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September 12, 1998
News
- Lots of great prizes to give away today, including a
Microsoft IntelliMouse and copies of Windows 98 and Microsoft Office 97 Professional.
- Wow, what a week for the Internet. As if sports fans
clamoring for more info on Mark McGwire’s awesome home run feat wasn’t enough,
there’s also the matter of this little Starr report. Seriously, though, I believe the
Web-based release of independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s report on the president is a
watershed event for the Internet. Regardless of where you stand politically on the issue,
the fact that the entire report was made available for anyone and everyone to view on the
‘net gives the Internet a whole new level of importance and, indeed, a whole new
meaning. As one news report I saw noted, this is watching history happen live and
unfiltered. Both the amount of information made available and the manner it which it was
released are unprecedented. In fact, this event will start the process of turning the
Internet into not just a nice thing to have access to, but an essential part of the fabric
of our lives. Most computer savvy people already know the benefits of the ‘net, but
the release of this report will bring the point of the Internet’s importance home to
everyone in America. I think we’re going to see a lot of people start buying
computers or other Internet access devices because of it. Of course, this brings up many
social issues as well regarding those who have access to the Internet and those who
don’t.
- Interestingly, despite predictions of the Internet’s
downfall because of the rush of literally millions of people trying to get to the report,
the ‘net withstood the challenge. While there were some slowdowns and it was hard to
get into certain sites hosting the report, the Internet backbone handled the traffic
reasonably well according to various reports I read. Part of that was due to the fact that
several sites acted as mirrors of the document, meaning you could get it from them as
well. For example, the KSFO page has links to several different places where you can try
to get to the report and the White House rebuttal.
- Because a lot of people are going to be going online, I also
wanted to tell you about a new version of Microsoft’s Dial-Up Networking for Windows
95. Dial-Up Networking is the software you use to connection your modem to your ISP and
the new version offers a number of enhancements and bug fixes that should make your online
connections stronger and possibly even faster. One nice feature is that it finally fixes
the issue of the Maximum Transmission Unit, or MTU, length. Windows 95 had default
settings that were designed for Ethernet-based connections. On dial-up modem-based
connections to the ‘net, these settings could actually slow down your performance. As
a result, several shareware utilities, such as MaxMTU and MTUSpeed, were developed to
address this possible issue by resetting the MTU settings. DUN 1.3 takes care of this
automatically, however, by detecting what type of connection you have and making
adjustments accordingly. The new version also includes some enhanced security features.
Windows 98’s Dial-Up Networking apparently incorporates several of the performance
features, although there’s an update available to add some of the new security
features.
- On Wednesday of last week Intel announced the 300 MHz version
of its Mobile Pentium II processor and lots of companies followed suit with new notebooks.
In addition to Dell’s Inspiron 7000 line that I mentioned last week—which offers
the option of a 15" display, in addition to the speedy CPU, for under $3,000, Micron
announced new versions of their ultraportable GoBook2 and their beefier Trek2 portable
line. The $2,999 GoBook2 300 includes 32 MB of RAM, a 3.2 GB hard drive, 24x CD-ROM and a
12.1" active matrix screen in a diminutive package that’s 1.35 inches thick and
weighs 4.4 pounds. $2,799 buys you a 300 MHz Trek2 portable complete with 64 MB of RAM, a
3.2 GB hard drive, 24x CD-ROM and a 14" active matrix screen, but in a bigger,
heavier package. Gateway’s Solo 2500 XL offers a 13.3" active matrix screen, 64
MB of RAM, 6.4 GB hard drive, DVD-ROM drive and a 56K PC Card modem for $3,299.
- Speaking of notebooks, this week IBM announced a new
flat-panel display technology that offers about three to four times the resolution of many
of today’s notebook and flat-panel display screens. The first versions of the screen,
which IBM will apparently offer in the $6,000 ThinkPad 770 sometime next month, offers
approximately 150 pixels-per-inch resolution, versus the 70-to-90 ppi found in most
current flat panels. Future versions will offer up to 200 ppi. Although I’ve yet to
see this technology in action, the practical result is supposed to be a screen that looks
almost as clear as paper and is much easier to view than existing tube and flat-panel
monitors. Frankly, this technological advance has been a long time in coming and it will
do more to improve our computing experience than anything else we’ve seen in the last
five years or so. Watch for this technology to hit it big. IBM’s R&D labs this
week also announced the world’s smallest hard drives—about the size of a postage
stamp. Apparently the new Microdrives will be able to store about 340 MB and will make
their way into digital cameras, PDAs and other tiny devices sometime next year.
- At long last, Imation is apparently planning to release their
clear blue USB-based SuperDisk floppy drive for the iMac sometime this week. The $149
drive reads and writes regular Mac floppies as well as the high-density 120 MB LS-120
disks, which makes it an ideal backup product for the iMac. Just remember, if you already
have a few USB-based peripherals you may also have to invest in a USB hub with your
SuperDisk because most USB devices (the Apple USB keyboard being an important exception)
cannot be daisy-chained. In related news, Umax’ USB-based Astra 1220U 36-bit color
scanner is apparently now available as well.
- And speaking of scanners, several companies have introduced
and/or announced inexpensive new products over the last few weeks. First of all, Canon has
released the lowest-priced scanner I’ve ever seen. The FB 320P is a 300 dpi parallel
port-based 30-bit color flatbed scanner with a street price of just $79. Jump up to $99
for the FB 620P gives you 600 dpi optical resolution and an interpolated resolution of
2,400 dpi. Agfa’s new entrants are the $249 SnapScan 1236S and the $299 1236S
Artline, which includes a larger software bundle. The scanner in each package is a
SCSI-based, 36-bit scanner with 600 x 1,200 dpi optical resolution. Finally, Storm’s
newest entry is the $249 TotalScan Express, which currently has a $50 rebate. The
TotalScan Express is also a 36-bit, 600 x 1,200 dpi scanner, but it includes the
company’s new Blitz compression technology which improves the speed of scanning. In
addition, the product offers USB as well as parallel port connections and six buttons for
automating common functions, such as directly printing a scanned image.
- Avid Quicken users will be pleased to here that Intuit has
unveiled a new version of their favorite personal finance program for Windows-based
computers. The $59 Quicken 99 incorporates a new graphical "home page" that the
program opens up to, which provides a visual and numerical overview of your finances. In
addition the new version has other web-based enhancements and lots of minor ease-of-use
improvements. As with the 98 model year, several different versions of Quicken 99 are
available, including Quicken 99 Deluxe, the $89 Quicken 99 Home & Business or Quicken
99 Suite, and the $39 Quicken 99 Basic, all of which also include new features or other
enhancements. People who upgrade to most versions are eligible for a $20 rebate.
- Another day, another security hole for Microsoft’s
Internet Explorer. The most recent one, called the Cross-Frame Navigation hole, affects
virtually all versions of Internet Explorer on all platforms, including 3.0 and 4.0 for
PCs and Macs. This hole can conceivably let certain users copy files over the Internet
from your hard drive onto theirs, if they know the names and locations of the files.
Thankfully, Microsoft has released a patch to fix the hole, which you can find a link to
on my This Week’s Links page.
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