Crawford's Corner

Citation

(1999), "Crawford's Corner", Library Hi Tech News, Vol. 16 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/lhtn.1999.23916gab.001

Crawford's Corner

Perspective

Bringing In the New: Notes So Far

Careful readers noticed it twice in last month's Crawford's Corner: I have a new home computer, which is making me more productive even as I spend way too much time playing with it. If you're a Serious Computer User, don't skip to the next article just yet. A bit later in this essay, I discuss two sets of utilities that many Windows 98 users should consider purchasing.

As to the computer itself, I discussed the display last month. That's the element that makes the system such a joy to use. After working with it for a month, if Gateway said it was a $400 upgrade rather than $260, I think I'd still say it was worthwhile. Never underestimate the importance of a first-rate display running at the right resolution, color depth, and refresh rate. For most users, I'd probably suggest 1024x768 on this 18"-viewable display, which should allow for true-color (32 or 24 bit) at a flicker-free refresh rate (75Hz or above) on contemporary graphics accelerators. Personally, I've settled on 1280x1024 with 16-bit color for most of my work: it reduces GUI overhead substantially (you wind up with little tiny tool-bar icons and other overhead elements), and most applications scale text to any level in any case. Why 16-bit color? Because the optimal refresh rate for my graphics chip at 1280x1024 with 24-bit color is just low enough to be flickery, where it's rock-stable at 16 bits.

For more commentary on how I configured this system (in the context of how you should configure your own systems), see my "PC Monitor" column in the July 1999 Online Magazine. Suffice it to say that I deliberately chose a slightly trailing-edge CPU (for the first time in my computing life), a Celeron-400, and only spent money where I thought it would buy something that mattered to me. I'm thrilled with the decisions.

Utilities You Don't Need

Microsoft makes life tough for utilities vendors by including more (and generally better) features within each new version of Windows. There was a substantial market for backup software in Windows 3.x days. Windows 95 included a backup applet which, while not great, was just good enough to gut the competitive market. Windows 98 has gone further: the Backup applet is a version of Seagate's backup program, probably the best program left on the open market. I can't imagine paying money for a separate Backup utility at this point: the Windows 98 applet works just fine.

Disk compression software ran into a one-two punch. First Microsoft eliminated most competitors by providing DriveSpace (and paid a healthy settlement to a competitor). Then, with Windows 98, FAT32, and hard disks that cost less than two cents per megabyte, the whole point of real-time compression software went away. It may still make sense to create Zipped archives, and compression is still the default for backups, but real-time disk compression is pointless on most new computers.

Similarly, while PartitionMagic and its competitors still make sense in some situations, I wasn't willing to spend the $60 for my new PC. The hard disk holds 10GB, which means that ­ even with FAT32 ­ it's "wasting" space in clusters. FAT32 uses 4K clusters for partitions up to 8GB. I currently have 8K clusters, which means wasting an average of 4K per file. With PartitionMagic, I could have two partitions and waste only 2K per file. I thought about it ­ and then realized that, for each 10,000 files, I'm wasting 20 megabytes out of 10GB: one-fifth of one percent. I can live with that, and it's easier to do system maintenance with one big partition.

Utilities to Consider

The Windows 98 tools for disk defragmentation, disk checking, and even disk cleanup are more than competent. There are good built-in tools to schedule system maintenance. Most people probably find Explorer an acceptable file management tool. In the case of file management, it's notable that Symantec never produced a version of Norton Navigator to run under Windows 98: they apparently didn't feel the market justified the development cost.

You can get by without additional utilities, but I chose to get a little more from my system. I picked up two utility packages from two different vendors, and regard them both as worthwhile purchases. Herewith, some informal notes on Norton SystemWorks and Mijenix PowerDesk Utilities 98.

Norton SystemWorks

SystemWorks costs around $70 and includes Norton AntiVirus, Norton Utilities, Norton CrashGuard, Norton Web Services, and Norton CleanSweep. They throw in a bonus CD that includes WinFax, pcAnywhere, Symantec Visual Page (a Web editor), Norton 2000 BIOS Test & Fix, and Norton Secret Stuff (a file-encoding system). All five packages work through a common interface, although you'll probably keep some available separately as well. As Norton users will expect, some programs become Startup items and several programs attach themselves to other parts of the system. For example, if you choose Properties for a drive after right-clicking in an open My Computer window, there will be a third tab called "Norton Tools."

I keep Norton AntiVirus (NAV) running live; it's been the best all-around virus protection for some time. CrashGuard runs on my system, and seems to be less intrusive under Windows 98 than in Windows 95 (where CrashGuard sometimes seemed to cause more trouble than it solved). I wouldn't run a PC without NAV or one of its competitors, but CrashGuard is definitely optional.

I also wouldn't run my PC without CleanSweep in the background ­ and Norton's adoption of CleanSweep is what sold me on the SystemWorks package. If you install and remove a fair amount of software, CleanSweep can be a life saver. It's more reliable and safer than most programs' Uninstall routines, it handles cases where there is no Uninstall, and it can do a fine job of identifying and cleaning up files that aren't directly program-related.

The Web services update virus definitions and find software updates for other programs. Norton Utilities offers a wide range of functions, including better versions of several Windows 98 utilities. I find that NU's disk defragmenter and disk checker work better than Windows' built-in utilities; Norton's delete protection adds a level of security to the trashcan; and Norton's registry tools can be enormously helpful.

