Monthly Reports

JULY Monthly Report

AMD K6 300mhz CPU is still the best buy, easy to install, and may be the best stock to buy right now. Although there may be some motherboard configuration problems on all these new high-speed chips from AMD and others, there are many positive testimonials about the AMD chip (based also on our experience). To read a more detailed reaction, please go to footnote (A) and read what Roger Riding has to say.

I am told the AMD 333 and 350 have not been released in the States, because there is no retail for motherboards. Intel is having the same problem. There are basically only three "retail" motherboard manufacturers here in Silicon Valley, with only one company that actually manufactures in the Valley. Almost all "retail" boards are built overseas, I am told. There are boards for specific systems and purposes built here as well as overseas, but the Asia problem and chip sales seem to have affected the release of these chips. For example, the Pentium II 450 was going to be released at the end of May.

What does this mean? Grab an AMD K6 300mhz while you can...great price, and great performance!

P.S. Tom Skornia says the stock is a "best buy", too. In fact, this company has solved production problems, has marketing under control, and appears in an excellent position, especially if the Intel chip production slows down due to demand. This leaves AMD in an especially good position with a superior product and low retail price.

********************************************

Look for Netscape Communicator 4.5 ---Netscape's answer to Microsoft's Explorer. Beta download to be available any day, maybe even by the time you receive this. The World's Leading Browser, Email and Calendar Suite again throws the gauntlet to second place Microsoft (I don't think Bill Gates would like me saying that). This new version of Communicator will provide next-generation browsing, email, calendar, and management features.

If you have been using Explorer, as I have, perhaps 75% of the time, you will have received a notice that the latest Beta is ready. Microsoft pre-released it, hoping to get a beat ahead on its competition: Number one: Netscape.

The Explorer download is long. On ISDN, it took me over 15 minutes (we are moving to ADSL, no kidding), but what was so amazing to me was the "set-up" time. This is a Pentium 333mhz computer and my screen was blue at least ten minutes, maybe 15 minutes. I don't know if the long time was due to all the programs on my computer, or the complexity of this recent download from Microsoft. Be prepared for a long time download and set-up. Bring a book.

Netscape is still the leader in the "browser wars." And whether you like Opera, WebSurfer, Netscape, or Internet Explorer (FYI-- Microsoft settled its lawsuit for the name "Internet Explorer" for $5 million from a company in bankruptcy. The attorney's, according to the story, get $2.7 million, the court $2 million and the founder of the company .3. He said in the New York Times story that he went bankrupt due to the lawsuit from Microsoft, court and attorney costs).

Whatever browser you like, this competition right now is great for you and I as we get the latest the faster and right now, for free. Netscape was charging $98 a year for a subscription plus $39.95 to $99.95 for their program---now it is free (actually a trial, but with each new release, you get a new 90 day "trial," so this competition is good for you and I (right?)

----------------------------------------------------------

websitegarage.netscape.com

For a free evaluation of your web site, go to Websitegarage. You can also subscribe, as I have, and learn a few more things about your presence.

I also recommend www.webtrend.com Best Internet, and some others, offer this analysis free as part of services---learn who visits your site, when, what hot-links refer the most visitors to your site, and as important, which parts of your site are visited the most often.

Other good web site information products include www.webposition.com and www.sitepromoter.com.

 OKAY---I have been saying this for several years. Phil Boyce at a San Jose

Business Journal Advisory Board meeting observed this two years ago, and then reminded everyone at the beginning of the year at another advisory board, what I am going to relate now:

These are 1997 year-end "profits" for the leading Internet companies:

Yahoo---$22.89 million loss, Lycos $6.62 million loss, AOL: $499.35 million loss, Infoseek---$24.62 million loss, Excite: $30.16 million loss, Netscape: $115.5 million loss

Buyers and sellers of the stock are the only ones making money on these stocks. But a lot of money has gone into their capitalization:

Yahoo---$6.89 billion, Lycos----$1.3 billion, AOL----$22.5 billion, Infoseek $994 million, Excite $2 billion, Netscape: $2.55 billion.

So from a rate of return, this rivals some of the biggest historical crazes, including the last century Tulips in Holland or the 1930's Florida land rush.

Think about the "return on investment." Simple interest alone would have turned a better profit, of course the "real estate" of the future. Maybe Phil Boyce isn't so dumb after all. He did not buy any Netscape stock, I don't think.

Windows 98 sales are soft, according to my local sources. There was a big rush when it first came out...but many copies are available, and something you didn't see before, up-grade prices are dropping.

