products. Industry observers look to these independent mavericks to provide the creative breakthroughs.

The economic realities of the industry, however, threaten the survival of these independent developers.

Smaller companies are finding the fierce competition daunting, and the option nf selling out to a larger player is one way of paying debts — but will the developers of the new technology be bankrupt and forgotten after the larger companies have bought their ideas and moved onr When a Canadian company is bought out by an American company, an added level of anxiety is present. Is this the nature of business, or are we selling ourselves down the river?

One example of a company that did sell everything and then continued creating and competing in the market is Neo-Visuals Inc. In 1988, Neo-Visuals sold its assets to a major .-'6,:::. ,

American software company (SAS Institute of Raleigh, North Carolina), leaving itself with little more than its name and some equipment. They are now out in the market with an exciting new' CD that brings animation production into the home.

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According to Steve White, the President of Neo-Visuals,-It is a bad strategy to want to be acquired, but it happens whether the company is large or small."

Savagery is the norm White deftly explains the conundrum of the multimedia developers: "[Sjmall companies have far inore entrepreneurial skills than do the larger companies.They can create,adapt,and change while the larger company is still trying to decide if the concept should be studied.

-The small company will fail, however, if it has not been able to capture a significant position in the market before the larger company can focus its resources and expertise.

By that time, a large company ran simply buy any missing technology while using its tremendous resources, channels, and contacts to dominate the market, "It may consequently appear that high-tech is avery savage place:acquire or be acquired.

In truth, it is the normal state of the industry."

The multimedia industry is inoving quickly and it hasfew rules orconventions.There are times when selling a concept outright, collecting the money, and going back to create something newer and better might just be the right business move.

This wild-west concept of the industry's future Ls shared by Alfredo Coppola, president of Animatics Multimedia Inc. Although Coppola is confident about his pilot project, MODE, an interactive, online soap opera that targets the college student/bar crowd, he is also a pragmatic businessperson. He believes that good business sense lneans being flexible.

According to C o ppola, the i n teractive media industry is without borders. "In the nevv media, it doesn't matter ~here you are, there are so many new guidelines to be written, and new formats to be explored, that it is everybody's open forum. The next five to ten years are going to be very exciting."

Vois scratch my back...

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Smaller companies need the larger companies, if not for a complete buy-out, then at least for partnerships in development and distribution. The large, powerful companies need the small independents to increase the competition and provide the creative material.

Anne McKeon, a marketing manager for Microsoft Canada Inc., is willing to admit that the small-to-medium-sized company can react more quickly to the demands of the market."A lot of the new stuff is coming from smaller companies,who are very cawtive,"she says.

"At Microsoft, we are pretty much going to bank on the big ones. like l7iglr t Si >nularr>r."

Representatives from Microsoft Canada Inc. seem reluctant to use the term "buyout."

The general philosophy is that there is room for everybody: when it comes to making deals, or buying out a company, each deal is different.

A developer can create a product and sell it outright, or keep the copyright and have its company name advertised in the software.

According to M c Keon, companies like Microsoft are not out to dominate the market."Competition is healthy and gives more choice to the consumer."

In this symbiotic world, however, the snull bird who feeds in the mouth of the hippopotamus must be carehd not to be swallowed. Dan Donaldson, president of Omnivore, a software

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everl~ng from printers or modems to filmmaking equipment.

For example, DuPont Canada Inc. is testing a CBRS prototype — originally developed by Atlantis Aerospace Corp. in B rampton, Ontario, to help repair planes — to assist in maintaining equipment that melts plastics into yarn, film, and resin.

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If you feel your co-workers aren't logical enough, computers may soon be able to Sl the void.

Programs, dubbed "case-based reasoning systems" (CBRS), are popping up in various industrial settings that use "common-sense" approaches to help solve problems with

Complexity? No problem Because aircraft equipment is so complex in its design, the accompanying repair manuals often fail to anticipate problem areas. That' s where CBRS comes in. The pitogram contains problem scenarios and how they were resolved. Rather than ieinventing the wheelor wing — a mechanic simply punches in the

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symptoms of the mechanical problem to find cases that correspond with the latest challenge.

Furthermore, the logic-friendly computer program servesas a database to store worker intelligence — long after an employee leaves.

For companies with a keen eye on employee productivity, Atlantis is touting CBRS as a way to reduce time spent on problem solving and quicken the method of obtaining positive results. The only significant corpo rate expense comes with the initial set-up, which can cost as much as $1 million.

Atlantis doesn't have a monopoly on CBRS, however. In Burnaby, BC, Simon Fraser University runs i t s o w n Ca s e-Based Reasoning Group, which has developed an artificial-inteUigence software program now

handle customer telephone service calls.

Using a CBRS, Rogers service representatives are prepared for typical cable-TV problems and can guide subscribers in solving their own problems based on case scenarios.

Meanwhile, Atlantis has been working with Hamilton-based Westinghouse Canada Inc. in testing CBRS to help locate and repair faulty motors that drive industrial equipment.

Computers that draw on human experience aren't going to be limited to major companies, however. Once its program becomes commercially available in 1997,Atlantis plans to establish a subscription service for smaller Brms. For a fee, which will start at $100, companies can access CBRS online to get help with solving a problem.

Eventually, computers that draw upon human expertise could replace the real thing.

A recent study looking at the Westinghouse experiment, conducted by Atlantis and information systems professor Ali Montazemi from McMaster University's Michael G. DeGroote School of Business in Hanulton, found that users got more consistent advice from CBRS than from their colleagues. +

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developer that ltas sold properties to major Canadian publishing houses,suggests that small, inteiactive-media companies look for "hardboi1ed" copyright protection and yearly royalties.

Says Donaldson,"When you sell your copyright, it's not just the product you are selling.

You are losing the potential to develop your product further." He explains that it is the ideas behind the product that have a viable future. Companies should protect their copyright, he advises, so that they will be able to profit from the auxiliary ideas that stem from the main concept.

Isabel Hoffmann, president of Hoffmann and Associates Inc., also feels very strongly about smaller companies holding on to their copyrights — but she takes a patriotic stance.

According to Hohann, it is bad business to not get credit for the work that you did.

"The more we sell out, the more we deplore the cultural content in Canada, and the more we will suffer. We have a better society here, a better education, a murh better way of living.

And I say to companies that sell out, well, too bad,you must not believe very strongly in your cultttre,or in the thing that you have produced."

M.D. Edwards isa freelancewriter. +

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a ue a II • • By DAYID ROSEN •• In Orwell's dark satire, l984, the population is watched constantly by an omniscient governinent. Catch phrases constantly assure the populace that the government (in the form of Big Brother) is watching. Pretty bleak stuff, right?

Yep. Couldn't happen here, right? Er, not so hst.

Bought anything by credit card recently?

Well, let's hope it's not something personal, since credit-card files are about as secure as the corner mailbox — sometimes even less so. The theft of a laptop computer a few weeks ago in the San Francisco area with over 900,000 unencrypted credit-card numbers, expiry dates,account names, and addresses demonstrates the care with which credit-card companies protect our privacy.

Did you know that all credit-card companies track your every purchase on a hourly basis? The companies say they do this for two reasons: preventing fraud and target marketing to customers. Great.

Be nice to that traffic cop who pulls you over during a RIDE spot~heck He or she knows your home address, any outstanding legal warrants, your eye colour, your age, and lots of other interesting personal information.

such as Caller ID from our friendly phone company, we can all learn the names of people who call us in the middle of the nightunless they use the Caller ID block service (available at a cost, naturally).

Even if they don't have Caller ID, anyone can find you are by using Call Return. With some off-the-shelf database software, mailorder companies can easily match your horne phone number wit h y ou r n ame,

address, and last few purchases, all before they answer your phone call.

Oh, if you' re thinking about using a cell

Taking its toll If you live or travel in Ontario, you can try out the new ETR 407 Highway, "Canada's First Express Toll Route." Instead of dropping quarters into a basket, you can have the government monitor where you go along the highway and then automatically debit money from your bank account.

Don't want to sign up? No problem, the highway hascameras trained on your license plate and happily snaps a picture of your car.

In a few weeks, you get a bill in the mail.

Not planning on driving on Highway 407?

Don't ~orry. Other major streets and highways acrossCanada are being monitored 24 hours aday,7 days a week. Welcome to privacy, Orwell style.

Been out walking in any mall, bank, subway station, or other "public" place recently?

You' ve probably been caught on camera.

Some Canadian cities, such as Hull, Quebec, have surveillance cameras strung up on high poles to combat crime.

How'bout cocooning yourself in the privacy of your own home? Anybody who saw the movie Sliver a few years ago will never look at apartment surveillance cameras in quite the same light again. With Pay-Per-View TV tracking w hat youwatch,and when you watch it,you'd better be watching Disney — and nothing else.

' easiest way show

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Training tapes Gee, maybeyou should callsomebody and ask them what you should do. Don't call your broker,banker,or anyone else in a large company, though. They often record all incoming calls "for training purposes." Besides, even s upposedly confidential f o lks, such « s lawyers, are required to report the activities in their trust accounts, including the names and amounts of their clients. The law Society says they require this reporting to protect you from your lawyer — but who's protecting us from the law Society?

Of course, with controversial technologies

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a mixe lessin • • By MYLES WHITE •

floppy). and the remainder are still in the wait-and-see category (although the "EZ" seems to be fading fast). We'il take closer looks at the JAZ and LS-120 at another time.

The Zip, developed by lomega, but now manufactured primarily by Epson for both companies. comes in two external models (SCSI or parallel) measuring about 6 inches b y 8 i n ches by 1 . 5 inches thick. A third,

•

Everyone appears to want to r eplace the 1.44 MB floppy disk as the main means of rewriteable, removable storage for the PC. In just the past few years, for example, we' ve had the Bernoulli drive (Iomega — up to 230 MB), the fl<>ptical drive (lomega and Insite Peripherals — 20 MB), the i nternal n u > de l is 2.8 MB floppy (various planned. but w a sn' t developers), the Syquest s hipping b y pre s s d rive (Syquest up to 3 0 time.

MB), the magneto optical Zip drives will use 25 (MO) drive (various develMB or 100 M B c aropers, various capacities), k9 thA.t k4 tridges — roughly the the "120 MB floppy" LSsame size, but slightly 120 (Matsushita and 3M), thicker and h eavier the EZ-135 (Syquest), the 0fi )'olla ()csL. ~ than a standard 3.5JAZ drive (lomega), the inch floppy diskette. r ecordable CD-R O M The Zip drive won' t (although it is still a write read from or write to once, read many or WORM standard floppy disks. 100 MB cartridges cost device), and the Zip d r ive (Iomega and about $22 each and can be purchased in Epson). boxes of three.

Of this group, four specialty drives — with price tags to match — have survived long enough t o ha v e s e v eral g e n erations Zip drives have significantly faster access (Bernoulli, Syquest, MO. and CD), two have speed than floppy drives (about 29 millisecfailed to catch on (floptical and 2.88 MB ond seek time), but throughput — the speed

ZIP DRIA'E

~Draw

Installing the Zip will also scramble yow drive letters. Even if you onlyhave one fl oppy, it installs as though it were an additional hard drive, not as a

computer, for taking large files home from work.

The SCSI version comes with a 50-pin Centronics to 25-pin SCSI cable. The drive itself has 2S-pin connectors, so at least one of your other external SCSI devices needs a SO-pin Centronics connector (or 'you' ll need to purchase another cable).

At first blush, the Zip appears to be a viable alternative backup device instead of a tape drive or floppy drive. You still have to change cartridges more often than for a high-capacity tape, but you'd do it significantly less often than with a standard floppy drive. None of the general backup software currently on the market, however, including Windows 95's backup program, recognizes

•

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the Zip as a backup device (when it gets to the end of the first cartridge. it stops instead of prompting for another).

Although Iomega has freely downloadable backup s o f t w ar e at i ts We b site (http: //www.iomega.corn/), th e s o f tware didn't ship with the Epson version of the drive I bought.

at which data will get from the drive into your system once it has been located — varies d epending on th e i n terface (up t o 6 0 MB/min for SCSI. 25 MB/min for parallel).

Because it weighs just over a pound, the external parallel Zip appears ideal for use with notebook computers, and both SCSI and parallel versions come with "guest" software, so the whole drive can easily be moved from computer to

O.ER

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second floppy (i.e., drive B:).

So, if you have one large liard drive now, partitioned to drives C: and D: , and a C D -ROM installed as drive E:, the Zip wiU insinuate itself just after your last hard drive letter, becoming E: and pushing the CD-ROM to F:.

This is no big deal unless you have a lot of software installed from CD-ROM that remembers the letter of the drive. In this case, you' ll either have to edit all of the INI files and Registry entries you can find or reinstall the CD-based software.

Iomega or Epson Zip drives are selling on the street for about $2S5 to $299 (parallel or SCSI). +

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PROFESSIONAL LEVELSYSTEMS P-PRO 180II/IHz ................Call P-PRO 200MHz ..........

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W ill c o m p u t e r s

By SAUL CHERNOS

n Gulliver's Travels, published in 1726, J onathan Swif t described a fictiona l m achine t h a t wr i t e s books. With today's level of artificial intelligence, such a

feat is no longer futuristic-

Gone are the days of the simple word processor. So-caged "inteUigent" computers can monitor complex operations, analyze data, detect problems and opportunities, provide advice, make decisions, and even take action in real time.

Products range from frivolous to practical.

Comtrad Industries of Midlothian, Virginia, has developed LitterMaid, a device which does the dirty work for cat lovers. An electronic eye senses when the feline leaves its litter box, and a microprocessor prompts an automatic sifter to d eposit waste into a sealed container.

Artificial intelligence has also been used to try to develop the ultimate checkers player.

In I959, Samuel'scheckers program won games against some of the hest human players. Chinook, a world championship checkers program developed by researchers at the Liniversity of Alberta in Edmonton, has taken on human experts and has almost always emerged the winner. Chinook's memory contains billions of positions. Its short-range objective is to develop a program capable of defeating the human World Champion in a match, while its long-term goal is to solve the game itself.

a wide array of computerized machines can actually mimic human thought.Recent technological dev e l opments, however, have given rise to concerns that t h e s i l i con brain may one day outthink Pod people's the human brain.

Then there's Whale Watcher, a software

If:

outthink u s ? package basedon the combined knowledge and experience of actual whale experts.

Manufactured by Acquired Intelligence Inc., of Victoria, BC, Whale Watcher asks users questions in order to identify whales they have observed and is really intended to illustrate the company's more practical products, aU of which centre on the acquisition of human knowledge and experience for use in knowledge-based systems.

For instance, Acquired Intelligence has developed an "intelligent," computerized radio-interference advisor t ha t I n d ustry Canada inspectors use to identify and locate sources o f

i nt e r f erence. A c c ordin g t o

Acquired I n t elligence p r esident B r i an Schaefer, the advisor has digitally captured the diagnostic know-how of one of Canada's leading radio inspectors, David Sinclair of Victoria.

'We worked with Dave, and from him discovered the decision-making paths for discoveringthe various forms of interference, and we have embodied these in our system," Schaefersays.He explains that developers of artificially intelligent machines base their work on their understanding of the human brain, seeing complexities and patterns of human thought as "attributions that stem from pattern recognition. When you have a gut feeling or intuition, at some level what is taking place cognitively is that you are doing

a match of the situation — you are observing a known pattern and consequence that's recorded in your brain."

No more routines One of the main benefits of artificial intelligence, Schaefer says, is that it can automate routine tasks, freeing individuals for pursuits involving a higher level of creativity."When you take the most mundane decision-making off the backs of people, you free them up to use their capabilities in more creative ways," he says.

"A lot of the work people do, they really do not want to do, and there are at least a couple of routine aspects in aU jobs

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that could be done by artificial intelligence."

In partnership with UWI Unisoft Wares Inc., also of Victoria, Acquired Intelligence has developed automated, intelligent forms.

Schaefer says the idea is to reduce or eliminate most of the routine aspects associated with processing employment applications,

travelwxpense forms, l e ave-of-absence requests, and other paper forms.

"Ultimately, somebody sits at a desk and does the decision making to determine whether a request should be approved or denied. It's exactly that kind of administrative decision-making that ran be captured and made part of the electronic version of the form."

The company supplied a prototype pro-

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Although artificial intelligence conveys futuristic connotations, the technology is not altogether new. In 1950, the Turing TestComputing Machinery and Intelligencewas proposed. IPL- I I, the first artificial intelligence language, was developed in 1955, and a year later the Logic Theorist was created to solve mathematics problems. Finally, in 1956, the term "artificial intelligence" was formally adopted (see Milestones in the Development of Artificial Intelligence, by Mark Kantrowitz).

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Although significant technological feats have been accomplished through artificial intelligence, there have also been serious mishaps. In 1960, for example, a US Defense Department computer mistook the moon for incoming missiles.

And, as computers perform tasks traditionally done by human beings, critics warn about various consequences. Michael Rose nberg of t he Co a l ition A g ainst Technological Unemployment p redicts machines will develop inrreased capability and take over jobs and functions that really should be done by people.

"Computers can already do many jobs, but people still think they can't do skilled, intelligent, and thinking work — the jobs that people go to university for, the jobs that involve understanding w h a t yo u ' re d o i ng," Rosenberg says. nBut I think that those jobs, as well, are within the reach of computers, and it probably won't take much more than 15 years to reach that point. Most of the things that were said to be impossible in the late sixties, like language translation and vision systems, have already been done. The only things that haven't been done are significant improvements in abstract and pattern-based thinking to produce a general intelligence, but there have been continual improvements to hardware and software."

Rosenberg, who has worked as a programmer on hospital laboratory computer systems, says he is also concerned about the displacement of workers and the subsequent loss of their voice in overall economic decision-making. If the ability to maintain production no longer depends on people, an important check-and-balance will be lost, he explains.

He adds that he ultimately believes unfettered technological development will lead to a scarcity of f ood and o ther natural resources.

