Calgary Herald from Calgary, Alberta, Canada • 25

ENTERPRISEComputerS CALGARYHERALD Monday, November 9, 1992 C5 ftware-handy alternative Compression so it would take a PC user some 40 floppy disks and about 60 minutes to copy the contents of an 80-megabyte drive, the same backup can be accomplished on removable media with one cartridge and less than 10 minutes. Data organization can be improved with cartridge systems, too. An architect, for example, can put each active project on separate cartridges, rather than cluttering up a single built-in drive with volumes of records. Another advantage: If your computer dies, you can simply take your drive cartridge to a functioning machine. Removable memory is not simply a disk drive with handles.

The delicate components have to be made shock proof to withstand constant jarring incurred in transport. And there may be performance tradeoffs. Some users won't use removable media, especially optical drives, because of slower performance. How slow? The difference is in milliseconds. A typical 80-megabyte standard drive has a "disk-access" time of 9 milliseconds to 15 milliseconds.

A removable magnetic drive is in the area of 18 to 24 milliseconds. Optical drives need 35 milliseconds to 90 milliseconds to access the disk. That progressively slower performance represents a lifetime for some users, hardly a blink of an eye for others. Among cartridge drive makers, several approaches are taken. Bernoulli drives, first introduced in 1983 and made by Iomega feature a unique flexible-platter design that helps protect data in the event of a crash.

Another cartridge approach is offered by Syquest, which takes PC-standard Winchester disk drives developed by leading drive manufacturers and makes them portable. The devices are generally faster than their Bernoulli counter1 parts, but their non-sealed design makes Syquest devices, in the eyes of some, more susceptible to dust contamination. Syquest disputes this charge. buy a new hard drive to hook on to your computer. And that's great if you have to spend.

Even then, there is always that nagging doubt that even the new drive will, in time, fill up. An alternative approach is investing in compression software that shrinks the size of the programs on your disk. Today, we look at so-called "removable media" as one way to combat PC Spread. A disk drive is made up of several components. The data is stored on a rotating magnetic platter, the disk.

The size of that disk determines how much information your computer can hold. What if you could swap in a new disk when the old one filled up? A new disk would be cheaper than purchasing a whole new drive, and you could keep swapping disks as needed. Enter the world of drive cartridges. For some users, drive cartridges are a cost-effective strategy for adding storage space on a computer. For others, they are an ideal way to back up computer data, or to Shrunken programs on hard disks creates more memory room By Sean Silverthorne (Palo Alto Peninsula Times Tribune) Cars never seem to have enough trunk space, and there are not enough good candidates for political office.

With personal computers, the ingredient always in short supply is disk space. No matter how large a hard drive you purchase, 40 megabytes, 80 megabytes, 120 megabytes, your PC will soon be begging for more. The reason? Software developers are jamming every feature they can dream up into their latest programs, trying to get an edge in the competitive market. The result is chubby, tubby programs that take up ever more hard disk space, just like fat file folders fill a file drawer. The traditional solution has been to 'REMOVABLE MEDIA' transport large files between computers.

Because most kinds of removable drives are modular, users can buy 40-megabyte to 120-megabyte cartridges thet simply slip into and out of the main drive. A user purchasing a traditional 80-megabyte external hard drive will shell out about $300. An 80-megabyte removable model, by contrast, will cost anywhere from $500 to $1,000. The advantage to the modular unit is realized when the next expansion is needed. An 80-megabyte cartridge will cost just $100 to $150, versus the expense of buying a whole new drive.

"With removable mass storage you just buy the increments that you need you never reach a ceiling," said Will Matlack, director of marketing communications at Syquest Technology Inc. Another potential use for removable drives is as a data backup device. Where Microsoft moves into sports simulation with Golf siderable competition. Game; publishers Electronic Arts and Accolade have well-regarded ver-', sions; indeed, the latter's Jack Nicklaus Golf Course Designer Signature Edition is a direct challenge to Links. Microprose the joy of piloting a Cessna around Chicago to countless business PCs.

More recently, it released three Entertainment Packs for Windows, each containing a selection of small, primarily puzzle games like Solitaire and Battleships. But Microsoft Golf For Windows is a different ball game. It's an adaptation of Access's highly regarded Links simulation and a world away from the simplistic Fuji Golf found in Entertainment Pack Volume 3. Compared with such "executive MS Golf is a "gamer's game" with animation, 256-color VGA graphics and sound card support. Just as significantly, the firm's game division has been increased from two to six people in a year, underlining the growing interest in entertainment and providing a centre for commissioning products from established developers.

