If you were a 3Com Audrey or webpad hopeful, then you'll be interested in seeing the new generation of Internet PCs. Designed for families looking to have a PC for browsing, casual games, and home applications all with the familiar Windows XP Home operating system, the ASUS Eee Top ET1602 offers easy ways to interact using pen and touch.

ASUS Eee Top ET1602 in black. You can interact by using your finger or pen.

ASUS Eee Top ET1602 is available in white and with a USB keyboard. 

ASUS Eee Top ET1602 Specifications:

• 15.6" display
• Single point touch supported (finger or pen)
• Intel Atom N270 microprocessor with 945GSE + ICH7 chipset
• 1GB DDRII memory
• 160GB hard drive, SATA, 5400RPM
• 10/100/1000 Mbps LAN
• 802.11n WiFi
• 4 Hi-Fi speakers x 2+ SRS Premium Sound System
• 6 USB 2.0 ports
• Card reader
• 3 audio ports for 5.1 channel
• Mic port
• 65W power adapter, 19V DC, 3.42A
• Windows XP Home
• 9.5lbs

International CES 2009 starts this week and as product announcements roll out it will be easy to get engulfed by products on the trade show floor. However, CES is much more than vendor exhibits. It is one of the largest networking events in the industry and a conference with sessions discussing the future of the industry.

You can find the session list at http://www.cesweb.org/sessions/search/default.asp. Here are a few sessions that I find particularly interesting because they focus on current trends, such as solid state drives with mini-notebooks / netbooks, and future concentrations, like kids & our environment.

Which sessions do you hope to attend?

Conference Sessions

Track: Kids@Play: Building a Smarter World

Disruptive Technologies in Kids' Education
Friday, January 9 at 11:05AM - 12:05PM
The Venetian Lando 4203
Moderated by Sue Tave Zelman, SVP Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Panelists: George Cigale, CEO Tutor.com; Rob Franek, VP Publishing at The Princeton Review; Cheryl Petty Garnette, Director Technology in Education Programs, US Department of Education; David Lord, CEO of Knowledge Adventure; Adam Masur, VP Marketing at Tutor.com

Intel: A Vision for Education
Friday, January 9 at 2:15PM - 2:20PM
The Venetian Lando 4203

Intel plans to unveil a new design, adding to its Intel-powered classmate PC family at CES this year. The company will show off this latest design targeting the education space during our Kids@Play Summit.

What's Dust and What's Magic
Friday, January 9 at 3:30PM - 4:00PM
The Venetian Lando 4203
Speaker: Warren Bucleitner, PhD., Editor, Children's Technology Review
A spirited look at the best and worst of 2008 and what we can learn from them in 2009.

Track: Technology & The Environment

Better Batteries and a Greener Charger
Thursday, January 8 at 10:30AM - 11:30AM
LVCC, North Hall N254
Moderator: Suzanne Kantra
Panelists: Jerry Hallmark at Morotola, Christina Lamp-Onnerud of Boston-Power, James Prueitt of MTI MicroFuel Cells

Going Green: More than a Label
Thursday, January 8 at 12:00PM - 1:00PM
LVCC, North Hall N254
Moderator: Ron Schneiderman of Electronic Design
Panelists: Jeremy Arditi of Greenzer; John Frey of HP; Robert Scaglione of Sharp; David Thompson of Electronic Manufacturers Recycling Management Company (MRM); Mike Trainor of Intel

Track: Flash Memory

Collaboration Successes in enabling SSDs in a Windows Environment
Thursday, January 8 at 2:00PM - 3:00PM
LVCC, South Hall S104-105
Presenter: James Borden, Senior Technical Strategist, Microsoft

Solid State Drive Standardization Activities
Thursday, January 8 at 3:30PM - 4:00PM
LVCC, South Hall S104-105
Presenter: Scott Graham, Sr. Manager, Micron Technology, Inc.

Track: Just the Facts: Research, Reports, and Revelations

The Millennials' Influence on CE Purchases
Thursday, January 8 at 3:00PM - 4:00PM
LVCC, North Hall N264
Presenter: Ben Bajarin, Director, Consumer, Creative Strategies, Inc.

The Future of Display Technology in Consumer Electronics
Saturday, January 10 at 10:30AM - 11:30AM
The Venetian Lando 4302
Presenter: Sweta Dash, Director LCD and Projection Research, iSuppli Corp

InkLearn helps with learning to write in Chinese

- by Lora On Apr 28, 2005 - 8:14 AM

New Download:

InkLearn uses Tablet PC technology to create a breakthrough in Chinese learning software. Just write the character and recognize it instantly. Surpasses old cumbersome methods such as radical and stroke count lookup. Bring this tool and your Tablet PC anywhere, to help you read and write better Chinese at your convenience and leisure. (TabletPCPost.com)

Intel Reveals Plans For New Notebook Platform Tailored For Chinese University Student

- by Lora On Apr 28, 2005 - 12:07 AM

Neusoft Institute of Information Adopts Intel® Centrino™ Mobile Technology-Based Notebooks for More Than 8,000 Students

BEIJING, April 14, 2005 - Intel Corporation China today announced the next phase of its successful Intel® Mobile Initiative for Learning in Education, revealing plans for a new notebook platform specifically designed for Chinese university students. The new notebook platform, codenamed "Tanggula," will be stylish and light-weight, and will come in a range of affordable performance and entry-level designs for students and parents.

Intended for demanding university student uses and lifestyles, the new platform will include such features as enhanced security, wireless capability, and high quality sound and audio for multi-media enabled interactive learning and entertainment.1 The system will have specific features for students, which will be disclosed closer to the platform's introduction. Initial OEM systems based on the Tanggula platform are expected to be available in the second half of this year.

The Tanggula notebook platform from Intel will also feature Common Building Block Program-compliant notebook sub-system ingredients. The Common Building Block program is an initiative to define common notebook ingredients based on pre-existing industry specifications in order to improve ingredient consistency and notebook quality while reducing notebook assembly costs and time-to-market for manufacturers.

Intel also announced that Neusoft Institute of Information's entire student body of more than 8,000 has been equipped with Intel® Centrino™ mobile technology-based notebooks and wireless LAN successfully tested and deployed through the Intel Mobile Initiative for Learning in Education.

Launched in 2004, the Intel Mobile Initiative for Learning in Education aims to accelerate the adoption of mobile computing and wireless technologies in more than 300 universities throughout the Asia Pacific region. More than 100 universities are participating in the program in China. (Intel.com)

Intel Mobile Platform SDK: Network Detection

- by Lora On Apr 27, 2005 - 11:47 PM

Learn how to use the Intel® Mobile Platform SDK to extract Network device information. Also included are code samples written in C# for the Windows XP* platform.

The ability for an application to determine the status of available network(s) is an important factor in the resource constrained Mobile application arena, since wireless connections cannot be assumed to be always available (possibly a bad assumption for wired networks also). Applications need the capability to determine the current status of network devices and take the appropriate action(s) when connect or disconnect events occur. For example, a mobile platform moves out of range from an access point (AP), or the signal is blocked. The Intel® Mobile Platform Software Development Kit (Intel® Mobile Platform SDK) provides a common framework (for developers) to retrieve properties of network devices and to monitor the appropriate current network status.

This paper demonstrates how to use the Intel® Mobile Platform SDK to extract Network device information. It also includes code samples written in C# for the Windows XP* platform. (Intel.com)

More notes from WinHEC Day 2: Aspire to a PC per Person

- by Lora On Apr 27, 2005 - 11:39 PM

Bill Mitchell, Corporate VP of Mobile Platforms Division encourages hardware companies to “aspire to a PC per person”, as Microsoft wants to do. He urges them to also consider the barriers to this dream, such as form factors, battery life, and all around time access to data.

He says that Microsoft has taken a look at the current buying trends of thin and light mobile PCs and sees investing in this area as important. The effort has brought the price difference between Tablet PCs and traditional notebooks down as low as $100. However, he also encourages investment in ultra-mobile designs. The logic is consistent with the more places people can take a PC, the more ways people will be able to use a PC. It's a good direction and Bill Mitchell reminds the audience that getting the right hardware will improve customer experience with Tablet features.

Robert Williams, Director of Tablet PC Business Development, demonstrated ways that hardware vendors can introduce positive customer interest through the new Experience Pack for Tablet PC. I was sitting half way back in the room, which was filled with a few hundred people. People actively nodded their heads as Williams demonstrated the Media Transfer Tool, Ink Desktop, and Energy Blue skin to the Media Player.

Next the presentation moves on to Longhorn and mainstreaming mobility. Form factor improvements are needed. Mitchell shows off the new Acer hinge with built in kickstand. There are plenty of opportunities for hardware vendors to differentiate.

* Innovative mobile PC form factors - opportunity to build more devices
* High end graphics
* Aux Display
* Touch screen
* High-resolution wide-screen
* Ambient light sensor
* Array microphone
* TPM 1.2
* Wireless peripherals

LH time frame goals:

* 1-2 second resume time from sleep vs cold boot
* 5-6 second resume from disk
* 10-15 second boot time

The focus is on the user and answering the user's question of, "How fast can I use it?" [my data]

Andy Fuller demonstrates an ASUS mobile PC with an auxiliary display, which is an LCD on the outside casing that allows you to get faster access to information even if a lid is closed on the computer.

* ISVs can extend application
* 221 x 76 TFT screen
* User has control about what app they want to see displayed
* Data cached so access when PC in in standby or hibernate
* Example apps to be displayed: Email, Media Player (Media Player wakes PC)
* Showed PowerPoint being extended to SmartPhone for reviewing slides

Continuing with the theme of making PCs useful in more places and in more situations, Darin Fish introduces Longhorn supporting touch support. A circular, translucent widget allows simple navigation at the touch of a fingertip.
Why would hardware companies want to add touch? A top surface digitizer can help reduce cost because it does not use a kangaroo pocket, as active digitizers do. One more choice.

Bill Mitchell reiterates that more form factor choices, faster access to data, and being able to use a mobile PC more hours in a day are important goals for the team. People want PCs to be more convenient to carry. "Carry-everywhere form factor" will help enable a mobile PC per person, as will creating a richer and more natural software interaction. The converse is that larger mobile PCs become the new desktop for people.

Intel shows their similar model in their session.

Pictures from WinHEC

- by Lora On Apr 27, 2005 - 8:51 AM

Terri Stratton uploaded her photos from WinHEC.

Intel Describes Digital Office Concept Desktop

- by Lora On Apr 27, 2005 - 8:33 AM

Intel described it's Digital Office Concept Desktops at WinHEC yesterday. Intel asserts that future systems should combine thin and light notebook form factors with power and performance of traditional desktop PCs. What's the goal? Desktops to be 100% compaible with notebook so corporations can reduce the total cost of ownership by using 1 image and 1 configuration.

Intel shows 8.9" Mobile Entertainment PC slate at WinHEC

- by Lora On Apr 27, 2005 - 8:19 AM

During the Industry Viewpoint: Realizing Intel's 2006 Mobile Platform Vision WinHEC session, Intel showed off a fully functional demonstration version of future slates. Here are my notes from that session:

Mobile EPC Model
* Ship in 2006 as an "On-the-Go Entertainment PC"
* Specs

8.9" wide screen
2.5 lbs
Fanless design
Touch screen with hand-held controls
EL Panel (Electroluminescence)
Bluetooth wireless technology
Integrated popout camera
WLAN
GPS Navigation System
Detachable DVD Drive
Fingerprint sensor
This example has a red case

* This PC supports full media center experience - Detachable DVD on the back
* Full blown Sonoma platform
* Usages

On-the-Go:
Synch-and-Go - watch movies, play games, and listen to music through car stereo
Outside In - access music, photos, and personal media on your home network while away
LBS Points of interest - find restaurants, city guides, and directions
Share media - show pictures, stream video through friend's digital media adaptor

In the home:
Download media from home devices
Secondary PC

* How On-the-go digital entertainment works - synch-n-go demo
* Plug in for Media Center Edition to allow to take content on the road
* Scan local home network to find UPnP server installed

WinHEC Day 2

- by Lora On Apr 26, 2005 - 11:16 PM

WinHEC Day 2 began by listening to Bill Mitchell review the direction of Mobile PCs and ended with dinner at the Wild Ginger with Jed Rose, Jake Ludington, Frank Gocinski, Terri Stratton, Chris Pirillo, Jay Kenny, and many many others. All in all a great day. I'll post my notes tomorrow. Time to get some sleep.

The China Post article

- by Lora On Apr 25, 2005 - 8:30 AM

I haven't confirmed this with anyone yet, but The China Post has an article that appears to include an inaccurate interpretation of today's news about future Tablet PC hardware form factors. "Microsoft plans to bring its own tablet PC to the market." It's actually that at WinHEC Microsoft is showing design that could be used by hardware manufacturers.

The Tablet PC of Your Dreams

- by Lora On Apr 25, 2005 - 8:21 AM

Bill Gates is showing off a Tablet PC sometime today… It’s as thin as 10 sheets of paper, has a 6 inch screen, a battery that lasts all day, and costs just $800.

I don’t know about you but my heart sure started pitter-pattering when I saw this news… then I read further. Apparently it’s still just a concept. And it’s not expected to be available for several more years. (The Gadget Files Tech Gadget)

Gates trumpets tiny Tablet

- by Lora On Apr 25, 2005 - 8:18 AM

Microsoft chairman Bill Gates will unveil a concept for a next-generation mobile device later today. The 'Carry Everywhere PC' has a 6in screen, a battery that "lasts all day" and is as thin as 10 sheets of paper.

Mobile computing will be one of the main themes of Gates's opening keynote at WinHEC in Seattle, Neil Charney, product manager for the Windows Client Group, told vnunet.com.

Mobility is set to share the spotlight with Longhorn and the unveiling of 64-bit versions of Windows. (VNunet.com)

Gates to Preview Windows' Third Decade

- by Lora On Apr 25, 2005 - 8:16 AM

Microsoft officials previewing Gates' keynote for reporters say that in addition to launching x64, Gates is expected to focus on the increased importance of products enabling mobility, such as tablet PCs powered by Windows XP Professional Tablet PC Edition.

Gates is slated to show several new tablets, including ones that cost only $100 more than identical non-tablet products. Additionally, he's expected to show off a reference design for a post-Longhorn ultraportable that has a 9-inch screen, is no thicker than 10 sheets of paper, and will be operated by pen or voice commands. Another concept design that Longhorn will support will be a notebook with an auxiliary display on the lid, so that, for example, you could check your calendar without having to boot up the system. (PC World)

WinHEC: New Era Begins

 

- by Lora On Apr 25, 2005 - 8:12 AM

 

Gates, for instance, will demonstrate a "mainstream mobility" machine that is extremely thin and lightweight, sporting a 12-inch screen and integrated optical drive, said Greg Sullivan, lead product manager for the Windows client. This Kinesis device, scheduled for availability in 2006, will run Longhorn and will be "instant-on, instant-use [and] feature nonvolatile RAM," he said. The screen will slide up and down to convert from tablet to the laptop form factor easily, he added.

Microsoft also plans to demonstrate a new auxiliary display feature in Longhorn that will allow instant access to PowerPoint presentations and the ability to display e-mails and calendar info from displays embedded in these new form factors without booting up the PC.

Beyond Longhorn, Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft also will showcase a new "carry-everywhere" form-factor device weighing from 1 pound to 2 pounds Sullivan said. "This is a mockup prototype [and is] ultramobile, superthin, superlight, always-connected and will support touch input and natural language stuff." (CRN)

Microsoft dreams up low-cost mini-tablet PC

- by Lora On Apr 25, 2005 - 8:10 AM

Microsoft on Monday plans to show off pretty much the dream portable computer--a tiny tablet computer as thin as 10 sheets of paper with a camera, a battery that lasts all day and a price of about $800.

The only problem is that it's still several years from reality.

Microsoft commissioned the 6-inch-screen prototype, but still doesn't know exactly when it will be commercially feasible. It will probably come at least a year or two after the arrival of Longhorn, the new version of Windows set to ship at the end of next year.

Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates will show off the mini-tablet as part of a speech highlighting plans for the third decade of Windows. The speech will kick off the company's Windows Hardware Engineering Conference in Seattle.
The software maker also plans to show off some PCs that are closer to delivery.

One is a notebook with a separate display on the outside of the laptop--good for viewing schedules or e-mails without booting the full systems. Support for such auxiliary displays is one of a number of laptop-related features that Microsoft plans to add with Longhorn.

Gates also plans to show off a next-generation tablet PC from Acer. Unlike other notebooks that swivel to switch between notebook and slate designs, the new Acer model features a keyboard that slides down.

Microsoft said it is starting to see some progress in sales of current tablets, too, following the release of a new version of the Tablet PC operating system last year. In the March-ending quarter, the company saw Tablet PC sales increase 64 percent versus the year earlier. (ZDNet)

Gates to offer up a peek at the future

- by Lora On Apr 25, 2005 - 8:07 AM

The most far-out machine is a small tabletlike PC about as thick as 10 sheets of paper with a 6-inch screen and weighing 1 to 2 pounds. It supports a built-in camera and, like a cellphone, runs for a full day on a single battery charge. Microsoft expects computer makers will be producing similar systems a few years after Longhorn is released.
Closer to reality are Longhorn-based laptops with an auxiliary display screen built into the cover. The idea is to display a few lines of information, such as the time or a message, similar to the small displays on some clamshell-type cellphones that show time and call information without having to open the device.

Another machine is a prototype thin Tablet PC with a sliding cover. (Seattle Post Intelligencer)

Gates to offer Longhorn update, new prototypes of Tablet PCs

- by Lora On Apr 25, 2005 - 8:04 AM

Microsoft will look to show progress this week on meeting two of its toughest challenges -- gaining broader adoption of Tablet PCs and completing the next version of Windows.