Saul ChemosisaToronto journalist whowritesabout computer, media,political, andsocialissues.Hecanbereached at schemos Cdtorfree.net

•

W i re d c o m m u n it i e s n o w • • By SANDY MCMURRAY ~ • What do you think of when you see the phrase "wired community?"

If you' re thinking of a home like the Jetsons', or the "Home of the Future" frtim the 1939 New York World's Fair, think again. Most of the people touting "wired communities" are selling a high-speed Internet connection plus some vague promises for the future.

This is the story of four Ontario communities that are "wired" in one way or another. Each one

ing cable companies to make more channels available to subscribers. Digital cable will also provide a clearer audio and video signal. These services are not yet available, but when they are, Northtown residents will already have the necessary hardware in place.

Other Tridel developments, including the Pavillions at King's Landing, will also be wired

by Rogers. The Pavillions development is scheduled to open late in 1997 or early in 1998.

is different, but they all have something in com-

library, and the Chamber of Commerce office.

mon: they' re all betting that getting connected now is going to be important in the future.

Northtown

Students in residence at York University's Calumet College would not be impressed by the promise of fast Internet access at Northtown. @he residents of Ontario's first w ired resi dence have "been there,done that."

Every bedroom in the Calumet residence has a high+peed ethernet connection to the Internet, allowing residents to surf or network at speeds up to 10 megabits per second.

Calumet College, one of seven undergraduate colleges at York University, was built nearly six years ago.AII the wires and plugs needed to network the Calumet residence were installed when the college was built. It was a natural fit, since the college's mandate includes a focus on technology and the arts.

In addition to their tuition and residence fees, residents at Calumet pay a $130 fee to access to the college's network. In return, they get access to e-mail, the Web, Internet

On August 27, 1996, the city of Thorold, Ontario, became the first Canadian municipality to launch a community intranet on the World Wide Web, ThoroldNet ( http:// www.thoroldnet.corn/). Tax-paying residents now have limited access to the city's computer network.

"We believe this will be the wave of the future," says Mayor Mal Woodhouse,"because it improves the services and information we can offer to citizens while cutting costs, red tape, and eliminating that frustrating line up."

ThoroldNet and the Thorold Web site (http: //www.thorold.corn/) offer a number of services to residents. Thanks to ThoroldNet, residents can now apply for building permits,

Northtown is Tridel's new housing development in North York — a 25-acre site on both sides of Yonge Street, just south of Finch. Northtown will eventually be home to some 2,800 families. About 400 families are expected tomove in by January I,1997.

When Phase One of Northtown opened in November, the proud new homeowners found their residences wired with Rogers WAVE, the 500 Kbps cable modem system that Rogers has been testing in Newmarket. Northtovvn homeowners are the first in Metro Toronto to enjoy this high-speed Internet access.

The Northtown development is also equipped with everything needed to receive new digitalwable services. Rogers says that digital cable, when implemented, will make it possible to compress cable TV signals, allow-

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newsgroups, FTP, and Telnet, as well as Web space for a home page. Approximately 125 students share each of the college's two 10 Mbps ethernet networks. Calumet also has its own (little-used) newsgroup: york. calumet.

Both Mac and PC users are welcome at Calumet, as long as their computers can accommodate an ethernet card. Students don't need to know anything about networks or ethernet to connect — the staff at the college looks after all the technical stuff.

Residents have access to other equipment in the Calumet computer lab, including printers, scanners,and video-capture equipment. Students can send their documents via the network to be printed in the computer lab, and pick them up later.

Of course, connecting an entire college residence as a network provides another opportunity: the chance to enjoy online games such asDoom, Descent, andMarathon. Of course, work comes first — yeah, that's the ticket!

If you' re hungry for bandwidth, and you think part-time classes at York might be the answer, think again. Residence at Calumet is limited to full-time students, and costs about $3,800 for the school year. Students are consideredon a first-come, first-served basis,and scholarship students and people from outside Metro Toronto get top priority. Still, it sounds like a cool place to live.

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get a dog license, and even sign out a library book without leaving home. Agendas and minutes &om council and committee meetings are posted online. Community information on the site includes the Thor old job hank, local histo. ry, and activities for children in "Kids' Korner."

In the future, the city hopes to useThoroldNet to conduct virtual town4iall meetings and electronic plebiscites on community issues.

Thorold residents who don't own a computer will be able to access the City's online services via terminals located at City Hall, the

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is also the control panel for temperature contml, home security, and emergency services.

The Intercom Ontario consortium intends to make "video mail" and other forms of video communication a part of life at Stonehaven West. Intercom suggests the technology could enableparents to have face-to-face communications with a local doctor in an emergency situation; children will be able to work on group projects without leaving home; and students who are home sick from school will be able to establish a video and audio connection to the classroom from their bed, so they don' t miss anything. Intercom doesn't say whether the sick kids will think this is a good idea.

Cary Solomon of Spectrum Communities says the emphasis at Stonehaven is not on bandwidth, but on community. FamiTies do not buy houses based on whether or not they' re connected to a Tl, but consider other factors like access to schools and hospitals, and the neighbourhood itself. Stonehaven West's longterm plans include connections with libtaries and other cultural institutions, as well as a relationship with a wired" school that the York Regional school board is currently building.

Houses at Stonehaven West start at about $150,000, with the average home going for about $200,000.

c onti n ue d f r o m p a g e 9 1 Stonehaven West "Residents of Ontario can now live and play on the infoway, from the comfort of their own homes." With t hose w o rds, Spectrum Communities announced Stonehaven West in the fall of 1995.

Stonehaven West, "Canada's Premier Interactive Community," is located at the south end of the town of Newmarket, Ontario. The project is an ambitious experiment in social and technological planning. According to Robert Campbell, trial manager for the consortium behind the project, Stonehaven West "will provide crucial research regarding how Canadians work, play, and live on the infoway."

Stonehaven West has been in the planning stages for about two and a half years. The 80acre, $130-million development is a project of the Intercom Ontario Consortium and its members, including Spectrum Communities, BellCanada, IBM Canada, and Apple Canada.

Like the Calumet College residence, family homes at Stonehaven West have been constructed with networks and connectivity in mind. An ethernet connection in the home will connect residents to each other, and to the Internet, using a high-speed ATM network.

In each residence."ports" connected to the In Home Network will enable residents to share information between computers, to connect one VCR to several televisions ttuoughout the home, or to play one stereo on speakers all over the house. The In Home Network

Visit our Web site at

COMPUTER

MART

Are we there yeti It remains to be seen exactly what the "wired community" of the future will look like — probably some combination of the technologies mentioned above — but it' s clear that we' re not there yet. +

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JAZ IGS SCSI DRIVE ............ ..$589 TAPE DRIVE 800MB/32GB...............................$15$338 VIDEO CARDS AND MOMTORS ATI M64PCI 2MB D/VRAM.. ..$110/288 DIAMOND ST64 PCI 2MB D/VRAM....................$110/328 PCI 84SIT2MB EDO MPEG...........„,,. ..$78 MONITOR 28 NI LR GR 14'/1 5'.-...................$299/438 MONITOR FLAT DIGI 17'.2$26...................,...$750/850 SOUND CARD, MICROPHONE. AND SPEAKERS .............$1$8 MICROPHONE/EARPHONE.. .$90/148 SOUND BLASTER 1$32.... .............. $58 16BIT PNP SOUND CARD..

60W/I 20W/200W SPEAKERS (AC) ....................$28/4$68 MODEMS 28.8/33.6USR INT.FAX VOICE SPKPHN.................$ 210 28.$33.6 FAX MODEM INT/EXT..........................$138/188 KEYBOARD MOUSE AND CASE MTEK 104E4H WIN95 K/B... $25 .$68/33 FUJITSU 4725/8725 K/B... ...$88 M ICROSOFT WIN95 ERGO.......

W IN95 ERGO WITH TOUCH PAD... ...,............. ..........$99 M ICROSOFT MOUSE/LOGITECH 3B ERGO.... ...........$35 .............................$1$28 I.OGITECH 2B/3B.......

CASE 13'/15'/19'/FULL..........-................$68/7$8$1 18 SOFTWARE AND DISKS DOS62 5 WINDOWS 3.11WG... .$128 wiNDowS 95 FULL VERSION.. ............2I138 MS HOME 7TITLES (ENCARTA96).......................,...$98 7 CDROM TITLES (GROLER 96). ..................... ........$38 ................$15 74MIN/650MB BLANK CD... .

iP5-2DP $2 1 5 8 ', CX6x86-133+ $1568 , ' GX6x86-166~ 51 828

m

1.44IN FDD, 1MB648IT VIDEO

14 .2 6 NILR GR SVGA

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13" TOWERCASE tjifiN95 INTERNETFUU. VERSION

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.586/6x86 TRITON VX PNP GR M/8 . 19' MID TOWER CASE WITH LED . 256KB PB CACHE . 28.8INT. FAX MODEM . 16MB SIMM RAM UP TO 128MB . 8 X INT. EIDE CDROM DRIVE , 1.27GB EIDE HDD MODE 4 . 16 BIT PNP SOUND CARD . 1.44MB FLIJITSU FDD . 60W SPEAKERS AC POWERED . 64BIT PCI 2MB MPEG VIDEO . DES K TOP MICROPHONE . ON BD EIDE/EIO/PS2M PORTS . 7 M P C CDROM TITLES '96 . (2X16550+ECP+P82 MOUSE) G FIOL IER ENCYCLOPEDIA .14' 28 NI LR GR SVGA MONITOR ANI M ALS, CHEESE, ATLAS, TYPING TUTOR, RABBIT , 104K FLIJITSU8725 WIN95 K/B . 2BLOGITECH MOUSE W/PAD

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CD COPY/BACKUP SEAVICE....................CALL

~ HIG H E N D ~

i PS-13 3 i P5-16 0 I PS-1 66 i P5-20 0 C X1 SlhC X1 66+

$2308 $2428 $2528 $2828 $2238 $2288

.GA586HX TRITON HX PNP M/8 . 512KB PIPELINE BRUST CACHE . 32MB EOO RAM EXP'L TO128MB . 2.168EIOE HOO MODE 4 . 1 A4MB FUJITSU FDD . ON BOARD EIDE/FDD/EIO . 2USP(16550) 1P(EPP) 1M(PS/2) . ATI30 PC-To-TV 2MB MPEG . 15".28 Nl LR GR FLAT MONITOR . FUJITSU 104 ENH. WIN95 K/B .38 LOGITECH PS/2 MOUSE Sr PAD . 19' MIQ CSA TOWER CASE . SX EIDE CDRONI DRIVE . SOUND BLASTER 32 PNP CARD . 200W STEREO SPEAKERS . USR 33.6 INT VOICE FAX MODEM (UPGRADABLE TO 55.6K) . MICROPHONE INCLUOE

M G N T H L Y P R G M O T IG N :

1 . 8X I N T . E I D E C D R O M IN S TA L L E D $ 1 3 8 2 . 33.8 INT. VOICE M O o E M I NS T A L L E D 4 1 3 8 •

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mini mouse.

Compiled by KEVIN LINFIELD

It's virtually art

than c<>nventional modems and doesn't tie up your phone (or c able!) l i n e . Y o u c a n obt a i n mo r e i nf o r mation a i http: //www.wave.ca or call 1-8(X)-THE-%AVE.

Rogers Comm«nic;ui«n Inc. has launched Artwave@Rogers. the first-ever virtual gallery of contemporary art. Featuring contemporary Canadian works from I I <>I the c<>untry's most prominent art museums, it occupies mar< than ISO%'eb pages.

Point your far<>urite hr<>wser i<> http: //sswsv.artwave.rogers.

In the palm of your hand Just when you th<>ught notebook computers were getting really small, Hewlett-Packard Ltd. has previewed its new Windows CE-based palmtop

coAl/ and have '1 I< >ok.

Fujitsu Takamisavva is now o ffering a mi ni at u r e , portable. I>an<I-held mouse designed for lls<.vvitll lap<<)p

computers and »t her p<>rtable devices svith a PS-2

mouse port. The Palm Mouse provides one-handed curs<>r control, making it good for travelling, giving computergenerated presentations, or w herever wor k s p ace i s severely limited.

Designed to fit in the user's palm, it weighs less than 30 grams and comes with a 1.7 metre cable. Palm Mouse comes with a MSRP of USS36.

For more information, visit http: // www.fujitsufta.corn/ or call 1-800-380-00S9.

Olympic fever hits early It is never too early to get a head start! The 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics' Internet home page is now online. Learn more about the

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upcoming winter games ('in b<>th lapan<.se <>r English) !rom l>ttp://vvww.nagall< >.01)'nl pic.ofg/ The site is p r<>duced hy ll3M, the official internet information System provider to the 1998 games.'I'h» Olympic h<nne page provides a variety of inf<>rmation, including facts, tigures. photos. and video and audi<> clips.

Free days/weelss/months Since last September, inore titan 8<,000 computer calendars li:lve been do<vol<>ad« I !ron> liigiDa) 's Web site. liest <>f all, they' re free! D<>vvnl<>ad <>ne <>f ih<'ir many designs from hitp://www.visi<mx.c<>m/ddmain hini

2;-'

PC with wh;it i» ciain>ed to be th» widest display among its peers. It features an 80-col-

Cross-platform gymnastics

umn, 640 x 240 LCD display.

The product-release date is expected t<> be mid-1997. For more ittformation see http: // www.hp.corn/It andheld/

Adobe has aniu>unced ihe avail:<hiliry <>I.4c>'<>b«! 3.0 s<>ibvare for Windows, Macintosh,;ind (1NIX. I Ising i heir popular Portable D<>cument Format (PDF), users can easily produce document» that are easily viewed and transported in many different ways (including through your E<vourite Web br<>svser).

Ac>r>I>at for each oper<ting system has a MSRP of USS29S. Don't forget that Ad»be's Ace>(>at Reader (a PDF viewing application) is freely available f<>r %'indows, Mac, OS/2, and UNIX from Adobe's Web site. More information can be found at http: //www.adobe.corn/ or by calling 1-800-272-3623.

HP' newppaimtop HP's i t p PC

Cyrix vs. Intel, where it matters Confused about Cyrix CPU chips and how they compare to Intel's> If you have a Cyrix chip in your PC and were wondering how well you can play games with it, check out Cyrix's Games and Multimedia Web site at ht tp: //wvs~cyrix.corn /process/support/games.htm This site is updated weekly to answer issues or questions regarding Cyrix products with game and multimedia developers,

Vancouver catches the Wave Slowly but surely, Rogers Communication's Wave Service (cable-modem access to the Internet) is gaining steam. Vancouver is the latest city to be able to access the Internet via their TV cable line. Although it costs more, cahle access I<> the Internet is faster

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RPC SYSTEMS ' Intel Penlu®B moxed Processor

M.board w/TritonChipsei P-120 PCI$1350 '"Glgabyle 16MB EDO RAM P-133 PCI$1430 ' 512KB Pipeline BurstCache Mb floppy Drive P-150 PCI$1550 '+1.44 1.6GBBDEHard Drive P-166 PCI$1680 ' 2 serial,l Parallel, 1 MousePo!ts P-200 PCI$1860 ' PCI64BiI video Card w/1Mb

' Magnavox 14' SvgaMonitor ' NMB 104 KeyWin95 Keyboard ' 15' Tower Casew/ 230WCSAP/S * Log!tech 3 Button Mouse ' 2 Years Warranty

MONIT ORS8( VIDEO CARDS

Magnavox 14" Nl SVGA.28 $290 Comparlnerl5" Nl LRFlat SVGA.2B $480 Co(npupartner 17' I Flat Screen Nl SVGA $860 Samsung 15" Flat Screen NI,N, SVGA $495 Samsung 17" GLIMonitor $930 SONY 100sx 15'

NEC C500 15"

NECXVI7t / Xel 7 I 1' SVGACard 2M Exp. 512K

SVGACard ISAIMB

$600

$565 $1180/$1460 $45 $65 $59/$69

CirrusLogic SVG A Card I/2MB PCI Ma!rex Milennium 30 2mb/smbV/Rair<PCI $279$/$379

Ma!raxMys lque 2mb/4mb SGRam PCI Diamond Stealth 64DRAM1,'2MBVLB/PCI

$265/$330 $149/$179

Diam(>ndSteallh64 Video VRAM2/4MB $330/460 Diamond Steal!h 3D PCI2MB/4MB $230/$265 AII 30 Xpression+ 2MB/4MB SDRam PCI $199/$239 AII 30 Pro Ii>it>s> 4MB/BMB SGRam PCI $335/$440

C OM P U T E R PL A Y E R !

