C|NET CENTRAL
TRANSCRIPT
- EPISODE 7 -

Original air date:  5/13/95


HOSTS:  RICHARD HART and GINA ST. JOHN

(MUSIC)

RICHARD:  There is a computer chip that could turn your sedate 
sedan into super-car.  We'll show you how.

GINA:  Get your first look at Windows 95.  Will it change the way you 
use your computer?

VOICEOVER:  I'll tell you why it's better than a Mac.

GINA:  Hi.  I'm Gina St. John.

RICHARD:  And I'm Richard Hart.  Also on this show, we have the 
first look at the coolest portable phone.  You can use it anywhere in 
the world, even where there's no cellular service.

GINA:  And our own Dave Ross gets the last word on multimedia.

RICHARD:  Those stories and more on c|net central.

(COMMERCIALS)

(MUSIC)

RICHARD:  Welcome to c|net central here in San Francisco, what we 
like to call the center of the digital universe.  And on many of the 
computers here, as on three-quarters of the computers in the world, 
you will find Windows.  You might be using it right now.  It's getting 
kind of long in the tooth, though.  In the coming months, Microsoft is 
going to be working on you very hard to try to get you to buy 
Windows 95--the new, improved version.  Is it?  Well, around c|net 
we've found that it is indeed more powerful.  It's bigger and it's 
more expensive.  So it might not be for everybody.

(MUSIC)

MALE:  Windows 95.  One of the hottest things on the market today.

FEMALE:  Windows 95, oh my god, isn't that the thing that's going to 
give me the browser?

FRED DAVIS:  Windows 95 has become that kind of a big cultural 
happening.

BILL GATES:  There's so much depth to this product.  It's really not 
possible to touch on even the major things that I think will come 
with Windows 95.

RICHARD:  Microsoft President Bill Gates has kept the computer 
world in a frenzy for nearly a year waiting for Windows 95.  Never 
before has a new operating system been so eagerly awaited and 
hyped.

FRED DAVIS:  People will be lining up at the store to buy this thing 
on the first day.  It's going to be an incredible thing.

RICHARD:  But not everyone is impressed.

FEMALE:  Well, I heard it was supposed to be out last summer, and 
then it was supposed to be out at the beginning of this year, and I 
went out and got a Mac.

FEMALE 2:  Windows 95?  I'm a Mac user.  I could care less.

RICHARD:  What's behind the hype?  We called on our own experts 
here at c|net, online editor-in-chief Chris Barr and editorial director 
Fred Davis, to give us a reality check on Windows 95.  And to help 
you make up your mind about what could be the most important 
computer development of the decade.

CHRIS BARR:  Windows 95 is an incredibly important product.  It's 
going to probably be the biggest upgrade in history.  Now, does that 
mean it's because it's a better product?

FRED DAVIS:  Windows 95, it's just Windows 3.1 all over again.  All 
the things that Bill Gates promised us years ago would be solved in 
the next version of Windows, aren't.

CHRIS BARR:  We're all paying all this attention because the 800-
pound gorilla called Microsoft is saying this is a very important 
operating system.

RICHARD:  OK.  Let's take a look at Windows 95 features.  This is the 
Windows we've known for the past five years.  This is Windows 95.  
For starters, it's huge.  Let's talk about the platform you'll need to 
install Windows 95 on your computer.

CHRIS BARR:  Microsoft says that you can run Windows 95 on a 386 
with 4MB of RAM.

FRED DAVIS:  Yeah, fiction.  We call that crawling, not running.

CHRIS BARR:  I know, I know, I know.  Their recommended system is 
a 486/33 with 8MB of RAM.

FRED DAVIS:  Which is still a joke.  I mean, you really want a 
Pentium with 16MB.

CHRIS BARR:  And hard disk space.  

FRED DAVIS:  Oh, boy.  It eats you alive.

CHRIS BARR:  Windows 95 uses about 40MB of hard disk space.

FRED DAVIS:  That's conservative.  Once you get all the goodies on 
there and everything, you'd better think about having a 500MB 
drive.

RICHARD:  In addition to better performance from games, Microsoft 
promises that CD-ROMs and other peripherals will be easier to install 
through a Windows 95 feature called Plug and Play.

