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Visiting PC Expo for Fun

by Marlene Gaberel

 

MY OBSERVATIONS of this year's PCExpo fill many lines based on just one day's journey through the endless aisle-mile tech show-and-tell at the Jacob Javits Center in New York. I spent six looooong hours there, during which I saw lots of stuff but missed even more. And I walked ... and walked. Thank you very much, my feet hurt.

This year, with no specific computer purchase in mind, I did not make a concentrated effort to visit particular booths. Instead I went for the entertainment and the marketing pitches.

Fun Booths

The most entertaining presentation I came across was by Compaq, who produced a mini medieval/circus-themed Broadway Show-like extravaganza with acrobats. Another creative winner was Hitachi, who hosted a rock-climbing competition pitting users of their own laptops against those of all the other brands. Guess which climber got to the top first?

I also had fun in the Micron Electronics flight simulator, which mimicked a roller-coaster, and enjoyed another original presentation, by On Command CCM. The host, decked out in bunny sleepers and nightshirt and snoring in his bed, had a nightmare about the Year 2000 bug. He dreamt he had to spend all night at the office to fix up every single computer on the network. It was well done and very funny.

New chips

Last year at the Intel booth I educated myself about the Pentium II processor, which is still the current chip for high-end PCs. This year I learned about the Celeron, the new chip for less-demanding PCs, and for servers, the Pentium II Xeon.

Recruiters' marketplace

Upon arrival, I visited the lower level and came across a series of recruiting booths. These days many recruiters have Web sites, which is a great conduit for informing and screening potential employees.

Laptops shrinking

One trend I noticed was that laptops are getting smaller and smaller, with features comparable to desktop models at prices that are not outrageous. Ultra portable notebooks, as portables are now called, will fit just about anywhere.

Surfers want jazz and interaction

Another trend is that Internet surfers are expecting more than the stiltingly static sites that were only a short time ago the only ones that existed. Now they want animations, moving objects, and interactivity. At a Compaq booth I saw demonstrated an interactive program that lets buyers and sellers "talk" to each other, and lets merchants keeps all the details about a particular customer's likes and dislikes. The demonstration featured a travel agent who knew the preferences of a specific customer who was calling the Web site to inquire about travel arrangements. One purpose of the program is to reduce 800- calls. Another booth about electronic commerce was Pctoday.com, which lets buyers purchase hardware online from local retailers.

Web animation

At the Microsoft booth I saw a presentation about Liquid Motion that let Web designers create simple animations. The product is targeted to end-users that want to make their site more interesting and creative. It is available for download for a free 45 days examination at http://www.microsoft.com/liquidmotion/.

Even though I saw many presentations this year, I still did not get a chance to check out all booths, and like every year, I was tempted to go back for another day. A DACS member once said that at PC Expo we are like kids in a toy store, wanting it all. And I did.


Marlene Gaberel is DACS' vice president of publicity and assistant Web master. Contact her at mgaberel@ct1.nai.net.

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