Norton SystemWorks includes a huge array of features, some of them redundant (CleanSweep and Norton Utilities include similar and overlapping disk cleanup facilities). Even if you ignore half of them, the package is still worthwhile ­ and it really can be a system saver.

Mijenix PowerDesk Utilities 98

PowerDesk isn't as well known as Norton Utilities, but for some users it will be used more often. PowerDesk is a replacement for Windows Explorer ­ one that does a lot more and, in my opinion, does it more effectively. It offers almost all of the facilities that Norton Navigator used to, and a few that weren't in Navigator. You can Zip and Unzip files or groups of files from the navigation window; Zipped archives are treated as folders, allowing you to inspect the files within. A first-rate optional viewing window allows on-the-fly inspection of most file types, including automatic playing of sound and video files, making it easy to see what's in files that you've forgotten. The standard view is the two-pane tree-and-directory view of Explorer, but you can switch to a double-window version (with two sets of trees and directories). For me, that's an easier way to move and copy files: dragging them between windows.

PowerDesk includes a raft of options I've never used. Naturally, you can do normal file management jobs: create new folders, sort directories by any file characteristic, and so on. Encryption and decryption tools are also built in, as are file-filter and fast file-finding options. You can view your whole system as one big tree or click directly to a drive. Other utilities include toolbar builders, a disk size manager, a folder synchronizer (particularly handy for notebook users), and enhancements for dialog boxes.

I paid $30 for PowerDesk. I would have paid $80 without argument. You may find it a waste of time and money; for me, it's a major convenience.

I'm a great believer in making your personal computer your personal computer. That includes buying the tools that suit your tastes and needs. These two utility toolkits do it for me, and the combined price was less than $100.

PC Values: May 1999

May's standard configuration includes 64MB SDRAM, 24x or faster CD-ROM, AGP graphics accelerator with 8MB SGRAM, V.90 modem, a 15.7-16.1" (viewable) display (called 17" by some makers), and wavetable sound with stereo speakers. "Pluses" are shown where applicable, along with hard disk size, software, extras, and brand-name speakers.

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  Top, Budget: Gateway Essential 433c: Celeron-433, 13GB HD. Pluses: 128MB SDRAM. Extras: Corel WordPerfect Suite 8, Altec Lansing speakers. $1,499, VR 8.78 (+14% since 2/99, +36% since 11/98). Best value among top systems.

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  Top, Midrange: Compaq Presario 5600i-450/3: Pentium III-450, 13GB HD. Pluses: 128MB SDRAM. Extras: MS Home Collection with Word, JBL Pro speakers, 10Mb Ethernet. $1,899, VR 7.20 (+3% since 2/99, +24% since 11/98).

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  Top, Power: Dell Dimension XPS T500: Pentium III-500, 25.5GB HD. Pluses: 256MB SDRAM, 18" display with 16MB SGRAM, DVD-ROM drive. Extras: MS Office 97 SBE, Altec Lansing speakers with subwoofer, 10/100 Ethernet, 250MB Zip drive. $3,129, VR 6.91 (+17% since 2/99, +27% since 11/98).

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  Other, Budget: CyberMax ValueMax KII-400: AMD-K6/2-400, 6.4GB HD. Pluses: DVD-ROM drive. Extras: Corel WordPerfect Suite 8. $1,049, VR 9.40 (+24% since 2/99, +26% since 11/98). Best value in May 1999.

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  Other, Midrange: Quantex QP6/500 Best Buy: Pentium-III 500, 13GB HD. Pluses: 128MB SDRAM, 18" display, DVD-ROM drive. Extras: Corel WordPerfect Suite 8, 10Mb Ethernet. $1,999, VR 7.36 (+3% since 2/99, +7% since 11/98).

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  Other, Power: Quantex QP6/500 SM-4x SE: Pentium-III-500, 20GB HD. Similar to midrange, but with 32MB display RAM, CD-RW drive, Altec Lansing speakers with subwoofer, MS Office 97 SBE instead of WordPerfect Suite. $2,699, VR 6.86 (+1% since 2/99, +13% since 11/98).

Product Watch

The Click of Death?

If you don't own an Iomega Zip or Jaz drive and don't plan to buy one, you can skip on ahead ­ but there are more than 20 million Zip drives and two million Jaz drives in use. Some percentage of these drives ­ Iomega says less than one-half percent ­ have little problems. Those problems can lead to a clicking sound that may, in turn, mean that the cartridge is being destroyed and the drive needs servicing.

Steve Gibson has a free downloadable program at www.grc.com; it tests the failure potential of the drives. The site also has an explanation of the Click of Death itself. I plan to download the utility. So should you ­ if you use Iomega products. (Unfortunately, it takes forever to run on a parallel-port drive.)

The Zip is a tough case. It's always been a peculiar technology but it's become something of a "standard." Right now, at $79 to $99 for an internal drive, it's a common add-on for new desktop computers as a backup and data exchange device ­ but at $10-$15 for 95 formatted megabytes, Zip media are relatively expensive and the Zip drive isn't all that zippy. The Jaz is faster and far more capacious (1GB or 2GB), but the media are still on the pricey side.