FRED DAVIS:  Plug and Play.  I call it Plug and Pray.  I mean, this 
thing just doesn't work.  I can't get it to recognize my Sound Blaster.

CHRIS BARR:  It does work.  Plug and Play works, but what you need 
is, you need a machine that's got a Plug and Play BIOS, you need 
cards that are Plug and Play aware.  So, that's why I'm 
recommending don't upgrade if you want all this Plug and Play stuff, 
just buy a brand new machine that's got it all.

FRED DAVIS:  What do you mean, it works?  If, if, if, if.

CHRIS BARR:  Exactly.

FRED DAVIS:  You know, a Mac just works.  Microsoft is hyping this 
as being better than a Mac.  It's still not better than a Mac.

CHRIS BARR:  I'll tell you why it's better than a Mac--because it's less 
expensive than a Mac and because you can get more applications 
than you can get on a Mac.

RICHARD:  Well, Chris has a point, Fred.  Microsoft is subtly billing 
Windows 95 as a Mac-killer.  The operating system that will one day 
make Apple computers obsolete.

(MUSIC)

FRED DAVIS:  So, do you think Windows 95 is going to kill the Mac?

CHRIS BARR:  No, I don't think the Mac is going to die.  I do think, 
though, over the next few years it will begin to squeeze the Mac out.  
Because the difference between the Mac and the PC is definitely 
going to go away.  Because of Windows 95, or 96, or 97, or whatever.

RICHARD:  Mac users will recognize many of the features on Windows 
95.  The most obvious is the interface.  File manager and program 
manager are gone, replaced by something called "explorer."

FRED DAVIS:  They've really done a good job of ripping off the good 
features of the Mac and OS/2 and combining them in a new interface.

CHRIS BARR:  Right.

FRED DAVIS:  The thing is, they shouldn't have done that.

CHRIS BARR:  OK. Let's tell them what the interface is.  OK.  Program 
manager is gone.  File manager is gone.  And in it's place is this thing 
called explorer.

FRED DAVIS:  Oh, no, you're wrong.  What they did is, they give you 
three interfaces.

CHRIS BARR:  OK, but wait...

FRED DAVIS:  They give you the task bar down at the bottom of the 
screen.

CHRIS BARR:  Right.

FRED DAVIS:  Then they give you “My Computer,” which is the 
Macintosh interface done for Windows.  You open it up and there's all 
your drives and folders.  Then they give you the explorer and that's 
sort of like the file manager on steroids.

CHRIS BARR:  But once you get used to it, it's absolutely fabulous.

RICHARD:  If the Windows 95 file manager acts as though it's on 
steroids, it's probably because it's now a full 32-bit system.  Even 
though Microsoft claims bigger is better.  Running some smaller 
applications on it, or too many at once, could lead to bombs.

BILL GATES:  We're really getting down to the final stages of 
Windows 95 development and we're really kind of anxious to get the 
product out there.

RICHARD:  But when will that product be released?  It's a question 
everyone is asking.  Microsoft now says Windows 95 will be out by 
August.  And what will the consumer make of this new system?

FRED DAVIS:  If you have Windows and you're committed to that 
platform, you'd better upgrade, because it's a much better version of 
Windows; but if you're considering buying a computer for the first 
time, now's the best time to buy a Mac ever.  Not only are Macs more 
powerful than they've ever been, they're less expensive--and with 
the clones, there's more variety.

RICHARD:  However, since it's on 70 million computers, Windows is 
the dominant PC operating environment.  That alone makes Windows 
95 the most significant upgrade of the decade.

(MUSIC)

RICHARD:  Now, you can't just rush down to your local computer 
store now and buy Windows 95.  The c|net central sneak peek you 
just saw used a beta or a test version of it.  And if all goes well, by 
the end of the year it should be on the store shelves.  Gina?

GINA:  Coming up next on c|net central...the chip that can turn your 
car into a driving machine, and the ultimate portable phone.

