I wrote to you recently (Tiny complaint causes service woes) regarding my after sales experience with Tiny.com. You forwarded my email to a contact within that company. He very quickly responded, apologising for the delays and gave me a telephone number and code to quote following which my computer was collected and very quickly repaired (four days from collection to being delivered back fully repaired).

I’d just like to thank you for your intervention, without which, I'd probably still be on my umpteenth repeat letter.

Very briefly, my experiences with Tiny.com are a bit like the Curate’s eg - good in parts. On the positive side, you get a well specified computer at a very reasonable price, the installed components are from well known companies (except for the mother board, which is made by FIC, a company that I haven't heard of) and if everything works ‘out of the box’ it will be a good experience (I am currently playing Half Life 2 at top resolution with no problems - other than getting killed much more quickly than before!).

However, if a problem occurs with your new computer, the experience won't be a good one. Their help line was an expensive joke. As I said earlier, without your intervention, I don’t know what I would have done.

It would be a shame to see the latest incarnation of Tiny fail, but fail it will unless its after sales department pulls its finger out. Once again, thank you very much for your help, and I hope to have many more years as a regular subscriber to your magazine.

John Morgan

Posted by Rob Jones on April 29, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (3)

I share Mr Stewart's disappointment over the time it is taking for Microsoft to roll out its 64bit OS (PCW, June).

When I went 64bit I just had to install something that would take advantage of my new hardware. First I tried Microsoft time limited edition of XP64, the whole thing was a shambles the biggest problem being the lack of drivers both inbuilt and supplied by manufacturer.

I have always had my eye on the Linux scene and thought it was a prime opportunity to give it a go. I downloaded a 64bit distribution, burnt it too my DVD and booted my machine. Throughout the whole installation it didn't ask me for a single driver, furthermore it recognised my USB phone and TV card and installed the drivers for both of them. It even had Skype as a preinstalled program!

Windows still says it cant recognise my SATA drive! Need I say more

Charles Gargen

Posted by Rob Jones on April 25, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was interested in your article on the lack of intuitiveness in Microsoft products. This has long irked me, although I think the problem is that a lot of products - not just Microsoft's - lack a clear ‘model’ of what the software is for. 

There seems to be no evidence of anyone having thought about the objects being manipulated by an application and the actions that users will want to perform on them.

Examples are particularly evident in Outlook. I'm constantly frustrated by quirks such as not being able to highlight two or more messages in the message list and save their attachments. Also, I can right-click an attachment icon and change the display between a large icon, small icon and list. Why can’t I set this option for all messages? Again in Outlook, I can’t edit a new message and simultaneously switch back to a received message window and browse through it.

I appreciate that I am still using Outlook 2000, and that I may be not using the most up-to-date version of everything. But I'll be damned if I am going to spend a small fortune to exchange one set of idiosyncrasies with another, and I am reluctant to upgrade anything until I see some sign that the products have been actually designed rather than just cobbled together from ropey old chunks of code that happen to be lying around already. 

Posted by Rob Jones on April 21, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thank you Guy Kewney. I read  your article on Spyware (PCW, April) at just the right time.

My wife's computer had been getting slower and slower so I decided to give it the once-over. Apart from disabling a great many totally unnecessary start-up  programmes, cleaning the main drive and defragmenting (even in Safe Mode this took hours), I ran Registry Mechanic which discovered a large number of errors, Spybot which found an equal number of nasties and Ad-Aware which discovered 117 files left on her computer by whoever feels like doing so.

I pointed this out  to her, expecting some Brownie points but was met with the 'so what' attitude  Guy mentioned. I then asked how she would feel if while out shopping she was followed the whole time by a creepy individual who noted every shop she visited and every item she purchased. This time her attitude changed and she replied that she would call the police.

Why can't we call the police or some authority to stop computer spyware? Where do they get the right to install things on other people's computers? Why can't the Civil Liberties people forget about  Asylum Seekers and Identity Cards for a moment and address the issues PCW quite rightly raises?

I find the whole business of spyware totally abhorrent, but I am mystified as to why it is allowed.

Paul

See also: Fooling the ad-man's spyware

Posted by Rob Jones on April 21, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (6)

I enjoy your magazine and have been a subscriber for many years. I would like to complain / make some suggestions about the availability of old PCW material in digital form.

