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Vol. 1/No. 10
06/22/1998
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Archive of
volume 1, number 10 for June 22, 1998. Go back to
current issue.
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Componentware
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The CAB files of the original version of Windows 95 took up about
60MB of hard drive space. The current version of Windows 98 weighs
in at over 112MB, and this isn't including the assorted
HTML and GIF/JPG files needed for the default channels.
And if you compare the space requirement for Microsoft 95 with Office 97,
you'll find a similar comparison. Granted that 98 has more bells and
whistles than Windows 95. And Microsoft 97 is packed with features that
aren't available in Office 95. But does the average user really need
or use all those features?
Even though the cost of hard drive storage has gone way down and the
average size of the hard drive has gone way up, that's no reason why
Microsoft or any software company should continue writing bloated
applications and operating systems. Bloated software not only takes up
more hard drive space, but there's a greater chance that the program will
be more buggy. And lastly, the performance of the program may be affected.
Microsoft Word 97 is an excellent word processor. But the sheer number
of features present in the default installation of Word 97 will never
be used by the average user. Sure there are some people who
will probably use all of Word 97's features, but they are probably
in the minority. By removing unnecessary features, the cost of the
software may be lowered. Why should I pay for the mail merge feature
of Word 97 when I don't need it?
So instead of taking the usual method of installing every single
component of a program, whether the user wants it or not, why not allow
the user to install and paid for it by component? This is the very concept
of componentware. And Microsoft plans to introduce this in their next
generation of Office suite named Office 9.
When you install Word 9, you will only be installing the core component
of the program. For example, the search and replace feature, along with
a basic English dictionary. Then later on you can add and pay for each
additional component. For the average consumer this makes more sense.
If a power user wants every single feature of the program, then
she can purchase all the components at a later time.
Of course, Microsoft may simply change its mind and give us a full
version of Office 9 that's twice as big as the currently Office 97.
Maybe by that time the standard hard drive will be 10GB and the
entry level processor will be a Pentium II/333 . . .
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LCD Versus CRT Monitors
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The hottest and most talked about technology in the display market is
the flat screen LCD panel. Every single monitor manufacturers has a line
of LCD display that ranges from low end 12" to the high end 17" or larger
size. But compared to the more conventional CRT (cathode ray tube) monitor,
a LCD monitor is much more expensive.
The LCD (liquid crystal display) has been around for a long time: mainly
in notebook computers. So what's the motivation behind bringing this type
of display technology to the desktop market? The table below will
examine the pros and cons for both types of display.
| Features |
LCD |
CRT |
| Size |
LCD wins, no dispute here; LCD takes less than 70% of the space needed by a CRT |
Due to the present of tube, CRT monitors are heavier and bulkier |
| Cost |
The top of the line NEC 21" LCD costs $6,000 |
A top of the line 21" CRT costs about $2,000 |
| Display Quality |
Because a LCD never has to be refreshed, images are always rock steady |
Lower end CRT images may flicker due to a lower refresh rate |
| Energy Saving |
LCD uses less energy and emits no radiation |
CRT are rated for low radiation emission, but runs hotter |
From the above table, it seems like the only disadvantage LCD have is the
cost. Currently, the price difference between a same size LCD and CRT is
very significant. The price gap between these two display technologies
are coming down, though very slowly. LCD displays are making some leadway
in the corporate/office environment, but I don't believe LCD will catch
on in the consumer market until 2001 or later.
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AMD K6-2 and 3D Now!
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Intel dominates the processor market with an 80% market share. By
leveraging their processor and chipset advantage, no company is even
close to challenging Intel. Both AMD and Cyrix have tried unsuccessfully
in the past.
But with the FTC lawsuit pending against Intel, and the growing
segment of sub $1,000 systems, AMD may be in a position to do some
real damage to Intel's market share. It's rare that Intel would misjudge
the market. But it did with the sub $1,000 market, and now Intel is
trying to regain grounds with its low-cost Celeron CPU.
AMD recently launched their next generation AMD K6 processor named
K6-2. The MMX instruction set in the K6-2 has been optimized so it
performs about the same the Pentium II CPU. In addition, AMD has added
additional MMX instructions for floating point operations; this MMX
extension is named 3D Now! Current Intel MMX instruction sets only works
with integer. AMD have actually managed to leapfrogged over Intel
technologywise with the K6-2. And K6-2 will level the playing field by
bringing the 100MHz memory bus to socket 7 motherboards.
