Computer Shopper articles from July 2001

Computer Shopper archives from July 2001

Feedback Forum.(Letter to the Editor)
July 1, 2001... Hobbyists Beware! I was just reading the May issue of Computer Shopper and came across John Blackford's reference to Microsoft software and "locked" configurations (p. 40). Apparently, Office XP logs the hardware configuration upon...

Atlas Micro AS5000: Let a Duron Do Your Heavy Lifting.(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
July 1, 2001... Until recently, entry-level computers were low-cost solutions typically priced around $1,000 that usually sat at the bottom of the performance scale. Thanks to AMD's 850MHz Duron processor, systems such as Atlas Micro Logistic's AS5000 can now...

Dell Dimension 4100: Entering a New Dimension of Value.(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
July 1, 2001... Dell Computer has another winner with its $1,549 1GHz Dimension 4100 home system. Although not a flashy Pentium 4 PC or a zippy new Athlon system, it provides solid all-around performance for a reasonable price. Quality components such as...

Apple iMac Special Edition: The iMac Is Back With Flair to Spare.(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
July 1, 2001... What about the iMac Special Edition merits the description "special"? Partly, the contents of the sleek case: Component-wise, the Special Edition is the most pumped-up iMac yet. But it's the case itself- available in several eye-catching (some...

Compaq Armada E500: Tank-Like Stability in an Unsteady Business World.(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
July 1, 2001... High-end corporate users take heed: Here's a notebook designed with you in mind. Solid performance, CD-RW and DVD-ROM options, a large 30GB hard drive, and a 1GHz processor will feed your need for rest and relaxation. Windows 2000, excellent...

McAfee Utilities 4.0: A Pledge to Serve and Protect.(Software Review)(Evaluation)
July 1, 2001... In a perfect world, your PC wouldn't crash, drives would have unlimited space, and your Registry would never be corrupted. In the real world, the $39.99 McAfee Utilities 4.0 can fix these problems and keep your Windows machine running smoothly....

Easy CD Creator 5 Platinum: Create Custom CDs The Easy Way.(Software Review)(Evaluation)
July 1, 2001... Chances are, a basic version of Roxio's Easy CD Creator came bundled with your CD-RW drive. For Roxio, Adaptec's spin-off software company, the challenge was creating a deluxe version worth paying for. This latest edition, Easy CD Creator 5...

In Sites for Outdoor Dining - Simplify your summer meals with sites that will deliver the perfect picnic.(Directory)
July 1, 2001... If your idea of the perfect summer meal involves shopping for hours and slaving over a hot stove, read no further. But if picnics, barbecues, or clambakes accompanied by gentle breezes sound more appealing, read on, and then get online. You'll...

Web Buyer - Site Reviews for Online Shopping.(Internet/Web/Online Service Information)
July 1, 2001... PC Shopping aberdeeninc.com Targeting the savvy consumer who craves speeds and feeds, Aberdeen offers extensive specs on a wide variety of computers and accessories. Shoppers can see side-by-side comparisons of motherboards the company...

Computer Shopper Site of the Month.(Editorial)
July 1, 2001... motherboards.org Do you push your PC to the limit? Motherboard HomeWorld is heaven for hardware hackers and optimistic overclockers. Dedicated to documenting the soul of the PC, this site offers motherboard specs, reviews, and articles....

Disaster Prevention for Web Sites.(Internet/Web/Online Service Information)
July 1, 2001... A record company's site lists thousands of customer names, addresses, and portions of credit-card numbers. A Swiss bank publishes the financial information of its celebrity clients on its site. A university medical center exposes patient...

A Geek With a Gun.(Industry Trend or Event)
July 1, 2001... David E. Green has seen it all: extortion, fraud, espionage, and denial-of-service attacks. The principal deputy chief of the U.S. Department of Justice's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section (CCIPS) told attendees of the e-Security...

Wireless Apps With a Future.(Industry Trend or Event)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... By 2005, 96 million Americans will be using wireless devices, according to Jupiter Research. But what will they do with those devices? Here's Jupiter's take on the apps you may soon be able to put to use in your own business, and those you may...