Currently, you can purchase CDs containing 1 year's worth of editorial content for £15 (obviously only after the current year is complete). Alternatively you can buy individual Hands On articles in PDF format for 99p. In addition this you can get the magazine in digital Zinio format (although I have not explored this to discover the price.

My first complaint is mainly a technological one. Making CD-Roms seems so cumbersome and old fashioned in this day of widespread Internet use and increasing availability of broadband. Surely a better way would be to have an
archive of editorial content (i.e. expand the Hands On model) which users
could search and download individual articles or features  instead of having
to shell out what is actually 60% of the price of a subscription, for a CD
mainly consisting of articles you probably didn't want.

Second, the pricing is a bit much. As mentioned the CD roms are vastly overpriced, when most people would have specific needs rather that wanting
to own the whole caboodle! I can't believe they sell well at this price. The
"subscriber's discount" is a joke - subscribers should have access to this
for free!

I propose a model more like the majority of scientific/medical journals I use for work:

FIRST, paid-up subscribers should get automatic access to an electronic archive of all the up-to-date material as long as they are subscribing (or get the CD-Roms free).

Any old stuff e.g. greater than 1 year (since most useful info in the IT industry is very time sensitive) should be available for free for download for everyone, including non subscribers.

Certain current material might  be available free from publication date - news items (usually replicated on the website anyway), and letters perhaps. Other content which is the most useful stuff, but which goes out of date (Hands On, reviews, general features) should be available to buy on a per article basis for an initial period (e.g. 1 year) after which it goes into the free archive for reference.

You need to ensure that there is a useful "abstract" or summary for the pay articles so people can adequately know what they are buying. Obviously the variables such as price per article (you could be really innovative - have a sliding scale of price, a premium price soon after publication, which gets cheaper as time goes on!), length of time before free, would be subject to variation depending on your business model, but in principle this seems a better way of making your content available. Surely your older content does not generate much revenue for you, yet its easy availability would be of use to your readers.

Alan Choo-Kang

Let us know your views on the availability of archived online PCW material - simply post your comments below or send us an email.

Posted by on April 19, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (2)

I am writing this to you on my Sony Vaio VGN-FS115Z, which I bought as a result of the review I read in your April 2005 issue, where it got bot a "Recommended " and "Best Buy" award. I have previously owned a Sony PCG-X18 and felt happy to continue with the brand.

Having now owned the FS Vaio for a couple of  months, I'd like to offer my experience of using the  laptop.

The general feel of this machine is that it has been engineered and manufactured on a budget and it is not of the pedigree I expect from a Sony. The most irksome aspect is the two dead pixels glaring at me on the screen. 

I intended to upgrade it to 1GB of memory, but both available sockets are used with 256MB chips, so I am forced to buy two 512MB chips (Sony  want £338, Crucial charges a more realistic £108). I have subsequently discovered that the professional model, the VGN-FS115XP, uses just the single 512MB chip.

Other niggles include no telephone or patch cables for the integrated modem and network sockets.  Accessories such as spare batteries and port replicator have only just become available.

I am now waiting to send it back for a warranty repair (no quibble) as the right hand locking catch (made of plastic and the one that  operates the "lid's shut" micro-switch) has broken through the stress and strain of gently opening and closing the lid about 50 times. Only Sony don't have the replacement part in stock yet.

In short, the spec is great and I can't refute what  was said in your review - technically it is spot on. But the real world practicalities of the machine seem very different from my point of view.

I accept the fast nature of the computing world, but is it possible to revisit some of the more popular of your "Best Buys' with extended use reviews?

Michael de Whalley

Posted by Rob Jones on April 14, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (174)

I have just had an unpleasant experience with Dabs.com. Wanting to order an extra hard drive for £39 from Dabs I found I had to register with them.  No problem there.  Until I started filling in details.

I rent a house with 3 other people and although my credit card is registered there we don't have a landline as we all use mobile phones.  Everyone including the credit card issuer is fine with this.