M01tjEIIONDSILatest Design)

MULT IMEDIA 16 bii sound card & BxCD-ROM 2 Power Speakers w/AC adaptr 120 Waff speakers

$206 $29 $49

Soundblaster32 PIIP

$169 $199

Soundblasler AW E32 16 bitSoundCard Sound blaster 16 Panas onic 8xspeedCD410!n Sanyo2xSpeed KSI CD -Rom AdaptecKSICD-RomCntrlr w/ Soflwae

$58 $99

$155 $99 $85

We are a member of Better Business Bureau DRIVES8( CONTROLLERS 1.2GBEIDE $270 1.788 EIDE $310 2. I GB/ 2.5G8EIDE $345/$430 2.1GBKSI $65o 4.3G8SCS I $1200 2.5" 500MB /810MBIDEfor notebook $250/$395 1.2MB525' Floppy Drive $60 1,44MB3.5' Floppy Drive $35 SYQest230MBdrive w! I disk S39B Conner 800MBtapebackup >N /lape $210 B ackpack BOOm b parallel port backup S19 5 Seagate 8.0G Int !ex!tape backup S1230,'$1370 HP Surest(xe 5000E4GBtape backup S1350 VLB EIDE Controller W/ Multi.l/0 $4o VLB EIDE Cntrlr w/ Enhanced I/O $45 Adap!ec 152211 510 SCSI Ctrlr $125/$105 Adap!ec 2842AVLBSCSI Controller kl! $350 Adaplec 2940/2940W PCISCSI Cntrilr $295/350

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486DX4-1 00PCI 256k w/ CPU, fan 486DX4 -120PCI 256k w/ CPU, fan P-75 512k w/cpu, fan

$190 $210 $320 $380

P-100 512kw/cpu, fan P-120 / 133 512kw/cpu, fan $400/$510 P-150 /166512I!, w ' /cpu, fan $620/$800

SPeCICllS

Printers Raven Ls-6 I MB 600dpi Laser $585 Brolher-641 Laser $450 Brother-660 2MB 600dpi Okidata OL-4W laser 600dpi HP 340c portable HP 680C Color Desklet 600dpi $420 HP 820Cxi Color Deskjei 600dpi $545 HP 870Cxi Color deskjei 600d $6eo HP Lose(Jet 5L 600dpi ge79 HP Lase(Jet 6P 600dpi $1135 $1295 HP LaserJei 6MP 600dpi $1800 HP LaserJei 5 600dpl HP LaserJeI 4V/4MV $2eoo/$3990 Car on BJC-4100 / BJ-30 $325/$295

NETWORKING

Windows NT 4.0 Server w/5 licence $960 , Lan',astlc 6.0 siarter kli $350 ' Novell 3.12 upgtade (10 user) $1490 Novell 3.12/4.1 {5 user) $880/880 Novell 3.12/4.1 I10 user) $1880 Novell 3.12/4.1 (25 user) $2620/2480 Eagle 2000+ 16 Ethernet Card $100 IBM 16bit Ethernet 10ease-TCard $49 cable, (x>nnector, terminator/I; crimping tool

We repair: -Monitors -Systems -Printers We upgrade laser printers R

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lebanon/gzel not quite deljendable • • By CLIFF CUNNINCHAM• • Usefulness and reliability ate two key elements in the assessment of any software, but they loom even larger when the software is designed to anal)ze and report information on which decisions will be based. Webanalyzer 1.1, by Toronto's Incontext, gets mixed grades in its attemptto dissect Web sites. While its usefulness makes it a winner, its questionable reliability limits its efiectiveness.

Webanalyzer's analysis of the Web site. It was a model of effi ciency and contained everything you need to study the site.

Unfortunately, not everything reported was accurate. Elements dearly marked in ied as broken links were no t a l ways broken.

Webanalyzer labelled as broken the image

files for James West and Artemis Gordon, but both images appear in the proper places when viewed with ¹t s cape. Since one of the big selling points of Webanalyzer is its abiTity to identify (but not fix) broken links, faulty reports like this will merely serve to waste the time of a Webmaster.

Also labelled as unknown content were the biographical sketches of the main characters, even though they contain nothing but text and graphics.

The program consumes lessthan 2 MB of disk space, and requires Windows 95 with 8 MB of RAM. +

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Undoubtedly, there is a need for a product like Webanalyzer.Holistically presenting a Web site as a graphical display instead of a myriad of linked pages lets you see what is available at a glance. Simply entering the U RL of a pa g e i s e n o ug h t o s e n d Webanalyzer to work: within 10 to 20 minutes for most sites, every element is available for study in three different views.

In the upper right is a concentric map, known as the Wavefront view, which contains icons for documents. images, application links, mail-to links, audio files, video files, FrP, Gopher, and unknown content. The last category can cover a lot of ground: the hundreds of Netscupe Nat !igator plug-ins are labelled unknown, asare file types such as Java and Shockwave.

At upper left, the Link view shows all the inlinks and out-links fiom anyspecified flle.

Along the bottom, File view lists all site elernents by name, content type, size, date last modified, depth, number of in- and out-links, and title. Simply clicking on any of these headers will sort the entire list by that item. Also impressive are the filters that enable you to display only the elements of interest, such as text or graphic files, or broken links.

This is a test As a test, I analyzed a Web site for one of my hvorite television sho~s fiom the 1960s: Tbe Wdd Wild Stst (hnp://moose.uvm.edu/ -glam~v w l .h t m t).

Webanalyzer created a subdirectory to handle all the files associated with the analysis. The files sizes (in KB) were docs (85.8), images (116), mmedia (67.5), report (138), and temp (85.4). The total size, about half a megabyte, was quite manageable, although users might want to check their free space before doing a full analysis of big Web sites.

The files in docs are optional:these are created when you want tomake a copy of the site on your hard drive, so that it may be viewed offline.

A doser look revealed that the mmedia directory contained audio fdes, while the socalled project file (west.icw, another 21 KB) was in the main Webanalyzer directory. The overview fde, in the report directory, was a thorough, hy p e r linked rep o r t on

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Powerful ""

Flexible

Easy to Use

MYO.B. is a full fledged business management system.Quotes and

Son1e accounting packages force you to work the way they work Not MY' - y o u can design your own Invoices, purchase orders, statements andother forms.

MYO.B. Version 7 conforms to the way YOU do business.

Most Canadian accounting packages tllat are powerful

estimates, contact

management, job costing and a report custolmzef

for MYOB.'s 111 reports, are just a few of the powerhd features that set MYO.B. apart.

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either aren *t meant for

growing businesses or ate difficult to use. Features like the Setup Weird and CD ROM Mtrning Centre make MY' e a sy to setup, easy to learn, and easy to use!

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We CUA gAÃTEE if your business requires Flexibility, Power, and Ease of Use, you won't need tolook beyond /IfYON. Suy MYOB. Version 7nou!

Best f Ware'

145 King StreetWest, Suite1000, Toronto, Ontario M5H3X6

For more information: 1-600-640-IIIIYOS (6962) Fax:416-360-2927www.bestware.ca •

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A Plus• Adventure Electronics• A8 BSound • Business Depot• Compucentre CompuSmart • Computer City• Doppler Computer Superstore• Future Shop• Inmac Mac Warehouse• Micro Boutique • NEBS• Office Depot • Office Place• London Drugs C OMPU TE R

PL AYER! J AN U AR Y 1 9 9 7

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IeernetSatewasCee. • lOJhewdnteraalehaea 'bee NealNeNes1eiNlgg

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Putting • . e By ALAN THWAITS• • Buying a PIM is like hiring a personal assistant. Both come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, so the task becomes a matter of getting either the software program or the wetware entity that will a) work hard at doing the needful, and b) do the job in a way that matchesyour needs and style.

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kqrthve Delvxe, from individual Software loc. includes Windows-compatible CD-ROMaod 3.$inch dlakL$49.9$ formoreIsfonuotlos,contact140W31-$313 or http://www.lodlvidualaoftware.corn/

Needless to say, many are called, but few are chosen.Any Tir»e Deluxe, from Individual Software Inc., is one of the latest contenders.

Like any good PIM, An> Tinteoffers a day planner/scheduler, todo list, address book/telephone directory, and a notebook/journal to create and store letters, memos, journals, expense reports, and all the other minutiae that make life in the fast lane so much ftm.

That's like saying that the applicant for the job of Personal Assistant to the President (you) can use the telephone, work with a word-

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processor, and greet visitors in a recognizable form of English — good for starters, but nothing to clinch the interview.

What makes AnyTime stand out from the PIM crowd, you ask? Well, the designers have focused on two areas — customizable interface and output possibilities (which is like saying the Personal Assistant can not only walk and

Computer Solutions

( Windows NT Certified)

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into your

can be both personalized and energetic.

Print lt

Output? Well, it's no good making all those plans if you don't have them at your side, does it?

So AnyTime offers more than 100 customizable talk, but can match the style and "cultute" of layouts for your agendas, your business and also meet your output contact lists, travel planrequhements at the end of each day). ners, in templates that fit Multiple options most p o p ular p a p er"Customizable interface" means usability, too. based organizers. Just design the layout to suit Scheduling appointments can be done in any of seven different formats — day, week, month, or yourself, then print pages year views in either calendar or graph style (the that will f i t y o u r D aylatter are handy for seeing what free time — if Timer, D a y Ru n n er, any —you have available).AnyTime offersfull F ranklin, o r Fi lo f a x drag-and-drop cap a b ility — rescheduling binder! You can also print address-book information appointments can be done easily and without fuss,and appointments can be changed to"to directly t o en v e lope, * do s" (and vice versa) the same way. label, and letter formats.

AnyTime is good about details. Not things One small q u i bble.

AnyTime Deluxe loaded like how much sugar you take in your coffee, but in allowing you to view information m ore slowly o n th i s in as much or as little detail as you wish (four reviewer's 486/33 8MB view levels are available). Or in providing an IVER%machine than APD "autoschedule" utility, with which appointOrganizer or Si d ekick ments can be created from address book (though not as slowly as contacts.Add the ability to organize informaLotus Organizer!). Not an tion by groups, alarms for appointments and issue, though, if the proto-do's (complete with snooze Feature!), and gram is kept working in a "search by keyword" utility, and AnyTi>ne the background. That' s

QMaple0ak 8MB RAM, 1.2 GB EIDE Hard Drive 14" SVGA Color Monitor, Nl, .28 I MB PCI Video Card, 3.5" Floppy Drive Keyboard, Logitech Mouse, MiniTower Case

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not something you could do with that newly hired Personal Assistant — humans, after all, need some time oN +

tsut h ocre~~~ g!Ig~ NOVELL Autftorlzed Windows NT Certified

e 4/8/16/32 MB (72)........$29/49/109/215 I/4 MB 30 Piu.................$14/35 IutranetWare 4.11 (5/10/25/50/100).......$1025/1950/3488/4800/6488 8/16/32 MB DIMM (168p) .$&5/160/290 Notebook/printer RAM........ call Netwsre3.12 (5/10/25/50/100) ...............$1025/2090/3080/3480/4750 Windows NT4.0 Server 5/10/Workstation/Upg ....$999/1178/389/188 ggfI'RBg: oWiudows For Workgroup 3.11/Windows 95/Add-ou...... $85/140/65 Peutium®chip 120/133/150/166/200 ...$1155/1255/1355/1495/1675 1.2/1.6GB IDE ............... $279/319 I/2/4 GB SCSI HD ... $360/735/1379 IBM OS/2 Warp Server V4.0.... $799 Lsutsstic 7.0.............. $125 2.0/2.5/3.2 GB ....... $379/429/469 HP Colorado 800MB.i/e.......$195/255 Novell GroupWise (50 user) . $6268 ArcServe 6.0 (25user) . $645 Iomega IGB Jazz iut/ext. $529/629 Syquest 230MB SCSI/Par...........$389 32 MB RAM, 2.0 GB EIDE Hard Drive (Information Super Highway'?)

3Com Ethernet IIIB, ISA TB I+/5+/20+/IQO+.......$143/125/I 18/109 14" SVGA Color Monitor, NI, .28 Cardinal 33.6 Modem/V ..$139/179 PCMCIA 14.4/28.8 ..........$95/268 3Com Ethernet llIB, PCI TB I+/5+/20+,......................$155/145/125 I MB PCI Video Card, 3.5" Floppy Drive, Keyboard, USR 33.6 Modem/Vi, int.....$165/175 ISDN Modem, int................. $288 3Com Fast Ethernet 10/100 PCI TB (Cst 5 UTP) I+/5+.......$190/179 Logitech Mouse, ATX Tower Case Intel EtherExpress Pro/10 ISA TB I+/5+/20+.............. $159/139/119 OR Bg: ~ CD-ROM 8/10/12x ..$145/165/199 8x CD-ROM/SB16/Spks.......... $249 Intel EtherExpress Pm/100 PCI TB I+/5+/2Q+........... $194/179/169 Pent!urn~ 180.......$2217 Dual PentiunP Pro-200......$4383 16 Bit Sound Card ...................$45 4x/6x SCSI CD-ROM....... $169/390 NE2000 Compt. ISA/PCI...$49/88 SMC EL 16T ultra ......... $129 SB 16/32/AWE32......$89/175/259 Microphone (Stand on) .............$12 Micrudyne NE2000 Plus TB... $99 IBM Token Ring ISA .....$349 o ize Y r D r eam S Xircom/3com PC Card .. $185/22S Pocket LAN sdaptor ...... $159 I t 8MB to 16MB ............+ $49 1 6 MB to 32MB ........,...........+$99 15"/17" Monitor .... + 119/435 SONY 15" SXI/SF2 ..+ $290/375 Preview 14"/15"/17"....$265/375/710 Matrox 2/4 SGram 2/4mb$245/319 HP JetDirect Printer Server. $43 8 Adaptec 2940 SCSI ........ $278 3Com OfficeCounect ......... $1100 8 /16 Port Hub .........$165/265 ATI I/2MB Dram .... +$50/75 ATI 2/4MB Vrsm .....+ $170/285 ViewSonic15/17/20";$495/879/1935 S3 PCI IMB/2MB ............ $55/75 Mstrox2/4mb Wram+$208/318 Cardinal 33.6 FAX Modem ..$139 SONY 15/17/20" .... $565/1180/2280 ATI 1/2MB Dram ........... $99/109 3Com Switch Hub (24) ....... $4388 APC ups 600/900VA$338/478 Dos/Wiu/Win95.+$50/75/140 1.6/2.0/2.5 Gb HD.. +$40/100/150 NEC 15/17/21"...... $559/1149/2639 Diamond 2/4mb vram ... $255/395 HP SureStor 2/4GB,i.. $1099/1199 SmartPriuter Starter Kit.$215 Cable 25'/50'/100'/500'/1000' (BNC or TB)......... $15/25/35/120/220 8x CD-ROM/SB16/Spks.$249 MS Encarta 97 CD Bundle .....$98 Prrer (M ake your job look nicely) TerminstorlT-connector/Connector ............. $5 each HP 400c/870c/850c.$289/649/675 CanonBJ240/4100/4550 $265/318/598 AST Manhattan S6200 Dual Pentium Pro200, 32MB, CDROM...Call am ; I ma! wamusy oa labor Brother 730/760DX....... $529/655 Epsou C500/Pro .................. $385/519 HP Netserver LC5/Pentium 133 32MB, 2 GB 4x CDROM... $4487 2 years wananty os paris.

HP LsserJet 5L/6p ...... $649/1019 HP LI 5/5N/SM....... $1799/2120/2485 HT Dual CPU Server P133, 64MB, 2*2 GB SCSI,8x CDROM $3699 Third year parts warranty, add $50, Fiat year os-she ~, add $ 70. e d ( Slow? spend lots time waiting?)

HT Server P133 64MB, 2eIGB SCSI, Sx CDROM................. $2466 6x86-120/150/166....$290/340/430 Pentium-133/166/200..$485/695/850 Acer A-OPEN Server P-133, 64MB, 2 GB EIDE, SxCDROM.$1745 c P o e ( CA An tkorlcod/ .........$3799 Pentium' Pro 150/180/200 w/ATX TowerCase ....................$8S8/1188/1799 Standby Server, Fault-tolerant for any server.

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1997

• • • • 0 • • • • •

• T R V T H I S M MA R IMI-A,N D - F U Z Z V D I C T A B & S E • • By LYNN GREINER ••

a nd C o m p uServe m a i l boxes, H T M L , WordPe+ect, and Word documents, RTF files, and files from the Lexis and Nexis commercial databases.

You can also obtain a filter pack with ten other formats. askSam will examine several records of an imported file (you choose how many) and attempt to find fields in them (you define the field delimiter).

Data comes in many forms. Sometimes it' s quantifiable, and can be expressed in fields and objects. Sometimes it's more fuzzy.

Electronic-mail messages are pieces of data, as much as are the cells in a spreadsheet. asksam for Wi ndotiis is an e asy-to-use database program that does especially well with the "fuzzy" sort of data. Yes,it can handle fields, in a limited sort of way, but its real strength lies in the organization of free-form information. It w il l automatically find and create such fields as you' re likely to need as indexes (but y o u d o n ' t " n e ed" t h e m).

Searches are based on the entire contents of a file.

Records are called Documents,and can consist ofanything from a few words or numbers to a disk-drive full.A Field can be up to 16,000 lines long, and there can be an unlimited number in any record.A file can be up to 4 GB. Data entry, such as it is, can be accomplished by typing into a form (allowing entry only into fields), using word-processing mode (which allows free-form entry anywhere in the record), or by importing an existing file. asksam can inhale text files, dBase databases, various forms of delimited data, Eudora

(NA os as sea

Frolic ln the fields For example, if you are pulling in an e-mail file, you may tell the program to look for a colon (:). It' ll then show you things like "To:" and "From:", and ask if they indicate fields you wish defined. If so — bingo! — you now have proper fields in your database.

Well, semi-proper fields, actually. asksam only allows you to define a field's length.

There's no masking to make sure, for exam-

pie, a telephone number is numeric, or to check the format of a postal code.

If you re looking for a strongly typed database, forget it. usksam's beauty is in its powerful and flexible handling of any sort of textual data, like scanned-in articles (there's an optional OCR module), electronic mail, research notes, addresses, graphics, OLE objects, and so forth.

All data can be searched in several ways (there are even proximity searches, where you can hunt for a word within a certain distance of another — say, in the same sentence. and Fuzzy searches that look for approximations), sorted every whichway, and be reported upon. You can even create hypertext menus for navigation within a database or among databases,using icons as the hot spots.

Reports are easily designed and formatted, with a helpful dialogue that walks you through selecting criteria, deciding on sort fields, setting up the layout (just drag and drop), and running the report. It can be as plain or as pretty as you like (change fonts, adjust spacing — even change text colours), with simple calculations like record counts or group totals, but no fancy math. askSam supplies a number of templates that can be modified to suit your purposes.

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It's a tool for students and secretaries, man agers and moms — in fact, anyone with free form data that needs organizing. +

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Computers will finally hear and obey-most of the time • • By CLIFFORD CUNNINGHAM•

•

After 30 years of watching Star Trek and wishing for a computer I could talk to, it was with real excitement that I installed Dragon Dictate version 2.5 for Windows. While it does not provide the seamless integration of verbal interaction we have come to expect from science fiction, it is more than just a first tentative step in that direction.

