Chicago Computer Guide This Week
For September 8-14, 2001

CONTENTS:
I.    This Week's Calendar of Events
II.   Cyber Age Social Clubs Are Making It In Chicago
III.  Broadband, Part 3
IV.  Linux Scales
V.   Chicago Computer Company News
VI.  Chicago Computer Dealers

==============Special Event=====================
Date: Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2001
Event Sponsor: Geneer
Event Name/Topic: "Developers' Tips & Secrets for 
Motient's Terrestrial Network and Motorola's DataTAC 
Technology"
Event Type: Midwest Wireless Application Developers SIG.
Time: 6 to 8:30 PM
Speakers: Rod Massie, Director of Systems Development 
for Motient
Location: O'Hare Marriott, 8535 W. Higgins Road,
Chicago, Illinois
Price: Free with complimentary food and beverages
RSVP: Register at: http://www.geneer.com/mwadsig
Contact email: jchipkin@geneer.com
Contact Phone: 847-294-0300

Additional information:

Geneer is pleased to announce the creation our Midwest 
Wireless Application Developers Special Interest Group (SIG).  
Developed for technical professionals by technical professionals, 
this new, non-commercial SIG is designed to promote discussion 
of wireless developer tips and tools and provides the opportunity 
to network and learn.

We cordially invite you to the first meeting of the Midwest 
Wireless Application Developers SIG. Our Guest Presenter is 
Motient Corporation ( www.motient.com), provider of eLinkSM 
and BlackBerry by Motient wireless email services:

Guest Speaker: Rod Massie, Director of Systems Development 
for Motient Topic: Developers' Tips & Secrets for Motient's 
Terrestrial Network and Motorola's DataTAC Technology

The Motient network currently reaches over 220 million people 
and enables two-way wireless data communications to a variety 
of devices and numerous business segments. This presentation 
provides a detailed look into the intricacies of the network and 
vital information for developing compatible applications. Topics 
covered by Rod in this meeting include:

·    Motient Network Technology
·    Wireless Data System Architecture
·    Implementation and Connectivity Options
·    SCR Vs. Binary SCR
·    Host Routing and Message Flows

To register, visit http://www.geneer.com and look for the 
wireless SIG icon.
====================================================

I. This Week's Chicago Computer Events**:

Event: Diamondcluster Insight Forum
Date: September 10-12, 2001
Place: Sheraton Hotel & Towers, 301 E. Water St., Chicago, IL 
Information: Go to http://www.insight.diamondcluster.com for 
registration info.
The two-day event features leading thinkers from business, 
academia, and science who will explore the realities surrounding 
today's customer (who thanks to the Internet is better informed, 
less patient, and more demanding than ever) and chart how market 
leaders build and synchronize successful customer relationships.


Event: CSA Marketing Roundtable Presents: 
Writing to impress a seminar for high tech marketers
Date: September 11, 2001
Place: Sears Tower, 233 S. Wacker Drive, Suite 3350, 
Chicago, IL 60606 
Time: 1:00pm - 5:00pm
Information: Register now online at http://www.csa.org/workshop.html
As communications professionals - and as 
in any business - writing skills are paramount. Our writing 
needs to be clear, concise and easy to follow; it must also 
be catchy and memorable. Everything from ad copy, press 
releases and websites to memos, letters and e-mail will be 
covered in this thought and action provoking workshop. In 
this half-day program, writing instructor Clyde Leland will 
discuss all of these topics (plus the difference between 
"that" and "which"), using real-world examples and in-class 
exercises. 


Event: MobileEXPO with Illinois Technology**
Showcase & ProjectWorld 
Date: September 11-13, 2001 
Location: Lakeside Center at McCormick Place, 
Chicago, IL 
Information: Contact Paige Miller at (415) 641-2450 
or email at info@mobilevillage.com
If you are a CIO, CTO or Project Manager planning to 
buy, implement or develop a mobile and wireless solution, 
MobileEXPO is the place to shape your mobile future! 
MobileEXPO brings together the top mobile and wireless 
companies to showcase their products and services. Plus, 
experts deliver practical approaches and information through 
in-depth tutorials and breakout sessions spanning three 
intensive tracks over two days.


