April 13 02 News

IT World Canada - Compaq Ushers in New AlphaServers But The End is Near
By Dan Neel

As sparks flew this week between IBM Corp. and Sun Microsystems Inc. in the RISC-based server market, Compaq Computer Corp. quietly began letting potential customers of its future RISC-based EV7 AlphaServers kick the tires of the yet-to-be released systems.

The new AlphaServers are powered by Compaq's next-generation EV7 processors, which are expected to ship in eight-way AlphaServers by the end of 2002. AlphaServers designed for 64-way EV7 configurations will follow shortly after that, according to Compaq.

...But only two of those players, IBM and Sun, will continue to offer RISC-based Unix servers after 2005. Before then, Compaq and HP will each transition their RISC-based server platforms to Intel chips.

For Compaq, the EV7 chips are next-to-last in a line of RISC-based EV-series processors.

Compaq will battle it out with Sun, IBM, and HP for Unix server market share using EV7-based servers until the late 2003 time frame. After that, Compaq will transition its OpenVMS and True64 operating systems to Intel's 64-bit Itanium chip line. Compaq will support its legacy RISC customers indefinitely, and OS transitions to Itanium should be seamless, but around 2003 the Alpha road map will morph to Itanium, as EV-8 chips will be designed by an Intel team, according to Compaq.

PALO ALTO, Calif. - A top Hewlett-Packard Co. executive said Thursday he feels violated by the release of a voice mail to him from CEO Carly Fiorina but pledged that "our honor will be restored" in the upcoming trial over the Compaq Computer Corp. acquisition.

Robert Wayman, HP's chief financial officer, was responding to the disclosure that in a message two nights before the March 19 shareholder vote on the Compaq deal, Fiorina told him "we may have to do something extraordinary" for two large investors to win their support.

Someone who gained access to the voice mail, possibly through an internal HP server connected to the phone system, leaked it to the San Jose Mercury News.

In a memo to HP employees that was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (news - web sites), Wayman said the voice mail refers merely to the slew of in-depth, in-person presentations to investors that HP executives made in the days before the shareholder vote.

The allegations made in a lawsuit by director Walter Hewlett that HP improperly enticed one of the big investors Fiorina cited in her message are "insulting and infuriating," Wayman said.

IT World Canada - Microsoft Customers Lack Upgrade Funds
By John Fontana

Four months before Microsoft Corp.'s new licensing plan goes into effect, nearly half of all IT managers say they lack the necessary funds to upgrade to the new plan and that confusion over licensing will delay new product rollouts, according to a study just released.

...The survey also found that many of Microsoft's customers remain bitter about the licensing changes announced last year and that a full 90 per cent believe their licensing costs will rise. Many, however, say they have not figured out their exact costs...

Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT - news) has put its "My Services" (formerly known as Hailstorm) Web services offering on hold because of resistance from potential corporate partners, according to reports.

The service was intended to provide a central database that would create a virtual wallet for consumers. Users would have been able to access e-mail, contacts and calendar information without having to log on to a specific PC.

"My Services" also would have allowed consumers to provide companies with access to their address, credit card numbers and market preferences without having to key in new information every time they accessed a Web site.

Microsoft introduced the concept in March 2001 and appeared to have support from such large companies as American Express (NYSE: AXP - news) and Expedia (Nasdaq: EXPE - news). Since then, however, no major corporation has pledged to use the service.

Yankee Group senior analyst Rob Perry told NewsFactor that big financial concerns like American Express (NYSE: AXP) and Citigroup are resistant to the service and to sharing consumer data, not to the technology itself.

These companies "don't like giving up customer control and the database of customers to a shared central authority, and they don't trust Microsoft in particular," Perry said.

Perry said that a major effect of the Microsoft antitrust suit was an increased awareness of the software giant's business practices that made others cautious about doing business with it.

"They've used partner relationships to their advantage many times, and they stood on the witness stand and obfuscated the past practices," Perry said. "They make good products, .NET is a good direction, but everyone has a certain level of caution in dealing with Microsoft."

Perry said that although Microsoft picked a very logical thing to centralize, companies do not have an interest in centralizing such information.

"Would Amazon really want to share all its customer profiles with Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS - news) or with whatever bookdujour.com? Absolutely not," Perry said. "Amazon paid to get those registrations."

While "My Services" offers potential benefits for newcomers, it puts an incumbent that has spent time and money gathering data at a disadvantage, he noted.

...Up until now, Microsoft muscled in on small, not highly funded technology companies like Netscape," Urban said. "But financial services giants like GE are extremely well-funded companies, and Microsoft can't just blow them out of the water as they did with Netscape."

...Our special test on overburning music and data CDs shows that over 100 minutes of music, or some 900 MB, will fit on an R99 CD. If music has been burned as an audio CD, it can be played back in virtually any CD player. We played back several test CDs, all of which held more then 90 minutes of music, and we tested them in several car stereos as well as in home CD players. The result? Practically all of the devices were able to play back the CDs. Problems only occurred once the player reached the external regions on the disc. This is a tough nut that car stereos find particularly hard to crack. We encountered the least number of problems with CD drives on PC systems

...We recommend LG Electronics' current batch of CD drives (GCE-4120B, GCE-8160B and GCE-8240B), which produce excellent overburning results at 4x write speed. Ideally, users will have the option to manually select write speeds of 2x, or even 1x, someday. The Asus CRW-3212A we tested has considerably more difficulties burning oversized CD blanks - once the playback time exceeds 90 minutes, problems start cropping up. That said, though, the drive is suitable for copying data and music CDs. It supports any and every feature imaginable, from CD text and disc-at-once to track-at-once and read/ write sub-channel data. The CD-R99 discs have the last word in the world of compact discs - last year's plans to manufacture blanks in CD-R120 format (120 minutes of music or 1080 MB of data) have fizzled out completely.

