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Austria: ASch 112.00, Denmark:DKR 85.00, Germany: DM 25.00,Greece: DRA 2,500.00, Holland:HFL 18.50, Italy: L15,000.00,Malta: Lm 2.85c, USA: $14.95.

VNU Business Publications

Dream Weaver 1.2 B Authorware Surf Express B VET Anti-Virus

Three Full Programs:Three Full Programs:JMYOB Accounting (RRP £199)JCubasis Audio Lite (Orig. value £149)JSerif Mail Plus (RRP £29.95)

BBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBBB



New 300MHz chips tested

Which Digital Camera?

Listen here!Voice packages with brains

Quick on the drawDesigner software for every job

INTELvsAMDNew 300MHz chips tested




INTELvsAMD

Smart buysSmart buysPCs Printers ISPs Latest user survey

names most reliable brands and services

Latest user survey names most reliable brands

and services

PCs Printers ISPs

e-commerce small-business workshop–cash in on your web site

Expert opinion you can trust

October 1998 www.pcw.co.uk

New Look!


New Look!

S P E C I A L

£2.25O N LY£2.25

6 ● PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD ● OCTOBER 1998

C O N T E N T S120 eCommerce

Creating a presence for yourbusiness on the web is a piece ofcake. But can you make any moneyout of it? Terence Green shows youhow to succeed in business online.

126 Service & Reliability SurveyIn the biggest ever industry surveyyou told us your experiences withthe best and the worst productsand manufacturers. Our reportcovers everything, from how theproducts have performed over theyears, to the technical support youreceived. Alana Juman Blincoemakes sense of the data.

156 Speech recognitionIt’s good to talk; so why not talk to your computer? Adele Dyer and Roger Gann test a range ofsoftware packages that will enable you to do just that.

166 IT and Formula One It takes more to win a Grand Prixthan having Michael Schumacherin the driving seat. Paul Truemanmeets the back-room boys whodesign the winning cars.

F E AT U R E S

N E W P R O D U C T S 79 Evesham Vale Platinum II

450One of the first 450MHz PentiumIIs.

80 Flat panelsThree LCD displays compared.

84 Tiny Computers MendocinoA new-flavour Celeron system.

86 Intel XeonPreview of the new server CPU.

89 Dotlink Power Tower 400-SEA 400MHz PC at a nice price.

91 Toshiba Equium 7000SThe revamped range of corporateworkstations.

R E V I E W S

174 AMD K6-2 3D Now! vs Intel CeleronIntel has got the high-end market to itself, but the battle for the mid-rangeintensifies with AMD’s new K6-2 processor. Ajith Ram plays referee as five Celerons and five K6-2s, with an eye on power at a fair price, slug it out.

218 Digital camerasForget film: the future is here, and it’s digital. Adele Dyer, Nik Rawlinson and Paul Trueman take a close-up look at fifteen of the best digital cameras.

220 Agfa ePhoto 780 / ePhoto 1280220 Casio QV-5000SX222 Canon Powershot A5222 Epson PhotoPC 700222 Fuji DS-300226 Fuji MS-700226 Kodak DC220 / DC260

226 Kodak CDC220227 Nikon Coolpix 900227 Olympus C-840L / C-1400L228 Panasonic NV-DCF5B228 Ricoh RDC-4300228 Sanyo VPC-X300

202 Adobe Illustrator 7.01203 Corel Draw 8204 Macromedia Freehand 8209 Metacreations Expression210 GSP Designworks 3.5

210 Micrografx Windows Draw 6Premier Edition Print Studio

211 Serif Draw Plus 3212 Technical drawing packages

177 Actinet Netrunner177 Carrera PowerMedia K6-2.300180 Dabs Direct CE300180 Elonex MCS-6300AX181 KT Star 3D Power

181 Mertec Home Media187 Mesh K6 3D 300A187 Panrix Nitro 3D190 Protek Ultra190 Roldec Pro 2

G R O U P T E S T S

WORLDCOMPUTER

PERSONAL

The car’s the star — but ITtakes a leading role, too

p166

AMDVS INTELThe chip giantsgo head to headin the battle foryour desktop

☛ p174

200 Drawing softwareWhether you need to draw an advertising poster, a flowchart, or just do a quickdoodle, we have reviews of the best packages. Tim Nott sketches in the details.

55 Sounding OffJapanese technology has masteredthe art of seduction. MichaelHewitt wonders if it works.

57 Straight TalkingBarry Fox gets serious about claims made for Windows 98.

59 Business MattersPaperless office? No way, saysBrian Clegg. Nothing wastes paper like new technology.

61 Out of SiteThe personal touch — and how!Intimate acts and true confessionson the net, viewed by Paul Smith.

311 Screenplay

314 CDs — Formula 1 Encyclopaedia;Tender Loving Care; A Taste ofFrance; IBM World Book Speech Edition

316 Kids — Byko and the Numbers; IBM and Crayola Print Factory

317 Competition — Win an Accura56K modem or a Canon BJC-7000 printer

319 Competition — Win a copy ofWindows 98

320 Books

322 Retro

323 Brainteasers

323 Prize Crossword

7PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD ● OCTOBER 1998 ●

hands on241 Introduction

Read all about it!

242 Cubasis WorkshopA great sequencer, and here we help you to use it to its full potential (Cubasis Lite is free on our cover disc this month).

246 MYOB WorkshopLet your friendly accountancy package do the head-scratching (there’s a free version on our cover-mounted disc).

251 InternetGet on down with the lowdown some speedy web downloading.

256 WindowsThe tears and triumphs of defragmentation. And, the best features of Windows 98.

261 16-bitDOS-ing around... Don’t underestimate it: 16-bit is here to stay. Here’s where you find out why.

263 Windows NTJust when you think it’s gone for good, there it is, back again. Your garbage bin needs attention.

268 PDAsHow to handle your personal digital assistant.

271 UnixThe art of the matter, as we examine compression technology.

274 OS/2Java possibilities for Warp wannabes. Here’s how to do it.

276 Word ProcessingAs everyone knows, it’s all about style. Here’s how to get it.

278 SpreadsheetsAdding it into the equation: an editor with which to go graphic.

280 DatabasesPatents can be a virtue.

282 HardwareAll sorts of SCSI.

285 SoundPut some life into your front-end sound — be a control freak.

288 Graphics & DTPGet your web site all tightly buttoned up.

290 3D GraphicsIt’s out on video, and it’s a frame-up.

293 Visual ProgrammingBatch files? Pah! You need scriptlets.

299 NetworksIt’s a Ghost — seriously. Network installation with a difference.

304 MacintoshThe Mac column is back.

a d v i c e92 Evolution Dance StationCompose a club hit, no talentrequired.

92 Matrox Millennium G200Matrox’s latest and greatestgraphics card.

95 Compaq Armada 1570DBudget notebook.

96 Philips Philips DRD5210DVD-ROM drive and MPEG2decoder package.

98 Visioneer One-touchMulti-function device.

98 Panasonic LF-D101UDVD-RAM drive.

100 MediaFORM 5000CD-R duplicating machine.

100 Money for Series 5Home accounting for your Psion.

102 Macromedia Flash 3Web animations without thebandwidth.

106 Kai’s Power ShowImpressive presentation package.

106 Hemera Netgraphics Studio 2File conversion and graphics library.

108 Microsoft Visual Studio 6Developer’s tool, not for the faint-hearted.

110 Pagis Pro 2 vs Pro OCR100An eye on OCR as Xerox andVisioneer slug it out.

LO N G T E R M T E S T S

112 Office 97

113 Psion Siena

113 Panasonic Panasync/Pro 7G

10 Subscriptions and Back Issues

11 Editorial11 Next Month14 Cover Disc Notes

24 Newsprint and Analysis

65 Letters

74 Gadgets

238 Futures

306 Reader Offers675 ChipChat

R E G U L A R S

L E I S U R E L I N E S

C O LU M N S

94 Gateway Solo 2500Mid-range notebook.

Highperformancefor thebusiness useron a budget

p94

324 DIRECT BUYERS’ WORLD

660 Buying Advice666 Directory of Product Suppliers672 Index of Advertisers

Business SurveyWhat do you look for whenyou’re buying a business PC? Let us know by filling out thequestionnaire on page 151and you could win £200-worth of Eurostar vouchers.

p151

EditorialEDITOR Gordon Laing ASSOCIATE EDITOR Clive Akass DEPUTY EDITOR Alana Juman Blincoe FEATURES EDITOR Adele DyerREVIEWS EDITOR David FearonNEWS REPORTER Susan PedersonSENIOR STAFF WRITER Nik Rawlinson STAFF WRITERS Paul Trueman, Ajith Ram PRODUCTION EDITOR Lauraine LeeSENIOR SUB-EDITOR Patrick RamusART EDITOR Claudia RandallEDITORIAL ASSISTANT Etelka Clark COLUMNISTS Brian Clegg, Barry Fox, Michael Hewitt, Paul SmithINTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT Tim BajarinEditorial Phone 0171 316 9000Editorial Fax 0171 316 9313Web site www.pcw.co.ukAll email addresses are in the followingform: [email protected] EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES: Etelka Clark 0171 316 9315CD-ROM TECHNICAL HELP LINE: 0891 715929 (see page 14 for details)Calls charged at 50p per minute

New MediaINTERNET EDITOR Angela CollinsCD EDITOR Steve Rogers 0171 316 9370 [email protected] DEVELOPERJoel Newman 0171 316 [email protected] RESEARCHERMatt Honeyball 0171 316 9058 [email protected]

VNU LabsEUROPEAN LABS MANAGER Wisse HettingaUK LABS MANAGER Gordon ThornLABS TESTERS Ian Robson, Melvyn MildinerOPERATIONS MANAGER Alan Rider Phone 0171 316 9064 Fax 0171 316 9059

CirculationNEWSTRADE CIRCULATION MANAGERJonathan Hardy 0171 316 9851CIRCULATION MANAGERWendy Gregory 0171 316 9862SUBSCRIPTIONS EXECUTIVEJoanne Jeavons 0171 316 9702

AdvertisingDEPUTY SALES DIRECTOR Steve JonesHEAD OF SALES Emma Halliwell 0171 316 9246PC CONSUMER SALESColin Reid 0171 316 9439Steven Beckwith 0171 316 9832Jon Westbrook 0171 316 9306Nunzio Mosca 0171 316 9305Melanie King 0171 316 9727MICROMART SALES EXECUTIVEVinnie Singh 0171 316 9727PORTFOLIO ACCOUNT HANDLERSPaul Heslop 0171 316 9501Beccy Carr 0171 316 9307Dave Barr 0171 316 9533Lesley Goldstein 0171 316 9535PORTFOLIO ACCOUNT MANAGERAndrew Griffiths 0171 316 9303ISSUE MANAGERSusie Ross 0171 316 9465CREDIT CONTROL MANAGERTosh Bruce-Morgan 0171 316 9667US SALES REPRESENTATIVE Global MediaRepresentatives 00 1 415 306 0880Taiwan Sales Representatives Grace Chu/Kent Lai 00 1 886 2717 7663

ProductionGROUP PRODUCTION CONTROLLERStav Athanasiou 0171 316 9227PRODUCTION CONTROLLERLouise Conroy 0171 316 9228PRODUCTION MANAGERPeggy St. Clair 0171 316 9485

PublishingFOUNDER Angelo Zgorelec PUBLISHING DIRECTORJon Ross 0171 316 9187PUBLISHERCatherine Gray Bennett 0171 316 9617EDITORIAL DIRECTORMick Andon 0171 316 9474GROUP MARKETING MANAGERDafina Harrison 0171 316 9181MARKETING ASSISTANTSGaynor Silsbury 0171 316 9925Katy Lefevre 0171 316 9926

VNU House, 32-34 Broadwick Street, London W1A 2HG. Main Switchboard Tel 0171 316 9000 No material may be reproduced in whole or in part without written consent from the copyright holder© VNU Business Publications 1998. Advertisement typesetting by Typematters, London N1. Origination by Westside Digital Media, 9 Bridle Lane, London W1 . Printed and bound in the UK by St Ives plc, Plymouth. Distributed by Marketforce (UK) Ltd, 247 Tottenham Court Road, London W1P 0AU.Readers are reminded that the opinions expressed and results published in connection with reviews and laboratory test reports carried out on computing systems and/or other related items are confined to, and are representative of, only those goods as supplied and should not be construed as a recommendation to purchase.

141,575July-Dec’97

FAX A SUB TO 01795 414600Email [email protected]

By Post to: Personal Computer World, Subscriptions Dept,PO Box 191, Woking, Surrey GU21 1BR

E-COMMERCE SMALL BUSINESS WORKSHOP

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VNU Business Publications


Three Full Programs:Three Full Programs:JMYOB Accounting (RRP £199)JCubasis Audio Lite (Orig. value £149)JSerif Mail Plus (RRP £29.95)




New 300MHz chips tested




INTELvsAMDNew 300MHz chips tested




INTELvsAMD

Smart buysSmart buysPCs Printers ISPs Latest user survey

names most reliable brands and services

Latest user survey names most reliable brands

and services

PCs Printers ISPs

e-commerce small-business workshop–cash in on your web site

Expert opinion you can trust

October 1998 www.pcw.co.uk

New Look!


New Look!

S P E C I A L

£2.25O N LY£2.25

CUSTOMER RELATIONSEnquiries or complaints regarding any advertiser in thismagazine should, initially, be presented in writing to:ANTHONY GEORGEManager Customer Relations DepartmentVNU Business Publications VNU House32 - 34 Broadwick Street, London W1A 2HG Tel: 0171 316 9186

Readers are reminded that we are unable to providetechnical help/support services, either written or verbal;and that the opinions expressed and results published inconnection with reviews and laboratory test reports areconfined to, and are representative of, only those goodsas supplied.

REPRINTS & EXTRACTSWe offer a full reprint service for reproduction of all orpart of previous articles (minimum: 1000 copies).For orders, please call SUSIE ROSS on 0171 316 9000.We are happy for people to use quotations andsegments for internal or promotional purposes. For clearance, please call CATHERINE GRAY BENNETT on0171 316 9000, or ANTHONY GEORGE, CustomerRelations Manager, on 0171 316 9186

PRICES Unless otherwise stated, all prices quoted in PCW areinclusive of VAT.

BACK ISSUES We keep a stock of past issues and can provideindividual copies at a charge of £5. Call 01795 414870.

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READER & SUBSCRIBER HOTLINE 01795 414870Subscriber and Reader Service Guarantee for orders, renewals and requests for back issues,or to inform us about payment problems, missing issues or CD-ROMs.If you are not satisfied with the service you receive from our Subscriptions Department, please call medirect. I guarantee to take action on your inquiry or complaint within 24 hours.

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3-yearsubscription £57.95

1-year subscription £24.95

OverseassubscriptionEurope £95

Rest of the World £125

Back issue cost £5 (UK)

● PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD ● OCTOBER 199810

We hope you enjoy this special redesigned issue ofPCW, but it’s your magazine and we’d appreciate yourcomments. Please email us on [email protected] your thoughts — we’d like to know what you think.

At your service

editorial

The fastest PC in the world is no good if it breaks down or arrives late… great-value ISPs are useless if you can never get connected. What looks in theory like agreat deal, may seriously let you down. PCW can advise you, but we can’t call an ISPmillions of times per month, nor order thousands of PCs to see how many aredead on arrival or whether they turn up at all. The best source of this informationis you, and other users on the front-line. That’s why, in our 20th Anniversary issue[May ’98] we asked you to tell us about your PC, notebook, printer and ISP. Whatkind of service did your supplier deliver? Was your equipment living up to yourexpectations? Your response was tremendous, and we reveal the results of theindustry’s largest independent user survey of service and reliability on page 151.

As for smart buys, check out a new PC based around the new AMD K6-2 3D Now! processor. The name may be a mouthful, but as this month’s group testshows, it’s no slouch, particularly when you consider its low price. We pitched

this new 300MHz processoragainst Intel’s latest 300MHzCeleron, to see how theymeasure up [p174].

There’s nothing quite likea digital camera to turn heads.Of course, you want one; but

which model should you choose, and how do they work? On page 218 we’vetested 15 of them, picked the best, and gone into the finer details for those whowant to their casual snaps to look seriously good.

How do you like our brand new look? We’ve redesigned PCW to make it easierfor you to find your way around and get to the information you’re looking for.It’s your magazine, and we’d appreciate knowing what you think of the newformat, so please email me on [email protected] with your thoughts.

Your response was tremendous — we reveal the

results of the industry’s largest INDEPENDENTUSER SURVEY of service and reliability(

Users are the best judges of service and reliability in the industry.

Gordon Laing, Editor

next month

3D GRAPHICS CARDSFor PC-blasting 3D gamesperformance, we line up 12 of the best cards.

DATABASESIdeal packages to store andretrieve all your most valuabledata.

Fill in this coupon and hand it to your newsagent.

TO MY NEWSAGENT:Please reserve for me a copy of the NOVEMBER 1998issue of PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD, on sale 24th Sept.Thereafter, please reserve for me each month a copy of PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD until I advise otherwise.I understand that I may cancel my order at any time.

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MAKE SURE YOU GET THE NEXT ISSUE OF PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD

450MHZ PENTIUM II PCSIf you need a powerful workstation, we have tenperfect solutions, all based around Intel’s new450MHz PII.

ALSO NEXT MONTH: Microsoft Office 2000 preview, and building a web server for small business. NOVEMBER’98 ISSUE >

ON SALE THURSDAY 24TH SEPTEMBER


Technical information to help you use the CD

WORLDCOMPUTER

PERSONAL

WORLDCOMPUTER

PERSONAL

WELCOME TO THE OCTOBER 1998 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD CD-ROM

October COVER DISCAPPLICATIONS GAMES LIBRARY INTERNET

✔SystemRequirements

You will need a PCrunning Windows 3.1or Windows 95.Please checkindividual productsfor specific systemrequirements. Forbest results, run theCD on a Pentium PCwith at least 16Mb ofmemory.

✔How to use theCD-ROM

Quit existingapplications (if youhave 16Mb or moreof memory, you don’t

have to do this, butyou will still get betterperformance if nottoo many otherapplications arerunning). Put the discinto your CD drive.Win 95 — If you’vegot Windows 95, thePCW interactiveloader will appear onyour screen. If yourCD doesn’t autoload,go to Start/Run andtype in <CD Drive>:\pcw.exeWin 3.1 — FromWindows ProgramManager chooseFile/Run, then type in

<CD Drive>:\pcw.exeand press enter.

✔CD-ROMProblems

If you have problemswith individualproducts, pleasecheck in the magazineor on the CD forindividual companysupport contactdetails. If you experiencegeneral problemswith the CD, thetechnical helpline isopen on weekdaysfrom 10:30am to12:30pm and

Cubasis Audio Lite full versionHave you ever fancied having a recording studio on your desktop? Well now you can,with Cubasis Audio Lite, from Steinberg. Users of Cubase will be familiar with the

interface of the popular MIDIsequencer, but now you can add realsounds such as vocals or acousticinstruments. Using the full version onthis month’s disc, and with adequateresources, you can mix up to fourtracks of simultaneous audioalongside music data that has beencreated from a MIDI instrument. Justlay down your drums and keyboardtracks on your computer and thenrecord vocals onto the audio tracks.

You will have access to all the differentinstruments in your sound card orexternal sound module, combined withthe spontaneity of real-world sounds. To get the most out of this application,check out our three-page workshop(starting on page 242) in the Hands Onsection of this issue.


Whether you’re browsing in a shopor hurriedly opening this new-lookissue of Personal Computer World athome, you are probably dying to findout more about the three full-versionapplications advertised on thismonth’s cover! Well, they’re all here:full versions of of MYOB, a smallbusiness accounting suite; CUBASISAUDIO LITE, a digital multitrackaudio recorder and sequencer; andSERIF MAIL PLUS, for creating andsending fun emails. On top of that,there are seven more featured gamesand applications demos, and over 60 other applications in the SoftwareLibrary. So read on and find outmore about the contents of one veryfull PCW CD-ROM!

Operating system Windows 3.1 or higherLimitationsFull versionSales contact0181 970 1909Technical support0181 207 1792 between 10:00am& 1:00pm, and 2:00pm &5:00pm (on Wednesday’s there’s a2:00pm start)

PCW DETAILS

1.30pm to 4:30pm.Telephone 01274 736990. If you experienceproblems with theCD-ROM (such as amessage reading“Cannot read fromdrive D:”) return thedisc with a coveringnote showing yourname and addressand clearly marked“PCW CD OCTOBER 98” to:TIB plcTIB House11, Edward StreetBradfordBD4 7BH

A replacement discwill be sent to you bypost.

✔Getting yoursoftware onto

our PCW CD-ROMPersonal ComputerWorld is keen topromote qualitysoftware and wouldlike to hear from youif you are interested inhaving your productincluded on a futurecover disc. For cover-mounted discenquiries pleasetelephone AfshanNasim on

0171 316 9592 oremail [email protected].

✔SoftwareLimitations

Unless otherwisestated, all thesoftware containedon the CD is fordemonstrationpurposes only. Theguidelines we use fordescribing thelimitations ofsoftware are asfollows:

FreewareA fully-operational


product which can beused for no cost.

SharewareThis type of softwareis supplied in a fullyworking form thatallows the user toevaluate all itsfeatures. The licensingconditions of thiskind of softwarewould normallyrequire you to registerit for a fee, if youintend to use it after aspecified trial periodhas ended.

Time Limited Demo“Time Limited”software productscontain the same

functionality as thecommercial versionbut will not run after acertain date, nor aftera specified period oftime has elapsed sinceits installation onto acomputer.

Function LimitedDemoThis type of softwarehas no timerestriction, butcertain features willhave been removed.For example, you maynot be able to saveanything created byusing the program.Or, in the case of agame, it may containonly one level.

EvaluationAlthough all thefeatures in this formof software are activeand there is no timerestriction, there is alimit to the “range” ofthe program, which isset against the scopeof a purchasedlicence. For instance,a demo of a databaseprogram may be setup to store only 100records in order toevaluate itsfunctionality. On theother hand, if it wereto be purchased, itwould then be sold

with different prices:for example, a 1000-record licence and a10,000-recordlicence.Full Version

The softwarecontained on the discis the full commercialproduct. This meansthat it is currentlyavailable, or has been

previously available,for purchase fromretail suppliers.

MYOB 6.0 full version● Check out our workshop in the Hands On section (p246) of PCW.MYOB 6.0 combines a range of small-business accountingfunctions with a set of contact and management tools. Astraightforward interface allows users with no previousaccounting knowledge to maintain extensive and detailedrecords. MYOB has won awards internationally, in no small partdue to its “customisability” which allows records to conform todiffering taxation, accounting and business practices. Output isvia a range of reports, invoice types, statements and cheques.Detailed budgets and job estimates can be prepared.Accounting data can be exported to, and imported from, otherprograms. All financial analysis tools are available so you can producefinancial performance and budget data and graphs. Stored details ofcustomers and suppliers offer built-in contact management, and thereis a “To-Do List” and mail-merge facility. Users are entitled to one freetechnical support call if they register the product. ● PCW Special Offers in conjunction with MYOB:1. A full set of MYOB 6.0 manuals for £302. A year’s technical support for £753. Upgrade to Version 7.5 (+ full set of manuals) for £99 (Normally £195)4. Upgrade to Premier (+ full set of manuals) £395 (Normally £495)The above pricing excludes £6 carriage charge and VAT.

Contact: Best!Ware (UK) 01752 201901 (fax 01752 894833), [email protected], web site www.myob.co.uk

DreamweaverMacromedia’s Dreamweaver is a greatvisual tool for creating professional web

sites. It isparticularlyuseful in thecreation ofpages thatuse Dynamic

HTML, but maybe used in amulti-browserenvironment. It offers visual web-pagelayout and provides a convenient HTMLsource editor. You can create web sitesthat look great and run smoothly on allbrowsers. Features include conditionalhyperlinks, integrated Image Editor andcolour-coded HTML.

AuthorwareMultimedia authors will knowAuthorware as a well-established tool,

used by manycorporations,educationalinstitutions andgovernmentorganisations toproduce dynamic,interactive,

successful learningapplications.Designed to allowsubject experts andnon-programmers tocreate interactivecourseware, its icon-based, drag-and-drop interfaceemploys a simpleflowchart convention that anyone canunderstand.

Straightforwardto use, it readilyconnects with theweb and runs nativeon all importantplatforms. ByincorporatingShockwave files,including Director 6movies, Flash

animations, and audio, fast playback canbe achieved across intranets.

PlatformWindows 95Limitations30-day trialSales contact0181 358 5857Technical supportNone

PCW DETAILS

PlatformWindows 95Limitations30-day trialSales contact0181 358 5857Technical supportNone

PCW DETAILS

APPLICATIONS GAMES LIBRARY INTERNET

Operating system Windows 3.1 or laterLimitationsFull versionSales contact01752 201901Technical support01752 201901 (subjectto registration)

PCW DETAILS

IMPORTANT NOTICEThe publisher, VNU, has checked the Personal Computer World

CD-ROM for known viruses at all stages of production butcannot accept liability for damage caused either to your data or

your computer system which may occur while using either thedisc or any software contained on it. If you do not agree with theseconditions you should not use the disc. It is good practice to run a viruschecker on any new software before running it on your computer and to alsomake regular backup copies of all your important data.

Unless otherwise stated, all software contained on the CD is fordemonstration only. This means it may be restricted in some way. Forexample, it may be time limited or have certain functions disabled.

!

C D - R O M H E L P L I N E 0 1 2 7 4 7 3 6 9 9 0H E L P L I N E

XenocracyXenocracy is a space flight combat gameset within an accurately represented SolarSystem. You must balance the interests ofEarth, Mercury, Mars and Venus as theydivide the resources of the Solar System.The game is a mix of action and strategythat emphasises tactical flying skillsagainst your hyper-intelligent opponents.Graphically it features large, well-populated 3D mission environments,

multiple camerareal-timeperspectives, andan extensive rangeinformationfeatures about thestrategic situationin a Solar Systemat war.

Operating systemWindows 95Limitations Limitedlevels. Cut-down featuresSales contact01865 264 817Technical [email protected]

PCW DETAILS

S.C.A.R.SThe year is 3000 AD. The world iscontrolled by nine supercomputers whichhave developed intelligence greater thanthat of their creators, as well as extremesof human emotions including boredom.They overcome their apathy by racing,and their drive for victory compels themto build supercars that mimic the Earth’smost fearsome creatures and thenpulverise opponents on variously

treacherouscourses. The game featuresa powerful 3Dgraphics engine,real-time lightingeffects and fourmodes of play.

PlatformWindows 95Limitations Limitedtracks, cars and racedurationSales contact0181 944 9300Technical support0181 944 9000

PCW DETAILS

BHunterIn BHunter you are one of a number ofbounty hunters in a city set some time inthe future, taking over the work that thepolice gave up on long ago. You mustattempt to make your way to fame andfortune by hunting down the criminalelements in this world.

Features include VGA 3D acceleratedgraphics, along with support for all major3D accelerators. There is multiplayer

gameplay, a varietyof differentweapons, andreal-life collisionswith explosionblasts featuringadvanced soundand dopplersound bending.

C O V E R D I S C N O T E S


Operating systemWindows 95LimitationsEarly levels demoSales contact(Denmark) +45 86802700 Technical supportNone

PCW DETAILS

Serif MailPlus full version

Serif MailPlus will enable you to produce fun, creative,personalised emails with your own graphics without being agraphic artist. It is the perfect way to email your family andfriends. The program is designed to work with all popularemail software and enables you to combine different messagelayouts with your own personal text to create a unique look.The point-and-click interface makes it simple to start creatinggraphic email right away, and built-in intelligence means SerifMailPlus handles the spacing, formatting and colourbalancing. Emails are delivered to the recipient using thepopular GIF file format so that they are displayed either in the

email window or in a supported program.Personal Computer World Special Upgrade OfferSerif is able to offer all PCW readers specially discounted priceson additional content packs, which would increase the numberof supplied design templates; from 13 to a potential 170. Serif’s MailPlus Professional Edition (MSRP of £29.95 incVAT) offers an extra 100 templates. PCW readers can upgradeto this version for only £14.95 (inc VAT).

Alternatively, purchase both MailPlus Professional and theMailPlus Business Contents Pack for only £24.95 (inc VAT).The MSRP of the Business Contents Pack is £19.95 (incl VAT),which means a great saving of £24.95 when purchasing the full170 extra design templates. Upgrades also include a specially-reduced shipping charge of only £3 for guaranteed delivery.

To receive your upgrades, call theFreephone Sales Hotline on0800 3767070.

Platform Windows 95LimitationsFull versionSales contact0800 376 7070Technical supportNone

PCW DETAILS



Unless otherwisestated, new versionsof featured softwareare not upgrades,but standaloneinstallations. If youwish to install thelatest version of aproduct onto yourmachine, pleaseensure that you firstuninstall/remove theolder version.

Essential UtilitiesNew Regulars:● GetRight 3.2 (Windows 95/NT)With GetRight youcan resume on errorsor partial requestswhile downloadingfiles from the web orftp sites. It allowsscheduling and manyother advanceddownloadingfeatures. (30-dayevaluation).

● ThumbsPlus(Windows 95/NT)ThumbsPlus is agraphic file viewer,locator andorganiser thatsimplifies the processof finding andmaintaininggraphics, clipart files,fonts andanimations. Itdisplays a smallthumbnail image ofeach file. You can useThumbsPlus tobrowse, view, edit,crop, launch externaleditors and copyimages to theclipboard. (30-dayevaluation).

New This Month● Asteroid Impact(Win 3.1/95)Enjoy seeminglyendless levels ofasteroid-blasting

rock-smashingmayhem. This ismassive andrelentlessobliteration on agrand scale — loadsof fun! (Shareware).● Blitz 98 Draughts (Win 3.1/95)BLITZ 98 is one ofthe world’s strongestdraughts-playingprograms. You needto be a very goodplayer to beat Blitz.(30-day evaluation).● Cricket Statistics (Win3.1/95)Allows you toproduce detailedaverages for yourcricket club with theminimum of effort. Italso providesfacilities to help youautomate many ofthe tasks associatedwith the day-to-dayrunning of a cricketclub. (Shareware)● Critical Mass (Windows 95)Critical Mass is anoriginal, highlyaddictive game set in

the future, where youare the commanderof a squadron ofspaceships. You willbe sent on one of 30different types ofmission, rangingfrom protecting aconvoy, to attackingan enemy starbase,to defending Earth.(Limited demo).● Diskeeper (Windows NT only)Diskeeper is the firstautomaticdefragmenter forWindows NT,restoring andmaintainingWindows NT systemspeed andperformance.Diskeeperdefragments multipledisks automaticallywhile the system is inuse and istransparent to end-users. (Trial version).● Evolution DanceStation (Windows 95)Evolution DanceStation is a realtime

dance musicproduction packagewhich allows the userto mix their owntunes, live, using a25-note keyboard totrigger high-qualityaudio dance loops.(Limited demo).● FineReader 4 (Windows 95/NT)FineReader is asuperb opticalcharacterrecognition system(OCR). It transformsa scanned image intotext (i.e. into codesof letters, which yourcomputer canrecognise) to be usedin any wordprocessing package.(Time-limiteddemo).● Fractopia ScreenSaver (Windows 95)Fractopia ScreenSaver lets you rollyour own fractalscreensavers,allowing you to delvebeneath the surfaceof fractal images,

discover the secretswithin and convertyour discoveries intoanimatedscreensavers thatplay when yourcomputer is idle.(30-day shareware).● Mother of All Battles (Windows 95)A strategy game fortwo to six human orcomputer players.The object of thegame is to capturethe world, startingfrom your home city.Each city can buildunits either of tanks,planes, bombers,paratroopers,aircraft carriers,destroyers,battleships, orsubmarines) in orderto explore the worldand defeat yourenemies. (Limiteddemo). ● NetGraphics Studio 2(Windows 95)There is no easierway to make yourweb graphics smallerthan with

Max 2The enemies callthemselves TheConcord. Theyhave governed theterritory for yearsbut only a smallnumber of theirspecies can

provide direction to the overallpopulation, and they are toorigid to accept change. You mustmonitor the situation and findways to weaken their control.One of their species, called TheOomans, who are moreadaptable, have joined theConcord. Together, theOomans and the Concord areinvolved in a shared-DNAprocess that has great potentialfor upsetting future plans.Features include 3D parallaxscrolling, fully-rendered worlds,a scenario editor and enhanced audio.


Starcraft: Brood WarStarcraft: Brood War continues thesaga of galactic warfare as the Zerg,the Protoss and the Terrans strugglefor their continued survival.

The shattered Zerg hive has beentorn apart by fierce in-fighting, andthe Protoss seek to reunite with their

Dark Templarbrethren andrebuild theirhomeworld, Aiur.Terran EmperorMengsk I, havingachieved his goalof total power over the human colonies,must now turn his attentions to the risingpower of Kerrigan, Zerg Queen of Blades,the woman he betrayed, as well as aconspiracy within the ranks.

Three new campaigns are featured inthe game, plus new weapons, new worlds,original cinematic scenes and 100 newmultiplayer maps.

PCW DETAILS

SoftwareLibrary }

C D - R O M H E L P L I N E 0 1 2 7 4 7 3 6 9 9 0

Operating systemWindows 95LimitationsOne early level Sales contact01628 423723Technical [email protected]

H E L P L I N E

Platform Windows 95LimitationsRestricted missionsSales contact0118 9209111Technical supportNone

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C O V E R D I S C N O T E S


NetGraphicsStudio2 whichincludes automatictransparencygeneration on vectorart, interactiveimage resizing andcompression, batchprocessing andmore. (Limiteddemo).● Omniquad DesktopSurveillance (Windows 95/NT)Omniquad DesktopSurveillance breaksnew grounds in thefield of systemsmanagement andnetwork security. Itenables you to takefull advantage of asystem which issimilar to a realCCTV cameraoperating acrossyour network, butwithout the need forhardware!(Function-limiteddemo). ● OmniquadOmnilook (Windows 95/NT)Omnilook 97 is amulti-format imagebrowser. Theexplorer-styleinterface displayscombinedthumbnail previewsof images as youchange folders. (30-day trial).● Omniquad Outlines(Windows 95/NT)Omniquad Outlinesis a managementtool which enablesyou to define theboundaries andgeneral rules for useof the computer andthe internet. (30day-trial).● Omniquad Set MeUp 98 (Windows 95/NT)The aim of thisapplication is tocover all the systemset-up andcustomisationfeatures that areeither hidden or notdirectly available tothe user. Theapplication alsooffers severalenhancements tothe operatingsystem features.(30-day trial).

● PhotoRecall SpecialEdition (Windows 95/NT)PhotoRecallincorporates thelatest imagingtechnology into adynamic photomanagement systemthat can be usedwith digitalcameras, scannersand the Internet. Itbuilds virtual photoalbums on PCs,while automaticallymanaging all imagesin a centraldatabase.(Function-limiteddemo).● PowerUser Suite 95(Windows 95)A software packagewhich increasesproductivity bymaking Windowswork the way youwant. Designed withthe seriousWindows user inmind, this productrepresents aprofessional, one-stop, easy-to-use setof utilities, designedto save you time andeffort in anyWindowsapplication.(Limited demo).● Rats! (Win95)Kill all the ratsbefore they have achance to mate andoverrun the maze.

To kill a rat, pick upthe objects whichappear at random inthe right-hand sideof the window byclicking the mouseon them andplacing them in themaze. (Function-limited demo). ● repliGATOR (Windows 95/NT)repliGATOR is astandalone programwhich takes existingdigital images andchanges them, witheasy-to-usegraphical effects,into new images. Itis just what youneed for creatinggreat new webimages. (Function-limited demo). ● Snakey (Windows 95/NT)Snakey is a multi-user Tron-like gamefor up to 16 players(one server and 15clients). (Freeware). ● SoftCopier (Windows 95/NT)SoftCopier, used inconjunction with ascanner, is a simple-to-use yet powerfulsoftware photocopysolution. It containsmore functions thanmost photocopiers,and willrevolutionise the

way you copyyourdocuments.(Time-limiteddemo).● SpaceMan (Windows 95/NT)SpaceMan 98is anapplication that canhelp you find outwhich files andfolders are using upmost of your harddisk space. Itadditionallycontains facilities tohelp find files that

can be deleted tomake more spaceavailable. (30-daytrial).● Surf Express (Windows 95/NT)Surf Express speedsup your internetbrowsing by usingthe most intelligent

web-cacheingtechnologyavailable. Itidentifies the webpages you visitrepeatedly andstores them on yourhard drive. Then,while you browseother pages, SurfExpress will regularlycheck stored pagesfor updates. (7-daytrial). ● Tax 98 (Windows 95)Tax 98 is a softwareprogram designedspecifically to easeyou through theprocess ofcompleting your1998 Tax Return.The standard TaxReturn form SA100,issued by the InlandRevenue, can becompleted with Tax98. (Function-limited demo). ● VET Anti-Virus(Win3.1/95/NT)VET Anti-Virus is afully-featured anti-virus solution foryour PC, paving theway for a permanentpain-free virusupgrade solution.(Unregistered fullversion).

SPECIAL NOTICE — HANDS ON OS/2 JDK 1.1.6

On the cover disc this month, we have provided, courtesy of IBM, thelatest Netscape (NETS202.EXE), the latest Feature Installer(FIRUNPKG.ZIP), the Java Runtime package with Unicode Fonts(JAVAINUF.ZIP) and the 1.1.6 JDK Development Package (JAVAIN-TK.ZIP).

Be sure to read the README.1ST file for installation instructions as itis relevant to the order in which you install the packages. You need onlyinstall the Java runtime package (JAVAINUF.ZIP) to execute Javaapplets and applications. The Development toolkit is required if you wishto develop your own Java code.The latest version of the Netscape Navigator for OS/2 is a much smallerpackage as it no longer includes its own Java runtime. Therefore you needto install Netscape Navigator for OS/2 and the Java runtime package.The Code is copyrighted, distributed with permission of the copyrightowner, and may only be used in accordance with the license agreementincluded therein: OS/2 and Warp are trademarks of IBM Corp. Java is a trademark ofSun Microsystems Inc., and Netscape is a trademark of NetscapeCommunications.

C D - R O M H E L P L I N E 0 1 2 7 4 7 3 6 9 9 0H E L P L I N E

¿GET KICKIN’ — MIX

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AOL TrialEasy-to-use internetonline service FREE thismonth with 50 hours’online time!AOL channels cover everything from the latest News &Sport toEntertainment &Travel. Internetaccess is easy — go directly to webpages from your AOLmenu bar.

AOL offers 33.6Kaccess speeds nationwide and hasMicrosoft Internet Explorer 3.0 integrated as its main browser.

● 50 hours online!● One month’s AOL membership!● Five email addresses per account!● Free technical support! ● 10Mb of web space!● 100 percent local call access!● Run the software from the main screenor from the Software Library ISP section.

Would you like to find out more aboutthe software contained on our PCWCD-ROM? Would you like to gain directaccess to the companies which createdthe games, utilities and applications thatappear on this month’s free cover disc?

If you click on the web link banner atthe top of the main screen you can runyour browser and access PCW CDOnLine direct from the disc.

CD OnLine is an extension of thenormal CD, giving you up-to-date accessto sites and information that relate to the

actual content on this month’s coverdisc. You can access our Personal ComputerWorld web site, plus Vnunet.com andJobworld.co.uk, too.

In addition, there is an up-to-datetechnical information page which relatesto the CD-ROM, and a preview of what iscoming up on next month’s free cover-mounted CD! And, if you would like aregular copy of PCW and our CDdelivered to your home, you can contactour subscriptions department andsubscribe via email while you’re online.

Platform Windows 95 and 3.1LimitationsOne month freemembership, 50 freeonline hoursSales contact0800 376 5432

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JOBWORLDJobworld.co.uk is a freeservice which provides youwith access to thousands ofnew IT, business and financevacancies every day. All youhave to do is browse the siteby job sector or search on aspecific set of job skills orrequirements. The JobworldEmail Alert service offers

furtherrefinements bysending only thedetails that match

the job-seeker’s preferences,allowing the recipient tocontrol exactly whatinformation is sent and when.Jobworld also offers links tojob sites overseas, a guide toIT contracting, andcomprehensive lists of jobsfrom the top recruitmentagencies in the UK.

Jobworld.co.uk — be thefirst to know!

VNUNETVnunet.com offers speed ofdelivery, accuracy and a breadth ofcoverage from five market-leadingweeklies: Computing, Accountancy Age,

PC Dealer, Network News and PC Week, generating up to 50stories every day of the working week. With correspondents inEurope, the US and Asia contributing daily to the VNUNewswire, a round-the-clock news service is availableexclusively at vnunet.com. More detailed information isavailable from a collection of in-depth articles covering news,analysis and product reviews, from VNU’s stable of monthlypublications including Personal Computer World and ManagementConsultancy, plus some of the best editorial material from VNU’sportfolio of 15 business and consumer publications.

Access the internet directfrom the opening screen!


IBM claims to have had abreakthrough in

insulating individualtransistors withinprocessors, making them farmore efficient. It will lead tochips that need only a third ofthe power for a given clockspeed — or run up to 20percent faster for a givenpower drain, IBM says. Thesilicon-on-insulator (SOI)process needs only minimalchanges to plants and givesthe ability to make processorsclocking 1GHz. SOI will beused in IBM’s existingproducts, including the

PowerPC chip. Earlier thisyear, IBM claimed a similarefficiency gain with abreakthrough in the use oflow-resistance copper“interconnect”. But aninternal Intel briefing foundSOI wanting, reports MikeMagee of VNU Newswire. It saysSOI can actually cutperformance on fast chips,depending on the circuitconfiguration. The documentalso says power reduction isnegligible at high speeds.

More information can be found atwww.chips.ibm.com

IBM chip breakthroughFU T U R E S

Intel has launched two fastCeleron processors anda price war in a bid to

regain the initiative in thegrowing market for low-costPCs. The first 266MHz and300MHz Celerons had nocache, and our group test[page 174], which pits themagainst AMD’s K6-2 3D,confirms criticism of theirspeed. The new Celeron 300aand 333 (clock rates matchtheir names) boast 128Kb ofL2 cache. Comparison withthe K6-2 is hard because theyuse a different socket; butearly tests in our VNU Labsindicate that they are faster.

Intel slashed the bulkprice of the old Celeron 300by 30 percent to $112 andthe 266 by 19 percent to $80.New Celeron prices were notavailable as we went to pressbut there were rumours ofmore price cuts to come. Inresponse, AMD cut the K6-2/333 price massively from$369 to $237, and the K6-2/300 from $281 to $157(the 266 will be dropped). Aspokeswoman said: “These

prices could fall further ifIntel makes further cuts.”Meanwhile, Cyrix launched a333MHz version of its Mlland almost immediately cutthe bulk price from $180 to$162; the price of an Mll 300fell from $135 to $82.Perhaps more worrying forIntel are signs that buyers nolonger distrust non-Intel PCchips. A US survey found thatmore than one in two USfirms would consider buyingPCs using other makes.IBM lent credibility to AMD

by using the K6-2 in all but themost expensive of its Aptiva Ehome range (above). Brandmanager Alec Welland saidK6-2 prices enabled IBM tooffer a full-spec internet-readymultimedia PC for just £799.

Intel also risks missingthe emerging appliancemarket. Stan Shih, head ofTaiwanese giant Acer, was inLondon to evangelise his XCreference designs based onPC chips. The latest news wasthat he was signing up Cyrixto power them.

PRO C E S S O R S

Intel races downmarket


Intel CeleronThis is the old cacheless

version. The new 300a and333 devices have 128Kb

cache and are much faster.Intel 01793 403000

AMD K6-2 3DAvailable in 333MHz and300MHz versions. AMD

has slashed prices toundercut Intel.

AMD 01483 740440

Cyrix MIIAlso has 333MHz and

300MHz versions. Looks amore solid bet since Cyrixwas bought by NatSemi.

Cyrix 01793 417777

3R I V A L

processors

Overdrive kills the ProThe Pentium Pro has beendropped, but a new PIIOverdrive provides userswith an upgrade path. The$599 chip fits into the Pro’sSocket 8, pushing 150MHzand 180MHz Pro PCs to300MHz, and 166MHz and200MHz to 333MHz. It mayprove faster than astandard PII as its internalcache runs twice as fast.

Master plan Imagine a program that

will run through a PChard disk, making all codeY2K compliant withoutchanging program sizes,checksums, or functions.

That’s what MillenniumMaster, from MFX, is said todo. We won’t believe it untilwe’ve tried it. If you can’twait for our verdict, it isbeing sold by POW.

Call 01202 716726

news


Another companyis offering free

internet access. Unlikethe ad-funded service atwww.x-stream.com,Telinco’snew Home Connect isfinanced by phone calls.Telinco, which gets up to 3pa minute for every callpassed on to BT, offersnational calls for up to 35percent cheaper. If you pay a£20 start-up fee and spendmore than £35 per quarteron Telinco calls, you get yournet time for the cost of the

local call, plus 5Mb of webspace, a freephone numberwhich works like achargecard, and a numberwhich lets people ring youwherever you are. ISPDemon, owned by ScottishTelecom, is adding servicesto attract users (see p36) butis not likely to go free.Marketing manager AdeBrownlow said: “Our usersare more concerned withquality of service.”

Home Connect 0800 542 4343

Psion has unveiled a newfast version of its Series

3 palmtop. The 3mx uses a28MHz version of the NEC-made 80c86 chip used onthe original — a fourfoldboost in speed. The newmodel includes the samesuite of organiser programsand the body has beenrestyled. It will cost £269,competitive with the glut ofrivals hitting the market butnot undercutting them.Many, like the PalmPilot,bundle PC connectivity, but

Psion’sPsiWin2.0 suitecosts £49extra with cable.Spokesman Steve Pang saidthis was so that existing users do not have to buy the program again if theyupgrade. “Many people who buy a Psion don’t own a PC,” he said.

Psion 0990 143050www.psion.com

IT luminaries are pouringmillions into a search for

alien life — and you, too,are being asked to help.Gordon Moore, WilliamHewlett, Paul Allen andSandy Lerner (foundersrespectively of Intel, HP,Microsoft and Cisco) haveeach put money into theSearch for Extra-TerrestrialIntelligence Institute (SETI).And late this year you will beable to download a program

for intelligence-testing datacollected by the world’sbiggest radio telescope atAricicibo, Puerto Rico. The idea is that PCs cancrunch the data as abackground task or whileusers are asleep. Usersdownload about a quartermegabyte of data, whichtakes about two days toprocess. Any suspicioussigns are reported back forfurther investigation.

More than 115,000 peoplehave already signed up forthe SETI@home schemebased at the University ofCalifornia. SETI<www.seti.org> hopes tocomplete five detailedanalyses of the entire skywithin two years.

VNU NEWSWIRE

Psion unveilsfast Series 3

New free access deal

PCs across world lose sleep as IT goes ET mad

IN T E R N E T

“Extra-terrestrial searching?Sounds like a desperate way to

try to increase your market”

short stories

➠PARANOIA FUELSee anything strange aboutthese cables? That nodule inthe keyboard lead stores thefirst 1000 keys you press…enough to capture yourpassword. Vendor Microspycalls it a “surveillance toolfor authorisedprofessionals”. It can befitted in seconds and takenoff as quickly, for its secretsto be accessed. For the bestof reasons, naturally.Microspy 01908 607007www.microspy.com

➠PCS AT TESCO’STesco is selling discountedFujitsu PCs at New Malden,Surrey, in a pilot schemewhich will be extended toother stores if necessary.

See also TescoNet, p36.

➠KINDSCREENSIiyama saysits six latestVision Masterdisplays ease

eye strain by offering thebest available refresh rates.Iiyama 01438 314417

New PCWhelp hotline

PCW is launching ahelp hotline that you

can ring if you have anyproblems with a PC orperipheral. If one of our300 lines isengagedyou canleaveyour number with ouranswering service and wewill call you back. Sadlywe cannot provide thisservice for free. Calls willbe charged at £1.50 perminute. For complexproblems you can ringback later for a solution.

Or you can buy a£12.95 voucher,which lets you talk to the hotlineuntil your problem

is solved. Thehelpline conforms tostandards set by ICSTIS,the regulatory body fortelephone services. If you don’t think we have solved your problem satisfactorily,we will refund the cost of your call.

The number to call is:

0906 466 4465

SE RV I C E S

news


A Java-based technology called Jini willmake signing on to a network as easy as

plugging in a phone, according to developerSun. The idea is to allow you plug into anoffice, home or hotel network anywhere inthe world to take advantage of local servicessuch as printing, fax, or internet access. Suncalls this “spontaneous networking”,doing away with the need for driverinstallations and tricky configuration. Itrelies on a core of just 45Kb of code whichcan be embedded into devices such aselectronic cameras or organisers.

Jini uses the concept of a network“citizen” which can be a person, a device, anapplication or a data set. Each citizen, orgroup of citizens, is represented on thenetwork by a Java Virtual Machine, whichcan run on any platform. Jini creates acommunity, or federation, of these virtualmachines but is not a network operatingsystem as such: it sits above other operating

systems. A citizen joins the community by announcing itself and advertising itsservices (see below). A digital camera, forinstance, might say: “I am a camera. Anyone want to use me?” A printer on thesame network might take note and offer toprint any pictures. An archive disk mightoffer to store them. Sun envisages a Jini-enabled hotel guest, for instance, being able to link up to head office from his room and to use the hotel’s printers or fax machines.

Sun says Jini source code will beavailable to developers under a “Jini publiclicence”, on similar terms to those ofNetscape’s Mozilla and Linux. It believesthis open-source model encouragesdevelopment by providing anyone with themeans to push the technology forward (see page 42).

Details at java.sun.com/jini/index.html

briefing

Jini spells easy nettingPlug a radio into the mains, plug a device into a net. It’ll be much thesame thing using new Java trickery. Or so Sun says. Clive Akass reports.

■ Jini is not the first schemeto ease the use of devices onnetworks, although few canoffer its global sweep. Otherplans include:

NESTNovell Embedded SystemsTechnology was meant tofacilitate device interactionbut did not gain widespreadacceptance. Now Novell istouting a front-end calledNet Top which, it says, couldbe used either with Jini or itsown Groupwise product

JETSENDThis free Hewlett-Packardtechnology enables acamera, say, to talk directlyto a network printer with noneed for special drivers.Canon, Lexmark and Xeroxare said to have adopted thetechnology but have yet toincorporate it in products.

BLUETOOTHThis new initiative, backedby the likes of Nokia, IBMand Ericsson, provides fordevices of all types tointeract via spread-spectrumradio (see PCW, August). Itcould complement Jini,rather than rival it.

MCOMThis covers a number ofMicrosoft projects,codenamed Millennium,aimed at simplifyingnetworking.

AND THEREST...

How Jini looks out of the bottleA Jini community caninclude machines using anyprocessor or operatingsystem, as long as they canrun a Java Virtual Machine.Features of the Jini layer are:■ A newcomer to thecommunity sends a 512-byte Discovery packet. Thisis picked up by the Lookupmodule, which registersavailable services and acts asa gateway to them. Thismodule passes thenewcomer acommunication interface.The visitor has now joinedthe community.■ Services are leased for acertain time. Leases have tobe renegotiated when theyexpire, ensuring that devicesare removed from Lookupwhen unplugged.■ Jini provides an

application programminginterface to ensure thatdistributed events occur inthe order intended; it alsoprovides a manager fordistributed transactions.

