November 1997

Friday November 28, 1997

A few of us are working in the business office today. If you have questions, please email us and we’ll answer as quickly as possible. Technical support wll resume on Monday. Orders may be placed on-line.
Reminder: If you place an order with us and would like for us to email you a tracking number, please provide a legitimate email address. We do not accept on-line orders from non-traceable email addresses (such as @hotmail.com, @usa.com).
ABIT LX6 boards are on their way to our facility. The boards should arrive Monday morning.

Thursday November 27, 1997

Over the river and through the cities, to Grandmother’s house we go. Einstein and Gracie know the way to point their noses through the white and drifting fog….
Happy Thanksgiving.

Wednesday November 26, 1997

Holiday notice: We are closed for Thanksgiving holiday. We will resume normal business days Monday, November 1, 1997. Enjoy your holiday.

Tuesday November 25, 1997

We’ve received an increasing number of questions about DVD ROM drives. “When will they be compatible with all CDR’s?” “When will the price point be a purchasing reality for most people?” “When will they combine reading with a DVD drive and writing to a CD-R for storage?” All of these questions are from eager users of technology, who are awaiting the time when a good concept turns into a complete, useful product. As with all new technology, industry standards are being established so the concept doesn’t turn into a marketing and consumer nightmare.
Video stores now have DVD ROMs featuring your favorite movies, ready to rent or buy. Software designed for these drives is, for the most part, on the horizon. The total merging of computer and television entertainment and storage is a few years off, but the excitement about a developing concept is now. Are you paying attention Sony and Toshiba?
We’re adding AMD’s Processor in a Box product to our line. The PIB carries a 3 year warranty by AMD and is packaged with a processor fan. Currently, all AMD processors are on allocation, including the AMD-K6/200 PIB. Limited quantities are available. The AMD-K6/233 PIB is expected to be available in late December.
Iomega’s Zip 100 drives is one of the most popular storage devices currently used. Is it a product you’re interested in having us offer? Please let us know.
Intel Boxed Pentium 166 MHz processors with MMX technology are backordered.
We’re a little short staffed today. We appreciate your patience as we answer questions and email as quickly as possible.
Reminder to businesses: If you need product by the end of the year, our order processing time is running approximately 7 to 10 business days from the time of payment to the time you receive your product.
If you are interested in purchasing product, and live outside of the US, please fax your order to 530-671-6780, along with your order information, billing information, and a signature of the card holder. (Some areas have had difficulty FAXing using our new area code. If you have trouble, try 916-671-6780.)

Monday November 24, 1997

This afternoon Abit confirmed that we’ll receive LX6 boards this week. Their first shipment is supposed to be ready to ship to resellers tomorrow.
We asked Abit about the timing on the new LX6M motherboard. Abit’s USA office is not sure about timing at this point, but assume it will be ‘a while.’
Intel Boxed Pentium 180 MHz with MMX technology Overdrive units are now available.
Intel Boxed Pentium 166 MHz with MMX technology drives are still on backorder with Intel at many of our distributors. They expect to receive shipments toward the middle of December.
We have two Intel Boxed Pentium Pro 200 MHz processors available.
We have AMD-K6/233 processors available.
We have Intel Boxed AL440LX with audio motherboards available.
Reminder: We close at noon on Wednesday the 26th and will be closed Thursday the 27th. We haven’t decided whether or not we will be open on Friday. UPS is not delivering on Thursday or Friday.

Friday November 21, 1997

Did you hear about Iomega’s booth at Comex? Our representative told us that they had the *best* entertainment. It was great that they knew he was a celebrity. Later he found out they were treating everyone as a celebrity.
The best Comdex presentations were on Quick Cams. Too bad our representative missed the name of the company that had the best release.
There are some new pdf files on the website. You will need the Adobe Acrobat reader.
http://www.esc-ca.com/pdfs/586dx.pdf
http://www.esc-ca.com/pdfs/686dlx.pdf
http://www.esc-ca.com/pdfs/686blx.pdf
These are for the Giga-Byte motherboards.
We were told today that we are Corsair’s number one individual sales distributor. We’d like to thank everyone who has put their trust in us.
Today we received a package from the local Chamber of Commerce. It was an emergency evacuation planning guide. A few minutes later, we received a package from the Mayor of Toronto. She was inviting businesses to relocate to Canada. Is there a message here?

