What You Need to Know about All Things PC
Volume 3 Number 07Click here to return to the back issues page.Click here to return to the main newsletter page.
What You Need to Know about All Things PC
Publisher: Lee Hudspeth and T.J. Lee
Editor in Chief: Dan Butler
Contributing Editor: Al Gordon
This issue is for Thursday, March 30, 2000 - Vol. 3 No. 07
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Table of Contents
** 01. Letter from the Publisher
** 02. Digital Subscriber Line: The Ecstasy, Part 2
(by Lee Hudspeth)
** 03. Wrapping Up the Palm Saga (by Al Gordon)
** 04. Register or Die in 50 Tries (by T.J. Lee)
** 05. And Then There Were Two (by Al Gordon)
** 06. Software Bargains
** 07. Featured Web Site - Larry's World Online News Sources
** 08. Featured Product - Catch-Up!
** 09. Featured Book - "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card
(by Lee Hudspeth)
** 10. Newsworthy - a potpourri of current events and
interesting stuff
** 11. We Get Mail
** 01. Letter from the Publisher
TNPC almost didn't go out this week. Dan Butler, our
Editor-in-Chief was sitting on the 50-yard line as two tornadoes
ripped through downtown Fort Worth, Texas. Fortunately Dan was
not whisked off to Oz although the building he was in will need
some serious urban renewal. Glad you're safe, Dan!
In this issue Lee finally makes that DSL connection and gives us
the wrap up. Al winds up his Palm saga and lets us know what's
going on in the voice recognition world. Jim took the easy way
out and let one of our many TNPC world-wide correspondents give
us some first-hand insight into the new Office 2000 SR-1
Registration Wizard.
Many thanks to those of you who have taken the time to fill out
our survey. We haven't started collating the results so it's not
too late to get your 2 cents in on what you like and don't like
in TNPC. In addition we're giving away a copy of one of the many
books we've written. You could wind up with a free copy of
"The Unofficial Guide to PCs" just for filling out our survey
form. So stop by and make sure your input is counted!
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/307/tr.cgi?1survey
As always, reader support is what keeps TNPC free, so please pass
a copy of TNPC on to co-workers and friends (no spam please!) and
always say "I saw it in TNPC!"
So now you know.
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** 02. Digital Subscriber Line: The Ecstasy, Part 2
(by Lee Hudspeth)
The most important thing I can tell you about DSL at my office
is:
IT'S WORKING!
After surviving the Kafka-esque order fiasco I described in the
last issue (#3.06), the installation of the "self-install kit"
and the DSL service itself was anti-climactic. So much so that,
while now surfing the Internet at a healthy 768 Kbps downstream,
I still have to occasionally pinch myself.
More TNPCers wrote to me about this topic than any other to date.
You were all sympathetic, and I thank you for that. Most of you
had your own horror stories to rival mine, while some lucky souls
related that getting DSL ordered and installed was like snapping
your fingers. I hope I didn't leave any of you with the
impression that I was about to give up on DSL, rather that I was
just thoroughly disgusted over GTE's inept handling of my order.
The lesson to be learned from my nightmare, or anyone's service-
oriented nightmare, is to take good notes, escalate when your
request for assistance is blocked, and persevere.
Here's how the actual install unfolded. This will give you an
idea of what to expect should your DSL provider offer a self-
install plan. All told, it only took an hour and a half to do the
following: unpack and inventory the equipment; install the
microfilters and modem; install and configure a second network
card (DSL modem connects to this network card while the other
network card provides PC-to-PC networking services); tweak some
simple browser and email client Internet connection settings (see
sidebar below); then reboot and verify that the modem had "three
greens." (This is telephone company jargon for the Power, Modem,
and Data lights on the DSL modem all lighting up green,
indicating a fully functional DSL connection.)
When I rebooted, I was *immediately* connected. GTE had honored
its commitment to handle whatever magic it does back at the
Central Office to actualize the service on my phone line, and to
leave my existing GTE access account unperturbed. Whew.
If you have access to DSL in your area, I strongly encourage you
to place the order. Once it's on, you'll be hooked.
(Sidebar: For those of you interested in the actual software
changes, all I had to do was flip Internet Explorer 5's dial-up
setting to never dial a connection, and tell Outlook to use the
LAN to connect. Steps in IE: Tools, Internet Options,
Connections, "Never dial a connection," OK. Steps in Outlook:
Tools, Services, select my Internet E-mail account, Properties,
Connection, "Connect using my local area network (LAN)," OK to
Confirm everything then close/restart Outlook.)
