The Canadian Association of Compaq Users CANACU NEWSLETTER (originally distributed to CANACU members by e-mail on January 2, 2002) You have received this online newsletter because you are a member of the Canadian Association of Compaq Users (CanACU). The newsletter is e-mailed to you every two weeks to keep you up to date on CanACU activities and relevant news. Please go to the UNSUBSCRIBING section at the end if you do not want to continue receiving this newsletter. IN THIS EDITION Happy New Year! Articles and Feedback Technical Tidbits OpenVMS Hobbyist License Canadian Tandem User Group (CTUG) The HP Compaq Merger Changes to your Contact Information Unsubscribing -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WELCOME to 2002! Happy New Year! To everyone in our CANACU family, we hope you've had a wonderful holiday season with the very best wishes for a peaceful, healthy and joyous 2002! ARTICLES AND FEEDBACK We like to hear from you! Please tell us what you think of the newsletter. And, we welcome your submissions for the newsletter. Please send your comments and articles to inquire@canacu.org. TECHNICAL TIDBITS Verizon Wireless has begun selling a wireless phone that can identify a person's calling location and phone number to an emergency call center. A consortium of companies including Sun, BEA Systems and IBM have teamed up to back J2EE software for wireless Web use. Microsoft, as usual, has chosen to go it alone. Intel has developed a breakthrough TeraHertz transistor able to switch on and off one trillion times per second. They expect it to be used in production by 2005. Compaq now allows dynamic expansion of Oracle9i Real Application Clusters Databases. Dynamic expansion means database performance and size, including disk space and number of systems, can be increased without taking the database offline, ensuring business continuity. OPENVMS HOBBYIST LICENSE You can order the OpenVMS Hobbyist License through your membership in CANACU. Here are the instructions: The complete transaction takes place on the OpenVMS site Go to http://www.montagar.com/hobbyist Go to the link "License Register". This will take you to a license registration page where you will be required to complete a form Enter your CANACU membership number on the ordering form If you do not know your membership number, or you are not a member of CANACU, send an e-mail message to inquire@canacu.org The license is free of charge. There is a charge of $30.00 USF if you want to receive the software on CD media. CANADIAN TANDEM USER GROUP (CTUG) CTUG is a Special User Group within CanACU. The CTUG Security SIG will meet at the Markham Compaq offices on February 14, 2002. The speaker is Ron LaPedis, Compaq Sr. Product Manager, Business Continuity & Platform Security. For more details, contact Mark Wilson (mark.wilson@emergis.com) or Jack McAuley (jack.mcauley@compaq.ca). Please confirm your attendance by January 20, 2002. THE HP COMPAQ MERGER (The information in this article is drawn from public sources only. Neither HP nor Compaq staff contributed to it) On September 4, 2001, HP and Compaq announced their intention to merge via a $25 billion share swap. The proposed merger would create an PC industry behemoth with sales second only to IBM. On November 6, 2001, Walter Hewlett, an HP board member and the son of HP co-founder William Hewlett announced that he would oppose the deal. Later that day, David W. Packard, son of HP co-founder David Packard, joined Walter in opposing the deal. On December 7, 2001, the Packard Foundation made a preliminary decision to oppose the deal. This raised the total shares opposed to 18%. Over the weekend of December 8, 2001, Compaq CEO Michael Capellas sent a memo about the HP-Compaq deal to employees telling them that he and the company support the merger but would have "a pragmatic view of our business and a clear focus on the future." This was taken by many analysts as an attempt to prepare staff for the possible failure of the merger. On December 12, 2001, Walter Hewlett sent a letter to both the HP and Compaq boards in which he asserted that the merger would fail if brought to a vote. HP and Compaq issued a combined response refuting the claim. On December 14, 2001, IDC analyst Alan Promisel gave the merger about a 35 percent chance of succeeding. On December 20, 2001, HP formally notified European regulators of its intention to merge with Compaq. US regulators are already considering the merger and Canadian regulators have already approved it. Stay tuned. CHANGES TO YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION Have you had changes to your electronic or postal address in the last little while? Don't forget to let us know by sending a message to inquire@canacu.org. We'd like to make sure our records for you are as up-to-date as possible. Thank you! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- UNSUBSCRIBING If you do not want to continue receiving this newsletter, simply reply to this message and enter one of the following on the subject line: "REMOVE" if either the recipient is no longer at this address or you do not want to receive any further email messages from CANACU. "UNSUBSCRIBE" if you do not want to continue receiving the newsletter but still want to be notified of important CANACU events and activities. "UPDATE" Include the new e-mail address if your address has changed or you would like the newsletter sent to another e-mail address.