Thursday November 20, 1997

Al and Gracie would like to thank Intel for the new colorful T-shirt. It is already buried with the other blankets and shirts.
Our website has been operating under a blanket Digital ID for its security. Verisign will be assigning our website its own Digital ID. Watch for the graphic.

Wednesday November 19, 1997

We stated earlier that we were not going to Comdex. Well … we sent a representative after all. Unfortunately, he hasn’t checked back in since he left. So we hope everything is fine. Just look for the nerd in one of our T-shirts. If you find him, please ask him to call home.
Abit LX6 orders are being accepted. However, most of Abit representatives are at Comdex. The delivery times have slid.
Intel Boxed 166 MHz processors with MMX Technology are still backordered. Some places are stating backorders of over 4,000 units.
Al and Gracie spent the day working inside today. According to Gracie, “Rain is the pits because it messes up my hair.” Al, on the other hand, just shakes it off. We expect more rain so please stop the El Nino dances.
Lora got in trouble this weekend for clipping the camellia bushes. Just thought you might want to know that little tid-bit.
We are looking at a “new” enclosure. The 02J midtower is “very similar but different” to the In-Win. It also houses a slide in tray (hint). We will add the picture and pricing later this week.
Oh, you mean y
ou are reading this for computer information? Well, DVD drives are presently 8x drives. Watch for 12x drives to enter the market soon and watch all of us buy one. OR Technology, a marketing company, apparently went belly up. Therefore, look for Teac and Panasonic to introduce the a:drive under their own label sometime.
T.V. Commercial idea for AMD. Al and Gracie are teathered by a person in safari clothes. Gracie asks Al “What are we doing out here?” Al replies, “Bunny hunting.” Okay. Now for all you bunny lovers. The same commercial with Al saying “Ah look at all those cute polyester bunnies” Gracie replies “Yeah, well I’m cuter than those colorful bunnies and I’m more Graceful” If you understand this joke then you are definitely a nerd. If you didn’t understand this joke, then you are probably in marketing.

Tuesday November 18, 1997

Our server in Arizona ran into some problems at approximately 7 pm last night. The server was rebooted and brought back up on line by 7:45 pm. Our server in Florida also had problems last night and was unavailable from just after midnight until 4 am. Please excuse the inconvenience.
Al and Gracie are working with UPS on our shipping rates. Presently we are making sure that all of our packages are insured, carry a delivery confirmation, allow residential deliveries, tracking information, and arrive in a timely fashion. We lower the charges for shipping in the UPS zone 8 or zone 2. New companies on the web may choose to offset UPS charges even more than we do, giving the appearance of low shipping rates. You should always make sure that all UPS protections are made on your valuable shipments.
Ever heard of the Device Bay Specification? You will hear more and more about it. IEEE1394 is the I/O connection that will allow drive devices to be hot swapped and recognized “automatically” by the system.
Are you looking for Pentium Pro 200’s that match? We have two boxed Pentium Pro 200’s that have the same s-spec number. The S-Specs are SL23M. These will probably be the last two we’ll see.

Monday November 17, 1997

Comdex Week.
Thousands of visitors flocked to our neighborhood this weekend. Many of them honked as they arrived in town. Geese, swans, ibis, egrets, ducks, and other migratory birds are stopping in the Yuba City area on their way to warmer areas.
We received a few calls last week concerning difficulties customers are experiencing when installing ATX style AOpen motherboards in Enlight cases with ATX power supplies that do not have a power switch and a momentary switch. These power supplies only have one switch and does not seem to be adequate to boot the system. We’ll keep you updated. For now, you may want to find another power supply if you’re interested in using the AOpen board.
ABIT told us that they’re releasing their new Pentium II board “around Comdex time. “ We’ll let you know when we receive our first shipment.
Intel Boxed Pentium 180 MHz OverDrive processors are still backordered with our distributors. 166 and 200 MHz Overdrive processors are still available.
We have extra Intel AL440LX with audio only and ASUS TX97-X in stock.

