Has Asus missed a trick?

It's not just me (a 50 year old ex-Z88 and Acorn Risc PC user), but also my wife (a 42 year old late adopter of home computing) who would like an Asus Eee PC and a Wii. However, whilse most people seem to have understood what is good about a Wii they don't seem to have grasped the essential about the Eee PC, and I fear this could include Asus.

The issues for me, and lots of others, are price-point and practicality. If you want a laptop for email and a bit of word processing, then there is a world of difference between £220 and £340 in the justification stakes. You just cannot compare a £1,000 Apple Macbook Air with an Eee PC any more than you can compare a Ford Ka with a Ferrari. However the Eee PC is not just a cheap laptop, it is small enough to take in your luggage - not as your luggage.

For many, this is a very practical point. I also think Asus missed a trick with the soldered flash memory. If they had put a second SDHC port inside and fitted it with a fast card then they could have made one model but shipped whatever was in demand.

But what do I know, I can't even find one in stock at the right price.

Mark Foweraker

April 29, 2008 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Psion of the times

I loved your April issue - all very nostalgic! When my young lad (now some 32 years old and with one and a half PhD's), first came home from his primary school talking about computers, I resolved to keep ahead of him.

Inevitably, a Sinclair ZX81 came along, soon followed by a ZX Spectrum and then a BBC Micro with all the bits.

Throughout this learning curve, I discovered Psion and have had virtually every model since the very first "push/pull" grey device. I used these various Psion offerings throughout my healthcare career as I had a need for truly portable, instant access information.

Now, as a professional photographer, I have learned to absorb the digital age and Photoshop, and still believe I am keeping ahead of my son - especially when it comes to imaging and spreadsheets. I thoroughly enjoyed your 30th anniversary issue and will keep it safe as a reminder of how far we have come.

Incidentally, I recently enjoyed an exhibition of the "Historic Development of computers" at the top of La Grande Arche in La Defence in Paris where they had actual examples of computers from the earliest to date.

Today, although I use a variety of PCs in my daily business, I still rely totally on a Psion 3MX for all my personal matters and immediately-to-hand information. It has been 100 per cent reliable, despite three serious drops.

Switching between three agendas, 14 spreadsheets, five databases, three word documents, it has never been beaten in terms of speed of access.

Other software (Berlitz, Phrase, Wine, Dietary Analysis etc) simply add to the versatility of this serious previous world-beater - and it was British-designed and made! An absolutely brilliant device - where next? Perhaps the nearest device is the latest Nokia Communicator?

Keith Erskine

April 29, 2008 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

In the frame

I found your digital photo frame group test (PCW April 2008) very interesting, but I feel you have missed two important points.

I have one of these picture frames which is very similar to the featured Cenomax, but without the remote control. It works well and is very satisfactory when viewed from a distance of one metre or greater.

I reduce my photos in Paint Shop Pro to the optimum size of 480x234 - some of my albums contain hundreds of photos, so I do them in batches of around 20. I then put the reduced size photo album onto a 256MB SD card and run the photo frame.

The frame ignores the alphabetical or numerical sequencing, instead playing them back by what appears to be each photo's time stamp, thus throwing my holiday photos out of sequence. It also treats the albums in the same way. I tried renaming the photos within the albums after reducing the size, but it made no difference.

Based on the fact I should be able to get approximately 7,000 resized photos on a 256MB SD card, another problem comes to light: if I switches the unit off overnight, it restarts at what it thinks is the first album again.

The chances of getting through 7,000 photos in one day is limited, so I am unlikely to see the most recent additions to the Photo Frame shown unless I leave it on permanently going through its slide show.

Ron Hak

April 29, 2008 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

A bad year for HD DVD

It’s looking like a turbulent year for HD DVD, what with the Warner Bros’ announcement in January that it would exclusively back the rival Blu-ray format. It has also suffered from DVD rental giants Netflix and Blockbusters phasing out the format, American retailer Best Buy's recommendation of Blu-ray over HD DVD for consumers, and Walmart's decision to support only Blu-ray from June 2008.

Just days after reading Gordon Laing and Barry Fox's articles about the HD format war, I learnt that Toshiba (HD DVD’s main backer) had announced that they would no longer develop, manufacture or market HD DVD players from March this year. This, I feel, must be the tip of the high-definition iceberg in favour of Blu-ray, as Toshiba's pull-out effectively ends the format war.

I feel for Laing. In his piece he referred to the VHS/Betamax format war lasting for years, and stated that "we could be in for a long ride yet" in this new race for high-definition supremacy. It now seems that this ride has been cut very short indeed. After all the money and time put into the successor to the DVD by Toshiba and various other companies, not to mention the consumer spending upon the technology, it seems such a waste. But every battle must have a victor, and, just like VHS, Blu-ray has won both the battle for manufacturer backing, and in turn the war.

Being an owner of a Sony’s £300 Playstation 3, which supports Blu-ray playback, I am somewhat pleased that the outcome wasn’t the opposite. I do not wish to gloat, but this is a definite reassurance that the money I spent on a next-gen console was spent well.

Although I do not own any Blu-ray films, I feel content in the knowledge that my PS3 will be able to play high-definition films in the future, should I feel the need to watch them.

Loz Hawksworth.

February 28, 2008 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Battery life expectancies

I've read many reviews of laptops and quite a few mention battery life in terms of the number of hours use on a full charge.

I've not seen any comparison of the life of the battery in terms of how long it lasts before you have to replace it, as opposed to recharging. I know that this is not a simple 'test one machine and get a representative answer', but it would be a useful industry standard. Maybe you have enough readers who would contribute data that some conclusions could be drawn.

My own experience consists of three laptops. All used for a similar mix of applications, all went through a careful charge cycle before first use, and all used predominantly attached to the mains. My results were one Compaq Evo that was still giving three hours useful service when the machine was stolen at four years old and two Dell Inspirons that both had hardly enough life to boot the machine with the battery at just over 6 months old.