While the Zip is a good choice today, I wonder about the medium-term future ­ for two reasons. On one hand, Sony has finally introduced the 200MB HiFD drive, which handles regular microdiskettes and runs considerably faster than the Zip (supposedly). If Sony prices the media well, it seems like a Zip-killer. (So does the LS120 SuperDrive, but the cartridges are overpriced and the drive really hasn't taken off.) On the other hand ­ and more of a threat to the Jaz ­ the falling costs of CD-R and CD-RW drives and media make that an attractive technology. With CD-RW drives dropping past $10 to as low as $3 or $4 each, you're getting almost seven times the capacity of a Zip cartridge for significantly less money ­ with equal or better speed and considerably better durability. Yes, you can only rewrite a CD-RW disc 1,000 times or so ­ but for backup and data exchange, that should be more than enough.

Wacom PL-400

This is another "what's the point?" product. It's a computer drawing tablet that's also an LCD screen ­ a 24-bit 13.3" screen running at 1024x768 pixels. The review was in Macworld, but it's not clear that the PL-400 is a Mac-only device. You draw on the screen, seeing what you're doing. In theory, it's a great idea for graphic artists.

The reality is a little different. The drawing surface is a little above the LCD screen itself, so there's a gap between the tip of the pen and the pixels you see. That's probably not a big deal. What may be more serious is that the Wacom has typical LCD weaknesses, some of them rarely mentioned in the glowing reviews that LCD displays get. For one, LCD displays usually have limited viewing angles ­ so, in this case, unless you're staring straight down at the drawing surface, you may not see colors or contrast properly. Second, LCD displays offer a narrower contrast range and color space than CRTs. (Unless you're a graphics professional, you probably don't care about color space or gamut ­ but your eyes can cope with a broader spectrum than CRTs, which generally can do better than either four-color print or LCDs.)

Then there's the price ­ a significant factor, given that the Wacom is too problematic for a graphics professional. $2,999: the price of a top-of-the-line PowerMac G3. For a drawing device.

DataGlyphs

Here's an idea: encode computer-readable data into graphical patterns, print it on paper, then scan it back in to a computer and interpret the data. Seem like a lot of trouble? Perhaps, but that's the DataGlyph ­ a new concept from Xerox PARC. An article in the 20 April 1999 PC Magazine discusses DataGlyphs as well as "HTTP staples," staples that emit radio frequencies.

The latter isn't all that fanciful. Some people embed HTTP staples or ID chips in their pets, so that they can be identified if they stray. DataGlyphs might have some real applications as well. The article mentions Brazilian banks using DataGlyphs printed on checks to discourage counterfeiting. DataGlyphs could also be used as part of cheap security cards. For that matter, you could even store and publish text that way: a DataGlyph stores roughly 400 bytes per square inch, which isn't bad.

This isn't all that new an idea, however. This very publication included data-as-print in some issues in the late 1980s, in the form of Cauzin data strips. For a while, so did one or two of the major computer publications: it looked like a great way to publish the free utilities that PC magazines like to offer. (The cover of Library Hi Tech Vol. 4 No. 2, Summer 1986, is an enlarged Cauzin data strip.)

Here it is 13 years later, and DataGlyphs are a hot new technology. Maybe this time they'll work ­ at least for specific markets. But a marvelous new development from the geniuses at PARC?

The Big Picture

You know how I feel about 18"-viewable displays, at least the flat-screen aperture-grill ones. You get 26% more usable screen space than on a typical 16"-viewable (so-called 17") without taking up more desk space, and the best 18" displays are breathtakingly good.

What about the next step? If 18" is good, wouldn't 20" (so-called 21") be even better? It all depends. The 20 April 1999 PC Magazine includes first looks at two high-quality 20" displays that are plausibly priced, if you have the space and the money. The CTX EX1200 sells for $1,185 and performed well on most display tests, although it had a couple of minor problems. EIZO's $1,370 FlexScan T960 uses a Trinitron screen comparable to my 18" unit, and also performed very well with a few minor flaws.

They don't mention weight and actual size, but you can expect these displays to be big, heavy beasts, too imposing for the average desk. However, if you have the space and need the extra screen area, these prices are considerably more attractive than a year or so ago. Obviously, if you're spending this much for a display, you'll want to compare it with other choices before you buy and you'll want a good warranty.

Press Watch

Levin, C. (1999), "Fast-forward to 2010," PC Magazine, Vol. 18 No. 5, p. 28.

Here we go again ­ the Library of Congress on your desktop! This time it's "top visionaries" from IBM telling us the wonders of computing technology a few years hence. Some of the claims seem plausible as straight-line projections. Some are a little strange (possible, but why would you want them?). At least one is just plain wrong, for two reasons.

That one is the oft-repeated "LC on the desktop" claim. "A miniaturized, portable storage device will hold all the information in the Library of Congress." (A holographic storage cube, of course: for more than a decade, that's been the preferred storage medium for two years from whenever you ask.) That's just after the "terabyte of storage ... at about $1 a terabyte" in the next decade or two.

It's conceivable (but unlikely) that affordable and reasonably compact desktop storage will allow a home computer user to have as much data as is represented by the text in all of LC's books and magazines. But to actually have "all the information in the Library of Congress" would be impossible or pointless, for at least three reasons:

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  Copyright law means that most of the "information" created since 1917 is protected. If it could be on your desktop, it would be encrypted so that you'd have to pay each time you used any of it.

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  The Library of Congress has no plans to digitize "all the information" ­ and lots of the significance of items in LC is not just information.

