Gordon Laing is right to be sceptical about mobile connectivity (PCW, July 2006, p. 33). The rhetoric about being online whenever and wherever is so much hot air, because of the charging methods. Let me explain.

Every 3 or 4 months, I spend a day at the British Library, which commendably has Wifi throughout. During that day, I might want to look at my email four or five times. If I have a monthly subscription with one of the major wireless ISPs, there's no problem. But why take out a monthly subscription for something I use only occasionally?

Alternatively, I can buy an hour's time (say) with an ISP. But that hour begins the moment I first connect. I can't distribute it into several short sessions throughout the day. Delving into the recesses of the BT Openzone website you'll find a little-advertised pay-as-you-go tariff for my kind of usage. It's pricey, but cheaper than paying each month for something you don't use, or serially buying an hours'-worth of time and using only five minutes.

As for 3G data connectivity on the move, forget it. It has to be a handsome monthly subscription or nothing.

Allan Jones

Posted by on June 23, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)

In the August 2006 issue of PCW, Julian Gough wrote about the need for manufacturers and software developers to try and reduce boot up times as an incentive for users to turn off their home computers when they are not in use. Kelvyn Taylor mentioned the use of hibernation, bar poorly written software which needs to be improved upon.

Whilst this might be true, recent hardware is becoming increasingly power efficient (well, apart from the fastest graphics cards) or otherwise more environmentally friendly anyway (by avoiding the use of lead, etc).

Examples of environmentally friendly hardware include the Intel Pentium Mobile processor range and the associated mobile chipset motherboards for desktop PCs.

I use such a configuration and have the ability to fully customise the settings for processor and fan speed throttling based on CPU load and temperature monitoring.

Also given that such computers typically consume <100 watts when they peak and feature highly advanced standby support (very much like hibernating, but with an instant recovery achieved by keeping the RAM active) I reckon if you are environmentally conscious and don't mind spend just a bit more money, it is very possible to have a hassle free, pretty green PC today.

John Sommer

Posted by on June 23, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)

I am amazed to see that Cliff Joseph writes that Excel Office on a Mac and a PC in 'Inside Boot Camp' (PCW, August 2006), are the same. What about the font differences? The Mac has gone over to Unicode for Symbol Font for instance and the PC has not, so so something written on a PC using Symbol will not display correctly on a Mac (with a recent OSX).

I have now written some 4000+ interactive Excel files for the PC and tried to make them cross platform but failed due to this.

Would a dual boot machine have to have two versions of Office as did previous Macs using a PC emulator? Would a Mac booting XP use PC fonts throughout as well?

Would there be any way of forcing a Mac with OSX to use the old symbol font for an application rather than the Unicode one?

I have been a subscriber to PCW for many years and have always found the magazine a helpful and interesting read. I hope that you can give me some fresh insight into these matters. My experience of trying to get help fro Mac users when you find a problem has not been good in the past.

John Ellis

Posted by on June 23, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Firstly I would like to note that I like Dell systems. I have bought them consistently for several years not because they are the best but because they are cheap, and until today reliable – they do what it says on the box and the online support with drivers etc. is pretty good, however...

We have just had a not-quite-3-year-old Dell Optiplex GX270 fail on us. It appears to be suffering a known Dell motherboard problem that causes it to either not boot or shut down during the boot process with an error message that declares it has shutdown due to a temperature problem. This is apparently due to some bad capacitors on the motherboard.

I have just been quoted from Dell’s spares provider a replacement for £195 + VAT plus the £5 shipping cost. Please note that this is a second-user, or ‘reconditioned' part with 90 days warranty not a new one!

The very pleasant lady I spoke to did mention they only had one in stock so either they are really attached to it or no one has been stupid enough to buy it at that price, I tend to favour the latter reason.

I don’t know whether this is an endemic issue across the market or just Dell, but this has certainly tainted my impression of the company.

When did it become cheaper to throw the things away? Aren’t we supposed to reduce the waste we generate?

Why does Dell make the cases so easy to open – what’s the point? Am I just older then I realised? Can you provide me with the address of a third world country I can send the thing to so it can be recycled?

Thanks for the opportunity to vent my anger!

Tom Glasson

Posted by on June 9, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (3)

Your 'Welcome to the webtop' article was very interesting! I was speculating how this development might affect the individual programmer, as opposed to companies.

Currently, the individual programmer can write software which makes an impact (e.g. IrfanView, and the early PaintShop Pro).  However, if there is a move to webtop apps (which might need masses of space for user files) then it might become impractical for individuals with talent (and no
startup money) to make an impact.

What is needed is a type of site which hosts masses of webtop apps and also provides space for them to run.  In a sense this is  the next step on from shareware download sites.  I'm waiting...

Mike Parr

Posted by on June 9, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (2)

We were looking at Bluetooth headsets in a store and my wife remarked that the controls on one were a little fiddly. As is common nowadays, the headsets were all in heat sealed plastic packaging of the sort that you have to cut your way into, so it wasn't possible to touch the items inside.
It brought home to me again that one area of product evaluation that the internet can never enable  that of using the sense of touch to discern quality.

I remember as a teenager (many years ago!) putting together an audio system of separate components. I would go to the hi-fi shop where you could touch the display models. Just turning the main volume or tuning knob was enough to tell you much about a piece of kit. The viscous feel of an oil dampened knob proclaimed quality whereas a resistless turn indicated where costs had been cut.

The same was, is, and always will be true of computers. The 'clacky' keyboard and 'clicky' mouse may no longer be with us but there are still differences in quality that can only be discerned through touch.