■ Network services includeJavaSpaces, which act as akind of global postbox sothat service providers andrecipients do not need tokeep track of each other.

Jini

Networkservices

Jini

HOW I T WO R K S

short stories

➠FLAT RATEThis ViewsonicVP150 showshow flat-screenprices arecreeping downto mass-marketlevel — fuellingthe dispute about interfacestandards (see right). The15in screen, offering up to1024 x 768 resolution non-interlaced, costs around£775 (ex VAT). But pricesare expected to fall.MMD(distributor)01734 313232

➠DESIGNERLABELSThe £22 (incVAT) Press -Itis designed toapply labelsneatly to CDsand comes withsoftware for designing them.Rocky Mountain Traders 0171 631 0707

➠CHEAP LIBRETTOMorgan is selling an earlymodel of Toshiba’s Librettomini-notebook, using a75MHz AMD 586 processor,for just £399 (ex VAT).0121 456 5565

➠TELETEXT ON TAPPace is selling an £89 (incVAT) PC TV card with accessto up to 125 channels, eitherstandard, cable or satellite. It also streams Teletext.Pace 0990 561001


Confusion over a digitalinterface could slow the

spread of flat-panel colourdisplays to the desktop.Traditional CRT monitorstake an analogue signal,so a standard for adigital link hasbeen slow toemerge.LCD screensare digital,and to driveone from a normalgraphics port involves alossy, expensive twinconversion to analogue andback again. Last year thevideo standards body VESAintroduced the Plug andDisplay (P&D) standard. It used a 30-pin connectorwith both analogue anddigital display paths, and1394 and USB serial links.

The aim was to have asingle standard connectorfor all display types. But agroup of vendors, led byCompaq, said the P&Pstandard was too expensivewhen only a digital link wasneeded. They formed theDigital Flat Panel workinggroup which came up with asimpler 20-pin link which has

been used in two CompaqPresarios. To complicatematters further, the JapaneseDisplay Interface Standardsfor Monitors group has

come up with yetmoreproposals,includingSony’s 14-pin

Gigabit VideoInterface. DFP and

P&D links both usePanelLink transmitter andreceiver chips (pictured) fromSilicon Image. Rae Cho, itsbusiness developmentmanager, said the rival linkswere electrically identicaland the cheaper DFP versionmade more sense for big-selling PCs like the Presario.“It is a case of marketsegmentation,” he said.But Bob Raikes, managingeditor of Display Monitor,said the issue wasgenerating a lot of FUD(Fear, Uncertainly andDoubt). “My advice is totreat everything asproprietary at the moment.”

Silicon Image www.siimage.comDFP group www.dfp-group.orgVESA www.vesa.org

Socket FUD holdsback flat screens

DI S P L AY S

DAB audiobrowser formotoristsAn audio browser for

motorists will be bornof a marriage of DigitalAudio Broadcasting (DAB) and GSM phonetechnology, predicts a UKcompany. DAB offers CD-quality sound and isset to be Britain’s mainradio system within adecade. But the car wasthe driving force, so tospeak, behind itsdevelopment because DABpromises interference-free

reception andan end tothe needto re-tuneyourradio.DAB

(governed bythe World DAB

Forum) uses forward errorcorrection like DVB (seep40) and can carry webdata. DAB radios can havemini web screens but thereis no return channel and in-car displays are unsafe. But Nick Johnson, of TTPCommunications, says acombined GSM/DABdevice can be built for onlymarginally more than thecost of a cellphone. AndGSM can give DAB a returnchannel. TTP envisages aTell Me More button whichyou can press when youwant more informationabout something you hearon the radio; perhaps atopic under discussion or aweather or traffic report.“You could also haveforward and backwardbuttons, just like abrowser,” Johnson said.TTP 01763 266266

www.ttpcom.com

World DAB Forum www.worlddab.org

CO M M S

AUK firm is selling adevice which it claimslets any continuous

speech recognition producttake input froma tape, creatinga dictationsystem. DragonNaturallySpeaking (not

the cheaperpersonal edition) includes afacility for transcribing from

a Sony Minidisc. But youcan’t use just any recorderbecause there are problemswith noise and voltage levels,said Stephen Savage, salesdirector of Parish Maze. Heclaims his Mobi-Dictinterface, costing about £50,will take input from a “widevariety” of recorders, thoughslightly different versions maybe needed for differentbrands. Parish Maze has

promised to send us one totry out, so watch this space.■ Endeavour Technologies isselling Lernout and Hauspie’sentry-level Speakwrite for£19.99, including mike andword processor. A £39.99professional edition lets youdictate into any Windowsproduct.

Endeavour 01932 827324Parish Maze 0141 221 6230

IN P U T Take a letter, Miss Recorder

Direct X marks spot – with sound

Microsoft releasedDirectX 6, the

latest version of itsmultimedia applicationprogramming interface(API), at its Meltdown 98conference of games andhardware developers. Italso previewed someDirectX 7 features. Microsoft claims DirectX 6can improve performanceby up to 40 percent insupported applications. It offers features likemultitexturing and texturecompression which, with appropriatehardware, can boost both speed andimage quality.A new component is DirectMusic,which allows music to change withcontext — perhaps the actions of agame player. The developer caninclude multiple soundtracks andaudio effects to reflect a particularreaction or situation.

Direct3D has been revampedfollowing criticismof its lack offeatures andprogrammingdifficulty, andDirectSound hasbeen revamped tohandle thepredicted PCsurround-soundrevolution, withsupport for variousaudio codecs.At press time,

Microsoft had not announced the fulllist of features to be included in theforthcoming DirectX 7. But it has saidthat it will support the next generationof graphics accelerators with dedicatedgeometry processors. Also, TeamDirect is expected to refine Direct3D sothat it provides better performanceusing fewer processor cycles.

AJITH RAM

GR A P H I C S


newsIf anyone can,

Kahn canIf I didn't know better, I'd say

Philippe Kahn was a cat. Thefounder of Borland and otherventures certainly has more livesthan one. For months he wastouting "wearable computers" likehis REX PC card; recently he begantalking up what he calls thepersonal network. Now Motorola has bought hisStarfish company for about $200million because it wants TrueSync,a piece of software that lets yousynchronise data from any device(such as Motorola's pagers andsmart cellphones). Borland made Kahn's name as avisionary. Now it looks as if he hasmade his mark again.

Intel, Sony, IBM, Compaq, Tut,Lucent, Intelogis and at least 10other companies are all toutinghome-networking products.Lucent's Home Star Network iswired into a house as it is built. CAT 5 wiring goes to every roomand a "control box" can serve as abroadband link. It costs about$1500 per house.Intelogis piggybacks its signal on the mains. The snag is that roomshave to be wired on a single loop.The Home RF Networking Group is working on a 2.4GHz spread-spectrum wireless system that willdeliver up to 1.3Mbit/sec. VESA espouses the use of 1394. But front-runner for a standard is aproposal by the Home PhonelineNetworking Alliance<www.homepna.org>, founded by3COM, AMD, AT&T Wireless,Compaq, Epigram, H-P, IBM, Intel,Lucent, Rockwell Semiconductorand Tut Systems. This standard should be finalisedthis month and aims to deliver aninitial 1Mbit/sec over a standardphone line, and up to 10Mbit/secwithin 18 months.

Tim Bajarin letter from Silicon Valley

NetWare 5.0 embracesthe net to ward off NTNovell will launch

NetWare 5.0on 20th September,bringing its flagshipoperating system into theage of the intranet andinternet. The releasecomes at a time whenNetWare is losing marketshare to Windows NT –though it still runs two in

three local nets, and salesare rising in a swellingmarket. "We sold moreseats last year than everbefore," claims marketdevelopment manager,Derek Venter. The big change in 5.0 is amove to IP from Novell’sIPX, so NetWare will berunning internet protocolnative for the first time. IntranetWare, the IP-enabled Netware 4.0, wasan interim solution.Netware 5.0 also packs aJava Virtual Machine, theConsole One Java GUI,and a five-user licence ofthe Oracle 8 database.Novell has been careful tomake the upgrade path as

easy as possible. NetWare5.0 needs 500Mb of diskspace fully loaded, somany will need a new orupgraded server to run it.However, Venter saysupgrades from NetWare4.0 can be done in stages.A new server can provideaccess to NetWare 5.0services while tried andtested NetWare 4.0remain in service . Novell chief Eric Schmidt(left) says NetWare isyears ahead of rivals withits directory services andwill benefit from thedelayed launch of NT 5.0. A beta of NetWare 5.0can be downloaded fromwww.novell.com.

PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD ● OCTOBER 1998 ●

The registeredcharity

ComputerAid! isoffering a free PCrecycling scheme,allowing schools andcharities in the

developing world tobenefit from UKbusinesses’unwanted leftovers.

For more information, call0171 281 0091

RE C YC L E YO U R PC

31

news

Year 2000 round-up

The two warring millenniumbug action groups have kissed

and made up.Robin Guernier(pictured, right),director of theprivate-sectorinitiativeTaskforce 2000,said that hisgroup and the government-ledAction 2000 had reached anagreement to “mutually supporteach other”. The feud started after Taskforce 2000 had itsfunding removed by the DTI when Action 2000 was formedlast autumn.

Action 2000 is asking Britishbusinesses to promise to take

positive, rather than legal, actionover Y2K. Both Sainsbury’s andUnilever have signed Pledge 2000,a six-point document thatincludes promises to shareinformation, help other firms intheir supply chains, and avoidresorting to legal action whereverpossible.

Insurance companies are beingcriticised for trying to duck out

of paying for millennium-bugdamage. Many say they’ve beenforced to introduce millenniumexclusions into their policies.Critics say they’ll still end uphaving to pay out, but only after alengthy and expensive legal fight.

Financial house Merrill Lynch isplaying down Y2K fears, saying

it will have little impact on theeconomy. It says there may be“glitches” but companies willcope. Analysts said the companymight just be trying to minimisethe fears of its shareholders.

Quarterdeck is being sued byone of its US customers over

an alleged millennium bug.Against Gravity Apparel Inc. saysthe company continued to sellProcomm Plus 4.0 even though itknew it would be useless after1999. It requires a $30 upgrade tobe bug-free.

0845 601 2000, www.bug2000.co.uk

ICL is to sell reconditioned ex-company PCsfrom as little £199, but analysts believe the

idea is dead in the water. The Star (SecondTime Around) service aims to emulateVauxhall’s Network Q scheme for sellingsecondhand cars, by selling through 300reputable dealers across Britain. Therevamped machines will be from brandleaders including Compaq, IBM and Hewlett-Packard. Each will be wiped of data,refurbished, resprayed, relicensed and fittedwith a new keyboard and mouse. All systemssold will come with a ninety-day warranty and dealers will provide telephone supportand an extended warranty if required. Prices, which are to be set by ICL, will start ataround £199 for a 486 system, and rise to£350 for a Pentium. The company says that they will be ideal for students,

homes and small businesses which do notneed a fast system. Of 1.8 million PCs soldlast year, more than half were replacements.“There may be a niche market for small, cost-conscious businesses which do not needall the bells and whistles,” said Pete Day, ananalyst for market research company Inteco.“But consumers in the UK can be talked up,they buy high-spec machines, and they wantthe latest and the biggest. It’s a nice idea, but no way.”

ICL is confident that the idea will catchon, thanks to European Union legislationexpected next year, which will tighten the ruleson the disposal of old computer equipment.

JAN HOWELLS, VNU NEWSWIRE

Star Hotline 01925 435431

Only £199 gets you a PCLE F T FI E L D

SE C O N D H A N D M A R K E T

Lefthanders of the world,unite! Saitek will release

the first fully programmablePC joystick for left- or right-handed players this autumn.Not only is the Cyborg 3DStick completelycustomisable, but italso features RatioDigital technology,which uses an internalprocessor to speedgameplay. (Price to beannounced.)

Saitek 01454855 050 www.saitek.com

Let’sget serious, gamers Dan Technology is hoping for a cut of

the entertainment market with whatit modestly calls “the world’s mostserious games PC”. The DanGameStation includes a DVD drive, 8Mb AGP video card with built-in TV, 3D video accelerator, a 17in monitor andtwo Microsoft Sidewinder joypads,among other goodies. Prices start from£1,648 (ex VAT).

Dan 0181 830 1100 www.dan.co.uk

35PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD ● OCTOBER1998 ●

news

New transducers revolutionise speakers

Imagine being able to carry around asound system with the capability of

3cu.ft loudspeakers, listening togreat sounds anywhere. That’swhat Tony Hooley (pictured, right)claims to have developed, and hiscompany, 1...Limited, is talking to theworld’s leading hi-fi companies aboutpotential partnerships. Hooley says his are the first true digital speakers(USB speakers from Philips andMicrosoft pack a digital-to-analogueconverter). “All these hi-fi companieshave agreed that what we havedeveloped is the way to build digitalloudspeakers,” says Hooley, who hasharnessed leading researchers inBirmingham, Paris, Australia and,shortly, San Francisco.

Hooley, an astronomer andCambridge physicist, claims to havebuilt the first solid-state hard-diskcacheing system, originally for AppleIIs, in pre-PC days. He said hisbreakthrough came around four yearsago. For 20 years, anyone designingdigital systems had thought in termsof binary data. But an on-off digitalstream can also represent unary, orone-based data, which has the

characteristics of a tally system; a 1counts as a 1 irrespective of position.“Our ideas began crystalising aroundunary concepts…with which we can do additional, fancy things with how speakers produce sound.” The new speakers use an array of 256piezo-electric transducers, each 10mmin diameter and 20mm deep; each canmove up to 20mm.

“The key inventive step was realisingthat binary didn’t work and how tomake transducers suitable for unary,”said Hooley, who spent the whole of1997 with his team working on aninnovative transducer format. “Whatwe do know is that no-one else hasworked on this. Everyone who has beento our labs, except one major Japanesecompany developing a differenttechnology, said they knew digitalspeakers would come but they [didn’tknow] how to go about it.” Hooley saysthat the transducers reduce distortionby a factor of ten compared withconventional speakers, use a fraction oftheir electrical power for a given soundlevel, and need to be a fraction the size.

“We can run loud,high-quality hi-fi speakers offa rechargeablebattery. Weforeseeloudspeakerswhich arecompletelyportable…[receiving data] viaspread-spectrumwireless.” First productscould be on the market in twoyears. Hooley predicts that histransducers will be produced intheir billions, with poweramplifiers, digital-to-analogueconverters and loudspeaker cablesmade redundant. They will also meanan end to the use of a PC’s soundsystem, which cannot do justice to themachine’s ability to process high-quality 20-bit digital audio. “As thesound info from a PC is…digital, thiscan be applied directly to the digitalspeaker which uses our transducers,with no amplifier needed.”

Caroline Swift continues her reports from Silicon Fen

Two new security scares erupted lastmonth. Researchers in Finland claimed

to have found a way to run rogue code from passive email, and a group called the Cult of the Dead Cow (CDC) claimed35,000 copies of a Trojan called Back Orifice(BO) had been downloaded from its site inless than ten days. A Trojan is rogue codedisguised as a kind of utility, or packaged asan ActiveX control. Once activated it sets up acontrol gateway, giving a remote hacker therun of your machine across the internet (or alocal net). It will run under Windows 95 or98. BO author Sir Systic said it was written toexpose security holes in Microsoft software.

Microsoft has never denied that its operatingsystems are open to this type of attack. Usersare advised to accept executables only fromknown sources, or those offering an“authenticode” certificate. More insidious isthe email threat. Plain email cannot carryviruses; attachments can, but they have to beactivated by the user. But the Finns say thatan attachment with an unusually long namecan crash some email programs and roguecode within the name will be executedwithout user intervention.

Vulnerable programs are said to includeOutlook 98 (but not 97), Outlook Express(PC, Solaris and Mac versions) and NetscapeCommunicator 4.x. Netscape and Microsoftare likely to have posted patches on their sitesby the time you read this. (ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY DOMINIQUE DECKMYN)

Email rogue code scare Reader Brendan Griffin,of Eire, was tricked into

launching the Back OrificeTrojan but wrote to tell us of a simple defence, basedon the fact that it dumps its own configuration utility.Call up a DOS window andtype boconfig boserve.exe.This lets you, among otheroptions, choose a password, “then run theTrojan again and this willwipe the previous version.”The hacker will thus notknow the password to getinto your PC. Trend Micro has posted afree fix atwww.antivirus.com.

RE L I E FS E C U R I T Y A L E R T

TONY HOOLEY

CLAIMS TO HAVE

DEVELOPED A

WAY TO BUILD

DIGITAL SPEAKERS

Abattle is shaping upbetween the highstreet and traditional

internet service providers(ISPs) to win newcustomers. In July, Tescoannounced that it would besetting up as an ISP under thebanner of TescoNet.Meanwhile, the NationwideBuilding Society wasexpected to start offering aservice later this summer.Demon Internet immediatelyannounced that it would beoffering extra value for itscustomers, in an attempt toward off the newcompetition. But Tesco isconfident that customers willbe drawn to its brand nameand is promising “low cost,ease of use, and excellentcustomer support”.

The service, which will beprovided through BritishTelecom (BT) for £8.99 permonth, includes unlimitedinternet access, five emailaddresses, 5Mb of web spaceand local call charging.Customers who sign up for ayear will be charged for only11 months. Tesco’sInformation Technologydirector, Ian O’Reilly, said:“Our experience has shown

that the new wave of internetusers are looking for a namethey can trust. Tesco aims tooffer an innovative servicethat will enable the novice, aswell as the experienced webuser, to make the very mostof the internet.”

Shortly after Tesco’sannouncement, DemonInternet revealed a packageof extra goodies for itscustomers, including extraweb space, a fax-to-emailservice, dedicated gamesservers and a three-monthtrial with BT’s content site,Line One. It insists, however, that it is not unduly worried about highstreet competition, callingthem “virtual ISPs”.

Ade Brownlow, productmarketing manager atDemon, says that althoughusers might be drawn to ahigh street brand name atfirst, they’re likely to switch toa traditional ISP when theyget to know what they wantfrom the internet.

The Nationwide isconfident that the move fromhigh street to cyberspace isthe right one to take. “Wehave eight million customers.We already provide internetbanking and have a web site.If you’ve got a large customerbase it makes logical sense,”said a spokesman.

SUSAN PEDERSON

(ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY

VNU NEWSWIRE)

ISPs face competitionfrom high street names

news


‘Number one’ ISP goes for gold In the same week that it

claimed it had become thenumber one ISP in the UK, AOL released the gold versionof AOL 4.0. Praised for itsmore intuitive interface, AOL4.0 features a spelling andgrammar checker as well as anew address book, allowingusers to check mailboxes or

multiple accountswithout loggingoff. AOL said thatit had 450,000members at theend of July.

More information:AOL 0800 2791234, www.aol.co.uk

AOL 4.0

short stories

➠MIND GAMESUri Geller is giving the publicthe chance to see into hisliving room — without thebenefit of psychic powers.For the next year, you canvisit the UriCam <www.urigeller.com/uricam/index.html> at 11am and 11pm onthe eleventh day of eachmonth to try to guess whatthe “wizard of weird” isvisualising. Prizes, includinga Citroën Saxo, are on offerfor the closest guess.

➠BRAND-NAMEBRIGANDS BELAYEDA new court ruling will stopinternet “pirates” fromregistering famous brandnames such as Harrods orVirgin, and then selling themback for a profit. In July, theUK Court of Appeal ruledthat the company One in aMillion, which had registerednames such as burgerking.co.uk, was infringing oncompany trademark. Theruling brings UK law into linewith US regulations.

➠EXCITING FREE EMAILExcite is offering a free emailservice for UK users as partof its plan to increaselocalised content. Byregistering at www.excite.co.uk, you can get your ownpersonalised email address.The service is similar toHotmail and will soon beextended to Germany andFrance, and Excite plans topersonalise the servicefurther in coming months.

➠SELLING POINTIf you’re hoping to sell yourcar or pick up a used PC, trywww.preloved.com. Prelovedis a free, 500-category, UKadvertising service.

net news


news

RealNetworks hasannounced a set of

principles to helpcustomers decide what kindof software should handletheir files. It is called “Ask,Tell & Help: Fair Practicesand Conventions forhandling file formats in theEra of the Internet”.

Over 20 internetcompanies have pledgedtheir support includingNetscape, Novell, SunMicrosystems and DigitalBitcasting. If the principles

are adopted as standard,software will have to ask forpermission to become thedefault viewer for certainfile types. It will also have topoint out any limitationsthat it might have inreading certain file typesand inform the user ofcompetitive products thatmight do a better job. Thecompanies behind theinitiative say that it willsafeguard consumer choiceand ensure the best end-user experience possible by

providing a “vendor-neutralenvironment”.Critics think that itwill only serve toconfuseinexperienced customers byproviding too many optionsand needlesslycomplicating installationprocedures. But it remains

to be seen whether thepressure for faircompetition will ultimatelyoutweigh the need for user-friendly computing.

PR I N C I P L E S

net news

RealNetworks kicks the WMPLike Sun and Netscape before it, RealNetworks is accusing Microsoft of abusing its position.But many industry commentators, vendors and testers think there’s no case to answer.

T he row between RealNetworks and Microsoft overtheir video streamingsoftware could have far-

reaching implications for howmultimedia files are handled bycompetitive products. In July,RealNetworks slammed Microsoft,claiming that the new Windows MediaPlayer (WMP) “breaks” its own RealPlayer software. It then called for aformal code of practice to be adoptedthat would give consumers a consistentexperience for deciding which softwareshould handle particular file formats.

RealNetworks CEO, Rob Glaser,told a Senate Judiciary Committeehearing on competition in the ITindustry that when the WMP is installedon a PC running its new beta RealSystem G2, the Microsoft productregisters itself as the default player forReal System content. It is unable to playany content created for Real System 5.0or G2, however. RealNetworks alsoclaims that the WMP replaces RealPlayer 4.0 as the default player for RealSystem content when it is installed onthe same PC. Glaser’s accusations were

supported by a number of vendors, aswell as the Software Publishers’Association (SPA), all of whomcondemned the practice ofautomatically resetting user-preferences for a certain file type whena competitive application is installed.Digital Bitcasting claimed that it hadsuffered the same problems with itsown media player, saying that“Microsoft’s products go in and runroughshod over the data types”.

Ken Walsh, president of the SPA,said that applications should neverinterfere with competing vendors’software and should always ask the

user for permission tochange the default fileviewing values. In asurprising twist,however, manyvendors, journalists

and testing labs rallied to supportMicrosoft, saying that the problem liesnot with the WMP but with a bug inReal Networks’ software. Larry Seltzer,ZD Virtual Labs’ technical director,said: “Microsoft is right. It’scompletely unjustifiable forRealNetworks to say that Microsofthas changed something that broke the G2 player.”

The Association for CompetitiveTechnology also called for Glaser towithdraw his testimony, saying: “While it made for dramatictestimony, it raises the possibility thatRealNetworks sought to exploit theSenate hearings to advance its owncompetitive interests at the expense ofthe truth.” But RealNetworks isstanding behind its statements, sayingthat claims of a bug are “technicallyinaccurate”.

SUSAN PEDERSON

RIS REALNETWORKS

GETTING A RAW DEAL

FROM MICROSOFT?

QREALNETWORKS’ROB GLASER

WANTS A NEW

APPROACH TO

HANDLING FILE

FORMATS

‘Ask, Tell and Help’ — a new initiative


newsnet analysis special

Broadcast newsAre portal services the answer to satellite companies’ dreams of big bucks? Clive Akass lockson to Convergence1, from Eutelsat, which promises twice the speed of ISDN at half the cost.

N ews that US Web TV makershave cut production for lackof demand is the latest signof a curious phoney war.

Everyone is preparing to battle for thebillions to be made when computing, thenet and broadcasting hit full synergy; butnobody knows quite how and when itwill happen. Meanwhile, they plot, andfly kites (like Web TV based on outdatedanalogue technology) and pour billionsinto hunches — like the portal companies(see opposite). And the digital TVconsortia focus on flogging set-topboxes for rival services, ignoring themillions of PCs that have the flexibility toexplore their full potential.

An exception is Eutelsat, part-owned byBT and already broadcasting digital TVon many of its 350 channels. These aremainly foreign and minority channels butinclude many free ones in English.Eutelsat has hosted the DirecPC turbo-internet service for more than a year (see

Newsprint, May ’97) and is now piloting,with internet service provider Easynet, asimilar service called Convergence1.

As with DirecPC this requires astandard net connection for the up link,with a satellite and dish aerial providinga fast down channel. It differs in beingrestricted to an Easynet uplink, and inusing open technology which any

manufacturer is free to supply. I tried itout using an Adaptec 1030 DVB cardwhich is equipped only for data transfer:any MPEG processing has to be done insoftware. A new version this autumn willlink to an STB board to enable hardwaredecompression for TV reception.

Convergence1 was still slightly buggy.The satellite connection reverted withoutwarning to a land link and downloadspeeds varied wildly, partly depending onhow many pilot users shared a 2Mbitdownlink. The bottleneck at these speedsis as likely to be at source as in the delivery.So there is an advantage in mirroringpopular web sites on Easynet servers whichcan deliver direct to the satellite. Easynet is

currently offering more of aportal model, with a varietyof fast on-site services (seescreenshot, left) though manyof these are not yet fullyoperational. One that doeswork is that of SoftwareWarehouse, which sellssoftware online. In three testdownloads spread over anevening, I averaged113Kbit/sec, 178Kbit/secand 248Kbit/sec. Easynet’s

technical guru, Justin Fielder, reckonsupwards of 400Kbit/sec is possible in theearly hours. Even at these speeds,downloads can take several minutes,during which time you are paying to keep aland line open. Yet DVB uses forward errorcorrection which provides enough

redundancy in the datastream to give a goodchance of reconstructinglost bits and pieces (a2Mbit channel, though,means 2Mbit of your data— the redundancy is not

counted). So why not simply call for a fileto be dumped by satellite, and forgetabout the continual handshaking over thephone? This might be possible using acarousel system, broadcasting a sequenceof files at regular intervals. Any datamissed first time round can thus be pickedup during further broadcasts. Fielderdoubts, as things are, if this could scale to

many users. Satellites also lend themselvesto IP Multicasting, which sends a singlefile or data stream to many addresseswith minimum use of bandwidth. Ofcourse, the satellite’s most efficient modeis that of one-to-anyone broadcasting.Clearly, satellites and always-on xDSLland links will cause a big shift in the waythe internet is used: from pull to push,from unicast to multicast and broadcast.Newspapers, music, videos and softwarepackages may be ordered by day anddumped at night on sleeping channels.These systems are still embryonic but thehardware is already in place. Fielder says:“Software companies have yet to catch upwith satellite technology”; so, perhaps,have content providers and users.

If Convergence1 does gocommercial, Fielder reckons charges willbe based on “twice the speed of ISDN athalf the cost”. By which he means eachuser will be able to reckon on at least128Kbit/sec bandwidth, twice that of asingle ISDN channel. And there will be noper-megabyte charge, as with DirecPC.But satellite companies are not the onlyplayers in the field. A new company calledGoldmine is set to announce plans for abroadband portal service using cable. ● See the PCW web site for a hyperlinkedversion of this article, with pointers to furtherinformation (and another card supplier).

Easynet: 0171 681 4444 www.convergence1.com

SKY HIGH:EUTELSAT’SCONTROL CENTRE P

Satellites and xDSL landlinks will cause a big shiftin the way the net is used

PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD ● OCTOBER 1998 ● 41

net analysis special

Band of goldOne part of the high-tech sector is thriving while the rest suffers. And as bandwidth gets bigger,portal companies are especially hot property. Tim Bajarin eyes up who’s netting the big money.

W ith the rash of layoffshitting Silicon Valleyrecently, you would havethought that the high-

tech sector was on the downslide. In thistechnology segment at least, there seemsto be no relief in sight. However, theinternet sector is making up for joblosses at equipment makers, withcompanies like Yahoo!, Lycos, Infoseek,and Software.net taking on staff.

The portal companies areespecially hot property. Yahoo! inparticular is going through the roof: it may not have earned much, but itsvaluation is almost $9bn. Recently,Disney purchased 40 percent ofInfoseek, and Excite and Lycos arerumoured to have big-time partnerslined up. So, what’s driving everybodyto invest? The answer lies in your TV set.Big media thinkers believe that theseportal sites will becomethe next broadcastingmedium, supplanting TVgiants like NBC, CBS andABC. The reason is thatthey are laying thegroundwork for a two-way interactive approachthat today’s one-way TV companiescannot supply even if they go digital.Which is why Disney, which owns ABC,has bought into Infoseek. It will use this“net channel” to deliver Disney andABC content, with interactivity. No-one expects mainstream TVbroadcasting to fade away in the nearfuture, but the writing is on the wall. SoI consider Yahoo!’s $9bn valuation to

be low. So does WallStreet, as financialanalysts expectportal stocks to riseeven higher. Alsobooming arecommerce-relatedsites such asbooksellerAmazon.com, andBarnes andNoble.com.Books are easyto chooseonline and costup to 40percent lessthan from the local store. Microsoft’stop high-tech guru, Nathan Mhyrvold,reportedly spends about $5000 amonth at Amazon.com. Companies likeAmazon.com and Software.net have

created virtual businesses. They lackbrick-and-mortar sites which can cost$1m just to get started, but they have asophisticated operation to handle theweb site, order entry and orderfulfilment. More importantly, their“stock” of one million books does notreside under a single roof. Instead, thebooks sit at publishers’ sites andmultiple warehouses, and are sent to

customers using a simple electronicorder fulfilment process.

Egghead Software has closed all itsretail stores and opted for a similarapproach, and music vendors arefollowing suit. They can offer samplesound clips to tempt buyers. In fact,Amazon.com is starting to sell musicand could soon offer movies.

We are already seeing the real-estate market move in this direction, aswell as consumer electronics stores likeCircuit City and The Good Guys, whichhave used their web presence to extendtheir local businesses to the entireworld. This same model is now startingto be applied to the radio business, andnational web-based radio is on thehorizon. As bandwidth increases, thedelivery of TV and video will also startstreaming over the net, reflecting theconcept of virtual businesses. It’s nowonder, then, that portal sites like

Yahoo! andInfoseek are suchhot properties.They will serve asthe front door tovideo, audio, broadand narrowinformation, andcommerce. Theyare destined tobecome thebroadcasting giantsof the next century.

Portal sites will serve as thefront door to video, audio,information and commerce


news

W hen Danishprogrammer LinusTorvalds created thefirst version of the

Linux operating system in 1991, he hadno idea how much interest it wouldeventually generate. In fact, he liked tojoke that it was the operating systemfor one person — himself. But it allstarted to change this summer whenseveral top-tier vendors announcedtheir support for the former “hobbyistclone” of the Unix operating system.

In July, Oracle announced that itwould be porting version 8.1 of itsdatabase to Linux, while databasesoftware company Informix says it willalso move its software to the system.Linux has also been demonstrated on a

system runningfour of Intel’snew Xeon

processors, and a version has beenpromised for Intel’s upcoming 64-bitMerced architecture. Theseannouncements have prompted a floodof predictions that Linux is fastbecoming a force to be reckoned with.

Like other freeware products, Linux issomething of an upstart in an industrythat thrives on moneymaking and defacto standards. Developed andmaintained by a group of unpaid

enthusiast programmers workingacross the internet and co-ordinated by Torvalds, the Unix kernel isdownloadable for free and comes witha General Public Licence. This meansthat anyone can change the sourcecode as long as they submit alterationsback to the group. Netscape recentlydid the same thing and is now offeringthe source code to some of its softwarefor free via the internet.

Torvalds says that Linux still needssome work and is not ready to tackleeither the low-end novice-user marketor the high-end commercial serverarena. But this has not stopped NASA

developing a Linux-based massivelyparallel system.Torvalds alsobelieves that Linuxis an importantweapon for smallercompanies tryingto compete againstgiant corporationslike Microsoft. He’seven predicted thatLinux will becomethe dominant Unixserver operatingsystem within three years. Linux is certainlygaining supportfrom an increasing

number of vendors. It has beenreported that Computer Associates,Interbase and Software AG are allworking on Linux database ports.Netscape has also promised to port itsDirectory and Messaging servers to theplatform this year, with the rest of itsproducts following in about 18months’ time. And Corel has portedWordPerfect to Linux, too.

Other vendors are even more

vehement in their support of the freesource-code model. John BrittainAdams, managing director ofChameleon Computers, says that hiscompany has decided to stop selling allMicrosoft products by the end of theyear, instead focusing on sales ofNetwinder and Cobalt computers. “It’sdue to the total lack of support thatMicrosoft has given us,” says Adams.“We’ve decided that the levels ofsupport given to us by the Linuxcommunity are exceptional.” Adamsbelieves that Linux will evolve so quicklythat major vendors (includingMicrosoft) will be powerless to fight it.

“I can confidently predictthat within 14 years, opensource code software willeliminate the dominantsoftware companies of themoment,” says Adams. He

even goes so far as to say that ifMicrosoft wants to survive, it will haveto start porting to Linux. And Microsoftseems to be taking the challengeseriously: in April, it was accused byCaldera of putting pressure on a PCmaker not to license Open Linux.

But Linux faces many challenges.Its critics say that it is not sufficientlyuser-friendly and claim that technicalsupport is lacking. These pitfalls maymake many potential customers thinktwice before abandoning their NTsystems. Analyst IDC estimates thatLinux currently has 6.3 percent of theserver market, but it’s likely that manyof the operating systems are being usedby internet service providers — veryexperienced users who are looking for acheap alternative to Windows NT.

It’s possible that the flurry of third-party support this summer was littlemore than marketing hype. The suddenannouncement of major databasevendors’ support for Linux came at theheight of the holiday season, a periodwhen product launches are scarce andthe industry needs a talking point totide it over until the autumn. DespiteLinux’s obvious merits, the timing isjust a little too convenient for comfort.

analysis

The young pretenderLinux, the underdog free operating system, has been enjoying a recent surge of popularity: even Microsoft seems to be taking it seriously. Susan Pederson wonders whether it can last.

PA LINUX DESKTOP

DOESN’T LOOK

MUCH DIFFERENT TO

A WINDOWS ONE

‘...the levels of supportgiven to us by the Linuxcommunity are exceptional’

newsnews

I t could only happen in thesoftware industry. Microsoft flewin journalists from around theworld to Seattle, and spent two

and a half days showing them the nextrelease of Office on the condition thatthe assembled hacks swore not to tell asoul for four weeks.

There is method in this seemingmadness, though. Microsoft wanted togive reviewers a head start withoutstealing the thunder from the officialBeta One release date. By the time youread this, the wraps will be off and20,000 beta-testers will have theirhands on the product. To confuseissues, the beta version is titled Office 9,the Reviewer’s Workshop was entitledOffice 2000, and it is expected toappear in “early 1999”.

There’s a lot that’s new (and we’llreport in a future issue of PCW) but thebig question is that of file formats. It

has beenreported, a littlemisleadingly,

that HTML is to become the nativelanguage of the Office components.This is not the case. The .DOC, .XLSand .PPT binary file formats remainunchanged and retain their status. TheAccess binary file format has changedbut only to enable Unicode supportwhich provides the vital“two-byte character”support for orientallanguages. So, wheredoes this HTML thingcome in, and what’s itall about? In a nutshell,it’s all to do with“leveraging the webparadigm” to enhancethe “digital nervoussystem” of largecorporations. To get a perspective onthis, it helps to know that 75percent ofOffice sales are made to corporates.Now think intranets. The advantage ofputting a document on a company website rather than emailing binary files isself-evident, with simple, speedydistribution and faster feedback.

What’s made this difficult in thepast is first, the conversion to

HTML: previous editions ofOffice can “Save As...”

HTML; but evenMicrosoft admits this

wasn’t wellimplemented.

Second,there’s theproblem oftransferring theHTML files tothe intranetweb site. These factorsconspire to

limit webpublishing to

intranerds ordepartmental

webmasters, creatinga bottleneck that

negates the advantages ofintranet distribution.

The first of the three aces in

the Microsoft hand is “round tripping”between binary and HTML formats. If,say, you save a Word documentcontaining drawing objects to HTML,then these will be converted to GIFs fordisplay in a browser. However, theoriginal drawings will be preserved in

the HTML file as XML(Extensible MarkupLanguage) objects, aswill other “invisible”attributes such asdocument properties.Load the HTML fileback into Word, and all the original objectsand formatting return.

Then comes theintegration of web

folders, either on a company intranetor the worldwide web, into the filesystem. The user can load from or saveto any web server for which they havepermission. As with the HTML “roundtripping” the process is transparent tothe end-user and as easy as accessingfolders on their own hard disk.

So far, so good, and this technologyis not proprietary; it will work inconjunction with non-Microsoftbrowsers. But this is essentially staticHTML. The documents don’t “do”anything when viewed in a browser, buthave to be loaded into the authoringapplication to be editable.

With Internet Explorer 5, though,Microsoft plays its final, proprietaryace. In-place “Discussions” can beattached to a document so that otherscan make newsgroup-style threadedcomments, either in IE5 or in theoriginating application.

It gets even more clever with theOffice Web components. With theseinstalled on the server, and Office 2000and IE5 installed on the client, the usercan manipulate data in a spreadsheetwithout leaving the browser. Facilitiesinclude online form-filling (e.g. forexpenses claims) and detailedmanipulation of data held on theserver, such as using Excel-style chartsor pivot tables.

analysis

Office politicsTim Nott considers the Office 2000 beta, explaining how Microsoft hopes to use HTML toenhance the digital nervous system of large corporations by playing a hand of proprietary aces.

Seventy-fivepercent ofOffice salesare made tocorporates

PTHE SEATTLE

NEEDLE... INJECTING

NEW INTERACTIVE

FEATURES INTO THE

BROWSER

PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD ● OCTOBER 1998 ● 49

news

C yberTranscriber is not only one of themost useful applications for the

internet that we’ve come across in a longtime, it’s also one of the cleverest. Thisinternet-based dictation transcriptionservice will help you free yourself from thetyranny of the keyboard and the mockery ofyour more nimble-fingered colleagues.Simply phone in your dictation, and it’s sentback to you the next day as an email

attachment. There’s no voicetraining required, it’s astoundinglyaccurate, and it’s much cheaperthan a secretary. It even copedadmirably with a Canadianaccent. We don’t know how theydo it, but boy, do we like it.

1. Beano www.beano.co.uk2. The Body Shopwww.thebodyshop.co.uk

3. Circlemakers www.circlemakers.org4. CyberTranscriberwww.cybertranscriber.com5. Fisherman’s Friendwww.fishermansfriend.org6. Give as You Earn www.giveasyouearn.org7. RSPCA www.rspca.org.uk8. Scotland Online www.scotland.net9. Screens www.screensonline.co.uk10. Zapit www.zapit.co.uk

short stories

➠BONE UP ON CHINA Find out whether you’re a rator a pig at www.chinatown-online.co.uk, a guide toChinese communities aroundthe world. Chinatown Onlinehas details of restaurants,education listings andservices, includinginformation on Chinesehistory, business and travel.You can learn how to spellyour name in Chinesecharacters, check yourhoroscope and try the virtualfortune cookie.

➠RED BRICK NETOxford University will offeradult education courses inlocal history and computingover the internet next spring.Students, from anywhere inthe world, will communicatewith their tutors via voiceconferencing, email andinternet chat groups. Theuniversity says future courseswill include medicine andsoftware engineering but ithas no plans to provideonline degree courses.

➠ LAST CHANCE FORBEST ‘SCHOOLS SITE’The search for the bestschools web site is almostover. Acorn and Argo areoffering schools the chanceto win £1000-worth ofeducational software andhardware: all they have to dois show that their web site isthe most effective,imaginative and interactive.Entries should be sent [email protected] must be submitted nolater than 25th September.


The EuropeanCommission haspledged its support

for the US government’sproposals to reform theinternet name and addresssystem. In June, the USCommerce Departmentsuggested that a newinternational non-profit-making corporation shouldbe set up to manage internetdomains.

According to a EuropeanCommission statement, “TheEU, the US, and theinternational communityagree now that all pendingdecisions on internetgovernance should bereferred to the new privatesector self-regulatory [body]that is to be created in thenext few months.” The EC had criticised earlier

proposals by the Clintonadministration, saying that itfailed to take a globalapproach. At the end of July,the European Commissionpraised the new plan for abalanced, internationally-constituted membership and board for the non-profitmaking corporation. It was also delighted atassigning a central role to the World IntellectualProperty Organisation inresolving trademark disputesinvolving internet names. Finally, the Commissionurged the internetcommunity to participate inthe proposals, saying that thequestion of the membershipand structure of the newcorporation should beaddressed with the utmosturgency. The US

government’s proposal turnsover many of the mostcontroversial decisions on the internet’s futuremanagement to a yet-to-be-formed international boardof 15 members.

The board will decidehow worldwide webaddresses are managed andwork out how it will resolvecyberspace trademarkdisputes. The EuropeanCommission, the executivebody of the 15-nationEuropean Union, viewed the30th September deadlineproposed by the Clintonadministration as “extremelytight” but said it wasprepared to help meet thatdate. The board planned tomeet in Singapore in August.

JAN HOWELLS, VNU NEWSWIRE

EC gives its blessing todomain name reforms

Yell Top 10 web sites

net law


Flight-sim lovers are infor a big treat with

the next version ofMicrosoft’s popular DIYpilot program. The newedition of FlightSimulator will be aWorld War IIhistorical air combatsimulation, includingeight realistically-modelled aircraft. Playerswill experience real-worldnavigation based onhistorical informationand atlas data. You’ll beable to choose from avariety of aerial combatscenarios, aircraft,

missions and combatareas. It’s due to bereleased in the autumn.

Coming soon fromCodemasters is ColinMcRae Rally (the onlyofficial game of thechampion rally driver).Players will roar aroundthe track at speeds of upto 160mph and competein gruelling internationalrally championshipsconsisting of 48individual stages in eightcountries. The gamefeatures four 4-wheel andfour 2-wheel drive rallycars, with a further fourbonus cars. Visit www.colinmcrae.com.

Sierra Studios’ epic

game of city building inthe Roman era, Caesar II,has been so successfulthat it is planning torelease a sequel.Available in October,Caesar III will allowplayers to build andmaintain Roman cities,develop armies, defendtheir territory and earnpromotion, ultimately tothe rank of Caesar.

And more news on thedevelopment of anotherstrategy game,Microsoft’s Age ofEmpires II. The releasedate has been put backto spring 1999, but if it’sanything like the originalversion, it should be

worth the wait. Age ofEmpires II spans athousand years of humanhistory, allowing playersto control the destiny ofhumankind from the fallof Rome through to theMiddle Ages. Startingwith minimal resources,players are challenged tobuild their nations intogreat cultures. There areseveral ways to win,including conqueringenemy civilisations,accumulating wealth byextensive trading anddiplomacy, building anddefending wonders of theworld, or protecting aking or queen.

ETELKA CLARK

Reviewed games (p311):Unreal, My Teacher is an Alien,Xenocracy, Might & Magic VI,Commandos, and Gex 3D.

Fight WWII in the airwith MS Flight Simulator

G A M E S

newsPeripherals1 Umax Astra 610p Umax 2 2 V90 Voice/Fx Ext modem 3com 33 Astra 1210p Umax 4 4 Natural Keyboard Elite Microsoft -5 ScanJet 5100c HP 76 Wheelmouse PS2/Serial Microsoft -7 P75 to P200MMX u/g Evergreen 108 Intellimouse V3.0 (95) Microsoft9 Mitsumi PS2 Mouse Mitsumi -10 Sidewinder Gamepad Microsoft -

Windows software1 Windows 98 u/g Microsoft 1 2 Windows Plus! 98 Microsoft 33 MS Office Pro+Bookshelf u/g Microsoft 4 4 Nuts & Bolts (3.1+95) McAfee 5 5 Office 97 Std C/Vup u/g Microsoft 76 Paintshop Pro V5 FP Digwork 87 AutoRoute 98 UK/Eu Microsoft 10 8 Windows 98 CD Fp Microsoft 13 9 PC Anywhere v8 cd Symantec 14 10 Personal Navigator 95 Softwair 15

DOS software1 Corel WP 6.1 Suite u/g Clp Corel -2 Turbo Pascal V7 Dos Educ Borland 13 Ms Mail PC Remote 3.2 Microsoft -4 MS DOS V6.22 Upgrade Microsoft 85 DOS 2 Win95 Upgrade Microsoft 96 Corel WP 6.2 U/G Corel 11 7 SuperCalc V5.5 for DOS Ca 128 Intranetware 2, 5 user u/g Novell - 9 Turbo Pascal 7.0 Borland - 10 Suse Linux 5.2 Red Hat -

CD ROMS1 X-Files Unrestricted Access EA 12 Dance Ejay Fast Track 93 Titanic Guildhall -4 Encyclopaedia Britannica Acclaim 55 Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing Mindscape -6 Rave Ejay Fast Track -7 Windows 98 Upgrade Microsoft -8 James Bond: Ultimate Dossier Eidos -9 AA Pass First Time AA 810 GCSE Maths Europress -

Games1 Premier Manager 97/98 Gremlin -2 Cannon Fodder Sold Out -3 Commandos:Behind En’y Lines Eidos -4 Titanic: Adventure Out Of TimeEuropress -5 Carmageddon: Replay GT Int’tive -6 BattleTech: Mech Commander Microprose -7 Lula: The Sexy Empire Take 2 38 Championship Manager 2 Eidos 89 Unreal GT Int’tive -10 Worms 2 Microprose -Games and CD-ROM figures supplied byHMV. Others from Software Warehouse

Lastmonth

Top10Products

GhoulishgamesFlesh Feast is a newaction-strategy game.Players must kill hideouscorpses that have cometo life to prey on humans— not a game for thesqueamish! Watch outfor a review inScreenplay, soon.

HAGE OF EMPIRES IIDELAYED UNTIL SPRING

PAUTUMN LAUNCH FOR

THE NEW WWII EDITION

OF THE MICROSOFT

FLIGHT SIMULATOR

Sad singletons can rejoice, now that Japanese technology has mastered the art of seduction.

When girl beeps boyThere are few sadder placesthan a singles’ bar. A singles’salad bar, maybe. But onedoesn’t come across those veryoften. “Can I tempt you with asmall lettuce, my dear?” isn’treally as enticing as “Howabout a white wine spritzer,

darlin’?” Unless you’re trying to pull a caterpillar or anaphid. Even there, though, the whole thing smacksterribly of desperation. One of the reasons I muse thuswas that I found myself in a Maida Vale “meat market”last week, courtesy of a newspaper that needed tophotograph me manifestly failing to pull. I’ve neverfound this to be a problem, so they got lots ofconvincing shots. How different it might have been,however, had I had access to the latest in courtshiptechnology: the Lovegety.

Possibly you’ve heard of one of these. Invented in —where else? — Japan, a Lovegety is basically an adolescentTamagotchi, aimed at “men wanting to meet women andwomen wanting to meet men”. About the sizeof a medium egg, the thing comes in male andfemale versions, and is programmable.Currently, there are just three modes: Talk,Karaoke, and Get2. As I understand it, thesecorrespond to: “Can we have a conversation?”,“How about we make sweet music together?”and “I am absolutely gagging for it”. Whentwo oppositely-sexed Lovegetys set tocompatible mode come within 15 feet of oneanother, they beep and flash a green light.Thereafter, their respective owners let nature takes itscourse. Of course, when, later this year, Lovegetyseventually reach the UK, the problem faced by whoeverfirst buys one will be the same as that faced, presumably,by the first person who bought a fax machine: it’s oflimited use until a second person buys one. But if Japan is anything to go by, it shouldn’t take too long for salesto take off. Then, as Lovegetys become increasinglypopular, I can see them having a considerable impact on our lives.

At the moment, dating is a rather inexact science,like finding a decent plumber or a reputable carmechanic. But to know, with a single “Beep!”, that youare within just a few feet of a potential soulmate will bean enormous confidence booster. Even people whoroutinely buy internet magazines will be in with at least

a chance, however slim. Naturally, the technologyneeds to be refined somewhat before it becomesreally useful; but this, I’m told, is already in thepipeline. The range, for instance, is being increased to100 feet, and the three basic modes are beingsupplemented by a number of others. Pretty soon, youshould be able to buy a Lovegety into which you can tickoff all sorts of variables, rather like one of those Datelinequestionnaires. So, for example, a be-singled man willinstruct his male Lovegety to home in on a femaleLovegety: (a) into clubbing; (b) likes keeping fit; and (c)has an understanding attitude to beer guts. For her part,the woman will be able to specify a male Lovegety who is(a) a strong, romantic type; (b) a non-smoker; and (c) hasown hair and teeth. Proximity is all that’s then needed.And even if the man and woman themselves don’t“click”, they can at least leave their compatible Lovegetysalone together in a drawer and let them get on with it.

Thanks to the Lovegety, marriage bureaux andintroduction agencies will go out of business. Whoneeds to pay upwards of £1000 for a pair-off when a

$29.95 device can do exactly the same job? The singles’bar will be rendered redundant, too. What’s the point ingathering together in the one location to advertise thefact that you’re sad and available when you can do itabsolutely anywhere, such as the top deck of a bus or on the Tube?

And all those dreary blues ballads — “Mah womangone done me wrong” and other, similar caterwauling —will be consigned to the dustbin of history. Technologywill ensure that man will no longer be able to get himselfinto such a ridiculous situation in the first place.

I can see this thing completely transformingmale/female relationships. Provided the batteries don’tgo flat too quickly.

For example, a be-singled man will instruct his

LOVEGETY TO HOME IN ON a female

Lovegety who is into clubbing, likes keeping fit and

has an understanding attitude to beer guts. )

[email protected]

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Many of the claims made for Windows 98 have proved to be inaccurate, says Barry Fox.

Sex, lies and videotapeMicrosoft launched Windows98 on 25th June with a bigparty and a welter ofsycophantic publicity.Microsoft’s Windows productmanager, David Weeks,brushed aside my concernsabout upgrade crashes and

incompatibility with Windows 95 drivers as being one-off anomalies, unique to me. When Channel 4 news rana story highlighting the problems, Anne Mitchard,marketing manager in the personal systems group, gavethe classic excuse that I and others who had experiencedproblems with the upgrade from 95 to 98 were“untypical users” because we are “constantly trying non-released code and having lots of prototype hardware”.

If Anne Mitchard had read what I write in PCW shewould have known that I have a strict policy of neverusing beta software. This was further entrenched whenbeta copies of Beta 98 were given out at one of AnneMitchard’s own briefings. It crashed my PC sodisastrously that I had to reformat the harddisc. Since then I have used no beta software,so it is thanks to Anne Mitchard that I can sayfor sure that when the final retail version ofWindows 98 upgrade crashed my PC, therewas no non-released code on it and noprototype hardware. Even when Windows 98 issafely running, your troubles may only bestarting. If Windows 95 does not recognise amodem, it treats it as a generic “standard”.Windows 98 does the same, but goes on tointerrogate it. If there are any error messages, Dial UpNetworking refuses to dial.

