What Is New

July 10, 2000

• E-shoppers: Time to get real
  Albert: This is my kind of guy! I love this editorial.

• Bidding starts at $1
  Since other sites are joining in the frenzy - we thought we'd add our 2 cents worth.

  Albert: Like you didn't expect this !

  Since other sites have auctions and since there is talk of reverse auctions like Respond.com receiving $54 million in VC money - we thought we'd throw out our own great idea.

  Our new website will allow you to bid on your own personal information. You will have the opportunity to buy your information rather than having it sold to other sites. That's right. We'll put up your name on the web and you will have the opportunity to bid for it - right along with everyone else.

  Can you picture it now ?! Seeing your name highlighted. People will come up to you on the street and say, "Weren't you the fellow who was 'Man of the Week' on the GetYourInfoBack.com last week?" And you can proudly say, "That's private information pal."

  Gee, it could be kind of fun.

• Yes, Albert and Gracie answer email
  Some of you have recently discovered that Albert and Gracie are answering email.

  Albert: Selectively. Can't stand junk mail. Those senders of junk mail should all be shot.
  Gracie: Albert ! My word. Gracious sakes. Be kind.
  Albert: Thought I was.
  AJ: Hey ! You forgot me. I write too. And I'm the funny one. So email me a joke and see if you can make me laugh.

  Webmaster: And there you have it. Yes. The dogs answer email. Pictures of your dogs are appreciated too.

  Woof.

• Biostar M7VKB motherboard
  We're now offering Biostar's M7VKB motherboard as a component or in a system. The new motherboard is approved by AMD to work with an AMD Duron or Athlon (PGA) processor. The M7VKB also features 5 PCI slots, 1 ISA slot, 1 AGP slot (4x), 1 AMR slot, onboard audio, Wake-On-LAN connector, Telephony connector, and more.

• It wasn't me
  Gracie: Albert ! What did you do to those poor cows?
  AJ: (laughing): They look funny !
  Albert: It wasn't me.
  Gracie: Albert.
  Albert: OK. But I only used a little spray paint so that others could tell they were the "bad" cows.
  AJ: The yellow warning sign you painted looks nice but you used too many words.
  Albert: I just used, "Stop. Don't buy. Go away. I'm a bad cow. Leave me alone. Quit looking at me. ..."
  Gracie: (sighing) Albert. Those poor cows have been banished.
  Albert: Good then it worked. Now I'm trying to figure out how to tip the other cows. Maybe I'll spray paint them all white ...

  Webmaster: It looks like Dell is giving up on the colorized WebPC. Yes, the "sleek" PC bovine has officially been banished from the rest of the herd (a congregation of gregarious wild animals like Albert, Gracie, and AJ.).

June 16, 2000

• Closing Early
  Due to the death in the family, we are closing early today. We will be open on Monday at 9 AM Pacific Time.

• Wozniak Inducted Into Inventors Hall Of Fame
  Congratulations to the inventor of the Apple II.

June 13, 2000

• HP And Intel Release IA-64 Developer's Kit For Lin
  Hewlett-Packard Company and Intel Corporation today released a free IA-64 developer's kit that enables the Linux community to develop, test, debug and run IA-64 applications for the upcoming Intel� Itanium� processor. HP is committed to delivering Itanium processor-based servers and workstations that will support Linux and other operating systems.

June 12, 2000

• Gen 5 on it's way while Gen 1 becomes smaller
  We were handed two pieces of news this weekend ...

  Generation number 5 should hit earth around Christmas time. We expect the baby to be born with a hand held PC and ready to produce a webpage before the age of 1.

  For those of you who do not understand the above message ... ESC Technologies is composed of 4 generations of family members. We were given the news this weekend that a new generation was soon to begin. OK?

  However, this news is bitter sweet.

  Grandpa Heiny survived to his 67th anniversary. He made it by 2 hours before leaving us on Sunday morning. His wife of 67 years was proud to have celebrated their anniversary and sad that he didn't make it to his 94th birthday.

  Grandpa was born June 14, 1906. He was a Family man, Farmer, and Air-Pioneer. He left his career with United Airlines in the late 50's in order to take care of his Grandchildren, Great Grandchildren, and would love to have seen his Great-Great Grandchild coming this winter.

  We will miss his wisdom.

• The White House and email
  Many of you know that email was used against Microsoft during the Anti-trust trial. What you may not know is that the politicians are trying to do the same against each other.

  The escape route? Umm... "I don't have copies. They are deleted." Yeah. That's the ticket.

  Umm... backups? Hm... Nope. Didn't make any backups. Sorry - no can do.

  OK. We admit it. We were going to title this story, "Inventor of Inet didn't do a backup."

June 8, 2000

• ASUS CUV4x
  This motherboard is available. It is a VIA Apollo Pro 133A chipset based board with a socket 370.

• This was a surprise
  We were following links from PC World when we found this page.