Campaign Promises - Web marketing services help you get your company's message out.(Company Business and Marketing)
July 1, 2001... A brilliant idea alone doesn't guarantee success; you need to market your product to establish a brand identity. The American Marketing Association (www.ama.org) defines marketing as "the process of planning and executing the conception,...

Be Your Customers' Back-Fence Neighbor - E-tailers have to strike a balance between anticipating customers' needs and minding their own business.(Industry Trend or Event)
July 1, 2001... "Who's gonna patronize a little bitty, two-by-four kinda store anymore?" a traveling salesman laments aboard a train to River City, Iowa, in Meredith Willson's The Music Man. Back in 1912, Main Street, U.S.A., was threatened by folks driving...

File Sharing Made Simple.(Product Information)
July 1, 2001... It's just the 21st Century and just about any computer anywhere can hook up with another, either directly or via the Internet. So why can't Joe in the art department open that e-mail attachment from Frank in marketing? Heterogeneous...

The Hard Edge - A Whimsical Look at Today's Web; Bill Does FireWire; and the Game Boy Sewing Machine?(Internet/Web/Online Service Information)
July 1, 2001... Don't look now, but it's almost July. Bill is planting ground cover over the Basement of Doom and Pepsi-Cola, Alice is taking some sun on the veranda by the pool at stately Hill Manor, and we're hearing absolutely nothing of importance from the...

Your Own Digital Domain - With a little planning, it's relatively easy to build a starter Web site.(Technology Tutorial)(Tutorial)
July 1, 2001... Most everyone, from huge online stores to mom-and-pop delis, has a Web site these days. Even average families are creating their own sites to share photos and information with friends and relatives. If you're concerned about the complexities of...

Alfred Poor's Computer Cures.(Questions and Answers)
July 1, 2001... Erase The Past Dear Alfred: How can I cover my tracks after using my computer? Pat Curran It must be a sign of the times, because I'm asked this question often. You can erase the temporary files created by Web surfing and cover up...

Alfred Poor's Computer Cures: Tip Of The Month.(Technology Tutorial)(Tutorial)
July 1, 2001... Stop Those Scripts! This past spring sprouted more malicious e-mail viruses than tulips in a Dutch field. These little nasties tend to rely on Visual Basic scripts and bear such provocative names as SexyPicture. JPG.VBS. If Windows...

A Perplexing Panel Purchase - Finding an affordable LCD for mainstream users is easy; finding one for demanding movie buffs is not.(Panel Discussion)
July 1, 2001... With the stock market tanking and the economy sucking wind, now may not be the time to think about replacing your old desktop CRT monitor with a space-saving, cutting-edge LCD panel. Or is it? Prices of these formerly top-end luxury items are...

Checking Out.(Directory)
July 1, 2001... "You know, it's really cool because you have my friends at home and, like, when I need to talk to them we stay on the computer forever and she's talking to me and I'm talking and you can just, you know, catch up on all the old stuff. Because...

Build Your Own and Save.(Buyers Guide)
July 1, 2001... When I began covering the PC industry more than 10 years ago, Windows editors of Computer Shopper were composing articles with MCI Mail, and a speedy 25 MHZ 386SX on my desk. Many of our readers were die-hard techies who had cut their teeth on...

Microsoft's New Operating Instructions.(Product Development)
July 1, 2001... Microsoft believes experience should be your guide-or XPerience, anyway. Its forthcoming Windows XP operating system aims to apply a simple design to the desktop landscape. Windows XP, in Home and Professional versions, is built on the...

Flight Sites Up In the Air.(Industry Trend or Event)
July 1, 2001... Eyebrows rose (and the stock prices of Expedia and Travelocity fell) when Northwest Airlines and its alliance partner KLM Royal Dutch Airlines announced they would stop paying commissions to online travel agencies in early March. Is this the...

