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From the Editor's Desk...

An excuse... Thunder and Lightning... clobbered one of our servers last week.  It also toasted a 24 pair telco trunk line serving our humble edifice.  We're back now stronger than ever...

As I stated, I'd begin the story about E-Spire and STReport.  It's not a long drawn out story but for what it is its a success story I'd like you to know about.  BellSouth really blew it with us.  They were charging us interest on monies we were charged by LD carriers who had NO business being on our Bellsouth bills... But Bellsouth decided they needed to be there..  So, in reality, these usurious charges by Bellsouth and the slamming of our dedicated lines brought about a meeting between E-Spire and STR Publishing.

E-Spire provides STR with one more line and number for less that Bellsouth was charging.  Bellsouth, in our opinion, is just like the rest of the bell-head driven companies.  Gouge, Gouge, and gouge 'em some more ...do it to 'em until they scream and then throw a bone in the form of a partial refund or, let 'em gripe to the Public Service Commission that's the biggest joke of all as far as the bell telephone companies are concerned.  The bell phone companies sneer at the various state PSC offices.  How is this easily known?  Take a look at how many people and businesses are deeply upset with the bell phone companies... For every "satisfied customer" there's at least twenty who are utterly disgusted and ready to change (in may localities... this is impossible, the Bell's have a stranglehold). 

E-Spire proved to offer and deliver reliable service that gave us a savings in costs.  The best part of our relationship is the service... no matter when we had a problem, E-Spire was right there to help resolve the situation and provide solutions that made sense.  Even when it was Bellsouth's complete fault for outages and drop-outs.  Bellsouth tried to blow it off the first time but after a few incidents we began to believe the dropouts etc., were purposefully done to "encourage" our return to the Bellsouth "milking barn." That... will never happen.

Friends, I strongly recommend you check into E-Spire's services and offerings.  They're good at what they do and realize they must be competitive and reliable.

On another front, Compaq Corp., long known for strength, quality and reliability, may be in for some very rough times.  They seem to be beset with the "bean counter" syndrome and/or, the Canary Syndrome ( A BAD Case of the CHEEPS!).  While the accountants are busy counting and conserving beans, the company itself may be headed to hell in an abacus case.  By that I mean, Compaq's internal mindset is seemingly austerity (Why the grab for Digital?) and not marketing aggressiveness. In many cases this is good but in Compaq's case it might indicate the zealots of conservatism have taken over. Dell is running rings around them.  Hold on to your stocks and bonds for as long as you are comfortable doing so.  At the same time, take a good look at DELL.  There's a company that knows the true value of online publications and the "reach" they have.  Anybody notice Dell is at the head of its class?  Yep... El numero Uno.  Why?  Because the Bean Counters are NOT running the show.  Compaq had better wake up.  If for no other reason than to protect its stockholders and loyal customers. Hey Compaq, take a few lessons from Dell.


I could be wrong but I don't think so... If you think I am... by all means, let me hear from you.

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