HIGH TECH CORNER: E-MAIL ON OS TO APPLE WORRIES

With Windows ME shipping I have received a lot of e-mail concerning ME versus 2000. Let me state that these operating systems are for two different environments. If you are putting up a server or a client that needs to be rock solid, then Windows 2000 is your choice.

If, however, you want the latest in Multimedia Experiences and all of those Win98 driver compatibilities, then Windows ME is your choice. ME may look like Windows 98 on the outside, but the inside differs greatly. If you want to fine tune your new ME, install and make it run faster, then I recommend the book Windows ME Secrets. It is the largest volume of information on this new OS, weighing in at 1,520 pages. It also includes a CD-ROM for those of you who are starting to get into e-books.

Of course, with any new OS comes a slew of application updates. Norton System Works 2000 will not operate correctly with Windows ME. Yes, you can install it and it will sort of work, but you are taking the life of your OS in your own hands. The solution is to purchase the All New Norton System Works 2001. To give Norton a little credit, the suite of apps not only works correctly under ME but also has several performance increases that will ultimately help refine your ME installation.

You Primestar users saw your system go black Sunday at 8 p.m. DirecTV, who purchased Primestar, shut down the service nine months early, ending a nine-year era for one of satellite TV's best-known platforms. But this does not mean that DirecTV is the ultimate winner. Rupert Murdoch is now considering buying all of DirecTV. If this happens, don't expect your monthly bill to go down.

Paul Allen, the owner of our cable company and one of the founders of Microsoft, decided to quit the Microsoft board. He has decided to become a senior strategy adviser to top Microsoft executives. I hope this means that with all his new free time available that Cape will finally get cable modems.

Apple took a dive in the market of over 50 percent when they announced that the quarter was not going to meet expectations. With Apple users so loyal, how can this happen? The answer is that the new CUBE that looks and works great was priced way too high for the back-to-school market. Apple simply did not have the sales for their new products.

But Apple was not alone in this high-tech market dump; Intel was hit as well. Intel deserved the hit for two reasons. First, it dumped TIMNA, its one chip that does it all, excluding the expensive RAMBUS memory. When Intel realized that they would have to do a recall of a million 820-chip sets if they were going to sell the TIMNA, they pulled the plug. So they had to write off over $200 million of R&D expense. But the real hit was due to the complete recall of all 1.1 Mhz and 1.3 Mhz CPU chips. These ultra high-end CPU chips are where Intel really makes its large profit margins. So not only did they lose more ground to AMD, who seems to be getting the speed issue correct on each new release, but lost all that high profit margin as well.

Today Napster and the RIAA are in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals to give about 20 minutes each of oral arguments. This appeals court will then decide if the music-sharing site will be shut down. In July, U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel issued a ruling that ordered the company to stop the swapping of major-label music. But just hours before Patel's ruling was set to take effect, a two-judge appeals court panel delayed it. Now college students all around the globe await the final appeals court ruling.

As always if you have any comments or questions please contact me at rich@digitallabs.com.

Rich Comeau is an electronics scientist and owner of Digital Labs of Cape Girardeau.