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Subscribe and Unsubscribe is at the end of this note. Please email the LangaList to a friend! (Use this super-fast form !) The LangaList23-Aug-99 A Free Email Newsletter from Fred
Langa About BrowserTune, In This Issue: Four Thousand Six Hundred Eighty Two...That's how many emails I found in my inbox when I got back from vacation last week. And that was after my first-level email filters had already taken a pass at handling the most common and routine emails, such as newsletter subscription requests... 8-) After I ran the second-level filters which do things like sorting out suggestions for future HotSpots ( http://www.browsertune.com/flanga/hotspots.htm ) mail from business acquaintances (and so on) into their own mailboxes, I still had just over 600 emails that needed to be looked at one at a time. It took a long, full day just to get through them all. And I'm still working my way through the original mails---now sorted, but largely still unread. If you did write to me last week, I'll get to your mail as soon as I can! --------------( Please Visit This LangaList Sponsor!) ------------
--------------( the above is a paid advertisement )-------------- It Just Won't Die!Like a character in a bad horror movie, hard drive technology keeps being
pronounced dead, only to rise from the grave for yet another sequel. Now, a new
discovery is doing it yet again: Today’s hard drives can trace their lineage to 1952 when IBM invented the “NRZ” (non-return-to-zero) encoding that’s still used today to write data as magnetized spots on an metallic surface. It was first used on tape and drum storage, but by 1956, IBM employed the technology in its RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control) system. A marvel in its day, the units--- the size of a large washing machine or a small refrigerator--- stored 5 megabytes of data on 50 platters, each 24 inches (roughly 600mm) wide. RAMACs seem unbelievably crude today, but were revolutionary then. (Want to see the historic but ungainly RAMAC platters in action? See a brief
archival IBM video here: My column this month for Byte explores the continuing evolution of hard drive/magnetic storage technology from those amazingly crude beginnings to today's PC-sized 50GB drives, and tells you about a stunning and brand-new discovery that may allow a 1,000-fold increase in storage density in the future! And that leads to this week’s discussion: What’s next for mass storage? Do you think magnetic media will remain dominant for the foreseeable future? Will rewritable DVDs hasten the acceptance of high-capacity optical storage, or is optical writing simply too slow? (Remember, magnetic writing was once slow, too.…) Will cheap RAM prices offer the option for “diskless” PCs that use RAM for swapfile storage and optical media for longer-term, less time-critical storage? What’s your take on the future of hard drives? Read the full column and join in the week-long discussion here: http://www.byte.com/column/monitor/BYT19990817S0025 ! More BT2K UpdatesI'm continuing to work through the test results you've shared and the comments and suggestions you sent me and posted in the WinMag BBS area (at http://content.techweb.com/winmag//columns/fred/1999/0816.htm ), and I'm posting new updates to BT2K on a regular basis. If you haven't run the beta in a while, please check out the home page to see when the current version was posted: If it's newer than your last run, you may wish to give the newer version a test drive! FYI: The BT2K full beta is at http://www.browsertune.com/bt2k/ The BT2K demo (think of it as "BT2K Lite") is still available at http://www.browsertune.com/bt2kdemo/ And the tried-and-true manual version of BrowserTune (BT98) awaits you at http://www.browsertune.com/bt98/ Windows Version Discussion Still Going StrongIt
started as an idle thought: I wanted to count up the current and near-term
versions of Windows. I started to lose track at about three dozen! I posted
those I could think of in my InformationWeek column, but I publicly said I was
pretty sure I didn’t get them all. -------------( Please Visit This LangaList Partner! )------------
--------------( the above is an advertisement )----------- Real-World Results on Cable Modem/DSL SpeedUpsA few issues ago, I wrote of a site that featured registry patches that can speed up your throughput if you use a cable modem or DSL service. (See http://www.langa.com/newsletters/aug-12-99.htm#cable )
Some of you are skeptical of applying automatic registry patches like those, but this note from reader MIke Williams shows you how good the results can be:
OK, But What About Modem Users?The same kind of registry tweaks and hacks can significantly improve the throughput of a dial-up modem connection, too. There are dozens and dozens of these "internet optimizers" out there---some selling for as much as $30! But they all do basically the same thing as this FREE program from Rob Vonk: It's called EasyMTU, and it's available at http://members.tripod.com/~EasyMTU/ . If you're using dial-up access for your internet connection, I strongly recommend you download a free copy. It really can make a big difference in your throughput speeds! --------------( Please Visit This LangaList Partner! )------------
--------------( the above is an advertisement )----------- Grab A Free Palm III (Well, Maybe...)If you use the following link to recommend the LangaList to a friend, it costs you nothing, it costs them nothing, and it just may help them out. You make out, too, because you just may win a Palm III organizer for your trouble (full details also available via this link): http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm#1 The "Recommend-It" service (above) is an ad-based site (you’ll see banners and such). The advantages to you of using the Recommend-It service (above) are that you can win a Palm III and that you can add a personal message to your LangaList recommendation. But if you’d rather use the tried-and-true, ad-free recommendation form, you’ll still find it at: http://www.langa.com/recommend.htm#2 . You can’t win anything there—except my thanks for helping the LangaList to grow! In fact, either way, thank you! Just for Grins:Several readers (including my sister, living in the Florida panhandle---thanks, Genie!) sent this in:
See you next issue! Best, Fred( fred@langa.com ) --------------( Please Visit This LangaList Partner! )------------
--------------( the above is an advertisement )----------- (P.S. Please email the LangaList to a friend! Use this super-fast form !) LangaList advertising rates and info available at http://www.langa.com/rate_card.html An easier-to-read formatted HTML version is available in the "what's new" section of http://www.langa.com . All past LangaList issues are also available via the same link. Administrivia: Why are you getting this newsletter? There are only two ways to get on the list (direct email request or via the WinMag mail list signup page) so if you're getting this newsletter; your name came to me through one of those channels. SUBSCRIBE (it's free!): Send email to subscribe-langalist@lyris.dundee.net UNSUBSCRIBE: Send email to unsubscribe-langalist@lyris.dundee.net LIST TROUBLE? CHANGE OF ADDRESS? HAVE QUESTIONS? NEED HELP? This newsletter is a free service of Langa Consulting LLC and is Copyright © 1999 Langa Consulting LLC. All rights reserved. |