Wired For Work
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday May 26, 1995
A SMALL-TIME REVOLUTION
Faster, smaller, cheaper and more powerful. That's what's on offer for SOHO in 1995. Computers with more power at relatively the same cost as the last one you bought. Printers that are dropping in price and taking up even less space on your desk. Modems that zoom e-mail and faxes to their destinations.
SOHO is the term the computer industry uses to refer to the part of its market not represented by big business. It stands for "Small Office/Home Office".
There are some in the computer industry who regret the day the term was imported from the US. After all, the people who use computers in their home or in a small office are doing so for a variety of reasons.
* First-time users, probably attracted by multimedia encyclopedias and games.
* Parents who want their kids to have an edge at school.
* The executive who burns the midnight oil at home.
* The mother who is a part-time community activist and has a newsletter and mailing list.
* The father who wants to keep track of the family budget.
* The person who has a home business.
* The small company with a few employees working from home or a small, away from home, office.
Indeed, quite a diverse bunch, but the term does work. Those same people who complain about it are compelled to use it.
The sales of computers are a great way of measuring the number of people turning on to the SOHO way of life. And computer sales continue to rise. According to Graham Penn, the manager of desktop systems for the market research firm IDC, there is now a total of 1.8 million computers sitting in Australian homes. Not counting the computers some businesses place in homes for their employees, 237,500 computers were bought for the home last year.
The individuals, business people and families who make up SOHO have more to unite than to divide them. The concern for price is of course chief among them. But they're also concerned about the space the machines take up, keeping the business part of their life separate from other activities and most of all, after being tempted by the freedom the technology promises, trying to understand it well enough to use it.
It is this last issue Good Weekend takes up as its challenge for this, our second annual SOHO supplement.
First off is the computer itself - what a first-time user and a veteran upgrader needs to know.
One of the biggest trends is the growing number of people surfing the Net. We examine the joys and perils of the Internet and take a peek at Australia's first consumer-oriented on-line service.
We look at the upgrades being offered to multimedia fans and the questions to ask when choosing a fun CD title.
We clear up some of the confusion about the information superhighway and explore how our machines keep fusing together.
We take an envious look at the mobile executive and last but not least, profile a real live specimen of the SOHO species.
COMPUTERS ... WHAT TO KNOW ...WHAT TO BUY
Anyone can walk up to a TV, turn it on and figure out what programs to watch. You don't need to know anything about how it works except that it plugs into the wall and may have an antenna to fiddle with. Yes, there are variations. Some may have pay TV hook-ups, some may be connected to VCRs that many of us can't operate fully, but the basic idea is universally understood.
Were it also true of the computer! This is what the hardware and software manufacturers that make up the computer industry dream of: a comfortable, "intuitive" fit between humans and their machines. They dream of it because this fit is what's required if computers are to make the jump from the minority product that they still are to the "Holden-in-every-garage" necessity.
In its current form, the computer can't fulfil that dream. As far as the user is concerned, the television is a simple machine with basically one use. The computer, on the other hand, is a machine with many uses. Think of all of the software applications you can run with a computer. Now think of all the functions you can fulfil with those applications. The mind boggles as to what it can do. You can add other devices to it - such as printers, CD-ROM drives, stereo speakers, scanners, modems and faxes - that open up more and more possibilities. The computer can become part phone, part answering machine, part typewriter, etc. etc. (It can even become part television!) A computer is an amazingly versatile machine.
The other major difference between it and a television is the fast pace of the computer's evolution, and the fact that it is evolving while people use it. Consider the evolution of the main part of the computer, the microprocessor. Moore's Law, named after one of the co-founders of Intel (the premier maker of non-Macintosh microprocessors), says that the number of transistors the same piece of silicon chip can hold doubles every 18 months. This doubling increases power, opening the computer up to more sophisticated software applications. Overlay that with innovations such as the CD-ROM, and you've got a situation where machines are updated regularly.
Conversely, Australia has had television for almost 30 years and in all that time, there have been three main innovations: colour, VCRs and, only this year, pay TV.
The versatility and rapid evolution of the computer means that both first-time users, as well as those who are more conversant with the machines, need to be sure they know the basics.
Thankfully, the industry is at a stage right now where if you were to go out and buy a new, brand-name computer at a respectable retailer such as Harvey Norman, Brashs or Myer/Grace Bros, you'd get one powerful enough and expandable enough to do anything you wanted it to do. Typically, with every new level of speed and power they come out with, new software applications use it up. (But we're also at a point in software development where upgrades of individual applications really improve performance only marginally.)
Still, this situation won't last long. Even though there is little chance of buying the "wrong computer" these days, you need to learn more about it to ensure that you buy one that is "future-protected" and can make it grow to accommodate technological innovations.
MICROPROCESSOR
This is the main brain of the machine - the part, if you will, that "computes". IBM-compatible computers, including Packard Bell, Acer, Compaq and many others are based on the Intel-compatible microprocessor chip. Macintosh computers are based on Motorola chips and their PowerPCs, the competitor of IBM-compatible Pentiums, are based on a chip co-designed by IBM, Motorola and Apple. Both have a series of numeric names that indicate their structure and speed, which is measured in megahertz. Put simply, the more powerful the microprocessor, the more things the computer can do.
Among the major brand names of the IBM-compatible machines, none sell anything less powerful than the 486 SX (25 and 33 megahertz varieties) and salespeople for each of them will tell you confidentially not to bother with them.
The more powerful (486) DX2/66 is considered the entry-level standard with most new buyers going for the still more powerful (486) DX4/100 and even its superior, the Pentium.(The naming of these most basic parts of your computer is perhaps the most complicated. Intel has an "iCOMP" (Intel comparative microprocessor performance) index that demonstrates their relative power. (See following page.)
The demand for Pentium by the home user has taken everyone by surprise. In the US, retail sales of Pentium computers have outstripped all 486s and the trend is happening here too.