April 27, 2000

Good morning!

Let's kick this day off with a follow up from yesterday. Gateway's announcement was interesting. They are going to augment PC sales with ISP sales. Intel is augmenting processor sales by buying companies. And what about little ole us? Why we have you and a few ASUS K7V-RM motherboards! That makes all the difference in the world.

But wait - the big news of the day - Duron. As in Duron Duron - the new musical group from AMD. It's a singing processor. Duron, formerly known as Spitfire, has met the net with a little humor. Duron is morphed from Do Run - as in "this processor do run well. It do - it do." Other's believe it is from the elatin slang, "done rare," meaning "to eat raw," and "-under cooked", meaning "a small portion." Your belief only matters - do it run - or do it cook? You decide.

April 26, 2000

Good morning!

OH come on ... you mean you don't want to pay $289.00?? But why not? OK. We'll discount the product $120.00 for anyone who says, "Don't worry Albert, I'm not wearing sunglasses." Otherwise, you pay for our labor.

On a serious note, consumers need to be aware of a very serious trend that we have observed over the past quarter. We expect the average selling price for components to increase in price dramatically.

Supply shortages, increased costs for purchasing, post-sales support, increased returned products, and increased non-resaleable products (due to newer revisions released on the market quickly) will cause resellers, distributors, and manufacturers to raise prices or dramatically change their business models (going direct, changing markets, cutting advertising, cutting jobs, etc).

For several years we have had a price war on the Internet. It is over. Supply and demand are now the key factors for sales - not the price. Consumers may recognize the trend by having to call many companies to even find a particular item. The most common question is, "Is XYZ in stock?"

Let's back up a bit ... Some companies attempted to combat low margins by advertising low 'initial' prices and then 'hiding' other fees into the final price. These fees were handling fees, increased shipping fees, credit card fees, restocking fees, support fees, etc. These companies, though, can no longer get product or will not be able to get product soon. Worse, these company's methods have been rejected and labeled by the consumer as "cheats."

We all recognize that consumers have been in charge of pricing until this past quarter. We heard about the free PC, the throw away PC, the sealed PC, the under $250 PC, etc. We watched new motherboards introduced on the market for just dollars over the purchase price (below costs). This is in contrast to when only new products had any profit on them and "old" product was sold below costs.

This all came about because anyone who had the gumption could start a website and call themselves a computer reseller. This has led to a flood of companies. Fortunately, these companies are short lived and / or will soon have costs dramatically increase.

It was typical to hear business owners saying, "Hey I sold a thousand boards today. Each one had a profit of 1 dollar. I made $1000." In today's market, it isn't uncommon for this same reseller to hear from the manufactuer,"We only made 500 of these boards." The reseller would then have to substitute product or loose the sale - and poof - away goes the $1 profit.

Business owners from other markets will wonder how anyone in their right mind would think $1 on a $100 item would be wise. It would take 1 board to be bad or rejected by a consumer as bad to eat the profit all up... And ... we all know that the cost of an RMA is labor for technical support and RMA, shipping (to consumer and to manufacturer), and ill-will between reseller and consumer. That's why things are going to change.

We see that the pendulum has now shifted and we expect profitability to be the new business mantra. Price will no longer be the sole issue for a sale of product. Other factors will increase in priority and importance.

Buy.com has already announced how they are increasing margins - a change in business models. Price hikes and spikes are normal for memory components as well as processors. We observed the same occuring for motherboards and hard drives this past quarter. Good power supplies are short in the market and we expect prices to rise there too.

It isn't too far of a stretch to see the average selling price of a low end motherboard increasing to $200 for a single processor board and $300 on the high end. Dual processor boards are already offered in the 400 and above range - so expect these type of boards to go over $600.

Grumble all we want - the market cannot continue to carry on as business as usual. It will be interesting to see which companies make the first moves ....

-------

When all of us got to work this morning, we noticed a particular paw print on everyone's shirts. AJ greeted everyone with his left front paw. His print measures one simm module wide. Considering his height is greater than an In-Win full size tower case - the paw size shouldn't be too much of a surprise. He's getting to be a big puppy.

On a serious note, ELSA has released information about their new graphics card based on the GeForce 2. It is expected to be available in May. So expect it to be available around June or July. Congratulations go to Red Hat for their latest award.

April 25, 2000

Good morning! Do you like our joke up on the top of this page? We thought it might make your day. RED shipments are definitely vogue - and we've watched the trend explode over the last few months. It seems individuals want overnight shipping, free technical support, and RMA privileges past 30 days. So ... we are going to figure out how to help.

Make sure that you install the USB filter driver from VIA on your new Athlon motherboards. Failure to install this will cause you nightmare.