You can reach Lee Hudspeth at:
mailto:leehudspeth@TheNakedPC.com
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** 03. Wrapping Up the Palm Saga (by Al Gordon)
Thank you to all the TNPC readers who responded to my inquiry
about problems with the Palm. The short answer is that no one has
had the same catastrophes I have, so clearly I am either unlucky
or a total clod when it comes to Palm Pilots. I have checked back
with the company, and their preliminary thought is that I got the
wrong information when I contacted tech support after my first
meltdown. They promise to put me in touch with technicians who
are higher up in the food chain, and I will let you know what
they say.
Meanwhile, a thank you to John Pulliam of Plano, TX, who has a
background working with electronic business equipment and pointed
out to me that one should not dismiss the dangers of static
electricity. John observes that if the current is sufficient to
give you a painful shock, there is more than enough of a charge
to cause damage to electronic components. He also admonished me
that aside from needing to be less careless about static, I
should also pay greater attention to the alignment of Palm
connectors. Palms use an intricate array of 10 connector strips,
and it is always possible that the connection can go wrong if it
is made in haste.
You can reach Al Gordon at:
mailto:algordon@TheNakedPC.com
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** 04. Register or Die in 50 Tries (by T.J. Lee)
Tuesday, March 21st, saw the release of the first Service Release
for Office 2000. A plethora of bug fixes the service pack for
Office 2000, according to Microsoft, adds no new technology
beyond the new Auto Update and Save My Settings features. Auto
Update prompts you to download the latest updates and patches
over the Internet while Save My Settings lets you save all your
Office preference settings. Lisa Gurry, Office product manager
for Microsoft said, "We are recommending all [Office 2000] users
upgrade with SR-1. After all, it's based entirely on customer
feedback."
Uh-huh. Well, the Office 2000 SR-1 update also includes the new
Microsoft Office registration Wizard. This "feature" forces you
to register your copy of Office 2000 with Microsoft or Office
will stop working after you've run it 50 times. Microsoft claims
it needs to stop people using illegal copies and this is how
they're going to deal with it.
TNPC correspondent Fraser Farrell has provided us with his real-
world experiences with the registration Wizard.
"This registration Wizard 'feature' has been given a trial run in
Australia for the last several months.
Microsoft Australia suddenly ceased supplying Office 97 on 30
June 1999--much to the annoyance of computer services people
like myself--and thereafter would supply only Office 2000. The
hardware requirements for the latter make it an expensive
software update for many of my customers and a lot of them
decided not to bother.
I've grown to despise this Office 2000 registration process.
Registering Office 2000 via the Internet is generally impossible
here because the registration server is located at the local
Microsoft HQ and (surprise, surprise) it is frequently offline.
Registering by phone involves the typical we'll-put-you-on-hold-
for-30-minutes Microsoft routine.
If I have to install a number of machines with Office 2000 I try
to get them all to the point where they ask for the registration
key, then knowing I'll be stuck on the phone for hours I visit
the toilet, then the coffee maker, and only then make the phone
call to Microsoft. Needless to say this causes major disruption
to my customer's usual business activity because their computers
are unavailable until I complete the installs. And of course you
can only phone Microsoft Australia during their local business
hours and I'm in a different Australian time zone.
The actual registration key is requested near the end of the
Office 2000 installation; a process that in my experience can
take anywhere from 40 minutes to 3 hours depending on the speed
of the CD-ROM being used. You can skip registering and still use
Office the allowed 50 times, but this count of 50 includes all
attempts to use any of the Office programs. Including those
attempts where an Office program crashes as soon as it tries to
do some work!
However, the really annoying aspect of this registration
'feature' is that it is machine-specific. If I need to reinstall
Office 2000 for a customer (which has happened on several
occasions already) I need to use the specific Office CD disk and
the registration key that were used for the original install.
This can be a significant time waster if it's a large customer
with many PCs and a number of Office CDs. Experience has taught
me that writing the individual computer's name and registration
key on the Office CD-ROM disk installed on each system saves a
lot of subsequent aggravation.
Even more frustrating is that later changes to the hardware of a
specific machine may cause the properly installed and registered
version of Office 2000 to think it's suddenly an unregistered
version. I've had this problem on machines fitted with new hard
drives, when upgrading motherboards, when upgrading from Win95 to
Win98SE, and even when simply changing the registered username in
Win98.