For 'security' reasons Dabs will not sell anything to anyone who does not have a landline telephone.  I know this is not a security reason because as long as the credit card is registered to an address and the security number on the back of the card is given, then Dabs have no problem.  They will also take the money before or as soon as the item has been posted.

I can only assume that Dabs want telephone numbers so they can either flood you with their own advertising or sell it on to advertising companies.

So if any of your readers are thinking of ordering from Dabs.com and they do not have a landline then I would tell them to forget it straight away as it is not going to happen.

I can only wonder at how many thousands of pounds Dabs.com give away to competitors in lost business each month.

Richard G Hawley

Posted by on April 12, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (41)

I have been reading PCW every month, for the past few years and I always find the magazine to be very helpful and informative. I have tried using your website a lot but always find it very confusing and I am never able to find what I am looking for.

The search engine appears to search all the VNU sites, and never brings me back what I am looking for. For example I read an article on one of your cover disks last year, explaining how to build your own PC. I want to read this article again, but I cant remember which disk it was on. Instead of searching through 30 or 40 CDs and DVDs I tried searching your website to find out which cover disk had the article on it, but wasn't even able to find anything about any cover disks.

I know that you probably do not want to publish all of each magazine on the PCW website, but it would be very helpful if you could have a section telling us what was in each magazine and what was included on the relevant cover disk. This way readers would not have to search every page of old magazine, and every file on old disks to find what was very good information.

Keep up the good work on the magazine, but just make it easier to find things.

Edward Carty

Posted by on April 8, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Broadband has just arrived in the town in southern France where I live, so I signed up with Wanadoo broadband and walked out of the shop with a Livebox.

There was a simple guide to settting up the WiFi connection to my laptop. But then the difficulty started; I bought a new desktop to run the printer, scanner and iPod etc. The new machine runs well (so far!) and getting it on-line was relatively easy using an Ethernet cable; but then the fun began – I wanted to network the computers, so that I could print from my laptop, and load e-mailed pictures from my laptop into my desktop. 

Could I get them to talk to each other?  No. The full Livebox manual on CD might have had the answer, but I couldn’t understand it. As I lay in bed, the horrible thought flashed through my mind that I had taken a Livebox assuming that it could network, when it did not.

So next morning it was time to search the Internet; it did become clear that Liveboxes would network, but that there were two varieties. And it had something to do with addresses; there were lists of numbers but no clue as to what you did with them. Eventually, of course, I found the answer, but it took until early afternoon.

I found that I needed to make adjustments to the addresses used by the computers themselves. Simple when you know how, but not intuitive.

I do think that a piece of kit on retail sale that does network should at least put you on the right track as to what to do, even if it is not the kit itself that needs setting up.

Harry Shipley

Posted by Rob Jones on April 5, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (101)

I read with interest your review of the Dell Axim x50v in the May issue as I recently bought this particular PDA. Unfortunately, it developed a fault and the unit had to be replaced.

On receipt of the new unit I was horrified that I had been sent a REFURBISHED replacement. After three months, an approx £350 PDA had been replaced with what amounts to a second hand device! Dell technical support explained this was their policy ....

Surely this can't be right? I logged a complaint via the Dell web site and was 'promised' that someone would contact me within 24 working hours. This was over two weeks ago, and I still have not been called. I have since sent another two complaints - without any response.

On browsing the Dell web site, I have been unable to locate any complaints phone number that I can call (although sales numbers are everywhere - funny that!).

If this is standard policy, then what an industry this is becoming. If my TV breaks within three months, I don’t expect it to be replaced with a refurbished unit!

If manufacturers are confident in the quality of the products they sell, then surely their policy would be to replace the faulty product with a NEW ONE. I have found the whole Dell experience extremely frustrating!

Curtis Randle

Posted by Rob Jones on April 4, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (22)

Your review of low-cost DTP software in the May 2005 issue of PCW states that ‘Even the normally prolific open-source movement seems to steer clear of DTP software.  The best thing we've come across in the open-source world is KWord ...’

What about Scribus (www.scribus.net)?  This comprehensive and versatile open-source DTP package has been available for a while now - certainly before your research - is a match for the proprietary packages which you tested, and would have been worthy of inclusion in this group test.

More on Linux in PCW please!

Mike Lucas

Posted by on April 1, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (5)