As a businessperson I am sick and tired of all these negative reviews in the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury, New York Times about Windows 98 being "duct tape," a "minor up-grade" compared to version 3.1 to 95, etc. Doesn't anyone say anything positive about business or a product any more? Do we have to find something wrong with everything? Believe me, I have used Windows 98 beta for almost three months...it is definitely worth the $89 up-grade, and as important, it is most likely an easy program to install on your computer. If there are patches to come, they are very available at the Microsoft up-grade section of their web page (I wish all manufacturers had as good a page as Microsoft.) Let's stop knocking these products and start saying "Thank you for your effort." No one is perfect, not even your spouse!

You may be sick of it by now, but if you remember anything: Window's 98 is the "end of the line," according to a talk by Bill Gates. This is the final "up-grade" to Windows 95, with many features. The desk tool bar alone is worth the up-grade...plus all the fixes to Window's 95. You are a fool if you don't buy it (or maybe you are running an Apple Computer and laughing at all the Windows' users).

Okay, Virginia, the tech lines are busy as everyone wants to install the program.

Okay, Mary Lou, there are bugs (and patches available), and yes, Sue Ellen, many are waiting for 30 to 60 days for the "b" version (remember Windows 95 had an "a" and "b" version--the errors found in "a" were corrected, plus a few more "goodies". I still have the beta and haven't bought the office release).

While a few consumers are running NT at home, there still are not as many programs available as there are for Windows 95 and 98. NT is a different operating software, running fully on 32 bytes, and to go to 64 bytes in the next two years to match the new CPU's coming out in 1999 and 2000. This is where Microsoft is headed for video, speech recognition, television, and all of his competition is afraid NT will take a lot of business away from them.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Hey, I saw an Apple Computer for under $1,000, New, $999, and 233mhz speed with zip drive, large hard drive, 56k modem. Wow! Maybe Apple will give the Window's driver computers some serious competition, you never know.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

July Edition of PC World notes 56k universality is not catching on as fast as everyone expected.

"Only Netcom and some regional ISPs are likely to have established V.90 connections by the time you read this. Others providing 56-kbps service will continue to use hardware that supports only x2 or K56flex. Moreover, all new V.90 modems will support either x2 or K56flex, but not both. So if you opt for a V.90 modem and your ISP hasn't upgraded to V.90 hardware, you'll still need to choose a modem that supports the ISP's current x2 or K56flex hardware."

"The upgrade process is another concern. Downloading the V.90 code off the Web and uploading it into a modem is clumsy and tedious. And--surprise--even if you do buy a new V.90 modem, you'll still need to upgrade the flash ROM at some point as vendors fix bugs and optimize their V.90 code for better performance."

"Finally, until your ISP upgrades to V.90, you may need to flash your modem back and forth between older 56-kbps protocols and V.90. Why? Say that you have more than one ISP, and one has upgraded to V.90 while the other hasn't. Some modems, particularly inexpensive K56flex-based products, such as Boca Research's 56K Home Office Modem, can't automatically switch between the older 56-kbps protocol and V.90. As a result, you'll have to manually reload the V.90 software into the modem when you change ISPs--or paddle along at 33.6 kbps."

June 23, 1998 PC World Electronic Magazine

*********************************************

Latest report, May (June not out yet), shows Yahoo with highest users on the Internet at 36%, second was American On Line at 22.8%, and third was Netscape Communications at 18.8% (the supposed underdog in the Browser Wars).

Internet Computing just did a complete issue of "ISP" national connections.

There are many, many $9.95 a month and several $4.95 a month (you will need to sign up for two and one half years).

Other providers are not only lowering connection costs, but also offering more add on services. This is from:

Excite and AT&T Offer - Teaser Rate

The new Excite Online, powered by AT&T Worldnet Service, will undercut most competitors by offering 150 hours of Net access for $14.95. The service is available now. Residential customers using the long-distance service will pay $14.95 for the first 12 months. Non-customers will likely be charged $19.95, after an introductory period. The companies also announced that within two months, they will offer Net-based communication services including voice chat, click-to-dial directories, and conference calling on the Web.

To find out the best service for you try www.thelist.com

Changing service providers today is very easy. If you are paying $29.95 for a simple service, you are paying "too much." Please go to our web site and visit.

----------------------------------------------------------

This is from a local bulletin that I passed along in June, but if you did not catch this, I thought I would bring it to your attention:

-AREA CODE CHANGES AND SOLUTIONS-

Have you been experiencing more than confusing with the massive nationwide area code changes lately? The continuing changes are playing havoc with businesses whose livelihood is based on being able to contact people.

