CONTACTS 

SUBJECTS
Property Management, Software, OS2, General, Future
Voice Data Entry
Automation Trends
Learning period/difficulty
Evaluate existing condition

0807 -
0807 -    ..
0808 - Summary/Objective
0809 -
080901 - Follow up
080902 -
080903 - x0001 Scanned a series of articles from OS2 professional, January 1994
080904 - issue, on the future of OS2.  This is somewhat important because SDS
080905 - has been coded recently to take advantage of the extra 120K of RAM
080906 - available in OS2.  Whether OS2 will continue to be available, influ-
080907 - ences how large e.exe can become, and whether we will continue to
080908 - market SDS to run under OS2, as the preferred operating system.
080910 -  ..
080911 - The prospects of voice recognition is discussed in the 2nd article,
080912 - could greatly aid the sales of SDS.
080913 -
080915 -  ..
080917 -  ..
080918 - The first article is a memo from the publisher that indicates OS2 has
080919 - made good market progress, with 4.5M installations, and expectation
080920 - to double that number by end of 1994. ref OF 1 0000
080921 - ..
080922 - The growth of 32 bit applications for OS2 is not increasing as
080923 - fast as the use of OS2 for DOS and Windows applications, ref OF 1 line
080924 - 26.
080925 -
080926 -     This condition conflicts with expectations by some analysts that
080927 -     in order for OS2 to be successful, there had to be more 32 bit
080928 -     applications, ref OF 1 line 56.
080930 -        ..
080931 -       [It was later reported that 32 bit applications are hard to
080932 -       develop, and do not necessarily provide better performance, per
080933 -       ref SDS 20 line 67.]
080935 -      ..
080936 -     My own view has always been that if OS2 is a superior multitasking
080937 -     environment, which it is, then if it can increase RAM, disk
080938 -     access, and performance of DOS applications, there is a signifi-
080939 -     cant reason to use it.
080940 -          ..
080941 -          Right now it only partially increases RAM, because over
080942 -          time, the extra 150K it offers seems to get used up.
080944 -           ..
080945 -          The downside is that as soon as Microsoft finally releases a
080946 -          competent competitive system (e.g. Chicago), there will no
080947 -          longer be a reason to stay with OS2, especially if mainstream
080948 -          applications are upgraded to run better on the non-OS2 OS.
080949 -
080950 -
080952 -  ..
080953 - OS2 2.2 expected to be released probably in mid-year, may require
080954 - less disk space and will run adequately with 4 M of RAM, ref OF 1
080955 - line 69.
080957 -  ..
080958 - Microsoft's Chicago, a 32 bit upgrade for Windows is expected to be
080959 - released in mid-year, ref OF 1 line 74.
080960 - ..
080961 - IBM has improved its marketing and advertising of OS2,
080962 - ref OF 1 line 80; however, a big factor in OS2's success was failure
080963 - of NT, ref OF 1 line 89.
080964 - ..
080965 - IBM organizational changes will impact its ability to adequatley
080966 - market OS2, ref OF 1 line 96.
080967 -
080968 -    Tighter controls on advertizing may adversly impact OS2 sales, ref
080969 -    OF 1 line 125.
080970 -
080971 -    IBM advised OS2 Professional that if it reported the effect of
080972 -    IBM's new advertising policy, IBM would no longer advertise in OS2
080973 -    Professional.  This notice was withdrawn, however, after OS2
080974 -    Professional went ahead and published the report, ref OF 1 line
080975 -    145.
080976 -
080977 -       This record indicates some degree of independence by OS2
080978 -       Professional, even though its primary focus is to report on the
080979 -       OS2 program and IBM's business operations in connection with it.
080980 -
080981 -
080982 -
080984 -  ..
080985 - ..
080986 - The 2nd article expands on the themes in the lead editorial.
080987 - 
080988 -     The value of OS2 is its ability to run DOS and Win 3.1 programs
080989 -     on a better platform, ref OF 3 line 59.
080990 -
080991 -     The future of OS2 depends on its ability to get hardware vendors
080992 -     to pre-load it instead of Win 3.1, ref OF 3 line 71.
