AlphaServ.com's Pallmann Authors Microsoft Press Book On Intelligent Software Technologies; `Bots, Spiders and Intelligent Agents' Can Be Ordered Now

Business Wire, March 11, 1999

SANTA ANA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 11, 1999--David Pallmann, director of technology of the AlphaCONNECT(R) Internet software division of AlphaServ.com(SM) (Nasdaq: ALMI) and a pioneer in the development of intelligent agent technologies, has authored a book on programming software to create "smart assistants" for users of the Internet and other computing platforms.

Titled "Programming Bots, Spiders and Intelligent Agents in Microsoft Visual C ," Pallmann's first book targets computer programmers and will be available by Microsoft Press through various Web sites and book stores beginning March 17. AlphaServ.com is the name under which Alpha Microsystems is now doing business.

Bots, spiders and intelligent agents are a new class of software, which operate on the instructions of users, but by their nature, perform tasks unattended. They are typically designed to accomplish computing functions that are either inefficient or impossible to be completed manually by users, and are most effectively and commonly utilized on the Internet.

"The virtually endless resource of services, products and information available on the Internet has created a need for technologies like those described in David's book," said Parri Munsell, business development manager of Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Interactive Media Group.

"With the help of Internet agents, users will be able to easily sort through virtually limitless amounts of data to help improve various aspects of their daily lives. David Pallmann and his AlphaCONNECT development team at AlphaServ.com have demonstrated a keen technological foresight in their development of intelligent agents, which are solving computing issues that were not even considered just a few years ago."

In 1998, AlphaCONNECT developed a smart assistant solution for Microsoft's executive intranet. Pallmann and his team built a custom software system, which gathers user-defined news and data from the Internet with virtually no user attendance and creates a timely "electronic news bureau." The resulting product, AC Spotlight(TM), utilizes intelligent agent technology developed by Pallmann and the AlphaCONNECT team.

Douglas J. Tullio, chairman, chief executive officer, and president of AlphaServ.com, said, "Microsoft's interest in AlphaCONNECT technologies to solve its internal computing challenges validated the viability of our software and development capabilities. The enthusiastic support of Microsoft Press, a leading publisher in the market, for David Pallmann to write the book on intelligent agents underscores our leadership in this field. We congratulate David on his accomplishments the past few years."

"Programming Bots, Spiders and Intelligent Agents in Microsoft Visual C " (ISBN: 0735605653) will be available beginning March 17, 1999, through a long list of Web sites, including Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com; bookstores such as Barnes & Noble; and other computer book outlets. The book can be advance ordered now on such sites as Amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.

The book instructs software programmers how to create bots, spiders and intelligent agents that monitor and act on information from the Internet and interface with multiple computing platforms, including mainframes, databases and ERP systems. A companion CD is provided, offering practical information for extending the author's code examples to create such intelligent agents. One of Pallmann's objectives was to enable the non-technical reader to understand the uses of the intelligent software.

"Books that present hands-on, sophisticated solutions in this area have been scarce. `Programming Bots, Spiders, and Intelligent Agents in Microsoft Visual C ' has the potential to be the defining book in the field: the right subject, the right author, and the right time," said Stephen Guty, associate publisher at Microsoft Press.

Pallmann developed his expertise on intelligent agents while crafting information management solutions for AlphaCONNECT. The division of AlphaServ.com was founded when Pallmann wrote a program solving an internal computing challenge for the company.

The initial technology he and his team created, which now is one of two patents AlphaCONNECT has pending, spawned the development of a series of technologies -- many of which are incorporated in AlphaCONNECT products such as StockVue(R) 99 (downloadable for free at www.stockvue.com), AC Spotlight and the AlphaCONNECT Knowledge Management Suite.

According to Pallmann, bots are software assistants, which visit Internet sites to retrieve specific information and present that information to the user. Common uses of bots include online comparison shopping services, such as those found on Web portals. Pallmann describes spiders as automated discovery systems, which crawl the Web continuously, compiling information that users ultimately request through common search engines.

Pallmann and his AlphaCONNECT team have developed products and technologies incorporating all of these intelligent software categories, especially intelligent agents.