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AZURA Monitor Series

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If you demand outstanding visual performance, safety and comfort, AZURA's monitor line provides you with a selection of high quality cost and energy-efficient monitors. Ranging in sizes from 15" to 19", from entry level non-interlaced flicker-free monitors, to brilliant, detailed displays, AZURA delivers the visual clarity you demand while meeting strict international standards for user safety. As leaders in the monitor market, AZURA gives you optimum performance at an affordable price. •

MODEL Size (Diagonal): Dot Pitch: Flat Screen: Max. R'esolution:, Scanning (Horizontal): Frequency (Vertical): Power Management: Digital On Screen Display: lhfarranty:

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DECEMBER 1998 Vol.4 N0.12

NEWS Comdex/FalLess l: is More? ............,............

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.12

By Jeg EvansandGrace Casselman

•

I •

EYEONTHEINDUSTRY

•I

.14

Flyweights wil FightforYourLap .. By David Tanaka

THEPULSE

.16

Sony VAIOWorld Conference:Digital ConvergenceArrives! .. By JegEvans

The Editor's Desk

•

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Letters To The Editor

IN PROF ILE

.18

The Easy-GoingPeopleSoft .........................,, By GraceCasselman

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• II

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Cartoon

LABTEST

,20

Power NotebooksAt Noteworthy Prices!.......... By SeanCarruthers

DIGITAL CAMERAS TheUniversalEye .......................

-f. ..30

By JegEvans

'•I

• I

•

Industry Flash e& •

SOFTWAR EREVIEW ThePaperlessOfice Comesof Age .................,...

.34

By JohnHamm

EDUTAINME NT

New Products

.36

NowThat'sEdutainment!,...... By James Buchok

Calendar

INTERNET TELEPHONY Voice OverIP:Talk About thePotential! ............ „....

.38

By Paul Lima

O People

BOOK REVIEW VisualBasic,forProficient Beginners ....................

.42

By StephenIbaraki

TECH TALK

Reader Poll

TooManyChoices?You'reNot Alone ................. „ By AlanZisman

.43

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Rease wrtya ': ' r The Editor; Gin&after& CoI&i~oi esaier' Canadian Comp~terWhofesaferwelcomes your 2pO - ggAtlantic Ave., Toronto Ontario MeK sjg oPinions oncurrent issues in the market, PlUSyoUr Fa<. {41al 5geg574 E mau. ~wotcpsu& feedback onourpublication. =-"' ~ Editor. erase cassartt&en ~"'"-'"' ggys call; {403) 252-7ego Fa)i:"$463}2B2-7eg2 We welcomeyour ideas regarding newsand feature E.ma{k graceconetcom ca ' —:,"'«i,-;- . topics forCanadian ComputerWjefeseler. ' ;""'"':*,' " ''y -'""j--''," *-~~"'>"'"".!'„"" „*i''"'~ l*-' our suggestions '=-"'-'-=.,:.:--'.- -;.~~=.~~

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rience, access the Web and send and receive e-mail. And don't f o rget the new my prowess until I heard my partner ActiMates. The new Arthur and from Baltimore was just seven years D.W. dolls are intended for ages old. Then I was absolutefour to eight. When you ly crushed by a 61-yearsqueeze the toys here or old player from Florida. there, they' ll tell time, Oh well. Checkers make comments or sugwas admittedly somegest games. They can thing of a tangent. I'd also interact with varibeen contemplating the ous semi-educational absolute pervasiveness computer games. With of Microsoft Corp. and 5,000-word vocabularthe next thing I knew, I'd ies, ( 10,000 w h en picked up a vi r t u al hooked to the PC) these c hecker. F r o m tha t toys area far cry from Internet Gaming Zone the Miss Beasley doll I coveted when I was a (h t tp: llwww. zone. corn), t here are links to a l l kid. (She said hello kinds of services: e-mail, travel, an on line when you pulled the string at the back of her encyclopedia and chat groups. The unarneck.) One ActiMates doll is $149, the PC guable fact is: there are very few business Pack is $69.95, and software titles are opportunities that someone at Microsoft isn' t $44.95 each. At that price, I don't expect to at least investiganng. find one under my Christmas tree this year. Consider the new Microsoft Cordless (I never got a Miss Beasley doll either!) Here's the real point: Convergence is Phone System ($289). You can leave customized "answering machine" messages for more than acatchy buzzword, and players certain colleagues, friends or family mem- across the industry are ready to pounce on bers who call, plus designate who's importhe big opportunity. NCR, for instance, has tant enough to m ake th e phone ring. g arnered significant a ttention f o r i t s Microwave Bank prototype — a flat-panel (Otherwise calls can go to voice-mail.) A speaker on the handset audibly announces computer built into the door of a microwave who's calling. You can give voice com- oven. The idea is to provide services like mands, like "delete message," "return call" banking, e-mail and shopping through an or "call Mom." A signficant drawback: your easyinterface,withouta mouse orkeyboard. PC has to stay turned on all the time. (The technology recently won "Technology Innovation of t h e Year" at a n A n n ual Or, take a look at the WebTV Plus System that hit Canada this past summer. Technology for Retail Banking conference.) CCW's Associate Editor Jeff Evans For $299 for the receiver, $99 for a wireless keyboard, plus about $34.99 monthly for the reports technology is melting the distinctions service, the TV generation can meld with the between digital still image cameras and dig'Net crowd.The system offers sophisticated ital video cameras. See"The Universal Eye," TV listing searching capability (a week at a page 30. As quality improves and prices time, by subject matter or actor's name, for drop, digital cameras are increasingly example), "one click" VCR recording, and appealing. Combine that camera with a notebook picture-in-picture capability to let users watch TV in a box, while searching the Web, and modem and productivity skyrockets for example. for insurance adjusters, real estate agents Could you have a better computing and journalists, for starters. CCW's Lab experienceon your PC? Of course! But this Test (page 20), examines the so-called "midrange" of the notebook market this technology could make inroads into the still-subissue, testing the functionality available at stantial market segment affordableprices. To all our readers, from the staff at that doesn't own home computers. Whether for Canadian Computer Wholesaler, have a cost orcomfort reasons, wonderful holiday season. «~ some people aren't ready for a PC. But they may Grace Casselman be more than willing to Editor ', ih iooiaue»"" improve their television expe-

CONVERGENCE: NOT jUST A CUTE BUZZWORO!

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NIBELLE KKegg

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Yes to Overclocking On Aug. 24,Ipurchased a Celeron 266 with an Abit BH6 motherboard and an ATX case for $475 including taxes. I now have a games PC running flawlessly at 4 x112MHz= 448MHz for less than the price of a Pentium il 350MHz CPU. It even runs pretty fast as

Thanks for Wwotherhoard Article I really enjoyed, "Test Driving the 100MHz Motherhoards,"(CCWNovember, page 36). It was a very well-written and informative article. I cannot praise the AOpen AX59Pro enough. I use this board in my personal systems as well as in customers' computers. I believe that it is one of the best Super 7 boards. you mentioned that the Transcend's TS-ABX board has a BIOS feature to boot from AGP first. The AX59Pro also has this feature with BIOS Version1.20, so you can select the AGP or the PCI video card to be the primary display. This tidbit of info probably wasn't available before press time, but just thought you might be interested in itl (The BIOS update is available at the AOpenWeb sites: httpr//wwwaopen-usa.corn or http//www. aopen.corn.tw) Keep up the great work withCanadian Computer Wholesaler. It is truly a great publication!

a Web browser and e-mail client. By simply going to the Celeron from the AMD, my frame rates in Quake 2 increased dramatically from 19 fps to 55 fps! (25 fps is considered the minimum for decent network/Internet game play). As well, most of the newer games such as Electronic Arts' NHL 99, Trespasser and Unreal (they all use 3D graphics hardware accelerated video cards) run quite smoothly on this system. In the Spring of '99 I will purchase a new Riva TNT 2D/3D video card to keep my system current, and then in the Fall, drop in a Pentium II 500MHz chip. As you can see, this system should stay current for the nexttwo yearsforaminimalcostof$500,

I read Craig Thompson's letter (CCW November, page 7). His point is well taken for users who need PCs for business applications. People also need to be aware of the consequences of overclocking, such asincreased heat,reduced CPU lifespan and voltage limitations. I added a 3.5-inch fan for additional cooling. Art Profer Field service rep. BCTei systemssupport Burnaby, B.C.

Don't Underestimate Engineers Regarding: "A basic flaw in PC audio is the nature of the PC itself, a box full of electrical components which was designed by engineers, not musicians" (CCyy October, page 42). What type of musical equipmentdoes JeffEvans think is designed by musicians? Guitars?Trumpets? Loud speakers? Hifi amplifiers? Castanets? Most things in this world are designed by engineers. Although our current mass market PCs aren' t primarily intended to be music boxes, there's no reason you couldn't have a "PC for musicians." Sooner or later someone will put together a lownoise, low-distortion Pentium II (or PowerPC) box with a state-of-the-art sound card and market it to musicians. It's probably just a matter of time before some engineer designsand buildsone.KW

David Brown Senior design engineer Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. Oakvi lie, Ont.

Craig Brown President, Quality Computer Solutions Amhersthurg, Ont.

Letters to the Editor We welcome your letters on industry issues and concerns, as well as your commentson ourmagazine. We reserve the right to edit your contributions for length and clarity. Please write to The Editor, via e-mail at ccwÂŠtcp.ca, or fax: (604) 608-2686.

A man is flying around in a hot

FRIEN DLY t he c o mi c s t r i p

Hello. I just heard a joke that I'd like to tell. When Nike tokl it, everyone laughed,so it's probably

air balloon. He suddenly realizes he's lost, so he reduces his altitudeand approaches a man on the ground below. He shouts,

very funny.

"Excuseme, canyou tellee where I am?"

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'The mon below says, "Yes, you' re in a hot air balloon, about thirty feet of f the ground." To which the balloonist replies, "You must work e The inInformation T tnan on the ground says, "Yes, I do. How did you know?"

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"Well,you don't know

"Well,everythingyou told me was technically cor rect, but it's no use to anyone."To which the man on the

gr ound replied, "Youmust work in business." "Yes," sold the balloonist, "How did you know?"

where you are, or where you' re going, but you ee to be able he p, You' re in the same positionbefore we eet, but nowit's my fault."

It wasn'tfunny the first time either.

~ CA N ADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER December 1998ht t p Jtwww ccwmag.mm

LG puts high refresh rates

on display. The LG line of monitors puts on a brilliant display. High resolution and refresh rates; crisp, sharp images; and vivid colour. That's why LG ranks third in the world in the manufacture of monitors and why we are a provider to 7 of the top 10 brands. LG is focused on product technology leadership and customer satisfaction. So, resellers can rely on LG to deliver products with unsurpassed specs. Check out our display, and enroll as an LG Monitor Partner, today at www.lge.ca/reseller.

Take advantage of The No-Wait Rebate. Purchase any of these monitors before December 31" and receive up to a $400 rebate. Visit our web site for complete rebate details. For even more benefits, register for the LG Partner Program. Model

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Next NT is Windows 2000

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Hitachi PC Corp. is aiming to be a major player in the Canadian IT market, and has unveiled strategic alliances with Wang Global and Hitachi Data Systems for customer support in this country. Meanwhile, thecompany is making a big channel push. At a splashy public event at — sa „,.ssm Tor onto's CN Tower, John Parring, country manager, Canada, for Hitachi PC, said the key to Hitachi PC's success will be its ability to develop a positive brand identity as a supplier of complete and reliable b usiness computing solutions. Hitachi has a relatively low profile in the PC industry in Canada, despite being a large-scale supplier of some of the best CRT and LCD screens to the monitor market As part of

Despite the uncertain connotations now associated with computers and the year 2000, Microsoft Corp. says its Windows NT 5.0 product line (expected to ship in 1999) will now be known as Windows 2000. With the launch of that product, NT will enter the mainstream, Microsoft predicts. Windows NT Workstation 5.0 will now be known as Windows 2000 Professional and Windows NT Server 5.0 becomes Windows 2000 Server. Microsoft plans to use the tagline "Built on Windows NTtechnology" for reasons of claffity. Jim Allchin, senior vicepresident of the personal and business systems group at Microsoft, said in a statement: "Windows NT is going mainstream."

Tech Data will distribute NCFI Mississauga, Dnt.-based Tech Data Canada Inc.has announced a distribution agreement for NCR Canada Ltd.'s complete product line. That includes the Teradata RDBMS, for scaleable data warehousing; the WorldMark servers; storage cabinets; modular arrays; robotic tape libraries;

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a $68-billion-a-year high tech global conglomerate, Hitachi PC Corp. has preferred access to much of the latest computing technology. Hitachi wants to build a first-rate service infrastructure in Canada with the aid of Wang Global, one of the world's largest network integration and services providers. Keith Bennett, director of service and support for Hitachi PC Corp., said: "We recognize that for the corporate buyer, quality of service and support is just as important as best of breed products in deciding on a systems purchase.... In short, this will help us reduce average down time for our customers by more than 60 per cent." Hitachi has also signed Ingram Micro, Tech Data, and EMJ Data Systems as participating distributors, and is looking to develop a strong reseller base. To kick-start its channel recruitment in Canada, Hitachi has established an Elite VAR Program, which, for qualifying resellers, supplies demo models, cooperative marketing and advertising funding, price protection and sales training.

MasterMinder, Top End and LifeKeeper software; S20 and S26 servers; and Unix MP-RAS and Advanced Server for Unix. Tech Data says it plans a comprehensive educational program for resellers.

