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hy use shared Ethernet hubs when you can get Accton Switches for the same price? Performance has never been more important and now Accton has even made i t a f fordable! Now through June 30, you get $100 US for e very Accton s w itch y o u bu y . It's thatsimple.

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'Acconllng tothe DataquestJune 6, 1997 report Acctonsold 11,359,000 switchports resulting in a worldwidemarhetshare of 30.3%.

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IBMandtheJoyof BeingHeterogeneous ......18

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CCWTechnical ExcelenceAwards' n. j",'4PM „' ForCana dians,......,.,>"'I' i@ .

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Letters to the Editor

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few years ago, I'd just taken my seat o n a fl i ght f r om Toronto to Milan when a fellow passenger sat down, smiled a greeting, and spoke to me in his native language. I shook my head. "Sorry," I said, "I don't speak Italian. Do you speak English?" Now he shook his head and tried i n G erman. I grinned at him, and responded with that now-familiar head movement. "Parlezvous f ranglai?" s I a sked, prepared to demonstrate my mediocre-at-best command of that language. In extremely halting French, he told me he d idn't really speak it. So we paused, shruggedamiably,and passed the remainder of the trip in relative silence. As an erstwhile Trekker, (Trekkie is a derogative term to true believers), I think of the fictional computer systems that allowed for the very automatic translation of language when two different cultures or even species would happen to meet. We' re yet far from that reality, but every day our computer systems become more sophisticated on this front. Technology needs to develop before wecan even think about computer translation of spoken speech. First, computers must be able to truly recognize spoken words and effectively translate that to text. Companies like Dragon Systems, IBM and even Corel are delivering and improving their voice recognition technologies. Then comes the task of translating those text words to another language â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and there's the rub. Machine-based translation of entire texts tends to be dismal at best. That' s primarily because a great part of our understanding of language is based on the context provided, and our rational analysis of that, said Cyril Chantier, marketing manager for The Multilingual Suite, at Xerox Research Centre Europe inGrenoble, France. For example, consider a sentence, like: "Mike pet his dog Fido and he barked." Is "pet" a noun or a verb, and who barked? A computer could have a lot of difficulty in deciding. That all gets a lot more complicated when l anguages w it h g e nder-related pronouns are involved. In English, most inanimate objects are "it," and have neutral pronouns. InFrench, they're feminine or masculine, and machine translation back and forth between the languages can be disasterous. Moreover, Xerox researcher Frederique Segond explained "expressions" very often

don't make sense when translated verbatim from one language to the next. For example, c o nsider: i n French, "rester les b r as croises" means "to stand idly." However, the phrase actually literally translates to something like: "to keep arms crossed!" So Xerox is working hard at building tools to help transist ors work more effectively and quickly (important in this global market!). That work includes delivering technologies to allow for easyreuseof already-translated phrases.For document creators, some new tools standardize terms to make translating easier and clearer. And for worldwide technicians who may have a basic understanding of English, they can read new on-line product manuals in English when necessary, but "look up" unknown words in an underlying dictionary and be presented with the possible meanings, in order of likelihood. Xerox researchers say that while computer-based voice translation isn't a current company project; text translation improvements would definitely need to occur before that would be possible. (Watch next issue for more on the research underway at Xerox Europe.) Of course, the last step in the voice translation scenario would be text-to-speech conversion. And that's something that today's computers are already at least fair at handling. This issue, we are pleased to announce our winners o f t h e CC W Te c hnical Excellence Awards for Canadians. (Please see page 20.) As we move further towards a world community, it's vital for our viability as a nation that Canadians play a prominent role on the world technology stage. And while this magazine pays significant attention to reviewing and recognizing products, we understand there are important people behind each and every technological advance. This is why we' re taking the opportunity to recognize just some of the important Canadians on the technology forefront. Meanwhile, watch computer translation improve over the coming years. And for now, be prepared to type out your comments when encountering space aliens... Enjoy the issue, LttI

~ CA N ADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER July 1998ht t p l h w v w.ccwmag.mm

Grace Casselman Editor

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IjefteruL David Ritter Associate'Pnftfitdters Judy Prange Hari Singh Khaisa Grace Casselman IWiji!~Ming ' (gracec@netcom.ca) AssociateEditor Jeff Evans (jeff Otcpon.corn) ;,W4eb TostEtfftor Sean Carruthers (sean Latcp.ca) Graeme Bennett Douglas Gray Moota Kerr David Tanaka Alan Thwaits 4$II)>)b g(5~7~';., ::<' Paul Weinberg Geof Wheelwright Alan Zisman ProductionStaff Sherly Ho Karin Harhvig Jana Kolar RegionalSalesINanager Jamie Leighton (jamie Ntcp.ca) Controger Linda Lovegro AcconntingFarida Aim Circ m Jew' *

Canadian Cornlnstgr Wholesaler is published I2 tftnes a year by Canada Cotnpn~ Paper Inc.

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'Miiteriai and advenisins designed by canadian computer Wholesaleria this publication may aot be reproduced in any form without permission. All rights reserved. The opinions expressed in articles are aet necessarily those of the publisher.

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L ETT E R S

CCW BULLETIN BOARD

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I remember when CCW first started, and compared to now, well, there is no comparison. The technical articles are timely and extremely well written. I' ve been selling, managing, directing and marketing in this business a long time and there has always been an adage that I'm sure you' ve heard many times: People buy computers from people. Lately, it seems as if this no longer holds true, but I like to believe that it still does. When you make a significant purchase you aren't just buying a product or service, you' re buying a relationship — a relationship that usually begins with two people interacting and then extends further to include the company and what it stands for. Value and price count, but so do people! I have countless stories, examples and anecdotes on how "a person made the difference, not the product or the price." I' ve always believed that anyone making a large purchase decision wants to do the best job possible for his/her company, family, or themselves, in order to feel good about it, to receive reinforcement, and to feel no one else could have done better. Therein lies the fear of screwing it up. If you reduce the fear, provide a support plan during and after the sale, be there when the purchaser needs you after they' ve bought (even just returning their phone calls promptly), then as a seller and a person you reinforce their decision to go with you in the first place. Believe me. It is worth something to even the hardest, toughest buyers to know that they can depend and count on you to come through for them in the clutch. And they will pay for it.

Looking for a product, service or partner? Write to CCWBulletin Board, at ccwOtcp.ca, or fax:(403) 262-7892.

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Letters To The Editor We welcome your letters on industry issues and concerns, aswellas yourcomments on our magazine. We reserve the right to edit your contributions for length and clarity. Please write to The Editor, via E-mail at ccwOtcp.ca, or fax: (604) 608-2686.

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Datumk are trademarks or registered trademarks of KoLennonGroup Inc. Ag other brandor products namesaretrademarks or regisitered trademarks of their respective owners.

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Simply PutSamsungOnTop 7 out of 10 leading PCbrands do just that. Whichever PCsystem you choose, Samsung has the perfect monitor to pair with it. Samsung monitors offer you award-winning specs, leading-edge technology, quality value and unsurpassed performance. High quality standards produce high quality products. That's why SyncMaster monitors are TCO'95 compliant and are designed to promote user safety by lowering harmful emissions and to support ecological responsibility by reducing environmentally damaging substances. Scale new heights... find out more about how Samsung monitors can help you get more

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On May 11, AccPac International Inc., a subsidiary of Computer Associates International Inc., announced the shipment of a new line of Internetoriented electronic commerce products. The e.Advantage Suite is a range of software titles designed to be used as part of a complete online business solution. The e.AdvantageSuite is envisioned as a way to extend ACCPAC for Windows to the Internet, and it consists of a number of modules, including: • e.OE.Order — a highly customizable software module, which allows customers to enter orders intoacompany'sfinancialmanagement system; • e.AR.inquiry — an Java-based account information inquiry module, which allows customers to see current account status; • e.AIPayroll.Inquiry — which allows employees to view their personal corporate information,

Sun Microsystems Inc. an d N etscape Communications Corp. have signed software support and education agreements to give customers one single source for interoperability support and access to training. The agreements target enterprise customers using Netscape software on Sun's Solaris operating system. The Cooperative Technical Support Agreement with Netscape will be available in North America and Europe beginning in August. And Sun has added Netscape's full line of enterprise software to its Sun Vendor Integration Program, allowing a single, accountable point of contact for customers' interoperability issues, Sun hasalso become a Netscape education provider.

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such as payroll, sickness, benefit and vacation information; and, • e.Advantage Server — which regulates communicati ons between the InternetandACCPAC for Windows. A software development kit is also available to allow partners and larger enterprises to develop third-party applets to meet specialized needs. The e.Advantage Server is priced at $5,000. Seehttp//www accpac.corn.

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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has closed its review of the pending acquisition of Digital EquipmentCorp.by Compaq Computer Corp. and the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act is over. The transaction was scheduled for approval via a shareholders' vote on June 11.

Quantum to acquire ATL T'ape backup drive manufacturer, Quantum Corp., says it will acquire ATL Products Inc.— a vendor of tape autoloading and tape robot libraries. The proposed deal would involve the conversion of all outstandingATL stock into Quantum common stock,a transaction with an estimated value of around US$300 million. According to Michael Brown, CEO of Quantum: "Moving forward, the amount of digital content being managed by IS organizations is growing rapidly, making the role of storage even more critical. Quantum's focus will include expanding our capabilities to help customers manage this content through tape-automation solutions, increasing the scope of our existing $90 million storage business. The acquisition of ATL, a leading tape-automation systems provider, would allow Quantum to accelerate these plans." For more information, see http: //www.quantum.corn or http: //www atlp.corn.

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for service providers. SLC ConnectReach reportedly consists of Vina's Multiservice T1 Integrator and a connection to Lucent's SLC2000 Access System so the two products will function as one, integrated voice and data access system in the local loop. The companies say SLCConnectReach "will deliver all of the local and long-distance calls, Internet access and data communications for a business over a single, high-speed (1.5

With 3 Eurocom model series to choose from and hundreds of possible confiaurations, Impaq offers something for every need and budget. Eurocom - winner of many accolades including a PC Portables "Best Buy" and Computer Paper's Editor's Cnoice" I' ll

INB) — Lucent Technologies has entered into an OEM deal with Vina Technologies to offer a network access product that integrates the voice and data traffic of a small or mid-sized business onto a single T1 line, called the SLC ConnectReach Access System. The companiesclaim the system will reduce network provisioning, maintenance, and management costs

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On May 19, Deloitte 8t Touche Consulting Group published the results of a survey of corporate chief information officers (CIOs), predicting that electronic commerce has quietly become the "killer application" in business computing, "poised for an explosive 300 per cent growth." According to Doug Downing of Deloitte Consulting: "We are approaching an historic businesswatershed.Untilnow,businesses have been hesitant to adopt e-commerce because of security concerns or the perception that their customers simply aren't using it to buy products and services. Now, companies are coming to the realization that security will always be an issue — but that it's less of a concern than missing out on a vital new channel that could provide a tremendous new advantage." The Deloitte study says: • Outsourcing computing functions typically increases employee turnover, recruiting and training costs, and disruption, rather than

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simplifying enterprise operation. Doing it inhouseoftenmakesmore sense. • Information access tools such as handheld computers and data warehousing systems will more than double in their installed base in industry, reaching an 60 per cent penetration rate among medium to large enterprises. Local area networks will achieve a penetration rate of 85 per cent. • The energy, public sector and financial industries will lead in the adoption of on-line commerce and other forms of interaction with their general customer base. According to Rich Pople, a senior manager with Deloitte: "E-commerce is not a panacea. Some products and services — particularly those that are information-based, such as banking transactions — are better suited for cyberspace. In other businesses (such as retail goods sales) folks will want to "kick the tires."

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(NB) — Gartner Group Inc.'s Dataquest says that thin servers are gaining momentum in the market and getting a boost in revenue. The research company says the thin server market will grow from US$1.1 billion in 1997 to more than US$16billion by 2002. The company added that the worldwide thin server market will increase 79 per cent in 1998, with revenue projected to surpass US$1.9 billion. Thin servers designed to meet the specific needs of small businesses are projected to show strong growth as revenue is forecast to reach nearly US$85 million in 1998, a 282.5 per cent increase over 1997 revenue of US$22 million. Multifunction thin servers provide Internet service for a small business or workgroup, says the company. These devices primarily include Internet access, firewall, HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol), and e-mail. The company actually defines a thin server as "a specialized, network-based hardware device designed to perform a single or specialized set of server functions." The company adds that a thin server "is characterized by running a minimal operating architecture, and client access is independent of any operating system or proprietary protocol." ICCIII

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Montreal-based Hartco Enterprises Inc. is expanding its CompuSmart retail stores in Vancouver and Calgary. In Calgary, CompuSmart will be taking over a 20,000-square-foot Doppler location vacated on one of Calgary's busiest streets. In Vancouver,CompuSmart had already securedanotherdowntown location. "The timing was incredible," said Mike

Xerox Canada adds Xtra program Xerox Canada has announced the Xerox Xtra Partner Program. Resellers qualifying to be Xerox Xtra Partners receive: • up to 40 per cent discounts on demonstration units, • access to Xerox on-site or self-paced training, • access to Xerox lead generation, • co-marketing opportunities, and, • access to a trade-in program.

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Gardner, director of the CompuSmart network,in a statement. "When we open up a new location it generally is a battle to find qualified staff and win over customers. In this case we were able to pick among the best of a highly trained staff and we now have a list of customers who are looking for a new placeto buy.This saves usthe usual high cost of entering a new market."

Open Text makes acquisition

AOL Canada has announced a new version of its end-user software, which offers a completely revised user interface and an integrated version of Microsoft Internet Explorer. I krcdhnmt The AOL service offerings have also been revamped, with a line of content "channels" that are exclusively available to AOL subscribers. The AOL Today channel features current news, weather and market updates, while the Francais channel has been designed for francophone subscribers. According to Stephen Bartkiw, managing director of AOL Canada: "With the next AOL Canada, we continue to respond to our members' needs and build on previous enhancements to our service that have set the standards for ease-of-use and accessibility." There are more than 100,000 current AOL Canada subscribers. While a couple of years ago, interacm tive multimedia (including games) were the "killer apps, driving adoption of high-powered PCs in the home market, the Internet has been added to multimedia as a main motivation for buying new home PCs, faster modems, larger monitors, disk drives and removable storage media.