Microsoft claims that Windows 98 makes the use ofISDN more efficient. But the setup procedures provideno visible support. A Racal terminal adaptor that workedunder Windows 95 does not work under Windows 98.Adaptec’s Direct CD, which Philips bundles with CDrecorders sold under its own and many other names,including Hewlett-Packard, works perfectly underWindows 95 but crashes Windows 98 into a “systemhalted” blue screen error message. The user then has toknow enough to run Windows 98 in safe mode anduninstall the Direct CD software. Both Philips andAdaptec blame Microsoft. A new version of Direct CD,2.0A, may work with Windows 98. But only if the PChas a recent BIOS.

Dixons marked the launch of Windows 98 with amassive promotion. Large in-store placards promised“cinema-quality full-motion video” and “multichanneldigital surround audio” from DVD. There was a specialoffer to “Save over £20 when you buy the Windows 98upgrade and Creative Labs DVD drive for £178”. Under theslogan “Use your PC as a video player”, PC World’s DiscoverWindows 98 giveaway brochure promised that “becauseWindows 98 supports DVD, you will be able to play thelatest DVD movies on your PC as if you were watching themon a video player....You can do it all from Windows 98!” Thebundle of Windows 98 upgrade and Creative DVD-ROMdrive can “play movies...with movie quality footage plusmulti-channel AC3/Dolby audio off a single DVD”. PCWorld also sells “the latest movies” on DVD discs. But toplay DVD-movies from the Creative DVD-ROM drive, youalso need to install an MPEG-2 decoder board. The store Ivisited had no boards available for customers who mighthave discovered that they needed them. I asked PC World’spress office, and obtained an astonishing admission. “Thebrochure copy you refer to was....checked by Microsoft

before it was reproduced. Dixons Group had been led tobelieve by Microsoft that Windows 98 would include MPEG2 decoding capabilities. However, following publication ofthe brochure and the offer we were informed by Microsoftthat Windows 98 did not support DVD movie discs on itsown and that it would be neccessary to purchase an MPEG2 decoder. PC World dispatched a note to all technicalcentres explaining the situation. We are grateful that youhave brought this matter to our attention and are currentlyarranging for notices in all our stores which will clarify thisissue for our customers.” I have asked the AdvertisingStandards Authority to investigate how Dixons andMicrosoft could build an advertising campaign on a featureof Windows 98 that does not exist.

I have asked the Advertising Standards Authority

to investigate how Dixons and Microsoft

could build an advertising campaign on AFEATURE OF WINDOWS 98 THATDOES NOT EXIST.

)

[email protected]

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So, the paperless office will save trees, will it? Don’t make me laugh, says Brian Clegg.

Not out of the woods yetI was wandering down theglass-covered street at the heartof a high-tech modernheadquarters building theother day when I saw someone Irecognised. I asked “Dave”, as Ishall call him (because it’s hisname) what he was up to. He

replied: “Electronic document management”, to which Isaid, “Oh yes, the paperless office”. The outcome of thiswitty exchange was hollow laughter on both sides. Thiswasn’t brought on by sunstroke. Ask anyone involved in what used to be called Office Automation about the paperless office, and you’ll probably get the same reaction.

The paperless office is a sensible concept — do awaywith the paper flying around the office. No more postto open, just electronic documents, whizzing aroundthe net. It’s fast, it’s efficient, and best of all in this eco-friendly world, it gives trees a break. The trouble is,the paperless office is like one of those po-faced black-and-white television programmes that imagined life in the 1990s. You know, when we’d haverobots doing the housework and we’d all flyhelicopters and read newspapers printed onmetal foil. It wasn’t just the earnest sciencepresenters getting things wrong. You onlyhave to look at that classic film 2001 — set just three years from now — to see aPanAm (remember PanAm?) shuttle en route to the space station and big-screenvideophones as the norm.

Business computing has been dogged by chimera likethe paperless office. In the 1940s, Thomas Watson Sr,the man behind IBM, commissioned a report into thebusiness potential of the new electronic computer. Itconcluded that the demand from the entire US marketwould amount to little more than a handful ofmachines. The paperless office was based on a similarlydubious prediction. As two key technologies began toemerge — scanning to reproduce a paper document inelectronic form, and email to move electronicdocuments around a company — the cry went up thatpaper was dead. We should have known better.

In fact, the electronic office proved exceedinglyproficient at generating paper. Laser printers and fastphotocopiers could push more onto the printed pagein less time. Improved layout capabilities meant that

documents were drafted several times to get themlooking right. Lengthy dumps were made to paper,“just in case”. As email grew in popularity, some peoplebegan to print their mail to read it in comfort. Theability to produce pretty graphs meant that everyreport had to have half-a-dozen more pages. And, ofcourse, the flow of paper from outside the companyshowed no sign of slowing down. Like many failedpredictions, the error was mostly in timing. Newtechnology initially generates more work, not less. Andthe changes rarely happen all at once. The trouble withthe “paperless” label is that it’s all or nothing. Reality ismore incremental. Now, as aspects of the electronicoffice become more common, some of the benefits areappearing. Take external post. The grand vision pushedthis through a central facility which would open it,scan it and send it on to the recipient in electronicform. Not surprisingly, this didn’t catch on: it’sexpensive and difficult. Imagine being the poorscanner operative who had to deal with Reader’s Digestprize draw applications. Yet fail to scan everything, andthe scanner becomes a censor.

That picture of the world is unreal, but incomingmail has changed. When the paperless office was firstenvisaged, email was purely in-house. Now internet mailgives worldwide reach. Half the press releases I get comeby email, and the proportion is rising all the time.

The same goes for internal documents. We areincreasingly seeing simple administration — expenseclaims or overtime forms — performed electronically.Intranets and other internal information networks arereducing the need to churn out thousand-page reports.We’ve ended up with the semi-skimmed milk of thepaperless world. It might be reduced paper rather thanpaper-free, but it’s a step in the right direction.

In fact, the electronic office proved exceedingly

PROFICIENT AT GENERATING paper. Laser

printers and fast photocopiers could push more

onto the page in less time and documents were

printed several times to get them looking right)

[email protected]

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www.paulsmith.com

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Intimate acts and true confessions may be what the internet is all about, says Paul Smith.

This time it’s personalI’ve always been embarrassinglyentranced by diskdefragmenters. Ever since I hadmy first copy of NortonUtilities, I’ve found myselfmesmerised by the sight of eachlittle cluster being read, writtenand verified to its new home.

The only thing that saves me from despair in thisdesperate pastime is the knowledge — well, more of ahope, really — that I’m not the only one who does this.So, given, let’s say, some propensity to mindless timewasting, why do I get so wearied by the interminablesluggishness of the internet? Why call it 56K when it’s42K? Why advertise ISDN as “only £99” when it costsover £50 a month? Well, I am nothing if not a greatrationaliser. Watch this: it’s important to monitor theprogress of your defragmenter closely to make sure thatthe estimated time is accurate. Not bad, eh?

And I’ve got a good one for this whole web businesstoo. The internet is a medium manically in search of itsown justification. As with all new technologies, we onlyknow how to look at it from the viewpointof existing technologies. TV was firstconceived as radio with pictures; networksas floppy-disk replacements. It is the samewith the internet. DARPAnet and Janet werejust WANs. But new technology, bydefinition, changes the whole landscape;otherwise it’s not new. We’re pretty sure that the internet is a lot more importantthan another network, but we still don’tknow how. However, the last couple of months havegiven us some clues.

We’ve seen the birth of Sean, George Michael inchatty mood, and Oscar and his “Our First Time” site.The birth received a lot of attention — the first to berelayed live on the internet. Promoted by an Americanhealth cable station, it made waves because of its innateprivacy. In contrast, George Michael hosted an onlinechat wherein he promised to answer frankly anyquestions put to him, and to clear up any issues thatmight come out of it. Finally, there was the story ofanother very private event made public — that of Mikeand Diane, two 18-year-old virgins who pledged to losetheir virginity on the internet. Live. What these threeevents promised was a way of communicating thepersonal to the masses. They portend new ways of

sharing experiences that even television cannot hope tochallenge. In the end, of course, all three were temperedby a very modern cynicism. Sean was indeed born live onthe internet, but the birth was seen by only a few, the site<www.ahn.com> having been swamped and theorganisers woefully ineffective in dealing with thedemand. You can still view the event now, but whatyou’ll witness is rather dull, hours of talk being followedby a few minutes of furtive, shaky cam images ofdoctors’ backs and then a little Sean. Hardly edifying.

For pure cynicism, Our First Time <www.ourfirsttime.com> takes some beating. Oscar and histeam so horrified his original web host, the InternetEntertainment Group <www.ieg.com> that it chuckedhim off. IEG is not a place of the most righteouspropriety, hosting sites such as Manhole, Pussy.Comand Buttsville, so its organisers would have to be prettyshocked to blanch at a couple of virgins. But IEGdiscovered that Oscar was out to con. Go to the site now,jump to the Big Day and you’ll find nothing but a pageof script, telling how Mike and Diane decide not to do itafter all, because Mike can’t fit a condom. Very helpful.

George Michael went online for the first time to talkabout, you know, stuff. He started off by scotching anyattempts to talk about That Toilet. But he did talk,candidly and wittily, about his life. I learnt more abouthim from that short chat than I did from all the Whamretrospectives in the world. It turns out that he’s abright, honest, self-effacing person.

The net, it seems, is slowly finding its voice. Not onevoice, of course, but a multitude of voices, some callousand exploitative, some personal and engaging. And whynot? That buzzword, narrowcasting, could be what thenet is all about, after all: let anyone shout at the wholeplanet and find their audience, wherever they are. MaybeI'll hang on the line just a little bit longer.

What these three events promised was a way

of COMMUNICATING THE PERSONALTO THE MASSES. They portend new ways of

sharing experiences that even TV can’t challenge.

)

lettersSend your letters to >

The EditorPersonal Computer WorldVNU House32-34 Broadwick StreetLondon W1A 2HG

or email > [email protected] or fax > 0171 316 9313

L E T T E R O F T H E M O N T H

Learning curve Although there a few excellent bargains available for educational software – for

example, Microsoft’s Visual Studio for only £116 (inc VAT) – there are a few

problems with these wonderful offers.

1. If you’re going to college/university this year, you won’t be able to buy your

software until you’re actually there and

attending. This gives you no opportunity to

check it out before you need to use it.

2. Very little, if any, paperwork comes with

the edu-pack software, so you need to pay

for the books to go with the software, too. Why not just include them?

3. Tracking down these edu bargains is like looking for the Grail itself. Microsoft is

the best at advertising its edu software, but even it only offers five options. Corel

offers edu packs, but the selection is, let’s say, poor.

For the sake of all us poor student types, can we see a feature on the complete

selection of edu software available? Oh, go on!

JOHN SKINNER [email protected]

A great ideawhich we’ll look into. In the meantime,John, you’ll be pleased to learn thatyou’ll be returning to university witha brand-new Taxan 17in monitor!

PCW replies >

Hate Mail

Iam writing to say how I agree completely with R Moyes’ comments on deliverycosts (PCW August). My own experience was, if anything, worse. I was required topay £8 plus VAT to have delivered a memory board costing just £10. To add insult

to injury, the service was vastly less convenient than first-class or registered post, whichwould have cost a fraction of this figure. The company would not simply post the itemthrough my letter box; it required a signature. It would only deliver during “normaloffice hours” and not on a Saturday. Both my wife and I work full time, which meansthat to have the item delivered at home, I would have to take a day off work. It lookslike my only alternative is to drive half way across London on a Saturday morning tocollect the parcel from the Courier’s depot, which is open only between 8am and10.30am. In contrast, by first-class mail the parcel would have been on the mat theday after ordering. Even with registered post, I could have collected the parcel fromthe nearby sorting office on a weekday or all of Saturday morning. Why do some mail-order firms insist on providing a service that is so inconsiderate to their customers’ needs?

STEPHEN CLIFTON [email protected]

BE A CYBER GRASS

Following your article on Net Fraud(PCW August) I thought your

readers would like to know the webaddress for the official Scotland YardGuidelines, to preserve evidence after acyber intrusion. It’s at www.csfi.demon.co.uk. The link is on the front page.

HARRY LASCELLES

[email protected]

FADE TO GREY

Nowhere in September’s colourinkjet group test, or any others

that I have seen, has there been adiscussion or review of image fadewith different types and makes ofprinter. My old HP 550C producedvery good colour on its glossy paper,but the prints were unusable anywherenear sunlight, with the cyan inkfading within a matter of days, andturning a blue sky in a poster tobright magenta! My routine wheninvestigating a new printer is to maskoff part of a sample print from thedifferent manufacturers, put them ina sunny, south-facing window, andcheck the masked section againstthe unmasked section every day fora fortnight.

MIKE IANNANTUONI

[email protected]

A cunning plan indeed,which was almost implemented in our lastgroup test. Until, that is, we realised thatthe PCW office simply doesn’t get anysunshine! Perhaps Mike has some sparewindows we could use.

PCW replies >


We hope you enjoy this special redesigned issue, but it’s your magazine and

we'd appreciate your comments. Please email us on [email protected]

with your thoughts — we’d really like to know what you think.

Win a Taxan monitorEach month we are offering a17in Taxan Ergovision 750TCO95 monitor to the winnerof the Letter of the Month. For the complete range of Taxanmonitors, call 01344 484646 or visitthe web site at www.taxan.co.uk

...letters

Facing up toOverclockingIncreasing attention is being given to overclocking, but

without any real mention being made of the downsides.Firstly, not everyone can or should overclock their system.Overclocking by definition means that your system is runningat a speed it is not designed for, and thus is more likely to fail.Some chips are better for overclocking than others. One ofthe main factors I have found in this is the heat produced bythe overclocked chip. An overclocked chip will almostcertainly run faster than a non-overclocked chip, and so it isimperative that adequate cooling is given to the system.

The best chips for overclocking are from Intel, but mostproduced over the past 18 months have had the clockmultipliers locked at a particular level. The only way to getaround this is to increase the bus speed, but this can causehavoc with PCI devices, particularly with the 83MHz settingsoffered by many boards. However, the most important thing is that overclocking achip will almost certainly invalidate any warranty. For thisreason you should always be conservative whenoverclocking, increasing the speed slowly and ensuring thesystem runs stable. Overclocking should only be attempted by people who feelcomfortable with PCs at a technical level. It should not beattempted by people unsure about changing jumpers on amotherboard or settings in the BIOS. It is not the panaceawhich some hold it to be — there are potential problems —but dealt with sensibly, overclocking does lead to more bangfor your buck. Just remember, cooling, cooling, cooling. (For the record: K6 200 running at 75x3 (225MHz) flawlesslyfor 12 months.)

JOHN CALLAGHAN [email protected]


For the record: Intel P200 runningat 83x3 (250MHz) flawlessly for about 20 minutes. It was a dramatic, albeit short-lived, improvement!

Gordon Laing replies >

...letters

The Funny Side of Suicide

What a great read the September issue was. I couldn't believe Barry Fox’sarticle: what a damning tale about Windows 98. Then I read Paul Smith’spage — the same thing again! I couldn’t stop laughing! If the PCW experts

are having these problems, what hope is there for the rest of us?Has Windows 98 been released just a teeny bit too early or is it just over-reachingitself slightly? Luckily, I’m a confirmed Macuser, so I don’t have all the fun andexcitement of suicidal OS installations. But I do like to read about the adventuresof those intrepid many that do!

CHRIS WORRELL

[email protected]

See this month's PCGroup test [p174] to see how the newAMD processor fares. The K6-2 has a newinstruction set called 3D Now!, which accel-erates 3D functions in the same way thatthe MMX instructions were supposed toenhance general multimedia performance(although ended up most benefitting imageprocessing). None of this is of any use, how-ever, if no-one writes software which specifi-cally makes calls to these new instructions.nVidia has written optimised drivers for itsRiva 128 graphics chipset, although mostexciting of all is support from the forthcom-ing Microsoft DirectX 6. Games written forDirectX 6 should make use of 3D Now!,which could give AMD the upper hand untilIntel's Katmai instruction set arrives.

PCW replies >

Good news to Chrisand all other Apple addicts: the HandsOn Mac column returns in this very issueon page 304, and it’s even joined by a new 16-bit column for those command-line interface fans.

PCW replies >

WINDOWS 98 – GET YOUR CARDS OUT

Ihave an invaluable tip that might assist userswho are encountering serious trouble

upgrading to Windows 98: remove all non-plug 'n' play ISA cards. I do not claim that this procedure will workfor everyone, but I would like to share withyou my experience of PC hell when I took the plunge of upgrading to Windows 98. The set-up reported that Windows 98 requireda substantial amount of base memory to startinstallation. Then, a thought suddenly hit me.

The Turtle Beach Fiji sound card, which I had installedover a year ago, consumed the first upper block of

base memory. Removing the offending sound cardsolved the problem, and set-up progressed

without a hitch.I am now the happy owner of an operatingsystem that consumes 300Mb of hard-diskspace, requires a minimum 32Mb of RAM,works 40 percent slower, and has appallingdefrag and scandisk routines which take an

eternity to run on my PC. Progress: don't you just love it.

B.J.SAMELAK

[email protected]

WE WHO PAYTO WAIT

Irecently had the misfortune to haveto phone four different companies

for technical advice. Each one used anautomatic routing facility: you knowthe type of thing — press 1 for sales,press 2 for technical assistance, andso on. I pressed the specified button,sometimes getting a human tellingme I would be placed on a queue andbe forced to listen to some music, andsometimes getting a ringing tone thatwas never answered. One company had a simple answermachine instructing me to replace myphone and try again later, because alltheir technicians were busy. This wasparticularly frustrating: why not justgive the engaged tone? I would muchprefer to get an engaged tone whenthere isnobodyfree toanswerthephone, orperhaps amachinethat would take my number so thecompany could call me back. Another palliative would be for thesystem to tell you the length of thequeue every 30 seconds or so, thenyou can decide if it’s worth hangingon or trying again later. When there are sufficient people torun the system, it works very well;otherwise it engenders a great deal ofresentment and can do nothing toimprove real customer satisfaction.

GARY WOODING

[email protected]

IS SOCKET 7 DEAD?Intel would like us to believe thatthe only way forward is with itsSlot 1 Pentium II CPUs. Thenew AMD K6-2 with 3D Now!,however, currently offers up to333MHz CPUs, designed to fiton the latest-generation Super-Socket 7 mainboards. Theseboards certainly rival even PII BX-based systems. And yes, you get anAGP, similar configuration ofPCI/ISA slots, and it accepts thelatest 100MHz SDRAM modules. Consider the Photon 100 AGPmainboard from CaliforniaGraphics <www.Calgraph.com>:the advantages of a 5.5 multiplierclock speed immediately speaksvolumes as to the advantages overPentium II. For once, it looks like itis possible to invest in upgradeablePC systems — not outdated onesfrom the time of purchase.

RICHARD BEWLEY

[email protected]


Boxes that go bingIf you’ve got Windows 98 and USB ports on your PC, you don’t even need a soundcard to enjoy the 80 Watts of pure gaming joy afforded by the Microsoft Sound System 80’s subwoofer and satellite set-up. It’s still got bog-standard analogue inputs, though. The speakers will be available in the autumn.

Price Around £180 (£153 ex VAT) Contact

Power tothe peopleA definite candidate for most bizarre product of the year is the PinUPS uninterruptible power supply from AdvanceGalatrek. Styled by Pininfarina and basedupon — wait for it — the Ferrari F50, this is adevice for the technogeek who really does haveeverything. A UPS, in case you didn’t know,protects against power surges and supplies emergency juice from a large internal battery if the mains fail completely. So obviously, it’s essential that it looks good.Price From £159 (£135 ex VAT)Contact Advance Galatrek 0800 269394

gadgets


A whiter shade of paleEveryone’s calling it Apple’s great white hope, but it looks transparentto us. The iMac isn’t just a concept machine; it’ll be available tobuy from September. It has a 233MHz G3 processor, but the controversial bit is that it doesn’t have a floppy-disk drive, soyou’ll need to either attach a USB storage device to one of thetwo ports, or hook it up to a network, if you want to get any filesoff it. Looks pretty though, and the price will certainly raisesome eyebrows. Full review next month.Price £999 (£850 ex VAT)Contact Apple 0870 6006010 www.apple.com

Purple hazeIt’s purple, it’s green, it’s cuddly and

it’s got electronic insides. It’s MicrosoftBarney, one of a new range of “ActiMates” for your sprog. Barneyhas sensors in his eyes and switchesin his hands, feet and toes. He’s gota vocabulary of 4000 words and cries“peek-a-boo” when you cover his eyes.Not only that, but he sings songs whenyou squeeze his foot, and does oodles of other cutsey-pie things, too.Price £99.95 (£85 ex VAT)

Contact Microsoft 0345 002000www.microsoft.com

Microsoft 0345 002000www.microsoft.com

compiled by David Fearon

Lumberjacksqueue hereFollowing in the footsteps of the Husky“kick it, drop it and go surfing on it”notebook in last month’s PCW, we havethe RT-200. It’s not quite as durable as theHusky, since it’s got a hard drive and standardports with rubber caps on them. But we’veseen the test report and can confirm that it’llwithstand a 40G, 11-millisecond, terminal-peakshock pulse. Oh, and it works in the rain, too.Price From £3524 (£2999 ex VAT)Contact Notable 0161 455 7600


Purple haze (reprise)Not content with removable storage, Iomega is branching intovideo capture. Pretty sensible when you think about it, since lotsof storage is just what you need when you’re messing about withdigital video. The Buz consists of a proper internal Ultra Wide

SCSI card, plus the purple breakout box forvideo ins and outs. We don’t know why it’scalled the Buz, but at least it’s

better than Fuz.Price £189 (£161 ex VAT)

Contact Iomega 0800 973194www.iomega.com

Executive dreamsHere’s the sexy Siemens Nixdorf Scenic Mobile 800. The metallic sheen on the caseis due to the fact that it’s made of magnesium alloy. The keyboard is detachable andhas an infra-red link, so you can type for hours in your hotel room in perfect com-fort. The battery in the keyboard is automatically recharged when it’s reattached,so no worries there. See next month’s full review.Price £5286 (£4499 ex VAT) Contact Siemens Nixdorf01252 555312 www.siemensnixdorf.co.uk

Telly madWe’re not quite sure if this is a good or a bad idea — ACi’s MD-1000 turns your£2000 notebook into a portable telly.There’s no denying it could be fun – atleast for a while. And when EastEnders hasfinished, you can use its video capture abilityfor something a little more serious.Price £293 (£249 ex VAT)Contact ACi 0181 357 1116 www.aciweb.co.uk

NEW PRODUCTS79 Evesham Vale Platinum PII 450

80 Mitsubishi, Nokia and Taxan

15in flatplanel displays

84 Tiny Home Value Plus

86 Intel Pentium II Xeon

89 Dotlink Power Tower 400SE

91 Toshiba Equium 7000S

92 Evolution Dance Station

92 Matrox Millennium G200

94 Gateway Solo 2500-S6266SE

95 Compaq Armada 1570D

96 Philips DRD5210 DVD-ROM

98 Visioneer PaperPort OneTouch

98 Panasonic LF-D101U

100 MediaForm 5900 CD-R

100 Money for Psion Series 5

102 Macromedia Flash 3

106 Kai’s Power Show

106 NetGraphics Studio 2

108 Visual Studio 6

110 Xerox vs Visioneer OCR programs

LONG TERM TESTS112 Microsoft Office 97

113 Psion Siena

113 Panasonic Panasync/Pro 7G

114 Concise Oxford Dictionary

with sound


N E W P R O D U C T S > >

reviewsT here’s good news this month for speed junkies, whether you’re a

home user on a budget or an IT manager looking to upgrade an

overstressed server. Three new processor lines make

their début in these pages: the 450MHz Pentium II and new, faster Celeron

with onboard cache for desktop PCs, plus a mighty quad Pentium II Xeon

server system that we preview. LCD flatpanel displays are really

starting to make their mark, and prices are tumbling. So if you’re considering

taking the LCD plunge we have a mini round-up of three gorgeous 15in displays from

Mitsubishi, Nokia and Taxan. On the software front, web designers will be interested in Macromedia’s Flash version 3, as well as

Herera’s NetGraphics Studio 2. For the serious developers in

the audience, Microsoft’s vast Visual Studio 6 package gets the

once-over. From this issue onwards we’ll be featuring

software for PDAs and palmtops. Money for

the Psion Series 5 gets the ball rolling, and we’ll have more

Psion software as well as pack-

ages for Windows CE and other

handheld operating systems in

the coming months.

ContentsVNU Labs tests allkinds of hardwareand software, fromPCs to modems todatabases. All our

tests simulate real-world useand for the most part arebased around industry-standard applications such asWord, Excel, PageMaker andParadox. Our current PC testsfor both Windows 95 and NTare the SYSmark tests fromBAPCo. In all our performancegraphs, larger bars meanbetter scores.

VNU EuropeanLabs

★★★★★ Buy while stocks last★★★★ Great buy★★★ Good buy★★ Shop around★ Not recommended

Ratings


Hold on to your hats – it’s the fastest ever Pentium II.

This system from Evesham Microscontains one of the first 450MHzprocessors to roll off the

production line. We’re now almosthalfway to the predicted 1GHz speedsthat will be reached soon after themillennium. One GigaHertz, by the way,equals one thousand million cycles persecond — a pretty mind-boggling figure.The new processor speed isn’t the result ofany particularly new technologicaldevelopments, but stems fromincremental improvements in productiontechniques, mixed with a little marketingstrategy on Intel’s part. The chip containsthe Deschutes core that all Pentium IIsfrom 333MHz upwards utilise. This hasproved to be extremely capable of highspeeds to those who’ve riskedoverclocking them past their rated setting.

The system supplied to us byEvesham came in an impressively largetower case, as befits the processor’sinitial target market of power userswho’ll want to fit extra devices. Its heightallows for four free front-panel 5.25indrive bays, plus three internal 3.5incages. A 300W power supply lurks at therear, which should give sufficient powereven if all the bays are occupied.

Slightly surprising given the processorand the size of the case is the fact thatthe system is not SCSI based, sporting anEIDE hard drive and DVD-ROM drive.The hard drive itself — one of the mostimportant components for good overallsystem performance — is the brand-newmodel from Maxtor, the DiamondMaxPlus. The drive has a capacity of 10Gb,together with a spindle speed of7200rpm, and is one of the first EIDEdrives to run at this speed. The faster thedisk rotates, the higher the sustaineddata transfer rate will be, which bodeswell for performance. The averagelatency, which is the time taken for thedisk to rotate to a given position underthe read/write heads, is also reduced.

The system was rushed to us in ahurry, so we can forgive the fact that the

harddrive wasnot properlysecured and arrived danglingby its cables inside the case. To Maxtor’scredit, though, the drive still workedperfectly, even though it must have takena few knocks on the way to our Labs.

On the graphics front, the system’sAGP slot was occupied by an 8Mb ATiXpert@Play: a fairly middle-range card forthis kind of system, but the 3D Rage Prochipset is a good performer. A decentmonitor is essential, so we wereencouraged by the choice of a TaxanErgovision 975 19in unit. Taxan has agood reputation for high-quality displays,but this unit seemed to have fallen foul ofthe rush to get it to us, either at thequality control stage or from a bashreceived in transit. It was obviously duff,with a very fuzzy image even at 1024x768— a resolution that any 19in monitorshould be able to handle with ease.

Overall, the configuration of thissystem probably isn’t one that manypeople would want to buy; a high-endcase and processor doesn’t quite gel withan EIDE hard drive and home-orientatedgraphics card. But as a test bed for thenew processor it’s certainly interesting,and the all-important performance ofthe system didn’t disappoint. As you’dexpect, the Platinum II 450 was thefastest system that PCW has seen todate, coming home with a SYSMark score of 420. This compares with a score

of 383 for theEvesham Platinum400MHz system (see September’s grouptest). A worthwhile performance increasefor the money? Possibly; but as usual therelease of a new fastest chip willinevitably mean price cuts for all speedsbelow it. So unless you’re utterlydesperate for that last ounce ofperformance, it always makes moresense for the power user to go for thenext step down — in this case, 400MHz— to avoid that premium on thebleeding-edge line.

DAVID FEARON

★★★★Price £2231 (£1899 ex VAT)Contact Evesham 01386 769600www.evesham.com Good Points The fastest Pentium II yet.Bad Points Slightly confused specification.Conclusion A great showcase for the 450MHzprocessor, but not the right system for mostpeople.

PCW DETAILS

PERFORMANCE RESULT S

0 100 200 300 400

Platinum PII 450 420

Platinum PII 400 383

BAPCo Sysmark Windows 95 test scores

Evesham MicrosVale Platinum PII 450

HTHE VALE

PLATINUM PII 450:THE FASTEST PIISYSTEM YET, BUT

WITH AN

IDIOSYNCRATIC SPEC

T he legacy of the analogue-drivendisplay of cathode-ray tubes(CRTs) has been a major

headache to the developers of flat-paneldisplays (FPDs). The PC’s graphicscircuitry, whether on a card ormotherboard, converts the digitaldescription of your operating systemdesktop into an analogue RGB signal.This signal, along with Horizontal andVertical synchronising signals, is thentransmitted to the FPD, whereupon theanalogue data is converted back todigital in order to drive the transistors.This conversion of the signal from digitalto analogue and back to digital degradesimage quality unnecessarily.

The current advantage in using theRGB analogue interface lies in itsestablished compatibility with just aboutevery PC. However, for FPDs, thispreposterous inefficiency has drivenengineers to find a cheaper alternative —the Flat Panel Digital (or Display)Interface version 2 (FPDI-2), which is in

its final stages of development. This isbased on a system called Low VoltageDifferential Signalling (LVDS), whichalso incorporates compression of thevideo data in order to make moreeffective use of the available bandwidth.

Of course, to make use of a displaythat supports LVDS you’ll need a newgraphics card and drivers; availability ofboth from major vendors is imminent.You’ll then be able to enjoy the benefits ofclean, crisp image displays, due to digitalsignals’ much higher resistance to externalinterference, and improved brightness andcontrast. However, the reducedcomponent count stemming fromthe lack of DAC/ADC circuitry andreduced noise suppression circuitry,which you’d quite rightly assumewould result in lower unit costs, willinitially be offset by the costs neededto get to this stage of development.

Coupled with the incompatibility ofthis design in the current market, fornow we will just have to make do withthe analogue interfaces present in thethree flat-paneldisplays on reviewhere. The term“native resolution”refers to the groupof liquid crystalelements (one each

for red, green andblue) that makeup each pictureelement, or pixel.A nativeresolution of

800x600 pixels would therefore havethat number of groups (480,000 intotal). Depending on the methodemployed to emulate resolutionsother than the native, somedistortion of image may occur.Each of the panels on review

had native resolutions of 1024 x768 pixels. Switching from Windows to afull-screen DOS shell tests how each

panel copes with sudden resolutionchanges. The Nokia snapped the

image across its whole display almostimmediately with no noticeabledegradation, although it did lose some ofthe lower edge of the image. With theMitsubishi, the touch of a “mode” buttonstretches the image across the wholedisplay, but a movie clip running underDOS with a resolution of 1024 x 768would only stretch across the upperportion of the screen, leaving the lowerportion black and unused. The Taxancoped best with this test: with nosynchronisation required, it stretched the DOS shell across its whole displayperfectly, aligning with the bezel at allresolutions.


Mitsubishi LXA520W★★★★Price £1028 (£875 ex VAT)Contact 0800 731 1222www.meuk.mee.com/display/Good Points Cheap and light. Space saver.Bad Points No audio capabilities. Unable toemulate 24-bit colour.Conclusion A crisp,stable image,but graphicartists may miss 24-bit capabilities.

PCW DETAILS

Who can resist flat-paneldisplays, with their fantasticimages and cases around aninch thick? They’re muchcheaper than they used to be,so when Mitsubishi’s 15inLXA520W, Nokia’s 15.1in500Xa and Taxan’s 15.1inCrystalVision 670 all arrivedat once, we just had to pitch them head to head.

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Mitsubishi/Nokia/TaxanGood things come in threes

QTHE MITSUBISHI

LXA520W WILL

FIT NEATLY ON ANY

DESKTOP

RTHE NOKIA

500XA HAS GREAT

AUDIO AND

IMPRESSIVE

VIEWING ANGLES


Ever stood next to someone at a cashmachine and been tempted to peak attheir balance? Generally you can’t, as thedisplays are deliberately manufacturedwith a restricted viewing angle so thatyou only see a blank screen. FPDsgenerate their image by polarising afluorescent backlight through differentangular twists of the liquid crystals. Toview the display from an off-centreposition, image-enhancement filmsslightly scatter the light transmitted

through them. The effectiveness of thetechnology adopted is a key factor inchoosing a display and tends to varybetween manufacturers. The Taxanclaimed viewing angles of ±80ºhorizontal and ±60º vertical, but we feltthere was a loss in luminescence at muchlower viewing angles. The Mitsubishiclaimed ±70º horizontal and -60º to+40º vertical, but from our ownperception you did begin to lose some ofthe display quality as you moved away.The Nokia achieved the full quality of itsdisplay through to the more modestclaims of ±50º horizontal and ±60ºvertical, and was still readable throughto almost ±85º in either direction.

FPD colour is produced by accuratelytwisting each liquid crystal to 64 levels(or six bits) of polarisation of the whitebacklight through either a red, green orblue filter. This only produces a total of18 bits, or 262,144 colours. To producethe 16.7 million colours of a true 24-bitdisplay, intensity modulation is used tovary the intensity of pixels, emulating thefull colour range. Mitsubishi, however,

did not adopt any method of intensitymodulation for its display, so it couldonly support 18-bit colour.

All of the displays had onscreendisplay controls (OSDs), clearly laid outand very responsive. The Nokia andTaxan both came with an option toautomatically configure the display usingsupplied LCD test cards. The Nokiawould not always adjust itselfcorrectly and the best we couldachieve through manualadjustments took almost 10minutes. The Taxan’s auto buttonprovided a display we couldn’timprove upon and was thefastest to set up, taking less thantwo minutes. The Mitsubishi’slack of automatic optimisationwas replaced with a stripped-down OSD, a test card andstraightforward manualinstructions. We achieved anoptimised display in less thanfour minutes.

Some 17in CRTs with actual viewablediagonals of around 15.7in take up agood square metre of desk space,taking into account the need toswivel their huge bottoms around.Your average 15in FPD takes up less thanhalf of this, and weighs maybe a tenth ofthe CRT; and remember, you get to useall of the image, so 15.1in really means15.1in. The Taxan comes out on tophere, having the smallest footprint, whilethe Mitsubishi runs a close secondalthough it was slightly lighter. The Nokiaweighed two kilograms more with anadditional seven centimetres of depth.

The Mitsubishi and the Nokia couldbe tilted back by up to 35 degrees andforward by five, whereas the Taxan’sback tilt was limited to thirty degrees andcouldn’t be tilted forward. The audiocapabilities of the Taxan were limited bythe omission of a microphone. TheNokia had superior audio capabilitieswith all the basics present and built-inspeakers capable of providing a fullspectrum of tones. The Mitsubishi wasnot an audio model. And finally, theTaxan was able to raise its head abovethe others with the unique display-switching button for flipping betweentwo analogue signals, enabling theconnection of two computers. Foroverall quality of display you can expectflicker-free, clean, crisp displays from allthree models. However, the Nokia hadmild instability that appeared as awobbling effect, occasionally noticeable

on highly-defined characters but notfrequent enough to cause majorconcern. The Mitsubishi appearedflawless untilcompared to theTaxan with itssharper, brighterimage. The TFTpanels

themselveswere all manufactured elsewhere, withthe Nokia panel and image-enhancement film manufactured by ajoint effort between Philips and Hosidan,Nokia then taking responsibility for finalassembly. Taxan’s and Mitsubishi’spanels are manufactured by Sharp, buttheir image enhancement films andoptical filters, as well as the finalassembly, is all down to Mitsubishi.

It’s interesting that Mitsubishi hasended up manufacturing and assemblinga superior, albeit more expensive productfor one of its competitors. Still, Taxanbeing on the receiving end has suppliedus with a product worthy of our highestrecommendation.

IAN ROBSON

Taxan CrystalVision 670★★★★★Price £1526 (£1299 ex VAT)Contact 01344 484646 www.taxan.co.uk/lcd.html Good Points Best image, capable of switchingbetween two inputs.Bad Points Speakers but no microphone.Pricier than the others.Conclusion The higher price gets you superbquality with design and build to match.

PCW DETAILSNokia 500Xa★★★★Price £1086(£925 ex VAT)Contact 01793 512809www.nokia.comGood Points Superior audio, impressiveviewing angles, reasonable price. Bad Points Very minor image instabilityConclusion Very impressive sub-£1000display with superior audio capabilities.

PCW DETAILS

You can expectflicker-free, clean,crisp displays from all three models

¡THE TAXAN

CRYSTALVISION 670

W hen Intel launched thePentium II in May last year,there was a great deal of

debate about the reasons behindabandoning Socket 7 in favour of theSlot 1 form factor. A considerable bodyof opinion said that Intel was abusing itsmassive marketing clout to shift theproduction goalposts and cause masstake-up of Slot 1, consequently leavingrival CPU manufacturers and theirSocket 7 designs at a dead end.

At the time, though, the PII wasextremely expensive, leaving a gap intowhich the likes of AMD and Cyrix couldmove to market their high-performancebut cheaper Socket 7 devices. But thesituation didn’t last long: within three orfour months, at least in the UK, first andsecond-tier vendors were shiftingPentium II systems at ridiculously lowprices. Intel didn’t seem to pick up onthis, and launched the Celeron, a cheapPentium II without onboard Level 2cache. The cache is a small amount ofvery fast RAM used to store frequentlyused instructions and data, as well asloading data speculatively in case it’sneeded, considerably speeding up mostoperations. Celeron was aimed at sub-$1000 PCs, but by the time it came to

market, UK vendorswere offering real PIIsystems for around£800 anyway. Therehas never been asurfeit of confidenceamong the press orvendors about theworth of theCeleron. Mostpundits dismissedthe thing asbeing far tooslow withoutever settingeyes on one,condemning it asa cynical move onIntel’s part to bludgeonSocket 7 to death. And so, enterMendocino, Intel’s codename for anew, higher-performance Celeron with128Kb of onboard Level 2 cache. There isa big difference between this and the Level2 cache on a normal Pentium II. The512Kb cache on a standard PII is on aseparate piece of silicon within that blackmodule, running at only half the speed ofthe processor. The Mendocino’s Level 2cache is situated on the processor core(called the die) itself, and runs at the sameclock speed. This makes the cache verymuch more effective.

The first Mendocino system to makeit into PCW is from Tiny Computers. It’s a333MHz system housed in a rather largebox designed with alluring curves. Thecase size means easy future upgrades withno structural inhibitions or messy cablinglimiting access to the two spare DIMMslots or three spare PCI slots. The systemhas 64Mb of SDRAM, and the generous8Gb hard disk will be equally useful forgamers requiring faster data accessthrough full installations, or homeworkers’ needs. The inclusion of aRockwell chip-based modem is welcome, as is the Yamaha PCI sound card. Tinyscores points with its bundle of extras — a Microsoft Intellimouse, large speakers,

reasonable-quality Quickshot joystick,tie-pin microphone, a large softwarebundle of games, reference and businesstitles, and the EasyTouch keyboard.Ergonomically slanted with a detachablewrist-rest, the keyboard’s star feature isthe hotkeys which allow control of theaudio functions of the CD-ROM driveand the sound card’s volume level.

With all those added extras, nodoubt aimed at the first-time buyerseeing the system in one of Tiny’s shopwindows, it’s good to see that one of theleast glamorous but most importantareas hasn’t been overlooked: the 15inPanasonic monitor gives a crisp, stablepicture at 800x600 resolution. With the8Mb ATI Xpert98 graphics card, a 17inunit would have been ideal; but at thisprice, something has to give.

Compared with Tiny’s Celeron300MHz system (reviewed last month) therewas a marked relative increase in 3Dperformance. But the Home Value Pluscame into its own on the 2D applicationbenchmark, the dramatic leap inperformance proving the worth of theLevel 2 cache beyond doubt.

IAN ROBSON


A Tiny PC with a big chip inside: Intel comes up with the cache this time.N

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PCW DETAILS


0 50 100 150 200

Tiny Home Value 300 221

Tiny Home Value Plus 310


★★★Price £1056.32 (£899 ex VAT)Contact Tiny Computers 0990 133097 www.tinycomp.com Good Points Very good performance from theMendocino processor.Bad Points Could do with a larger monitor.Conclusion It looks as if Intel has redeemeditself with the Mendocino Celeron.

Tiny Home Value Plus

HTHE HOME VALUE

PLUS IS REPLETE

WITH BELLS AND

WHISTLES

First look at Intel Mendocino

Intel’s Xeon, bridges the gap betweenIntel’s current server workhorse, thePentium Pro, and the much-

vaunted/delayed 64-bit Merced. Xeon isdesigned both for high-end workstationsand for servers running four or eightprocessors. The first chips in the Xeonfamily are two 400MHz versions, onewith 512Kb of Level 2 cache and theother with 1Mb.

Underneath the covers, the Xeon is aversion of the Pentium II optimised forrunning server applications andsymmetric multi-processing where two or more processors are linked underWindows NT. The CPU core is thefamiliar Deschutes, used in the PentiumII as well as the Celeron processor (see theMendocino review on page 84). Its big secretis that its large Level 2 cache runs at thesame clock speed as the core; in previousgenerations, this ran at half theprocessor’s speed. The cache comprisesIntel-fabricated CSRAM (Custom StaticRAM) chips, each CSRAM chip holding512Kb, so the 1Mb version has a pairand a future 2Mb version will have four.

Intel has also introduced new Xeon-specific chipsets. The 440GX AGPset isfor single- and dual-processor serversand workstations, while the 450NXPCIset is for systems based on four ormore processors. The 440GX AGPsetsupports up to 2Gb physical RAM andAGP video. The 450NX PCIset supportsup to 8Gb physical RAM and multiple32-bit and 64-bit PCI buses.Unannounced Xeon-based chipsets will

support next-generation Direct RambusDRAM chips sometime in 1999,according to Intel.

The Xeon will command a pricepremium, as did its predecessor, thePentium Pro. In volumes of 1000 units,the 512Kb cache version costs $1124(around £700); the 1Mb cache versioncosts $2836 (around £1800). And aswith the Pentium Pro, the prices are likelyto stay artficially high in order todifferentiate it from the standardPentium II. In short, this processor is noPentium II replacement, so don’t worrythat your new 400MHz desktop systemhas been made obsolete by the Xeon: the two product lines are quite separate.

The Xeon processor cartridge itself islarge, roughly double the size of astandard Pentium II SEC cartridge. ItsSlot 2 edge connector is about 10mmlonger than the Pentium II/Slot 1, with anextra “keying” slot to prevent accidentalinsertion of a Pentium II. The cache RAMgives off as much heat as the CPU core,so the heat sink covers the entirecartridge. The file server Intel supplied toPCW isn’t one that’s available to buy perse: it’s a preview and evaluation systemthat Intel supplies to its OEM clients. A

fully-fledgedfloor-standingserver, the case is around five or six timesthe volume of a normal full-tower case,with three lockable doors that give accessto the storage, a central backlit LCDstatus display and a selection of error-condition LEDs. The system has 12 hot-swappable drive bays in all, so with a fulldeck of 18Gb drives you could easily havewell over 200Gb of storage.

The ACPI-compliant motherboard isin two halves, mounted either side of acentral spine wall of the server chassis.The left side holds the CPUs and RAM;the right side the I/O and expansionslots. The CPU side bristles with aformidable-looking matrix of four400MHz Xeon processors mounted in aset of rails: jumper labels indicate thatclock speeds as high as 500MHz aresupported. Under the CPU array is512Mb of ECC SDRAM, occupying eightof the 16 DIMM slots. No less than six80mm fans cool this array of silicon,aided by a Styrofoam shroud, with afurther three fans cooling themotherboard itself.

Look out for full reviews of publicly-available Xeon systems soon.

ROGER GANN


★★★★Price n/aContact Intel www.intel.com Good Points The fastest Intel server processor.Bad Points Hugely expensive.Conclusion For high-end enterprise setups only.

PCW DETAILS

Intel Pentium II Xeon

Intel serves up its serverwonder-chip — a fastprocessor at a gourmet price.

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HXEON IS FOR

WORKSTATIONS AND

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— AND HIGH-END

WALLETS


It’s a grand life — or at least, it is with this 400MHz PII PCthat breaks the price barrier.

Y ou don’t get masses of softwareor an impressive performancewith this budget PC, but it gets on

with the job. What more can you expectfor just over a grand? Budget PCs are bigbusiness and much has been made of thesub-$1000 systems on sale in the US.Compaq claims its best-selling consumerPCs are those costing less than $1000.It’s not surprising, really: most peopledon’t really need an all-singing all-dancing PC, and, more to the point,can’t afford it.

Dotlink has broken a barrier withthis PC too. The Power Tower 400SEcosts under £1000, excluding VAT. Withthe emergence of machines like this, no-one can say that high-end systems are notaffordable. The 400SE packs aneconomic punch; but is it up to the job?For the price, the specifications areundoubtedly impressive. At the hub ofthe midi tower is a motherboard sportingIntel’s 440BX chipset, a Pentium II400MHz processor, 64Mb SDRAM and a5Gb UDMA EIDE hard drive. 64Mb isnow the standard in a decently-specifiedPC. In this case, the 64Mb is on oneDIMM (dual in-line memory module),

leavingtwo spare DIMMslots for thatRAM Christmaspresent you willprobably require in a year’s time. TheEIDE hard drive is standard fare too, butit would be a bit too much to ask to besupplied with a SCSI model at this price.As far as upgradability in other areas isconcerned, there’s enough space to begetting on with. With one free 3.5in andtwo free 5.25in front-loading bays youhave the standard midi-tower room forreinforcements, and there’s the standardtwo USB ports for your digital camera,scanner or other peripherals.

Inside the midi tower are three sparePCI slots and one spare ISA slot, plus afree shared slot. Looking around, thecabling is clipped together so you don’thave to hack through it with a machete,although it is a little untidy. The buildquality is fine, and the design is bestdescribed as standard. As for graphics,the Power Tower 400SE comes with anAGP Matrox Productiva G100 card.While it has 8Mb of onboard RAM, it is a2D card only, so you will need a 3Daccelerator if you want to play the gamesof today, or indeed if you want to dealwith more cerebral graphics applications.There are plenty of 2D/3D cards outthere at roughly the same price but withless memory, which may have been a

betterbet. We

did nottest the

Matrox G100with our usual graphics card

benchmark: the results would not havedone the 2D card justice. Performancetesting was as usual performed usingBAPCo, and the results showed that the400SE was neither hare nor snail.Desktop graphics scored impressively,but the overall SYSmark score was a littlelow for a 400MHz system.

The monitor is a Hansol Mazellan501P 15in, with a 13.8in viewablediagonal. At its recommended resolutionof 1024x768, the refresh rate is a steady85Hz. The sound card is a basicSoundBlaster 16-compatible affair.These cards are still pretty muchstandard, but they are no longer thecards you would choose to buy if youwere putting together an optimumsystem for yourself. Also included is a56Kbps data/fax/voice modem, a vitalcomponent for a home-orientated PC.

On the software side, the Dotlinkcomes armed only with Windows 95 andLotus SmartSuite 97. The three-yearwarranty is generous: one year parts andlabour, two years labour only.

Overall, there’s very little to criticise inthe Power Tower 400SE. A 400MHzPentium II for just over a grand is not tobe sniffed at, even though the rest of thespec is a little basic.

JIM HARYOTT

★★★★Price £1174 (£999 ex VAT)Contact Dotlink 0181 902 5802No URLGood Points Fantastic price for a PII400MHz machine which offers reasonable all-round specifications and a three-year warranty.Bad Points 2D graphics card. Not muchsoftware. Slightly disappointing performance.Conclusion A great machine for the money,but it’s certainly not perfect.

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Dotlink PowerTower 400SE 364

Viglen C2 Plus 400 414


Dotlink PowerTower 400SEMid-priced 400MHz Pentium II

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This slim Jim is one of a new range of easily-manageable PCs for the corporate user.

T oshiba is pushing for thecorporate market with its Equiumrange, and has used the NLX

form-factor design developed by Intel thatboasts slim cases but accessiblecomponents. The main space-savingdifference between the setup of aconventional desktop and one using theNLX form factor is the use of a riser boardfixed at a right angle to the motherboard.The PCI or ISA cards that usually sit on themotherboard are instead seated on theriser board and extend over themotherboard. With the Equium, the ideais that the model is easily manageable: themotherboard should be easily andconveniently detachable, rolling out of the side of the PC.

The review model we were sent wasset up with NT 4 (although some modelshave Windows 95 installed). Thespecification of the machine wasdecidedly mid-range, with 32Mb ofSDRAM offered on a single DIMM slot,along with Intel’s PII 266MHz processorwith 440LX chipset, as well as an Etherconnection with the SMC chip onboard,for LAN networking. The Equium 7000Sis the slimmest model in the range,priced at £785 (ex VAT) with a 17inmonitor. It had graphics onboard, using

ATi’s 3D Rage Pro chip,with only 2Mb of SGRAMout of a possible 6Mbinstalled on themotherboard. Onboardsound is courtesy of theCrystal sound chip. Wecould only get a maximumresolution of 800x600 in 16-bitcolour, but 1024 x 768 wasattainable by dropping thenumber of colours to 256.

We couldn’t run the 3DFinal Reality softwarebenchmark test because of the NTOS, but then, this is not theconfiguration for you if you needto run high-performance 3Dgraphics. Neither is this themodel for you if you aim toupgrade your PC regularly withaudio and graphics cards.

With only one PCI and oneshared PCI/EISA slot on theriser board, this PC will have aselect appeal only. However, itcould do well with IT managerswanting to bulk-buy PCs with which theircolleagues can’t tinker. In any case, thereis limited expansion space available inthe 7000S, so once you have upgradedto a more powerful graphics and soundcard, all expansion space is used up.

The 7000D series is aimed atcorporates which need more expansionspace from their PCs, it is slightly largerthan the S series, and most of the sizedifference is due to the larger riser board,with three PCI slots and one shared EISAslot. Both models are sold with thedesktop system and monitor pricedseparately. The S series starts at £600,compared to the £665 starting price ofthe larger 7000D. A 15in Toshibamonitor costs £210, a 17in, £380. It isunusual for a company to price thesystem separately from the monitor, butpresumably Toshiba is doing this with itsEquium range to entice managers withannual IT budgets who want reasonablyfast machines but don’t want to change

their existingmonitors. Wewere keen to check the accessibility of theseries. We weren’t that impressed withthe 7000S: there was a particularly flimsycatch to release the motherboard fromthe riser board, and detaching it was noeasy task. The motherboard came outslowly and awkwardly, and re-attaching itwas a case of push’n’pray — trickybecause there is no way of knowing (untilyou turn the PC on, of course) whetheryou have connected it up properly to theriser board. We liked the sturdiermotherboard-release design of the D range much better.

The 17in Toshiba monitor producedan impressively sharp picture, and withcolours set at 256 it was able to offerrefresh rates in excess of 85Hz.

The 7000S that we reviewed is notgoing to set the world alight, but at thesereasonable prices Toshiba should do wellwith the Equium range.

PAUL TRUEMAN

★★★Price System reviewed £922.38 (£785 exVAT); monitor £446.50 (£380 ex VAT) Contact Toshiba 01932 828828www.toshiba.com Good Points A nice idea. Well-constructed,accessible machines. Bad Points Some models in the range aremore accessible than others.Conclusion A solid performer backed by areliable name.