The Merry iMac Apple Canada Inc. appears set to have a merry Christmas, thanks to positive sales of the innovative iMac home computer, as well as G3 desktop and notebook models. Apple resellers report that in addition to Mac computer hardware sales, Mac third-party software and peripheral businesses have also picked up. Amid claims that total sales of the iMac would shortly pass the half-million mark, Intuit Canada Inc. announced the latest version of QuickBooks Pro for the Mac. A popular small business accounting package, this most current version of QuickBooksis aimed atallowing smallbusinesses to automate such tasks as managing payroll, tracking GSTand PST,producing estimates, paying bills, entering sales transactions, creating custom invoices, tracking customer contacts and billable time, and printing cheques. Bruce Johnson, general manager of Intuit Canada, said: "We' re pleased to offer Macintosh small business owners a complete Canadian accounting solution that will help eliminate their accounting headaches. Dur research shows small business owners want easy-to-use soft.. w a re that is flexible enough to meet their indi-

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CA NADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER December 1998 ht t p getermrw ccewmag.corn

Dur homesmay soon be networked over existing phone lines, thanks to technology from Intel Corp. Family members will be able to share Internet access, files and games using the existing phone wiring in their houses. Intel is currently shipping samples of its single-chip home networking silicon solution — the Intel 21145 Phoneline/Ethernet LAN controller — to PC and peripheral manufacturers. pL'Iffi

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NEWS

ComdexiFa11 '98

Comdex/Fall: Less is NloveV by Je+Evans and Grace Casselman and 8MB versions, (priced at US$34.99 and US$44.99, respectively). They handle all kinds of digital content, and by spring, Sony intends to build Memory Stick slots into a number of products including still and video cameras, sound recorders and notebooks. Meanwhile, the sticks are shipping and can be used with a PC Card adapter. Storage was a big focus at the show, ranging from Iomega's his year's Comdex/Fall show in Las Vegas was focused on making technology simpler, smaller, more usable and less Click! removable mini hard drive, to iMation's high-capacity SuperDisk floppy, to tape backup libraries from Overland and expensive. Of course, digital cameras, large flat-screens, ultra-portable note- Hewlett-Packard. DVD also showed great strength, including books, PCI and USB connectivity products were out in full force. But rewritable DVD systems, though conflicts over standards still continue some major players were notably absent from Comdex this year, to hold back progress in this arena. Home networking was a significant theme. Epigram Inc., as part including IBM, Compaq and Netscape. An IBM official said the comof the Home Phoneline Networking Alliance (HomePNA), launched its pany had decided its marketing money was better spent on smaller, more targeted events. Of note, the company still held demonstrations iLine10 2 chipset to let homes or small businesses plug form networks by plugging into existing phone lines. Products from third parties based and meetings with invited customers during Comdex in hotel suites. Despite the ship-jumpers, Comdex reported about 220,000 atten- on that chipset are expected in Q2 '99, to deliver up to 10Mbps networking over regular phone lines. The Ethernet cards are installed in dees and 1,650 exhibiting companies. the participating PCs, at an expected cost of about US$100 per card. Bill Gates led off the show with the first keynote speech, Competing solutions from companies such as Draper, Utah-based promising to make Windows simpler and more robust. An unexpected highlightwas an appearance by a kilted Microsoft researcher named Intelogis, want to make home networking even easier, using the ubiqBill Hill, who demonstrated a new text display technology called uitous electrical outlets, which are substantially more prevalent than ClearType. ClearType lets much more readable screen text be dis- phone jacks. The company's Passport product (currently shipping in played on a LCD flat-panel screen, a huge benefit to people who spend the U.S., but not yet in Canada) wifl network two PCs and a printer at a lot of time reading documents on-line. It will be a further incentive 350Kbps in a home or small business at a price of US$199. A small for mainstream computer users to consider flat panels over traditional device connects into each PC's parallel port and plugs into an electriCRT monitors. The technology is expected to increase font display res- cal outlet. (Software needs to be loaded onto the PC too, of course.) olution by as much as 300 per cent and will be incorporated into the Concurrent Controls' Applixa U2 is a combination hardware/softoperating system at some future date, a matter of "months, not years" ware solution designed to let users attach a second monitor and keysaid an Microsoft spokesperson. board to a PC, to let two people to simultaneously share one computer, Oracle Corp. CEO Larry Ellison provided a strong antidote to the including Internet access and peripherals. Windows view of the universe at his keynote, wittily ridiculing the Both Microsoft Corp. and Corel Corp. demonstrated their notion of millions of small NT servers popping up in restaurants, home upcoming office suites. Corel's WordPerfect 2000 suite, due out in officesand medical centers.Characterizing decentralized servers as a early 1999, will include the Paradox 9 relational database, the Trellix very "bad idea," Ellison outlined his vision of a connected business 2.x Web authoring and presentation tool, the NetDocs Internet puband home computing world, where professionally managed, reliable, lishing tool and the Corel Print Office publishing software. cost-effective servers running databases (Oracle databases especially) Beta 2 of Microsoft Office 2000 became publicly available in would enable all manner of improvements and innovations in busi- mid-November (httpt//www. microsoft. corn/off ce/2000/offi ce/CPP/ ness, education, and consumer activities. default.htm). Features include the ability to publish Office documents On the trade show floor, there was a strong push towards LCD as HTML files for use on the Web. Intranets are supported, with builtand plasma flat-panel displays, ranging from postage-stamp-sized in features for collaboration, subscriptions, notification and searches. LCDs mounted in eyeglass frames to 50-inch wall-mounted plasma Menus adapt to users' preferences, by tracking their usage patterns. screens. NEC, Sceptre, Panasonic and others pushed prices on 13- and AOpen will ship its new VP324 Videophone early in the new 14-inch LCD screens well below the US$1,000 price point, and said year. Over regular phone lines, users can get picture-in-picture videosales finally seemed poised for major growth in 1999. conferencing, priced at US$399 per phone. Windows CE-based handhelds and mini laptops with color screens Canadian companies at Comdex included Calgary's WiLAN. were alsoomnipresent, from vendors such as HP, Sharp and Casio. While the company's wireless products currently transmit at up to The real point-of-interest at the Sony booth had to be Memory 4MB/sec., by Q2 '99, WiLAN plans to introduce technology capable Sticks â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a proposed solution to inexpensive storage of digital content. of 30MB/sec. The tiny storage medium is shorter than a sflckof Juicy Fruit gum, and And X-Portal, priced at $89.95, is an Internet search simplifier not much thicker. Naoya Suzuki, a marketing manager for Sony from Toronto's Kaufman Consulting Services Ltd. The software autoElectronics, based in San Jose, Calif., said the flash memory sticks, matically strips out the ads, junk and other time-wasting noise from which are encased in hard plastic, are more durable, reliable and Internet searches. It uses software smarts to deliver search results with cheaper than compact flash. (The sticks also have less contact pins stunning speed: a nightmare for Web advertisers, but a gigantic boon than compact flash.) Memory Sticks are currently available in 4MB for Web surfers looking for speed and simplicity. ICCN

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Ever since Radio Shack introduced the Tandy Model 100 in 1983, the computer industry has been on a quest to design the ideal digital companiona device both light enough and powerful enough to be useful as a constantcarryalong. The upper end of this market has been defined by ultra-light notebook computers. These are light and powerful, but also have tended to be quite costly. At the other end are the pocket-sized organizers, personal digital assistants (PDA) and handheld computers. While these are less expensive to buy, they are also quite limited, compared to full-fledged notebook computers. In the middle is a sizable gap that is a minefield, an opportunity and increasingly a battleground where notebook and handheld computers will fight for

wiii Fight Your

turf.

Pushing the handheld PDA up-market are machines based on Jupiter, the latest variation of the Windows CE operating system. Coming down from the notebook side, we see a number of manufacturers stuffing the power of Pentium notebook computers into increasingly tiny packages.

Jupiter Rises Microsoft i n troduced Jupiter, also c a lled Windows CE H/PC Pro Edition, in early October. Among theenhancements are support for more kindsofhardware, from full-size screens to m ice; an improved Pocket Outlook e-mail client; improveddatabase support and improved synchronization. Hewlett-PackardCanada recently showed CCW itsJornada 820 handheld PC, which uses the Jupiter version of Windows CE as the operating system. The 2.5-pound Jornada looks a lot like one of the new crop of tiny Pentium mini-notebook computers. It has an 8.2-inch color screen that will display a full 640 by 480 pixels, and a near (90 per cent) full-size keyboard. Unlike other CE devices, the Jornada isn' t a touch-screen device â&#x20AC;&#x201D; it has a built-in track-pad for cursor control. The unit is powered by a StrongArm processor operating at 190MHz. It comes with 16MB of RAM that can be upgraded to 32MB, plus 16MB of ROM. It also has a built-in 56Kbps modem. As a Windows CE device, available software is limited to Microsoft's Pocket Office suite, along with a few third-party applications. HP characteri zes the Jornada as a 2.5-pound e-mail companion. The device will work for approximately 10 hours on a single charge (a 14 ~

CA NADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER December 1998 ht t ttJtwww.ccwmag.corn

higher-capacity battery, good for about 15 hours, is available as an option). The Jornada isn't intended to be an alternative to a PC, but rather a companion, says Paul Patterson, HP Canada's sales development manager for mobile products. Patterson says the Jornada off ers convenience and better manageability. For example, it doesn't have a hard drive and applications are fixed in ROM â&#x20AC;&#x201D; seen as support and management benefitsbecause userinducederrors arising from loading unauthorized applications that crash the machine are largely eltrmnated.

The Incredible Shrinking PC

Contrast the Jornada with latest crop of full-featured mini-notebook computers. Sony's recently introducedPCG-505F weighs a half-pound more (2.97 pounds), and costs more than twice as much ($1,568 for the Jornada 820; $3,699 for the Vaio). However, the Sony offers a full-blown Pentium computer in that tiny shell: 266MHz processor, 64MB of RAM, a 4.3GB hard drive and a 10.4inch TFT screen. Similarly, Toshiba of Canada has just announced a couple of new models in its tiny PC stable: the Portege 3010CT and a Libretto 110CT. The Portege 3010 sounds quite similar to the Vaio, although at $3,379 it is a bit less expensive. The Portege comes with a 10.4-inch active-matrix SonypCG-505F s c reen, a 266MHz Pentium processor, a 4.3GB hard drive and 32MB of RAM. The silver-colored ultra-light has a magnesium alloy case for increased rigidity, and the unit is just 0.78 inches thick and weighs less than three pounds. The two-pound Libretto 110CT uses a 233MHz Pentium processor and has a 4.3GB hard drive built in. It will sell for $3,039. Although a few other Japanese notebook computer makers (Panasonic and Hitachi, for example) have been making mini-notebooks fora few years,these are primarily for Japanese domestic or Asian markets. With Toshiba's launch of the Libretto in North America, the mini-notebook category was established here. However, it has been a small niche market. Whether Jupiter-inspired HPCs or shrinking notebook PCs will be able to enliven this category is still a big question mark. While the size of these two platforms is converging, the gap in functionality and cost remains significant. KW David Tanaka is ajournalist specializing in high-technology reporting and is Editor of The Computer Paper. He can be reached at david@tcp.ca.

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QJJ jl ony Corp.'s recent VAIO World Conference in Tokyo publicly marked a drive to be the world leader in the integration of video, audio, computer and telecommunications technologies. Sony has long led in both professional and consumer videoand audio, and more recently has been a major player in feature film, video and music content creation. The company now intends to play a global role as the chief integrator of computers with traditional media. Sony has revolutionized the desktop video market over the last two years, with it@introduction of an inexpensive 6-mm digital videotape format, and its''promotion of the IEEE 1394 FireWire digital data communications standard (the Sony version of FireWire is called iLink). With the advent of this low-cost all-digital solution for video capture and editing, most of the complications of mixing analog video with digital computer systems have been eliminated. Most Canadian desktop video VARs and system integrators W6uId confirm Sony has been the catalyst and the leader in this rapid evolution.

„ .; ,

;

Band Practice

Sopy' is including iLink connections in its latest VAIO desktop and notebook PCs. Intel Corp., along with other major makers of PC moth.cjrbioards, intends to do likewise in the months to come. By this time next year, FireWire/iLink connections will be a readily available feature on many PCs. That will help spark a rapid rise in the use of the PC as a video creation tool for both consumers and professionals.

Sony's drive to convergence is a mammoth task, not only in terms of creating the technological components, but in regards to coordinating all areas of the company in the creation of integrated products that will appeal to a mainstream market. Sony executives expressed some frustration at the difficulty of getting all the parts of the company — divisions, people and products — to work as part of the grand plan. (For example, the new Hi FD 200MB floppy disk product has taken longer to reach the market than was hoped, possibly hurting its chances to be adopted as the next mass storage standard.) However, Sony is not exactly moving slowly. A new generation of Sony products was on display at the VAIO World Congress, ranging from VAIO desktop PCs configured for digital video and photography production, to DVD and mini-disk players and recorders, to the latest Mavica digital cameras, and the ultra-light VAIO 505 sub-notebooks. The congress also featured the one-pound C 1 handheld PC, a fullpowered Windows 98 computer that can fit in a pocket. A tiny "magic box" for transmuting analog video to digital format was also shown. Finally, in a harbinger of consumer electronic things to come, a Robot Pet was demonstrated — a digital dog with sophisticated autonomous movement, motion sensors, and a simulated "personality" that uncannily mimicked the behavior of a real dog.

Why Sonyf Why VAIOY

Inventing the Future

IUnk, You Link, We All Link

play, audio, ergonomics, storage, microelectronics and telecom), to be the first to provide a truly seamless, usable convergence solution. The VAIO computer platform, is thus not just another PC line. Rather, it is the centerpiece of Sony's evolution into the leading convergence pioneer.

