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Maps on DVD
I recently bought a Tomtom 910 sat nav and, appreciating this has been superseded by a new model, I had hoped that obsolescence would at least be a couple of years away.
I read the blurb, did my home work and discovered that, sure enough, I can buy the latest maps. However, without broadband the 2.03GB update (Western Europe maps) is going to take a while on a dial-up connection.
It's especially annoying when they no longer offer a DVD as an alternative. I got my 910 in the knowledge I might have to do a map update, but now wished I had stayed with my previous Garmin sat nav.
Dave Kent
Game over
I read the rave review of Bioshock and, being a big fan of the first-person genre, I ran out to pick up a copy. However, the game wouldn't run on my ATI Radeon 850XT graphics card.
Bioshock is very particular supported graphics hardware, ruling out all but the most recent cards. My 850XT makes light work of Half Life 2, Far Cry and the like, but due to lack of support for the latest shader-model, it's a no-go for Bioshock.
After experiencing the problem, it only took a few seconds of Googling to discover the hordes of other short-changed gamers who have no way to play this game without shelling out for new hardware.
I realise that this requirement is mentioned in the specifications small-print section on the retail box, so ultimately I'm at fault for not reading it properly, but it would have been nice to be forewarned.
Mark Hall
RIP Cybercalc
I've been using Cybercalc for years after learning about it from a computer magazine - probably PCW. I used it this morning for a quick centimetre to inch conversion and I especially value its real-time currency conversions.
However, this afternoon it wouldn't run and when I accessed the Cybermetrics website it said that Cybercalc was no longer available.
Does anyone know why?
Richard East
No control
As a regular subscriber I looked back through my back issues and can not find any reviews on Parental Control software. I searched the internet and found a few other reviews which seemed to rate Webwatcher as the highest. My prime requirement was to be able to block adult content sites.
The company who supply Webwatcher do not offer a short term test option so you must purchase before you can test the effectiveness of the software. It has a great interface and it is possible to set the controls per login to the PC, however it failed dismally at blocking sites.
To be fair the supplier worked hard with me to correct the problem and, even after downloading the latest version, it would still fail. It was suggested that I monitor the sites visited by the children and then block them - not an option I was prepared to entertain.
So, even though this software came top in several reviews, it was totally unusable from my point of view. Again, the supplier had no quibbles in repaying my money, so the problem is with the software and not the support.
Tony Little
Failed Nas
Having my two 250GB Iomega Storcenter NAS Drive set up in mirrored Raid configuration, I foolishly believed my data was completely protected.
What I hadn't considered was what would happen if there was a failure of the housing electronics, leaving the two hard drives sound but with no way to access them.
Recently my Iomega Storcenter developed a fault leaving it inaccessible. The problem was how I was to recover my files. Believing the two hard drives were sound, I removed them from the case (Iomega doesn't recommend or make it easy to do this).
I then connected the drives up to a spare PC, but Windows could not see them. Power Quest's Partition Magic showed the disks as sound, but unallocated. I believe if I tried to allocate them I would most likely lose the data.
I contacted Iomega support to find out how to recover my files, but no reply has been received to date, which is very disappointing.
After some research on the internet, I found that most Nas drives use Linux ext-2 file systems, which are clearly not directly accessible with a Windows PC. There is some software available to make ext-2 disks accessible to Windows, but I could not get it to work.
Two further possibilities have occurred to me. If I had a second Nas drive that used ext-2 file system I could temporarily put my two healthy drives in and recover the files. Alternatively I could use an old PC, install Linux on it and then get to my files that way.
Please, could PCW produce an article on how to recover files from Nas drives that use ext-2 file system?
Richard Jones
Devious Apple loses a potential convert
I'm an ideal candidate for Apple to tempt into their camp, needing to replace my 4 year-old (Windows) computer. I've only ever used Windows - since Version 3.1.
Visiting their Lakeside store, I appreciated their one-to-one introduction which lasted 30 minutes. The iMac is certainly impressive, and Leopard is superb. The demonstration showed just how fast the combination is.
The units on display for anyone to 'play with' are the future of marketing. Why didn't I buy? Because in my opinion, they are devious. The prices are shown by each computer, but for 'standard' build. I checked every iMac on display & each is fitted with extra RAM that is not shown on the price tag, nor mentioned by the demonstrator. No wonder they seemed fast. And, Apple RAM is exhorbitantly priced.
Imagine going into a garage for a car test-drive. The performance of the 2-litre family hatchback convinces you to buy; but you then discover the vehicle you sampled had a 3-litre engine.
Ron Hughes
