Who Works at Home, Why, and How You Can Join Them How ...
Who Works at Home, Why, and How You Can Join Them How ...
Who Works at Home, Why, and How You Can Join Them How ...
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mm¬es<br />
COMDEX Is Big on Show, Short on Surprises<br />
COMDEX, the n<strong>at</strong>ion's largest<br />
Dell clones were there for the<br />
prepar<strong>at</strong>ion programs) which<br />
find. With AppleFcst hard on<br />
computer-only Irade show,<br />
staged its annual spring ver<br />
sion May 9-12 <strong>and</strong> offered few<br />
viewing, but they only pul nice<br />
pictures on the screens—you<br />
couldn't actually work with<br />
put electronic versions of 65<br />
common paper forms on the<br />
screen was one particularly<br />
COMDEX'S heels (May 20-22),<br />
new releases for Apple II own<br />
ers were undoubtedly saved<br />
surprises for a computerhungry<br />
country.<br />
Over 60,000 people <strong>at</strong><br />
tended the show to view its<br />
them.<br />
Hewlett-Packard was<br />
demonstr<strong>at</strong>ing its ultraquiel<br />
DeskJet, an inkjet printer<br />
good example of OS/2 <strong>at</strong> work.<br />
Although COMDEX has<br />
become primarily a business<br />
computer show (<strong>and</strong> thus an<br />
for Boston's AppleFest.<br />
One of the most unusual<br />
new computers <strong>at</strong> COMDEX<br />
was Cordala's WPC Bridge, a<br />
more than 800 displays. Rang<br />
ing from the mammoth to the<br />
minuscule, the displays<br />
hawked everything from plot<br />
ters <strong>and</strong> ribbons to stale-ofthe-art<br />
software <strong>and</strong> top-ofthe-linc<br />
hardware. Competition<br />
for the <strong>at</strong>tendees' <strong>at</strong>tention was<br />
fierce, witnessed by<br />
the carnival-<br />
whose output rivals th<strong>at</strong> of a<br />
laser printer. Small crowds<br />
around the screen showing<br />
New Wave. HP's window-style<br />
oper<strong>at</strong>ing system, illustr<strong>at</strong>ed<br />
the publicity power of Apple's<br />
copy infringement<br />
MS-DOS domin<strong>at</strong>ed show),<br />
there was consumer computer<br />
software <strong>and</strong> hardware on pa<br />
rade. Commodore led with its<br />
strength, the Amiga. Several<br />
small st<strong>at</strong>ions filled with<br />
Amiga 500 or 2000 computers<br />
strutted the graphics-intensive<br />
machine's stuff. Some of the<br />
goings-on ranged from digitiz<br />
$1,695 machine lh<strong>at</strong> combines<br />
a 512K IBM PC comp<strong>at</strong>ible<br />
with a 128K. Apple II comp<strong>at</strong>i<br />
ble. The computers share a<br />
monochrome monitor <strong>and</strong> two<br />
S'/i-inch disk drives. According<br />
to the machine's product man<br />
ager, the computer will find a<br />
home in schools which want to<br />
run both Apple <strong>and</strong> IBM<br />
ing microscopic cre<strong>at</strong>ures to<br />
software.<br />
running TOPS, a local area<br />
network package, on a Bridge<br />
— Gregg Keizer<br />
board-equipped Amiga 2000<br />
running MS-DOS. Games,<br />
music software, <strong>and</strong> tradition<br />
al applic<strong>at</strong>ions such as d<strong>at</strong>a<br />
bases <strong>and</strong> word processors<br />
rounded out the Amiga's<br />
tricks. The Commodore 64<br />
Contests<br />
Recognize<br />
Computer<br />
Learning<br />
Innov<strong>at</strong>ions<br />
suit against<br />
<strong>and</strong> 128. both steady money<br />
makers for the company,<br />
were nowhere to be seen.<br />
Commodore has seen the<br />
future <strong>and</strong> believes it's the<br />
Amiga.<br />
<strong>You</strong> don't have to be a pro<br />
grammer to need a computer.<br />
Accountants use spreadsheets,<br />
writers use word processors,<br />
librarians use d<strong>at</strong>abases, <strong>and</strong><br />
many children learn their<br />
like <strong>at</strong>mosphere<br />
both Microsoft <strong>and</strong> HP.<br />
On the main software<br />
Atari, another consumer<br />
computer manufacturer, had<br />
ABC's from singing home<br />
computers.<br />
around some of the booths.<br />
WordPerfect threw min<strong>at</strong>urc<br />
political-style rallies as other<br />
companies put on small<br />
(or not so small) stage shows<br />
to get people out of the aisles<br />
<strong>and</strong> into a comfortable chair.<br />
There was a dearth of new<br />
hardware, or <strong>at</strong> least of signifi<br />
cant new hardware. Highlights<br />
had to be the NEC CD-ROM<br />
drive <strong>and</strong> the Dell <strong>and</strong> T<strong>and</strong>y<br />
PS/2 clones. The CD-ROM<br />
drive was up, running, <strong>and</strong><br />
touchable, which was more<br />
than you could say for the two<br />
PS/2 clones. The T<strong>and</strong>y <strong>and</strong><br />
from, giant Microsoft teamed<br />
with goli<strong>at</strong>h IBM in a rambling<br />
display in one of the three halls<br />
(IBM had a company-only<br />
booth in another hall). OS/2<br />
applic<strong>at</strong>ions were wh<strong>at</strong> people<br />
wanted to show—<strong>and</strong> to see.<br />
By IBM's own count, more<br />
than 130 OS/2 applic<strong>at</strong>ions<br />
were demonstr<strong>at</strong>ed. Packages<br />
with such famous names as<br />
Microsoft Word, dBaseIV,<br />
PageMaker, <strong>and</strong> WordPerfect<br />
were up <strong>and</strong> running. A formsgener<strong>at</strong>ion<br />
package from Soft-<br />
View (makers of the notable<br />
TaxView <strong>and</strong> MachiTax tax-<br />
as many small displays, but<br />
fewer crowds. Several software<br />
publishers were under the<br />
Atari umbrella showing the<br />
newest version of GFA BASIC,<br />
an impressive desktop publish<br />
ing package out of West Ger<br />
many, <strong>and</strong> Microsoft Write, a<br />
midlevcl word processing pro<br />
gram. Mega ST computers <strong>and</strong><br />
Atari's laser printer were there<br />
in force, though Atari's big<br />
moneymaker, its game system,<br />
was not.<br />
Apple didn't come to<br />
COMDEX, so Macinlosh <strong>and</strong><br />
Apple II products were hard to<br />
Computer Learning<br />
Month, a Software Publishers<br />
Associ<strong>at</strong>ion project taking<br />
place in October, will fe<strong>at</strong>ure<br />
contests, educ<strong>at</strong>ional pro<br />
grams, <strong>and</strong> other events—all<br />
directed <strong>at</strong> exposing the public<br />
to computers.<br />
"We want io increase the<br />
number of people receiving the<br />
benefits of technology." said<br />
Computer Learning Month di<br />
rector Sally Bowman.<br />
Computer Learning<br />
Month offers prizes for trying<br />
new programs. For example,<br />
the School Certific<strong>at</strong>ion Pro-<br />
G<br />
COMPUTE'
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