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  Even if the two barriers above were not issues, and as fond as I am of distributed publications, why on earth would you want everything at home when thousands of new items were appearing every day and you could presumably download what you want, when you want it?

But then, overstatement and IBM frequently go hand in hand. Remember the TV commercials with the Italian gentleman who was using the wholly digitized collection of an American university? It was nonsense, but it made good TV.

Silliness? How about your refrigerator knowing you're running low on milk and sending a reminder to your PDA? Or "digital groceries," with everything (including bulk produce?) tagged with radio-frequency markers so that you just carry it all out the door, no checkout required, automatic deduction from your account. I don't even want to consider the ecological and other implications of adding radio frequency devices to every quart of milk and cup of yogurt in supermarkets worldwide, much less every orange or bunch of celery. ("Careful, son, I haven't removed the chips from your veggies just yet ...")

The Death of Whatever

Here's another one for your save-and-review file. PC/Computing, in the April 1999 issue (but not in the joke section), says flatly that "travel agencies will be dead by 2003. The travel industry will do more than $29 billion in business on the Web then ­ up from only $3 billion last year." Good old Forrester Research tells us this will be so. Actually, I don't think Forrester added the "travel agencies will be dead" line. Personally, I can't see the Web substituting for travel agents when it comes to cruises, safaris, adventure travel, and other complex travel situations. Air travel and hotel reservations? Maybe, but agents don't clear any profit on those anyway.

Check back in four years: have all 40,000 agents in the US, and all those abroad, closed shop? If so, send me mail and I'll eat a copy of this page. It gets a little worse: on the last page of the issue, where PC/Computing goes into direct attack mode: "31%. That's how many of you don't book trips online. You run to your travel agent instead. But you're paying too much for airfare, hotels, and rental cars." Comparative tests have consistently shown that, except for special limited Web-only sales (typically for the same week's flights), a good travel agent can usually find a better fare than a traveler booking directly on the Web. I fail to understand why this magazine feels it should attack other people's livings, particularly by making false statements in large type.

SCSI as Cheap as EIDE

Not to pick on PC/Computing ­ well, yes, to pick on them when they're flatly wrong ­ that same April 1999 issue has a brief article on storage. One page, on SCSI hard drives, contains this sentence: "In fact, today's SCSI drives approach the nickel-per-megabyte cost of EIDE desktop drives." And, indeed, one of the drives they tested does cost $0.055 per megabyte ­ $1,000 for an 18GB drive.

The problem with this is that EIDE drives dropped below a nickel per megabyte some time back. Seagate's 18GB SCSI may cost $1,000, but their 10GB EIDE costs $197 ­ less than two cents per megabyte. Western Digital? 10GB for $211, 13GB for $246 (that's 1.89 cents per megabyte). Maxtor: 17GB for $324 (1.9 cents per megabyte). And if you want a big brand name and a big hard disk, IBM's 18GB 7200RPM hard drive goes for $450.

You pay anywhere from 50% to 100% more for SCSI than for EIDE. The prices keep changing, but the ratios haven't changed all that much. But that wouldn't make the story as much fun; it would just be responsible writing.

Keizer, G. (1999), "Help, I have homework!," FamilyPC, Vol. 6 No. 4, pp. 80-88.

This article looks at three plausible homework-related activities and tries to determine which research route makes more sense: CD-ROMs, the Internet, or books? What's astonishing (and remarkably pleasurable) is that, despite Keizer's long-term technophilia, the answers are both plausible and balanced. To "find the best facts" CD-ROM encyclopedias come in first, with books as the runner-up. To "explore a specific topic," books rule ­ and the runner-up is to use all three together. "Need help writing a report"? CD-ROM encyclopedias (specifically, Encarta and World Book, both of which include special research organization tools) come in first ­ and second is to use all three together. The Internet as first choice? Not in this review. There's a nice (if perhaps slightly misguided) half-page sidebar on "Why you should visit the library." I would argue that it's premature to "largely thank the Gates Foundation" for the fact that most libraries stock computers with online access, but otherwise it's a well-written list of the "top five reasons why libraries still rule."

The article also includes quick ratings for the major CD-ROM encyclopedias. Four of the six earn Recommended ratings. Encarta 99 Deluxe gets the highest score; World Book 99 follows; Compton's 99 Encyclopedia Deluxe comes in third; and Grolier 1999 Multimedia Encyclopedia is fourth.

Ad Watch

Silicon Graphics and Clones?

Two full-page ads in the May 1999 Macworld ­ one perhaps even odder than the other. Remember that Silicon Graphics (SGI) is a high-end graphics workstation vendor, with expensive UNIX-based systems used for computer graphics in movies, television, and elsewhere. So are they in Macworld trying to get Mac users to upgrade to UNIX graphics boxes?

Not quite. The ad on p. 50 is for the Silicon Graphics 320 Visual Workstation ­ a box using one or two Pentium II processors and running Windows NT! "So now you can get the outrageous 2D, 3D, and digital media performance you expect from Silicon Graphics ­ for about the price of a mere clone." But, of course, the 320 is a "clone" ­ it's a Windows NT Pentium box, albeit with SGI's own graphics chipset. It's a little hard to tell the price on this page, but "Starting @ $3,395" gives some sense ­ and there just aren't any "mere clones" that cost anywhere near that much. Never mind that Macworld is an odd place for this ad: a magazine for people who typically hate Intel and Windows and think of Macs as great graphics machines.