Let Alex the Dragon be your guide in the interactive tutorial that covers the essen-

tial elements. Both the tutorial and the 216. page manual are not only f l awless, but actually a pleasure to use. Being accustomed to manuals whose best destiny is recycling, this one was more than a pleasant surprise. Companies looking to p r oduce their own manuals should check out this one first.

Dragon Dictate is available in three editions: Personal (with 10,000 words active; requires 12 MB of RAM), Classic (30,000 words; 16 MB of RAM), and Power (60,000 words; 20 MB of RAM). I tested the Classic edition on a 100 MHZ Micron with 16 MB of RAM.

Speciallzatien All versions have a background vocabulary of 120,000 words. In addition to the standard vocabulary, five aden modules are available

for specialized work in the fields of medicine, the computer industry, law, business, and journalism. Each contains another 60,000 terms, phrases, names, and abbreviations. It is also available in other languages: French, German, Spanish, Italian, and Swedish.

First released in 1994,Dragon Dictate was developed by Dr.James Baker under the auspices of the US government's Advanced Research Projects Agency. The p r oject r eceived a f u r ther b o ost i n 1 9 9 3 w h e n President Clinton awarded it a technology reinvestment project award. This is not your average, basement-developed software!

It comes with an instructional videotape and a microphone. Just install the software from the CD-ROM, plug the microphone into your computer, and you are all set to begin training Dragon Dictate to recognize your voice. In the i nitial session, which takes about 30 minutes,you have to say a few hundred words (sometimes more than once). Even after this, its recognition capabilities are poor.

Nothing's perfect You will have to be very patient and dictate for severalhours before it approaches its optimum speed of 50 words per minute with an accuracy of 91 per cent. Note that even this rather high level means that about one

word in every sentence will be incorrectly recognized.

The main problem with the current state of the art seems to be context recognition. If I dictate "I want a cup of tea," and follow that "I want a golf tee," Dragon Dictate will most likely spell "tee"as "tea." Until real artificial intelligence is built i nto speech4ictation programs, problems like this will persist.

Dragon Dictate does have competition.

IBM has its Vo i ce-Type Dic tation, a n d Knrzweil Voice j u st h ad i t s v e r sion 2 released. The IBM program does not require on-the-fly error correction as does Dragon Dictate, where you must keep your eyes on the monitor to catch mistakes as they happen. Letting errors go b y m e ans t h at Dragon D i ctate w i l l l e a rn t h e w r o n g speech patterns, and its performance will get worse.

Kurzweil Voice has been criticized for its requirement that mouse pointing be done solely using voice commands (such as up or left). Dragon Dictate p uts a grid on t h e screen whenyou say"mouse grid."Specifying a grid number places another grid on that small section, so that you may verbally click the mouse on a precise point without using directional commands.

Overall, dictation speeds with Dr a gon Dictate are about 10 words per minute faster 86

than Kurzweil can handle.

Dragon Dictate is capable of reading text to you, but for this you will need a full-duplex sound card. If you do not have this and like to play music CDs through your computer, you will have to close Dragon Dictate first, as all your audio will be muted.

Version 2.52, scheduled for release in the first half of 1997, will feature some performance enhancements forusers of IVord 7.

Ideally suited for those who cannot use a keyboard, and individuals working in a quiet environment, Dragon Dictate and its competitors are not quite ready for prime time. It is clear, however, that we won't have to wait until the 23rd century to talk fluently with our electronic friends. +

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CANAD AN ORGANZATONSSTRUT THE R SAVVY Canadian business execs hungry for h i g h - t ech success stories need look no f u r t her t ha n t h ei r ow n b a ckyard.

A consortium o f

i n f l u ential t e c hnology an d b u siness organizations„ o t herwise known a s

C I PA ( t h e C a n adian

information Processing Association), recently celebrated its fourth birthday, with an annual award-giving ceremony.

• • By SANDRA MINGAIL ~ • wenty Canadian firms, representing education, telecommunications, retailing, banking, financial, and business c omin unities were h o n oured for their innovations in information technology.

Here are a few examples.

Retail Info bonanza In the retailing category, menswear chain HarryRosen Inc.was recognized for implementing point-of-sale information systems.

Sales staff at each of the chain's 23 locations enter detailed sales data on new customers: what is his preferred suit label and colour choice? What is the gentleman' s sleeve length or pant size? What credit card does he normally present? Repeat customers receive immediate assistance without having to re-acquaint a salesperson with ineasure-

ments orstyle preferences.

All customer data is instantly accessible thmughout the op tion . Merchandising staff track buying habits and make decisions on future purchases. Accounting people have sales figures at their fingertips.

Developed by Bellair International, this InStore Retail Information System (IRIS) incorpontes a comprehensive on-screen training module. Staff progress through the selfpaced tutorial, then take an online test that quizzes their recall of system functions.

Individuals are certified upon completion of training.

Robert Humphrey, president and COO of Harry Rosen Inc., claims a S500,000 operational saving thanks to the system. In addition, data gathered helps deliver a more targeted audience, hence more effective directmail strategies.

Speedy X-ray dlstrlbutlon Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children was another proud winner.

Patient X-rays in the pediatric critical~ unit ate needed quickly. In the past, physicians, nurses,or physiotheiapists who needed X-ray

Web browsers over its internal network.

Online medical manuals are currently accessible to assist resident physicians. Lab results that measure patient pressure points in the heart are recorded gnphicauy and exported to a GIF file. This graphic, along with text data, is then added to the HTML-based patient fite.

access would have to physically fetch the Xray to view it by the patient's bedside. In a pm-

ject spearheaded by the hospital's information systems manager, Gordon Tait, healtbcaie spedalists now conveniently access digital images from existing bedside computers.

Tait discovered an existing freeware prognm over the Internet. Originally developed for biological use, the program allows application of filters to adjust image viewing options. High-resolution images are converted to low-resolution files, then transinitted over the hospital's standard network. Healthcare specialists, even parents, can conveniently view the chid's X-ray almost immediately after development.

A formal system evaluation is now underway comparing the output from these digitized X-iays to the original X-rays. The hospital is also experimenting with several uses of

ÃOIPP

Automated urban development Metro Toronto's own city of Mississauga set new standards for productivity and information access as it took home an award in the government and public-institutions category.

Formerly a hodge-podge of manual and semi-computerized pmcedures, planning and approvals have been given a major facelift.

Thanks to Max ( M ississauga Approvals eXpress), a client server-based application, municipal stat'f now have a centralized sys. tern for collecting and distributing planning information. The application generates more

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electronically. Building permits, rezoning inquiries, condominium applications, committee of adjustment decisions, and digitized property maps are easily accessible through a GUI-based system.

Project leader John Alley outlined a number of new initiatives now under development. In the works are a building-inspectors' module to ke y i n s cheduling «nd field results, online foe-safety systems, and build-

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than 70 kinds of reports.

Over 300 municipal users were trained internally over a two-month period. The system's extensive online help documentation was all they needed to quickly get up and running on Max's graphical interface.

All development applications are tracked

ing-cnde analyses.

Public Internet access will eventually provide details on committee adjustment agendas, as weU asa developers'fee for service site that will indicate the status of building permits.

More role models Other organizations in CIPA's 1996 winners' circle inciude: Firstline Trust, for its speedy mortgage-application system; the

University of Alberta Library, for its innovative Internet-based ordering and delivery system; New Brunswick Telephone, for its 7-day.

24-hour interactive voice-response ordering program; and Air Canada, for its cost- cutting document-imaging project for cargo waybills.

With any luck„more Canadian institutions will catch this IT innovation fever and follow suit.+

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IStar is aiding Canadian parents' fight against online porn with free blocking soi'tware for the Internet. This software enables parents to restrict Internet access to certain times of the day, limit the total time spent online, and b l o c k a c c ess t o s p e c ific resources and sites. For more information, call iStar at 1-888-464-7827 or visit their Web site at http: //www.istar.ca/ for more details.

Online accommodations RooinsPlus Travel Guide proudly announces the completion of their new online accommodation listing at http: // www.roomsplus.corn/ The site provides listings for over 95 per cent of the hotels, motels, bed 8r breakfast operations, and campgrounds throughout Canada and the United States. It also includes over 34,000 golf-course listings. Phone (705) 942-9765 for additional information.

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Quic/eDrau! .'JD f o r b o t h Ma c an d W indows r e c eived " B est S o f t w ar e o f Comdex Award" at the Fall Comdex in I~s Vegas. Version 1.5 of Qu ickDrau of f ers extensible 3- D a r c hitecture f o r 3 2 - bit Windows and Mac OS. Check out http: // quickdram3d.apple.corn/ for more details.

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phone or even one of those fancy cordless models, you should know that any 13-yearold kid with a $200 scanner from Radio Shack (and a bit of patience) can listen in on your phone call.

Thinking about sending e-mail? Think again.

Hackers can read any e-mailmessage they mant. Also, don't forget that the courts have decided that your employer owns your work e-mail accounts and can snoop in your Ilies without telling you. ~ who n e eds privacy? You only have to worry if you' re doing something wrong, right?

11tat's the argument in Los Angeles where police ofgcials are openly talking about IMligerprinting everyone mho has a (~r n ia driver' s license and keeping this information on file permanently. Now, we all know the record of trustworthiness of the IA police department.

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Not all CD-ROMstorybooks are created equal • • By CARYN MLADEN• • hopping for kids? They loved the Toy .Story CD-ROM so m u ch, maybe they' ll love another one <>f those colourful disks you see on the shelf. What do we have herey Two CDROMs from Corel, a Canadian corporation. Let's see hosv they stack up.

Something fishy Tbe Bunga!o Br>Jx' Tbe Big Fisb IVisb follows Shorty and Carl<>tta as they go Iishin' for a big, mean fish named Mighty Millie — who might not be so mean after all.

The drawings are dune in the big, overd<>ne style of traditional animation. The characters are down-home friendly and the text and navigation are easy to understand. It's a pleasant CD, with a few options — including drawing and colouring with the Paint program, and recording and playing back sounds with the Record option.

The kids can actively fish, or they can just

listen to one of the five stories as it is read to them. The overall effect is comfortable and amusing. It doesn't pack the wallop of some of the Hollywood-based CD-ROMs, but it' s not supposed to. The point is to provide nonviolent entertainment for children. I know many people will think that fishing is intrinsically violent — at least for the fish — but, rest assured, no fish in this CD will ever get fried.

Bsrngalr> Bogs is a series of four books by Frank B. Edwards and John Bianchi, and Tbe Big Fisl> lrs'sb is the l i r st C D-RONI from

bright and the program is easy to install, but I found the overall experience frustrating.

The kids in the story are made to appear relatively human instead of c~oonish and this makes their excessively childish voices even more annoying. The drawings are lush and contain all the typical medieval-time attributes — swords, sluelds, armour, castles — but the> are static. Press on a character and it does a little something that does nothing to advance the story or teach your child anything.

There arethree stories that you can read

Bungalu Books. Aimed at ki<Ls aged 4 iu IO, I

beginning to end or you can explore around.

find it unlikely that the <>lder kids in this youp will find it compelling enough tu play twice. so y<>u may want to stop at 8. If you want something safe, gentle, optionally creative, and countrified, Tbe Big Fisb le sb is f<>r you.

The user can't quickly skip ahead or escape I'rum an area they Bind uninteresting, however. without closing d<>wn completely.

The most frustrating anribute is the lack of interaction available for a creative child. The only past in which a child can actively participate is making music with the ntinstrels.

Otherwise, this is a storybook, pure and simple.

Unfortunately, the stories are not interesting enough to keep a child's attention very

6'night, Knight N ikoiai i >i Tiyue: In t b e T i m e of f b e Knights is the third in the Nikolai series from Corel and another, I >s tbe Ti>ise of t b e I'baroabs, is coming soon. The colours are

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renHHO tmareearns to mar 8 can the shelves of your local software retailer. Slickly packaged titles scream for attention. It's no easy task to vveed winners from losers. Thanks to the computersavvy folks associated with the Software Publisher's Association, however, software'sbest are recognized at a once-ay ear awards ceremony equivalent to t h e movie industry's Oscars.

Finalists from the association's 11th annual Codie Awards survived the judges' scrutiny.

The team of evaluators represented a crosssection of computer magazine journalists,

editions are available.

Longtime educational-software publisher MECC — now a division of The I.earning Company — scored well in both consumer and educational sections. The classic historical simulation Oregon Trail II was among the top five winners for Best Adventure and RolePlaying Software.

A newer title for MECC, jointly developed with textbook publisher Houghton Mifflin, is M athkeys Unlocking G eometry, Yol. 1 .

Abstract math concepts are deftly transformed into concrete activities as players learn that mathematics really does have applications in everyday life. Mathkeys was a warded a fi n a l ist p o s i tio n f o r Be s t

principals, teachers, home-schooling experts,

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librarians, and television producers.

Learning assists

A cut above the rest

Don Johnson Incorporated masterminded a program entitled Blocks i n M o t i on.

Developed by a team of Swiss teachers and engineers, this award-winning title presents sets of on-screen manipulatives, Children use shapes and colours to construct pictures, then animate their creations. Since there is no mouse dragging required, the program is a boon for those with small-motor challenges. Spatial perception, gravity, cause and effect and p r oblem-solving explorations keep young minds involved .

Longtime s o f t w ar e gu ru Su n b u r st Communications scored top marks for its A to Zap! title. Onscreen activities for every letter

• • By SANDRA MJNGAJL• •

A.D.A.M. Software Inc. stole the show, placing in the finalist position in four major categories: Best Curriculum-Based Education Program, Best Educational Program, Best Education Program for Middle School, and Best Education Program for Secondary and Post-Secondary School.

The A.D.A.M. CD is a comprehensive title that reveals secrets of the human anatomy.

Students examine body systems and structures„view organs in 3-D from different angles, observe cross-sections and radiologies, or dissect 1,000 layers of illustrations of the human anatomy, Both school and student

of the alphabet help young children build letter and simple word recognition. Animated characters escort youngsters through the program and provide assistance when needed.

Theatrix Interactive earned two fi nalist places in the early elementary category.

Bumptz Science Carnival introduces hilarious Bumptz characters within an amusement-park setting. Over 200 puzzles, 12 animated science movies, and 19 experiments challenge youngsters to explore scientific concepts dealing with light, buoyancy, gravity and magnetism, The second winning Theatrix title, Snootz Math Trek.presents math strategy games as young players help cartoon astronauts from Planet Snoot repair their broken spaceship.

Junior-high accolades Hats off t o t h e m u ltimedia artisans at Yideodiscovery Inc. for their Science Sleuths Series. Students land smack-dab in the middle of a science lab with a tough assignmentsolve the mysteries of the exploding lawnmower and the blob. Junior sleuths manipulate a series of interactive on-screen science tools. consult graphs to analyze data, and browse the Sleuth Database.

The internationally renowned Julliard Music school for music, dance, and drama„ in cooperation w i t h T h e a tri x I n t e ractive, received finalist ratings in the Middle School category for its Juilliard Music Adventure.

This two-in-one title presents players with a

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Good ol' Shakespeare soared to a finalist position with IY I Publishing's Discovering Shakespeare. Myths, legends, and mysteries of William's 16th century life are captured on compact disk, Added to that are interviews with British and American Shakespearean actors, synopses of 37 pl a ys, and video footage of historical English landmarks.

The Princeton Review's Inside the SAT was another winner in this category. This testpreparation software helps students survive the SAT experience through o nscreen lessons, in4epth comments on answer choices, and animation designed to r e inforce learning. The associated Internet Web site offersonline test discussion areas and frequently asked questions for test-takers.

Other Codie Award winners included well respected software publishers such as Edmark, for its Thinking Things Collection, and Dorling Kindersely, for its Cartopedia map-making title. Microsoft's 3D M o vie Maker was voted finalist in both Best Home Creativity Software Program and Best New Use of the Computer category. +

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ea ames,aienceisaviue • • By WILLIAM A. WOOD • e

ith the seemingly unstoppable rise of real-time

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action games (the prime examples being B lizzard's Warcraft I I : Tides of Darkness and Westwood's Command Conquer), is there room for an "old-fashioned," turnbased type of game? Yes, and no.

Jagged ANiancer Deadly Gamesis the sequel to Jagged Alliance,a moderate hit from 1995.

Both games involve assembling a thun of mercenaries with varied abilities and then running them through tactical, "squatwevel" scenarios.

Successful missions generate cash to pay for more skilled metes or better weapons, while unsuccessful ventures earn you nothing but scars — if they don't cost you everything.

The play runs in turns, with each merc having a certain number of action points that are spent running, shooting, setting explosives, and so on. Once one side has moved all its soldiers, the other side gets its turn. The game alternates back and forth until victory conditions have been met or the fixed number of turns runs out.

T here i s a lim i t e d amount of crossover insofar as your mercs can "save" action points and use them to interrupt the other player (useful for setting ambushes). This is a far cry,however, from the wild and woolly real-time games, where things happen all over the map, and there's no time to stop and ponder.

Sitting duck As such, Deadly Games may appeal to players who prefer to strategize a bit more„who are less hooked on the adrenaline rush of having to react and control a squad of soldiers while actually under fire. To be fair, there is a different, but no lessanxious feeling when your merc runs out of action points in the middle of an open field, and you have to sit there and helplessly watch the enemy take shot after shot at him.

Strategizing, alas, is the element ofJagged

Alliarzce that is most missing from Deadly Games.The former had an overarching goal, and the various firefights were small pieces of a larger puzzle that led eventually to victory. Deadly Garrzes,on the other hand, is little more than a random fight generator, albeit w it h e x tensive options and impressive scenario-editing capabilities.

What Sirtech appears to have concentrated on is the multiplayer angle. To this end there is a second CD-ROM copy of the game included, so that you can give it to a friend and flight each o ther by mode m .

Unfortunately, this second disk is multiplayer only, which m eans your friend can't practice, so you really have to give up your copy once you' re familiar with it — and then you can't play it alone.

Unfortunately for Sirtech, multiplayer play is where the turn-based system starts to drag.