Forgive the pun, but 'first hand' evidence is still vitally important. A year ago when we renewed our mobile phone contracts I was attracted to the Symbian based Nokia 6260 about which many users had expressed excitement and delight in their internet reviews. I took a trip into the city and asked to see a sample and realised as soon as I felt the lifeless keys and rotated the fragile plastic joint that this was a phone better seen and shown than handled and used.

I ended up with a Nokia 6600 which may be shaped like a flint used by Cro-Magnon man but has something of the same sturdiness yet with sensible, tactile keys and a tiny joystick that is responsive and a joy to use.

Retailers and showrooms provide opportunity to handle some brands and models but many are only available through on-line purchase. Third party reviews can help but my phone experience shows that user reviews on the internet cannot always be trusted since the users often have limited exposure to the full range of makes and models that are available.

Consequently, reliable, third party reviews by experienced reviewers such as those in PCW become increasingly important in the buying decision process, particularly with respect to  build quality. In a very real sense, you are our hands and fingers. So tell me... How does it feel?

McAdam

Posted by on June 9, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

We have had major problems with our wireless connection for the last year.  Every time we put the microwave on the  internet was disconnected. We spent endless hours on the internet (when the  microwave was off!) looking for solutions. We tried re-positioning the router, tried different metal barriers, surge protectors and so on.

In the end we  gave up, and just had to make an anouncement to our rather disgruntled teenage MSN users that we needed to use the microwave and they would have to face being signed off. My husband then had to retire from his job as a  Physics teacher. With plenty of time on his hands he was determined to solve  it.

The solution was so easy, I am writing to tell you, as I am sure  someone out there is as desperate as we were. He turned the access point's transmitting and receiving aerials through 90 degrees. We never had a problem again. He  explained that the microwaves must be polarised, so the 90 degree turn meant  that the microwaves were no longer picked up by the aerial. This has worked  completely.

Everyone out there probably already knows this, but  we hadn't been able to find this solution from anywhere and just had to tell  someone!

Judith Lisgarten

Posted by on June 9, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (2)

I read with interest the article in the July issue of your magazine "Welcome to the Webtop".  I work abroad, but try and keep up-to-date on computer issues when I am home on holiday which I have been for the past few weeks.

I work for a large international NGO and we rely on computers, notably email to keep in touch across the world.  However, I would like to point out two issues which came to mind whilst I was reading the article.

1. Web 2.0 will require high-speed internet access to work properly and enable users to access web-based applications.  This is fine in the West where we have good connections, but in most countries of the world, this is not the case except for a small elite.  New technology has great potential to bridge the gap between the rich and poor (eg mobile phones), but ideas which rely on something most people to not have are unlikely to do this. If Office 2007 is the last version on CD how will people without broadband connections be able to access it in the future?

2. Storing documents on the web on a remote server may be great to enable easy access, but again what happens if you don't have a broadband connection to access them?  In many parts of the world this would simply be to risky as you may find you can't always access your documents.  I currently back up on an external hard-drive and have no intention of storing my documents on the web as there would be privacy issues involved.  It would also be interesting to know what would happen to your data should the company storing it collapse?

While I am aware that these issues are probably not of concern to the majority of your readers I do know that your magazine reaches airports in Africa (notably Nairobi) and will be read by many people.  Perhaps in a future issue you could include an article on computing in an African country to give readers an idea of IT in different contexts.

Duncan Barker

Posted by on June 2, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Reading Nigel Whitfield’s Hands on Web Development pages in July’s PCW reminded me of the constant requests (from both me and my clients) to be able to update website content simply.

Blogging solutions have been approaching this vigorously. Apart from FTP you can update content from server based text editors accessed through a web browser via a ‘backend’ webpage.

Another method is via a Firefox Browser ‘plug-in’ that provides drag and drop editing in a browser window. When the blog entry has been assembled in the editing window a button press sends the content, including HTML, text and image files, seamlessly to the server.

Akin to the last method is a standalone open source, Java-based cross-platform application called Blogg-X. At the moment it transmits blog entries only to the open source Joomla Content Management Software.

With these and other solutions like the commercial Macromedia Contribute and some more static- and page-based solutions like ‘Wikis’ I think we are approaching the paradigm envisaged by Tim Berners-Lee of an interconnected web of pages that can be simply authored, edited and updated by anyone.

While the emphasis swings back and forth between the need for semantically correct mark-up with correct meta-tagging of information and ease of update, we will never find a universal solution, but giving easy access for people to publish must be moving us down a road of universal empowerment that Gutenberg opened one of the first gates to.

Dave Spathaky

Posted by on June 2, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Hardly a day goes by without me reading in the news another scare story about climate change. In the UK we’re being told of an impending energy crisis as our oil and gas runs out.

It has been identified that most people leave their computers switched on all day, even when they are not using it, and in some cases, all night too. So across the world, a vast amount of energy is being wasted. Also, even if we do turn them off, we are being told that the standby state that modern domestic electrical equipment goes into also consumes a noticeable amount of precious electricity.

We’re told that the only way to truly turn off your computer, TV, hi-fi or DVD player is to pull the plug from the wall. I am sure there are many conscientious people who see it as their duty to do this every night, but quite frankly, I do not think that a mass unplugging goes on as the populace retires to bed.

I use a bog standard Windows based PC most of the time, and I accept that I often leave it running all day, Why? Because of the time it takes to shut down and re-boot. It is just too long. I would like to call on the hardware and software manufacturers of this world to collaborate and solve this simple problem.

Once the inconvenience of the boot up and shut down procedure has been removed. I am sure that most people will have no issue in switching off their computer as they pop out for a cappuccino, knowing that they are saving power, money and that very important half written email to the Head of Department.

Julian Gough

Posted by on June 2, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)