Opening the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference this morning, Bill Gates is expected to describe some of the Redmond company's latest planning and work on Longhorn, the next Windows version, which is due on the market next year after a series of delays. Attendees will receive a preview version of Longhorn and get information to help them build computers for the next Windows version.

Gates also will show prototypes and products that build on the Tablet PC concept, which hasn't caught on among consumers to the degree that Microsoft and others in the computer industry once predicted. (Seattle Post Intelligencer)

Is Channel9 and blogging transparency or is it customer support?

- by Lora On Apr 24, 2005 - 5:53 PM

I've considered posting information online as a form of organizing information for multiple people to learn and improve communication about products. One result of these online transactions is transparency. Others are establishing credibility and publicly supporting technology and partners working with that technology.

Vic Gundotra shares his questions about what information to disclose publicly and what to keep private. Not surprisingly, he connects his post to the recent Steve Ballmer email that full time employees received about a local political stand and Robert Scoble's open response that that email.

Friday

- by Lora On Apr 24, 2005 - 5:02 PM

Friday afternoon was bright and sunny, so when Trevor Claiborne, Microsoft Tablet PC MVP, and Mick Stanic of The Podcast Network came to visit Building 32 we went outside to talk. We chatted about campus squirrels and ravens, podcasting, communication, and more. Have you noticed how bold the ravens and squirrels are that go in and out of the trash cans scavenging for food?

Of course, at one point it became a little too comedic. We were out front of the cafeteria, where the tables have attached seats. The table at which we were sitting had only 3 seats and originally had 4. A friend arrived and I stood up to say hello. When I popped up the table fell fell over, and tossed Trevor and Mick onto their backsides. I didn't knock the table so it must have been the weight distribution... although even one of them weighs more than I do. Trevor hit his knee, I'm sure Mick wasn't as comfortable as he said, my cell phone went flying and landed in my cup of water and rolled to the ground, and soda went all over Trevor and Mick. Oddly enough, they both said they were OK. After confirming that they weren't injured more than they were admitting, we quickly switched tables and continued our conversation. What an afternoon!

The Podcast Network's growth is encouraging. I think the success is an indication that on-demand content delivery is entering another stage of acceptance. And have you seen The Student Tablet PC Blog and Forums lately??!!! Very cool.

In defense of the company I love

- by Lora On Apr 24, 2005 - 3:03 PM

As I looked down out of the window of that plane (flying from Seatac Airport) I saw homes, police stations, hospitals, retail stores, schools and churches. On my Tablet PC was the plan for the further unveiling of the next generation of Windows (Longhorn) at our Professional Developers Conference in September.

I thought about this. I'm working on software that is going to touch virtually everything I can see out the window of this plane. Almost every home, police station, hospital, store, school and church is running our software today - and Longhorn is going to make things a lot better in a lots of ways.

My uncles, my cousins, my friends, they are running Windows today. I'm playing a part in developing, testing, and bringing to market software will affect millions. That's empowering. Just look out the window.
Are you doing work that touches so many people? I am. And I love it. (Vic Gundotra)

Microsoft, Hardware Vendors Prep for WinHEC

- by Lora On Apr 24, 2005 - 1:33 PM

Microsoft officials, from product managers to the top brass, look to be busy starting Monday with the arrival of attendees to the WinHEC (Windows Hardware Engineering Conference) in Seattle.

At the annual gathering, system and device vendors as well as a number of ISVs will look for the latest skinny on the various Windows platforms, including 64-bit support and, according to sources, a new mini Tablet/eBook hybrid form factor. (eWeek)

Reflowable Ink: Simple Reflow

- by Lora On Apr 22, 2005 - 9:01 AM

This article is the first in a series that will explore adding reflow capability to Ink. In this article I will explore the use of the InkDivider object to analyze an Ink object for the identification of paragraphs, lines, and words; calculate a new layout for the Ink, given available horizontal space; and render the Ink using this new layout.

Future articles will expand on this idea, exploring real-time reflow calculation, mechanisms for inserting writing space within a paragraph, Ink Reflow as a RealTimeStylus plug-in, a Reflow Edit control, and other topics.

Introduction

Since text was moved from hard paper into the realm of software with the advent of the word processor, users of computer applications have come to expect that text will automatically flow to the next Line when there is not adequate space for text on a Line, and that this reflow will be recalculated when the window's size is changed so text remains visible to the viewer.

In 2002, Microsoft introduced through the Tablet PC Platform a fundamental kind of information to the software world: Ink. The intended purpose of Ink varies more widely than text (drawings, tables, notes), but it is harder to make reflow behavior happen automatically in Ink-enabled applications.

There are scenarios where reflow would be useful, however, including instant messaging and handwritten prose. Ink Reflow is relevant anywhere that handwriting is to be perceived as text by the user and application. (MSDN.microsoft.com)

Media Transfer on Tablet PCs

- by Lora On Apr 22, 2005 - 8:54 AM

Due to my busy lifestyle I don't always get the chance to watch my TV shows live to air, so I set my MCE PC to record these shows for me. I can then watch these shows at any time I wish via the TV in my lounge. MCE has allowed me to take this experience away from the PC in my study to a more comfortable environment in the lounge. Doesn't sound too fancy yet? It get's better. How many times have you been travelling and thought to yourself, "Geez this is a waste of time...it would be much better if I could be say watching the soapie I recorded last night." My preferred portable device for watching soapies is actually my Toshiba M200 Tablet PC. With the help of the "Media Transfer" application that is a part of the "Experience Pack for Tablet PC", I can just power on my tablet select the media (TV, music, photos) I want to take with me and queue it for transfer (yes this assumes that I am wirelessly in range of my MCE PC). It doesn't get any easier than that! The M200 Tablet is also great on planes. How many times have you had the bloke in front recline their seat all the way back so that you can't get a good angle on your display. Not a problem...rotate the screen 180 degrees...and shove it into the seat pocket...adjust until you get the optimal viewing angle. (Nam's blog)

Sony, Toshiba Seek Unified DVD Format

- by Lora On Apr 22, 2005 - 8:48 AM

Sony and Toshiba said Thursday they are in negotiations about how to resolve their competing next-generation optical disk formats, aiming to give consumers a unified video technology.

But both sides played down a report in the business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun Thursday that said the Japanese electronics makers were on the verge of agreeing on a compromise "hybrid" next-generation DVD format as soon as this month.

In the battle for a high-definition successor to DVDs, Tokyo-based Sony — which also has movie, music and video-game businesses — leads an international group promoting the Blu-ray Disc format. A rival group led by Toshiba is promoting the HD-DVD format. Each has the support of several big electronics makers and movie studios.

The rivalry could spur another battle between standards reminiscent of the fight in the 1980s in videocassette recorder standards, between the Sony-backed Beta and VHS, backed by Matsu****a Electric Industrial's VHS eventually won that battle. In next-generation DVDs, Matsu****a-owned Panasonic is in the same Blu-ray camp as Sony. (CRN)

The Race Is On: Eighth-graders go to college for help with vehicle design

- by Lora On Apr 22, 2005 - 8:46 AM

The crowd is cheering. Pennants are waving. Cars are racing toward the finish. One might confuse it with a bigtime automobile race—if not for the fact that this one involves a track a few inches wide with cars small enough to fit in one's palm.

It's Race Day at Lehigh University's Manufacturing Expo, the culmination of a collaborative project between college engineering students at Lehigh and eighth-graders from neighboring Broughal Middle School. Over the course of a school term, small groups of students—each with two eighth-graders and three Lehigh mechanical engineering students—work together to design, engineer, and build miniature vehicles.

The project began four years ago when Lehigh professors John Coulter and Herman Nied invited Broughal's Lori Cirucci and her students to take part in an annual engineering project, but without a culminating Race Day. Cirucci jumped at the chance.

"My main goal," Cirucci says, "was to expose my eighth-grade students to the computer-assisted design (CAD) software that is used by many colleges and universities." (Intel)

Tablet can be suitable sub for a mouse

- by Lora On Apr 22, 2005 - 8:28 AM

The Tablet PC, essentially a laptop that allows you to write or draw on the screen, is one alternative, but you don't have to invest in a new computer to have a tablet. You can buy a tablet separately and attach it to your PC or laptop.
Artists are the most common users of tablets because tablets allow natural sketching and something akin to painting digitally on screen in a way no mouse can. But growing numbers of other users are experimenting with tablets to make computing feel more natural. (Seattle Times)

House of the future... today - includes Tablet PCs

- by Lora On Apr 22, 2005 - 8:26 AM

Internet shopping can be done in the kitchen by scribbling on a tablet PC equipped with handwriting recognition software, while in all the bedrooms, Philips Streamium wireless media boxes plugged into hi-fis can play music stored downstairs on the living room computer.

and later

We are trying to prove that this is not complicated - and that it can fit seamlessly into people's lives now," he said. "It is becoming more and more family orientated and less and less male dominated." (Telegraph.co.uk)

Live performance software controlled with Tablet PC

- by Lora On Apr 22, 2005 - 8:22 AM

HiQnet allows the networking of various Harman audio components and the ability to control them from a central spot, such as a tablet PC or the Vista console. The cue list window of the console can then fire off HiQnet ‘Venue Recall’ messages that can change the settings of the attached HiQnet-based units. (ZioShow)

Improved Pen based Aircraft Log Book by ASI Entertainment

- by Lora On Apr 22, 2005 - 8:18 AM

ASI Entertainment is in the news again with its improved Aircraft Log Book system.

"Pentastic" features a Write-Over (Ink-over) mechanism that allows the user to write straight over the top of already recognized characters. "Tap-Change" is also a smart method of flipping through predefined character sets and case styles. Individual character cell block recognition ensures accuracy and speed whilst aircraft FMC-format data entry ensures that pilots adapt easily to this new technology. POP-UP customized sub forms with background data calculations and validation take standard airline documentation to a new level. A signature capture field and aviation specific block recognition libraries makes this technology really "Pentastic." (BusinessWire)

The Tablet PC Show #6 Podcast

- by Lora On Apr 21, 2005 - 9:28 AM

James continues to describe what he wants in a mini-Tablet PC: ability to run full applications and Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, good docking, good connectivity, array microphone, and more.

He also goes over rumors about IBM entering the Tablet PC market and states how he thinks this is important for corporations that are "IBM only".

Toshiba has moved full force into Tablet PCs with addition of Tecra M4

- by Lora On Apr 20, 2005 - 3:34 PM

Toshiba now offers 4 Tablet PCs:

Portege M200 Tablet PC
Satellite R10 Tablet PC
Satellite R15 Tablet PC
and now the Tecra M4 Tablet PC.

Each model has it's own positive feature set, with R10 being set at a low price for home users and the Tecra M4 for those who want the best of today's technology. How much do you have to pay for the best? Tecra M4 starts at $1999.

M4-S435

The Tecra M4-S435 is packed with productivity features: Intel® Centrino™ Mobile Technology; 14.1" high resolution display; high speed memory, hard drive, and wireless LAN (802.11g). Did I mention the unlimited storage of a Dual Layer DVD SuperMulti drive?

Intel® Pentium® M Processor 740 (1.73GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 533MHz FSB)
Microsoft® Windows® XP Tablet Edition
No Microsoft® Office software
nVIDIA® GeForce™ Go 6200 TE 64M with dedicated 64MB DDR SDRAM
512MB PC4200 DDR2 533MHz SDRAM (512MBx1)
14.1" SXGA+ Display (1400x1050)
60GB (Serial-ATA, 5400rpm)
8X DVD-SuperMulti drive (Dual Layer)
Intel PRO\Wireless 2200BG (802.11b/g)
3-Yr Limited Warranty
Microsoft® Office OneNote
Microsoft Works
3-USB (2.0) ports
TV-out (S-Video) port
IEEE 1394 port
Fast Infrared port
V.92/56K modem port
10/100/1000 LAN port
Headphone jack
Microphone jack (mono)
Parallel port
RGB monitor port

The 12" display is still appealing to me, but if you like a 14" display and want the most recent in today's technology, then the Tecra M4 is now a good option for you.

More on Channel9 Wikis

- by Lora On Apr 20, 2005 - 3:22 PM

A few of you have brought the Channel9 Tablet PC Wikis up to me over IM. I'm glad you think it's a good idea to have open communication between developers and that Microsoft will actually encourage this. Now, you just need to post your ideas on the Wiki itself!!

The wiki is open to you. You add the feedback and maintain it. Here are a couple quick steps to follow, in case you've never used a wiki before:

1. Log into Channel9. You can use your .NET passport.
2. Go to the Tablet PC wiki section.
4. Navigate to the Wiki of your choice. Let's go to TabletPCFeedback, where you can add info about what tools you need or features you want.
4. On the left column, there is a way to track and make changes. Click Edit.
5. This Edit page allows you to add or remove content to the page. Remember, this is a wiki so you may update any info at any time (be respectful please). You can just type and if you want to indent or create a new section, follow the outline patterns.

Sara Lee of Tablet PCs

- by Lora On Apr 20, 2005 - 1:03 AM

I was told again tonight, "you're the Sara Lee of Tablet PCs." I'm not too sure about getting all these nick names. "First family of Tablet PCs", "Sara Lee of Tablet PCs", what's next?

Every time I hear "Sara Lee" I think of my best friend from high school. Her name is Carla Croissant and she works for HP Ireland these days. When her parents were choosing a name for her, they almost picked "Sara Lee". Yes, she would have been Sara Lee Croissant. She'd joke about how she could have said about herself, "Nobody doesn't like Sara Lee Croissant", enough so that's what I associate the phrase with, and not the food brand and its popular slogan.

TEO 2.0 remains #1 download

- by Lora On Apr 20, 2005 - 12:24 AM

Last month Josh celebrated the fact that TEO 2.0 was the #1 download on TabletPCPost.com. TEO 2.0 has not only held #1 position, but also was downloaded over 1000 times in that time. Congratulations, again, Josh!

Geeky evening

- by Lora On Apr 19, 2005 - 10:16 PM

Great afternoon with Marc Orchant, Mick Stanic, and Buzz Bruggeman. This evening we all headed over to Crossroads Mall and I finally got to meet Ponzi.

The evening passed quickly as she caught me up on details surrounding Gnomedex. Gnomedex is going to be great - registration and sponsorships are right on track, and best of all it looks like many Tablet PC users are attending. So, once again, if you're attending Gnomedex and would like to help organize getting Tablet PC owners and those interested in Tablet PCs together for a couple hours, let me know.

Ponzi is so easy to talk with. We even talked about differences between working in corporations and running small businesses, which led to me going on and on about how fun it is to work with ISVs because they are creating all these new companies. I have tremendous respect of their efforts. Ponzi certainly does too.

Channel9 Wikis

- by Lora On Apr 19, 2005 - 9:32 PM

Channel9 Tablet PC Wikis were updated to include lists of Tablet PC Development tools and feedback areas for the SDK. The structure is setup. Now you can add your ideas.

Microsoft Scraps System Center

- by Layne On Apr 19, 2005 - 2:54 PM

Quote:

Microsoft announced that it plans to release major upgrades of SMS called "Version 4" and MOM dubbed "Version 3.0" in the Longhorn wave of Windows product upgrades in 2006 and 2007.

Reference
Rooney, P. (2005, April 19). Microsoft Scraps System Center. Retrieved April 19, 2005, from CRN.

Goodbye Microsoft, Hello Skype

- by Lora On Apr 19, 2005 - 12:00 AM

Lenn Pryor (Microsoft Channel9) is leaving Microsoft and joining Skype. Good luck, Lenn. It should be exciting to see Skype grow.

Intel Unveils Long-Range Wireless Technology

- by Layne On Apr 18, 2005 - 9:39 PM

Intel released details of their new wireless technology Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax).
References

Musgrove, M. (2005, April 19). Intel Unveils Long-Range Wireless Technology. Retrieved April 18, 2005, from Washington Post

MEDC Special Offer

- by Lora On Apr 18, 2005 - 9:36 PM

James Pratt says the Mobile Devices group has another special offer for MEDC

Brand New Blog Discount Code (CAATTAR)

Our last blog discount was so successful we thought we'd offer another one before the Early Bird discount expires. Currently if you register before April 20th you'll get a special price of $995 which is $200 off the standard registration fee. If you're one of the first 50 to register before April 20th with the RSVP code CAATTAR you'll get an EXTRA $100 off!

PC Magazine Links to TabletPCPost.com

- by Lora On Apr 18, 2005 - 7:37 PM

I was just flipping through TabletPCPost.com's referrer log and see that PC Magazine now links to it! Super!

Tablet PC fans helping out MSN Search

- by Lora On Apr 18, 2005 - 7:22 PM

MSN Search invited a group of people to Microsoft's campus this week to lend a little insight into the wants, needs, and ideas of users. Included in this group are Marc Orchant, Buzz Bruggeman, Chris Pirillo, and Mick Stanic. Buzz suggested noon as a good time for a few people from the Tablet PC team to stop in and say hello. So, Arin Goldberg (Tablet PC Technical Evangelist), Michelle McKelvey (Tablet and Mobile PC Technical Evangelist), Tina Snyder (Tablet PC Content Coordinator) and I crashed the lunch break. Robert Scoble arrived shortly after to pass out Channel9 guys.
We weren't over with the MSN Search Champs for a long time, but long enough to say hello and make plans for later. Marc, Mick, Buzz and possibly a few others are going to join us over in Building 32 tomorrow afternoon. Then at 7PM, several people are gathering for dinner at Crossroads. Bring your Tablet PC!

"Start Something"

- by Layne On Apr 18, 2005 - 9:42 AM

Microsoft is ready to grab your ears, eyes, and hopefully your thoughts with a new ad campaign affectionately called "Start Something." Um. Is there a hidden meaning in this campaign?