Perhaps I' ve been spoiled playingCommand & Conquer by modem, where both players work simultaneously, but waiting for your friend to flnish moving his or her mercs seems to take forever, especially in the beginning of the scenario when your teams are generally

far apart. You can set a time limit on the turns, but then players get cut off in mid-turn, and it just gets ugly.

I know you are, but what am I? Of course, there's an excellent "taunt' feature — every merc has his or her own handful of nasty phrases they' ll yell on command. Maybe that's how you' re supposed to pass the tinie.

I enjoyed Deadly Games quite a bit (in single-player mode, that is), but I confess that it

wore itself out pretty quickly.

If you' re patient, and you' re not a control

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ore rea i or our vi uacoc i: CN tower looms over the Island airport, and is visible from Pearson International. The landscape and Hoover Dam near Las Vegas are almost photorealistic.

The simulation has hours of discovery buiit in, what with planes, time, weather, and the whole world in which to fly.When real flying is cancelled, FS for Windou~s 95 offers loads of fun, as well as some very realistic instrument simulation.

If it's time to upgrade from FS for DOS (and that's a great program), here's a wonderful excuse. As a big plus, your DOS scenery can

crafted "tiled" replication of the Earth's surger, better, super. From the first set-up you are immersed in multimedia simulation, face. The colors of Hawaii's Big Island are as with voice, music, sound effects, and visual I remember them, with well rendered lava flows an d m o u ntain excellence.

If you know a • sides . The beaches of There are six planes to fly: a very modern F l i g h t Boeing 737400 and anaerobatic Extra 300S the Turks islands are Simulator for > ~<,.'.. ., .::.'""""''-'z:;~ ;, ,~ gl eami n g w h i te.Tokyo's have been added to the usual offerings. There DOS nut (you are also more challenging exercises, lessons, . E'Ii'i',',.",,:,'-'",,',-':.;:;, of f ic e b u i l d ings a n d p erhaps) who I ' , ' I .:i'"""' '-'.„: j <towers rise up towards and mysteryfl ights to be executed.The overwants to upgrade, then I' ve got all level of scenery, particularly in a number ®: I a y o u if you fly low. just the thing. Now you can have j'...,::.~,„':...,:~ of selected locations, is brilliant. The total u:i,:,"kc For FSpilots, this disk is the enhanced landscapes for,",W,:~ '~ ,,'~$ a m u st-have. The only effect is even more realistic than in previous H awaii, Japan, and the Caribbean, ~ tP' ' danger is you may want FSversions. all on one CD. r." m.

Because this program runs under Windows T he disk c o mes w i t h a t h i n ...,,,".:::.;!!,:--. to subscribe io a set of Jeppesen charts to plan 95, set-up is easy. Generally, your hardware m anual wit h i n s t ructions f o r J].;:;:.' ""' , I l j ' .,„, i . , t r i p s a n d c h ec k t h e will be recognized without any help. My joyloading the program as well as a ,,;: """"" accuracy of Microsoft's stick needed to be "hand" configured to perbrief cross country sightseeing " ' . simulated world. form fully. The program is optimized for the trip for e ach l ocale. Take the MS Sidewinder 3D Pro — I now have an trip, it's worth it.

I claim to be one of the excuse to get one! Documentation is brief, You also get a r estricted collection of first Canadians to fly a but you do get online help. maps for each area, as well as a few airport US-registered C e s sna Flying an on-screen simulation can be more charts and info on runway lengths and so frustrating than the real thing, but the prothrough London's Tower on. I had great fun circling Mt. Fuji in the Bridge. I also circled Big Ben gram has some interesting lessons and advice early morning, dipping into the great caldera a nd B u ckingham P alace, f l e w fr o m to get you started. As in real flying, the comof Hawaii's active Kilauea, and passing Buttonville to Toronto City Centre (the plexity of the simulation can be increased, as between the mountain peaks of Nevis in the Island airport), and circled the CN tower. your skills develop. For sheer fun flying, try Caribbean. the challenges, or go sightseeing.

I did i t a l l w i t h Fl i g ht S imulator for The landscapes are not exactly photoYou' ll be amazed at the scenery detail. The Tpindous 95.

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t's a typical Sunday evening in the not-too-distant future. Your family room buzzes with activity. Little Susie cuddles with her favourite stuffed bear and listens while it offers advice on her p ersonal problems. Teenage Dan constructs a virtual gr'aphic replica of himself, then sends it online to mingle in a virtual neighbourhood.

Meanwhile, adults in the household sit in front of the large screen computer monitor and explain the week's schedule to an army of domestic digital devices.

Sound like a script from a.science-fiction film? Not at all. In fact, those ingenious folks d own a t Ma s sachusetts I n s t itute o f Technology are devoting months of grey-cell energy and sponsors' big burks to producing working examples of this very scenario.

The MIT Media Lab is a research facility dedicated to researrh and experimentation of thehuman/computer interfare.Numerous research groups and consortiums — supported by more than 100 corporate sponsors and several US government agencies — study just how we will interact with computers and telecommunication systems.

The list of Media Lab sponsors reads like a who's who from the Fortune 500. Big-time IT p layers l i k e IBM, Mic r o soft , S u n Microsystems, Bell Communications, and Intel rub shoulders with the likes of the

Central Intelligence Agency, Levi Strauss, The LEGO Group, and Nike Inc.

Cive ane the signal One of the centre's newest research arms, the Gesture and Narrative Language group, focuses on instilling psychological and social taaits in toys and virtual agents.

One project, for instance, incorporates the use of animated human figures. Since non-verbal signs form an integral part of human communication, these animated agents are programmed to produce not just speech but associated hand gestures, voice intonations, and facial movements — much like a puppet show, but totally machinedriven. Next time you have an intimate chat with someone, better make sure that's a humanoid you' re speaking to!

Many online computer junkies venture into MUDs and MOOs — those ubiquitous multi-user environments where no one is who they seem. To date, text has been the major communication method, although this is rapidly evolving into more graphical forms,such as avatars— graphical representations of a user.

MIT researchers utilize golf balls with painted faces to represent online users. Each golf ball is programmed with sliders that represent three physical responses to social situations — agreement, social mood, and awareness ofanother avatar's physical presence, Imagine the possibilities — non-verbal communication would then be possible over networked societies.

MIT researchers have constructed prototype stuffed animals — more scientifically, storytelling agents — capable of "listening" to human personal stories and "responding" with inspirational stories.

Referred to as SAGE (storytelling agent generation environment), the s t orytelling

system is camouflaged in the body of a stuffed animal. This allows children to have warm-and-fuzzy feelings towards a sophisticated set of electronic circuits. When a child utters a story to the SAGE, its lexical reference system searches its indexed database for a match between linguistic structure of the story and an inspirational response.

All responses are based on value systems contained in the Ten commandments. What results is a pseudo-counselling session where the listener (in this case, the child) is left to draw a connection between her story and the SAGE's interpretation.

Never-ending storles7 Give a child a doll and some everyday objects. In no time at all, make-believe play blossoms into i n t r icate storylines. One moment the kitchen chair is a rocket launch pad, the next it's a magical throne.

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Remember the old pull-string doll Chatty Cathy? Pull her string and she would dutifull y y ammer o n ab o u t th i s o r t ha t .

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The benefit of this project? Research material claims children will be more apt to share stories with family and friends and to edit and revise creative material. Parents gain digital memories of their child's development.

Yes, well...

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Internetspeed-freah options f' orthe nearf' uture don't know about you, but when I'm online, either communicating with the office or researching on the Net, I spend a fair bit of time m uttering "hurry u p ! " t o m y modem. In spite of technological advances, content seems to expand faster

than the capacity of the transmission media.

Three new developments promise to alleviate the problem. ADSL has been talked about for some months, but should become real early next year, WAVE onternet via cable modem) has now launched nation-wide; and 56 Kbps modems are being announced by all

sorts of manufacturers, and will ship in early 199/. Let's take a brief look at each of them, ADSL (asymmetrical digital subscriber line) is a high-speed technology that operates over normal telephone lines. As its name suggests, it gives you different speeds upstream (from you to the server) and downstream (from the

server to you). Initial releases will offer over 2 Mbps downstream, and 1 Mbps upstream, while still permitting simultaneous ordinary voice calls on the same line — and second generation ADSL will more than triple the downstream speed.

Telecomments But, there's a catch — ADSL is distance-sensitive. The farther you are from the telephone

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company's central office (the switching centre), the slower the connection will be. Also, the telephone companies will have to put additional equipment in their central offices to handle ADSL. The various flavours of 56 Kbps modems, on the other hand, will operate over standard lines, talking to other 56 Kbps equipment at the rated speed, or dropping down to 28.8 Kbps or 33.6 Kbps for conventional modem connections. This technology, too, is asymmetrical, with upstream traffic at 28.8 Kbps, and downstream at 56 Kbps.

The catch here is, the system you' re corn. inunicating with must not only have a 56 Kbps "server" modem, it must also have a pure digital connection to the phone system.

USRobotics, one of the first to announce 56 Kbps modems, explains the reasons thusly: most telephone systems have slowly been upgraded from analogue to digital over the years, with the only analogue component left being the line between your home and the central office, yet today's modems still treat the entire connection as analogue, converting your PC's digital signals to analogue for transmission, and converting the analogue signals from the phone system back to digital at the receiving end. The signal conversion from analogue to digital, for specific techni. cal reasons, limits transmission speeds to a maximum of 33.6 Kbps (digital to analogue is not a problem).

USRobotics's x2 technology gets around the limit by keeping the downstream data in digital form. Upstream data must still be converted at each end, so it's tied to the slower speed.

Cet cable'p The third high-speed medium is cable modem. Five cable television companies across Canada have now announced the service, christened WAVE: Rogers Cablesystems (the pioneer, vvho partnered with the other

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8utss have a lot to look for w ard to in I 9 9 1. To begin with,

you can expect to see new 3 2-bit revisions of just about every software application you' ve ever heard of for Windows95 and Windows NT. In fact, some of them may have arrived just before this issue hits the streets, includ-

ing brand ne w versions of Microsoft Office and IOM/I.otus SmartSuite, as well as the CorelOraw 1suite.

C onnectivity with th e I n ternet w il l b e highly featured in au new products. There will be links to updated help files, special Web pages with additional components and e nhancements (such as more clip art o r

fonts), and new file-management interfaces that will make it difficult for a casual observer to determine whether you' re connected to the Net or searching your local hard drive.

Net access is becoming a necessity.

We can look forward to new versions of both Microsoft Internet Explorer (which will also change the Win95/NT interface again) and Netscape Navigator — in fact, the speed with which both companies are trying to outdo each other won't leave me surprised if we see more than one revision of each before the year — or the war — ends.

Stabilizers on Win95 products will be more stable as a group. Most of the product releases in early to mid-1996 tended to be flaky — which the developers blamed on the environment in which they were forced to work. Most companies didn't have the final shipping code for Windows 95 until you and I saw it and were working from beta (i.e., test) versions of the software developer kits, too.

By this round, everyone should be working from the same page and the learning curve should be behind them as well.

One of the more intriguing software questions for 1997 will be whether Microsoft will make the latest revisions of Windows 95 available to consumers, Since the program was first released in August, 1995, there have been two updates that have only been sent

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to manufacturers of new systems. Dubbed OSRI (OEM Service Release I) and OSR2, these versions have not only fixed some awkward (i.e., flawed) code in the commercial release, but they' ve added enhancements as well, including a new file system (FAT32) in OSR2 designed to make more efficient use of large hard disks, and saving literally hundreds of megabytes of space on drives nearing 2 GB in size.

Portions of OSRI appear in what Microsoft calls Service Pack 1 (available from both its

Web site — http: //www.microsoft.corn/ and free for downloading — and by disk, at a price), but not aU of the fixes are there.

As of the date I'm writing this and despite repeated requests for information on my part, the company hasn't revealed any plans for public distribution of the OSR2 components — although it has indicated that a new commercial release of Windows 95 (Win98?) may be coming at the end of 1997 or early in 1998.

If I were handing out "darts and laurels" this year, Microsoft would definitely be dodging the pointy end over this one.

Picking up speed On the hardware side, we can expect more power, more speed, and a very interesting market. Intel is due to release the P55C (or if you prefer, the Pentium MMX) processor this month. Still optimized for a mix of 16- and

32-bit code, this 233 MHz version of the Pentium will directly support software emulation of audio (with Dolby), video, 3-D acceleration, telecommunications and animation.

It mill also come at a price, but should drive the cost of existing Pentium and Pentium Pro processors down as a result.

Later in the year. we'U see the first P7 (currently code-named Merced) units sporting a new, 64-bit version of Windows NT. Cyrix and AMD are also poised to offer new products. Cyrix is demonstrating the 'M2" with 6 4 K B i n t ernal cache, some Pentium Pro data-handling techniques, MMX extensions, and the ability to run on.a fast 75 MHz system bus — au neatly packaged to fit existing Pentium processor sockets.

AMD's proposed K6 is similar, albeit with 32 KB cache and limited to 66 MHz system bus speeds. Neither is shipping yet.

The PowerPC community has something to look forward to as weU.Although Motorola has now pushed its 603e processor to 240 MHz (available in its StarMax 3000/240 with Mac OS), a California startup company, Exponential Technologies (http: //www.exp .rom/),has shown samples of 466, 533, and 566 MHz versions of a PowerPC chip they say will be available in quantity this spring.

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Right now, someone could be reading your email, business plan, tax files, or even (gasp) y<>ur electronic love letters! Is the snooper a hacker or some other shadowy figure? Maybe, but it's far more likely to be your work mates, y<>ur spouse, or even a n<>sey baby-sitter. How can you keep y<>ur personal stuff personal in this digital age? Encryption, of course!

The person usually credited w it h f i r st using simple encryption was Julius Caesar.

The emperor had to send messages to his trusted generals, family, and acquaintances, but he didn't trust his messengers. He therefore use<i a very siillple cipher system (by our standards anysvay), replacing every "A" in the original document with a "D," every "8" with an "E and so on through the alphabet.

Only someone who knew about this "shift by three"code coukl decipher his messages.

Of course, you don't have to be a Roman emperor to use encryption: anybody who values his or her privacy should consider using it. Naturally, Caesar's simplistic "shift by three"system can be broken easil y and code-

makers ("cryptotogists" in the lingo) wage a never-ending battle w i t h c o d e-breakers.

Today, encryption is a complex world of cat and mouse, of mathrmaticians working with s pies and enough intrigue to f il l a T o m Clancy novel.

The eyes can't have it What, exactly, is encryption? Good question.

Encryption is the process by which your orig. inal information is converted into unreadable form to safeguard it from prying eyes.

Suppose, for a moment, your original mes.

sage — your business plan, for example — is called a "plaintext." Obviously, tlus plaintext message can be read by anyone who has physical possession of it and the application software to read it. Getting physical possession <>I a document may not be terribly difticultmany a product plan has been purloined by industrial spies posing as office cleaners. A mop-toting inI!Itrator can quickly duplicate your business plan onto a diskette and you won't even know it's been copied.

This kind of disaster can usually be avoided by adding a password lock t<> your computer.

Once this software is installed, every time

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101 you turn on your computer (or awaken it fsom a sleep), it asks you for a password.

Puoleansssuch asNorhm's DiskLock (approximatelyy $120) or Kent Marsh's NfgbtWarcb (appsoximately $110) will do a Nxxl job at this.

Otherpassword lock programs, however,can be a pretty weak defense, since someone booting up with a systemdisk floppy can circumvent the program.

Gimme the keys Encrypting (or scrambling) your information is the only real way to safeguard it from a determined thief. The essence of encryption involves using a password or electronic "key" to translate your plaintext message into an unreadable file, called a "ciphertext."

Commercial programs such as RSA Secure (from RSA Data

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Security in Redwood City, California) do a good job of encryption. RSA Secuuw is available for both Windowsbased computers and Macs for approximately $150. Other pmgrams in the same category includeNorton Encrypt (p a rt o f Sy m antec's Norton Utilities) and Kent Marsh'sFolder Bolt. File Guard ($200) from ASD software is also an excellent choice.

With your business plan thus encrypted, your ofBce cleaners wouldn't be able to make any sense of it even if they successfully copied the flle.

During the encryption process there are two separate functions going on. The flrst, encryption, is the scrambling of your file. The second,decryption„ is the reverse processthat is, using the password to translate the

The NSA is the official communications security body of the US government. Within the intelligence community, they' re known as the «spooks.» The organization was given its charter by President Truman in the early 19Ms and continues research in cryptology today.

For reasons of national security, almost all information about the NSA is classified or secret. We do know, however, that the NSA is the largest employer of mathematicians and the

largest purchaser of computer hardware in the world (what, you thought the government was spending millions of dollars to predict the weather?).

Just about everyone in the industry agrees that the NSA probably possesses cryptographic expertise many years ahead of the public's knowledge. This means that the NSA can likely break most — if not all — of the commercial systems used today, Have a nice day,

Introdlcia„ the poc ket+ize Kodak IligitalScienceIlC20caleta

usueadable file back into its readable form.

lleleted

Insecaarltles The flrst problem you might encounter is forgetting the password to your file. This can be overcome by thinkingabout a common word or phrase and then modifying it. For example,your dog's name, "Spot,"may be easy toguess,butifyou add a few characters from the top of your keyboard, making "¹@Spot@¹", your password becomes much safer. By the way, good passwords should be at least eight characters in length.

The second problem is letting your intended recipient know the password. If you' re really paranoid, you might suspect your mail is being pilfered and your phone bugged.

What to do? Turn to PGP (an acronym for "pretty good privacy"), a program written by Philip Ziiiunermann and originally distributed across the Internet. Now also available commercially from Phoenix-based ViaCrypt, PGP lets you send out an encrypted document plus the decryption key.

The trick is that the key is also encrypted in a previously coordinated way, so that only the recipient can open the document.

Zimmermann's actions drew the attention of the US government, which takes encryption very seriously.