Event: Illinois Technology Showcase (ITEC)
Date:  September 12-13, 2001
Time: 10:00am to 6:00pm
Place:  McCormick Place, 2301 S. Lake Shore Dr., 
Chicago, Il.
Information: Go to www.goitec.com or contact Thaddeus 
Woosley at twoosley@ctcomm.com
North America's fastest-growing exhibition and conference 
returns to Chicago! The Illinois Technology Showcase is the 
region's most collaborative IT event that serves as a forum for 
Corporate, Education and Government leaders to facilitate 
discussion, education and evaluation of IT solutions and their 
impact on the region's marketplace.


Event: Midwest Oracle Users' Group Fall Conference
Date:  September 17-18, 2001
Place: University of Illinois-Chicago Illini Union, 
828 S. Wolcott Ave., Chicago
Time: 1-5pm (17th); 8:00am - 4:30pm (18th)
Information: To register, email Barb Dully at dullyb@tusc.com 
or call her at 630/960-2909, ext. 1047. Cost for the two days 
is $75 for MOUG members, $95 for others. Companies who 
register three or more attendees will receive an additional 
$10 discount per person.

**Courtesy of Techvenue.com
                                     

II. Cyber Age Social Clubs Are Making It In Chicago
By Christopher Hinton

At a time when sociologists are discussing the isolating 
effects of Internet use and of future generations devoid of 
social skills, public access terminals having been growing 
in popularity. Sometimes called Internet Cafes (depending 
on whether they serve food and drink), Internet Centers in 
Europe and Asia have been popular for years, but it’s growth 
in the United States has so far been comparatively slow. 
Click here http://www.chicago-computer.com/septhinton.htm 
for more.


III. Broadband
By Wayne Krakau

We are now up to the third part of my series on those fast 
connections known as broadband. This article continues with
coverage of the "meat" of the system, the type of connections 
available. Click here: http://www.chicago-computer.com/septkrak.htm
for more.

IV.Linux Scales
By Jem A. Hilton

With the fallout still clearing from the economic failures of the 
".com"
revolution, the evolution of technology based industries has come to 
a crossroads. Corporate downsizing and cost cutting has called for 
economical solutions to refine and optimize core business operations, 
and has sparked interest in finding alternate solutions to meet these 
needs. These market forces have indirectly manifested themselves 
in the immediate resurgence of the Linux OS's use.  
See how at http://www.chicago-computer.com/septhilton.htm.

********************************************************************************
V. Chicago Computer Company News

College Orientation's New Twist - Palm Handhelds for New 
Students University of South Dakota Students Get a Lesson 
in Beaming

VERMILLION, S.D./PRNewswire -- More than 1,300 students 
at the University of South Dakota (USD) became the first in the 
nation to receive Palm handheld computers authorized by 
a university for all first-year undergraduates, law and medical 
students.
Welcoming new students to the campus, President James 
W. Abbott demonstrated a key element in the university's plan 
to integrate Palm handhelds into the curriculum by illustrating 
how information can be beamed from one handheld to another, 
and used to collaborate and share. Using the Palm handheld's 
infrared (IR) capability, Abbott pointed his handheld at a 
student's handheld and beamed his telephone number, and 
then watched as students beamed the information from 
handheld to handheld in a matter of minutes.
USD worked with Enable Systems of Hoffman Estates, Ill., to 
equip the Palm m500 and m505 handhelds with a dozen 
education, productivity and communication software applications. 
Central to integrating the Palm handhelds into campus life is the
installation of the EthIR LAN and EthIR STAR wireless connectivity 
systems from Clarinet Systems, Inc. of Milpitas, Calif. The systems 
provide high-speed IR connectivity to the campus network for 
faster transfer of data to Palm handhelds. Students can receive 
email, download web clips, schedule appointments with faculty, 
turn in assignments electronically, share lecture notes, research 
academic requirements and obtain class materials. Educators can 
distribute syllabi, course calendars, resource materials and 
assignments.
The Clarinet Systems IR ports are located in the student center, 
library, the medical and law schools, and several buildings that 
house undergraduate departments.