The second ad, on p. 92, gives actual configurations and prices ­ under a headline saying "Wicked performance. Wicked pricing." The cheapest system with a display uses a 400MHz Pentium II, includes 128MB SDRAM, has a 10GB EIDE hard disk, diskette drive, 32x CD-ROM, a complete set of ports (including FireWire and USB, but not including SCSI), Ethernet, Windows NT 4.0, and a 16"-viewable Trinitron display. That configuration costs $4,334. The lowest-end Dell Dimension advertised with 128MB SDRAM is an XPS T500 selling for $2,299. That system has a faster CPU (500MHz Pentium III), slightly larger hard disk (12.9GB), comparable CD-ROM drive, and Ethernet; it admittedly lacks FireWire and uses a fine ATI graphics card rather than SGI's custom chipset. Oh yes: the Dell also includes an internal Zip drive, wavetable sound system, APC surge protector, and MS Office 97 Small Business Edition. Figure $99 to upgrade from Windows 98 to Windows NT and maybe $250 for a FireWire adapter, for around $2,650 total. That means you're paying almost $1,700 for the SGI graphics chipset ­ even if the Zip drive, sound system, and Office are worth nothing to you!

Then again, the readers of Macworld would probably look to the PowerMac G3. The top configuration, the 400MHz system, has roughly comparable specs to the SGI and does include FireWire; including a 16"-viewable Apple Diamondtron display, it sells for $3,500. Apples don't come cheap ­ but this is still $830 cheaper than the SGI ­ and a 400MHz G3 almost certainly runs software faster than a 400MHz Pentium II.

The SGI workstations may be superb machines and worth every cent you pay for them ­ but if they are, it's because the chipset is worth thousands of dollars extra. That's the case SGI needs to make; "about the price of a mere clone" assumes ignorance or stupidity on the part of the reader. (The same ads are in PC Magazine, and make equally little sense there.)

Review Watch

Desktop Computers

Apiki, S. (1999), "The fleet is in," FamilyPC, Vol. 6 No. 4, pp. 92-6.

This group review covers six high-end multimedia PCs, all powered by 500MHz Pentium-III CPUs. Given the family orientation of this magazine, Apiki expects that the extra instructions in the Pentium-III will be most worthwhile for games ­ and there were no games that used the extra instructions, at the time of the review. So, effectively, the Pentium-IIIs are just faster Pentium-II machines, which is about right.

Five of the six systems garnered Recommended ratings. Top scores went to Compaq's $3,009 Presario 5600I and Dell's $2,449 Dimension XPS T500. The Compaq system has some interesting Internet and home networking options that may not be useful just yet, while the Dell is a great bargain, albeit with a relatively small display. Just behind the two leaders, there's another tie: Gateway's $2,679 G6-500 and Micron's $2,799 Millennia Max 500. Trailing, but still recommended, is CompUSA's $2,700 PC American Pro500.

Breen, C. (1999), "Your perfect Mac," Macworld, May, pp. 68-77.

With the partial exception of the iMac, no Apple computer offers particularly good price performance when compared to Dell, Gateway, or even Compaq computers. I'd never dream of suggesting that a satisfied Mac user switch to a Windows (or "Wintel") system ­ but it's rarely appropriate for a happy Windows user to switch to the Mac. So the "perfect Mac" is within the relatively narrow sphere of Mac users. Given that, this roundup is a well-done presentation of which current Mac configuration makes the most sense for various types of user.

They tested every shipping Mac, and since there are no clones that relatively small group of computers (six desktops, three notebooks) is the entire field. If you're a Mac user thinking of a new system, or an unhappy Windows user ready to switch, the article is well worth reading. Do pay attention to total prices, which are quite different than the prices in the "system specs" highlights. For example, the perfect Mac for a business user starts at $1,599 ­ but once you add a display, better keyboard and mouse, and the kind of software that might be bundled on a Windows system, you're up to roughly $2,700.

Plain, S. (1999), "Pentium III: the next generation," Computer Shopper, Vol. 19 No. 4, pp. 160-68.

I only recently started reading Computer Shopper again, when Ziff-Davis switched me to it from one of the magazines they shut down. I'd stopped for three reasons: at the time, there were just too many magazines to read; Computer Shopper didn't do that many useful comparative reviews and concentrated on true no-name systems; and the massive, tabloid-size magazine (around 600 pages an issue at the time) seemed like an incredible waste of paper.

It's still a burden on the Post Office (the April 1999 issue is 472 pages, most of them coated paper), but there are fewer computer magazines these days and Computer Shopper is doing more thoughtful comparisons. Reviews always include detailed writeups on each system (including full specifications), which has become rare in too many magazines ­ and, with this issue, Computer Shopper has started awarding Best Buys, without some arbitrary "only one Best per review" criterion.

Which may be too much prologue for yet another early review of 500MHz Pentium III systems. This one also covers six systems, including slightly different configurations of four that are in FamilyPC's review (above). You get far more detailed information here than in FamilyPC and the reviews are oriented somewhat differently: those big pages full of fairly small print carry remarkable detail. Best Buys for this group are the Gateway Performance 500 (which replaces the G6-500, costs a little more, and includes a lot more stuff) and the Dell Dimension XPS T500. The Gateway gets the nod for superior performance (particularly its next-generation 22GB IBM hard disk) and great set of components; the Dell offers a well-balanced system at a low price ($2,457), although it skimps on the display.

