Take a Wild Ride: Future Mobility & Misc. Secretes
YOUR NEXT PORTABLE COMPUTER just might be an automobile. While many modern cars already house dozens of microprocessors and embedded controllers, these chips handle only automotive functions. Cars of the future will serve the general computing and communications needs of drivers and passengers alike.

And it makes sense, if you think about it. With voice-recognition software getting better, and computing components getting smaller and cheaper, it's inevitable that our automobiles will become PCs on wheels.

Tomorrow wired cars will be commonplace, but today web-connected cars drive on the bleeding edge. So fasten your seatbelt and get ready for a brief glimpse into the future of digital driving.

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A REAL INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY

Soon you'll be able to surf the information superhighway while stuck in traffic on the real highway. Online Anywhere, a company that specializes in reformatting web content for non-PC devices, and car electronics firm Vetronix Corporation are teaming up to build voice-enabled web access into Auto PC devices. Auto PC is a version of Microsoft Windows CE specifically designed for car dashboard computers. The companies are expecting to produce a beta version of the product as early as this year.

http://www.onlineanywhere.com/
http://www.vetronix.com/main.html
http://www.onlineanywhere.com/news/press_release16.html
http://www.autopc.com/
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WHO SAYS YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU?

The ultimate portable hardware device in Germany is the Mercedes-Benz V-Class minivan equipped with a $12,000 IBM Business Console option. Inside the vehicle is a full-sized removable desk (think Monty Python), with an IBM Thinkpad 600 laptop, a printer, a Nokia 6081 "hands-free" telephone and fax machine bolted to it. The computer has built-in speech-recognition software for sending and receiving e-mail hands-free while careering down the autobahn as well as a high-speed wireless Internet connection. The DaimlerChrysler van division may introduce the option in North American Chrysler minivans later this year.

http://www.mercedes-benz.com/e/cars/v-class/cebit_1.htm
http://www.pc.ibm.com/us/products/thinkpad/600tour/index.html
http://www.nokia.com/phones/6081/index.html
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DON'T TRASH YOUR SPAM...RECYCLE!

Several anti-spam groups have joined forces to create the Spam Recycling Center. Here's the deal: Forward your spam to spamrecycle@ChooseYourMail.com (I recommend putting this in your e-mail address book), then go here to sign up for an e-mail coupon to receive a $5 discount on any CDNow purchase. The Recycling Center takes your spam and sends it to the FTC, as well as e-mail filtering organizations.

http://www.chooseyourmail.com/
mailto:spamrecycle@ChooseYourMail.com
http://www.chooseyourmail.com/regwiz.cfm?spam=true&spamoffers=true
http://www.cdnow.com/cgi-bin/mserver/redirect/leaf= http://www.ftc.gov/ _____________________________________________________

FOR SALE: CIA SECRETS (FREE LAPTOP INCLUDED)

The Washington Post reported Friday that a CIA spy sold about 25 agency laptops in a public auction, but forgot to delete the top-secret information contained therein. Nobody noticed until a man who bought some of the computers discovered the classified information. Now the Post is holding a contest to guess what the secret information was. Send your guess here by Monday, May 24. Make sure you include your address and phone number.

http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-05/14/047l-051499-idx.html
http://www.cia.gov/
http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-05/17/125l-051799-idx.html
mailto:Loop@washpost.com?Subject=Guess from a Win Letter Reader
(winletter@elgan.com)
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SOLVING THE DEFRAG DILEMMA

Having problems with defragging your hard disk? If so, you're not alone. Windows and browser guru Fred Langa addressed the problem in his free, award- winning LangaList e-mail newsletter last week, and has been deluged with mail from grateful readers as a result. If you've ever had problems associated with defragging your disk, make sure you read Fred's May 12 and May 17 issues. And be sure to subscribe to the LangaList. You can't get this kind of information anywhere else. Just send an e-mail message to subscribe@langa.com.

http://www.langa.com/newsletters/May-12-99.htm
http://www.langa.com/newsletters/May-17-99.htm
mailto:subscribe@langa.com
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THE LATEST PC PERIPHERAL IS A DOG

You may have heard about the new Sony Robot dog, called AIBO, but did you know the computerized canine is also a PC peripheral device and Windows development platform? With the optional $450 AIBO Performer Kit, not included with the $2,500 dog, you can plug the pooch in and easily create custom movements, responses, sounds and, hopefully, house-train the mutt. The kit requires Win9x and a 200MHz PC or better. Woof!