Not a statistically valid sample, but enough to suggest that there may be a brand dependent cost of ownership issue with the battery life.

Tony Corless

February 28, 2008 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A computing revolution

In almost 30 years of reading PCW I have never felt so compelled to write in until now. When I was a little boy I always dreamed of owning my own microcomputer. The exorbitant prices were outside the reach of mere mortals until the £70 Sinclair ZX81 with its 1K ram, micro membrane keyboard and expandable 16K Ram pack slot arrived. I soon taught myself how to program in Basic and Z80 assembler. Forget Microsoft Windows it was that little PC that changed the world.

Now that I am older (and none the wiser) I have always dreamed of owning an ultraportable. Again, the excessive prices were too much for a pauper like me, until Asus released the £200 Eee PC with its 256MB Ram, micro-sized keyboard and expandable SD and USB ports. I have owned three beloved Psion 5s whilst waiting for a worthy contender from the smartphone brigade to claim its throne (T-Mobile’s MDA Vario came close).

Forget expensive options like Microsoft Office and XP/Vista, its Linux, Firefox and Open Office that’s making the Asus platform viable in my eyes. I believe Gordon Laing’s observations are spot on while PCW’s recent review calling the Eee PC a ‘toy for the technically minded’ completely misses the point.

Just as the recently released £1,200 Tata Nano car will make driving accessible to today’s Model T aspiring masses, an upgradable £200 laptop with full web, wireless and office productivity could finally make truly affordable  portable computing available to all. I have one, my children will have one and my friends will too. Like Nintendo’s Wii proved with video gaming, this is the start of a computing revolution.

Toyin Agbetu

February 12, 2008 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Resolution issues

I appreciate that game manufacturers and distributers are unable to test on the vast number of combinations of PCs that exist. However would it not be possible for them to at least put the default resolution on the packaging?

I have a games system that exceeds all of the specifications on the package, but I run it into a JVC 32in LCD television. This does not display 800x600, but it can display higher resolutions and lower resolutions.

So I put the CD/DVD in the slot, click all the install buttons, wait for a while and then hear the sound track but no video. Quite often it is possible to install the game on my office PC, reconfigure the graphics to a resolution that will display and then copy a file with the new info it to my games system. Some I can alter a set up file to run in a window, some I have to reprogram.

I have contacted games manufacturers and distributers, the best quote is: "your set up is too good for the game". No one is prepared to supply a patch or explain how to run the game on a system which conforms to the specification on the box.

I could return the game to the supplier as "not fit for purpose", but by then I have taken it out of all of its packaging and tried to use it so that it would not be fair to the retailer.

Bob Sheppard

February 12, 2008 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

PSU failure

I would like to endorse Joe Clifford's letter (PCW February 2008, Letters). I suffered a catastrophic PSU failure which fried both drives of my mirror Raid array. Backup!

Ken Wood

February 12, 2008 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Nas restoration

On the subject of the failed NAS enclosure (PCW January 2007, Letters), I am a Linux user and my system allows me to look into the guts of small Nas drives.

In general terms they have two partitions, a small 100MB or so primary ext2 partition, which contains the embedded Linux OS and a major storage partition. Normally the larger partition is able to be formatted to ext2 or ext3, ReiserFS, Fat32 or even NTFS - Fat32, while not as good as NTFS, is transparent to most other operating systems.

I would suggest to the owner of the failed drives that rather than going to the trouble of installing a Linux distro, he should use a Linux Live CD - the prime choices being Knoppix (the KDE desktop looks pretty much like Windows) or Puppy (the file manager looks a bit odd but is understandable). Either will allow copying to a USB key and Knoppix also offers CD writing with a pretty simple interface.

QT Parted (partition manager on Knoppix) will tell you what format has been used on the drive and, if you use it via the command line in Konsole by typing 'sudo qtparted', will allow formatting of the partitions - be careful!

James Baldwin

January 2, 2008 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Photo GPS

Geotagging of Photos (PCW November 2007, Hands On) is very useful, particularly for anyone traveling. It also makes life easier for anyone who uses photos to record the condition of equipment during surveys or who collect photographic evidence.

However, one concern is the use of a separate GPS unit which would need to be checked regularly during photo shoots to ensure it is functioning correctly (GPS is locked on, batteries ok, memory not full etc.).

Anyone on an extended field trip may find the requirement to download both the photographs and GPS track information regularly, and then run a separate program to merge the position data into the photo information file a limitation.

In my search for a reliable and easy to use geotagging system I came across the Geopic II from Customidea (www.customidea.com), at the recent Nikon Show.

It's easy to use, overcomes the above limitations and fits on the camera hot shoe and connects directly to the camera via the 10-pin accessory socket.  The principle advantage of this unit is its ease of use since it records the position data directly in the photo information file at the instant the photo is taken.

Peter Bryon

January 2, 2008 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Raid isn’t backup

I can understand the frustration expressed by Mr Philips (PCW November 2007, Letters), who found that the warranty on his disk drive was invalidated by the action he took to recover the data lost by the disk failure, and by Richard Jones with the failed Nas device (PCW January 2008, Letters).

Unfortunately, it appears that your readers did not appreciate that simple backup and recovery procedures could have lessened the impact of these failures.

There appears to be a misunderstanding among many PC users that Raid technology removes the need for backup. Raid, however, addresses another aspect of data availability - that of continuity of service. This is done by eliminating one of the single points of failure within the storage system.

There are many other such single points of failure in a computer system, which include the power supply, the Raid controller, the path between the storage device and the computer and even the computer itself.

In a business system these risks will be identified, assessed and safeguards put in place. Underpinning all of these will be an effective backup and recovery system. For the home user it is important to protect that all-important data against loss. The most effective way is by introducing some form of backup procedure.

Way back in the days of small hard drives I would save two copies of each document to separate floppy disks. Today, I synchronise data between partitions on a second disk and regularly copy important files to CD or DVD. Yes, I do have a disaster recovery plan.

