THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, August 28, 1995 TAG: 9508260312
SECTION: BUSINESS WEEKLY PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Doubleclick
SOURCE: Richard Grimes and Roger Grimes
LENGTH: Medium: 91 lines
Doubleclick authors Richard and Roger Grimes of Virginia Beach happen to be twin brothers and computer authorities. Their discourse on life in the computer lane appears every other week in Hampton Roads Business Weekly.
Richard: I have to admire my father. He's the only man I know who will go on a shopping trip, pick a new 12 gauge shotgun, and at the same time, pick up a state-of-the-art trackpad for his computer.
Roger: That's our dad - firefighter, computer hacker, deer hunter.
Richard: Of course, Dad's installing Windows 95 this week, so the gun may not be for deer hunting. You see, Dad's got his own special way of rebooting a troublesome computer. It's called the double barrel reboot. Then again, maybe Dad's new trackpad will distract him.
Roger: A trackpad is the latest attempt at building a better mouse. It's a 3-inch by 4-inch tablet that sits on your desktop.
Instead of moving a mouse around in circles, you simply use your finger tip to press on the pad and direct the mouse cursor on your screen. Push your fingertip up, and the cursor goes up. Move your finger down and the cursor goes down. You get the idea.
Richard: I think our readers understand how to move their fingers.
Roger: Double clicking is easier, too. Just tap your finger once or twice on the pad to simulate a mouse click or double-click. The only downside for the trackpad is that dragging files on your desktop or resizing windows requires a weird two finger hand contortion.
Richard: I'm really tempted to make a joke here.
Roger: Resist the urge. If you're a person who has a hard time holding your mouse still as you repeatedly try to double-click, this invention might be for you.
Richard: Dad's trackpad was made by a company called Cirque, and is called the GlidePoint Trackpad. You can reach them at 1-800-GLIDE75. Of course, if you're one of those people who haven't gotten finger moving down to a science, the telephone number is useless.
Sandra Bullock: Our Inspiration
Richard: Roger and I saw the new computer thriller, The Net, with Sandra Bullock and Dennis Miller.
I was a little reluctant to see the movie because lately I've tried to cut down on the amount of time I spend watching Sandra Bullock.
Roger: I imagine the judge's restraining order had something to do with it.
Richard: When she realizes how much I care for her, she'll come around.
Roger: For those of you who haven't been seen the movie yet, the bad guys erase Sandra Bullock's identity by hooking into every major public and private network and changing her information.
Richard: I can't even get the Division of Motor Vehicles to process my change of address correctly, and the bad guys manage to change information in every database in the world? Not gonna happen.
Roger: Yes, but connecting networks is getting easier. Until recently, just getting your company's network connected to the Internet used to be a drag. Hooking up meant using an Internet genius and about $10,000-$35,000, and wasting days of worktime troubleshooting problems. Now, a company called Performance Technology offers a product that cuts your costs down to about 3 hours worth of time and $3,500.
Richard: The product is called Instant Internet and it allows up to 50 people at one time to share a single Internet connection across your network. It comes in a 14-inch x 13.5-inch x 3.5-inch black box. You plug in one side to your network, and connect the other side to a modem.
Roger: You also have to call up your local Internet provider and get an account. Next, you install Performance Technology's custom software on the user's PC, and voila! The connection is set.
Of course, any great idea must have some drawbacks. It only supports two network operating systems, only runs on Windows and all Internet traffic goes through a single modem connection - so make it a fast one. On my network, it comfortably handles several people at a time, but I wouldn't want 50 people on the connection at once.
Richard: You don't have to be a network director to understand the benefits of Instant Internet.
Once you install the box, 50 people can use one Internet account for e-mail, World Wide Web and most other Internet tools.
The cheapest Internet connections typically cost $25 per connection. Multiply that cost by 50 users and you're talking about a substantial savings per month.
Roger: For those of you who are network directors, we've included a Nerd Box with some of Instant Internet's specifications. MEMO: The finger movement expert can be found at groger(AT)infi.net
Sandra's biggest fan can be reached at rgrimes(AT)infi.net
by CNB