According to Gary Wheelhouse, the manager of Harvey Norman's Auburn Computer Superstore in Sydney, the DX4/100 is a powerful computer and capable of doing anything you want very quickly. So why are so many home users buying Pentium computers? It seems Pentium sales are being driven more by friends than applications. "New levels of power are always being talked up by friends," says Wheelhouse. "You'll be very happy with a DX4/100 and then a friend will say, 'You've got to see this!' "
Retrieval time from CD-ROM is improved with Pentium, compared to the DX2/66, but compared to the DX4/100, the improvement is negligible. The performance of some video-related or animated CD-ROM games, such as Bioforge, are improved marginally with Pentium, but if you're not a power-game player, or don't require such a fine degree of verisimilitude, a DX4/100 is a good future-protected machine.
To future-protect, check if the microprocessor is upgradable and to what level. Some manufacturers make a DX4/100 upgradable to a few of the Pentiums.
A good, future-protected Macintosh machine is the LC 630. All Macs are upgradable to at least one of the PowerPC chips.
HARD DISK DRIVE
This is where your programs, including your operating system - the software that allows you to access, for instance, your word-processing program - are stored. Its size determines how many applications you can put on your computer.
With the heavy use of CD-ROMs and the multitude of applications that it allows - not to mention the number of uses in the home that such programs bring to your computer - the demand for more hard disk space keeps rising. If you are buying an IBM-compatible computer today, you should start with a hard disk of at least 400 megabytes. Because of its interior design, a Mac requires less space for its programs, so a 160 is a good starting point. Future protectors will be delighted to learn that hard disk drives can be upgraded relatively easily.
RAM
This stands for "random access memory". When you use a program on your computer - either the operating system, a word processor, or a spreadsheet - data goes from the hard disk to the RAM. It resides there temporarily while you use it. This is why, when you perform too many functions for the amount of RAM you have, you'll receive the message: insufficient memory. The more RAM you have, the less chance there is that this will happen.
Like your hard disk space, RAM is measured in megabytes. Many machines on the market offer only four megabytes (Mbyte) of RAM. This is too little for today's and particularly tomorrow's applications.
Once again, assume you will want your computer to increase the number of things it can do for you, and to grow with you and the industry.
Windows doesn't really start humming unless you have at least eight megabytes - and a lot of people in the know suggest 16. For Macs, eight megabytes of RAM is probably a good place to start. Future-protect by checking upgradability; with RAM, there are more variations in upgradability, but most major brands (Macs, Compaqs, Packard Bell, Acer and IBM) offer generous upgradability.
MONITOR
A pretty obvious device, but not one that people give much thought to. When buying a computer, you often get the monitor thrown in. But don't fail to examine it, especially if you plan to use multimedia applications and to play games.
Look for a dpi ("dots per inch") of at least .28 and "non-interlaced" is always preferable to "interlaced", as they are not apt to flicker.
VIDEO DISPLAY
Some computers come with 512 kilobytes of video RAM, or VRAM, some with one to two megabytes. A healthy dose of video RAM improves picture resolution, particularly for complex graphic programs.
According to Paul Trachtenberg, the national product manager for Packard Bell, video playback is also improved by computers which incorporate their video card on the motherboard (through "VESA local bus"), rather than on a separate adaptor card. This creates a more non-interruptible image, so the animation or video on your CD-ROM doesn't look like a dubbed foreign movie.
MODEMS
Many computers these days come with built-in modems. Try not to be too enticed by this feature. On-line communications, as we discuss in our article about the Internet, are growing too quickly for the inclusion of a modem to be meaningful. With Internet service providers continually increasing the data transfer rate they offer, the upgrading of modems will be commonplace. The speed of many of the built-in modems on the market today has already been superseded by some Internet service providers.
EXPANSION SLOTS AND BAYS
The more slots (for adaptor cards) and bays (for disk drives) you have, the more things you can add to your computer, if you don't already have them - CD-ROM drives, modems, soundcards, etc. Your computer will grow with you.
A giant leap forward in a computer's ability to grow and expand with the user - with minimal fuss - is plug and play. You'll be seeing more and more about plug and play in the very near future. Basically, it is a term to describe a device, be it a printer, modem, sound card, a CD-ROM drive, a mouse - all those things you want your computer to be able to grow for - that can be used immediately after it's simply plugged in - either through an available port in the back or in one of the expansion slots we've been telling you to get.
There's no fiddling with jumpers, switches, and configurations - the very things a first (and second and third) time user wants to know absolutely nothing about.
PRINTERS
The vast number of printers marketed to the SOHO user can make selecting one difficult. Traditionally, dot matrix printers have been the cheapest, lasers have been the dearest and inkjets and bubblejets have slipped through the middle, offering a compromise between the high quality resolution of laser and the generally low quality of dot matrix.
Prices of inkjets (and even some lasers) have dropped enough to threaten part of the dot matrix market. But if you require a heavy amount of tractor feed and/or duplicate printing that requires a strike impression, such as with invoices and sales receipts, dot matrix remains the only option.
The price of the machine is not the only cost factor. You also have to consider the cost of running it. For massive amounts of duplicate copies, inkjets - because of the ink cartridges and other "consumables" they require you to buy - can become expensive to run.
Likewise, if you regularly print a large number of letters that need to be a better quality than dot matrix, you should consider a laser printer such as NEC's Silentwriter SuperScript 660i. NEC has reduced the price of the printer by using Windows GDI (graphic device interface) technology. This means the printer doesn't have to "translate" the data from the computer system's language into the printer's language. The price is still higher than an inkjet with comparable dpi (dots per inch) resolution, but because of an inkjet's "consumables", printing high quantities over time makes it more efficient. The only drawback, and it's minor, is that you must print from a Windows environment.
But when it comes to the average SOHO user, who doesn't have the need for such a high amount of printing but wants good quality, inkjets remain the printer of choice. They can match the resolution of lasers as measured by dots per inch, although the discerning eye can still detect a difference between print that is "burnt" on and that which is sprayed, or "jetted" on.
Some users are happy with black and white printers - most of the time; HP DeskJet 540 for the PC and HP DeskWriter 540 for the Macintosh have low-cost colour cartridges you can snap in. The Fujitsu Breeze 100 Plus, meanwhile, features "lifetime" refillable ink cartridges for the ecologically minded.
The Epson Stylus Colour has a printing head that reduces "stray spray" and can print at an extremely high quality of 720 x 720 dots per inch on special paper. It can be connected to both Macintosh and Windows-based machines.
