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Vol. 1/No. 7
06/01/1998
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Archive of
volume 1, number 7 for June 1, 1998. Go back to
current issue.
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MP3: The Next Music Revolution
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MP3 may be the next biggest innovation in music since the introduction of the CD.
But unless you work in the computer industry, you may not have even heard
of MP3.
MP3 is MPEG1, layer-3 compression for audio, which is part of the ISO
specification for audio/video compression. (DVD video uses MPEG2 for its
video compression scheme.) Typically, a single track digitized from a CD
will consume about 40-50MB of disk space in order to maintain CD music
quality. Even with today's multi-gigabyte hard drives, this is still too
much space for a single track. And with today's Internet bandwidth,
downloading 40MB just to listen to a single song isn't very
practical.
MP3 allows a user to compress an average four minute song down to
about 4MB, while maintaining CD-like quality! At 4MB per song, this makes
it easier and quicker for people to download. Depending on your Internet
connection speed, it still may take 10-20 minutes to download, but that's
not too bad.
A little calculation shows us that we can put up to 160 songs on a regular
data CD-ROM disc (640MB / 4MB = 160 songs). That's almost seven hours
(160 songs * average 4 minute per song = seven hours) of continous music! Imagine having the entire collection of a music group on
a single CD. And with the upcoming DVD format, which can hold up to 4.7GB
of data, you can store up to 49 hours or two days of continous
music on a single DVD! Or you can put up to 1,120 songs on the DVD. With
that much storage space, you can probably store every single song released
in 1998.
And that's just the beginning. In the near future DVD will be able to store
up to a staggering 18GB of data using double layered, double
sided technology. A little more number crunching shows us that's
equivalent to four days of continuous music or up to 4,480 songs per DVD!
Yikes!
The most popular MP3 player for the PC today is Winamp written by
Nullsoft. The best thing about
Winamp is that it's non-crippled shareware. If you use it for more than
14 days then you should pay Nullsoft a meager $10. And unlike other
shareware, it doesn't nag you after 14 days, or disable some crucial features.
One of the reason why MP3 hasn't made it to the mainstream consumer market
is because you still need a PC to play MP3 songs. And, of course,
the music industry wants to make sure it has control of MP3 before
popularizing it to public. A band with the ability to distribute a CD
quality album over the Internet would definitely cut into the music
industry's profit. But there's so many websites catering to MP3 that it's
only a matter of time before MP3 reaches critical mass.
To give you a taste of MP3, here's a few links:
Nullsoft Winamp Player v1.9
Winamp Official Homepage
MP3 Resource
Wizard MP3 80's Music Collection
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ISA Versus PCI Soundcards
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Intel and Microsoft wants to phase out the aging ISA slot by 1999. And one
of the most popular peripheral that's still hanging onto the ISA slot is
the soundcard. PCI based soundcards are making their way to the market,
but Creative Labs' Soundblaster ISA soundcard is still entrenched in most
systems today.
Are there any real benefits in moving to a PCI based soundcard? Yes, you
will get more bandwidth with the PCI bus, but is that really needed for
a soundcard? It's like moving the modem from the ISA bus to the PCI bus.
The fastest modem today is 56K; even the old ISA slot has more than
bandwidth to handle a mere 56K datastream.
But with a PCI soundcard, the issue is a bit more complicated; it's not
merely a question of more bandwidth, but you have to factor in processor
utilization, 3D playback, DirectSound features, and DOS games compatibility
(which may be a moot point with the release of Windows 98).
One of the biggest benefit of having a PCI based soundcard is lower
CPU utilization. Most PCI devices are busmastering capable. So moving
a 44kHz audio datastream to the PCI bus requires less processing time.
This may not be too important if your system is a Pentium II/400, but
when you're playing a high-end 3D first person shooter game on a
mainstream Pentium system, every CPU cycle counts. You wouldn't want
the framerate to drop just because of sound.
The major player of PCI audio chipset today is ESS Technology and Ensoniq.
Here's an interesting chart (taken from Diamond's Sonic Impact [which
utilizes the ESS Maestro PCI audio chip] ad in the May 26, 1998 issue of PC Magazine)
comparing the various soundcards.
| Features |
Sonic Impact PCI |
Soundblaster 64 |
Ensoniq PCI |
| Number of DirectSound Streams Supported in Hardware |
32 streams |
0 streams |
0 streams |
| Number of DirectSound 3D Streams Supported in Hardware |
6 streams |
0 streams |
0 streams |
| Data Throughput Rate |
100MB/sec |
8MB/sec |
1000MB/sec |
As you can clearly see, the biggest advantage a PCI soundcard have is the
data throughput, which jumped 12.5 times from ISA's 8MB/sec to PCI's
100MB/sec.
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Bandwidth: The Need For Speed
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One of the main factor that's preventing the Internet from become
an all pervasive tool is bandwidth, or the lack of it.
If you're a casual user who uses the Internet for work and play, then you'd
wish that website would load just a bit faster. And if you're a hardcore
user who basically spents eight or more hours per day on the net, then
you can never have enough bandwidth! New technologies on the horizon
promise to alleviate the bandwidth bottleneck for consumers. The bad news
is, they are not widely available yet. Here's a quick rundown on each of
them (starting with the slowest):
POTS Modems - POTS stands for plain old telephone system;
most households today probably have two or more phone lines. Modem technology have
increased dramatically over the past few years. Consumers have witnessed
the increase from 14.4K to 28.8K to 33.6K to today's standard of 56K.
Today's copper phone wires are limited to 53K due to an existing FCC
regulation. This is about as fast as you can push it with POTS modems.
And even with 56K technology, depending on where you are, your speed may
vary from 38K - 52K. Even with these limitations, a POTS modem is still
the most cost-effective solution for the majority.
