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Show And that's the latest in world of computers p.g. blab dancers. Nearly everyone had something to give away. There were the usual handouts and flyers, all done in great style with quality printing and color, and there were prizes. Drawings were held on a regular basis. Pens, pins, key chains, hats, chips and a variety of other items were all given away free to those who wanted them. This show is down to a science. First of all, you have to go into a big tent and fill out a form that tells them who you represent, etc. Then they give you an identification card. This is a plastic card that looks just like your Visa or Master Charge Card. You get to stand there and see it come through the machine as it prints your name and all on it right before your eyes. If you are a serious attender at the show, you come equipped with a bunch of your own business cards. These business cards are used to give to the company representatives so that they can call you or send you more information on the items you like. The business cards are also used to drop into containers for the various drawings. Now, suppose you wanted to get more information from a vendor and you didn't have a business card, or maybe you just were in a hurry, or whatever. Then you would hand them your plastic badge you had received in the tent. They will run it through one of those little gizmo's that reprints the info on a paper and they will send you what you want. It was all very smooth and easy and well organized. But, because of the number of booths and displays, it takes days to see them all and even then you wear out before you have seen all you would like. With all the give aways and other materials you accumulate as you venture from display to display, you need something to carry it all in. The vendors are ready for this. Many of them offer you a free bag, just pick one up at will, at their displays. Some of the bags are better than others. The hard plastic handles han-dles can begin to cut into your hands after lugging them around for a few hours, and they do get heavy, So, i some of the vendors provided a b- I with a cloth handle. One even had' long soft plastic handle that could f' ' over the shoulder. Of course the benefit of this is to " the vendor's product is written at over the bag and as you walk aroav n the show the company's name e seen all over the place. It is w; I advertising. Since I know so little ate computers and since I'm not all tk: d excited about all the new invention) A' I spent my time the last two days i fo the show reading a good boci tn watching TV, and watching peop gamble. be Even after watching, I still fa ha understand craps, seven-card sit: poker, roulette, or Keno. I barely understood "Chickens: Pot," a midway game on then Q zanine at Circus Circus. This mi; new game since we went there k p You try to get a plastic, leg 011 looking, chicken into a regn: kitchen stew pot by placing it oa : pro catapult-like device, hitting It pron device with a rubber hammeu: s(x'c sending the chicken, hopefully, ar 'Jjs a pot, for which you would receiff . ' " prize. We got a lot of good laughs t y of watching people try this game. ( To brag a little, we got to set ' Pro-Exec tennis tournaK sponsored by Citizen which feate . Billie Jean King and V; Gerulaitis. It was exciting wait!:- ( them play and they were sop: ( They were humorous and refe V(,'nu(i enjoying the tournament and p. their partners, who were eK rK- an opportunity to hit the ball? Four( They jested with the audience;: signed autographs. ic(. It was fun. Mitutic We saw "Omni-Max" at Ca& fair (f Palace. If you have not opposii already, be sure and go "they are in Vegas. It was well gg(,r) money and very, very enlerfc 0g(t.n Since we had such a good t: Schroei guess it was not so terrible Ach. home and find out the ne' the ogt had to come out a day early. , iwo. And if you can't findsone- "The you wanted to know ate h;,vc h sorry. Give me a call and I- wh,.het fill you in on anything I can- opinions But I think you will be str.. Jcision see that nearly everyth.ng l-chsai paper and you will find meK;-;. The Zewhere between Anew- n, yo, and Pleasant Grove. J Inal i critmue ii. . By MARCELLA WALKER There is nothing like returning from a few days away from home on a brief vacation to find that the newspaper will be coming out a day early due to Veterans Day falling on Wednesday and there being no mail delivery that day. In the newspaper business where you rely on mail delivery for the weekly issue, you need to be sure you get the newspaper out in time for the advertisers' specials. So the paper is a day early this week and no one was more surprised than me when I found out late Saturday afternoon af-ternoon when we returned from Las Vegas. I tremble to think that we almost stayed one more day. Someone upstairs was watching out for me one more time. You would have really seen a harried person if I would have just had a few hours to get the paper ready. We had been to the Comdex Conference in Las Vegas from Wednesday through Friday. For all of you who are novices like me, this is a gigantic computer show. I mean, this is really a gigantic ' computer show. The displays filled the Las Vegas Convention Center, with additional displays at the nearby Hilton Hotel, Bally's, the Riviera, Caesar's Palace, and the Sahara Hotel. Now, this is not a show that you walk through in just a few minutes and see all the new computers. There are hundreds and hundreds of displays. You have to stop and listen to the spiel of the ones you are interested in-terested in knowing more about. There are no places to sit and you walk and walk and stand and stand, and your feet get more and more sore and tired. As I waited while my husband talked with these vendors, I overheard lots of dignified men and women say their feet were killing them. By Friday, many of them were calling it a day early in the afternoon because their feet were about shot. I heard them say so. What I know about a computer you could put on the head of a pin. Oh, that's right ! You can put a lot of data on the head of a pin and I don't know a lot of data about computers. I do know, now, that the optical disk is the latest thing. It is just like watching TV. It produces the neatest picture. I asked my husband if there were little tiny 35 mm slides reproduced on the disk to make those neat pictures? He gave me a strange look and walked on. Some time ago he showed me the latest in color reproduction on computer screens. I was amazed as he showed me how he can do graphs and have it all color coded. It looks wonderful and is a lot more interesting in-teresting than just your usual pale green letters on a black screen as I am doing right now. Some of those computers at the Comdex Show advertized a wide variety of colors to make their pictures look perfect. One of the most popular items at the show was the "mouse." Everyone had a "mouse." In case you don't know, this "mouse" is a little electronic box on which you can push buttons to direct a little marker on the computer screen. This little marker comes in a variety of shapes and sizes, depending on the brand. As you direct this little marker, it can paint a picture, make a drawing, create a graph, or whatever you want it to do, using a variety of patterns, lines and circles to achieve its goal. . Desktop publishing takes advantage ad-vantage of this little "mouse" a lot. So do a large number of other, computer services. Not only did this show feature hundreds, if not thousands, of computers, it also had all the companies with related material. There was software, hardware, paper, furniture, electronic suppliers, sup-pliers, and on and on and on. The best exhibits I saw were by Word Perfect of Orem and IBM. Word Perfect put on an entertaining program and attracted a crowd as big as what was at IBM. ' When we arrived in Las Vegas on Wednesday morning, airplanes were skywriting "Thanks a Million." I thought it was the pilots at Nellis Air Force Base practicing a new skill they had learned along with bombing bom-bing targets. At the IBM show that afternoon I learned differently. The IBM theme for the conference was "Thanks a Million" for the public's acceptance in a big way of their PC II or something like that. How much do you think it cost to write "Thanks a Million" in the sky with five airplanes air-planes doing the job at once? They had a movie which featured Father Mulcahy and Radar from the television series "Mash." It was enjoyable but not any better than the live musical show that Word Perfect did. I didn't get to see the Novell display which is also from Orem, but I am sure it was very good. If you are a computer nut, like nearly everyone in my family but me, this conference would have been a real treat. Not only were there exciting and extravagant displays to attract the attention of all the computerites, but there was good entertainment. Several places had magicians and I heard that someone had female |