Since the government views programs of this sort as "munitions," it charged Zimmermann with illegally exporting military software without the proper licenses. After years of legal wrangling, the US government, finally decided to drop all charges against him.

So, a0 is safe in the world again — or is it? +

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aeesmraups Fire up your newsgroup reader and leam all about the wonderful world of

encryption. Here are a few places to start:

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misc. legal. computing

graphic export and what people think about those laws.

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alt.security.pgp is a newsgroup geared to uses of Zimmermann's PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) encryption program.

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ment outside the United States).

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• • By ALAN THWAITS • •

It's magic!

So, it's probably a good time to do a little "future visioning" to see what present and future trends are. Details will, of course, be subject to change, as the "technology warp" we' re living in is enough tomake us aU believers in science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke's Iamous dictum that "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

What are the trends we' ll have to pay attention to if we want to make a living in the new wired world?

First, there's the move from "marketplace" to "marketspace."Just as the nature of employment has changed radically in the 1990s, so has its context.

Our immediate forebears could look forward to working at one or two companies (or institutions) for aU of their working lives, probably with a reasonable benefits package and salaries or wages that incremented at a steady rate. Now, we' re looking at what some a cademics are calling "a return t o a hunter/gatherer economy."

Adherents of this model see the economy

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In fact, if Oracle, Sun Microsystems, and others promoting the sn-caned "network computer" (AKA the "Internet box") are right, we may be close to the end of operating systems as /we knn /w them. Or, if Java —a programming language that can be accessed and used by any operating system —becomes

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Pnrolator http: //www.pnrolator.corn/ Statscan http: //www.statcan.ca/ the standard, the Microsoft-driminated cornputing world may be over.

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Cowpland, w h o' s b a sing h i s new Corel/Word/'erfectapplications on Java tech. nology, and IBM, whose OS/2 Warp 4 operating systemcan develop and run Java applets on your desktnp, rather than only in connection with your Internet browser.

The third critical trend is not what ynu might expect. It's that the rate nf techno. logical change wiU be so vast and widereaching, and will affect so many of our established institutions, systems, and beliefs, that we' ll see a reversal of values. The outcome of the chaotic change we' re facing, suggests Anne Coulombe, president ol Vancouver-based SciPlan Consulting, will be "a world where computers work for us, within the human framework, rather than the present situation, where we' re adapting to the computing environment." In the brave new world of ubiquitous cons..ctivity, we will once again put face-to-lace.corn. munication at the forefront.

A brave new world? Without a dnuht. Il these three trends are anything to go hy. everything we now know about s/kork. learning, and leisure will change. Cnmmnn sense says it's time to start getting ready.

Alan Thwalts is a freelance writer based in Mississauga, Ontario. Hecanbereached at praxcommlidirect.corn 4

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tilting towards the self-employed cyherpreneur, who combines a mastery of computing technologies with the Internet's time-shifting and distance-negating abilities to market everywhere and aU the time.

Yriu say your business is building «nd selling picture frames out of your home office in Winnipeg? Well, with an interactive Web site, a sound business plan, and skills to match the tectrnologies,there's nn reason why you can't support clients in Madagascar or Des Moines, and do your banking in the Cayman Islands. No longer do companies, whatever their sine,need tn "farm" a particular territory to be successful.

The second trend is the reality of distributed computing and cross-platform options.

When you think about it, the Net (and its siblings. the intranet and the "extranet") are nothing snore than distributed databases.

With a reasonably powerful desktop system and easily accessed software tools, it's no problem to retrieve or broadcast data, view images, or interact with other individuals in real timearound the world. Most importantly, to do it rc/i thout regard to platform sPecrlics!

Our Winnipeg-based picture framer may use a Mac because that'shis machine of choice, but he doesn't need to know — in fact, couldn't care less — that his clients in Madagascar and Des Moines are running Windo /ws and OS/2, respectively, on their PCs. Or that his Caribbean-based bank accounts are on a UNIX systein.

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II ltt4' • • By PAUL LIMA • •

Bank said it would make secure transacfions available on the Internet, and Royal Bank said it was giving the matter serious consideration.

Now all of Canada's banks and major trust companies are online interactively.

While David Foot (author of Boom, Bust crnd Echo) claims baby boomers will not jump on the online-banking bandwagon, Canada's financial institutions are ignoring the demographer's prognosis. Internet banking is poised for dramatic growth, according to Banking Technology Issues: 1996 International S u rvey f r o m Da t a pro Information Services Group (DISG).

Responding to competitive pressures and consumer demand, banks around the world are shedding traditional distrust of new technologies and offering Internet-based banking services, says DISG. While only 7 per cent of bank IT pmfessionals surveyed in first quarter 1996 offered Internet4anking services, 36 percent planned to do so by 1997. By 1997, 59 per cent of respondents plan to implement Pl anking services, up fmm 19 per cent in 1996.

Of those surveyed, 54 per cent cited "customer requests" and "cost benefits" as the priinary reasons for iinplementing online bank-

here was a time when banks were open froin 9 AM to 3 PM. If you had business to conduct outside "banker's hours," you were solidly out of luck. The times, evidently, are changing.

Banks arv now keep longer branch hours, but you can conduct most banking transactions 24 hours a day,7 days a week, without entering your branch.

Want to deposit checks, pay bills, or withdraw funds? Visit an autoinated banking machine (ABM). Don't want to leave the comfort of your home or ol'fice? Pick up the phone or turn on your personal computer and dial into your cytn.branch to do almost anything you'd do in person, except withdraw cash.

While most banks and major trust companies have had an Internet presence for a year or so, their Web sites mere initially places you went for financial information only. Then, last year, Bayshoie Trust issued an electronic wake up call.

That company was the first financial institution in Canada to offer actual transactions — personal loans — over the Internet.

Consumers were able to apply for unsecured personal loans of up to $15,000 via their home computerand Web connection.

Avalanche Bayshore's inove had a net effect on larger financial institutions. Almost iinmediately, TD

lllg services.

You want It Electronic banking offers consumers more convenience, says Chuck Hounselt, Canada Trust vice president of distribution develop-

ment."Both the Internet and phone greatly improve convenience over branches alone.

While the telephone is easy to access and easy to use, the Internet is pmving to be the best tool for customers who have extended travel outside of North America."

Hounsell has heard from custoiners as Iar away as Monaco, Hong Kong, and Bangladesh who used Canada Trust's Internet accountinformation service,"As we inove ta provide full banking over the Internet, this convenience wiII iinprove."

While all of Canada's banks allow transactions an the Internet, they offer Canadians proprietary software and direct-connections to their computer systems.

"The banks want to encourage computerbased banking, but they' re paranoid about security, about hooking (their) intranets to the outside," says a BCuniversity computer-science professor, who preferred not to be nanied because of work he is doing in the industry.

Banks, creditward companies, and computer companies, however, who stand to profit froin electronic commerce, are stressing that ewammerce is secure."I think Canadians can trust financial institutions to properly build and execute solutions that meet customer needs and are safe to use," says Hounsell.

Even sa, as more consumers use technology to bank, and store more information on their computers, they will have to safeguard both informationand access,says Hounsell.

Sayzhm Trust http: //wwwJmyshoretrust.corn/ Canada Trust . http: //www.canadatrust.corn/ Datapro Information Services Crmip htlp://www.dhtkpruxom/ The Otlzens Sank ofCanada http: //www.OtisensTrust/ AIIIance for CenverSInSTechnoloSles http: //www.mtnlake.corn/paradigm/

Bigger picture Security issues aside, the move to electronic banking is part of a much larger trend, says Phillip Lightstone, director of network services, Newstar Technologies Inc. "Everything is wrapped up with the notion of the paperlessoffice and hard currencyless society. Look at society's changing perceptions. We' re seeing a move from charge cards ta debit cards, but ien years ago the debit card would nat have worked. People' s wouldn'tcarry money amund on a chip."

We' re not moving ta electronic commerce simply because we can, says Lightstane."The cost of supporting paper money will be outweighed by the support of electronic money or ewommerce." Ironically, Lightstone says the main challenge is not a technology challenge but one of "changing consumer perceptions of the use of the technology."

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Montreal created the image of Coke without a product, creating a demand first."

from pageSS

ducing mbanx was to"create a brand name, then identify what the brand is doing," says Lightstone. Although co-opting Bob Dylan's protest anthem, "The Times They Are AChangin," infuriated many potential inbanx customers, Lightstone claimed it was a "brilliant" marketing concept. "The Bank of

phone, computer, television, or ABM. The bank will offer a full range of services including savings and chequing accounts, term deposits, mortgage lending, Registered Retirement Savings Plans, and bill payment.

The bank, owned by Vancouver City Savings Credit Union, expects to "change the face of banking in this country over time," says Linda Crompton, Citizens Bank of Canada president and CEO.

Stay home The Citizens Bank of Canada, on the other hand, is not concerned with creating a popmusic or popdrink image first.

Expected to open early in 1997, it will have no tellers and no branches. Citizen Bank custoiners will do all their banking by tele-

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While banks are offering services b> phone, Internet, and proprietary software they haven't given up on branches yet.

According to the DISG survey, banks plar significant investments to upgrade branct systems, including workstations, servers printers, application software, and network ing and telecommunications equipment.

Hounsell admits Canada Trust is "reducing some hours in some locations" due primarit) to reductions in over the counter traffic.

"Telephone bankingand PC banking,along with ABMs, are emerging as the preferred chan nel for routine transactions. New channels wif not outright replace branches, but they wil contribute to a change in role of branches."

He feels customers "are voting with their fin gers to use more convenient alternate chan nels, reserving trips to the branches for morc complicated transactions or financial advice."

With the advent of widespread Internei banking services, will there, in fact, still be a

need for banks? It's a interesting question.

"There is a fundamental change taking plac» in the nature of financial services and indeed money. People and companies will increasing ly bank online, not in the long term, but ovei the nextfew years.This creates a open, globa competitive banking situation and I think the Canadian banks are in grave danger.

"I'm wondering, who will deliver the finan cial services supermarket? Will it be something called a bank or will it be be Microsoft,AT8cT Sony or, as Citibank CEO Walter Wristen sug gests, GE?" ponders Don Tapscott, the chair ot Alliance for Converging Technologies. +

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companies to effect the rollout), Cablenet, Shaw, Videotron, and Western Co-Axial.

Depending on the modem type, users can expect rated speeds from 500 Kbps and up (30 Mbps is being tested), without occupying a telephone line. Instead, an Ethernet card in your computer is attached to a special modem, which is in turn hooked up to a cable-televsion outlet. The signals run over the same wires as the television signals, and as long as the computer is turned on and the software (nothing fancy — just a packet driver and a winsock such as Trumpet) is running, you' re a node on the Internet.

This service is limited by the cable infrastructure — companies need to upgrade their systems to cope with two-way communication, so WAVE is not available in all areas. The WAVE Web page offers information on availability, plus links to each cable company's home page.

A recent study by the New York-based Jupiter Group suggests that, of these three technologies, 56 Kbps modems will achieve the greatest penetration among consumers, simply because of the higher cost and logistical challenges faced by ADSL and cable. It expects 56 Kbps modems to hold 50 per cent of the market by 1998, and over 65 per cent by the year 2000.

"Although there's still some hope for technologies such as ADSL and cable modems in the longer term," says Wen Liao, Jupiter's senior analyst for home technologies, "for now improvements in dial-up, in the form oi 56 Kbps modems, will have to do — although this is still not the fat pipe of our dreams." +

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I was thrilled to read that Tandem

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Computers, a major technology cor•

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poration, is supporting a UNESCO Antarctic expedition this summer January to February). About 35 young

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people (ages 16 to 24) will explore the polar continent. I had planned to follow the trip and report back to our readers.

There'sno need, however: Tandem has created a wonderful Web page we can all visit daily. Here you' ll find updates, photos, progress reports, and news releases.

The page looks great. Give it a visit. Teachers and parents might want

to involve their youngsters in this new medium with e-mail and research.

Surfover to http:://www.onestep.tandem.corn/ and see for yourself.+

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ously (causing tbe task list lo aPPear).

I u>ould recomme>ul X-it, as it is a fairly inexpensi t>e utili o > fb«t «rlrfs >nucb to your OS/2 Desktop,

I uoulrl e»cr>urage )r>u lo install OS/2 Warp 3.0 on your machine (assuming you b«i e at least 8,SfB of RA.>SI) and gii'e it a lry. I' ll bel you u>ill like u>bat you see,

Bad reputation

F: drive Fixpak follies

I have a chance to gei the regular OS/2 Warp program at a fairly reasonable p rice. with th e o p tion ti> get t h e "Merlin" upgrade at a later date. I have heard that the OS/2 Warp can be tricky io install. Is there any merit to such talk!

I am using OS/2 Warp 5 with Fixpak 22.

Now my LaunchPad keeps looking to my drive F: (a CD-ROM drivel, and hence I see a SYS0039 every time I boot Warp with<>ut putting a disk in the drive or removing the drive altogether.

I have double checked that none of my

Q

third-button supp'>rt under OS>/2. If so, how do I enable it?

A

A

Kei'in Linfield responds: B) def«ulf, OS/2 supports «ll tb>ve buttons of Logitecb >nice. Click on lbe Desktr>p or i>arious u>indou's/ico>is to see tf>e egect.8) default, tbe n>idrlle button doesn't rlo «»Ithing except fi>r select.

There are fun pmgrams vn tbe FTP site bobbin su,edu that u>ill assist pr>u, though.

X-it gitr's Ir>u a large number of title bar icons ffor exitting, mlling up u >indou>s, changing fontsize, etc) andalloursyou to m«p the middle button to any of X-ii 'sfunctions.

The der>ice rlriver RODFNTSYS i«ill map tbe rniddle button to be lbe same as pressing tbe left and right buttons simultane-

Thirdly, make sure nothing in your CONFIGSYS references an>thingon p>our CDROiff dri ve.

If none of this helps, you may bate to back ouf Ffxpuk 2Z You rlon't >nention if this proble>n r>ccurrerl before installing this Fixpak, so fI>is n>ay not be a solution. Also, check Ir>ur STARTUPC.UD file (i» ibe root directory of I our OS/2 boot partition) for references fo I our CD-RO>lf, If none of this l>elps, you»>«y baie to remoie e>cry>bing fro>n yr>ur l«unchP«d one-0>-one until you finrl tbe >efe>v>>ce ti> yr>ur remoi able drii >e.

items on ih» LaunchPzd make references io drive F:, and it has no reason to iry accessing

Kei>in li>ifiekl respr>uris: OS/2 bas a bad reputation fr>r install«fir>n that j usi isn't true anymore, When version I.x and 2.x u ere current, O.S/2 u>orked on a limited number of sp'stems due to a sei>ere lack of bardu >are dei ice rfri i ers — in p«rticular, drii >ersfor i>ider> cards and CD-ROhfs.

That cbangerl, hou'ei>er, u'hen Warp (version 3.0) u>as released. At that time, IB/ff included de>ice drii >ers for hundreds of harduare deiices and OS/2 Warp should u>ork on any current machine.

Thanks.DanYamane

CD-RO>SI drii>e.

Q

Thanks in advance. BobPsarom

I wondering if the Lc>gitech mouse has

stutemenf in i>our CONFIG.SYS and make sure theydo not cont«in «reference toyour

my drive F: every time Warp boots. IIy anally: ing the file, I found that there are references to drive F: in OS2SYS.INI, but changing those references doesn't work. Neither does killing the Launch&ad then recreating it by double~ticking on the desktop. What has gone wrong?

Start again) I had OS/2 installed on a drive that was drive letter "E:". I instafied Linux on the drive that was "D:". When I did this, all the drive letters changed after "C:" and now OS/2 is on the "D:" drive. It is looking to find everything on the "E:" drive and I have changed everything in the CONFIG.SYS, changed the paths within INI.RC and INISYS.RC to point at the "D:" drive and rebuild the OS/2.INI and OS2SYS.INI files.

Looking at the contents af aU these files shows that there are no tnces of"E:" anywhete.

It now bootsokay,but says it can't find my desk-

Thanks in advance, Keith Hui. Kei>i>i Iinfield responds: There are a

number of reasons u hy OS/2 is checking the CD-ROisf ei>ery time it boots.

Tbe first thing I u'ould do is make sure you hat >e tbe line "set restartobj ects=startupfoldersonly" in peur CONFIGSYS. This u>ill prevent pmgrams not in your startup folder from launching automatically. .Secondly, check your PATH and LIBPATH

A

Noui sound canfs are pmbabfp tbe only thing you n>ay hai>e pmbiems u~'th. /Sfany Sound Bk>sf er~ompatible cardsare not IOOper cent compatile. Since Creatit >e Labs (makers of tbe true Sound Bluster cards) unr>te tlat sound de> v'cedrii>er for OS/2, it checks for these clone cards and mfi>ses to u>ork uftb the>n.

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The skinny on all Pouer >llacintosb computers. This is great if you ha> e a Pnu'er >Ifn<., but »nfi> e softuare uon't run if you bn>e an olde>, 68K-bnsed computer.

"Fat" applications are those that run on

Mac Shrink

by David Rosen

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Dear Doctor: I was installing some software on my Power Mac 7200 the other day and read about "Fat- software. What is the difference between native software, conventional software, and "Fat" software?

Signed: Kevin from Barrie.

U~

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Dear Kevin: Any Pou er Macintosh can run in two modes: it can run "native" software (u >ritten specif ically for the PowerPC chip), or "conventional" so ftu>are (tvritten for older 68XOO-based computers t o m a i n tai n b a c k u>ard compatibility). industry folks sometimes refer to conventional softu>are as "68K" so ftware.

On a Pou>erMac 7200, conventional software runs in "emulation" «rode, making the computer functionally equivalent to a Macintosh llci or a Quadra 605. To complicate this further, this perfor«tance also depends on hou many referencestbe software makes to the machine's toolbox" (a set of internal softu>are routines in your computer). Conventional (i.e., 68K) extensions and control panels may r e u rite native parts of the systemsoftu>are, causing slou'er pe>for>nance. That's just the nature of emulation.