•

EIVIJ is selling Greystone duplicators Guelph, Ont.-based EMJ Data Systems is now distributing Greystone hard disk duplicators. EMJ says hard disk duplicators are used when companies want to replicate data on hard disk drives being installed into multiple systems. This lets common software be installed identically for all users.

•

The North York Board of Education (now part of the Toronto District School Board) has <mplemented a space-age type secunty product to deter computer theft — Smart Water Canada's Tracer. The school board had been lookingfora m ethodto protectitsinvestment in computer technology in school offices and classrooms. The productis a forensic marketing system that provides a "corporate fingerprint" (or liquid bar code) for each customer. While the "naked eye" can' t see the marking, it can be identified by police using an ultraviolet light. The company says SmartWater Tracer should be swapped onto as large an area as possible; particularly to surfaces that are difficult to clean, such as grills and slots. The board will be launching an awareness campaign to correspond with the use of SmartWater Tracer, and is placing SmartWater Tracer stickers on the computers.

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On May 27, at a presentation in Toronto, HewlettPackard (Canada) Ltd. outlined its new initiatives to support technology solutions for Canadian small business. According to Evan Wood, small business program manager at HP Canada: "Whether it's offering a new printer, a handbook on choosing technology, or a seminar on using small business more effectively, we' re committed to doing what it takes to help entrepreneurs succeed." HP's recent focus on small business has included the launch of many new printers, multifunction devices, scanners and other products aimed atthe small business market. For example, the HP 2000C and HP 2000N Professional Series color ink-jet printers are network-ready devices which offer near color laser speeds, and high-quality text and graphics output with an low per-page cost of ownership.

14 ] CANADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER July 1998

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Waterloo, Ont.-based Open Text Corp., makers of Livelink, has acquired Information Dimensions Inc., of Dublin, Ohio from Gores Technology Group. Open Text says this acquisition places it in the market leadership position in worldwide enterprise document management, with 42.7 per cent market-share, citing a report from International Data Corp. This acquisition extends Open Text's worldwide installed base to 2.5 million users in 3,400 corporations, says the company. Information Dimensions has annual sales of $20 million and 170 employees.

The HP LaserJet 3100 printer-fax-copier-scanner is HP's first multifunction device built around a laser printer engine. In addition to product introductions, HP has been working on building "infrastructure" to assist both its channelpartners and small business customers to implement technology solutions. New initiatives include the sponsorship of the Small Business Resource Network, the publication of an informative small business technology handbook titled "Making Sound Choices — A guide to choosing small businesstechnology" (hftp//wwwsbrn.corn), a partnership with the Brampton Small Business Enterprise Center, and a sales training program for HP partners, called the Small Business Consultant Training Program. Seehttp .//www hp.corn/go/small biz.

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ATI gets in on flat-panels ATI Technologies Inc. is partnering with flatpanel display manufacturers for standardization on a digital video connector, to encourage mass-market adoption of flat-panel display monitors for desktop PCs. The flat-panel monitors now shipping use the legacy analog VGA connector,and add additional circuitry that converts monitor images between analog and digital signals. ATI says this conversion process adds cost and reduces the image quality of current flat panels. The DFP initiative proposes a specification that "enables an all-digital connection that will improve image quality and reduce the cost of current desktop flat panels," says ATI. CCW

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by David Tanaka ntel, IBM, Toshiba, Ericsson "The cellular phone in your and Nokia are proposing s short-range radio t r ansmission specification that will simplify data communications between handheld computers and organizersan e-mail.n or any digital devices for that matter. The proposed standard is b eing called Bluetooth. If i t The f iv e o r i ginators announced becomes what its proponents Bluetooth in mid-May, and at the same time hope, all portable devices in the announcing a Special Interest Group (SIG) future will be equipped with tiny, on the Internet to provide information about energy-efficient radio transcei vers the proposed standard and also to publicize that would, in essence, keep them it. Bluetooth has attracted the support of in a state of continuous standby for digital communication. other companies including Motorola, Qualcomm, 3Com, Compaq, Here are some of the scenarios the group envisions in a Bluetooth- Dell, VLSI and Lucent. enabled world. The cellular phone in your pocket would tell you the Windows CE handheld or Palm III users may have experienced moment your PDA or notebook computer (tucked in your briefcase) — in a somewhat limited way — the potential of wireless transmission received an e-mail. If you wanted to check out something on the of data, via the infrared poris.H owever, Bluetooth goes farbeyond the Internet with your handheld computer, Bluetooth would seamlessly link simplebeaming of businesscard data from one PDA toanother. to your cell phone and make the call to your ISP. Or, if you were makBluetooth was born partly out of research Ericsson conducted to ing a presentation using your notebook computer, you could transmit find a way to replace cables connecting cell phones. The goal was to your slides to the LCD projector wirelessly — while others in the room develop a small radio transceiver that would replace the traditional could also receive the slides and view them on their own notebook PCs. cable, without exceeding the cost of the cable and connectors. Given the The new standard will address issues such as global standardiza- limited power available on a device like a portable phone, the power tion and the ability to establish ad hoc connections between a range of requirements of the transceiver also had to be very low. disparate devices. It will be an open standard, won't cost very much Nokia's contribution comes from its work in trying to develop and won't take up a lot of power. One paper on the subject states that wireless solutions for its cellular phones. This led it into development work in the 2.4 gigahertz ISM band. the device would draw only 0.3mA in standby mode. Another essential goal of the standard is to make Bluetooth highly On the PC industry side, Intel has also been championing wireimmune to interference from other devices using the radio frequency less data solutions for mobile computer users, and launched its Mobile Data Initiative in 1996. The initiative sought a solution to the growing band. This it will accomplish by using short data packets. Bluetooth calls for an integrated radio transmitter/receiver that need formobile PC users to be connected even when thereisn't a allocates a unique 48-bit address to each device. It will operate on the convenient LAN connection or modem line nearby. Intel will be pro2.45-gigahertz ISM "free" band, which is available around the world, viding expertise on chip design for Bluetooth. allowing global Mvellers to use Bluetooth wherever they find themToshiba and IBM will be devising a method to integrate the selves. It will free travellers from having to carry numerous cables technology into the mobile devices. At this point there doesn't seem to be a specific timetable as to with them just to connect, for example, a pocket organizer with a notebook computer. The devices do not need to maintain a line of sight, so when we will actually see devices that are Bluetooth-enabled. However, a connection can be maintained even when the device is in one's pock- if the standard delivers on even some of what it promises, its commeret or in a briefcase, according Bluetooth's authors. cialization will be an anticipated event by mobile users everywhere. The proposal also calls for data and voice to be supported simulThe Bluetooth SIG web site is at httpt/twww.bluetooth.corn. @> taneously in full duplex. The maximum range of Bluetooth is 10 metres and the data rate will be one megabit per second with two megabits per David Tanaka is a Vancouver-based journalist and Editor of The second planned for the next generation. Computer Paper. He can be reached at david@tcp.ca.

pocket would tell you the moment your PDAor notebook computer (tucked in your briefcase) received

16 ( CANADIAN COMPUTERWHOLESALER July 1998

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CW T ECH N I CA L

EX C E L L E N C E A W A R D S F O R

CA N A D I A N S

Canadian Computer Wholesaleris pleased to devote space in this magazine to profile Canadians whom we believe deserve recognition for their contributions to technological innovation and excellence. While these people were ultimately decidedupon by the Editors of Canadian Computer Wholesaler and Canada Computer Paper Inc. to receive our 1998CCWTechrlkkl Excellence Awards for Canadians, we very much appreciated the nominations that came in from the industry. Congratulations to all the award-winners.

.,-':":;+.", :— "„.,,-., James I~ Til e: Cidaf, Seienti st,%c«-President of Engineering andSnnFellow, Snn gwicrosystems City «I Reside«an: SanFrancis«« lay Area Ag e : 43 ore than any other individual, Canada's James Gosling deserves credit for the creation of the Java programming

Sun to go "outside the loop" of Sun's regular management, to facilitate greater creativity and perhaps discover the "Next Big Thing" in ,.»t computing. Gosling was picked to be part of a team that initially was Altho~ t ihe initiative Qt-'resulted in Java was definitely a team code-named "Green."Working in secrecy,the Green people tried to effort, involving many Sun Microsystems employees from CEO Scott see what could be created outside a regular top-down corporate R&D McNealy on down, it was Goshng's insights into the possible future of environment. networking, and his almost uncanny talent for computer language creAccording to Gosling: "We had become totally convinced very ation that shaped Java in its critical initial stages. He was the catalyst early on in 1990 that networking was going to be a very big deal for a »'use a new age of iritelligent, connected electronic devices much wider market, but we were not very clear how that was going to .~'.,l ':,!::,i ",' for vilntt may that eilI eitteiid human capabilities and communications in ways that manifest itself. Initially, we weren't focusing on the Internet, because '~~(=: would not le~.been possible without his contributions. at the time the Internet was just something that computer s c i ence Gosling became interested, or more accurately, entranced with departments in universities and big companies used, and it just didn' t computers when he was a 14 year old living in Calgary. In conversa- have any consumer visibility." """ tion wIth CAI', he said, "A friend of my Dad*s took me on a tour of The Green team tried developi'ng handheld computer devices, the computer science department, and I was jazzed as can be. I sort of interactive cable TV systems and other technological solutions in »';.",-»'„,",~ 'I;, met sotrto,pe @:there, and since my parents lived three miles from the search of a problem. "In retrospect. maybe we were lucky," not to get + ',. ';I,;: Ijniver'slty, 'I ~ d g o ing over there every day, blending into the one of the early interactive TV contracts, Gosling confesses. In scenery." the meantime, at a Doobie Brothers concert, Gosling had "an Gosling discovered within himself both a love and a talepiphany of how widespread this thing (networking) could ent for languages. "I' ve done dozens and dozens of probe, if we could get the infrastructure right," as he looked at the complex electronic lighting system above the stage. gramming lan»guages.Languages are a powerful technique I' for addressing' all kinds of issues. When we started what Gosling and his team then conceived of a network-ceneventually became the Java project, a lot of the problems were tric, platform-independent programming language that would around the (programming larigage) tools we were using." run on many kinds of computing devices, and named the new Gosling was working at Sun Microsystems in the late 1980s, system Java. The rest is history still to be written. where he was.recognized as a formidable talent. In a famous incident Gosling says his baby daughter occupies that niche in his heart, in 1989, a strong, passionate critique of Sun was written by a disgrun- along with the rest of his family. tled employee named Naughton„prompting a special program within — Jeff Evans

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CANADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER July 1998 ht tp Jtwww.ccwmag.com

C C W T E C H N I C A L E X C E L L E N C E A W A R D5- IF 0 RI'SlCA N A D I A N S

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.Y. Ho co-founded ATI Technologies in 1985 after immigrating to Canada, and over the next 14 years led the company to its urrent status, as the Number One graphics hardware vendor in the world, according to an International Data Corp. report. Ho has been identified intimately with his company, largely on the basis of a"Ho Knows" marketing and PR campaign around 1991. One of Ho's principal strengths has been to build a team of some of the best technologists in the world, based largely on the rich pool of talent in the southern Ontario Wt/4 ' region. Ho also has a very good feel for market trends and the demands of changing computer technology for ever-improving graphics and 2D and 3D capabilities. ATI went through a difficult period around 1992 to 1993, when several leading-edge development initiatives went awry, leading to delays in product releases or canceling of proposed products, particular in the digital video segment.

~e: 47

However,under Ho's leadership,ATI staged a str'ong recovery. ATI dropped its sideline businesses in sound cards and..modems, and concentrated on its core business building the market leading graphics processor chips and packaging them on high-quality cards with generally excellent driver software. Ho is one of the consummate jugglers in the PC hardware peripheral business. He has built the most successful brand in personal computer graphics cards, inspired a diverse group of creative engineering talents,,maintained high-.voinme, lowcost manufacturing operations in Canada, and constantly trumped his competitors by coming to market early with leading-edge products. Ho has essentially created and sustained an industry for C anada, and along with Montreal-based Matrox, has made Canada the leading nation for high-quality graphics cards. ~~~"~ — Jeff Evans

aul Girard, the president of Seanix Technology Corp., says his In addition, the company has made inroads into the U.S. market, ~~j„' biggest professional goal is to "make Seanix into a Canadian o pening offices in Sioux City, Iowa, and Austin, Tex. The American division of Seanix has had a direct sales focus, but has clearly turned success story." Many in the industry would say that he's already accomplished s ome heads, as the company garnered the MVP 1997 Product of the that. Year award for SOHO systems at the Comdex/Fail '97 show in Las With a bachelor degree in' economics from Queen' s Vegas. Throughout, Girard has remained responsible for the "~.': University, Girard founded Seanix Technology in 1986. Seanix has attracted attention and respect by taking control overall strategic direction and day-to-day operations of of the whole process, including design, manufacture, cusSeanix, as well as serving as one of the key members of the tomization and servicing of the systems they sell. Product Marketing Team, a group that defines the Seanix has expanded to include Canadian offices in technology direction of Seanix. Outside the office, Girard likes to golf and to spend time Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto and Quebec. Business has grown to the point where the end of 1997 found Seanix ranked number with his family. And his philosophy of life is something that goes five among Canadian computer manufacturers. And the company is a l ong way to explaining Seanix's success in their field: "You only live building up a growing list of resellers who've become big fans of o n ce; make a difference." Seanix's attention to quality and price. — Sean Carruthers '

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Ci t y af Renig~ Ottnwe „„,. Age 40

epean, Ont.-based Eurocom Corp., founded in 1989, has built r elationships with key customers and suppliers, and developing an a name for itself in the 'computer industry with a line of i ntegrated system and building strategies for desktop replacement notebooks that are portable enough to take on the road, notebooks which incorporate the best components from industry yet powerful enough to sit on the desktop for day-to-day leaders. A continuing goal is demonstrating leadership in deskwork. top replacement. "Il In his off-time, Bialic likes to pursue competitive Under the direction of Eurocom president, Mark Bialic, Eurocom has helped to define and steer the developsports. "I enjoy challenging situations that give me an ment of the "desktop replacement notebook." opportunity to improve, and allow me to find a different way of doing things." Bialic's education included management science and "We have a very clear vision as to what the future's going engineering courses from Ottawa University. He also gained considerable international experience with other cultures and techto look like, and the technology we develop is playing a very intenology, from extensive travel around the world. gral part of that future," claims Bialic. "Over the last number of years, Prior to Eurocom, Bialic was involved in building and managing we have demonstrated that our strategy is delivering results, and a corporate networking infrastructure for the City of Ottawa. t here's acknowledgement coming frotn other market leaders." At Eurocom, Bialic's daily duties include building strategic — Sean Carruthers httpJAvww.ccwmag.corn July 199s CANADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER ~

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T C C H N I C A L !EXC E L L

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on Warris, foundhr ofNet Shepherd Inc.,says his currentprofessional goal is: "To keep things focused, and come up with ew ideas «nrl to do things better." That was the kind of thinking that started the Net Shepherd cotIipany. Oqe day, a business acquaintance of Warris's had just hooked up to'the Internet at home, but said he wasn't going to let his young son have access, due to the risk of potential viewing of inap propriatematerial, But it w@s the pqsjtive potjtetial of Internet access that got Warris contemplating a way-,to manage access to the Internet. Of course, the immediate question was deciding what is and isn't "good." Warris explains diat filtering ottt sites based solely on "unacceptable" words is relatively easy to » do, hut the result is under-blocking or overblocking. For example, a site oti "breast cancer" could very easily be banrled by tIIat,irietlio4. Warris's idea was to create.'a "community" of users to review sites for content (http:lhvww.netexplorers.corn) That community currently bias I,BIO members, but Warris expects 15,000 by years end. They are motivated by that sense of belonging, and by perks such as Web site space and (

point-reward sysforos.