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Toshba Equium 7000S 222

Intel Benchmark 266 261

BAPCo Sysmark Windows NT test scores

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HTHE EQUIUM

7000S IS A

WELL-BUILT PIECE

OF KIT FROM A

REPUTABLE

MANUFACTURER

Evolution’s Dance Station haseverything you need to producedance music on your PC, including

a velocity-sensitive, two-octave MIDIkeyboard. The accompanying CD iscrammed with over 1000 professionally-produced samples, so you can havedecent tunes up and running in no time.

The keyboard takesits power from yoursound card’s joystickconnector and offersa comprehensiverange of controlparameters, fromprogram-change messagesto a handy General MIDIreset button. The modulationwheel can be configured tosend any MIDI control data,such as pan and volume, and thereare ten selectable velocity curves. Theaction, or touch, of the keys is quitepositive, and there’s even a connector fora sustain pedal round the back.The software integrates a samplerand sequencer on a single screen. TheLCD display shows the samples that areavailable, and you simply drag themonto the keyboard below to assign themto keys. Up to 25 samples can be played

and recorded inreal-time from the

MIDI keyboard. The quality andrange of samples won’t disappoint,

starting with laid-back funky grooves at100bpm, through to pacey hardcoreloops at 160bpm. The samples aregrouped into categories (drums, bass,synth, etc) and you can importadditional wave files in various formats.The sequencer is intuitive and offers apiano-roll editor at the push of a button.From here, notes can be erased ortweaked to your heart’s content.

STEVEN HELSTRIP


Matrox Millennium G200

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T he Millennium G200 boasts fullAGP 2x compliance, withhardware acceleration for the

whole range of 3D features like alphablending, anti-aliasing and trilinearfiltering. It offers superb 2D performanceand software-based DVD playback. We tested the standard 8Mb version,but the board supports up to 16Mb. Oneof its prime features is its ability toprovide 3D acceleration at full 32-bitcolour depth: it always renders internallyto 32 bits, then dithers down dependingon the actual screen mode, thus

improvingquality.With aFinalRealityscore of3.57, the Millennium G200raced ahead of the ATI RagePro chipset, our previousEditor’s Choice awardwinner. It also producedbetter results than newerentrants like Riva’s 128ZXand Intel’s i740. In fact, its3D performance was only10% below 3Dfx’s Voodoo 2— an impressiveachievement for a combined 2D/3Dcard. Image quality is much better thanwith the Voodoo 2, with sharper lines and more vibrant colours. In 2D the cardsupports a whopping maximum desktopresolution of 1920x1200, with thelegendary Matrox image quality. A few inexpensive add-on daughtercardswill be introduced by Matrox in the

coming months. These include a newversion of the popular Rainbow Runnervideo-capture card and a separatehardware DVD decoder. Considering itslow price, superior performance and highimage quality, the Millennium G200 is amust-buy.

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★★★★Price £129 (£110 ex VAT)Contact Matrox 01753 665544 www.matrox.com Good Points Extremely fast, excellent quality.Bad Points No hardware DVD playback.Conclusion Great for business or games.

PCW DETAILS

★★★★★Price £79.99 (£68 ex VAT)Contact Evolution 01525 372621 www.evolution.co.ukSystem Requirements120MHz Pentium,16Mb RAM, Windows 95, DirectX-compatible sound card.Good Points Easy to use, great results.Bad Points Hmmm… can’t think of any.Conclusion Probably the most fun you can havewith 80 quid.

PCW DETAILS

Dance yourself dizzy with Evolution’s keyboard,sampler and sequencing software.

RTHE G200 ISAN AGP-ONLY

CARD

Evolution Dance Station

An AGP graphics card that will do wonders for your image in business or games.

RTOP DANCE TUNES

ON YOUR PC STOP

AT THIS STATION!

Notebooks using the mobileversion of the Pentium II are stillnot quite as common in the

market as those with standard PentiumMMX processors. However, anincreasing number of notebookmanufacturers, including Dell and IBM,are producing products containingPentium II 233 and 266MHz processorsaimed at the mid-range business market.With the entry of the Gateway Solo 2500into this lucrative segment, the price cutsnecessary to make the Pentium IIprocessor commonplace in thenotebook market are well under way.Despite its modest price tag, the Solo2500 is no pushover in either features orperformance.

The system comes in a multi-pocketleather case which is sturdy enough toprotect it from bumps and scratches.Microsoft’s Office 97 Small BusinessEdition comes pre-installed. A sleek ACpower adapter and cable complete thepackage. Although the system we testedhad Windows 95 installed, the retailversion will ship with Windows 98. Theunit is fitted with a generous 64Mb ofRAM and a 4Gb hard drive.

The Solo 2500 is by no means acompetitor to the likes of the ToshibaLibretto in terms of size. However, at

3kg, the caseis smallenough andlight enough tobe handledwith comfort,with sufficientroom for thelarge screen,wrist-rest,speakers andkeyboard. Thegeneral buildquality is wellabove average andthe unit feels quitedurable. The two frontperipheral bays housethe 20-speed CD-ROMand the floppy drives. Aminor handicap is that thehard drive is fully enclosedinside the case and not easilyremovable like the IBM Thinkpad’s— possibly a point to bear in mind if datasecurity is important to you.

The Solo 2500 has the nowubiquitous twin-button touchpad. Thepad itself, although large enough forcomfortable use, proved ratherunresponsive and erratic at times. Thecursor often slows down for noparticular reason and at least oncestopped moving altogether. This wasparticularly noticeable after the systemhad been in use for a couple of hours.Problems of this nature are not confinedjust to Gateway’s touchpads, though,and for long sessions that require a lotof pointing and clicking you couldalways plug a proper mouse into thePS/2 port. The wide wrist-rest is ideal forlong typing sessions. The keyboard isresponsive and has a pleasant feel, andthe presence of the large Enter andSpace keys enhances its usability.

But the most attractive feature ofthe Solo 2500 is its bright 13.3in TFTscreen which supports a maximumresolution of 1024x768 pixels. Even at

lower resolutionsthe display isconsistently easyto read with nodiscernible

dithering — atrick more

expensive unitsoften fail to pull off. The

display is driven by a 2Mb NeoMagicMagicGraph 128XD graphics controller,allowing 16-bit colour depth at1024x768 pixels.

The presence of a composite videooutput makes the Solo 2500 a goodchoice for presentations. The NeoMagicMagicwave 3DX sound chipset producesacceptable output through the twinspeakers located at either side of thekeyboard, but external speakers orheadphones are more or less mandatoryfor any serious use of the system’s audio.

The Solo has one parallel and twoUSB ports. Currently, use of the latter islimited by the dearth of USB accessories,particularly those aimed at laptops. Butwe can at last expect activity on the USBfront now that Windows 98 is here. USBmakes it much easier to use devices withboth your desktop and notebook PCs,since many peripherals don’t needexternal power supplies.

The Solo 2500 produced a SYSMarkscore of 210. Its high performance, alongwith its excellent display, features, weightand price, make it a good choice for thebusiness user on a budget.

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Gateway Solo 2500-266SEHigh-performance notebook

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★★★★Price £2500 (£2129 ex VAT)Contact 0800 552000 www.gateway.com Good Points Excellent display, robust build.Bad Points The touchpad becomes lessresponsive after extended use.Conclusion A well-specified laptop at anattractive price.

PCW DETAILS

The mid-range business user on a budgetwill welcome this PII performer.


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Gateway Solo 2500-266SE 210

IBM ThinkPad 600 196


QTHE SOLO 2500DOESN’T DEPART

FROM THE

STANDARD SOLO

DESIGN

Compaq’s extensive range ofnotebooks reads like a Mafianovel with, at the last count, six

Armada families. The Armada 1570D istfrom the entry-level range. The basicspec is good, with a 200MHz PentiumMMX processor and a capacious 3.2Gbhard drive. Unfortunately, it has only16Mb RAM, which these days just isn’tenough; a slower processor and morememory would be preferable, sinceprocessor horsepower isn’t importantfor standard notebook uses like wordprocessing. What’s needed is enoughmemory to avoid excessive swapfileusage that will eat into your batteries.

First impressions are of a remarkablysturdy machine, but the downside of thisis its weight. The slight ears in the case,into which the stereo speakers are set,make good wrist-rests, but it does meanthat your hands will be over the speakersmost of the time, which is a shame sincethey produce above-average quality for anotebook. The overall design of themachine is really rather stylish, andalthough it’s by no means super-slim, it manages to avoid the brick-likeutilitarian looks of most other budgetnotebooks. It’s also narrower than many

of its competitors, giving the feelof a truly portable machinerather than a desktopreplacement. Many peopledislike touchpads; if you’reone of them, the 1570D’soffering won’t convert you. Itwas oversensitive toaccidental brushes andoccasionally shot the cursoroff to one side for noapparent reason. Gentlytapping twice issupposed toproduce adouble-click,but

thenumber ofmisinterpretations means you’llprobably switch the feature off beforelong and use the buttons instead.

Good design touches include volumecontrol buttons rather than an analoguecontrol, which should be immune towear, and four user-programmable keysabove the main keyboard. Another realpoint in its favour, and one thatshouldn’t be underestimated, is thekeyboard itself. Compaq has managedto avoid soggy plank syndrome byproducing keys with superb bounce andresponsiveness as well as a reasonableamount of travel. The 1570D also sportsthe Compaq hallmark of an integralmains power supply.

But the news isn’t all good. The12.1in STN screen in particular is amajor letdown. Brightness is uneven andthe images look washed out, with adistinct lack of contrast. A contributingfactor in this is the low brightness, whichtends to be unable to cope with normaldaylight. Another feature that couldirritate is the fact that there are latcheson either side of the lid rather than acentral one; you can’t hold the unit inone hand and open it with the other: you

have to lay it down.All the now-standard notebook featuresare present, including an infra-redinterface, two PC Card slots and theoption for a second battery, which in thisnotebook’s case would replace thefloppy drive to enable up to six hours ofcontinuous usage. The 20X CD-ROMdrive is integrated into the side of thecase. There are no USB connectors; andwhile four months ago this wouldn’thave mattered, it could be adisadvantage now that there really areUSB devices coming to market. For thekeyboard-shortcut freaks, it’s also worthnoting that there’s no Windows key.

There are many positive aspects tothis notebook, not least the name ofCompaq, which guarantees thatwherever you are in the world you’relikely to find some kind of supportshould you run into difficulties. But wecouldn’t recommend the 1570D unlessyou can negotiate some kind of memoryupgrade deal when you buy the system.

IAN ROBSON


Compaq Armada 1570DEntry-level notebook

★★★Price £1526.32 (£1299 ex VAT)Contact Compaq 0845 270 4000 www.compaq.com Good Points Sturdy, sleek design. Greatkeyboard.Bad Points Slow performance, poor screen.Conclusion The excellent keyboard and gooddesign are offset by a poor screen, and 16MbRAM just isn’t enough.

PCW DETAILS


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Compaq Armada 1570D 116

Pico Mobile President 189


A good-looking entry-levelnotebook, but Compaq reallyneeds to ramp up the RAM.

RFOR A BUDGET

UNIT, THE ARMADA

IS WELL DESIGNED

Philips is breaking into DVD-ROMwith a DVD-ROM drive/DVD-Video decoder card package along

the lines of Creative’s Encore. Thecompany anxiously sent the package toPCW for its worldwide first review. Thekit Philips originally submitted proved tobe a non-starter, primarily because it wasbuilt around a DVD-Video card, withsoftware not designed for use in Europeand that was in the process of beingdiscontinued. But once this was pointedout, a new package duly arrived,containing the Philips DRD5200 drive,RealMagic’s Hollywood Plus DVD card,and three sample DVDs of the Muppets,Spycraft and A&M’s music sampler.

The DRD5200 DVD-ROM drive itselfis a tidily-built, easy-to-fit Plug ’n’ Play IDEdevice. It runs at the current standard of2X DVD speed, and data throughput inthe CD mode is up to a maximum of4.1Mbit/sec — broadly equivalent to a24X CD-ROM drive. As well as DVD-ROM, it will read CD-R and CD-RW discs,but not recordable DVD-RAM media.

RealMagic add-on MPEG videoplayback cards have been around sincelong before even VideoCD, and RealMagichas developed high-performance cardsand ironed out the PC interface problems.The Hollywood Plus card is half-size PCIPlug ‘n’ Play and installs easily. Becausethe card does all the decoding work, it will

deliver DVD-Video on a medium-speedPentium PC. It has external leads toconnect it to the display card. HollywoodPlus also has connectors to wire it up to ahome cinema system — an S-Video outputwith an S-Video/composite convertercable for video, and both a digital S/PDIFand an analogue stereo output mini-jackfor sound. The analogue output can feedvideo audio to the line input of a soundcard, but a better way of linking the two isvia the internal CD-ROM audio lead. Oneof the other complaints about theoriginally supplied system was that thiscable was not supplied; a minor pointadmittedly, but the Creative package isnotable in that it supplies absolutelyeverything. Philips will have to follow suitin its final package.

Predictably, being a RealMagic, thecard setup was quick and easy with noconflicts. The DVD Station playbacksoftware presents a VCR-like controlpanel that can be onscreen or hidden.This gives the basic functions to navigatearound the video disc, with keyboardshortcuts used to toggle between monitorand TV. The playback window is infinitelyscalable, looks excellent at all sizes, andthe display on the TV is first class.

DVD-Video does look fabulous and is well worth the effort. One word ofwarning for DVD-Video in general,though: you really need Release 2(OSR2) of Windows 95, as Release 1’slack of PCI bus mastering and other bugsthrow up occasional problems andslightly jerky performance.

Comparison with the Creative Encore isinevitable, and Philips will have to ensurethat it offers good reasons for buyers toopt for its package over the Creative.Initial pricing indicates it may well becheaper, and there is no question aboutthe high standard of this system both interms of picture and build quality. But it isthe practical points that will matter, andPhilips really needs to offer a fully-integrated package rather than simplybundle the RealMagic card in the box.

There is one real point in favour ofCreative’s package, although neitherCreative nor Philips will thank me forpointing it out. Region code-bustingsoftware is easily available on the net forthe Encore, making it easy to play eitherUS or UK DVD-Video discs. A similarsoftware hack is yet to emerge for theRealMagic.

TIM FROST


★★★Price Around £190 (£162 ex VAT) Contact Philips 0181 689 4444www.philips.comSystem Requirements Windows 95 OSR2,Pentium 133.Good Points Good DVD drive, and thepackage delivers DVD-Video on Pentium PCs.Bad Points Needs to come up to Creative’stotally integrated package approach.Conclusion Could be a strong DVD-ROM/Video add-on if Philips delivers the fullmonty as promised.

PCW DETAILS

Philips DRD5210DVD upgrade packageDVD drive and MPEG videocard delivering motionpictures on Pentium PCs.N

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The market is saturated withhybrids — scanners that canphotocopy documents, and

printers that fax and scan. TheVisioneer PaperPort OneTouchscanner falls into this niche, with itsadded ability to copy, fax and printdocuments. It comes with a single CDcontaining its driver, PhotoEnhancerimage-editing software and QuickenExpensABLE SE. The latter seems a pretty

weird choice fora multifunctiondevice, particularly sinceit seems to come at the expenseof any OCR or documentmanagement software. A projection ofthe scanner bed has large, easily-accessible buttons for one-touchscanning, printing and faxing. Driverinstallation was simple and the scannerwas immediately recognised onrebooting the test PC.We tested the scanner using an A5colour chart and a piece of printed text. The colour test was scanned at 150dpi resolution and text at its highest optical(600dpi) and interpolated (2400dpi)resolutions. Although the OneTouch’s

scan speedswere no more than

acceptable, colour reproduction of itsprinted output was impressive, withexcellent detail even in bright, highlightareas. Greyscale definition was evenbetter, with little bleeding betweenadjacent scales. Clarity of text was equally good. Considering its multiplefeatures, ease of use and quality of finaloutput, the Visioneer OneTouch is anexcellent choice for the home or office.

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N ever mind the fact that it’s a 2X DVD drive that also writes to 5.2Gb DVD-RAM discs that

cost a mere £25 each, and also writes to PD discs. It’s the weird disc tray that’s the Panasonic D101U’s mostappealing feature. Press Eject, and ahalf-tray with slits in it pops out. CD andDVD-ROMs slip into the slits: a slightpush on the disc and the drive snaps itup. Cartridge-held DVD-RAM and PDdiscs slide into the main body of the tray

and get eatenwith the sameease. It’simpressive, andallows the driveto be fittedvertically withoutthe discs fallingout. ThePanasonic is onlythe second SCSI DVD-RAM drive on the market, and already the format is looking goodvalue for anyone who needs to storelarge quantities of data. Formatting each 2.6Gb side of the disc takesseconds, and moving files is pureWindows drag-and-drop. The DVD-RAM drive is already onlymarginally more expensive than a 2Gb

Jaz drive, but DVD-RAM wins out in thecost-per-megabyte of the media, whichis just one-eighth that of Jaz. The DVD-RAM discs the D101Uproduces cannot be used on a standardDVD-ROM drive, but as a high-capacityand reasonably fast rewriteable opticalstorage solution, the D101 stands upwell in its own right.

TIM FROST


★★★★Price £465 (£399 ex VAT)Contact Panasonic 0800 444 220 www.panasonic.com Good Points DVD-ROM and 5.2Gbrewriteable/removable storage in the one box.Bad Points Currently too expensive.Conclusion A cost-effective, high-capacitystorage solution.

PCW DETAILS

Visioneer PaperPort OneTouch

Panasonic LF-D101 UDrive offering both DVD-ROM and rewriteable storage — and a very strange disc tray.

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★★★★Price £222 (£189 ex VAT). £30 cash-back onregistering with Visioneer.Contact 0800 973245 www.visioneer.com Good Points Great image quality and price.Bad Points No OCR software.Conclusion With its multiple features, an idealchoice for the home or business.

PCW DETAILS

One-stop home/business scanner with the ability to copy, fax and print documents.

RTHE DRIVE TAKES

NORMAL CD-ROMS

TOO

RAN ALL-IN-ONE

HOME/BUSINESS

HYBRID SOLUTION

W ith CD-Rs now costing under£1 if bought in bulk, it’scheaper to send out company

information, internal data and otherpromotional stuff on gold disc thanpaper. But for duplication runs of morethan a few discs, a standalone PC can’tcut the mustard, which is wherededicated duplication machines come in.The 5900 is near the top of MediaForm’srange, an eight-drive unit with built-incontrols and hard drive. Despite itsspecialised target market, it limits itscopying process to a three-button

sequence. To start aduplication run, thecopy master goes in thetop drive and blankdiscs are inserted in theother drives. Thefirmware analyses the disc to determinethe format of the master andautomatically sets itself up. The first runmakes up to seven copies, and while thecopy is in progress the unit puts animage of the CD onto its internal harddrive; this image can then be used as themaster for further batches of eightsimultaneous copies. Slave units can beadded to the system to copy biggerbatches: up to 64 discs can be copiedsimultaneously. The 5900 seems simplicity itself andit doesn’t suffer from all those Windowsproblems that regularly mess up copiesand turn them into expensive drinksmats. Costly, yes, but in time saved formass production of CD-Rs, the 5900pays its way.

TIM FROST


MediaForm 5900 CD-R

Money for Psion Series 5

High-end CD duplicator that makes light work of copying

Get your cash under controlwith Money for the Psion.

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Psion originally lined up Intuit’sPocket Quicken for the Series 5,but it never appeared. Instead,

Palmtop has updated and adapted itsown Series 3a personal finance manager,Money, for the Series 5. Money boasts asimilar feature set to Quicken, and willimport and export files in QIF format. Ifyou are familiar with Quicken, you’ll haveno problem getting used to Money. Thetop view shows a list of your accounts —

cash, credit card,mortgage — oricons, if youwish. To switchto another view

you click one of the four tabs along thetop of the screen. Categories view showsany categories you’ve set up: Book is a listof the actual transactions for a particularaccount or category; and Scheduled givesyou a list of all scheduled transactions. In each of these views you can drill downby clicking within the list of headings,until you get to the transaction details,settings dialog, and so on.

Analysis and reporting functionsinclude transactions, net worth, profitand loss, and forecasts. Graphs innumerous formats are provided formost of these. Money does supportmultiple currencies, as well as VAT,although most users would probablydisable these options. Little has beenadded in terms of features, or even lookand feel, since the Series 3a version, butthe pen and touch screen has beenimplemented to good effect. If you’relooking for a personal finance managerfor your Series 5, this is it.

MICK ANDON

★★★★Price £49.95 (£43 ex VAT)Contact Palmtop BV software available inDixons and other high street stores.www.palmtop.nl Good Points Very complete feature set. Fast.Bad Points Won’t import from spreadsheet.Conclusion The best Series 5 finance manager.

PCW DETAILS

★★★Price From £5170Contact Magellan 01256 681100www.magellanplc.comGood Points Bullet-proof CD-R duplication.Bad Points Hefty price tag.Conclusion Essential for heavy CD-Rproducers.

PCW DETAILS

RTHE 5900 IS BIG

AND EXPENSIVE

HMONEY HELPS YOU

KEEP TRACK OF

EVERYDAY

OUTGOINGS

It used to be that if a web pagelooked good, it was inevitablygoing to swallow bandwidth and

freeze dial-up connectionsnationwide as home users tried todownload it over a slow connection.That’s no longer the case. Now in itsthird incarnation, Macromedia Flashcontinues to provide simple butpowerful tools for creatingspectacular animation in minutes.Compiling to as little as 10Kb for aminute’s 250x400 pixel full-colouranimation, the results of yourlabours will often download quickerthan even a low-quality JPEG image.

Like many web developmentapplications, the creation software issold in retail outlets but the browserplug-in needed to play back your workcan be freely downloaded from theMacromedia web site and totals lessthan 170Kb. Alternatively, your creationwill play back in version 5 of RealPlayeror with the Flash ActiveX control inActiveX hosts such as Director,Authorware or Microsoft Office. Usersof version 2 may wonder how thepackage could be improved, but will nodoubt be pleased to learn that theincreased functionality has not led tolarger file sizes. Flash’s primary functionis web animation. Before, you had to


★★★★★Price £233.83 (£199 ex VAT) or upgrade for£92.83 (£79 ex VAT) from any previousversion.Contact Computers Unlimited 0181 358 5857www.macromedia.com Good Points Trial version on the net. Easy to use. Fast. Versatile.Bad Points Pricey for the full version, but it’sthe only one of its type.Conclusion A great buy for anyone interestedin jazzing up their web site.

PCW DETAILS

Macromedia Flash 3Web pages made easyThe latest version of thisweb design package cutstime and effort to aminimum.

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¡FLASH 3’SINTERFACE IS

SOPHISTICATED BUT

INTUITIVE

define a keyframe for each step betweenthe first incarnation of a shape and itsfinal image. With Flash 3, you draw theinitial shape and the end result, then letthe package do the tweening.

The ability to use masks has alsobeen added. When television studioanimators create a cartoon, they paintthe background on one layer beforeoverlaying it with clear cells containingthe moving character, so they don’t haveto redraw the whole scene every time acharacter moves. Flash works in thesame way, except that it can also treatone layer as a mask. In effect, this treatsthe areas in which you have worked (withcolour applied) as though you have cutthrough the page. Any animation takingplace on a layer beneath this showsthrough the cut-out areas but is hiddenby the untouched parts.

Flash is also the tool of choice formany web designers looking for an easyway to create spectacular menus. MSNhas generated many of its screens usingFlash. Natural anti-aliasing ensures thatyour animations always look their best.Jagged edges on text are smoothed out,

and curved lines, which along with othergraphical elements, are all rendered asvector images, remain even.

Synchronised sound can be added toyour productions. This may coincidewith onscreen events or be initiated as auser clicks on a button. Full stereo soundallows for a range of effects such aspanning, and by separating thecontinuous audio stream from audioevents Macromedia has allowed users toset independent sampling andcompression ratios for these two soundtypes to further save on download time.

The built-in player allows you tosimulate download rates to test howyour animation will stream across slowconnections. Animations can beexported as QuickTime movies for Macplayback or as Windows AVI files, whileindividual frames can be saved in avariety of still graphics image formats.

We found the transition from Flash 2to Flash 3 a breeze, and new users shouldhave no trouble learning to use this funand powerful package. You candownload a trial version of Flash 3 fromthe Macromedia web site.

NIK RAWLINSON


★★★★Price £59 (£49.95 ex VAT)Contact Computers Unlimited 0181 358 5857 www.metacreations.comSystem Requirements PC: Pentium,Windows 95/NT4, 16Mb RAM, 45Mb hard-disk space. Mac: Power Mac, System7.5.5 or later, 16Mb RAM, 50Mb hard-diskspace.Good Points It’s a cinch to import files and setup a show.Bad Points Not everyone may be enamouredof the effects.Conclusion You’ll wow your colleagues with aKai Power Show.

PCW DETAILSKai’s Power Show

NetGraphics Studio 2

Spice up those presentations — and impress your colleagues —with a wealth of easy-to-use features that make a real impact.

The object of the exercise here is optimising graphic imagesfor inclusion on web pages. There’s some lovely clipart, too.

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There’s no excuse for lacklustre slidepresentations with Kai’s Power Show,

which brings together a wealth of featuresinto one easy-to-use package for bothhome and business use. Kai has decidedto forgo the usual toolbars and palettesin favour of a hyperlink-type user

interface. Show isorganised intofour different“rooms” whereyou can carry outtasks according to type: you use the INRoom to import your content, the SORT

Room to organise it, the EDIT Room toadd transitions and effects, and the OUTRoom to save, play or print your show.

If you’re pressed for time you cansimply import your pictures and theQUICKSHOW! automated feature willcreate a presentation in seconds. Ifyou’re not happy with the results, youcan go back to adjust the settings andadd special transitions, animated text,sound or video. Kai’s Power Show haseverything you need to give yourpresentation pizzazz. Some of thetransition effects may not be toeveryone’s taste — some might evenmake you dizzy — but you’re givenconsiderable control over the final result.

SUSAN PEDERSON

¡YOU MAY NEED TO

TAKE SEASICKNESS

TABLETS BEFORE

TRYING OUT SOME

OF THE TRANSITION

EFFECTS

★★★Price NetGraphics Studio £59.99 (£51 exVAT); PhotoObjects £49.99 (£43 ex VAT)Contact Channel Marketmakers 01703 814142 www.hemera.com System Requirements 486 PC, Windows95 or NT, 8Mb RAM (16Mb recommended),CD-ROM drive.Good Points Two well-focused, easy-to-usepackages. Bad Points Some NetGraphics Studiooperations are sluggish.Conclusion Optimisation useful for webdesigners who process a lot of pictures. Picture libraries useful for paper as well as web publications.

PCW DETAILS This package is one of the first fromCanadian software house Hemera,

founded by former Corel executives. Itaims to exploit gaps in graphics packagesthat have yet to catch up with the needsof web designers. NetGraphicsStudio2 focuses on the task ofaccepting vector or graphic image filesin any major format andoptimising them for web pages.You drag and drop an image intoa small viewing screen, and thepackage recommends whetherto export it as a JPEG or GIF. Youthen choose a compression leveland can compare the result with theoriginal. The program presents you

ROH YOU PRETTY

THING:PHOTOGRAPHIC

CLIPART A-GO-GO

FROM

HEMERA

with estimated download times forvarious nominal line speeds. It can alsoretain transparent backgrounds andadd textures to fonts. The packageincludes 2000 royalty-free photo-objects — the photographic equivalentof clip-art. This library has an excellentindexing system based on keywords.Hemera sees a big future for theseinstant illustrations and offers no lessthan 10,000, similarly indexed, in itsstandalone PhotoObjects collection.

CLIVE AKASS

V isual Studio does fordevelopment tools what Officedoes for business applications.

The major components are compilers forBasic, C++, J++ and FoxPro, plus theVisual InterDev Web development tool,Visual SourceSafe version control andtwo CDs of online help. The Enterpriseversion has additional modelling,database and performance analysistools, plus developer versions of thewhole BackOffice suite, including NT 4.0server, Internet Information Server, theSQL Server database, and ExchangeServer for messaging. Developer versionsare not licensed for deployment.

It is an enormous bundle. The toolsmerit individual assessment, but VisualStudio also offers a development strategybased on Windows, Component ObjectModel (COM) and the internet, in thatorder. The Visual Studio developmentstrategy is called WindowsDNA (Distributed InternetApplications). Imagine acompany wanting to give aglobally dispersed salesforce the ability to checkstock, place orders andamend customer details. Atypical DNA application has the back-enddata stored in a server database such asSQL Server or Oracle. The front-end is aweb browser, probably Internet Explorer.Web pages are stored on InternetInformation Server running on WindowsNT. Log-in and data access forms use acombination of dynamic HTML andscripts running in the browser, alongwith server-side scripts generating on-the-fly web pages through a technologycalled Active Server Pages. Scripts shouldnot be used for serious processing, sothis is handled by calling COMcomponents most often built with VisualBasic or Visual C++. These form a middletier between the web server and thedatabase, generating data queries that

use ADO (ActiveX Data Objects), aCOM database API using OLEDB orODBC drivers. The middle-tiercomponents may be calledsimultaneously by multiple clients, sothey are hosted in Microsoft TransactionServer, providing intelligent management

of object instances, threads anddatabase transactions.

Windows DNA has some notablefeatures. First, Java is an optional extra,in contrast to solutions from IBM, Sun orNovell. Second, it is possible to achievebrowser independence by creating astandard HTML web client, but VisualStudio encourages you to use DynamicHTML, ActiveX controls or scriptfeatures that require Internet Explorer4.0. Third, this model makes VisualInterDev the centrepiece of Visual Studio,since this is the place where diverseelements are stitched together. Fourth,multi-language development is aninevitable feature of Windows DNA andincreases its complexity. Fifth, Windows

DNA is more complex than traditionalWindows or client-server development.And finally, the application involves anintricate set of dependencies, which iswhy Visual Studio 6.0 ships with an arrayof service packs and system patches.Windows DNA has clever technology and promising features, but adopters can expect challenges.

Do not expect big changes in VisualC++ 6.0. The product looks and feelsmuch as before, but has severalenhancements to improve productivity,and changes in the ATL (Active TemplateLibrary) and MFC (Microsoft FoundationClasses) that keep pace with Windowsdevelopments. Edit and Continue lets youmake simple changes to code during adebug session. Changes are recompiledand applied on the fly, rather like in VisualBasic. In the editor, statementcompletion pops up member functionsand variables as you type. The ProjectWizards have been enhanced, withsupport for new common controls andOLE DB data access. MFC applicationsno longer have to use the document/viewarchitecture, while ATL objects nowinclude data access consumer andprovider options. New tools include theVisual Component Manager, which usesthe Microsoft Repository to manage


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Visual Studio offers adevelopment strategy basedon Windows, COM, andthe internet, in that order

Visual Studio 6All the tools you needMicrosoft’s developer bundlecomes with five programminglanguages, six CDs and aWindows-everywheremindset.

¡NAEVIUS ANIBUS

NON EST MENTIBUS

HAERET PAENE

RECENS ET DOMINE

ROSARUM TEMPLI


COM objects, and Visual Studio Analyzerfor testing distributed applications.Overall, it is a slick and productiveenvironment, but although plenty ofassistance is provided, Microsoft is notattempting to make Visual C++ a RADtool like Visual J++ or Inprise C++ Builder.

The new Visual Basic looks similar toits predecessor, but this disguisessignificant changes. Data access hasbeen rebuilt using ADO and a newdesigner called a Data Environment.Found in the Professional and Enterpriseversions, this lets you define a databaseconnection in a non-visual component,accessible from anywhere in theapplication. The Data Environment hasits own properties, events and methods,and fields can be bound to controls on aform via drag-and-drop. Both VisualFoxPro and Inprise Delphi have a similarcomponent, and it is overdue in VB.Database reporting has been revamped,with a native report designer similar instyle to that in Microsoft Access.Although not as feature-rich as CrystalReports, bundled with previous versionsof VB, the native component is betterintegrated and easier to deploy.

VB has new web features for bothclient and server-side development. On the client, integration with DynamicHTML as found in Internet Explorer 4means you can write applications thatuse web pages instead of traditional VBforms. The snag is that IE must be usedas the browser. The same limitation doesnot apply to Webclasses, a new type ofclass that runs on Internet InformationServer and generates standard HTML.Other new features include languageenhancements and integration withMicrosoft Transaction Server.

Already reviewed in PCW in an earlierbeta, Visual J++6.0 is mostly compatiblewith Sun’s Java Development Kit 1.1 butgoes its own way by providing RADWindows development based on a newset of foundation classes called WFC(Windows Foundation Classes).Forgetting for a moment the politics ofJava, Visual J++ is Microsoft’s best RADtool, with features that place it ahead ofVisual Basic. Points to note are the easyaccess to the Windows API, extensibilityof components similar to Inprise Delphibut easier to program, intelligentlocalisation that automatically createsand handles resource files, and theability to create forms that know how toresize their controls. Visual J++ is a gem.

Visual FoxPro 6.0, Microsoft’s xBase

database manager, is abetter COM citizen inthis version.Automation servers aremore flexible, and havespecific support forMicrosoft TransactionServer. FoxPro can nowcreate ActiveDocuments, applications which can behosted in a container application suchas Internet Explorer. Object orientationhas been strengthened, with access andassign methods to protect customproperties, and a new foundation classlibrary that significantly speedsdevelopment. A coverage profiler lets youanalyse the performance of your code,and detect code that is never called.

The problem with FoxPro is that itlacks VB’s universality, and will remain a minority tool with a slowly decliningmarket share.

The central application in VisualStudio is Interdev. This is a tool forcreating Active Server Pages, web pageshosted by Internet Information Serverthat can run scripts both on the clientand the server. The result is a dynamicweb site that can handle such things aslive database update and customisationbased on user login details.

Version 6.0 — really the secondversion — has a lot that is new. TheScripting Object Model is a library ofscript and HTML code that lets you writescript for a web site in an object-basedmanner similar to Visual Basic. Theeditor and debugger are greatlyimproved, and a new CSS (CascadingStyle Sheets) editor is included. Databasesupport is simplified by new design-timecontrols — objects that look like controlsat design time, but which actuallygenerate script for runtime execution.

There are links to Visual SourceSafe forteam development.

This is an ambitious product thatintegrates HTML page design withscripting, data access, and control ofmiddle-tier COM server components.Although much improved, it remainsawkward at times thanks to the mixtureof languages and the presentation ofclient-side, server-side, visual and non-visual objects. There is further scope forsimplification, but Visual Interdevsuccessfully integrates the main elementsof dynamic web development.

TIM ANDERSON

WITH FOUR

DIFFERENT IDES,THE SUITE IS NOT

YET PROPERLY

INTEGRATED

★★★★Price Not yet availableContact Microsoft 0345 002000www.eu.microsoft.com Good Points COM everywhere lets you buildpowerful, flexible components. Greatproductivity features in Visual C++ and J++.Fantastic value for Windows developers.Bad Points Depends on numerous systempatches. Windows DNA applications are hardto deploy.Conclusion A must for Windows developers,but the overall strategy looks like a work inprogress.

PCW DETAILS

Pagis Pro 2.0, a suite of programsdesigned for the small office and

home user, provides a comprehensive setof document management facilities.These include scanning photographs andtext-based documents, visual filing ofdocuments, optical characterrecognition (OCR), editing ofphotographs, colour photocopying,faxing, filling in forms, annotatingscanned documents and emailing colourphotos. The Pagis Pro 2.0 suite ofprograms comprises TextBridge Pro 98,Pagis, MGI PhotoSuite and Pagis Copier.

TextBridge Pro 98 converts scanneddocument images into text forimportation into word processing orother software. It is one of the best OCRpackages around, since it satisfies thethree most important requirements ofOCR software: speed, recognition

accuracy, and the ability to retain theoriginal layout of the scanned document.

Pagis is essentially a documentmanagement tool. It provides scanningand filing facilities for photographs anddocuments, and works with WindowsExplorer to create a visual desktop forscanned images. Clicking any WindowsExplorer folder with the right mousebutton turns it into a Pagis Folder andgenerates browsable image thumbnailsfor all the documents within it. Inaddition, integrated Launch and Send-To bars provide access to Pagis


Pagis Pro 2.0★★★★★Street Price £116 (£99 ex VAT)Contact Xerox/ScanSoft 01923 209140 www.pagis.com System Requirements Pentium, 24MbRAM (32Mb recommended), Windows95/98/NT4, CD-ROM drive.Good Points Range of features. Cheap.Bad Points TextBridge 98 isn’t as fast asProOCR100.Conclusion Excellent all-round documentprocessing and management.

PCW DETAILS

An eye on OCRXerox vs VisioneerPCW recognises a good OCRprogram when it sees one, sohere are two — Pagis Pro 2.0and ProOCR100

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functions, usingdrag-and-droplinks to over140 Windowsapplications.The built-insearch toolsallow scannedimages and filesof popular PCfile formats tobe found andprovide severalsearch options,including full-text (content),assignedkeywords and advanced Boolean searchtechniques. PhotoSuite is an image-editing and photo-retouching programwhich includes a range of tools andspecial effects to manipulatephotographs and images. It alsoprovides templates for greeting cards,calendars and posters. Completing thepackage, Pagis Copier uses your colourscanner and colour printer to providephotocopying facilities. For many users,this feature alone could be reasonenough to justify buying the program.

Unlike Pagis, with its range ofdocument management features,Visioneer ProOCR100 is a dedicatedOCR program — the equivalent of theTextBridge Pro 98 application includedin Pagis Pro 2.0. ProOCR100 claims tobe twice as fast as its competitors. Ourtests didn’t quite bear this out, but it isnoticeably faster, although its processingspeed is affected by the document’sfonts and layout and the quality of thescan. It also has the merit of being ableto retain formatting of multi-columndocuments (magazine and newspaperarticles), spreadsheet tables and the like.

ProOCR100 gives accurate results ona variety of documents — typed, printed,faxed, numeric and dot-matrix printouts.Like most other OCR software it has aone-button scanning feature which willdo the lot. But there’s also a manualmode which allows you to select areas ofthe document to scan. This methodalways yields faster results since you can

avoid areas of the image which containsmudges or marks, making life easier forthe recognition engine. Both TextBridgeand ProOCR100 can export their resultsto HTML as well as to other commonformats, including Lotus 1-2-3, Excel,Word, WordPro, WordPerfect, RTF andASCII. TextBridge can also export toAdobe Acrobat PDF.

While TextBridge Pro 98 supportsmore European languages, has a trainingmode and can be used from within otherprograms, ProOCR100 is faster andcheaper. If all you need is OCR,ProOCR100 is just the ticket, but thedocument management facilities offeredby Pagis makes a more rounded package.

PANICOS GEORGHIADES

ProOCR100★★★★★Street Price £58 (£49 ex VAT)Contact Visioneer 0800 973245www.visioneer.comSystem Requirements 486, Windows95/NT4, 16Mb of RAM (32Mb RAM forWindows NT), 15Mb hard drive space, CD-ROM drive.Good Points Easy to use, cheap, fast andaccurate.Bad points None.Conclusion The best OCR in its price range.

PCW DETAILS

¡PAGIS PROVIDES

COMPREHENSIVE

MANAGEMENT AND

FILING FACILITIES

Ididn’t pay much attention to the hypewhen Office 97 was released last year.After reading reviews condemning

the package as slow and bloated, I cameto own a copy six months ago onlybecause, being an existing user of Office95, the upgrade was free. I thought itonly fair to test the product myself beforewriting it off, and I’m glad I did.

As a student I use allfive of the Office familymembers. The mainapplications integrateextremely well. Thetoolbars are strikinglysimilar throughout thesuite, and the excellent design and user-friendliness are standard Microsoft. Theapplications use common tools such asthe Clipart Gallery, from which you canaccess the vast clipart collection on theCD. Copying and pasting informationbetween the applications is easy, thoughin my case very slow.

Web integration seems to beMicrosoft’s next step towards worlddomination. While editing and viewingWord documents, web and emailaddresses are automatically convertedto links, which you click on to launchInternet Explorer. Word 97 can edit andsave HTML documents, and includes atoolbar devoted to web-page tools,whereas all Office applications includethe web toolbar. The “Microsoft on theWeb” menu provides quick links tovarious parts of the Microsoft web site.

A big improvement on previousversions of Office is the introduction ofVBA (Visual Basic for Applications). I canuse exactly the same skills in Access tocreate macros in Word and Excel, withthe result that I don’t have to spend hourssearching through online help fileslooking for a command.

With Office 97 you get much morethan the five flagship applications, andthe CD includes a wealth of utilities andresources. The Office ValuPack contains


★★★★Price £420 (street)Contact Microsoft 0345 002000www.eu.microsoft.com

Good Points Consistent interface, webfeatures, standard macro language.Bad Points Idiotic grammar suggestions,compatibility problems with earlier versions.Conclusion A valuableupgrade, though notrecommended for low-class PCs.

PCW DETAILS

Microsoft Office 97A valuable upgrade and agreat timesaver, don’t knockthis suite until you’ve tried it.L

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information and software updates, aswell as a small collection of True Typefonts. Although the Office Binder is a

complete waste of space, the PhotoEditor is extremely useful for smalloperations such as converting imagesfrom one format to another.

On the downside, the emailcompatibility glitch in Outlook is aproblem, and I find it easier to useOutlook primarily for faxes, contacts andphone dialling, leaving the email handlingto the more capable Outlook Express.

There are only two major problemsthat directly affect me. The first comeswhen I try to work on the same file athome and at school — nightmares ofAccess come to mind. The school usesversion 2, I use version 8, and there’s nooption to save in an earlier version.

The second problem is possibly themost annoying and frustrating feature Ihave ever encountered in all my experiencewith computers. In Word, misspelt words

are underlined in red and grammarmistakes are underlined in green. Thisisn’t helpful to me, as I’m red/green

colour blind. But these arethings I have learned to livewith. No review of Office97 would be completewithout mentioning FindFast. On my P75 it seemsto achieve just one thing:

to slow everything to a crawl. At least it’seasy to remove.

Overall, Office 97 has been a worth-while upgrade. The wizards andtemplates are superb for creating aweek’s work in just a few hours, leavingmore time for other, far more importantaspects of life, like the World Cup.

GRAHAM STONEMAN

Web integration seems tobe Microsoft’s next steptowards world domination

RWORD 97 CAN

EDIT AND SAVE

HTML DOCUMENTS,AND INCLUDES A

TOOLBAR DEVOTED

TO WEB TOOLS

Tested over six months

The Siena is simpler, smaller, lighterand much cheaper than Psion’s Series

5. Mine stores all my contacts, ideas,appointments, notes and figures. The onlyproblem I have with it is that my fingersare too big for its dinky little keys. Thekeyboard is fine on a solid surface, but ona train, for example, I have to hold thePsion in my left hand and type with myforefinger. The superb screen is zoomableand you can adjust the contrast.

The Siena boasts a word processorwith most of the usual features: a spread-sheet with graphs; a wonderful schedulemanager with views, alarms and to-dolists; a customisable address database;world time with international diallingcodes; a calculator; and even its ownprogramming language (OPL) so youcan write your own applications. Third-party software, including games, is

available from theinternet. Siena-to-PCdata transfer is via aserial cable and aWindows packagewhich convertsPsion files into otherformats. There is nointernal expansion —you get what you payfor, which is either 512Kb of RAM or awhole megabyte. Files are compressiblein some applications, which savesmemory. Battery life works out at 25 to30 hours, and the Siena can takerechargeable batteries. It has built-inpower management, too.

This isn’t really a machine to keepIBM’s group accounts, but it’s perfectlyadequate for quick figures and notes: Iactually wrote this review on the Siena.

JOE TARRANT

There are times when you really needto buy the nicest piece of hardware

you can afford. So when my trusty 17inmonitor died at the hands of unwanted

intruders three months

ago, I took the opportunity to go thewhole hog and replace it with a nice,shiny, huge PanaSync/Pro 7G 21inmonitor. The Pro 7G is basically a two-foot cube, tapering slightly at the back.And since it weighs in at just under 30kg,moving it is not for the faint-hearted,hence the two-year on-site warranty.Connections are for the standard PC 15-pin D connector (detachable cablesupplied) or via five BNC connectors,RGB and V&H sync. Additionally, thePro 7G will connect to a Mac via anadapter (not supplied). These days,

21in doesn’t mean 21in, but thereare 20 fine inches of viewablescreen. With a dot pitch of0.25mm, that’s nearly two

million pixels, permitting screenresolutions up to 1600x1200.

Scan rates peak at 75Hz for allmodes except standard VGA.

Controls are simple: four buttons onthe front panel are used to navigate the

19 options available via the on-screendisplay. As well as screen dimensioningtools there are adjustments for video

level, colour temperature, moiré reduction(horizontal and vertical) and inputselect, and five different languages to doit in. With 13 memories, each time youchange resolution or scan frequency, the monitor remembers the settings and recalls them. Oldest settings are lost first if you have more than 13, which is pretty unlikely.

Despite its size, I happily recommendthe Pro 7G. I use it with a dual PIIrunning NT and Matrox Millennium II.

NEIL G JARMAN


Psion Siena

Panasonic Panasync/Pro 7G

Can the Series 5’s little sister, the Siena,teach its bigger sibling a thing or two?

Sometimes, attractive thingsdo come in large packages.This is one of them.

★★★Price 1Mb model, £169.95Contact Psion 0990 143050www.psion.co.uk Good Points Excellent screen and portability.Bad Points The keyboard can be difficult touse – especially if you have big fingers. Conclusion Perfect for anyone who wants totravel light.

PCW DETAILS

★★★★Price Discontinued. The replacement is theP110 at £920 RRP (ex VAT), street price£800 (ex VAT)Contact Contact Panasonic 0500 404041Good Points Great picture, greatperformance.Bad Points A desk-guzzling monster.Conclusion The perfect present for thegraphics-mad user.

PCW DETAILS

Tested over eight months


For the serious writer, or indeed reader,a good dictionary is essential. While

all the main word processors have built-in spell checkers, these do not containdefinitions. And although dictionaries inbook form enable you to find a word outof thousands of definitions in just seconds,they still have some limitations — one ofthe main ones being how they convey thepronunciation of a word. Usually, this isaccomplished by a collection of lettersand special characters used to describewell-known sounds. I always had problemswith this information, until I bought theConcise OxfordDictionary (COD) onCD-ROM with sound.The COD ninth editioncomes supplied on asingle CD and contains140,000 definitions. Asetup program gives the choice of quick(8Mb) or full (26Mb) installation; thefull version copies the text data to harddisk. Both installations keep the sounddata for pronunciations on the CD-ROM, because of the largeamount of space itrequires. Once installed, acustom browser providesaccess to the definitions.The simplest way to find aword is to click on the Quick Searchbutton and enter the first few charactersof the required word in the text boxbelow. The word index display along theleft of the browser window updates afterevery character entered. When therequired word is found in the index list, asingle click displays its definition in thewider Definition pane on the right.

The online version of COD alsodisplays those cryptic pronunciationcharacters; when you double-click, youhear an audio pronunciation (you needa sound card). For a word like“schedule”, multiple pronunciations areprovided; not all audio CD-ROM

dictionaries do this. Definition text canbe copied into other applications, andyou can also copy words from MicrosoftWord, say, and paste them into theQuick Search text box for easy location.

There are also extensive in-builthypertext facilities. If you don’tunderstand the meaning of any wordused in a definition, double-clicking onthat word takes you to its definition.Besides the location of specific words,COD also provides a “Full text search”facility, which can find a word in thedefinition of any word within the wholedictionary. This is very useful when youneed to find out in what context a wordis used. For example, the word“computer” is found in the definition ofAlgol, artificial intelligence, Basic, binarycode, bug, bus, and central processingunit. The search word “computer” ishighlighted in yellow each time it occurs

in the definition of the other wordslisted. The word index on the leftconveniently shortens from its usualcomplete list of all words to just thosewords containing the search term.Finally, the COD has 20 appendices tosupplement the standard worddefinitions. These provide informationranging from “Abbreviations used in thedictionary” through to a “Style guide”for English grammar usage.

With sophisticated search facilities,clipboard support, up-to-datedefinitions and audio pronunciations,COD is a valuable resource.

SIMON WILKINSON


Concise Oxford Dictionarywith soundAlways getting your tongue ina twist? A ‘talking’ dictionarycould be just what you need.

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★★★★Price £19.99Contact 01865 556767www.oup.co.ukGood Points Being able to hear the way wordsshould be pronounced.Bad Points Nothing springs to mind.Conclusion The answer to a writer’s prayers.

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CounterCounterAFFORDABLE ELECTRONIC COMMERCE SOLUTIONS ARE ALLOWING EVEN THE

SMALLEST BUSINESS TO SET UP AN ONLINE STORE. TERENCE GREEN SETS

OUT THE OPTIONS AVAILABLE.

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ONLY A YEAR AGO IT

WOULD HAVE COST THE

AVERAGE SMALL BUSINESS

THOUSANDS OF POUNDS

in software andprogramming services toset up an online

storefront, but an influx of inexpensive solutionsover the past six months has made it possible totake your products or services online for as littleas £15 a month. The internet not only enablesbusinesses to offer customers an additional levelof service, but also opens up a sales channelthrough which they can reach new customers.Small businesses in the UK can use the internetto offer speciality products, from foodstuffs toclothing, to a worldwide audience of expatriatesand Anglophiles. The internet also serves as aplatform for entirely new ventures; the best-known example is Amazon books, which wascreated purely as an internet sales outlet.

Whether you’re considering taking a businessonline or starting an internet business, you nowhave the advantage that a low-entry cost meansthat you can spend more money on advertisingand promoting the service. Simply putting up awell-designed store with attractive products isn’tnecessarily going to do the trick if people don’tknow about it. Amazon managed to garner amountain of press coverage by being the first inits field, but for a long time it also had to spendmore on promoting the service than it did onrunning it. Obviously, you need to advertise yourpresence in the places where your customerscongregate — and that’s not only on the internet.While it’s important to have your store indexed inas many internet search engines as possible, youshould not neglect the traditional promotionalmethods. If you already run a mail orderoperation and advertise in periodicals, be sure tolist your internet address (URL) along with yourtelephone number and address.

Mail order operations are ideal candidates for taking online because you already have adatabase of products in a paper catalogue which

can easily be presented as web pages as well. At its most basic, a web store is simply a web-based(HTML) catalogue with an associated orderingsystem. Another important benefit of alreadyhaving a mail order system is that you have theexperience of fulfilling orders. Calculating salestaxes and shipping charges and delivery for aninternational audiencetakes quite a bit oforganisation, as does thehandling of returns andmultiple currencies andthe thorny question ofcustomer support.Remember that handling customer service callsfrom a worldwide audience implies a 24-hourservice. If you haven’t previously sold thoughmail order, it’s probably advisable to begin byrestricting your service to the UK.

ADVERTISING, PRODUCT PROMOTION andorder fulfillment are fairly similarbusiness issues for any sales operation,whether on the internet or not. But a

difference arises when it comes to the catalogueof products — an internet catalogue can be muchmore dynamic than a paper equivalent. This isone area where it is important to choose yourelectronic commerce software carefully.

Some of the less expensive products are quitebasic and may not appeal to you if your aim is tomake your online store a unique experience. Onthe other hand, an all-singing, all-dancing storethat can only be experienced by a minority ofweb browsers will drastically reduce yourpotential customer base. An online store needsto load pages quickly to draw customers in, andit needs to have a smooth buying process too.Asking people to register their details before theybrowse the store, for example, is a sure way toturn away custom.