Please encourage your readers to think carefully about the technologies they choose to secure their data.

Joe Clifford

December 6, 2007 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Photos from afar

I had a closer look at the Parrot Photo Frame (PCW January 2008, News) and it doesn't quite do what I am after.

I have an elderly mother who cannot operate electronics (including a mobile phone), but I live a long way away (in another country). I would love to be able to set a picture frame in her house, and email or phone through a new picture on a daily basis.

Is there anything around? Or is there anyone who sees this as a gap in the market?

Renate Powell

December 6, 2007 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

GPS and the law

Many, many cars travelling around the UK now carry sat navs or GPS systems. In the last 18 months, they have become particularly widespread and common-place.

It doesn’t take a huge leap of the imagination, to guess that some of these cars may have been involved in accidents while the GPS systems were operational.

So I wonder if the police have yet begun to use the very useful and comprehensive data stored within sat navs” to help unravel the events prior to an accident occurring.

Of course this may be good or bad news for the sat nav's owner. But either way, it has to be worthwhile way of getting at the truth?

Ronan O’Neill

December 6, 2007 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

The wider view

Andrew Kennard (Letters, PCW December) regrets the fact that most screens are wide, not tall, yet many office workers would probably prefer to work in portrait mode.

One of my clients recently phoned to say that she had touched something on the keyboard and was having to look at everything sideways!

I discovered that this was not a fault but a ‘feature’ of her new Dell PC and that it could either be restored to normal with the supplied software or one could, indeed, turn the screen on its base. And all for under £400 delivered.

Keith Paterson

December 6, 2007 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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

November 15, 2007 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

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

November 15, 2007 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Swivelling monitors

Andrew Kennard (PCW December 2007, Letters) bemoans the fact that most screens are wide, not tall. However, many office workers would probably prefer to work in portrait style.

One of my clients recently phoned to say that she had touched something on the keyboard and was having to look at everything sideways. I discovered that this was not a fault but actually a feature of her new Dell, and that it could either be restored to normal with the supplied software or one could, indeed, turn the screen on its base.

Keith Paterson

October 23, 2007 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Weight a minute

One of the important things about a laptop is its weight, so how come some manufacturers seem to get away with either being vague about it or just understating it?

We bought an HP Compaq nc2400 for a client a few months back. According to HP, the nc2400 has a weight 'starting at 1.29kg'.

We weighed it and found it was 1.5 kg, and we couldn't see any way to get the weight down short of
removing fairly important components, such as the battery and hard disk.

Similarly we've just bought a Toshiba Portege R500, which apparently has a weight 'starting at 0.979kg'. It actually weighs 1.1 kg, and again there's nothing we can remove to make it lighter unless we're happy to use it without the battery.

Exactly how are the manufacturers coming up with these very attractive weight figures, and how can we find out what the truth actually is?

Phil Stanton

October 18, 2007 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Think before deleting

Danny Leonard (PCW December 2007, Letters - "Undelete issues") and others should understand that, by using kit like Nas drives, they are really moving into the world of professional IT.

Those of us who grew up there using mainframes have never been able to undelete files. Once it was gone it was gone. So we learned to be very, very careful before we deleted anything; something I always emphasise when teaching mainframe operating systems to people who have been brought up on PCs.

Perhaps that's why I've never had to retrieve anything from the Recycle Bin.

Roger Tilbury

October 18, 2007 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Tallscreen, not widescreen

I totally agree with Jasper Warwick about widescreen notebooks.

We write database applications and widescreens are becoming a problem for us especially when the application has to be used on desktops and notebooks. I'm not sure of the 'side by side' document argument as each document is probably at 50% or less of full size and therefore not exactly readable.

I had hoped the widescreen thing would be a fad, but now desktop monitors are going that way it looks like they are here to stay.

For business use, if screens were going to change shape they really should have gone tall. After all, the paper we print on is portrait and web pages tend to be of fixed width and unlimited height.

I wonder what percentage of notebooks are actually used to play movies on a regular basis? Or perhaps the screens are designed for people who max out Excel's 255 column limit.

Andrew Kennard

September 14, 2007 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Cable choices

I recently upgraded to a PC supporting HD so I thought I’d have a go connecting it to my HD TV, what I needed was an HDMI cable that supported 1080p.

Having spent a fair proportion of the last 20 years fiddling with hi-fi and video cables for various AV setups, I was not surprised to find many different grades and, more importantly, prices available to me.

I was offered 24K gold plated plugs with silver soldering for optimum signal clarity, 99.99% oxygen free cable to combat signal degradation, fully coated and triple shielded cord which I was told would prevent signal interference and don’t get me started on gas injected dielectric, whatever that is.

The prices were equally baffling, ranging from 49p to £130. So I slipped into hi-fi mode and prepared myself to take a leap at something costing a little more than 49p but significantly less than £130 but then I had a realisation.

We’ve been taught to look for things like gold plated plugs and oxygen free cables because with an analogue signal things like signal clarity are important. HDMI on the other hand is digital, so as long as the signal gets from one end to the other nothing else matters after all, nobody buys gold plated network cables do they?

So how can the cable manufacturers get away with overcharging us for digital cables with all the analogue extras we’ll never need? Because we’re used to it, so used to it in fact that despite this revelation I still couldn’t bring myself to buy the 49p cable but I did spend significantly less than £130.

Jake Dovey

September 14, 2007 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Powerline distances

Thank you very much for your interesting group test of powerline networking devices (PCW November 2007).

I would be interested to know if you can say anything more about the communication range reached in practice with the tested adapters - in the test article I could only read that it is limited and determined partially by the physical distance between the adapters.

Sven Ruin

September 14, 2007 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Undelete issues

After much head scratching and research I bought a Netgear SC101 Nas drive and stuck two hard drives in it, giving me a shed load of storage. I then installed the software and firmware updates, attached the drives to the PCs on my network and got music and videos streaming from it.

