All Ears

Our First Ear Ache
Welcome to my first ear ache. As January progressed all of us around here felt that somebody somewhere "must let the people know" and thus was born "The Twisted Ear". You don't know who I am (hmm... for that matter I don't know who you are either) and that's the way I like it.

I'll bring you a steady diet of industry gossip and suppressed truths and generally let it all hang out. This column is intended for the Australian, New Zealand and Singapore region but it might amuse you visitors from faraway lands to learn how little we get told around here. To send me worldwide and local industry gossip or secrets, please [#mailme check out the e-mail address at the end.]

The REAL reason Merisel collapsed
So with Ingram coming in and the stiff competition from Tech Pacific, you heard that Merisel just couldn't hack it anymore - Tech Pacific buys them out - right?,WRONG !.

Actually it all started with Harvey Norman. As some of you might know, HN bought 50,000 copies of Win95 plus many 1000's of Office and other Win95 products. They bought them from Merisel who in turn bought them from Tech Pacific.

Now along with all the many thousands of returned copies from other resellers of Win95 and associated products, at a rate in the case of some David Jones stores of up to 99% for the OS itself!

(Don't believe me hey ?, check with their Wollongong store : sold 18 in 5 months, kept 2 for the shelf and sent the rest of the 2000 units back!), Harvey Norman returned after huge complaining, around 35,000 units!

Now originally Merisel had a 2.5% / month stock turnaround deal but nobody was prepared for this. Merisel ran into such enormous cashflow problems that since Tech Pacific were going to wait anyway, they thought they might as well own the company!

The CBA saga, but please don't sue me...
If I'd have got this column out on time most of this would be groundbreaking news but here it goes anyway....

As some might have heard, Brian Morris of The Commonwealth Bank of Australia was apparently given his "don't come back Monday" speech. This man was responsible not only for the CBA's "NT implementation" but for the heavy promoting it received around OZ corporates.

Well 4 months down the track and insiders have confirmed that:
 * The implementation is 18 months behind
 * The bank has lost in excess of 120 million dollars profit
 * All the 1500 clients are still running OS/2 1.3
 * They are still using Microsoft SQL server, which Sybase originally developed. Since Sybase purchased Watcom through Powersoft, they have completely withdrawn support for MSQL having adopted Watcom's SQL as Sybase SQL Anywhere. No support.
 * There are definite moves to investigate Warp Server and the Eagle series albeit through back channels

Now when Microsoft was approached to support the OS/2 1.3 they refused. When IBM was asked, their stunned response was "You want us to support a discontinued system we never sold you in the first place!?".

Well it gets more interesting. A recent PC WEEK article has refuted this state of affairs with a CBA quote stating that "...Brian Morris was never fired and ....there is no IT crisis here". Furthermore, apparently whoever released this dastardly hoax will be sued and any press furthering this "lie" will also be sued !. Well apart from the sue bit, all the Twisted Ear has to say is "would you buy a used car from these PR people ?".

It has been confirmed through numerous "sensitive sources" that there has indeed been an IT disaster and the bank can't implement its distributed environment plans with the present state of affairs. All we can say to explain all this parading is that the board are afraid of losing their jobs.

No Win95 drivers for QDI !
QDI, a large Taiwanese manufacturer of video and IDE cards has abandoned the Win 95 market!. Yes, the drivers shipping on their latest IDE controllers include DOS, WIN31 and WARP drivers but NO WIN95 drivers.

When asked about this they said - "ah, Win 95 it finished, no good, no good. We not write drivers any more for it".

Watchout in New Zealand
Some of the prices I had mentioned to me for OS/2 software in New Zealand are dangerous to repeat. Cop this one - Object Desktop - NZ$225 including GST at one unnamed Auckland store!. Come on guys, do you have any respect for your customers?

Seriously though, there are stores and consultants appearing in NZ that do charge reasonable prices. Get in touch with the Warp Confederacy through the web or send an e-mail to fim@frankson.aus.net in Australia to find out where. Just watch out for the sharks when you cross the Tasman.

If the price stinks, take off the upgrade sticker
Well congratulations IBM !. It had to happen. Not content with the outrageous price difference between the full OS/2 Connect and the upgrade, some unnamed smallish distributors seem to be resorting to very questionable practices - remove the "upgrade" sticker and charge an amount nobody can touch as a special "promotional offer" on the "full product". Can't blame them or their dealers really, if the pricing wasn't such a complete shambles this wouldn't happen.

What ever happened to OS/2 SMP ?
One wondered if IBM were ever going to be developing SMP in this lifetime but in the US Warp weekly there appeared an item in late February. For the benefit of those who are not on IBM US's weekly news list, we repeat it here with the spirit of public duty.

Press Release: IBM's OS/2 Warp Server to Support Symmetric-Multiprocessing

SAN FRANCISCO, February 26, 1996 … IBM today announced that it began alpha testing its OS/2* Warp Server Version 4 symmetric-multiprocessing (SMP) feature, and demonstrated it today on a four-way SMP system at the OS/2 Warp Server launch event. An open beta program is planned to begin in the second quarter of 1996, with general availability intended for the third quarter of the year. The OS/2 Warp Server SMP feature will be provided as a free upgrade to OS/2 Warp Server Version 4 customers.

Well that's the end of the first column !. As one gets more relaxed with this, one will have much more fun and if you people out there supply me with some juicy material we'll make sure everybody knows what they don't want us to.

If it's bitchiness you're after then speak to Sam the opinionated cat that hangs around here somewhere.

Till our next ear ache… The Twisted Ear.

Remember ...

 ''' The Twisted Ear. Digging up the dirt on the industry and letting it all hang out. YOU have a right to know what they're hiding. '''