Digital Video and Graphics

Case, L. (1999), "Full-throttle graphics," Computer Shopper, Vol. 19 No. 4, pp. 222-32.

If you're buying PCs for your library or office, you can safely ignore this review ­ but it may be worth reading to see what's coming for high performance PC graphics. Right now, graphics performance this hot is almost entirely for gaming, but once the chips are widely used, other programs take advantage of the power.

This review covers seven AGP graphics cards with at least 8MB RAM and support for the latest Windows graphics technologies, with prices under $200. Although the nVidia Riva TNT chip has a lock on the market for high-performance moderately-priced graphics accelerators at the moment (and three of the seven cards use it), it's not the fastest low-priced chip any more. That honor goes to ATI's Rage 128GL, and as a result the $170 ATI Rage Fury gets the Best Buy award. Interestingly, the ATI ships with 32MB of SDRAM, entirely for video support. Remember when a well-equipped PC had 32MB total? What was that ­ last year? Honorable mention goes to the $150 Diamond Viper 550, best of the TNT cards.

Ozer, J. (1999), "Ready to roll," PC Magazine, Vol. 18 No. 7, pp. 133-44.

Ready for a digital videocamera? If your library does video work, or if you're doing some yourself, it's not too early to think about it. Unlike still digital cameras, there shouldn't be a major quality issue, since 8mm home movies have almost disappeared and digital videocams should typically offer better quality than VHS-C or Hi8 cameras.

Editors' Choice within this group of entry-level cameras is Sony's $2,100 DCR-TRV900. It's more expensive than the competitors, but it offers better image quality, intuitive controls, a good-size LCD viewing screen, and the option of a diskette drive for saving still digital pictures.

Honorable mention goes to JVC's $1,500 GR-DVL9500, which offers picture quality almost as good as the Sony and has fine features. Also noted: the $1,000 Canon Vistura as a fine budget camera and Sony's $1,500 DCR-PC1 for the ultimate in portability combined with good image quality.

Displays

Poor, A. (1999), "LCD monitors," PC Magazine, Vol. 18 No. 8, pp. 127-41.

The subhead says it all: "Crisp ... thin ... but cheap enough?" That's your call, and partly depends on balancing price, screen size, desk space, and certain visual advantages of LCD displays. The article includes good technical background along with detailed tests and individual reviews for 29 different LCD monitors. Six of those (the only ones I'd consider) are digital, requiring appropriate display adapters. You can expect them to be the most stable. Specifically, they avoid "pixel jitter," the phenomenon that occurs when analog displays (where the signal is converted back to digital in the display) have to decide which of two adjacent LCD cells represents a picture element.

The digital Editors' Choice is IBM's $1,100 T55D ($950 if you already have a digital display adapter), which is also one of the few displays that does a good job with scaling lower-resolution signals to fit the 1024x768 screen. (With many LCD screens, the results are atrocious ­ which means that, for example, a nonscaling 640x480 CD-ROM either takes up less than half the screen or runs with severely degraded picture quality.) Runner-up for digital displays is Toshiba's $1,300 TekBright.

If you must have an analog LCD screen, $850 buys the Editor's Choice Mag Innovision LT541C. Honorable mention goes to LG Electronics' $1,000 500LC.

Internet Service Providers

Alwang, G. (1999), "At your internet service," PC Magazine, Vol. 18 No. 8, pp. 96-124.

Who offers the best ISP service? That depends on what you measure, to be sure. This roundup includes eight of the largest national Internet service providers and judges them on a variety of criteria ­ including, critically, call failure rates and speed tests. Inverse Network Technology ran those tests, as it does for most comparable tests, making at least 4,011 calls to each of the ISPs while establishing industry averages that include 13 major providers. The total Inverse Network Technology test runs included 181,365 access calls.

Interesting, Inverse's agreement with PC Magazine prevents PC from stating the actual call failure rates for ISPs that performed worse than the industry average. The average wasn't all that great: 6.9% failure rate across the full 24-hour day, 7.0% during business hours, and an astonishing 13.6% ­ one out of every seven attempts ­ between 6 p.m. and midnight.

One ISP had the lowest failure rates across the board, and also did well on all speed tests. Since that ISP also offers fair pricing and reasonable personal Web page provisions, it was a shoo-in for the Editors' Choice: AT&T WorldNet. I can't argue: that's the ISP we use at home.

If you're looking for a home ISP, read the article; it's got the kind of background and detail you'd expect from PC Magazine.

Notebook Computers

Jerome, M. (1999), "Warning: this could happen to you," PC/Computing, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 174-88.

For all of PC/Computing's nonsense, the magazine occasionally does something worthwhile. This is their 7th annual notebook torture test, in which the editors test the durability of current notebooks under heat, cold, plausible dropping, and spilled drinks. The tests are described carefully, but the results tend to be muddled. The good news is that today's notebook computers appear to be a lot more durable than those of a few years back. Every computer shrugged off the heat tests (120ºF at 30% humidity, running for two hours, cool for two hours, then reboot; 180ºF at 0% humidity, not running, two hours, cool for two hours and reboot). They did equally well with the chill tests: running at 32ºF, no humidity, for two hours, left for two hours to warm, then rebooted; as a tougher test, 0ºF but not running, same cycle. The article says "virtually all survived" but they don't mention any that didn't.