However, the main purpose of buying the kit was to use my Nas drive as a sort of off-site storage and backup solution, which would free up countless gigabytes of data from my main PC and server.

One day, while I was sorting files out, archiving data and doing the usual spring cleaning routine, I decided that a few files were no longer needed so deleted them. I then headed for the Recycle Bin to recover the file... but it's not there.

Frantically looking around for ways of backtracking and recovering this file that I accidentally deleted, I still couldn't find that file. I downloaded several bits of software that seemed like they would do a good recovery job but, several hours later, I got a "Results = 0" message.

After contacting Netgear support, I was referred to second-line tech support. I explained my dilemma of not being able to recover a deleted file to which the response was, "Yeah, that's because once you have deleted the file, you can't get it back due to the unique file system employed on the SC101". I asked, "Ok, so have you any tools to recover deleted files?" to which the response was, "No and we aren't developing any either."

Why on earth have so many people boasted about all the benefits of Nas drives if you can't do the most fundamental operations on it such as undelete? What good is a so-called backup/storage solution if when something goes wrong you can't undo it?

This problem may not be particularly important to the average user, but for people who are data safety aware I would personally think of an alternative solution before opting for a Nas.

Danny Leonard

September 14, 2007 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Laptops for the older generation

I'd love to see a review from you guys of laptops for my generation - say a few years either side of 60.

t would need to be very light and compact, have a decent screen and keyboard with keys that fit fingers, and the ability to run simple work programmes like Word, Excel,  Acrobat, and Powerpoint at good speed, with Bluetooth or wireless capability built in.

I don't think most us need the likes of video-streaming capabilities and sound, just light and compact dimensions in these days of 'one-bag-only' travel.

John Wallinger

September 13, 2007 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Widescreen woes

I was wondering if anyone else has noticed the quiet disappearance of traditional non-widescreen aspect ratio screens (1,024x758, 1,400x1,050 etc) from manufacturers laptop ranges?

I am beginning the process of looking for a replacement for my Dell D610. This has been one of the best laptops I have owned - it is well built, has a great balance of features and a fabulous screen (1,400x1,050). My wife has the newer version of the laptop the D620 - as you would expect it is faster, has more memory, larger hard disk etc. It also has a widescreen display; an improvement, you might think. However, rather than making the old screen wider, Dell have instead chopped off 150 pixels off the bottom to reduce its vertical resolution to 900 pixels. The effect is that the new model now has 14 per cent less screen acreage than the old model.

This may not seem much, but when you sit the two laptops side by side the difference is much more pronounced. By the time you take into account fixed screen overheads such as toolbars, window banners and page headers, the loss of usable space can be as much as 30 per cent. Comparing two identical word documents on each laptop the D610 shows 40 lines of text while the D620 can only manage 27 lines.

This does not seem like a positive step to me. To be fair to Dell, it is not alone in doing this - most laptop manufactures seem to have jumped on the widescreen bandwagon. But I do struggle to see how this loss of screen area makes the D620 an improvement on my old machine.

What I also find fascinating is that the manufacturers seem to have turned this apparently retrograde step into a positive sales feature. Widescreens are great if you watch a lot of movies. Most of us, however, use our laptops for email, word processing, and surfing the web, which basically involve scrolling down lines of text. In this respect, my old D610 beats the newer D620 hands down.

I am the only person who mourns the death of the old aspect ratio?

Jasper Warwick

August 17, 2007 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Mighty mouse

Some years ago, a motor mechanic gave me a simple car tune-up tip - just fit a weaker accelerator pedal return spring. The subjective result is that the car’s throttle response is markedly improved, so the car feels nippier.

As with cars, so with computers - when did you last check your mouse response? When setting a PC up initially, most of us will feel more comfortable with conservative mouse settings. But after you’ve used your PC for a while, why not try increasing the mouse speed and acceleration parameters? Just tweaking them a little will result in less wrist movement and a PC that feels more responsive.

Thanks for an entertaining and informative magazine, keep up the good work!

John Ellerington

May 31, 2007 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Nokia N95 voice quality

Your review of the Nokia N95 (July 2007) cause me some amusement following my recent experience with a Nokia E50. Having switched service providers, and having been presented with a shiny new E50 fully of useful features for the business user, I spent several hours transferring my address book from my previous handset, digesting the E50’s manual, and generally getting to grips with its little quirks, only to get complaints of a severe echo on the line from anyone speaking to me on the phone.

A quick trawl of the internet revealed so many threads reporting similar problems that one might suspect a design fault. My amusement with your review of the N95 mobile phone was that there was not a single comment in whole page about the phone’s ability to make calls, presumably the primary function of a mobile??? My own recent experience shows that this should not be taken for granted!

Trevor Towler

May 31, 2007 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Four Thirds failing

Gordon Laing says that Olympus has a good chance of being one of the three surviving big players in the DSLR market (PCW June 2007). Not if they stick with the technological and optical dead end that is the Four Thirds system, with the limitations of its very small sensor and tiny photosites.

The latter is the major factor in restricting image quality. Ten megapixels is about the limit that can be stuffed on to a sensor measuring only 18x13 mm (the near universal APS-C format is 24x16 mm), while maintaining reasonable noise performance. The marketing advantages of dust removal, in-camera shake reduction and live preview are not specific to the Four Thirds system and other manufacturers already provide them.

What Canon, Nikon, Pentax and the others are free to do is increase pixel ratings and sensor size sizes in parallel, thus continually improving absolute imaging quality without having to resort to increasing levels of digital manipulation to keep up with an advancing market. Olympus now has to do this within the straight jacket of the Four Thirds system – unless they have discovered some way around the laws of physics.

The Leica and Panasonic Four Thirds DSLRs are more exercises in PR rather serious contenders in the market. The forthcoming Olympus professional DSLR will be that only in name as its low light/high speed limitations will mean few pros will indulge in the concept.