Charles Fitzgerald, the product manager for applications marketing, takes responsibility for such apparently trivial fare. "We've only done games halfheartedly until now," he says. "Most people didn't realize we did them. Now we're moving up. The Entertainment Packs for Windows sold so well in the U.S.

we realized we could do this. We want Golf to have the same reputation as Flight Simulator, and to exploit Windows in the same way as that did the early PCs." There's also a recognition that the games industry offers a great business opportunity. Fitzgerald says Golf has more in common with Flight Simulator than might at first be obvious. "It's expensive, people love it, and it's a chance to offer them things they wouldn't normally do." He adds that it should "go down a storm in Japan" where club membership costs are so high that few can afford to play. Links was chosen as the basis for the game because "those guys spent 18 months getting the physics right." Access provided the golf expertise and Microsoft the Windows skills.

However, these did not extend to completely variable windows sizes only quarter and full frame are available because "it's tough to do arbitrary scaling on the fly." Apart from adding the standardized graphical front end, other aspects of the original have been improved. The slow, 256-color screen drawing has been speeded up, though the beta version I saw was only running in 16 colour, dithered graphics mode. The new version will accept standard Links' course discs. A landscape editor is also on the way. Fitzgerald says that one of the attractions of the Windows environment is that it allows players to concentrate on the game rather than the controls.

But hardened game players are used to learning new combinations of icons every time they play, and golf simulations Links included are fairly standard in approach. MS Golf goes up against con You can adhere to game rather than to controls By John Minson (The Guardian) LONDON What is Microsoft playing at? Golf, it would seem. At PC Expo in New York recently, the company best known for its MS-DOS operating system and Windows graphical user interface announced a surprise move into the realms of entertainment with the release of a sports simulation. This is not Microsoft's first leisure release. For almost a decade it has published SubLog-ic's Flight Simulator, bringing Golf boasts an innovatory approach to simulating the game and a 386 "Pro" enhancement of Links for DOS has been announced, offering Super VGA graphics and split screen windows.

Microsoft has even been beaten to the first, stand-alone Win-', dows golf title by a small British; software house, Media Media, though PC Format magazine de-. scribed its program as "An excellent idea less than excellent game." COMPUTER CALENDAR TO DJ 1) fp flR7 filial HlninlTiM' jyiyj laIuvj uijuuULiyLjjULAii I 1 meets the second-last Wednesday of every month at 5:30 p.m. in the Petro-Canada Building, Room 35 West, 150 6th Ave. S.W. For information call Steve Kaltenhauser, 297-0348.

The Calgary ACCPAC Users Group meets the third Thursday of each month. For more information call Janet Szgatti, 234-9018. Phoenix Data Trend will present a series of demonstrations: NeXTSTEP: Object-Oriented Software Development, and What's NeXT in Publishing. The demonstrations are free, but registration is required. For registration and information call 248-3282.

The Canadian Information Processing Society CIPS will hold a one-day exercise on Group Support Systems Thursday, Nov. 26. Cost of the event is $100, call 261-5744 to register. (If your computer organization has an event to be publicized, contact David Bly at 235-7543 or fax the information to 235-7379 by the Thursday preceding publication date. Priority will be given to events during the week of The Alberta chapter of the Society for Technical Communication presents G.

Murray Bailey of the Career Clinic, who will speak on Looking Ahead the Art of Career Development, Thursday, 7 p.m., Room 1575, Esso Plaza West, 237 4th Ave. S.W. Cost is $5 for non-members. To register call 259-7920. The Genealogy Computer Group of the Alberta Family Histories Society will meet on Saturday, Nov.

14, from 10 a.m. to noon, at the Alberta Vocational College, 332 6th Ave. S.E. Open to the public. The Amiga Users of Calgary's next monthly general meeting will be held on Wednesday, Nov.

18 at 7 p.m. in the Jenkins Theatre at Mount Royal College. If you have any questions, call the AMUC hotline at 279-0816. The Cal-PC Users Society will be presenting Raymond Speer of Alberta Software, speaking on Folio Views Infobase Management Software on Wednesday, Nov. 18, at 7:30 p.m.

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