'-' NetShepherd's Filtered Search was co-developed with Digital's AltaVista Software Group. When a Filtered Search query is received

from a Filtered Search site, the Internet Content Ratings database is accessedand current rating figures are tabulated and overlaid on AltaVista's search results. Sites are rated for both maturity and quality levels. Search tools based on that database provide a reliable means to search the Internet without being exposed to sites that do not comply to community standards, says Wams. As Warris expands his ratings community, he wants to offer categories of ranngs, based on geography, for example. Warris said NetShepherd prevents the need for government censorship, for example, by offering Web users choice. "I truly believe we provide choice." NetShepherd technology is being used by wide variety of consumers, educational institutions and businesses. Warris,who is self-educated, was raised by his grandfather,an inventor.War ris himself has had varied careers over the years, pursuing at d i f ferent times, missionary, woodcutter, garbage compacting, electronics, CAD drafting and computer support occupations. His favorite hobbies include: diving, hiking, canoeing and gardening. One of his philosophies of life has to do with working with people and encouraging them to reach their potentiaL "I'm a big believer in people." — Grace Casselman

Bottles Bell,,, T itle: Presiile< OIIX SoRware SIIstemsLtd., „Cjtf of Reshloaoe:Ottawa , Aye: 43, ( j j ) »)4)(»»(~ ) j»)( ' j ( a()k,f~ z )vt!)(yl' ( , r ' r )» „k)o i)) , v r j , , „ ( . , (Q(.,„„ , „ , » * (»), „- „ , ( ~ „ ~ » . ~»»»)»( „, , '1()( („,e ( ; » . „ i : . , : ~ ! » (( » „ ' ; " , „."», p ) j , ',.(fan~,;,l»; (,„(;(»~ )jr currant goal is;,to have the number two embedded c r i tical application in a variety of industries around the world, includsystem after Microsoft," says Gordon Bell, president of i n g aerospace, telecommunications, medical instrumentation, process control, point-of-sale, consumer electronics, finance and telephony. QNX StIAware Systems Ltd. '' QNX Square; 8$stems Ltd. is the Ottawa developer of the The onlyindustry where QNX has not yetdeveloped a presence QNX/Neutrino scaleable and fault-toleratant real-time operating i s o n the desktop PC, says Bell. Nonetheless, he notes, "there are system for enibeddetl,systetrts. ~e company is almost 20 years old, 4 0 ,000 development houses that use our product." and has rernamed fiercely indep~dent. Lately, QNX has been making strategic alliances with some QNX was started by tee&ical "geeks" coming out of the m a j or vendors. ' University of Waterloo - the principals, Bell and Dan Dodge, are IBM , f o r example, is using key aspects of the QNX/ Neutrino OS both 43. They sti11' aptutd their"',days programming and developing i n various devices, including an inside-the-automobile application. solutloils. In return, IBM will provide QNX with advanced embedded Bell has an M.A. in solid state semiconductor physics, technologies to be integrated in the latter's product suite. Also, both companies are actively promoting the developwjttle Dodge' has an M.A. in computer science. After a ';. grtjdua(ting, both worked at Bell Northern Research as ~')j mentofopenstandardinterfacesforembeddedproducts. Bell views QNX primarily as a developer of solutions. programmers, before leaving and venturing forth with their ' ~ "We like to provide technology that helps other people solve ,,)((j! '»;: QWIl company"' (») <,g » :0,, '. "='~1 Dodge recently received the 1998 J.W. Graham Medal in their technical problems." < Computing and Innovation at Waterloo's spring convocation. QNX is also a "nice" place to work, says Bell. "We have The awardhas only been given four times. an incredibly high retention rate [among a 200-person staff' ':<S Bell says he's not a complete workaholic. In his spare time, he » Bell 1'~ d abbling in computers in high school and built a home computer in the early 1970s, a few years before IBM developed it as a l i kes to do some hobby farming, canoe in Algonquin Park and act as a Boy Scout leader. ..., ..",'I,, coqu ( nercial pijoduct.: '-' Today, the compatty',s real=time OS is being used as amission— Paul Weinberg ,

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CANADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER July i 998

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E X C E 1. L E N C E

A W A R D 5":F::D R: C A'N A. D; I A N 5

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nder the direction of CEO Don Simmonds, AirIQ Inc. has taken the technology of remotely controlling a fleet of commercial vehicles in new directions. AirIQ has combined four technologies for the Windows NTbased AirIQ Onboard system, released in late February. They include: wireless communications, computing, digitized mapping and a Global Positioning System tapping into a constellation of 24 satellites. The new system is also more simplified than previous applications, says Simmonds. "The AirIQ is pre-engineered, eliminating the need for fleet operators to learn complex, customized technology." Because the vehicles are individually equipped with an onboard computer and integrated GPS and wireless transceiver, the manager at a workstation in the office can track the location, direction and speed of each one in the fleet. In the event of an accident, the details are reported back automatically through AirIQ's crash-sensor technology, indicating what happened and who may be at fault. The system can also be used to remotely unlock the doors and have the vehicle disabled. "Trip data is stored and can be sent automatically or accessed at a later date," says Simmonds. Also, the drivers can be monitored to ensure they follow a pre-established route. The manager can obtain a printout map pointing

to unauthorized locations where a vehicle has"strayeti,'including parking lots and sections of highway. Among the benefits of AirIQ for the user, saga Siitnnonds;: are' j . improved efficiencies, enhanced driver safety, reduced losses from ' I, theft, and lower insurance costs. The system is designed for fleets of repair and service vehicles, snowplows, taxis, buses, trucits and traili~+'tj' ers. AirIQ is primarily designed for well-travefed hlgllway'8"and' ".-"", :

roads in Canada. "By increasing the inteIHgenee qnotiNtt'.of. a vehicle ""

AirIQ provides a "management-by-exception" service, says

Simmonds. "This reduces the volume of information so common with data logging systems." AirIQ is a joint venture g four corpurate players: Bell Mobility, Lenbrooke Inc., Calspan SRL and Datumtech Corp. Simmonds has a background in wireless technology going back 20 years. A high school graduate, he has steadily worked his way up the corporate ladder. "My preferred goal is to create something new and simple to use in technology." Simmonds left the business worl/ for a three-.year sabbatical to ~„, spend time as a youth co-ordinator for the Baptist Church. As a father o f four children, he says his priorities are "family, community and:r - „ , business." "'=- — Paul Weinberg j„..,-.I,," ~ „

GarryKalirnnki T i tle:CbiefQirnratingOfNoe<CRRTax C ity of Raaitleaqo: Calgary, ... Aga:® ••

antax chief operating officer and president Garry Kalinski has been kept very busy expanding the potential for income tax software for Canadian consumers, small businesses and accountants. CanTax introduced its consumer-oriented product, CanTax Tl personalincome tax software back in 1985. Four yearslater,CanTax came out with a second product — TIPlus, which was designed to meet the needs of professional tax-preparers. Both have been updatedand continue to be on the market. CanTax Tl in its current version is known as CanTax 98. In addition, Cantax has developed other products in the same field, including the Canadian Tax Tutor, FormMaster Forms Library Software, Can Tax T2 corporate income tax software and T2Plus for corporate income tax preparation profesI" sionals. Both T1Plus and T2Plus work with Revenue Canada's Efile. Kalinski estimates that approximately 7,500 tax preparers across Canada rely on CanTax and more than 40,000 individual taxpayers in the country use the product as well. Also, Can Tax has 25 full-time employees in its Calgary office, but this number increases to 50 during the busy three-month tax season. He notes that while the majority of accountants still use DOS, CanTax is making available its product for tax professionals in both DOS and Windows — including the latest 32-bit technology. He

understands the reluctance of accountants to nuike the switch to "':.""' Windows because of the brevity of tax season," the harsle nf'leaning a '="':",""-"'< '7' new application and the expense involved in buying. new ttardware, On the other hand, Kalinski tries gently to urge clients to consider the productivity gains associated with more up-to-date products. "I help them make the transition." In the future the CanTax CEO envisages an upsurge in home electronic tax filing on their PCs after the year 2000. Also he sees the start of'ta'x packages' being 'sold on the Internet and tailored to the individual, business requirements of the client. In terms of the latter, CanTax already has tutorials included on its product. A self-educated, 46-yean-.old bnsinessman, he ju'mped .' ' ~ ; ;= ; into computer programming after graduating from high school. Before the PC revolution, Q had rlevnloped tatser- ~',",," vice bureau-based application for accountants. Kalinski has since broadened his skillets into admin- slK"ti'. i, istration and selling. Helping to educate people on taxes and what they can do to reduce their payments appears to:be his„-main:=,,':, '',' mission. He urges young people to start filing returns at age 18. "Creating opportunities for others is what keeps me pumped up," said y';,,",„',= Kalinski. In his spare time, he likes to read books about human psychology. "Marketing is a passion for me." ' Ltrrl Pu@$ Weinberg ,

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too expensive for most would be buyers. At the moment, 13-inch to 15-inch LCD flatpanel displays cost around 2.5 times as much as a similarly sized, premium quality CRT monitor. This keeps the LCD desktop monitor confined to a tiny percentage of the desktop monitor market.

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The Alliance The most exciting effort to drive down the costs of flat-panel monitors has been announced by a consortium headed up by Canada's ATI. Dubbed the Digital Flat Panel initiative (DFP), this alliance aims to reduce the costs of flat panels to under US$1,000 in little over a year. Key to the effort is acceptance of a low-cost, all-digital interface between the next generation of flat-panel displays and PC graphics cards. Monitor makers including ViewSonic, MAG, Princeton, LG Electronics, and Samsung, and PC vendors including Compaq and Acer have all announced support for the DFP initiative. DFP will establish a standard for low-cost circuitry to transmit all-digital image data from a PC to a flat panel, shaving hundreds of dollars off the cost of flat panels that currently have to convert analog image data (the form that CRT monitors need to receive data from a graphics card) back to digital. The all-digital solution offered by the DFP will also result in cleaner, sharper display of images on flat panels, further enhancing the appeal of flat panels over LCDs. The DFP participants hope that products based on the new standard will be in production by the end of 1999 at the

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For the rest of 1998, and into mid-1999, the sales and profit opportunities in the desktop monitor market will likely remain primarily with traditional CRT products. In this field, trends visible in 1997 have mainly continued through 1998. Small format 14-inch color monitor models have continued to sell in large numbers to the dumb terminal and sub-$1,000 PC systems markets. These 14-inch monitors are mostly utility grade, low margin, commodity products sold on price and not much else. Their feature sets typically are upgraded less often than larger format monitors, or in some cases are essentially no longer being upgraded at all. The continuing evolution of Network Computing, with Java-oriented NC thin clients, the new Microsoft Windows Terminal (Hydra) platform, and Net PC desktop computers, will offer vendors an opportunity to sell large numbers of low-cost color 14-inch monitors. The buyers will be business, government and educational customers upgrading from dumb terminals and monochrome monitors to Web-ready, connected network computing devices. In the sub-$1,000 consumer PC market, 14-inch monitors will also continue to be sold widely, though typically at paper-thin margins. One long-term bright spot in a 14-inch monitor retail sale is that there is a good chance users may eventually upgrade to larger, better monitors when they have the money to do so. The 15-inch CRT monitor is still the mainstream for home, business and educational desktop computing, due both to its low cost and small size. The size is "good enough" for most common office suite applications, games, Web browsing, e-mail and multimedia software display. Most of the major monitor vendors continue to develop and upgrade the features of their 15-inch monitors, allowing resellers to "upsell" 15-inch monitor buyers on the basis of quality and features. As always, the quality standard for CRT tubes is the Sony Trinitron, and its high-end competitors from Hitachi and NEC. With its new iMac computers, Apple has continued to offer a part of its Mac product line in the form of "all in one" systems with a 15-inch monitor integrated with the CPU. The next generation of integrated PC will be a flatpanel display with the c omputer built into the display's chassis: a kind of desktop notebook PC. At the moment, LCD cost is the ibiting factor to this ' solution.

