Jims.html

During the past 25 years, Jim has managed computer sales and networking at

Dominion Business Machines.

Throughout the years he has seen the introduction of systems like

The Sorcerer, Commodore PET, VIC and 8000, Sanyo 550, Olivetti M20 ,

and of course IBM's 5150 PC. He was present at the launch of IBM's 286, or 'AT'

(Advanced Technology) desktop in Boca Raton in 1984.

Today Jim continues to oversee computer sales and networking at Dominion, as well

as its growing electronics recycling section.

In addition to his business duties, Jim has written books and articles about Technology,

Computers, and their impact on our lives. He is the author of 'Lemon-aid: Personal

Computers' and 'The Computer Buyer's Survival Guide', with Andy Walker.

Throughout the 1990's he contributed regularly to the Fast Forward section

of The Toronto Star and other periodicals. He wrote a technology column

in The Digital Journal from 2004-2007.

Jim has also contributed to technology programs on television, radio, and

the Web. He was the resident advisor on Homepage' on CP24 television,

answering questions from viewers across the country and, via the Internet,

from around the world.

Some of the articles Jim has published in the past are striking for their insight.

His landmark piece "Freedom To See" , appeared twenty four years ago, long before

the appearance of the Internet and Youtube.

It describes a communication and video exchange system of the future in remarkable

detail...

"Consider a device that would enable anyone, anywhere to transmit

any image he or she wished, either to a specific receiver or to

the public at large.

"A simple model of a user to user system is one in which the public has

access to all aspects of origination and transmission, and pays for them

directly, as we do now for telephone service."

"The innovations most likely to improve its cost effectiveness would

seem to be computerized data encoding (where audio, visual, and operating

data are converted into digital pulses) and the increased capabilities of

fibre optical cables."

"With user to user access, real joy, sorrow, birth, death, true love and

romance will be readily available to those who wish to wander through

the 'personal' channels of Toronto, St. Louis, or Montreal..."

Read the complete text of this article , published in the April 03, 1983 Edition of

Cinema Canada.

To comment on it or contact Jim, click here