Let us see ...
Hidden Microsoft Meaning #1: Start Something. Anything ! Please. We must get excited about Something!
Hidden Microsoft Meaning #2: Start Something. Yeah. Like please start buying.
Hidden Microsoft Meaning #3: Start Something. Um. Will my computer start up again after a crash?
Hidden Microsoft Meaning #4: The first song on the Album with this name was “Last Train Home." Yikes.
Hidden Microsoft Meaning #5: The artists for the Song were "Lostprophets". See hidden meaning #2.

Quote:

The "Start Something" campaign also underscores one of Microsoft's selling points -- the large "ecosystem" of software and devices that connect to Windows. The various elements of the campaign refer to a new Web site, http://www.windows.com/, which includes information about software and devices that work in conjunction with the widely used operating system.

Now, on a positive note. The Tablet PC from Motion is prominent in the educational section of the new http://web.archive.org/web/20050422010056/http://www.windows.com/ website. Very cool !

Reference
Bishop, T. (2005, April 18). Microsoft Notebook: New ad campaign aims to 'start something' with XP. Retrieved April 18, 2005, from Seattle PI.

Adobe buys Macromedia for $3.4 billion

- by Lora On Apr 18, 2005 - 7:59 AM

Wow! This should yield an amazing company, as if both weren't already.

Taste of my own medicine with Tablet PCs

- by Lora On Apr 17, 2005 - 11:56 PM

After helping a friend try to recover data from an old Windows 98SE desktop system that was ravaged by a virus, we went shopping in the greater Seattle area for a Tablet PC. We started in Lynnwood and stopped the excursion in Bellevue, hitting many local and retail stores in that 25+ mile stretch. We found several Averatec C3500 Tablet PCs in inventory for between $999 and $1199 and a few "open box" or display Toshiba Portege M200s for between $1399 and $1599. Many places had sold out on Tablet PCs and expected more stock shortly, but didn't have "the right one" on Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon.

At one point on Saturday evening, my friend decided to just get the Averatec C3500 Tablet PC. Circuit City had it in stock. It could be returned in 14-days if there happened to be a problem. An overactive possible-fraud-detection-creditcard-processing-system put a hiccup in the purchasing process, so decided it was best to wait until the morning to decide.

So today, Sunday, we checked inventory online before heading out to the stores, in search of a Toshiba Satellite R10 Tablet PC. Our online search told us that CompUSA in downtown Bellevue had the R15 in stock. Could have gone home with it today. No R10s, but at least an R15 would give my friend a good idea about the design. After a few minutes playing with the R15, my friend was sold on the design: the screen was clear, included an internal optical drive, pen was easy to use, weight was good, internal DVD with TV out port, 14" display was a little bigger than wanted, but worth the compromise.

I was pleasantly surprised by this shopping experience. I was relieved to find CompUSA after going into some of the other places. Oh, sure, we had a few good laughs, like a mock pen near one Averatec and photos of a Toshiba Tablet PC underneath another Averatec. Mainly though, this exercise certainly reinforced my want for Windows Experience Centers to help people learn more about mobile PC choices.

IBM tablet

- by mmeier On Apr 15, 2005 - 6:06 AM

look at this on the ibm website:
"This request is under consideration and we hope to announce plans for Tablet PC support some time in 2005. "
http://web.archive.org/web/20050422010056/http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:3M-474XR1cIJ:www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss%3Frs%3D463%26uid%3Dswg21106884+ibm+tablet+pc&hl=de

Active Ink Software Launches a New Family of Form Design Products

- by Lora On Apr 15, 2005 - 12:22 AM

Active Ink Software, Inc., a Microsoft Premier PC Partner announced the general availability of an entire new family of form design products for both the PC and Tablet PC platforms. The product offerings include a Standard Edition, a Professional Edition and an Enterprise Edition of their core product, the Form Designer.

The Standard Edition adds the ability to convert a scanned image or PC document into a format that accepts ink and builds intelligence into the form by creating checkboxes, drop downs, dates and signature fields. The Standard Edition also supports the ability to export data into a Microsoft Excel or Access format or upload the data to a remote server.
The Professional Edition includes all of the features of the Standard Edition plus adds support for adding lines, shapes and images to the form. To improve upon the handwriting recognition results, the Professional Edition also includes the ability to create custom input scopes.

The Enterprise Edition includes all the features of both the Standard and Professional Editions and adds the ability to create workflow processes, template libraries, and store data either locally or remotely in a relational database. User authentication, audit trails and server synchronization are also supported. -- EMediaWire

Allchin on Tablet in Longhorn

- by Lora On Apr 15, 2005 - 12:20 AM

CRN: There have been published reports of seven different versions of the Windows Longhorn client, including a starter edition, home, premium/media, professional, small business, mobility/tablet PC and some "uber" or developer edition.
ALLCHIN: I don't think we've said anything about that yet. -- CRN
---------------------------
While many details about Longhorn have been nailed down, others, including its name, are still up in the air. The company is close to deciding which different versions will be available, but it's not ready to announce that yet. It is too soon to say, for example, whether there will be separate Media Center or Tablet PC editions, Allchin said.
"We are moving features around," he said. -- ZDNet

Tablet Tales

- by Lora On Apr 14, 2005 - 11:43 PM

Mary Jo Foley usually has unique articles and her latest has peaked the interest of many people. Why? She weaves a story of a possible small form factor Tablet PC. A Tablet PC that is smaller than those built today. "The mini-Tablet, which measures about six inches by eight inches and features a digitizer, is just one of a number of new Tablet form factors expected to debut in the coming months," she writes.

Mary Jo also asserts that this new design is basically an eBook hybrid. I'm not sure what this connection to eBook means. Do you? I understand that it is a conclusion drawn from an interview of Bill Gates from February where he said:

...am meeting with our tablet people about the idea of carrying text books around. They'll have just a tablet device that they can call up the material on. That's been a dream for a long time, we're making progress there. So review of the software projects and encouraging them in terms of what they are doing well and telling them who else they need to work with. That's the primary thing on my schedule.

I assume Mary Jo is implying reduced functionality. What do you think?

Just how interested are people in this idea? What is attractive about a SFF Tablet PC? Apparently, people are interested enough to write, talk, and in some cases dream about it. Yes, people have expanded on Mary Jo's story and definitely have ideas of their own about what this product might, could, and should be.

I've been reading through articles about this mini-Tablet / eBook idea. As usual, I'll share those links with you:

[Read More]

Microsoft Tips Plans For Longhorn Embedded

- by Layne On Apr 14, 2005 - 10:17 PM

According to Alexander Wolfe, "Microsoft is expected to provide the first public details of its plans for Longhorn Embedded to developers in May at its Microsoft Mobility and Embedded DevCon in Las Vegas."
Reference
Wolfe, Al. (2005, April 14). Microsoft Tips Plans For Longhorn Embedded. Retrieved April 14, 2005, from InformationWeek.

Diagram your product ideas over on Channel9 - in ink

- by Lora On Apr 13, 2005 - 9:41 PM

Developers are scribbling with mice and pens over on Channel9 tonight. Ink has been added to forum posts.
Channel9 is using a version of Community Server based the addition of ink on the code available at ArcsOfFire.com forums. Thank you, Charles, Robert, and everyone who helped test!

Tablet Users at Gnomedex 5.0?

- by Lora On Apr 12, 2005 - 9:59 PM

Are you planning to go to Gnomedex 5.0? It would be a good place to hold a Tablet PC user meetup. Let me know if you're going or interested in organizing something.

June 23 - 25, 2005
Bell Harbor Conference Center, Seattle, WA

eWeek Awards Agilix

- by Lora On Apr 12, 2005 - 9:54 PM

The Heiny family isn't the only tech family, although we've ended up being named "The First Family of Tablet PCs". We just happen to be a large group and end up out-numbering others. (Blogs: Loren, Layne, Robert (Dad)) There are also the Leszynskis, the Allens, and I'm sure many others.

Tonight, I was reading on Paul Allen's blog that Agilix GoBinder won eWeek's Excellence Award, in the Productivity Applications category. Congratulations to Agilix! You see, Paul is Curt Allen's brother, CEO of Agilix. Paul Allen is an investor in Utah and watches the tech industry closely. His blog is a good resource for emerging companies.

Founders of Mindjet featured in BusinessWeek Online

- by Lora On Apr 12, 2005 - 9:34 PM

An interview of Mike and Bettina Jetter, founders of Mindjet, is online at BusinessWeek. They review the difficulties in starting a new company, as well as the transition now that they are assuming the role of founders as Bob Gordon steps in as CEO. I appreciate the sentiment of the last sentence, "... we know if you want to grow a business, you have to be good at everything."

Check out Mindjet's blog for company updates. It's a team blog and they've been doing a good job at keeping it current.

Arcs of Fire Terrain Builder

- by Lora On Apr 12, 2005 - 9:17 PM

3 Leaf is building a Tablet PC Game SDK and reference game, which is called Arcs of Fire. Arcs of Fire is the classic tank game, and in this case you draw lines using the Tablet PC pen to control aim. The longer the line, the more force. The steeper the angle of the line, the greater the angle. Pretty simple, right?

So, here's the twist - creating the terrain that the tanks are on. This is done through the Terrain Builder, which dynamically renders terrain based on pen strokes.

3 Leaf released the Developer Preview Edition of the Terrain Builder this week (3Leaf). You download it from ArcsofFire.com.

Gateway to unveil new notebooks

- by Lora On Apr 12, 2005 - 8:59 PM

News.com has an article reporting that Gateway is about to introduce 8 new PCs, including several notebooks:
* Gateway 6010GZ notebook - 15.4" wide-screen display; Intel Celeron M360 processor; 512MB of system memory; 60GB hard drive; CD-RW/DVD-ROM; 802.11g - $999

* Gateway 3522GZ - 14" wide-screen display; Intel Pentium M 725; 512MB system memory; 60GB HD; DVD burner - $1,199
* Gateway 7426GX - 15.4 wide-screen display; AMD mobile Athlon 64 3700+; 1GB system memory; 100GB HD; DVD burner - $1,549
* Gateway 4025GZ - 15" display; 5.5lb - $859

Mindjet Accelerator SDK now available

- by Lora On Apr 11, 2005 - 9:14 PM

Mindjet now has a development toolkit available for building Mindmanager applications, called Mindjet Accellerator SDK. An Accelerator for Salesforce.com is available, with future one for CommerceQuest.

Channel9 Video: Running Virtual PC and Virtual Machines

- by Lora On Apr 11, 2005 - 7:12 PM

For some reason, Microsoft Bob keeps popping up in conversations and I just saw a reference to it on Channel9 too. Channel9 has a new video posted: Running Virtual PC and Virtual Machines. Yes, Bob can still run via Virtual PC.

Channel9 Video: What is Indigo?

- by Lora On Apr 11, 2005 - 7:09 PM

Steve Millet is an architect on the Indigo team. What is Indigo? Millet says "Our next generation platform for doing Web services and messaging infrastructure."

Then Steve spends the next 43 minutes taking you through what Indigo was designed for, and gives you a demo of how it could be used in your own applications. (Channel9)

The Tablet PC Show #5

- by Lora On Apr 11, 2005 - 7:08 PM

James and Marc released another episode of the Tablet PC Show today. It's full of information about Chad Essley, fad phrases, tools, and more. I exchanged quick emails with James and Marc this morning, thought I was kidding around about their mention of Channel9 Tablet PC Wiki in their last episode and here they were talking about the wiki in Episode 5 too, which I hadn't even listened to yet. (I just finished listening to the show now.)

I really like how these two are working together. They've developed a nice pace and way of delivering information. Good job, once again!

Well Meaning People Spreading Incorrect Information

- by Lora On Apr 11, 2005 - 6:47 PM

I'm guilty of passing on incorrect information. Sometimes I know just enough to get me into trouble. At least I learn my limits.

I was just reading through the comments over on Engadget: Is it time to buy a Tablet PC? As I was skimming through the post and comments, I was reminded of many discussions I've had with people who are anti-web, -forum, and -blog who say these methods of communication are cesspools of ignorance. Theirs is a harsh standpoint to take. I'd prefer to look at it the spectrum of answers and view the range as an interesting sample of the depth of people's understandings and myths that still exist. Then, take that information and see how to improve the situation.

Tablet interface is better than touchpad:

In the very first comment of this Engaget post, Shane has an excellent point: "Can we finally say goodbye to the touchpad?" In his next paragraph Shane writes, "Given the dreaded track-pad alternative, it seems pretty plain to me that the touch screen interface of a tablet is vastly superior."

Shane's point is good. A touchpad is not easy for most people to use and Tablet PCs get rid of sole reliance on that technology.

Touch Screen versus Active Digitizer:
[Read More]

Talk about Toshiba Tecra M4 Tablet PC

- by Lora On Apr 11, 2005 - 10:39 AM

techSage posts that he learned about the upcoming Toshiba Tecra M4 Tablet PC from Toshiba while at FOSE:

He did, however, part with some promising tidbits or, rather, morsels about a new Tablet PC model that Toshiba would announce in the next several weeks: the Toshiba Tecra M4 Tablet PC. Here are the specs as outlined by the Toshiba Portables rep at FOSE:
Toshiba Tecra M4 Tablet PC
14.1" Screen (not outdoor optimized)
DDR2 Dual Channel DRAM
Sonoma Chipset
64 OR 128 MB nVIDIA Dedicated Graphics Card
SXGA+ (1400x1050) Resolution
Integrated Optical Drive
ETA: "In the Next Several Weeks" from 4/6/2005
Estimated MSRP/Price: $2200

(Found via Warner's blog.)

I've become a Tablet PC weight snob. The thinner and lighter the better. I want a Tablet PC the size of the NEC with the power of this new Tecra M4. It's not going to happen today though.

I do realize, however, that the majority of people still use 8lb notebooks and that to most people a 4-6 lb, "slim and light" Tablet PC is a major drop in weight. I also realize that developers and people looking ahead to Longhorn will be thrilled to see 128MB dedicated graphics memory. The 14" display size is a plus for many people too.

The M4 will be Toshiba's first Tablet PC model that uses most recent Intel Centrino platform. This platform not offers bottleneck relief with the use of DDR2 memory, SATA notebook hard drive option, and 533MHz Front Side System Bus. Watch out SFF desktops; Tablet PCs are picking up speed and you can use them in considerably more places than a fixed location system.

TabletSaver Doodle Downloads now on TabletPCPost.com

- by Lora On Apr 11, 2005 - 1:34 AM

Ever since I reformatted the Tablet PC that I use, I've been reinstalling software little by little. I reinstalled TabletSaver immediately and have been writing little notes to myself, such as "today is a good day", "meeting at 2PM", or "got Tablet?"

I still wanted to download a few cartoons my dad had drawn and a few sample screensavers Loren had sketched out. I realized that although I knew that those files were located in an old section of WhatIsNew, that most of you would have to search for a long time to find the old download section. So, I uploaded the files to TabletPCPost.com and you can share them once again. (They're all from 2003.) Free free to upload your own Doodles to share with others.

Three Flowers
String Man Cartoon - Wound Up
String Man Cartoon - Still-no-life
String Man Cartoon - Rolling Along
String Man Cartoon - Mess
String Man Cartoon - Figure It Out (Maze)
String Man Cartoon - Faith
Happy (in Mandarin)
Break Dancer

In 2004, Microsoft released Ink Screen Saver for Tablet PC Power Toy and it is available on 'Post too, if you prefer.

Two features I'd like to see in OneNote

- by Lora On Apr 10, 2005 - 9:57 PM

I use Microsoft OneNote on a daily basis. It comes in handy for extensive notes, as well as quick notes. Lately, I'm trying to do a few things with it that I haven't figured out how to do. In particular I'd like to be able to:

1.) Assign a hyperlink to particular text or ink words.

I can insert a hyperlink perfectly well, by copy pasting from the IE toolbar or just entering http://www.... However, I do not see a way to create a link from words.

2.) Create hyperlink to sections or tabs.

Where do I want my links to go? To other sections and tabs, of course!

Anyone know how to do these? Or maybe these can be considered for future versions.

Will the Next Version of Windows Be Worth the Wait?

- by Layne On Apr 10, 2005 - 7:54 AM

Randall Stross writes an excellent overview of the opinions ciruclating about Longhorn. His last four paragraphs provide the greatest sting, concluding with the story told by Mark Lucovsky, a former Microsoft software engineer. Mr. Lucovsky compares the slow process of creating an operating system at Microsoft versus replacing bits of an Amazon bug in one day.

If Microsoft could do one thing to increase their production time on operating systems it would be to cancel all meetings. In a technology based world, there is no reason for people to waste time in meetings. Instead, let the juices flow. Any information can be passed through the intranet and hallways. Better yet, tear the walls down and get everyone talking outside of meetings.

Reference

Stross, R. (2005, April 10). Will the Next Version of Windows Be Worth the Wait? Retrieved April 10, 2005, from theledger.com

Click-Fraud

- by Layne On Apr 09, 2005 - 10:19 PM

Yahoo Inc and Google Inc are defendants against a "click-fraud" lawsuit. Matt Hicks suggests "If it (the lawsuit) moves forward, all advertisers who have purchased pay-per-click ads could become part of the plaintiff class."

Quote:

Click fraud refers to a practice of purposefully clicking on sponsored listings that appear alongside search results or in the context of content pages in order to rig advertiser auctions and increase revenues.

Reference

Hicks, M. (2005, April 8). Will Click-Fraud Suits Hobble Search?. Retrieved April 9, 2005, from eWeek.

MSDN Product Feedback Center

- by Layne On Apr 09, 2005 - 9:48 PM

Microsoft has made available a Product Feedback Center for posting bugs and issues you experience with their products.

Windows Experience Locations

- by Lora On Apr 06, 2005 - 8:23 AM

I agree with Joe Wilcox that Tablet PC Experience Locations are necessary. I quickly touched on the idea in a few previous posts, and the more I think about it the more I see how it can come together as a true benefit to future owners and even current owners.

