February 2, 1998

WHO SAYS ENGINEERS CAN'T HAVE FUN?

Joan Lynch, Managing Editor

Expect the unexpected

At first, I thought this book was a bad joke. There's a half-naked lady on the cover for no reason other than the obvious and a crazed Merlin look-alike in front of a mini Van de Graaf generator. OK, it worked. I cracked the book and soon found that this author will use anything--humor, analogies, buffoonery, and parables--to give nebulous electronics concepts a definite form. He needn't apologize, either.

There Are No Electrons: Electronics for Earthlings (ISBN 0-9627815-9-2) was written by Kenn Amdahl, who's vaguely related to the man who founded Amdahl Corp. You--the electron-initiated--will enjoy the ride; it will lift the fog from anyone who thinks he or she can't understand electricity. The book costs $12.95 at Barnes and Noble bookstores.

Clear-water Publishing Co, Broomfield, CO. 1-303-436-1982.

It's no ordinary phone

Now another home appliance gives you easy access to the Web and e-mail. The iPhone features a 7.4-in. touchscreen interface and keyboard for connecting to regular and advanced phone services, e-mail, and graphics from the Web. This first release displays only 16-shade gray-scale images, though. Touch a phone number on the screen, and the device dials it for you. A built-in directory lets you keep track of phone numbers and street and e-mail addresses. The suggested price is $499.

Cidco Inc, Morgan Hill, CA. 1-408-779-1162, 1-800-929-8246, www.cidco.com.

Mind-meld with your PC

MindWizard lets you capture your knowledge and personal-reasoning patterns to give your PC decision-making capabilities. Instead of having to write thousands of lines of C++ code, you develop a MindChart--a visual diagram that identifies and organizes all of the factors and relationships among factors that are involved in making an important decision. A point-and-click interface lets you determine color-coded rules and assumptions. Use the software for strategic and tactical planning and problem solving, especially if you expect to encounter high levels of uncertainty. The company recommends running the $149 program on a Pentium machine with Windows 95  or NT, but it will run on a 486 with 16 Mbytes of RAM. It's available through retailers or by contacting the company.

Richter Paradigm Corp, San Jose, CA. 1-888-366-4269, www.mindwizard.com.

Programmable terminal

The Callisto comes as a packaged terminal or as a stand-alone pc board. The basic version comes with 512 kbytes of RAM, which can expand to 64 Mbytes. The higher end version comes with 16-bit Soundblaster-compatible stereo sound and support for additional EIDE peripherals. Both models include two serial ports and one parallel port, PS/2 ports for a mouse and keyboard, and an SVGA connector. You can store software on the 256-kbyte embedded flash. Callisto costs $299 (OEM).

Integrated Business Computers, Simi Valley, CA. 1-805-527-6362, www.ibc.com.

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