BIG NAME BRANDS
It's not surprising that the first piece of advice you get from brand-name computer manufacturers is to be sure to buy a familiar brand name. Still, self-serving though it may be, brand names do generally ensure reliability, and offer good support and warranties. When it comes to deciding which brand name, take the company's service and support into account. Shop and compare.
Your first decision is whether to buy a Macintosh or IBM-compatible Windows-based machine. May we be so bold as to say that for the first-time buyer, there is little difference between what a Mac and an IBM-compatible will do for you. Sure, Macs are still dominant in the desktop publishing and graphics areas and Windows-based machines are more pervasive. As a proprietary system, Macintosh makes it easier to upgrade and expand - you automatically know where to go to get your add-ons and know that when you get there, they'll know how to help.
But even here more similarities are emerging: Macintosh now lets others make clones and the major brand names are providing the kind of service and support that will form a "Mac-like" bond with the consumer. Most importantly, each runs the same types of applications, and increasingly the same brand applications. The real difference between Macs and IBM-compatibles occurs with the interface, the operating system that runs the machine. Go to a store and try an IBM-compatible running Windows 3.1 and try a Macintosh (which will be running System 7 or 7.5). Decide which one you like better.
IBM is making it simple for the first-time buyer by limiting what's on offer. This may sound like a negative, but it's not. With many consumers wandering the aisles of computer stores, sheepishly telling salespeople they want to "get into this multimedia thing", cutting back on the permutations of RAM size, hard-disk size, and microprocessor is wise.
IBM's Aptiva line has two models, both upgradable and both virtually the same multimedia machine with tutorial software, Aptivaware, that sits on top of Windows, and come with a one-year free, 24-hour "Helpline". (The difference is that one machine comes with a built-in fax modem.)
Compaq has carved a niche for itself, equipping every one of its Presarios with answering machine capability, along with its built-in data/fax modem. They have a MediaPilot Operator icon to guide you through the phone/answering machine functions. Many come with CD-ROM drives and speakers; those that don't are multimedia ready (with sound on board).
Packard Bell has a large array of choices for those who better know what they want. Its Navigator software offers Windows-based tutorials suitable for the new, intermediate and experienced user. A valuable feature is step-by-step drawings of how to install upgrades. Its Kids Space icon allows you to keep your children's files and programs separate and password-locks keep them out of yours.
One final word of advice: shop around and be tough. If you've convinced one dealer to drop their price, phone the others to find out if they'll do an even better deal.
HOW TO JOIN THE INTERNET CRAZE
You must have heard about the Internet, the mass of interlinked computer networks that span the globe. You've been told it will change your life. The fervour of the rhetoric is enough to rival a sales pitch by the Demtel man. Yes, folks, step right up! You can send electronic messages all over the world! Retrieve information from the US Library of Congress! Peruse the sketches of Leonardo da Vinci! Chat in discussion groups on thousands of subjects! Download software, play games and roam around on other computers! It slices! It dices ...
And Australians are stepping right up. It's not quite the force behind computer sales that CD-ROMs are, but it's getting there.
But how many first-time users continue with the Internet is another matter. It's very difficult to get statistics, but those in the know say the cancellation rate after one month's usage is very high. Could the hype be really just that - hype? Is the Internet not the boon to humankind it's been sold as?
Of course this drop-off rate could just be savvy Internet users continually getting new accounts to either take advantage of the "first month free" offers or to find the one that gives them the smoothest and quickest ride. But some grumbling from new users - what we might call the newbie whinge - suggests it may be that the hype got the non-techies on line too quickly. We showed up for the party and the Internet wasn't ready. Chief among the complaints of first-time users is the time spent waiting. Waiting for pictures to come on screen, waiting for sound clips, waiting for their contribution to supposedly "real-time chat" to be acknowledged and responded to. (All of that waiting is costing money too, as a lot of access providers charge by the hour.)
The other problem is more a lament: it takes time to learn what the Net can do for you and how you can integrate it into your life. The Internet is not even an entity in itself, but a mass of networks, each with their own purpose. As a result, "it" is not structured or designed for ease of use.
Misconceptions about what the Internet is may be the biggest cause of user drop-off. To be sure, there is no overvaluing the thrill of becoming an active member of the global village from the comfort of your living room. If you're researching a paper, you have loads of illustrations, statistics - whatever you need - at your fingertips.
Stephen Fitzpatrick, an honours student in Indonesian history and cultural studies at the University of Wollongong uses it every day. "I can log on to Indonesian news groups to keep tabs on developments there and among Indonesians in the US, Canada and Australia. As there is a mix of Indonesian and English used, I also develop my language skills."
And many SOHO operators can use the Internet to communicate with associates and partners at different sites, transferring files and communicating through e-mail.
But what if you have no need for e-mail nor file transfer and don't have such a defined area of interest or study? It might be provocative to download speeches by Bill Clinton, or track the progress of NASA's latest space shuttle, but do you really need to?
What the Internet does not give you - at least in its present form - is a healthy amount of local services. Commercial services such as banking, restaurant menus and booking, clothes ordering, etc. There are some World Wide Web sites (see "NEXT ONLINE" on facing page) that offer some of these things, but not to an extent even approaching the "information superhighway" home shopping services.
Australians may have embraced mobile phones, pagers and fax machines early on, but when it comes to sophisticated on-line services, we've been very slow to develop them. (This, of course, is most likely due to the high cost of operation, rather than technological indifference.) These commercial services will be the ones to get and keep most of us "logged on". Such highly developed on-line services also give you confines within which to work and enjoy network services, without launching fully on to the often-anarchic Internet. CompuServe, for example, is a commercial service, but its content is generally from the US and most of it is geared for big businesses.
On Australia, due to launch in August, is the first service that could provide a significant amount of Australian content.
None of this should turn you off the Internet. Just know what you're getting. If you're not engaged in a specific business, research-related pursuit, or experimenting with new forms of media for art and music, then what the Internet ends up being is entertainment. And there's nothing wrong with that!
WHAT YOU'LL NEED
COMPUTER
Either a Macintosh or PC will do. Any computer on the market right now will be powerful enough to work with on-line services. Because of the predominance of IBM-compatible PCs, a lot of the commercial service providers design software packages for a Windows environment. If you're a Mac user, make sure you can get easy-to-use Mac software offered by your selected service provider. Computers with more powerful microprocessors, high quality sound and even video display accelerators may give a more pleasurable experience on Web sites - but improvement will be marginal.
