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Photo prints for life?
I would like to comment on your reviews of photo printers.
In the past you bought a roll of film, took your pictures and then had them all developed, generally discarding only the worst. With the widespread shift from film to digital photography, you now download the images from your camera to your PC and then print only the best, saving yourself from
storing large numbers of paper photographs.
You will of course still have the digital files archived away, but in many ways digital files are more vulnerable than printed images - many of us have experienced hard drive crashes or corruptions of our storage media. When this happens you are likely to lose a large part, if not all, of your photo
collection. Moreover, the file and storage formats we use today are popular, but where will they be a century or more from now? Unless you and your ancestors go through the expensive and time-consuming process of periodically migrating your archives to the technologies of the day you risk
the chance of them eventually becoming obsolete.
This is where printed images score over their digital counterparts, and why it is important that they are as permanent as possible. In our rush to embrace digital recording systems, we run the risk of large amounts of everyday history being unavailable to future generations. Therefore in your reviews of photo printers, I would like to see a rating for the longevity of the prints produced by these printers and their consumables. I realize that simulating aging is a difficult task, but having seen how quickly images have faded from the photos produced by some inkjet printers I feel that more emphasis should be placed on this subject.
This does of course open a much wider debate about the digital storage of all types of information....
Chris Crawshay
Software downloads are not a panacea
It has become quite commonplace to download software in recent years but although very convenient it is not always the best solution.
I recently had a problem with my hard disk drive and it had to be replaced. Fortunately all my data was backed up so I lost no important files and I was able to restore everything. The software I use was restored from the original disks, of course.
However, I had upgraded several pieces of my software by means of downloads and these I could not restore. There is Ability Office, for example, where I upgraded from v.3 to v.4. I’ve recovered v.3 from the original disk but I cannot restore the upgrade. There is also the problem that when Ability Office v.5 eventually appears it will upgrade from v.4, not v.3 so it probably won’t work on my system.
Of the software companies I know only Serif seem to avoid the download route. All its products, including upgrades, come in CD format. I am glad of its CD format-only policy because it has meant my Serif software is up to date.
Downloads are fast and easy but are not the universal panacea they seem.
Andrew Lillie
Is WAP growing up?
It would be good it you could run some pages on what is now available on WAP.
WAP did seem to be pretty rubbishy ["ringtones" for kids, but not much else] but now there seems to be a growing amount of really useful information that can be read on the newer mobile phones.
The BBC runs an excellent WAP site: news, sport, weather, road delays. Yahoo now offers an alternative news service and also offers to find items such as the cheapest Nikon Camera. And the Railways site is brilliant: on 7th July I was able to work out how to get home from the North avoiding London; train times, connection delays all available from my seat in a carriage.
If you could pull this together and give us a listing, that would be a real service.
Ian Macpherson
What's a virus?
Derek Smith asks what a virus is. OK, the question's rhetorical but, given the context, it's one that's worth answering. A virus is a piece of malicious software (malware) that causes your computer to do something you didn't intend. People write viruses for two purposes:
- To look clever and gain notoriety
- To make money by dubious or dishonest means.
In both cases, it's essential to gain widespread and quick distribution so that the maximum number of computers becomes infected before a fix is found and the attack thwarted or at least reduced.
In order to do this, viruses need to target a widely used and also widely connected operating system. Contrary to popular belief, any operating system that isn't Windows is not necessarily more secure. When I was using Psion handhelds, there were regular queries from new users on the forums I was active on about viruses for these devices.
The answer was always that, even with a ROM based OS, a virus was still possible, but the fact the EPOC was not widely used (in global terms) and, above all, not widely connected, tended to make virus writing not worthwhile. In this scenario, a handful of machine might be compromised, but the spread would be slow and easily contained. It's worth noting that, now the Symbian OS has ported to mobile phones, highly destructive viruses have begin to appear.
Windows is the most popular OS and used by a wide variety of people, including many who have no idea how a computer works and don't realise the need for security in the same way that they need to be reminded on a regular basis to lock their car when they leave it in a carpark. These computers, connecting widely to the internet, are highly vulnerable and it's not entirely Microsoft's fault. A secure operating system might be possible, but it would come at the cost of ease of use and simple web access and email.
Jet-powered PCs
Using the latest high performance jet engine in a car for everyday usage would be illogical. The car would be costly, use lots of aviation fuel, be noisy, produce considerable heat and so be bad for global warming. The car's blistering performance would be unnecessary, except for some
record breaking sporting events.
Apart from the fact the fuels are different, the same same applies to PCs fitted with the fastest CPUs.
A high spec PC is costly, uses lots of electricity, is noisy, produces lots of heat and is therefore bad for global warming. The PCs blistering performance is unnecessary except for a small number of specialist tasks. Six years ago I completed a PhD thesis - a document far more complex than
most people today will ever write. There are endnotes, footnotes, graphs, equations, figures and photographs, all of which are numbered properly and automatically. A 100MHz PC was used for the task.
