Thank you so much to your informative article, "Buy a Mac, Get a PC" in the September 2008 edition of PCW. As a software developer, developing cross-platform solutions, I have for many years developed on Windows and tested on Macintosh. Over the years I have invested a considerable sum of money in software for Windows, thus prohibiting a complete change to  the Macintosh. My office has always been Windows-based with a lone Mac laptop for testing. The laptop actually has a Windows installation using Parallels, although this is rarely used.

My main development PC was getting a bit long in the tooth and an upgrade was required (as the boss, I think I'm entitled to a new PC every now and then). A few months ago following a review of some powerful PCs in your magazine, I purchased a blazingly fast quad-core PC with Windows Vista 64-bit. For a few weeks I was delighted with my new purchase, as I gleefully installed lots of software and set all the preferences to make it work the way I wanted.

Then it all started going wrong! The screensaver stopped working, it just never came on any more. Then the computer refused to hibernate. Then it began to restart randomly at any time of day. On a couple of occasions my Outlook file became corrupt and the database I was
developing was damaged; luckily I had backups. On top of all that, I didn't find anything new in Vista that offered any great advance over XP; in fact I found quite a lot of annoying differences - many of which could only be changed with a registry hack. The supplier,
Chillblast, were very helpful and gave me lost of tests to run, but in vain, the computer just kept going wrong. In the end they agreed to take it back and offered a refund.

Then I saw your article about Apple Macs. Until then I had never considered using a Mac as my main development machine, but the time was ripe for change...  and so off I trotted to the Apple store in Brent Cross. The staff were extremely helpful and, although knowledgeable about everything 'consumer', there were definite gaps in their knowledge when I started asking my more technically complex questions. Nevertheless a bit of research on the internet found the answers to all the questions that Apple staff couldn't answer, specifically how to transfer a complex Outlook file with hundreds of folders and hundreds of thousands of e-mails to Mac Mail & iCal. One solution, 02M,  didn't quite work for  my complex outlook PST file
(but should work for most situation), but a conversion via Mozilla Thunderbird did what I needed.

I thought I'd take a look at the free 'Virtualbox' Windows virtualisation tool from Sun that you mentioned and was impressed by how closely it matches the features offered by commercial alternatives such as Parallels and VMWare. It was unnecessary to install much of my Windows software because a lot is already supplied as part of the Mac operating system, so my virtual copy of Windows XP sits hardly used. I also installed a virtual Vista PC, which I have not yet needed to touch at all. Some of the new features in Mac OS X Leopard make Windows Vista seem like it is still playing catch up and will be for some time. Furthermore, my desk looks much tidier because I no longer need speakers (built into the iMac), a WebCam (built into the iMac) or even a network cable (built-in wireless).

There are a few minor niggles that I haven't yet got used to / found a solution to, but by and large, I'm delighted that your article convinced me to make the change at the time that it did. Not only can I get on with my work without worrying if my machine is going to
restart at any moment, but my new 24in 3.06GHz iMac looks beautiful on my desk and is the envy of all my staff and colleagues. Apple even had a £60 printer rebate offer at the time of my purchase, so I got a new wireless printer for free.

Hopefully you'll write more articles about the Mac now, so I won't have to question my subscription to a PC biased PCW :-)

Chaim Bacon

Posted by Kelvyn Taylor on July 25, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Congratulation and thanks on the first class 30th anniversary issue of PCW, it looked absolutely great.

Here are a few more facts on the early issues of PCW, which it seems are vague to many people. The first issue was published (available in the shops) on February 8th 1978.

This issue was not dated (just issue 1, volume1) as I was not sure that there would be a second issue - firstly because all experts at that time thought it was too early for a PC magazine, and secondly I had very little money, no office and no permanent staff. In fact, our "office" was a table at the Troubadour Cafe on Old Brompton Road, SW5, with a convenient telephone kiosk located just outside.

The editor was Meyer Solomon, who lived round the corner and was working part time in the cafe, while the magazine address was listed as the newsagent above where I was living at the time.

What prompted me to publish the magazine was that I was always interested in new technology and had read a considerable amount about it (free newspapers and magazine from my shop!).

In mid 1977, the US newspaper, Wall Street Journal, published an article on small computers, which fascinated me. I researched a bit more by getting Byte and Kilobaud magazines from the USA.

The first issue was a sell-out and we received about 3,000 subscribers, which ensured there would be more issues of PCW.

Angelo Zgorelec (PCW founder)

Posted by Will Stapley on April 29, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

The article about Colossus and Bletchley Park reminded me of my early days in IT.  In 1968 I operated an Elliot 803, before the company, a poultry breeder, moved to an ICL 1901A. What a machine that was; it filled a large room but had only 8KB of memory (‘store’ in those days).

All input and output was on eight-track paper tape, even the printed output that then had to be fed into a free-standing ‘Creed’ printer that had a tape reader attached.

On the night shift when there was no manager around, we used to feed the paper tape straight from the paper tape punch into the printer's tape reader, across the floor and into the next room. We corrected keying errors by plugging holes in the paper tape or punching new holes.

Storage consisted of two very large tape decks (one input, one output) with a difference: the tape was magnetic-coated 35mm film that was fed under a head with a very precise head gap. If the gap was wrong, the tape could not be read as the film would not touch the head. The computer was controlled by a large console with many buttons on it, including one labelled “Clear Store” – and that is exactly what it did.

Rows of buttons represented bits in a word (39 bit words), and could be set to pass ‘parameters’ to a program; only one could run at a time.

