Static Electricity

A nemesis of computers and things electronic the world around, and a fact of life. Static discharge, technically called Electrostatic discharge (ESD), can damage sensitive computer components. That small spark you get after scuffing your feet on the carpet and touching the metal doorknob represents many thousands of volts discharged. Because the amperage is so low (and skin resistance relatively high), it's not much more than a "surprise" to you. Quite a bit different to a piece of electronic equipment, which brings me to this notice: if you have a Palm m500 or m505, check the bottom of the cradle to see if there is a small sticker bearing the letter "E" or "H." If so, you're OK. If not, read on. Seems Palm redesigned the cradle for these models, and in doing so, made it more difficult to properly seat the Palm in the new cradles, which resulted in more "fidgeting" to get them to seat, increasing the chances of a static discharge. Even though the design met current specs for ESD mitigation, the discharge would often scramble the Palm's internal synchronization software, preventing it from syncing.  Palm did another redesign of the cradle to enhance ESD protection. Palm is offering a free exchange program for owners of affected cradles (NOT bearing the "E" or "H" sticker on the bottom) in the US and Canada through 9/30/02. For more info on the exchange program, and how to protect your electronic equipment operating in ESD-prone environments:  www.palm.com/support/m50XUSBcradle.html.

AOL, Again

Looking to boost revenues, AOL has converted a free feature to a paid service. After April 24, 2002, AOL users who access their AOL e-mail accounts via other e-mail programs such as Outlook or Eudora are now to be charged $29.99 per year. If you signed up for this e-mail forwarding "service" prior to April 24, you got it for $19.99/year. To avoid the fee, AOL users will have to make sure they only access their e-mail from within the AOL browser or from the AOL website. With over 26 million AOL users, the new fees could amount to quite a hill of beans. Of course, not everyone uses e-mail forwarding, and fewer still may opt to pay for it.

It Should Be FREE

A recent survey by Juniper Media Metrix reported that 70% of adults using the Internet can't understand why anyone would pay for content. Of course there are valid reasons to pay for content ("premium services"), since the Internet is often only the delivery medium for such services as stock market trading, bill paying, and subscription services such as Wall Street Journal OnLine and our own MarketLetters.  Before the widespread use of the Internet, we got our stock quotes in the daily newspaper delivered to our doorstep, called our broker on the telephone, picked up the Journal at a newsstand on the way to work, and received photobuyer requests via fax. We didn't complain then (well, not much) about the cost.  So why expect everything that's on the Internet to be free?