(COMMERCIALS)

(MUSIC)

RICHARD:  c|net central "geek gear" this week looks at small portable 
storage devices, beginning with this...  This is a CD-ROM player.  It's 
called the Reno, from Media Vision.  It weighs less than a pound, you 
don't need to put your CDs on a caddie to use it, it's double speed, it 
runs on batteries, comes with headphones and a carrying case, all for 
less than $300.  I don't know that the batteries last that long or that 
it would survive a drop--let's say from a desk to the floor many 
times--but it's the smallest CD player we've seen.

Now, if you're looking for portable storage that you can write on, this 
disk might be the answer.  This is the Zip Drive.  It uses disks that 
look like ordinary 3.5-inch floppies, but these hold a hundred 
megabytes each and cost around $15.  One disk and the drive for less 
than $200 street price.  Don't expect it to be as fast as a hard disk 
drive, but for convenience, especially for back-up, it's the smallest 
one we've seen.

GINA:  You probably use your computer to do your taxes, write 
papers, play games, but you also use one to drive to the mall.  The 
computer that runs you car.  You know, now you can actually 
program the family minivan for better mileage, better performance, 
whatever.  Just by replacing the chip under the dashboard.

(BACKGROUND NOISE)

(MUSIC)

VOICEOVER:  Good old 4-liter engine developed 575 horsepower.

GINA:  The man inside this full-fledged racing BMW is torque junkie 
Steve Dinan.  The Beamer is a stock block V-8, juiced with a 
combination of exhaust headers, turbo chargers and power chips that 
you can plug into your own clunker.

STEVE DINAN:  Back when there was carburetors, I used to do the 
tuning myself, by changing the jets in the carburetors, by changing 
the emission advance and the distributor.  And then the car 
companies started putting computers in the cars, and electronic 
engine management systems--then I no longer had the capability to 
re-tune the cars.

GINA:  Chip tweaking is a quick, painless plug-in way to immediately 
gain a significant horsepower boost over stock output.

STEVE DINAN:  This is the control unit.  Just take the cover off, plug it 
in and drive away with 10%.

GINA:  And no problem with federal emissions controls.

STEVE DINAN:  That's the beautiful thing about the engine 
management, is the sophistication allows you to get that kind of 
power and so the car's driveable.

GINA:  You might wonder why the auto-meisters in the Black Forest 
don't just plug in the hot chips at the factory.

STEVE DINAN:  BMW does a great job, but they build the car for the 
general masses, for 90% of the people.  And 10% of the people are 
enthusiasts.

GINA:  Managing all that power and torque means finding a small 
handful of engine commands on a computer chip that holds as many 
as 65,000.

STEVE DINAN:  Bosch nor BMW will release the information on how 
the chip is programmed, so I had to hire a software programmer to 
get into the electronics and re-map the car.  He's a hacker.

(BACKGROUND NOISE)

GINA:  Affectionately called Igor, Bill Weiss is the motherboard of 
diamond performance engineering.

BILL WEISS:  When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

(MUSIC)

GINA:  With no two car models alike, he spends his days in an 
unadorned dry-walled room hacking chip after chip.

STEVE DINAN:  He reverse-engineers the program on the chip and he 
spends an enormous amount of time doing it.

BILL WEISS:  You have to crawl in the original programmer's mind, 
his frame of mind when he was designing it.

GINA:  And what he gets are reams and reams of printout numbers.  
And somewhere within are the elusive codes that program the 
engine.  

STEVE DINAN:  The reason they don't is they're concerned that if this 
information is released to the public, people who weren't qualified 
would go and re-program their cars and cause them a lot of warranty 
problems.  So they want you to have to work to get it, assuming that 
if you can figure it out, you must know enough to be able to use the 
information.

(BACKGROUND NOISE)

GINA:  This BMW N3 produced 175 horsepower in stock form on the 
dynamonitor, then, switching to the power chip, the gauge climbed 
11% to 195 ponies.

STEVE DINAN:  One of the Acura Integras we did, we got a 26 
horsepower gain on a 140 horsepower engine.  That's almost to what 
the next model engine they're selling is.

GINA:  There's only about four companies engaged in chip re-
programming in the U.S., and they cover virtually every car built 
from about 1985 on.

