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The idea behind the CruisePad from Zenith Data Systems Corp. is a good one: Make the computer you hold in your hand an extension of a more powerful machine that stays behind. That way, you're not burdened by the limitations of having a processor and memory that will fit in your hand. Instead, you have the full power of a high-end desktop system, but you carry only a little of it with you.
A Look at MultiCruise
The idea behind the MultiCruise is even better. With this product, you can use several CruisePads to access a special multiuser remote server, and from there attach to anything on your corporate network. There's no reason you couldn't do everything from filling out inventory forms to surfing the Net with Zenith's MultiCruise. Provided, of course, that it works.
The problem with the ZDS MultiCruise isn't that it won't work, because most of the time, it does. The problem is Zenith and software provider Citrix Systems have implemented a copy-protection scheme so fragile and so difficult to fix if it breaks that customers could easily find their wireless network down for days without recourse.
Considering Buffalo Grove, Ill.-based Zenith sells the MultiCruise to organizations such as hospitals, where computing is the very definition of mission-critical, anything standing in the way of reliability would seem to be a disservice to customers. When it's something like copy protection on the basic license that ships with the MultiCruise system, the reason behind such a limitation becomes nearly impossible to fathom. It will remind old-time computer managers of the days when business revolted against copy protection.
The MultiCruise system is a wireless computing network consisting of a server, a wireless base station (called the CruiseLAN Access Point) and up to 60 CruisePads. Depending on the physical environment, you may...