What's New?
This page gives you an overview of what's new
at this site, and elsewhere in Fred's online and print work. The "Contents"
and "About Langa.Com" pages also
can help you find just what you're looking for here. Each page also has a
timestamp in its footer so you can tell if the page has been updated since your
last visit.
Week of 11/02/97
PC Vendors
Take a Bath:
Wall Street wasn’t the only thing to
tank last week---have you seen what’s been happening with PC prices?
How about--- for $485---an IBM 586 system complete (except for monitor) with all the normal bells and whistles, and even including a network card? Or a 200MHz MMX system---again, with all the normal bells and whistles (fast CD 33.6 modem, 4Mb S3 video, speakers, etc.)--- for $1159? How about an incredibly light and thin (4.1 lb, 1.2" thick) Pentium 133MHz-powered IBM ThinkPad 560---which I personally feel is one of the best laptops ever made--- for $1299? Or a fully decked-out Pentium 166 desktop system for $949?
Prices like these have surprised the experts, depressed resellers, and overjoyed bargain-hunters. There are four main reasons why prices are so low; those reasons, plus information to help you decide if this is the right moment to make your move buying hardware, are discussed in my weekly online column at http://content.techweb.com/winmag//bbs/columns/. (The column goes up on Monday, 11/03, and stays up all week). There's also info in the column on where to find these incredible bargains.
It's not a theoretical discussion: For example, I needed a new laptop, and budgeted for $2000-2500 for the purchase. Two weeks ago, I found a brand-new IBM ThinkPad 560 for just $1299! The reseller even threw in a free carrying case and a free Connectix Quickcam as a sweetener. I was so far under budget I also bought a "barebones" 200MHz AMD K6 MMX system for $399. (I’ll populate the system with spare parts I have at home, and use it as a hardware testbed.) And with all that---I’m still far below my budget---two systems for way less than what I expected to pay for one!
If you need hardware, now could be a great time to shop. Check out the column!
BTW, last week's discussion on internal vs. external modems (and that $18,000 phone bill!) was great, with some super input from readers. You can still see that discussion here.
Alert!
If you or your co-workers run Lotus
Notes and Microsoft Excel, you should know that they interact badly---very
badly. Notes can make your Excel spreadsheet calculations
appear to be off by two orders of magnitude! Sadly, Lotus is not
offering a fix anytime soon. Checkout the bug report here: (http://www.bugnet.com/bugalert_1025.html)
BrowserTune:
Windows Magazine has been running the
beta of Microsoft's IIS 4.0 on its web server---with mixed results. It's way
faster than IIS3 and has fewer internal bottlenecks, but it's still somewhat
unstable. The instability problems slowed down my completion of the last
maintenance release of BrowserTune97,
although it's mostly done. I'll get to the last few details this week.
Meanwhile, the suggestion box is still open for Browsertune98. Most suggestions have come in via email, and that's fine. Some have come in through the free online discussion at (sorry:discussion no longer active) and that's fine too. Just be sure, if you have unusual preferences or requirements, that you let me know what you want to see in BT98! I'll do my best to incorporate 'em.
LangaLetter Changes:
Most of you who wrote said you preferred the
HTML version (as do I), but a few did not, and I got several
bounce-backs from subscribers who'd set up their mailboxes to reject
attachments.
So in the interests of giving everyone what they want, the majority mailing will be plain text+HTML, but if you're in the minority that would prefer a plain-text-only version, please do this: Unsubscribe from the standard newsletter (using the instructions at the bottom of the page) and then send me a personal note (at fred@langa.com) mentioning you'd like the text-only version. I'll handle those subscriptions manually, as there were just a few of you... unlike the main mailing, which is getting *very* large! 8-) (That's why I send it on Sunday mornings, when traffic at my ISP is at its weekly low point....)
And the newsletter mailing list is in fact still growing phenomenally---up about another 20% this week! Welcome (and thanks!) to all the new readers this week. And if you think a friend or coworker might be interested in the newsletter, why not forward this copy to them? They can sign up for free too!
Name That Newsletter:
Most of the suggestions last week were to
leave the name alone. If you can think of a better name than
LangaLetter, please drop me a note. Otherwise, I guess we'll leave it as it is.
8-)
Langa.Com Updates:
I changed the body type on
all the Langa.Com pages last week in an effort to improve readability. I added
an auto-generated textual Table Of Contents to the "site
contents" page (which still contains the clickable graphical site map).
And I'm trying "timed includes" which will help to
keep the site contents fresh. Please let me know what you think!
Who else is visiting Langa.Com? Here's a rank-ordered list of countries from which Langa.Com visitors have come: USA, Canada, South Africa, Japan, Australia, United Kingdom, Israel, Thailand, Netherlands, Singapore, Germany,Costa Rica, Malaysia, Finland, Portugal, Trinidad and Tobago, Estonia, Latvia, Austria, Taiwan, Sweden, Russian Federation, Norway, New Zealand, Argentina, Venezuela, Greece, France, Switzerland, Denmark, Egypt, Italy, Belgium, Spain, Ireland, Croatia, and last---a handful of hits from "su" suffixes, representing the former USSR. Wow---there are readers from most of the world with internet access!
A New Look for HotSpots:
On Monday, you'll see a new layout for
HotSpots (http://content.techweb.com/winmag//flanga/hotspots.htm
). The HotSpots pages already have gotten more visitors than any
other single-authored part of WinMagWeb, and in fact are the most
popular single-authored section of all of CMPnet! This week's lineup:
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Last week's rich lineup of HotSpots is available at: http://content.techweb.com/winmag//flanga/phs.htm . Some of you have asked for a better front-end to access those archived pages---I'll work on that ASAP.
Personal News:
After six years, I've
decided to leave WINDOWS Magazine. I hope you'll be glad to hear that I
have a contract with CMP to continue with my WinMag columns, to
continue developing HotSpots and BrowserTune, to write
a new online column for CMPnet, and to help out in various other areas.
And on my own, I'll still maintain Langa.Com and this newsletter
so all the stuff you've come to expect will still be there for
you.
But as of the end of this month, I'll be a freelance. It's been a great ride at WinMag: We took the magazine from 75,000 circ to over 800,000 circ, with over 2 million readers. But I wanted to get back to content---writing---which is what I love most and what got me into this business in the first place. As my management activities ate into more and more of my time, I moved further and further away from writing.
The redesigned January 1998 issue of WinMag will be my last as a staff member. Starting in the February issue, I'll be listed on the WinMag masthead as a freelance "Senior Consulting Editor."
I'll also be doing some editorial and web consulting on the side---you can check out Langa.Com (http://www.langa.com) for an idea of what I'm looking to do.
And with my soon-to-be-realized ability to focus full-time on writing and webwork, I hope to make the content you read here, in WINDOWS Magazine, on the WinMagWeb and on CMPnet better than ever!