Given the direction Microsoft is going in I'm encouraging my
customers to consider Lotus SmartSuite or StarOffice for their
new computers. Not only are they cheaper and less demanding in
terms of required hardware, there's none of these Microsoft
copyright protection schemes increasing the tech support costs
unnecessarily."
For more on the New Office 2000 SR-1 check out Paul Thurrott's
Windows SuperSite:
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/307/tr.cgi?sr1-1
You can reach T.J. Lee at:
mailto:tj_lee@TheNakedPC.com
** 05. And then There Were Two (by Al Gordon)
Or actually, about one and a half.
The business pages reported earlier this week that Lernout &
Hauspie Speech Products NV, No. 2 in the speech recognition
software market, purchased No. 1, Dragon Systems Inc., for about
$587 million. Adding Dragon's estimated 48 percent market share
to its own 36 percent, L & H now has a dominating position over
now No. 2, IBM. Just a typical computer-industry deal, as far as
most observers are concerned.
However, as noted on these pages Dragon Systems has a special
mind share with me.
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/backissues/v1i14.html
When repetitive motion injury severely limited my ability to use
a keyboard or a pen, along came the original version 1.0 of
DragonDictate for DOS, which helped me preserve my career as a
writer. To me, speech recognition is not just a cool toy, but a
lifesaver.
Back then, Newton, MA-based Dragon was locked in combat with its
Massachusetts rival, Kurzweil, in a battle for supremacy in that
segment. IBM entered the picture somewhat later. Dragon Systems
moved slowly but surely into the lead. For a time, it even
supplied speech recognition software to Microsoft for the old
Windows sound system. Dragon Systems then surprised the world by
being the first to market a practical continuous speech system,
one that allow users to talk in phrases or sentences instead of
having to dictate word-by-word. This article is being written on
the latest version of that product, NaturallySpeaking 4.0.
IBM's software only gained a modest following while Kurzweil fell
behind. L & H, a Belgian company, subsequently purchased Kurzweil
and made a run at Dragon in the marketplace. L & H benefited
from an alliance with Microsoft, which invested in the company,
and its products were optimized to provide good command and
control capabilities in Windows and Microsoft Office. Dragon,
meanwhile, was hampered by ties to WordPerfect, which included
NaturallySpeaking in some versions of its suites.
Dragon Systems was hampered even more by remaining a closely held
private concern under the tight control of founders Charles and
Janet Baker. Other than the sale of a piece of the company to
Seagate, Dragon remained private and independent long after most
analysts would have recommended a sale. Only after Charles Baker
had stepped down for health reasons was an IPO proposed last
year. But the IPO subsequently was withdrawn, with analysts
saying it would not have done well.
The denouement was inevitable. The better-funded fish with the
inferior product gobbled up the less-wealthy fish with the better
software. Speech recognition--despite its many limitations--
is on the way to becoming mainstream. Already in use in cars and
cell phones, its presence in those products will increase
substantially, speech recognition probably will find a home in
palm-sized devices and to operate household appliances. Firms
developing those uses will require deep pockets, and Dragon
Systems didn't have them.
Moreover, as always, Microsoft is a looming presence. Speech
recognition is expected to be built into future versions of
Office, and Redmond has a team working on its own software in
addition to the investment in L & H.
So, Dragon as I have known it is history. And all users can do
is hope that the new ownership has the good sense to build upon
Dragon Systems' technology rather than simply cast another
pioneering company into the technology trash can.
You can reach Al Gordon at:
mailto:algordon@TheNakedPC.com
** 06. Software Bargains
Mips makes software for printing checks from your laser or ink
jet printer. I've used this software in the past when I ran out
of checks and was waiting for my new checks to arrive. The
temporary checks worked just fine. Now you'll find several pieces
of software on their Web site either free for the download or
for the cost of the "shipping" charges. I say "shipping" because
the charge is $14.95 in the US and more for foreign. Seems a bit
high. So look at the actual cost of purchasing their software
before you buy. You'll find contact managers, scanning helpers,
form handlers, check printing software and more. While you can
download the check printing software for free, buying the
software gets you the paper to print your checks on.
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/307/tr.cgi?bargain
** 07. Featured Web Site - Larry's World Online News Sources
Sure you can search AltaVista about some news event and maybe
find a Web page but if you want to check for news, well, in the
news, jump over to the Online News Sources page on Larry's World
site. This page is the place to start to search for news in
technical publications, daily and weekly newspapers, weekly news
publications, news wire services, and even TV network news
sources. You can even search RealAudio or Video News Services and
magazines. Get the straight scoop from hard news sources using
the links Larry provides.