MODEM
"Modem" stands for modulate/demodulate. It converts the digital information from your computer to an analogue form so that it can travel down your analogue telephone line. Likewise, it converts the analogue information you receive on your telephone line into digital information to be read by your computer. In short, it's a translator. Modems come in many different speeds, from a very slow 2,400 bits per second or "bps" (a bit is simply a standard measure of data - think of this as you do the rate of speed for a car in kilometres per hour) to one of the fastest on the market right now, 28,800 bps or "28.8 kbps" (kilobits per second). Remember, service providers have "speed limits": if your service provider only goes at a "residential-zone" pace of 9,600 bps, your "Ferrari" modem won't offer any great advantage. On the other hand, if you have a service that can take a faster modem than the one you have, you'll probably be throwing money away as most services charge by the hour. If you want to give the Internet a fair chance, get as fast a modem, and provider, as you can afford.
Because the Internet is comprised of various networks, information gets to you over a variety of transmission links (satellite, copperwire, fibre optic) with a great variety of bandwidths - some fast, some slow. "Data/fax" modems have two speeds: for example, 28,800/14,400 bps. The first is the data speed and the second is for sending faxes.
SERVICE PROVIDER
Consider how much time you are going to spend on the Internet. Some services charge by the time used and/or a periodic fee. Those with a flat (usually monthly) fee are ideal for addicts who want to delve the Internet to their heart's content. If you know you are just going to use it for international e-mail - an amazing enough service by itself, a provider with a (probably) higher per hour fee but no monthly fee is better.
Make sure the number by which your modem accesses the service provider is local.
If you're just starting out, you may think it's best to wet your toes first, before taking the plunge - getting partial Internet service rather than full service, which is generally more expensive. You'll want to explore the World Wide Web, as this seems to be where easy-to-use Australian content is growing. To access the Web, you need full Internet service (PPP/SLIP protocol).
Beginners should ensure that their service provider gives them a healthy software starter package. You can navigate the Internet with most communication software packages and download a lot of the popular navigation tools but you may not want to at first. Tools to look for include FTP, Gopher, telnet, WAIS, a Web browser such as Netscape or Mosaic, IRC, and Eudora Mail.
Here are a few full-Internet service providers to start your search. Providers can very quickly become victims of their own success. Most are constantly upgrading the number of lines they have and what speeds they will support to meet the increase in user numbers and their expectations. The standard speed is quickly becoming 28.8 kbps, but as Telstra has tipped that the high cost of using ISDN - the digital network that can support 64 kbps - will come down, the "standard" modem speed of service providers could soon rise.
ENTERNET: Access through local calls all over Australia. $25 to hook up, plus $20 a month (including $18 on-line credit) and $9 an hour Monday to Saturday, 9 am to midnight; $6 an hour at other times. It comes with or without high quality modems from Netcomm, Enternet's parent company, and its Cooee Enternet software provides a user-friendly interface to manage your Internet tools. Supports 28.8 kbps speed and has a lot of lines so getting clogged is less likely. Phone: 1800 642 067.
NEXT ONLINE: Access is a local call for Sydney only, but Melbourne is due soon. This is a Web site from the publishers of Rolling Stone that focuses on music and pop culture. Such World Wide Web sites, the CD-ROM of the Internet, can combine local information with point-and-click links (chosen and constructed by the Web site's creator) to the Internet's databases, forums and other Web sites. It can be accessed by anyone with an Internet connection, but they also provide full access to the rest of the Internet. It's $30 to register, plus a subscription for beginners of $25 a month, plus $6 an hour after five hours' use. Another plan charges $50 a month, plus $3 for each hour after 20 hours' use. It supports speeds of up to 28.8 kbps. Phone: (02) 310 1433.
GEKO: Access is a local call for Sydney only. No time limits on usage and a wealth of tools offered in the free software package. It's $20 to set up including telephone support, plus $30 a month thereafter. The only additional charge is the $1 per megabyte of data you download after your 20 free megabytes. For the non-ISDN (the expensive digital network) home user, Geko can support up to V34 speed modems configured for 57.6 kbps. Phone: (02) 439 1999.
THE SOFTWARE THAT RUNS THE SOFTWARE
There is always one area in the software industry where they're spitting chips (silicon ones, of course) and the latest spat is over some very technical details of operating systems. An operating system is the software that runs your computer and the rest of your software and is perhaps more important than the computer itself. After all, the operating system is the part you interact with to make the computer do what you want, whether it be word processing, database management, faxing or multimedia CD-ROMs. When users compare the "user-friendliness" of a Mac to that of an IBM-compatible machine, chances are they're comparing Mac OS (for "operating system") to Windows.
To be sure, easy-to-identify sockets, plugs and ports and a simple way to upgrade the hardware comes into play, but when it comes to how easily you'll be able to get into your applications, send documents to your printer, and switch from your faxing to your e-mail to your spreadsheet, the interface is everything. And your interface is your operating system.
Mac users still have their own proprietary Mac OS (currently version 7.5), but users of IBM-compatible or "PC" machines are told the interface/operating system is where a real choice will need to be made by the home user as well as the corporate office systems manager. What's it all about?
Microsoft is launching its Windows 95 operating system, a replacement for DOS, Windows 3.1 and Windows for Workgroups, in August of this year. 95 promises a new, more intuitive interface than earlier Windows versions, that will allow first-time users to figure it out more easily. One new feature is the "recycling bin", Windows' answer to the ever-popular Mac "trash". (Recycling is a better analogy than trash for what happens to deleted files. The document isn't thrown away; the computer is told that it can use the space the file is taking up for something else.)
95 is also "document-centric". A taskbar remains at the bottom or side of your screen, indicating your "active" applications, and there is a customisable Desktop - the opening "layout" of the system - where along with application icons, you can place working document icons, such as a letter you're writing. When you click it, the application automatically launches and the letter is called up.
Windows 95 also takes the Windows user into the realm of 32-bit programs and this is where the chips start to fly: IBM already has a 32-bit operating system on the market called OS/2 Warp, and the two of them naturally think theirs is better. (Warning: we're entering serious geek territory, here, but don't be too fussed by what 32-bit means. It refers to the structure, or architecture, of the program. The Windows programs you currently use are 16-bit. Put very simply, a 32-bit program can work more quickly and in a greater number of ways because larger parts of the program can be handled at once.)