Next, the reviewers dropped each system ­ running, with cover open ­ onto a carpeted floor from 29". That started to do some damage: three "no-name" notebooks lost backlighting, the Compaq Armada's CD-ROM tray door wouldn't close, and the Dell Latitude Cpi D300XT ejected its battery. But those don't count as failures: as long as the system will boot, it counts as a survivor ­ and it's easy enough to reinsert a battery. The second drop test pushes the machine off the edge of a 29" table. Even though the power's off and the cover's closed, the tumbling makes this a much tougher test. Four more machines lost backlighting (including the Dell Latitude). Five, including the Dell and Gateway's Solo 5150LS, lost floppy drives. Four systems failed at this point: the Micron TransPort Trek and three lesser-known brands.

The final test has traditionally involved pouring a jigger of coffee (with cream and sugar) onto the keyboard from three inches above the G and H keys. This time around, they added another liquid test: an ounce of cola in the same spot. This test has been a system-killer in the past, but not this time around. The Gateway, Sony's VAIO PCG-818, and one lesser brand had "confused keyboards" for a while, but not one machine failed outright from the liquid test.

By PC/Computing's standards, all but four of the 22 tested systems survived the torture test. Maybe so, but you might also pay attention to which machines actually survived intact ­ with backlighting, diskette drive, and doors intact. Including systems with temporary keyboard confusion that could be fixed by cleaning, there are all of six such systems: Brick's Ergo BigScreen 4, Gateway's Solo 5150LS, Panasonic's ToughBook 71, Sony's VAIO PCG-818, Toshiba's Protégé 3015CT, and Twinhead's Slimnote GX. Only the Panasonic and Toshiba survived with nothing but sticky keys.

The "Best" award goes to NEC's Versa LX (which lost its diskette drive) as a desktop replacement and Toshiba's rugged unit among the four ultraportables. As usual with this magazine, you get very little information on each unit, and their comments seem to carry some unstated biases. The most egregious example this time around comes with the Compaq Armada 1700 and the Gateway Solo 5150LS. Both are rated four stars (as six other "desktop replacements"), but consider what you learn about the machines ­ and then the comments.

Performance tests show the Gateway to be significantly faster than the Compaq, and its battery lasted three hours 11 minutes as compared to the Compaq's two hours 31 minutes. Both use 300MHz Pentium II CPUs and have 14.1" screens with 1024x768 resolution ­ but the Gateway runs true color (24-bit color) at that resolution, while the Compaq is limited to 64K colors (16-bit color). The Compaq's hefty at 8.4 pounds without accessories, while the Gateway weighs in at 6.6 pounds. The Compaq has a 5GB hard disk; the Gateway, 6.4GB. Typically, PC/Computing doesn't mention that the Gateway includes Microsoft Office 97 Small Business Edition, unlike the Compaq.

Here's where it gets interesting. One of the "Pro" comments for the Compaq is "attractive price." The only "Con" comment for the Gateway is "Expensive." The prices? $2,699 for the Compaq; $2,759 for the Gateway. See a problem here? To make it even more amusing, consider one of the three-star units from a lesser brand, the ARM ARMNote TS3012. Same CPU, same hard disk size, same screen specs as the Gateway; faster than the Compaq but slower than the Gateway, and with battery life just less than the Gateway. It's a real tubbo: 8.8 pounds without accessories. Their comment? "Attractive price for what you get." That attractive price? $2,799. The ARMNote was one of those that lost backlighting, a trifle that costs $400 to $700 to fix.

Does PC/Computing make these comments up at random? Are there other factors that they don't mention? Or are there unstated biases at work? I don't have answers ­ but that's one reason I rarely cite PC/Computing reviews. They must be taken with several bushels of salt, quite apart from their "only one five-star" routine. Still, nobody else does durability tests as tough as these ­ tough enough that HP, IBM, and several other manufacturers chose not to participate.

CD-ROM Watch

Telling New Stories

What more can you ask from a CD-ROM than to tell an important story in a new manner? Telling a story is more than offering information or slapping together multimedia resources. A good story combines content and context; a good story-telling CD-ROM makes use of the medium's capabilities.

The March 1999 American Libraries had an interesting article by Sharon Johnston, public relations coordinator of the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County (North Carolina): "An African American Album: Preserving Local History on CD-ROM." The article discussed the process of creating the CD-ROM and the earlier African American Album, a photographic history of Charlotte-Mecklenburg's African-American community from 1850 to 1950. That album was published as a book in 1992 and won a couple of awards. The new volume combined existing local history resources, new investigation and donations from the community, footage from local television, and loads of volunteer and paid expertise.

I found the article fascinating, partly because I believe public libraries and other libraries will do more publishing in the future ­ particularly where they hold unique resources (such as local history) that can tell important stories. This CD-ROM might be a fine example of such an effort, using contemporary media. But was it any good?

An African American Album V.2

****: Excellent [92]

Windows 95/98/3.1

$30

Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County

The ratings box tells the story. While this disc could be improved in a few (relatively minor) ways, it's a first-rate job, on its own merits and as a set of local stories that make up a bigger story. It would be wonderful to see more libraries publishing books, CD-ROMs, preserved Web sites, and other items that bring their communities' past to life.