That 100MHz PC would be far too slow to run a modern version of Windows. Let us hope cars don't get bloated like Windows software has been, so that in 6 years time a new car will need a jet engine to move it along at a reasonable speed.
Dr. David Kirkby, PhD.
Do TFT standards need to improve?
I have just been reading the letter in your October 2005 issue about problems with dead / faulty pixels on TFT monitors and I am basically astounded. I have been in IT for almost 20 years professionally but for various reasons have had almost no experience with TFT screens.
However I cannot believe that a manufacturer can hide behind a wording to avoid replacing what is basically a faulty product. The purpose of a monitor is to display accurately images that the PC sends to it. If it cannot do so then it is faulty irrespective of whether it is being used for personal or professional use. I am more concerned however with the implicit acceptance of the ‘standards’ from yourselves, surely this is exactly the sort of thing your magazine should be pushing to improve.
Terry Murphy
Refreshingly Rory
It was refreshing to read Rory Reid’s column in September’s issue. One reason why I subscribe to your magazine is that you really do take the side of the reader - not the manufacturers’, nor the advertisers’, but plain old Joe Public’s.
Rory elegantly made the case that consumers are frequently bamboozled into buying pointless, faddish gadgets that will be obsolete and require updating within moments. I’ve written before to commend the way you have exposed the overemphasis of megapixels in digital cameras, something which Rory makes clear in his article. Good on yer.
Your refusal to get onto the bandwagon of flogging and hyping every gadget simply because it is there, is truly refreshing and of immense value to the reader. I assume this can’t be easy for PCW, seeing that you must be reliant on advertising revenue to some extent, but it is to be commended. Because of your stance, I know that if a reviewed item is a dog, you will say so; if it is over-hyped, you will say so; and if you say it is good, I will know that you’re not just saying that to keep the advertisers or the suppliers sweet.
In the minefield that is the technology market, it’s nice to know that there is a publication to rely upon for unambiguous, trustworthy advice. Many thanks for that.
Alan Thomas
Beware of APC Java time-bomb
I thought I would let your readers know about the cause of an horrendous server problem which I experienced last week. The after-effects are still on-going.
We had a power cut on July 29th. When the server was brought up again, all kinds of problems appeared, including Control Panel and Recycle Bin hanging, the backup not working and general lock-ups.
After two days of Dell support, and getting nowhere, I paid for a Microsoft support call. Within a few hours the technician gave me the clue I needed - the symptoms were almost certainly caused by an expired (Sun) Java certificate. This certificate expired on July 27th and hence any re-boot after this time could cause severe problems.
After a lot more investigation I traced the cause to the APC uninterruptible power supply software. There is in fact a posting on their website about the issue. I still have not managed to load the APC updated software correctly because it hung on install.
I would like to commend the Microsoft technician who helped me on the way to a resolution, even though it was not strictly their problem, and, better still, he did not charge me in the end.
There is therefore a potential 'time-bomb' in many systems using APC UPS equipment, and forewarned is forearmed.
Derek Camfield
Smaller, better, lighter, less
I just read the letter in the PCW September issue about the compact version of PCW. this sounds like a great idea. While you're looking into that, can you think about providing a version without a cover CD? I have broadband at home, and access to everything on the cover CD already. Not having to pay for a CD I never use would make getting my copy of PCW even more pleasurable.
Andrew Ducker
Where is the innovation?
I look forward to receiving PCW each month and especially to reading the reviews of new equipment. I have always wondered why the fax/telephone was never marketed as a ‘must have’ for every home. It was typical of the lack of imagination in many technology driven companies.
If every home had had one, instead of merely a telephone, not only would costs (and prices) have plummeted but the communication benefits to consumers (and to the phone companies’ profits!) would have been enormous. Sending letters direct overnight would have been the norm – first class post would have been almost eliminated!
Recently I have noticed that projectors are beginning to be marketed for home use, but this doesn’t seem very widespread, and having to link the projector to a computer or TV makes life unnecessarily complicated. Again, a lack of customer-driven thinking by technology driven companies! When will one of them add the simple circuits required for TV reception into the projector? Do that and they could capture the home TV market from LCD TVs and at a low price give us all the benefits of large screen viewing.
Come on manufacturers, let's have some useful innovation!
Peter Williams
Windows? No thanks.
I am sure that the letter titled 'No thanks, Mac' in your September issue, should have read 'No thanks PC' with all references to Apple Mac OSX and XP reversed, as the sentiments expressed by the correspondent are exactly those I have towards Microsoft.
I have used PCs for my consultancy work for as long as Microsoft has produced commercial operating systems, but chose not to move from Microsoft 2000 professional to XP for a variety of reasons - the chief ones being the time it has takes Microsoft to produce an acceptably stable, bug-free OS following its release, the security gaps they have to keep filling, the way it is a target for viruses etc , and last but not least usability and functionality.