Clipped from an email sent by Techweb:

BUSINESS WORLD'S BIG FEAR: BAD VENDORS
How bad is it working with a less-than-stellar vendor? Worse than a dental appointment, say many small and midsize businesses. Of 175 respondents to a recent study conducted for bSource.com by B/R/S Group, 74 percent say they'd rather be in the dentist's chair than stuck with a poor vendor. Other findings: 91 percent of respondents rely on outsourcers, while 89 percent say outsourcers are key to their success.

April 24, 2000

Good morning! We hope you had a wonderful weekend. Our monday started out by reading this announcement by Intel. Actually the article contains the wonderful quote, "... And frankly, the traditional channel is not expert there. ... They're out of their league."

We were curious if they were referring to Dell and Gateway- they are the leaders - and by definition that would make them the traditional channel. Poor bovines.

AJ: Steak anyone? I'm feeling hungry.
Gracie: Then you might want to try some fish !
AJ: I'll try to eat anything on this planet.
Gracie: How about an Apple?
AJ: Are you going somewhere with this Gracie?
Gracie: Yes, below is part of an email from one of our visitors regarding the Fishy Apple lawsuit. Take a gander.

"I am soooo sick of big companies CEOs with even larger egos bullying their way around the market...."

AJ: Let's see if I can get this straight. Apple, Fish, Gander ... Seems that we get right back to Bulls - steak anyone?
Gracie: We have to side with reason on this one. Apple lawsuits against look-alikes are a bit far fetched when you consider that the FlexATX design is not the same as the Apple one ... what do you think? Would you like to see one? We have one on our bench - we've been running it for a couple of days. Nice product - and no - it doesn't look like an iMac. If you compared a McDonald's hamburger to the Burger King hamburger - yeah - they are both hamburgers with your typical meat (cows - yummy), bread, and some other glue ... umm ... food like stuff... so if Apple can probe FishPC then maybe McDonald's should probe BK.

Webmaster: Wow - we haven't heard that much from Gracie in a LONG time.
AJ (wearing BBQ hat): Steak anyone? I'm still feeling hungry!

Talks of a Microsoft Office Spinoff continue with shares spiraling downward this morning. The Justice Dept may seek bundling restrtictions as early as this week... or maybe next week ...or maybe the week after...

We set a new lower price for the EPoX EP-7KXA motherboard. Many of you took advantage of it over the weekend. Lower prices for the Biostar, FIC, and other EPoX boards were also done. Price changes are also expected for Intel and AMD processors.

Say - has anyone else noticed that EPoX capitalization ? The E, P, and X are capitalized - but not the letter 'o' ... curious. Maybe they got into an argument - capitalize the E - no P - no X ... and no one fought for the letter o.... poor o.

And thinking of letters - the K and V are used in many Athlon VIA motherboards... .K7V, KA7, K7A1, etc ... Biostar seemed to be the exception with starting their part number with an M ... as in M for motherboard - macho motherboard meets market ... M7MKE .. these are in stock by the way.

We recevied this sad email and decided that it should be shared:

"Corbu passed away today, Easter Sunday. He was 15 years and 7 mos. old, or just over 94 years of age. He was a companion, a hiking and camping buddy, and a watch dog. Although born a bird dog, he grew up to be more of a lizard dog. Next to road trips, he loved little kids and often wandered next door to see Woody and Wyatt, the neighbor boys. He was visited by Haley, his great neice, on his last day. Although he wasn't a fan of lttle dogs, he enjoyed being with other animals, dogs, cats or birds. This last year has been a struggle for him, but he was watched over by Birdie who coaxed him through doorways, watched him sleep, and told him to eat. As we as by Bunnie who brough him presents. He is survived by the cats Birdie and Bunnie, and his companions, Nancy and Larry. He will be very greatly missed by us all."

Gracie: I have pictures of Corbu. He was a German Short Haired Pointer. Our condolences.

Albert says hi. In his own words - "woof." ... sorry he's not going to be personified this morning. Gracie, on the other hand, deserves a pat on the back. She managed to keep focused this past week and track down product -- she has also been madly working on the new shopping cart. You should see her code!

Thinking of summits .. you mean you weren't? ... DDR SDRAM Industry Summit is May 18 from 10 AM to 2 PM. The meeting is to be held in the DoubleTree Hotel, San Jose, CA. Micron, ALi, nVIDIA, ATI, Tohsiba, Samsung, Hyundai, Transmeta, and yes - AMD will be there. ENEN.com will do a live webcast. Register today at www.netseminar.com/ddrsummit ...

April 21, 2000

Albert: Mine
AJ: Mine
Albert: MINE
AJ: It's MINE!
Gracie: Boys! What are you arguing about?
Albert and AJ: I found a really good starter system and HE wants to take credit.
Gracie: Well fellas. What are you talking about?
AJ: It's a football.
Albert: It's an egg.
Gracie: OH ! You two are talking about the BIOSTAR Sunflower.
Albert and AJ: (spitting) What an awful name. No. No. We are talking about the new Flex ATX systems. The barebone systems come in different colors.
Gracie: More importantly boys, these machines are EasyNow systems which include a K6/2 500 processor, 128 MB RAM, any size IDE hard disk that you'd like, a CD-ROM ... all packaged in a small space.
AJ: Like the size of a football.
Albert: No - a large egg.
Gracie: Sorry Albert - eggs don't come that big. I'm going to have to side with the little guy. It's 13 inches high with the legs and about 7 inches wide at the largest part . Pictures can be found on the BIOSTAR website.