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Bigger isBetter, Especially for Resellers Most of the heat in the rest of 1998 is likely to be generated in the 17-inch and car 19-inch CRT markets. The 17-inch monc r "c itor has continued to grow in sales as priceshave drifted downwards and features "' O have improved, and the desire of PC users for higher resolution displays has increased. A 17-inch monitor (w ich typically has a maximum diagonal viewing size of about 16 inches is substantially better for v i e wing large spreadsheets, desktop published documents, multiple Web pages, and other large, demanding data and image displays than a 15-inch monitor. In the mainstream home and business markets, as differentiated from the "budget" market, the 17-inch CRT is quickly becoming the new standard. Following quickly on the heels of the success of the 17-inch CRT format is the biggest display success story of 1997 and 1998 — the 19-inch monitor. Employing design and technology innovations to pack a 19-inch (18-inch diagonal viewing size) screen into a footprint little bigger than a traditional 17-inch model, this monitor format offers a price/performance mix that makes it irresistible for many "premium" home PC usersand professional graphics,CAD and financialcomputing users.By contrast, 20-inch and larger monitors suffer from a similar sticker shock problem to LCD panels, with the added disadvantage of huge footprints and crushingly heavy weight.

Other Players

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~ C ANADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER July 1998 httpg/www.ccwmag.corn

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The Future

Jeff Evans is Associate Editor of Canadian Computer 8'holesaler. He can be reached at: j eff@tcpon. corn.

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As LCD data projectors from vendors such as Epson also benefit from the downward trend in prices brought on by improving manufacturing technology and economies of scale, they are increasingly being chosen as a solution for very large format display of computer images, especially in business and education. As well, manufacturers such as Princeton report a strong growth in the sales of large format TV/PC monitors, with screen sizes of 26 to 34 inches, which can display both video and computer image frequencies. Also, consider the Plasma panel display product sector, with examples currently offered by NEC, Philips, and Mitsubishi, offering "wall-hanging" models up to 42 inches wide. Plasma displays are declining steadily in price, but they have a long way to go before they can attract a large volume of sales. For the demanding home theatre or business presentation early adopters, plasma should be able to give LCDs competition in the large display market within the next two or three years.

Resellers should keep a close eye on the prices of both CRT and desktop flat-panel display products. If, as is expected, the price of a 15-inch flat panel (with a viewable area close to that of a 17-inch CRT) drops to within 50 per cent of the cost of a 17-inch CRT, focus group surveys indicate that up to one-quarter of new monitor buyers will opt for the more expensive LCD. According to industry analysts, sales of CRT monitors may level off b the year 2000 and begin to decline rapidly by 2001. LCD desktop displays should become a worthwhile market by late 1999, and really take off shortly after that date. As always, resellers should ensure they don't getcaughton the wrong side of a rapidly changing price/performance equation, holding inventory of products at the older, higher price without any price protection from the manufacturer. With suitable caution and close attention to customer needs and changing products and prices however, resellers should find many opportunities to benefit from the interesting days ahead in the computer display market. We' ve had plenty of warning that the shift from CRT to LCD is comingthere's no excuse for not being ready to exploit it when it actually happens. LCC W

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They' re primed for portability and power bnt which are most worth their carrying-weight? by Sean Carruthers

ith business increasingly reliant on computer technology for crucial information and presentations, and as business people are more mobile than ever before, the need for powerful portable computing has also grown. This has spawned a wide variety of interesting and useful devices. But while handheld units like the PalmPilot or Windows CE machines have a market, they continue to be smaller and more limited in their capabilities. Typically, the interfaces are more difficult,® use than desktop machines, memory is limited, and performanceisinadequate for anything fl ashy orCW-intensive. For those reasons, the notebook computer continues to be the big prize when it comes to portable sales. Although notebook performance has always lagged behind similar configurations on the desktop, th6'Q~ M f ~ c b e packed into these little boxes remains impressive. A 5GB hard drive is roughly the size of a pack of playing cards. CD-ROM drives are scarcely bigger than the CQ themselves. Most machines come with a plethora of external ports, increasing the ab¹y of notebooks to interface and interact with other machines and peripherals. The notebook, as envisioned by both the manufacturers and the users, has gone in two directions: following true portability, or desktop replacement. With the units that are aimed at portability — size and weight matters. To a user who will be slinging a machine over a shoulder for a dash to the airport, the lighter the better. When working in constricted and unanticipated spaces while on the way to an important meeting (whether it's on an airplane, in the cap, or in the lobby), smaller means less awkward. On the other hand, the desktop replacement notebooks are bigger and heavier, but often more powerful. Despite that, they can be packed up in a moment's notice and brought along for a business meeting. For users who occasionally need to pack up their notebook but don't want the hassle of constantly transferring data between computers, the desktop replacement notebook is becoming an attractive option. Meanwhile, as components get smaller, more can be placed inside the portable machines. Although some machines still require the user to switch between floppy and CD drives (consequently requiring the system to be powered down while switching), a number of machines have components so miniaturized that they are able to fit both the CD-ROM and floppy into the same small case.

30 ~ CANADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER July 1998

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New desktop replacement machines routinely feature modems, presentation can now be as simple "When purchasing high-quality sound (internal speakers that aren't so good, but the qual- as finding an electrical outlet and ity through external output is excellent), video-out jacks for external plugging a cable into the videonotebooks for resale, monitors, infrared ports for high-speed transmission to other devices, out port. and jacks for mice and keyboards. Further, in addition to thePCMCIA it certainly wouldn' t slots commonly used for network cards, some machines are even start- RAM Counts! One t ing t a t b ecame clear burttO CheCk hOW muC ing to ship with built-in LAN jacks. Components in both portable and desktop replacement machines during this month's tests is the perform more slowly than similar configurations in full-sized desktop ability RAM t o boost system the extra RAM performance. For a long time, machines. Although mobile Pentium II processors are starting to Windows 95 and 16MB RA M WOu ld a d d tO the COSt. appear in notebooks for the first time, the ability to get data where it needs to go inside the machine is still compromised somewhat by the seemed togo hand in hand.More Itcould mean the recently, there was a jump to smaller components. The good news is that speed continues to improve substantially for notebooks, regardless of how they compare 32MB. Now, with memory so difference to the full-sized machines. Even six months ago, "high-end" note- inexpensive, a machine with 64MB RAM or more is not unreabooks were often limited to Pentium 166MHz units. In this month's between great lab test, some of the notebooks available come close to doubling the sonable, and can be well worth the increase in performance benchmarking scores of those units. performance and obtained from the elimination of Crowing...? Shrinking...? Yes. hard-disk swapping. eXCellent PerfOrmanCe. Although the new machines are compact in many ways, they are more As an illust ation of this fact full-sized than ever before. A major problem with early notebooks was one of the machines this month that smaller units offered smaller keyboards. Now, with wider screens, was mistakenly shipped with only 16MB RAM. For informational notebook bodies are wide enough to accommodate full-sized purposes, we did a "before" and "after" test on this notebook. With the keyboards. addition of the extra memory (and no other changes), the benchmark As for the screens, they continue to grow in size, as well. Desktop scores jumped, sometimes by 50 points or more. CRT screenshave a viewable area less than their LCD equivalents. What this means is: although most of the machines in this The 14.2-inch LCD notebook display is roughly the same viewable month's test are good, with a few extra dollars they can be even better. area as the 15-inch CRT. At 15.1 inches, a LCD display is starting to When purchasing notebooks for resale, it certainly wouldn't hurt to approach the viewable area of a 17-inch CRT monitor. check how much the extra RAM would add to the cost. It could mean In notebooks, the pixels are hardwired into the display. Most of the thedifference between greatperformance and excellentperformance. new notebook computers ship with a resolution of 1024 by 768. For our tests this month, we used BapCo's Sysmark32 benchHowever, if the user needs to downshift to 800 by 600 for some reason, marking software. The notebooks were tested in both 1,024 by 768 and one of two things can happen. The display can become blocky and ugly 800 by 600 resolution with a 16-bit color depth. Testing was done with as it tries to redisplay 800 display pixels over 1,024 hardwired pixels; the machines powered by their AC adapters, with power management and alternately, the difference in pixels can be discarded, leaving a turned off. black border around the 800 by 600 pixels centred on the desktop. We also did a rudimentary battery test to get a rough estimate of The solution? Because of the power of these machines, they're battery life, using a program provided by Dave Voorhis at Armchair well-suited for flashy presentations, whether for large and important Airlines Computer Services. It's important to note that battery charge meetings, or small groups of people. As a recognition of that fact, note- varies from battery to battery even on the same model, so this is by no book computers come with a video-out port for displays on a big means conclusive. It's also important to note that things likeCD-ROM drives and floppy drives will quickly drain the battery. monitor, or on a number of smaller monitors. Setting up for a big

Processor: Pentium II 266MHz Suggested Retail Price: $6,315 The Angel 6800 MegaNote is an imposing piece of equipment, larger and heavier than most notebooks. Like the Eurocom model in this month's roundup (which uses the same style of case as this one), the Angel 6800MegaNote is less a true portable and more a desktop replacement unit. Although there's a lot to be impressed about with this notebook (15.1-inch display, 4.1GB hard drive, 24X CD-ROM), where it shines is speed. With 128MB RAM onboard (the maximum this machine can take), and a Pentium II 266MHz processor, the MegaNote just zips, turning in benchscoresthatoutdistanced the competitors by a healthy margin in mostareas. One complaint with the machine is with the buttons under the touchpad. The MegaNote is a bit picky about where one hits the button (it seems to prefer the point where the two buttons meet, rather than side of the button); tapping the touchpad may be easier, but it's still a bit awkward. That quibble aside, the MegaNote is a nice speedy machine, great for turbo-charged desktop replacement and the occasional road trip (for which it comes with its own carrying case). It is backed by a one-year warranty.

32 ~

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Processor: PowerPC G3250MHz Suggested Retail Price: $5,099

For those looking for an alternative to the Windows-based universe, there's always the Macintosh. After a tense period of uncertainty about where the company was going, Apple has answered the critics with the new iMac, and theG3-based PowerBook. If this new direction wasn't enough to make an impression, the look of the new PowerBook will take care of that. Instead of the usual hard and squared-off lines most currently available I'Etta., „ notebooks sport, the PowerBook opts for a more curved and stylized feel. There's a lot of @ attention to detailw iththis notebook. It doesn't stop with aesthetic concerns, though. The PowerBook contains a 20X CD-ROM, a K56flex modem, both SCSI and S-video out ports, a video-out jack for viewing on a standard monitor. Even better, the two bays on the front end of the machine are hot-swappable with a quick flip of a lever. Unfortunately, our benchmarking software would not operate on this machine, so there are no results included in the survey. The general consensus says G3machines typically perform faster than Pentium machines with the same frequency rating. Either way, this notebook offers powerful performance and agood mix ofcomponents. The warranty period for the PowerBook is one year. :

Processor: Pentium233MHz MMX Suggested Retail Price: $6,674

One of the big names in the industry, Compaq offers the Armada 7790DMT performance notebook. This machine is a sturdy little machine with some interesting features. First of all, the notebook is one of only two we received with trackpoint cursor control. The feel on the Compaq's trackpoint seemed a bit less than firm, which is probably because the button is a bit smaller than the one on the IBM and had more room to move around. Nevertheless, the control was precise. Secondly, there are four buttons set aside especially for pre-programming of commands and macros. For repetitive presentations, these buttons could take a lot of the pain out of the same old routine. Thirdly, there is virtually no palm rest on this machine. For users who find the palm rest awkward, this t!",„,. may bethe best-suited notebook. < The benchmarking scores for the Armada came up incomplete, with no report for the database section of the tests. A non-report in the benchmarking scores can occur for any of a number of reasons, including: operating system incompatibility with the benchmarking software (a different build of Windows could cause this); or the system configuration may not be optimal for the series of scripts our benchmarking software runs through. Just eyeballing the speed of the Compaq in this section (before the script produced an error), it appeared to be on par with the other 233MHz machines. The same error in the database scripts caused the machine to bring up an incomplete overall Sysmark32 score. Apart from that, the machine turned in a good performance, although the CD-ROM, the floppy drives cannot be used at the same time on this configuration. The machine is a tough machine with a good business focus. Software included is Just Connect, Compaq Ethernet utilities and diagnostic software and PointCast. The Armada comes with its own carrying case, and the warranty period is three years.

Processor: Pentium266MHz MMX Suggested Retail Price: $5,394 A recent entrant into the field of notebooks, Hitachi has provided us with Visionbook Pro 7590. With a solid 13.3-inch TFT display, it's about average, and although it didn't score at the top of the heap in the benchmark tests, this model comes with a number of nice features that are worth talking about. First among these is the bay setup along the front of the machine, which has a spot for the floppy, the 20X CD-ROMand the hard disk. This setup makes the hard drive as easy to change as the CD-ROMdrive. The downside to the bay setup is that there is no space in the machine for a battery, unless you sacrifice either the floppy or the CD-ROM. In communications, however, the machine scores big. Like many of the other machines, it ships with an internal U.S. Robotics 56Kbps modem with telephone connector jack. T' he7590 goes one better, though, and also includes a LAN jack for easy networking (without taking up a PC card slotl). The machine comes bundled with AudioRack, Mediamatics MPEG, ConfigSafe, and Modern Age Books software. It's protected by a three-year warranty.

34 ~

CANADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER July 1998 httpllwww.ccwmag.rom

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T E ST

Processor: Pentium II 266MHz Suggested Retail Price: $5,440 Located in Nepean, Ont., Eurocom has built a solid name for itself in the notebook market with a focus on desktop replacement units. The 8500M certainly fits into this category, offering powerful components, a fast processor, and a larger case (and consequently, greater weight). Because of this, the product isn't the best candidate for a user who does a lot of travelling. Rather, the system is the ideal machine for someone who wants something more substantial on the desktop, but would like to retain the ability to fold up that desktop machine in 10 seconds and take it on the road. The first thing that is impressive about this machine is, obviously, its sheer size. Although some of the othernotebooksthis month had screen sizesthatseemed more than adequate,the screen size onthe 8500M is larger than even the typical desktop machine, at15.1 inches. The big screen can certainly be useful, but at this size the individual pixels become more noticeable, creating a slightly distracting "striping" effect. This extra width, when added to the other half of the machine, allowed Eurocom to fit the 24X CD-ROM, floppy and battery into the case simultaneously. In addition, where the other machines had a "numeric keypad" only by pressing a button and using the regular QWERTYkeys, the Eurocom machine was actually able to fit a miniaturized keypad in beside the standard-sized notebook keyboard. Though the machine has the two standard PCMCIA slots, the machine comes pre-shipped with a U.S. Robotics 56Kbps modem card installed in one of them. As for the other components, they appear to be designed for easy removal and replacement. The floppy, CD-ROM,and even the hard drive slide into place on grooves. Although this makes removal and upgrading that much easier, the hard disk seems a bit unprotected, sitting on the corner and resting on a rubber pad. Although most notebooks' hard drives aren't likely much better protected, there's certainly a psychological effect involved. Since the machine is primarily designed to sit on the desktop, though, chances of damage would be minimal (whether such concerns are valid or not). In short, the Eurocom 8500T is a substantial and speedy machine that is perfect for desktop replacement and the occasional use as a portable. It comes with a one-year warranty and its own carrying case.

