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Old Site Updates - 2001

December 20, 2001:

• Happy Holidays! Best wishes to you and yours to enjoy whatever holidays you may be celebrating this special time of the year. Best wishes too, to those of you not celebratng any holidays this time of year! :^)
• Disk Edition Ordering Process Overhauled: I've been selling the Disk Edition of the site for four years now. And during all of that time, I've been using a cumbersome manual process that required me to enter transactions one by one, and frankly, not providing the level of service that I think is appropriate. The area of the site describing how to order the Disk Edition was also huge, overblown and confusing. I have now completely overhauled the entire Disk Edition ordering process. The new Disk Edition section is streamlined, with all the information about the product on only two pages. I have also implemented a new credit card ordering process that is much simpler and fully automated, which provides instant confirmation of orders by email.
• Disk Edition Price Reduction: Simultaneous with my order processing overhaul, I have reduced the price of the Disk Edition. See the Disk Edition page for details.

October 4, 2001:

• Back To The Routine: Well, the events of the 11th have certainly changed things for good, but like everyone else, I am getting back to the daily grind. Thanks to everyone who participated in the candle-lighting thread on the forums. Actually, I have been continuing to work for the last two weeks, but I was just too lazy to update the front page. :^) I also realize that the planned September update of the Disk Edition never happened. It will probably be delayed for a couple more months.

September 14, 2001:

• On Recent Events: Long-time visitors to the site probably know that it is my normal policy on this site to stick to the topic at hand: PC technology. I generally avoid discussing my personal life here, or making mention of local events or happenings. After all, the users of this site are international, and any news big enough to warrant mention here is also mentioned just about everywhere else. I figure that in general terms, you have seen it enough elsewhere on the net, and don't need to be reminded of bad news everywhere you turn.
  
  The recent happenings here in the United States are simply too large for me to ignore. I have been unable to get much of anything done this week, and I know that others have experienced this as well. I will not pontificate here, nor will I attempt words that will cause things to make sense--I don't know of any that will. I also recognize that not all readers of the site would want to see such comments in this sort of place. Not everyone sees everything the same way. If you fall into this category, I wish you well, I ask your indulgence and welcome you to use the resources of the site as you always have.
  
  For those who have been affected by this tragedy, or who want to express their solidarity with others who have been affected, a call has been put out for everyone to light a candle tonight at 7:00 pm. In our virtual community, we have no wax nor matches, but I figured we still could do the same. Therefore, I have created this thread in the After Hours forum of the PC Guide Discussion Forums, where any registered member of the forums can, well, light a virtual candle. If you want to join us, please feel welcome.
  
  Oh, and if you read this after 7:00 pm on September 14th, feel free to participate anyway; the timing doesn't matter, just the sentiment. Best wishes to all during this difficult time.

August 26, 2001:

• State of the Site: I am sure that regular visitors to the site have noticed that the pace of updates has slowed considerably over the last few months. To help explain this, and help you understand better how things are going with the site, and with the online industry as a whole, I have written an article that explains the current state of the site. I write this only after months of reflection, and with some hesitation. In the end, I felt you, my loyal readers, have a right to know what's going on. I'd encourage you to read it if you have interest in the long-term direction of the site.

July 26, 2001:

• Server Problems: Earlier in the week there was a small snafu that caused the site to behave rather oddly for a while. First the site was down entirely, then it was up but showing an old copy of the pages from 1999 (sans Discussion Forums of course, since they were added in 2000). Then this was fixed but email to the site stopped working. This was all related to the same issue, and corrected by the fine folks at pair in good order. Everything seems to be back to normal now; sorry about any inconvenience or confusion that may have resulted from this glitch.

July 6, 2001:

• Hello, Everyone! :^) Woah, I haven't updated the front page in too long. Just wanted to put this note here to say hello and let you all know that I am still alive. :^) Working hard to write more material off-line that will hopefully show up later in the summer, and taking some time for the family as well. Thanks again for visiting the site. By the way, if you haven't checked them out yet, we have a wonderful, thriving community of excellent people in the forums!

April 17, 2001:

