Letters to PC World

Unfair to Windows Me

I think you unfairly slammed Windows Millennium Edition in your article "Life With Me: First 100 Days" [Top of the News, February]. It's important to consider the real reason why Windows Me and Windows 2000 have compatibility problems with certain hardware. In the past, Microsoft had a "support everything" attitude (and still does, for the most part), but now it is moving away from that because too many software and hardware vendors do a sloppy job of creating drivers or programs for Microsoft's products.

I wonder how many people in your survey took the time to do an appropriate inventory of their computer's hardware and software, and then check that inventory against Microsoft's Hardware Compatibility List or their vendors' latest drivers before upgrading? How many people simply saw the $49 price tag of the upgrade, slid the CD into their drive, and clicked OK?

Glitches are bound to happen occasionally. However, it sounds to me as if many of those who had trouble upgrading could have saved themselves a lot of headaches by taking a few minutes to do some homework first.

James Summerlin, via the Internet

Microsoft Hoist With Its Own Ad?

The advertisement for Windows 2000 Professional on pages 4 and 5 of the February PC World should be an embarrassment to Microsoft. The picture shows the blue-screen "fatal exception" message with which we are all too familiar. There is an implied admission that this is a problem contained in Windows 95/98. The text explains that if the owners of Windows 95 and 98--customers of Microsoft--now buy its newest and best, we will be done with these faults of previous editions of Windows. Right! I trust them!

It seems to me that if Microsoft cared, it would offer a free correction to the program we paid for originally. Would Bill Gates buy a car with a faulty braking system and accept the suggestion that he buy a newer model to correct that problem, or would he expect the manufacturer to correct the brake problem on his car?

Edward Gross, Cedarhurst, New York

Online Résumés

Your article "Find the Right Job Online" [February] is outdated on one point: the advice to "keep your résumé concise (a single printed page is best)." This comes from the days when hard-copy résumés were snail-mailed to headhunters and extra pages cluttered their desks.

As a technical recruiter, I know most résumés on the Web are read only on screen, making the "single printed page" dictum irrelevant. And in today's IT job market, job seekers gather so many skills and change jobs so often, it is nearly impossible to put it all on one page. A candidate who does so may well leave out the key phrases a recruiter is looking for.

Maurice Belanger, Fort Lauderdale, Florida

ASPs, the Wave of the Future

In the story on application service providers ["So Long, Shrink-Wrap?" February], your writers may have missed the key opportunities offered by ASPs.

The software packages reviewed were designed to run on stand-alone PCs; delivering them in an ASP model requires using a fix such as Windows Terminal Server, adding complexity to the effort.

The real opportunity for the ASP approach is to exploit client/network software (such as Microsoft Exchange) that is typically beyond a smaller company's resources (as it would need to employ skilled engineers). An ASP using a one-to-many delivery model, however, can spread the cost not just of human resources but also of other service-oriented infrastructure, such as 24/7 security. Economies of scale can enable ASPs to deliver "big boys' toys" to any firm.

Jeff Maynard, Chairman, ASP Industry Consortium Europe, Bracknell, England

Interactivity, Anyone?

Your article on interactive TV [Top of the News, January] says we can soon surf the Web, e-mail, and watch Lost in Space whenever we want. What next? Perhaps there will be ways for reality TV show contestants to see you in your living room through the video cam, as you watch them. I can see it now: Brad Pitt is on Hollywood Squares; he ponders a question, looks on the video cam, sees me eating popcorn on the living room couch, and asks me for the answer...

Sharon Diane Roberts, Port Orange, Florida

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