080994 -      ..
080995 -     Support for multi-processor systems is expected to be included in
080996 -     the next release for OS2, ref OF 3 line 78.
080998 -      ..
080999 -     Better performance, usability, broader device support are
081000 -     expected in next OS2 upgrade, ref OF 3 line 89.
081002 -      ..
081003 -     Chicago is the next release of Win 3.1, also called Windows 4.0
081004 -     and NT Lite, ref OF 3 line 115, which is expected to be competi-
081005 -     tive with OS2, and to be released in late 1994.
081006 -         ..
081007 -         Chicago's user interface will have features of OS2 and
081008 -         the MacIntosh System 7, and NextStep, ref OF 3 line 125.
081009 -
081011 -      ..
081012 -     OS2 installed base is expected to reach 9M by end of 1994, ref OF
081013 -     3 line 140.
081015 -      ..
081016 -     Workplace OS, will be a future of OS2 for low-priced power PC
081017 -     RISC hardware systems, ref OF 3 line 146.
081018 -
081019 -         Will include modified Mach 3.0 Unix kernel, ref OF 3 line
081020 -         152, and is expected to be able to run on other processors,
081021 -         ref OF 3 line 160.
081023 -          ..
081024 -         OS2 will be just one of several "personalities," or applica-
081025 -         tion programming interfaces, sitting on top of the Mach
081026 -         kernel. Other personalities will be Motif, AIX, and Macintosh.
081027 -         By choosing the appropriate machine-specific code and
081028 -         personality, you will presumably be able to run almost any
081029 -         application on almost any platform within the Workplace OS
081030 -         environment, ref OF 3 line 166.
081031 -         ..
081032 -         This "platform-independent" version of OS2 will not have
081033 -         the speed of the Intel-optimized version, ref OF 3 line 174.
081034 -
081036 -      ..
081037 -     New Technologies
081038 -
081039 -     Taligent is apparently another operating system developed jointly
081040 -     by IBM and Apple to be object oriented and to run on PowerPC
081041 -     systems, ref OF 3 line 193.
081042 -
081043 -         Current expectations are that instead of releasing an entirely
081044 -         new operating system, some of its features will be incorporat-
081045 -         ed into OS2 and Apple's System 7, ref OF 3 line 200.
081046 -
081048 -  ..
081049 -
081050 -     Apple's Newton and other products do NOT do a good job of
081051 -     recognizing handwriting, so keyboard's remain the most efficient
081052 -     way to use computers, ref OF 3 line 251.
081053 -
081055 -  ..
081056 -     ..
081057 -     IBM has greatly improved speech recognition, that is
081058 -     speaker- independent and can recognize words spoken in a natural
081059 -     rhythm (that is, without...pauses...between...words), ref OF 3
081060 -     line 263.
081061 -
081062 -          This seems to conflict with Morris' observations at
081063 -          ref SDS 16 line 444, later supported by Feb 4, 1994 article in
081064 -          OS2 Prof.
081066 -           ..
081067 -          See also work at ref SDS 22 line 195 showing this will be
081068 -          difficult to incorporate into SDS.
081070 -      ..
081071 -     If IBM can improve coordination between its internal groups, it
081072 -     has the strong multi-platform presence (in all categories:
081073 -     mainframes, minicomputers, workstations, and personal systems) to
081074 -     offer the best options for cross-platform integration, ref OF 3
081075 -     line 278
081076 -
081077 -
081079 -  ..
081081 -      ..
081082 -     Growth of OS2 Sales
081083 -
081084 -     OS/2 appears to have hit the elbow in the growth curve. The
081085 -     current critical mass of users ensures that the system is viable
081086 -     and will continue to grow--perhaps explosively, ref OF 3 5036.
081087 -
081088 -          See however the analysis in the 3rd article below on the
081089 -          prospect of Chicago overtaking OS2, unless better
081090 -          applications are created for OS2.
081091 -
081093 -      ..
081094 -     It is expected that slimmed-down OS/2 for Windows with its