Native softu>are, on the other band, runs o>lly o>l Pou>er .Sfacintosh computers. The softu>are has been specinlt) r eu>ritten to take adh antage of the Pou erPC chip inside

Fat

so

u se ink c artridge refill k it s w i t h m y StyleWriter ll p rinter? Signed: Claude in Burnaby.

either n 68 K o r a P o u e r Mn c u i t bout modification. Tbe operating s)ste>n auto>naticall) determines u'bleb part to use and ignores tbe other pnrt. Since Fat applications are really tu o progra>ns in one, many installers uill offer either a "Power Ma cintosh" or "Cont>ei>tional" install.

So, if you install a softu>are application that bills itself as 'Accelerated for Pouer Macintosh and, once installed, your Mac

Dear Clan<le. APPle Stl le Pl'riter ink cartri<lges are >nade by Canon for Al>pie. Both co>npanies suggest that pb)sical dn>«age to the printer u>ill be caused by tbe use of n third-part) print cart>i<lge or ink refill kits that don't meet tbe manufacturer's stnndards. Not only' that, but, according to Apple, using a third party cartridge or refilli>ig an old cartridge u >ill i>oid the printer's u >arranty Since there bai e been no studies on the ejfectiveness (or safety) on tbe refilled car-

runs sl<nver than you think it should, make

tridges. u e'd recommend sticking u>ith the

sure you have installed the correct version.

Both native and conventional versions u>ill run on tbe Pou>er Macintosh, but only tbe native version uill benefit from all the special features of th e Pou>er Macintosh.

Signed: The Doctor.

original equipment from Apple or Canonat least for nou> Then again, the Doctor recalls u>hen every printer manufacturer recommended against using refurbished laser cartridges. The scare tactic suggested the cartridges u >ould somebou> damage tbe printer or produce sub-standard results.To be sure, many refilled laser cartridges didn't u>ork as well as their manufacturers claimed, especially in the early years of the industry. lt's easy to be skeptical of any company that says its co«tpetitors'products are no good, bou'ever. Signed: Tbe Doctor.

More font follies Dear Doctor. My LaserWriter II printer sometimes decides not to print large jobs. What do I do? Signed: Chantelle via an ISP.

Q

A

Dear Chantelle: My guess is you' re using too many fonts. Some older printers u>ith small a>nounts of «>em-

ory u >ill not print documents containing

large numbers of fonts unless you select a special option. Try selecting Unlimited Dou>nloadable Fonts in th e Page Setup Options dialogue> box before )'ou print.

Signed: The Doctor.

Clmane a refill Dear Doctor: My company has been refilling laser cartridges for years and seems to have good luck with the company me use for this job. Is it okay for us to

are unless )r>u can find so>neone u >itb an oln> Pou>erBook 100 Series adapter. Apple sn) s that tbe use of other AC adapters coukl cause damage tbe can>era..Signed Tbe Dvctr>r.

MacShrink FactSheets areback The Doctor nom makes house calls. Well. perhaps not in person but, hey, what do you mant for free? Back by popular demand, the MacShrink FactSheets nom feature individual articles on how to prevent (and cure) system crashes, start-up problems, printing problems, SCSI hassles and much more. As usual.

FactSheets are free for the asking (and a sett addressed, stamped business-size envelope).

You canreachMacShrink directly by sendingyour message to MacShrink@ aol.corn. Yourlast nameande-mail addres. will not be printed. Pleasenote that due to the volumeoi mail, individualquestionscannot beanswered. Allquestion> becomethe propertyof MacShnnk>"andDavid Rosen.

c ont i n u e d

f r o m p a g e SQ

top that is referred to by OS/2.INI. It sounds like a reinstall, but what if I decide to remove Linux and go with FAT and then it moves again back to "E:"? There has to be an easier way.

Thanks,Kenton Groombridge Battery blues D ear Doctor: Although I l ove m y QuickTake I50 digital camera, I'm running out of patience with its ravenous battery habits. Which AC adapter can I use mith my Q uickTake? Signed: Maria in Toronto.

Q

Dear Maria> you can use either tbe QuickTake AC Adapter (Apple part number »M 28 5 1LMA ) or tb e >Macintosh Pt>u>erBook AC Adapter (Apple part ~M4662LVA) uitb tbe cameraAt about $lot>, tbe first option is probably cheaper

A

A

Kevin ltnfl'eld responds> The easiest way u'ould have been to either put Linscr beyond your OSi2 partition, r» add a small partition betu'een C: and D:.

Partition Magic would have allou ed you to do either of these tasks, but si nce you bat e already messed uith OSi2's system files, you will most likely> have to reinstall OS/2.

I'ou are correct in bat ing to change all references in tbe INl files and CONFIGS~, but you forgot about all of your etctended attributes. Take this as a lesson and reinstall OSi2>.

You could aluays upgrade tr> OS>>'2plarp I (Merlin) and start u itb a fresh install. +

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esmeetson o success ILeft My Heart In San Francisco

Hlac Hant n industry friend of l the RantingOne once stated, "if I hear that Ghristmas song again I' ll go mentally insane." Now. ignoring the obvious redundancy in the sentence, we' re left with a n i n t eresting observation: even people whose singing skills could crack a porcelain shower stall get into the festive spirit and croon like old Bing during the holiday season.

If you' re not singing the blues this month, perhaps you left behind the Canadian W inter for — a fev< days an)w'ay.Those in the knosv headed south to The City by the Bay to t ake in th e g lory and w o nder that i s MacWorld SanFrancisco Mac clone maker Power Computing is one of the man) companies in attendance that definitely has something to cr<nv about.

Predictions are that the company's, um, appropriation of some k«y executives from Dell Computer and Gatesvay 2000 will have the show floor positively chirping.

A lot of people were humming Power Computing's tune this summer when the company started shipping the fastest micros around — Mac or PC. Could it be that these new birds will lead Power Computing into the Windows side of life or does their migration signal the company is primping itself for a serious fight in the low-cost "commodity" PC business?

Power Computing scored another major coup when it licensed Be Inc.'s BeOS, leapfrogging ahead of Apple.Readers of November's MacRant column might recall we suggested Apple's rumoured alliance with Be was stalled. Since Apple's own new whiz-bang operating system — code-named Copland — seems to be behind schedule, Apple is said to be looking at Be to provide

some key components, rather than a replacement operating system.

Meanwhile, Power Computing said it would continue to pre-load the MacOS on their computers, but ship BeOS on a CDRO M.

Me fdes, updates drivers, and even repairs some hard-drive problems before installing the new system software.

Also new to this version is an upI>>ade to Apple's Extension Vlanager. giving you more control over ho w y o u r M a c <>perates.

Although the company will charge for the

It Was 20 Years Ago Today...

new operating sistern, a final price svas not available at press time.

. that Apple taught IBM to play. Now, we' re n<>i trying to rewrite a classic Beatles song, but take note that Apple is out of its terrible teens. In fact, to celebrate its twentieth birthday, the company will this month announce a limited quantity, gee-whiz Mac, code-named Sparticus.

As mentioned in a previous column, the machine will sport some never-before-seen technology that will delight and astound anyone within ear- or eyeshot. If you' ve ever wanted a showcase Mac, this is it.

Wow! What Would Melody Be Without Harmony?

By the time you read this, Apple should be shipping the Mac OS 7.6. Code-named "Harmony," the OS comes with lots of new

Unforgettable One of MacRant's many readers pointed out an apparent mistake in a previous column. I quoteth: "Shakespeare's Caesar says, in correct Latin,'Et tu, Brute!'(Act III, Scene I), not, as you put it in bad Latin, 'Et tu Brutus.'"

Well, you may not believe us but I meant to . do that. The Ranting One has seen several years ofLatin and more than his share of

goodies i n cluding: Q uickTime 2 . 5 , QuickDraw 5D 1.0,6, QuickDraw GX 1.1.5, Open Transport/PPP 1.0, and Apple Remote Access Version 2.1.

The most important — and visible — change, however, will be the system's new instalhtion process, which points out specific Read

Shakespeare. I bad to decide whether to put the correct quote in (without the "s") or the incorrect one (as was printed). If I opted for the correct one, I reasoned,a lot more of you might write and say,-hey, Rant, there's an 's' missing: the guy's name wasn't 'Brute' for goodness sakes").

Even if youcan't carry atunein a paperbag, youcanstill sing your guts out like the proverbial canary to MacRanta<aol.corn.Pleasenote that due to the volumeof mail, individualquestionscannotbe answered.

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• • By ALAN THWAITS•

These b o o k s •

The development of the Internet for business purposes has been one of the most significant events of the 1990s. Because the World Wide Web offers a simple, cross-platform interface, outstanding support for delivery of multimedia data, and low deployment costs, businesses large and small are clamouring for their innings in cyberspace.

It's been a time of experimentation, turmoil, and — for m any — disappoint m e n t .

and Intranets, thereal action is not where Web denizens might expect. While the "bleeding edge crowd," as they put it, enthuse about realtime video, morphing, and stereo sound, developers of software business tools are working on "the presentation of database information as a solution to real-world business needs.

In their book. Lang and Chow lay out the steps required to master database publishing on the Web site. It's aimed at the publishers, WebMasters, and p r o duct ~ ork ~ yam de velopers w ho

B

ful busmessorienied site. For

cle for marketing purposes soon discovered that building a sound business case for Web @ development, and presenting more than simply a "silicon- e based brochure," were a necessity if serious psagts were to be realized. The Srst wave of I Web b USUIC55CS ~d ,

Ch il l .

0 ~ ~~ ~a ed,and fell back.

The second wave is seeing a concerted effort by business consultants and software developers to marry the Web's user-friendly features with t h e d ata tools needed to make good business happen.

Know where the action is According to Curt lang and Jeff Chow„ the authors of Database Publishing on the Web

obvious reasons. the knowledge laid out between the covers of D ata ba s e Publishing w i ll a lso be o f value to corporate or entrepreneurial types who are gNEfWHL ISI IN%I planning to include powerful database tools on their sites.

The book is d ivided into three sections. The first four chapters cover, in sequence, the background technologies that led to the emergence of Web database tools, the architecture ofWeb database applications and their software components, aQUA for determining appropriate platforms and tools, and the essentials of HTML programming needed for building Web database applications.

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ship to new business models. Part Two cov Each of the following six chapters takes a ers the nitty-gritty of online publishing anc close look at database tools, examining in turn information delivery (digital publications Cold Fusion, dbWeb, JAGG. DataRamp, news delivery, and directory services), ant LiveWire, and PowerBuilder.

Part Three the requirements of electroni< The last chapter in the book is a directory of commerce (including security standard. over g0 database software tools, including midencryption, and e-cash). dleware products, full-text retrieval software, Part Four,"Managing Your Pinject," is a detailer and relational DBMS tools with Web interfaces. roll-out of the nuts and bolts of recognizin~ The accompanying CD-ROM contains a mix opportunities, devising a business plan, an< of appropriate software, including a Windows developing a product or ser NT~innpatible Web server, an vice to be marketed on the Net e valuation version o f C o l d The hook closes with advice Fusil in, the latest version of the b v I I d I ea about putting together appro PER1. scripting language, docu$ 1 c r • $ fvI priate hardware and software mentation for t h e JAVA API tools to support the plannuig.

(Application P r o gramming i 8 • I r h A strength of the hook is that Interface), and the WAIS (Wide brainerd as each application of Interne> Area Information Server) tools and models is introducet search engine. and explained, an example of ' Although t e c h nical in business venture using the approach andsubject matter, tool is presented and anal)-zed Database Publishing preThis helps the reader under sents its information clearly stand quickly why the venture and comprehensively. Even a has been successful, and sug newcomer to the worlds of gests information that can lx Web publishing and database transferred to his or her own situation. design will find it of great value.

The accompanying CD-ROM holds data The human element base middleware, PERL 5, the SATAN securit) Technologies are, of course, only part of tool, the Apache public4omain Web servei the successful business equation. For project for Windows NT, and the Mini SQL 1.0 rela managers and business developers, undertional database engine. + standing new business models is critical to the success of a busines~riented Web site.

Failure to do so resulted in many early business Web sites being abandoned, "left like

~i n

billboards littering the information backroads, the victims of failed enthusiasm or an excessive zeal of losing that competitive e dge," in th e w o rds o f t h e a u thors o f Building Successful Internet Businesses.

This book details what it takes to devise and develop Internet business applications for the radically different "marketspace of the Net, To do so, the authors lay out their wisdom in four parts.

Part One covers the nature of I n ternet communication svstems and their relation-

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A n in siq htf u,l, irreveren t j AAk . cw.t • • By KEVIN LINFIELD • • Our everyday world is so hectic that it's nice to be able to laugh at situations we might usually take for granted. For anyone who has ever worked in an office, worked with computers, or even dealt with other companies on a day-to-day basis, I would highly recommend reading The Dilbert Principle.

~in

to stay in business with the way they treat customers and their own employees.

I do, however, feel the book has a bit too

w 'Dx'k.

much filler. Near the end,the chapters consist of more e-mail and fewer humourous anecdotes. I also did not like the fact that some of

t h eD ilbert comics ate repeated in different c h apters, but now I'm just nit-picking. Overall, I w o uld urge everyone to get this book. +

ITte demand for computer programmerstddff double bgthegear 2005.

Train nowfor ahi h- ayin acorn u er o career as ro rammer.

The Ditbept Ppfaidpte, byScott Adams,from Harper Business.I996. Sax.so.

The book is based on an article Scott Adams wrote for theWall Street Journal that received such a positive response that he decided to expand upon his thoughts and ideas. Subtitled A Cubicle's Eye View of Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads, 6 Other Workplace Auctions,Adams pokes fun at virtually everything and everybody in the workplace.

The book contains comics from the Ditbert strip, anecdotes of Adams' experience before he was a cartoonist (he claims 17 years in a cubicle gave him inspiration), and pages of email from people who read the Diibert comic and provide him with anecdotes of their own.

Computer users and office ~orkers will appreciate the humour and his multiple jabs at office life and corporate policy. He comments that no matter how absurd he tries to ma. his comic strip, people write to him and say "That's just like my company!" He also comes up with strange analogies that may amuse, but also make us wonder. One example:"Any absurdity in a business setting stands out like a dead nun in a snowbank."

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INay offend some — goodi If you do not like the wacky humour of the comic strip, you may become annoyed at the frankness and offbeat attitude. Adams admits in the introduction that he made up sill of the statistics and scientific studies that are quoted in the book, and he calls people (including himself) idiots for often performing irrational acts.

An example of one of his amusing anecdotes is "Kodak introduced a single-use camera called the Weekender. Customers have called the support line to ask if it is okay to use it during the week."

The 336-page book contains 26 chapters on topics such as Business Communication, Pre-tending to Work, Performance Reviews, Downsizing, and even How to Tell if Your Company is Doomed.

Having used coinputers for more than 15 years and having worked in an office and as a computer programmer, I found many of the situations described inThe Dilbert Pririciple extremely funny and realistic. It really makes you wonder how some companies are able

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Computer security book is scary. but useful • • By AlAN THWAITS • • n the words of an old Byrds song, "You don't miss your water 'til your well runs dry."

Barry Lewis, co-author of Computer Security for Dummies,

puts it this way: "As computer prices fall and interest in the Internet rises, more and more people are at risk of virus attack, lost or stolen passwords,and, most importantly, data loss."

Computer Sec u rity for

Dummies is written for everyone, from the casualhome user to the networked office worker. Both authors are computer security consultants who have experience answering the needs of IS firms.

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The book begins by identifying and explaining basic security issues and terms. A quick look at key principles, such as "accountability,""authentication," and "auditing," and a discussion of "risk management" lead to a detailed analysis of the threats that computer users f'ace.

Boo hoo The list is enough to make a grown man weep, as it includes viral attacks, password grabbers, Trojan horses, cuckoo eggs, and time bombs, as well as the more mundane spikes, brownouts, and blackouts, and the ever-present "stupid human tricks."

Knowing what the threats are and what risks they pose leads (thank heaven!) to a lengthy dis. cussion of methods that can be used to ensure computer security.

These range all way from keeping one's computer physically secure (tie-downs, key-locks, and alarms), to controlling access with system and file passwords (the book looks at most common wordprocessing, spreadsheet, and database apps for Windows 3.1,95, and Mac environments), to the critical importance of backing up, to ways of dealing with viruses and other malicious pro graiils.

Of particular interest to users of the Internet will be a section of using e-mail securely. The elements for keeping one's e-mail safe from prying eyes involve encoding, encryption, digital signatures, and anonymous remailers.

The book includes a handy list of resources, from easily accessible DOS, Windows, and Mac security utilities, to a description of common virus types and what they do.

Also included are addresses of mailing lists, newsgroups, and organizations that deal with computer security issues.

How helpful is the book? Well, after reading it, this reviewer now uses system and file passwords on both d esktop a n d pa l mtop machines, backs up data files on a daily basis, and is exploring the use of a PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) aden to Eu dora (for Internetbased e-mail). I'm also feeling alot more secure about not letting the aforementioned well run dry! +

~in o Cerepefer Seeieffy fer ~ fry Feeer T. eevle Scil fierily L Lewis, frere INe Seeks, QS.9PP.

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jeoconerencing oo means usin ess o o By LYNN GREINER • o ith travel expenses skyrocketing, many companies are seeking l es s e x p ensive means of conducting inultioffice meetings. One up-andwoming technology is the videoconference, in which participants gather in several locations and "meet" over a video link.

agenda items (when graphics should be displayed, for example, or who is presenting a segment, and so should be onwamera).

Handy with the detaiis This is a useful little volume, for both the

But virtual meetings by electronic means entail new sets of skills, and new organizational challenges we probably haven't considered. E f f ective Vi d e oconferencing: Techniques for Better Business Meetings, by Lynn Diamond, PhD, and Stephanie Roberts, teachesthose skill s and addresses many of the challenges in a clear, concise, and readable format.