Value Line: Internal Eide Hard Drives.
July 1, 2001... Western Digital Protege WD100EB $84 10GB capacity, 12ms average seek time, 5,400rpm spin rate, $8.35 per gigabyte Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 40 53073H6 $136 30GB capacity, 9ms average seek time, 7,200rpm spin rate, $4.53 per gigabyte...

A Net Divided.(Industry Trend or Event)
July 1, 2001... Americans have achieved progress in gaining access to the Internet, but the digital world is still divided. A recent report by the Washington, D.C.-based Pew Internet & American Life Project states that 56 percent of American adults had...

Congressional Oversight?(Government Activity)
July 1, 2001... Women are reaching across the digital divide. As Independence Day approaches, politically inclined citizens may have thoughts of contacting their congressional representatives. There was a time when a concerned constituent could compose a...

Addressing Your issues.(Industry Trend or Event)
July 1, 2001... Internet users are becoming increasingly dissatisfied with impersonal e-mail addresses. Who wants to present themselves to the digital world as JQPublic872@HugeISP.com? Now you have a choice: Hundreds of free e- mail services offer distinctive...

Microsoft Touts the Tablet.(Company Business and Marketing)
July 1, 2001... The future of computing may be flat-but Microsoft isn't predicting a downturn in sales. Rather, the company is betting that corporate users will snap up new tablet devices due to debut next year. Microsoft's Tablet PC aims to fuse the...

Ads to Go.(Company Business and Marketing)
July 1, 2001... National and local advertisers alike should be watching companies like AvantGo (www.avantgo.com) and Vindigo (www.vindigo.com), which are delivering targeted messages through the PDA to the on-the-go (and young, moneyed, and tech-savvy)...

A Stinger Ringer From Redmond.(Product Development)
July 1, 2001... Used to be that you used telephones to talk to people. Now the devices, particularly cell phones, are taking on more advanced duties. Microsoft, for example, recently introduced its smart-phone platform, code-named Stinger. Running on the...

The Failure files.(Company Business and Marketing)
July 1, 2001... If you're an online shopper, it can be challenging to keep track of the domino-like demise of "new economy" Web sites. You can track the corporate doom and gloom at sites such as F***edCompany.com, TheCompost (www.thecompost. com),...

Watch It.(Directory)
July 1, 2001... If you believe that your wristwatch should express your technophile tendencies, we've got good news: There's no shortage of high-tech timepieces that use the Web to tell more than just the time. Casio (www.casio.com) offers watches James...

Bluetooth Checkup.(Technology Information)
July 1, 2001... Tired of countless cables snarling your work area? Many computer users are looking to Bluetooth, a wireless communications protocol that connects electronic devices over distances of up to 30 feet. Although it's been promised for several years,...

Stuff you want.(Buyers Guide)
July 1, 2001... picto-phone Sanyo SCP-5000 What it is: A smartly engineered dual-band cell phone from Sanyo that's outfitted with a color screen. While Japanese users have had their pick of color-display phones for a while, this is the first model to...

Computer Shopper Best Buys: July 2001.(Buyers Guide)
July 1, 2001... Computer Shopper and ZDNet editor pick the best values among the latest products. Hardware Cornerstone c910 Just $269, the Cornerstone c910 is a 19-inch CRT offering high refresh rates and a flawless image at resolutions up to...

Meet the New Champ Of Wi-Fi: Notebooks - While PDAs and cell phones show the allure of portability, it's notebooks that are poised to become champions of the wireless LAN.(Technology Information)
July 1, 2001... It's ironic that notebook PCs, the original champions of portability, have remained tethered to phone lines while cell phones, pagers, and wireless PDAs roam free. You could do the budget for a billion-dollar company using a notebook PC in your...

Technology Fatigue Syndrome Strikes Computer Users - Are endless technological innovations wearing you out? You may be suffering from TFS.(Industry Trend or Event)
July 1, 2001... I was always impressed with my Palm's ability to beam business cards back and forth. You could also beam programs and games. I recently realized I haven't beamed a card in nearly a year; I can't recall the last time I beamed a game. I also used...

