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Edmund's offers new, used car info

By JIM BROOKS

If you've purchased a new or used car in the last 30 years, chances are you've purchased or borrowed an Edmund's car and truck price guide.

These little books can be found at most magazine racks in convenience and book stores everywhere and provide auto buyers a chance to fairly price a vehicle they are either buying or selling.

I've turned to the Edmund's guides often over the years, and now computer users can turn to Edmund's -- this time on the World Wide Web.

The online version is just as chock-full of information as the printed edition. Like its printed counterpart, it covers cars and trucks covering a span of 10 years. The guide covers all makes and models.

Once you have the model you seek a value on, the guide gives you all the options available for that model. By adding all the values (and subtracting where necessary, for example, high mileage), you can determine a fair market value of a used car or truck.

Both used- and new-vehicle buyers have an impressive array of tools to help them with buying decisions.

Edmund's Web site lists a whole host of new car reviews, lists of current manufacturer's rebates and incentives, and even recalls.

The site also is rich with car-buying advice. You can find lots of tips to make you a more informed car shopper -- there's even an interactive course on smart negotiating tips when buying a used car.

All the jargon and wheeling and dealing can sound complicated. But Edmund's has done a fine job of explaining buying new and used cars and trucks in a straightforward manner. Even experienced car buyers can pick up something new to use at the trip to your favorite dealer's lot.

Point your browser to www.edmund.com, and I think you'll find a site you'll want to return to before you buy your next truck or automobile.

NET CRASH. The doomsayers predicting the implosion of the Internet have been wrong so far, events that happened Friday, April 25 may illustrate that maybe the Chicken Littles may have a point.

Nearly all national Internet Service Providers lost contact with national backbones at just after 11 a.m. that Friday.

The outage effectively shut down a major portion of the Internet for nearly three hours. Experts estimated up to 40 percent of Internet users were affected.

The problem occurred when incorrect routing information was transmitted across the Internet -- information that sent all the data traveling on the Internet to one small "backbone" provider based in Virginia.

The routing data assists data flow on the Internet. The incorrect information shut out much of the Internet to the large U.S. providers, including MCI, Sprint and America Online.

Once the problem was identified, the correct routing information was restored, about 1 p.m. -- though problems persisted in some areas of the country for most of that evening.

MAC OS 8. Apple demonstrated a preliminary version of its newest operation system, Mac System 8 this week.

The new operating system is due for official release in July. Apple claims it will be easier to use and have greater Internet capability.

While it's true that most Web surfers use PCs to use the World Wide Web, Macs are still the machine of choice for graphic design and publishing -- for both print and on the Internet. System 8's improvements should improve the ease of Web publishing on a Mac.

The Personal Web Sharing feature will allow any Mac to become a mini-Web server. Any Mac will be able to share files across a network or the Internet. A user could share all or parts of his system with another user on the Internet, for example.

In other Apple news, Oracle chairman Larry Ellison says he is putting off any attempt to gain control of the troubled computer company.

Ellison has been openly critical of Apple Chairman Gilbert Amelio's strategy for returning the company to profitability. So much so that he's considered making a bid to buy the company.

What would he do with Apple?

One rumor has it that Ellison, a big promoter of the stripped-down NC (Network Computer) concept, would like to see Apple embrace that concept and reduce its emphasis on the personal computer market.

Apple should concede the operating system war to Microsoft and find another market, said Oracle President Raymond Lane said recently. "They may find a new light in network computers, and education markets they're still strong in, but in PCs, it's over," Lane said during a Reuters interview.

But for Apple, things may get worse before they get better.

Apple dropped out of the top five list in worldwide personal computer sales for the first quarter -- the first time Apple has not been among the leading sellers. The number of Apple computers shipped worldwide in the second quarter plunged 33 percent to 602,000 units -- a larger drop than anticipated.

In recent months, the company has laid off nearly a third of its workforce.

Fearing a takeover attempt by Ellison, Apple recently hired investment banker Goldman Sachs & Co. to provide financial advice.

Apple's future may depend on the promising new-generation of Macintosh operating software, code-named Rhapsody, that may breathe new life into the company.

The powerful new operating system is due sometime next year.

Comments and questions about this column may be sent to jbrooks@myoldkentuckyhome.com, or visit www.myoldkentuckyhome.com on the World Wide Web.

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