Although this CD-ROM was produced for local consumption and is mostly sold in Charlotte-Mecklenburg's libraries, I think lots of libraries and librarians will find it worth owning. It costs $30 including handling and requires a check or money order payable to African American Album CD-ROM. Send it to the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, 310 N. Tryon St., Charlotte, NC 28202. It's a perfect circulating CD-ROM: no installation.

The Stories

The disc includes four major sections, each with several subsections. The home screen uses rollovers in a thoroughly professional and charming manner. The screen is grayscale, but as you roll over one of the four sections, it changes to color and appropriate stereo music plays, along with a defining caption. Similar techniques are used for subsections: music for the subsection and some visible change on the screen. Notably (and properly), that's the only background music on the disc; as you're exploring, the only sounds come from audio and video clips.

The four sections include Events (a timeline from the 1940s to 1997), Places (geographically oriented stories about Charlotte's African American community), Keepsakes (four photographic essays, one with accompanying oral history), and Heritage (illustrated essays on the African American experience in Charlotte). Events includes six decade segments, although the timeline can be explored from beginning to end; each of the other three sections has four subsections.

Events includes a wealth of material, most centered on the community but bringing in some larger related events as well. Each spot on the timeline opens a screen offering text and (usually) one or more photographs, sometimes with video or audio clips as well. Text is usually sans serif. Photographs are historically important and reproduced quite well. Audio clips, always the voice of someone in the community, are consistently worthwhile and well recorded. Video clips are small (third-screen on the fixed 640x480 window), and some have serious pixelization problems ­ but they're also historically important and entirely appropriate to their topics. In cases like this, you can forgive less-than-perfect video quality for the content, and the content is first rate. The Events section alone was enough to convince me that this was a very good product. Then again, many good CD-ROMs have timelines.

What most others don't have are real-life stories, and that's where the other three sections move from very good to excellent. The most remarkable story may be the simplest: the Stroud's Family Photos, eight photo essays on the Stroud family with running monologues from either Daisy or Gerson Stroud. The booklet that comes with the CD-ROM calls these eight essays "vignettes." I call them local history of the highest and most intimate sort: a combination of text, authentic photographs, and original voices that tell a complex and important story. All by itself, the Stroud's Family Photos subsection may justify the purchase of this CD-ROM.

There's more. There are more than a dozen video clips, perhaps two dozen or more audio essays, and what appear to be several hundred photographs. Everything works within appropriate settings, with materials reused where that makes sense. Several fairly long textual essays (sometimes in readable serif rather than the unfortunate sans) have extensive hyperlinks to bring up captioned photos and photo essays.

I was enthralled, despite my total lack of connection to the region and the people. The American Libraries article claims six-hours of material. As a reviewer, I was moving rapidly, but still spent close to four hours, much longer than I'd normally give any disc: I don't question the six hour claim.

You don't hear Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speeches here, although there are pictures of King in Charlotte. You do hear the people of Charlotte ­ not proclaiming, not sensationalizing, just recounting what they experienced and what it meant to them. It's local history at its finest, and a fine production.

Shortcomings

There are a few shortcomings, at least one of which would be trivially easy to correct. While the disc doesn't require installation (wonderful), it also doesn't support AutoPlay (unfortunate). The back cover of the insert booklet tells you how to start it (open the CD-ROM drive icon, then double-click on a specific file), but adding a tiny AutoPlay file would avoid that nuisance.

The disc runs at 640x480, period. That's typical of CD-ROMs built with Macromedia Director, and this is one of those discs that doesn't disrupt the rest of the screen or black it out.

Videos are small and sometimes flawed. The largest are stored at 180x240 pixels, typically 15 frames per second. Some have significant pixelation and other problems. I'm sure the size is designed to assure that videos will run on 2x CD-ROM drives, and that may be appropriate. But there's loads of space on the CD-ROM (it uses less than 260MB, leaving 400MB free), and larger videos would be more impressive.

I'd like to see better text quality throughout (the typefaces, not the content), and it might be nice to have printing capabilities. The disc lacks not only print capabilities but any sort of search mechanism, and maybe that's OK for this kind of disc.

Summing Up

By commercial standards, this is a well-made disc. By my standards, it's first-rate local history and a triumph for the Public Library of Charlotte and Mecklenburg County. I think many public libraries would do well to order copies of this disc, for circulation and to consider what they could do with their own local resources. Academic libraries could use this as part of a contemporary history collection.

On the Web

What are my criteria for CD-ROM point scores? What can you expect in the next two or three Crawford's Corners? Who is Walt Crawford, anyway?

Try http://home.att.net/~walt.crawford. You won't find much in the way of stunning backgrounds, animations, or sound clips. You will find a table of CD-ROM evaluation criteria, maximum points for each criterion, how each is weighted, and a brief discussion of each one. There's a section that notes forthcoming appearances: the next two or three Crawford's Corner editions, columns in Database and Online, articles in American Libraries, and scheduled speeches.

There's other stuff as well. It's possible that you'll find color versions of this issue's CD-ROM screen shots, but only for the cover dates of this issue.

The Details

Crawford's Corner is written by Walt Crawford, an information architect at the Research Libraries Group, Inc. Opinions herein do not reflect those of RLG or MCB University Press. Send comments to wcc@notes.rlg.org. CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs for review should be sent to Walt Crawford, 1631 Columbia Drive, Mountain View, CA 94040-3638; Windows only.