Gracie: At least we didn't hear Albert talking about IBM. Whew.

BIOSTAR M7MKE motherboards arrived ... well ... just a few - so let's keep the quantity orders below 10 per customer.

Rumors that we have a Tyan board running on the bench is correct. We'll leave it at that ... OK?

ASUS K7V where are you?
Gracie: We wish we had a better time frame for you. We weren't expecting these until May in the first place. It looks like the next shipments wont hit the US until then -
Albert: so BACK OFF.
Gracie: ALBERT ! Shame on you. Why are you being so mean?
Albert: Cuz I want to -
Gracie: Learn a little self control dude. Today is a great day. Do you need a hug?
AJ: I do. Me. Me. Me.
Gracie: It's going to be all right. Don't worry. The boards will arrive as soon as they "feel" like arriving in the US.
Albert: All this touchy feely crap. Where have all the REAL techs gone? I remember the days that it took 10 hours to low-level format a 10 MB hard drive... used to get in a good movie, a few meals, lots of sleep. Now it's rush rush rush.
AJ: Yeah Yeah - hurry up. Get here real fast! I want one right now!
Gracie: No backorders fellas. Sorry. We'll let everyone know when they arrive.
AJ: (looking dejected) Drats. Sniff. I want to play right now. When are the KZ133 boards arriving?
Albert: Oh brother.

April 20, 2000

Albert: Today is one of the most exciting days that we have had in a long time.
Gracie: Deja Vu

We'd like to thank everyone who started to send us suggestions on our website. We continue to work on the back end of the system. The database queries and SQL statements are coming along nicely. We chose to build the site with Active Server Pages rather than Cold Fusion. Netscape browsers are having the most difficult time - therefore - we are attempting to re-write some scripts so that viewing will work.

Sparkle has introduced a computer enclosure. It includes a 300 watt power supply and room for two 60 mm fans in the front and one 80mm fan in the back. We'll try to get pictures up on the shopping site.

April 19, 2000

Albert: Today is one of the most exciting days that we have had in a long time.
Gracie: Really?
Albert: Yes. We received great news today. IBM agreed to sell to us.
Gracie: AJ come here and take care of Albert. Lick him everytime he moves.
AJ: I'm not touching him. Yuck.

Rumors continue to circulate that IBM is selling to ESC Technologies. 🙂

Back to reality. Rumors are circulating that many Linux companies are ripe for acquisition. IBM is one such company considering purchasing a high flying Linux company.

And after yesterday's announcement from Intel .. .the article by CNet has been updated. To quote the CNet update, "But company executives were far from upbeat. Intel said it underestimated PC and mobile phone demand for the first half of the year. As a result, it does not have the manufacturing capacity and other resources it needs to meet demand, and for the next three months, supplies will be constrained. Some analysts already are downgrading second-quarter expectations. "

Oh duh. You mean Intel actually has to ship more than two processors? Drats. Or is that Double Drats?

Meanwhile rumors are circulating about the spit and shine systems from AMD. Both the Spitfire and T-bird are on track for launch. Well - what do we know - scratch that - We've read the rumors that the Spitfire and T-bird are on track - is that better? Accuracy counts when it comes to rumors. Cooling issues are consistent with any high speed product - use a fan stupid - OK?

NOISE is back in the news. As you know NOISE is comprised of Netscape, Oracle, IBM, Sun, and Everyone against Microsoft ... This time the rivals are stating that Windows 2000 is only good in a "Mickey Difficult" world only.

Thinking of being stupid. Albert was seen with an Epox 7KXA motherboard. That's not the stupid part. He was trying to use a 64 MB video card. Don't do it Al - don't do it !

Albert: Hey ! Who yas callin stupid?
Gracie: If the shoe fits ...
Albert: I don't wear shoes. Instead I stay barefoot because it helps me be ESD.
AJ: What's ESD?
Albert: Extremely Satisfied Dog.

April 18, 2000

Is it morning already? Weren't we just here yesterday? OK - bright-eyed and ready for work - zzzzzz... WAKE UP!

Intel stock is leading NASDAQ. They will be reporting last quarter results and it is expected to be strong. Expect Intel to continue their movement toward direct sales ... with the excuse that Dell is more important than any other company. This will all be done under the guise of B2B commerce. So just call yourself a multi-billion dollar corporation - and Intel will sell directly to you. Easy, right?