There has been some market confusion about why Sony, a traditionally Following the official event, journalists toured l prtntnum priced-manufacturer, would decide to enter the cutthroat Sony's advanced research lab in Tokyo, where consumer PC market. artificial digital life form simulations, new user interface technologies, and ultra high-speed g Sony's philosophy behind the launch of the VAIO personal computer line makes a lot more sense when the company's history, Internet technologies are being developed. Also, term inology portfolio, and product lines are considered as a whole. Sony demonstrated new applications in digital Since its founding in the ruins of post World War II Japan, Sony has theatre, professional video production, digital be a uniquely creative company when it came to seeing new photography and high-speed videoconferencing. trends and developing fundamental new technologies and products. Of note, Sony's original mission statement Sony secured Japanese rights to the newly invented transistor in the included the injunction that "engineers must be early 1950s, and developed the portable transistor radio. The com- allowed todream." For more than 50 years, Sony's technological dreaming has helped shape patty created the videocassette recorder and camera, and with the modern world. The company shows no sign Phillps, introduced the first CD audio player. Its monitors, disk driof losing its ability to see new visions and turn .,>„.lvesi chips and other components are used in millions of computer systems all over the world. them into reality. jCCJ N In a way that's only partly matched even by industry giant IBM C®p„ S ony has strength across all the component parts needed to Jeg Evans is Associate Editor of Canadian achieve convergence. Sony's grand plan is to leverage all its diverse areas Computer Wholesaler. He can be reached ar of expertise, from all the various divisions of the corporation (video, dis- j eff@tcpon.corn.

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by Grace Casselman I s it any coincidence that enterprise software vendor, PeopleSoft Inc., is based in a California town with the telling name of Pleasanton? "We arit'®eing mtire and more business from the fact that companies like ui: and trust us," said Jeff'rey Read, director of marketing for People@@Canada Ltd. "We' re very people-based in our overall

philosophy.' P 3

PeopieSttft claims to have 97 per cent customer satisfaction; and irtdeedone ofthe company's mottoes is "outrageous customer service." ,~e personality a~ e h~ be p aying off. In 1997, the company reported a net t~ me of SS$1083 million on revenues of US$815.7 million, which translates to 81 per cent growth over the ed 7 7 per cent revenue I~ ., ' n~ ., ~ ~ sis~e y ~ r'IIIIlnes were,$79 mi~ re i n 1 997; according to International Data Corp. (Canada) Ltd. I DC Canada li~ e o p l~ ,Canape aee iin4 IIi size to SAP a (Canadian re~ '~ f 95 '~ Q in ~ f. keopleSoft employs 6,500 people worldwide;. 360 of th'ose are spread across six Canadian offices, (That's a significant increase, from 110 Canadian employeey~ N 9 6 .) Cticai r ~ lt . ~ .' d evel@prIient ae )tivities include CatVikÃanization of prop s and French Canadian versions. Historiixtlly the company's sttength was in human resources/pay.~ the ~ ala ~ e on~ HR i n 1997. Acco~ "

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mar kets inclu de: gove~@

fmancial services, manafacturing-and higher education. The company more~ 4 2 eejgenents' fin , human u r c es, pay-a'6iistri~ n , m i 5I@actu -,:and '

supply, chain soluti+ ,-: (In . ber„

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S ~ mme speedy SAP installations. "We .could m mo say we have three-week,snstallatItinst if t/'t )j'j"'."ji<" @e.~ted. % @~' ~ <' At a press brieIatg this fidI in Pleasanton, PeopleSoft focused a lot of attjention on p, Tnjsisury preb@released last gay. That fnnctiona'Rty is crucial to the matter of control in an organization, said Read, particularly market vol+Iity and complex global business structures. According to a recent ~ e S oft survey of 198 senior financial executives, cash management is "becoming more important in a turbulent economy." Fifty per cent of the executives said they' ve started to increase their focus oncasli management over the past three years. (That figure is expected to increase to 77 per cent over the next three years.) And Read said up to 53 per cent of corporate respondents attributed between five to 10 or more per cent of net income directly to cash management.Cash management, according to Tom Knight, PeopleSoft's own global treasury manager, is: "The effective manage-

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18 ~ cANADIAN coMpUTER wHQLEsALER December 1998

ment and utilization of hinds flow to meet the short-term and long*' term needs of the organization. The first Canadian company to hcense Treasury (as part of the full enterprise suite of PeopleSoft's Enterprise Resource Planning software) was Montreal-based GTC Transcontinental Group. (The printing and communications company earned revenues of $1.12 billion in 1997, and has 9,000 employees spread over 40 offices.) GTC Transcontinental's first implementation phase reportedly~ l tI't took less than six months and included deployment of the Finatieials,'~pj! „ Distribution, Human Resources and Payroll modules. The full rollout to all locations is expected to be completed by July '99. Jocelyn Lajoie, project manager and director of re-engi'neering at GTC Transcontinental said, his company was a decentralized organization that generated redundancies. "Instead of having 25 separate accounting departments, our shared seivices centre will allow a core group of financial specialists to handle the majority of our financial operations in one centralization location." The organization had evaluated SAP as well, but Lajoie commented: "SAP definitely takes much longer, and we didn't want to run the risk. We had the significant pressure of the year 2000, and we couldn't run the risk, not to complete the installation by the year 2000." PeopleSoft has also been making a big push into what it calls the "mid-innarket" — basicaIIy targeting companies with revenues of''-'-::;:I Ii'-'. between $80 million and $250 million, said Read. (Pricing for the PeopleSoft solutioy typicallystarts at about $80,000, Read said.) The company says it has 7(@ partners worldwide. Ottawa-based Cognos Inc.'s OLAP technology, for example, is embedded in the PeopleSoft software. Bob Moorhead, Compaq Computer Corp, sPeoplegtiA sales manager for the /ktnericas,'said 60 per cent ofi PeopleSoft's NT business sits on C o~ ha r d ~ j%% / e lz V~,tÃj'i' " ' m ' ~ ua G t i enbauiti,' npresident of Enterprise Applications Consulting in Berkeley, Calif., said PeopleSoft has a n " goorI~ i t s on the analysis of transactional 'data, and has "upped the ante" on what CEOs and CFOs can do with the information they receive. As to whether,. t ' or not a PeopleSott implementation,'+.' means less upheaval than competitors' implementations, Greenbaum said: "To a certain extent it's up to the customer. itself. SAP is sq much more function@...SAP has a much greater p~ s i t y to force a dom-:-pany to make great changes, but it's not a requirement." "PeopleSoft is a company that can't markjet the breadth of functionahty of SAP," noted Greenbaur@~ the ~ ha n d, this is a company that is extremely well regarded' by its customers for customer relations and product quality." IfNII C '

Grace Casselman is Editor of Canadian Computer Wholesaler. She can be reached at gracecQ'netcom.ca

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For many workers in today's information world, a computers for around $2,000, but many portable computer can literally mean the differ- notebooks in that range are slow, clunky ence between productivity and failure. and may not have the latest features. For the so-caged road warriors, computing-onSo m ewhere between those extremes lies the-go is unarguably crucial, but it can also be vital an area worth exploring, with mid-range notefor employees simply needing to take work home books offering a nice balance between features on the weekend. and price. Although notebooks in this range may Notebook computers allow mobile users to do not have the latest processor or all the gadgets, ' machines were powered"-"-"' nearly everything they do on a desktop machine, most offer the performance and functionality v ' . by their AC cords; without being tied to their desks or having to deal mobile users need, without requiring s second I8j~7>~ !;,",gy with small and awkward machines. The only prob- mortgage on the house., We also, ran sn informal iiattery >, using softw'are by: Dave Voorhis at Arm'chair"'; lem is price. Air'lines Computer Services in Brandon, Man. It' s Notebook machines are always much more 11teTesle expensive than their desktop counterparts. But it's We asked vendors to submit notebooks in the important to note this only provided us with a ballnot cheap for manufacturers to condense desktop $3,000to $4,000street price range. Benchmarking park figure, end that battery life tends to vary from technology into notebook-sized bomponents. For was performed using BAPCo's SysMark32 soft- charge to charge and battery to battery. It's aise the absolute newest in notebook technology, it is ware. During testing, screens were setto a reso- important to note use of components like the CDnot uncommon to expect to pay between $5,000 lution of 600 by 600 with a 16-bit color depth, ROM drain the battery more quickly. That means and $70,000. It's certainly possible to get r'iotebook power management software was disabled, and individual m1ieage mayvary. '

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86$6". Ifvitb 6 127-inch sgreeg andjigijby 6 oji resplution, the screen is abit on)he small side, but is "enhanced" with e jpgljpy 7ggg gcrolls hieares, ..; Cpnsls8ng of two buttons for ok%in@ arid a centre button with directienai"sensing built in (tilt tha button 1n the+ pcfaon pu wanttoga),the > :,„,"-:.Ergo Tree technology is 's nic'e alttirngti>e to the a touch-pad. , Thenotebook has an externalvelum controlforquick and easy adjustment. .— „7 ..=-'.,'w i'I .The TFT screen has an exterpalbrightness control. ' The bays forthe components suppoA hot-swapping. '

Cele:Although the LifeBoek E330 supports hot-swapping of components, the release mechanism for the components is : hiddeg under the machine, which nekes removal of the components a bit awkvyard while the machine is runnmg, -, Tiie ErgoTrac is a bit too responsive at times, Detail work can be a bit difficult if the settings are set to faster speeds,~ as the user can easily overshoot the target. This can be fixed by slowing down the pointer, but then it takes a while to . getteitemsonthe other sideufthe@repn. g g Me:: ' Although the floppy drive caqbe a+elied~ 8 7aily via.cable, inqiudiffg ittPSIP tfmgnachine means sacrlcing.g7g~

Fujitsu has just introduced.its nqtpbqok line iricanada, and it'a eff tg a,zurftljiig.start with the Lifp8pek liffe,, At thq,mqj'71 . budget-conscious end of th'e Lifa8trpk scale, the standard Life8ouk E330 Isktaila fur $2,%9 but comes with jilst ~ g ; of ' '" RAM.'Tb meet the priding ~uii&ii w 'w thfs month'tests,al b iis ~ ~ d increased the systemperformance accordingly.

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. TheE330has a number ofnice dgtaigto I. ,Although both the ErgoTrpc apd @p bet-swppping ability could ILag @bit. ity, both are good indications of where the LifeBook line is headed, and it lobks Impressive. I

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iieet p'rico: $8,489 PNc The ease squeezes in the CD-RGM drive, floppy drive and battery simulteiteo@sly. 78,1-Iaeh TFT:disPISy ago7aas ~ ~ ~ r~ l+on of 1„924.by778L;;, ' The keyboardend Palm restsetuP is ver'y usable, ,

",%,".~P",@, Thernachine comes with 6%Kbps ®iodffm'builtdjti".<&~-" "'~ r' :,.' """~ "I : ='4W geu'close tim lid arid 6jI Ajt 4 5~ ~ 4 5 taj res quite~a while 4 'u~M ' ' '

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W A thebattery,CD-ROM andfloppydrivesa8eommg insidethe casi,the Versa Notebcair~~ g well, With the good display, nice keybtr'srd ind the built-in modem, it beponfes ~ ~ , an d well-suited to gfe oft th'tt~, ~ b i ggest drawback is the RAM, which may not be sufficient for some power users. A bit of extra RAM, though, and this machine is a'great machine to travel with.

F UJITSU IN T R O D U C E S

LIFEBOOK E SERIES

LIFEBOOK L SERIES ,r,, kh/ty/0/

Dual battery opuon for mcreased productnnty.

Large, bright TFT display for superior viewability. r

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Easy to handle-just M" thin and 4.5 lbs. hght.*

Precise and responsive Ergo Tracw pointing device.

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Optional mobile LAN Dock provides Ethemer connectivity.

Flexible configuration with dual hot-swapping multi-funaion bays.

L I F E BO O K

Contact with a superior notebook is now possible, with the introduction of the LifeBook'" E Series and LifeBook'" L Series to the Canadian

reseller channel. Those who have encountered the new Fujitsu LifeBooks describe them as uniquely developed for human interaction.

They display highly-evolved ergonomic features such as full-size keyboard and large palmrest. The compact structures of these advanced notebooks provide extraordinary flexibility, in a sleek and remarkably attractive form. Establish contact today. Visit wwwfujitsu.ca, or call your distributor for more information.

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H u m a n s.

Choice of 300 MHz, 266 MHz or 233 MHz Intel Pentium II processors 13.3" XGA TFT or 12.1o SVGA TFT displays 32 MB SDRAM, expandable to 160 MB 5.0 GB, 4.0 GB or 3.2 GB hard drives Built-in 56K v.90 modem with full duplex speakerphone capability

• • • • •

266 MHz Intel Pentium II processor 13.3" XGA TFT display 32 MB SDRAM, expandable to 160 MB 4.0 GB hard drive Built-in 56K v.90 modem with full duplex speakerphone capability

• 3-year international limited warranty

FU ITSU FUJITSU CANADA, INC. (905) 602-5454, 1-800-263-8716 www.fujitsu.ca B olds '„'""„„,s„ ~ ~

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Cybematlque Technologle M.R. Inc. Pro. Data Supercom 3D Micro Samtack Tech Data (519) 8 37-2444 ( 4 031 250-8881 ( 9 05) 415-1166 ( 9 05) 472.8822 ( 9 05) 940-1880 ( 9 05) 67(HI899 Quebec/Atlansc1-800489-0522 1 800 265.7212 604) 207-931 0 604) 276-2677 ( 6 04) 273-9328 1 - 888-874-6372 1 -800-668-5588 I <I 8.656.0622

I-800-567-3274 I-600-949-4567

-800-466-1 079

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Sheet Price:$3,999 'll

Pres:,The1100;T3 is pow ered by a 300M Hz AMD K6 chip,which turned in a very good performance.The II!.-".Ijl'!<:";.d f,'-' ':notebook alsir&s the~an forPentium chips ofup to 266MHz, foruserswho aren'tkeen on-the K6. =,:,'"..""-'+,,' The machine ships with 128MB of RAM. At 1,024 by 768, the resolution is high quality, with more room on the desktop. The 6GB hard drive is one of the larger drives in the portable arena at the moment.