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/307/tr.cgi?fsite
** 08. Featured Product - Catch-Up!
Ever blown hours trying to find a software application update or
an updated hardware driver that you absolutely have to have? You
can search sites until the cyber-cows come home, or you can get a
free copy of Catch*Up from Manageable Software Services Inc.
Install Catch*Up and it scans your system for software it
recognizes (the most popular Windows 3.1 and Windows 95/98/NT
shareware, freeware and commercial software applications), for
hardware drivers and key system files, as well as important DLLs.
If there's a more recent version available you're prompted and
you can have Catch*Up download the latest upgrade for you. You
can specify that only production releases be found or you can
get the latest and greatest whether it's production, preview,
or beta. A great tool to keep you system humming in top shape.
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/307/tr.cgi?fproduct
** 09. Featured Book - "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card
(by Lee Hudspeth)
Occasionally we'll review a book outside the genre of the PC
industry. Here's one. "Ender's Game" is the first book in Card's
award-winning "Ender" science fiction quartet. It won both the
Hugo and Nebula awards. I found the concept, characters,
storytelling, and futuristic universe to be of the highest
caliber. This book and its three companions are as good as
science fiction gets. (Many thanks to Julianne Sharer for the
recommendation!) To give you a frame of reference, I rank this
book on a par with Isaac Asimov's Foundation works and David
Brin's first Uplift trilogy (a second Uplift trilogy is in
progress).
The most compelling aspect of "Ender's Game" is the protagonist
Andrew Wiggin, nicknamed Ender. He's the third child in a human
society where having a third child is positively obscene, but
this third child was sanctioned by the military. The military
sector has been selectively and mercilessly looking for expert
gamers, and Ender is far more adept at game-playing than any of
their subjects to date. He always wins, period. They need Ender
and other children like him to lead a desperate military campaign
that may well be the human race's last stand against a mysterious
and potent adversary. Ender is a child of great wisdom who sees
patterns--on both a local and a grand galactic scale--where no
one else does, he carries a deep sense of ethics, and he's
smaller than his peers. Yes, it's a fair guess that his path is a
rocky one. But I predict you won't be able to see the plot
coming, unless someone drops a hint, so in this review I will
refrain from a plot synopsis. (In fact, I suggest you *not* read
the book's back cover synopsis, either!)
Framing the book from this heroic man-child's perspective gives
it a tremendous richness and power. Goosebumps, tears, and
massive adrenalin rushes are guaranteed. If you have a favorite
sci-fi novel or series, I'd like to hear about it.
Note: this link takes you to a version of the book that includes
Card's own introduction to the story. I recommend you take the
time to get this version and to read his introduction.
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/307/tr.cgi?amazon1-us
You can reach Lee Hudspeth at:
mailto:leehudspeth@TheNakedPC.com
+++-----------------------------------------------------------+++
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** 10. Newsworthy - a potpourri of current events and
interesting stuff
*-* If you're thinking of going the cable modem route you should
check out this story that points out that as the number of users
on your cable loop increases, the more problems you'll have with
bandwidth issues.
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/307/tr.cgi?news1
*-* Find out what's really behind Microsoft's X-box. Like smoke
and mirrors. The demo hardware they used for the announcement
has no relationship at all to the hardware they said would
actually be the X-box when it ships a year from now). Cringely
nails the lid on the X-box.
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/307/tr.cgi?news2
*-* If the Graduate were to be filmed today, the one word would
not be "plastics" but "fiber-optic cable." The wizards at Bell
Labs have pushed data transmissions over fiber to speeds that
boggle the mind. 3.28 terabits per second. That's fast!
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/307/tr.cgi?news3
*-* If you want to separate the hype from the facts on the
Aureate DLLs hoo-haw then check out what Rob Rosenberger has to
say about it.
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/307/tr.cgi?news4
** 11. We Get Mail
Orville J. saw our Newsworthy bit last issue about there being
two Linux office suites (Star Office and the newly released Corel
Office) and points out that Applix Office has been out for some
time, sells for $99 in the Linux version, or $79 in the Windows
95/98 version.
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/t/307/tr.cgi?mail1
Be sure to stop by the Letters to the Editor page for more:
http://www.TheNakedPC.com/letters/index.html
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can vary with components, software, and operator ability. The
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ISSN: 1522-4422
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