| HOME | Politicians turning to Web for national, local races By JIM BROOKS A new study has confirmed what most of us already knew to be true: The Web continues to mirror the interests and concerns of its users in all topics -- even politics. A recently released study by George Washington University's Graduate School of Political Management found that both candidates in 81 percent of the closest Senate and gubernatorial races were using the Internet to get their message out for Tuesday's election. More challengers than incumbents were using the Web, the study found in its review of more than 900 candidates for office. In the 73 gubernatorial races that'll be decided Tuesday, 94 percent of the candidates have Web sites. In the U.S. Senate, 56 of the 68 candidates, or 82 percent, have their campaigns represented online. Incumbents also seem to be taking the lead in local races with established campaign Web sites. Louis Lawson (jailer), Bobby Thomas (sheriff) and Douglas Goodman (7th district magistrate) have all established Web sites for their Hardin County races. Links to their Web sites can be found at www.newsenterpriseonline.com/election98/cweb.htm. Nelson District Judge Thomas C. Dawson has a campaign Web site at http://www.bardstown.com/(tilde)tjdawson/. Check your local newspaper ads for those late-breaking Web addresses for the latest campaign sites. BIG BLUE SEEING GREEN. IBM joined the computer industry upstarts last week when it unveiled its new low-cost PC. The new Aptiva E Series model D1N, the PC will list for less than $600 without a monitor. And this isn't a barebones computer. Try a 300 MHz Intel MMX-clone processor with 32 megs of RAM, a 32x CD-ROM, two USB ports, a 56k modem, a 3.2 GB hard drive and plenty of preloaded software. The processor is based on technology by its former partner, Cyrix, and is rated to be equal to a 300MHz Pentium MMX. The computer is aimed at first-time buyers and young families on a budget. The price doesn't include a monitor; but with economy-priced models available in the $150 range, it adds up to a lot of computing bang for your buck. IBM was one of the last of the major computer makers to offer economy-priced models last year after its competitors began offering sub-$1,000 models. Interestingly, in the year since IBM joined the below-$1,000 parade, the company reports that the majority of its sales now are low-end PCs. AOL IS A-OK. They've been criticized for years. Despite negative publicity, virtual bumps in the road and threats of legal action, they've persevered. And through it all, the nation's largest Internet provider -- America Online -- has continued to grow at record levels. With the past quarter's financials in, the future looks good for AOL. Its earnings tripled over the same quarter last year. AOL signed up nearly a million new subscribers over the traditionally slow summer period to reach a total of 13.5 million users (15.5 million if you include the approximately 2 million users of its separate CompuServe service). ICQ, an instant communication and online chat system, was acquired by AOL back in June and it too is growing, with a reported 9.5 million active users. The company's investors were also greeted with news of a two-for-one stock split -- the company's fifth since going public in 1992. An investment in AOL back then would've paid handsomely. One thousand shares would've set you back a cool $11,500 back in 1992. Today, that investment would've grown to 32,000 shares with a value of more than $1.92 million. WINDOWS 2000. It has been no industry secret that Microsoft's goal for its operating systems -- Windows 98 and Windows NT -- is to merge them at some time in the near future. Windows 95 and 98 are aimed at the home and small-business markets, while Windows NT was designed for high-end heavy-duty business and server applications. But maintaining separate product lines isn't efficient, and requires duplication of effort and resources. To that end, Microsoft announced that its next version Windows NT -- NT 5.0 (now available as a pre-release beta) -- will be called Windows 2000 when it is released next year. The release date for Windows NT 5.0 -- a major revision of the popular application -- has slipped a number of times already, and it looks now like late next year will be the earliest it will be ready to ship. Microsoft's competitors -- Novell, Sun, IBM and even the freeware Linux creators have been updating and pushing out their products, hoping to take advantage of the NT 5.0's delays. The next consumer software -- presumably an upgrade of Windows 98 -- will be a "consumerized" version of the Windows 2000. Separate versions are planned for small business users and corporate users as well. Comments and questions about this column may be sent to jbrooks@myoldkentuckyhome.com, or visit www.myoldkentuckyhome.com on the World Wide Web. | HOME |