****************************************************************************

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois Offering Landacorp 
Disease Management Programs 

ATLANTA, Ga /PRNewswire/ -- Landacorp, Inc., a leading
provider of strategic healthcare management solutions to 
health plans and provider organizations, has announced a 
contract with Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois (BCBS-IL) 
to offer Landacorp's Managing for Tomorrow member-driven 
disease management programs for diabetes, asthma and heart
disease.  The agreement with BCBS-IL will target a minimum of 
300,000 covered lives in BCBS-IL's various lines of healthcare 
insurance products and will have a term of two years, with 
automatic renewals in yearly increments.
Participation in Managing for Tomorrow programs is completely 
voluntary and confidential.  It begins when a health plan member, 
who has been identified as having, or being at risk for a chronic 
condition, completes a detailed health profile by phone, mail or 
on the Internet.  The member is then classified based on his or 
her risk level and self-management skills.  All members who 
participate receive personalized health interventions, including
individually tailored educational materials, constructive feedback 
and continued contact and support.  Landacorp will also stratify 
and identify members who are at a uniquely higher risk, referring 
these members for a personalized intervention with a case worker 
and allowing for individualized case management for individuals 
whose health risk is critical.

********************************************************************************

Open Channel Software Achieves "Critical Mass" for Launching
Innovative New Product Solutions

CHICAGO, IL - A full 18 months before the technology market 
"dot-bombed," the founders of Open Channel Software (OCS) 
knew that they were onto a winning formula. Their concept was 
simple but profound: create a vehicle for the hosting and 
commercialization of potentially thousands of software applications 
developed in academic and scientific institutions. 
OCS stands poised to commercially launch several leading-edge 
applications, doing for highly technical products what Red Hat, Inc. 
has done for Linux. 
By hosting and facilitating the distribution of thousands of 
applications, 
Open Channel will have the 'pick of the litter' with regard to which 
products to commercialize. The initial concept and business model for 
Open Channel Software was developed in early 1999 by vice president 
of business development Douglas Curry, in collaboration with Professors 
Stuart Kurtz and Ridgeway Scott, both on the faculty at the University 
of Chicago.
Curry had successfully evaluated early-stage software and educational 
programs, and developing vehicles to commercialize these curricula and 
technologies via licenses and starting up companies, as manager of the 
Content Venture Project at the University of Chicago for Arch 
Development 
Corporation.
>From its modest office/loft space on the north side of Chicago, OCS is 
quietly poised to commercialize three to five applications this year.
According to CEO John Kennedy, some of the products being prepared 
for commercial launch include an innovative, open source, network 
administration software for Unix environments, applications that 
originated at NASA as well as software that literally saves lives.
"One type of medical software that we're really excited about, 
says Kennedy, takes standard MRI images and builds a movie 
of a beating heart, allowing for the first time a safe means of 
doing heart stress analysis.
Another application helps predict when patients that are undergoing 
kidney dialysis will suffer stenosis, or the closing of the access 
ports. 
This application helps identify problems early enough so that they can 
be treated with drugs, extending the life of the ports by 50 percent, 
in some cases."
So far, OCS is hosting more than 150 academic and research 
software applications, organized by approximately 24 disciplines that 
range from aerodynamics to A.I. and expert systems to chemistry, 
thermodynamics and meteorology. Perhaps more notably, technology 
transfer experts at internationally prestigious academic and scientific 
institutions are very supportive of OCS' efforts. 
The OCS Web site offers truly innovative, cutting-edge programs 
focused around certain categories, or Disciplines. OCS actively 
promotes the software that it sponsors, in order to build and maintain 
a community of involved users. If software has sufficient commercial 
viability, OCS provides the resources that are required to bring that 
software to commercial distribution, proactively markets it, and offers 
fee-based support and services to its customers. 
Please contact OCS by visiting the organization's Website, 
http://www.openchannelsoftware.org or by phoning 773-334-8177 
to learn more about the Open Channel Foundation, its software 
Disciplines, products and services, or to become a participating 
author/developer.

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VI. Chicago Computer Dealers

Click here at http://www.chicago-computer.com/deals.htm for our list 
of computer dealers and some of the lowest prices in town!

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