The current range of Olympus DSLRs are fine cameras in themselves and much appreciated by amateurs, but for better or worse, the upper, DSLR end of the market will continue to be driven by increasing pixel counts and sensor  sizes, and Olympus risks being left behind in that race by handicapping itself with the Four Thirds format.

Patrick Chambers

May 31, 2007 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Go-faster mouse

Some years ago, a  motor mechanic gave me a simple car tune-up tip - just fit a weaker accelerator  pedal return spring. The subjective result is that the car's throttle response  is markedly improved, so the car feels nippier.

As with cars, so  with computers - when did you last check your mouse response? When setting a PC  up initially, most of us will feel more comfortable with 'conservative' mouse  settings, but after you've used your PC for a while, why not try increasing the  mouse speed and acceleration parameters? You'll find the settings in Control  Panel / Mouse, and just tweaking them a little will result in less wrist  movement and a PC that feels more responsive.

Thanks for an  entertaining and informative magazine, keep up the good  work!

John  Ellerington

May 11, 2007 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Digitizing slides the easy way

As a subscriber of  some years I am always keen to be introduced to the latest trends in technology,  together with answers to the problems that it creates.

But we should not  forget that these technologies often require expenditure, and may not always be  the most practical solution.

In the June issue of PCW, in answer to a question regarding capturing transparencies to digital format,  the expert advised a solution involving expenditure of a few hundred pounds, followed by a time consuming process of scanning them with the specialist  peripheral.

From experience I know that in some respects the scanning is only  part of the effort; manipulation to provide individual photos from scanned  multiples is quite frustrating.

However, an  alternative is to use a slide projector to display them on to a screen and then  use a digital camera (on a tripod with a short delay on the trigger to minimise  shake) to take individual digital photographs.  Using a Kodak carousel  projector with 80 slides, I can capture 10 photographs per  minute.

Perfect?  No,  but I cannot tell the difference unless I start enlarging. Technology is great  fun, but don't overlook simpler methods.

Andy  Quick

May 8, 2007 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

The PCW ISA Challenge

I'll get it out right now: I'm an Apple man through and through. Having worked both sides of the "PC" divide for over two decades, and at the risk of being bombarded by hate mail, I still find Macs a far more efficient and stable platform than their Windows-based counterparts. Yes I know PCs have better games but a dedicated console suits my needs there better. However PCs do still dominate the world of virtual reality (VR) due to their infinitely tinkerable nature and this brings me to the reason for my letter.

A number of years ago, I designed a VR system for architectural design based on a DEC Alphastation running Windows NT 4. It was fantastic 10 years ago, but I'd like to bring it up to date. I've resigned myself to building a new PC and my needs are fairly bland: a fast processor, around 1Gb of RAM, and a fast dual-link graphics card. "Not much of a challenge," I'm sure you're thinking, but I've not come to the hard bit: the motherboard needs an ISA slot. Many VR hardware manufacturers have disappeared and those that are still around haven't updated their interface cards so I need at least one ISA slot to support my HMDs.

So, your challenge is to spec me out the necessary components (MLB, memory, graphics card, et al) to build a high-performance system which won't break the bank and allow me to still use my VR hardware.

Lee Fulmer

May 8, 2007 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Home media network

First of all let me congratulate you on such a great mag! I have built my system based on many reviews you give every month.

I was particularly interested in the "Build the ultimate home media network"  on your June issue...and I have a question: How viable would be to use a HDXB101 Netgear 200Mbits/sec Homeplug Ethernet Netgear Switch instead of several cables around the house?

I know it would be a bit more expensive as the cheapest I found online is around £104 ex VAT for 2 of the plugs and around £57 ex VAT for each aditional one but in the end buying a good Ethernet switch and meters of cabling wouldn't be much different!

I currently run my PC on a study on the 1st floor, there's an XBox 360 in the house, the laptop in living room and just got a LCD HD TV and a HDD Media center to plug in TV and the wireless is not enough (oh and the PS3 that I'm gonna get more towards the autumn...XBox is my housemate's).

Because I live in kind of an old house, ripping up carpets or drilling holes through the wall wouldn't be in my best interest...nor my landlord's :) and a Homeplug would be useful when I move out to another
house.

Just thought you could have mentioned this on the article or why not a review of this product? This would be great! Maybe if this is a good idea and people start getting to grip with it and buying it prices would start coming down as you see with wireless? Would love to know what you think about this.

Cheers and keep up the great work
Paulo Joao

May 8, 2007 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

A Wii little winner

I agree with Jonathan Parkyn's summary of the Nintendo Wii - it will indeed appeal to those who wouldn't normally buy a games console.

Our kids have worked their way through PS One, PS2, Gameboy Colour, GBA and Gamecube.  My wife and I were never interested in using any of them.

This Xmas we joined forces with relatives and could, therefore, afford a Wii for our son. Normally we would banish such a device to his bedroom, but he convinced us to let him connect it to the living room TV. There are no wires trailing across the floor so you don't get the mess (and death-trap) as with other machines.

We are all playing this machine.  We regularly have bowling, golf and tennis tournaments for example.  Our willingness to play is entirely down to the remote - you immediately know what to do with it (just mimic what you would really do).

Even my parents are hooked. They are well into their 70s and have a Wii of their own on order!

This console is bringing gamers out of their bedrooms and attracting people who've never "played" before. Nintendo are onto a winner.

Steve Bailey

January 31, 2007 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Inkjet pricing policy

As a long term subscriber, as far as I am concerned clearly you are doing the right things to inform and entertain. The recent editorial mentioning the printer manufacturers’ realisation that a new pricing policy is needed reminded me of your ink group test some time back.

I felt it was thorough but relatively superficial, possibly because you did not have access to information about the inks business, and you made no attempt to pull the inks themselves apart.

As a retired pigment and dye person, I do not now have access to the latest technical or commercial data, but it is likely to have a similar structure to that three or four years ago.

