Kevin Strishock

The Ecrix VXA Tape Drive is a 66 GB compressed tape storage system that has the crucial elements for a successful product, namely reliability, pricing and support. When our evaluation drive showed up at eFront, it was destined for our database server and a good abuse test.

The drive itself doesn't try to reinvent the wheel, only eliminate the problems with previous systems and improve on them. VXA uses a diagonal tape writing mechanism that is similar to home VCR technology. The tape is written to in packets, each with their own error correcting bits which protect from data loss and assist in the event of corruption. Even the casing that the tapes come in is specially made to endure the hardships of a busy office environment, including coffee spills and temperature extremes.

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HIT (Human Interface Technologies) has been demonstrating a
new product at Comdex Fall 99 called the C@MP, or Cassette
Type Music Player. This product is a simple concept
taken one step further. In the deluge of MP3 players
at this year's Comdex, this product is the one unit
that stands out amongst the sea of Rio imitators. The unit itself
looks like an aluminum cassette tape, with proper size and form. The
product has a USB data port, headphone jack with remote
control, a slot for a rechargeable Ni-MH battery and a
magnetic tape head. The C@MP acts as a normal portable MP3
player, until you place the unit into a cassette player, whereupon it
transforms to a functioning tape.

This special feature is one many will find useful, especially those still stuck with a cassette player in their car. The product is also extremely light and carries nicely in a back pocket.

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The Windows world is full of different virus scanners
for both the public and business world, but now the
Linux has its own counterpart. Central Command
and Kaspersky Lab have announced AntiViral TooolKit
Pro for Linux, which will make the scanning and
elimination of Linux and Windows based viruses a
simple task.

AntiViral ToolKit Pro for Linux entered beta testing earlier this year and received great feedback from the Linux community. After rigorous testing, AVP for Linux has completed and will soon be available for public consumption.

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Wild File today showed off its newest product, which they classified as "nearing beta," GoBack for Windows NT. The GoBack product line is a computer recovery system that allows users to restore their systems from pre-crash images that it creates. The demo was quite impressive as they deleted Windows
System directories and much more, all restoring without
a hitch. Fellow exhibitors laughed at the GoBack presenter's
enthusiasm during the deletion of Windows.

The product works on a more basic level by setting
aside a portion of the hard disk and writing images to
the drive without user interaction. This eliminates
the user having to stop work and create
a snapshot of the machine, and also a recent backup of data.

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