Intel reports strong earnings. Really? Let's do the higher math. Expectations were 69 cents a share. They report 88 cents. That sounds good. But wait - 17 cents were from the IRS settlement. But wait - 10 cents of acquisitions weren't in the calculations .. add that back in. But wait - investments were snuck in there again ... take out another 17 cents. Therefore, 88-17+10-17 = 64 cents. Hmm... weren't we expecting 69 cents? Or did these expectations include that Intel was going to hide the IRS settlement and the investments ... oh well. As Intel said, they are in a transition. Their focus is the Internet and B2B commerce - and not the low margin processor sales. So give em a brake... or give em a break - you decide.

Strong demand for the ASUS K7V continues. Unfortunately, we don't have a time frame for the next shipment. We know that many of you are wanting this board but we are not accepting back orders. It is easier to offer product that is available rather than upsetting people by trying to give an incorrect ETA.

The shopping cart work continues. We have an 'alpha' site ready. As soon as we are in beta then we will let you start evaluating it. We've incorporated many of the ideas that businesses have emailed to us. Individual ideas have been left out - because you don't matter. What? Strike that - umm - of course you mean everything to us ! <insert laughter>. But seriously, the hope is to get an easier maintenance system so that the order status is updated faster as well as reordering identical products.

BIOSTAR let us know that their KX133 board is available. We'll be adding it to the shopping site.

BIOSTAR is also preparing their EasyNow PC Systems. These are the stylish red, orange, blue, purple, or silver series bubbles that are pictured on their website. The ETA is 3-4 weeks for large quantity orders. There are 840 units per 40 foot HQ Container. Please let us know if you require more than one Container.

Update of the EasyNow PC ... it turns out that product is available for small quantities (less than 100 units). So - why are you hesitating? You know that you want one.

The rumor that we are purchasing IBM is false. The person who is spreading that rumor has now been placed under house arrest and is being guarded by AJ. AJ has strict instructions; that is, any movement and the person will be licked to death.

We are slowly coming to the conclusion that the EpoX EP-3VCA motherboard does not accept 133 FSB processors. Taiwan will be supplying us with a new BIOS in hopes to get this resolved. In the meantime, only use 100 FSB Flip Chip processors on this board.

Thinking of Opps. The demand for ASUS P3V4X motherboards has been very high since a particular website wrote about Flip Chips and the devil's work. However, we do not recommended that you combine a Flip Chip with a Slot 1 board. This is not a long term solution - and it will lead to problems - an Albert guaranteed Opps. So if you don't believe us - you can purchase the combination with the understanding that you won't get technical support and you can't return the dead product after you killed it. Let's see the excitement on that idea. Sure sure.

Albert: Make the reviewers pay for the dead product!
Gracie: Are you crazy? They say on their sites that they are not responsible ...
Albert: Well, I'm never responsible but that doesn't mean I'll do something that stupid.
Gracie: Now that's funny Albert. When was the last time you did anything right?
Albert: Why just yesterday I put an AMD At-A-Lawn in our sprinkler system. A gentle mist will be sprayed through out the day so that our lawn will be nice and cool.
AJ: (soaking wet) Who turned on the sprinklers?
Albert: Opps.
Gracie: (dawning her new swimsuit): Where's the slip-n-slide?

April 17, 2000

Good morning ! We hope you had a great weekend.

Friday was a day of meetings and more meetings. We're continually planning how to enhance our product line with new product. Friday's meeting with ABIT was enjoyable. We'd like to thank them for opening their doors to us. We had a nice conversation regarding their new motherboards. The ABIT KA7 should arrive for us to do some testing next week.

Since Intel keeps us under NDA - we thought we'd continue our tradition of honoring the NDA by not dropping any hints. Naw - let's play a game of fill in the blanks.

A new processor is going to be announced. It has a code name - a river. The launch "Will" include a whole bunch of companies proudly displaying their demo units. However - shipping Will - wont occur in this channel. Intel has labeled us "tear for".

We serve those who cry for new product - we whine, we scratch, we claw... but most importantly "we tear for" more ... By the time Until ships to our channel - it will be old product. Expect it to not enter this channel for a LONG time.

Overheard on the side:

• "We take responsibility. We believed the forecasts for a PC slowdown."
• "It doesn't matter because they don't work anyway."
• "We don't have product to raffle off today - not even a bunny."
• "Don't sell the Celeron or the Xeon."
• "Just wait until next year."
• "We hate Tom."
• "If you need to sell AMD, then sell AMD."

So - its seems that the day of meetings included a few interesting asides. Hmm... they look rather funny when put out of context - what do you mean "not even a bunny?". GASP.

The people who said these quotes are probably just happy to have left the meetings without too many bruises and bumps.

AMD Athlon 900 and 950 MHz processors are now available. If you would like one installed in a new system, then let us know. We will add them to the online system as soon as possible.

