dacs.doc electric

IT HAS BECOME a DACS tradition: Each November, Microsoft comes to town with goodies for the holidays. This year we again got to see snippets of the company's latest and greatest consumer apps. And how they differ from last year's trove! This year's bounty finally makes that subtle transition from products that only computer geeks can love to professional-level productions.

Our presenter this year was John Stroiney, Channel Marketing Representative out of Microsoft's Farmington, Conn., office. John was typical of the Microsoft people we have seen--sharp and focused. He was completely comfortable with the products he demonstrated and well practiced in the presentation. He was noticeably more relaxed in the one-on-one discussions that took place after the meeting than he was addressing the entire audience, but I am quite sure that will improve with time.

John opened the presentation by introducing Microsoft's Work Suite 2000, which bundles half-a-dozen of the apps most people would use at one time or another and throws in a ton of clip art. It includes Word 2000, Money 2000, Home Publishing 2000, Encarta Encyclopedia 2000, Expedia Streets and Trips 2000, and a few others. At $95 upgrade it should be the first thing on the list for you to check out.

The next demo was the perennial show-stopper, Flight Simulator. Over its 17-year existence, Flight Simulator has become the No.1 computer game of all time. John showed us the Professional 2000 version, $55 after rebate. The audience was predictably impressed with the five-minute demo of airplanes soaring over airports and terrains. John remarked that professional pilots have come to use this product, which is about as good a recommendation as you can get.

Next up was Home Publishing Suite 2000, which was developed in partnership with Hallmark. The result: For the cost of about two dozen cards purchased at your favorite card shop, you can create professional-level, personalized cards for every imaginable occasion, and even a few unimaginable ones. If you include sound, animation, and Web delivery, Home Publisher will attain that ultimate goal of all apps, the ability to change your life style.

John also demonstrated Picture It!, also included in the Home Publishing Suite. This is an app with photo-enhancement and touch-up graphics capabilities that are better than some of the full-size graphics packages we have seen at recent DACS meetings

We then saw Pandora's Box, which turned out to be a Tetris-type game. John ran a two-minute videoclip of it, showing its ten puzzle types and hundreds of variations. He said this game could convert even the most hardcore Solitare addict. The price tag, $17 after rebate, makes it a perfect stocking stuffer.

John saved Encarta DVD-ROM Reference Suite, $55 after rebate, for his big finish. And appropriately so. The scope of this version of Encarta goes beyond anything possible as little as a year ago. In addition to more content, it uses higher-resolution graphics and video.

With DVD, the storage capacity of a single disk is ten times that of a CD-ROM. This brings a whole new dimension to the Encarta experience and John was prepared to make the most of it. Unfortunately for him, Murphy was lurking there in the audience with a big grin on his face, and the demo didn't work. Later, John found he had a defective DVD player in his computer, but the moment was lost and The Murph was off to another presentation.

In addition to the software, John briefly showed us two new mice and three new keyboards, all in the $30-to-$70 range. More temptations.

Microsoft has always been generous in donating material for the raffle. Everybody knew it and nobody left early. The lucky ones went home with copies of Office 2000 Pro, Encarta Reference Suite, MS Baseball game, NBA Basketball game, Home Publishing Suite 2000, Flight Simulator 2000 Pro, Age of Empires, and a few more I missed.

The impact of the meeting was the quality of the apps. These are not the professional packages that people who do graphic design for a living would use but are applications that are close enough to professional level to become a part of our way of life. The prices are incredibly low. The dollar figures in this review were taken from listings on the Net by companies like Outpost and NecX. Try your favorite and look for the rebates.

Reflecting on the ego trips of Washington omnipotents, however, it might be well to take adavantage of these offerings before the Government forces Microsoft to raise the prices and degrade the quality.