Here are just a few considerations:

Location - I still see the Experience Center as located in a major city for several weeks at a time, and then changing cities. If it works at a pilot location, then it could be expanded to three or four major cities. Start with San Francisco. Then pick New York, Las Vegas, and maybe Orlando, Philadelphia, Atlanta or Boston. Why do I say Philly, Atlanta and Boston? Because they have a great mix of business and higher education. I can picture one in Center City, Philly now.
These are temporary, roaming locations. Right across the street from convention centers.

Experience the Home and Office of Today - Mobile PCs change the way people can use computer technology. Period. There is no doubt about the irrestistable urge to sit on the couch with a Tablet PC and watch a sitcom. Put a Sahara i213 Tablet PC in front of someone and they're going to head for a cozy chair, stretch out on the floor, or even wander outside. The untethered life is attractive once people can do it, it's just a matter of helping people see what is possible.

Just say no to sales people - It's not a store. Manufacturers can choose to have their Tablet PCs represented. They can have automated demos to show how their product is unique. They can have "Buy" buttons that go to the webpage where someone can order. It can be a center for picking up that inventory purchased online.

Instead of sales people, I suggest learning helpers that can answer questions, hold training sessions (private and group). Help is really what people need. It can be the center where people can meet MVPs, influentials, have that user group meeting, and even companies can send people over for training.

Experience Pack for Tablet PC released & Channel9 Video

- by Lora On Apr 05, 2005 - 12:16 AM

Dustin Hubbard shows off the new Experience Pack for Tablet PC in a Channel9 video. The pack is a free download, available from Microsoft.
If you're curious about who is talking about the pack and what they have to say then check out the list on my spaces blog - 35 articles or posts and counting. Fantastic!

Project Progress

- by Lora On Apr 04, 2005 - 12:35 AM

Evan Feldman, of Microsoft Mobile and Tablet PC teams, updated his blog. As expected, his offers a sampling of what he's doing without actually saying what he is doing. Maybe you can figure out what he's describing.

In other news, the moment of truth came and went... I was part of a small group of people who had a concept presented at the Executive Retreat a couple of weeks ago. The feedback that we got from the execs was to go ahead and build it. So this upcoming week a few people will be shopping around the concept to the OEMs and if one of them (or more decides to build it) we've got a new and interesting product to put together. For all those amateur detectives out there, read my blog and maybe you'll puzzle out what the concept is or maybe not. At least it's as entertaining as keeping up with what ever the latest Apple rumors are :-)

Review: Xhifi XDC-1 Satellite Speakers

- by Lora On Apr 03, 2005 - 8:55 PM

Billed as the worlds best desktop Audio System, the XDC-1 gives you "BIG" sound in a small footprint. In fact the sound produced by these slim cylinders is nothing short of amazing. breakthrough XD1 Satellite speaker, incorporating Radial Ribbon technology, utilizes cabinet and driver design that changes the expectations as to how small speakers should both sound and look.*

It doesn't take long to realize what you have been missing when you hear them. The sound is crisp and clean, there is no lack of depth or bass and if you get up and walk away from them or stand behind them the sound quality isn't lost. In fact no mater where you sit or stand in the room the sound is excellent. For those pf us who ten to move around when were in our offices this is a very feature. (TabletPC2.com)

Neowin Review : Toshiba M200 Tablet PC

- by Lora On Apr 03, 2005 - 8:49 PM

Tom Graham posted a review of the Toshiba Portege M200 Tablet PC on Neowin. The review includes fundamental information about Tablet PCs and even demostrates to readers how to flip the display around to put it in slate mode and screenshots of the TIP, Journal, and OneNote.

Either way, I was still amazed at how good, and more to the point, how useful the ink technology was. Asides from being a great tool inside Word documents, it functions well as a mouse on the screen. As we’ve already mentioned, the technology that tracks the pen across the screen is very advanced and was a pleasure to use. This feature proved particularly useful with the next feature we look at.

Tom included quotes from some familiar people: Rob Bushway, Warner Crocker, Marc Orchant, and James Kendrick. Fun to read.

So, what did Tom decide? He gave the Toshiba Portege M200 a 9 out of 10.

So, to conclude : The Tablet PC is truly coming of age. Toshiba with Microsoft's Software are presenting an excellent example of practical, usable and useful technology. Neowin can't help but give it a high rating : 9/10.

We hope this will be the first of many Tablet PC reviews at Neowin; we feel it’s a fantastic new emerging technology that we’d love to inform our readers about more.

Do you still use the word "laptop"?

- by Lora On Apr 02, 2005 - 8:45 PM

I have my Feedster and PubSub subscriptions set up to track uses of the word "laptop". Most of the results are Craigslist or some other sort of used laptop and accessory sale.

How often do you use the word "laptop"? Is it to describe something new or old?

When I hear people people speak the word, they are usually referring to an 8 or 9lb PC from 5 years ago or more. No wonder they appreciate Tablet PCs for their slimness and low weight first!

Integrating Tablet Note-Taking With InfiNotes

- by Lora On Apr 01, 2005 - 11:38 PM

Larry O'Brien has a new article on DevX about Agilix InfiNotes.

The double-edged sword of Microsoft's Tablet PC SDK is its leanness. You can gain access to a powerful new system-level capability just by adding a reference to a managed assembly or dragging-and-dropping an InkPicture control onto your form. On the other hand, it would take months, if not years, to recreate the type of note-taking functionality that you might consider "standard"—something comparable to what Windows Journal provides. Even creating a basic set of pen-selection controls takes a minimum of a few hours.

W2Knews Tablet PC: First Impressions

- by Lora On Apr 01, 2005 - 10:42 PM

You are free to roam about the house or relax on the couch when you use a Tablet PC. W2Knews is using a Motion Computing and learning how to login with a fingerprint scanner, use the TIP and ink in OneNote -- all while sipping tea.

September 26, 2001

Back By Popular Demand: YY Mini-Towers
With Intel's release of new Pentium 4 motherboards designed in microATX form factor, we've had an increase in requests for the YY Mini-Towers we sold last year.

We are now offering two YY Mini-Tower Cases: YY-3401 and YY-3404.

Features:

2 - 5.25" exposed bays
1 - 3.5" floppy drive bay
1 - 3.5" internal drive bay (1" height)
Snap-on/off front bezel, wire free
U-shaped cover
Option: 300W ATX/ATX12V standard sized power supply

YY-3404 has mounting holes required by some Pentium 4 processor based motherboards.

New Intel Motherboard Requirements
Intel's new motherboards supporting the Pentium 4 processor, socket 478-pin have different requirements from its socket 423-pin motherboard, D850GB(C/CAL) motherboard.

Requirements for BOXD850MD, BOXD850MDL, BOXD850MV, BOXD850MVL, BOXD845HV, BOXD845HVL, BOXD845WN, BOXD845WNL:

1. These motherboards DO NOT not require a modified chassis (e.g., with additional mounting holes).

2. ATX12V power supply with 12V processor current via a 2x2 pin connector. [Some system builders may choose to use SFX12V power supplies.]

3. Chassis with sufficient ventilation. [Exhaust chassis fan suggested, as well as front fan for cross ventilation.]

Requirements for D850GBC or D850GBCAL:

1. Modified chassis to include 4 mounting posts for processor retention mechanism

2. ATX12V power supply

3. Chassis with sufficient ventilation

Intel highly recommends that you use a power supply with 1.5 to 2.0 A on the +5Vsb line.

Allocation of Intel 845 chipset boards
The following Intel 845 chipset motherboards are allocated until October 1st. After the first, availability will open up and ESC will offer these products as part of our standard product line.

KD845WNPAK10
KD845WNLPAK10
KD845HVPAK10
KD845HVLPAK10
BOXD845WNL
BOXD845WN
BOXD845HVL
BOXD845HV

September 25, 2001

Intel Xeon reaches 2 GHz
Intel's Press Release for the Intel Xeon.

September 24, 2001

New Kingston RDRAM Prices
ESC has new prices on some of Kingston's RDRAM memory. For instance, 64MB non-ECC, PC800 Rambus modules are now $27.00 each. New prices also on 256MB and 512MB modules.

Remember, add RDRAM two modules at a time.

Lekima
After Typhoon Nari, Lekima brings more rain to still recovering Taiwan.

Upcoming webvan Auction
Webvan's upcoming public auction may be useful for companies trying to rebuild in New York City. Webvan's auctions start Tuesday, October 9th. Not only are they auctioning standard office supplies, but thousands of PCs, notebooks, monitors, printers, copiers, fax machines, Cisco and Suns servers, hubs, routers, Nortel phone system, servalliance system, and more.

Visit webvansalse.com for details about the auction.

(Note: ESC is not involved with Great American Group or any part of Webvan. We just thought the items might be useful to those in need. Too bad US Bankruptcy court doesn't just require the equipment to be donated.)

New Cooler Master Cases
Take a look at Cooler Master's new ATC-110 and ATC-210 cases. These new models are now available at ESC. Both are made from aluminum, which acts as a heatsink and disperses heat.

ATC-110 Aluminum Midtower: $336.00

4 - 5.25" exposed bays
2 - 3.5" exposed bays
5 - 3.5" internal bays
Featuring aluminum door, which covers top 5.25" bays.

ATC-210 Aluminum Midtower$300.00

4 - 5.25" exposed bays
2 - 3.5" exposed bays
4 - 3.5" internal bays
Featuring color-tinted acrylic door, which covers full front of case.

ASUS T9 Comes With MP3 Player
The ASUS T9 Notebook PC models that ESC offers come with a MP3 Player. Apparently, some other companies are selling the MP3 player as a separate item. The models ESC has listed include the 64MB, removable MP3 player / voice recorder.

MP3 DJ Box:
- Detachable module box for MP3 play, voice record, and data storage
- Built-in Flash 64MB w/ Download/Upload through USB
- 6hr playback and 4.5hr recording with slim Li-Ion battery
- Audio DJ supported to play for 15hrs of MP3 music with power off
- Built-in microphone to support recording

September 23, 2001

Priority To Companies Rebuilding
Priority is given to orders for recovery efforts and companies rebuilding after damage from Sepetember 11th.

We offer our standard services of custom desktops, workstations, small servers, notebooks, and individual components. We are also extending to our ability to have computer components we do not usually offer for sale to be drop shipped to your business location (items such as printers, plotters, toner, pocket organizers, cables, etc.). If you don't see an item listed that you need, just ask and we'll do our best to find it for you. If we cannot fulfill your request, we may know of another company who may be able to assist.

Please call us to make arrangements. We recognize that communication with companies re-estabilishing at new locations is limited, so if you know of a company in need, please pass along that we will do what we can to assist in rebuilding.

Special delivery arrangements may need to be made for zip codes: 10048, 10080, 10280, 10281, 10282, 10283, 10284, 10285. UPS is offering pickup and delivery service to all other areas of New York City.

Step 1: Make a list of the manufacturer, product name / model number, and description. You will also need to provide delivery address information and billing information. Leasing may be available as an option. Step 2: Call ESC representatives at (800) 427-3726.

ESC will ask you for the product information, and can email, FAX, or return your call with prices on special order / special arrangement items.

September 19, 2001

AOpen OpenBook 1735 Notebook
AOpen entered the performance notebook market with their new OpenBook 1735. It will compete with ASUS's new line of notebooks arriving this fall.

Check out the specs for the AOpen OpenBoox 1735.

ESC is considering offering this new product. Email us at presales@esc-tech.com if you're interested in having us add this new product.

September 18, 2001

Feature Comparison of ASUS Notebook PCs
Our product comparison charts are heavily visited by shoppers. Here is a new one comparing features of ASUS Notebook PCs.

See ASUS Notebook product comparison chart now.

September 17, 2001

It's Okay, you can come out now
Gracie: All clear guys. You can come out from under the beds.
Albert: Just checking to see if anyone dropped food under here.
AJ: I was just comforting the old guy.
Gracie: Uh huh. Sure guys. It's okay. We were all nervous but it's safe. You can come out and play now.

We hope everyone was safe and healthy this weekend.

Emergency Efforts
We are extending special ordering of items required by those people and organizations aiding in emergency efforts in New York and Washington DC. Please call to make arrangements. We can have product drop shipped to you from East Coast warehouses for prompt delivery. These orders will be given priority over standard orders.

September 14, 2001

New ASUS Products To Be Released in October
ASUS has a set of new products ready for release in the United States around the first couple weeks of October. Yes, that is 2 to 3 weeks away.

ASUS A7V266 motherboard without audio, expected street price $155.00. This motherboard supports an AMD Duron or Athlon processor, operating at 200 MHz or 266 MHz FSB and DDR SDRAM.

ASUS P4B motherboard with audio, expected street price $165.00. This motherboard uses the i845 chipset, SDRAM memory, and Intel Socket 478-pin Pentium 4 processor. Board to be available next week.

ASUS B1 and B2 notebooks are expected a little later than these new motherboards. We do not have pricing on these new products yet.

Day of Rememberance
ESC Technologies joins those in remembering the many people whose lives have been touched by the events of September 11, 2001. Our thoughts and condolences are with our family, friends, and colleagues grieving over the loss of loved ones.

September 13, 2001

Delivery Schedules: UPS Update
From UPS.com

UPS AIR OPERATIONS RESUME TONIGHT
Most Delayed Packages to be Delivered by Friday

UPS said today it expected to run a "full up" air operation within the United States Thursday night and as a result, would deliver almost all of its backlog of Next Day Air� express packages by Friday morning. All other air packages will be delivered by early next week.

"UPS's integrated air and ground network allows us to clear our system of any backlog rapidly and to provide our customers the best service possible in these trying times," said UPS Chairman and CEO Jim Kelly. "We've kept most of the air packages moving via our ground network the last two days so we have a good headstart. We'll get most of our delayed express volume delivered Friday morning."

UPS's announcement followed the issuance of an order Thursday morning by Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta reopening the national air system. The company said it already had come into compliance with new security guidelines issued by the federal government.

"In addition, we have been assured by the various U.S. airports we use that they will be up and running tonight after complying with the FAA's directives," said Kelly. "So we're preparing for full operation. We're also hopeful the FAA will clear the way for international flights soon."

Ever since Tuesday's tragic terrorism attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., UPS's ground network has operated in a near normal fashion even as it expanded to handle many of the express packages that typically would move by air.

Deliveries and pickups occurred on schedule, with the exception of portions of Manhattan and Washington, and ground and air packages kept moving through the integrated transportation network. Outside the United States, the company is operating close to normal within the various regions of the world.

UPS plans to reinstate its money-back guarantees once operations return to normal.

Wednesday night, UPS was allowed to move 11 jet freighters in preparation for a full-scale reopening of its air system. Another 25-to-30 jets will be moved this afternoon.

"Our thoughts and prayers remain with those people who were impacted by the tragic events in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania," Kelly concluded. "At the same time, we have been extremely proud of our employees' efforts during these trying times in keeping the flow of commerce and critical supplies moving."

On disaster relief efforts, Kelly said UPS already is working with federal and national relief organizations as well as community leaders to coordinate the movement of supplies. Individuals interested in assisting should contact those organizations, such as the American Red Cross and United Way of America.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, UPS is the world's largest express carrier and largest package delivery company, serving more than 200 countries and territories around the world.

American Express Delays
American Express is getting back on schedule with processing as quickly as possible. If you are purchasing from ESC with an American Express card, your order will be processed as soon as we can confirm your billing / delivery information with AMEX.

For information about other companies involved in the evacuations in the World Trade Center area, visit cnn.com.

September 12, 2001

Delivery Service Operations
Common carriers express their sadness over yesterday's tragedies. They also are issuing statements about how their service has been and may continue to be delayed temporarily. If you have questions about a package, please be patient while system operations are adjusting. Air service has been suspended temporarily. Many common carriers are moving packages by truck today, however, packages did not move yesterday.

Delivery circumstances beyond our control may lead to delays in processing and receiving your orders. Order fullfillment of supporting emergency response teams, insurance providers, government offices, military and other organizations directly affected by the crisis will be given priority.

UPS Statement On Terrorism

"The UPS air operation was closed overnight. The company is prepared to resume operations once the nation's air traffic control system is reactivated and its airplanes allowed to fly." --ups.com

Federal Express Statement

"All FedEx companies are operating as normally as possible given the circumstances. Due to the shutdown of the United States air traffic system, FedEx Express has been most affected. Our goal is to keep our customers� shipments moving and have secured additional trucking capacity as part of the all-trucking contingency plans for FedEx Express. It is likely that many FedEx Express shipments will be delayed a minimum of 24 to 48 hours, and the FedEx Express Money Back Guarantee will remain suspended until normal operations resume. " fedex.com

Mail Is Still Moving: Nation's Postal Employees Are Delivering

"Mail continues to flow to its destinations and POST OFFICES throughout the country ARE OPEN to serve customers. The only exceptions are the portions of New York City most severely impacted by yesterday�s events."

"Since nationwide air transportation was suspended by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), an expanded ground transportation network is moving mail. Once the FAA allows commercial flights to resume and carry mail, the Postal Service will use all existing means to keep the mail moving to the American people and businesses." -- US Postal Service

Airborne Express Continues Operations Under Emergency Conditions

"Airborne Express will continue operations, including pickups and deliveries, in areas where the crisis has not precluded such activity. However, the current FAA shutdown of the national air network precludes the operation of Airborne's fleet of aircraft within the United States until further notice. We are in continuing contact with the FAA as to the status of our flight operations for today's pickups. "

"Due to the extraordinary nature of today's developments, Airborne Express cannot assure service commitments until further notice. We will continue to provide our best efforts to get customers' packages delivered within our available means." -- Airborne.com

September 10, 2001

Creative Labs Audigy MP3+ Arrived
Last week we said "soon" and it finally arrived! We received a limited supply of the new Creative Labs Audigy MP3+ sound cards.

September 7, 2001

Creative Labs Audigy Products???
Yes, Creative Labs has new sound card products called the Audigy series. These products are "past due" at distributors, and are expected in yet this month. The Live! products are still backordered.

