TODAY'S TOURBUS TOPICS: Quickbrowse / Free & Fee
Greetings! Today we'll take a ride that may change the way you navigate the web. We'll also dabble in the "free vs. fee" issue as we look at the state of free online storage and the latest news about Linux. Oh, and there's a new geek-on-bike photo. Ride on!
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---------------- QUICK, BROWSE! ----------------
Okay, so you've mastered meta-searching... how about meta-BROWSING? Quickbrowse is a nifty free service that combines your favorite sites into a single page for faster viewing. You don't have to download any new software, just visit the link below and give it a test drive.
<A href="http://www.quickbrowse.com/> http://www.quickbrowse.com/ </A>
+ Build your customized newspaper with just a few clicks. Forget about clicking on all those links! You can consolidate content from the New York Times, Wall St. Journal, USA Today, CNN and your choice of a dozen others into one page.
+ QBsearch is meta-search on steroids. Select the engines you want to query, and display up to 20 sets of result at once, from EACH search engine, one ONE page. Get used to scrolling instead of endless back-and-forth clicking.
You can even get your Quickbrowse Page delivered in your inbox every day. You have to try Quickbrowse to understand how very useful and time-saving it can be.
----------------------------- INFORMATION WANTS TO BE FEE -----------------------------
The free ride for your online hard drive may be coming to a crashing halt soon. Several vendors in this arena have begun to charge for services that were previously freebies. (See the 15 March 2001 article in the TOURBUS archives.)
XDRIVE, a provider of online disk space, announced this week they will begin charging a $5 monthly fee for 25MB of online storage, and have eliminated all of their free offerings. One has to wonder how many of the company's 9.5 million members will put up the cash when there are still free alternatives.
FREEDRIVE also introduced a $5 per month fee for 65MB of space, but still offers 20MB storage for free. MYSPACE (also reviewed in the March 15 issue) continues to offer free space ranging from 25-300MB, and you can still get 50MB of free storage at I-DRIVE.com.
It's no big shock to see this happening, because so many Internet companies have had a business plan that pretty much says "give away free stuff until all the venture capital is gone, then figure out what to do next." The logical "next" is to pull the plug or start charging money for something. But I think the smart ones will figure out a way to offer a freebie and still make money on premium or business services.
<A href="http://www.xdrive.com/> http://www.xdrive.com/ </A>
<A href="http://www.freedrive.com/> http://www.freedrive.com/ </A>
<A href="http://www.myspace.com/> http://www.myspace.com/ </A>
------------------------------------------------ THE PENGUIN'S GOT "FREE STUFF" ALL FIGURED OUT ------------------------------------------------
Red Hat Linux 7.1 has hit the streets and the reviews look good. The newest version of this free operating system with the tuxedo-wearing mascot includes the new 2.4 Linux kernel, support for multiple CPU's, faster networking, improved graphics card support and KDE 2.1.1, which sports a more Windows-like interface and enhanced desktop fonts.
Now here's a company that does the fee/free thing right. Market leader Red Hat has for years offered a product that can be downloaded for free, but they also sell shrinkwrapped versions that include tech support, printed manuals and other bundled software. Other companies such as Mandrake and Debian compete on similar terms with their own Linux offerings.
<A href="http://www.redhat.com/> http://www.redhat.com/ </A>
<A href="http://www.linux-mandrake.com/> http://www.linux-mandrake.com/ </A>
<A href="http://www.debian.com/> http://www.debian.com/ </A>
If you want to try a free alternative to Microsoft Windows or Mac OS you can download a distribution of the Linux operating system at the websites listed above. But unless you have a high-speed Internet connection, I recommend that you spend about $5 on a Linux CD-ROM at CheapBytes - my favorite source for Linux products.
<A href="http://www.cheapbytes.com/> http://www.cheapbytes.com/ </A>
------------------ FUZZY TECHNOLOGY ------------------
Last fall I got a motorcycle, and mentioned it here in TOURBUS. So many of you wrote nice things like "My cousin Jimmy was horribly disfigured when he drove his motorcycle into the grille of a Mack truck." I do appreciate those comments, really. I highly recommend the new and experienced rider courses from the Motorcycle Safety Foundation. They teach the skills you need to ride safely, even if you've never been on a motorcycle before. Fact: 92% of motorcycle accidents involve riders who were self-taught. Take the class.
<A href="http://www.msf-usa.org/> http://www.msf-usa.org/ </A>
Oh, I almost forgot the fuzzy. I posted a picture of my Kawasaki Vulcan 750 back in October, and great hordes of Tourbus readers wrote to say they wanted to see ME on the bike! Imagine my shock. So with the help of my daughter Anna, a Polaroid camera, and a cheap scanner, I give you this:
<A href="http://tourbus.com/vulcan.htm> http://tourbus.com/vulcan.htm </A>
That's all for now, see you next time! --Bob Rankin
=====================[ Tourbus Rider Information ]=================== The Internet Tourbus - U.S. Library of Congress ISSN #1094-2238 Copyright 1995-2001, Rankin & Crispen - All rights reserved
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