April 14, 2000

Are you building or upgrading your system to an AMD Athlon system? The following motherboards are now available -- we even have extra in inventory. (Please make Saturday delivery requests over the telephone at (800) 427-3726 before 1 PM Pacific time.)

• AOpen AK72 motherboards
• ASUS K7V-RM motherboards (micro-ATX)
• ASUS K7V with audio motherboards
• Biostar M7MKA motherboards
• EPoX EP-7KXA motherboards
• FIC SD11 motherboards

We updated the barebone system section for those of you who are upgrading your system and would like to keep the hard drive, floppy, case, and CD-ROM from your current system. Today's combination for upgrade kits are: motherboard, memory and graphics card.

Some Corsair memory modules increased in price and others decreased in price yesterday.

April 13, 2000

AJ: Gracie?! Whatcha doiin Gracie? Gracie. Gracie! (biting heals)
Gracie: AJ. What do you want? I'm old. I'm blind. I'm deaf enough not to hear Albert's grumblings. What do you want?
AJ: I want to play. Please come throw the ball with me. Here's a stick. Want a bone? Gracie!
Albert: Listen Kid. It's all good and well that you want to play. But we are trying to do some serious work. (rolling over and falling asleep)

Hmm... sort of sounds like a conversation between a few companies that we know. Just like our dogs - AJ the youngster is becoming bigger than the others and they better be careful or AJ is going to take his toys and go play elsewhere ... AMD reports strong earnings. Intel is still thinking about shipping a processor - someday. Maybe - if it feels like it.

Unlabeled 256 MB Unbuffered modules are available - you may have as many as you would like for $310. Not bad.

April 12, 2000

OK. you are correct. We did not point to this story earlier. The Intel 820 chipset is under attack again.

Do you like e-mail? How would you like to receive 10,000 pieces of e-mail a week?

A friend of ours explained that some large corporations receive large volumes of e-mail. Large - as in - up to 10,000 pieces per week. Now that would be a few pieces of mail to read. Albert would definitely need to wear his glasses ! No excuses.

A typical Internet retailer receives about 300 pieces a day. We receive that amount per e-mail box - which is why we parse out the emails to many people. It wouldn't be fair to let just one person answer everyone, right? OK - we admit it. Most of the e-mail that we receive is spam.

ASUS K7V motherboards arrived today. Yes, the ABIT Athlon board will also be reviewed. It has 6 PCI slots - and we know that some of you don't want the AMR. The 900 MHz Athlon is also hiding around here. We think a few are under Albert's blankets. No one wants to check.

Oh - those darn memory modules. Just when you thought life was getting easy - the ASUS P3V4x board throws you for a loop. Use Registered memory for this VIA board - and all will be well.

The AOpen AK72 continues to be a good offering. Hmm.. are we in church? Let's re-word that - the AOpen AK72 Athlon motherboard is a popular board.

And thinking of weapons and war - Microsoft is taking aim at RealNetworks. CNet has done an interesting article on the fight. The prevalent lingo is "getting Nescaped."

No, we didn't mean to leave out AMDZone yesterday. Sorry if we offended anyone. We would never forget them ! Their bangup job on their web home deserves a mention. If you are pro - pro - pro AMD, then check out their site. Now - do you know a pro- pro- pro Intel site? Then give us a piece of email - hmm... better yet ... you better send it along with a good joke.

Privacy advocates should take note of this website. It seems that the largest privacy research - forgot one thing - did they really collect all of that information on web sites? A report on 30,000 web sites. Hmm... aren't there a few million? And did they get authorization from all of these sites? Oops.

And thinking of Rantings. Have you gotten a load of this new policy on Pricewatch? It seems that the owners of PW want to dictate policies for companies listing on Pricewatch.com The beef? An email went out to resellers saying they'd be cut off if they charged more than $11 for shipping a one pound package. Oh - math is such fun. Who can ship 2 RAMBUS modules for under $11? Hint - insurance is more than $6.65, signature is $2.00, residential fee is $1.00, and the shipping rate is $3.73.... OK math whizzers .. that's $13.38. Duh. Guess no one who uses UPS can advertise on PW. What a shame.

April 11, 2000

ASUS K7V motherboards arrived today but are all sold. (sniff) More product will arrive tomorrow.

We have changed our policy regarding these boards ... these boards are reserved for visitors to this website. You will need to call us at 800-427-3726 and say the phrase "Albert ate the bunny." No - no - that's a joke. AJ ate the last one.

If you want the board then we can make arrangements. HOWEVER - Repeat customers will have first crack at these boards - seriously - repeat customers have the right to decide if they want this product before the one-time Charlies ...

System orders will have the next priority and one time Charlies will be placed last. Maybe we'll lose their orders.

And you are asking us what a One-time Charlies is ? Yes - what - and not who (or whom) is the proper slang! Anywho ... One-time Charlies are guys (women don't do this) who only purchase one item one time and we never hear from them until they want to return the board on the 29th day .... Let's give this product to those deserving -- the REAL nerds.