Coca:Becausq af the Irtclusian af, all of the mqjor components simultaneously, w the notebook is a bit on the thick side. r'

Althoughthe I' :$00 combe with e 66Kbps mddem, it ships as a PC Card, mening thiHhere is effectively one less usable slot, when installed.

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,Ig",,';,.'",:,f Baaed In Nepean, Ont.„Eurocam has made a great name for itself in the. desktop replacement f formatice, and everythiiig is included in the case to minimize dowritime due-to component swapping. I

Street Price: $3,200 I

PrcgThe notebook has sufficient room in the case for the CD-ROMdrive, floppy drive and battery to be installed simultaneously, There are four programmable keys abave the regular keyboard, for setting up macros, for example, The speakersystem sounds quite goad. T here is a physical volume control on the exterior of case, which makes it easier to quickly adjust the sound. : " g ' .-.~~ g' ; The notebook ships with an internal 56Kbps modem u P

"'CongThe speakershave been placed directlyundai'the area where the user's forearms and wrists rest, which mtiNes thewam s und. The maximum hardwired resolution on this 12.1-inch screen is 800 by 600 pixels. d This fgachine tatdps with Windows 96 instead. of jIyindows 98. Th~w'hare naWindowa freys an this madel. We emphas'fke thisrbecause Wihdowsnkeys make using the Start Menu on a partible miRhine r ~p:--::-„-'. <,,"..'." ' much easier. Scrolling through the Start Menu using either a touch-pad or track-point can be a real chore.

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r :; ~~ " In 'N"ehd, thgltis q'uIte'a nice ma d chine for thehtiaveler, with a .;; -: onboard at the same time. (Nate: Although the Compaq notebook did nat attain ~X, a Analscore forthe benchmarking,this may be the resultof P~gl ari~ jrl wwyPgi'cffa@pgs, iliclpailng incompatibility with thir scripgsia the. ' 'b~ m a rki~p-buita. ~ u is likelynat something that will affect ~ t rs.i ~M ' j; = l':,"".

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ProsThe 110Iyt:ames with a 3009Hz processor Pentium II processor and 128MB of RAM, and ~, p turned.in a hI@,benahig~ing Socle. m u'ua. ;-,.qp. At 144&'Chei&5 SC~' :ienie@~ldh Sp'aarga " The case holds the CD-ROM drive, floppy drive and battery simultaneously., 'ih:Thsdifndtphmsthgihgtjh@ijjej ju:idfmnf Std",iihmrhnss. ue''tW "A " The1j00come'swith a'carrying ca'se. The casemorta!As c j0 Adddeo;Gyp~ Are portend a TV-outp ~. n

Pieg The 300MHz Pentium H offers goad perfelnance. == The pointer control is the AccuPoint contrelle'r, which ia like iBM's track-point. For users who aren't really comfortable using the touch pad the A ccu PointI Ijfsre s St t Thjr loppy drive, CD-ROM dhive and:battery-'jd cl fit int5'"the case simultaneously. .g A ltbaugh it'Sl eet intO the SameSPOtaaan deelgttP keyb~da, 'I TO~ h a a atohided a ytfuttkjWS ~tr ri the ' righ&nd . corner of the keyboard, for easier use. .„, The pound on this machine is quite.gogd, '; '

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~PCeee. '7haa 2.'IBS'ttard "is a 5tf~all, a'N'there'e noat@dern M'this pi8Ihular "'- f:e- the Mer, its TOPpoaed to taft configuration of the machine. (However, it's worth noting that the ~ndard canfig- .~ and right orientation. uratiaa of this..q!odetdcqfqea with a 4GB 4~' < These.ia no Ea hard drive and ggi6Kbps Pigcard mcflem, ladlem with this, * '!:~fr.'::jifar a!@,238stjfa'af pri'ce'.7.. ~ ~ » :u K" W " ~'-'P'

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is Ultinet's 1100 ii a great choice for a desktop replacement model, with a larger ;, on the thick sale hj' I, screen, vert Uslthiu leush-psd, filet processor slid lout tlf hhth As slrsfvlhmti js,,sg illcludl.d withinrdre cssei'lt hecedtgs a greet travelling machine id welt. fihgliar 4' . T oattdnth got sne of die hest same~ travellers would be advis'ed to drop'the extra money and get the regblar con%gore- ':~ in thenotebook business,and it's easy to tion with the larger hard drive and the PC Card slot modem.) With the extra video 4 s e e why with the Satellite 4020CDT model. It's gat good s'hund, @~~ ~ caPture and autPut oPtiaas, it becomes even more useful far multjlriedia, gh:rwell.;,=-:=:--'-' a ll the aiajor caifiPanents are include@in the C~ sim~ e Evenatthefull@ice,it1k@finttefyworthconsidering. SP'eaialnahy,-.fteseil~aan < eu+ =andit's'gate greatPaintercareaI.Altbif@thereeuino custom-configure Ultinetir systems at http//wwwuitfnetca, by tagging ir'i with ~: modemshippedonthemachine,theSatagi teCNhCDTisatheruserid:var and password„var. : . „ + :~ W i ae a complete machine that should make most people happy. h

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ARMOUR AR 3564

The key to intelligent solutions for your customers' needs is top quality products that work in harmony with one another. Intel has the leading edge in motherboards, processors, AGP video cards, and network cards to name a few. From the fully boxed product down to the OEM product, White Knight Distributing has them all. The ARMQUR AR3564 is an example of the quality that is inherent in all of

«««~ «««ec

the White Knight systems. The Intel' motherboard fully takes advantage of the Intel' Pentium' ll processor 350MHz and the Intel' 740 AGP video card. Combining other quality components to these assures your customers of quality systems. Whether you need complete systems or need components for upgrades, White Knight Distributing has all the intelligent solutions!

www.white-knight. corn

Western Canada 105 - 3760 Jacombs Road Richmond, BC, V6V 1Y6 1-800-668-6188

Alberta Office 4710 - 14th Street NE Calgary, AB, T2E 6L7 1-800-668-3381

Eastern Canada 245 W. Beaver Creek Rd. Richmond Hill, ON, L4B 1L1 1-800-852-5039

Halifax Office 200 Wright Avenue Dartmouth, NS, B3B 1R6 1-800-735-0250

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Intel', the Intel' Inside Logoand Pentium' ll are registered trademarks of Intel' Corporation. All other brand namesare registered trademarks of their respective owners,

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CCBL" No modem is included with this configuration. The floppy drive must be swapped vrith the CD-ROM drhre. Probably more familiar to most of us as a monitor company, MAO also makes a line of portable compute The 860CDT is a basic-looking, machine with a lot of power under the hoed, including a speedy 300MHEC~ Pentium II processor and a lot of RAM. Users who generally aren't big fans Nf the touch-pad may find the SpeedScroll function a useful addition. On the other hand, the lack of modem and the need to swap the floppy drive in and out of the machine may make it less than ideal for people who are on the road a lot. All in all, the 860CDT is a poweiful and usable machine.

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Street Price:$3,599

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Sheet Mce: $3,999

r r;r Pica:Like the rest of the ThinkPad line, the 3&OXD tercc;With a 3r0gMHz Peirtuim II e has a good se]Id case, making it-@ore sturdy than chip, the Hypardata 50275.'is one of mostother port ables. thefastestnotebookstested this month. nr The CD. ROMdrive, floppy drive and battery are all in The t4.2-inch screen is a nice size, allowing a screen resalutlon, <5 ( ',,.fr the case simultaneously, eliminating endless compoof 1,024 by 768. ',"kb",";:I, :,-<" nantswitchiny. -and rebootmg. Steppin'g up from the world of CD-ROM, the 5027B incluPiPsa DVD-ROM drive. This makes it ready for the anticipated DVD reyThereare external controls on the 380XD forboth sound '" 5 ' ,,y Clutieqi Whiirr'lI'IrtraekWe~eam~ f ejrWIth traddfeII61 ~ ISI»IL ' „,jjij'>> Volume and the brightpeaa,cf thy;.screen, batjI Of Whish SaVe ~>.-' .' -The larger case allows theaDVD drive, floppy drive and battery ~ timesearchingforthem on the d' w ktopscreen. Forusers who aran'tfans ofthetogch-pad,thetrack-pointisa gi.nuine pleasureto to b e in the case at the same time, eliminating the need for work with. It provides excellent pointer response without the hassle of wlift-andcomponent swapping and rpbooting. r ,;,r;,~~ teach, gft-an~much" .a forPOVeWg largeSarsen diganeea On,~'b AS On ET; Pea~,keybear~ e,Hygerdata'S ~ard in~ v cmetimeecgeeaaary ' '+'.,"', thcptoueh-pad.-"::: two Windows keys for increased usability. ~-:,;cI-.'"''.,R ";, The 6.56B hard drive is tits largest igeludedpin this month'sI~l';II,'» „;,, The function keys are nicely sized.and separated from the rest of the keyboard. >ftj ,

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cssl".Like othlii models inthe Thilkpad line„the 380xD is rather thick. including video out, e'IIame -, The machine ie.weil-set nter models avail- = p ort, and two USB ports {which makes the machine ready for WItfi a 233MHi:f'entium processor,'-the machine isn't dne of the fae able for the money. "

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The ThinkPad-iises the okitjer Winkws 95 opmiting hystem. The 12.1-inch 800 by 600 passive screen may.ba too small for some users. p A '

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st, secern Evan w'rih a sjower proeeimor oljlpr oparstink system snss sjnsltsr sarsen, the g Hypsrrhila's notkbeoks ertelwatrs r h trest to Nak aiitentitmto detail '~T 5027B Iamno ercception, W a sf zable dis~ and powkifuI IBM ThinkPad380XDewonderf+machinetcworkgkith. IBM's'E gives usa nice,sturdycase,agreatkeyboard,externaieontrolsvelumeandscreen,,-r processor, lots of RAM, a larger herd drive and a DVD drive. r~ Tfie . ,'""'jit@g®@the ~ y aeeIIte@jI a~ ifrrr briqfrtneaap With, ail ttteoee@PCC~,ataitI@;.@g, a Vbtinderfui P ' . jj switch CD-ROID'Srive with~py e battery), erfd the machine 38NT is e great entry-level notebobk from a big name. comes with e good selection ofports,the HypWata 5027B is a =,'ji:,,' , gr eat notebook for the traveler looking to the future. ; ;«/;:;E-„"T ~:;,;,x:: :. , .~;4;;,:,@I ' "

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wchpmarking C w~ Witbgreet eanjpNMntS and C IOtOfjg This maChine turned inh gieat perfacrmanee in the ben RA68. A large TfT Screen makea ILevuen aiaer, NS da~ Wide Varjiky Of ~. Altha~ the true~ Wr i f/r. rior 'may find the lack of a modemknd a having to swap out the floppy for the CD-ROM drive a bit troublesorme,

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Street Price:$3,975 ..~" PreaThe 3IjgMHz Pengum chip is vdry power)uzi, andwith the 64MB ef RAM,.helped this machine to turn in the best benchmarking scores for this roundup. The machinehas two USB ports. The case is large enough to hold the battery, CD-ROM and floppy drives simultaneously, eliminating the need for component switching and rebooting. !~'4rji.' >,,;+There is a 56Kbps modem included, and hardware control of volume for quicker adjustment,

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=I : =:„ CenaThe touch-pad on the Ir achinetested was a bittouchy and hard to use. r d m mt r ::"':jy' ir":..::":I il'rr y D gyti'!dg Q~eyhs Irlghk silcsrish cdliiringiit the mseldns may ncyscit samatested": !j:. '',;.

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The Siimnote tested this month has coloration suggestive of futuristic technology from old movies, r but there's a lot of power under up substanual ly.W ith a m odem onboard and thehood.In fact,the combinaition ofcomponents inside nudges the p nnly thing that could be problematic is tits touch-pad, which was overtwo t@B ports, it becomes even more attractive. Theo ly jumpy and not very accurate on the unit we tested. This is a great Inachine from a company that knows the ins and outs jjII"ke a

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Suggested Aeteil Prilm:$3,699

Sgdutt Price:$4,000

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hsmag designmakes 1t The Incredibly Il'>i9t perfect for working in tight spaces. ,'yet g' d." It has a 4GB hard drive and a modem inside. tter4rpa~ a @I:Up etzb~ i ~ era ;: ale be thescreen pivots away from the keyboard.When the batt ery pack is removed, a specialattachment can be connected which has moner, printer, serial; keyboard and mouse,',ports;- This is,... „= an excellent design. The 505 has both USB and an IEEE1394 Firewire Port.

Presr.This notebook has three bays almig the front of the machine. The r m ye',~ d i ibfe;:"Stree:gite erie"!of It',,' " ' '" ' ~ -

It has both a modem and a 10i100Base-TFth met connector '«..' t~.',.r U~ t i l e 268MHZDPentifgm II Chip, theg k ViajunBO& turnedin quiteyeSpeetableSpeed.