There are basically two ways of arrangingpayment online. One is to stick to the mail orderpattern and allow people to order online but askthem to confirm their payment details by fax,

revolution revolution

A low-entry cost meansthat you can spend moremoney on advertising


phone or post. Manyinternet stores offerthis option because it isfamiliar, and mostpeople have noproblem with givingtheir credit card detailsover the phone or viafax. But the systemcreates potentialproblems in matchingup orders andpayments and it maynot be a satisfactoryway of dealing withinternational orders. A much better system isto take payment onlineso that customers canmake their purchase inone convenientprocess.To takepayment online youneed a paymentprocessor and amerchant agreementthat enables you toaccept credit cardpayments. There areseveral paymentprocessors and findingone is not difficult. Ifyou already have aregular merchantagreement, for mailorder sales perhaps,then it should be easy toextend that to deal withonline payments. If,however, you are

starting from scratch,you will have to provide a great deal ofinformation about your business plan.

Once you have obtained your merchant statusand an agreement with a payment processor,taking online payments is easy. When a customerdecides to buy from your online store, a securelink is set up between the customer and yourpayment processing service. The customer’s creditcard details are passed across to the paymentprocessor over this link and verified. If thepayment is authorised, it is debited from thecustomer and transferred into your account. Thepayment processor advises the customer and themerchant that payment has been accepted.Simultaneously, the details of the order are passedto you and you can go ahead and process it,knowing that payment has been received. Thisprocess varies in operation according to the levelof service you provide. With entry-level software,

you have to be sure that your stock level issufficient to meet demand; whereas with moresophisticated packages, you can integrate yourback-office systems with your online store so thatcustomers can check stock levels online beforeordering. You will also need more advancedsoftware to implement backorder and partpayment systems.

Current payment systems are based on creditcards, and cash payment schemes are still beingthrashed out. Barclays and BT both have cashpayment schemes which are in their early stages,so it’s only a matter of time before they becomemore widely available. The advantage of electroniccash is that a formal agreement is not needed toprocess it.

If you have a large selection of products and asales process that is already computerised,you’ll want to integrate an internetoperation into your order processing

system. An example might be a business sellingartists’ supplies. The stock list will be large with afew main categories (pens, inks, papers), several sub-categories (types of paper, pen) and manydifferent attributes in each sub-category (colour,size). For such a project, you would be welladvised to approach a professional internetcommerce service provider.

Electronic commerceservice providers usuallywork with a range ofsoftware products tomeet the varying needs oftheir customers. Theessential quality is that they have the ability tobuild a complete service, from creating, hostingand maintaining the site to order and paymentprocessing. It need not be horrendously expensive,either. You can be up and running for a fewthousand pounds, which is probably less than youwill need to spend on advertising. At the other endof the scale are online stores with a handful ofproducts or perhaps even a single product, forexample a specialist newsletter or a range

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Counter Revolution


of half a dozen topical T-shirt designs. A number of inexpensiveentry-level products andsubscription-based serviceswould meet these needs. IBM Home Page Creator<www.ibm.com/hpc/uk> provides sitehosting on a secure serverand a shopping basket fortaking orders through a webcatalogue which you createonline using a Java-basedapplication. No knowledgeof HTML is required, norany investment in software. Order processingwith tax and shipping calculation is included and online payment processing is an optionalextra. The service is based on five service levels.The basic service costs £15 to set up, plus £15 per month, for which you can sell up to 12 itemsonline. The higher levels offer access to onlinepayment processing and room for morecatalogue items — up to 500 for the £120 per month Platinum service.

HPC is the first of an impending multitude ofsubscription services. You can sign up online for afree 30-day trial and if you don’t get on with it,simply cancel before the end of the trial period atno cost. The service includes arranging andregistering an internet domain name, which costs£45 for two years. Further developments alongthese lines are imminent from other commercesoftware vendors such as iCAT <www.icat.com>and Intershop <www.intershop.com>.

Actinic Catalog is produced in the UK<www.actinic.co.uk> and costs only£350 for the software, which runs onWindows 95 and Windows NT. It

produces simple commerce-enabled cataloguesfor which you need a hosted web server. It doesnot need to be a secure server as Actinic Catalogincludes its own secure ordering process whichallows you to collect payment details online. Butyou have to process payments manually as onlineprocessing is not included.

Even cheaper is Shop@ssistant from The FloydConsultancy <www.floyd.co.uk> at a rock-bottom£199. The product is basically a set of shopping-basket scripts written in JavaScript which youattach to your web site. You will have to do a fairamount of manual editing and become familiarwith JavaScript and HTML to get the best out ofit. There is also a version which has been tailoredto work with the WorldPay system to provideonline payment processing.

The only fly in the ointment is that customershave to use a browser such as Netscape Navigator

version 3 or Microsoft Internet Explorer version 3.There are several packaged mid-range productscosting £2000 to £3000 which create cataloguesfrom databases and have all the hooks required tolink them into existing order and paymentprocessing systems. They use open databasestandards, usuallyODBC, enabling amerchant who alreadyhas a stock database tofeed informationdirectly into theonline catalogue.iCAT ElectronicCommerce Suite,Intershop 3.0, andCat@log from TheVision Factory<www.thevisionfactory.com> fall intothis category. The keyfeature of these products is that web stores can becreated largely by pointing and clicking and fillingin some detail descriptions. Although MicrosoftCommerce Server and IBM net.Commercesoftware are in the same price range and havesimilar features, they are more orientated toprogrammed solutions than to point-and-clicksite creation. Specialist commerce services areavailable from avariety of sources.Many ISPs offer storeservices, as do telcossuch as BT. Web-Commerce is a newservice from Cable &Wireless offeringsecure, scaleableservices for small tomedium sizedbusinesses on asubscription basis.Merchants pay a setupfee of £1000, an

QNETBANX IS A

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SERVICE FOR ONLINE

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¿WORLDPAY SECURE

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annual fee of £1000and a service charge offive percent of thetransaction cost. Thecharges include fees forpayment and orderprocessing but not webhosting. Cable &Wireless can providethat too but the securepayment service can beused with any hostedsite. You need amerchant agreementfor online payments;Cable & Wireless willhelp to arrange thatwith BarclaysMerchant Services.ShopSite from OpenMarket is aninteresting product,designed to be hosted

by commerce service providers in conjunctionwith a payment processing service provided byOpen Market. The software is new to the UKand at the time of writing there’s only one UKreseller, Venus at <www.venus.co.uk>.Merchants sign up for commerce service andthen use a web browser to create their storeonline. It’s very easy to use. You create your webstore using any HTML editor and then useShopSite to add the “buy” buttons which triggerthe ordering process. An entry-level version,

ShopSite Express, which is limited to 25items and lacks the online payment

processing option, is being givenaway free to Microsoft FrontPageusers at <frontpage.shopsite.com>.

One way toavoid beinglost incyberspace

is to join an online mall, but perhaps notimmediately — they have not been amazinglysuccessful so far. The best hosts for malls arelarge online service providers such as AOL, theemerging Internet “portals”’ such as NetscapeNetcenter and Microsoft Network, and nationaltelecoms carriers such as BT. None have mallsthat are affordable for small business users, but itcan only be a matter of time before they do.

Many commerce software providers areproducing mall software aimed at the smallbusiness user. Recently, Actinic introducedSuperMall, aimed at special-interest groups anddemonstrated at <www.i-mall.co.uk>. SuperMallhosts pay £2500 to service up to five shops and£349 per additional shop.


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IBM Home Page CreatorIBM, www.ibm.com/hpc/ukActinic CatalogActinic Software, www.actinic.co.ukShop@ssistantThe Floyd Consultancy, www.floyd.co.ukiCAT Electronic Commerce SuiteiCAT, www.icat.co.ukIntershop 3.0Intershop, www.intershop.comCat@logThe Vision Factory, www.thevisionfactory.comWeb-CommerceCable & Wireless, www.web-commerce.co.ukShopSiteOpen Market, www.shopsite.comCommerce ServerMicrosoft, www.microsoft.comPayment processingWorldPay, www.worldpay.comNetBanx, www.netbanx.com

PCW CONTACTS

¿YOU PAY BY THE

MONTH AND CREATE

YOUR WEB STORE

ONLINE WITH IBMHOME PAGE CREATOR

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¿SHOP@SSISTANT IS A

CHEAP-AND-CHEERFUL

COMMERCE-ENABLER

BASED ON JAVASCRIPT¡IF YOU’RE COVERING

THE GLOBE, INTERSHOP

3.0 SUPPORTS MULTI-LINGUAL STORES


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SATISFIED WITH YOUR PC OR ISP? THE TIME

HAS COME TO REVEAL YOUR OPINIONS IN THE

INDUSTRY’S BIGGEST INDEPENDENT USER SURVEY.

Wther you've spentwell over the oddsfor the latest state-of-the-art PC orfound yourself abargain printer, thepoint of any such

purchase is that it works and goes on working.The last thing you want to find yourselflumbered with is an unreliable piece ofequipment that becomes a job in itself, ratherthan a way of easing your job load.

As computing forges ahead as a dominantpart of modern life, both at work and at home, sohave the expectations of you, the buyer. It is

survey

Service &Reliability

Service & Reliability

becoming paramount that scenarios such as therisk of losing important files if your PC crashesor missing a time-critical deadline while printinga document, because your printer jams, are jnolonger acceptable. Unfortunately, though theseare things we would rather not have to deal with,they still remain a normality of computerequipment usage.

Naturally, as you become a moreknowledgeable buyer, you look to lessen thelikelihood of such eventualities. Basingpurchasing decisions on price and a whole gamutof specifications are important factors, but after-sales service and support are gaining ground asthe heavyweights, in the “why I must buy” leaguetable. And why not? You want the best deal youcan get. You want value for your money.

But how do you know which manufacturer isproviding the best technical support? Whichbrands out there can be trusted for productreliability? And the real test for any vendor —customer loyalty. Which vendors do buyersactually want to repurchase from and whichbrand would buyers be moved to recommend toothers?

Trying to get such answers, that are both validand accurate, can prove a daunting task. Butwhat better way to get to the truth than to obtainfirst-hand experience and information from the


end-user — you, our readers. Carrying out ourown lab tests on products gives us part of thepicture, but to get the full view we have to knownot only how the product performs, but alsowhat the pluses (and the minuses) are when youbuy into a particular brand.

So PCW, in tandem with Maritz Research [see panel, right] have sought to investigate, withyour input, just which brands in the market arepulling their weight in service and reliability, andwhich ones are not.

In PCW's first ever independent readershipsurvey, you'll be getting results which present thefacts that you 'want' to know about and theultimate guide to the best brands for technicalsupport, product efficiency and durability. In thissurvey we will of course be rating PCs, mobilesand printers. And for the first time ever in anysuch survey, PCW will undertake evaluating theperformance of ISPs.

The survey questionnaire went out to ourentire readership base in three issues of themagazine, including our 20th anniversary issue[PCW, May 98] which sold over £195,000 copies.The questionnaire was also available on our website. This enabled us to have a broader-baseddata collection platform that encouragedgreater participation and gave us more accuratetargeting of some of the smaller, but still

significant, vendor customer bases. Our surveyasked you the typical questions about the makeof PC and/or mobile you used, what brand ofprinter you had and which ISP you subscribedto. But it also widened the scope of the survey byasking you in-depth questions about service andsupport relationship elements. So we found outfrom you, for instance, what the print qualitywas like from your printer, how easy it was toupgrade your PC, the ability to connect whenyou wanted to via your ISP, and whensomething went wrong, how it was dealt with.

Depicting the outcome of our survey in ourgraphs, Maritz Research has shown the top-lineresults which give in each category an overallwinner of reliability , the brand you woulddefinitely repurchase from and which you woulddefinitely recommend to others. The vendorshave been placed into categories of significantlyabove average, average or below average. Thismethod has been chosen, rather than simplysaying what was scored by each manufacturer,because it overcomes reporting weaknesses wherethere is very little differentiation between thevendors.

Rather than list pages of figures for you totrawl through, we’ve done al the hard work: ineach of the PC, mobile, printer and ISP sections,you’ll find the facts required for you to make aconfident purchasing decision. The reports thatfollow are as revealing as they are useful.

Respondents were given the options ofstating they were either “Very satisfied”,“Satisfied”, “Neutral”, “Dissatisfied” or “Verydissatisfied” with particular aspects of theirequipment and/or support. The facts reportedhere will reflect only those answers which stateda respondent was “Very satisfied” or“Dissatisfied” and “Very dissatisfied” with these areas. We are not basing any of our surveyreport on answers from respondents who sat on the fence.

For us, “Very satisfied” means the productgenuinely made users very happy — it deliveredthat little bit extra worth noting and praising.We excluded “Satisfied” answers because thissimply reflects that your product has done whatyou expected it to do, which is not glowing praiseand can only be interpreted as such in a timewhen consumers are used to being misled byadvertising and are relieved to have somethingthat works. “Dissatisfied” and “Very dissatisfied”both indicate the products and/or support werenot up to scratch and did not fulfil the user’sexpectations.

Ever conscious to provide you with acomplete picture, we have offered all vendorswhich are mentioned in our data the “Right toReply”— putting in writing their responses to oursurvey's results.

ALANA JUMAN BLINCOE

MaritzResearchMaritz Ltd is thelargest division ofMaritz Europa whichwas founded in 1974.Both are part of theprivately held $2billion research outfitMaritz Inc, which wasset up in the US in1894. Maritz Ltd, aBritish company, hasheadquarters inMarlow, with officesin London and Leeds.Its infrastructureallows it to do in-depth researchprojects oncustomer/employeesatisfaction,international postaland telephonesurveys, UK andinternational mysteryshopping,advertising/brandtracking andqualitative research.The company is ISO 9001/IQCSaccredited, whichmeans it is registeredto cover marketingservices inconsultancy, research,communications,training, promotionand development. The UK armemployees 600 full-time staff andturns over annualrevenues of £60million.


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BEFORE WE LAUNCH INTO OUR

DESKTOP & MOBILE CATEGORY,let’s set the picture. Out of all ourrespondents, 88% of you had just aPC, 1% had only a laptop, and 11% of

you had both. (Surprisingly, 15% of the people whobuilt their own computer didn't feel confident tocall it either a desktop or a laptop. Perhaps theyhad engineered a PDA type.) The majority of users,32%, bought equipment in 1997, while a scant 3%of you are using machines pre-dating 1992. But, asyou would expect, most people have a three-yearreplacement cycle, and 70% of you had boughtyour equipment between 1996 and 1998.

Mail order and buying direct proved the mostpopular ways to purchase hardware: 62% of yousaid this was how you had bought your last piece

of computing equipment. While 18% opted forpurchasing through retail, only 15% of respondentschose to go to their local reseller. Interestingly,35% of mobiles were bought through dealers.

Choosing the best place to buy your equipmentis one thing, but how good were vendors on theproduct availability front? Compaq satisfied only40% of its customers in this area, while DanTechnology certainly pleased its public, leavingmore than two thirds of its customers withabsolutely no problems of getting hold of kit.

PCW queried the condition our readershardware is in when it is delivered. Top scorer,Gateway, had a 75% satisfaction rating in thiscategory, and Dan and Toshiba also did well,with 70 and 71% respectively. Compaq andEvesham scored the lowest marks with 55% each.

Eyebrows were raised, however, at theinadequacy of vendors getting all the relevant kitdispatched in one go. One respondent in oursurvey claimed to have received an empty box!It wasn't a Dan customer, though, because eightout of ten Dan buyers were very happy with thisaspect of Dan's service, whereas only 55% ofcustomers buying from Compaq could give thecompany top marks. This may be explained bythe fact that 20% of Compaq customers usetheir machines for businesses compared to just5% of Dan's. These business users may expectdelivery completeness to be a reasonableexpectation, whereas home users may be moreopen to giving high marks for just getting allthe kit to them.

InstallationEase of installation was the next area tackled byour survey. Gateway and Opus Tiny got topmarks in this category – 65% of their users werecompletely satisfied with the installation process.Mobiles proved marginally easier than desktopsto get going, with satisfaction scores of 56%against 52%. Notebook king Toshiba was theexception — it too ranked 65%. But, this satisfiedinstallation figure of mobiles could also reflectthe fact that the purchase of most of them wasfrom dealers who would have installed them.

If you think all machines are alike, then checkout the scores our survey uncovered when welooked at build quality. Packard Bell andCompaq could muster only 35% satisfactionscores from their users, and Opus Tiny gathered

only 33%. but, Dan Technologymanaged to please 69% of itscustomers, and Toshiba kept the mobile end up with 62%.Unfortunately, Toshiba does letitself down somewhat when itcomes to features, with only 38%of its customers getting exactly

what they want. Packard Bell hits bottom with24%, while no-name clones and other brandsplease less than a third of their buyers.

CompatibilityOn the compatibility front, Compaq users havenot found their machines the easiest to getalong with other devices – only 38% were happycompared to 71% of Dan's customers, which is agood seven points clear of competition. Gatewaystood in with 63%.

The standard of software included withmachines also proved very disappointing tocustomers. Gateway led the pack, with 49% of itsusers satisfied, while Compaq languished at thebottom of the pile with 21%. A large number ofyou complained about Windows 95: it either keptcrashing, was unstable, or there were upgradeproblems. One respondent said: "Windows 95 isthe pits," which is a lot more polite than some ofthe comments we received about it.

Speed & price/performanceSpeed performance of kit is an issue across theboard — only 30% of you were happy with thiselement. Compaq proved significantly lesssatisfying to its customers than the majority ofbrands. However, price/performance threw upsome interesting winners. The home builderswere very pleased with their efforts, and 60% ofthem felt they had got good value for money.

DESKTOPS & MOBILES

Eyebrows were raised at THE INADEQUACY OFVENDORS GETTING ALL THE RELEVANT KITin one go. One respondent received an empty box!(


Coming in second were the clone builders: 42%of users were sure that not paying for a brandname had saved them money and not lost themanything in performance. Although no-one evergot fired for buying IBM, a rather measly 21%were pleased they had done it. The Packard Bellcustomers were even more miserable, with 22% ofthem dissatisfied with the company’s priceand performance.

PCs, though, seem to be a reasonably hardybunch – 47% of desktops and 52% of mobilesdid not suffer from any problems over the lastsix months, although 45% of desktops and 40%of mobiles succumbed to between one and fivetechnical hiccups over the same period. Themost common problem experienced washanging/frozen PCs, which accounted for 39%of our respondents' computing headaches.Software glitches were a close second, with 30%.Compaq machines seemed particularlysusceptible to these two problems: 55% of itsusers had trouble with PCs freezing, while 45%had encountered software stress.

Help & supportThe preferred method of solving a customerproblem is by telephone and helpline support.The vendor helped 58% of you in this way, while55% were helped through your place of purchase.Manufacturers solved 61% of all problems withdesktops over the phone, compared to 27% formobiles. Mobiles sent to base to be repairedaccounted for 60%, whereas only 26% of desktopswere fixed in this way.

Toshiba's reputation suffered a dent, as only15% of its customers found its repair servicetotally satisfactory. This figure appears evenmore dismal compared to an industry average of39% and an outstanding Dell performance of53%. There were no high scorers when we lookedat the time taken to carry out repairs.

Regarding the quality of repair, Dan did well,with 59% considering the job well done. UnlikeToshiba, which had 31% of its customers unhappywith its repair standards. Opus Tiny had only 17%of its customers go through its repair process verysatisfied with the time taken, 33% very satisfiedwith the quality, and an enormous 86% thoughtthe price was right for the cost of repair. Just over athird, 35%, of Compaq's customers felt the same.

RecommendationDan can look forward to friends, relatives andcolleagues of its customers making sales pitcheson its behalf, as 63% will definitely give the hardsell, while 21% probably will. However, 19% ofPackard Bell users will not recommend the brand,8% of home builders will not recommend Compaqto others, and 12% definitely won’t.

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PRINTER QUALITY WAS AN ISSUE FOR

THE MAJORITY. Less than half of therespondents said they rated theirprinter’s build. For Lexmark, morethan two thirds failed to give their kit

the thumbs up. Exuberant advertising could haveexacerbated this situation, because the featuresavailable to customers fell miserably short ofexpectations. Close to three quarters of Lexmarkusers wanted more or a higher standard, and Epsonfailed to please 55% of its users. Laser printersoffered the best package, according to 44% of users.

Overall, customers were happy with the easeof printer installation. Lexmark performed thepoorest in this category, with only 55% of itsusers being very satisfied. Less than half of dot-matrix technology users found installation a joy,compared with almost two thirds of inkjet users,and 6% of the dot-matrix respondents proved tobe a very dissatisfied bunch. Inkjet users madeup more than three quarters of the entire survey— maybe the dot-matrix devotees should thinkabout joining them.

Epson topped the hardware compatibility

stakes, with 69% of its customers getting instantprinting action when they connected their devices.Hewlett-Packard (HP) and Canon weren't toofar behind, both with just under 65%. Lexmarklogged 53% high user satisfaction.

Print speed & qualityIT users always tend to feel the need for speed,but our respondents haven't been getting theadrenaline rush of watching hardcopy output atwarp factor nine. Less than a quarter were pleasedwith the speed performance of their printer. A

massive 85% of Canon users aresuffering from cartridge crawl,and top performer HP has just28% of patient users. Lasertechnology delivered satisfactionto only 36% of its backers.

Getting to the crux of printerperformance, we asked what the

print quality was like. The overwhelming verdictis, it's not good enough. Almost two thirds ofrespondents who use laser printers, naturallythink they produce the highest-quality output,but even 45% of the technology's users are nottotally satisfied. Epson's customers were bestsatisfied, with 45% of them enjoying the clarity ofink on paper. But just over one third of users arehappy with the performance of their printers.

Over a third of our respondents are angry thatthey cannot upgrade their printer – 43% of Canonusers, the worst score, found this. Epson suffersfrom having only one in nine of its customershappy with its upgrade path. And more than twothirds of dot-matrix users feel lumbered withtheir printer choice. Laser technology, althoughseen as the most easily upgradable of all printerformats, gave satisfaction to only 13%.

Printer problems Problems with printers, unsurprisingly, scoredhighly. We asked how many problems had beenencountered by users over the last six months.All brands scored highly. HP users suffered themost in this category: 2% had over ten problemsduring the last six months, but 69% had enjoyeda trouble-free half year. Surprisingly, 90% of dot-matrix users, for all their objections, hadexperienced no problems in the last six months,compared with two thirds of laser users.

Paper jamming proved to be the biggestheadache for users, affecting 37% of them.Lexmark stood out as the worst, though, causingnearly 63% of users this problem. Almost aquarter of printers failed, due to printer driverproblems. But it was HP that topped this section,with 29% of its users suffering problems.

PRINTERS


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Very satisfied with overall reliability of printer

HP Laser mono

Panasonic Dotmatrix mono

Epson Dotmatrix mono

Epson Inkjet

Panasonic Lasermono

HP Inkjet

Canon Inkjet

Lexmark Inkjetcolour

¡HEWLETT

PACKARD LASER

MONOS MOST

DEFINITELY HAVE

THE UPPERHAND

Users haven’t been getting THE ADRENALINE RUSHOF WATCHING HARDCOPY OUTPUT AT WARPFACTOR NINE Less than 25% were pleased with the speed(


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Phone support, though, solved over half ofthe printing problems, while 14% of users usedemail and web support. The same number hadit replaced and a further 18% returned theirmachines for repair. About a third, 35%, of ourrespondents were happy with the repair job, but20% were not.

The time taken for repairs shows that 50% ofEpson users were very happy with the repair time,while a further 43% felt that their service wasadequate. Lexmark had no customers dissatisfiedwith the time it took for repairs, unlike HP,which upset 17% of its users, and Canon, whichcrossed a staggering 29%. Almost half, 46%, ofEpson customers were pleased with the qualityof repair, but 14% felt the opposite. However,two fifths of Lexmark customers were very happywith the outcome.

Repair, reliability & pricingTrouble-free printing is actually a reality forsome users, though. Respondents have beenreasonably satisfied with the reliability of theirprinters – just 50% of respondents were unhappywith their buys. Again, almost half, 48%, ofEpson users and 47% of inkjet users were verysatisfied with their printers’ performance,compared with 54% of both dot-matrix and laserprinter users.

Lexmark’s repair pricing was pleasing to fourin five respondents. Canon did less well here,with just 39% of its customers feeling that theyhad got a good deal, while 26% thought thatthey were overcharged. A quarter of dot-matrixcustomers thought they had got value formoney, 60% of inkjet users were happy withthe cost of repair, and 39% of laser buyers weresatisfied with costs.

Users of the non-leading brands felt thatthey had a far better deal on cost of ownershipthan the users of named vendors. This may bebecause of the premium attached to leadingbrands and their high marketing costs. Almosthalf, 48%, of no-named printer users weresatisfied with cost of ownership compared withthe name brands. HP does best, with one in fourof its users considering they had got value formoney, and 51% of dot-matrix users felt thesame, compared with 22% of inkjet users and33% of laser users.

Also on the cost front, 28% of respondentsfelt they were being ripped off over the cost ofconsumables, such as ribbons, cartridges andtoners. Feeling the financial sting the worse,though, were Canon customers: 42% believe theyare being overcharged, while 33% of Epson usersand 24% of HP feel the same. Nevertheless, threequarters of our respondents spend less than £20per month on consumables – just 1% rack up billsof £80 or more.


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Epson Inkjet

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HP Inkjet

Canon Inkjet



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HP Inkjet

Canon Inkjet


¡THE EPSON INKJET

HANGS IN THERE,BUT HP’S LASER

MONO WILL BE ON

USERS’ SHOPPING

LISTS AGAIN

HRECOMMENDATION

COMES HIGHLY FROM

HEWLETT PACKARD

LASER MONO USERS


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ALARGE MAJORITY OF YOU, 81%,USE YOUR ISP CONNECTION FOR

WEB ACCESS AND EMAIL. NetDirectwas used most for this process, by98% of its users, as did 93% of

Demon’s subscribers.In terms of connection ability, all the ISPs in

the survey scored average marks. U-net came outon top, with 48%, and Globalnet came second,with 42%. About one sixth, 15%, of NetDirect’scustomers were dissatisfied with this aspect ofthe provider.

Desired access speeds did not leave much forsome of you to shout about. CompuServe failedto deliver desired access speeds to 26% of itssubscribers, and only 7% of its users claimed tobe pleased with its performance. This comparedstarkly with the 55% of happy U-net subscribersand 44% of NetDirect users.

CompuServe's direct competitors also fairedbetter, with 16% of AOL's customers being verysatisfied, and 24% of Demon users being happywith their access speed. But AOL did manage tonotch up 15% of disgruntled users.

Set-up & connectionEase of set-up proved a thorny problem for thelarger ISPs. Only 20% of CompuServe's sub-scribers and 22% of Demon's found the wholeprocess to be smooth-running, although AOLfaired better with 33% of users being satisfied

with the set-up procedure. However, of the smalleroperators, VirginNet walked away with thehonour of having 53% of its users very satisfiedwith the set-up process, while one in two ofNetDirect's subscribers were pleased. But BTcame bottom in this category, with 16% of itscustomers unhappy.

Demon's UK coverage meant that 76% ofits subscribers were very content with theirability to get connected at local rates. On thesmaller scale, U-net did the business for 76% ofits users. VirginNet also did well, with 72%, andwas closely followed by Globalnet, with 67% ofhappy users. Enthusiasm for AOL was curiouslymuted, with just 44% of subscribers really ratingthis aspect of its service.

The large ISPs do not seem to have builtup a huge amount of confidence within theirsubscriber base regarding their reliability: 14% ofCompuServe's users, 19% of AOL's and 22% ofDemon’s, is all that can sing the praises of theirchosen provider. Again, small is beautiful with U-net calling in the approval of 58% of its users,followed by 40% of VirginNet's.

Ease of installation is another area where thebig players fall down, either because of theirinadequacies or because, owing to the largenumber of customers, there's bound to be agreater proportion that complain about them.Only one in five of both CompuServe andDemon users found their product easy to install.AOL came out with 32%, but big-brand BTobviously hasn't got the formula right: just 14%of its users rated its installation procedurepositively. VirginNet, though, is pleasing 48% ofits customers, and U-net also scores highly in thisarea, with 53%.

Users are definitely wanting more from thebig players: 22% of AOL's customers and 21% ofCompuServe's say they are not getting value formoney. This is especially disappointing whenyou put these figures alongside U-net's happyband of supporters, of which 68% find everypenny well spent. NetDirect also does well, with59% of its users satisfied with their spend.

Yet quality of service is not really rated by75% of internet users. Just 11% of CompuServe'scustomers and 15% of AOL's think they’re onquality street. However, NetDirect is managingto please 45% of its customers, while U-net’sgratifying 58%.

Connection speedIt could be the volume of users, but again thelarger ISPs fall down on delivering what the userswant in terms of connection speed. Only 6% ofCompuServe subscribers get the speed they need


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Virgin Net

UUNET PIPEX

NetDirect Internet

Cable Online

Global Internet

LIneOne

Demon

MSN

BT Internet

ClaraNET

AOL

Compuserve

¡THE BIG PLAYERS,LIKE COMPUSERVE

AND AOL, GET LOW

RECOMMENDATION

POINTS

INTERNET SERVICE PROVIDERS (ISPs)


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U-net

Virgin Net

UUNET PIPEX

NetDirect Internet

Cable Online

Global Internet

LIneOne

Demon

MSN

BT Internet

ClaraNET

AOL

Compuserve


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Virgin Net

UUNET PIPEX

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BT Internet

ClaraNET

AOL

Compuserve

and 12% of AOL's feel the same. Maybe thecustomers of the smaller ISPs are lessdemanding or perhaps they are not competingfor bandwidth with many others. Nevertheless,45% of U-net users get themselves connected asfast as they like. NetDirect is close behind, with42%, but 29% of CompuServe's users are outrightdisappointed in this aspect of its service, as are23% of AOL customers.

Technical supportResponse to problems mirrors the failings ofISPs in most other aspects of service. Over afifth, 22%, of CompuServe's users are not happy,nor are 24% of Demon's users. Meanwhile, U-net satisfies, once again, 61% of its customers,and VirginNet does the business for 47% of itsuser base.

Less than a quarter of internet users thinkthey get the technical support they want. Theworse performers in this area are CompuServe,BT and Demon.

Quality of contentQuality online is abysmal across the board.Both the big and the small ISPs are doing itwrong, according to our respondents. Regardingonline content, only 16% of both VirginNet andCompuServe users like what they see. Demongets just 12% of satisfied subscribers, and 13%goes to BT. Top scorer is NetDirect, with 35%of its users enjoying the content it supplies.

The availability of search engines is another“could do better” area. Demon weighs in top ofthe larger players, with 36% of its subscribersgetting to seek out what they want, and BT isclose behind with 33%. On the other side of thebusiness, U-net delivers the goods to 55% of itsusers, and NetDirect is in there with 43%.

CompuServe must be relying on the numberof internet virgins trying to get online, as only12% of its existing subscriber base will definitelyrepurchase from it in the future. Things aren'tmuch better for AOL, which can boast a hardcoreloyal following of just 16%. Demon does best,with 35% definitely sticking with its service, and42% probably making the same decision. Almostthree quarters of U-net customers plan to re-subscribe, as do 50% of NetDirect's.

RecommendationThe figures tell us a very similar story for userrecommendations. CompuServe has 13% of itscustomers committed to spreading the word, aswill 18% of AOL's. Demon will benefit from anunpaid sales force of 34% of its customers, whileU-net's dedicated 75% of users will preach itsgospel, as will 51% of NetDirect's subscribers.

¡THERE ARE ONLY

TWO ISPS ARE

ABOVE AVERAGE IN

OVERALL RELIABILITY

¡SOME ISPS

ARE FIND IT VERY

DIFFICULT TO KEEP

HOLD OF THEIR

CUSTOMERS

THE CUSTOMERS CONCLUDE…


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After reading and evaluating the information in our survey,the winners we have selected should come as no surprise toyou. We have chosen overall winners – those which havecome top in their area in the reliability, repurchase andrecommendation stakes. And we have highly commendedthose that were just pipped to the post by the overall winners,but which we feel should be awarded some form of recognitionfor their consistently high standards.The overall winners are:Dan Technology for PCsHewlett Packard for printersToshiba for laptopsU-net for ISPThe company’s which have been highly commended are:NetDirect for ISPEpson for printersDell for PCs

What makes a winner…The results of the survey show some of the usual suspects haverisen to the top, while for others there have been some surprisingoutcomes. Branding may be working for a number of thebigger names, but when it comes to the crunch, their productperformance and after-sales practices need to be reassessed,because the smaller players are winning hands down onproviding all-round value for money.

It is evident from the responses in our survey, that althoughprice and specification are important parts of your buyingdecision, support and reliability are taking up a bigger wedgeof your purchasing criteria. This is not only the case with

hardware users, but is also apparent in the results our surveydiscovered in the ISP sector. Technical support is an extremelyimportant area to the service subscriber; more so than content– although some ISPs seem to think it’s the other way round.

However, there are opportunities for vendors to improveand become more user friendly – and it is happening. As oursurvey showed, most problems handled by manufacturers andpoints of sale were dealt with over the telephone. These outletsare developing call centres with more sophisticated problem-logging and problem-categorising systems, which make iteasier for their engineers to address issues. And some vendorsare working hard to educate the user and their sales force,working on the ethos that knowledge means prevention. Butit can only be accelerated and guided by you, the customer.

Thank you...We must take this opportunity to say thank you to all the PCWreaders who took the time to respond to our questionnaire.Without your knowledge and experience of the market, wewould not have been able to make PCW’s first ever readershipsurvey as comprehensive and insightful as we believe it is.

It is not only an opportunity for you to distinguish thebrands that offer you value for your money, and indicatewhich vendors give you the support and care you want; butyour responses will also give the manufacturers a chance tounderstand what you the user see as important and how theirproducts are performing at the cutting edge of real-worldusage. The results of this survey will certainly give them foodfor thought. But most of all, we hope that it will prove aninvaluable aid to you in making the best purchasing decisions.

PETER HOBDAY, FINANCIAL DIRECTOR,DAN TECHNOLOGY:“The service and support users will get isbecoming more of a contributing factor to

their purchase. We do get people saying to us we will never buy fromcertain companies, because they don’t have good service and support.

Buyers should look at the total cost of ownership – it’s like buyinga Lada and being surprised when, 12 months later, you find you haveto buy another one. We are trying to reinforce the view that there isdifferentiation between PCs, and we differentiate ourselves byconcentrating on quality of product and service.”

JON VAN DUYNE, GENERAL

MANAGER, CONSUMER

PRODUCTS BUSINESS

ORGANISATION:“We are obviously delighted that HP is the winner in the printer category.Awards like PCW’s become ever more important, both to the customerand the industry. There are a large number of players in an increasinglycompetitive environment, and these awards provide a good indicator tohow well everyone is performing according to the customer. The industrymust respond to the consumer, and we at HP will analyse these resultsto make sure we are still in the number one position next year.”

Company CV:☛ Dan Technology founded 1988☛ London-based head office☛ Turnover: £46.73m for 1996/97☛ 182 employees nationwide☛ Offices in Leeds andNetworking subsidiary inBuckinghamshire☛ Supplies PCs, workstations etc ☛ Sells to end users direct

Company CV:☛ Second largest provider ofcomputing in the world☛ UK’s 26th largest exporter☛ Turnover: £1.9bn (UK) for 1996☛ UK offices have 5,400 employees☛ HP has five UK-based R&D andmanufacturing divisions☛ Provides intranet solutions etc☛ Sells through resellers/retailers


MARTIN DAVIES, CUSTOMER SERVICES

DIRECTOR, DELL DIRECT UK AND

IRELAND.“We are delighted to receive this service award. Customer satisfactionwith our products and services is our No. 1 priority. Reader awards arevalued, as they reflect what the people on the ground really think. Dellis committed to delivering the best customer experience, and wewelcome the independent feedback these surveys give us.

We believe that there is an opportunity for us to further enhancethe level of service we deliver to the small business sector and we willbe working with that goal in mind.”

TONY PETFORD, DIRECTOR OF

MARKETING, EPSON UK:“We are extremely pleased to

accept this award from PCW, especially, as it is an award voted for byour customers and PCW readers.

We believe our unique MicroPiezo inkjet technology at the core ofour product line is responsible for EPSON being voted the numberone inkjet manufacturer. EPSON’s MicroPiezo set the new goldstandard at up to 1440dpi resolution. This survey also shows thedemand for dot-matrix printers, which is why EPSON continues torelease improved impact printers every year.”

CHRIS ANDERSON, MANAGING

DIRECTOR, NETDIRECT:“Our core values have always been qualityof service, reliability and value for money.The PCW survey is an endorsement of this.

However, we have a policy of continual improvement, whichmeans we will be looking to better these results in future.”

NetDirect offers services and packages – including rapid responseto technical and customer queries, business users getting full specialisttechnical support for single and multiple user connections, and theDial business user connection package.

ALAN THOMPSON, DIRECTOR,TOSHIBA PC DIVISION:

“I’m delighted that we have won this award. For us it confirmsour commitment to customer satisfaction. It’s nice to see that someindependent data from customers has put us out on top.

This award encourages us to redouble our efforts in improvingour products, and what we will never do is just coast along becausewe’re doing well. Our strive to design and produce better productsgets more challenging as people request thinner and lighter laptops.

Our response is to improve our performance and be in tune withwhat the customers want.”

DR BILL UNSWORTH, MANAGING

DIRECTOR, U-NET

“This is a remarkable result in what hasbeen a remarkable year for us. It’s alwaysbeen our intention to become the UK’s

largest independent provider of internet services, and the results ofthis survey are a vindication of our policy of reinvestment in networkinfrastructure and customer support. It also tells us that we achievedthis without losing sight of our customers needs.

We are obviously delighted to have come top in all areas ofPCW’s survey.”

Company CV :☛ UK offices based in Weybridge☛ Turnover in 1997: £650 million☛ 1,500 employees in UK☛ Toshiba has been present inEurope for 25 years ☛ Product include PCs, consumerproducts, electronic componentsand industrial equipment ☛ Sells products through resellers

Company CV :☛ Funded in 1994☛ HQ in Warringtonwww.u-net.net☛ Annual revenue of £4 million☛ 50 employees☛ 25,000 subscribers ☛ Provides connection packages:Dialup, ISDN leased line and webhosting services

Company CV:☛ Company founded in 1984☛ Dell UK set up in 1987☛ HQ based in Berkshire☛ 4,000 people employed in UKand Ireland☛ Turnover in 1998: $12.3 billion☛ Products includes desktops andlaptop, servers and workstations☛ Sells direct

Company CV:☛ UK offices set up in 1988☛ UK headquarters in HemelHempstead☛ Manufacturing plant in Telford ☛ 28,000+ employees world-wide☛ Turnover worldwide: US $8bn,1997/1998☛ Products: range of printers☛ Sells via retail and resellers

Company CV:☛ Based in Greenwichwww.netdirect.net.uk☛ Company founded in 1995☛ 50 employees☛ 12,000+ subscribers☛ Expertise in TotalDial businessuser connection package. Multipleconnection packages. TotalNetpackages, and much more


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FROM CAROLYN WORTH, SPOKESPERSON,EVESHAM MICROS

As a thoroughly British company, it is satisfyingto see that our customers have voted EveshamMicros as one of the top ten computer companies.

Evesham Micros has worked hard over the last15 years to provide what our customers want. Wehave invested heavily in research and developmentto bring cutting-edge technology to the market,but we have never forgotten that reliability iscrucial to the end-user. We were first to offer twoyears on-site warranty as standard and we intendto keep improving in all those vital areas.

We never forget that buying a computer doesnot mean the relationship with our customersstops when we deliver the goods. By providing freelifetime technical support as well as the warranty,we can make sure that an EveshamVale computerwill give sterling service for many years to come. Welook forward to being featured again next year.

FROM NICOLA KIRBY, PR MANAGER,COMPUSERVE

Our own member satisfaction surveys do notreflect the results of your survey, neither does thelatest Keynote/BoardWatch Survey which recentlyvoted CompuServe No. 1 for the fastest web-pagedownload time — twice as fast as the industryaverage! The real measure of the quality of ourservice is reflected by members voting with theirfeet – UK membership has increased every monthfor the past seven years.

In addition to internet access, we provide arange of exclusive high-value products/services,targeted at improving the productivity ofprofessional people. We offer a very differentproduct to a very different target market.

We recognise that the internet doesn't alwaysmeet users’ expectations, [but] we can assure PCWreaders that CompuServe is fully committed toaddressing these issues and matching the needsof our members.

FROM RICHARD WOODS, SENIOR

SPOKESPERSON, U-NET UKWhat is very pleasing about this survey, especiallyto a business-focused ISP such as U-net UK, isthat the response on the ISP questions was morethan half the total overall. That shows howincreasingly important the internet is to theworld of computing.

It is also gratifying that the reliability factorsonce again reflect where we have been puttingthe focus of our work in recent months. As the

internet is moving into areas of “mission critical”business activities, the demand for a reliable,quality service becomes increasingly important.That can only be achieved by significantinvestment by the provider and closeunderstanding of the needs of its customers.

FROM MAGGIE GALLANT, HEAD OF PR, AOL UKAOL UK now has 450,000 members, making itthe number one internet online service in the UK.The fact that we have achieved this in only 30months since our launch, means that the publicclearly recognises that we deliver the best possibleonline experience for the whole family.

AOL members demand more than straightinternet access. They are buying ease of use,relevance of content, unique features such asBuddy Lists and Instant Messenger, and out-standing service support.

We are committed to offering value for money,and in response to our members, we introducednew pricing plans in 1997, which gives the choiceof unlimited usage or a light-user plan.

AOL is also actively testing new technologiesand delivery platforms designed to improve theonline experience.

FROM DAVID CLARKE, MANAGING DIRECTOR,VIRGINNET

We are delighted, but not surprised, by theseresults, as they reinforce the feedback we get fromour subscribers every day.

The quality of our content, combined with anextremely reliable connection and round-the-clockcustomer support, results in a value-for-moneyservice that other ISPs find hard to compete with.This is one of the main reasons why consumerslove VirginNet and, as the survey shows, around40 percent would recommend us to their friends.I was particularly pleased with this result, as wordof mouth has been a very important factor in ourgrowth to date.

We plan to keep growing, and we have recentlyincreased our transatlantic bandwidth by morethan 50 percent, to ensure faster searching andsurfing, and our European bandwidth has beenexpanded by some 400 percent.

New content launching this year will includea travel channel (which will launch in July), morenews, concerts, recruitment, shopping, banking,chats and events.

FROM CHRIS BAKOLAS, TECHNICAL &MARKETING DIRECTOR, DAN TECHNOLOGY

Dan recognises the importance of value for money– but our customers don't want us to sacrificequality on the altar of low prices. Sticking to ourfounding principle of "quality first" requirescontinuous investment in efficient sales, supportand production systems; it means maintaining

LETTERS

Right to Reply


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good relations with the best component suppliers;and it means ensuring that every Dan employeemakes a positive contribution to our customers'buying experience.

None of this comes cheap, so no-one couldaccuse Dan of operating at the bargain-basementend of the market. That's why we're cock-a-hoopat coming out so well in PCW's 1998 Service andReliability survey. It's a fantastic tribute to theprofessionalism of our workforce. It's also greatto know that our constant pursuit of excellence issomething Dan customers continue to value.

FROM PAUL BURWOOD, LASERJET PRODUCT

MANAGER, HEWLETT PACKARD

We are extremely pleased to see that HP LaserJetshave come out on top in the independent PCWsurvey. We put great emphasis on developing ourproducts to a high specification, and it’s good tosee this has paid dividends for the consumer.

We have been building a strong preference forour products by ensuring they are of high qualityand are easy to use, across the board. The consumerrecognises this, which is highlighted by both theirrepurchase rate and recommendations to friends.

As a company we always strive to improve ourproducts, and this is a constant process. Where wemeet only average scores, we will seek to improvethose, so we can maintain and strengthen ourleadership position in the laser printer market.

FROM ANLIN TING-MASON, GENERAL MANAGER,BT INTERNET

Over the two years since our creation, BT Internethas been a very popular and reliable service. At thebeginning of this year, BT Internet experienced anunprecedented increase in demand for the service.To address this, we implemented an extensiveinvestment programme to increase capacity andservice levels for customers. This programmetook place during the same period your researchwas being conducted and, unfortunately, led toour level of service reliability being below thehigh standards that we offer our customers. Thisupgrade is now complete and BT Internet is onceagain a reliable service.

We now have capacity for 350,000 customersand have simplified our registration process tomake it an easy task for new customers to sign up.This, allied to the 90 extra helpline operators andthe redesigning of our home page and guest page,underlines our continuing efforts to make theinternet a reliable and enjoyable experience for allour customers.

FROM PAUL KINSLER, GENERAL MANAGER, MESH COMPUTERS

There was a time when we looked at such surveyswith a feeling of trepidation; not because we werein any doubt about the focus with which weregard customer service, but because we are awareof the time it takes for change to make an impactwith the bulk of users. It is, therefore, gratifyingthat our considerable investment in supportsystems and personnel has dispelled any negativesabout Mesh. However, this only serves toencourage us to redouble our efforts to lead theway in customer service standards.

We were surprised that, in spite of winning 47hardware and service awards in the past year, wedid not score more highly on features or price/performance value! We look forward to nextyear's survey results with interest.

FROM MARTIN DAVIES, CUSTOMER SERVICES

DIRECTOR IN TECHNICAL SUPPORT, DELL

Your own April edition features research that ratesDell best in pre and post sales support.

In summary, the survey indicates to us thatwhile Dell is perceived as delivering a higher thanaverage level of service, there is an opportunityfor us to further enhance the level of service wedeliver to the small business sector. From a salesviewpoint, we segment our business aroundspecific customer groupings, such as small

business, corporate, publicsector etc. This focus lets usconcentrate on the specificrequirements of individualmarket segments and to deliveran enhanced customerexperience. The service andsupport organisation is aligned

to these business segments so that we can ensurethat the needs of these customers are addressed.

Dell welcomes the feedback this survey bringsto your readers.

FROM FLORENCE MARCASTEL, MARKETING

COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR, CLARANETSince the company was formed, ClaraNET hasbeen constantly looking at providing the bestpossible service to its customers, and we aredelighted to find all our hard work has beenrewarded through the PCW survey results.

We have recently made substantial investmentin all areas of the business, as we understand theimportance of providing an excellent service witha human touch. We were particularly pleased tobe rated highly for value for money, as we prideourselves in our ability to offer packages to meetboth our customers’ budgets and needs.

The majority of our customers come througha personal recommendation from friends orcolleagues, so it is especially gratifying to find usrated so highly by our customer base.

We’re COCK-A-HOOP AT COMING OUT SO WELLIN PCW’S 1998 SURVEY It’s a fantastic tribute

to the professionalism of our work force (Dan Technology)(

Are you involved in your company’s decisions about buying PCs?

Yes ❑ 1 - This questionnaire is for you. Please let usknow your views.

No ❑ 2 - This questionnaire isn’t really for you. But youcan still fill it out and enter the draw if you want.

Do you authorise, recommend or specify your company’s PC orPC-related purchases?

I authorise purchases ❑ 1 Please answer Q3

I recommend purchases ❑ 2 Please answer Q4

I specify purchases ❑ 3 Please answer Q4

What is your annual PC equipment and software budget?

Under £1,000 ❑ 1

£1,000 - £4,999 ❑ 2

£5,000 - £9,999 ❑ 3

£10,000 - £19,999 ❑ 4

£20,000 - £49,999 ❑ 5

£50,000 - £99,999 ❑ 6

£100,000 - £250,000 ❑ 7

Over £250,000 ❑ 8

Do you expect your budget for next year to increase, decrease orstay about the same?

I expect the budget will increase next year ❑ 1

I expect the budget will decrease next year ❑ 2

I expect the budget will be about the same next year ❑ 3

How often are you involved in decisions to purchase PCs foryour company?

Every week or two ❑ 1

About once a month ❑ 2

Five or six times a year ❑ 3

Three or four times a year ❑ 4

Once or twice a year ❑ 5

Less often ❑ 6

Which of the following are you planning to buy for business usein the next twelve months?

HardwareNetwork servers ❑ 1

Desktop ❑ 2

Notebook ❑ 3

Palmtop/PDA ❑ 4

Laser printer ❑ 5

Inkjet printer ❑ 6

Scanner ❑ 7

Modem ❑ 8

17” monitor ❑ 9

21” monitor ❑ 10

Processor upgrade ❑ 11

Memory upgrade ❑ 12

Storage ❑ 13

Digital Camera ❑ 14

Mobile phone ❑ 15

ServicesInternet access ❑ 16

On line data ❑ 17

Other (please write in below) ❑ 18

SoftwareNetworking software (eg Windows NT) ❑ 1

Office suite ❑ 2

Word processing ❑ 3

Spreadsheets ❑ 4

Graphics/DTP ❑ 5

Finance/accounting ❑ 6

Personal organiser/Scheduler ❑ 7

Project management ❑ 8

Database ❑ 9

Telephone contact management ❑ 10

E-mail or Internet related ❑ 11

Other (please write in below) ❑ 12

How many PCs did your company purchase last year?None ❑ 1

Less than five ❑ 2

6-10 ❑ 3

11-20 ❑ 4

21-50 ❑ 5

Over 50 ❑ 6

Don’t know/can’t remember ❑ 7

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PPERSONALERSONAL CCOMPUTEROMPUTER WWORLDORLDWe know from your letters and emails that, while many readers are home PC users, manyof you make decisions about how PC equipment is purchased for business and workpurposes. Here at Personal Computer World we try to provide the information you need tomake better business decisions — but we can only do that if we know what matters to youwhen you are choosing machines for business. You can help us provide the service you wantby completing this questionnaire. And if an even better, more helpful Personal ComputerWorld isn’t a good enough reason on its own, we’ve got £200 of Eurostar vouchers to giveaway so that you can whisk a friend or partner away for a special weekend. We are alsogiving away 50 Personal Computer World conference bags.

If you do not want to cut out the questionnaire, please photocopy it and send it to theaddress at the end of this survey [p155]. It doesn’t need a stamp. The Eurostar voucherswill be given to the first name drawn out of the hat on 1st November 1998.

Your answers are confidential and your name will not be added to any mailing lists as a result of sending this

survey in. If you don’t want to enter the draw, then just leave the name and address blank — but please feel

free to complete the questionnaire anyway.

Win £200

worth of Eurostar

vouchers


CHOOSING PCS AND PC PRODUCTS

Do you have a company policy to always buy PCs and PC products from the same supplier or from anapproved list?

Yes ❑ 1 No ❑ 2

IF YES: Which suppliers or manufacturers would you buy from? Please write the names of your topthree approved suppliers in the space below.

When you are considering the choice of supplier of a PC or PC related equipment, what factors influenceyou in choosing one supplier over another? (We are assuming that there is a choice of suppliers, all of whomoffer the basic spec required at similar prices.) Please indicate (i) the most important factor, (ii) the secondmost important factor, and (iii) the third most important factor by ticking once in each column below.