Both 32-bit operating systems can handle the old Windows and DOS programs you're using now, so don't worry about their obsolescence - at least not for the moment. The key, common feature of these programs that the SOHO user will care about is "pre-emptive multi-tasking".
Multi-tasking is the ability to do more than one thing at the same time: print a document from your word processing program while you enter numbers in your spreadsheet, or update your database (or play a game).
Currently on Windows 3.1, you can multitask, but it is "cooperative multi-tasking", so if the print job, for instance, is taking up more than its fair share of memory, the application you want to work with has to wait.
Pre-emptive multi-tasking means that the programs actually run at the same time. The thing is, IBM's OS/2 Warp does this and it's on the market now. Windows 95, while coming in August, is still a promise. And Warp does pre-emptive multi-tasking among existing 32-bit programs, and your trusty 16-bit Windows programs, and DOS programs. Microsoft literature claims only to provide true pre-emptive multi-tasking with the 95 operating system itself and new 32-bit programs. Warp claims that with Windows 95, you'll still have frequent visits from the "hour glass" when you flip back and forth from 32-bit programs to the 16-bit program you value and don't want to upgrade. They also claim that while Microsoft has worked out a lot of the buggy code that caused "General Protection Faults" in Windows 3.1, it hasn't altered the architecture that allows one buggy program to affect the others.
There are, however, two features that may give 95 the edge for the Australian SOHO user, and they can't be found on OS/2 Warp.
One is that 95 will make your computer "plug-and-play" capable. New peripherals are automatically configured - no messy switches and jumpers to worry about. All appropriate software applications are notified of the new add-on and you can use it straightaway. Warp offers this only with PCMCIA cards found on new portable computers.
The other may be its inclusion of the Microsoft Network (see page 56).
Meanwhile, where's Macintosh while all of this is going on? From the beginning, Macintosh offered an intuitive, user-friendly interface, plug-and-play-type ability and built in peer-to-peer networking. They're entitled to think they're being followed.
HOME GROWN
From word processors to finance managers to contact databases to mini-networks, there are plenty of applications suited to all levels of SOHO - whether you're a million-dollar consultancy or balancing a chequebook.
The past couple of years have seen the emergence of "office" or "suite" packages that provide various combinations of word processors, spreadsheets, databases, presentation publishing and communications software. These give you consistent interfaces among your various applications. After you've learned the icons and pull-down menus of your word processing program learning the spreadsheet and the other constituent applications of your suite is that much easier.
Of course, such suites and packages provide a huge advantage to software manufacturers. In one swoop, the major players - namely Microsoft (with Office Standard and Office Professional), Lotus (with SmartSuite) and Novell (with PerfectOffice Standard and Professional) - get a huge chunk of your SOHO software business.
But these packages don't stop at consistency. They also offer, in varying degrees, the ability to have your applications work together through "object-link embedding", or OLE. When two applications are linked, for instance a wordprocessing program and a spreadsheet program, you can drag and drop work done from one into the other. But OLE is more than cut and paste. After you drop your widget spreadsheet into your sales letter, you can work on the spreadsheet from within the letter. The document from which you dragged is also updated as you make the changes within the letter.
Not all of a package's applications are linked. PerfectOffice, centered around one of the most popular word processing programs of all time, WordPerfect, has an edge when it comes to OLE, with more of its applications OLE linked.
The business and money side of SOHO has no shortage of applications to keep it in order. Intuit's Quicken is still ticking away as a good personal finance manager, allowing you to track your spending and investments, balance your chequebook, and set up household and business budgets. And now, with Quicken Home Inventory, you can keep track of all your "hard" possessions, helping you evaluate your insurance coverage and make claims more easily. You can also include Home Inventory data in a Quicken Net Worth report.
M.Y.O.B., or Mind Your Own Business, is still the best named, and also very useful, program for your total accounting and inventory tracking needs. Sybiz Vision allows you to cost effectively customise your accounting, linking it for instance with their contact manager.
When it comes to contact management - keeping a database of clients and business associates, and notating all correspondence with them, Symantec's ACT! gets points for comprehensiveness with its built-in word processor. And for ease of use, there are Lotus's Organizer (which even looks like an on-screen diary) and the Australian-made Tracker 2.0.
Sometimes SOHO can grow on you. A family can have several computers - one for the daughter, one for the father, one for the mother, etc. But what do you do when you've got one family budget and you're each entering transactions on your financial management program? Keeping track of which version is the most complete and up-to-date can be difficult, and dedicating one computer to the application, causing you to elbow each other out of the way, defeats the purpose of you're each having your own computer.
Or maybe you've started your own business and you've had to hire an assistant. That's great, except every time he wants to print, he has to interrupt what you're doing to put a floppy into your computer to access the one and only printer you can currently afford.
There are never these problems in a large office - they have big servers that run "large area networks", or LANs, to share printers, files and applications. But SOHO can network too and it's not as expensive as you might think. Instead of fighting over a computer, or getting a clumsy "A-B" switch to share a printer, you could set up a simple "peer-to-peer" (computer-to-computer) network. (Can we call them SANs, for SOHO Area Network?)
Macintosh computers come with the built-in ability to do this - all you need to do is cable them up. But unless you've got Windows for Workgroups or a pre-release version of Windows 95, IBM-compatible PCs don't. Artisoft's Simply LANtastic does the trick. The starter kit comes with software and "plug and play" internal adapters, so you can connect two computers, allowing you to form a network to share printers, files, programs, etc. You can buy add-on kits later for more PCs.
Probably a more popular way to use Simply LANtastic is for the network version of Doom. Two players at separate, networked computers, can be within the same virtual Doom game at the same time, either playing against each other, or vanquishing those nasties together.
Before you install a small network program such as LANtastic or hook up your Macs, make sure to check the copyright of the software you intend to have the systems share. If the agreement doesn't allow for networking or "multiusers", upgrade to software that does, or just use it to share drives, files and printers (benefit enough). Otherwise, you're breaking the law.
