HIGH TECH CORNER: HOW FAST IS YOUR COMPUTER?

Well spring is in the air and so is a new flood of Ultra High Performance Computers.

Intel has released the all new 400-Mhz Pentium CPU that clocks in at a whooping 42 percent faster than a 233-MHz. This coupled with a faster motherboard speed that has increased from 66 MHz to 100 MHz, is an impressive technical feat.

It's funny that when these faster computers come out I start to feel that my current box is running slower even though I have not installed any new programs. I thing Freud would have labeled this the computer upgrade syndrome.

Of course with companies like Dell selling complete systems with monitor of $2,395 it makes it difficult not to bend that credit card a little. What is sad is my first IBM PC-XT at 4.77-Mhz with a 10 Meg drive, 1 Meg of RAM and a really bad Green Screen Monitor was about double that amount. Now it makes a good boat anchor.

So why does any one really need 400-Mhz anyway? Do you feel that you can out type your computer when running Word?

This article was created using the Kurzweil VoicePro typing program

www.lhs.com/kurzweil/pcapps/voicepluspro/default.asp

It offers Real voice recognition from your PC into word. Yes the age of Hal 2001 is finally getting closer. This program does have to learn how you speak to get the words correct, but it does learn. Yes artificial intelligence is upon us.

Since the computer is converting my voice dictation into text and entering it on the screen for me I don't get any spelling errors. Of course this program is limited by its existing dictionary. However the dictionary is fully user expandable. You can even get Medical and Legal dictionaries as well.

To do this program well you really need some computing power. However it really brings a new dimension to sitting in front of that screen all day.

On the Windows 98 front I am please to say that Release Candidate 3 is here.

It is getting really close now. If any of you are upgrading from Windows 3.1 to 98 let me say that it is much less painful than going from 3.1 to 95.

Microsoft has really learned its upgrade lesson and wants to reduce tech supports calls as much as possible. Going from 95 to 98 is a real snap taking less that an hour to complete. I must recommend that you also purchase Microsoft Plus 98 with it. Neat things like a registered copy of Mcafee Virus protection for your local as well as Internet access will help you sleep better at night.

And if you can't sleep well at night there are now new games included in Plus 98 as well. I really like the included version of Microsoft Golf 98. It's a very high resolution game that makes me want to go out and swing my Callaway Big Berthas, the only clubs endorsed by Mister Bill.

If you play music on your computer the all new Advanced CD Player with Internet support is really neat. By placing a standard Music CD in to the player it can log into the Internet and pulls from a massif data base to grab things like song titles, Web Jumps to get Info on the Band, and jumps to other locations that contain music like the CD you played.

If you design your own personal Web Page stop over at the Southeast Missourian web sight

www.semissourian.com

and check out this section. I will explain and show examples of how to do a Real Audio output.

It's really quite simple and it adds so much to a Web Page when it talks to you. You can easily have streaming audio from Music to Voice with a great degree of accuracy. The examples show here were created with some of my new 24 Bit Analog to Digital circuits that were just show at the Las Vegas Convention Centers National Association Of Broadcaster show.

Most of you have some for of e-mail client. I would recommend that you try the new free e-mail client from Microsoft. Now through the end of June, Microsoft is offering all comers the opportunity to download Outlook 98 for free at

www.microsoft.com/office/info/newemail/

Those of you with slow Internet access can always order Outlook 98 on CD for only $9.95. It all comes down to how fast you want it. Either way, you'll discover that Outlook 98 is an easy and fast upgrade from Schedule+, Eudora Pro, Netscape Messenger, and most any other major Internet e-mail product.

Its access to the net is much faster with a greatly improved ease of use (with streamlined menus, dialog boxes, and toolbars).

Rich Comeau is an electronics scientist and owner of Digital Labs of Cape Girardeau. e-mail him at digital@ldd.net