The machine was programmed in machine code or Autocode. In spite of its limitations, it was used to calculate payroll and perform genetic calculations. The good old days? Hardly, but interesting to look back on now.  I for one would like to see the Elliot 803 at Bletchley Park.

Rod Theobald

Posted by Will Stapley on February 28, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

I was one of the early readers of PCW but I couldn’t afford Pet, Apple or Tandy as they cost six months' salary. I saw an advert for kit called the UK101 for £100, but you only got a bare motherboard and had to solder all the components, including the keyboard. It was a reasonable price if it worked, but a big waste if it didn’t. I found a shop that offered to fix any faults for £10 which meant I was more or less getting a working computer for £110.

It certainly worked, but it didn’t do anything as you had to write all your own programs using the built in MS Basic. Back then, PCW had a regular column for UK101 users and, month by month, I leant how to write or modify programs. There was a great camaraderie amongst users that helped people solve problems.

I remember the predictions – a laser printer for under £1,000. Oh, how we laughed as a simple nine-pin dot matrix printer cost £450 at the time.

The suggestion in Issue 3 about the computer to help deaf children hear seemed like science fiction at the time, but I now have a Cochlear Implant which enables me to understand speech although I am completely deaf. It is smaller than a Bluetooth headset that fits behind the ear. Most deaf children are fitted with them before they go to school and I don’t think anyone would have dreamt that possible in the 70s.

Derek Trayler

Posted by Will Stapley on February 28, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

On a recent trip to Spain I subscribed to the local Wifi service at €45 for 14 days. I then encountered the usual SMTP relay problems for my email - even web based mail caused some issues.

However, using Thunderbird I changed the outgoing SMTP to my Googlemail setting, using SSL and port 465 with security and authentication ticked.

This allowed me to send mail from my Virgin, Onetel and Gmail accounts. This information may be of use to other readers.

Ann Edwards

Posted by Will Stapley on February 28, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (0)

My only gripe with vista is the new defrag tool.

I miss not being able to see what is happening as you could with XP, and in Vista it seems to take for ever to defrag. Otherwise I have got use to the new way of file searching etc.

Carol Underwood

Posted by Will Stapley on February 12, 2008 | Permalink | Comments (1)

The laptop lemmings are all going the same way. I am a business traveller, working in an SME. Unfortunately my current notebook is coming to the end of its life. I need a laptop to make presentations, to communicate and carry out my daily work.

I want something not too heavy and quick. When the company buys me a notebook, it will be in the mid-range price bracket. I don't want to take the inevitable Vista performance hit you will get with a mid-range notebook and our IT manager doesn't want the uncertainty of Vista.

This takes out 70 per cent of the choice. I don't want a widescreen display because I will never watch DVD movies on it and it won't go in my briefcase. This leaves less than 5 per cent of the mid-range offerings. At the moment, this makes it easier to decide. Soon my only choice will be to grit my teeth and get a bigger bag.

Mike Jollands

Posted by Will Stapley on October 31, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

While you review a broad range of performance  measures when carrying out a group test of PC systems (such as the £999 PC  system group test in your April 2007 issue), I think you are missing a  particular trick.

I spend a fair amount of time using my PC during my  working day and so when I am considering buying a new system I am very keen to  know how much noise it makes, both when running idle and when carrying out CPU  or harddisk-intensive tasks.

This is particularly so when buying a reasonably  fast system which may have an overclocked CPU such as the Chillblast system in  the review already mentioned, because when buying online there is no way of knowing how bad the whine from the fans might be.

It would seem to me that  many of the performance tests you already carry out put the PC systems into  these states, so that measuring their noise levels would be an easy parameter to measure "for free".

Is there any chance you could consider this for  your future reviews?

Dr Bernard Payne

Posted by Kelvyn Taylor on May 8, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Re you article on starting Windows XP faster:

I use hibernate all the time - I never shut down unless going away for a time - to speed up the shut down.

I use a power socket block which turns off all peripherals when the computer is shut down or hibernates. The result is an enormous power saving because I set to hibernate after no useage for
15 minutes.

John Lewcock

Posted by Rob Jones on October 6, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Thanks for the article ‘Our PCs, Our planet’ (PCW, October 2006). I would like to add a few comments.

You correctly stated that RoHS does not cover batteries, that’s because these are already covered by the Batteries and Accumulators (Containing Dangerous Substances) Regulations and the recovery and recycling of them will covered under the new batteries directive (see the DTI's web page for more information).

The WEEE directive only requires distributors to offer take back equipment when purchasing an equivalent replacement. Some distributors will also be joining a scheme that will allow them to opt out of offering a direct take back service and will instead ask the end user to deposit the items in the local WEEE skips as and when the WEEE is implemented.

The latest on WEEE is that it will not be implemented in the UK until the end of 2006. Producers will then have to join a producer compliance scheme which will act on their behalf in collecting equipment from your local tip.

The consumer is expected to deposit electronic equipment in these dedicated skips and the scheme will collect, treat and recycle this on behalf of its members. This make more environmental sense in dealing with the consumer locally rather than having Dell or HP offering to return old computers to them and having them shipped by vans across the country.

RoHS is, as correctly stated half way through your article, “The restriction of the use of certain hazardous substances in electrical and electronic equipment” not “the reduction of hazardous substances” as you state in the second paragraph of the article.

And remember to wipe your hard drive or destroy it before taking it to the tip as a recent study has found that most people don’t and your personal data and bank details may be easily recovered!

Mark Dowling

Posted by on August 31, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0)