Saturday November 15, 1997

Hey, we said go play with the kids. Have a good weekend.

Friday November 14, 1997

“Hey, your What’s New hasn’t been updated regularly this past week. What’s goin’ on?” We appreciate everyone who has checked in with us. We’ve been busy playing with the new Intel AL440LX motherboard. We’ll post all results as soon as we can.
Yes, Intel’s non announcements concerning cacheless Pentium II CPUs and higher clock speed Pentium IIs are circulating again. We are also reading about wonderful price drops (February of course). Meanwhile the competition is heating up in the 300 MHz arena. Expect the 400 MHz to be introduced first quarter and push the pricing down on the 300s. (Like that took some heavy thought.)
Have you visited Apple’s new webstore? You read about it all this week, right? You mean you didn’t care to even look? Well, we believe the webmasters deserve a compliment or two. Al gives the site 2 paws up.
Abit’s LX6 Pentium II motherboard has still not arrived for testing. Abit USA had hoped to ship small quantities this week. Hopefully, it will happen next week.
Einstein and Gracie have been staying in their beds (yes, they have soft, cushy beds) because it’s been raining.
Intel Boxed Pentium 166 MHx with MMX technology processors are backordered with Intel authorized distributors. Distributors hope this is temporary (a couple of weeks), however we know that their backorders are growing. We will keep you posted on availability.
ASUS T10AB ATX enclosures are in short supply. Two of our major suppliers have stopped offering the product line. We will provide more information when it is available.
We have extra ASUS TX97-X boards in stock.
We updated our company profile information. Have you read the letter from ESC Technologies’ family? Or have you kept tabs on the event calendar?
Well, for those of you traveling to Las Vegas, please be careful. No, we aren’t going. Instead Al and Gracie are going to enjoy the week in beautiful Northern California. The rest of us are going to try to catch up on all our work. We’d like to thank everyone for their patience as we enter the time of year many people believe is “the happiest.” Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Al the Way.
What? You are still reading this? How about if you turn off the browser and give your kids a hug. Remember not to squeeze too tight – but just right. And have a great weekend!

Wednesday November 12, 1997

Intel Boxed Pentium II 300 MHz processors are in short supply.
We’re cleaning up a few of the older spec sheets that are still posted on our site. Many of the specs for the boards that we no longer offer have been removed.

Monday November 10, 1997

Our area code in the Yuba City area changed from 916 to 530. Our main phone number is now 530-671-7444 and FAX is 530-671-6780. Our 800 number is still 800-427-3726. We’re updating the site to reflect the area code change.
Pricing is posted on the ASUS P2L97-DS board.
We received a few Boxed AL440LX boards with audio and graphics. The Boxed audio only board is still a little more difficult to get, but is available in small numbers.
Remember, Intel honors a three year warranty on their new Boxed motherboards.
We rearranged some of the web pages. We hope the changes make it easier for you to navigate through the site and webcart.

Friday November 7, 1997

Al and Gracie hate junk email. Here are a couple of websites dedicated to anti-spaming.
http://www.junkmail.org/scamspam/
http://www.ot.com/~dmuth/spam-1
http://www.csn.net/~felbel/jnkm
ail.html
The ASUS P2L97-DS motherboard benchmarked well relative to other LX AGPset motherboards. Business Winstone97 for a 233 is 72 units, 266 is 77 units, and the 300 MHz is 80.3 units. The test conditions were NT Server 4.0, service pack 3, Matrox Millennium 2 Mb, Quantum 2.1 Gb udma drive, and 64 Mb Corsair SDRAM. BIOS was kept at the defaults.
The AL440LX motherboard benchmarks were also completed. Business Winstone97 for a 233 is 73.2, 266 MHz is 77.5, and the 300 MHz is 81.3 units.
We will post the complete benchmarking numbers in a couple of days.