Intel Pentium 4 Motherboards 478-pin Now Available
ESC is now offering Intel brand Pentium 4 motherboards supporting 478-pin Pentium 4 processor.

Product descriptions and prices will be available online later today. Yes, you'll even be able to order the new Pentium 4 processor 2 GHz speed.

September 6, 2001

ASUS P4T Shipment Expected
The next shipment of ASUS P4T motherboards is expected to arrive on Monday. With the last Intel Pentium 4 processor product change and August vacations at manufacturing facilities, demand increased and product supply decreased.

The new P4B motherboard, supporting socket 478-pin Pentium 4 processors, is expected to be available shortly too. We will have costs once the product is available.

Visit ASUS's online showroom for Pentium 4 processor based motherboards now.

For those of you trying to figure out how to upgrade your older Celeron or Pentium III processor based system, check out the P4B motherboard. It uses PC100 or PC133 SDRAM memory, so you can keep your memory! Plus, the board has a power supply adapter for ATX12V support, so you can keep using your existing power supply too!

P4B Features:

Supports Intel Pentium 4 socket 478 processors
Intel Pentium 4 SDRAM chipset and ICH2 chipset
3 DIMMS slots for up to 3GB of PC100/PC133 SDRAM support
AC'97 audio
SPDIF out interface
6 PCI slots
1 CNR slot
1 AGP 4X slot
ATA-100/66/33 support
4 USB ports

T9 Series Notebooks Now Shipping
Later today, you will be able to order your new ASUS T94 notebook at escstore.com.

We will offer 3 parts initially:

T94 with Pentium III 1 GHz processor, CD-RW, 256MB of memory, 30GB hard drive, MP3 player, and Windows ME

T94 with Pentium III 1 GHz processor, DVD player, 256MB of memory, 30GB hard drive, MP3 player, and Windows ME

T94 with Pentium III 900 GHz processor, CD-Rom, 256MB of memory, 30GB hard drive, MP3 player, and Windows ME

The T9 series notebooks are Bluetooth ready.

September 5, 2001

YY-A101 Pentium 4 Processor Support
YY is expecting to release a power supply with Pentium 4 processor support for the YY-A101 in October or November. We will have more information once the product is available.

July 20, 2001

• Playing Ball With The Right Parts
  Yes, AJ, a small watermellon can be tossed once or twice. However, it doesn't make a good baskeball or volleyball.

  To stretch the analogy, when you're shopping for computer components make sure you're buying product that was meant for your use.

  If you are setting up a system at home for a webcam, digital cameras, and some video conferencing and you already own your camera equipment, make sure you know which operating system your cameras require. If you're considering switching OS, make sure you have the proper drivers. Some digital cameras only work with Windows 98SE and Windows ME, and may not have drivers for Windows 2000.

  On the road and need to send your photos back to the office? Perhaps you're a realtor, appraiser, or insurance agent out on a call. Take pictures with your digital camera. Download, edit, and send them from your notebook computer back to the office. Then, you're ready to move down the road to the next location.

  What computer components can you use? ASUS M1300 notebook has a USB connector for your USB camera and an IR sensor for your PocketPC. It can come with Windows 2000 or Windows ME operating system. Check these notebooks out this weekend.

• AJ and the Watermellons
  Last summer, AJ being the young, inquisitive pup that he was, picked green and ripe tomatoes fresh off the vine. For the most part, AJ has left the tomato plants alone this summer. Instead, AJ is picking watermellons.

  Yes, AJ is picking them off the vines, carrying them over to whomever happens to walk by and he proudly drops one at their feet. Then, he does a quick play bow before dashing across the yard in his "toss it to me" prance. AJ wants to play ball.

  At first, one of kids thought AJ was being cute and tossed the watermellon to him. Hey, it was green, hard, and at just 4" in diameter it was easy to toss like a ball. Now, AJ thinks everyone should toss watermellons for him.

  The same 7 year old who tossed the watermellon for AJ said, "the cure to stopping him from picking them is to build a big wooden fence around each plant."

  Good idea. It's too late for this summer's garden. Please don't show him the zucchini and the summer squash.

July 5, 2001

• Self-Aiming Camera
  A researcher at the University of Illinois has demonstrated a self-aiming camera technology modeled on the brain. The system simulates a section of the human brain with an artificial neural network to point a camera automatically at objects of interest.

AJ: Gracie, I want one. Write me a grant. I'm hyperactive at school. The camera can attend to relevant stimuli for me. Then, I won't miss the important stuff and can just be myself! What do you think Gracie, eh, whatdoyathink, huh, huh, huh?
Gracie: Keep the thought. Maybe all of us could use one at times, AJ.
Albert: Let's watch this one. Could have potential.
AJ: Does UI stand for unlimited intelligence, like me?
Gracie: University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. You better focus more if you want to go there.

• Memorable Personnel Assessments
  "The psychologist told me I was OK technically, but that I'd never manage anything," said Gordon Moore.

  Three years later, in 1957, he co-founded Fairchild Semiconductor Corp, and 11 years after that he and Robert Noyce (a colleague from Fairchild) founded intel Corp. Moore served as president, CEO, chairman and chairman emeritus of Intel, which estimated 2nd quarter revenue of $6.2-6.8 billion.

  This is the same Gordon Moore who invented Moore's Law, thinks biotech is interesting, and who ran out of unaccomplished goals. (read more about GM in Mannion, P. (June 4, 2001). The world according to Gordon, EE Times, 1169, 1, 20, 22.)

• Customers' Choices
  Top Sellers:
  Barebones systems
  Intel Pentium 4 processor 1.7GHz Boxed
  Everything AMD
  Aluminum Midtower Cases with"Wow!"
  Moving Up: ASUS notebooks

July 4, 2001

• Pager Warns Hearing Impaired of Storms
  Hard of hearing? Someone in your family deaf?
  A pager system that relays storm warnings from the National Weather Service has been set up for Oklahoma's largest concentration of deaf residents, officials announced Monday. A pager system is already in place to alert government officials.
• ESC Technologies Holiday Schedule
  Take a pause today to celebrate, enjoy home made ice cream, and picnic with family. Silicon Valley parking lots emptied before yesterday.
  ESC Technologies will remain open online 24/7, including today, July 4. We will resume answering telephones on Thursday, July 5, during regular business telephone hours starting at 9AM.

July 3, 2001

• Gotta Dig it
  AJ: (Digging to the tune of 'When You're happy') Dig Dig Dig Dig ... You should show it. When You're happy ... you should dig.
  Albert: Ooooo.. When you're happy you should
  Gracie: BOYS ! Stop. You'll get us in trouble.
  AJ (with dirty face) Huh? But it's fun. Can't get in trouble for having fun.
  Gracie: There are limits boys.
  AJ: Well (clearing throat, mud dripping off chin) I use Moore's Law for determining the amount of fun. For every 18 hours that I'm awake, I get to have fun.
  Albert: Back to digging AJ !
  AJ: When you're happy and you know it
  Albert: DIG.
  Gracie: I'll just curl up here with my new laptop. Nudge.
  Webmaster's note: Sorry, had to get something in about computers here.
  Albert: (giving subliminal message) Buy ... buy ... buy... Hmmm.. maybe that isn't so subliminal.
  AJ: Sounded Sub-lim-in-la-esc-pcs to me.
• UPS Holiday Shipping
  UPS will make regular pick ups and deliveries today, Tuesday, July 3. UPS will not make any pick ups or deliveries on Wednesday July 4. Packages shipped by UPS will not move on Wednesday, July 4. UPS will resume its normal pick up and delivery schedule on Thursday, July 5.

  So, AJ, that means your new notebook will either arrive today or Thursday.

• Temporary Phone Service
  Our telephone service will be disrupted this afternoon for a little while. We hope to have everything back up and running later today, or at least when we return on Thursday. If you have questions, just send us an email note at:

Website questions: webmaster@esc-tech.com

Sales questions: presales@esc-tech.com

Technical questions: techsupport@esc-tech.com

Go ahead and place your orders online. We will confirm with an email message.

July 2, 2001

• Willa Cather
  Read about American writer Willa Cather. She found her characteristic themes-the spirit and courage of the frontier she had known in her youth in a place where she did not want to live. One of Ours (1922, Pulitzer Prize) and A Lost Lady (1923) mourned the passing of the pioneer spirit.
• Intel Pentium 4 2GHz
  Intel Corp. introduced its two fastest chips, running at 1.6 billion and 1.8 billion cycles per second, and said that the company would offer a 2 gigahertz chip later this quarter. Watch for them in the general PC channel later. Intel intends Pentium 4 chips for business users that run the latest data-intensive software programs and for consumer PC users who run demanding digital video and audio and three-dimensional graphics used in advanced video games.
• CI-6606 Super Mid-Tower Case, Plain and Simple
  Now's a good time to change PC cases.

  If you're building an Intel Pentium 4 processor based system, then the CI-6606 has ATX12V connectors on the power supply and mounting holes for processor retention too.

  Your new AMD Athlon 1400 MHz processor requires a special power supply, such as HEC's HEC-350LD 350W ATX power supply in the CI-6606 case.

  For either system, CI-6606 Super Mid-Tower has the space you need for your drives and the right power supply. Perhaps you want yours tomorrow?

• Mapping Software for RVers
  For your traveling convenience, try these with your new ASUS notebook.

  DeLorme has released two new mapping software titles for active RVers.

  Topo USA 3.0 will show you the lay of the land, whether you're headed outside to go just walking in the woods, hiking, biking, hunting, or fishing. Also, compatible with GPS receivers for use in the field.

  AAA Map'n'Go 7.0 is tailored for any travel planning anywhere in North America.

  You can purchase directly at www.delorme.com or from DeLorme customer service at (800) 452-5931.

May 8, 2001

• Can the Web Remain Free?
  Do you think the Web can remain free?

  "No. No, I don't think so. Not if it's to achieve or realize its ultimate destiny as the global interactive marketplace that it can be," said AOL's Time-Warner's Richard Parsons, Co-Chief Operating Officer.

• Rolling Blackouts Continue in California
  According to our electricity provider, we may loose power in a rolling blackout today. Power is expected to be out for 1 hour. Our websites should stay available for your use. It will be our warehouse and office facilities that will be effected.

  Last time we took our turn, we lost telephone service at a different time because our telephone company is on a different power grid.

  We apologize for any inconvenience. Drop us a note or give us a call if you have any questions.

• Boxed Pentium 4 processor 1.7 GHz No RDRAM bundled
  Intel bundles 2 pieces of 64MB RDRAM or 128MB RDRAM with Boxed Pentium 4 processors. Most motherboards have 4 slots, and you have to add RDRAM in pairs. If you want to add more than 256MB to your Pentium 4 processor based system, what do you do?

  But the processor only! Intel part number BX80528JK170G is the Pentium 4 processor 1.7GHz (Boxed).

  Last week Intel released a Boxed Pentium 4 processor 1.7GHz without memory -- just like their Boxed processors usually are.

  Behind the scenes, though, it took a while to confirm that these processors were actually part of the Intel Product Dealer program or if they were just tray processors. The part numbers in the system said BX80528JK170G. However, a rumor spread that the warehouse said it was just a tray processor. Apparently, a couple of the sales people at Intel distribution warehouses were confused. We accepted their confusion, ordered anyway, and are happy to report that the processors are indeed Boxed processors and not just tray. We received our shipment this morning.

  Why does this rumor matter to you? As consumers, we realize that the same or similar products are frequently packaged and marked in multiple ways. Intel's Boxed versus tray is just one of the subtle marketing differences you have to face. We recognize that it takes a little time to sort out differences between products, so if you have questions, ask us! We'd be glad to help you. Just click on the "Ask for assistance" or "Talk to ESC" buttons at the top of the page.

• Cooler Master ATC101 Available
  Cooler Master's ATC101 mid-tower case is now available for purchase online at www.escdirect.com.

May 7, 2001

• Lower Iiyama LCD monitor prices
  We lowered your costs on Iiyama LCD monitors from now till the end of May.

  IIyama is offering us a $20 to $50 rebate on select monitors for May. In turn, we're passing the savings on to you. Order online. Iiyama monitors ship from mutiple locations across the US. Delivery cost on our online system may be adjusted to offer you even greater savings.

• Iiyama Monitor Inventory Update
  Here is an update on Iiyama Monitor availability:

15" CRT

S500M1: Discontinued

17" CRT

S700J1: Available
I70A: Available
A702HT: Available
MF701U: Available

19" CRT

S900MT1: Available
A902MT: Available
I90A: Discontinued
I91A: Available
MF901U: Available

21" CRT

S104MT: ETA 2nd week of MAY
MS101D: Available

22" CRT

A201HT: Available
I20A: Limited inventory

15.0 LCD

TXA3813MT: Available
AX3815U:SPECIAL ORDER
TXA3823MT: Available
TXA3834MT: Available
TXA3841J: Special Order
TXA3842J: Special Order
TXA3851J: Special Order

15.4 LCD

AS3921U: Not available

15.7 LCD

AS4021U: Not available

17.0 LCD

AS4311U: Not available

17.4 LCD

AS4431D: Available

18.1 LCD

TSA4634JT: Available
AS4635U: Available

May 6, 2001

• ESCStore.com has moved
  Yes, ESCStore.com has joined ESCDirect.com on the new shopping site. If you had any pages bookmarked, please update them now.

May 4, 2001

• Sound cards added to ESCDirect.com
  Creative Labs Sound cards are now available for purchase on ESCDirect.com.
• Missing products
  If you see products that ESC usually carries and isn't on ESCDirect.com, let us know. webmaster@esc-tech.com.

  We're adding products as quickly as possible. Coming this weekend are products by Iiyama, AOC, Sony, Samsung and more.

• AMD Athlon 1333 MHz processors still backordered
  AMD Athlon 1333 MHz processors operating at 266 MHz FSB are still backordered. Yes, the price decreased on Monday, and our orders were placed on backorder. Production is at demand level, so a couple of days delay is expected. However, now it looks as if we need to add even a few days to our projections.
• Epox EP-8K7A Motherboard is Available
  Looking for the new Epox EP-8K7A? We have some in stock. Order online or by telephone. Supplies are limited.

May 3, 2001

• Earth to DirectPC Satellite, Earth to ....
  EarthLink (ELNK: news, msgs, alerts) began offering high-speed Net access service via DirectPC's satellite service to east coast users Tuesday. The company said will have the service available nationally by the end of the month.
• Ball Trees
  Have you ever heard of a Ball Tree? A.J. has. He thinks we planted them last spring, just for him. If you ask him, he thinks they're great for a puppy. The tree starts out small, then grows tall -- just like him.

  The balls you ask, what are they? Yes, they start out green, then turn bright red.

  What does A.J. like most about these little red balls? Their aerodynamics. He gently nips one off the tree, then tosses it in the air. Sometimes he catches it in his mouth. Other times, he whips his head around with his mouth open till the ball flies away and the search for it begins.

  Almost all summer long, A.J. will be playing with balls from his ball tree. He doesn't understand why people tell him "no" when he picks these wonderful balls. Afterall, his people pick them and eat them. Someone threatened a scarecrow, but he didn't know what that meant -- it sounded bad enough that his ears started to droop.

  The names are "Early Girl", "Better Boy", "Celebrity" -- with names like this how could a dog not play with them?

  This year the ball trees have a small fence around them. A.J. knows he can step over the fence and he even chases the tortoise away when she gets near it. Will A.J. be able to stay away from the ball trees this year? We'll have to wait and see.

  Have you planted your tomatoes yet? If you haven't check with your local garden shop to see when the conditions are right for your garden. Don't have a little plot of land for your own vegetable garden? Try container gardening!

May 2, 2001

• Linux Updates
  You may want to follow the progress of Linux on www.linuxtests.org. Interesting team approach to reviewing Linux related developments and products.
• Siemens Expects Spending Increases in US
  Siemens announced a strategy Tuesday to boost its North American computer services and consulting business as part of a broader initiative to help secure a larger presence on U.S. soil. They expect steady increases in spending by larger clients over the next two to three years.
• Citigroup-Microsoft Net Payment Service
  Citigroup on Tuesday joined forces with Microsoft to extend its Net payment service to a larger audience.
• Online Sales Grow
  Online retail sales are expected to reach $65 billion in North America this year. That's a lot of money to real people, AJ says.
• Clippy's Demise
  Clippy, the Microsoft helper, is out of a job. Is this little character moving on to bigger and better things? Or is it Clippy's demise?

  See Clippy's future at a Microsoft Office XP launch event in your area. Plus pick up a $100 US Office XP rebate coupon, a preview copy of Microsoft Windows XP, and other free software.

  Microsoft Office XP, retail versions, will be available after May 31st. If you're ordering a computer system, we can install the new Office XP OEM version.

• Extra Motherboards In Inventory
  We have the extra inventory on the following motherboards:

EPoX EP-8KTA3 motherboard

ASUS CUSL2 motherboard

We have extra inventory on the following video cards:

Matrox Millinneum G450 32MB, AGP, white box (Would need to call to order this item, since we have not added video cards to the ESCDirect.com website yet.)

May 1, 2001

• Pentium 4 Processor Availability Update
  Pentium 4 processors 1.7GHz (part numbers ending in G, GR, and GR2) are backordered, at this time.
  Pentium 4 processors 1.5 GHz packaged with 2 pieces of 128MB RDRAM are backordered, at this time.

  Once you place an order with us for the 1.7 GHz GR or the 1.5GHz GR2, there will be a delay of a few days before our backorder is shipped to us.

