Original Sender : "DasaMan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------- >Mike Elgan's Win Letter > >'Chicken Soup for the Cerebral Cortex' > >Friday, January 22, 1999 > >Forward to a friend! > >Subscribe or (gasp!) unsubscribe: >http://winmag.com/elgan/winletter/ > > >It's been a wild and wooly week out there. There are few things more >interesting than watching an analog world turn digital. And it's happening >everywhere: San Francisco, Thailand---even England! > > >THE FUTURE IS NOW > A British grocery store chain called Tesco is rolling out Palm III-based > organizers specially designed to enable shoppers to bar-code-read > groceries and order them online for home delivery. The custom Pilots > will be available to customers only at the Tesco web site. Rival chain > Safeway is reportedly rolling out a similar Palm III device in February. >http://www.tesco.co.uk/press/press-99jan21a.htm >http://www.tesco.co.uk/ > > >COMPUTER CULTURE > Finding that hip and jaded urban geeks are growing tired of Starbucks, > the company has launched the Circadia Coffeehouse in San Francisco. > This new coffee joint has cool furniture and free Internet connections at > every table. You can rent Compaq notebooks for about $10 an hour and > buy floppy disks for a buck a piece. And unlike the old Starbucks, > Circadia has valet parking, a full bar and a stage for musicians and > poets. Starbucks is reportedly considering opening up a Circadia in > New York and about eight other major locations. Oddly, the name is > the same as a Seattle sandwich shop (Circadia) and related bakery > operation (Circadia Flatbread Oven) that happens to be owned by > Starbucks. > > >IT'S A WIRED, WIRED WORLD > Under Construction: The ultimate geek paradise. Thailand is > transforming the sunny, idyllic island of Phuket (yes, that's how you > pronounce it...) into a high-bandwidth, totally wired information > technology business center. The government and some large businesses > are cooperating on the installation of high-speed digital infrastructure > and public facilities for learning and doing business electronically. > They hope to attract software development, Internet transaction > processing and other technology firms to the island. (If Microsoft > loses the antitrust case, maybe they'll just say, "Phuket!" and move > the entire Microsoft campus there.) Already Phuket is host to a > project called "Cyber Village," which is a high-tech retreat for power > brainstorming. The Island also sports at least one wired pizza joint > (hey, it's a start): >http://www.phuket.com/pizzedelic/index.html >http://www.phuket.com/ > > >COMPUTER CULTURE 2 > The founder of Marvel Comics and creator of the Incredible Hulk has > created seven new superheros that come from around the world and--- > just like me---derive all their powers from the Internet. >www.stanlee.net > > >THE MARCH OF MOORE'S LAW > Intel insiders say the company is on track to ship a 667MHz Pentium III > chip by the end of this year and an 800MHz chip by the end of next year. > > >STRANGE BUT TRUE > Hewlett-Packard and Cyrano Sciences are working together on a pocket > computer that smells. No, I'm not talking about performance that stinks > (that's already available). I'm talking about a hand-held computer with > an electronic nose that detects and identifies odors. The new devices > would be useful in the medical, food and chemical industries. One > application, according to H.P., would be a device used by doctors and > dentists to smell the breath of patients (something doctors would prefer > not do) to detect specific illnesses. >http://www.hp.com/pressrel/jan99/20jan99a.htm >http://www.cyranosciences.com > > >WINDOWS GNUS > A grass-roots anti-Windows coalition is demanding refunds for people > who had to pay for Windows when they bought their computers, even > though they didn't want the OS. Microsoft says the movement is just a > publicity stunt. Also, read the harrowing saga of one Geoffrey D. > Bennett, who tried to get Toshiba to honor its own refund policy: >http://www.netcraft.com.au/geoffrey/toshiba.html >http://www.linuxmall.com/refund/ > > >YOUR MICROSOFT DOLLARS AT WORK > The papers are reporting that Bill Gates is now worth a whopping > $81.4 billion. But that's not exactly accurate. In reality, that's merely > the value of Gates' Microsoft stock alone. He also owns fully or partly > a number of other companies, including Corbis, Teledesic and others. > Gate's real net worth may approach $90 billion. He has pulled completely > away from the world's second richest guy, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal of > Saudi Arabia, whose estimated worth is about $14 billion---making > him a pauper by Gatesian standards. > > >HACK ATTACK > A 19-year-old Danish hacker successfully gained electronic entry into > a randomly picked home computer recently. Unfortunately, for the > hacker, the PC belongs to the head of the Copenhagen police special > computer crime unit. The hacker was arrested yesterday. > > >ON THE WILD, WILD WEB > Archie Comic Publications, Inc., is claiming they own the trademark > "Veronica" and are demanding that the owner of the domain name > veronica.org cease and desist using it (the company already owns the > site veronica.com). The "org" site belongs to a man who built the page > to commemorate the recent birth of his