Scene 1: Late 1999. In a bunker somewhere near the enemy lines, Wing Commander Eric "Clean Sweep" Schmidt briefs his flight squadron: "OK chaps, this is the big one. That plucky blighter The Redmond Baron is off fighting on a different front against the forces of Colonel Janet (Buster) Reno. So while he's busy, we're going to do a raid on his user base. Any questions, chaps?"
Scene 1: Late 1999. In a bunker somewhere near the enemy lines, Wing Commander Eric "Clean Sweep" Schmidt briefs his flight squadron:
All right! Gearhead just received a killer question: "What exactly is VBA?"
In aournd 90 days we will see what the appeals court thinks of Judge Jackson's ruling that Microsoft should be broken into two companies.
In 90 days we will see what the appeals court thinks of Judge Jackson's ruling that Microsoft Corp. should be broken into two companies.
Earlier, we divided disk problems into three groups: Case 1 - dead drive; Case 2 - you can't get at your data even though everything else seems normal; Case 3 - bizarre noises.
Last week Gearhead delved into the convoluted world of the SCSI. What fun it was! With that whole realm of technology still fresh in our minds, let's discuss what to do when your disk drive seems to have joined the choir invisible, to be pushing up the daisies or to be an ex-disk drive.
Customer service is supposed to be your defense against the big, bad world, the thing that stops your company from becoming completely psychotic when flooded with questions that must be answered.
When Tom Wolfe coined the term "The Me Decade" in New York Magazine in 1976, he hit on a key attribute of the 70s: the sense of selfishness that defined the time.
The swarthy gentleman slouched in the driver's seat growled, "Get in."
Tony Miranda and I crawled from the watery early morning sunlight into the dim interior of the slightly filthy taxi and as the door closed, our driver gunned it.
OK, so this week we still won't do the next part of the sound feature Gearhead started a few weeks ago. That was what we had planned to do, but because Gearhead is inexorably joined at the hip to Backspin author Gibbs, Gearhead's computer equipment has been involved in the recent relocation of the Gibbs Institute. As a result, the network is down until the paint dries in the new office, which rather cramps our collective style.
The swarthy gentleman slouched in the driver's seat growled, "Get in."
Last week we deferred further discussion about audio technology to bring you a burst of spleen and fury. If you were waiting for the continuation of this topic, Gearhead apologizes. Due to a number of inquiries received about the recent Internet worm outbreak, we will defer this topic once more.
Well, I see that Metallica is now gunning for its fans as I suggested in my column "Testing Metallica's mettle". Fabulous. I couldn't make this stuff up.
When civilization ends, it won't be because of nuclear holocaust, viral outbreaks or flooding caused by global warming. It will be because of the telephone companies.