• Wall Mount and Touch Screen Monitors
  Iiyama's Wall Mount and Touch Screen Monitors have increased in availability. There is a light leadtime for the product, however, it is no longer 2 months! Call to place a special order.
• Micron Completes Purchase of KMT
  MICRON TECHNOLOGY, INC., COMPLETES THE PURCHASE OF KMT SEMICONDUCTOR LIMITED

  Boise, Idaho, May 1, 2001 -- Micron Technology, Inc., announced today that it has completed the purchase of all of Kobe Steel, Ltd.'s equity interest in KMT Semiconductor Limited together with the land where the KMT facility is located, for $25 million (3 billion yen). As a result of this transaction, KMT is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of Micron.
  Continue Reading Press Release

• Micron Electronics Agrees to Sell PC Business to G
  Micron Electronics Agrees to Sell PC Business to Gores Technology Group
  Paves Way for Faster Path to Profitability for Growing Web Hosting Business

  Nampa, Idaho, May 1, 2001--Micron Electronics, Inc. (Nasdaq: MUEI), today announced that Gores Technology Group will acquire the assets and liabilities of its PC business, in a transaction that may provide upside potential in the event of future sale of the business by Gores, and saves Micron Electronics' shareholders further losses on its PC business.
  Continue Reading Press Release

• More products added to ESCDirect.com
  We've added more products for purchase to ESCDirect.com. CD-ROMs, DVD-ROMs, CD-RW, Floppy, Zip, hard drives and more.

April 6, 2001

• Installing USB Devices
  Installing USB devices is as easy as plugging them in. Right?

  Yes and no.

  USB devices are convenient ways to add scanners, digital cameras, PC cameras, graphics tablets, and other devices that you may plug in and unplug to your system.

  Before you purchase a device, check to make sure there are drivers for your operating system. For instance, most Web Cameras may be used with Windows 98 and Windows ME. Xirlink/ IBM's Net Camera works with Windows 98, 98SE, ME, or 2000 while the Intel Pocket PC Camera works with Windows 98, 98SE, or ME.

  Follow installation instructions. Yes, we actually mean read the installation guide or user's manual.

  Many USB devices require a particular order of installtion. For example, 3COM Home Connect camera requires you to install drivers and software, rebooting, then plugging in the device. Other devices, such as Microsoft Intellimouse USB you can plug in and Windows operating system will detect and install the drivers for you.

  If you're fussing around with your USB device and your computer just doesn't seem to be recognizing it no matter what you do, go back to the basics. Go into the device manager and see if you have conflicts and that all the devices that are installed (motherboard chipsets included) are recognized.

• Preschoolers Bike For Hospital
  PRESCHOOLERS PEDAL FOR CHARITY

  Tricycles aren't normally used for long-distance travel, but many of the preschoolers at Juniata College's Early Childhood Education Center will test the mettle of their pedaling in a trike-a-thon to raise money for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital April 4-6 on the campus of Juniata College.

  The children will be riding their tricycles at the outdoor basketball court between Ellis College Center and the football stadium parking lot from 3 to 3:30 p.m. April 4 and 5, and from 11 to 11:30 a.m. April 6.

  The children will ride through a course set up with traffic cones and all riders will wear safety helmets. In case of rain or other inclement weather, the event will be rescheduled.

  All donations received during the trike-a-thon will go to St. Judes Children's Research Hospital. The hospital was founded in 1962 in Memphis, Tenn., as a hospital specializing in treatment of catastrophic diseases affecting children.

April 5, 2001

• Duron 900 MHz
  Watch for availability on the AMD Duron 900 MHz tray processor. The PIB version is limited in availability. The tray processor is backordered, at this time.

D900BOX $134.96
D900AUT1B $109.89

• Athlon 266 MHz FSB PIB
  AMD Athlon processors operating at 266 MHz Front Side Bus are now available in the Processor In a Box (PIB) package.

A1000BOX266 $199.02
A1133BOX266 $249.82 - Backordered
A1200BOX266 $253.31
A1333BOX266 $301.21 - Backordered

PIB products ship with a processor fan (3-pin connect) and AMD honors a 3-year limited warranty.

• DIY Small Business Servers
  Is your small business upgrading or replacing your mail, print, or web server? What hardware do Do-It-Yourselfers choose?

  Intel suggests you use Pentium III Xeon multi-processor based system. You know you'd like to use these also, but this year's budget doesn't allow for such a large expense. You want high-performance now. You will upgrade when the next speed demon comes along.

  Find out what your software requires for minimum performance and for optimum performance. This will help you set your price range.

  Frequently, high-processor speed, single processor systems are used by small businesses for internal servers. Clients tell us that they choose an AMD Athlon processor 1 GHz or faster because they are able to build a performance system inexpensively. In the last few weeks, we have seen clients migrate over to AMD Athlon processors operating at 266 MHz FSB on a motherboard powered by DDR-SDRAM. These small business DIYers expect to change out core components in 6 months to a year (motherboard, processor, memory, etc); upgrading to that day's highest speed combination.

  On the Intel side of processors, small businesses are also using dual Intel Pentium III processor based systems. Multiprocessors allow greater headroom for varible demand on a server. Many applications used today (ERP, mail serving, Web hosting, file and print serving) benefit from the use of more processors and larger caches. Of course, the impact of multiprocessing and cache configurations on performance depends on your company's specific application and use.

  DIYers' Popular Choices:

  AMD Athlon processor based system
  AMD Athlon 1.2 GHz, operating at 266 MHz FSB
  512MB of DDR-SDRAM memory
  FIC AD11 motherboard

  Intel Pentium III processor based system
  Pentium III 1 GHz processors
  512MB of SDRAM memory
  Epox EP-D3VA motherboard

• North Star Neighborhood
  It's a great day on North Star Way. Follow that star!

  The Year 2000 National VW drag racing champion has his car ready to campaign this season. The Ford Doctor completed mechanical restoration on a 1964 Thunderbird. The printers shipped several pallets of forms to a national equipment rental company. Private sales of boats and vehicles on McHenry Avenue have increased, including a clean 1989 Suburban 1500 for $4,800 ("must sell"). Tees to Please continues working overtime printing shirts for local baseball and motorsports clubs (yes, this is the home of American Graffiti, for you 60's movie fans). And Mar-Riche, the hair stylist/cosmetologist, has a steady stream of satisfied clients. Join us.

April 4, 2001

• YY-B0221 Mini-server Cubes Special
  We have extra inventory on YY-B0221 mini-server cubes, so we lowered the sale price to $209.75 (plus delivery). Call to order.
• Attention ASUS A7V133 Users
  Did you buy an ASUS A7V133 motherboard rev 1.05 or more recent, anticipating the release of the AMD Athlon processors operating at 266 MHz FSB? AMD has approved the A7V133 motherboard for use with the following processors operating at 266 MHz FSB: A1000AMT3C, A1133AMS3C, A1200AMS3C.

  If you are going to swap your processor, you will need new thermal tape for your processor fan. We have thermal tape for the Cooler Master fans. Replacement squares are $1 each plus delivery cost ($.34 for a US stamp, if you are buying the tape only).

• AMD Files Suit Against Alcatel Business Systems
  AMD Files Suit Against Alcatel Business Systems

  --AMD says Alcatel in breach of contract on flash memory products--
  SUNNYVALE, CA--April 3, 2001--AMD announced today that it has filed suit against Alcatel Business Systems seeking damages for breach of a contract under which AMD supplies flash memory products to Alcatel. The suit was filed in the Supreme Court of the State of New York.

• DDR-SDRAM Memory
  Looking for DDR-SDRAM memory? We have DDR-SDRAM!
  • Crucial Technology, a division of Micron Buy factory direct now
  • Kingston Buy now
  • Samsung Buying 25 pieces or more? We can special order from Samsung direct. Buy now
  • Wintec We call it generic memory, because it's a name unfamiliar to many of you. We have worked with Wintec and Wintec memory for years and their generic memory is a reasonable entry product into DDR memory for home users. Buy now
• Deja vu: ESC store access
  ESC online stores are still experiencing difficulties. Service is intermittent. Please call if you would like pricing, information on products, or other information. (800) 427-3726, 9 AM to 5:30 PM Pacific Daylight Time.

  11:42 AM Website back up. If it goes down again, please give us a call to let us know.

April 3, 2001

• Seagate Barracuda 180
  How many Seagate Barracuda 180 drives do you want? Seagate is opening availability late this week. Let us know if you want some of these new drives.

  What is the Barracuda 180?

  In November 2000 Seagate announced theie new Barracuda 180 drive. It will start shipping this week.

  Drive Capacity: 180 GB
  Model:ST1181677LW
  Power Consumption Rating: Less than 10.3W
  Noise Level: 3.7 Bels
  Interface: Ultra160 SCSI
  Future Interface: Fibre Channel model available at a later date at 2GB per sec
  Warranty: Seagate 5-year warranty
  MTBF: 1,200,000 hours

  Additionally, the Barracuda 180 incorporates an exclusive Rotational Vibration Protection System that monitors and reduces or eliminates any possible head positioning errors resulting from rotational vibration within a server cabinet or mounting system.

  The Barracuda 180's design is leveraged from members of Seagate's award-winning Cheetah family, including the Cheetah X15, the world�s fastest disc drive. As a result, the Barracuda 180 is well suited for working with A/V applications. The Barracuda 180 spins at 7,200 RPM, has a formatted data transfer rate of up to 47 Mbytes/sec, and will be available in the industry-standard Ultra160 SCSI interface. For A/V-specific work, a 16 Mbyte V-code cache option will be offered. Single evaluation unit Suggested Retail Pricing (SRP) for the Barracuda 180 is $2195. Actual street pricing will vary, and will be determined by Seagate authorized resellers.

  Email presales@esc-tech.com

• Western Digital 80GB drives
  At Cebit, Western Digital announced "availability of the highest capacity performance desktop EIDE hard drive currently available - a 7,200 RPM, three-disk model offering as much as 80 GB of digital storage." When will we see those new drives?

  Western Digital indicates that 60GB and 80GB 7200 RPM drives will start shipping later this month. We'll keep you posted.

• Intel .13 Micron, 300MM Wafer Fab
  Intel Hits Key Milestone -- Yields First Silicon From Industry's Most Advanced 0.13 Micron, 300 MM Wafer Fab
  HILLSBORO, Ore. - March 28, 2001 - Intel Corporation has completed production of its first silicon chips from its 0.13 micron technology, 300 millimeter (mm) wafer development fab located here. Named D1C, this factory is the first in the industry to produce fully functional computer chips built using advanced 0.13 micron process technology on the new, larger 300 mm wafers. This milestone keeps Intel on track to bring chips built on these advanced technologies into the marketplace at the beginning of next year.

  Continue reading press release

• Datafeeds to advertising sites
  Thank you for your understanding as we work on our servers.

  A few people have inquired about 256MB generic PC133 SDRAM modules. ESC Technologies does not offer generic SDRAM at this time, but does offer memory through Crucial Technology.

Save 10% on high-quality Crucial RAM. Order online at Crucial's factory-direct Web site.

• Store Website Temporarily Down
  esctechnologies.com, escstore.com, esc-tech.com, esc-technologies.com are temporarily down. Sites are expected to be up later today. We apologize for inconvenience.

  You are more than welcome to call us toll free, 800-427-3726. Operators are standing by.

Albert: Well, I'm sitting.
AJ: I'm not.

April 2, 2001

• AMD Duron 900 MHz
  SUNNYVALE, CA--APRIL 2, 2001--AMD today announced the availability of the 900MHz AMD Duron� processor, its highest performance AMD Duron processor to date. Designed to meet the needs--today and tomorrow--of value-conscious home and office desktop computer users, the 900MHz AMD Duron processor enhances AMD's processor lineup, which delivers a full spectrum of innovative solutions. Continue Reading Press Release
• Selecting A Desktop Motherboard
  The motherboard plays a key role in the stability, reliability, performance, and compatibility for your system. Service, support, and warranty by the vendor and manufacturer are as much a factor as making sure the motherboard is in good physical condition. How do you choose?

  ESC Technologies assists you with basic steps in choosing a motherboard. We offer select motherboards that are stable; work with manufacturers that honor warranties and offer support to system builders as well as those using their motherboard in home or office computer system; and offer products that have a high-customer satisfaction rate. When products do not meet our standards, or in-house and customer return rates exceed 1% we remove the product from our line.

  Sorting through model numbers

  When you first start looking for a motherboard model numbers might as well be XYZ123 or FDSWER. At best, differences between model numbers and motherboard manufacturers are difficult to sort out.

  Many manufacturers use part of their company name and chipset name in the model number of their product.

  For instance:

  Intel BOXD815EEAAL
  BOX = Product is intended to be sold through, but not exclusively by, Intel Product Dealer Program. When end-user purchases through Intel Product Dealer, Intel honors 3-year limited warranty and product is packaged with CD-ROM with manual and drivers, cables, and any other necessary components.
  815E = Intel 815E chipset
  EA = Eason, which was the code name for the project
  A = With Audio
  L = With LAN (network connection)

  Other examples:

  ASUS A7M266
  ASUS A7V133
  Upon first glance, these model numbers do not lend well toward trying to figure out a product description. However, here are a few hints:

  A7M266 => 7= K7 support; M (not sure? But M was used in product sequence K7M); 266=266 MHz FSB support

  A7V133 => 7=K7 support; V =VIA?; 133=KT133A chipset

  To help you differentiate features, ESC Technologies has motherboard comparison charts located at esctechnologies.com.

  Select a Motherboard that Supports the Right Processor(s)

  Narrow motherboard options by deciding which processor you are going to use in your computer system.

  If you are going to use an AMD Athlon processor operating at 266 MHz FSB, then you use a Socket A motherboard that supports the 266 MHz FSB. If you are going to use an Intel Pentium 4 processor, then select a motherboard that supports Socket 423 processors.

  Value Products

  "Value product" is a code word in the computer industry for a product targeted toward a consumer looking for the best ratio of cost of the product to "what you get". Value products can be lower cost, relative to top-of-the-line products.

  Many times, value products have "onboard" devices, such as audio, video, and network connections. With functionality built on the motherboard the cost of the overall product can be lowered.

  Value does not mean cheap. However, the adage, "you get what you pay for" may apply with some manufacturers' products. Keep into consideration the manufacturer, return rate history of the product, vendor support, etc.

  Examples of value product are Intel's D815EEAAL or new BOXD815EFVL motherboards. They're great for building basic office machines and computers for your home office. Typically, they come with onboard audio and video. More and more frequently, people choose versions with onboard LAN also.

  Here are three features on Intel's Desktop Motherboards that are typically overlooked:

  IPD BOX products have manufacturer 3 year warranty.

  Instantly Available PC is present on Intel Desktop Motherboards that are considered "value products". Instantly Available PC allows the system to go into a low-power state consuming below 10 W of power.

  Intel also bundles Norton Internet Security from Symantec, Intel Active Monitor; Intel Express Installer; and other software products to help you protect your new data and install software more simply. [Note: Software bundle may vary with products.]

  Performance Products

  If you're designing your own computer because you want the cr�me de la cr�me of computer components, then you will select a motherboard that has an AGP slot, PCI slots, and room for expansion.

  AMD Athlon processors operating at 266 MHz FSB are top performers of today's computer components. AMD posts approved motherboards on their website. If you are building an AMD Athlon processor based system then you will want to use a motherboard on the AMD approved list for the processor speed you are using.

  At the moment, there are nine motherboards approved by AMD for use with the Athlon 1.2 GHz processor (266 MHz FSB). Of these, ESC offers ASUS, FIC, Gigabyte, and Microstar.

  ASUS A7M266
  ASUS A7V133
  Biostar M7MIA
  FIC AD11
  Gigabyte GA-7DX
  MSI K7T Turbo-R
  MSI K7 Master
  Soyo K7VTA

  Consider how you are going to use the system to help you decide which board is best for you. Is the computer going to be used for less than 20 hours a week? Will the computer be used 8 hours a day or more? Does it need to be compatible with a particular product? What is your target price range? Availability will be the greatest factor if you want something immediately. These products are new and availability is limited.

  To a certain extent, rely on your vendor to assist you in selecting your product. Perhaps they have already filtered product choices, as ESC does. If they offer a broad range of seemingly comparable products, ask for assistance with help telling the difference between products.

• PC2100 DDR-SDRAM Available Through Crucial
  Yes, you've been waiting a long time. Crucial has released PC2100 DDR-SDRAM memory!

Save 10% on high-quality Crucial RAM. Order online at Crucial's factory-direct Web site.

Once again, Crucial is offering Free UPS 2 Day Air Delivery (limited time).

• AMD Athlon PIB Availability
  The following AMD Athlon Processor In a Box (PIB) products are available:

A900BOX
A1000BOX
A1100BOX
A1200BOX
A1200BOX266

Online will be updated shortly to reflect the current status of these products.

• Intel Desktop Board Availability
  The following Intel Desktop motherboards are now available:

BOXD815EEA2L
BOXD815EPEA2
BOXD815EFVL
BOXD815EPFV

Products are available for order by telephone. Online ordering will be available later today.

April 1, 2001

• "Out of Memory" Error Messages
  Are you receiving the following message when you have 512MB or more memory in your system?

  "There is not enough memory available to run this program. Quit one or more programs, and then try again."
  (When using Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition, Microsoft Windows 98 Second Edition, Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows 95)

  Follow the steps at microsoft.com.

• Access Magazine
  Does your daily newspaper provide Access Magazine? Access Magazine: America's Guide To The Internet an insert with the Sunday edition. Page 15 of today's Access had a nice story about the origin of April Fools, as well as pages featuring the day of pranks.
• Jane Goodall's Birthday April 3rd
  April 3rd is Jane Goodall's birthday. Yes, the original Jane Goodall, not Jane Goodall from Animal Husbandry's.

  Learn more about this amazing woman, who has learned about cousins of Homo Sapiens sapiens and insights into our own cultures. If you did not read about Flo, Leakey, and their families in the 1960s, let National Geographic bring the current generation to life.

