Three different subjects:

MODEM LOAD
===========

Bruce writes:

> Gavin writes:

> >The modem is a "win modem", i.e. a pithed controller and analog
>  >line interface which requires all the actual modem protocols to run as
>  >a driver within Windows.  Doesn't mean that it's not a perfectly useable
>  >solution, but you might have a wee bit of trouble getting it to work in
>  >a non-Windows OS, and it probably eats some percentage of the CPU when
>  >operating.
>
>  It's not just the modem controller that's pithed. The user is going to be
>  pretty pithed when s/he dithcovers jutht how unreliable the connection
>  can be, and jutht how bad the multitathking performanthe ith when the
>  modem ith running.

I've been using the e-machine for 24 hours now, so I'm definitely an expert.
If I didn't know that the modem was a "winmodem" (and I didn't), I would never
have known. Because the machine doesn't yet have a NIC card it, I've been
signed on to my PPP-based ISP to get out to the internet.

The e-machine is 300MHz AMD based-device. It's temporarily replacing the
normal machine I use, a 333MHz Celeron Dell computer (with a genuine US
Robotics 56K, non-win modem in it). I haven't been able to tell a bit of
difference in performance of the two devices, communicating as I have all day
through the winmodem. (As an aside, let me also say that I've been very
pleased with the reliability of the Dell machines. They're what we normally
use. Some components such as Travan tape drives have failed in some of the
units, but I don't blame that on Dell).


SERVICE
=======

Gavin writes:

> I'm not sure that one can just assume less reliability and service from
>  the cheaper PCs.  I'd be interested in hearing how long it took Wirt to
>  get through to e-machines on the phone for example.  As long as they can
>  efficiently provide replacement parts when something breaks, how much
>  more "service" do you want?

As I said earlier, I was quite pleased with the service I received from e-
machines when I had to call in regards to our first DOA e-machines PC.

The trouble was that the first machine wasn't really DOA; it was just flaky.
As Gavin says, the e-machines come with a bootable CD. I didn't call for
technical support until I was four hours into setting up the machine. When I
first started noticing the flakiness, I thought that I had done something
wrong and possibly misconfigured something, so rather than call for help, I
reformatted the disk, reloaded the standard operating system and the pre-
loaded software off of the CD, and then began using it again in its factory
state to see if it was still flaky.

Unfortunately, it still was. It was then that I called e-machines. I got a
particularly knowledgeable service representative within three minutes of
dialing through a standard voice mail system. He was as patient and as polite
as anyone I've ever dealt with -- and was willing to be more thorough than I
would have been. He had me disassemble the machine and reseat pretty much
everything that could have shaken loose in shipping. In the end however, he
agreed that the machine was defective and had to go back.


COST OF MEMORY
===============

Finally, I wrote earlier:

> This is the kind of post that really stirs up the old timers :-). I remember
> our first HP computer, an HP2116C. It only had 8K of true ferrite-core
memory
> -- and memory was exactly one thousand dollars a K then (in today's dollars:
> ca. $5000 per K).

I didn't think about it until later, but that $5000/KB translates into a
measly $5 million dollars per megabyte, in today's money.

Gavin was commenting that 64MB has just recently risen in price to $100. The
same amount of memory in 1968, a time when we were getting ready to go to the
Moon every six months, would have cost a third of a billion dollars.

Wirt Atmar