bruceb news

Keeping up? In a couple of weeks Intel will roll out a 1.7GHz Pentium 4 processor, and slash prices yet again on most of the rest of its processors. Dell has been doing a lot of price-cutting lately too. Buy a computer or two for yourself, okay?

Notebook computer users that are frustrated with their touchpad or pointing stick might want to check out the Super Mini Optical Mouse. Two and a half inches long, an inch wide – in the pictures they show it resting on the palm rest of a notebook. Looks like a good bet for traveling or using a notebook comfortably on an airplane. Logitech makes a “mini mouse” that’s slightly larger, but it’s a more conventional shape and it includes a wheel. If you want to use a mouse but you can’t fit a full-size mouse in your laptop case, one of these might be the answer. […] continued

I know a couple of people who picked up the Logitech cordless keyboard/mouse combo over at Costco. Thumbs up all round, so far. Tomorrow Logitech will introduce a wireless optical mouse. “Optical” means it doesn’t have a ball on the bottom, and it doesn’t need a mouse pad. No cord, no mouse pad – pretty tempting, eh? Here’s an article with more info.

OnStream made tape backup systems. I loved them. Unparalleled reliability. A unique tape format, but I never had a problem with one of their cartridges. When I think of the hours I’ve lost wrestling with conventional Travan tape drives . . . well, OnStream was like a breath of fresh air. It’s depressing to find out that they filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings today and have apparently closed their doors for good. Here’s the details.

Prices on flat-panel monitors are finally falling. and it looks like this summer will be the time to buy one. The prediction is that a 15″ flat-screen monitor will be in the $400 range, and 17-18 inch monitors will be $700 or so. (Don’t forget that the measurements are different on the LCD monitors, so a 15 inch flat screen has almost the same amount of screen area as a 17″ conventional monitor.) Click here for more info.

Network cards for notebooks can be frustrating. Typically they either require a dongle (a separate short length of wire with connectors on it that everybody loses) or a pop-out jack that everybody breaks. Intel is making a PC Card NIC that allows the cable to plug straight in – no dongle, no pop-out. It’s adorable. It covers both PC Card slots, which doesn’t seem to be a problem for most people (but check ahead of time, OK?) About $140. Here’s more information.

Prices on computer products have fallen so fast that it can be frustrating – it’s hard to throw things away, yet the numbers sometimes require it. Want a good example? How about $9.99 for a scanner? And a pretty good one, too. The source, Insight Direct, is a for-real company that also frequently has good prices on whichever E-Machine model is one generation out of date. Interesting world, eh?