Hewie's Views and Reviews 20030315
By Hewie Poplock

Welcome to this issue of Hewie's Views & Reviews. Be sure to visit Hewie's Favorites at http://www.hewie.net/ . Hewie's Quick Thoughts appear almost daily at http://www.hewie.net/weblog/ .

In this issue
++++ Why didn't I think of that?
++++ 27GB DVD disks coming soon
++++ Good CPU comparisons
++++ New additions to Hewie's Favorites

April, 2003

++++ Why didn't I think of that?

Thinking "outside of the box" is difficult. Over the years I have purchased those plastic soda dispensers for the refrigerator so I could have plenty of Diet Coke cold and available. You know that dispenser, "Handy Can Organizer," that is always on sale from Miles Kimball <http://www.mileskimball.com/> or Lillian Vernon. <http://www.lillianvernon.com/>. Usually, you will catch me with a Diet Coke at the computer.

After all of these years of emptying the 12 packs into the dispenser or just placing three 12 packs on the bottom shelf in the refrigerator, Diet Coke and others from Coca-Cola are now available in their "Fridge Pack." I love it. Apparently so do many others. In an industry where sales have been flat, Coke sales have increased in the areas where the new pack is sold.

In a recent article at http://www.pointforward.com/articles/news_items_fridgeAP.html I discovered that it was more than someone like you or me having an idea.

"Fridge Pack got its start at Alcoa Inc., the aluminum company, which was looking for a way to sell more cans. Researchers for the company spent several weeks in 1998 following families to the supermarket and watching them load their pantries and refrigerators. They learned that while people buy their sodas in multipacks, most put only three or four cans at a time into the refrigerator. They also discovered there's a lot of "dead" space in the back."

Engineers and marketing experts from Alcoa and a packaging company, held a brainstorming session, sitting in a circle around a refrigerator and batting around ideas. Fridge Pack was one of the concepts to emerge. Not every idea requires a computer.

++++ 27GB DVD disks coming soon

Blu-ray Disc technology, a next-generation recordable DVD format using blue-violet lasers, announced that licensing began Feb. 17. Blu-ray Disc technology allows for 27GB storage capacities on a single-sided 12cm disc. < http://news.com.com/2100-1040-984520.html?part=dht&tag=ntop >

Several of the major players will pursue a broad acceptance of the format and promote it. Drives will use a short-wavelength blue-violet laser instead of the red lasers in current optical drives to read data off discs. Read more at < http://news.com.com/2110-1040-917906.html >.

The Japanese parent of Sony Electronics announced that its Blu-ray Disc Recorder would be released in Japan on April 10, priced at around $3,800. The company would not comment on U.S. availability. As with all new products, expect to see the prices drop to affordable levels as sales and use increase.

I am seeing 250 Gigabyte hard drives on the shelves, so it will still require multiple disks to back up that hard drive. It wasn't that many years ago that I bought my first 20 Megabyte (yes, Megabyte) and knew that I would never have to buy another floppy disk and would never fill that huge hard drive.

++++ Good CPU comparisons

Are you thinking of purchasing a new computer? Do you think that your computer is too slow and want to compare your CPU to others? Tom's Hardware has a processor review comparing 65 CPUs from 100Mhz to 3066Mhz. Lots of us have machines around 500Mhz to 1Ghz. See how much faster the current machines are. < http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030217/index.html >

Take a look at the comparison chart at the same site at
http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030217/cpu_charts-32.html#comparison_table. While you at Tom's site, take a look around. It's one of the best hardware news and views site that I have found.

++++ New additions to Hewie's Favorites