Will the real nerds please stand up . 😛

And now for a bit of the news ... an AJ nibble if you will.

S3 sell off is in the news. CNet has a great article on consolidation. And while we are on the topic of VIA, their Apollo Pro 133A has dual processor support. Dean has an industry update on his site. Intel is thinking about shipping something someday. We received a survey asking us if they should... or should they just keep the status quo. The new shopping cart is progressing - oh - yeah - forgot to say - we are working on a new shopping system. This one will allow returning customers the liberty of not having to re-enter their information - over and over and over and over and over and over and over again...

It's been awhile since we pointed to Tom and his pet boy wonder ... but these sites continue to pump out reviews on motherboards. The latest is on 21 VIA motherboards and the other is on dual motherboards. One of these days we'll all find the perfect board. Nah. That would be too much to ask for ...

Thinking of too much ... The Reggies have slapped together a few more pieces of comedy about the IT industry. Look for some pieces on Fish and Games. Thinking of Hugh Moore and his sidekick - have you seen this site?

While we are on that topic of scrappers and vapors ...Are odors present in a vacuum? Any day now... Intel vaporware may leave us with a bit of a surprise with this company actually shipping product. Thinking of their products - Flip Chips are becoming more popular. Well - for those of you with advanced math skills - one plus one is two .. and two means plural and plurality means popularity. See - it's all very logical.

Have a wonderful day - and remember to pet your dogs.

April 10, 2000

Shipment of Guillemot 3D Prophet cards arrived today. Extra cards are available.

Intel processor update:
Intel Pentium III processors in FC-PGA are available: 550 MHz through 733 MHz, 100 MHz FSB and 133 MHz FSB.

Afreey 10x DVD is available with Pentium III systems.

New Athlon motherboards using KX133 chipset now available:
AOpen AK72 motherboards
ASUS K7V-RM motherboards
ASUS K7V motherboards (re-read above - okay?)
EP-7KXA motherboards

Extra inventory update

Today we have the following extra inventory:

• AOpen MX59 Pro motherboard
• AOpen AX59 Pro motherboard
• AOpen AK72 motherboard
• ASUS K7V motherboards
• Biostar M7MKA motherboards
• EPoX 6VBA2 motherboards
• EPoX 7KXA motherboard
• Gigabyte GA-5AX motherboard
• FIC SD11 motherboards
• Intel CA810EA motherboard, bulk
• AMD K6-III/450 MHz PIB processors
• Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! Platinum
• Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! Value
• ATI Rage Fury Pro, AGP, 32 MB, white box
• ELSA Erazor X2 graphics card, AGP, 32MB
• Western Digital WD102AA hard drives
• Corsair 64MB nonECC PC133 SDRAM
• Corsair 128MB ECC PC100 SDRAM, CAS latency

March 8, 2000

• Remember when...?
  While we were browsing through whatisnew.com stats, we noticed a large number of visitors to an old page. April 1, 1998 we posted a little April Fool's joke "Industry shocked by Pentium� III announcement" (remember, it's April 1st) http://www.whatisnew.com/98/4198a.htm.

  In light of current events, we ask ourselves if much has changed?

• Now it's Intel's turn to hit 1GHz mark
  "While Intel Corp. concedes it lost the race to deliver the first 1GHz processors to the market, the chip maker today claimed it has once again retaken the microprocessor speed crown with the release of a 1GHz Pentium III." --PC Week

Friday, February 04, 2000

Xilinx chief sees proliferation of FPGAs
SANTA CLARA, Calif.-In the keynote speech closing this year's DesignCon conference, Xilinx Inc. chief executive Willem Roelandts predicted a world, 10 years from now, where programmable logic plays a role in every electronics device manufactured.

Intel Forum To Map A Three-Front Battle
Intel Forum To Map A Three-Front Battle (02/03/00, 8:09 p.m. ET) By David Lammers, EE Times Intel executives will create a product triangle of sorts when the Intel Developer Forum (IDF) opens Feb. 15 in Palm Springs, Calif. Some 3,000 participants are expected to hear Intel describe the Timna processor with integrated graphics; the next-generation 32-bit Willamette microarchitecture; and the Itanium 64-bit processor.

Thursday, February 03, 2000

CNET.com - News - Enterprise Computing - Microsoft names new consumer OS: Windows Me
Although still in development, Windows Me has already been marked by confusion and turmoil along with Microsoft's consumer software strategy. After chairman Bill Gates publicly announced that Windows 98 would be the last consumer operating system based on the DOS operating system, the company reversed itself by releasing Windows 98, Second Edition, last year and announcing plans for Millennium.