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canbe attached externagywhen the CDandbattery are insid'e. In a f ield where the thickness of the other machines tends to hover around . Ths yy55 chewed thrc egg the hemer ychargeqllicker th~an . ,„::-: . thetwc inch ms[a tt lkggg i@h thicjk~ isle ssth „, j III~ :otII+yljsdhal®:en'Ni n ~ a i qb ~ te :. ~>yh,'"': " With that in mind, it's impressive that Sony has managed to squeeze inside a ' 45 On the rOad, the inability tu haVe the flOppy driVa, CD-RDM ful l 4GB herd driVe, a jmudem, USB armI Fireyjire porta iptu ~ bud@ Of thetkAg cblematio, 'Ii,D"'inaCjlme. Beo@iae Ofg'Ie SisethOugh, SDOmme C' dr& andbattery inside Shriulteneeualymaybe OIICeSSIOnS had tiAe made, and ~ pre t h as would be the lower battery life. But for desktop users or ""='; the most notable is thbt neither a floppy or CS-ROM drive is includOd In the people moving between offices, with a network jack built-in bod y of the machine. However, the system is great for working in a tight and,re Cumfertably SpaCed keybOard, the, ViaiO OOk 7755;jar'~I SpaCe, like On en airplane. Fer thuee secre, the tiny Six@Of i~ "j F <„ig Q mtthe thing. x: mijbe jue ~W „;, . 5::.,»"-' the rriechine andthe power Itmanagestto pack'inside

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PreaThe2105T features a nice,sim pleand clean deagn which is pleasantto look atand em 'to use. kikemoatdeektoP keygoardrdlhe 2@ 5 de a l e eye@)}ars f~crgÃlguegjjjjjtty. nT. has@~an@'ws.key;on,+~ „

.,yieattarketh CQ.ROWIael flOppy are remOVablII but ueb Ihe Sees'bay%'e lieder OSA'tljlede bMbttiietrh'd fnrt er&ly &4b ' 'same mme. WIth mliy 32MB Standard, Sya wtem PerfOrmanCe ie SIOSVer than it Ouufd be WIth mOre RAjyi. ~> ' " ' if'',,ili ilt', j ll®;"4V.; ~g There is no modem included with this configuration. i The 121-inch screen Ie a bit o' nthe small side land thp800 by 600 re~ tlonls also a bit i~ t h an other mac1dnes id cthis roundup. r;: The OipniBOpk. 2105T haa.a ldt tOreCqm b anigrgelrerdiugebiiity m and .i t, i~ i n g the nice:ltltd Siepfe deitgilh mW'my ~ d j a®,: Though these traits make it greatfor the serious user, the lower amount of standard RAM, and the inability to put both the floppy and CD msld r ne+ B cep. at th t n rm'pcuneiifSWapjng and -"<':=:m@'Caae,8ut th'ematherWj(pclStr@uire du r'd4OObFj'<:" '

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Sean Carrut hersisLab TestEditorforCanadian Computer Who/esa/er.He can bereached atseandgrtcp.ca.

28 ~ CANADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER December 1998 httpJtwww.ccwmag.corn

PentiumMMX233MHz

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133 1,024 x768 6.4GB 24X fixed fixed AccuPoint

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Performance (tie)

Performance

Twilheld Slifllote VX2-%0TZ/llNNIt11N ln terms of performance, both the Ultinet1100 and the Twinhead Slimnote VX2-300TZ were right up there. The Twinhead is very appealing, with ag of the components thrown in, but the Ultinet may bemore attractive, with the larger screen and'the option to top it up for a couple hundred dollars more. Either way, the user is in for a fast machine without quite hitting high-end pricing.

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De cember 1998 CANADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER ~29

D IGI TA L C A M E R A S

Hardware

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Digital cameras are hot sales opportunities. Indeed,according to market research, salesjumped from a few hundred thousand units in 1994 to about three million in 1998. The digital camera has very attractive features in its favor (essentially "free film," no developing charges and a familiar form factor and user interface). But early digital cameras were expensive, low in image resolution and quality, and tricky to connect to a computer. However, there has been a massive effort by digital camera makers to overcome the weaknesses, and consumers are voting with their wallets. In a quiet revolution, digital cameras are becoming a cornerstone of "the new computing." Fundamental digital camera technology and new product introductions are both advancing at light speed, compared to the progress of scanners. For example, in 1999, while the market for scanners will be considerable, it seems likely that the hotter product category will continue to be digital cameras. In order to succeed in the mass market (as opposed to the graphics specialty market), a product has to fall below a certain threshold of diITicuity in order to attract the general home and small business PC user. While many PC users can install a scanner and use it quite happily, many others dohave problems (often due to an obscure hardware of software compatibility orconfiguration problem on the PC), and quickly become frustrated. But once one wraps one's mind around the fundamentally lower resolution of digital cameras, the many advantages of those cameras make the appeal to PC users quite understandable.

ACCD Isa CCD isa CCD

The Boundaries of

Photography and Video are Blurring in the Computer

Imaging Era by Jeff Evans

Digital still cameras and modern digital video cameras are all based on an Interline Transfer Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) imaging element â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a tiny, sophisticated device that can contain millions of microscopic light-sensitive components. According toNewton 's Telecom Dictionary, "CCDs areused asimage sensors in an array of elements in which charges areproduced by light focused on a surface. (CCDs) consist of a rectangular array of hundreds of thousands (or millions) of light-sensitive photo diodes. Lightfrom a lens is focused on the photo diodes. This frees up electrons (charges) which accumulate in the photo diodes. The charges are periodically released into vertical shift registers which move them along by charge-transfer to be amplified." In other words, shine an image through a lens onto an active CCD, and that CCD will emit electrical charges that can be translated electronically into a digital pictorial replica of the original image. It is up to the manufacturer to decide which package of appropriate optics, electronics and data storage features to wrap around the CCD, to determine what features the digital camera will have. The bitmapped images that result from information transmitted from a CCD can be: stored on flash memory, diskette or hard drive, recorded on digital videotape, or displayed on a LCD or CRT monitor. In fact, there is no longer any reason to make an absolute distinction between digital still cameras and digital video cameras. They all use the same basic technology to transform light passed through a lens into detailed digital pictures. Depending what kinds of image conversion and storage systems a CCD is hooked up to, it can pass along both single pictures and streams of moving video frames. Early digital cameras were limited to CCD arrays of about 320 by 200 diodes (64,000 diodes). Currently, the minimum resolution of a consumer digital camera's CCD is 640 by 480 (about 310,000 diodes). High-end digital cameras have megapixel CCDs, with around a million diodes. Pundits say consumer-priced digital cameras (under $1,000) can be expected with CCD arrays of 2,000 by 2,000 (or four million diodes), by the year 2000 or 2001. Increasingly, the lines between digital video cameras and still cameras are blurring, as it becomes cheaper to include both still image and moving image 0 ptions in the same relatively low-cost device. Many digital video cameras are i ntended for either full motion video conferencing or single image capture. Consumer digital camcorders have a snll image capture mode in addition to the full-motion standard mode. Better quality consumer-level digital still cameras increasingly have the abflity to capture short siuppets of motion video and sound, up to the limit of their onboard RAM or integral disk drive capacity. The major bottleneck to digital cameras' ability to capture motion videotends to be the need for very large amounts of memory or onboard disk drives. As inexpensive CCDs of ever-higher resolutions come onto the market and compact, inexpensive data storage options proliferate in the next couple of years, digital cameras h

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• Supports Intel Pentium'll processor up to 400 MHzandfuture frequency • Adapteco AIC-7890 Ultra 2 SCSI chip on board • AdaptecAIC-3860 LegacySCSIbridgeonboard • Dual SCSI channels support Ultra 2 SCSI and Ultra wide SCSI • Targets SOHO, home8 personal Web server markets

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capable of both still and moving image capture will become a standard part of daily life. They' ll be present almost everywhere, and will be increasingly easy to connect to computers, directly to the Internet, video networks or printers.

Memories to Go Digital imaging devices are all memory hogs in terms of the file sizes high resolution CCDs can generate. Even in a highly compressed JPEG format, a megapixel image (1,024 by 768 up to 1,600 by 1200 pixels) can take up between 100KB and 400KB of storage capacity. Motion video streams in compressed formats such as Motion JPEG, AVI, MPEG 1, or soon, MPEG 2, can require between 60KB and 200KB per frame,and atabout 30 frames per second, between 1.8MB and 6MB per second, or 108MB to 360MB per minute. Digital cameras have an endless appetite for memory. As higher memory capacity becomes cheap and available, users will want higher resolution, higher quality imagery. For example, Iomega has introduced its tiny 40MB Click hard drive cartridge to meet this market, while Sony has unveiled its small Memory Stick memory cartridges as alternatives to the industry-st andard fl ash cartridges. For storing huge amounts of full-motion video streams from a CCD camera, current options include the 6-mm miniature digital videotape format in consumer-level digital camcorders. Digital video streams stored on digital tape can be copied at high speeds to a PC hard drive via a FireWire (also known as IEEE1394 or iLink) connection. The major limitation of FireWire is that it is still undergoing finalization as a standard, and is still rarely built in to PCs or digital cameras. More common at the end of 1998 is the Universal Serial Bus (USB). While still not perfectly bug free and often offering slower data transfer rates than serial or parallel ports, USB delivers improved performance and ease of use. Some current digital cameras get around the requirement for oncamera picture storage by allowing the user to directly beam pictures to a printer via an infrared port. Most typically, digital still cameras come preinstalled with enough internal memory chips to store anywhere from a few to a few dozen highest resolution digital snapshots, and rely on a serial cable connection to download pictures to a PC for archiving, image processing, and printing. The clearest winner in the digital camera image storage/transfer sweepstakes is the Sony Mavica line. The Mavica has a 1.44MB floppy drive built in to the camera body, allowing the user to save pictures directly to floppy and copy them to thePC simply by popping the floppy disk out of the camera and into the floppy drive on the PC. Sony is expected to apply its 200MB HiFD floppy disk technology to the Mavica sooner rather than later. A HiFD disk option on the Mavica sometime in 1999 or 2000 would allow up to a couple of minutes of very high-quality, full-motion video and audio to be captured and transferred extremely simply and cheaply, effectively completing the merging of digital photography and video.

The Digital Camera Tango

of November). SVGA resolution cameras, with CCD resolution of 600 by 800 pixels are probably the current sweet spot in terms of price/performance. Most Web pages are created in 600 by 800 resolution, making SVGA cameras ideal for applications where the picture will be displayed on the Web and/or viewed on a 14-inch or 15-inch monitor. Megapixel cameras are the dream machines, offering potentially good margins, but attracting fewer customers until prices decline further. • Memory — Most digital cameras come with 2MB to 4MB of picture storage memory, plus software on flash memory or EPROM chips inside the camera. A major profit opportunity for resellers is to up-sell the camerabuyer to an extra 4MB or 8MB of memory, so more pictures can be captured between downloads. • Easeof Use/Ergonomics —Almost all consumers know how to use a point-and-click-style film camera. That's why a digital camera designed to mimic a film camera's functions, and which also offers the simplest controls is most likely to be a winner and require the least technical support or product returns. Cameras with an option selector wheel, such as the Fuji 700, are easier to use than those with a profusion of buttons and cryptic icons. * • Optical Quality and Upgrade Options —For all " the sophisticated electronics inside a digital camera, the lenses range from professional to plastic throwaway cameraquality.The better models from Epson, Kodak, Olympus and Fuji, come with standard adapters for high-quality adjustable lenses, including telephoto lenses. Resellers who take the time to qualify their customers' needs, and who have sales staff who understand photography, can upsell serious digital photography clients to higher-margin add-on lenses, tripods, flashes, battery packs, and other accessories. • Batteries —Some models use regular flashlight style AA batteries, which are cheap and easy to find. Rechargeable batteries are the best option for a heavy user. Other models use battery packs that resemble notebook PC batteries. They have higher voltage output, but proprietary form factors, high price and sometimes, heavier weight. • Software — Cameras have software installed internally, on flash memory (which usually allows for bug fixes and upgrades from the PC or EPROM chips (which need to be physically replaced to be upgraded). The onboard software controls the camera options, including the image file formats, and the quality of image compression. As well, digital cameras come with a CD-ROM of Mac or Windows software, which lets the user control the downloading, storage, viewing, manipulating and printing of pictures from the camera to the computer. *

The Future Some trends are clear. CCDs with up to 2,000 by 2,000 resolution are only a couple of years away. Advances in storage technology will make high-resolution, high-quality imaging affordable for the consumer market. Cameras the size of fingernails will be embedded in portable devices and connected to the Internet. Successful products will be those with simple operation, flexibility of storage and display, lightness and compactness, and integration into overall computer, entertainment and telecom systems. For resellers, some important principles of success with digital cameras are: listen to the customer and be prepared to move out of technologies as they become obsolete. Sell quality and customer satisfaction rather than just a low price, which too often translates to a high cost of ownership. EN

Resellers and consumers are confronted with a bewildering range of choices in digital cameras at the end of 1998. There are more than 30 vendors and perhaps 100 models. Some basic parameters resellers should keep in mind when looking for digital camera to carry are: • Resolution —640 by 480 true CCD resolution is pretty much the minimum for a current digital still camera, but at this basic resolution, there Jeg Evans is Associate Editor of Canadian Computer Wholesaler. He is a strict limit to the price consumers will pay (around $400 to $500 as can bereached atjeffOtcpon.corn. 32 ~ cANADIAN coMpUTER wHQLEsALER December 199s httpitwww.ccwmag.mm

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hen the personal computer began to appear onoffice desktops, we were told the paperless office was just around the corner. Instead, thanks to inexpensive high-quality laser and inkjet printers and the desire to have hard copies of everything, the modern office generates paper documents at an ever-increasing rate. Three developments over the last few years have finally made it more possible to emerge from this morass of paper: inexpensive color scanners, CD-R or Zip drives, and a new breed of documentmanagement software packages.