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In about IOO pages, the book takes you through the process of organizing and participating in an effective videoconference, using checklists and charts to present the most information in the least spare. It starts by examining what videoconfeiencing is, and when it's appropriate.A handy chart lists variousscenarios and issues,and indicates when electronic mail or other simpler, less e xpensive rommunications would do t h e trick, and when a videoconference is the preferred medium. There are discussions of six strategic advantages to videoconferencing, as well-just what you need to help justify it to the boss.

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Just enough jargon There's a chapter containing the technical information you need (in no t t o o m u ch detail-just enough to help you make intelligent decisions), and another on planning the meeting. Much of it is useful for any old meeting, not just virtual ones, like the suggestion that the m eeting have a c learly defined purpose and agenda.

Other n i tty-gritties i n clude w a r drobe taboos (avoid clothes that match the conference room walls unless you really want to fade into the woodwork), and room setup so ail participants can see each other, with diagrams showing how various layouts win look to remote sites. There's even a section for the moderator that talks about how to efficiently manage the discussions.

Appendicesinclude a glossary and a series of checklists and forms you may want to photocopy for regular use: a cost-comparison sheet you can use to prove that the videoconference is, indeed, the most cost-effective solution; a planning checklist; and a storyboard layout you can use to decide how the electronic media should interact with the

reference book you grab whenever a question arises.

Whether you' re using the technology, or just thinking about it, it's a worthy addition to your corporate library. +

first-time moderator or participant and the veteran. It lays out the elements of a successful videoconference (even those elusive little details that sneak up and do us in) in a tidy, sensible format. It can be a self-study guide, a workshop text, or simply that well-thumbed

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Ilair1IValI, 21-~3, 'I 997 • %I'VirtCCII!meir TI ~de 5 Ccl1Ven(Iota c.eirltl e •'II'c>II1Cot.I.«ejr, II< II.'ISh Cf1IIi.ITlI. Ia Product names may be trademarks or re9istered trademarks of their respective companies.'c.1996 SOFTBANKCOMOEXInc. 300 First Avenue,. Needham, MA 0219ct-2722 USA PR3578 10/96

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L as Ve g a s . W h a t c o u l d b e a b e t t e r s e t t i n g f o r No r t h A m e r i c a ' s l a r g e s t

c ompute r e l e c t r o n i c s s h o w ? L i k e V e g as . F a l l C o m de x i s o u t t o d a z z l e ; l ik e V e g as . t h e p r o d u c t s l a u n c h e d a t C o m de x h a v e l i m i t e d l i f e spans.

3y MARA GULENS E» GAETAN MARTEL How can you not be awed by this city devoid of values smack in the middle of the desert".

Similarly, how can you not be fazed by the launch of thousands of new products — only 500 of which merited 8t te magazine's attention for 'Best of Show?

Being part of a group of 200.0!)t) technology

hounds can be quite exhausting — if not for the hubbub alone.

We had been forewarned about wearing comfortable shoes. What we had not anticipated was the endless hiking through pavilions and the unavoidable bus, taxi and restaurant lines. Then again, this show is four times larger than Comdex Canada, seven times larger than Comdex PacRim, and ten times

larger than Montreal's SCIB. Star players were located at the Convention Center, in satellite-shaped configurations featuring something like Microsoft and Friends,

IBM and Friends, Digital and F riends...

Internet companies were in four huge tents and the Hilton hotel, ~bile the "others" were at the Sands hotel, divided into national representations and the "flea market."

But what a flea market! Numerous companies from Taiwan and elsewhere in Asia offered everything from variously shaped mice to a program designed for conducting orchestral music (although conducting with a mouse does feel a bit odd!).

The commercial exhibit itself was both a reflection of the future and a confirmation of major forces. The Network Computer ( NC), generally t h ought t o be mor e "retroware" than "revolutionary," had a d i s creet presence, thereby affirming the i n dustry's reluctance to accept it. There w as greater visibility f o r t he D i g ital V i de o D i s k (DVD) — or Digital Versatile Disk — the new CD-drive designed t o ev e n tually replace current CD-ROM readers.

Wallflower?

Apple's low-key attendance, reflected in a dull press conference where the future d o m inated (" We wiill..., we will..."), was like-

wise representative of a strategic withdrawal, probably made in order to be in a better takeoff position. But the question remains: takeoff to where?

Another noticeable element was the aggressive arrival of principal players in the masselectronics business. It seems that the word has gottenaround: Sony,Toshiba,Samsung, and others we know through stereo systems or televisions were out in force, At the Sony booth, you could catch a glimpse of the future with wide-screen TV/PCs and the digital home network I 594. While outside the convention centre pampiiiets advertised sleazy escortservices,inside Samsung teamed up with Vogue and Saks 5th Avenue for the "Women, Fashion.and Technology Show."

Outfits had "sleek ergonomic design and hideaway dropdown panels," and like the notebook computers, promised "interactive freedom."

The Internet was everyw here — as it w a s l a s t year — and offered no real surprises, apart from some products allowing for the i nstant d i s t r i butio n ot ' information. For example, Global Village Coin-munications' News Catcher, a pager-like device that sits next to the computer, wirelessly indicates the arrival of e-mail, news and information 24-hours a day. It' s sort of like PointCast, but with a twist, because you

click on an icon to launch your e-mail program or We b b r o w ser w h e n I i oit ch o s e (http: // www.globalvillage.corn/).

The glitziest, most touted launch of all was Microsoft's W i n d ow s CE (Consumer Electronics), an operating system for mobile devices aimed at mobile professionals. Handheld PCs, from LG Electronics, Casio, NEC, and others, will i n clude scaled-down versions of Microsoft Wnrd, fiercer,and l»ternet Lvplorer,as well as two-way synchronization with the PC. This got even some antiPDA folks itching to buy one. Most of the hand-held PCs will be priced around $600 and should be available later this year.

Sensory overload With 2,1(X) booths and probably as many product launches, even choosing which products to mention here is a challenge.

We were intrigued by programs such as PictureWorks Technology's NetCard. which allows you to send attached "iMail" (image mail) on a N etCard postcard that can be seen. read and heard by any Windows or Mac user (http://www.pixworks.corn/).

Media Synergy's aloha allows you to send s elf-created animation and sound t n a Windows user with an accompanying player (http://www.mediasyn.corn/).

There were plenty of p romotional gimmicks to k eep on e e n tertained, like t he sausage guy from sausage. rom (makers of the HotDog Web authoring tool); the Marine with wearable computer gadgets; and jungle explorers with laptops and wireless communication devices. Indeed there was something for everyone. +

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Columns

S ome i m p r o b a b l e p r e d i c t i o n s ince this is the January issue, I have been requested by the editor to give

OS/Z Heady

solne plediction of the future. Psychics are never right, however, so I might as well make improbable predictions that, if they ever came true. would make me rich and famous {well, maybe not rich).

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I predict: • Microsoft will release Microsoft Office for O S/2 w i t h m o r e f e a t u res t h a n t h e i r Wind<>ws versi<)n.

• DOS will make a big comeback as all the best games are played under DOS. • OS/2 will actually be advertised and promoted by IBM, and they will even preload it on every computer they sell!

• ('ames will be so slow on new machines thai special game accelerators wiII flood the market.

• Multiprocessor machines will mak«a big splash and keep 386i and -'i86 chip makers in husiness (imagine hooking up more than 5()0 Intel 486s in parallel!).

My final prediction: >>>licrosoft v>ill provide v oice supp<>rt wit h a n e w v e r s io n o f Windows and everyone willsay how amazing it is and wonder why it wasn't done earlier (for those missing the sarcasm, OS/2 Warp 4 includes V<>iceType Navigation and Dictation).

Hot news Powe<uest has released Partition Magic 3.0 with full support of NTFS and FAT32.As reviewed in a n e arlier issue of Toronto Computes!, Partiti<)n Magic lets you resize,

e

0

move, and create hard-drive partitions on the fly without destroying data. It now includes IBM's Boot M a nager a n d M i c r ohelp's

Applications Mover. More information can be obtained from http: //www.powerquest. corn/ The first unlimited and public version of Xfree86i for OS/2 is now generally available.

Xfree86 is a full and unrestricted client and server version of the XI I Window system running natively under OS/2 Warp. More information is a t h t t p: //borneo.gmd.de/ -veit/os2/xf86os2.html Frustrated that your favourite software is not native to OS/2? Check out the Petition Page at http: //wwwv.teamos2.orI»<petit!<in/ and start or sign a petition telling companies that you want good native OS/2 software.

Pease sen me a su scription to and enter me in the Feb 1/97 draw for Brian Costello HomeTax. A one-year subscription costs $24.95 (IncI. GST) to cover postage and handling, I am Paying the full OmOunt, POyable tO Canada COmPuteS!, by C3 Cheque or money order or, 0 VISA 'J Master Card¹ Exp. Name:

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activate by putting slat«ments in y<nlr CONFIG 8 1'5 S<)nl«<)1 Ill« p<)polar <)nes lh:0 I hav« tried include.

• s«t sckillfcaturrrnablcd=l ) v i ll p r o v id» a list i>1' running> pr<>«esses lh;il can b«kill«d (vvh< n pressing> ("I'Rl. and clicking> <>n thc

cl<>ck <>n the Warp Centre lo green numb«rs <)n a hla< k backgr<>und.

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With th« r elease of Warp 4 (M«rlin), IB><>l has included a number of undi>cumcnt«d switches for thc W;uli Centre that y<)u can

t,'Isk list bolt<)n I >f the )II 'Irli (.«ntre). ' sct s c us«pf«tty<'l<)ck=on I<) c h ;lni >c lh«

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J A N UA RY 1 9 9 7

scll fldutllity=c:)>os2)>apps)>pnlscck.g xe

( of w h ;it«vcr apl)lie;ltk)n y<)u wilnt ) w i l l

run PMSEEK (or w h a t ever 1<>u sg lect) instead i>1' the default search utility (which I'm sure 99.99 per cent of us hate).

• set sccanbenuked=l is claimed t<> protect the Warp Centre from being killed if the WPS is restarted (I have not verified this <>ne!).

Personal top software Every year I indicate my personal favourite native OS/2 software that I think every OS/2 user should take a look at. This year has had its ups and d<)wns, with the releas«<)f OS/2

Warp 4.0 and the demise of DeScrih«.

1. P<>werguest's Partition Magic (partition utility) 2. Global Village's FaxWi>rks Pro (enhaflc«d fax pfol» ln)) 3. IBM DualStor >.0 (tape backup softsvarel SoITouch System's CammaTech ( Itiiitirs 5, TruSpect<-,I's Photo)(>raphics (imaging software) 6. Sundial Systems Mesa 2 2.16 (spreadsheet) Netscape Navigator for OS/2 8. EmTec's lap-0-Comm (modem commu. nication s<)ftv, are) 9. IBM AntiVirus 2.5 10. Mail Reader/2 (MR/2) e-mail client

Parting gift?

I'm surprised that something like this hasn't surfaced before, but news im the Internet is claiming that removing Windows 95 from a B<)ot Manager machine will corrupt any HPFS partitions.

Mike Matrella claims that when he used Windows 95's uninstall feature, it corrupted the partition table, rendering his entire hard drive unreadable. Other users have claimed that similar things have happened to them when thev tried to remove Win95. If you want to remove Windows 95 from your OS/2 machine, it might be best to format its partition directly from OS/2.

Paper OS/2 magazines arealldead Earlier in the year I reported that OS/2 Professionaland OS/2 Developer had passed on. Asof January's issue, OS/2 Magazine, the sole surviving dedicated OS/2 publication, will cease to exist. We mourn the passing ol these magazin«s, and h<>pe that other publications vvili carry OS/2 new» and r«views.

Di>n't fi>rget t<> k«ep reading OS/2 R«ady for all <if the hest in OS/2 nesvs, revicsvs, lips, and tricks.

Freeware of the Month Daniel K<ilp has cr<.ate<!:I Mesa l'<><>lhar Cusl<)nlizcr.;iud has rec«nlll u p d al«d it f<)r %1«s;I .1.()

With it. y<)ii can customiz« the 1<)<>ll);ir in Mesa f<>r ()!i/2 t<> includ« ic<uls anil c<)mmand» that 1<>u 1'«cl cuit yolir n«cds.,lnd y»u can ch.lnge th«comrnanils inv<)ked f<)r each butt<>n. ( et i t — and i n f o r m atii>n <>n it — lr<>m http: //wvnv.ccs.neu.edu/h<>mc/dkul p/

Kevin Linfield i) a Toronto-based consultant and I<eelance writer. He can bereached viae-mail at linfieldltorfree.i)et

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B ook s

Online investment resources e~ • • By BRANDI JASMINE• • nrvstur's Guide to the Net and its sequel, Fmperf Inrresting on the Net,

are a pair of comprehensive guides to online services that cuts through the current media hype about the

~in

0

Investors rddde to theHet, by Paul g. Farrell, from JohnWiley fr Sons,Inc. 1996. 0471-144444. $34.9S. Expert Investing on the Net, by Paul 8. Farrell, from John Wiley fr Sons, Inc. 1996. 0471-158674, $34.95.

Online resources

CNN Personal FinanceCenter http: //gnn.corn/gnn/meta/finance/ InvestmentNewsOnline Press Release Center

http: //Inorfg.corn/ The MoneyMentor http: //www.moneymentor,corn/mm menu.html CNNfn Financial Network http: //cnnfn.cor n/ Associate Press http: //wwwl.trlb.corn/NEWS/Apwlre.html Knight Ridder Financial

http: //www.asia-inc.corn/knight/ lexis/Nexis http: //www.lexis-nexls.corn/

Internet, describing instead the digitalwlectronic financial services that investors have been quietly using for the past 30 years.

Inrresfor s Guide starts off by briefly examining the offerings of the "Big Three" online services: Compuserve, America Online, and Prodigy. The descriptions are fair and balanced, as is the advice tlu'oughout. The real meat of the book, however, is in the services that have been, thus far, the reserve of highbudget corporate offices: Dow-Jones, Reuter's, Knight-Ridder, and Bloomberg.

These services have quietly created their own proprietary networks over the past 3() years, their main clients being large corporations, institutional investors, and news media. They are now developing both proprietary and Internet-compatible resources for investors, with the result that their information is increasingly affordable and accessible — but you still have to know where to look for t h em. Inrrestors Guide provides that information, while gently nudging techn«phobic investors into the digital age.

The Internet section is less interesting to the experienced Netter, but could be a valuable

The Financial Markets section highlights online financial newspapers, newsletters, investment clubs, and media that make appearances on the online services, financial services, and, to a l i mited but i ncreasing extent, on the World Wide Web.

osed however, the CNNfn Financial Network site, does not seem to be mentioned, but this is nitpicking, considering the relative newness of the service and the longcT lead-time of print publications.

A small investment made in t his hook could quickly pay for itself many times over.

In addition t o t h e m e ga-sites, individual investors, researchers, and analysts will be able to find a plethora tif major and minor stock exchanges, government archives, statistics, industry research, and databases, as well as information on alternative securities.

One minor beef is that the lxiok does not offer an online index. It would be most handy to be able to access a Web site that archives the book's GIRLS in one place on the Web, or via CD ROM. This is, again, a min<sr shortfall, however.

today on fn narneraherso,igaa Altonto aot 2,SN Iaaa Svusr• C x a > ss s

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This set of books is destined to become a dog-earedreference manual in many offices, as investors realize the potential cyberspace offers them. +

Services you can now access in cyberspace indude Associate Press. Knight Ridder Financial, and Lexis/Nexis.

One of the best of such sites,

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8X CD-ROM ..........................................

10X CD-ROM ...........................................

• Intel Pentium 166CPU a2.1GB Hard Drive • 32MB EDORAM • Intel VX Chipset Mainboard w/512k PBCache • Flash Rom Bios • Enhanced IDE Controller, Mode 4 • 2 High Speed Serial Ports & Enhanced Parallel Port • 1.44MB Roppy Drive • 10X CD-ROM • ATI 3D Xpressions 2MB PCIVideo Card 64 Bit •" comes with Mech Warrior 2 & Wipeout • Enhanced Windows 95 Keyboard • Microsoft Mouse w/Pad • Faronics Mini-Tower Case • U.S. Robotics 33.6 Data/Fax Modem • PnP 3D Surround SoundCard • Lab tec Amplified Speakers • 15" Faronics Monitor Nl, Low Radiation • Microsoft Windows 95 OEM w/CD Performance Price .........

Customizethe Systemsto anyConfiguration - Just Call or Faxfor a Quote

Super Specials U.S.Robotics 33.6 Data/Fax Modem ................ $149.00 Microsoft Windows 95 OEM Full CD .................. $95.00 Follow That Sleigh Entertainment Software ....... $19.00 Upgrade Any System to the intel HX Chipset ................... $20.00 Faronics 8 Port Hub.............................................................. $129.00 Faronics Ne2000Combo Network CardISA ......................$49.00

ReceiveFreeInternet Accessfor OneMonthwith anySystemPurchase

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• Faronics 5133M16• Intel Pentium 133CPIj • 1.6GB Hard Drive • 16MB EDO RAM • Intel VX Chipset Main board w/512k PBCache • Flash RomBios • Enhanced IDE Controller, Mode 4• 2 High SpeedSerial Ports 6t Enhanced Parallel Port • 1.44MB RoppyDrive • &X CD-ROM 2MB PCIVideocard 64Bit •EnhancedW indows 95Keyboard •MicrosoftMousew/Pad •FaronicsMini-TowerCase •LI .S.Robotics33.6Data/Fax Modem •PnP 3D SurroundSoundCard • Labtec AmplTied Speakers• 15" Faronics Monitor till, Low Radiation • Microsoft Windows 95 OEM w/CD • Microsoft Encarta, Works, Money 6tTwo Family CDs

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57A- 53ClipperStreet, Coqiltlam, B.C. V3KGXg Hours:Mon.- Fri. 9-6;Sat. - Sun. 11-5

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