081095 -     under-$50 price will be a hot seller, ref OF 3 5105.
081096 -
081098 -  ..
081100 -      ..
081101 -     Future
081102 -
081103 -     Technologies such as pen input, speech recognition, and
081104 -     object-oriented programming, will provide a whole new way of
081105 -     computing, ref OF 3 6827.
081106 -
081108 -  ..
081109 -
081110 -     Knowledge Navigator was Apple's futuristic vision for a computer
081111 -     of tomorrow: a laptop system with high-quality color graphics,
081112 -     speech synthesis and recognition, natural language processing, and
081113 -     wireless video conferencing, among other features. To use it you
081114 -     merely spoke to it. On the screen, the system would show you a
081115 -     full-motion video of a "virtual assistant" answering your
081116 -     questions. ref OF 3 6828
081117 -          ..
081118 -          Idea of "virtual corporation is presented at
081119 -          ref SDS 19 line 194.
081120 -
081122 -  ..
081123 - The 3rd article explains how well OS2 runs Windows applications, and
081124 - subsidiary article compares OS2 with Chicago, also called "Win32c."
081125 -
081126 -     This actually describes a pending release of OS2 to run Windows,
081127 -     also known as "Ferengi," ref OF 6 line 7.
081128 -
081129 -         There is a second article on page 96 on this in the same issue
081130 -         which is not scanned, in which the author explains this OS2
081131 -         version does not include a Win 32 app coded, but merely runs
081132 -         the Microsoft version as an application.  It takes less code,
081133 -         disk space and has the advantage of not requiring OS2 to have
081134 -         Microsoft's code.  The implication is that future releases of
081135 -         Windows, like Chicago, will also run under OS2.
081136 -
081138 -  ..
081139 -     ..
081140 -     Independent Software Vendors (ISV) view OS2 as a platform
081141 -     for DOS and Windows 3.1 applications, and so are not making
081142 -     applications to apply OS2 superior capability, ref OF 6 line 102.
081143 -
081144 -     ISV's are motivated to upgrade their applications to run on
081145 -     Microsoft operating systems, because if they don't they may loose
081146 -     market share to Microsoft itself who will write upgrades of its
081147 -     products, ref OF 6 line 113.
081148 -
081149 -         The author merely suggests that IBM has a window of
081150 -         opportunity while Microsoft finishes Chicago.
081152 -          ..
081153 -         What will it do with this opportunity?
081155 -          ..
081156 -         The author suggests that in "...1994 IBM must embark on an
081157 -         aggressive program to stimulate OS/2 applications development,
081158 -         create a demand for OS/2 applications, and demonstrate a
081159 -         vision and a plan that deals with the issues of Chicago and
081160 -         the ever-changing market," ref OF 6 line 170.  But how can
081161 -         this be accomplished in light of the dynam- ics cited above?
081162 -         ..
081163 -         The only obvious solutions are either
081164 -
081165 -            1.  IBM develop applications for OS2 to create a motivating
081166 -                force as Microsoft is doing with Word and Excell.
081167 -
081168 -            2.  IBM pay ISV to create a few mainstream applications,
081169 -                so people can get used to superiod performance on OS2
081170 -                prior to the release of Chicago.
081171 -
081172 -         ..
081173 -         A 3rd and potentially more productive path would be to
081174 -         release a new application that is only available on OS2 which
081175 -         would create a separate demand thread for business computing.
081177 -          ..
081178 -         This presents a marketing opportunity for IBM to participate
081179 -         in POIMS technology, to distinguish itself from any
081180 -         competition.  Make the other guys chase IBM, instead of IBM
081181 -         playing catch-up, as set out in these published articles.
081182 -
081183 -
081184 -
081185 -
081186 -
0812 -