STEVE DINAN:  When you're dealing with carburetors and 
distributors, those sort of modifications would make the car really 
finicky and difficult and just a horrible car--I mean the car would be 
fast, but it would be a horrible car.  We now don't have to make any 
sacrifices.  We can program the car to be clean, exhaust emissions-
wise, good gas mileage, a smooth driveable idle--everything--and 
still get that kind of power out of an engine.  And that's purely 
because of electronics that we can do that.

GINA:  So if you've got your own private dry lakebed, and like F16 
speed without having to file a flight plan, get yourself a chip 
maverick--and then keep your eyes out for cars with lots of lights on 
top.

(BACKGROUND NOISE)

GINA:  Now, your typical car chip costs about $300 and check with 
your dealer because it could void your warranty.  And remember 
this: most car chips come calibrated for safety reasons, but if you do 
chose to use one of these horsepower chips, it could change the way 
you drive.

RICHARD:  Well, Gina, soon a satellite like this one is going to change 
the way we use the telephone because it talks to one of these.  This is 
not just a cellular phone, it's a satellite phone, sending signals 
directly into space.  What that means for you is you could use one of 
these on a ship, in a dogsled, I mean, in the middle of nowhere.

(BACKGROUND NOISE)

RICHARD:  Hello?

VOICEOVER:  Hello, Richard?  Remember that...

RICHARD:  Hi.  Well, actually I'm out of the office right now.  Way out 
of the office.  Say hello to the first personal satellite communicator.  
This one is from Iridium.  And it means that soon, being out of 
telephone range will be a thing of the past.  Am I in the middle of 
the Pacific, at the South Pole, on an Arizona mountain top?  Suddenly, 
where I am no longer matters.

RICHARD:  Sixty-six satellites cover every square inch of the earth, 
day and night.  Think about it.  No matter where you are, you're 
covered.

RICHARD:  Think of Iridium as an inverted cellular phone system.  
Instead of you moving from one cell site to another, the cell sites are 
moving over your head.  

DURRELL HOLLIS:  What Iridium is is a digital switched network that 
happens to be in space, which happens then to give you connectivity 
from any point in the world to any point in the world, with some 
kind of device you can put in your pocket.

RICHARD:  What makes it possible is a new kind of digital satellite.  It 
is low-flying, only 461 nautical miles up.  It goes around the world 
once every 105 minutes, and at three and a half million bucks, it's 
the cheapest communication satellite ever, even if the phone is not.

DURRELL HOLLIS:  We talked about the phone starting out in the 
range of $2,000.

RICHARD:  Here's how it works:  you pull out your Iridium phone and 
dial.  If you're within a ground-based cellular system, it uses it.  If 
not, it looks for the nearest satellite and your call can be relayed 
from satellite to satellite until it finds your party, then the call beams 
down to an existing land line, seamlessly.

VOICEOVER:  OK, Richard, this is a full-scale mock-up of an Iridium 
satellite, and an Iridium satellite's about 700 kilos--about 1,500 
pounds.

RICHARD:  All 66 of the three-and-a-half million dollar satellites will 
be built on the world's first satellite production line in Chandler, 
Arizona.  One reason costs are so low on these satellites is off-the-
shelf parts.  For instance, the computer uses the same microprocessor 
you might have on your desk at work, the latest from Motorola.  It 
even has a PCI bus on it.  And energy?  Each satellite consumes so 
little, your blow dryer is probably more powerful.  Just 650 watts.  
Competing rocket companies in the U.S., Russia, and China are 
contracted to blast the estimated eight billion dollar system into orbit 
by the end of 1997, so by the next millennium, you can reach out 
and touch the entire planet.

RICHARD:  I told you never to call me here.  Well, I'm busy.

RICHARD:  When these phones become available as early as two 
years from now, they'll cost about $2,000 and the calls will be $3 per 
minute--which is still cheaper than some overseas phone calls from a 
few hotels.  And again, you'll be able to use it anywhere.  Gina?

GINA:  Coming up next on c|net central:  fashion on the Internet.  
We'll show you the most popular sites.