Linux.com - Featured Articles
It's an exciting time to be in the Linux community. Just when you think the excitement is at a plateau, events such as LinuxWorld Conference & Expo turn up the heat again. The Third LinuxWorld is being held place February 1-4 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City. LinuxWorld features a multitude of exhibitors, a .org pavilion for Linux community projects, keynotes from Linus Torvalds, Larry Augustin of VA Linux Systems, and Steve Mills of IBM, and a barrage of Linux conferences and tutorials.

CNET.com - News - Enterprise Computing - Intel to detail new generations at conference
Following a year of product delays and increased competition, Intel plans to reassert itself in 2000 by introducing three microprocessor families meant to replace existing product lines.

By fall, "Willamette" processors running at speeds greater than 1 gigahertz (GHz) and utilizing an enhanced data pathway will be seen in high-end desktop systems, while many lower-end PCs will contain the upcoming "Timna" processor, a derivative of the current Celeron that will contain integrated graphics capabilities. The first servers containing the Itanium chip, which will gradually replace Xeon, will also be out.

CUWE Overview
The ASUS CUWE Mainboard is based on the all new Intel® i810E chipset with ATX form factor for the latest support in Intel® FCPGA Pentium IIITM 533~733 MHz processors. With built-in 128/256KB L2 cache, this mainboard also comes with onboard 3D Graphics which provide 133MHz FSB support, JumperFreeTM Mode via BIOS setup, Panelink Suspend-to-RAM function, and is also backward compatible with former Socket 370 Celeron CPU. In addition, this mainboard can have optional selections for Intel 82559 PCI Fast Ethernet controller for Wake-On-LAN, PanelLink Digital Output, Software AC ' 97 Audio, and multiple PCI and ISA slot combination.

Canada Computes!
Linux Inside

By Gene Wilburn, Posted Feb 01, 2000, 07:17 PM

You just get nicely settled into your Linux installation and, whoosh, it's out of date. Linux maintains a fast-paced development cycle that can leave you gasping for breath if you try to keep up with it. The kernel development team adds new features and patches daily, gathering them up as "releases" on a regular basis.

Wednesday, February 02, 2000

Linux.com - Featured Articles
It's an exciting time to be in the Linux community. Just when you think the excitement is at a plateau, events such as LinuxWorld Conference & Expo turn up the heat again. The Third LinuxWorld is being held place February 1-4 at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York City. LinuxWorld features a multitude of exhibitors, a .org pavilion for Linux community projects, keynotes from Linus Torvalds, Larry Augustin of VA Linux Systems, and Steve Mills of IBM, and a barrage of Linux conferences and tutorials.

ZDNet: PC Week: Intel will buy Rockwell chip fab
Intel Corp. plans to buy a chip-making plant from Rockwell International Corp. and invest $1.5 billion in it, a move that Intel hopes will significantly boost its short-term manufacturing capacity.

ZDNet: PC Week: More detours on Microsoft's road map
Microsoft Corp. seems to be rethinking its entire Windows road map, including plans for future versions of its integrated Internet Explorer browser.

The Trillian Developer's Release is available for Linux on IA-64[tm]

Albert is awake and ready to surf the web. Let's hurry before he starts looking for his food bowl.

December 23, 1999

• YY 9 series arrived in US
  The new YY series of cases arrived in the US. We do not have final pricing information but let us know if you are interested.

http://www.yycomputer.com/Stand%20Pc%20case.htm

• Last minute panic buying
  If you are finally getting into the spirit of giving ... here is a quick list of single item components we can ship today. Sorry, but no new system orders can be shipped today (sniff)

Corsair:
128 BX, 128 ECC BX, 128-133, 128A-133, 128A-BX2

Crucial:
64 non ECC and ECC, 128 non ECC and ECC

Motherboards:
AOpen MX59pro, ASUS K7M, P3WE, Biostar M7MKA, Epox G2, G5, 6VBA2, FIC SD11

Cases
YY mini cubes, 5371, 1271, 3401, 5401, 5402

Storage:
IBM 20.5, 34.2, QM 9.1, WD 8.4, Toshiba 6x DVD, Toshiba 48x CD.

Processsors:
AMD PIB K6-2/450, Tray K6-2/500, K7/500, Intel Boxed PIII 600, 650, 600B, 600EB

• Happy Holidays
  Albert: Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells
  Gracie: Jingle,
  AJ: AL!
  Albert: The Way.
  Gracie: Oh
  AJ: What Fun.
  Gracie: It is to
  Albert: tease
  AJ: On a one
  Gracie: Guys ! Cut that out. I want to sing it the right way. From the top.
  AJ : [climbing on top of doghouse] Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells. Jingle
  Gracie: AL !! AJ !! Stop it. Where's all the Ho HO HO
  AJ: And AL that stuff.
  Albert: Well, I am stuffed.
  Gracie: Now, fellas. Cut it out and wish everyone
  Al, Gracie, AJ: [all grinning] Happy Holidays !!

• Stock Evaluation article
  "Of all the astronomically valued initial public offerings of 1999, which one is the most overpriced?" --Wired