 The magazine of the Melbourne PC User Group APCUG/Comdex 96 Carol Daniels cad@melbpc.org.au |
 |
In the February issue of PC Update, I wrote about some of the outcomes from the 1996 autumn Association of PC User Groups (APCUG) conference, finishing that report with a comment about the remainder of the week being spent in a hectic schedule of visits to one of the three Comdex venues and various special presentations that had been organised by APCUG for the benefit of some of the conference sponsors Back in early 1996, Stan Johnstone had remarked that this segment of his trip (APCUG/Comdex 1995) had been like going to three monthly meetings a day for a week running. Little did I know that this was a case of Stan's flair for understatement. It's not just the hectic pace that makes this concentrated dose of new product presentations so exhausting, it's also the calibre and commitment of the presenters.
There's just nothing to compare to
- Hearing PowerQuest President, Eric Ruff describe the ordeal that led to the development of PartitionMagic
- Listening to the Symantec President and CEO Gordon Eubanks' insights into changes in the computer industry and in the population of computer users, and how user groups can capitalise on these changes.
- Seeing the grand plan behind the changes at Corel Corporation as envisaged by the President and CEO of Corel Corporation, Dr Michael Cowpland, himself.
The products were fascinating, the demonstrations sometimes took our breath away, but even more important was the willingness of these industry leaders to share their experiences, plans and dreams for their companies. Their candid answers to questions about their companies and products as well as the challenges they had faced in the nineties (and those they expected to confront in the twenty-first century) gave us a better perspective of the software industry, but also the many possible future paths for user groups.
Here are a few highlights from that frenzied week of product launches and demonstrations
- We heard about the latest bells and whistles in the newly released OS/2
Warp 4 - from the lead architect in the OS/2 development team. The OS/2 contingent at the APCUG conference
was in its glory. There was applause for new features, and laughs at in jokes. But even for those of us that
had never used OS/2, this was a fascinating presentation, a rare chance to hear about the development of an
operating system from the inside.
- Lotus Development launched SmartSuite 97 at Fall Comdex 96. The rest of the
250,000 attendees had to be satisfied with standing in clusters listening to standard presentations on a
crowded and noisy show floor. We had a custom presentation on an infinitely customisable software suite. I
was especially impressed with the extreme degree of interoperability in the various suite components. Imagine
inserting a 1-2-3 spreadsheet into a word processing document you are creating in Word Pro (SmartSuite's
word-processing program) and immediately having access to every spreadsheet function, without opening the
spreadsheet program and without leaving your word processing program.
- Gordon Eubanks inspired us all with his description of how Symantec was
redefining the company and its products to meet the changing needs of changing computer users (and their
evolving computer systems). Now you don't need to be a certified A-1 geek to benefit from Symantec's
utilities, a new range of products caters for users from the greenest newbie to the most jaded guru, and
everyone in between.
- We were rolling in the aisles as PowerQuest's President, Eric Ruff entertained us with the saga of his attempts to partition a hard drive to accommodate a second operating system - the old way. Dramatised, the story would have held its own with classic Mister Bean episodes. The process took the better part of a weekend, and eventually led to the development of PartitionMagic.
Although Eric won't be with him, Gene Barlow will be our special guest at the April meeting, where he will present the latest version of PartitionMagic. Don't miss this meeting, you'll kick yourself if you do.
- Another major product released at Comdex was Corel Draw 7. Ash and I had
been treated to a sneak preview in Melbourne the previous month, so there were no surprises there. The
demonstration was impressive, nevertheless. Then we got the vision, a glimpse of the big picture straight
from the source, as Dr Michael Cowpland, President and CEO of Corel Corporation talked us through his plans
for the future. As editor of PC Update, I get all of Corel's press releases (one of the perks of the role).
But when a company is as large, active and diversified as Corel, it's not always easy to visualise the plan,
when you get your information in dribs and drabs. After Dr Cowpland's presentation, we all had a good idea of
how all the parts of the puzzle fit together in Corel's grand plan.