LIVING BY DESIGN
At first, this SOHO doesn't present as an advertisement for the services of an architect. An old, weather-worn house fronting busy Salisbury Road in Camperdown, NSW, is the office hub for Peter Willett Architects. It's a rustic, hotchpotch building, the three successive rooms creating an open-plan feel. The walls are ringed with drafting tables, two computers, a printer, a phone, a fax and a rented scanner and removable hard disk drive. It's a comfortable studio workshop, but there's nothing about the office part that screams "Hire me! I do good work!" That is, not until you go out back and see what Willett has done with his "shed".
This is the home part of his SOHO, although it's designed in such a way as to not only serve his recreational, leisure, and "living" hours, but also accommodate important meetings with clients. The television rolls and tucks away underneath a cabinet that can also serve as a computer desk. The sofa seat can expand to a bunk bed for stayovers, as well as collapse to extend the dining table for business meetings. Upstairs is his bedroom, which opens through sliding windows to a deck.
Willett's company expands and contracts according to the size of its projects. He and his associate, Rebecca Cleaves, and architecture student Julia Lehmann form the core of the company, which joins forces with others - often SOHOs - to do larger projects. One such consortium called DARC, for Digital Architecture, consists of Willett's company, a multimedia research and design company called Digital Media, and the magazine Architecture Australia. They have just completed a proposal for a Creative Nation grant to produce a CD-ROM on Australia's architectural heritage.
"We're up against much bigger companies for this grant but because of the technology available to us, we can put together projects of a sophisticated nature from quite humble surroundings," says Willett.
The Aldus Pagemaker desktop publishing program allowed them to incorporate graphs, charts and scanned-in photos, to illustrate their work plan and tell the story of the players involved. They also incorporated a credible work schedule developed with Microsoft's Project, a time management program. This demonstrated the timing and resources necessary for each step of the project's execution. Willett says, "They can look at this and see that it's going to get done."
Willett's SOHO company uses the Project program with all of its jobs. It helps determine how much the company needs to "expand or contract" for each project, and how many jobs can be handled at one time.
Another advantage of Soho technology is that small companies are able to make sure their expenditure goes towards their key business. "Computers have allowed us to concentrate purely on what we are. We don't have to hire secretaries." Easy-to-use programs, such as Microsoft's Word and the bookkeeping-money management program Bestbooks from Data-Tech, mean that everyone does wordprocessing, invoicing and budgeting. "It's designer-user-friendly," jokes Willett.
Unlike other architects, who might exploit the computer for computer-aided design, or CAD, programs, Willett sees their main benefit in the area of presentations and communication. He's experimented with CAD, but prefers to design in longhand and then scan sketches into the computer for presentation. "Just because you have the computer," he emphasises, "doesn't mean you have to do everything on it." The Macintosh Quadra 660AV (for Audio Visual) computer with a NEC MultiSync SF Ge monitor (the comparable Macintosh was "too expensive") is ideal for this. They use the other computer, a Macintosh LC II, for the accounting and wordprocessing, although both computers can access programs and files on the other, as they are networked. (To learn how to do this, see page 42.)
Willett and the other SOHOs he works with keep in contact by e-mailing each other through the Internet. He acknowledges the irony of accessing an international system of computer networks to communicate with someone one suburb away, but the ability to transfer files and messages means people at three different locations can easily work with each other on the same computer files. Without it, they would either have to meet and do it together, or courier floppy disks.
For the future, they're experimenting with video presentation, as the Mac AV comes with video in and out capability and the Fusion Recorder program, allowing them to "capture" stills for printed presentations and edit videos for VCR playback. Willett marvels at the client presentations he'll be able to do when they master it.
Is there any drawback to this SOHO Paradiso? "It is difficult to separate work from the rest of your life, but then again, my work isn't really work, because I love it."
THE MULTIMEDIA EXPLOSION
The desire for multimedia capability has become one of the chief propellers of computer sales. According to IDC's Graham Penn, about 70 per cent of new computers sold for home use last year had built-in multimedia.
This popularity is remarkable when you consider that the chief format for multimedia storage, CD-ROM, has only been around in retail form since 1990. This sharp growth has led to both a series of hardware upgrades, with faster CD-ROMs and improved sound, as well as a proliferation of CD-ROM titles. Such growth calls for both sober decisions about upgrading and principles to ensure that the titles you buy are going to satisfy.
As soon as you buy a computer with a double CD-ROM drive and 16-bit sound card built in (as many of us did this past Christmas), stores are selling (and your friends are buying) "quad" CD-ROM drives and Wavetable sound cards!
But this upgrade fever is not done by design. As Kim Irvine, general manager of multimedia-upgrade manufacturer Media Vision, explains it, "Because of the increase in sales of CD-ROM drives, manufacturers have been able to put more money into R and D. As a result, the technology is moving along very fast."
But as with any improvement in technology, it's debatable whether you should feel buyer's remorse yet. When it comes to quad CD-ROM drives, which spin twice as fast as double-spin CD-ROM drives, the improvement is negligible. Access time to information is decreased (thereby improving picture quality and decreasing lag time), but certainly not in proportion to the increase in spin time. The reason for this is that, to date, there are no multimedia titles that require - and therefore deliver the benefits of - quad speed.
Sound card upgrades may be another issue, however. One of the features of multimedia that appeals to many people is the ability to use the CD-ROM drive to listen to an audio CD while working on a word processor or spreadsheet. Some are disappointed when the quality of the 16-bit sound card is lacklustre compared to their "hi-fi" stereo.
Irvine is passionate that Wavetable sound should be a minimum standard for your multimedia system. (Those who are disappointed with their sound might be able to upgrade the card without upgrading the drive as well.) For new buyers, Irvine suggests,"If a customer is buying a multimedia-ready computer that a dealer is putting together for them, they should demand Wavetable sound, whether it's from us or another manufacturer."
Choosing good CD-ROM titles is now more confusing than ever. Multimedia games, books and "edutainment" titles are everywhere, making computer stores look more like book stores with aisles of titles.
And just like books, multimedia titles vary widely in quality.
The last thing you want a multimedia program to do is simply translate a book to a computer. If it's just text with pictures, what's the point? Books are easier to use. Look for titles that take full advantage of what multimedia has to offer: ones that capitalise on the multimedia environment of sound, images and text.