Multilink - So if you have two phone lines at home, wouldn't
it be great if you can somehow link those together and double your bandwidth
with POTS modem? You can with the multilink feature that's available
in Windows 98. Multilink allows you to bond two (or more) modems to create
a single data channel. For example, if you have two 56K modems and your
connection speed for each is 44K, then your overall bandwidth is 88K. A few
things to keep in mind though. You'll need two different phone lines,
and your Internet Service Provider (ISP) also have to support multilink.
And most ISPs will charge you double for using this feature. Also, keep in
mind that multilink will use the slowest speed of the modem.
It doesn't make sense to multilink two 14.4K modems (for a total of 28.8K),
when you can use a single 56K modem instead.
ISDN - Integrated Service Digital Network never really caught
on for a few reasons. ISDN's bandwidth is 128Kbps using two 64K D channels.
ISDN is still not widely available; the setup cost and usage of ISDN is
relatively high compared to POTS modems.
Satellite - Satellite's bandwidth is around 400Kbps. This is
more than enough for most users. But the setup fee of a satellite connection
is high, and this technology isn't widely available yet. But if you need
the speed and can afford it, then it's a good alternative to POTS modems.
ADSL - Asymmetrical Digital Subscribe Lines is one of the
technology to watch for in coming years. The downstream bandwidth is
8Mbps. Both Intel and Microsoft have recently jumped on the ADSL
bandwagon. The monthly fee isn't very high, but ADSL's availability is
very limited right now.
Cable Modems - The Holy Grail for all home Internet users today.
Cable modem's downstream is an incredible 30Mbps. The monthly cost is
around $40 for unlimited usage. (You must have cable for TV in order to
use cable modem; so the $40 charge is in addition to your monthly TV cable
bill.) Consider yourself lucky if your neighborhood offers cable modem
today. It is being deployed in some major metropolitan US cities.
To give you an idea how fast cable modem is, most businesses are running
with fractional T1 (from 256K to 1.5Mbps) or a full 1.5Mbps T1 line.
1.5Mbps is for the entire office consisting of, depending on the size
of the business, perhaps 30-40 users. Larger corporations with a DS3
or T3 connection have a bandwidth of 45Mbps.
Of course, cable modem's 30Mbps bandwidth is only achieveable if you're the
only person using it. Most often this is not the case, as the entire
neighborhood shares the 30Mbps bandwidth. But even if it delivers
only 1.5Mbps, it's still more than enough for a single user.
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Upgrading to Windows 98
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Microsoft's official release date for Windows 98 is June 25th. In case
you're running Windows 95 now and wish to upgrade to Windows 98, here's a
few pointers that will make the migration a bit easier.
Check the Registry - Make sure your Windows 95 registry is
not corrupted in any way. Windows 98 will use the 95 registry as a reference
when upgrading. So it's best to make sure the registry is OK before bringing
it to 98.
Check Device Manager - Check the Device Manager listing; make
sure there are no yellow or red exclaimation points. Again, 98 will
attempt to migrate all your existing devices to 98. (Actually, because
Windows 98 automatically recognizes many new devices, upgrading to 98
may remove some yellow exclaimation mark devices for you.)
Close All Apps First - Before launching Windows 98's SETUP.EXE
from within the 95 desktop, make sure all background apps and tasks are
closed. These includes virus scanners, uninstall helpers, diagnostics
utilities, fax monitors, etc.
Make a Backup of 95 - When upgrading from 95 to 98, halfway
through the procedure, 98 will ask if you wish to make a backup of your
95 system files. Say YES to this question! It may take up ~40MB
hard drive space, but it's worth it in case 98 corrupts your entire system
somehow.
Make An Emergency Disk - When 98 asks if you wish to create
an emergency boot disk, answer yes. Then store that disk in
a safe place; you'll never know when you'll need it.
Converting To FAT32 - If your system was partitioned using
FAT16, you can convert it to FAT32 after 98 is successfully installed.
Depending on what type of files you have on your HDD, converting to FAT32
may reclaim up to 30% of storage space. The conversion program is located
in Programs / Accessories / System Tools/ Drive Converter (FAT32).
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Joke of the Week
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Prison Versus Work: What's the Difference?
(courtesy of Infowar)
IN PRISON you spend the majority of your time in an 8x10 cell.
AT WORK you spend most of your time in a 6x8 cubicle.
IN PRISON you get three meals a day.
AT WORK you only get a break for one meal and you have to pay for it.
IN PRISON you get time off for good behavior.
AT WORK you get rewarded for good behavior with more work.
IN PRISON a guard locks and unlocks all the doors for you.
AT WORK you must carry around a security card and unlock and open all the doors yourself.
IN PRISON you can watch TV and play games.
AT WORK you get fired for watching TV and playing games.
IN PRISON you get your own toilet.
AT WORK you have to share.
IN PRISON they allow your family and friends to visit.
AT WORK you cannot even speak to your family and friends.
IN PRISON all expenses are paid by taxpayers with no work required.
AT WORK you get to pay all the expenses to go to work and then they deduct taxes from your salary to pay for prisoners.
IN PRISON you spend most of your life looking through bars from the inside, wanting to get out.
AT WORK you spend most of your time wanting to get out and inside bars.
IN PRISON there are wardens who are often sadistic.
AT WORK they are called managers.
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Coming up in next week's issue...
3D Sound: QSound and Aureal 3D
An Overview of Microsoft's Windows Family
FDDI, ATM, Gigaethernet, what's next?
Do you have an idea or a topic you'd like to see in an upcoming issue of
virtual edge? Just drop an
email to calvin@premiopc.com.
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Copyright © 1998 PREMIO Computer, Inc.
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