Page 10      Diablo Blue      January, 2000

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photographs, and more, you should attend this interesting new SIG. Please email your and full name and current email address to graham@value.net for follow-up information and to be placed on the Photo SIG notification list Please let us know what programs or speakers you can provide for our monthly meetings.

A new Real Estate SIG meeting location is being researched, so our meeting have been postponed until a new location can be finalized. The relocation is required because the Insurance Commissioner's office is

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year. For the most part, Comdex 99 was mostly evolutionary and not revolutionary. Windows 2000 was everywhere and we saw a number of interesting demos. Wireless is big and Bluetooth (a wireless standard) will be, but we saw very few real applications. Microsoft just joined the Bluetooth consortium, so this will probably change.
Thankfully, little Y2K stuff. Best ad: one from a place of ill repute claiming their ladies were all Y2K compatible. Neither Steve nor I have any comment on this one. Give-aways were decidedly lighter this year (although things are beginning to arrive). Lots of convergence items -- PC to phone to TV. In January, I'll show you some of the neat stuff I brought back!
Also in January, PowerQuest will demonstrate two of their products, Lost and Found and Partition Magic 5. Gene will also show us some Caldera (Linux) stuff. And if you're interested in Linux, check out our new Linux SIG (the January Linux SIG meeting information will be on our web site). Microsoft had to reschedule to April for Windows 2000, so our February meeting is up in the air. In March we'll have a special Networking meeting.
Have a terrific holiday, see you in January -- assuming we all survive Y2K.

Serious researchers as well as the idly curious will welcome an impressive new Internet site, britannica.com (www.britannica.com). It's the recently renovated web location of prestigious Encyclopædia Britannica, long considered the encyclopedia by which others are measured. While similar sites such as Microsoft Encarta charge for some of their services, everything at the britannica.com web site is free.
And it's not your father's Encyclopedia. Besides news, weather and an extensive dictionary, searchers also get links to related web sites. Call up an entry and see a summary definition plus a link to an expanded essay that includes multiple cross-referenced links to similar web sites, magazine articles and books.
Moreover, it's reliable. Unlike some other online encyclopedias, its editors have verified everything, no small task. If knowledge is power, then brittanica.com is a master of the universe.
If you absolutely insist on having a hands-on computer-based encyclopedia, fear not -- Encyclopædia Britannica is available on CD-ROM and DVD-ROM, and can be ordered from Britannica's web site at store.britannica.com. The CD-ROM edition is available in four versions: CD 99 Standard Edition, $19.95; CD 99 Multimedia Edition, $29.95; CD 99 Ultimate Reference Suite, $39.95; and CD 2000 Deluxe, $69.95. The DVD-ROM edition is available in two versions: DVD 99, $29.95; and DVD 2000, $59.95. The 99 titles are last year's versions; the two 2000 titles are brand new and will be available shortly, perhaps by the time you read this article.
On the Internet, on CD-ROM, and on DVD-ROM, Encyclopædia Britannica is truly master of the universe.