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Technology Stocks : Compaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: John Koligman who wrote (61878)	5/21/1999 1:27:00 PM
From: Night Writer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

Many Plan To Withdraw Cash for Y2K WASHINGTON, May 21, 1999 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Almost two-thirds of people questioned in a survey about the Year 2000 computer problem said they expect to set aside extra cash in the days before New Year's, but most said it won't be a large amount. The Gallup poll of 1,606 adults, released today, also showed that the vast majority -- nearly 79 percent -- said they fully expect the Y2K problem to have ''little or no impact'' on their personal finances. The findings reflect a shift in the nation's mood -- from early fears of Y2K problems causing widespread failures to more recent views that the date rollover will more likely present scattered inconveniences. The poll, conducted by telephone, was commissioned by Star Systems Inc., the nation's largest electronic banking network, with its Honor and Star automated teller machines, which serve 79 million customers. ''Clearly, the public is becoming more confident as they learn more about Y2K preparations, including testing, that the financial and electronic funds transfer industries have been making,'' said Ronald V. Congemi, Star's president. Congemi said the results showed 80 percent of people expect to be able to conduct transactions at ATMs or grocery stores and gas stations on New Year's Day. ''We're excited that consumer confidence has risen so high,'' he said. Government experts have lauded the nation's financial industry for its work preparing for the technology problem, when some computers originally programmed to recognize only the last two digits of a year could interpret 2000 as 1900. Most financial institutions -- which are federally regulated -- have set June 30 as a target date for completing all their Y2K preparations. Sixty-four percent of those surveyed said they plan to withdraw extra cash before Jan. 1, but 52 percent said the amount won't exceed what they typically spend for a weekday, weekend or holiday. ''Hopefully, these people will follow the advice of numerous government and consumer organizations, recommending that people make any withdrawals in small increments well in advance of Dec. 31,'' Congemi said. The telephone survey was conducted April 7-22, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Copyright 1999 Associated Press, All rights reserved. -0- By TED BRIDIS

To: John Koligman who wrote (61878)	5/21/1999 1:34:00 PM
From: trouthead	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 97611

I have recently been thinking of upgrading my computer. I last purchased a box nearly 4 years ago. A p 100 with 16 megs of ram and an 800 meg hd. It's been a great machine. Trouble free and it has run everything I have loaded onto it at a decent speed. But lately it has been bogging down. I have purchased a scanner (which came with Adobe Photo-ResourceHog-Shop), loaded IE5 and RealPlayer G2. Suddenly everything runs as slow as molasses. Since then I have added 64 megs of ram and a 4.2 gig drive and everything is running like a top. Here is my point. Intel changed to an incremental upgrade strategy about 4 years ago. Subsequent chips, after the release of the pentium, have not been as great of a performance increase as the pentium was over the 486. Software vendors have not been releasing as much "must have" software that ran so poorly on your current box that you just had to upgrade. Used to be that every 18 months to 2 years I bought a new box. Now it's been 4 years. But I'm thinking about it. I'm wondering if maybe a lot of people, who had been just fine, are starting to think about it. And that intel and the boxmakers will see increased numbers of upgrade buyers. Intels incremental strattegy has stretched the upgrade cycle from 2 to 4 years. Each year from here on out there will be a new crop of buyers. Which would be good for intel and the boxmakers. Does anyone have numbers on how many buyers now are upgrades as opposed to new customers? jb wonder how many people are in the same boat I am in?