The Hardware First, you need a good fl atbed scanner.These are now available for less than $200. They are easy to install and work much like a photocopier except that the "copy" is saved as an image file on the hard drive. A fairly busy office will want a scanner with an automatic document feeder (ADF) to reduce the labor component. Secondly, a high-capacity removable storage device is needed. Image files tend to be quite large â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 1MB or more per page in their raw form. At my company, we use the HewlettPackard 7100 series CD-R writer. CD-R discs hold 650MB and sell for less than $2 each. Thanks to Adaptec's DirectCD software that ships with the CD-R writer, you can copy, erase and rename files just as you would with any other drive on your system. When "closed" the CD-R becomes a standard CD suitable for permanent read-only storage or distribution. It is possible to store up to 9,000 black34 ~ CANADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER December (998

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S OFT W A R E RE V I E W

and-white pages on a single CD-R in Tiff Group 4 format. We update our documentbase weekly and distribute a single new CD each Monday.We recycle an amazing amount of paper we would previously have filed.

drag each invoice thumbnail to the appropriLike the other two packages reviewed ate destination folder. here,PageKeeper allows "stacking" of docuA ll three of these packages are feature- ments. Stacking groups related documents laden and this review but scratches the sur- into a multi-page document that can be read in face.However, one greatPaperPort feature is sequence. File operations such as moving and the abili t o pr i nt a file from the Web direct- exporting are simplified if related documents The Software ly to the Paperport are stacked. In addition, a stack reduces clutDocument managedesktop. This is very ter on the desktop. m ent software i s slick and easy. Simply designed to solve the select File/Print from Product: Pagis Pro 2.0 ttLt problem that arises Vendor: Xerox Corp. (http: //www.xerox.corn) your browser a nd once a few hundred selectPaperPort from Price: US$99 ilier'It<trfI ' lI ~ ~ ~ ~ he scanned documents t he P r inter N a m e Rating: B RISI H have been saved to drop-down list and disk. Without a fiilclick (OKJ. The other Pagis Pro saves image files in a very comrer I hgg~ ~ 1II4 ing system, these ~ ~ ~ AFl excellent feature is pressed XIF format. Pre-existing image files SN image files are as WebPublisher. Simply are dropped into the Pagis Pro desktop and useless as a stack of drag a group of select- should be converted to .xif files. The system is ilN50NS R-Kive boxes full of ed images, photos for highly integrated with the scanning process anddocumentsaredisplayed in theXerox Pagis Proinbox. example, to the Web- W e found the best results were achieved when unsorted paper. For Pictures Publisher icon and an al l scanning was done with the Pagis Pro this a r t icl e we reviewed three popular document manage- HTML Web page will be created. In the i n terface active. The user interface is similar to Windows ment/optical character recognition (OCR) b r owser you will see a nicely formatted page except we were unable to find a way packages: Caere PageKeeper, Visioneer's s i milar to a contact-sheet that displays rows Explorer PaperPort and Xerox's Pagis Pro. Each pro- and columns of photos in thumbnail form. of displaying a directory tree. Pagis Pro shines vides a visual filing system for image files, as Clicking o n th e in the image-editing well as sophisticated indexing features. t humbnail will load ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ -d epartment. All t h e Content can be indexed thanks to the OCR the full-size photo. basic annotation tools This can be useful software that ships with these products are there as well as tk:i for preparing reports +CllIlldCl~~ o~ â&#x20AC;˘ I Wl nice arrows and rubber Product: PaperPort PaperPort Deluxe , Owe l WAp d e ll t eHl to be uploaded to an i Cl~ Cl ~ Cl ml stamps like "Draft" Version 5.3. I i ntranet, just a d d Cl ~ O al . a~ tÂť and "Approved." A Vendor: Visioneer Inc. text and do a few ."-Clh t O AVSS OkgtS photo-editing package (httpt/tww w.visioneer corn) simple edits to the Cl JAMI Cl ll&e~l OCI rt' bundled with Pagis g tti Price: US$79.99 generated file. N llPeAI W l ht Q Pro makes it excellent Rating: AA rchiving t o for maintaining graphCD-R or Zip media ic images. Visioneer's PaperPort makes it easy to orga- is handled well. A CaerePageKeeper's familiar rgrectory structuremakestiling easy. nize your image files. Simply drag and drop freely d i stributed an existing image from its Windows folder to viewer makes it possible to view PaperPort Finding Your Data the PaperPort desktop. That copy is filed in the files distributed within a company. All threedocument management packages PaperPort directory system in a proprietary reviewed here support background OCR and format and displays as a thumbnail on the Product: PageKeeper Standard 3.0 thus, searching on content. But we were desktop. Double-click the thumbnail to see Vendor: Caere Corp. (http: //www.caere.corn) unable to test the advanced searching feathe full-size image in PaperPort's "page Price: US$39 tures of PageKeeper, as they are not includview." Here you can change magnification or Rating: B+ ed in the Standard version. PaperPort has an clean up the image. Back at the desktop view excellent search engine. An index of every you may also click the scan button to bring PageKeeper is similar to PaperPort except in word in the database is maintained in the images directly from the scanner to the one major respect: rather than copy the origi- background. We were able to locate the nal image file PageKeeper keeps a pointer to number sequence 74592 almost instantly. PaperPort desktop. To the left of the PaperPort desktop is a the original. The interface is very similar, Clicking (Show Details) brought up and Windows Explorer-like directory tree. It is folder tree is on the left, the desktop with window where we could see that it was easy to create folders within folders in this thumbnails is on the right. Double-click to indeed the invoice we were looking for. On directory structure by pressing Ctrl-N. For expand-view and edit or annotate. The point- clicking the (Go To) button we were preexample, if you scan a batch of invoices you er system greatly reduces the amount of hard sented with the thumbnail of the invoice, could create an Invoices folder. Within that disk space required and maintains a link to an and with a double click our document was in you may createa separate folder for each of image that is continuing to be modified. One full view. IM your suppliers, and within the supplier's fold- problem we had with this system was that as er youcould create a folder for each month. we modified our file structure or changed CDs John Hamm is co-owner of Vancouver's Every folder has its own desktop. Working the program would lose its ability to find the Eastside DataGraphics. He can be contacted at harvest@bc.sympatico.ca. with the batch of scanned invoices simply image the thumbnail was based on. -

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December 1998 CANADIAN COMPUTERWHOLESALER

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e., E d ucation is the number one reason that Canadians buy PCs. Entertainment's the next big draw, according to a 1997 study by, AC Nielsen. So is it any wonder that edutainment (a useful combination of the two words and coni » » fportant software category? ~epts) is-an idi ~' Mare spebifically, in AC Nielsen's "Canadian Home PC and Entertainment Study," researchers found more tomthree-quartersof respondents used PCs primarily for games. The heaviestgarners are males aged e:-."..« X>A~~"". -,'..~~f'. jj"l»"::"',.' Is aitd' oldei;:-followed closely byl fetnales of the same age gmup. But surprisingly, the next biggestgame players are children between the ages of seven and 12. Software developers such as Broderbund, Knowledge Adventure and The Learning Compaity have coupled children's enjoyment of computer. games with learning activities. g. M o m and Dad can rest assured their elementary school-age children will not only become increasingly adept at working the computer, they' ll learn useful things while doing it. .,'* ,:,~, j'g jjj~j:>in -~ jy!j~' I+k i@.under seven jars.old «nay not be quite as taken with comPuters as their <i''"@~A~ -",!, ===„, " older :wI there are many edutainment products to encouiage those as young as 12 months ',I,',, ELI 1"+i 4L',,, lfkfI' ))j~(jjfgij~lEI.ItG»'8Pend@Inc comPutlrtg,;;,t, «flip))tfl '$II IIfgl)gq Beamscope Canada Inc., a mayor distnbutor of home-oriented computer products, reports its t f e», ",i bfattaellitrtg ed»oan«nietl/efdutttinmtdit SO%Ware':titleS are eneyelOpeedias. Software packages based on i"IIIII)( popular children's TV shows (aimed at children of less than 12 yearsof age) are also good sellers. Ilt! '

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NlcClelland 8 Stewart lnc. The 1999 Canadian Encyclopedia WorM Edition ($69.99) The 1999 Canadian Encyclopedia Student Edition ($34.99) McClelland gE Stewart has extended a winning formula to gradeschool students with the 1999 Canadian Encyclopedia Student Edition. It streamlines material from the World Edition into something more manageable for the late-elementary and junior-high age groups. Compared to the World Edition, the Student Edition is pared down. It offers three types of content: Canadian articles, Gage definitions and multimedia items. In contrast, the World Edition presents Maclean's articles, Canadian and Columbia Encyclopedia articles, Internet links and updates, plus multimedia items. Content is simplified when compared to the parent publication. For instance, a quick search on the subject of pollution yields information on land, air and water pollution, as well as pollution controls. In comparison, the World Edition turns up much more detailed data covering the types of pollutants, air-resource management, and air pollution pathways. The Student Edition still offers a hefty amount of text to wade through, however. And although not as sophisticated in vocabulary use as the World Edition, students below Grade Six level will need assistance deciphering some of the written content. In addition to providing Canadian material, this title includes the Fifth Edition of the P Columbia Encyclopedia, a French/English and fji, iI'I English/French dictionary, the Gage Canadian Dictionary, Roget's Thesaurus, and M aclean's ~ I, .Q< Fear in Review.

mations, as well as links to 35,000 prescreened Internet sites. Encarta Virtual Globe 99 offers a comprehensive collection of worldwide maps in 18 different customizable map styles ranging from topography, temperature or population, to eco-regions and political regimes. With more than 600,000 entries, Microsoft Bookshelf 99 provides nine bestselling reference works ranging fromRoget's Thesaurus and the Columbia Dictionary of Q uotations to The American Heritage Dictionary, Third Edition and The Microsoft Press Computer and Internet Dictionary.

Knowledge Adventure Play With The Teletubbies($39.99) This interacnve game is based on the popularTeletubbies television show created for the BBC in 1997. It was the first TV show created for children as young as 12 months. The show became a phenomenon in Englandand reached the U.S. and Canada this year. The Teletubbies are four technological characters that look like chubby baby dolls in felt suits. They live in Teletubbyland, a place of rolling hills, small friendly animals and talking flowers. They reside in a Tubbytronic Superdome that looks like a spaceship and their tummies

IVllcrosoft EncartaReference Suite99 ($139.99, with a $45 inail-in rebate) Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 99 is bundled with Encarta Virtual Globe 99 and Microsoft Bookshelf 99, to create the five CD-ROM reference library entitled Encarta Reference Suite 99. Content ranges from 360-degree photographs and animated illustrations to new articles, literary excerpts and reproductions of historical documents. EncyclopediaDeluxe 99,the m ain package in the suite, offers a new Web-style interface allowing users to select a topic and navigate among elements ranging from articles to illustrationsand sidebars.To ease the search process, Encarta uses natural-language query technology. That allows the users to just type in questions such as: "What's the biggest ocean in the world?" With more than 40,000 articles and thousands of multimedia elements, Encyclopedia Deluxe 99 alsooffers command-and-control and text-to-speech technology, which lets the user navigate through the encyclopedia using spoken commands and hear text read aloud by a synthesized voice. It also includes more than 2,000 original documents (from such notables as Albert Einstein), which provide first-hand accounts of historic events and perspectives on complex issues. Users can also access more than 16,000 videos, pictures, illustrations, audio clips and ani-

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. It will if you attend Intern'et World Canada" '99. No matter what position you play on your e-business team, you' ve got to stay on top of your game in order for your company's overall e-business strategy to be a winner. And Internet World Canada '99 is your best training ground. Individually targeted conferences and workshops let you and your teammates focus on the specific tools and techniques you each need to achieve peak performance: • E-business Symposium II Enterprise Internet Forum I Web Advertising and Marketing Forum 8 Webmaster's Forum a IP Telephony Exchange a ISPCON Canada '99 It Internet Security Symposium a Internet Appliances 8 Devices Forum I• Java Developer Workshop

8 Supply Chain Management Forum iim Web Writer's Workshop II Distance LearningWorkshop 8 Internet Financial Services Summit II Web Publishing Day 8 Knowledge Management Forum 4 Future Focus Workshop 8 Information Architecture Forum

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PLUS the exhibit hall — featuring more than I 20 suppliers — lets you evaluate Internet products, services and systems for all your company's applications. E-business is one game you can't afford to lose. Get on the winning team. Register to attend Internet World Canada '99. Visit us at www.internet.corn/canada.

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light up to show pictures and movies of children in the real world. Play With the Teletubbies features seven acffvities including 11 video sequences, 11 nursery rhymes and two "magical" interludes. The manufacturers say the product is designed to pierce,. i>4e," . enhance imagination and creativity, stimulate spatial ,y awareness, encourage paaem recognition and iiatening skills. The package featuresa cursor made of "pink sparkle" that comes out of the landmark 4' st Teletubby windmill. Many of the interactions can be activated by positioning the cursor on an item, rather than having to click, which is difficult to impossible for a very young child. The activities include Chase the Noo-noo, a wellmeaning vacuum cleaner that has stolen the Teletubbies' staple, Tubby toast. The child helps chase the Noo-noo and in the end gives it a big hug. Children will discover that moving the mouse quickly in a scrubbing action will speed up the movements and make the Teletubbies walk faster. In the Hiding Game feature, the child helps a Teletubby find those that are hiding so they can all join in a big hug.

Sroderbund Software Inc. (a subsidiary of The Learning Company) The Rugrats Movie Activity Challenge($39.95) Rugrats Adventure Game($39.99) Rugrats Print Shop($29.99) Based on the Emmy-award winning American TV program, the Rugrats are ready to amuse and educate kids aged six to 12 with adventures, brain games and print projects. A precursor to an upcoming motion picture release — The Rugrats Movie — The Rugrats Movie Activity Challenge features brain-twister games and introduces baby Dil, the newest member of the Pickles family. Dil joins the cast of siblings including: Tommy, the one-year-old infant leader; Chuckie, his reluctant, excitable sidekick; Angelica, Tommy's older, bullying cousin; and twin pals Phil and Lil. Whenever adults are around, the Rugrats act like the babies they are, but when they' re alone they talk to each other with the vocabulary of five-year-olds. The Rugrats Movie Activity Challenge features six original games based on the arrival of Dil. Kids build problem-solving, creative and critical-thinking skills while moving through 180 levels of games such as speeding through traftic in the Reptar Wagon, steering the Aqua Reptar through raging rapids, and fending off escaped monkeys. The Rugrats Adventure lets kids join a 3D battle for the world. The aliens and their evil queen are about to take over the earth and it's up to the kids to stop them by solving more than 30 puzzles, games and activities. Rugrats Print Shop lets kids create art projects featuring the Rugrats gang. Choosing from more than 20 projects, 200 ready-made designs and 600 different Rugrats graphics, kids can create banners, birthday kits, calendars, stationery, signs and posters, stickers and wrapping paper.

