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September
2000, Week 3 --
Wireless in Venezuela |
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At the top of our list this week is Orinoco, which besides being a river
in Venezuela, is the name of Lucent's new wireless network for small
business and home users. Ten users can be online at once. |
A silver and grey device the size and appearance of a clothes iron, plugs
into the wall or your high speed access line and broadcasts the Internet.
Range is about 1200 feet (nearly a quarter mile or half a kilometer), much
greater than the Intel wireless network that came out several months ago.
Speed is greater as well, 11Mb (megabits) a second for the Orinoco,
compared to two megabits for Intel. A built-in router splits the Internet
connection among 10 users, all of whom will still get the 11 Mb connection
speed. |
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The connection required on the computer end is what Lucent calls a
"PC Radio World Card," a PCMCIA card with a radio receiver built
in. Laptop users are familiar with PCMCIA cards, which stands for
"Personal Computer Memory Card International Association." This
one fits right into a laptop and connects it to the Orinoco. You need
adapter cards to connect desktop computers. |
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The Orinoco has a built-in 56k modem and works with both PCs and Macs.
List price is $349 for the transmitter, which they call a
"gateway," or $449 for starter kit with one card for a laptop.
Additional cards are $179-$199. Those are all list prices, however, and
since you can't buy directly from Lucent, discount houses will knock 20-30
percent off that. |
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More info on the web site: www.lucent.com/orinoco. |
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The
stamp of approval |
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The Internet stamp business has been all gummed up for a while but now it
looks like things are starting to peel apart. |
We've been licking our lips to get started on this and we began with a
little 4 x 8-inch machine from Neopost, the largest maker of mailroom
equipment in Europe. The gadget is called "Simply Postage,"
simply enough, and it works like a dream. It's enough to make you like
mailing things. |
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Most of the new office mailing systems use your own computer to print
legal postage under a contract from the post office. This is simpler and
less expensive than using a separate device to make stamps, but the Simply
Postage unit contains a built-in electronic scale and a roll of gummed
labels, all of which is nice. It comes with $50 worth of free postage
contained in memory, but you have to pay $50 to sign up for the system, so
it's a wash either way; or free, depending on how you look at it. Monthly
lease fee is $15. Web site: www.simplypostage.com
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Other services supply stamps directly to your computer and you can either
print with a regular printer or use one of the Dymo label printers. |
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At www.estamp.com the fee for
getting your stamps online is 10 percent of the amount purchased, or a
monthly minimum of $5. |
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www.pitneyworks.com is a
site maintained by postage meter giant Pitney Bowes. Online postage
carries a fee of $1.49 a month plus the cost of postage. |
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www.stamps.com has a monthly
minimum fee of $2 or 10 percent of the postage purchased, whichever is
greater. This site also provides comparison prices for different shipping
services and adds "print postage" and "purchase
postage" commands to the menu bar in MS Word, WordPerfect, Lotus or
Act. Click on the command and print a stamp. You can also do certified and
registered mail. |
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More
on graphics |
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MGI's "PhotoSuites 3 and 4, platinum edition," do something
quite wonderful: They can create a photo mosaic. |
The software searches through hundreds or thousands of photographs for
their color quality. Those colors are then used to create a mosaic replica
of a picture. A portrait can be turned into a mosaic of thousands of tiny
photographs. The effect is striking. |
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Version 4 adds animation and the ability to make all or any part of a
photograph transparent, so you can see other images behind it. Both
versions are $49. MGI phone: 888-644-7638 or 905-764-7358; web: www.mgisoft.com. |
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Internuts |
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www.bizstats.com A major resource
for businesses. You can look at sales comparisons by business types for
the first six months of this year compared to last, year over year, etc.
Look at gross profit margins for different types of businesses: tobacco,
60%; hotels, 62%; doctors' offices, 97%; hospitals, 93%, advertising, 57%,
motion picture theaters, 73%; auto repairs, 57%; legal services, 99%. |
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www.ibolsa.com Wall Street news plus
real-time quotes, charts and analysis of 10,000 U.S. companies, delivered
in your choice of English, Spanish or Portuguese. |
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www.toybuilders.com
How's this for one of the neatest ideas we've come across in a while. You
can send in drawings or photographs and have game board pieces and other
toys made in the image of family and friends. Replication extends to
making action figures like the person in your photo and making car and
airplane models to your design. Prices range from $15 for a simple object
to $200 for an action figure. You can get them painted or unpainted. |
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www.imaging-resource.com
Allows you to look at test photo comparisons for nearly all makes of
digital cameras. Make sure you're comparing cameras with the same
resolution. Takes a while to load, and really needs a big screen. |
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NOTE:
Readers can search more than four years of columns at the "On
Computers" web site: www.oncomp.com.
You can e-mail Bob Schwabach at bobschwab@oncomp.com
or bobschwab@aol.com. |