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| Top | Hot Web, Cool Freebies | Going to bat for MVPs | The future is here | Helpful hints | Mind your manners | Zip it up |
Mike Elgan's recent article "Netscape Threatens Microsoft (And Other Myths)" (The Explorer, April) was a little misleading and on some counts dead wrong. He said that the Web is hot because it is mostly free. The Web is hot because it is an exciting, new, interactive communications media that will ultimately subsume the functionality of paper publishing, radio and TV. The Web combines the power of hypermedia communications with a global reach. It is no mystery why Internet providers promote the Web so heavily. It brings in new users who are willing to pay for Internet access. Yes, the culture of the Web is to offer some cool freebies, and most Web sites have figured this out ... but why does the spider weave her web?
Elgan says that he has "never seen a Java-based applet that
could replace a word processor, spreadsheet or any other software"
on his PC. Check out a Web page called HTMLJive, which is an HTML
editor written in Java. It can be downloaded like any other Web
page and then executed at will. Microsoft can feel the cold, dank
breath of real competition breathing down its neck, but it does
have a pretty healthy profit margin.
David Evans via the Internet
| Top | Hot Web, Cool Freebies | Going to bat for MVPs | The future is here | Helpful hints | Mind your manners | Zip it up |
While your article about online support resources ("Instant Answers," April) pointed a lot of people in the right direction, I feel you've done a great disservice to the dozens of dedicated MVPs (Most Valuable Professionals) who've been recognized by Microsoft for their volunteer efforts on CompuServe, The Microsoft Network and other venues.
These men and women are experienced users-often beta testers and developers-whose insight into Windows 95 stems from real-world operations. They devote many hours each week to helping people learn to use the products, often testing software and hardware configurations on their own equipment to try to duplicate a problem.
Their incentive has nothing to do with "barter of MS products
and services." For me, it's the satisfaction of having solved
a problem; the thrill of seeing the light of comprehension flash
in someone's message; and the challenge of trying to reproduce
a bug that another user has found so it can be turned over to
Microsoft engineers.
Sue Mosher via the Internet
I am disappointed to see such an unfair description of members of the Microsoft MVP program. Our answers, which are usually garnered by months of experience with Windows 95, are no less accurate than Microsoft's.
You claim we barter with Microsoft in trade for the answers we
give. Nothing could be further from the truth. We do not attempt
to enter the MVP program; we are inducted. Many of us began supporting
Windows 95 before any type of support mechanism was in place.
This sharing of information and knowledge is prevalent in the
online community. I regret that your hasty words may have damaged
our credibility.
Rick Ahlquist via the Internet
| Top | Hot Web, Cool Freebies | Going to bat for MVPs | The future is here | Helpful hints | Mind your manners | Zip it up |
I am appalled that those editorializing on the subject of Network Computers (Letters, April) object to inexpensive alternative I-net access for the masses. Wake up and smell the opportunity! Anyone who can't grasp the implications for the marketing, communication, medicine, finance, education, politics, business and entertainment segments of our world(s) has been living in a vacuum.
Imagine a cable TV box that has a button to connect viewers to the Internet and a hand-held, voice-activated remote control. The subscriber pays a separate fee for Web site access with e-mail, shopping privileges, chat rooms, and unlimited access to the public library and the local education system. The remote control also has a button that says "Vote."
The future is staring us in the face. The bright financiers and
technoheads among us are in a race to combine all of these items
into an economical package for mass distribution. It's not if
this particular future will arrive, but when.
R. Klokman via the Internet
I agree with Fred Langa about the downsides to a Smart Terminal
(Start, February). Much of the enjoyment derived from a PC is
the "P." PCs are personalized. My friends treat their
PCs as if they were family members, and taking the personalization
out of home computing would destroy much of what makes it so special.
Sean Devine via AOL
| Top | Hot Web, Cool Freebies | Going to bat for MVPs | The future is here | Helpful hints | Mind your manners | Zip it up |
Karen Kenworthy's column (Power Windows, April) helped me solve a Windows 95 backup problem. Her suggestion to stop thinking DOS and start thinking Win95 gave me the solution to the problem of making a backup copy of my Windows folder on a different partition of my hard drive.
I simply created a new folder titled WINBAK on my E: drive and used the Copy command in Windows Explorer to create a full backup.
I have a 1.3GB hard drive in three partitions to reduce cluster
size (I got that from another of Karen's columns!) and although
I have a tape backup, it is slow and cumbersome to use. Now, if
something goes wrong, all I need to do is copy my files back into
the Windows folder and I'm up and running again.
Dennis Poledna via the Internet
(Editor's reply: Nice trick! A second copy of important files, kept on your hard disk, isn't a substitute for a "real" backup to tape or other removable media. But it's a very handy supplement.)
Karen Kenworthy omitted a few important points in her column about upgrading a hard drive. First, dragging and dropping the entire original hard drive contents to the new drive, as Karen suggests, requires a fully optimized system; without it, Windows 95 will not let you do the copy. Second, you must ensure that the View option of your file list shows all files, including hidden files, or the copy will not occur on those files.
Third, if you merely select the entire hard drive contents, the
copy will abort when it goes to copy the Win386.swp file located
in the Windows directory, as the file is currently in use. (At
the least, it will not copy any other files within the Windows
directory.) To work around this, the copy should be made in two
steps, the first being to double-click on the original drive's
icon, select the Windows directory, do an invert selection (which
will select all except the Windows directory) and then do the
drag-and-drop. The second step is to create your Windows directory
on your target drive, go into your Windows directory on the source
drive, select the Win386.swp file, invert the selection (selecting
all except the swap) and then do the drag-and-drop to the newly
created Windows directory on the target drive.
Michael Pritchard via the Internet
(Editor's reply: Thanks! You're right about the need to enable the display of hidden files. I normally have that option enabled, but it's not the default. As for the swap file, not everyone keeps it on the same volume as Windows itself. But for those who do, your "invert selection" copying technique is the best I've seen.)
| Top | Hot Web, Cool Freebies | Going to bat for MVPs | The future is here | Helpful hints | Mind your manners | Zip it up |
I just finished the column by Miss Manners (Dialog Box, April), and I couldn't agree more! Add to her observations the notorious lack of proper grammar and composition among Net users. Even on popular university or corporate Web pages, misspellings are rampant, capitalization is careless, and format and style are disregarded.
I suspect that those who develop, display and read e-mail and
Web pages are some of the most educated people in the country.
Let's write like it!
Jim Gochnauer via the Internet
| Top | Hot Web, Cool Freebies | Going to bat for MVPs | The future is here | Helpful hints | Mind your manners | Zip it up |
The security software mentioned in the article "ZipLock Keeps
Transactions Airtight" (NewsTrends, March) is fine for a
business with a direct Net connection. But what about the home
users who use their modem and a network service to access the
Net? Does the product disconnect from the service to contact the
credit card company and then reconnect to the service? Do you
need a second modem? If credit card company access is handled
by the network service, the data does go through a third party
and security can be breached.
Edward P. Giering via the Internet
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to: Letters, Windows Magazine, One Jericho Plaza, Jericho, NY
11753, or by e-mail to winmag@cmp.com. We reserve the right to
edit letters for length and clarity.
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