SUBJECTS
Personnel, Training,
Property Management, OS2, General, Programming OS2 2.1 Support
Rexx for OS2

1005 -
100601 -  ..
100602 - This is the 2nd article at ref OF 18 line 10 on using the IBM program-
100603 - ming language, REXX, which may come in handy if we want to create some
100604 - OS2 applications.  It supplements the article at ref SDS 10 line
100605 - 150701.
100606 -
100607 -
100608 -
100609 -
100610 -
100611 -
1007 -

SUBJECTS
Personnel, Training, Management, Automation Trends
Automated Management
Communications
Information Management
Knowledge & Ideas, Distinguish from
Remembering (linked records)
Internet, 940121
E-Mail Applications

2010 -
201101 -  ..
201102 - Internet Needs Application to Organize and Apply Information
201103 -
201104 - Article reviews a book on the "Internet," ref OF 8 0001, which was
201105 - mentioned by Merrill in our discussion at DEC on 940107. ref SDS 13
201106 - 0001
201107 -
201108 - It shows the evolution toward the "Information Superhighway", ref OF 8
201109 - line 18, which is cited in the POIMS article at ref OF 21 line 14, and
201110 - the consequent need for tools to create, organize, connect and access
201111 - information, which is the POIMS concept of converting information into
201112 - knowledge, as discussed at ref SDS 6 line 182.
201114 -  ..
201115 - The reviewing author notes at ref OF 8 line 112:
201117 -  ..
201118 -      ..
201119 -      One of the main problems with the Internet is that there's
201120 -      a lot of data there, but there's no central index, no "one-stop
201121 -      shop- ping" way to find where that data is, and no one way to
201122 -      access it.
201123 -
201124 - While 3rd party vendors have provided some means to organize Internet
201125 - information, POIMS technology holds that this is only a small part of
201126 - the process of converting information into knowledge, ref OF 21 line
201127 - 316.
201128 -
201129 -
201130 -
201131 -
201132 -
201133 -
2012 -

SUBJECTS
Killer App Needed Improve Wordprocessing Spreadsheets, Ellison, Larry
Killer App Wordprocessing First Major Applicaton for PC, Major Achiev

2204 -
220501 -      ..
220502 -     Killer Application Needed to Improve Productivity
220503 -     Need Software that Improves Productivity - Killer Application
220504 -
220505 -     Telecon with IBM yesterday on 940120 shows management is a process
220506 -     of continual bumbling because people are overwhelmed by
220507 -     information overload. ref SDS 17 0980
220508 -
220509 -     Without useful applications, powerful operating systems cannot
220510 -     improve productivity, earnings and stock prices.  Therefore,
220511 -     useful applications are more important than improving the
220512 -     operating system for making computers productive and helpful to
220513 -     people. ref OF 3 7104  Wordprocessing and spreadsheets do not
220514 -     improve productivity of management, because executives spend 80%
220515 -     of the time communicating in meetings, calls and reading, reported
220516 -     on 890809. ref SDS 3 8812
220517 -
220518 -         [On 940615 test of usefulness for improving management is how
220519 -         much time executives use a software program. ref SDS 21 TM3J
220521 -          ..
220522 -         [On 950927 reviewed need for management software in meeting
220523 -         at Intel.
220524 -     ..
220525 -     Useful applications for management enable practices of
220526 -     people who have formed good work habits, cited by Covey, reviewed
220527 -     on 921205. ref SDS 5 4080  Review on 911130 of Drucker's work
220528 -     indicates that without software support for analysis, and
220529 -     planning, ref SDS 9 7911, and for "communication," computers are
220530 -     not useful for improving management productivity. ref SDS 9 6150
220532 -      ..
220533 -     Management productivity is increased by lifting ability to think
220534 -     and remember, which enable effective analysis, planning and
220535 -     communication.  On 890809 Morris reported executives need people
220536 -     to "listen" better in order for communiation to be effective; this
220537 -     means better understanding and following up. ref SDS 3 CJ9J
220538 -     ..
220539 -     Demand for useful technology presents opportunity based on
220540 -     reports that SDS improves management productivity, from the record
220541 -     on....
220542 -
220543 -         890324 accurate record aids understanding...... ref SDS 1 LZ5F
220544 -         890809 integration aids planning, be prepared.. ref SDS 2 ZM7I
220545 -         911123 SDS provides new say of working......... ref SDS 4 0477
220547 -        ..
220548 -       [On 940615 report IBM needs compelling ("Killer") application
220549 -       for OS2. ref SDS 21 3001
220551 -        ..
220552 -       [On 940615 executives not using mainstream applications, because
220553 -       they do not improve management ability to think, remember and
220554 -       communicate. ref SDS 21 3333
220555 -
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2206 -