According to Wired magazine, when Microsoft's Bill Gates saw a demonstration of Voyager's Beethoven's Ninth Symphony
CD-ROM, he was ecstatic. "We've finally seen what the CD-ROM was made for," he reportedly exclaimed. He then did a very Bill Gates thing: he bought the licence to make the PC-platform versions of the Macintosh-based Voyager music CD-ROM series.
Voyager and Microsoft also have CDs on Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and others. Each gives you a bar by bar analysis and critique of the musical score, calling your attention, for example, to rhythmic and thematic development. The musicality of your ear is improved and the history of the piece is highlighted along with a biography of the composer. Because of this integration of all the areas of a well-rounded "musical appreciation", these CD-ROMs quickly outpace what any combination of teacher, score, critical books and essays, biographies of the composer and a plain recording will do.
Another CD-ROM feature to consider is the quality of the hyperlinks. Movie clips, sound bites and animation may make the CD-ROM fun but a complex system of hyperlinks will increase your knowledge and exploration exponentially, ensuring you come back to the CD-ROM and "unearth" more. With hyperlinks, or "built-in cross references", you can click highlighted key words to take you to other sections on the related subject matter - which can then take you to other sections, and so on. They enact the way we research. Because of the money they bring in, popular encyclopedia CD-ROMs, such as Microsoft's Encarta and Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia receive more development. The new versions, not only update the old ones, but bring more complex hyperlinks, as well.
ALL IN TOGETHER NOW
Even if you don't understand exactly what it means, you know "convergence" has something to do with the pay TV conglomerates, the phone companies and computer networks and how, due to digital technology and "compression", they're all going to jell. Bureaucrats mutter it in their sleep and anyone who wants to sound knowledgeable about the "information superhighway", with its interactive video services, is sure to slip it into their conversation. Call that jelling of services "big C" convergence.
What we're concerned with here is the convergence happening in SOHOs around the world. It's "small c" or "SOHO convergence". While it's related to "big C" convergence, it has more to do with the way our machines - faxes, printers, scanners, computers and telephones - seem destined to become one.
It began with "hybrid" machines, when the fax machine also offered the copy function. Then they added an answering machine to it - where the machine determines whether a fax or voice call is coming through and responds accordingly. Voice phone, faxing, copying and answering machine all in one machine.
Alongside of this hybrid trend, computers with modems tapped into phone lines to handle e-mail, shuttle documents back and forth, and hook up to networks (including the Internet). Now there are data/fax modems such as those from Banksia and Netcomm that add the ability to fax documents straight from your computer (without having to print). Delrina's Communications Suite combines its WinFax Pro and WinComm Pro, eliminating the need to close down the fax software to send e-mail.
Compaq has already made telephone-computer functionality its minimum standard. All Compaq Presarios (the home-computer line) come with a data/fax modem (for network communications and faxing) and answering-machine capability. Network communications including e-mail, voice communications, faxing, answering machine, and all of the applications you use a computer for, reside in one box. You can sit at your computer, working on a letter, and speak to someone via the built-in speaker phone simultaneously. After you hang up, you can fax the letter from your desk.
If you don't have a fax and/or copier separate from your computer and are thinking about the need for a scanner so you can fax hard-copy documents (such as clippings from Good Weekend), ScanFX from Creative Pacific coordinates your printer and the fax modem in your computer to give you copying, scanning and faxing. If you have a colour printer, like the Canon BJC-70, you've got colour copying and colour faxing.
Hewlett Packard has released the HP Officejet LX Personal Printer-Fax-Copier. It does what ScanFX does but saves on space as it doesn't require a separate printer and can fax via your PC. ScanFX's advantages include the ability to work with colour and, since its main job beyond scanning is to coordinate other machines, it allows you to easily upgrade fax-modem speed and printer (from bubble jet to laser and from monochrome to colour).
Many people currently fax using both their dedicated fax machine and the built-in fax modem in their computer. The dedicated fax machine is ideal for sending hard copy and the computer fax minimises paper wastage on working documents and ensures better reception and transmission. When you consider how video overlay boards with television tuners built in can bring TV into your computer, you realise there's only one thing standing between small-c and big-C convergence. It's bandwidth. (Coaxial and fibre-optic cable, capable of larger bandwidth, is being laid right now.)
Will the computer, TV and telephone merge to form one tele-omnipotent box? That's a possible end-game, with lots of permutations in between, and if we maintain our SOHO values of separating work and home, we'll have to have more than one such box to keep our work and entertainment separate.
With each convergent technology and machine we encounter, we have to examine the space and money they save, how we use it (including how often) and try to minimise the engaged signal when we're tying up our lines Net-surfing, e-mailing, faxing, and, oh yeah, talking. The time is now to make the machines fit us - and not the other way around.
THE MOBILE ADVANTAGE
If you're running a business from your home or a small office, the odds are you're short on support staff - if you have any at all. You're probably in a service industry and that means you're often on the road - visiting clients, attending meetings etc. But who minds the shop when you're away?
An individual with the appropriate mobile products and services can now do anything someone deskbound in their office can do. Because there is so much research and development invested in making mobile products smaller, lighter and "connected", notebooks and pagers and mobile phones are at the cutting edge of innovation.
Computers are perhaps the most obvious example of the unfair advantage given to portables. The first thing you'll notice is the look. When it comes to notebooks, they've invested in design. Olivetti, a company from whom you'd expect good design, has launched its Echos series of notebooks in "Deep Blue" and "Terra Cotta". IBM gives its Thinkpad series a chic black matte. And notebooks in general look more, for lack of a better word, cool. It's no accident that the Macintosh Powerbooks became the standard for image-conscious Hollywood executives.
They're also more versatile. Notebooks are much more adaptable and flexible than desktops. To upgrade the hard disk on the NEC Versa notebooks, you simply eject it and replace it with another one. With IBM Thinkpads, just lift up the keyboard and pull them out. With this "modularity", you can even exchange hard disk drives for floppy disk drives. Anyone who's tried to change a hard disk drive on a desktop will appreciate this.