Processor: Pentium266 MMX Suggested Retail Price: $8,990 â&#x20AC;˘

Value

The Hyperdata notebook, provided to us by Compucon, leaves very little to be desired. With a 266MHz Pentium MMX, it checks in as one of the fastest of the machines tested this month. t Further, the case manages to fit the 24X CD-ROM, floppy drive, and battery all at the same time, meaning less downtime while switching between components. The keyboard layout is pretty familiar for users of a standard full-size Windows-enhanced keyboard, although the relative flatness of the keys may be a bit uncomfortable at first. At14.1 inches, and wired for 1024 by 768, the screen is large and spacious. The clincher for this notebook, however, is the price. At only $3,990, the Hyperdata is the least expensive of the models tested, but its performance was pretty much on par with the other highest-performing machine in this batch of contestants. A three-year warranty on the machine helps, too. The only thing that could really merit a complaint about this machine's configuration is that a modem isn' tstandard.There is a spot in the machine fora modem, or one could be added as a PCMCIA card, after the fact. Apart from that, the Hyperdata appears to be the high-performance machine forthosewh odon'twantto spend an excessive amount ofmoney.

Processor: Pentium266MHzMMX Suggested Retail Price: $5,908

For NEC's performance pick, we looked at the Versa 6260,which comes in a charcoal color instead of the usual basic black. At 266MHz, the machine performed quite well on the benchmarking tests and was, in everyway, a competent machine. As with many other notebooks, the biggest downside to this machine is the bay configuration. The Versa Bay II slot will take the floppy drive or the 20XCD-ROMthat come with the machine, but only one at a time. Optionally, the bay can take an LS-120 drive, an extra battery, or a second hard drive (all purchased separately). As a bonus, though, the configuration we tested also ships with a VSTZip drive, which can also go into that slot. Although there are a lot of options, the downtime while switching components could become frustrating. The machine comes with Adobe Acrobat, Audio Rack, LanDesk, LapLink, McAfee Virus Scan, Mediamatics MPEG, Mind Path FX, and OAGFlightDisk. The suggested retail for the Versa 6260 is $5,908 and includes the Zip drive. The warranty for the machine is three years.

36 ~

CANADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER July 1998

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L AB

TEST

Processor: Pentium233MHz MMX Suggested Retail Price: $6,927 Taking a look at IBM's ThinkPad 770 is all it takes to figure out how IBM got its good name. This is one solid machine, both in terms of construction, and in performance. Certainly, at 233MHz, the speed is a little bit less than some of the other machines tested this month, but the ThinkPad makes up for it in other ways. The fi rstm ajoradvantage this notebook has isthe construction.N otebooks sometimes take a w hile to getusedto because of the palm rest, how the keys are angled, and the feel of the machine under the hands. This one was a joy to use from the wordWgo,g with a beautiful keyboard, good hand angle, and a comfortable surface finish all over the machine. The casing feels like it has metal backing everywhere, from the 14.1-inch display, to the frame around the components. This box feels like you could drop an anvil on it without any damage (not recommended). For some users, the second major advantage would be the trackpoint control, rather than the nearubiquitous touchpad â&#x20AC;&#x201D; but this is subjective. There is a third button under the two standard buttons, which can be used to control window scrolling. The best advantage this machine has over the others is the L)ltraBay II slot. At first glance, it seems that the user has to choose between the CD-ROM and the floppy drive, since there is only one slot. However, the ThinkPad 770's drives are not only removable, they' re also hot-swappable. Instead of shutting down the machine to switch components, the user simply clicks the eject button, waits for the signal, and pulls the lever to detach the drive. Installing the other drive is as simple as sliding it into the bay and pressing the lever back into place. The basic configuration of the ThinkPad 770ships without the CD-ROM, and retails for $6,399, (we had the gvEEeNCE CD-ROM added for the purposes of the test). For users who would prefer a hot-swappable DVD-ROM unit ace<~ instead of the CD-ROM, it is available for an additional $828, for a total suggested retail of $7,227. The machine comes with a lot of software goodies, including Asymetrix Digital Video Producer, PointCast, TranXit, Overall Video Phone, ConfigSafe, IBM AntiVirus and CardWorks. The machine is backed by IBM's three-year warranty. 9

Processor: Pentium200MHzMMX Suggested Retail Price: $5,500 Let's get the negatives out of the way first: At 200MHz, the CF-35 is one of the slower machines in our tests. And with a 12.1-inch screen, with a maximum resolution of 800 by 600 (in 16-bit color), the display area seems tiny, after working with some of the other machines. That size factor, however, appears to be the whole point of this notebook. At the opposite end of the scale from the desktop replacement, the CF-35 is the most portable of all of this month's machines, coming in at a slim 1.5 inches in height, and at just under five pounds in weight. Although the heaviest models (at about 10 pounds) don't seem like they'd be all that heavy, a short walk with them slung over the shoulder will change that notion. This model, on the other hand, is just the thing for someone who's travelling a lot with a computer in tow. For someone cycling to work, five pounds (and a couple of inches length and width-wise) can mean a lot. Because of the size, the user can run only the floppy or the 10XCD-ROM, but not both at the same time. On the other hand, the power usage for a smaller machine like this is less, and the battery life is higher than average. For sheer performance, this machine isn't necessarily the best bet, but where compactness is important, the CF-35 is a clear winner. The warranty for the CF-35 is three years.

Processor: Pentium233MHz MMX Suggested Retail Price: $3,999

399 I CANARIAN COMP EER WNQIEEA~ER 111 1999

The Soundx 5500Tdoesn't have a lot of fancy tricks and ornamentation to it. Instead, it comes in an understated and unassuming black case packed with solid components. With this configuration, the user must choose between the 20X CD-ROMand the floppy drive. With a 13.3-inch display and a 3.2GB hard drive, the components are basic and usable. What' s more impressive is the 80MB of total RAM on this notebook, which brings up the performance accordingly. A positive: The touchpad can be set up so that a brush of the finger along one side will activate scrolling in the active window. It's handy for working in a long document â&#x20AC;&#x201D; anything that eliminates excessive movement back and forth across the screen (with either the touchpad or the trackpoint) is a welcome addition. The Sceptre Soundx 5500T comes with a carrying case and a one-yearw arranty.

9 AJ I

L AB

TEST

Processor: 200MHz Pentium MMX Suggested Retail Price: $4,499 Another relative newcomer to the world of notebooks, Sharp's PC-M200 has one noticeable difference right out of the box: it smells like a new car. A few spots of silver on the chassiscase, that is only reinforces that feeling. Performance-wise, it's at the slower end of the scale, as it ships with only a 200MHz Pentium MMX chip inside. However, the machine comes with enough room to have the battery, 20X CDand floppy onboard all at the same time. In a nice little twist on the usual, the CD-ROM is fixed in the case, and the floppy can be traded for an extra battery or an optional Zip drive. In addition to the usual ports, the Sharp comes with both a 56Kbps internal modem, and an RCA video-out jack for hooking up to a television. Software preinstalled includes Puma's TranXit, Official Airlines Guide (helpful for the travelerl) and F/X Presentation. One worrisome thing about the unit is the TFT display: while the quality of the display is good, the panel behind it seems a bit flimsy. Touching the back of the display panel even lightly produces rippling while the screen is on. Since the back of this panel constitutes the top of the notebook when it is closed, this may be a potential concern for users concerned with durability. Sharp's warranty for the unit is three years.

Processor. Pentium 0 266MHz Suggested Retail Price: $,999 For years, Twinhead has been making notebooks for other manufacturers, who would put their own name on the case and take the glory. Now, Twinhead is manufacturing notebook computers under its own name (ours comes courtesy of Peripheral Express), and while the name may not be familiar, their experience shines through. Armed with the new 266MHz Pentium II for notebooks, a 56Kbps modem and a 4GB hard drive, the Twinhead already has a step up on the competition. When you throw in a 2XDVDdrive (20X CD-ROM equivalent) and a DVD-to-go TV-out card, you' ve got the makings of a killer, cutting-edge machine. Even better, the DVD, floppy and battery all fit in at the same time, eliminating downtime. Performance on the machine was solid, coming in at the top of the heap for the smaller machines (it was edged out for overall performance by one of the larger desktop replacement notebooks). For software, the CDWizard package is included, with options for audio, photo and video CDs. Also included is Margi DVD and TranXit. For the quoted price of $4,999, the operating system is Windows 95, but an NT system is also available for $5,149. The Slimnote comes with a carrying case, and has a one-year warranty.

Value Hyperdata Though it more-or-less tied for second place in the performance contest, Hyperdata's notebook comes in at a $3,990 — the lowest price among this month's contestants. This machine offers great performance for less.

Performance Angel 6800 MegaNote For sheer performance, this machine walked away with the prize, largely owing to the combination of fast processor and sufficient RAM to minimize swapping. For a really zippy desktop replacement, this is the fastest of the bunch.

Overall IBM ThinkPad 770

IBM shows why the company is so respected in the notebook field, with a machine that's rugged, reasonably fast, able to hot-swap drives, and chock full of software goodies. Add the fact that it's easy to use, and you end up with a notebook that's hard to put down. ~nn. SeanCarruthersis CCW's Test Lab Editor. Hecan be reached atsean@tcp.ca. • •• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • o• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • httplhvww.ccwmag.corn

•

Ju ly 1998 CANADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER ~39

P ER F O R M A N C E N O T E B O O K S L AB

TEST

System specsr:I" Processor Cache RAN (standardh ngxfnubu) Ioiei

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IRax Resolution(color

Pentium II 266MHz

G3 250MHz

Pentium 233MHz MMX

PentiumH 266MHz

51 2KB

IMB

512KB

128/128

32/192

32/144

64/128

48 /144

15.1 TFT

13.3 TFT

15.1 TFT

13.3 TFT

1024 x768(24-bit)

1024 x768(32-bit)

1024 768 x (16-bit) /

1024 x768(24-bit)

1024 x768(16-bit)

. :Pentium 266MHzMMX

1260 x1024(256 color) external

HardDrive

4MB

2MB

4MB

2MB

4.1GBremovable

4GB

2GB

I 81GB removable

4GB removable

24X removable

20X hot-swappable hot-swappable K56flax

20X removable

24X removable

removable20X

removable 33.6Kbpsinternal

removable 56KbpsPCMCIA"

yes 56Kbps X2 modem

ES1878

ES1879

removable 33.6KbpsPCMCIA"

Floppy Dffya Nodenr ',::, "~" . Afafi'd-". PCCan( I ihi Poiudng Device

ESS 1879

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Touchpad

Trackpoint

Touchpad

12.6 x9.7x2.0

14.1 x 10.9x 2.0

11.34 x9.5x 1.7

'14.1 x10.9x 2.0

12.7 x 10.4x 2.0

„., Ihdin-ffhs f(inches)

4.5

Weight,(pounds) BatteryType ,Dperating System USBport

9.4

7.6

Uthium lon

4.5

2.75

7.9

9.9

7.9

Lithium ion MacDS

Lithium lon

yes yes yss Kensington lock, carry case

yes

Lithium Ion Win95 w/ Active Desktop yes yes : yes carrying case I

278

N/A N/A N/A

Win95 w/Active Desktop

RIPort . WindowsKey -

Windows Benchmarlm; .:,>~ Desktop Publishing'f,;' fdgfdx 766('lg bit) Desktop Graphics 600 xNO (16-bil) I "'~I' fPSR 1N (f6-bit) Desktop PresentaNog; SNftfgg)'(f6-bit) 11gldu 1N(I6-bit) WordProcessing Ng xgN(16-bit)

417

303

261

363

245

185

199

221

155

237

173

114

231

188

163

227

172

212

304

164

253

168

N/A N/A N/A N/A

229

185

222

168

247

208

265

N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A

241

174

2 hr 38 min

2 hr 5 min

I hr 57 min

2 hr 40 min

2 hr 22min

1-888-322-6435

1-800-263-5868

(613) 224-6122

1-800-448-2244

www.compaq.corn

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www.hiachi t pc.corn

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I year

3 years

210 255

263 314

261

283 275

Sysalork

273

p;".II,':"

IAD4 x 768 (16-bit)

LAN jack

304

393

4x 'r'-I ~x 768 (tg-bit)

yes yes

187

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183

yes

228 227

269

255

Apple key! no S-video out,Ethernetjack,,' carrying case SCSI port, Kensignton lock '.