(i) Most most (ii) 2nd most (iii) 3rd mostimportant important important

Low price ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

Reputation of supplier ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

Speed of delivery ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

After-sales service ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

Global presence ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

Availability of specific brands ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

Quality of service/product support ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

Reputation of products ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

Knowledge of business (user) requirements ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

Location of supplier ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

Installation support ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

Previous business relationship ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

Recommendation ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

Full service vendor ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

Other (specify)______________________________________________ ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

IF PRICE IS A FACTOR (i.e. ticked at question 8): How do you find the cheapest available supplier?

Please tick all that apply

Compare advertised prices in a monthlyIT magazine (e.g. PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD) ❑ 1

Compare advertised prices in national newspapers ❑ 2

Compare advertised prices in the businesspress (e.g. The Economist) ❑ 3

Compare advertised prices on the Internet ❑ 4

Compare prices at a large outlet (eg PC World) ❑ 5

Ring round a number of suppliers for quotes ❑ 6

Rely on previous experience of suppliers ❑ 7

Personal recommendation ❑ 8

Delegate price comparisons to someone else ❑ 9

Other (please specify)______________________________________________ ❑ 10

IF REPUTATION IS A FACTOR (i.e. ticked at question 8): Listed below are some of the things that gotowards making up the reputation of PC suppliers. For each one, please indicate how important you think itis by ticking the appropriate box.

Very Quite Not very Not at allimportant important important important

Advertisements in specialist IT magazines(like PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD) ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3 ❑ 4

Advertisements in national newspapers ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3 ❑ 4

Advertisements in the business press ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3 ❑ 4

Advertisements on television/radio ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3 ❑ 4

Brands available ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3 ❑ 4

Suppliers’ own web-sites ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3 ❑ 4

Manufacturer or supplier literature and mailings ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3 ❑ 4

Recommendations/test results in magazineslike PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3 ❑ 4

Recommendations from friends/colleagues/consultants ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3 ❑ 4

Previous experience of the company ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3 ❑ 4

Other (please specify)

______________________________________________ ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3 ❑ 4

______________________________________________ ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3 ❑ 4

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8

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When you are considering the choice of products, what factors influence you in choosing one brand overanother? (We are assuming that there is a choice of brands which offer a similar specification or function.)Please indicate (i) the most important factor, (ii) the second most important factor, and (iii) the third mostimportant factor by ticking once in each column below.

(i) Most (ii) 2nd most (iii) 3rd most important important important

Low price ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

Reputation of products ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

Speed of delivery ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

Technical superiority/Innovation ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

After-sales service ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

Compatibility with existing machines ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

Global presence ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

Low cost of ownership ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

Reliability ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

Installation support ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

Upgradability ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

Recommendation ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

Full service vendor ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

Other (please specify)______________________________________________ ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3

IF PRICE IS A FACTOR (i.e. ticked at question 11): How do you find the cheapest available brand?

Please tick all that apply

Compare advertised prices in a monthly ITmagazine (e.g. PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD) ❑ 1

Compare advertised prices on the Internet ❑ 2

Compare prices at a large outlet (e.g. PC World) ❑ 3

Read reviews/comparative tables in the PC press ❑ 4

Ring round a number of suppliers for quotes ❑ 5

Personal recommendation ❑ 6

Delegate price comparisons to someone else ❑ 7


Listed below are some of the factors that might lead people to change the brand of PC or PC relatedproducts that they buy. Please tick all of the factors that you think might affect you.

Press advertisements ❑ 1

Poster/outdoor advertising ❑ 2

Television/Radio ❑ 3

Word of mouth ❑ 4

Reviews and lab tests ❑ 5

Price/value for money ❑ 6

Product literature/direct mail from manufacturer ❑ 7

Design and technology ❑ 8

Reputation ❑ 9

Web presence ❑ 10

Availability of product ❑ 11

Personal experience ❑ 12


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YOUR WORK

Is your job principally concerned with IT?

Yes - my main work area is IT ❑ 1

No - my main work area is outside IT ❑ 2

I have a general responsibility which includes ITbut I am not an IT professional ❑ 3

Please tick the box below which best describes your job title.

Owner/Partner ❑ 1

Director ❑ 2

General manager ❑ 3

IT/network/telecomms manager ❑ 4

Technical support manager ❑ 5

Purchasing manager ❑ 6

Other manager/Department head ❑ 7

Executive ❑ 8

IT Consultant ❑ 9

Management consultant ❑ 10

Other (please write your job title) ❑ 11

14 15


PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD

Do you have a subscription to PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD?

Yes ❑ 1 No ❑ 2

How often do you read PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD?

I read almost every issue ❑ 1

I read most issues (around 3 out of 4) ❑ 2

I only read it occasionally ❑ 3

Here are a number of things that people have said about PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD. Please tick theappropriate box beside each statement to indicate how much you personally agree or disagree.

Agree Agree Neither agree Disagree Disagreea lot a little nor disagree a little a lot

I use information that I get from PersonalComputer World in choosing PCs to purchase ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3 ❑ 4 ❑ 5

I use information that I get fromPERSONAL COMPUTER WORLDin purchasing peripherals/components ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3 ❑ 4 ❑ 5

PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD’s reviews helpme choose between brands ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3 ❑ 4 ❑ 5

The main value of PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLDis in the editorial information ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3 ❑ 4 ❑ 5

The main value of PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD

is in the advertisements ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3 ❑ 4 ❑ 5

I value both the editorial and the advertisements ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3 ❑ 4 ❑ 5

The new look in this issue is a big improvement ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3 ❑ 4 ❑ 5

It is much easier to find things in the new layout ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3 ❑ 4 ❑ 5

The new look PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLDis much easier to read ❑ 1 ❑ 2 ❑ 3 ❑ 4 ❑ 5

If you could change one thing about the new look Personal Computer World, what would it be?

20

21

22

23

About how many people does your company employ?

Less than ten ❑ 1

10 - 49 ❑ 2

50 - 99 ❑ 3

100 - 199 ❑ 4

200 - 499 ❑ 5

500 or more ❑ 6

What type of work does your company do? (Please tick the oneitem that best describes your company’s work.)

Civil Engineering/Construction ❑ 1

Computers/Information technology ❑ 2

Defence ❑ 3

Education ❑ 4

Energy (Oil, gas, electricity) ❑ 5

Finance/Banking/Insurance ❑ 6

Government/public services ❑ 7

Industry/industrial engineering/manufacturing ❑ 8

Law/Accountancy/Management consultancy ❑ 9

Media ❑ 10

Medical/pharmaceutical ❑ 11

Retail and distribution ❑ 12

Telecommunications ❑ 13

Travel ❑ 14

Other (please specify) ❑ 15

Which of the following areas do you get involved in?

General Management ❑ 1

Sales & Marketing ❑ 2

Finance ❑ 3

Production ❑ 4

Information Technology/Networks/Communications ❑ 5

Research and Development/Corporate Planning ❑ 6

Customer service ❑ 7

Other (please write on the line below) ❑ 8

When your company buys computers are these purchased retailor direct? (Please tick all that apply.)

Retail ❑ 1

Direct from manufacturer ❑ 2

Direct from reseller ❑ 3

PC dealers ❑ 4

Via consultant ❑ 5

Other (please write in) ❑ 6

16 18

19

17


Do you ever retain features or reviews from PERSONALCOMPUTER WORLD for future reference on products or prices?

Yes ❑ 1 Please answer Q24b

No ❑ 2 Please skip to Q25

About how often do you do so?

Every issue ❑ 1

Most issues ❑ 2

Only occasionally ❑ 3

Do you ever retain advertisements from PERSONALCOMPUTER WORLD for future reference on products or prices?



About how often do you do so?

Every issue ❑ 1

Most issues ❑ 2

Only occasionally ❑ 3

Have you ever made an enquiry or bought something as a resultof an advertisement in PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD?

Yes ❑ 1 No ❑ 2

Which of these other computer magazines have you read orreferred to in the past six months?

Which do you find gives you the most useful information thatyou can use in making buying decisions?

a/ read b/ findmost useful

Computer Buyer ❑ 1 ❑ 1

Computer Shopper ❑ 2 ❑ 2

ComputerAct!ve ❑ 3 ❑ 3

Computing ❑ 4 ❑ 4

Information Week ❑ 5 ❑ 5

IT Week ❑ 6 ❑ 6

PC Advisor ❑ 7 ❑ 7

PC Direct ❑ 8 ❑ 8

PC Magazine ❑ 9 ❑ 9

PC Plus ❑ 10 ❑ 10

PC Pro ❑ 11 ❑ 11

PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD ❑ 12 ❑ 12

What PC? And Software ❑ 13 ❑ 13

Do you ever retain features or reviews in computermagazines other than PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD?

Yes ❑ 1 No ❑ 2

Do you ever retain advertisements in computer magazinesother than PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD?

Yes ❑ 1 No ❑ 2

Have you ever made an enquiry or bought something as a resultof an advertisement in another computer magazine?

Yes ❑ 1 No ❑ 2

Have you ever made an enquiry or bought something as a resultof an advertisement in the national or business press?



Which newspaper/magazine was this? (Please specify

AND FINALLY

How old are you?

Under 25 ❑ 1

25 - 34 ❑ 2

35 - 44 ❑ 3

45 - 54 ❑ 4

55 - 64 ❑ 5

65+ ❑ 6

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP

Your reply will be treated in the strictest confidence and analysed instatistical form only. However, if you want to take part in the prize drawto win £200 worth of Eurostar vouchers, please fill in yourname and address in the space below.

Name: ____________________________________________________

Address: __________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________

Please return this questionnaire to:

PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD SURVEY,c/o NSM, FREEPOST, Oxford OX2 7BR

YOU DO NOT NEED A STAMP

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Your word is their command


SPEECH RECOGNITION PROGRAMS

ARE BECOMING SO CLEVER, THEY

CAN NOW UNDERSTAND EVEN

THE MOST ARTICULATELY-

CHALLENGED OF USERS. ROGER

GANN AND ADELE DYER TESTED

THE LISTENING ABILITIES OF

THE LATEST LEADING PRODUCTS.


Features to look for in voice recognition software ±A standard dictionaryof around 30,000words and a back-updictionary of up to260,000 words.±Most packages letyou add up to 64,000of your own words, or

to add specialistdictionaries — a legalone, for example. ±You can dictateinto a WordPad-likeenvironment, variousversions of Word orWordPerfect, or any

Windows application. ±Correction facilities:these need to beseamless if you don’twant to spend moretime correcting textthan dictating it.±Command and

control facilities forformatting text andmanaging applications.±Some packages letyou set up macros forrepetitive tasks.±Most packages havetext-to-speech facilities:

they can read backwhat you said, orsynthesise speechfrom text importedinto the program. ±The majority ofpackages let you enrollmore than one user.

Most peoplecan type atonly 40words aminute, butcan talk at200 wordsa minute

THE DAYS WHEN you had tospeak in staccato dalek tonesto your computer as if you toowere a machine, are long gone.Continuous-speech productslet you talk naturally, if slowlyand carefully, to your PC. The

obvious advantage of this is that it is faster. Mostpeople can type at only 40 words a minute at best,but they can talk at 200 words a minute. Mostcontinuous-speech recognition systems make itpossible to dictate up to 140 words a minutewhen the system is fully trained. Even if youfactor-in the time it takes to correct the dictatedtext, you can still input text faster than you cantype. The downside is that continuous speechproducts are extremely power hungry. Theirdevelopment has been delayed as much by thelack of sufficiently powerful processors in officeand home PCs, as by the difficulties of coding.

Dragon SystemsNaturallySpeaking Preferred The latest release of Dragon Systems’ Naturally-Speaking is available in four different versions,all supplied with a noise-cancelling microphoneheadset. The Standard, Preferred, Professionaland Point & Speak versions feature Dragon’s newBestMatch technology, which boasts improvedrecognition accuracy and support for naturallanguage commands in Word 97. This technologyrecognises commands even if you phrase them indifferent ways. All versions have an activevocabulary of 62,000 words and space for afurther 54,000 user-added words.

All versions offer integration with both Word 97 and WordPerfect 8, which is goodnews, although support for WordPro as wellwould have been even better. You can dictatedirectly into pretty much any other Windowsapplications, too. Dragon’s entry-levelcontinuous speech package, Point & Speak, sellsfor £50; it only lets you correct mistakes using thekeyboard, not your voice, however. The Preferredand Professional versions allow you to storedictation on a MiniDisc for later processing — anoption dubbed NaturallyMobile. They also offertext-to-speech synthesis and audio playback ofwords dictated.

Installation follows the usual well-troddenpath, with wizards leading you through the audioset-up and then the voice enrolment. This is atwo-stage process: a short initial calibration isfollowed by a 30-minute spell of reading outloud. Fortunately, you are given a choice of


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sample scripts to read out, one of which is a ratheramusing view of computers and Comdex.Crunching the voice data took less than 15minutes, so the whole enrolment process iscommendably swift, and there are some helpfulmultimedia clips, too,showing how to use theprogram all the waythrough. As in IBM’sViaVoice 98, there areseveral ways to get yourwords on to the screen.One method is via aWordPad lookalike,which you can dictate into, and then copy thewords across or save as a text or RTF file. You canalso configure the program from here.Alternatively, you can fire-up Word 97 or WordPerfect 8. If you’re using Word,an extra menu item appears, from which youselect NaturalWord, which takes just a fewseconds to load. An extra toolbar containing the NaturallySpeaking buttons is then appendedto your toolbar.

Once NaturallySpeaking is loaded, a speechbubble on the taskbar indicates whether youcan dictate into the current active application,and a little microphone icon shows whether themike is switched on or off. We testedNaturallySpeaking after only 30 minutes oftraining, and initial results were impressive. Notonly did it post a low rate of mistakes whencompared to ViaVoice 98 and FreeSpeech98, butit also registered words noticeably faster than itsrivals. As you talk, a small yellow speech bubbleappears next to the cursor, and you can check

your words herebefore they aretransferred to yourapplication. And youdon’t have to stopdictating when you wantto edit or makecorrections. If you makea mistake, you just say“Scratch that”, to deletethe last thing you said.You can also select wordsand navigate throughoutyour document simply bysaying them. ThePreferred version has avocabulary of 42,000words which you canbump up to 230,000,although you may have toincrease your memorysubstantially to supportthis many. In the same way

as ViaVoice, NaturallySpeaking has a vocabularybuilder which searches text files, to look upunusual words to add to your vocabulary. Addingspecial words is particularly easy: all you do ispoint NaturallySpeaking at a list of words —

such as Word 97’sCUSTOM.DIC file —and the programprocesses most wordsautomatically, so youdon’t have to say them.Even so, it can’t copewith all words —FDISK, for example.

NaturallySpeaking Preferred, however, isn’t quiteas clever as ViaVoice 98. It won’t automaticallyformat numbers and telephone numbers — youhave to say “Pound sign 45” to get £45. DragonSystems still uses its clunky MouseGrid methodof manoeuvring your mouse. And a controlcentre on permanent display would be helpful.

NaturallySpeaking★★★★Price £149 (£126.81 exc VAT)Contact Dragon Systems UK 01242 678575www.dragonsystems.comSystem Requirements Windows 95, NT 4,P133MHz, 60Mb hard-disk space, 40Mb to saverecorded speech, 15Mb to install text-to-speech,32Mb RAM. Good Points Fast, good level of accuracy, easy touse, short enrolment. Bad Points Not as sophisticated as ViaVoice 98. Conclusion On a par with ViaVoice 98 for overallaccuracy, but with a noticeable speed advantage.

PCW DETAILS

¿NATURALLYSPEAKING

INTEGRATES WITH

WORD 97, APPENDING

ITSELF TO THE MENU

Adding special words iseasy: you point Naturally-Speaking at a list of wordsand the program processesmost words automatically

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IBM ViaVoice 98 Executive Both the £140 Executive Edition and the £50Home Edition of ViaVoice 98 have the same 32-bit recognition engine and support continuousspeech recognition. They also offer directdictation into Word 97 and the IBM WordPadlookalike, SpeakPad. ViaVoice 98 offers a naturallanguage command for Word 97, too. It has a56,000 word vocabulary and can absorb a further64,000 manually-added words.

New to this release of ViaVoice 98 is the abilityto automatically recognise and format numbers,dates, times and prices. The Executive versionalso enables you to dictate into most Windowsapplications, and features full system-widecommand and control. As a bonus, you also geta specialised vocabulary, Legal Topic.

Installing the package is very simple. Onlinehelp is of a high order and you get usefulmultimedia demonstrations. On launching thesoftware for the first time, you have to set upthe microphone and the audio levels. Then athree-minute wizard establishes you as a user byprompting you to say a few words and sentences,and by building a personal profile. At this point,your computer is ready to start listening.

Initially, enrolment consists of dictating100 sentences, which takes less than 20 minutes.However, accuracy won’t be very good until youcomplete the full enrolment of 476 sentences,which takes about an hour and a quarter: andit takes another hour or two for the program tocrunch that data. Although the program is statedto run on a Pentium 166MMX, it ran quite slowlyon a non-MMX P166 with 48Mb, so you might

consider a P200 as a more realistic entry level.ViaVoice 98 Executive comes bundled with theAndrea NC80 microphone. This is a rather basicheadset, and the microphone was a littlereluctant to stay adjusted.

In theory, ViaVoice 98 is backwardly compatiblewith the previous version. However, when I triedupgrading my two ViaVoice installations on aWindows 98 and a Windows NT 4 PC, the programwouldn’t even load. The package offers theoption of migrating previous enrolments, but Iwas unable to do this. IBM’s technical supportsuggested hacking the registry to expunge alltrace of previous installations, which is something

the software should have handled automatically.But, in practice, losing previous enrolments isn’ta big problem, because the latest version samplesat 22KHz, twice the speed of the previous version.As a result, migrated previous enrolments will bedistinctly lo-fi and less accurate.

ViaVoice 98 presents a clean, simple interface.The VoiceCenter Taskbar, which sits at the topof the screen, displays the user’s name, a simple

How does speech recognition work? All speech recognitionpackages work inthe same way. Amicrophone picks upthe sound of your voiceand then feeds theanalogue sounds backto your sound card. Thebetter the microphone,the more backgroundnoise it will filter out,increasing the chancesof the word beingrecognised accurately.Minimum soundrequirement is a good16-bit sound card – thesound chips in many

notebooks simply aren’tgood enough. The sound iscompared to adatabase of soundsstored on the system.Whole words are notidentified immediately,but are broken up intotheir constituent parts,or phonemes — Englishhas about 80 phonemesfrom which all wordsare constructed.Phonemes are analysedindividually, then ingroups, and finally aswords, to make sure a

correct identificationhas been made. Thisstatistical analysiseliminates variouspossibilities accordingto the likelihood ofone phoneme followinganother and makingup a word. Most packages workwith a number ofpre-recorded sets ofphonemes. They willask you to identifyyourself as either maleor female and over orunder 16. From this –and from the analysis

of words recordedduring the trainingsession – the systemdecides which set ofphonemes it will use. Language modellingis also used tosecond-guess whatthe word might beaccording to where itcomes in the sentence.Finally, contextualmodelling looksat the words insequences to findthe right match.For example, thesystem might decide

whether it is “to”, “two”or “too”, depending onthe words before andafter it – for example,“walk to London”,“walk two miles” or“walk too far”.The majority ofpackages can carryout contextualmodelling on onlythree words at atime. But as processorpower increases, theywill be able to carry outgrammatical analysisof full sentences, andso improve accuracy.

¿WITH VIAVOICE

98 YOU CAN DICTATE

TO ANY WINDOWS

APPLICATION


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microphone on/off button, a volume metre and aViaVoice menu button. With the mike active, yousimply say “Dictate to word”: Word 97 is thenloaded and you can start dictating.

IBM has always loved its totally arcane errormessages and has continued to uphold traditionin the case of ViaVoice 98. Whenever a problemcrops up, you receive an incomprehensible andthoroughly unhelpful message, along the lines of“SMAPI RC=60”.

ViaVoice 98 is modeless — in other words, youcan mix dictated text and commands. All youhave to do is make a slight pause, and ViaVoice 98knows that your next word is a command ratherthan text. This can take some getting used to, asmost people do not dictate in one fluid stream. If you’re not sure what commands are available, a“What can I say?” command conjures up a longlist for you to browse through. Easy navigating isone of ViaVoice 98’s strong points.

The way you correct the dictated text is a bigimprovement on earlier releases of ViaVoice.You can opt to have a correction windowpermanently on display, and when you speakthe words you want to correct, or double-clickon them, they will appear in the window. You then

listen to the words, and either dictate them again,or select from a list of alternative suggestions inthe window. These words can be added to theprogram’s vocabulary automatically. As before,ViaVoice 98 allows you to analyse documents topick out words that aren’t in its vocabulary.

Like NaturallySpeaking, ViaVoice 98 Executiveincludes a text-to-speech synthesiser which canread a document back to you. The voice is fine,but Robbie the Robot has the edge on it.

ViaVoice 98 Executive★★★★Price £140 (£119.49 exc VAT)Contact IBM Speech Systems 01705 492249www.software.ibm.comSystem Requirements Windows 95, 98 or NT4. P166MMX, 256Kb L2 cache, 180Mb hard-diskspace, 32Mb RAM with 95/98 (48Mb with Word97), 48Mb RAM with NT 4 (64Mb with Word 97).Good Points Many new features, high degree ofaccuracy, very easy to use. Bad Points Upgrade feature doesn’t work.Conclusion Offers state-of-the-art recognition rates.Once IBM sorts out the migration issues, it will be atough choice between this and NaturallySpeaking 3.0.

PCW DETAILS

Voice XPress PlusSystem Requirements Windows 98, 95 or NT 4,P166MMX, 40Mb RAM (98/95), 48Mb RAM(NT 4), 130Mb hard-disk space.

Lernout and Hauspie Voice XPress PlusAt the time of writing, the UK version of VoiceXPress Plus was not available. Lernout andHauspie was unwilling to let PCW loose on the US version, and insisted on demonstrating it tous. Hence, we didn’t get the chance to test it asthoroughly as we would have liked.

The UK version of Voice XPress Plus, whichlets you dictate straight into Word 7 and Word97, will be in the shops by mid-September. Thisversion will be followed soon afterwards by VoiceXPress Pro, which allows you to dictate into anyWindows application. When you first load thepackage, it puts 30,000 words into active memoryand stores a further 230,000 words on the hard

disk. Using a PII 233with 128Mb RAM — amuch more powerfulmachine than theone we used to testthe other packages —enrolment took afull 50 minutes andprocessing that datatook 41 minutes.After enrolment,the recognition rateseemed good — about90 percent accurate

PPICK THE COMMAND

YOU WANT TO USE

FROM A LIST

when speaking quiteslowly. When we

stepped up the pace, it was able to catch a good80 percent accurately. As the demonstration wasquite short, we could not see how much it wouldimprove over time. Even in the short time we hadto evaluate Voice XPress Plus, it did not appear tobe as well thought out as other packages. Forexample, you still needed to swap from dictationmode to command mode, in order to format text,and some of the correction methods seemedunnecessarily cumbersome.

HTEACH VOICE

XPRESS PLUS NEW

WORDS

PCW DETAILS


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Philips FreeSpeech98Philips has been a significant player in the verticaldictation markets for some time, andFreeSpeech98 is its first venture in the general-purpose speech recognition market. This is a well-specified début: it’s a continuous speech packagewhich allows you to dictate text straight into mostapplications — not just Word 97 or a WordPadlookalike. It can also function as a command andcontrol package, so you can navigate Windows 98without having to go near the keyboard.Unusually, FreeSpeech98 is available as a 30Mbdownload from the Philips web site,www.freespace.com. This is a time-limited version,though, restricted to just seven days.

Another novelty is that FreeSpeech98 is beingsold over the internet and won’t be available asa retail product. This means, of course, there’sno bundled microphone headset or printeddocumentation, apart from a 45-page manualin Word format, which you can print out. Atpresent, only the US English version is availablefor download, and this can be registered for a veryreasonable $39 (£24). International versions willbe available later this year. However, I had no

problem using the US version with mystrongish south London twang. It includes a200,000-word lexicon derived from the OxfordUniversity Press dictionary.

Installation is extremely simple, and onceit’s complete, Philips says you should dictatea minimum of 15 minutes of speech for theprogram to get a handle on the way you speak.But if you want it to do a proper job, then youwill need to speak for a further 60 minutes orso. The enrolment process is quite smooth, solong as everything is recognised and there is noneed to click on anything. You are given a

choice of reading material, which is welcome.Once installed, FreeSpeech98 appears as ataskbar at the top of the screen. A green or redtraffic light indicates whether you can dictatedirectly into the current active application.

For a £24 program, FreeSpeech98 workedsurprisingly well. Making corrections is a littleawkward, as you can’t play back the sound ofthe word at the same time as you correct it.Even so, it’s simple to use and, with practice,its accuracy is impressive.

Our final word on the subjectPicking the best ofthese products isnot easy. Philips hasentered the consumerend of the speechsoftware marketwith some style. ItsFreeSpeech98 is anunpretentious product,at once cheap and wellspecified. On top ofthat, it delivers highlevels of accuracy.However, the absenceof a microphoneheadset, a devicecritical to the success

of voice recognitionproducts, could deterthe casual home buyer.The latest version ofViaVoice offers a listof improvementsover its predecessor.As well as having a verylarge active vocabulary,it also has some nicetouches, such asnatural formatting ofdates and numbers. Itallows you to switchfrom dictation tonavigation by merelypausing slightly, which

is very clever. Above all,though, it offers state-of-the-art recognitionrates. Once IBM sortsout the migrationissues, the productshould give Naturally-Speaking 3.0 sometough competition. While ViaVoice 98 andNaturallySpeaking3.0 run pretty muchneck and neck in theoverall accuracystakes, the latteroffers a noticeablespeed advantage.

And the legion ofWordPerfect 8 userswill obviously prefer it.Hence, Naturally-Speaking 3.0 is ourEditor’s Choice. The packages wehave reviewed areonly the beginning.Still to come areadvances such as thegrammatical analysis,or parsing, of wholesentences, data miningand audio indexing,which will let you pickout a word or phrase

from a long passage ofdictated sound. In the next few yearswe will be able tospeak to all kinds ofdevices, not just PCs.So, you’ll be able toprogram the video andthe washing machine,control the temperaturein your home, andwrite a letter on yourPDA, all throughspoken commands. For more on thisbrave, new world,see Futures, p238.

★★★Price $39 (£24; £20.43 ex VAT) registration feeContact Philips Speech Processing 01206 755555Good Points Simple interface, easy to use, wellspecified, good accuracy.Bad Points There’s no documentation and nobundled headset.Conclusion An unpretentious package that ischeap, well specified, and delivers high levels ofaccuracy. The absence of a microphone headset is anuisance and could deter the casual home-buyer.

PCW DETAILS

H YOU CAN DICTATE

INTO MOST APPS

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THE PARTNERSHIP

BETWEEN HIGH-

PROFILE TECHNOLOGY

SUPPLIERS AND CAR

MAKERS HAS BECOME

THE UNSEEN DRIVING

FORCE BEHIND THE

GLAMOROUS SPORT

OF MOTOR RACING.

PAUL TRUEMAN

TRACKS THE CHANGES

IT’s winnin

Racing cars


IF YOU STOPPED THE AVERAGE MAN inthe street and asked him to name themost important contributors to aFormula One team’s success, he’dprobably say the driver, the enginemanufacturers, and possibly the tyresuppliers. Chances are, though, that

he’d forget the other most important factor increating a winning team – bleeding-edgetechnology supplied for next to nothing, in somecases, by global IT brands.

Over the last ten years, IT has transformednearly every aspect of Formula One racing. Somechanges are well known, such as the conceptionand design of components on CAD/CAMworkstations. Others have been less widely feted,like the ability to race hundreds of additionalpractice laps over a Grand Prix weekend from thecomfort of a team’s R&D lab thousands of milesaway from the track.

¿THE MERCEDES,MCLAREN’S CAR,DOMINANT AT THE

START OF THIS YEAR’SF1 CHAMPIONSHIPQTHE RACE DESIGN

TEAMS USE CAD TO

MODEL THEIR CARS

g formulaThirty years ago, you might well have found

legendary racers like Stirling Moss and Fangiounderneath their cars minutes before the race,tinkering with the front axle. After all, who elsewas as familiar with the car? But 30 years ago,Moss won the British Grand Prix with an averageflat-out speed of 87mph. Nowadays, driversrarely take corners atless than 110mph.

Long-establishedteams like McLarenstarted using CAD inthe late 1980s.Nowadays, for newteams on the block, such as Stewart (formerworld champion Jackie Stewart’s fledgling team),the drawing-board is no longer an option.

Stewart’s engineers work in partnership withHewlett-Packard and use its K-Classworkstations running CAD software supplied

Long-established teamslike McLaren startedusing CAD in the 1980s


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by Unigraphics Solutions. Using HP’s 64-bitRISC 8000 processor, along with an average1.5Gb of RAM and 17Gb hard drives, theseprocessing monsters are worth around £35,000.In a relatively modest team like Stewart, tendesigners specialise in areas such asaerodynamics, suspension, chassis andtransmission, and another ten all-roundersprovide the specialists with back-up if they needit. Communication is essential and the AssemblyNavigation Tool in the Unigraphics CADsoftware gives them communal use of virtualspace, creating the file structure that linkstogether the relevant design sections. All theindividual design schemes are visible on thesystem from day one, and as the designers fill inthe details, the car gradually takes shape.

HP HAS THE STRONGEST LINKS inFormula One with the Jordan team,supplying all its research and racinghardware. Fully integrated

CAD/CAM enables Jordan’s designers to modeltheir components using an application calledIdeas from SDRC Technology. This not onlyallows full 3D modelling of the finishedcomponent, but can also generate machining on the CNC tool-cutting machinery on thefactory floor. Engineers can decide whether to goahead with the manufacturing process after theyhave run Finite Element Analysis software, whichtests the component as a moving part in the carand subjects it to stress tests. If it performs well,cutting paths are designated according to the 3D model. Depending on the complexity of thedesign, a prototype can be produced the sameday, and engineers can hold a component drawnup on the screen in the palm of their hand withina few hours of finishing the design. In a sportwhere designs for the next season’s car are begunwell before the end of the present one, such speed is crucial.

Probably the most processor-intensive CADtask is Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD).CFD simulates on screen the way a fully modelled3D car will respond on the track, acting as avirtual wind tunnel. The Stewart designers alsotest a less than half-scale model of their 1998 car,the SF2, in their tunnel in San Clemente,California. Equipped with a rolling road, thetunnel can produce speeds of up to 140mph, andthe Stewart team spent 1,300 hours in itdesigning their first car, the SF1. All the designteams use CFD in tandem with real wind tunnelsbecause it is less expensive and time-consumingthan physical testing.

“Aerodynamics is probably the single biggestdifferentiator between the teams, given that weall have pretty similar engines,” says DaveMorgan, the HP racing IT specialist who workson a full-time loan basis with Jordan. “If you

consider that a difference of 8-10 horsepower is a significant amount, but that you would needthat much just to make roughly a 1/10th seconddifference in lap times, you see how important itis to airflow-test the cars so thoroughly.”

Using CFD, the Jordan engineers “pressure-tap” the car to diagnose the aerodynamic flowsover it. Components are designed and modelledusing the Ideas package, and then machined tothe 40% size that Jordan uses for its wind-tunnelcar. Morgan says: “At the moment, there is onlyso far you can go on the screen.”

With several gigabytes of RAM, quadrupleprocessors and a 60Gb hard drive, if you were tobuy the V-Class server from HP you would needaround £250,000 in the bank. But as well as thejaw-dropping specifications of the systems usedin the conception of these cars, you still needsensors to measure their performance on thetrack. “There are only about 100 factors andcomponents on the car that you can measureduring a lap,” says Gary Morgan, the HPspecialist working with Jordan. “But from the rawdata the sensors produce, we can calculate andextrapolate up to three thousand values.”

THE SENSORS MEASURE EVERYTHING

from engine temperature to the heightof the chassis off the road and thepressure on the car’s suspension.

“Fundamental values are those like thetemperature of your engine oil, fuel temperature,and pressures on the gearbox and brakes,”explains John Digby, head of research anddevelopment for the Stewart team. “There arenumerous strain gauges on the car, feeding usraw data all the time. We use both linear and

Engineerscan hold aprototype intheir handwithin hoursof designingthe car on screen

¿IT IS RARE FOR F1DRIVERS TO TAKE

CORNERS AT LESS THAN

110MPH IN A RACE

¿SENSORS ALL OVER

THE CAR RELAY

INFORMATION BACK TO

ENGINEERS IN THE PITS


rotational potentiometers to convert themechanical movement into an electronic signalthat the car can transmit.”

There are three ways the engineers can gettheir hands on the data being gathered by the on-car sensors: real-time telemetry (RTT) thattransmits data constantly between car and pitsduring the race; burst telemetry that dumps alarger amount of information at a set point onthe track, usually as the car passes the pits; andin-car data acquisition that is downloaded afterthe race by connecting a landline to the car.

THE STEWART TEAM MONITORS 32 RTTchannels on a constant UHF radio linkfrom the car to a receptor on the pit wall.“Most of those channels are dedicated to

sending data from certain sensors,” explainsDigby. “But there are a few that we can reconfigureduring the race, should the data we receive indicatea particular problem.” In recent years, FIA(Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile),Formula One’s governing body, has taken steps toreverse the progress made in the communicationstechnology. Three years ago itoutlawed “active suspension”, thepractice of using UHF radio signalsduring the race to alter the car forevery bend of the track. It wasthought that this would give teamswith the most advanced comms set-up an unfair advantage overother teams. Now UHF can only be aone-way car-receptor, and the carcan only be reprogrammed until thelast qualifying lap, using a land-line.There are other restrictions on UHF:teams transmitting on high frequencies need toapply for a licence for each race, and theirfrequencies must be nowhere near those used bythe various countries’ emergency services.

Trackside teams usually have two engineersmonitoring the RTT and burst transfer data.

How do they do that?On each lap, as thetwo Stewart cars passthe pits, their carsdump 50 microwaveradio channels of data acquired duringthe lap, 32 of whichhave the sameconfiguration as those monitored inreal-time, with anadditional 18 channelsmeasuring whatever

else the engineersdeem important. Once transmitted intothe pits, there are avariety of ways totransfer the data. The Jordan pits have a10Mbit/sec IR linkfrom the receptor dishon the pit wall to theirtwo NT servers, andthese then pass on thedata to the engineers

via a Cat5 cabling linkusing an Ethernet10BaseT 10Mbit/secconnection. Jordanused to run a Unix OSon their pit system,but the telemetrysoftware from Tagrequires Microsoft’sNT platform. Apartfrom the two HPKayak high-endservers running NT in

the pits, there are fourPCs used to analysethe data, as well as 20notebooks on-site for

race analysis and NTworkstations withP233 processors and128Mb RAM.

¡THE DRIVERS ARE THE

FOCUS OF ATTENTION,BUT THEY DON’T WIN

RACES ON THEIR OWN

¡F1 PIT TEAMS ARE

FIERCELY COMPETITIVE

WITH ONE ANOTHER

They do not have the time during a race to domuch more than monitor the car, and theimportance of RTT was borne out to dramaticeffect in the fourth race of the season in SanMarino this year. Leading at the halfway stage bynearly 25 seconds, David Coulthard looked in no

danger from the chasing MichaelSchumacher. From lap 40 though,Coulthard’s lead was graduallyeroded and commentatorsassumed that McLaren’s teamdirector, Ron Dennis, was lookingworried because of a probablebrake problem. What no-oneoutside the McLaren pits couldhave known was that Dennis hadinstructed Coulthard to slow downbecause telemetry revealed that hisoil cooling system was

malfunctioning due to debris build-up. Withoutthat knowledge Coulthard would have lost therace; in fact, he won by four and a half seconds.

The off-site resources of a race team featureincreasingly heavily during a race weekend. In thedays before the race, the teams are usually

Aerodynamicsis probablythe singlebiggestdifferentiatorbetween theFormula Oneracing cars

Solution providersHewlett-Packard’srelationship withJordan is a neatexample of an ITphenomenon –solution-based selling.The term “solutionprovider” describescompanies that supplynot only the computer

hardware, but thesupport infrastructureas well. HP’spartnership withJordan began in 1995,and HP spent thefollowing seasontransforming the waythe team worked, frominstalling Jordan’s firstinternal email system

to supplying thehardware neededto design and runthe cars, as wellas an on-site ITspecialist. Jordan not only needs thetechnology, but also theguaranteed 24-hour, 365-days-a-yeartechnicalsupport.

“It’s notmerely

about box-shifting,”says HP’s Geoff Banks.“It’s what happenswhen it goes wrong,and in a Formula Oneyear you can never takeyour eye off the ball.”But what’s really in itfor HP? People oftentalk about the benefitsof Formula Onesponsorship, withlogos being seen bymillions, but in effectthat’s just the icing onthe cake. It would benaïve to think that acompany would pourup to £10 million aseason into a racingteam, simply for asmall logo on the sideof a car that whizzes bypotential customers atup to 200mph. Formula One is a greatadvertisement forthese IT companies initself. Glamourous andexciting, it is also themost technologicallydemanding sport inthe world. And not

only does HP get thechance to invite top-level corporate typesto schmooze the raceaway; it also gets tostrengthen ties andangle for deals with theother sponsors of theirrace team. HP is keento stress that, withJordan at least, it is notin it for the money.Gary Morgan, Jordan’s on-site IT specialistfrom HP, says: “We’renot there to make aprofit or loss fromJordan. The teamreceives a value fromus in terms of

hardware and support,and they give us a valueback in terms ofhospitality and PR.” Jamie Snowdon, anindustry analyst forInput, says: “How canyou get a sexierexample of your abilityto provide globalround-the-clockservice thansupporting a FormulaOne racing team that moves base everytwo weeks?”

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Racing cars

allowed just an hour or two on the track tocalculate their final settings and adjustments forthe race, with strict FIA limits on the number ofpractice laps allowed. But by taking advantage ofboth the telemetry and telecommunicationstechnology at their disposal, the race teams areable to sidestep the regulations and race as manylaps as they deem necessary. The Jordan tracksideteam transmit their telemetry to their researchfacility located at their factory near Silverstone,from which the team of research engineers therecan set up an exact model of the car and track.

“You can never really predict the comms setupavailable to you at the track until you get there.We use a variety of comms, from GSM mobilephones to ISDN, and even standard phone lines,”says Morgan. “We send large megabyte files downthe lines, but it’s the luck of the draw as to howadvanced a country’s telecom carrier is.”

A full-size model of the Jordan car is put onthe simulation rig in the labs, with the engine,suspension and chassis settings replicated usingthe telemetry gained from the practice laps. The

track is defined by the suspension data receivedfrom the drivers’ best lap times, and the tyresreplaced by servo-mechanisms that replicate thebumps and track surface. Four servos are alsoplaced over the car to simulate the downforceoperating on it during the race. Engineers tweakthe settings until they arrive at the optimumsettings, then transmit the configuration to theteam at the track, who analyse the data and alterthe cars’ settings accordingly.

For all the influence on the sport of thefantastic technology at the disposal of the teams,it is still the drivers and their skill that will ensurethe future of Formula One. FIA has shown itscommitment to keeping the sport competitive by outlawing technology that might be seen toreplace driving skill. It seems safe to assume thatthe sport will continue to strike the right balancebetween automation and individual brilliance,because the governing body knows that it isn’tthe hardware on display that millions continueto tune in for, but the drivers who risk their necksevery fortnight. ❑

¿PART OF THE

SPONSORSHIP APPEAL

FOR COMPANIES IS THE

GLAMOUR OF F1

¿HIGH-END

WORKSTATIONS ARE

USED TO CREATE THE

3D MODELS


¿HP NOT ONLY

GUARANTEES HARDWARE

BUT ALSO SUPPORT

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Power packs


The processor wars have reached new heights with the entry of AMD’s K6-2 3Dand Intel’s 300MHz Celeron processors — both of which are aimed at thesub-£1000 market. In our August PC group test, AMD made its presence felt

in the budget market with the attractively priced K6 266MHz processor. In fact, asystem powered by an AMD chip won our Editor’s Choice award against stiffcompetition from Intel and Cyrix.

AMD’s new product is a little different from its previous x86 processors. For thefirst time AMD has managed to steal a march on Intel with the introduction of theK6-2 300MHz processor, which has new instructions to help accelerate 3D functionsin CAD applications and games. The downside is that, just like Intel’s MMXinstructions, the applications must be specifically written to take advantage of the 3DNow! instruction set. Moreover, the drivers of the various graphics cards need to berewritten to take advantage of the processor’s new capabilities. At the time of goingto press, in our group test only video cards based on the nVidia’s Riva 128 chipsethad fully optimised drivers for the K6-2 3D. However, other graphics boardmanufacturers, including S3, ATI and Matrox, have promised to deliver compatibledrivers in the near future.

In sharp contrast to the K6-2 3D,industry reception to Intel’s low-costCeleron processor has at best been mixed.The Celeron faced a barrage of criticism forits lack of on-chip cache, which meant aconsiderable decrease in performance. Ourprevious tests seemed to prove this claim,with the comparably priced AMD systemscoming out well ahead. Perhaps stung bythe adverse reception accorded to theCeleron, Intel has brought forward thelaunch of its next processor in the Celeronseries, codenamed Mendocino. This willhave some cache and is expected toperform better than its predecessor. For afull review of the first of these systems, seeour Reviews section, starting on page 78.

For this test we have specified systemsaimed at mid-range users who have an eyefor a bargain but also want a reasonableamount of power. So we asked for 64MbRAM, at least a 4Gb hard drive, 17in monitor, sound card, speakers and a 4Mb video card.

The chips are down as AMD and Intel go head to head in thisconfrontation between new K6 and Celeron 300MHz chips.These ten top PCs offer a fair amount of power for a fair price.

Contents177 Actinet Netrunner177 Carrera PowerMedia

K6-2.300180 Dabs Direct CE300180 Elonex MCX-6300AX181 KT Star 3D Power181 Mertec Home Media187 Mesh K6 3D 300A187 Panrix Nitro 3D190 Protek Ultra190 Roldec Pro 2185 Lab report:

K6-2 3D Now! v. Celeron188 Performance results194 Table of features196 Editor’s Choice

PCs tested and reviewed by Ajith Ram.


Sporting a 300MHz Celeronprocessor, the Actinet Netrunner isimpeccably configured. The Netrunneris one of the few systems not to comewith a large number of programsrunning in the background. And thistidy software installation is

complimented by the efforttaken toconfigurethehardware.

With mostof the

cables kept

well out of the way, the internalcomponents are easy to reach forupgrading. The ATX case is wellventilated.Like the Mertec Home Media, theActinet system is immenselyupgradeable. Built on the foundationof an Abit BX motherboard, theNetrunner can easily hold a fasterprocessor from Intel or Cyrix. In fact, itcan house many of the upcomingprocessors which go beyond 450MHz.The 64Mb RAM comes in a singlemodule, leaving three DIMM slots free.In addition to the four free PCI slots, ithas one 3.5in and two 5.25in bays free.The Abit motherboard is one of the

best choices for compulsiveoverclockers. It offers the optionof changing your processor speedthrough the CPU SoftMenu in theBIOS, eliminating the need to

open up the computer. However,proper precautions must be taken

before attempting overclocking.The multimedia side of the Netrunner

is delivered by an AWE 64 sound card,speakers and sub-woofer. Unlike someof the barebone systems in our grouptest, the Netrunner also has a decent

software bundle which includes LotusSmartSuite, IBM Simply Speaking and a multimedia bundle includingCorel Draw.The signal produced by an Intel i740graphics card is reproduced welldisplayed by the 17in ADI 5GTmonitor, which supports a maximumresolution of 1600x1200 at 75Hz.

Actinet Netrunner

Price £1267.62 (£1079 ex VAT)Contact Actinet 01952 270703www.actinet.co.ukGood Points Excellent construction,easily upgradeable.Bad Points Mediocre performance.Conclusion A well-constructed systemlet down by an average performance.

PCW DETAILS

Build Quality ★★★★★Performance ★★Value for Money ★★★Overall Rating ★★★

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The PowerMedia was the secondsystem in our group test to come with aDVD ROM drive. The Panasonic drive

is not the only uniquecomponent in the

system. It alsosports

Matrox’s latest 2D/3D graphicscard, the Millennium G200.Unfortunately the optimised Matroxdrivers for the K6-2 processor were notavailable, and so in the review machineCarrera replaced the Matrox with anATI Xpert@Play card. Carrera plans toship the system with the Matrox cardand optimised drivers. The PowerMedia also comes with1Mb of cache on the Socket 7motherboard. However, it failed toscore as well as the Mesh , the only

other system with 1Mb of L2 cache.This may have been because,

just as on the KT Star 3DPower, the Carrera runsnumerous applications,including Lotus

SmartSuite, in thebackground, which seriously

depletes system resources.Despite its impressive

specifications, the PowerMediaonly achieved an average

SYSMark score of 296. Continuing the trend of being

different from the rest, thePowerMedia comes with a SonicStormPCI sound card which was powerful

enough to handle the output from theDVD. But, like the Mertec system, thespeaker quality is less than ideal. One truly impressive feature of theCarrera system is the LG monitor. Thecontrols are easy to access and colourreproduction is exceptionally good.Able to handle a resolution of1024x768 at 75Hz, its output wasamong the best in our group test.

Carrera PowerMedia K6-2.300

PCW DETAILS

Build Quality ★★★★Performance ★★★Value for Money ★★★★Overall Rating ★★★

Price £1291.33 (£1099 ex VAT)Contact Carrera 0171 830 0486www.carrera.co.ukGood Points Excellent monitor,powerful graphics card, well-built system.Bad Points Poor software installation.Conclusion A potentially powerfulsystem hampered by poor configuration.

POWER PACKS...

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The first thing we noticed about theDabs system built around the Celeronprocessor was its display — there wasnone. We tracked down the source ofthe problem to a loose-fitting ATI

Xpert@Play AGP card. We foundthat the AGP connector was a littletoo small for the slot and had atendency to come loose. Othermanufacturers in our group testavoided this problem by anchoring thevideo card to the side of the ATX case. The Dabs CE300 is the only Celeronsystem to come with cache on themotherboard. Although it provided aslight performance increase, it was notearth shattering. That said, theSYSMark and Final Reality scores of

224 and 3.17 are the highestamong the Celeron

systems.The 64Mb SDRAM

comes in a singlemodule, leaving

two slots free fora maximum of

384Mb unbufferedRAM. Moreover, since

the Dabs CE300 has aBX motherboard andthree free PCI slots, the

upgrade potential is veryhigh. Unfortunately, these

impressive specifications are insharp contrast to the shoddy

construction. In addition to the loosevideo card, the cables hang loose,making access difficult.The 17in ADI 5P monitor is able tosupport a maximum refresh rate of85Hz at a resolution of 1024x768. Itsdisplay is not quite as sharp as thoseon the ADI monitors that come withthe Mesh and Actinet systems.

Dabs Direct CE300

Price £1056.33 (£899 ex VAT)Contact Dabs Direct 0800 558866Good Points Good components,fastest Celeron performance.Bad Points Poor construction,mediocre speakers.Conclusion A well-specified systemundermined by poor build quality.

PCW DETAILS

Build Quality ★★Performance ★★★Value for Money ★★★Overall Rating ★★★

Elonex replaced the original AMDK6-2 machine it gave us, the PT – 6300,with its new MCX-6300AX. Thedifference between the two wasstaggering. The MCX-6300AX is built

around a MicroStar motherboardwhich includes both

on-board videoand on-

boardsound.

The graphics chip is an ATI 3D RagePro on the AGP bus with 4Mb of on-board RAM. The sound comes froma SonicStorm chip on the PCI bus. Allthe other ports come straight off themotherboard, making the inside of thecase one of the cleanest we have seen. The case is easy to dismantle. Takeout the RAM, and the 3.5in bays can bedetached simply by undoing one clip:changing hard drives is a breeze. The 100MHz motherboard, runninghere at just 95MHz, means that

expansion slots are kept to aminimum, with two PCI-

only slots and oneshared PCI/ISA

slot, and one PCIslot filled with a

PCI modem. If yourhabit is to fill your

machine so that it isoverflowing with cards,

you might need a boardwith more expansion

room than this.Furthermore, there is only

one free DIMM slot, and justone free 5.25in bay.

Elonex was the only company toprovide a monitor under thecompany’s own name, but this did nottranslate into a better display.Although sharp at a resolution of1024x768, the controls are difficult tomaster and the maximum refresh rateof 85Hz is not as high as othermonitors here.

Elonex MCX-6300AX

Price £845 (£719.15 ex VAT)Contact Elonex 0181 452 4444www.elonex.co.ukGood Points Compact and well built.Bad Points Little room for upgrading.Conclusion Good price andconfiguration, but will date quickly.

PCW DETAILS

Build Quality ★★★★Performance ★★★Value for Money ★★★Overall Rating ★★★

POWER PACKS...


Despite itsimpressive title, the KT system onlymanaged an average performance.Equipped with AMD’s latest processor,the K6-2, the KT Star 3D Powerachieved a mediocre score of 288 inour SYSMark test compared to theother K6-2 machines. Its Final Realityfigures were equally unimpressive.

Perhaps this average performancewas partly due to the ATI All-In-Wonder Pro, which has a built-in TVtuner but no fully optimised drivers forthe K6-2. There should be aconsiderable improvement inperformance once ATI’s optimised

drivers are installed in the system.Another factor could be the largenumber of applications that run inthe background at start-up, including

Lotus SmartSuite and InternetExplorer. The 3D Power comes in an ATX casethat is smaller and wider than most.The interior of the system is a forest ofwires and cables, and a few of them —particularly the cables running from theCD-ROM and hard drive — are twistedtogether at the very top of the case.This prevents easy access to some ofthe internal components, particularlythe graphics card and heat sink. One nice touch is that the SeagateMedalist hard drive is placed on aspecially built plate, leaving an extra3.5in bay free for upgrading.The Diamond Monster 3Dfx cardincluded with the system might interestgamers as it is a second-generation

card based on the Voodoo chipset.Barring the presence of twisted wires,the system itself is well built and easilyupgradeable.The CTX monitor, which is able tohandle a resolution of 1024x1768 at75Hz, provides bright images at allcolour depths.

Perhaps the tidiest system in our grouptest, the Mertec Home Media came witha Creative Labs DVD ROM rather thanits ubiquitous CD relation. The firstthing we noticed on opening this Celeronsystem was the amount of free spaceinside it: all the cables are neatly clipped

together and taped

well away from the criticalcomponents. Out of the four DIMMslots available, only one was occupied,leaving ample room for upgrading. Evenmore impressive is the BX motherboardwhich houses the Celeron processor.Although the Celeron does not need aBX motherboard, its presence providesreassurance for the future. The buyer caneasily upgrade to one of the faster Intelor Cyrix processors.The Iomega Zip drive is a welcomeaddition to any multimedia system.Although the AWE 64 is an ISA sound

card, it proved adequate for the DVDsoftware bundled with the system.

However, as new DVD titles whichmake full use of Dolby AC-3 Surround Sound becomeavailable, the user might have to

upgrade to a more robust PCIcard. The multimedia side of this

system is let down slightly by thespeakers, which failed to reproduce

the high quality of DVD sound.The performance of the Home

Media could not compete with anyAMD system but was still impressivefor a Celeron system. Its SYSMarkscore of 210 was only average, but its

FinalRealityscore was much better. The ADIMicroscan monitor that came with thesystem is rather ungainly, with an extraprojection on either side. It can handlea resolution of 1024x768 at 75Hz andthe picture quality is sharp. The buttonand knob controls are easily accessible.