Firstly it is unlikely that any printer manufacturer actually makes the ink in their cartridges and ink tanks. Further it is certain that they do not have exclusivity on the dyes and pigments they may specify. The reasons are simple.

Pigment and dye manufacture to the consistent standard required is a skilled and specialised industry. Globally the competent suppliers are no more than a handful.

Similarly the main ink makers are also a small number of large companies who have the required expertise. In Europe the specialist firms make ink for several different branded ink jet manufacturers, if you look at the packaging you will see that most Japanese and American brands sold in the UK are of EU manufacture. The dyes used are not new and there are not likely to be any new dyes

Partly this is because dye and pigment chemistry has been highly systematically and thoroughly worked out over the past 70 years, but also because modern legislation makes the production and marketing of new chemical entities prohibitively expensive, in terms of the data and proofs required of non toxicity to user and the environment.

The dyes we have now are not new and may only be modified in simple mainly physical ways to make new colours. These dyes are commercially available to anyone who has a relevant business. The ink formulations are also legislation bound, and although tweaking is possible in terms of ingredients mix, there will most likely be nothing revolutionary.

Big improvements in print stability have been from stabilisation techniques and improved papers rather than innovation in dyes. With this background you may have realised that the differences between dye inks from individual manufacturers and from the parallel suppliers may be expected to be small, the same applies to pigment inks.

What about the pricing then?  How can the parallel suppliers be so relatively cheap? The dyes used cost between £5 and £100 per kilo in the main. That is per kilo of 100% colour taken in commercial quantities. UV absorbers are be in the same price per kilo range as dyes, but are present in minuscule amounts.

The colour is easily the most expensive ingredient, water, binding resin if any and flow control agents and simple glycols humectants are not much above £2 per kilo. The dye concentration will normally not exceed 3% by weight, this is easy to test by evaporating to dryness, and for "Photo Ink" may well be only one tenth of this. Most of the ink tanks I have seen seem to contain between 7 and 15 millilitres of ink.

For the sake of argument, if we take a worst case, the solid content will be no more than 5%, the price per kilo of that solid is no more than £100. Being very generous the cost of the remaining 95% of the ink will be costed as £2 per kilo, and we will assume that a kilo of this dye solution is one litre which is close to the truth.

If the ink volume is 15 ml then the ink cost contribution is easily calculated:

[{10000 (pence colour cost) x 0.05 } + {2000 (pence liquid part cost) x 0.950}] =  2400 pence per litre =    36 pence per 15 ml ink refill !

Of course the calculation allows nothing for the tank or cartridge, labour, packaging and marketing. However to give a us yardstick, another rule of thumb from the printing ink industry says that the basic raw material cost of the coloured ink should not exceed half the delivered selling price.

If something like that holds in the ink cartridge business then the selling price should be no more than £0.72 whereas in truth the genuine makers ink tank (no print nozzles included) cost £6 to £12 at least. Yes the balance between printer prices and ink replacement costs has been allowed to tilt to a ridiculous degree towards the ink cartridge providing the revenue.

Personally I do not want to be offered a free bottom of the market printer when I buy a new PC, I want to be free to choose a printer which meets my specific needs.

Certainly I also expect my A3+ high end photo printer to continue to work with the new hardware. And yes I do buy ink refill kits from the USA for this machine too and have never had cause to complain about colour or quality of the ink.

Anthony Darling

December 7, 2006 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Broadband filter problems

I have been having problems with broadband filters. In the last four months two of the three I have installed have failed due to what I believe are lightning induced spikes on the BT phone network. In one case the phone failed and in the other the broadband would not connect.

My phone installation, as well as the three sockets, also has a permanently wired bell which is not connected to the line via a filter and couldtherefore be an added complication.The original filters were supplied by BT when the broadband was installed after removal of Home Highway about eighteen months ago.

I now find out that there are two types of filter; active and passive. The passive ones (purchased at Tesco) are cheaper and more convenient to use as they are self supporting when plugged into the socket whereas the active ones are of a "dougal" design and need securing with velcro.

I have seen on the BT Shop website a comment by a purchaser that you have to use BT provided filters if you want caller identifcation to work on the phone. I have also seen suggested somewhere that BT only approves active filters for connection to its network.

I am an avid reader of PCW but cannot recollect seeing an article on the subject of filters and the merits of the two types or if the comment about caller identification is correct. I would like to see information published on the merits of the different types of filters (including the diferences between them) and if the more expensive ones are better value for money or if all filters are equal in performance terms and the pricier ones are just a ripoff.

Keith Ringrose

November 29, 2006 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack

Dual layer DVDs too expensive

Why is it that dual layer media is so much more expensive than single layer?

Typically I pay around 48p each for branded, 25 quantity, DVD-R spindles, but dual layer DVD-R is anything from £5 or more each in CD cases for quantities of 5, the largest quantity readily available.

Given that virtually all current generation PC burners are dual layer and even my Pioneer HD/DVD recorder burns dual layer, why is the price still so high? There is no incentive to use dual layer at all at these price levels and it is a heavy premium for the convenience of fitting all your data/video on to one disc.

George Edwards

October 6, 2006 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Shower head or printer head?

I don’t know whether this has been covered in the past, but I managed to easily clear the blocked heads on an Epson inkjet printer and thought some of your readers might be interested in the solution.

The printer had been little used and consequently the head cleaning function had to be run whenever it was turned on. Eventually it refused to print, even after many cleaning cycles. Rather than just dumping it, I thought I’d physically try to clear the blocked heads. If it didn’t work, I had nothing to lose.

I removed the ink cartridges, placed some cotton wool pads soaked in Waitrose Daily Shower Spray over the ink probes and left for a couple of hours. I then cleaned up the area and fitted new ink cartridges.

After turning the printer on, it went through its charging cycle and I tried a test print. Perfect, just like a new printer.

I don’t know if there’s something magic about the Waitrose product or whether similar cleaners will work as well. But, if you have a printer that’s not behaving, it might be worth trying something similar.