daughter, Veronica. The page > includes pictures of the real-life Veronica and a call for support in her > fight against Archie Comics. >http://www.veronica.org >http://www.veronica.com > > >UNSUBSTANTIATED RUMOR > The TNT network is rumored to be working on an original movie called > the "Pirates of Silicon Valley" in which Bill Gates (who doesn't work or > live anywhere near Silicon Valley) and other industry notables will be > ruthlessly portrayed with all the insight and intelligence only TV can > deliver. (The link below will give dates and times, eventually.) >http://www.tnt.turner.com/tntoriginals > > >UNDOCUMENTED TIP > By using the Windows batch file "start /w" command, you can tell > programs to launch sequentially, with each app launching only when > the previous application has been closed. Here's how to do it. Simply > create a batch file that lists each of the programs you want to launch > with start /w just before it. Include the program's full path and put a > space after the w. Here's an example: > > start /w C:\WINDOWS\NOTEPAD.EXE > start /w C:\WINDOWS\CALC.EXE > > In this example, launching the batch file will open Notepad. After > Notepad is closed, the Windows Calculator will launch. You can list > as many programs as you like using this method. > > >SECRET SHORTCUT > You already know how to launch Control Panel items the long way > (Start button/Settings/Control Panel, then double-click on the icon). > Here's the short way for keyboard wizards. Select Ctrl+Esc, R to bring > up the Run Command dialog. Type in "control" (no quotation marks) > followed by a space and the name of the file that launches the items > you're looking for. The Password item, for example, is launched by > typing in "control passwords.cpl". You can find a complete list of > these files by using the Find utility and searching for files with a > .CPL extension in your C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM folder. > > >READER TIP > After I made a snide comment last week about those annoying pop-up > ads on AOL, reader Ingrid Measimer sent these instructions on how to > get rid of those ads for good: Launch AOL and to go My AOL, then > Preferences. Click on the Marketing button. Click on Pop-Up, then > Continue. Now click No and OK. Thanks, Ingrid! > > >WACKY WEB SITES O' THE WEEK > Travel Guide to the world's most dangerous places: >http://abcnews.go.com/sections/world/dp/dp_intro.html > > Forget crew: "Squirrel Fishing" is the new Harvard sport: >http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~yaz/en/squirrel_fishing.html/ > > Sing along with William Shatner: >http://www.loskene.com/singalong/kirk.html > > >LAST WEEK'S COOL TRIVIA WINNER > Congratulations to Paul Podgornik for being fastest to identify > VisiCalc as the world's first spreadsheet. Harvard Business School > graduate student Dan Bricklin came up with the idea in 1978 and pal > Bob Frankston wrote the code for the Apple II a year later (the > software was published by their company, Software Arts Corporation). > The popularity of VisiCalc led to the development of Lotus 1-2-3, the > PC's first "killer app," which led to Microsoft Excel, the current > market leader. >http://dss.cba.uni.edu/dss/sshistory.html >http://www.wiley.co.uk/college/busin/icmis/oakman/outline/chap07/misc/visicalc. h >tm >http://ei.cs.vt.edu/~history/BRICKLIN.Fleming.HTML > > >THIS WEEK'S COOL TRIVIA QUESTION > What does ASCII stand for? Send your answer to me at [EMAIL PROTECTED]; > please type the words "COOL TRIVIA" in the subject line. > > >That's it for this week's Win Letter! Thanks for all your continuing >suggestions, tips, ideas and comments. Keep 'em coming! > > > >Mike Elgan >http://elgan.com > > > >Send *YOUR* Win Letter gossip, news, events, sites, rumors, facts, >trivia and product info to me at [EMAIL PROTECTED]; please type >"4WINLETTER" (no quote marks and no spaces) in the subject line. > > > > >--------------------------------- >About the Win Letter >The Windows Magazine Win Letter is designed to be >different. Rather than a marketing vehicle to promote >content on the Windows Magazine web site, the >Win Letter is designed to give you complete but >concise information and opinion unavailable >elsewhere. I add links, but only to original source >material. In other words, if I talk about something you >can see for yourself on the web, I'll add a link to that >"something." If you choose not to follow the links, >you won't miss the main information, all of which >is contained in the Win Letter itself. > >The other difference is that this newsletter is >"freeware." You have permission to copy, print, >redistribute, republish or forward (but not modify; >please leave the whole thing intact) the information >herein. > >I encourage you to share the Win Letter with as many >people as you like. > >Enjoy! -mike ---------------------------------------------------------------- Compu-Mania MailingList is provided by PT Centrin Utama Maintained by : [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Post a msg : Send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe : Mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] BODY : unsubscribe Compu-Mania For more information, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "HELP" in the BODY of your mail (without quote). ----------------------------------------------------------------