(COMMERCIALS)

GINA:  You know, home shopping networks have revolutionized the 
buying and selling of clothes, but with television, you can only see 
the clothes at certain times, and only the way they're presented.  But 
online, you can check out the latest designers and their ideas when 
you want, the way you want.

(MUSIC)

GINA:  From high fashion to street sheets, spring is the time to show 
some style--and if you want to be seen this year, the "in" place to be 
is the Internet.

(MUSIC)

GINA:  Having a fashion crisis?  There's help as near as your 
computer with the Fashion Yellow Pages, a new online service 
devoted entirely to fashion.  Also on the Net this year is the Fashion 
Net, a network that helps you find retail shops and fashion services.  
Even communications companies are playing the fashion game.  MCI 
has hired fashion expert Jeanne Beker to help plug their new site, 
called @Fashion.

JEANNE BEKER:  It's going to be interesting, because it is a whole new 
turf for us.  We've almost taken fashion to the max on TV, now, and I 
think it's time to go to the next level.  I'm really excited about it.

GINA:  Award-winning designer Victor Alfaro is making his Net 
debut on the @Fashion site, unveiling his new fall collection.

VICTOR ALFARO:  I think it's a very, very interesting venue and I 
think this might be the wave of the future.

GINA:  From the mainstream to the alternative, going online may be 
the best way to find out what's hot this spring--and with the fashion 
industry spending big bucks to reach people like us, it makes you 
wonder if the term "computer geek" is quickly going out of style.

GINA:  These are just a few of the Web sites devoted to fashion that 
you can check out right now.  But our fashion watchdogs tell us to 
keep an eye on the Net as there's more expected this spring.

GINA:  The most fashionable thing in the computer world today is 
multimedia.  But Dave Ross thinks it's nothing more than the 
Emperor's new clothes.  And after all, he gets the last word.

DAVE ROSS:

My friends with fancy computers are always inviting me over to see 
their multimedia programs.  They say they're "cool."  Never "coooool," 
but "cool."  

Anyway, I went over to see this "cool" multimedia, and what it turns 
out to be is cartoons!  You know, the jerky kind, like Hello Kitty.  But 
even worse, they stop!  These are "interactive" programs--which 
means that every so often, they just stop and you have to do 
something to get them going again.  Many times, something involving 
skill.  It's REALLY annoying.

My friends always explain about how in the future, when all the 
REALLY COOL technology comes, the motion will be smooth and 
realistic.  "Oh, you mean like videotape?" I say.  "Well, yeah," they 
say, "but it will be 'interactive.' "  Which, as we know, means it just 
up and stops every so often.  Which my VCR used to do, too, but then 
I got it fixed.

I saw one of these REALLY COOL computers at a computer show once.  
It was showing a Star Trek CD-ROM.  Smooth video, stereo, freeze-
frame.  "Cool," I said, and I asked the guy how much it costs.  Well, 
$60 for the movie.  $300 for the CD-ROM drive.  $500 for the special 
video board and $2,000 for the computer.

Hmm, so let me see, do I pay $2,800 to see a movie, or just rent it for 
99 cents at the video store?  What to do...

Folks, if I'm going to pay $2,800 to see a movie, I had better, by gosh, 
be RIGHT THERE on the set where I can smell Patrick Stewart's after-
shave--not watching through a porthole on my computer screen!

Can't you just see the multimedia family of the future?
"Want to watch a movie, kids?"
"Sure, Dad."
"Gee, Dad, this is better than watching donuts going around in the 
microwave."

Welcome to the future:  a snazzy, high-tech world,
Where everything is wired, full of cyberboys and girls,
Where the software is interactive, the computers new and shiny,
And all your entertainment is really REALLY tiny.

I'm Dave Ross.  And I get the last word.

GINA:  I can't believe I'm saying this, I actually agree with Dave.  I 
think we should call it mini-media.

RICHARD:  Small picture, right--but in all fairness, Dave, you have to 
admit, comparing it to a VCR isn't apt because, you know, you don't 
get any beer commercials, you don't get that blinking twelve all the 
time with multimedia.  Well that's it for c|net central this week.

GINA:  Thanks for tuning in and logging on!

(MUSIC)

(COMMERCIALS)

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