Creative Wonder s Elmo's Art Workshop($24.99) Elmo's Art Workshop provides hundreds of ways for children five and up to create artwork and imaginative projects. They can paint pictures and add favorite Sesame Street characters as well as create birthday cards, finger puppets, masks and posters. Oversized buttons and helpful creative hints from Elmo ensure that every effort leads to a masterpiece. The manufacturer says the product helps develop creative expression, while familiarizing the child with shapes and colors, drawing and painting, letters and numbers as well as the keyboard and mouse. It also comes with a greeting card maker and screen saver creator for Windows only.

Creative Wonders Madeline's Thinking Game($29.95) Madeline's Rainy Day Adventures($29.99) In Madeline's Thinking Game, children join Madeline, star of the animated TV show, in exploring her schoolhouse full of fun and challenging learning activities. Children build thinking and problem solving skills in each room as they solve more than 30 puzzles and play 11 activities with three levels of difficulty. The product is intended to promote critical thinking, reasoning and problem solving while improving memory, spelling, pattern recognition and creativity. It includes five full-length Madeline music videos, and printable award certificates. Rainy Day Adventures take children into Madeline's studio where they paint, play the piano and sing along with movies. The rest of the house is also explorable, as each room is a new adventure. A multilingual game asks children to match the French or Spanish word with the corresponding English word. Watercolor-like tools, pastels and a magic brush are used to paint fun scenes. Children can solve more than 30 puzzles of pictures of Madeline and friends and can also dress up the characters. There are 40 activities that can be printed out and done away from the computer. As retai lersgearup forthe Christmas season,these products combine the key elements of learning and fun. Meanwhile, the relatively low prices make them promising stocking-stuffers. lyl James Buchok is Interim Editor of Toronto Computes! and is based in Toronto.He can be reached atj im @tcp.ca.

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Look who's talking. People on the Internet, that's who. And people in business will soon be talking across networks too. VARs had better start talking to IP-network manufacturers if they want to get their foot in the door of this potentially massive market, Some background: to send e-mail zipping around the world, or to view Web sites on hostcomputers located almost anywhere telephone lines travel, the vast majority of Internet users simply make a local call to their ISP and log on to the Internet. Since the Internet can transmit multimedia data: text, images, animation, sounds and voice â&#x20AC;&#x201D; it didn't take long for enterprising companies to develop software to let two people anywhere on the Internet talk to each other. Do you want to talk through your computer in Toronto to your sister in California? As long as you both have an ISP, log on to the 'Net at the same time and have the same Internet Telephony software on your multimedia PC (sound card, microphone, speakers required), you can talk to each other without incurring long-distance charges. If you paid a flat fee for unlimited Internet access you could, in theory, talk forever and not pay one cent more. The first Internet telephony calls were half-duplex (callers had to take turns talking as if they were using walkie-talkies), but now full-duplex software on the market allows for near-normal phone-like conversations to take place over the 'Net. However, the quality of calls can leave something to be desired, especially in peak periods when the 'Net is sluggish. The user 40

can also get booted off-line unexpectedly, by some quirk of the Internet or an ISP hiccup. But a little on-line sluggishness and the somewhat unstable nature of the Internet has not prevented traditional computer companies from getting into the Internet telephony act.

Microsoft Corp. is incorporating its NetMeeting software into its Web browser, Internet Explorer. NetMeeting lets users place telephone calls while on-line, conduct video conferences using the Internet or corporate intranets and collaborate on wordprocessingand spreadsheet documents. IBM Corp. has cut a deal with IDT Corp. that allows IBM to promote IDT's Net2Phone Internet phone service by including the software in its Internet access kit. The two companies will share the revenue generated.

Impact of VOIP

traffic by the year 2000. We' re not just talking about computerto-computer VOIP. Toronto-based Qwest Communications International Inc. is using Internet technology to offer long-distance calls any time of day or night for 7.5 U.S. cents per minute. The service should be rolled out to 125 cities by the end of the year. IDT is working on phone-to-phone longdistance service called Net2Phone Direct, a system that uses the Internet backbone instead of the phone company network to deliver calls. Subscribers would use their normal phone to make long-distance calls and pay a flat rate to IDT for Internet access. PC Week favorablyreviewed two products that enable users to make calls over the Internet without using a computer or longdistance service provider: Aplio/Phone from Aplio Inc. and InfoTalk IT 3 000 f r om InnoMedia Inc. Each one costs less than US$200 and contains everything a user needs for Internet telephony, including a built-in modem. Both the caller and the called party need the same Internet phone system as well as a traditional phone. The caller makes a normal long-distance call using the traditional phone and, when the call is answered, the Internet phones then find and identify each other via a local ISP connection. The two parties can then hang up the telephone and complete their conversation on-line.

What impact will voice over internet protocol (VOIP) have on traditional telephone longdistanceservice providers? Last year, the Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. long-distance carriers could see revenues drop by US$620 million to US$925 million. ATlkT Corp. alone could lose up to US$350 million in annual revenues by the year 2001. The research organization, Killen Er, Associates, estimates 35 per cent of all phone calls will be made using Internet protocol (IP) networks by 2002, a potential $60-billion market. And a report by the British consulting Corporate Talking firm, Analysys, claims all I nternet-based As VOIP matures, it will have a major impact on the business world. phone services combined are poised to overtake conventional (switched network) phone Employees with access to voice and

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data-enabled IP, ATM and Frame Relay networks will be able to send and receive internal e-mail, share data, send and receive faxes, make phone calls and access the Internetall from their computers. If resellers think on-line conversation is just a corporate fantasy, they should think again.A recent survey of 32 major Canadian corporations by Calgary-based MarketSignal concludedthat63 percent of large Canadian companies are in the midst of evaluating voice-over-data networks; 18 per cent are preparing pilot projects or have started them. Only 19 per cent of the companies surveyed see no application for VOIP. The potential for the exponential growth of VOIP is one of the reasons Northern Telecom (Nortel), one of the world's largest providers of public and private telecommunication and data solutions, announced plans to invest more than US$13 billion in stock in Bay NetworksInc.,a company thatmanufactures and distributes networking products for corporateenterprises.Thiscould be mean the largest merger of voice and data networking companies on record. Companiesand consumers are pushing for reliable networks that make optimal use of IP technology, says Steve Pearse, Bay's e xecutive vice-president i n c h arge o f Internet/telecom. "We think we' re creating a US$30 billion market within three years that didn't exist before." Cisco Systems Inc. and 3Com Corp. have developed voice and data integration strategies resulted in multi-service networks that meld voice and data traffic. Of course Microsoft, IBM, Novell and other companies

arepursuingVOIP strategies. The Array I P- Telephony Gateway (ATG), from Array Teiecom in North York, Oii., was r ecently selected for a C T I (Computer Telephony Integration) Magazine editor's choice award designed to recognize the best new telecommunications products. Array Telecom provides communications solutions for users including ISPs, carriers,alternate service providers,and corporations with call centres, help desks or geographically dispersed offices and markets. Its ATG product is described as a suite of software products that provides voice and fax communications over any IP network, including the Internet and corporate intranets.

Hurdles to Leap Of coursethere are obstacles in the way of VOIP. Currently, the reliability standard for voice networks is "five nines of reliability" or 99.9999 percent reliable. However, private data networks are only about 94 percent reliable, carrier data networks are about 91 percent reliable and the public Internet is about 65 percent reliable. Not until the reliability of a data packet equals the reliability of a dial tone will total convergencemake sense,say analysts.Still, if you want new technologies to conquer, new markets for your business, and new revenue streams in which to fish, then start talking about VOIP. LCJ TII Paul Lima is a Toronto-based journalist who specializes in high-technology reporting. He can be reached at ti/co@idireet.corn. httpJtwww ccwmeg.mm

NBTel, blew Brunswick's provincial telecommunications company, is working with m ,ITatpnta'based Balisaft Technologies ta .~ ,,' devceiap 'products that:allow' aag centraa ta ', serve callers over the Internet — by voice. ;RA Under the agreement, the two companies will integrate an Internet customer service solution, based on Balisoft's LiveContact software, into call centres so that consumers , and vendoi's can communicate by text or

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It wiN irlso en'able cail 'cr'hcteree a operators to push information — such as electronic brochures, photographs,price lists— across the Internet, upon request, to Web site visitors. Although the project is in the pilot stage, the companies announced plans to offer it to ,+New Brunswick. cali centres by the end af,',I Ir,"',,':tgglk Snd,.ta atjtercdall-Centre' prayidera nekt':.',;. year. "We' re evolving the traditional call centre into a multimedia contact centre," said Jack Travis, vice-president of NBTel. He estimates call centres are used by companies representing 90 percentofthe commercial/indus-„, k ~'trial sectors. The needforthe product can be attrib. uted to the growth of the Internet and electronic commerce, accordingto Mark Skapinker, CEO of Balisoft Technologies. While companies find they don't need sales peopleto sellproducts such as books and CDs an-ine, l they have foundtheyneedsales::. staff "to use the Internet for more complex transactions and to build customer loyalty," says Skapinker. He claims LiveContact is "bridging the phone industry with the PC industry." Baliseft is also in the market for dealers to create and market solutions for LlveContact Although NBTel and Balisoft Technologies are bullish about their partnership, they face stiff competition in this area. Nortel's Symposium, part of its calI-centre portfolia, . includes Internet, fax and e-mail access as well as a Web call-back feature that lets online consumers chat with call-centre staff by -":.. text or audio. And in June, IBM announced new customer-service/call-centre solutions that include CallPath buttons to establish voice .:, links between Web site visitors and calf.centre customer service representatives. '

December 1998 CANADIAN COMPUTERWHOLESALER

) 41

B OO K

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for Proficient Beginners Title: Author:

SAMS Teach Youpseff MORE Visual Basic 6in 21 D Lowel l Mauer

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Description: A beginner's guide for those who are familiar with VB ~e nta i s . The focus is on~ on d e velopment inchiding ~ ~ %eh- b ased work Rathig: A j s!IPKW 'I!'+%';

he field of Visual Basic programming is too large to be encompassed in any one book. But for those who already have a casualknowledge of Visual Basic, "SAMS Teach Yourself MORE Visual Basic 6 in 21 Days," is meant as a starting point on a journey that consists of a series of books. The backcover suggests a "userlevelof beginning to intermediate." However, if you are new to programming, you should already be familiar with VB object properties, events, m ethods, forms, modules, basic controls and simple program development. If you are an experienced programmer then you can go directly to this book after surveying the tutorial information packaged with Microsoft's VB software. Unlike other "21 day" books, this immediately focuses on application development — combining several programs into a cohesive unit yielding an application. This gives the book a unique practical value lacking in others. For example, the first module goes into the project life cycle: Design, Coding, Testing and Debugging, and Documentation. Being broken down further into its own life cycle emphasizes the design phase: design description, functional definitions, technical definitions, pseudo-code, and form layouts. All the components that make up an application from user-interface, local/remote database access, on-line help including HTML-based help, reporting including Crystal Reports, Internet access, regression testing and scripting to application packaging and distribution are detailed. This application focus is this book's strength over the scores of introductory Visual Basic books. Microsoft's Visual Basic 6 software packageismuch stronger in database access, control flexibility and Internet integranon than previous versions. These areas are amply exploited in this book.

The coverage includes many additional topics from those covered earlier in this review. Here are a few of them: • Common Dialog, • Using templates, • Class creation, object creation, collections, array processing, • Visual Data Manager, • Data Form Wizard, • Data Environment Designer, • Data Report Designer, • Crystal Reports, • OLE drag and drop, system tray control, data controls, • Error handling, • Building on-line help, HTML H e l p Workshop, • Testing and debugging, breakpoints, watch expressions, conditional compiling, • Increasing performance, using LightWeight Controls, optimizing code, compiling versus Pcode, using the Resource Compiler and Editor. • Creating an ActiveX Document, using the Hyperlink object, u sing t h e A c t iveX Document Migration Wizard, • Using Microsoft Agent to employ animated characters as interactive assistants to introduce, guide and entertain, • And using t he V i s ual C o mponent Manager, Visual Code Profiler, Image Editor, Visual SourceSafe. SAMS Teach Yourself MORE Visual Basic 6 in 21 Days should be recommended, due to its emphasis on applications. There is good coverageof many advanced controlsand the features unique to Visual Basic 6. CCW

42 ) CANADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER December 1998

httpJtwww ccrwmag.corn

Stephen Ibarakiis a lecturer, researcher and technical coordinator at Capilano College, and can be reached at sibaraki@capcollege.bc.ca The college and its faculty have ACE, CAFCE, CIPS, Microsoft, Novell, IBM and Intel partnerships, accreditation and certification.

yoti'e '6 nbwgp' t)a ' ' sad yeti some options to consider for the user Interface, since to users, the interface is the application. In addition;: jiaed t'ips on building complex fornxs. or ser Solutiou: In DayThree ofthe book,you examine and code the thra~ mt e rface types: g Singti Domment Interface or SDI: This is the simplest interface consisting of a single data window tbati Paint '"

, workin.A good example istins'

' Audit'tntgrfSibeir'MOI: At) ~3. Im ri)'a a 'plicabcm.:.has' a Window Mano, which a)l'owg. users to 46SBBt:multiple work windows and easIipj switch ~ n t hem. A good example Is" r M icrosof tW ord. Exp)eras,'lgtarface (El); An EI application haa a i lngiu ldad Nto a Creastyle view oct left and')s' i y area on the right. A good axim-'T pie is Windows Explorer. In Oay leven, there is extensive coverage pf I what ~ goo d form design including parfum '.I mance and'-usage tips. These topics are rare io standardVS books.A simple tip— use 640 by 480 rasolgtI e: a sigoblg for and at)ek

tan@ ad

See uarhx lYou are etuugad with enhancing an existing data-.. -'you have redundant date in y hase datab~, ma thods you. gaituse Co redly rapatII)va ~T you want to simplify your oodiug "

of daba~lgecees where previously you oat:

DAO for ~access to data and ROO for rem~ r access. IIr addition, you want to investigate adding internet access to your applications. Solutiuiu~ In Week~yo u learn all about databases anil Microsoft's:Universal Gate Access {UDA) strategy' — slicer .a n y database to be accessed the I same ~ re al ization is covered, which is M;-', formal priebss used to reduce data redundancy r In Day Nine, you venture into SQL in its use in oatCaa';-;;; I/I, yoII ueeAeilvaX Data Gb)

ad" '@I te Ohooiiac bow'aanDA'5'ati:) RDG. In Oay.I4, you add Internet browsing and Na transfer ~ I I t y to your application. Pius, youg:I leveraga ~ V B programming skills in uslitg~ VBScript aitd see the effect of Dynamic HTML oii interactive Web appiieatioris.

