HIGH TECH CORNER: WINDOWS 98 VERSION 2; WINDOWS 2000 DELAYED

Windows 98 is just about to be re-released as a Service Release 1. It is an upgrade you want to do. This new version brings a few new features to the plate while creating a more stable operating system. You will be able to get Win98 SR1 as an upgrade to existing installs as well as a full version.

One of the new features that I really like is that single modem sharing among network users is now part of the OS. If you are a small office or a home where you have a computer and so do your kids, then this feature is for you. All you need is a simple Ethernet card in the boxes to enable common communication.

NE2000 10 Base T cards can go for as cheap as $9.95 allowing inexpensive hook up. With only one phone line and one ISP account, you can get multiple computers on the net for a single charge.

If new features are not your thing, then how about a more stable Windows 98? The current Windows 98 is really version 1.0. I really never like 1.0 of anything. I am sure that some vendors start shipping products as 1.1 just to make us all feel better. Windows 98 SR1 is really the version we all expected the first time around. I understand that Microsoft will charge for this one.

Current trivia of the day is that if Microsoft's Bill Gates revenue and market value continues to grow at the current rate, Bill Gates will be the world's first trillionare by 2004.

If you have been waiting for Windows 2000 "NT 5.0" to be released, you will be waiting awhile longer. This will be the best version of any operating system that Microsoft has ever released, supporting not only 32 bit CPU's like the Pentium but new 64 bit CPU's that eventually will make Pentiums look like yesterday's pong games.

Compac, whose stock has been on the down turn, may be poised for a sharp increase. They have the only shipping 64 bit processor called the ALPHA. People including our government will always pay a price to have the fastest box around. Since Compac may have as much as a year lead over Intel's Merced 64 CPU, the value of the company should only grow.

Hail to the power of the press. I now understand that Local ISDN access will be coming to Cape Girardeau by October. No longer will we be charged the ultra high rate of hooking Cape Girardeau to St Louis. You will even be able to get Dial Up Access to ISDN. This brings four-wire digital service to your home. You can talk and be on the modem on the same line at the same time. Or, if you really want to see the power of the Internet at full band width, you can use both sides of the ISDN band width to double your speed. My thanks to all of you for the nice e-mails that were sent to me for my last columns on getting more internet speed in Cape Girardeau.

Just to keep all of you up to date on the latest in video in Cape Girardeau, not one city council member took me up on a free admission to the NAB show. They missed the opportunity to see for themselves what high definition television is all about. HDTV takes a lot of band width that Cape Girardeau's current cable system cannot deliver.

By the year 2006 all television transmissions must be in HDTV as ordered by the FCC. Start asking today for fiber for Cape Girardeau. We need it for better television and cable modem access.

I go to these shows to work, not to just see the best television ever. This time I showed my newest invention; High Resolution Audio -- video recording using computers running at 1 gigahertz. With over 110,000 attendees and 30,000 exhibitors, my product was rated Forth Hottest New Product Of The Show by Video Systems Magazine.

As always feel free to contact me at DIGITAL@LDD.NET &

WWW.DIGITALLABS.COM (UNBOLD).

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