  Dr. Goodall's introduction at nationalgeographic .com/ faces/goodall continues with themes from her most recent book, Reason For Hope (1999). Next, visit the Jane Goodall Institute at janegoodall.org

October 16, 2000

AMD Duron 750 MHz + and Athlon 1.1 GHz
AMD's new Duron 750 MHz and Athlon 1.1GHz are now shipping through AMD authorized distribution channels. These new processors are available as tray (or OEM) products. Processor In a Box (PIB) products will be available shortly.

Today, AMD decreased certain processor costs to distributors. Most new prices are reflected at www.escstore.com.

Intel reduces prices on some Pentium III
On Sunday, Intel reduced cost to Intel authorized distributors for Pentium III 667 MHz and lower. Price decreases for FCPGA processors were as follows:

Pentium III 667 MHz 16%
Pentium III 650 MHz 16%
Pentium III 600EB MHz 28%
Pentium III 600E MHz 28%

This price decrease reflects Intel's move toward increasing processor speeds in the desktop market. ESC Technologies no longer offers these processor speeds. ESC offers Celeron processors and Pentium III 700 MHz processors and above.

October 10, 2000

Multiprocessor Athlon Demonstration
AMD PASSES MULTIPROCESSING MILESTONE: DEMONSTRATES FIRST WORKSTATION POWERED BY DUAL AMD ATHLON TM PROCESSORS

Dual Processor System Features Forthcoming AMD-760 (TM) MP Chipset for Enterprise Computing

SAN JOSE, CA --OCTOBER 10, 2000--AMD today reached a new milestone with the first public demonstration of a multiprocessor computer designed specifically to work with AMD processors. The demonstration, at the 2000 Microprocessor Forum, consisted of a computer powered by dual AMD Athlon (TM) processors, the AMD-760 (TM) MP chipset, and next-generation Double Data Rate (DDR) memory. The multiprocessing computer demonstration featured 3D Studio Max, a professional 3D design and modeling application capable of increasing system performance by using both processors simultaneously.

"Today's demonstration brings AMD one step closer to enable our customers to offer next-generation dual processor workstations and servers powered by AMD processors," said Rich Heye, vice president and general manager of AMD's Texas Microprocessor Division. "AMD's dual processor platform is designed to take the extremely successful AMD Athlon processor into the enterprise markets that require multiprocessing workstation and server solutions."

Visit AMD on the Web For more information about AMD products, please visit its virtual pressroom at http://www.amd.com/news/virtualpress/index.html.

Additional press releases and information about AMD and its products are available at: http://www.amd.com/news/news.html.

Cautionary Statement

This release contains forward-looking statements, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are generally preceded by words such as "plans," "expects," "believes," "anticipates" or "intends." Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements in this release involve risks and uncertainty that could cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations. Forward looking statements in this release include the risk that AMD will be not successfully introduce a commercially available multiprocessing solution and that such solution may not be accepted by the market. We urge investors to review in detail the risks and uncertainties in the Company's filings with the United States Securities Exchange Commission.

Congratulations Jack Kilby
Mr. Jack St. Clair Kilby won half the Nobel Prize in Physics for his involvement in the invention of the computer chip.

Albert: So the old guy does it. Good show.
AJ: Guess it isn't so bad being old. Eh, Al?
Albert: Not at all.

Search feature is working
The search feature on the beta shopping site should now be functional. Please let us know if you find something out of the ordinary.

Also, we are adding a new script to the present shopping cart. This should fix the problem with using the back button. We should be uploading the script to each page through out the day.

October 4, 2000

Cow luck
It seems that the bovines ran into a little bit of luck with the 1.13 GHz PIII. According to this article from PC World, "The 1.13-GHz problem only slightly impacted Dell, which had sold but not yet shipped systems using the chip, says Dell's Srivastava. The 1.13-GHz problem was not the result of sloppy or rushed work by Intel, he says."

Maxtor / Quantum merger
According to news.com "Disk-drive maker Maxtor announced today that it will buy Quantum's hard-drive business in a deal valued at around $2 billion."

56,000 words
AJ: 56,000 words in the brief, 56,000 words. Take one down. Pass it around. 55,999 words in the brief.

Albert: 55,999 words in the brief. 55,999 words. Take one down. Pass it around. 55,998 words in the brief.

Gracie: Actually boys, this is my favorite line, "The case would then likely be resubmitted to the Supreme Court, which is not expected to reach a final decision on the case until 2002. "

Server upgrades
Please excuse the 'here and gone' of this web site today. The server is being upgraded and it is necessary to restart the hardware.

Albert: We wait to restart the server until we have at least 100 people on at the same time.
AJ: Yeah. Then we push that big button. Hehehe.
Gracie: Boys ! Cut that out.
AJ: OK. We were just having a little fun. sniff.

Dr. Hardware 2000
http://www.simtel.net/pub/simtelnet/win95/util/drhw150e.zip 2953226 bytes

drhw150e.zip Dr. Hardware 2000: Powerful hardware detection

Dr. Hardware 2000 v1.5.0e is among the best hardware detection programs for Windows 95, 98, ME, NT4 and 2000. It provides a detailed analysis of processor, BIOS, SDRAM modules, sensor chips, main board chipset, ASPI, EIDE and PCI devices; Windows specific stuff like in-depth-analysis of file and memory management, VCACHE statistics, system monitor; also provides benchmarks for CPU, video adapter, hard disks, CD-ROM/DVD, ASPI and net drives.

Changes: Detects new processors, chipsets, PCI devices and comes with further optimizations for Windows NT/2000 and several bug fixes. More outstanding highlights in the registered version.

Special requirements: None

drhw150e.zip has replaced drhw99e.zip.

October 3, 2000

Technical Support email
We are continuing to answer emails as quickly as possible. If you have not heard from a techician within the first day of the email - please let us know using this link to our feedback form.

Epox EP-8KTA+
Epox expects to start shipping its new EP-8KTA+ motherboard toward the third week of October. This updated product supports AMD Duron or Athlon Socket A processors.

New shopping site
We'd like to thank everyone for the feedback on the new shopping site. We will continue to make the changes that are being suggested.

If you haven't looked at it in the past few days, please take a few minutes to look again.

The configurators are functional and we will be adding more choices. What do you think of the multimedia presentations under the ISP servers? Would you like to see more of these presentations?

1.2 GHz Athlons are on the way by year end
According to AsiaBizTech.com, AMD will be releasing their 1.2 GHz processor by year end.

AJ: Do they mean December 31 ?
Albert: Exactly.

Titles of October 2000 articles (links do not function)

1. escdirect.com domain name
2. "Talk to us" from 9-5 WHEN?
3. 1.2 GHz Athlons are on the way by year end
4. New shopping site
5. Epox EP-8KTA+
6. Technical Support email
7. Dr. Hardware 2000
8. Server upgrades
9. 56,000 words
10. Maxtor / Quantum merger
11. Cow luck
12. VIA sales quadruple
13. Aibo may get a buddy.
14. The Register & Intel D815EEAA motherboard
15. Yawp
16. Interesting message
17. Let's do more testing
18. Special on Evergreat NT-979 Black Case
19. ESC Notebooks now shipping
20. Girls Rule, Boys Drool
21. Niche player or World domination
22. Thank you for the feedback
23. Western Digital ships new UDMA/100 drives
24. Search feature is working
25. Congratulations Jack Kilby
26. Multiprocessor Athlon Demonstration
27. Buy low, Sell High
28. Delay in ATC 100 Cases
29. USS Cole and others
30. Jerry Sanders
31. Bellwether or Bell Weather
32. Good news for Intel stock holders
33. Text chat feature, tech support email.
34. Telephone support down until Friday morning
35. Pull up your socks and get ready for the race
36. Dell recall
37. Buy.com settles first case
38. Intel reduces prices on some Pentium III
39. AMD Duron 750 MHz + and Athlon 1.1 GHz
40. AMD Athlon 1.2GHz
41. We find Albert with his head buried ...
42. Epox 8KTA SDRAM stability
43. Nvidia poised to take lead in PC
44. Coming soon to a PC near you
45. Notebooks
46. Happy Birthday
47. Epox Dual Pentium III motherboard
48. Cooler Master cases
49. Plastic vs Steel vs Aluminum
50. Pioneer 16x DVD drive
51. Removable hard drive trays
52. AMD A1000BOX in inventory
53. Intel processor price decrease
54. Updated Advantage Memory prices
55. Toshiba advances development of DVD drives
56. Digital cameras
57. 2000 International and Military Mail Christmas Dat

August 16, 2000

Intel developer conference
August 22-24

The Intel Developer Forum Conference (IDF) is a semiannual, three-day conference targeted at business and consumer desktop, mobile, workstation and server hardware manufacturers, as well as peripheral and software vendors working on advanced computing platform solutions.

The theme for IDF Fall 2000 is "Powering the Net. Connecting the Net." The conference includes more than 150 technical sessions and hands-on labs. For more information, visit the IDF Web site at http://developer.intel.com/design/idf.

Albert: Give me an I.
AJ: Eye
Albert: Give me an N
Gracie: Nnnnn
Albert: Give me a T
AJ: With Drink and Jam?
Albert: Give me an E
Gracie: Eeeee
Albert: Give me an L.
AJ: *ELL.

Albert: WAIT. WAIT. Something isn't quite right with that chant.
Gracie: Yeah. The ending is all wrong - too close to those Texas bovines.
Albert: Bring on the dogs !
Gracie: Woof

April 27, 2000

Good morning!

Let's kick this day off with a follow up from yesterday. Gateway's announcement was interesting. They are going to augment PC sales with ISP sales. Intel is augmenting processor sales by buying companies. And what about little ole us? Why we have you and a few ASUS K7V-RM motherboards! That makes all the difference in the world.

But wait - the big news of the day - Duron. As in Duron Duron - the new musical group from AMD. It's a singing processor. Duron, formerly known as Spitfire, has met the net with a little humor. Duron is morphed from Do Run - as in "this processor do run well. It do - it do." Other's believe it is from the elatin slang, "done rare," meaning "to eat raw," and "-under cooked", meaning "a small portion." Your belief only matters - do it run - or do it cook? You decide.

April 26, 2000

Good morning!

OH come on ... you mean you don't want to pay $289.00?? But why not? OK. We'll discount the product $120.00 for anyone who says, "Don't worry Albert, I'm not wearing sunglasses." Otherwise, you pay for our labor.

On a serious note, consumers need to be aware of a very serious trend that we have observed over the past quarter. We expect the average selling price for components to increase in price dramatically.

Supply shortages, increased costs for purchasing, post-sales support, increased returned products, and increased non-resaleable products (due to newer revisions released on the market quickly) will cause resellers, distributors, and manufacturers to raise prices or dramatically change their business models (going direct, changing markets, cutting advertising, cutting jobs, etc).

For several years we have had a price war on the Internet. It is over. Supply and demand are now the key factors for sales - not the price. Consumers may recognize the trend by having to call many companies to even find a particular item. The most common question is, "Is XYZ in stock?"

Let's back up a bit ... Some companies attempted to combat low margins by advertising low 'initial' prices and then 'hiding' other fees into the final price. These fees were handling fees, increased shipping fees, credit card fees, restocking fees, support fees, etc. These companies, though, can no longer get product or will not be able to get product soon. Worse, these company's methods have been rejected and labeled by the consumer as "cheats."

We all recognize that consumers have been in charge of pricing until this past quarter. We heard about the free PC, the throw away PC, the sealed PC, the under $250 PC, etc. We watched new motherboards introduced on the market for just dollars over the purchase price (below costs). This is in contrast to when only new products had any profit on them and "old" product was sold below costs.

This all came about because anyone who had the gumption could start a website and call themselves a computer reseller. This has led to a flood of companies. Fortunately, these companies are short lived and / or will soon have costs dramatically increase.

It was typical to hear business owners saying, "Hey I sold a thousand boards today. Each one had a profit of 1 dollar. I made $1000." In today's market, it isn't uncommon for this same reseller to hear from the manufactuer,"We only made 500 of these boards." The reseller would then have to substitute product or loose the sale - and poof - away goes the $1 profit.

Business owners from other markets will wonder how anyone in their right mind would think $1 on a $100 item would be wise. It would take 1 board to be bad or rejected by a consumer as bad to eat the profit all up... And ... we all know that the cost of an RMA is labor for technical support and RMA, shipping (to consumer and to manufacturer), and ill-will between reseller and consumer. That's why things are going to change.

We see that the pendulum has now shifted and we expect profitability to be the new business mantra. Price will no longer be the sole issue for a sale of product. Other factors will increase in priority and importance.

Buy.com has already announced how they are increasing margins - a change in business models. Price hikes and spikes are normal for memory components as well as processors. We observed the same occuring for motherboards and hard drives this past quarter. Good power supplies are short in the market and we expect prices to rise there too.

It isn't too far of a stretch to see the average selling price of a low end motherboard increasing to $200 for a single processor board and $300 on the high end. Dual processor boards are already offered in the 400 and above range - so expect these type of boards to go over $600.

Grumble all we want - the market cannot continue to carry on as business as usual. It will be interesting to see which companies make the first moves ....

-------

When all of us got to work this morning, we noticed a particular paw print on everyone's shirts. AJ greeted everyone with his left front paw. His print measures one simm module wide. Considering his height is greater than an In-Win full size tower case - the paw size shouldn't be too much of a surprise. He's getting to be a big puppy.

On a serious note, ELSA has released information about their new graphics card based on the GeForce 2. It is expected to be available in May. So expect it to be available around June or July. Congratulations go to Red Hat for their latest award.

April 25, 2000

Good morning! Do you like our joke up on the top of this page? We thought it might make your day. RED shipments are definitely vogue - and we've watched the trend explode over the last few months. It seems individuals want overnight shipping, free technical support, and RMA privileges past 30 days. So ... we are going to figure out how to help.

Make sure that you install the USB filter driver from VIA on your new Athlon motherboards. Failure to install this will cause you nightmare.

Clipped from an email sent by Techweb:

BUSINESS WORLD'S BIG FEAR: BAD VENDORS
How bad is it working with a less-than-stellar vendor? Worse than a dental appointment, say many small and midsize businesses. Of 175 respondents to a recent study conducted for bSource.com by B/R/S Group, 74 percent say they'd rather be in the dentist's chair than stuck with a poor vendor. Other findings: 91 percent of respondents rely on outsourcers, while 89 percent say outsourcers are key to their success.

April 24, 2000

Good morning! We hope you had a wonderful weekend. Our monday started out by reading this announcement by Intel. Actually the article contains the wonderful quote, "... And frankly, the traditional channel is not expert there. ... They're out of their league."

We were curious if they were referring to Dell and Gateway- they are the leaders - and by definition that would make them the traditional channel. Poor bovines.

AJ: Steak anyone? I'm feeling hungry.
Gracie: Then you might want to try some fish !
AJ: I'll try to eat anything on this planet.
Gracie: How about an Apple?
AJ: Are you going somewhere with this Gracie?
Gracie: Yes, below is part of an email from one of our visitors regarding the Fishy Apple lawsuit. Take a gander.

"I am soooo sick of big companies CEOs with even larger egos bullying their way around the market...."

AJ: Let's see if I can get this straight. Apple, Fish, Gander ... Seems that we get right back to Bulls - steak anyone?
Gracie: We have to side with reason on this one. Apple lawsuits against look-alikes are a bit far fetched when you consider that the FlexATX design is not the same as the Apple one ... what do you think? Would you like to see one? We have one on our bench - we've been running it for a couple of days. Nice product - and no - it doesn't look like an iMac. If you compared a McDonald's hamburger to the Burger King hamburger - yeah - they are both hamburgers with your typical meat (cows - yummy), bread, and some other glue ... umm ... food like stuff... so if Apple can probe FishPC then maybe McDonald's should probe BK.

Webmaster: Wow - we haven't heard that much from Gracie in a LONG time.
AJ (wearing BBQ hat): Steak anyone? I'm still feeling hungry!

Talks of a Microsoft Office Spinoff continue with shares spiraling downward this morning. The Justice Dept may seek bundling restrtictions as early as this week... or maybe next week ...or maybe the week after...

We set a new lower price for the EPoX EP-7KXA motherboard. Many of you took advantage of it over the weekend. Lower prices for the Biostar, FIC, and other EPoX boards were also done. Price changes are also expected for Intel and AMD processors.

Say - has anyone else noticed that EPoX capitalization ? The E, P, and X are capitalized - but not the letter 'o' ... curious. Maybe they got into an argument - capitalize the E - no P - no X ... and no one fought for the letter o.... poor o.

And thinking of letters - the K and V are used in many Athlon VIA motherboards... .K7V, KA7, K7A1, etc ... Biostar seemed to be the exception with starting their part number with an M ... as in M for motherboard - macho motherboard meets market ... M7MKE .. these are in stock by the way.

We recevied this sad email and decided that it should be shared:

"Corbu passed away today, Easter Sunday. He was 15 years and 7 mos. old, or just over 94 years of age. He was a companion, a hiking and camping buddy, and a watch dog. Although born a bird dog, he grew up to be more of a lizard dog. Next to road trips, he loved little kids and often wandered next door to see Woody and Wyatt, the neighbor boys. He was visited by Haley, his great neice, on his last day. Although he wasn't a fan of lttle dogs, he enjoyed being with other animals, dogs, cats or birds. This last year has been a struggle for him, but he was watched over by Birdie who coaxed him through doorways, watched him sleep, and told him to eat. As we as by Bunnie who brough him presents. He is survived by the cats Birdie and Bunnie, and his companions, Nancy and Larry. He will be very greatly missed by us all."

Gracie: I have pictures of Corbu. He was a German Short Haired Pointer. Our condolences.

Albert says hi. In his own words - "woof." ... sorry he's not going to be personified this morning. Gracie, on the other hand, deserves a pat on the back. She managed to keep focused this past week and track down product -- she has also been madly working on the new shopping cart. You should see her code!