T EC H

TA L K

Column Life used to be so simple. Motherboards, for example, were once a one size fits all sort of thing. Intel's Socket 7 design could accommodate: Pentium processors, the MMX successor, and clones from AMD, Cyrix and others. PCI slotswere forhigh-end controllers,and ISA slots were foreverything else. Sound cards were either made by Creative Labs, or aimed for compatibility with that company's Sound Blaster standard. As a result, with a little mix-and-matching, it was easy to make a PC. Slap a brand name on the front, and go into business. It seems it was just too easy. Then, Intel migrated its product line over to a new, incompatible design — Slot 1. Pennum IIs and low-end Celerons from the company used motherboards with that design, while the competition's products continued to work with Socket 7 designs. AMD has announced its next generation K7 CPUs will (like Pentium IIs), be designed on a cartridge, and will fit in a slot that will be "mechanically identical" to Slot l. Nicely put. Mechanically identical means the slot will look just like Intel's version. But AMD's socket isn't electronically compatible! AMD CPUs will fit in Intel sockets and vice versa — they just won't work. This is bound to confuse users, and require that motherboard manufacturers design and stock yet another line o f i n c ompatible boards. Not to be left out, Intel has switched strategies for the lowcost Celeron line yet again. Initially, Celeron CPUs were compatible with Pentium II-style Slot 1 designs — an Intel strategy to wean the market from the older Socket 7 designs favored by the cloners. Recently, however, Intel announced a new line of socketed Celeron models, a design change made possible by the integration of the Level2 cache in the latest generanon of Celerons. But while the 370-pin socket resembles the classic Socket 7 design, it also won't be compatible. Initially, Intel will continue to sell the single-edge processor Slot 1 Celerons alongside the plastic pin grid array (PPGA) socketed model, but it will be phasing out sales of the Slot 1 model. This will force motherboard manufacturers to support yet another product line, and make it more difficult for consumers to upgrade a Celeron to a higher-end Pentium II. Processor and motherboard designs aren't the only place where standards are fragmenting. Do you want a PCI or AGP graphics card? And is that AGP1 or AGP2? Just as flat-panel display prices are approaching the point where they might become an option, we start to get analog models that will work with a standard video adapter, and not one, but two competing standards for digital connections. (The digital models improve clarity by eliminating the digital-to-analog-to-digital conversions otherwise required — but at the cost of only working with a limited range of video adapters.) And vendors and manufacturers have to try and make their way

through a maze of competing and incompatible 3D models (primarily of interest to game players). This could become less of an issue as more and more games are designed with Microsoft's Direct 3D in mind. By writing for Direct 3D (a part of the Direct X group of programming environments), developers do not have to write code for 3D adapters they wish to support. As long as the adapter has a Direct 3D driver, any Direct 3D game or program will be playable. Similarly, as game developers finally abandon DOS, old-style Sound Blaster compatibility has become less and less important. As a result, the new generation of audio adapters have finally been able to move away from the old ISA bus. New products are all using PCI, resultingin fewer hardware configuration nightmares. At the same time, we are again seeing several competing s tandards, particularly w i t h Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live models opposing a variety of products featuring Aureal's A3D chipsets. (Aureal's recent A3D 2.0 specification and Vortex 2 sound processor up the ante, while Creative is offering its new EAX drivers for all its PCI models.) As with the 3D video wars, much of this conflict will be invisible to end-users as long as they stick to running Direct X games. But you can bet that the manufacturers will be heavily promoting their competing products. And many game developers will still be stuck in the middle, producing products that only run on some, but not all hardware. Then again, if the USB products finallytake off, USB speakers may make sound cards of any sortobsolete — atleastfor much of the mass market. The hard core garners will, I predict, prefer the four or five speaker 3D sound that they can only get with one of this new generation of PCI sound cards. Of course, USB products have not yet fulfilled their promise. Connect up to 127 devices? Not a chance. Hot swap peripherals? M aybe. A couple of devices,chained together may work. But then again, they may not. Expect better success with Windows 98 than with Windows 95B with USB extensions, but even with Windows 98, problems reportedly continue. Of course, each of these operating systems supports a different set of hardware standards. Ironically, the Macintosh has increasingly supported the majority of PC standards — adopting the PCI bus, IDE drives and USB (with the iMac). Eventually, we may see some stability once again, as sound and 3D video and other standards emerge victorious. Then again, this fragmentation may continue for quite a while, as unique markets continue to solidify for low-end PCs, mid-range home machines and business offerings. Manufacturers, distributors, vendors and customers (to say nothing of tech support staff) may wax nostalgic for the mid-1990s, when it seemed one size fit all. PCWI Alan Zisman is a computerjournalist and teacher, living in Vancouver. He can bereached atazisman@home.corn. httpitwww.cnvmag.corn

December 1998 cANADIAN coMPUTER wHQLEsALER ~43

Compaq's DVD Notebook is Aimed at Consumers Aimed atwhat the company says is a "consumer" market,Compaq Canada Inc.has launched the Presario 1810 notebook PC, including an integral DVD drive. The Presario 1810 is based on a Pentium II 300MHz processor, with 64MB RAM, a 6.4GB drive, a large color screen, 56Kbps modem and USB connector. Suggested list price is $5,199. The introduction of a high-end consumer/SOHO orientr ed notebook such as, ] j Ig the Presario 1810 is a sign that Compaq aims to fight for l eadership of a n emerging premium consumer notebook market, a space at which Hewlett-Packard, Eurocom, Sony and Dell are also aiming. Seehttp//wwwcompar/.ca.

With the sudden profusion of pocket-sized computing devices such as the 3Com Pilot line and the Microsoft Windows CE devices, there is also an epidemic of sagging pockets and rattling briefcases, as handheld users tryto find some elegant and safe way of transporting these tiny gadgets. Targus, a maker of carrying cases for mobile computers, has responded to the need with a line of six new carrying cases for PDAs, handheld PCsand mini-notebooks. The new line of cases range from a simple, lightly padded slipcase for a Palm Pilot-sized device, to finished leather portfolios for Toshiba Librettos. The newcasesmake fora somewhat bulkierload,butare designed to both organize and protect a handheld PCuser's info pile, including business cards, travel documents and pens. See http//wwwtargus.corn.

(NB) — IBM Corp. has announced two 18.1-inch flatpanel monitors that improve on the firm's existing 16.1inch models and sell for less than half what the 16.1-inch model cost at its introduction a year ago. The new digital FPM (T85D) was scheduled to ship this month at an estimated street price of US$2,849. An analog version (T85A) will ship early next year for US$2,999, the company said. By contrast, the 16.1-inch 9516 FPM dropped from morethan US$6,000 abouta yearago to a recent price of US$1,849 as IBM wound down production. That's a plunge of about 70 percent in a year. IBM predicts the new flatpanel monitors will be popular with customers who use highend graphics, computer-aided design, engineering, scientific, and medical applications, financial, manufacturing and callcentre markets. The digital model (T85D) uses the new Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) standard Plug and Display digital graphic interface. By avoiding conversion to analog signal and back to digital, it offers a sharper image at a lower cost. Seehttp i//wwwibm.corn/pc/us/accessories.

44 ~

Hewlett-Packard Refreshes Product Lines Hewlett-Packard Co. has completed its most extensive set of printer, copier, scanner and digital camera product releases ever, with a total of 20 major new products. Forexample,HP hasadded a multifunction device— the600dpi,8-ppm HP LaserJet 1100A, as well as a monochrome personal laser, the LaserJet 1100. Two new color laser printers — the HP Color LaserJet 4500 and HP Color LaserJet8500 Longclash, are aimed at the corporate networked printer market, intended for professional photorealistic image quality. The new HP LaserJet 8100 printer is a high-speed, high-volume business laser. The HP 2500Cand HP2500CM color ink-jets are intended for small networked offices that need fast, affordable color printing. The Digital Sender is something entirely different. It's a scanning/e-mailing product that's aimed at allowing push-button capture and transmission of documents, to turn paper into e-mail in a matter of seconds.

Big, Big Fujitsu Platters

Fujitsu Canada is shipping high-capacity hard drives based on a storage capacity of 3.4GB per platter. (Hard drives may contain as little as a single platter, especially in notebook PCs where drive height has to be minimized, but more commonly, desktop PC drives contain several platters). In the case of the new Fujitsu drives, the Picobird 12 and Picobird 12H offer up to 10.2GB capacity in a highspeed, low-cost three-platter design. The Picobird 12 drives are 5,400 rpm drives, available in six models, while the Picobird 12H drives rotate at 7,200 rpm, giving higher performance for power users. Prices range from $250 to $570,depending on modelcapacity and speed. See http//wwwfujitsu.ca.

Toshiba of Canada Information Systems Group (ISG), has released the Satellite 4020CDT,based on the Intel Mobile Pentium II 300MHz processor. That notebook comes standard with a 6.4GB hard drive, a 13.3-inch active-matrix screen, a Yamaha stereo sound system, 32MB of RAM, and an internal 24X CD-ROM drive. The total system weight is 6.8 pounds. The Satellite 4020CDThas a suggested list price of $4,829. Toshibahas announced an across-the-boardprice cutonthe rest of the Satellite line, averaging seven percent price reductions. For example, the Satellite 4000CDS dropped from $3,129 to $2,749,and the Satell ite4010CDT went from $4,279to$3,699. Seehttp//www toshiba.ca. ICCC I

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Novell Canada names Education Manager Novell Canada Ltd. has appointed Jahnis Gillan to the position of education manager. She will work closely with the Novell Authorized Education Centres and Novell Education Academic Partners to promote Novell certification, education and training initiatives. Gillian has 10 years of international business experience in Canada and Australia. Before joining Novell Canada, Gillan held the position of regional operations manager atSHL Systemhouse Learning Technologies. Jahnis Gillan

•

RichmondHill,Ont.-based Compaq Canada Inc. Chris Sullivanhasbeen named company manhas named Bill Harris as company manager, PC ager, enterprise systems and storage. product marketing. His responsibilities cover Compaq's enterThe companysays he will prise computing technolobe responsible for the lifecygies, including fault-tolerclemanagement of Compaq's ant business-critical syscommercial desktop and tems, Alpha servers and portable, personal digital workstations, networking assistant and option and storage products. products categories. He Claude Couillard takes will also develop and the position of product manimplement product-based ager, Intel and Alpha workmarketing plans. He has responsibility for stations. He is responsible business planning, and achieving market- for product management for Intel and Alphashare, inventory, profitability and customer based workstations, including product launches, satisfaction level targets. pricing, promotions and forecasting. HP Adds Quebec Managers Hewlett-Packard ICanadaj Ltd. has appointed two general managers for its Quebec operations. Andre Loranger and Mario Vitale will jointly manage HP Canada's business operations, which include HP's Support Response Centre, the Express Help Desk, and sales and service offices in Montreal and Quebec City. In addition to their new n re oranger roles, Loranger and Vitale will retain their existing salesmanagement responsibilities within HP's computer organization. Specifically, Loranger will manage HP's Eastern Canada team, and Vitale will manage the HP team that provides business solutions to major Mario Vitale enterprises in Queliec. Iiil

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R eade r P o l l

This issue: As we approach year-end,Canadian Computer Wholesalerwould like to get the opinion of our readers about the overall health of the industry. Our Question to You: As a channel player, how does your own company's 1998 financial situation compare with the previous year? Our financial picture is about the same as in 1997. There's been substantial improvement. There's been some improvement. Our financial situation is somewhat worse. Our financial situation is substantially worse.

There was some financial improvement in 1998 over 1997. The industry was somewhat less financially healthy in 1998,compared to 1997. The industry was considerably less financially healthy in 1998, compared to 1997.

est issue, we asked: Looking towards 1999, how enthusiastic will your customers be about purchasing USB devices? You said: 7N III In 1999, USBdevices will slowly pick up popularity. ~ In 1 9 99, USB devices will explode onto the market-place. The industry missed its chance with USB; the technology won't be significant

Overall, in the Canadian computing channel in general, which most closely matches your view when comparing the financial situation of 1998 to 1997? The financial health of the industry in 1998 was similar to 1997.

$®

~ 5 aa IKX~ I E

Vote in our Reader Polll A randomly drawn winner will get a free copy of IBM's ViaVoice '98 Executive continuous speech-recognition software.

There was considerable financial improvement in 1998 over 1997.

,I •

•

• I' 46

~ CA NADIAN COMPUTER WHOLESALER December 1998 httpxtwww.ccwmair.corn

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