A major human milestone passes this week with Schaumburg-based Motorola Inc. finally tossing the switch that lets the general public use Iridium, the system of 66 low-orbit satellites that can reach special cell phones anywhere on the face of Planet Earth.
This means, of course, that you now will have to go someplace else to get away from the phones for next year’s vacation.
IRIDIUM
SCHMERIDIUM
Originally planned as a network of 77 satellites instead of the 66 that Motorola and its partners ultimately could afford, the network was named for the 77th element on the atomic table, iridium.
If Moto mavens wanted to be precise they would rename it dysprosium, No. 66 on the table. Fat chance. Loosely translated, dysprosium means “hard to get at,” hardly the Iridium message.
GIGABYTE GRIPES…& WINDOWS WOES
If you’ve got a life, jump down to the next item. If you’ve got Windows 98 instead of a life you need Windows 98 Annoyances (www.oreilly.com), a rigorous but highly readable–even for lay folk–compendium of the best tricks known for getting Bill Gates’ software to stop monopolizing your every waking moment.
Hottest tips in the 448-page book include how to get rid of annoying and meaningless pop-up messages, how to use the Registry feature in Windows 98 to blast unwelcome Microsoft icons from the desktop and how to automate repeated tasks.
BINARY BUCKFEST
FOR WHOM THE DELL TOILS
In the unlikely event you’re fretting over whether Gates or Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Computer Inc., would suffer if their stock collapsed, fret no more. A survey last week by the Wall Street Journal found that Gates has cashed out 9.52 million shares of Microsoft stock so far this year while Dell liquidated 7.68 million of his personal Dell shares.
Asked during a recent Chicago visit why he bothers to come to work anymore when he’s already made $274 million cash this year, Dell grinned broadly and said, “Because I like to win.”
YOU’VE GOT MAIL
And mail and mail and mail….
Reading and answering e-mail now eats up a whopping 58 minutes of the average workday at Fortune 500 companies, says the latest study by Chicago-based EdWel & Co.
Worse still, the study found that 60 per cent of all e-mails proved a waste of time because the receiver said he/she was unable to act on the mail without first getting more information.
Why? “Lack of organization, poor construction and grammar and misinformation,” said Michael Welles, managing director at EdWel.