• Hard Disk File Systems Section Overhaul: I have (finally!) completed my overhaul of the Reference Guide section on hard disks, by finishing my revision of the section on Hard Disk Logical Structures and File Systems. I have added many pages, including updating the information on partitioning, adding some coverage for non-Microsoft operating systems and file systems, and adding a new section on NTFS (see below). With the hard disk section now done, I will move on to updating other areas of the Reference Guide.
• New Section on the New Technology File System (NTFS): With the use of Windows NT and Windows 2000 increasing, there is considerable interest in the advanced file system that is available as an option on those operating systems: NTFS. To assist those who want to learn more about the numerous features and capabilities of NTFS, and how they work, I have added a 50-page section on the file system. Check it out!
• New Disk Edition Version Released: I have updated The PC Guide Disk Edition to version 2.2, reflecting the changes made to the site since last September. Prices have not been changed. I also updated the Disk Edition section of the site.
• Disk Edition Upgrades: Note to those who purchased in the past: upgrades are available free by download, or for the nominal fee of $12 (overseas shipping extra) for those who want the new version on CD. If you ordered before and need a download password, click here to send me a note and I'll send it to you. To order upgrade CDs, please see the ordering page. In the spirit of full disclosure, please note that not a lot has changed in the Disk Edition since the last version. I update the Disk Edition periodically to keep it in synch with the web site, but there have not been a lot of changes to the site since version 2.0--much of the work I have done in the last six months is still off-line and will be showing up in the next few months. You may wish to see the update history page for a list of what has changed between versions before deciding if you want to order an upgrade CD, or take the time to download the new edition. Thanks to everyone who has supported the site by ordering the Disk Edition!
• Site Guide Update: I made some small updates to the information in the Site Guide.
• New Link Resource: I added a link to Technick.net, a site with thousands of links to various computer resources.
• SCSI Connector Correction: I had erroneously called the old 50-pin SCSI connectors used in days gone by "DB-50"s, when they are in fact "DD-50s".  Thanks to David Wilson.
• XXcopy: I added a note to the front of my article Xcopy Xposed mentioning the existence of a utility called XXcopy. This program is supposed to work in a way similar to Xcopy, but without the flaws in the Microsoft product that can lead to problems.
• Typos and Other Fixes: I corrected numerous typos and fixed some bad URL references. Thanks to Michael Hults for pointing out several gotchas, and a bunch of other folks also.

March 28, 2001:

• Browser Problems Corrected: Any difficulties that folks may have been experiencing using the site with Netscape browsers should have been corrected a few days ago. Please let me know if you encounter any problems in the future.
• Weekly Column Canceled: I have discontinued the "technobabble" column effective immediately. I have been writing it weekly for about three months, but interest in it has never really picked up. I know a few readers enjoyed the column, and I appreciated your feedback, but I just can't justify the time and effort required to do the column each week when so few people are going to read it--especially considering how much work I face dealing with the main content of the site. You will still be able to access the columns I wrote previously here, and they will also be linked from the Topic Index.

March 19, 2001:

• Netscape Problems: A few readers have written to tell me that the site is presently causing lockups when using Netscape browsers. This appears to be a problem related to ad serving and I am working to correct it as soon as possible. I hope to have this resolved by Tuesday at the latest. I apologize humbly for the inconvenience!

March 10, 2001:

• New Live Chat : In response to requests and interest from several Discussion Forum participants, I have set up The PC Guide Live Chat Channel. As the name suggests, this is a live chat forum where you can exchange ideas, troubleshoot problems, and socialize with other Discussion Forum participants and PC Guide readers. See here for the full details on how to access the channel--be sure to read the warnings and rules carefully! The live chat will probably take a few weeks to really get going, but should be a lot of fun, and useful to many who have immediate problems that need assistance. Note that the Live Chat Channel does not in any way replace the Discussion Forums, but rather, complements them.
• Update Update Update: :^) I still plan to have the next update done this month, and as soon as it is done, I will publish the next version of The Disk Edition. I apologize for the delays; I really should learn to stop making promises on updates, since I rarely can predict when I will get things done--just not easy to do. Note that I am updating the Disk Edition as I promised, but the new version coming out will not be substantially different from the one presently shipping--not that much has changed within the pages of the site since the September 2000 edition. The reason for this is that I have been spending many, many hours of time working on new content that is still off-line and waiting to be converted to HTML. Look for this material to begin showing up over the next few weeks.

February 25, 2001:

• February Industry Update: Dean Kent of Real World Technologies has written his Industry Update for February 2001. I mirror these articles on The PC Guide with Dean's permission, to help keep you all informed of the latest happenings in the world of PC technology. Check out the RWT web site for more news and very detailed and well-written articles on the nuts and bolts of PC hardware.
• Update Update: I am still planning on having the next update and the next Disk Edition version ready sometime in March, though it probably won't be too early in the month. I'll definitely keep you all posted if things change again (and these days, you never know!)

February 18, 2001:

• Next Update and Disk Edition Version: I had planned to have the next update of the site done by about this time in February, but it is taking me longer than anticipated to complete a new section of the site. Therefore, it appears that the next site version and Disk Edition version will now be ready by sometime in early March. I apologize for the delay, but it's usually quite difficult to predict when updates will be ready, and the alternative is not to predict at all. :^) Bear in mind that downloaded updates for the Disk Edition are free; CD-ROM orders will be filled using the current edition until I am about one week or so away from publishing the new version, at which point they will be held and filled with the new version. Thanks again for all your support.

January 21, 2001:

• January Industry Update: Dean Kent of Real World Technologies has written his Industry Update for January 2001. I mirror these articles on The PC Guide with Dean's permission, to help keep you all informed of the latest happenings in the world of PC technology. Check out the RWT web site for more news and very detailed and well-written articles on the nuts and bolts of PC hardware.

January 8, 2001:

• Minor Disk Edition Update: I have received feedback from several people interested in the Disk Edition, saying that they found the pricing numbers too difficult to find. Therefore, I have made a minor change to the front page of the section of the site describing the Disk Edition, to make the pricing information more obvious. I am not counting this as an "official" PC Guide version change. I have also changed the due date of the next version of the Disk Edition to February. I apologize for not hitting my earlier target, but a combination of holidays and some family issues have caused me to lose a couple of weeks' worth of work, and I don't think I will be done by the end of this month.

Next: Old Site Updates - December 2000

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