We've come across 2 web sites that have proven helpful in obtaining area code information:

This site provides area code and prefix change information, when the change will occur, and the permissive dialing periods. It also provides handy links to regional telephone company sites for more detailed information:

http://www.areacode-info.com

This site lists, either by area code or by city, the new area codes and what region they cover:

http://mmiworld.com/codelist.htm

RTA Recruiting Research

888-782-3525

-----------------------------------------------------

DRAGON--NATURALLY SPEAKING PREFERRED-VOICE-IT

Via Voice

(Personal experience with all three to be discussed in the next monthly report.)

I may also take a poll of what speed you are connecting to. I have seen the latest results from Relevant Knowledge and I don't believe it. Few are on 56k or ADSL or even ISDN.

If we have our firewall built, I will give you our experience on ADSL. Or if you have any experience to share, please let me know.

Kit Menkin

(a) AMD 300mhz---personal testimony

Hi Kit,

Well I get pretty tired of hearing I told you so, but once again you've done just that. After months of procrastinating I made the jump away from Intel and went our favorite store and bought an AMD K6-IID 300mhz CPU, motherboard, 64mb of P100 ram, ATX Case, Quantum 6.4gb drive, Leadtek 8mb video card, Zoom 56K PCI dualmode modem, fan for under $1500. Oh yeah 6x2x CD Rom burner and 24x CD and some stuff. While I thought I had you as the fun began when assembly took place.

The Microstar motherboard began the saga with finding that the jumpers setting the clock speed decided to let the board run wide open. A trip to Fry's, get an Iwill XA100 motherboard, Back to Sausalito, reinstall all the stuff again. System comes up running like a champ. Dial up the net and the modem won't connect at anything higher than 33.6. You know who the ISP is, a great X2 proponent who promises they are V90 compliant. Well let me tell you it isn’t so. The video card goes nuts while we are surfing at 33.6. Back to Fry's again, get a Diamond Stealth 8gb Viper card and trade off the zoom for USR and back to Sausalito again. The system comes up as if there was never an issue and begins running like a smoked ape.

Connecting with X2 at 45KB which isn't the 53K or so promised but much better than 33.6 by a long stretch. Built this one for my friend Hank and it worked so well I had to go out and do one for myself and this time without the extra trips to Fry's. I did take a calculated risk and bought a Leadtek AGP 8mb graphics card that was available at half price ($89.00) just to see what everyone has been talking about. Whew video never looked so good or ran so fast. Doing Photoshop now and learning as I go. The old 200MMX got retired, quickly.

Aside from the Fry's experience, which is no news to anyone, the word has to get out about Jerry Saunders baby. This device literally goes head to head with the Intel P2-400 in real world running. Can't live with all the testing gimmicks, as they make no sense to me. Just plug it in, turn it on and click on Word, Excel and Access and see if it does anything for you. From my old Pentium 90 to the 200mhz mmx it didn't do much for me other than to see the bios screen tell me I had a Pentium 200MMX.

Whatever the differences were they didn't mean much to me in my work. I do support some customers who use a graphics program for Kitchen Design and it is a very tough cookie when it comes to going through its paces. With Pentium 2 300's it drags a long just slightly better than a P90. All have 64mb of RAM and for WIN95 anything above that is nice window dressing and it doesn't do much for performance in my applications. With the AMD 300 this program moves quite well just from the brute horsepower. In all fairness to Intel this program uses a DOSGEM environment in a WIN95 shell, has texturing thrown in and is just a bear to get up and running at any speed. The AMD 300 made a real difference.

There are a lot of technical issues on why this chip runs so well and I'll leave to those who know what they are talking about. If anyone out there is looking to get great performance out of a machine at a very reasonable price get the AMD K6-2D 300 MHz chip and AMD certified board to go along with it. P100 sdram is mandatory as well. The difference in price between an Intel 400 at $800 per and the AMD K6 2D 300 at $199 and if you shop a bit that goes down even more here just isn't any reason to pay the prices Intel is charging. It has been a hard fight for AMD, but they got it right this time. Let me pass along just a short word or two to those who are considering the chip. DO it, don't look back, just do it. But use your head and don't cut corners on the P100 RAM by using DRAM. I don't know if it works or not as I haven't gotten that far into it. At any rate if it does work you'll pay a heavy price in performance. The old adage that there is no free lunch holds very true here.

AMD is checking out and evaluating the motherboards from various manufacturers and I would rather see that approval than gamble on one without it. That doesn't mean to pay some exorbitant surcharge for it but check it out on the AMD site. These boards seem to be running in the $120 to $150 range for ATX form. I saw one for less with the AT form. AMD needs to sell a bunch of these processors to keep moving forward and for the first time I think that by golly, they have it right.

You told me so Kit and you were right one more time and maybe if this keeps up I'll listen to you the first time. But don't hold your breath.

Roger Ridings <rogerr@vdn.com>