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171

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177

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Performance •

•

40 ( CANADIAN COMPUTERWHOLESALER July 1998

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• •

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• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

• • •

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Pentium 233MHz MMX

Pentium200MHzMMX

Pentium 11266MHz

512KB

256KB

512KB

64/ 256 14.1 TFT

32/256

64/128

32/96

80/144

32/128

64/128

14.1 TFT

13.3 TFT

12.1 TFT

13.3 TFT

1024 x768(32-bit)

1,024 x768(16-bit)

800 x 600 (16-bit)

1024 x768(16-bit)

1024 x768(32-bit)

4MB

2MB

1.5MB Neomagic

2MB

4MB

5.1GB

5.1 GB

3GB

3.2GB

3.24GB

4GB

removable 24X

hotswappable20X

removable 20X

10 x removable

removable20X

20X internal

2X DVD(20XCDequiv)

yes

hotswappable 33.6Kbpsinternal Crystal SRS 3D

removable

rro

yes 56Kbps internal

ESS 1869

YamahaOPL3-Sax

Crystal 3D

removable 56Kbpsinternal Crystal 3D

ESS Maestro

Pentium 233MHz MMX

Pentium 200MHz MMX

Pentium 266MHz MMX 51 2KB

Pentium 266MHz MMX

ES1869

Touchpad

Trackpoint

Touchpad

12.6 x 9.8 x1.9

12,3 x 10.0 x 2.2 3.5

11.58 x 9.78 x2.28

11.7 x9.1x 1.5

11.92 x9.2x 2.02

12.4 x 10.1x2.3

12.0 x 9.5 x2.0

3.7

3.5

2.5

3.5 8.25

3.75 8.25

Touchpad

7.8

7.49

4.9

6.82

8.2

Lithium ion

Lithium lon

Lithium ion

L)thium lon

Lithium ion

Windows 95

yes

yes yes

yes

yes VST Zip drive

yes yes

yes yes carrying case/

yes yes yes

yes yes carrying case

239

zip dnve available

yes yes yes carrying case,videoout,

Kensington lock

(not included)

DVD to gocard

194

227

147

191

153

235

187

216

N/A

186

145

237

395

325

385

307

330

250

387

332

274

333

N/A

280

195

321

218

178

203

177

173

161

217

206

176

212

N/A

181

153

194

242

190

219

154

193

164

242

181

215

N/A

189

153

239

296

227

240

185

191

297

252

186

184

N/A

158

152

250

267

186

225

141

181

155

268

263

181

219

N/A

175

259

201

228

171

191

172

261

242

185

214

N/A

180

153

238

2 hr 29min

3hr40min

2 hr 11 min

3hrymin

2 hr 42 min

2hrymin

2 hr 11min

267

1-800-927-4777

1-800-426-2255

1-800-366-0476

1-800-265-0616

1-800-788-2878

1-800-567-4277

1-888-734-3577

srww.hypernotebook.corn )3,990

www.ibm. corn/pc/ca/thinkpad

www.nec-computers.corn

www.panasonic.ca

www.sceptre.corn

www.sharp.ca

pecanada.corn

$6,927.99

$5,908

$5,500

3 years

3 year

$3,999 1 year

$4,499 3 years

$4,999

)years

1 year

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R E V I E W5

Handhelds

is a truly usable machine „.....,.„..., o date, one distinct factor has been both the blessing and the curse of Windows CE-based systems — their very small size. There's no arguing that computers weighing less than one pound and fitting into a purse or the inside pocket of a suit jacket are extremely portable. Unfortunately, they' ve also historically been awkward and uncomfortable when any volume of typing was required,and the first-generation CE systems were known for their dismally eyestraining screens. Over the last few months, systems based on Windows CE 2.0 have been hitting the streets, generally sporting better screens, more memory and interesting features like voice recording. However, when it comes to size, the Packard Bell NEC MobilePro 750C is markedly different than its competitors. While players such as Sharp, Compaq and HP have stuck with the smaller form factor, NEC's new offering is big! At about 10 by five by one inches, it's not a pocket device by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, calling this a handheld computer is a rather inaccurate appellation.

The Keyboard At that size, the keyboard is just slightly smaller than full-sized, and quite touch-typeable. The color display is easy on the eyes, particularly compared to the previous monochrome version of this product. Truly, the MobilePro 750C is prepped to compete directly on several fronts with notebook computers. For occasionally mobile users, the product, with 16MB RAM, provides excellent functionality in the form of pocket versions of Word, Excel, Internet Explorer, PowerPoint, as well as Outlook — including e-mail, contacts and schedulingfeatures.Information can be transferred by desktop synchronization or e-mail, or via the PC Card or Flash Card slots. There' s an infrared port, and the unit also includes VGA and serial ports for connection to printers and external displays.

Voice Recorder One of the system's interesting features is the built-in voice recorder that lets the user hold down a button and record a spoken notation. The resulting sound quality is nothing to speak of, but certainly audible. However, picking up a small notebook for dictation isn't particularly exciting, considering the ease of the mini-dictaphones so many executives use today. On first glance, this seems more of a cool incremental feature than a compelling purchase reason. But no doubt some owners of this machine will find this a useful way to very quickly capture some pertinent information, such as reminders, or telephone numbers.

Handwriting Speaking of alternative input, the product also ships with a demo version of CalliGrapher for NEC. A full version from the software developer 42

~ CANADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER July 1998

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can be unlocked for about US$19.95. Basically, the user can print with the pen on the screen, and words will be translated to text. Recognition isn't bad; but far from perfect. However, with continued efforts, the user learns to print more neatly, and the product responds with better recognition. Potential applications could include jotting down notes, say when holding a cell phone with one hand. But for more substantial input needs, the user may get frustrated at the unspectacular recognition levels. Another option of the product is to turn off the handwriting recognition and just save handwritten notes.

Battery NEC claims to get about eight hours off the lithium ion rechargeable battery. Certainly the use of backlighting and the modem are battery-hungry activities. However, the system held up on a five-hour plane trip, including backlight use; and supported about an hour of on-line battery-only Web usage, without incident. At a suggested retail price of $1,499 — certainly the potential buyer is approaching the notebook price range. However, at that price, not much will compete in size or weight with the sub-two-pound MobilePro 750C. And still less can compare with the battery life! Plus, don't forget the "instant-on" feature of this system. That means, if you were last looking at your schedule, all you have to do is open the clam-shell design to see your schedule again, as the system immediately resumes that screen. This can be very handy for quickreference!

The Market By breaking with the pack on the size of CE systems, NEC is showing leadership in addressing usability, and deserves to be applauded. Keep an eye on this product, as we predict some of the current handheld market will be willing to trade form to get function. Moreover, the occasional business traveller considering a notebook might easily be swayed by the price and capabilities of this system. L'M Grace Casselman is the Editor of Canadian Computer Wholesaler. Shecan be reached atgracec@netcom.ca.

FROM NEWSBYTES •

•

On-line commerce is nothing new to HongKong, but coming this year, HongKongwill have its first secure payment gateway for credit card transactions over the Internet BOC Credit Card and IBM have teamed up to provide a reliable and secure environment for HongKongmerchantsto dobusinesson-line. The paymentgateway is based on the Secure Electronic Transaction platform. "Theintroduction oftheSET payment gateway is a response to this demand where a local payment gateway needs to be more flexible, and is tailor-made for the needs of the local market," said Dickson So, managing director of BOC Credit Card (International) Ltd. IBM is providing the complete "solution" for BOCI, including hardware, software and services using IBM's CommercePOINT Acquirer payment gateway system applied to BOCI's IBM RS JJ6000 system. So far, BOChas teamed up with four companies to provide e-commerce: JOS Computer, HugeNet, Motif and Elm. The companies use IBM's netcommerce software package. "Clients are interested but they don't yet understand the technology," said Keith Li, account executive, Internet Solutions unit for JOS Computer."We are trying to push the concept, to educate the market-place that on-line purchasing is a secure method."

Sega unveilsgaming console based on Windows CE

Saga Enter prises Ltd.has announced its next-generation games console, in a bold attempt intended to steal market-share away from Sony Corp. and Nintendo Co. Ltd.To build the machine, Sega has turned to Microsoft Corp., NEC Corp., Hitachi Ltd. and Yamaha Corp. for major components. Atthe heart of the machine is Hitachi's SH-4 RISC (reduced instruction set computer) microprocessor with a 128-bit graphics engine. A Yamaha 32-bit RISC sound processor will provide 64-channel soulld.

Providing high-performance 3Dgraphics will be the Power VR second generation chip from NEC and VideoLogic. The chip boasts the ability to draw three million polygons per second and has a pixel fill rate of 200 megapixels per second. Other specifications include 16MB of main memory, a 33.6Kbps modem for network games, a customized Microsoft Windows CEoperating system, a 12X CDROM drive and the capability to display 16.77 million colors.

Using the SET gateway will be free for any BOC cardholder, of which there are 500,000. Users will need to install an e-wallet on their PC, which they can doby CD-ROM orby downloading the software from the BOC Web site, An e-wallet gives the user the certificate that makes the program secure. "Our goal is to provide advanced technology for our cardholders," said Kenneth K. C. Luk, business planning officer for BOC. Initially, Lukdoesn'texpectthereto be a huge number of customers using the gateway but in time, he says, it will catch on. Under the SET-enabled transaction, the merchant and the cardholder can identify each other by means of certification before any significant confidential information is passed on. Data is encrypted with a 1,024-bit mechanism, which at this moment is the most highly secured encryption technology to protectelectronic data. Only a designated receiver with the appropriate decryption key can open the data for processing.

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Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. and Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) have agreed to work together to promote the DVD system in Taiwan, The cooperation will include work on format and product development and establi shment of a format verification laboratory in Taiwan. Both companies are members of the DVD Forum steering committee,the group of companies that charts the direction of DVD technology and develops new formats. Matsushita is a founding member while ITRI was admitted to the group recently. ITRI is a non-profit research and development organization, founded in 1973 by the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Based on the agreement, Matsushita will provide technical support to ITRI in establishing a verification laboratory. Once constructed, the lab will offer verification services to companies in Taiwan, which need to have the compatibility of their equipment tested before being allowed to call it DVD compatible and use the DVD logo. Verification services will include DVD Video player, DVDVideo disc, DVDRAM drive and DVD-RAM media. CCW

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S ECU R I T Y

Physical security is only part of the solution, though, says Kayfetz. What matters most is the attitude of those using the devices. "Most schools, for example, put their computers in storage for the summer," he says. "When they take them out into classrooms again in the fall, they often fail to reconnect the security lockups. The real security issues here are training and employee attitude." "There are a number of effective security tools available right now," says Cerberus' Lewis. "SET has been used by VISA and Mastercardforsome years,and SSL is used by most software companies selling on the Web. Technically, the level of security that' s available to us is remarkable — what's missing is the level of comfort with the technology that will allow more businesses to use it." And that, of course, is where the going gets tough — and the tough get going. First of all, security technologies offer a bewildering array of terms, standards, and acronyms. Encryption, authentication, and certification compete in the listener's brain with firewalls, IKE (Internet Key Exchange), and PKI (Public Key Infrastructure). It' s easy to get lost — and getting lost means being vulnerable to infiltration and data loss. "People want to be told of easy solutions to their security issues," says Kevin Ford, of ComputerActive Inc., a Nepean, Ont.-based firm that specializes in offering specialized security-focused expertise to its clients. "Unfortunately, there aren't any. Everyone's using WANs and the Web these days, many companies are extending their internal networks to home workers." "The bottom line is that wealth in our economy today is in intellectual property. Information is more important than ever beforethat's where the bucks are being made, and that's what's more exposed than ever before." The solution, says Ford, is a holistic approach to issues of security. He likens a business implementing security issues to someone guarding access to a castle. The castle may have a moat around it, and a high wall enclosing the castle's rooms. The castle can be closed up entirely, if its owner wishes, so there are no exterior gates and no back doors — but then there's no place to throw thegarbage at the end of the day. More important, the castle's owner then has no contact or commerce with the world outside. A gate - albeit with restrictedaccess — becomes a necessity if the castle is to be viable. That gate is analogous to a computer system's firewall. Individuals coming into the castle are identified, given passes, and allowed access to the castle's many rooms. However, they are not escorted in their travels through the castle, so they can go room by room to rob, plunder, and pillage. Those living and working within the castle need to put locks on their individual doors to protect their possessions. The locks and their matching keys — in the computer world — equate to encryption tools. Firewalls ensure that only authorized personnel are able to gain access to internal data. Encryption tools involve a sequence of scrambling, signing, and file integrity procedures that enable individuals and 48 ~

CA NADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER July 1998 ht t p i t w w w.ccwmag.corn

organizations to send files and documents electronically to colleagues, strategic partners, and others. Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) i n v olve secure network connections established over a public network — such as the Internetthat can link two private nodes. The endresultis secure,fast, legally verifiable commerce done digitally. One of the tools advocated by Ford and his colleagues at ComputerActive is Entrust, a set of technologies developed by Northern T elecom, a m o n g a them Entrust/Express (for secure e-mail), the Entrust-Ready Netscape Solution ( which e nables security to SSL, MIME, and Java forms s igning), and the Entrust 4.0 Public Key Infrastructure. "Without the kind of technologies implemented by Entrust," says Ford, "e-business is just impossible. But when the right kind of education is followed by implementation of those tools, you can't stop what's going to happen — we' re approaching a single sign-on model, worldwide." l(fWl Alan Thwaits is a Toronto-basedjournalist who specializes in high-technology reporting. He can be reached at nomad Opraxcomm. corn.

NE5l

At this year's show,

you neverknow what you might pick up. How 'bout some really good vibrations? Like a few small marketing tips that

can make you big bucks. Tempted? Then get ready to rock, and roll in the dough. At Meriselling'98, the new money-making versionof Softeach.

Go ahead, make your selection — Merisel Services, Individual Manufacturer Seminars, Remote/Mobile User, OEM, or Small Business Focus Rooms. Whatever your area, this show promises to be an enriching experience.

Register early, and you qualify to win great prizes from Ford, American Express, ' North American Logistic Services and Roots.

This year, instead of a few T-shirts, some pens and a mug (don't worry, you' ll get those too), pick up something you can really use. Unique product news, marketing ideas and selling tips you can take to the bank.

For more information on the Meriselling '98 show, call 1-877-MERISEL, or visit our web site at www.meriselling.corn to register.

•

Checkout the following dates: Calgary

Vancouver

Toronto

September 22 September 16 Vancouver Trade Telus Convention Centre & Convention Centre i

Corporate Services

Montreal

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- At this year's show, you never know what you might drum up. This year, there's a whole new beat. A few small marketing tips that could roll into big bucks for you. Interested? Then get ready to rock. At Meriselling '98, the new money-making version of Softeach. Come on down and make your selection — Large Business, TechTalk, New Partners, OEM, Software Licensing or Mac Focus Area. Register early, and you could qualify for prizes from Ford, American Express, North American Logistic Services. Whatever your beat, this show's sure to be an enriching experience. This year, get your yah-yahs out. Instead of a few t-shirts, some pens and a mug (relax, you' ll get those too), pick up something you can really use. Unique product news, marketing ideas and selling tips you can take to the bank. For more information on the Meriselling '98 show, call 1-877-MERISEL, or visit our web site at www.meriselling.corn to register.