Mertec Home Media

PCW DETAILS

Build Quality ★★★★★Performance ★★★Value for Money ★★★★Overall Rating ★★★★

Build Quality ★★★Performance ★★★Value for Money ★★★★Overall Rating ★★★

Price £1232.58 (£1049 ex VAT)Contact KT Computers 0181 9618897 www.ktcomputers.co.ukGood Points Zip drive, dedicated 3Dcard, excellent monitor.Bad Points Messy interior,unoptimised display drivers.Conclusion A well-specified system letdown slightly by poor construction andsoftware installation.

PCW DETAILS

KT Star 3D Power

Price £1173.83 (£999 ex VAT)Contact Mertec 01792 473700www.mertec.co.ukGood Points Easily upgradeable,good multimedia performance.Bad Points Average overallperformance, poor speakers.Conclusion A well-specified system at an enticing price.


PCW Labs Report

Ayear ago, Intel stepped up itschallenge to Advanced Micro

Devices (AMD). In the months before,AMD had grabbed the market’s attentionwith the release of the K6. Stung intoaction, Intel responded by releasing aneven faster version of its recently launchedPentium II processor. However, this year,AMD can have its cake and eat it, as thecompany’s new K6-2 processor takes the x86 architecture in a slightly newdirection.

Although the original K6 was anexcellent choice for the business user, itsgames and 3D performance fell belowPentium II standards as its floating-point unit (FPU) was less powerful. Withthe appearance of increasingly 3D-intensive games and applications, AMDwould have been sidelined if it had notproduced a processor to rectify thisdefect. The K6-2 is AMD’s answer to thebrute FPU power of the Pentium II. TheK6-2 has 27 new instructions, called 3DNow!, which accelerate 3D functions.Hard-coded into the chip, 3D Now!exploits a technology called SingleInstruction Multiple Data Execution(SIMD). This fetches and processesinstructions in batches ratherthan dealing with themone at a time. Anotherinstruction in 3D Now!allows reciprocaldivision. Processors areusually faster atmultiplication sums thandivision. The K6-2 turns thishandicap into an advantageby multiplying instead of dividing, usinga reciprocal number. For example,instead of dividing a number by three, it multiplies the number by 0.333. Thisspeeds up complex calculationsconsiderably.

Despite the industry’s heady reaction tothe K6-2, the future of AMD is notassured. For one thing, Intel’s answer to3D Now! will make its début early nextyear in the form of the Katmai InstructionSet (KNI). With a fully pipelined FPU, thischip will almost certainly be more powerfulthan the K6-2. Having learned from theMMX débacle, Intel is set to launch thisprocessor with much more support fromsoftware developers.

Another, more serious threat toAMD is the possibleobsolescence of Socket 7. While

licensing Socket 7 technology fromIntel, AMD gave up its right to

move its processors to Slot 1 or Slot 2motherboards. Although the bus speedsof Socket 7 motherboards have beenraised to 100MHz, the possibility of afurther increase appears bleak. AMD ispreparing to produce its own proprietarymotherboard technology which isincompatible with Intel’s designs. It

remains to be seen whether themarket will make this a winnerlike the K6-2. Intel’s new low-costprocessor series, the Celeron, hada most unfavourable début.Although intended as a seriouscontender in the budget PCmarket that could compete withAMD and Cyrix, the Celeron hadfew features to make it stand out.

In fact, it came with one criticalfeature missing — the on-chipcache which producestremendous improvement inspeed. Intel even brought out anew chipset, the 440EX, to beused on motherboards housingthe Celeron. It is essentially a cut-down version of thesuccessful LX chipset, but doesnot support error-correctionmemory or multiple processors.

With BIOS support, a Celeron can beused on an older LX motherboard. Evenolder 440FX motherboards can supportthe processor if the manufacturerprovides a flash BIOS update; however,this is much less likely.

Due to the lack of Level 2 cache, theCeleron’s performance in businessapplications is comparable only to that ofa Pentium MMX. However, in mostcurrent games which do not make use ofthe cache, it is an impressive performerbecause its FPU is the same as that of aPentium II. The next processor in theCeleron series, codenamed Mendocino[Reviews, p78], will have 128Kb cacheand début at 333MHz.

ABOVE THE INTERAL ARCHITECTURE OF THE

K6-2 3D NOW!INSET THE SOCKET 7 K6-2LEFT THE CASELESS CELERON

Head to head: K6-2 3D Now! versus Celeron

The K6-2 isAMD’sanswer to thebrute FPUpower of thePentium II

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Built on the backbone of the AMDK6-2 processor, the Mesh Elite has a40X CD-ROM drive. Previous labs testsof 24X and 32X CD-ROMs showedthat they rarely approach their statedmaximum speed — which is also thecase with the 40X CD-ROM that camewith this system. Its performancepeaked around the speed of an

ordinary 24-speed drive— sufficientfor mostpurposes. The mostnoticeable

feature of the Mesh system is itsmassive multimedia speakers andsubwoofer. Coming with no less thansix components, the Teac speakers arecapable of reproducing true DolbySurround sound. Unfortunately, theinternal components are somewhatunderspecified for the job. Althoughthe AWE 64 sound card is an excellentchoice for most PC users, it supportsonly simulated 3D positional audioand is not able to reproduce trueSurround sound. So having sixspeakers and a remote control issomething of an overkill.The interior of the system isacceptably tidy, and most of the cables

are kept well away from the criticalcomponents. Like the Carrera,the Mesh also has 1Mb of Level

2 cache on the motherboard.The high SYSMark score of 318

reflected this as well as the overallhigh-quality build of the system.

The Mesh system is easilyupgradeable as it has two DIMM

and two PCI slots free. This, alongwith the tidy interior, should make theupgrading process painless. TheDiamond Viper video card with

optimiseddriversfor theK6-2 produced excellent results at allcolour depths. The ADI 5GT monitor,built on Trinitron technology, supportsa high resolution of 1600x1200 at75Hz. However, we found the controlsa little difficult to master.

Mesh Elite K6 3D 300A

PCW DETAILS

Build Quality ★★★★Performance ★★★★Value for Money ★★★Overall Rating ★★★★

Panrix has a reputation formanufacturing high-quality systems,and upholds that reputation with theNitro 3D. One of the best constructedAMD systems in our group test, theNitro 3D, like the Mertec and theCarrera, has an interior layout that isan upgrader’s dream. The K6-2processor sits on a Microstar Super

Socket 7 100MHz system busmotherboard. The cables are

tucked wellaway from

the critical components, and thecomponents are arranged in such away that there is enough room foreasy access. The 64Mb RAM comes in a single module, leaving two slotsfree for upgrading. There are also three free bays.The Nitro 3D has a massive Maxtor7.5Gb hard drive which spins at 7700rpm. These impressive specifications,together with the excellent softwareconfiguration, produced some veryimpressive results when tested, fallingdown only on the overall Final Reality

marks, perhaps because thegraphics card has only4Mb of RAM rather than

8Mb. The display wasprovided by a Diamond

Viper 330 video card builtaround nVidia’s Riva 128

chipset. As the Viper hasoptimised drivers for the K6-2

processor, it did not pose thesame driver problems that we

saw with some of the cards inother systems.

The Orchid NuSound 3D wasone of the best sound cards in ourgroup test. It is a PCI card which

producedquiteimpressive results through the pair ofYamaha speakers. The Iiyama 861717in monitor is one of the mostpopular models on the market. Itproduces clear pictures at a resolutionof 1024x768 at 70Hz, and has controlsthat are easy to access and use.

Panrix Nitro 3D

PCW DETAILS

Build Quality ★★★★★Performance ★★★Value for Money ★★★★Overall Rating ★★★★

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Price £1198.50 (£1020 ex VAT)Contact Mesh 0181 208 2028www.meshplc.co.ukGood Points Excellent monitor, easilyupgradeable, well built.Bad Points No DVD to take advantageof the six multimedia speakers.Conclusion A powerful system at anattractive price.

Price £1173.83 (£999 ex VAT)Contact Panrix 01132 444958www.panrix.comGood Points Good components,excellent build, easily upgradeable.Bad Points Average overallperformance.Conclusion A well-specified andconstructed system at an attractive price.

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Roldec’s Pro 2 is built around theCeleron processor which in turn resideson a BX motherboard. As a result, incommon with the Mertec and Actinet’sNetrunner systems, the Pro 2 is easilyupgradeable, and this alone makes thesystem more appealing than manyothers. The motherboard comes withsome useful connectors for the IDE andfloppy cable, with clamps on both sides

to ensure a safe

connection. It also has five PCI slots— two of which are occupied — andthree DIMM slots. Like the Elonexsystem, the Pro 2 came with a PCImodem which offers only slight speedbenefits over an ISA modem. The RAMcame in a single DIMM module.Perhaps the most unusual componentin this system is the Matrox MillenniumG200 video card. There are, of course,no driver problems with the Intel-basedRoldec system. There is an extra plastic tray insidethe system, which Roldec could haveused for the Seagate Medalist harddrive, saving a valuable 3.5in bay.

The Pro 2 has a 32X Teac CD-ROM, and the sound isprovided by an AWE 64 Valuesound card. The Arowanaspeakers, despite their size,produced quite impressive

results.The Pro 2 comes in a large ATX

case with most of the wires tuckedwell away. This, along with the

unit’s large size, provides adequateventilation. The Microsoft ergonomickeyboard is another welcomedifference from other systems.

The ADI 5GT monitor, which isidentical to those with the Actinet andMesh systems, was the best in thegroup test. Able to support highresolutions of up to 1600x1200 at75Hz, it produces excellent imagessupported by the Matrox card.

Roldec Pro 2

PCW DETAILS

Build Quality ★★★★Performance ★★★Value for Money ★★★Overall Rating ★★★

ThePC directsales marketwitnesses the entry ofnew contenders every day. Withlower overheads, some of them areable to mount a strong challenge to thebig players such as Dell and Gateway.Protek is one of these recent entrants.Unfortunately, the Protek Ultra, builtaround the Intel Celeron processor, hasnot made an auspicious start.Although easy to set up, its interiorillustrates some of the things that can

go wrong in the construction of a PC.To begin with, like the KT system, the

cables are a mess. Wefound the CD-ROM

cable twistedover theheatsink, whilethe EIDE cablefrom the hard

drive dangledclose to it. The

Ultra also hasextremely limited

scope forupgrading. The Intel

443EX motherboardhas only two PCI slots,

one other being shared.Two of these slots werealready occupied by the

main graphics card and the 3Dfxboard, leaving only one free slot.Similarly, only two DIMM slots wereavailable, one of which was alreadyoccupied.The dedicated 3D graphics Voodoocard is a first-generation card and notas powerful as the newer version thatcame with the KT system. The Ultrascored a disappointing 206 in our

SYSMark test and 2.90 in Final Reality.The ATI Xpert@Play graphics cardproduces clear images on the MagInnovision XJ717 monitor. Althoughthe monitor did not achieveoutstanding results, it was able tohandle a resolution of 1024x768 at85Hz. The display is sharp and thecontrols are easy to use.

PCW DETAILS

Build Quality ★★Performance ★★Value for Money ★★★Overall Rating ★★

Price £997.58 (£849 ex VAT)Contact Protek 0800 458 0533Good Points Low price, large ATX case.Bad Points Shoddy construction, poor performance, poor upgradeabilityoptions.Conclusion Not recommended unlessyou’re on a very tight budget.

Price £1060.375 (£895 ex VAT)Contact Roldec 01902 456464www.roldec.comGood Points Good components andbuild, excellent speakers and monitor.Bad Points Average overallperformance, wasted PCI slot.Conclusion A well-constructed systemwith a few wasted resources.

Protek Ultra

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PCW Labs Report0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 SCORE

SYSMark 95 scores

ACTINET

CARRERA

DABS DIRECT

ELONEX

KT

MERTEC

MESH

PANRIX

PROTEK

ROLDEC

213

296

224

284

288

210

318

308

206

218

The SYSmark test we run on every PC in thegroup test is provided by BAPCo (BusinessApplications Performance Corporation). Itsmembers include industry heavyweights likeIntel, Compaq and IBM. The BAPCo SYSmark

tests measure the speed of the computer running a series of eightcommon office applications: Microsoft Word 7, Lotus WordPro96, Microsoft Excel 7, Borland Paradox 7, CorelDraw 6, LotusFreelance Graphics 96, Microsoft Powerpoint 7, and AdobePagemaker 6. The test measures the time taken by the PC toperform a variety of tasks in each application, and each test isperformed three times to ensure the results are consistent. Theperformance depends on a variety of factors; processor speed,RAM, graphics card and disk I/O. As the tests are based onbusiness software packages, the result reflects of how the PC willperform in a real-world situation. The better the score, the longerthe bar on the graph. Final Reality is a suite of graphical tests

designed to examine the processing power of the 3D acceleratoron your graphics card, 2D image processing and AGP. It runsunder Windows 95 and DirectX 5 and uses a 3D enginedeveloped by Remedy. It supports Direct3D, a 3D standarddesigned by Microsoft, and looks at how the graphicsaccelerator handles the kind of data it would have to processwhen you are playing a game. Final Reality tests both the speedof the processor and visual appearance — how the card handlestechniques like transparency, fogging, and alpha blending. Ittests all these features at different points during the benchmarktest, and performs the tests simultaneously, just as in a realgame. The visual appearance factors are weighted in importanceand combined with the overall processing speed to produce anoverall mark. Again, the higher the score, the better the result.Final Reality can be downloaded from www.vnu.co.uk.Monitors are scrutinised using Display Mate for Windows, and tested at a number of resolutions and colour depths.

How we did the tests

R Final Reality scores are closer-run

between the K6-2s and the Celerons.

Although the K6-2 has new 3D instructions,

Final Reality is not written to take advantage

of them. Equally, few graphics cards

currently have drivers for the K6-2.

The Celeron, meanwhile, has mighty FPU

strength, giving it the edge when playing

games

Q The performance

advantage of the

K6-2 3D Now! is

clear to see when

running

office applications,

giving gains of

around 20 percent

0 5.0 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 SCORE

Final Reality scores

ACTINET

CARRERA

DABS DIRECT

ELONEX

KT

MERTEC

MESH

PANRIX

PROTEK

ROLDEC

3.29/3.2

2.86/3.16

3.17/3.01

2.6/2.9

2.74/3.1

3.13/3.01

2.99/3.45

2.81/3.24

2.9/2.9

3.13/3.17

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Table of featuresMANUFACTURER ACTINET CARRERA TECHNOLOGY DABS DIRECT ELONEX KT COMPUTERS

MODEL NAME NETRUNNER POWER MEDIA K6-2 300 DABS CE 300 MCX-6300AX KT STAR 3D POWER

Price (ex VAT) £1079 £1099 £899 £719.15 £1049

Price (inc VAT) £1267.62 £1291.33 £1056.33 £845 £1232.58

Telephone 01952 270 703 0171 830 0486 0800 558866 0181 452 4444 0181 961 8897

Fax 01952 270 090 0171 299 6600 0870 129 7000 0181 452 6422 0181 961 7498

Web Address www.actinet.co.uk www.carrera.co.uk www.dabs.com www.elonex.co.uk www.ktcomputers.co.uk

Standard Warranty 1 yr On-site, 4 yrs RTB 1 yr Parts, 3 yrs lbr 1 yr On-site, 5 yrs lbr RTB 1 yr 1 yr Parts, 5 yrs lbr, RTB

Warranty Options 3 yrs Onsite Onsite Maintenance 24 hr Response OSM 1 week, 8 hr Repair

Technical Support 01952 270 708 0171 830 0386 0870 129 3350 0181 452 6666 0181 961 8897

Hardware Specs

Processor Intel Celeron 300MHz AMD K6-2 300MHz Intel Celeron 300MHz AMD K6-2 300MHz AMD K6-2 300MHz

RAM/Type/No of DIMMs 64Mb/SDRAM/1 64Mb/SDRAM/1 64Mb/SDRAM/1 64Mb/SDRAM/1 64Mb/SDRAM/1

Hard Disk Seagate Medalist Pro Maxtor Diamond Max Seagate ST36530A Fujitsu Seagate Medalist Pro

Size/Interface 6.4Gb/UDMA 10 Gb Ultra EIDE 6.5 Gb/UDMA 8.4 Gb/UDMA 6.4 GB/UDMA

Motherboard Components

Motherboard Manufacturer Abit Epox Supermicro FIC Microstar

Model/Chipset i440BX MVP3/i430TX P6-58A 440BX VA 503T MS-5169/i440BX

L2 Cache 512Kb 1Mb 256Kb 512Kb 512Kb

Expansion and I/O

No. of Free 3.5/5.25in Bays 1/2 1/2 2/2 2/1 0/2

AGP Slot 1 1 1 on-board 1

No of PCI/ISA/Shared Slots 4/3/1 3/2/1 4/3/1 2/0/1 3/2/1

No of USB/Serial/Parallel/PS2 2/2/1/2 2/2/1/2 2/2/1/1 2/2/1/1 2/2/1/2

Multimedia

CD-ROM Manufacturer/Model A-Open ATISoft DVD ROM Asus CD5340 Vuege 632A Asus 34X

CD-ROM Speed/Interface 32x/IDE 24x/IDE 34x/IDE 32x/IDE 34x/IDE

Sound Card Manufacturer Creative Labs Videologic Pine Sonic Storm Creative Labs

Sound Card Model AWE64 Value Sonic Storm PCI 3D Schubert 32 PCI PCI Sound AWE64 Value

Speakers Surf Sound Altec Lansing ACS45 Labtec LCS-1020 ION CSW100 Aiwa TS-CD20

Graphics Card Intel i740 ATI Xpert@Play ATI Xpert@Play AGP ATI 3D Rage Pro ATI All-in-Wonder Pro

RAM/Type 8Mb 4Mb/SGRAM 4Mb/SGRAM 4Mb/SGRAM 8Mb/SGRAM

Graphics Card Interface AGP AGP AGP AGP AGP

Monitor/Model/Size ADI 5GT 17in LG 77T 17in ADI 5P 17in Elonex 17in CTX 1792 SE 17in

Max Refresh Rate@1024x768 92Hz 75Hz 85Hz 85Hz 75Hz

Other Information

Modem Speed 56K 56K 56K 56K 56K

Misc Hardware Iomega Zip Drive Diamond Monster II 8Mb

+ 1 cartridge Iomega Zip Drive

Other Extras Lotus SmartSuite 97 MS Home Lotus SmartSuite 97 Lotus SmartSuite 97 Lotus SmartSuite 97

IBM Simply Speaking Essentials 98 Dabs mm Bundle World Cup 98

Ultra pack software F1


Table of featuresMANUFACTURER MERTEC MESH COMPUTERS PANRIX PROTEK EUROPE ROLDEC SYSTEMS

MODEL NAME HOME MEDIA ELITE K6 3D 300A NITRO 3D ULTRA PRO 2

Price (exVAT) £999 £1020 £999 £849 £895

Price (inc VAT) £1173.83 £1198.50 £1173.83 £997.58 £1,060.38

Telephone 01792 473700 0181 452 1111 01132 444958 0800 458 0533 01902 456464

Fax 01792 473887 0181 208 4493 01132 444 962 0800 458 0511 01902 452 592

Web Address www.mertec.co.uk www.meshplc.co.uk www.panrix.com www.roldec.com

Standard Warranty 2 yr RTB Parts & lbr 2 yr RTB 1 yr Parts & lbr RTB 1 yr RTB 3 yr Std Warranty

Warranty Options 1 yr 24 hr Response Lifetime Tel Support 24/12 Month OSW 4 yrs lbr only 2 yrs Parts & lbr

Technical Support 01792 473888 0181 208 2028 01132 444948 01884 822302 01902 456464

Hardware Specs

Processor Intel Celeron 300 MHz AMD K6-2 300MHz AMD K6-2 300MHz Intel Celeron 300MHz Intel Celeron 300MHz

RAM/Type/No of DIMMs 64Mb/SDRAM/1 64Mb/SDRAM/1 64Mb/SDRAM/1 64Mb/SDRAM/1 64Mb/SDRAM/1

Hard Disk IBM Seagate Medalist Pro Maxtor 90750D6 Fujitsu Seagate Medalist Pro

Size/Interface 6.4 Gb/UDMA 6.5 Gb Ultra ATA 7.5 Gb/UDMA 4.3 Gb/UDMA 4.5 Gb/UDMA

Motherboard Components

Motherboard Manufacturer Chaintech Epox EP/51MVP3E-M Microstar QDI Elitegroup

Model/Chipset 6BTM/440BX VIA MS5169 ALI Excellent 1443EX P6 BX/A440BX

L2 Cache 0Bb 1Mb 512Kb 0Kb 0Kb

Expansion and I/O

No of Free 3.5/5.25in Bays 1/2 1/2 1/2 2/2 1/2

AGP Slot 1 1 1 1 1

No of PCI/ISA/Shared Slots 3/2/1 3/2/1 4/3/1 3/3/1 4/1/1

No of USB/Serial/Parallel/PS2 2/2/1/2 2/2/1/2 2/2/1/2 2/2/1/2 2/2/1/0

Multimedia

CD-ROM Manufacturer/Model Creative DVD Asustek CD-5400 Asus CD-5400 Samsung SCR-3231 Teac

CD-ROM Speed/Interface 2x DVD, 20x CD/EIDE 40x/EIDE 40x/IDE 32x/IDE 32x/IDE

Sound Card Manufacturer Creative Labs Creative Labs Orchid Creative Labs Creative Labs

Sound Card Model AWE64 Value AWE64 Value NuSound 3D AWE64 Value AWE64 Value

Speakers Labtec LC52420 Teac PowerMax1000 Yamaha M20 Firestorm 240W Arowana

Graphics Card ATI Xpert 98 Diamond Viper 330 Diamond Viper 330 ATI Xpert@Play Matrox Productiva G200

RAM/Type 8Mb/SGRAM 4Mb/SGRAM 4Mb/SGRAM 4Mb/SGRAM 8Mb/SGRAM

Graphics Card Interface AGP AGP AGP AGP AGP

Monitor/Model/Size ADI 5P 17in ADI 5GT 17in Ilyama MF-8617E 17in MAG XJ717 17in ADI 5GT 17in

Max Refresh Rate@1024x768 8Hz 92Hz 105Hz 85Hz 92Hz

Other Information

Modem Speed 56K 56K 56K 56K 56K

Misc Hardware DVD Decoder Card Innovision 3Dfx Card

Iomega Zip Drive

Other Extras Lotus SmartSuite 97 Simply Speaking Lotus SmartSuite 97 Microsoft Home

Lotus SmartSuite 97 Essentials 98

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In a market ruled by Intel, it isnot very often that a processorcomes up with much better

performance at a comparable price.Considering the bad publicity thatthe Celeron received even before itslaunch, perhaps it was not entirelysurprising that two AMD systemsappeared in our awards list. However,one Celeron system receives our HighlyCommended award. Our awards arebased not only on performance; otherequally important factors such asquality of construction, components

and price are considered too. As PChardware is a fast-changingenvironment, today’s high-performancesystem might be the slowest in themarket in a few years’ time. Therefore,there is little point in having a high-performance system if you cannotupgrade easily.

The Panrix Nitro 3D with the K6-2processor, which wins our Editor’sChoice award, is upgradable well beyondits current speed. Althoughthe Nitro 3D is not ascheap as the Elonex PT-6300/AX or as high-performing as the MeshK6 3D 300A, its buildquality sets it apart.Bordering on the finicky,this system is anexcellent choice foranyone who intendsto add morecomponents like adedicated 3D graphicscard or a video-captureboard which takesadvantage of the K6-2processor’s 3D Now! functions. Anothermerit of the system is its massive 7.5GbMaxtor hard drive. A high-speed drive, itis gigantic enough to gobble theincreasingly fat software that is hitting

the market. And the Diamond Vipervideo card was the only one in our grouptest that had optimised drivers for theK6-2 processor. In addition to all theappreciable features mentioned here, theNitro 3D also had the best sound card in

the group test.

The Mertec HomeMedia is the only Celeronsystem to win an award.

Coming with a second-generation DVD drive,the Home Media, like

the other two awardwinners, is easy to

upgrade because it has aBX motherboard. This

makes it compatible withfaster processors like thePentium II. The Creative

Labs DVD is able to read DVDs and allvarieties of CDs without any problem.There is no loss of image quality. TheMertec system is also exceptionally wellbuilt, making access to the internalcomponents very easy. The Iomega Zipdrive is useful for archiving data and

transferringlarge multimedia files.

The Mesh K6 3D 300A is another well-built AMD system. Scorching ahead ofthe rest with a SYSMark score of 318, itwas the fastest in the group, with a resultcomparable to that of a correspondingPentium II. Mesh has equipped it with asix-speaker set that makes it a goodchoice for converting into a hometheatre. It also has 1Mb of cache on themotherboard, which boostsperformance, while its ADI 5GT monitorproduced the best results in our tests.

The winners of our awards offer top price/performance and solid upgradability.

Editor’s Choice

What sets the PanrixNitro 3D apart isits build quality

RTOP PRIZE

GOES TO THE

PANRIX

NITRO 3DWITH K6-2PROCESSOR

¿MERTEC’SHOME MEDIA

SYSTEM

PMESH K63D 300AAMD SYSTEM


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UNLIKE IMAGE-processingapplications such asPhotoshop, which dealmainly with photographicimages (or bitmaps) on aper-pixel basis, drawingsoftware deals with vector

objects — shapes that are mathematicallydefined and are independent of thebackground. They are always editable, unlikeparts of a photo or paintbrush strokes that are“stuck down” on the electronic canvas. They are

also device independent, which means theyalways appear according to the best quality ofthe output device, be it a VGA monitor or a2400dpi imagesetter, and can be enlargedwithout looking jagged or pixellated. Recently,however, the distinction has become blurred, asmany image-processing applications support“floating” objects, and most drawingapplications can not only include bitmaps, butapply basic image processing to them in-place.Vector drawing software is used for everythingfrom advertisement and packaging design (it’sparticularly good at creating special effects withtext) to technical drawing. In this feature welook at seven general illustration packages,ranging in price from under £40 to over £400.Most come with a bundle of resources thatinclude ready-made clip-art images and aselection of fonts. We also have two specialsections on technical drawing or CAD(computer aided design) and flowcharting,featuring eight more products. ø

SEVEN GENERAL ILLUSTRATION

PACKAGES ARE LAID ON THE

DRAWING BOARD AND

ASSESSED BY TIM NOTT.

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Adobe Illustrator 7.01The graphic designer’s old favourite is making a difficult adjustment to life on the PC.

For a long time Adobe Illustratorrunning on the Apple Macintosh

was the definitive vector drawingapplication, and its Botticelli Venus logoinspired a generation of graphic artists.Eventually it was ported to the Windowsplatform, but development of the PCversion lagged behind that of its Maccounterpart until last year, when the 32-bit version 7 appeared. It representeda great leap forward, both in featuresand in interface design, and this versionembraces some of the Windows 95look-and-feel. There are, at last, properright-mouse-button context menus, but we’re still waiting for such essentials as a standard windows button bar with the normal save, open, undo, clipboard and other commoncommands. A vastimprovement is that theold menu/dialog boxmethod of editingobject attributes has atlast been replaced byPhotoshop-stylemodeless (open all thetime) palettes.Practically all thesettings you could want are accessiblefrom these — text, lines, fills and layers.The palettes can be shrunk into theirown title bars and stacked together, soone palette can contain tabs for, say,colour swatches, colour gradients andthe colour mixer.

The swatches palette is particularlyeffective. Although you can apply coloursstraight from the mixer, if you drag theminto the swatches palette first you havemuch better management and can makeglobal changes to all instances of acolour and its tints in a drawing. Thispalette can also be used to storegradients and pattern fills; you arelimited to radial and linear gradients, butthese can be multi-coloured. There is aninteractive gradient tool, but it can onlybe used to modify existing fills, not tocreate new ones. Text-tweaking, thoughimproved, is similarly limited. You canflow text into containers to give shapedparagraphs and you can align it to acurved path, but there are no facilitiesfor distorting the envelope of text, nor

any special effects such as 3D extrusions.The drawing tools, are, as ever, preciseand delicate, with support for pressure-sensitive devices to create calligraphicstrokes.There are some awkwardcorners. For example, moving, resizing orrotating objects requires separate tripsto the toolbar, rather than the one-stoparrow tool approach of Corel andothers. But for ultra-precise placementthere is a Transform palette that acceptsnumeric input for size, place and angle.

Like most other Adobe applications,Illustrator supports plug-ins — Adobe orthird-party add-ons. Those shipped withthe product include special tools fordistorting objects with scribble, twirl andother effects, as well as a knife tool forslicing objects, a drop shadow effect andmany practical utilities such as those forcreating crop-marks or convertingcolours. In addition, Illustrator supportsPhotoShop plug-ins for in-place use onimported bitmapped images. Here youhave an impressive range of filters, fromsimple colour control to fancy effects

such as radial blur and neon glow.Professional colour support is excellent,with standard libraries, separations andhardware profiles.

There isn’t a great deal here for webdesigners but you do have the option ofattaching URLs to objects, thenexporting the picture as a GIF imagemap. But you’ll need additional softwareto create a web page. On a brighter note,you can save Illustrator files directly intoPDF format where they can be read withthe (free) Acrobat viewer.

Finally, you get 302 fonts (only inPostScript format) but the clip-artconsists mostly of copyrighted samplefiles. A second CD-ROM contains a well-produced collection of tours,tutorials and slide shows.

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★★Price £351.32 (£298.99 ex VAT) Contact Adobe 0181 606 4000www.adobe.comSystem Requirements Windows 95 or NT4.Good Points Interface has greatly improvedsince version 4.1.Bad Points Lags behind the competition’sfeature lists and performs slowly.Conclusion The least compelling of the high-enders.

PCW DETAILS

H STACKED PALETTES

AND URL SUPPORT

IN ILLUSTRATOR

Q ILLUSTRATOR

COMES WITH AN

INSPIRING

COLLECTION OF

TOURS, TUTORIALS

AND SLIDE SHOWS

When Corel Draw firstappeared in 1989,

running under what was thenan obscure graphical userinterface called Windows286, it was the first programof its kind on the PC. At thetime of writing, a Mac versionis imminent. Since itspioneering use of CD-ROMas an installation mediumwith version 3, Corel hasalways offered an abundantpackage. This time we havethree CD-ROMs,encompassing theeponymous drawing package,the PhotoPaint imageprocessor and Dream 3D asthe main components. Thereare numerous extras andutilities covering hardwarecolour management, bitmaptracing, optical characterrecognition, scripting, texturecreation, font and mediamanagement, screen captureand a variety of third-party plug-ins.Finally, there are more than 40,000 clip-art items, photo-images and otherobjects, and 1000 fonts in bothTrueType and PostScript flavours.

For the sake of simplicity I shallconfine my attention to Draw. Theexecutable runs to over 11Mb of code (itstill loads in a third of the time of the4.5Mb Illustrator) and a lot is new. First,there has been a general overhaul of theinterface. Some of the changes, such asthe Office 97 flat-button look, are merelycosmetic, but others are more far-reaching. Corel has long had roll-ups —floating palettes like Illustrator’s thatprovide modeless access to options andattributes. They can save space byrolling-up into their own title bars, butthey don’t have the stacking capabilitiesof Illustrator or Freehand.

Corel has attempted to rectify thisshortcoming with “dockers” for access tothings such as view management, styles,clip-art and symbols. These stack intotabbed pages, and can also be docked atthe side of the screen — the image area isautomatically resized, so they are never in

the way. In practice,

however, it can be difficult to arrange thedockers as you want and they often endup taking a ridiculously large amount ofprecious screen space. One docker thatcertainly earns its keep is the scrapbook.This serves as a thumbnail browser, notjust for the vast clip-art collection but forany files on your hard disk or network. Italso doubles as a storage area for scrapsof artwork and favourite fill and linestyles. Another docker provides HTML-based hands-on tutorials. These,however, will disappoint many learners,as several of the “cool effects” seem tomiss out several essential steps.

One very productive feature is smartselection. Having drawn a rectangle, say,you can immediately edit it by clicking ona handle without having to change to theselection arrow tool; clicking elsewherecarries on drawing rectangles. It savestremendous mouse mileage. Anotherimprovement is the way you select fromoverlapping objects. This was alwayssomething of a nightmare, but now Alt+ clicking drills down through thestacked objects, selecting each in turn.The killer features introduced in version 7

were the interactive tools with which youcould create gradients and shadedtransparency by manipulating handlesand dropping colours directly ontoobjects, instead of using dialogues.Version 8 goes further, with directmanipulation of text envelopes, 3Dextrusions, blends, shadows and afascinating distortion tool.

For web design Corel outclasses thecompetition once again. You can outputdirectly to HTML or Corel’s enhancedBarista. There’s shortcut access to FTPsites from the scrapbook, support forJava scripts, and a clever “Make HTMLcompatible” feature which adjustslayouts and formatting likely to causeproblems with web browsers. ø


Corel Draw 8 A confusing interface can’t mask the numerous abilities of this veteran package.

★★★★Price£464.13 (£395 ex VAT) Contact Corel 0800 581028www.corel.comSystem Requirements Windows 95 or NT4.Good Points Huge feature list, vast resourcesand some genuine productivity enhancements.Bad points A crowded and obtrusive interface.Conclusion Not a great vintage for Corel, butstill comfortably out-features the opposition.

PCW DETAILS

HDRAWING A BEAD: INTERACTIVE

FILLS IN ACTION

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Macromedia Freehand 8 Not always friendly, but Mac and PC versions offer a host of features for the professional.

Developed by Altsys for Aldus,Freehand started its career as a

Mac application. When Aldus mergedwith Adobe, the owner of Illustrator, theproduct reverted to Altsys and waspromptly snapped up by Macromedia,noted at the time for its multimediaauthoring and 3D modelling software.Unlike Illustrator, Freehand comes withPC and Mac versions in the same box.For an extra £100, the Design in Motionsuite adds Flash2 and Insta.HTML.Flash2 is a vector-based web animationprogram which can either function as astandalone or from key frames created inFreehand. Insta.HTMLadds HTML export toFreehand’s capabilities.Both versions include a10,000-piece clip-artlibrary, with an excellentbrowser, and 500 fonts aresupplied in both PostScriptType 1 and TrueType.Freehand is aimed squarelyat design professionals. Itis not bulging with user-friendliness, but you do geta selection of templatesand wizards to get you started. Theinterface is comparatively uncluttered,with a series of floating palettes andInspectors which provide one-stopmodeless attribute settings. They work ina very similar way to Illustrator’s palettes,in that you can drag tabbed pages in andout of them. You can also customise thetoolbars and shortcut-key settings.

Productivity leaps ahead ofIllustrator, with interactive transformhandles as in Corel; no longer do youhave to traipse to and from the toolboxto rotate, resize or move objects. A newfast mode speeds up screen redrawsdramatically at the expense of displaydetail. It doesn’t affect the print quality,and you can drop back into previewmode at will. The freeform tool is avaluable addition. Though all drawingsoftware will let you node-edit theoutline of shapes, this takes a moreplastic approach, and you can push andpull at a shape as if it were made of clay.Holding down the arrow keys changesthe size of the pusher, with more precise

control available by double-clicking thetool button. Another neat trick is the way blends, a succession of intermediateobjects created from start and endobjects, can be released to layers as a simple animation.

Lenses are another new drawingfeature. By giving a shape a lens fill youcan lighten, darken, magnify, invert orrender monochrome whatever liesbeneath it. A particularly useful touch isthat you can separate the lens from itstarget by moving the centrepoint. Henceyou could, for example, create anenlarged detail of a drawing alongsidethe main view. Lenses can also be given atransparent fill, but unlike those in Corel,this can’t be graduated, so subtletiessuch as the shading in the tutorialwineglass project have a flat look.

Macromedia has added “Xtras” tothe core product. The most unusual isthe graphic hose which lets you spray thescreen with a variety of predefinedobjects, such as leaves, in an adjustablyrandom assortment of sizes and angles.

There are also Xtrasfor drawing spirals,3D rotation effectsand shadows, forcutting or joiningobjects, and more.Though Freehand

lacks the in-place image processing of itsrivals, it has a useful eyedropper tool forextracting colours from importedbitmaps into the main palette.

Despite the customisable interface, it seems impossible to integrate the Xtras into more relevant toolbars. Wecouldn’t, for example, get the hose ordrop shadow tools out of the Xtra toolspalette into the main toolbox. ø

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★★★Price £327.82 (£278.99 ex VAT); Design in Motion Suite, £445.32 (378.99 ex VAT)Contact Macromedia 01344 458600www.macromedia.comSystem Requirements Windows 95,Windows NT, Mac. Good Points New lenses and creative effects,with web extras in the Suite version.Bad Points The Xtras could be betterintegrated, and it doesn’t match Corel’s feature list.Conclusion Much the better of the two Mac-originated stalwarts.

PCW DETAILS

H FREEHAND’S NEW LENS

EFFECTS. FROM TOP: INVERT,TRANSPARENCY AND

MAGNIFY

Q FREEHAND INCLUDES

AN EXCELLENT CLIP-ART

BROWSER

Highly

Commended

Created by Fractal Design, the peoplewho pioneered Natural Media with

Painter, and now part of MetacreationsCorporation, Expression is a drawingapplication that thinks it’s a paintingprogram. Unusually, you don’t get anyfonts or clip-art with the package, but infairness it isn’t really intended as a one-stop solution to your drawing needs.When you run the program, it looks likemost other drawing applications. It has a toolbar for creating the usual lines, text and other shapes; the usualtransformation tools for rotation andresizing; tabbed palettes for controllingthe fill and stroke; and further palettesfor mixing colour and defining gradients.

What sets this application apart,however, is the stroke warehouse palette.Those who have used Painter (and mostbitmap-editing software) will be familiarwith natural media brushes that cansimulate the grainy effect of charcoal, orthe way watercolours bleed and oilsmingle. This is all done with clever use ofbitmap technology; once a stroke is laiddown, it can’t be edited. Expressionbrings something similar to vectortechnology. Each stroke in thewarehouse palette is a complex vectorobject in its own right — a picture, if you like. When you use a stroke to draw with, although you may be using

a conventional line, shape or freehandtool, what you are actually constructingis the skeleton of a stroke. This skeletonremains an independent object (seen innon-printing red), just as any othervector, and can be resized, moved andnode-edited as normal. Fleshing out theskeleton is the stroke itself, which,depending on the stroke properties, can behave in a number of ways.

The easiest way to explain this ratherstrange concept is by example. Select thethick soft oil stroke, and you’ll get astroke of even width with rather jaggedends. The colour will vary across thestroke, in shades of the current active linecolour. Select the pointed soft stroke andyou’ll get a multi-shaded tapering effect.

You can add further variety by specifyingthe width of a stroke and adding shear or twist effects. And since a stroke is avector object in its own right, it doesn’thave to be brush-like. You can “paint”with any drawing — an arrow, a leaf, oreven a fish. Expression comes with 500predefined strokes, but you can createyour own. You use the normal tools, thenwith the sroke definition tool, draw amarquee around the objects. This putsthem into a new stroke definitionwindow, and you then have a number ofoptions. For example, you can anchorregions of the stoke: these won’t bestretched proportionally, so you couldpreserve the size of the head and tail of anarrow or snake. Only the unanchored

middle portion will bestretched when used.Another possibility is tomake a stroke repeating inthe same proportions. Soinstead of, say, one longthin fish, you’ll get asuccession of small ones.Use it with a flower and therectangle tool and you’ll geta border of blossoms.Finally, there’s an option tocreate multi-view strokes.This combines differentedited versions of the same

objects as frames of a single stroke. Youcan paint with different shaped orcoloured versions of the same object; so,in a few brush strokes you could create ashoal of varied fish. As a final touch, notonly do the stroke thumbnails animate inthe warehouse palette, but multi-viewstrokes can be exported as standaloneAVI animations. ø


Vector technology with a difference: an impressive ‘stroke’ palette for enhanced creativity.

★★★★Price £175.07 (£148.99 ex VAT) Contact Computers Unlimited 0181 200 8282 www.metacreations.comSystem Requirements Windows 95.Good Points Wonderfully creative, and nowmore sensibly priced.Bad Points Not intended as a drawing all-rounder.Conclusion An excellent addition for theprofessional artist

PCW DETAILS

HH THESE PAINTERLY BRUSH STROKES ARE

ACTUALLY VECTOR OBJECTS

H CREATING YOUR OWN STROKES IN

EXPRESSION

Metacreations Expression

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GSP Designworks 3.5Some surprisingly powerful features in a professional but budget-priced package.

The CD-ROM gives you a choice ofEnglish, French or German versions.

It also includes version 3 of the product,which runs under Windows 3.1, as wellas 1200 clip-art pictures and 54 fonts,together with clip-art and photobrowsers, a keypad utility for insertingsymbols, a font manager and a screencapture utility. The interface isrefreshinglysimple, with thebasic drawingtools to the leftand commands atthe top. Thecolour palette is atthe bottom, andat screen right area series of quicktransform toolsthat, for example,will rotate or resizean object in preset

There’s a lot in this box, with 200quality fonts, 20,000 pieces of clip-

art (together with a Media Manager), aswell as a well-featured image processorand 3D effects applications. Instant 3-Dis a very easy way of creating 3D effectsfrom text or the supplied object library.However, you can’t create your ownobjects or have more than one in thesame scene.

The emphasis in Draw is very much on ease of use, with wizards available to tackle everything from setting up the sheet size to creating ready-madeprojects. A further helpful innovation in this version is the visual toolbar, which combines the functions of a helppanel with a conventional toolbar. Youcan access practically any command

from here, without everhaving to visit the menus.The third contender in themake-it-easy stakes is thestyle gallery. This lists a huge range ofpreset options and effects, including textstyles, fills, outlines, shadows, and so on,all presented as thumbnail samples.Experienced users can adopt a moreconventional interface. They will discoveran impressive set of power features. There’s a full range of drawing tools,including predrawn shapes and smartconnector lines that stay attached whenthe connected objects are movedaround. There’s also good web support,and you can input HTML code directly.Finally, there’s a toe-curlingly awfulmultimedia demo that doesn’t do theproduct any justice at all.

Great value for money for both novices and power users.

★★★★★Price £49.95 (£42.51 ex VAT) Contact Micrografx 01483 747526www.micrografx.comSystem Requirements Windows 95.Good Points Easy to use for the beginner, but plenty for the power user too.Bad Points Avoid the demo tour.Conclusion Absolutely brilliant value formoney.

PCW DETAILS

H THE VISUAL TOOLBAR

AND STYLE GALLEY

MAKE LIFE EASIER

★★★Price £39.95 (£33.61 ex VAT) Contact GSP 01480 496575www.gspltd.co.ukSystem Requirements Windows 95,Windows 3.1.Good Points Easy to use, but with somesurprisingly powerful features.Bad Points Meagre and poor-quality selectionof fonts and clip-art.Conclusion A budget application more suitedto the serious artist than to those wantinginstant results.

PCW DETAILS

steps. The toolbars can be set to floatfree, expanded to show all possible toolsor contracted to show the essentials.Instead of wizards, Designworks hasPagePilots. Although these are limited tocards, certificates and logos, furtherassistance is on hand to help youcomplete the project via the cue cards

Despite the budget price, thispackage boasts some professionalfeatures, such as Pantone libraries,

colour separationsand up to 200layers. There arefacilities to savenamed line and fillstyles, and thecolour palette offersthe same facility asthe high-endpackages to globallychange a colour and

all its tints. Typographic control isgenerally good. The small collection offonts are own-brand and the clip-artlibrary isn’t of brilliant quality — theCGM format doesn’t permit fine editingof the images. On the other hand, unlikePagePlus, the program lets you havemore than one drawing open at a time.

HDESIGNWORKS’NAMED STYLES AND

MULTIPLE

DRAWINGS

Highly

Commended

Micrografx Windows Draw 6 Premier Edition Print Studio

Serif applies the Corel approach to thelower end of the market, offering

plenty of value. As well as the drawingprogram there is an applet that offers in-place image processing, a clip-artbrowser, 400 fonts and more than18,000 clip-artand photo images. There’s both printedand electronic documentation, andtemplates cover everything fromgreetings cards to employment resumés.

The interface is simple anduncluttered, with a MS Office look. Leftis a simple set of drawing tools, whichexpand to give quick shapes such asstars, spirals and speech bubbles. Thecolour palette at the right has two usefultouches: a sub-palette of ten shades ofthe selected colour is shown, and themain palette can contain gradients aswell as flat fills. At the bottom of thescreen are the navigation controls, with

toolbars above for performingthe standard Windowsoperations, rotating andstacking objects, andspecifying fonts and lineattributes. There’s abundant help, withwizards everywhere and plenty of pop-uphint panels. All these aids can be turnedoff as you grow more confident. Moreunusual wizards are available to createborders, backgrounds, watermarks andeven cartoon faces. The templates tendto the bright and brash, rather than theaward-winning. The fonts are own-brandand as the clip-art is in WMF format, youcan’t really edit it: circles, for example,are composed of many short, straightline segments. Despite these limitationsthere is still plenty of drawing power forthe more ambitious user, with layers,multicolour fills, blends, and envelopeediting. Although version 4 wasn’tavailable at the time of writing, we are

promised a tabbed studiothat holds fill, line and font styles fordrag-and-drop formatting; anti-aliaseddisplay; transparency; more fills; easiercurve editing; and output of animatedand transparent GIFs.


Serif Draw Plus 3An easy-to-use package with plenty of drawing power.

★★★Price £39.95 (£34 ex VAT) Contact Serif 0800 376 7070www.serif.comSystem Requirements Windows 95.Good Points Easy to use and excellent value.Bad Points Poor-quality clip-art and fonts.Conclusion Wait for imminent version 4before buying.

PCW DETAILS

At the high end, Corel Draw 8comfortably beats the opposition,

both in terms of features and value.Features such as graduated transparencyand a huge range of fills are unmatchedelsewhere. The workspace is sometimesunpleasantly crowded, but the dockersare a step in the right direction. Theinteractive controls are far speedier andmore intuitive than the old dialogue-based methods, and minorenhancements such as automaticselection are genuine time-savers. Adding to this the huge range of fonts,quality artwork and other extras makes it unbeatable, and our Editor’s Choice.

We have two Highly Commendedawards to dispense, one for the high-endrunner up and one for the best of thebudget applications. Compatibility is animportant issue, and whereas Corel 8was, at time of writing, about to be

launched for theMac, both Illustratorand Freehand arelong-established onboth platforms. Ofthese two,MacromediaFreehandcomfortablyoutperformsits rival, aswell asoffering more interms of resources. It easily wins the firstof our HighlyCommended awards.

Competition is hot at the lower endof the market, with both Serif DrawPlusand GSP DesignWorks offering a greatdeal at a rock-bottom price. However,for an extra £10, Micrografx WindowsDraw 6 Premier Edition Print Studio

offers greater ease of use than either,more features for the power user, andhigher quality fonts, clip-art andtemplates. The extra image processingand 3D applications are anotheradvantage. So it wins our second Highly Commended award. ➩

Editor’s ChoiceHow the winners and runners-up qualified for their PCW awards.

R COREL’SFEATURES

AND FILLS

COMFORTABLY

BEAT THE

OPPOSITION

HDRAWPLUS TAKES

A FUN APPROACH TO

HOME AND BUSINESS

ARTWORK

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Technically speakingTake that, you CAD! Here’s a round-up of some of the best technical drawing packages around.

Technical drawing, as practised byengineers and architects, has to meet

an entirely different set of criteria. CADpackages usually offer fewer fills, blendsand fancy artistic effects, but moreprecision and drawing aids. The contrastis much the same as in manual drawing,for which the artist relies on the eye andthe draftsperson on the compass, ruleand T-square. CAD software, therefore,usually provides several ways of creatingan object. A circle, for example, can bedefined by its centre and radius, ordiameter, or a tangent and radius, or twotangents or three points, each beingappropriate to different situations. It’salso essential that it should be easy toinput points precisely, eitherby specifying numeric co-ordinates or by snapping toexisting objects such as theends or midpoints of a line,the centre, quadrant ortangent of a circle, theintersection of two lines, andso on. Layers, which were firstseen in CAD but are nowcommonplace in illustrationsoftware, are anotheressential. They enable thedraftsperson to hideunnecessary detail — for example, to take off the roof of a house towork on the detail inside. They can alsoserve to create multiple versions of thesame drawing — for example, a houseplan with layers for the bricklayers,carpenters, electricians and plumbers.Clip-art, in the CAD world, is replaced bysymbol libraries of objects that will beused over and over again, such as nutsand bolts or doors and windows.

For 3D modelling the situationbecomes more complicated. Accuracy isvital, and the user needs to be able toview the model from different angles, notjust in simple plan view. You also have tobe able to construct 3D objects. At thesimplest level, a line can be given height,usually (and rather confusingly) knownas thickness. A line with a width of100mm and a thickness of 2500mm, for instance, will appear as a solid wallwhen seen in isometric view. Next come

3D primitives — simple shapes such asboxes, spheres and cones. After thatcome solids and surface created bymanipulating 2D objects: a cylinder, forexample, can be created either byextruding a circle along its axis or byrotating (or sweeping) a rectanglearound one edge. More complexsurfaces can be generated by creatingsmooth “meshes” between curves —rather like stretching a rubber sheet overa wire frame. More powerful 3D CADsoftware will incorporate Booleanoperations: in other words, add orsubtract 3D shapes. If you want to showa hole drilled in a block, for example, thesimplest way is to draw the block, draw acylinder passing through it, then subtractthe cylinder from the block to create thehole. Another asset is the facility for userco-ordinate systems (UCS). Defining aUCS is rather like placing the drawing

sheet anywhere, and at anyangle, in the model. So, forexample, if you want to drawa skylight in a pitched roof,you can actually work on theroof rather than have do theawkward arithmetic of

calculating the distance and angles from the ground plane.

Having created a wireframe 3D model,it is important to be able to visualise thefinished product. At the simplest level, thesoftware should be able to remove hiddenlines, such as the back edges of a box.Shading will let you assign colour tosurfaces and specify light sources and aview point. Rendering will allow themapping of textures, such as brick or steel,to each surface, and generate realisticreflections, shadows and highlights.