But the K6-2 is still a socket 7 processor. (See the May 4th issue
for a discussion of sockets and slots.) Does the K6-2 have a chance
in the market place when everything seems to be transitioning to slot 1?
Yes, it does indeed have a fighting chance. Ironically, Intel has just
recently announced the socket 470 for their upcoming Celeron with L2
cache processor! So the socket market is not as dead as Intel wants
you to believe.
Initial benchmarks have shown that the K6-2 is very close to an
equivalent Pentium II at the same clock speed. AMD won't be stopping
with the K6-2. They plan to introduce the K6-3 by the end of this year.
The K6-3 will have 256K of cache onboard.
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Using Windows 98's System Information
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As mentioned in last week's issue,
System Information (SI) is one of the troubleshooting tool that
comes bundled with Windows 98.
You can launch SI by going to Start / Programs / Accessories / System Tools /
System Information. Or you can launch SI directly by going to Start / Run...
and type in MSINFO32.EXE.
The main purpose of SI is to give the user a complete overview of the
current system. SI is divided into three parts:
Hardware Resources - Allows you to examine interrupt (IRQ),
port address, DMA channel, etc. usage. In addition, this is the first
place you should start to troubleshoot resource (mainly IRQ and/or
DMA channel) conflicts.
Software Environment - This section allows the user to
look at all the current version of the installed drivers (both 32 and 16
bit) and modules. This is especially useful if you've recently installed an
application and it replaced a system driver with an older version.
By examining the version of each system driver, you can easily spot
the offending driver.
Components - This particular section allows you to examine
the individual parts of your system. Sections are broken down into
general categories such as display, multimedia, input, networking, etc.
In addition to viewing the resources associated with each device,
the history of the driver is also displayed. For example, if you
suddenly have a problem with your video card, check here to see if original
configuration was recently changed.
Microsoft wants SI to be the launching point for all their technical
support calls; this is because the user can launch additional
troubleshooting tools from SI's Tools dropdown menu.
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Joke of the Week
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Millennium Year Application Software System
This memo is to announce the development of a new software system.
We are currently building a data center that will contain all firm data
that is Year 2000 compliant. The program is referred to as the
"Millennium Year Application Software System" (MYASS).
Next Monday at 9:00AM there will be a meeting in which I will show MYASS
to everyone. We will continue to hold demonstrations throughout the month
so that all employees will have an opportunity to get a good look at MYASS.
As for the status of the implementation of the program, I have not
addressed the networking aspects so currently only one person at a time
can use MYASS. This restriction will be removed after MYASS expands.
Several people are using the program already and have come to depend on
it. Just this morning I walked into a subordinate's office and was not
surprised to find that he had his nose buried in MYASS. I've noticed that
some of the less technical personnel are somewhat afraid of MYASS.
Just last week, when asked to enter some information into the program, I
had a secretary say to me "I'm a little nervous, I've never put anything
in MYASS before." I volunteered to help her through her first time and
when we were through she admitted that it was relatively painless and she
was actually looking forward to doing it again. She went so far as to say
that after using SAP, PeopleSoft, and Oracle, she was ready to kiss MYASS.
I know there are concerns over the virus that was found in MYASS upon
initial installation, but I am pleased to say the virus has been
eliminated and we were able to save MYASS. In the future, however,
protection will be required prior to entering MYASS.
We planned this database to encompass all information associated with the
business. So as you begin using the program, feel free to put anything you
want into MYASS. As MYASS grows larger, we envision a time when it will be
commonplace to walk by an office and see a manager hand a paper to an
employee and say "Here, stick this in MYASS."
This program has already demonstrated great benefit to the company during
recent OSHA and EPA audits. After requesting certain historical data the
agency representatives were amazed at how quickly we provided the
information. When asked how the numbers could be retrieved so rapidly
our Environmental Manager proudly stated "Simple, I just pulled them out
of MYASS."
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Coming up in next week's issue...
Do you have an idea or a topic you'd like to see in the 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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