• •

•

Check out the folloui ng dates: Vancouver

Calgary

Toronto

Montreal

Halifax

September 22 Vancouver Trade Sc Convention Centre

September 16 Telus Convention Centre

August 14 sc 15 Metro Toronto Convention Centre

October 14 Montreal Bonaventure Hilton

October 5 Wesnn Nova Scotlan

Corporate Services

ROOTS

C AD/ < A M

Toronto-based International Data Corp. (Canada) Oeoo eeeeomoeemomeoeemomem does indicate that the Unix workstation market is still Ci'e 11 ® i.j!Oa'aa'x tb'II,~.:I.i'lN+~l@' qjpj'gl three times the size of its NT counterpart. Alan Freedman, Fo fme, e c m » Fm m oce ae the agency's research manager for systems and worksta",8"'oe, E, tions, suggests major users of CADhCAM solutions in R E manufacturing are loath to abandon their heavy investment in Unix workstations, still handy for sophisticated, compute-heavy applications. But he nevertheless points to -. Yeeem a, some erosion faced by this faeeeee» high-end OS. Canadian revenues for Unix workstations DynaCADD 98 hovered at about $300-million in 1997, compared to $317million in the previous year. "NT's main attraction for corporate Contrast that with NT, which • I jumped from $57-million in users is it allows for the seamless 1996 to $90-million in 1997. integration between CAD /CAM CAD/CAM so f t ware solutions in the production process, vendors, traditionally Unixoriented, have come out with and the data files contained in products native to NT. Among non-production applications in the the latest is the France-based Dassault Systemes, the develorganization — such as word oper of Catia, which is distribprocessing, accounting and u ted worldwide b y I B M spreadsheets." through a network of resellers, I including L&H. Other resellers like Con- manufacturers and parts suppliers,have developed a prefceptual Technologies have erencefor Intel-based PCs as those computers become gone further and jumped ship. more powerful, easier to use and more affordable. But it has also meant not as much consulting in some .3 situations. Conceptual has, for instance, reduced its workforce from nearly 40 to 12 employees. In its heyday, says i sill l I . o a 4 a I sh; ~ e ' l l @ the vice-president: "Unix was a lucrative business." NT's main attraction for corporate users, says g'I~ Ig).': pm-'( Malcove, is it allows for seamless integration between ' aa1 " '" ~ m • CAD/CAM solutions in the production process, and the data files contained in non-production applications in the OF/IO OF/I I organization — such as word processing, accounting and Of/13 OFJ'11 Cf/13 Cf/I& spreadsheets. "With Unix, that can't be done," Malcove OFJ'\I Cf J'13 OF ONOOII3 says simply. Cf OAIIOOF 0F omotN33 But NT's weak points — like its clustering solucf Jmomo tions, which are relatively recent compared to Unixareseized upon by Brian McGregor, an ardent Unix fan and president of Mississauga, Ont;based Helios Systems Inc. "NT is poor in multitasking for running a computer The Richmond Hill, Ont.- [for office applications] and running CAD." However, Jack Conaway, senior consultant in based company was a Unix mechanical engineering solutions for Framingham, VAR until three years ago. But it has since become exclu- Mass.-based International Data Corp., counters that these sively an NT shop after going technical debates will be irrelevant as NT workstations and solutions evolve upward. By then, "the performance of NT through a transition period will handle most people's needs," he states. His prognosis when it was offering both is that "NT will overcome Unix over the long run." NT's operating systems. Why the dramatic move? popularity, he adds, is being driven by the large manufacturers, which prefer a single operating system for the entire Conceptual's vice-president of operations, Philip Malcove, enterprise and "don't like the cost of integrating the two says that his largely auto-sec- [NT and Unix]." CAD/CAM solutions have become ubiquitous across tor clients, including both

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many industries including the auto, electotoelo ~ n Fasasa ' tronic and aerospace sectors, which have I .y~ n Fssesssaan oea SS Oa %mala been theearly adopters. Software ven- l IF assents n Sea j r Face~ r ee~ dors have tried to cover all bases in oaasa»O CAD/CAM, an all-encompassing term ,' I Innen O aa f. loll that includes mechanical design, manu- I r Olnlne r seasan . r tasse factun'ng, stressanal sis (also known as a»ana OIO SFOISO aseenOSSIKIOOS Snleh • M I I . I l ees AJJtoTag CAE or computer-assisted engineering) and product data management. In addition, IBM's Austin-based MCAD manager Bill Fleming known asmass customization, estimates that at least two-thirds of all industrial design the new car is designed on the involves 3D solid modelling, as it has become more PC to the customer's specifications out of a range of affordableforeven the smaller manufactur er. IDC Canada reports that Parametric Technology model choices. Corp. leads the pack in CAD/CAM solutions with 30 per But the matter of how this centof the market, compared to 20 per centforAutodesk would logistically work is still and six per cent for Intergraph. Of the three, Parametic, a major issue, says the IBM the developer of Pro/Engineer, is a bigger player in spokesperson. For most conmechanical design, while Autodesk and Integraph have a sumers, says Fleming: "It is larger presence in architecture and engineering, also still easier to deal with the auto important areas for CAD. Up to recently, Autodesk's dealerthree feet away. gN approximately 3,300 VARs worldwide were apparently the most conspicuousCAD/CAM resellers. Paul Weinberg is a TorontoThe role of the highly specialized VARs, the main based journalist who specialchannelfor reaching the end-user, is rapidly changing, izes in high-technology resays Fleming. He envisions these CAD/CAM resellers porting. He can be reached at providing more just than training, support and mainte- pweinbg@interlog.corn. nance for their clientele. "VARs are becoming systems integrators and solution providers." L & H, for instance, has followed this route by coming out with a data management software tool that works with Dassault's Catia. ~

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IDC's Conawaysays product data management has become increasingly important as much of the industrial design and manufacturing is conducted collaboratively in many organizations in separate geographic locations across the continent and the world. Furthermore, he notes, this complements the business process engineering occurring in many organizations. Included with data management are workflow elements that help management administrate the flow of activity behind each design and engineering project. Still to come is virtual product manufacturing, an area that auto manufacturer Chrysler has gone some distance to investigate, adds Fleming. In what has come to be

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Alan Zisman is a computer journalist uyuf teacher, ih ing in Yancokdver.

BUS

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As a reseller, at some point you are going to be negotiating with a landlord. By having a better understanding of the dynamics of the process, you are going to get a better deal. In most situations the tenant does not negotiate directly with the landlord. Normally a landlord hires staff or a sales agent in the form of a realtor or property management company to advertise and negotiate the rental of the business premises. Landlords and sales agents tend to be sophisticated in terms of the negotiating process as well as effective sales techniques. Therefore, the small business owner is often at a disadvantage. When you are negotiating a lease, there are various strategies and tactics to consider. As in any negotiation, it is important to understand the needs of the other side. The sales agent's motivations include earning a commission and satisfying the landlord so that ongoing business can be obtained. As the sales agent is acting for and on behalf of the landlord, it is therefore prudent not to disclose to the sales agent any information that could impair your negotiating position. Being overly enthusiastic about the location may reduce your negotiating stance. In other words, try to keep the sales agent guessing as to whether or not you are planning to select that location.

P other business reasons,'We bank will lend money to the landlord based on the-.'~' amount ofcash fl ow being generated by the tenants in the building. Therefore, this may provide incentive for flexibility> on the landlord's part. It is helpful when negotiating .to, understand the context in which +e landlord is operating. In many situations you are doing the landlord a favor by becoming a tenant, not the other way around. This philosophical and negotiating viewpoint will help to balance an otherwise one-sided lease arrangement.

' -

Important Steps in Nelotiatinl a lease

Thoroughly understand leasing terms and concepts. Speak to your accountant and lawyer for clarification of your Understanding the landlord's ~ s questions or concerns. There are several needs the landlord could have that would provide incen• Determine your overall criteria regarding the ideal location, the tive for a deal to be made along the lines that you are proposing. amount ofmoney you are prepared to spend, and other factors. • The landlord wants occupancy to attract tenants.The more • Thoroughly research potential locations and short-list them to tenants in the building, the easier it will be for the landlord to attract three locations, if at all possible. Any one of these locations should be other tenants into the building. It implies stability and traffic flow, and acceptable to you. Prepare a list of your questions and concerns, to be these are important factors to any tenant as well as the landlord. If a answered by the landlord or his representative. location is newly opened or soon to be open, that should provide you • Obtain all documents required to assess the three locations. with better negotiating leverage in terms of being one of the first This includes a copy of the lease, building plans if the building is tenants to sign up for the building. being constructed, and other information that your lawyer or accoun• The landlord needs cash flow to debt service the bank loan. tant may request of you. A landlord has to account to the bank in terms of • Decide on your negotiating position regarding terms after your generating the cash flow to pay the mortgage. The consultation with your professional advisors. more unrented space in the premises, the less cash • Decide whether you are going to do the negotiating or have your flow and therefore the more pressure the landlord lawyer do the negotiating on your behalf. If it appears tactically advanis under from the bank. The landlord may be tageous for you to do the negotiating, then make sure your game plan motivated to rent the space and therefore may be is well thought out in advance. If you involve your lawyer, it is commore flexible in negotiating the lease. It may take mon for the other side to involve its lawyer in the negotiating stage, the immediate cash flow pressure off the landlord, especially in the case of negotiating legal terms in the agreement. even though there is a risk that the tenant may not If the landlord does not accept the offer, or if a counter-offer is made Q be around a year later. to you and you are not in agreement with it, then try the next location on • Full occupancy enhances the selling price your priority list. This approach will eventually get you the location and of the building.If the landlord intends to sell the lease terms that you want. Do not hesitate to use your accountant and building, a prospective buyer would find it far more lawyer to assist with lease negotianons. This money will be well spent, attractive and the selling price would be accordingly and give you the peace of mind of knowing that your decision is based on higher if the tenancy of the building is at full occu- expert advice that will limit your personal exposure and risk. lcm pancy. In other words, there is a direct financial benefit to the landlord to be flexible in negotiations with DouglasGray,LLB., formerly a practising lawyer,is a Vancouver-based the prospective tenant if it helps fill up the building. consultant, speaker and author of l6 best-selling business books, includ• Tenants make it easier for the landlord to ing The Complete Canadian Small Business Guide (AfcGraw-Hill access bank financing. If the landlord wishes to Ryerson) and start and Runa Profitable Business Using Your computer borrow money to invest in other buildings or for (Self-Counsel Press). •

httpJAvww.ccwmag.corn July 1998 cANADIAN coMPUTER wHQLEsALER ~55

• •

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At a recent e-commerce seminar in Toronto, a representative from Bell Canada displayed some enticing statistics on the current state of e-commerce, and its projected growth over the next few years. Bell cites the successes of companies like Dell, which Bell says is doing $4 million worth of business every day on the Interneta whopping 30 per cent of its total revenue. Indeed, Anderson Consulting says the number of people using the Web is doubling every 100 days.There are already more than 50 million Internet users in the U.S.— a massive market segment developed in only f i v e years. Compare this with the 38 years it took radio to reach 50 million users from 1922 to 1960, or the 25 years between 1920 and 1945 it took the telephone to reach 50-million mark. With half o f C anadian households already equipped with a PC and modem, we' reahead of the U.S. in Internet usage, where 21 per cent of adults use the Internet.

The Billion-Dollar Balloon Cisco, International Data Corp. ( IDC), Forrester Research and the U.S. Dept. of Commerce all agree that projected Internet ecommerce growth is expected to balloon from its 1.1 billion point in 1996 to about $300 billion by 2002. In fact, Forrester Research sees sales climbing as high as $327 billion by 2002 as people gain comfort and expertise in exchanging money, goods, services and information in the new e-Economy. However, this lucrative landscape is fraught with perils, too. Consider the case of Iler Networking & Computing, which was forced to halt mail order sales after it lost over US$28,000 from people ordering computer equipment with stolen credit cards. The 56 ~ CANADIAN COMPUTERWHOLESALER July 1998

company says all of this happened between the first incident in 1997, and one month later when it implemented an Address Verification System. Iler says it struggled for almost a yearcarrying this debt,and was forced to pay the full amount out of pocket.

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One Per Cent Margin And if you think the retail or wholesale business is tough, wait until you see the razor-thin m argins off ered by some of the purveyors of Web goods. Iler, for example, boasted the lowest-cost items on the Internet, with only a one per cent markup. These kind of "virtual wholesalers" make the Web a tough place to compete, whether you are a multinational corporation or home-based company. Nevertheless, Bell Canada says it believes that as the e-Economy grows and the industrial economy declines, the e-Economy will become the dominant component of our gross national product. Certainly, there are areas where the improvements in business efficiency are compelling. Consider, for example, the $150 cost of a full-service brokerage transaction (trade). Even the discounters offering trades at rates as low as $69 can't hold a candle to the $10 price of an eTrade transaction on-line.

Revelling in Bargain-Land Bell says the initial hesitance of consumers fearfulof security issues is fading as "shopping newbies" hear about the positive experiences of others. Couple this with an increasingly cooperative regulatory environment, an expanding technology infrastructure in terms of bandwidth and processing power, and it adds up to a compelling business value, with on-line price/performance roughly following Moore's Law, as it doubles every 18 months. E-commerce offers the potential for

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revenue enhancement,cost reduction and expansion in terms of product, customer base and available channels. Just don't forget to takeoffthe rose-colored glasses.

