[  ] [ Jan ] [ Feb ] [ Mar ] [ Apr ] [ May ] [ Jun ] [ Jul ] [ Aug ] [ Sep ] [ Oct ] [ Nov ] [ Dec ] [  ] Recent Developments .. by Roger Davies August 1997 SSDirect Home Page Roger Davies @ Soft Serve Direct Box 389, Magrath, Alberta, Canada T0K 1JO voice (403) 388-4332 fax (403) 758-3505 Please address comments to rdavies@ssdirect.com. Thanks!

Free Email

Need free separate email mailboxes for family members or work associates?One interesting new internet innovation is the free permanent web based email account. "Web based" means that your messages are presented to you directly through your standard internet browser rather than having to be accessed through a specific mail program via a dedicated mail server. So, if you happen to be in Japan using your buddies internet account, you can still get your mail. If you decide to switch internet providers, your email address remains the same. When several people share one internet access account (like in a family or small business), they also share one email account between them, or pay extra to get additional email mailboxes. With these new web based email services, free email mailbox addresses can be set up for any number of individuals. If Junior doesn't need or want Dad to screen his mail for him, he can get himself setup on one of these accounts. So what's the catch? It's free because advertisers pay to show their ads on the screen while you access your mail. Although junk mail is monitored and discouraged, advertisers can target the ads being displayed to you based on demographic information you provide during setup up of your free account.

Where can you sign up? Try one of these .. (more choices will likely be set up in the future as this concept catches on). HoTMail at www.hotmail.com has been around for a bit and it's almost clone, ExciteMail at www.mailexcite.com is a new service from the popular Excite search engine provider. Net@ddress at netaddress.usa.net from USA.NET is another newcomer .. and there will be plenty more to come. You do have to have an internet provider, which often includes an email account in the package, but you don't have to change addresses when you change providers - which is great for students or when a person has to move a lot.

Compare the above options to the older Juno email service at www.juno.com which has provided free email for some time but only through it's own proprietary email program via dialup lines that were not always a local call (i.e. in Alberta the closest number is through Montana). Why not try one of them out? The price is right.

The Season of Change

Nothing remains constant except change. If you read the computer section of your paper, you will likely have read about the great new products just about to be delivered up to you .. soon, very soon. I find myself worrying about keeping up to the Gate's. Will my pocketbook hold out or just explode under the stress?

Microsoft has announced Windows 98, the long anticipated Windows 95 replacement a.k.a. Memphis. Internet Explorer 4.0, many features of which will be incorporated into the Windows 98 environment, has just released it's second beta release for testing. US Robotics (now owned by 3Com) is selling X2 56K standard modems and Rockwell based modem manufacturers are pushing their Flex56K 56K version modems. Intel is readying the new Pentium II CPU's after sweeping in with the new MMX Pentiums. Corel is releasing the new WordPerfect Suite 8 now supporting MMX and that's just the start.

Fear not. You really don't need them. You may want them. You may end up purchasing one or more of them. For now, Don't worry, be happy.

[ Jul 97 ] [ SSDirect Home ]

Please address comments to rdavies@ssdirect.com. Thanks!

Revised: June 23, 2001 Design Copyright 1996-2000 by Roger Davies for Soft Serve Direct (SSDirect - Computer Consulting, PC Sales, and Service). Permission is granted for individual use and reproduction provided that this document remains intact, with this copyright message clearly visible.

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