Digital Music Goes Corporate - Major labels plan to offer pay services this summer.(Column)
July 1, 2001... Like so many Internet proponents in the early days of digital music, I was once pretty naive about how quickly online music services would transform the industry. From 1996 to 1998, it seemed artist backlash against record-label control (a la...

Will the 'Information Furnace' Engulf the PC? The time may come when a home media server replaces the PC.(Industry Trend or Event)
July 1, 2001... During their 20-plus years of evolution, PCs have gone through several application phases, each of which drove a major wave of growth. At first, only hobbyists interested in computers for their own sake bought them. Then came the business...

Olympus Camedia C-2040 Zoom: Smile for This Smooth Sharpshooter.(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
July 1, 2001... OLympus America's $499 2.1-megapixel Camedia C-2040 Zoom features today's fastest zoom lens (f1.8) in a camera of its class. Unless you're a bargain buyer, or a serious photographer looking for a semipro-level camera, it deserves a spot on your...

Dazzle Hollywood DV-Bridge: Lights, Camera, Digitize!(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
July 1, 2001... Take your old analog VHS tapes and convert them into digital video (DV) with Dazzle's $299 Hollywood DV-Bridge. The Dazzle's main hardware component is a breakout box that sits between your PC and your camcorder, television, or VCR, and works...

Pioneer DVR-A03: You Can Be a DVD-Burning Pioneer.(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
July 1, 2001... DVD-R has arrived, thanks to Pioneer's $995 DVR-A03, the first DVD recorder under $1,000. This internal ATAPI drive can read and write to CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, and DVD-RW media, and can burn a DVD-R disc that will play in your DVD player. Be...

Gateway Connected Music Player: Rock Your House With Digital Audio.(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
July 1, 2001... Gateway's $299 Connected Music Player lets you listen to your PC's music library throughout your home. Whether your music collection is on a single PC or several, this clever component gathers it all up via your home network and lets you play...

KDS VS-190i: Squinting to See The Big Picture.(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
July 1, 2001... At first glance, it seems a stunning value: KDS U.S.A.'s 19-inch VS- 190i CRT monitor sells for an attractive estimated price of just $269. Look closer, however, and you'll see that this monitor's low price isn't enough to make it a solid buy....

D-Link DWL-920 11Mbps USB Wireless Home Network Kit: Networking Without Cable Clutter.(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
July 1, 2001... Networking kits are the easiest and least expensive way to share an Internet connection and other resources among PCs in the home. One of the latest examples, the $499 D-Link DWL-920 11Mbps USB Wireless Home Network Kit, is a flexible, simple...

IBM ThinkPad iSeries 1300 1171-7WU: No-Cables Networking, No-Problem Price.(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
July 1, 2001... Most budget consumer notebooks have three spindles, meaning they feature fixed hard, floppy, and optical (CD-ROM or DVD) drives. The $1,349 IBM ThinkPad iSeries 1300 1171-7WU, however, goes against the norm, dropping the internal floppy drive....

Handspring Visor Edge: This Visor's Got a Real Metallic Edge.(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
July 1, 2001... Successful PDA maker Handspring's new $399 Visor Edge is a striking piece of industrial design. The Visor Edge is Handspring's thinnest handheld yet and has a sleek metallic shell that calls to mind Apple's titanium-cased PowerBook G4. The unit...

Motorola V. Series 60c: Carry the Ultimate in Cell-Phone Chic.(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
July 1, 2001... Motorola's latest V. Series mobile phone, the 60c, sells for $400 to $450 and takes cell-phone miniaturization to the extreme. From its tiny 3.4-by-1.8-by-0.9-inch size to its sleek brushed-aluminum curves, the 60c is a true looker. ...

Slim, Speedy, and Smartly Dressed.(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
July 1, 2001... With a travel weight of 6.2 pounds, the $3,098 1GHz WinBook X1 is slightly hefty for a thin-and-light model with a 13.3-inch LCD screen. But considering all that the X1 packs in, you might not mind toting the extra few ounces. With a...