- It wasn't that long ago that Intuit did the impossible. Quicken made it
easy to keep track of household finances and collect information for your yearly tax ordeal. Intuit has been
building on this success ever since. Quicken (and it's siblings) is still making what used to be impossible,
easy and fun. But what would you expect from a company that calls its user group support specialist, "User
Group Evangelist." Fair dinkum! It's on his business card.
Richard Katz, holder of the above, official evangelical title, was joined by his non-identical, non-fraternal brother (in spirit), Matt McCann from Parson's Technology. Parson's Technology is a wholly owned subsidiary of Intuit. If anyone is Richard's match for entertaining and enlightening at the same time, it's Matt. Some of Parson's Technology's products are reviewed in this and the next couple of issues, but not the one Matt told us about that day, "Atomic Clock." I won't spoil it by trying to tell you what it is or does, because we're hoping that Matt and Richard make it downunder soon, if not this year, maybe next. Then you can here it directly from Matt.
- I missed the Starfish Software presentation but my absence was for a good
cause. I was having a private demonstration of what Intel had been up to - in short, a lot! Although the idea
of surfing the web while I watch TV has never grabbed me, being able to watch TV, while I work on my computer
has definite appeal. And that's what Intel and the Intercast Industry Group are doing with Intercast.
With Intercast you receive normal programming from one of several cable channels (such as CNN) and supplemental HTML-formatted Web pages that provide in-depth or background material on important events, all while you're working on that article for PC Update. Well not quite, Intercast isn't available in Australia (yet). You can customise your viewing too, by flagging key words you can have Intercast tuned to CNN in the background and it will automatically enlarge a window and increase the volume when the key word is mentioned. (It also works in reverse, you can flag other key words to automatically minimise the window and turn the volume down to zero.)
- The demo of Intel's ProShare ISDN video, audio and data conferencing system was pretty nifty too. It's fully compliant with international telecommunications standards and can communicate with other systems that also comply with international standards. Just in case it's not clear, ProShare enables multipoint video conferencing with audio, video and data sharing, on a single ISDN line. But that's not all. I also had a sneak preview of the mobile video conferencing solution, which Intel has developed with Toshiba. Also pretty nifty. But there's more...I also had a glimpse of the future, with the mobile audio, video and data conferencing product, set to be available before the end of 1997, and all of it over standard telephone lines, with a DSVD (digital simultaneous voice and data) capable modem. I believe standards in this area are still in development, so I wouldn't rush out to get one (actually two, since both computers participating in the conference need modems with the same capability) next month, but with Intel in the picture, the push for standards may have a little extra grunt.
- The demo of Intel's ProShare ISDN video, audio and data conferencing system was pretty nifty too. It's fully compliant with international telecommunications standards and can communicate with other systems that also comply with international standards. Just in case it's not clear, ProShare enables multipoint video conferencing with audio, video and data sharing, on a single ISDN line. But that's not all. I also had a sneak preview of the mobile video conferencing solution, which Intel has developed with Toshiba. Also pretty nifty. But there's more...I also had a glimpse of the future, with the mobile audio, video and data conferencing product, set to be available before the end of 1997, and all of it over standard telephone lines, with a DSVD (digital simultaneous voice and data) capable modem. I believe standards in this area are still in development, so I wouldn't rush out to get one (actually two, since both computers participating in the conference need modems with the same capability) next month, but with Intel in the picture, the push for standards may have a little extra grunt.
- There was a time when Bill Gates made a point of visiting the APCUG conference, but no longer. In 1996 he spoke to the multitudes or the select few. APCUG delegates did get invited to the launch of Office 97. It was a standing-room-only affair, followed by a range of special presentations. For APCUG the Mindshare team (Microsoft's user group support specialists) did a demonstration of the newly launched Windows CE (which Ash wrote about in PC Update, February 1997). After the presentation members of the Windows CE development team joined us. APCUG alpha-geeks were in seventh heaven.
Reprinted from the April 1997 issue of PC Update, the magazine of Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