http://search.sony.co.jp/~backup/www.world.sony.com/robot/top.html
http://search.sony.co.jp/~backup/www.world.sony.com/robot/get/meet.html
http://search.sony.co.jp/~backup/www.world.sony.com/robot/get/p_editer.html
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HOLD THE PICKLE, HOLD THE LETTUCE

"Special URLs don't upset us!" A new Burger King restaurant in Hartford, Connecticut, will offer customers two PCs with access to the Internet, and may add up to 20 terminals in the near future. You get 15 minutes on the web for each "combo meal" you buy. They also plan to set up a web cam so that a global audience can watch Americans pig out on junk food in real time.

http://www.burgerking.com/
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HOW TO INCREASE THE VALUE OF YOUR MONITOR

Stuffing CRT displays full of heroin is all the rage in drug smuggling these days. (I've seen people "smack" their monitors, but this is ridiculous!) The Australian Customs service discovered more than 16 lbs. of heroin inside computer monitors being imported into the country from Thailand. The total value of the dope: $5.5 million. Two Australian residents were arrested.
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PUBLIC STICKY NOTES

A free new web service from Third Voice enables you to stick notes on any web site, which can be viewed by anyone else using the Third Voice software -- and cannot be removed or hidden by the owner of the web site. You simply download the software, install it, then click on a button to post a message on whatever page you happen to be looking at. The software doesn't actually modify web sites. It puts the notes users write and their locations into a database, which is later accessed by other users when they browse the web. The software creates the illusion that web sites are plastered with Yellow Post-It Notes. Users can turn off the notes whenever they become too annoying.

http://www.thirdvoice.com/
http://www.thirdvoice.com/download/download.asp?aname=thirdvoice_category
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GOTTA-HAVE-IT GRAPHICS 1

Anyone who has read the Win Letter for a while knows I'm a huge fan of digital LCD displays. But I'm an even bigger fan of huge digital LCD displays. Princeton Graphics Tuesday showed me their new 18.1-inch DPP800, which they say is the world's first digital LCD monitor of its size. The display I saw was spectacular, flat, even and bright -- the best looking LCD display I've ever seen. It has four USB ports in its base, and can be hung on a wall like a painting. The only down side is the price: $2,995 (including digital video card). Although that price is just a fraction of what much smaller LCD monitors cost just a year or two ago, it's still out of the price range of most PC buyers.

http://www.winmag.com/library/1999/0501/fea0054b.htm
http://www.prgr.com/
http://www.prgr.com/sql/specsheet.asp?mtype=DPP800
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GOTTA-HAVE-IT GRAPHICS 2

Samsung Electronics has developed a 24 inch wide-screen flat-panel TFT LCD monitor, the largest ever developed. Unlike the Princeton product in the item above, which is digital, the Samsung display is an analog display. The resolution is a stunning 1,920 by 1,200 pixels, big enough for high-definition television or a laptop the size of a doormat.

http://www.winmag.com/library/1999/0501/fea0054b.htm
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UNSUBSTANTIATED RUMOR

PC motherboards have traditionally been rectangular, and the chips fixed to them air-cooled. But rumor has it that chip giant Intel is working on a polygon-shaped PC motherboard that would house liquid-cooled components. The polygon shape of the motherboard should theoretically shorten the length of the path between electronic substrates.

http://www.intel.com/
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WHERE'S THE BEEF?

Here's a cheesy pointing device for those who hunger for something, er, different. You want fries with that?

http://www.unipac-usa.com/info.html
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THE WIN LETTER NUMBERS

59% Percentage of people who said in April, 1999, that they use Microsoft Internet Explorer as their primary browser at work. (Zona Research)

60% Percentage of people who said in October, 1998, that they use Netscape Navigator as their primary browser at work. (Zona)

70% Percentage of people who said in 1996 that they use Netscape Navigator as their primary browser at work.(Zona) 6 million Number of people taken in so far by Internet fraud. (National Consumer League)

http://zonaresearch.com/browserstudy/1999/may99/index.htm http://www.nclnet.org/
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WEB FREEBIES O' THE WEEK

If you use Outlook, you've GOT to visit this link. It's free stuff for Outlook users.

http://officeupdate.microsoft.com/downloadCatalog/dldOutlook.htm
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USEFUL WEB SITE O' THE WEEK

Get to the bottom of all that Telephone 10-10 rate sales mumbo jumbo.

http://10-10phonerates.com/
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COOL TRIVIA WINNER

Major congratulations to our winner, Mark Foote, who was first to identify Vizact as a new Microsoft product designed to make all Microsoft Office documents -- including e-mail messages -- look and feel like snazzy web sites. Microsoft isn't talking in public yet about the product, and their secret web site won't contain information until the release date of May 26.

http://www.microsoft.com/VIZACT/default.htm

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