Compaq iPaq Pocket PC H3150: A Pocket PC That Paqs in Performance.(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
July 1, 2001... Think of the $349 iPaq H3150 as the H3650 on a budget. Both are powered by a fast 206MHz Intel StrongARM 32-bit processor, and both use Microsoft Windows for Pocket PC, with its full complement of programs that includes calendar, contacts, task...

Palm m105: Gets a Memory Boost.(Hardware Review)(Evaluation)
July 1, 2001... Like a familiar car line that gets an annual refresh, Palm's latest budget PDA, the $199 m105, has just rolled off the assembly line. The new model, still color- customizable with optional ($19.95) snap-on color faceplates, has a curvy case,...

Microsoft Office XP Professional Special Edition: Are You Ready For a New XPerience?(Software Review)(Evaluation)
July 1, 2001... The "XP" in Microsoft's new Office XP productivity suite stands for "experience." Although Office XP may help users better experience Office's wide array of well-known features, Microsoft doesn't provide any major new features in this latest...

MyPalm: Organization in the Palm of Your Hand.(Company Business and Marketing)
July 1, 2001... Last year, Palm acquired AnyDay.com to provide a Web companion for Palm OS device owners. The result, MyPalm, retains AnyDay.com's robust calendar- and contact-management features, while giving Palm users access to their data on the Web. The...

SideStep: The Next Step In Online Travel.(Company Business and Marketing)
July 1, 2001... The Web makes planning travel easy. But with so many sites to choose from, it's hard to know when you've found the best deal. SideStep, an online travel agent, hopes to provide a one-source solution. SideStep provides its free service via...

Star Wars: Battle for Naboo: No Fear Of Flying.(from LucasArts Entertainment)(Evaluation)
July 1, 2001... Star Wars: Battle for Naboo is the first game that lets you pilot various Naboo vehicles within the Episode I universe. Like Rogue Squadron, Battle for Naboo features extremely straightforward gameplay without the finer mechanics of piloting,...

The Sims: House Party: Sims Casa Es su Casa.(The Sims: House Party Expansion Pack from Maxis)(Evaluation)
July 1, 2001... The Sims: House Party Expansion Pack is the second add-on for Maxis' popular real-life simulation, The Sims. Like the earlier expansion pack Livin' Large (which isn't required to play House Party), House Party adds new household objects,...

Black & White: It's Good to Be a God.(action game from Lionhead Studios)(Evaluation)
July 1, 2001... Three years in the making, Lionhead Studios' debut game manages to live up to its audience's extremely high expectations. Black & White is a massive game about lofty concepts-gods and miracles-and yet it never takes itself too seriously....

Serious Sam: Shoot to Thrill.(from GodGames)(Evaluation)
July 1, 2001... You'd have a hard time coming up with a game anywhere near as intense as Serious Sam. This extremely fast-paced first-person shooter delivers a wide range of weapons and monsters-and it's got a good sense of humor to boot. It also uses an...

The Dynamic Duo.(Evaluation)
July 1, 2001... Fact File Category TestedAthlon/DDR SDRAM Desktops Price Range$1,779 to $3,287 Minimum Configuration AMD 1.2GHz Athlon CPU; 128MBDDR SDRAM; 40GB hard drive;DVD-ROM or CD-RW drive;19-inch monitor; Windows Me Companies IncludedAtlas Micro...

AMD's Silver Hammer.(Product Information)
July 1, 2001... The next battlefront in the war of the processors is likely to take place on the 64-bit parallel. Intel recently announced the availability of its 64-bit Itanium processor, and once again, all eyes are on AMD and its new 64-bit CPU. Code-named...

Hearing Is Believing.(Evaluation)
July 1, 2001... Fact File Category Tested Multichannel Sound Cards Price Range$45 to $199 Companies IncludedAbit Computer, AOpen America, Creative Labs, Philips Consumer Electronics, Voyetra Turtle Beach ZDNet Best Buy Voyetra Turtle Beach Santa...

The Ins and Outs of Multichannel Sound.(Technology Information)
July 1, 2001... Okay, you've bought a $200 surround speaker system, a state-of-the-art 12x DVD-ROM, a dozen four-channel games, and a whole shelf full of DVDs. But you're still not sure what type of sound card you'll need to tie everything together. ...