Stephen Jones

August 31, 2006 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (1)

Every little helps

Many thanks for your latest on VOIP. I already had the BT101 and can affirm that it’s a good piece of kit. However I was also looking for a cheap USB phone and I am delighted to passs onto your readers how they can 'get one over on the bigger corporations'.

The Tesco Internet Phone E337 Handset at £14.97 is of course the US Robotics 9600A which many are selling at over £20. The neat trick is however that this can be both a standard VOIP phone which will function with X-Lite & SIP but also a feature phone with Skype. If you download the USRoboticsUSBPhone3.0.0.24.exe file from the USR website, you will get full Skype functionality.

One phone, cheap, two uses - so how do you tell the difference. If the US Robotics program is running the display says Skype., if not it says VoIP PHONE. By the way - don't install the Tesco software.

Ian Murray

August 3, 2006 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (4)

In praise of the human touch

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

June 9, 2006 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

A cure for microwave Wifi interference?

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

June 9, 2006 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Cheap digicams can be a false economy

For some time now I have been looking for a cheap and simple digital camera for my 8 and 10 year old children, the digital equivalent to an old 110 Instamatic, something that will take reasonable snapshots, but which will allow pictures to be previewed immediately rather than having to wait until returning home from a 2 week holiday.

The trouble with digital cameras however is that you can never buy last year's models at reduced prices, instead you are forced to go for more Megapixels than an 8 year old child would ever appreciate for the same circa £80 entry level price tag. I spent a lot of time scouring Ebay for what I was after and came close on a few occasions with old models sold from Hong Kong, however by the time you’d added on P&P the deal wasn’t much better than this year's models bought in
the UK.

I was therefore chuffed to bits to find a well-known company advertising in your pages warehouse surplus stock Konica KD-220Z, a 2Megapixel camera with 3x optical zoom for under £30, just what I was after! I excitedly placed my order for two of the cameras and started dreaming up a photo competition to keep the children occupied over the summer.

I was pleased to find the camera came with all the leads, CD, handbook and even batteries, I hurriedly unpacked the first camera and installed the supplied batteries only to find that there was no life in the camera at all. I then noticed a sticker with red underlined text plastered across the cover of the handbook declaring that lithium batteries were strongly recommended, then a further slip of paper fell from the handbook advising that CRV3 batteries are recommended, a theme was beginning to develop, clearly battery life was going to be an issue with this camera.

No matter, I happened to have a pack of new Duracell Alkaline batteries, which I installed and the camera sprang into life, for the moment anyway. Everything went fine at first but 2 hours and twenty pictures later I had two really frustrated children on my hands, not only had the batteries been drained but the cameras had frozen with lens protruding and not responding to any button (including the power down button).

I know this is not a problem common to all cameras of this type and vintage having had many years of satisfied use out of a Cannon A40 which has all the same features, and uses the same number and type of batteries and yet is able to deliver well over 150 pictures on a set of standard batteries. I’m now left wondering how many lithium batteries I can afford on the money saved by going for last year's surplus stock rather than this years current model.
David Bradbrook

May 19, 2006 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

USB stick-chewing dogs

I read your news article in the July issue of PCW about dogs mistaking USB sticks for chewable toys and prayed that’s what happened to my lost USB stick. I wouldn’t have minded had the data been permanently lost just so long as no-one else finding it could access it.

Fortunately, I had the data on my boss’ computer, which is on an admin network, so I didn’t lose it completely.  She gave me a USB stick because sometimes I’m not able to use her computer if she’s using it herself or there are meetings taking place in her office.  That way, I’m able to use it on any of the non-admin network computers in our workplace.  So, I basically carried my work folder around with me on the USB stick.

I never left the device at work because of the frequency of thefts so I always brought it home with me which was handy anyway in case I had to stay at home to look after my children if they were unwell, I could still do work on my own computer.

Last week, I lost my USB stick somewhere between work and home.  I made the mistake of putting it in my pocket instead of my bag and it must have slipped out of my pocket.  The data is confidential and I’d hate to think that someone could be using it.  I would hope that upon finding it, if someone is going to be dishonest, they’d wipe the data to use the USB stick themselves but, of course, I’m never going to know about what’s happened to it.

Consequently, I’ve spoken to our IT department about security for USB sticks and they had a password encryption program, like many others of its kind, available free on the Internet.  So, I got them to install it on my own personal USB stick and it worked well until I came across a problem.  You need administrative privileges to be able to access work in the hidden file!

This is fine if I’m at home or using my boss’ computer but on the regular computers at work, I can’t get to my data!  In my mind, this totally defeats the object of the USB stick security!  I’m not alone in this opinion.

I’ve searched forums on the Internet and others have come across this problem where they cannot access their data whilst using the customer’s computers they’re trying to help.

I broached the issue with our IT department who were unaware of this until now.  They said that they’d look into increasing my privileges without compromising security but really I don’t think they can and if they did, then it won’t only be me needing this privilege as other colleagues use these devices and would be worried if their data got into the wrong hands.

The idea of individually passwording every single document on my USB stick was daunting so, I’ve made sure all my data is present on my boss’ computer, my profile on the work’s regular computers and my home computer.  I’ve cleared my memory stick of all but templates, mail merge documents with forms and currently used documents which I’ve individually passworded, unless someone is aware of any software that can be run from USB sticks without administrative privileges? Any suggestions you have would be appreciated.

Cheryl

May 19, 2006 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

The falling cost of technology

I always enjoy the ‘looking back’ articles in the magazine and always marvel at how low today’s hardware prices seem compared with, say, ten years ago. Today I was having a clearout of old paperwork and came across two invoices from 1997 for PC components from Simply Computers (Misco now) and realised just how far I was prepared to go to keep near to the cutting edge of PC technology.