...We tested with two types of systems: one was a fairly typical home theater setup; the other was through a PC. Here were the specs:

Spec Table
	Home Theater	PC
	Denon AVR-5700 Receiver	Intel Pentium 4 2.0A GHz on an Gigabyte GA-8IRX motherboard
	Toshiba SD-5109 DVD Player w/ component video and progressive scan outputs	Nvidia GeForce4 Ti 4600 graphics card plus Pioneer DVD-106s DVD-ROM drive. DVD playback performed with PowerDVD 4.0. Custom screen resolutions set with Powerstrip 3.15
	Definitive Technologies home theater speakers (BP-2006 bipolar speakers w/150W, 10" subwoofer, ProCenter C2 center channel, BP2X bipolar surrounds)	Sound Blaster Audigy Gamer, with digital output piped to the Denon receiver. Definitive Technologies home theater speakers (BP-2006 bipolar speakers w/150W, 10" subwoofer, ProCenter C2 center channel, BP2X bipolar surrounds)

DVD playback from the home theater rig was either interlaced (in the case of the Plus Piano projector) or using the Toshiba's built-in progressive scan mode (all other projectors). Our home theater setup used component video when available, or S-video connections if the projector didn't support component video. When connecting the PC, we used VGA or, in the case of the Plus Piano, DVI input.

...In addition to DVD playback, we played a variety of games, including Dungeon Siege, Serious Sam, Ghost Recon, and Freedom Force.

Another factor in projector setup is positioning. We took the "tabletop" mantra to heart, and set all the units on a table 26" above the floor. This gave us the luxury of shifting the projector backwards or forwards several feet to get the best image size. If you have the luxury of a permanent installation, you might consider a compact ceiling mount. In fact, some of the biggest deterrents to using projectors in the home are the mounting and positioning problems. If you can perform a ceiling mount, that's great, and also helps with reducing passerby projection beam

...Overall, the (Philips) cSmart is a quiet, inexpensive projector, but the image quality isn't all that great for DVD playback. On the other hand, it's the lowest-cost projector we tested, at prices averaging around $2,300US.

...(ViewSonic PJ550) Once we shifted to the PC, the image quality noticeably improved. We got better color fidelity playing DVDs from the PC than we did with the Toshiba consumer player. The image quality when gaming was also better. However, the UGO edges out the Viewsonic here, mainly because the LCD screendoor effect was more noticeable -- though not as bad as some LCDs we've seen in the past.

You can find the PJ550 for under $2400US -- a great price for a 1024x768 projector. While our experience delivered better output quality connecting to a PC, you may have better luck connecting through your own home theater rig.

...Watching movies or playing games on an 80" screen is an amazing experience. Doing it with these tiny projectors and a compact screen makes this capability accessible even to apartment dwellers. While they can't be called "cheap", the prices here are much more affordable than equivalent gear of a few years ago.

Our second choice here is the Philips UGO X-lite, though the noisy fan is a definite turnoff. The Viewsonic projector is pretty good if you're using PC sources, but we had image quality problems with our home theater system. The Viewsonic was the brightest projector in our roundup, so you could move it back and increase the size of the image. This allows you to sit further back, thus minimizing the screen door effect. Finally, the cSmart is a decent, low cost projector, but it's definitely overshadowed by the others in the group.

If we were forced to choose a single projector for all our needs, and had the spare change, we'd easily choose the Plus Piano. While the resolution is lower and the price higher, the overall image quality is impressive. We're hoping that Plus uses its experience with the Piano to develop a more full-featured, higher resolution projector. Then we might never go back to our CRTs.

IT World Canada - Bell, MTS Creat A New Telecom Giant Headquartered in Calgary
By IT World Canada staff

Manitoba Telecom Services Inc. (MTS) and Bell Canada announced today that they are creating a new company by combining the interests of Bell Intrigna and Bell Nexxia in Alberta and British Columbia.

To be called Bell West Inc., the new company will have a valuation of approximately $1 billion and will capitalize on what the companies are calling "the solid growth opportunities Western Canada represents for telecommunications services."

MTS officials say the total business telecom market in Alberta and British Columbia was worth $3 billion in 2001, and is projected to grow to $4 billion in the next three years.

Bell West Inc. will operate under the Bell brand and will be owned 60 per cent by Bell Canada and 40 per cent by Bell partner and telecom company MTS. It will focus on businesses in Alberta and British Columbia, providing a suite of fibre-based data and IP services, as well as the full spectrum of local and long distance voice services on a fully managed basis.

The company will have approximately 700 employees in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton.

Previously, Bell Intrigna was two-thirds owned by MTS and one-third owned by Bell. Bell Nexxia operations in Alberta and British Columbia were 100 per cent owned by Bell Canada.

Leading the new Bell company in the West is Randy Reynolds, the new president and CEO, and former president and CEO of Bell Nexxia. John Sheridan, president of Bell Canada, will become chairman of the board.

The new company will be headquartered in Calgary with offices in Edmonton and Vancouver.