Thursday November 6, 1997

For those of you who are still going to www.einsteinscomputer.com addresses, please change over to www.esc-technologies.com. We would like to drop the einsteinscomputer.com domain name before the end of this month.
The Intel DK440LX motherboard is expected to be released toward the end of December to the beginning of 1st quarter ’98.
Intel’s new R44LX is not shipping in quantity yet. Distributors expect to see an increase in numbers around the end of November. We’ll keep you posted.
Reminder: For those of you who do not live within the United States, please fax orders to 916-671-6780 along with a signature of the card holder. Please provide contact phone number at the delivery address for UPS and email address that is a valid, traceable address.
We do not accept orders from @hotmail.com. Please provide an alternative, valid email address. All fraudulent activity and intent to deceive is turned over to appropriate authorities.

Wednesday November 5, 1997

Intel projects 13 million Pentium II processors will be sold this year. In 1998 the number will increase to 43 million Pentium II chips. Now, we only need to convince everyone to get those CPUs from us.
See the date on the bottom of this page? Well, this morning it said, “November 22, 1997”. We only realized this mistake when we received this email from a client:
“You have succeeded in breaking your namesake’s rules. Einstein said that spacetime was curvilinear. You have managed to update the “What’s New” page from 18 days in the future. Would you please email me the list of the 10 most active stocks on the NYSE for November 21 (yesterday)? Or perhaps the winner of Thursday’s sixth race at Hollywood Park . Many thanks in advance.” — A.C.
Thank you, A.C. for pointing out our mistake. We’ll just have to wait to see what November 21, 1997 will bring. Einstein and Gracie hope it’s lots of bones….
Intel Boxed Pentium 180 MHz Overdrive unit is still backordered. We will let you know when Intel is able to ship more to distributors.
Fed Ex shipments didn’t arrive yesterday. We received a call from them this morning that some of our boxes will arrive this afternoon. We’ll get your product out to you as quickly as possible.

Tuesday November 4, 1997

Yesterday, AMD announced a boxed processor product based on the AM-K6 MMX enhanced processor. The PIB (Processor In a Box) includes the AMD-K6/200 or 233 with a heatsink, thermal grease, and fan attached to the processor. The product comes with a 3 year limited warranty. We’ll let you know about eta’s as soon as we can.
Crucial dropped their Grade A memory prices again. The price change shows a drop in cost of product and also takes out the shipping charge, which used to be included. For current pricing see: www.micron.com/crucial/escprod.html
When we spoke with ABIT this morning, they said they’re hoping to ship their new LX6 Pentium II motherboard next week. “Go ahead and take orders.”
We’re still making a few changes to our main page. We appreciate your patience. A few little changes here and there were made to other pages too.
Internic moved www.esc-ca.com from one ISP to another last night.

Monday November 3, 1997

Al and Gracie had a great Halloween. Both managed to trick everyone into thinking they were humans dressed up like dogs. Al painted a zipper onto his back so it looked like he was wearing a costume. Gracie color dyed her hair. She wanted to pretend she was “Disney’s Shaggy Dog”.
Have you noticed that the domain name esc-ca.com is acting weird? Yes, we are changing ISPs. The transition has been rough but hopefully all of the paperwork is done now. It should all smooth out. The new IP address is 209.130.6.29.
Intel’s DK440LX motherboard probably wont be seen until the end of this quarter or the beginning of the 1st quarter of 1998.
We’ve noticed over the last two weeks a dramatic increase in interest in the 64 Mb SDRAM modules from Corsair. Corsair states that they will keep up on the demand and typical lead times will remain in effect (5 – 7 days). They are also very happy about the increase in business and would like to thank everyone.

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