Attracting On-line Shoppers Considering advertising on the Web? A little researchcan help your investment pay off. According to Starnet International's Alan Poole, the old real estate adage was right: it' s locafion, location and location. Various sites on theWeb, plus magazines and newspaper articles, will list high-traffic or top-rated sites. To find out how effective your Web site or on-line advertising is, tracking software is a must. Some organizations rely on their own programmers and devise a proprietary system. However, off-the-shelf solutions are available to track "hits," including a tool called IISA from MediaHouse, a Windows NT utility called MarketWave, a Mac-basedprogram called FunnelWeb and a number of others, of both commercial and shareware varieties. Most are available as "trialware," and run right on your site. And, of course, some ISPs provide logs as part of their service. cCW G raeme Bennett i s W ebmaster at T h e Computer Paper's Web site — Canada's largest database of computer information. It 's at http:/twww. tcp.ca.

ltil A R K E T I N G

Column

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by Monta Kerr You hear it more often than ever these days — some of the biggest companies in the industry are turning away from computer trade or consumer shows in favor of their own, highly focused events. But that doesn't mean shows are disappearing. If anything, show organizers are offering even more marketing value to help companies get a bigger bang for their buck. The first and most important item to consider in keeping quality high is what is happening at your booth. Make sure you have knowledgeable, friendly people on the show floor at all times. They are the ambassadors of your company. It takes more than just a pretty face to hold the interest of a serious buyer. Showcase some real solutions — give attendees a chance to see how your technology works, and make sure the people giving demos fully understand what they are talking about. When traffic slows down, your staff shouldn' t. If they have an opportunity to take regular breaks, there should be no need to eat or lounge around during booth duty. The key to any effective show booth is professionalism, above anything else. Gimmicks and giveaways attract a lot of people, but they don't always result in qualified leads.

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The fact is, most companies realize their booth should be professional and attractive. Yet they find they aren't getting the most out of shows. The reason? A lack of activities at the booth. Almost all shows are coupled with a related conference program, and conference organizers always seek informed, qualified speakers to participate in panel discussions or lead seminars. You can be part of this, if you plan early enough. Conference programs book up quickly, so include speaking opportunities as part of your annual trade show planning. Find out what the conference is focused on, and figure out what you have to offer. Then write a letter to the conference organizer, outlining your background and qualifications, as well as a proposed speaking topic. If you are comfortable with your subject matter, and know how to deliver an effective presentation, speaking opportunities are a great way to make yourself and your company known as industry experts. Another way to stretch your show dollar is to take advantage of any media relations opportunities. Not all resellers are media-savvy; not all need to be. But if you have a big announcement to make — a new product or an important strategic partnership, for example — it's a good idea to let the media know about it, and a trade show can be an effective forum. Begin by working with the show organizers to find out if they promote the show to the media — most do. Talk to your show contact to determine what resources you can leverage. If you have purchased space on the exhibit hall floor, you will likely have access to the list of media who pre-registered for the show. Use that as your starting point. If you feel as though your news is niily earth-shattering, you may want to consider hosting a press briefing during the show. But make sure you turn a critical eye on your announcement first. Journalists have many demands on their time and if you invite them to a press briefing that contains little relevant news, they either won't attend or they will show up but won't write anything — and they won't trust your "news announcements" in the future. If you can't afford to host a customer reception or hospitality suite, be sure to attend any social events put on by show management. Most conferences open with a welcoming reception and many of your customers, potential customers and business partners will likely be there. Making the most of a trade show can mean a lot of work, but if you do it right, you will find that you can leverage any number of marketing opportunities at a single show. Remember: research, plan and always think bigger than the booth. I&l Monta Kerr is a senior consultant with High Road Communications, a public relationsfirm that works exclusively with companies in the high-tech sector. She can be reached at mkerrohighrd.corn.

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K-Jon Software L.L.C. says its vehicle management software is available for Windows-based PCs. VRS Plusis comprehensive management software for tracking vehicle maintenance and expenses for both homes and businesses, says the company. Each vehicle has its own set of ownershipand operating costlogs. VRS Plus will tell users when to service their vehicles and show what maintenance services need to be done, when they need to be done and which ones are overdue. Each vehicle's service schedule can be custom!zed. The home ed!tion is US$29.95, and a ,. busi n ess edition is US$69.95. Call (208) 746-0777 for more information. ) :

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On May 5,FujiPhoto Film Canada announced the MX-700 Digital Camera, which Fuji claims is "the world's first pocked-sized mega-pixel" (over one million pixel image size) high-resolution digital camera aimed at both the consumer and business market, and priced under $1,000. Key amongthenew product'sfeaturesare:a tiny size (fits in a shirt pocket), light weight (under 10 ounces including battery), high resolution (1,280 by 1,024 pixels), professional-level image clarity and photo control options. Also unique is a "selector dial" which makes selecting the camera's operating mode very simple. The MX-700has a I/2-inch square pixel CCD, autofocus TV-Fujinon macro-capable lens, NTSC video output, RGB color filters, and a built-in twoinch color LCD flat panel which permits real-time preview of the camera image, as well as onscreen control of camera options and playback and modification of stored pictures. The MX-700 has built-in image correction software, and can download images via an included serial cable to a PC.The existing product is Windows-only: a Mac version is contemplated for the future. The camera comes standard with an internal rechargeable lithium ion battery, and an external power supply. Among the included software is a copy of Adobe PhotoDeluxe 2.0 image processing software. The quality of the TVfrequency video output is excellent.

The MX-700 comes with a 2MB removable flash memory cartridge (up to 8MB cartridges are currently available, and 16MB and 32MB cards, available now in Japan, are expected to be available in Canada before too long). With 2MB of memory, the MX-700 can only store five full-color 1,280 by 1,024 images in JPEG format, or about 22640 by 480 pixel images. Fuji recommends that users consider buying additional flash memory units to increase simple storage of large numbers of pictures. For a peripheral, consider the Fuji SmartMedia Floppy Disk Adapter (FD-A1). This is a floppy disk-shaped device with a receptacle for taking a memory card. Users simply insert the memory card into the floppy adapter, insert the floppy adapter into the floppy drive of a PC, and the images are downloaded to the computer without any need for a serial connection. For more information, contact http//www fujifilm.corn. 1

Seagate and Hewlett-Packard team up servers and storage for high-end performance

Seagate Technology says the combination of its 10,000-rpm Ultra2 SCSICheetah 9LPdrives and HewlettPackard's Netserver LH 3and LH 3r servers can deliver transfer rates of up to 80MB/sec., and up to double the overall performance of older UltraSCSI-based server storage systems. According to Eileen O'Brien, at HP's Network Server Division: "The Cheetah 9LPfamily of drives provides benefits to users that no other Ultra2SCSI drives currently offer. Technological innovation integrated into the Cheetah 9LP enables faster seek times, lower power requirements, and greater environmental flexibility than competing drives." Seehttp//wwwseagate.corn or http//wwwhp.corn.

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MidiLand Inc. has announced the S2/MidiLand 4030, a satellite/subwoofer speaker system that claims to deliver the !'!-' ":-'-'" finest sound reproduction in its class. ,'e-,,r~~~--. = With a suggested price of US$189, the S2-4030 includes a 5.25-inch subwoofer, ~~j% Vgq,:,I'-""' two three-inch satellite speakers, and a control module. The subwoofer delivers 15-watt RMS, with frequency range from 55Hz to 180Hz, offering deep bass reproduction. The entire system delivers more than 30 watts of power with less than 0.10 per cent distortion, making it one of the most powerful, high-fidelity speaker systems on the market. The control module employs 3DSP circuitry for 3D sound, and allows adjustment of balance, bass, treble, volume, mute and input select. See http.//www.midiland.corn.

CA NADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER July 1998 httpitwww.ccwmag.corn

IRISPen is portable OCR system Image Recognition Integrated Systems Inc. (IRIS) has announced the latest versionofthe IRISPen handheld OCR scanner. It offers a Translator software package, which enables English or other languagesto be scanned into a computer, and then automatically translated and displayed on the computer screen. There are English to Japanese and bidirectional French, Spanish, Italian and German versions of the Translator software available. The Translator software is aimed at studentsand business people needing to translate foreign languages, and the small, hand-operated format of the IRISPen allows it to be used very flexibly and intuitively to scan and translate printed forms, packagingmaterials, books and magazines. A barcode-reading software module, and text-to-speech software module are also available. Versions of the IRISPen and its various software programs are available for both Microsoft Windows and Mac operating systems. See http//www Iris/ink.corn. ICCD W

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Novell appoints Dennis Raney as senior vice-president Novell lnc. has appointed Dennis R. Raney as senior vice-president and chief financial officer, reporting to Novell chairman and CEDEric Schmidt. Raney is responsible for finance, corporate facilities and information systems worldwide. Raney has held CFDpositions at General Magic, California Microwave and most recently, QAD Inc. He also spent 23 years at Hewlett-Packard in finance, international and real estate assignments. And he served as senior vice-president and CFD at BristolMyers Squibb Pharmaceutical Group, which had annual revenue of US$7 billion. "There is a tremendous opportunity to align Novell's business with benchmarks for financial performance that define value in leading companies across our industry," said Raney, in a statement.

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Phoenix.-based Viasoft Inc., a provider of business solutions to help companies manage and evolve their information technology assets, hasappointed RobertK.Young,a veteran of information technology services management, to the position of vice-president of global services. His responsibilities include leading Viasoft's professional services organization worldwide. Young reports to Kevin M. Hickey, president and chief operating officer. Prior to joining Viasoft, Young was a project executive with IBM Global Services, headquartered in Somers, N.Y. At IBM, Young led several large internal and external engagements for the company. Before IBM, he worked in the project office of Lockheed M artin Aerospace, where he managed the restructuring of relationships with more than 110 of the company's subcontractors worldwide, to improve the efficiency, durability and reliability of the subcontractors' business processes.

(NB) — Dell Computer Corp. has named John J. Legere as the new president for Asia-Pacific Group. In his new job, Legere will be responsible for running Dell's operations in 10 countries in the Asia-Pacific region, including the company's manufacturing and customer service centers in Penang,Malaysia andXiamen, China. Legerecomes to the company from ATBIT Solutions, where he was president and managing partner of the worldwide outsourcing practice. Prior to that, he was president and chief executive officer of ATIkT's Hong Kong-based Asia-Pacific unit. Dell said current president Phillip E. Kelly will leave the company, following a transition period to pursue entrepreneurial opportunities in Asia.

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IBNI names new Asia Pacific head

(NB) — IBM Asia Pacific, a unit of IBM Corp., has named John R.Joyce as general manager. Based in Tokyo, he will be responsible for overseeing IBM's business operations across the region. Joyce succeeds Robert C. Timpson, who is returning to the U.S. The new general manager

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Professional IT Set vices: A strong but volatile industry

R eport f r o m B r e n h a m

by Margery Leach Prrmiace

amdt Ranli CompauyName 1997 1996

Tidal Revenue. T otal Revenue, Tma l uost Recent completed Previous Cmnpleted Employetm Rseal Teer imcaf Tear $122,015,000 3600 $231,900,000 1400 N12,113,000 $83,439,000

The CGI Group Inc. Quebec LGS Group Inc. Quebec PROCOM Professional Computer Consultants Group Ltd. Ontario SI2,000,000 $58,000,000 4 6 Comcheq Services Ltd. Manitoba $77,807,000 $70,952,000 5 7 Quantum Information Resources Ontario $71,000,000 $60,000,000 6 10 Sierra SystemsConsultants Inc. British Columbia $61,140,000 $42,373,000 Calian Technology Ltd. Ontario $60,100,000 $47,400,000 9 8 7 GeoTrain Corp. Ontario $55,000,000 $40,000,000 11 OGS Information Consultants Inc. Ontario $41,200,000 $5Z300,000 10 12 NewTel Information Solutions Ltd. Newfoundland OL5,500,000 $40,300,000 Note: AndersenConsulting ranked number Iin the 1996listing, but due to s reorgenirstion,didnot provide date for 1997. I 2 3

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The need for services like system integration, outsourcing and IT consulting seem to know no bounds. Branham Group Inc. reports that after a period of significant restructuring over the pastfew years,the Canadian IT professional services industry emerged as a solid force in 1997. Collectively, the top 50 companies generated $1.7 billion in fiscal year 1997, up 21 per cent from the $1.4 billion they generated in 1996. Together, they employ 16,500 people. The Branham200 assessment of the top 10 Canadian professional IT lists services companies in 1997 based on revenues. It com-

pares their ranking and revenues in 1997 to the previous year, as well as their employee count. It shows that, while the province of Quebec is home to the top two companies, Ontario boasts a larger proportion (50 per cent) of the top 10. These concentrations are not surprising, given the high number of large businesses located in these two provinces. In addition, the professional IT services firms located in these provinces, and many of their client organizations, tend to bemore nationally than regionally focused, resulting in largerscale opportunities.

R eade r P o l l

This issue: Alan Zisman's Tech Talk column I"Worthwhile CPU Alternatives," page 55) discusses interesting reasons to consider non-Intel-based microprocessors, such as those from AMOand Cyrix. However, Intel has done a fair job of raising brand awareness for the CPUover the pastfew years.CCW wonders whether yourcustomers have any concernsaboutbuying PCsbased on non-Intelchips. Our question to youl How receptive are your customers to buying computers containing non-Intel CPUs? Which most closely reflects your view? Most of my customers want only Intel-based computers. My customers want computers with AMO, Cyrix or IOT microprocessors. My customers weigh the capabilities and price of each chip, and make a well-considered decision. My customers are most interested in the price of the systems, and don't worry about the brand of processor.

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Intense competition has led to a high degree of volatility in this sector, characertised by ongoing industry consolidation and partnering relationships. For example, this year's Number One professional IT services company — The CGI Group Ltd., has adopted an acquisition strategy that helped secure its leading position. It acquired CDSL Canada, and also announced the purchase of Bell Sygma, BCE Inc.'s computer consulting and outsourcing business. Considering the degree to which the face of this industry has changed over the past three years; and with the rate at which the winds of change continue to blow, we aren't willing to make any predictions as to who will end up on top, or even on the list, next year. CCW Margely Leach is director of the Branham Group Inc. in Ottawa, (http: /Iwww.branham.ca) — an international marketing and management consulting firm with a stated commitment to l "Delivering competitive advantage to the IT industry." Phone: (613) 745-2282/ or fax: (6I3) 745-4990.

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