Thinking of summits .. you mean you weren't? ... DDR SDRAM Industry Summit is May 18 from 10 AM to 2 PM. The meeting is to be held in the DoubleTree Hotel, San Jose, CA. Micron, ALi, nVIDIA, ATI, Tohsiba, Samsung, Hyundai, Transmeta, and yes - AMD will be there. ENEN.com will do a live webcast. Register today at www.netseminar.com/ddrsummit ...

April 21, 2000

Albert: Mine
AJ: Mine
Albert: MINE
AJ: It's MINE!
Gracie: Boys! What are you arguing about?
Albert and AJ: I found a really good starter system and HE wants to take credit.
Gracie: Well fellas. What are you talking about?
AJ: It's a football.
Albert: It's an egg.
Gracie: OH ! You two are talking about the BIOSTAR Sunflower.
Albert and AJ: (spitting) What an awful name. No. No. We are talking about the new Flex ATX systems. The barebone systems come in different colors.
Gracie: More importantly boys, these machines are EasyNow systems which include a K6/2 500 processor, 128 MB RAM, any size IDE hard disk that you'd like, a CD-ROM ... all packaged in a small space.
AJ: Like the size of a football.
Albert: No - a large egg.
Gracie: Sorry Albert - eggs don't come that big. I'm going to have to side with the little guy. It's 13 inches high with the legs and about 7 inches wide at the largest part . Pictures can be found on the BIOSTAR website.

Gracie: At least we didn't hear Albert talking about IBM. Whew.

BIOSTAR M7MKE motherboards arrived ... well ... just a few - so let's keep the quantity orders below 10 per customer.

Rumors that we have a Tyan board running on the bench is correct. We'll leave it at that ... OK?

ASUS K7V where are you?
Gracie: We wish we had a better time frame for you. We weren't expecting these until May in the first place. It looks like the next shipments wont hit the US until then -
Albert: so BACK OFF.
Gracie: ALBERT ! Shame on you. Why are you being so mean?
Albert: Cuz I want to -
Gracie: Learn a little self control dude. Today is a great day. Do you need a hug?
AJ: I do. Me. Me. Me.
Gracie: It's going to be all right. Don't worry. The boards will arrive as soon as they "feel" like arriving in the US.
Albert: All this touchy feely crap. Where have all the REAL techs gone? I remember the days that it took 10 hours to low-level format a 10 MB hard drive... used to get in a good movie, a few meals, lots of sleep. Now it's rush rush rush.
AJ: Yeah Yeah - hurry up. Get here real fast! I want one right now!
Gracie: No backorders fellas. Sorry. We'll let everyone know when they arrive.
AJ: (looking dejected) Drats. Sniff. I want to play right now. When are the KZ133 boards arriving?
Albert: Oh brother.

April 20, 2000

Albert: Today is one of the most exciting days that we have had in a long time.
Gracie: Deja Vu

We'd like to thank everyone who started to send us suggestions on our website. We continue to work on the back end of the system. The database queries and SQL statements are coming along nicely. We chose to build the site with Active Server Pages rather than Cold Fusion. Netscape browsers are having the most difficult time - therefore - we are attempting to re-write some scripts so that viewing will work.

Sparkle has introduced a computer enclosure. It includes a 300 watt power supply and room for two 60 mm fans in the front and one 80mm fan in the back. We'll try to get pictures up on the shopping site.

April 19, 2000

Albert: Today is one of the most exciting days that we have had in a long time.
Gracie: Really?
Albert: Yes. We received great news today. IBM agreed to sell to us.
Gracie: AJ come here and take care of Albert. Lick him everytime he moves.
AJ: I'm not touching him. Yuck.

Rumors continue to circulate that IBM is selling to ESC Technologies. :-)

Back to reality. Rumors are circulating that many Linux companies are ripe for acquisition. IBM is one such company considering purchasing a high flying Linux company.

And after yesterday's announcement from Intel .. .the article by CNet has been updated. To quote the CNet update, "But company executives were far from upbeat. Intel said it underestimated PC and mobile phone demand for the first half of the year. As a result, it does not have the manufacturing capacity and other resources it needs to meet demand, and for the next three months, supplies will be constrained. Some analysts already are downgrading second-quarter expectations. "

Oh duh. You mean Intel actually has to ship more than two processors? Drats. Or is that Double Drats?

Meanwhile rumors are circulating about the spit and shine systems from AMD. Both the Spitfire and T-bird are on track for launch. Well - what do we know - scratch that - We've read the rumors that the Spitfire and T-bird are on track - is that better? Accuracy counts when it comes to rumors. Cooling issues are consistent with any high speed product - use a fan stupid - OK?

NOISE is back in the news. As you know NOISE is comprised of Netscape, Oracle, IBM, Sun, and Everyone against Microsoft ... This time the rivals are stating that Windows 2000 is only good in a "Mickey Difficult" world only.

Thinking of being stupid. Albert was seen with an Epox 7KXA motherboard. That's not the stupid part. He was trying to use a 64 MB video card. Don't do it Al - don't do it !

Albert: Hey ! Who yas callin stupid?
Gracie: If the shoe fits ...
Albert: I don't wear shoes. Instead I stay barefoot because it helps me be ESD.
AJ: What's ESD?
Albert: Extremely Satisfied Dog.

April 18, 2000

Is it morning already? Weren't we just here yesterday? OK - bright-eyed and ready for work - zzzzzz... WAKE UP!

Intel stock is leading NASDAQ. They will be reporting last quarter results and it is expected to be strong. Expect Intel to continue their movement toward direct sales ... with the excuse that Dell is more important than any other company. This will all be done under the guise of B2B commerce. So just call yourself a multi-billion dollar corporation - and Intel will sell directly to you. Easy, right?

Intel reports strong earnings. Really? Let's do the higher math. Expectations were 69 cents a share. They report 88 cents. That sounds good. But wait - 17 cents were from the IRS settlement. But wait - 10 cents of acquisitions weren't in the calculations .. add that back in. But wait - investments were snuck in there again ... take out another 17 cents. Therefore, 88-17+10-17 = 64 cents. Hmm... weren't we expecting 69 cents? Or did these expectations include that Intel was going to hide the IRS settlement and the investments ... oh well. As Intel said, they are in a transition. Their focus is the Internet and B2B commerce - and not the low margin processor sales. So give em a brake... or give em a break - you decide.

Strong demand for the ASUS K7V continues. Unfortunately, we don't have a time frame for the next shipment. We know that many of you are wanting this board but we are not accepting back orders. It is easier to offer product that is available rather than upsetting people by trying to give an incorrect ETA.

The shopping cart work continues. We have an 'alpha' site ready. As soon as we are in beta then we will let you start evaluating it. We've incorporated many of the ideas that businesses have emailed to us. Individual ideas have been left out - because you don't matter. What? Strike that - umm - of course you mean everything to us ! <insert laughter>. But seriously, the hope is to get an easier maintenance system so that the order status is updated faster as well as reordering identical products.

BIOSTAR let us know that their KX133 board is available. We'll be adding it to the shopping site.

BIOSTAR is also preparing their EasyNow PC Systems. These are the stylish red, orange, blue, purple, or silver series bubbles that are pictured on their website. The ETA is 3-4 weeks for large quantity orders. There are 840 units per 40 foot HQ Container. Please let us know if you require more than one Container.

Update of the EasyNow PC ... it turns out that product is available for small quantities (less than 100 units). So - why are you hesitating? You know that you want one.

The rumor that we are purchasing IBM is false. The person who is spreading that rumor has now been placed under house arrest and is being guarded by AJ. AJ has strict instructions; that is, any movement and the person will be licked to death.

We are slowly coming to the conclusion that the EpoX EP-3VCA motherboard does not accept 133 FSB processors. Taiwan will be supplying us with a new BIOS in hopes to get this resolved. In the meantime, only use 100 FSB Flip Chip processors on this board.

Thinking of Opps. The demand for ASUS P3V4X motherboards has been very high since a particular website wrote about Flip Chips and the devil's work. However, we do not recommended that you combine a Flip Chip with a Slot 1 board. This is not a long term solution - and it will lead to problems - an Albert guaranteed Opps. So if you don't believe us - you can purchase the combination with the understanding that you won't get technical support and you can't return the dead product after you killed it. Let's see the excitement on that idea. Sure sure.

Albert: Make the reviewers pay for the dead product!
Gracie: Are you crazy? They say on their sites that they are not responsible ...
Albert: Well, I'm never responsible but that doesn't mean I'll do something that stupid.
Gracie: Now that's funny Albert. When was the last time you did anything right?
Albert: Why just yesterday I put an AMD At-A-Lawn in our sprinkler system. A gentle mist will be sprayed through out the day so that our lawn will be nice and cool.
AJ: (soaking wet) Who turned on the sprinklers?
Albert: Opps.
Gracie: (dawning her new swimsuit): Where's the slip-n-slide?

April 17, 2000

Good morning ! We hope you had a great weekend.

Friday was a day of meetings and more meetings. We're continually planning how to enhance our product line with new product. Friday's meeting with ABIT was enjoyable. We'd like to thank them for opening their doors to us. We had a nice conversation regarding their new motherboards. The ABIT KA7 should arrive for us to do some testing next week.

Since Intel keeps us under NDA - we thought we'd continue our tradition of honoring the NDA by not dropping any hints. Naw - let's play a game of fill in the blanks.

A new processor is going to be announced. It has a code name - a river. The launch "Will" include a whole bunch of companies proudly displaying their demo units. However - shipping Will - wont occur in this channel. Intel has labeled us "tear for".

We serve those who cry for new product - we whine, we scratch, we claw... but most importantly "we tear for" more ... By the time Until ships to our channel - it will be old product. Expect it to not enter this channel for a LONG time.

Overheard on the side:

• "We take responsibility. We believed the forecasts for a PC slowdown."
• "It doesn't matter because they don't work anyway."
• "We don't have product to raffle off today - not even a bunny."
• "Don't sell the Celeron or the Xeon."
• "Just wait until next year."
• "We hate Tom."
• "If you need to sell AMD, then sell AMD."

So - its seems that the day of meetings included a few interesting asides. Hmm... they look rather funny when put out of context - what do you mean "not even a bunny?". GASP.

The people who said these quotes are probably just happy to have left the meetings without too many bruises and bumps.

AMD Athlon 900 and 950 MHz processors are now available. If you would like one installed in a new system, then let us know. We will add them to the online system as soon as possible.

April 14, 2000

Are you building or upgrading your system to an AMD Athlon system? The following motherboards are now available -- we even have extra in inventory. (Please make Saturday delivery requests over the telephone at (800) 427-3726 before 1 PM Pacific time.)

• AOpen AK72 motherboards
• ASUS K7V-RM motherboards (micro-ATX)
• ASUS K7V with audio motherboards
• Biostar M7MKA motherboards
• EPoX EP-7KXA motherboards
• FIC SD11 motherboards

We updated the barebone system section for those of you who are upgrading your system and would like to keep the hard drive, floppy, case, and CD-ROM from your current system. Today's combination for upgrade kits are: motherboard, memory and graphics card.

Some Corsair memory modules increased in price and others decreased in price yesterday.

April 13, 2000

AJ: Gracie?! Whatcha doiin Gracie? Gracie. Gracie! (biting heals)
Gracie: AJ. What do you want? I'm old. I'm blind. I'm deaf enough not to hear Albert's grumblings. What do you want?
AJ: I want to play. Please come throw the ball with me. Here's a stick. Want a bone? Gracie!
Albert: Listen Kid. It's all good and well that you want to play. But we are trying to do some serious work. (rolling over and falling asleep)

Hmm... sort of sounds like a conversation between a few companies that we know. Just like our dogs - AJ the youngster is becoming bigger than the others and they better be careful or AJ is going to take his toys and go play elsewhere ... AMD reports strong earnings. Intel is still thinking about shipping a processor - someday. Maybe - if it feels like it.

Unlabeled 256 MB Unbuffered modules are available - you may have as many as you would like for $310. Not bad.

April 12, 2000

OK. you are correct. We did not point to this story earlier. The Intel 820 chipset is under attack again.

Do you like e-mail? How would you like to receive 10,000 pieces of e-mail a week?

A friend of ours explained that some large corporations receive large volumes of e-mail. Large - as in - up to 10,000 pieces per week. Now that would be a few pieces of mail to read. Albert would definitely need to wear his glasses ! No excuses.

A typical Internet retailer receives about 300 pieces a day. We receive that amount per e-mail box - which is why we parse out the emails to many people. It wouldn't be fair to let just one person answer everyone, right? OK - we admit it. Most of the e-mail that we receive is spam.

ASUS K7V motherboards arrived today. Yes, the ABIT Athlon board will also be reviewed. It has 6 PCI slots - and we know that some of you don't want the AMR. The 900 MHz Athlon is also hiding around here. We think a few are under Albert's blankets. No one wants to check.

Oh - those darn memory modules. Just when you thought life was getting easy - the ASUS P3V4x board throws you for a loop. Use Registered memory for this VIA board - and all will be well.

The AOpen AK72 continues to be a good offering. Hmm.. are we in church? Let's re-word that - the AOpen AK72 Athlon motherboard is a popular board.

And thinking of weapons and war - Microsoft is taking aim at RealNetworks. CNet has done an interesting article on the fight. The prevalent lingo is "getting Nescaped."

No, we didn't mean to leave out AMDZone yesterday. Sorry if we offended anyone. We would never forget them ! Their bangup job on their web home deserves a mention. If you are pro - pro - pro AMD, then check out their site. Now - do you know a pro- pro- pro Intel site? Then give us a piece of email - hmm... better yet ... you better send it along with a good joke.

Privacy advocates should take note of this website. It seems that the largest privacy research - forgot one thing - did they really collect all of that information on web sites? A report on 30,000 web sites. Hmm... aren't there a few million? And did they get authorization from all of these sites? Oops.

And thinking of Rantings. Have you gotten a load of this new policy on Pricewatch? It seems that the owners of PW want to dictate policies for companies listing on Pricewatch.com The beef? An email went out to resellers saying they'd be cut off if they charged more than $11 for shipping a one pound package. Oh - math is such fun. Who can ship 2 RAMBUS modules for under $11? Hint - insurance is more than $6.65, signature is $2.00, residential fee is $1.00, and the shipping rate is $3.73.... OK math whizzers .. that's $13.38. Duh. Guess no one who uses UPS can advertise on PW. What a shame.

April 11, 2000

ASUS K7V motherboards arrived today but are all sold. (sniff) More product will arrive tomorrow.

We have changed our policy regarding these boards ... these boards are reserved for visitors to this website. You will need to call us at 800-427-3726 and say the phrase "Albert ate the bunny." No - no - that's a joke. AJ ate the last one.

If you want the board then we can make arrangements. HOWEVER - Repeat customers will have first crack at these boards - seriously - repeat customers have the right to decide if they want this product before the one-time Charlies ...

System orders will have the next priority and one time Charlies will be placed last. Maybe we'll lose their orders.

And you are asking us what a One-time Charlies is ? Yes - what - and not who (or whom) is the proper slang! Anywho ... One-time Charlies are guys (women don't do this) who only purchase one item one time and we never hear from them until they want to return the board on the 29th day .... Let's give this product to those deserving -- the REAL nerds.

Will the real nerds please stand up . :-P

And now for a bit of the news ... an AJ nibble if you will.

S3 sell off is in the news. CNet has a great article on consolidation. And while we are on the topic of VIA, their Apollo Pro 133A has dual processor support. Dean has an industry update on his site. Intel is thinking about shipping something someday. We received a survey asking us if they should... or should they just keep the status quo. The new shopping cart is progressing - oh - yeah - forgot to say - we are working on a new shopping system. This one will allow returning customers the liberty of not having to re-enter their information - over and over and over and over and over and over and over again...

It's been awhile since we pointed to Tom and his pet boy wonder ... but these sites continue to pump out reviews on motherboards. The latest is on 21 VIA motherboards and the other is on dual motherboards. One of these days we'll all find the perfect board. Nah. That would be too much to ask for ...

Thinking of too much ... The Reggies have slapped together a few more pieces of comedy about the IT industry. Look for some pieces on Fish and Games. Thinking of Hugh Moore and his sidekick - have you seen this site?

While we are on that topic of scrappers and vapors ...Are odors present in a vacuum? Any day now... Intel vaporware may leave us with a bit of a surprise with this company actually shipping product. Thinking of their products - Flip Chips are becoming more popular. Well - for those of you with advanced math skills - one plus one is two .. and two means plural and plurality means popularity. See - it's all very logical.

Have a wonderful day - and remember to pet your dogs.

April 10, 2000

Shipment of Guillemot 3D Prophet cards arrived today. Extra cards are available.

Intel processor update:
Intel Pentium III processors in FC-PGA are available: 550 MHz through 733 MHz, 100 MHz FSB and 133 MHz FSB.

Afreey 10x DVD is available with Pentium III systems.

New Athlon motherboards using KX133 chipset now available:
AOpen AK72 motherboards
ASUS K7V-RM motherboards
ASUS K7V motherboards (re-read above - okay?)
EP-7KXA motherboards

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Extra inventory update

Today we have the following extra inventory:

• AOpen MX59 Pro motherboard
• AOpen AX59 Pro motherboard
• AOpen AK72 motherboard
• ASUS K7V motherboards
• Biostar M7MKA motherboards
• EPoX 6VBA2 motherboards
• EPoX 7KXA motherboard
• Gigabyte GA-5AX motherboard
• FIC SD11 motherboards
• Intel CA810EA motherboard, bulk
• AMD K6-III/450 MHz PIB processors
• Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! Platinum
• Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! Value
• ATI Rage Fury Pro, AGP, 32 MB, white box
• ELSA Erazor X2 graphics card, AGP, 32MB
• Western Digital WD102AA hard drives
• Corsair 64MB nonECC PC133 SDRAM
• Corsair 128MB ECC PC100 SDRAM, CAS latency