COMDEX NOTEBOOK.Pacific Bell will present its Integrated Services Digital Network Integrated services digital network (ISDN) A generic term referring to the integration of communications services transported over digital facilities such as wire pairs, coaxial cables, optical fibers, microwave radio, and satellites. and Internet access package today at Comdex. Billed as the Home Pack, PacBell calls this the fastest and easiest way to connect to the Net. But consumers will have to pay for their speed. The $553.95 package includes an external modem, Internet access, customized software from Netscape and installation. Users will pay a $75 monthly fee for the Internet account and access to the ISDN ISDN in full Integrated Services Digital Network Digital telecommunications network that operates over standard copper telephone wires or other media. line. A $50 rebate coupon is included in the Home Pack. Talk about ghosts of technology's past. Tucked in the middle of all the corporate craziness, the Comdex museum celebrates the 25-year history of the microprocessor. Several stages offer favorite digerati The "digital elite." People who are extremely knowledgeable about computers. It often refers to the movers and shakers in the industry. Digerati is the high-tech equivalent of "literati," which refers to scholars and intellectuals, or "glitterati," the rich and famous. toys like the game center with the classic Pong (games) Pong - A computer game invented in 1972 by Atari's Nolan Bushnell. The game is a minimalist rendering of table tennis. Each of the two players are represented as a white slab, controllable by a knob, which deflects a bouncing ball. , and the Hacker's Garage, complete with early Star Trek paraphernalia and faded copies of Popular Mechanics magazine. ``I remember playing with a Merlin and clinking clink 1 intr. & tr.v. clinked, clink·ing, clinks To make or cause to make a light, sharp ringing sound: clinked their wineglasses together in a toast. n. around with that (Texas Instruments') Speak & Spell when I was just a kid,'' said Terence Macanell, a computer programmer from Seattle. ``After I played with them, I got my dad's tools and took them apart. I wanted to see how they worked.'' One harried-looking conventioneer con·ven·tion·eer n. One who attends a convention. Noun 1. conventioneer - someone who attends a convention attendee, meeter, attendant, attender - a person who is present and participates in a meeting; "he was a regular says: ``You've got to buy this chip. Without it, you're nobody.'' A second, equally frazzled attendee responds: ``Yes! Yes! You're right! My God! I've got to get that chip! Do you remember where they were selling it?'' Says the first man: ``I think it was over by the Elvis impersonator. Or the Marilyn Monroe look-alike.'' One of the hottest battles on the convention center floor is over which company hands out the biggest and most glitzy glitz Informal n. Ostentatious showiness; flashiness: "a garish barrage of show-biz glitz" Peter G. Davis. tr.v. tote bag. The winner so far: the acid-meets-Cirque du Soleil tote by Matrox Mystique, ``The Complete 3D Entertainment and Multimedia Accelerator.'' Do you keep forgetting your computer password? Or are you worried that it may not be as secure as it could be? Key Tronic Corp. and National Registry Inc. soon will offer what they call an affordable solution - low-cost finger-imaging scanners. Users put a fingerprint side down on the scanner, and a tiny camera inside takes a picture through an acrylic lens. A processing device called a ``frame grabber'' connected to the personal computer compares the print with that of an approved user before allowing access. The Windows-compatible scanners, expected to be shipped in volume early next year, will be available as stand-alone models or embedded into keyboards. Key Tronic, based in Spokane, Wash., is a leading maker of keyboards; NRI NRI Nomura Research Institute (Tokyo, Japan) NRI Non-Resident Indian NRI Natural Resources Institute NRI National Resources Inventory NRI Networked Readiness Index NRI Natural Resources Inventory NRI National Research Institute , based in St. Petersburg, Fla., makes finger-imaging systems. |
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