Get Personal With a Printer - How to Pinpoint The Printer That's Right for You.(Industry Trend or Event)
July 1, 2001... While printers are arguably the most crucial peripheral you can buy for your computer, they need not be the costliest. Now you can get a good inkjet unit for less than $100, and even laser printers can be had for less than $300. Of course, if...

Portable Print Shops.(Product Information)
July 1, 2001... For those on the go, a portable printer can be the perfect accessory for a notebook, PDA, or digital camera. Portable models are especially handy for business travelers who need to print documents on the road or vacationers who want to leave...

Sensational Site Design.(Evaluation)
July 1, 2001... So you want to create a Web site? With more than a billion unique Web pages on the Internet, you have plenty of competition. To stand out, you need to make your content compelling, your pages easy to navigate, and your design appealing....

Your Design Arsenal.(Product Information)
July 1, 2001... You're armed with your Web-site layout program of choice-now what? It takes more than a strong Web-authoring program to create an appealing site. You'll need supplementary software to help you design your content-especially if you want lots of...

Where Code is King.(Product Information)
July 1, 2001... Anyone who'd rather write HTML code than drag and drop Web elements onto a page should probably be shopping for an HTML editor. Layout- based Web-design programs resemble desktop-publishing apps, and HTML editors resemble word processors. Just...

Site Advice.(Company Business and Marketing)
July 1, 2001... Even if you have all the right software tools, your site will be only as good as your design skills. To improve on these skills, you can go online and find hints, tips, and advice on how to build a better Web site. A good starting point, CNET...

Do Your Designing on the Web.(Product Information)
July 1, 2001... If you're looking for the easiest site-design program, you may not be looking for a program at all. Trellix (www.trellix.com), founded by VisiCalc author Dan Bricklin, has converted its TrellixWeb software into TrellixWeb Express, a...

Online On the Road - Being away from home no longer means being out of touch. Now you can get online on land, at sea, or in the air.(Company Business and Marketing)
July 1, 2001... It's almost like knowing where all the good bathrooms are," jokes Miami-based airline consultant Stuart Klaskin. Klaskin is referring to anytime/anywhere Internet access. Because he's away from home about 100 days a year, getting online on...

Eat, Drink, and Be Wired.(Company Business and Marketing)
July 1, 2001... Internet access has infiltrated every walk of life. Even local eateries give patrons the ability to get online. Cyber cafes, where you can get a sandwich, commandeer a booth, and munch away while checking your e- mail, are popping up all over...

Check It Out Before Check-In.(Company Business and Marketing)(Brief Article)
July 1, 2001... Looking for a hotel that provides high-speed Web access? All the electronic comforts of a well-connected home or office can be surprisingly hard to find. Travel portals don't let you sort hotels based on this amenity, and centralized...

Putting The Pieces Together {for savings} - If you want to build your own PC, you can save hundreds of dollars by shopping around for compenents.(Technology Information)
July 1, 2001... A computer may be more than the sum of its parts, but that doesn't mean the sum doesn't add up in dollars. If you've ever replaced a graphics card or added a CD-ROM drive, you know that PC components are easy to swap out. What you may not know...

If You Build It, You Will Save.(Technology Information)
July 1, 2001... The charts below show the actual cost of two 800MHz systems we put together recently, one based on a Pentium III processor, the other on an AMD Athlon Thunderbird CPU. The Savings column shows how much additional savings we were able to ferret...

Performing PC Transplants.(Technology Information)
July 1, 2001... If you're getting ready to build a new computer, the odds are good that you probably have an old system that is either collecting dust in the attic or too ancient to upgrade. That computer probably has a mouse, keyboard, modem, memory, and a...

Should You Roll Your Own?(Technology Information)
July 1, 2001... We believe that our home-built systems stack up quite well against complete systems available from PC makers. Although we weren't able to configure systems that precisely matched those from manufacturers, we came pretty close. The price...