The prices I paid in November 1997 were staggering: A Yamaha CD writer (x6 Read x4 write) was 315 GBP (+ VAT) and two 32Mb EDO RAM SIMMs cost me 176 GBP (+VAT). For comparison MISCO’s price for the same memory today is 11.49 GBP + VAT and a CD Rewriter drive (52 speed) is 11.99 GBP + VAT.

It seems inconceivable that nine years on I can buy a complete PC for less than those components. And, oh yes, the same order included 5 CD-Rs at 3 GBP each + VAT. Carry on at this rate and in ten years time PC component resellers will be paying us to take the items off their hands! The magazine is now better than ever and, of course, great value for money.

Alan Farrell

April 21, 2006 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Sat Nav security

Your recent review  of in-car Satellite Navigation units covered the main technical issues well -  with one exception: you made no mention of security. Having had a sat nav stolen  from my car, I've become aware that such thefts are big business at the moment.  As I understand it, sat nav theft is the number one reason for car break-ins;  the manufacturers need to take this seriously.

Some  manufacturers offer the helpful advice that the unit shouldn't be left on  display on the dashboard. The principle of this is fine, but to be  effective the complete unit and its windscreen cradle needs to be  removed - the cradles themselves are easily recognisable. In  practice, given the need to route wires safely etc, many users will simply  hope for the best.

There is more that  the manufacturers can do to help, by adding some simple software  based security features to make theft ineffective. PIN codes should be  simple to add, rendering a stolen unit useless. Owner information could be  stored internally, with some kind of password access to prevent it being simply  overwritten. My Tom Tom unit now has my home postcode displayed on the start-up  screen: this will make an embarrassing surprise for anyone who buys it down  their local pub!

The mobile phone  industry has - eventually - recognised the need to address this issue. The sat  nav suppliers can easily do the same - and I for one will regard security  features as a key product differentiator.
 
Laurence  Barker

April 21, 2006 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (11) | TrackBack

Help needed for HP e-PC

The external power supply unit to my HP e-PC computer has failed and I have not been able to locate a replacement, which is a little inconvenient as you may imagine!  I wondered if anyone on your staff, or within a blogging community, could suggest where I might get one.  The power supply is akin to that used for laptops, and is made by Lite-on Electronics Inc., with model number PA-2111-01H, and has two pin-out voltages to a female FTF 8 pin plug, at 12 and 19 volts.

Chris Rourke

March 9, 2006 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Beware the limitations of Flash memory

I enjoyed your article in the April 2006 PCW about putting software onto USB memory sticks. With the size of flash memory increasing all the time, they have many uses. However, it might have been best if you included a warning about the life of this type of memory.

Much of the Flash Ram is guaranteed to provide 100,000 read / write operations, after which it will malfunction or not work at all. This may seem like a very large number, but it would be very easy for a computer booting up into Windows to write to a specific address on the Flash Ram hundreds of times.

In as little as a year, the Ram could begin to malfunction if a computer is repeatedly booted up using one. There are ways around this: temporary files are written to the hard disc and not the Flash Ram; the swap file is located on the hard disc; the software is written so that components needed during operation are transferred only once, rather than being loaded / unloaded repeatedly.

When software and the Windows operating system are written in this way, then we will be able to use these USB memory sticks as a reliable means of keeping all our personal data / programs safe and  transportable. Until then, it may be best just to use them for emergencies or for just having a bit of fun.

Thanks for listening. Keep up the good work with your magazine.

Tim Howarth

March 9, 2006 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

What's the point of Raid?

Your magazine regularly features articles or letters about the advantages of RAID. I found these articles interesting and based on them, designed and built my new PC, with the specific intention of utilising RAID arrays to make it as fast as possible, within the constraints of my wallet. I decided to use RAID 0 (striping) as I thought that this would allow me to access hard discs more quickly. My primary interests include photography/image editing and music/soundtrack editing, for which I use Adobe’s Photoshop and Audition applications. I also burn a few CD’s using Nero.

At this point, I was going to tell you about my system and all the testing I did, but I realised that you probably weren’t too interested in the details, so:

I have a fairly powerful system, based around a Gigabyte GA-8KNXP/2 mobo, an Intel 3.0GHz Prescott CPU and four SATA 150 Maxtor 160GB HDD’s, plus a pair of PATA 133 discs.

Following a chat with an IT engineer when I took my sons PC in for repair, I decided to run some tests. The engineer stated that in any RAID set-up, the RAID controller was a bottleneck and there was little, if any, gain in read/write speed, particularly on more modern computers.

I was astounded by this claim and decided to run some tests to disprove it. Ha!

After running many tests by dragging and dropping a folder containing several Ghost image files, totalling 12.7 GB, from one drive/array to another drive/array, the results were pretty conclusive. There was no discernible difference whether I copied to a RAID 0 array, or an individual drive. The times were the same within less than three seconds either way and that included a three-drive array.

The only conclusion I can come to, is that on this mobo, with these HDD’s, there is absolutely no advantage in utilising RAID 0. In fact, it would be extremely foolhardy to do so, as there is no time gain or speed premium to be had. If a drive failed however, there is the potential to loose twice as much data, because if a single disc fails, you lose the data from both (or more) discs.

I have to say that I didn’t test the drives to capacity and there are probably many better and more complete testing methods available. Also, SATA 300 drives are now becoming available, that may be faster. I just did the kind of testing appropriate to my way of working.

So it looks as though the IT engineer was right and there is a bottleneck somewhere, probably, as he claimed, in the RAID controller itself.

So I have to ask; what is the point of RAID 0, these days?

I’d be interested in your comments.

Nick Hawryliw

March 9, 2006 in Hardware | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Ostentatious, moi?

Thanks very much to Guy Kewney for his column in the April about high definition TV (HDTV) and widescreen.

HDTV? Well, it does look lovely on the live feed in Currys, but when you ask them to show you a HD feed from, for example, a Skybox, this seems to be almost impossible (although this is presumably what most punters will be watching).

In fact, even to see what a HDMI feed from a DVD player looks like is far from straightforward (&