PCMCIA slots give you more versatility and ease of use. PCMCIA stands for Personal Computer Memory Card International Association, a connection standard. Each card is about the size of a credit card, and slips into your notebook computer. Some give you more memory. Some are extra hard-disk space, and some have cellular fax modems attached, allowing you to fax from your notebook screen with no wire connection. The brilliance of PC cards is their ease of use and their acceptance as a standard, giving you a wide range of expandability. Where is such ease of use with the desktop?
When it comes to subnotebooks, a major issue has always been the cramped keyboard. Enter the innovators once again. When closed, the IBM Think Pad 701, or Butterfly, is the size of a subnotebook. Open it up and the keyboard expands to a full notebook-size keyboard, overlapping the edges. Also, its display is the same size as a notebook's.
Notebooks such as the Toshiba T2150CD are fully multimedia with built-in speakers, microphone and CD-ROM drives. And printing on the road - without lugging a printer - is handled by Canon's BN120C, which has a 10-page paper bin in its base. For those who can wait until they get back to the office to print, Hewlett Packard's HP LaserJet 5P has an infra-red sensor to receive print instructions and data. After all, notebook manufacturers are making their products almost as light as a TV remote control. Why not make them work like one? Just point your notebook's infra-red sensor toward the printer and input the print command. Some IBM computers have infra-red sensors built in, as does the Sharp Zaurus Personal Display Assistant (PDA), and there are stubs that can convert some printer ports to an infra-red sensor.
The number one issue of mobility is keeping connected to your base and making sure you don't lose any calls. Once again, if you have the accoutrements of mobility, you have the edge. Any call to your home can be diverted to a paging service, such as Linknet, and presto, you have a receptionist, whose screen will have your company details, fax numbers, etc.
An alpha-numeric pager such as Motorola's Scriptor LX2 will not only give you the number, but a short message as well. But it's when you divert incoming calls to a digital mobile phone, for instance a Nokia 2110, that it really gets interesting. You can have a service such as Telecom's MobileNet Memo answer your calls (when, for instance, you and you're phone are out of a serviced area) and deliver the message to your mobile phone's read out (like an alphanumeric pager). And if you sign up with Optus' SecureFax, every time you receive a fax, your digital mobile phone will give you a message and you can have Optus send that fax to any machine nearby.
The cutting edge innovation of mobility often entails high prices, sometimes prohibitive for SOHO. Finding what's best for you and within your budget requires research and comparative shopping.
GIZMOS
SO YOU WANNNA BE IN MOVIES?
Banks and large corporations allegedly use Movie Machine to keep an eye on news bulletins (although six-hour cricket is probably the real reason). Movie Machine converges the television with your computer, allowing you to work in one Window, while watching Oprah in another. There are more pragmatic applications, as well.
SOHO gamblers (of the ponies and futures alike) can access Teletext and store and update TAB results or perform foreign exchange calculations. With the "Video In" model, homeowners can first videotape the car that got into a prang and use Movie Machine to convert the video into stills for the insurance company.
Available at major retail chains, the basic model (which can't plug out to a TV set or receive video in) costs $600 to $700.
JUST SAY THE WORD
No excuses now for missing birthdays and anniversaries. This palm-size device is a voice-activated diary that learns your voice. You can record (via a microprocessor chip) reminders of meetings and memos that can be either "to do" lists to remind you to pick up the laundry, write those letters and even feed the cat, or they can be your free-floating ideas - your very own "brain dump". Goodbye backs of envelopes and scrappy notes.
Each memo automatically gets a number, time and date stamp. Regular meetings are handled by "recurring reminders". You can also load phone numbers allowing you to access a number by just saying the person's name. Available at major retail chains such as Dick Smith and Harvey Norman. RRP $299. For additional information, call (02) 413 4127.
KEEP IN CONTACT
Contact management programs can mean a lot of data entry, so the old business card file still sits next to the computer. With CypherScan 1000, you scan the card in and the software places names, addresses and phone numbers in a multi-field database. Don't worry about unusual names or layouts because CypherScan gets better at interpreting cards the more you use it. (You can export your data into LOTUS Organizer, Microsoft's Access and Symantec's ACT!.) Order by calling CheckMARK Technologies on (02) 957 6970. Price: $675.
WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS
As you read this, they could be in front of your house, with their blowtorch and pincers that look like elephant nail clippers. Or down the street, or in a suburb near you. "They" are the pay TV companies, Foxtel and Optus Vision, laying coaxial and fibre-optic cables.
But the blowtorch and pincers are not just about more movies and sport. They are laying the groundwork for the office of the future. One that could change the way the denizens of SOHO organise their lives. It all has to do with bandwidth and convergence.
There's that word again - convergence. It is the melding of telephone services, or "telephony" (data, fax and voice carriage) with television services. As it is now, you get these services separately: the first over the telephone line(s), the second via broadcast, and if you've signed up for Galaxy pay TV, microwave.
Optus Vision will eventually deliver local telephone services (to compete with those of Telecom) through the same cable that delivers its pay TV. Within 10 years both companies will deliver pay TV and provide your home (and therefore SOHO) with interactive games, gambling, news services, movies on demand, video-conferencing and banking, as well as telephony services.
Ten years is a long time to wait. What's to keep us happy in the meantime?
For many, the Internet is filling the void, allowing users to send international e-mail, transfer data and to access forums, chat groups and databases.
The void could be better filled by the Microsoft Network, a global network being built by Microsoft that will be completely separate from the Internet (although it will provide access to it - only for data transfer and e-mail at first). On Australia, a joint venture between Microsoft and Telstra (Telecom), is the Australian commercial on-line service that, after August, will be accessed by Windows 95 users.
As Australia's first commercial on-line service targetting the consumer (CompuServe is designed more for the use of large businesses), it will provide services similar to those available in the US through networks such as Prodigy and America Online, with the added benefit of being global. This will bring us a bulk of Australian content critical to the wider use of on-line services. They make no secret of the pay-off for the large investment this requires: "Microsoft and Telstra have a long term view," says On Australia's chief executive, Gerry Davis. "We're getting ready for the interactive broadband content services that will utilise interactive video and we want to take consumers and small business with us."
Access through Windows 95 could be the key to On Australia's success. Microsoft's operation systems product manager, Leighton Jenkins, estimates that in Australia alone, 300,000 copies of 95 will be shipped in the first 90 days. Worldwide, that number is 6 million. "That will take up four mo
© 1995 Sydney Morning Herald