Item Subject: cc:Mail Text
Robert X. Cringely writes in this week's InfoWorld column:

> Users who bought Hewlett-Packard's lower-cost business computer locked
> themselves into a great price, but also into Windows 95. The Vectra 500
> Series PC cannot be upgraded to any other versions, so it crashes when
> Windows 98 is installed. One user said HP told them no additional BIOS
> updates are planned for this system.

   < http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayNew.pl?/rcringe/rcringe.htm >

Does anyone know if this is true?


Mr. Cringely also writes a teaser about foreign language translation:

> ...the Marines will have full-blown Windows PCs loaded with speech
> recognition software from Lernout & Hauspie on their belts. The belts,
> provided by Via, the Minnesota-based wearable computer company, enable
> the Marines to more accurately speak with people in their native language
> in foreign countries.

No mention is made on the ViA site (that I could find) about this
particular feature -- assuming the quote above is accurate.

   < http://www.flexipc.com/Webpages/index.html >


Along a similar vein ;) Nicholas Petreley gushes with enthusiasm for
Caldera's OpenLinux 2.2, and not (just) as a server, but as a desktop
environment.  He never sees a command line, and Caldera's site mentions
support both for 16-way SMP, and for power management on laptops.

   < http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayNew.pl?/petrel/petrel.htm >
   < http://www.calderasystems.com/products/openlinux/index.html >

FWIW.

--Glenn