Much CAD work is repetitive orspecialised, and much can be done toautomate productivity. This can be in theform of a simple, recordable macrosystem, but more advanced systems willallow third-party development in otherlanguages such as Lisp or Visual Basic.High-end dedicated CAD software such

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HAUTOSKETCH (FORMERLY

DRAFIX): GOOD FOR BEGINNER

QMICROGRAFX DESIGNER IS

AIMED MORE AT TECHNICAL

ILLUSTRATION THAN CAD

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as AutoCAD or Microstation can costseveral thousand pounds, but we’verounded up some cheaper products. Forsimple 2D work, Autosketch 5 (formerlyDrafix) provides a good entry point forbeginners, and has the added bonus thatit supports non-graphic data that can be

exported to a spreadsheet or database.Micrografx Designer sits rather uneasilybetween the artistic and technical camps.It is available only as part of a graphicssuite, but you get Flowcharter (below) inthe bundle. If AutoCAD compatibility isimportant, then AutoCAD LT uses the

same file format and interface, and can view (but not create) 3D models.Intellicad is a file-compatible near-cloneof LT, but offers 3D drawing as well. Forlow-cost 3D work DesignCAD 97 is anexcellent introduction, as is the latestversion of TurboCad. ❑

Diagrams, rather than drawings, are the end product offlowcharting. The two applications featured here, Visio and Micrografx Flowcharter, can be used to create all sorts of business diagrams, including timelines, processmaps, network diagrams, organisational charts and more. Both work by dragging and dropping smart shapes from a library palette onto a grid. The shapes resize withoutdistorting, and have placeholders that automaticallyformat their text labels to suit. Smart connector lines stay attached to the shapes when they are moved about. Users can create shapes and add data attributes or hyperlinks, and even program them tocarry out actions or make decisions. Flowcharter’sCoolSheets provide templates and its Living Flowchartscan route user input through a decision-making tree. Visio also bills itself as a general-purpose drawing toolfor maps, floor plans and other simple drawings. Forexample, Visio’s boundary line shape displays thelength and angle alongside the line, and the filingcabinet shape has adrawer that opens tocheck for clearance in anoffice plan. Both products are opento development, withsupport for Visual Basic,and can be linked todatabases.

Going with the flow

Visio 5 Price Standard version £98.99 (ex VAT); Prof. and technical versions £248.99 (ex VAT)Contact Visio International 01372 227900www.visio.com

PCW DETAILS

Flowcharter 7Price £199 (ex VAT); Graphics Suite 2Enterprise Edition includes Designer, PicturePublisher and Simply 3D for £248.99 (ex VAT)Contact Micrografx 01483 747526www.micrografx.com

PCW DETAILS

HVISIO DOES

FLOORPLANS AS

WELL AS CHARTS

PFLOWCHARTER’SSHAPES CAN CARRY

HYPERLINKS

PRODUCT AUTOSKETCH 5 AUTOCAD LT 97 DESIGNCAD 97 DESIGNER 7 INTELLICAD TURBOCAD 5 TURBOCAD PROF

CONTACT AUTODESK AUTODESK BVG MICROGRAFX VISIO INT’L IMSI IMSI

Tel No 01483 303322 01483 303322 01874 611633 01483 747526 01372 227900 0181 581 2000 0181 581 2000

URL www.drafix.com www.autodesk.co.uk www.viagrafix.com www.micrografx.com www.visio.com www.imsiuk.co.uk www.imsiuk.co.uk

Price inc VAT £116.32 £699.12 £176.19 £292.57 £292.57 £116.32 £270.25

Numeric input Y Y Y Y Y Y Y

Object snaps Y Y Y 4 Y Y Y

3D viewing 4 Y Y 4 Y Y Y

3D creation 4 4 Y 4 Y Y Y

Full AutoCAD

compatibility 4 Y 4 4 Y 4 4

Boolean operations 4 4 Y 4 4 Y Y

Development tools 4 Y Y 4 Y 4 Y

UCS 4 4 Y 4 Y Y Y

Rendering 4 4 Y 4 Y Y Y

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Table offeatures

PRO D U C T DESIGNWORKS 3.5 WINDOWS DRAW 6 DRAWPLUS 3

CO N TAC T GSP MICROGRAFX SERIF

Tel No 01480 496575 01483 747526 0800 376 7070

URL www.gspltd.co.uk www.micrografx.com www.serif.com

Price inc. VAT £39.95 £49.95 £39.95

Integrated browser Y Y Y

Colour separations Y 4 4

Colour libraries 4 4 4

Colour group management Y 4 4

Colour hardware matching 4 4 4

Multiple pages 4 4 4

Pressure-sensitive pen support 4 4 4

Scripting 4 4 4

Transparency 4 4 4

HTML output 4 Y 4

In-place image processing 4 Y Y

Fonts 54 250 400

Clip-art 1,200 20,000 18,500

PRO D U C T ILLUSTRATOR 7 COREL DRAW 8 FREEHAND 8 EXPRESSION

CO N TAC T ADOBE COREL MACROMEDIA COMPUTERS UNLIMITED

Tel No 0181 606 4000 0800 581028 01344 458600 0181 200 8282

URL www.adobe.com www.corel.com www.macromedia.com www.metacreations.com

Price inc. VAT £351.32 £464.13 £327.82 £175.07

Integrated browser 4 Y Y 4

Colour separations Y Y Y 4

Colour libraries 7 11 18 4

Colour group management Y Y Y 4

Colour hardware matching Y Y Y 4

Multiple pages Y Y Y 4

Pressure-sensitive pen support Y Y Y Y

Scripting 4 Y Y 4

Transparency 4 Y Y Y

HTML output 4 Y Extra 4

In-place image processing Y Y Y Y

Fonts 302 1,000 500 0

Clip-art 1,000 40,000 10,000 0

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Picturing the futureAT THE DAWNING OF THE NEW DIGITAL AGE, ADELE DYER, NIK RAWLINSON AND PAUL TRUEMAN FOCUSON SOME OF THE MOST ADVANCED CAMERAS THAT ARE POISED TO MAKE FILM A THING OF THE PAST.


F ilm is dead. Long live digital.Well, perhaps we’re gettingsquiffy on the funeral sherry

before the corpse is cold, but we’re a lotcloser to that day than we were a yearago. Then, most digital cameras had amaximum resolution of just 640x480pixels: fine for photographs on web sites,but too small to give satisfactory resultson paper. The cameras we looked at this

time all had a resolution of at least1024x768, with many of them beingmegapixel cameras. The colours theyproduce have improved, as have theirfunctionality, but they do not cost anymore than they did this time last year.

The increase in quality along with a drop in price is partly a result of digital cameras being this year’s must-have gadget. If you don’t have one,

you’re just not a sorted consumer. This year we’ve rounded up the

cream of the digital cameras. We weregoing to stick to megapixel cameras, butdecided to drop our criteria to includethose cameras with resolutions of1024x768. So, we have 15 camerascosting from as little as £300, withsomething to suit every taste — andevery idea of a snappy little snapshot.

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Agfa ePhoto 780

Agfa ePhoto 1280The 1280wasreleasedat thestart ofthe year,since when

it has garnered praise from technicalreviewers. At first glance it is hard to seewhy, but after just five minutes with the1280, it wins you over. An undoubtedlyugly, plastic, brown lump of a camera, itresembles the kind of product you wouldimagine designers coming up with if theywere targeting the pre-teenagers. Part of the reason for its dreadfulaesthetics is that there are hardly anybuttons to worry about, other than the

shutter button, the rec/play dial andmenu dial. With five different-qualityoptions available, from 640x480 to1280x960 interpolated (both offeredwith two levels of JPEG compression), anoptical zoom that gives the Agfa 1280the equivalent of a 38-114mm lens on a35mm camera, and aperture sizes fromf2.8-9.1, this camera is deceptively andbrilliantly complex in terms offunctionality, yet simple in design. Themenu offers the user the ability to seteverything from a self timer to exposureand focus, or simply leave everything tothe camera. The LCD was one of the best we saw,offering a sharp, colourful and fluidpicture across its 2in TFT screen. The

1280 comeswith a 4Mb CompactFlash that can storeabout six shots at the best image-qualitysetting, but 60 if you set it to 640x480 ata standard level of compression.

Casio QV-5000SXCasio was oneof the firstcompanies toproduce adigital camerafor the massesand its cameras

are now well known. The QV-5000SX issomething of a departure for Casio inthat it is the company’s first mega-pixeldigital camera, with a maximumresolution of 1280x960 pixels. The camera has 8Mb of memory, whichsounds generous. However, this isinternal memory only, so unlike all theother cameras in the test it cannot beexpanded with the use of removablememory cards. You are therefore limited

in the number of high-resolution imagesyou can take at one time — up to 17 —before you need to go back to your PC.The other annoying consequence is thatyou cannot then use something like aFlashPath drive for quick and easydownloading. Instead, you have to usethe download software and serial cable. The lens is equivalent to a 35mm lens ona 35mm camera. There is X2 and X4zoom, but this is digital only and dropsthe resolution down to 640x480, whichresults in poor-resolution, ill-focusedimages. Finally, the software is skimpy,with panorama stitching software andonly basic image editing. There are some good points, such as themovie play, which records shots at the

rate of 10frames a second — but again, at a lowresolution. These shots can be playedback as (rather jerky) QuickTime movies.

PCW DETAILS★★★★Price £762.57 (£649 ex VAT)Contact Agfa 0181 2314906www.agfa.co.ukGood Points Excellent functionalitycombined with user-friendly design.Bad Points Ugly. Colours not wellresolved.Conclusion You’ll learn to love it.

PCW DETAILS★★Price £499.99 (£425.52 ex VAT)Contact Casio 0181 450 9131www.casio.co.ukGood Points High-resolution images.Movie play feature. Bad Points No external memory. No optical zoom.Conclusion Poorly-featured for theprice.

Small, andabout thesameweight as aconventionalcamera, thisAgfa has amaximum

interpolated resolution of 1024x768pixels. At this resolution, the standard2Mb SmartMedia card supplied will hold12 images, but three lower-resolutionmodes, down to a minimum 320x240resolution, will take the capacity up to 96 pictures with JPEG compression.Aimed at the first-time digital camerauser, it is a simple point-and-click model,with two unlabelled buttons on the top

to operate the controls for flash andimage quality and a single button toactivate the shutter.The bundled PhotoWise imagemanagement software was a breeze bothto install and use. Double-clicking theicon allowed us to open the images onthe camera and perform very basicediting, such as rotation and resizing.The snap-shut cover on the front is awelcome addition, keeping the lens,equivalent to a 33mm lens on a 35mmcamera, clean and protected fromscratches. It also turns the camera onand off. The on-screen display is basicbut gives access to the self timer, as wellas providing the ability to deletephotographs. The LCD is “off” by

default, tosave on battery power, but can beactivated with a single button. There isno zoom, although a macro featureallows the camera to take close-ups.

PCW DETAILS★★★Price £351.33 (£299 ex VAT)Contact Agfa 0181 231 4906www.agfa.co.ukGood Points Small, light, easy to use.Bad Points No zoom, disappointingpicture quality.Conclusion A good introduction todigital cameras.

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Epson PhotoPC 700Epson is nota companyyou mightassociatewithphotography,but it is keen to

embrace the idea of digital imaging. Notsurprisingly, the PhotoPC 700 will printdirectly to all of Epson’s photo printers,and some of its small business printers,without the need to boot up your PC.Not only can you print directly in the4x6in format, but also 5x7in, contactsheets and photo stickers. Following on from last year’s PhotoPC600, the 700 represents a number ofimprovements rather than a complete

overhaul. The resolution is up to1280x960 pixels, with two levels ofcompression. You can also shoot at640x480 resolution, notably when youuse the 2X zoom. There is even an optionto shoot in black-and-white. At the highest resolution and leastcompression you should be able to fit 40 shots on the 4Mb of internal memory.However, the 700 also has aCompactFlash slot, though no cards aresupplied as standard, so you can expandthe memory in future. There is still an LCD and a viewfinder, butthe viewfinder now has a crosshair in themiddle and lines at the corners to helpyou line up your shots. The lens isequivalent to a 36mm lens on a 35mm

camera, butthere is an adapteron the front whichallows you to fit other, Tiffen lenses, sold separately.

Fuji DS-300Fuji suppliedtwo camerassuitable for thisgroup test, but interms ofaesthetics theycouldn’t be more

different. Next to its slinky, silvery MX-700 companion, the DS-300 looksunappealingly angular and chunky. TheDS-300 isn’t aimed at gadget-heads oreven people who quite like cameras andhave some spare moolah to throw about;at £1500, it’s really for those who maketheir living from photography. Capable of two resolutions, 640x480 or1280x1000, and four types ofcompression (from “Basic” compression

of 1/16 JPEG to an uncompressed “Fine”TIFF file), the DS-300 is fitted with a10Mb PCMCIA memory card that can fitstraight into a notebook. There is anoptical as well as X2 digital zoom option,with the Fujinon lens offering theequivalent of a 35mm-105mm lens on aconventional 35mm camera. Given that the user has total control ofthe shot, from the white balance to theshutter speed, as well as being able tochoose the file size and whether to take a colour or b/w shot, it takes a while tofind your way around the wealth offunctions, as user-friendly as the controls are. There is an extension unit that attaches to the base of thecamera, making it even heftier, but

there is aSCSI interface on the extension unit forfaster file transfer times if hooked up to a SCSI port on a PC.

PCW DETAILS★★★★Price £1756.63 (£1495 ex VAT)Contact Fujifilm 0171 586 5900www.fujifilm.comGood Points Excellent functionalityand picture quality.Bad Points The size of the camera andits price tag.Conclusion A good bet for theprofessional.

With thePowerShot A5,Canon hasproduced adigital camerathat is muchcloser in look

and feel to a traditional point-and-shootfilm camera. It’s small and neat andbears a striking resemblance to Canon’sIXUS ASP camera. A dial on the top and ashort menu on the LCD lets you selectyour options quickly.The PowerShot A5’sfunctionality is limited to date- and time-stamping your photographs andchoosing the resolution — either1024x768 or 512x384. At the lower resolution and the highest

of three levels of compression you can fitan amazing 236 shots onto the 8MbCompactFlash card supplied. At thehigher resolution you can printphotographs to A5 size on an inkjetprinter, hence the name. The lens is fixed at the equivalent to a35mm lens on a 35mm camera. Auto-focus and auto-exposure make it eveneasier to use. If you half press the shutterbutton to focus on one object, you canthen move the camera, allowing you tofocus on an object even if it’s not in thecentre of the frame. Some peoplemayfind the level of nannying annoying, butthis camera is aimed squarely at thehome snapper, not at business users orphotography enthusiasts.

The A5 usesa Lithium battery rather than AAbatteries, which lasts longer thanconventional batteries but needs arecharger, which comes in the box.

PCW DETAILS★★★Price £645.08 (£549 ex VAT)Contact Canon 0121 680 8062www.canon.co.ukGood Points Small, neat, easy to use.Bad Points Not much more than a point-and-shoot.Conclusion Fun, but picture quality isn’t great.

PCW DETAILS★★★★Price £587.50 (£500 ex VAT)Contact Epson 0800 289622www.epson.co.ukGood Points Panoramic mode (1280 x 480), continuous shot.Bad Points Digital zoom only.Conclusion Excellent picture quality at a reasonable price.

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Fuji MX-700

Kodak DC220The DC220follows closelyon the heels ofthe DC210. Likethe DC210, the220 has a 2Xoptical zoom andtwo resolutions:

1152x864 pixels and 640x480 pixels,with three levels of image compression.The lens on both is equivalent to a 29-58mm lens on a 35mm camera.However, the difference between them isin the finer detail. The 220 also has a 2Xdigital zoom [see p233 for more ondigital zoom] and an 8Mb, rather thanjust 4Mb, CompactFlash card whichstores 26 images at the highest

resolution and the least compression. The design of the DC220 has obviouslybeen carefully considered: there are nicetouches like a lens cap, a double coverover the four AA batteries, andindentations which make it easier to holdthe camera without getting your fingersin the way of the lens. The buttons andthe multicolour menu system are easy tofind your way around, and to make itseem more like a film camera, it clicksand whirrs when you take a shot, as if theshutter is snapping and the film windingon. Like the DC260, it also has a timelapse setting and burst mode settings,both of which let you take pictures atdesignated intervals. Other points are less well thought out,

though,notably the zoom button which can behard to adjust to the desired degree.

Kodak DC260 This is anenhancedversion of theDC220 save that,curiously, it lacksthat model’smacro mode for

close-ups. Kodak claims it is the first sub-£1000 camera with 1.6 megapixel sensor,giving a resolution of up to 1536x1024 in24-bit colour — enough for high-quality8in by 10in prints. The extra pixels alsogive more scope for cropping becauseyou can halve the area and still have afull-colour full-screen VGA image.The DC260 offers a 3X rather than 2Xzoom, with a 2X digital zoom kicking inautomatically to give a total 6X. You can

opt to use external lighting rather thanthe internal flash, and to focus onto asingle point, a general scene, or at aspecified distance. The bundled 8MbCompactFlash card can store around 16hi-res pictures. Transferring them to a PCcan take half an hour or more via astandard serial port, or a few seconds viathe alternative USB. A fast infra-red portis also provided, and you can viewpictures through a TV.A script language allows you to configureboth the 260 and 220 for specific tasks,and even create wizards to guide users via the rear LCD panel. You might, forinstance, use a script to take “bracket”shots at two or more f-stops to ensure a good exposure. You need a

CompactFlash driveto load a script.

The MX-700 is aclear indication thatcompanies are nowmarketing digitalcameras as highlydesirable pieces of kit.Coated in a silver mattfinish, the MX-700combines thorough

functionality with impressiveminiaturisation. Equipped with Fuji’sown Fujinon lens, with a focal lengthequivalent to a 35mm lens on a 35mmcamera, the MX-700 has two setresolutions: the lower takes pictures at640x480 pixels, the higher at 1280x1024pixels. While there isn’t an optical zoom,there is a digital zoom capable of 2X

magnification. However, we couldn’thelp thinking that a lens cap might haveproved worthwhile to protect theintegrity of the lens. In some reviews ofthis camera, the controls have beencriticised for being fiddly. We liked therotating dial on the top right of the backof the camera, and the four buttons overthe LCD aren’t easy to confuse. The dialis perfectly placed if the camera is placedin the right hand because the thumb restsnaturally on the dial. The same dial canbe used to select which photos to previewon the LCD. The LCD is excellent, brightand clear, and there is an option toswitch it off and use the small viewfinderin order to save the batteries. The onlyreal drawback is the amount of memory

that comesin the SmartMedia card, a mere 2Mbthat can’t store more than two or threeimages at the highest resolution.

PCW DETAILS★★★★Price £649.99 (£553.19 ex VAT)Contact Fujifilm 0171 586 5900www.fujifilm.comGood Points All your chums will wantone.Bad Points All your chums will want toplay with it.Conclusion The choice of the FHMreader.

PCW DETAILS★★★★Price £699 (£594.90 ex VAT)Contact Kodak 0800 281487www.kodak.comGood Point Well designed, generallyeasy to use.Bad Point Zoom hard to positioncorrectly.Conclusion A smart point-and-shootcamera.

PCW DETAILS★★★★★Price £899 (£765.11 ex VAT)Contact Kodak 0800 281487www.kodak.co.ukGood Point Desirable, versatile andsmart (in both senses).Bad Point A dollar equals a pound,judging by the US and UK prices.Conclusion Shows the digital camera atlast approaching the quality, features andvalue taken for granted in good traditionalcameras. Expect prices to fall.

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Nikon Coolpix 900Rotatablecamera lensesare all theragenowadays,and Nikon has

fitted an eyecatching lens to the side ofthe Coolpix 900 that can swivel through270 degrees. Matt silver finish isobviously in this season for mega-pixeldigital cameras, and the Coolpix 900 is a great example of an attractive gadgetthat everyone will want to play with. It offers both optical and digital zoom,with a lens equivalent to a 38-115mmlens on a 35mm camera. The CCD cantake photographs of resolutions up to1280x960 pixels. The 4Mb Nikon

CompactFlash memory card, meanwhile,can store up to six pictures at the finesetting, 12 normal and 24 basic, andoptional extras include memory cardswith up to 24Mb of memory. The Coolpix 900 is one of the fewcameras not to come with a poweradapter connection cable to enable theuser to save battery life. The cameratakes four conventional AA batteries andthere is no recharger, so you must simplybuy new batteries when they run out.There is a “Premium” pack available foran extra £100 that includes the poweradapter and 12Mb memory card. On the other hand, the 900 had some ofthe best software we saw, withNikonView 900 creating a virtual drive,

and photoskept there ready to be dragged anddropped like any other Windows file.

Olympus Camedia C-840LThe worstthing we couldfind to sayabout thiscamera wasthat it had no

zoom, which is hardly a fault and not acriticism. It was small and neat and farfrom greedy with the batteries, eventhough we used the LCD instead of theviewfinder to take almost every picture. A snap-shut cover turns the camera onand off and, as well as protecting thelens, is the housing for the built-in flash.External connectors include ports for thepower supply, PC interface and PALvideo out. The maximum resolution of1280x960 was one of the highest we have

seen in this class and the JPEG imagescan be electronically protected to preventthem from being unintentionally wipedfrom the camera. Coming with a 4MbSmartMedia card as standard, theCamedia is capable of capturing between9 and 60 images at highest (1280x960)and lowest (640x480) modes,respectively, straight out of the box.A direct printing option lets you outputimages to the Olympus P-300E and P-150E printers without a PC, while a“mirror” option allows images to beflipped while still in the camera so thatthe printed images are suitable forironing onto T-shirts. The utility softwareallows users to print single sheetscontaining up to 30 images for indexing

purposes.The OSD is limited, but thesupplementary calculator-style displayon top covers all necessary functions.

Olympus C-1400 LThe SLRdesign ofthisOlympusmeant that it wasn’tnecessary to

use the 1.7in LCD to see exactly whatwould be in your finished picture. Insteadof using a mirror, it incorporates a prismthat passes 40% of the incoming light tothe viewfinder and the remainder to theCCD. White balancing is automated,while aperture settings range from widef2.8 and f5.8 to telephoto f3.9 and f7.8.We were impressed by the inclusion oftwo 4Mb SmartMedia cards, each givingroom for 49 standard-quality images at

640x512 pixels but only four 1280x1024high-quality images using JPEG baselinecompression. With a lens equivalent to36-110mm, it has a 3X zoom. The built-in flash folds down when not in use andincorporates the now almost standardred-eye reduction. A 12-second selftimer, meanwhile, let us appear in ourown photographs. Exposure wasautomatic but seven settings allow usersto adjust this to suit their particularrequirements. Although the camera usesfour AA batteries, we soon had to resortto the external power supply. Externalconnections allow for hooking up toOlympus’ own dye-sub printer to outputimages directly at a rather obscure306dpi without downloading to a PC.

The suppliedPC utility software is supplemented by a TWAIN driver for extra flexibility.

PCW DETAILS★★★Price £759 (£645.96 ex VAT); Premium bundle £859 (£731.06 ex VAT)Contact Nikon 0800 230220www.nikon.co.ukGood Points Great LCD, pictures easilytransferred to the PC. Bad Points Rather stingy basic package.Conclusion Would be a contender if theimages were better.

PCW DETAILS★★★★Price £599.99 (£510.63 ex VAT)Contact Olympus 0800 072 0070www.olympus-europa.comGood Points Small. High resolution.Good LCD.Bad Points A little on the pricey side.Conclusion Good camera, but imagesare too pixelated.

PCW DETAILS★★★Price £999.99 (£851.06 ex VAT)Contact Olympus 0800 072 0070www.olympus-europa.com Good Points SLR. Direct print toOlympus printer. High resolution.Bad Points Big and heavy. Greedy withthe batteries. Expensive.Conclusion It looks impressive, but thereare better options out there.

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Panasonic NV-DCF5BThe PanasonicNV-DCF5Band the Coolpix600 from Nikonare essentiallythe same

camera. However, we chose to review thePanasonic because it comes withnumerous add-ons that increase itsfunctionality and, of course, its weight. At first glance this is one of the smallestcameras we have reviewed. The DCF5Bhas a maximum resolution of 1024x768pixels at a “fine” setting, and 1136x640pixels at the “widescreen” setting. The f5 lens is the equivalent of a 36mmlens on a 35mm camera, with an 2Xdigital zoom. This function can be used

to enlarge on pictures already taken andviewed on the LCD. LCDs represent a large drain on thecamera battery, and it’s always a goodidea to find out whether there’s anoption to switch them off. The DCF5Ballows the user to do just that, and usethe viewfinder positioned over the LCDto still take photographs. If you wish totake shots using the “zoom” or “wide”setting, then the LCD will activateautomatically to allow you to see theproposed shot. The DCF5B comes with a lightweightflash that can be screwed onto the side of the camera, plus the Digital StillCamera Station that attaches to thebottom of the camera, which you will

need toconnect before downloading the picturesyou have taken to a PC.

Ricoh RDC-4300 Ricoh’sformerdigitalcameraswere always

instantly recognisable by the flip-up LCDscreens. The RDC-4300 looks more like aconventional camera, albeit one with alens that will swivel through 180 degrees.The flash also swivels, but only through90 degrees, so if you are pointing thecamera at yourself to take pictures it willonly flash light at the ceiling rather thanthe subject. However, the image on theLCD screen will automatically right itselfto show the image the right way up, nomatter what direction the lens ispointing, or indeed which way up the

camera is. The zoom lens is equivalent toa 35 – 105mm lens on a 35mm camera.However, the zoom was a little clunky touse on the pre-production model we saw.As we moved the slider on the back, itgrated and was a little jerky in itsadjustments. You can record sound with your images,or just sound on its own through a tinymicrophone on the camera, so you canadd notes to your pictures. You canrecord up to eight seconds with pictures,although be aware that this will eat intoyour 4Mb of SmartMedia.In use the RDC-4300 is very easy tomanage. The controls are all well set outand easy to navigate around. The imagequality was one of the best we saw from

any of thedigital cameras in thistest, including thosecosting considerably more. Colourreproduction was excellent.

Sanyo VPC-X300Unique to thiscamera is thefour seconds ofaudio that canbe recordedwith each

photograph. On the downside, thisdramatically decreases the number ofpictures you can fit onto the standard4Mb SmartMedia card. The lens has a fixed optical focal lengthand is equivalent to a 36mm lens on a35mm camera. The 3X digital zoom,however, slices off pixels from around theedge of the image in six increments,which takes the resolution down from1024x768 to 640x480. Two multiple-shot options will take nine

images in rapid succession — at 0.1second and 0.2 second intervalsrespectively. These can be played back as AVI files, but as all nine shots are fitted onto one 1024x768 pixels image,the resolution of each shot is very low.It takes a long time for the camera towrite images to the card, so unless youare using the multiple photograph optionyou would not be able to take more thanone picture without having to wait. This camera is very easy to use, with the OSD presenting a series of one-stepoptions rather than asking the user toselect from a succession of menus.Likewise, the software is friendly andidiot-proof, incorporating a quickdownload option to dump all images

on the harddrive without displaying thumbnails.

PCW DETAILS★★★Price £549.95 RRP (£468.02 ex VAT)Contact Panasonic 0990 357357www.panasonic.co.ukGood Points Pocket-sized. Easy on the eye.Bad Points Too many add-ons neededfor full functionality.Conclusion A neat little camera, butimages dark and lacking in detail.

PCW DETAILS★★★★★Price £599 (£509.79 ex VAT)Contact Ricoh 01782 753355www.ricoh.co.ukGood Points Rechargeable batteriesand recharger as standard.Bad Points Needs a second Lithiumbattery to record date and time.Conclusion A nice camera to use, withgood features and great output.

PCW DETAILS★★★Price £509.79 (£599 ex VAT)Contact Sanyo 01923 246363www.sanyo.co.ukGood Points Multiple shots. Easy touse. Audio annotation.Bad Points No power supply. Slow towrite pictures.Conclusion Some nice features, but itultimately failed to impress.

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FU J IMX-700 (1280x1024)

KO D A KDC220 (1152x864)

E P S O NPhotoPC 700 (1280x960)

FU J IDS-300 (1280x1000)

C A S I OQV-5000 (1280x960)

C A N O NPowerShot A5 (1024x768)

AG FAePhoto 780 (640x480)

AG FAePhoto 1280 (1024x768)

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SA N YOVPC-X300 (1024x768)

PA N A S O N I CNV-DCF5B (1024x768)

RI C O HRDC-4300 (1280x960)

OLY M P U SC-840L (1280x960)

OLY M P U SC-1400L (1280x1024)

KO D A KDC260 (1536x1024)

NI K O NCoolpix 900 (1280x960)

All the cameras were set to their highestoptical resolution [see page 233], with theleast compression applied to the images.We used flash rather than photographiclighting as this is how cameras in this price

range will most likely be used. As some of the camerashandled exposure automatically and others allowedadjustments to be made, to create a level playing field wetook all the images using the default exposure settings. We have published small sections of the shots we took togive a better indication of close-up quality .

How we did the tests

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Editor’s ChoiceDigital cameras have come a long way in a very short space of time. Here are three of the best.

A ll too often peripherals are alltalk and no trousers, promisingthe earth but delivering results

that are less than impressive. This year’sbatch of digital cameras, however, hasbeen anything but disappointing. Themost noticeable and obviousimprovement has been in terms ofresolution, which has leapt from anaverage of 640x480 to mega-pixels in avery short space of time. If this hadmeant prices going through the roof, wemight have been less keen, but prices arelittle more than they were a year ago.

Numerous other factors favour thisyear’s crop. More and more have zoomlenses, which increases their adaptability.More include functions to adjust suchthings as white balance and exposure,ensuring that you have the tools toovercome obstacles such as bad lighting.Add to this advanced functionality, suchas the scripting capability on Kodak’sDC260, and you have cameras which aremuch more than fun accessories — theycan be a real business tool.

In making our awards, our primeconsideration was to pick those cameraswhich produced the best images. Whilefunctionality is an added bonus, goodimage quality is farmore importantthan gadgety extras. But we also took price intoconsideration, sothere were severalcameras whichdeserve a mentionbut just failed to winan award. For sheerimage quality, theFuji DS-300 and theOlympus C-1400L were both on a parwith our Editor’s Choice. The problemis, they are much more expensive thanthe other cameras in our test. If you havelimited means, our other award winners

are not farbehind them interms of quality.The first camerato win a Highly Commended award isEpson’s PhotoPC 700. The imagequality is exceptional for what is arelatively cheap camera. And although itdoesn’t have an optical zoom, you can

add on third-party lenses. It has aresolution of 1280x960, 4Mb ofinternal memory with a slot for

CompactFlash cards, andpanoramic and

continuous shotmodes. It gives youthe basics for agood price. Thesecond Highly

Commended awardgoes to the Ricoh

RDC-4300. Thiscamera also has a

resolution of 1280x960 but comes withan optical zoom lens which can swivelthrough 180 degrees, as well as a sound-recording facility. Once more, it was the

quality of its images that really caughtour eye. But the Editor’s Choice has togo to the Kodak DC260. Not only did ithave the highest resolution, at1536x1024, a 3X zoom and superbpicture quality, but it also faroutstripped any other camera in termsof features. Perhaps the most impressiveof these was the scripting facility, whichlets you set up various types of shotswith details such as the resolution,compression rate and exposure settingswithout having to fiddle around with themenus for ages. You can evenautomatically place images in pre-specified positions in documents. Inother words, it is the shape of digitalcameras to come.

Image quality is far more importantthan gadgety extras

¿KODAK DC260 RRICOH

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Camera anglesDigital cameras are strikingly different to traditional film models.

No matter how muchmanufacturers try to makedigital cameras look like film

cameras, there are numerous differencesbetween them. First and foremost is themethod of capturing the image.

Digital cameras use a CCD (chargedcouple device), much like that employedby scanners. The CCD consists of a gridof pixels, and the higher the number ofpixels, the larger the resolution of theresulting image. So a grid of 1.3 millionpixels will translate into an image size of1280x960 pixels, given that the imagescreated by pixels on the far edge of theCCD are often cropped off.

Each pixel in the CCD has a red, agreen and a blue transistor. These arecharged when light hits them, so thebrighter the light, the higher the charge.This is converted into a digital value, andafter passing through a DSP (digitalsignal processor) to adjust contrast anddetail, the data is then sent to thestorage medium.

Almost all digital cameras use flashmemory, which is small, portable andnon-volatile, meaning you don’t loseyour pictures if the battery goes dead.Most cameras use removable flashmemory cards, either in the form ofCompactFlash cards or SmartMediacards. CompactFlash cards can be putinto PC Card adapters to downloadimages direct to a notebook. Thesmaller, slimmer SmartMedia cards canbe slotted into what looks and behaveslike a floppy drive for downloading directto any PC. All thismakesdownloadingimages muchfaster thanhooking up thecamera to theserial port ofyour PC. Most digital cameras willcompress the image before it is stored,and most offer you a choice of two orthree levels of compression.

Compressing the image will reduceits size, so you’ll be able to fit moreimages onto your media. However, note

that image compression, especially thewidely used JPEG format, will affect thequality of the image.

Image sizes can only getlarger, especially with theexplosion in resolutionlevels. Last year, only a fewcameras pushed themselves overthe 640x480 pixels limit. This year,the same amount of money can buy youa camera with double that resolution. Beaware, however, when choosing acamera that some manufacturers in thistest, notably Agfa, may quote aninterpolated, rather thanoptical, resolution. Obviously, an image atan interpolated resolutionof, say 1024x768, derived froman optical resolution of 800x600, isnot going to be as good as an image atan optical resolution of 1024x768.

The advantage of higher-resolution images becomesapparent when you cometo print. When outputtingto an inkjet printer, you can printdigital camera images at as low aresolution as 150dpi and still producereasonable, and quite large, results.When outputting to a typesetter, asmagazines do, you need to budget for300dpi. By looking at the number ofpixels and dividing this by the number ofdots per inch you are printing at, you canwork out what size your image will finallybe. So, for example, an image with aresolution of 1280x960 pixels can be

output on an inkjetat 8.5x6.4in and ona typesetter at4.26x3.2in. When taking yourpictures, you arelikely to have two

ways of setting up the shot — using eithera viewfinder or an LCD screen. Both havetheir disadvantages. As the viewfinder isto one side of the lens, the image you seethrough it is often just to one side of theimage that will actually be captured.LCDs give you a more accurate report ofwhat you will be taking, but are powermad and drain the battery at an

alarming rate. Asthe CCD is minute compared to film —closer to 1/3in than 35mm — the lensesused are much smaller and much closerto the CCD, with a focal length ofaround 8mm. So lenses are describednot in their actual dimensions, but incomparative terms to lenses on 35mmcameras. Many cameras quote “digitalzoom” as a feature. Effectively, all it doesis take the middle out of the image,cropping off the outer pixels andpresenting this as a closer view. As aresult, the image’s resolution often dropsto just 640x480. Some cameras will thentry to use interpolation to stretch theimage, with mixed results. If your camerais able to take images at resolutions ofover 1024x768, you are better off doingthe cropping yourself.

Most digital camerascompress the imagebefore it is stored

¿FLOPPY DISK

ADAPTERRSMARTMEDIA

CARDPCOMPACTFLASH

CARD


MANUFACTURER AGFA AGFA CASIO CANON EPSON

MODEL EPHOTO 780 EPHOTO 1280 QV5000 POWERSHOT A5 PHOTOPC 700

Price inc VAT £351.33 £762.57 £499.99 £645.08 £587.50

Phone 0181 231 4906 0181 2314906 0181 450 9131 0121 680 8062 0800 289622

URL www.agfahome.com www.agfa.co.uk www.casio.co.uk www.canon.co.uk www.epson.co.uk

Focal length of lens 33mm 38-114mm 35mm 35mm 36mm

Digital zoom? No No Yes No Yes

Macro mode 15cm - 40cm 40cm-75cm 10-30cm 9-50cm 10-50cm

No. of pixels in CCD 350,000 810,000 1,300,000 810,000 1,300,000

Max optical resolution 1024 x 768 1280x960 1280x960 1024x768 1280x960

Other resolutions 320x240, 640x480 640x480 640x480 512x384 1280x480, 640x480

Int/ext memory None/2Mb None/4Mb 8Mb/None None/8Mb 4Mb/optional

Memory type SmartMedia SmartMedia Flash memory CompactFlash CompactFlash

Images on int/ext mem None/96 None/60 102/None None/236 40/Optional

Native file format JPEG JPEG CAM CIFF JPEG

Power adapter Standard Optional Optional Standard Optional

Video out NTSC or PAL NTSC/PAL NTSC/PAL PAL PAL

Image editing software PhotoGenie LivePix QV-Link PhotoImpact 4, Hotshots, PageMill

MANUFACTURER FUJI FUJI KODAK KODAK NIKON

MODEL DS-300 MX700 DC220 DC260 COOLPIX 900

Price inc VAT £1,756.63 £649.99 £699 £899 £759

Phone 0171 5865900 0171 5865900 0800 281487 0800 281487 0800 230220

URL www.fujifilm.co.uk www.fujifilm.co.uk www.kodak.co.uk www.kodak.co.uk www.nikon.co.uk

Focal length of lens 35mm-105mm 35mm 29-58mm 38-115mm 38-115mm

Digital zoom? No Yes 2X 2X Yes

Macro mode 20-40cm 9-50cm up to 20cm No 8-50cm

No. of pixels in CCD 1,400,000 1,500,000 1,037,816 1,597,536 1,300,000

Max optical resolution 1280x1000 1280x1024 1152x864 1536x1024 1280x960

Other resolutions 640x480 640x480 640x480 1152x768, 768x512 n/a

Int/ext memory None/10Mb None/2Mb None/8Mb None/8Mb None/4Mb

Memory type Flash ATA SmartMedia CompactFlash CompactFlash CompactFlash

Images on int/ext mem None/227 None/38 None/104 None/90 None/24

Native file format TIFF/JPEG JPEG Flashpix or JPEG Flashpix or JPEG JPEG

Power adapter Standard Standard Standard Standard Optional

Video out NTSC/PAL NTSC/PAL NTSC/PAL NTSC/PAL NTSC/PAL

Image editing software None PhotoDeluxe 2.0 PhotoDeluxe PhotoDeluxe PhotoDeluxe 2.0

Table of features

MANUFACTURER OLYMPUS OLYMPUS PANASONIC RICOH SANYO

MODEL CAMEDIA C-840L CAMEDIA C-1400 L NV-DCF5B RDC-4300 VPC-X300E

Price inc VAT £599.99 £999.99 £549.95 £599 £599

Phone 0800 072 0070 0800 072 0070 0990 357357 01782 753355 01923 246363

URL www.olympus-europa.com www.olympus-europa.com www.panasonic.co.uk www.ricoh.co.uk www.sanyo.co.uk

Focal length of lens 36mm 36 mm - 110mm 36mm 35 — 105mm 36mm

Digital zoom? No No - Optical Yes No Yes 3x

Macro mode 10-50cm 30-60cm 3-70cm 8-40cm 20-50cm

No. of pixels in CCD 1,310,000 1,410,000 1,080,000 1,320,000 810,000

Max optical resolution 1280 x 960 1280 x 1024 1024x768 1280x960 1024 x 768

Other resolutions 640 x 480 640 x 512 512x384, 1136x640 640 x 480 640 x 480

Int/ext memory None/4Mb None/2 x 4Mb None/4Mb None/4Mb None/4Mb

Memory type SmartMedia SmartMedia CompactFlash SmartMedia SmartMedia

Images on int/ext mem None/60 None/49 None/75 None/71 None/60

Native file format JPEG JPEG JPEG JPEG JPEG

Power adapter Optional Optional Standard Optional Optional

Video out PAL No NSTC NTSC/PAL PAL

Image editing software Utility software Kai’s Photo Soap None DU-4 MGI PhotoSuite

will rise digitally from his grave and star inanother sequel to the film Oh, God!. But if youcreate a digital representation of a person, whoowns the data? Questions like this are gettingthe lawyers excited. Nadia Thalmann ofGeneva’s Miralab was recently prohibited fromusing the likeness of Martina Hingis in a virtualtennis match against Thalmann’s well-knowncomputer-generated model of Marilyn Monroe<ligwww.epfl.ch/~thalmann>. V-humanproducts are already on offer for the homemarket. Virtual Personalities sells “verbalrobots” or “verbots”<www.vperson.com>, while Haptek offers a fully 3D “virtualfriend” for your desktop <www.haptek.com>. In time, companies will no doubt spring upoffering to digitally preserve our departed lovedones. Supplied with voice samples and homevideos from which body shapes and gaits can beextracted, the digital cloners will sell us highly-realistic walking, talking, digital ghosts.

As new display technologies emerge we’llhave life-sized portraits hanging on the wall —but the canvas will be an ultra-thin, high-rescomputer display and the image will be “alive”.When the true 3D display finally arrives, capableof creating a solid image anywhere in space,these digital spectres will walk around and sitwith us. And then things will get really spooky.


futures

W atch out, there’s a Virtual Humanabout. Or there soon will be.According to the researchers who

gathered at the Virtual Humans Conferencerecently held in California, v-humans may be thefuture of the human-computer interface andwill revolutionise the entertainment industry.Also known as “digital people” or “avatars”, v-humans are highly realistic computer-generated

models of people, with faces which lip-synchronise with speech and show emotion. V-humans have only recently become feasiblebecause of the sheer amount of computer powerrequired to render them in real-time. In themovie industry, the use of entirely computer-generated actors, or “synthespians”, is becoming big business. Many of the crowdscenes in the movie Titanic, for example, usedonly synthespians — not an extra in sight. Butsynthespians don’t come cheap: the effectscompany responsible, Digital Domain<www.d2.com>, needed the computing power of a network of 160 433MHz DEC Alpha PCs.

Entrepreneurs have not been slow torealise the financial possibilities of v-humans.Virtual Celebrity Productions, a Los Angeles-based company which creates photorealisticdigital reproductions of celebrities, has alreadysigned up with the estates of stars including WC Fields and Sammy Davis Jr. Within threeyears, says founder Jeffrey Lotman, it will bepossible to digitally graft a celebrity’s syntheticface onto the head of a live actor so convincinglythat it will be impossible to spot the digital fake.“Can you imagine doing a new film withMarlene Dietrich?” asks Lotman.

The thought that the dead can be recreatedas digital mannequins is getting Hollywood hotunder the collar, as the studios see the enormouscommercial opportunities of making moviesfeaturing stars of the past. One such film isalready underway: later this year, George Burns

Companies will offer to digitally preserve our dearly

departed loved ones and sell us HIGHLY-REALISTICWALKING, TALKING, DIGITAL GHOSTS(

Breeding like robotsToby Howard is spooked as computer-generated humans prepare to take over Hollywood.

¿SYLVIE, VIRTUAL

PERSONALITIES’‘VERBALLY ENHANCED

ARTIFICIALLY

INTELLIGENT ENTITY’¡NEED A VIRTUAL

FRIEND? HAPTEK

WILL OBLIGE


futures

¿SOON, WHEN PEOPLE

CALL THEIR BANK OR

AIRLINE RESERVATIONS

CENTRE, IT WILL BE

HARD TO TELL IF A

HUMAN IS ON THE

OTHER END OF THE

PHONE LINE OR AN

INTERACTIVE VOICE-RESPONSE SYSTEM

Who said that?Soon, says Roger Gann, you won’t be able to tell if it’s a person or a machine on the end of the line.

In the next few years we will be chatteringaway not only to our PCs, but to a wholerange of domestic devices – not to mention

automated telephone services. When people calltheir bank, airline reservations centre or evenBT, it will be hard to tell if a human is on the

other end of the phoneline or some fiendishlyclever interactivevoice-response system.Recently, IBM andVoice Control Systemstogether announced arange of developmenttools to further thisaim of eventuallyreplacing touch-tonevoice systems. Theprospects arefascinating. When youcall your tour operatorto book a holiday,you’ll be greeted by an

intelligent, computer-based agent. It might usea range of phone voice services, from limitedvocabulary applications that recognise everyword, to programs able to enter into complexconversations featuring natural languageunderstanding, built-in intelligence andcontextual memory. Such programs canimprove the efficiency of an automated phonesystem and make it easier for remote workers toaccess phone registries, report generators andthird-party phone systems. They have a usefulrole to play in businesseswhere customer service is critical, such as call centres. And the cost savings can be huge.AT&T’s directory servicehas an automated voice operator that asks adirectory enquiries caller “What city? Whatlisting?” before connecting to a humanoperator. This saves AT&T $200 to $300 million a year in labour costs.

BT has been trialling Brimstone, aprototype corporate directory application, in itsMartlesham Heath speech-recognition labs forsome time. The system was developed to allowvoice access to a subset of the BT corporate

internal telephone directory, Interview. Thiscorresponds to approximately 5000 entries,resulting in a vocabulary of about 3000surnames and 900 first names. The database and associated vocabularies are automaticallyupdated from the central repository. Earlyresearch has shown that it may be fruitless to ask the computer to recognise every word and proceed from there to an understanding of what was intended.

A better solution is to let a dialogue systemrecognise as many words as it can, butformulate its responses on the basis of keywords in a sentence. In effect, it looks for thewords that convey context-sensitive meaning.Airline ticket booking is one obviousapplication. A caller can say the same thingseveral different ways, and still the meaning willbe grasped. The system might return promptssuch as “Day of travel?” “What time?” and“Which class?”, progressively narrowing thefocus in a way which makes the dialogue easyfor the computer to master.

Speech recognition software can also beused for speaker verification. Voice ControlSystems has developed SpeechWave Secure,which can recognise and verify a single,naturally spoken string of digits, allowing anyapplication using continuous digit recognitionto add speaker verification without altering the call flow. For example, the identity oftelephone banking customers can be verifiedwhile they speak their account number, withoutthe need to enter a password or PIN. As a

fallback, the system offers a Posi-Ident featurewhich fires personal questions at the caller iftheir identity cannot be confirmed by speakerverification alone.

Not surprisingly, the sales prospects fortechnology of this sort are rosy. According to USanalysts TMA Associates, the total value of allspeech-based telephony product sales willexceed $11.6 billion by 2001. Most of these saleswill be of limited-vocabulary systems. ❏

AT&T’s automated telephone directory service

SAVES $300 MILLION A YEAR in labour costs)


W elcome to Hands On.

It may look different,

but this section is still

the first place to turn if you want

more than just news and reviews.

This month, we welcome Cliff Joseph

into the fold. With so many people

owning more than one type of

machine these days, he’ll be taking a

look at what’s happening in the PC-

free world and concentrating on all

things Macintosh.

Roger Gann continues to get his

hands dirty in the Hardware column,

but will also be exploring the murky

depths of 16-bit operating systems.

Many PCs arrive with Windows pre-

installed, so it can be a shock when

you find yourself presented with the

dreaded C:\> prompt and no idea

what to do next. Roger is here to lend

a helping hand.

Hands On is not only for you, but also

by you. Email your hints, tips, macros

and code to the individual author of

each section, or direct to me. If you

are new to Hands On and you want

to know the sort of thing we’re after,

then don’t forget the two years’ worth

of Hands On on our back-issues

CD-ROM (see Reader Offers, p306).NIK RAWLINSON, HANDS ON EDITOR

[email protected]

WORKSHOPS242 Cubasis Audio Lite SE

Free on our cover disc!Take your cue from Steven Helstrip, who shows you the insand outs of this great sequencer.

246 MYOBFree on our cover disc!A nice, friendly accountingpackage that’s worth its weightin gold. John Rennie gets downto some financial business.

OPERATING SYSTEMS256 Windows

Tim Nott dallies with defrags andhighlights some of his favouriteWindows 98 features.

261 16-bit New!There are some computeractivities that cannot be doneany other way… Roger Gannhelps you get to grips with DOS.

263 Windows NTAndrew Ward turns bin man andshows how to reclaim mistakenlytrashed files, the easy way.

271 UnixA touch of artistic class thismonth, as Chris Bidmeadexperiences that old déjà vu.

274 OS/2Get your Warp Java’d. The freesoftware on our cover disc andTerence Green’s tips will help toget you going in no time.

304 Macintosh Returns!The Mac column makes awelcome return to Hands On.Cliff Joseph takes up the reins.

APPLICATIONS276 Word Processing

Tim Nott is putting on the styleto save fiddling with formatting.

278 SpreadsheetsΒ1 ÷ A2 - C3 = a graphic!Stephen Wells looks at theMicrosoft Equation editor.

280 DatabasesPatently obvious? MarkWhitehorn reflects on IBM’scommitment to research.

285 SoundAssign controllers and put lifeinto your front-end. StevenHelstrip shows you how.

288 Graphics & DTPKen McMahon shows you howto get your web site buttoned upwith some neat visual additions.

290 3D GraphicsYou’ve been framed! BenjaminWoolley goes into Infini-D. Plus, Metastreams vs VRML.

PROGRAMMING293 Visual Programming

Batch files? Pah! You can run VBscript off the desktop, says TimAnderson. There’s scriptlets, too.

MISCELLANEOUS251 Internet

Nigel Whitfield on speed? Thevery idea. However, he wishesthat web downloads were.

268 PDAsIt’s official — PDAs are fun, asMark Whitehorn finds out. Plus,Windows CE and Psion issues.

282 HardwareCatch that SCSI bus! Roger Gannhas some practical advice aboutFaster, Wider and Ultra versions.

299 NetworksDo you believe in ghosts? Youwill, after you’ve seen what youcan do with the nifty Ghost fileimaging utility. With Bob Walder.

PCW Hands On on CD-ROMNow it’s easy to find that Hands On tip, trick, advice or review again. There’s a whole year’sworth of columns on our monthly PCW CD-ROM. So if that handy hint is on the tip ofyour tongue, don’t sit and sweat: the answer is at your fingertips with our cover CD.

hands onc o n t e n t s

C ubasis Audio Lite SE isbased on Cubase,Steinberg’s premiersequencer. Over the pastten years Cubase has

established itself as the industry-leadingpackage. Whatstarted life as amodest MIDIsequencer for theAtari ST hasdeveloped into aprofessional, all-in-one studio solution,providing up to 32tracks for audioplayback with real-time digital effects. If you’re new tosequencing orthinking of arrangingyour owncompositions,Cubasis has a widerange of features toget you started.

What you get● The main arrange window looks andfeels similar to Cubase and provides twochannels for audio and up to 32 tracksfor MIDI. One of the attractions of theCubase range is its ease of use, partly dueto its intuitive arranging tools andseamless integration of audio and MIDI. ● Recorded parts, or clips, can betreated equally in the arrange window,from copying and moving parts around,to splicing and joining parts together. ● One of the limitations of Cubasis isthat there is no Piano Roll editor, whichleaves just two editors at your disposal:Score and List. If you’re used to workingwith traditional notation, Score edit willprobably be the better choice for you.

● Notes can be inserted on a stave withthe click of a mouse and are just as easilyremoved or altered. You might decide,say, to change a note’s pitch, length, orthe velocity at which it is played.● List edit is less graphical and slightlytrickier to use, although with a bit ofpractice you can still get most jobs done,from inserting MIDI events to fine-tuningyour performances. ● MIDI data is presented sequentiallyin a list format. Perhaps the greatestadvantage of this style of editor is that all types of MIDI data can be displayedand edited, from basic note-on andsustain pedal information, through tomore complex controller and system-exclusive events. ● Once you have recorded aperformance, basic quantising isavailable, from the Functions menu,

to let you fix any timing errors. It worksby shifting notes to the nearestsubdivision in a musical bar. The numberof divisions is determined by the quantiseresolution, which is set with a pop-upmenu common to all windows. Theresolution is selectable between a wholebar, right down to a 64th note. Tripletand dotted values are available, too.

What you needCubasis works with any 16-bit Windows-compatible sound card, enabling audioplayback through the wave device andMIDI tracks via the internal synthesiser.To record MIDI into Cubase you need aMIDI controller such as a keyboard [Fig 1]. This can be hooked up to yoursound card’s joystick/MIDI connector, or via a dedicated MIDI interface.


Lite fantasticCubasis Audio Lite SE isfeatured on this month’s coverdisc. To help you get the bestfrom this top sequencer,Steven Helstrip presides over a special workshop.

¿PLACING EACH INSTRUMENT

ON ITS OWN TRACK GIVES YOU

THE FREEDOM TO CHOP AND

CHANGE THE ARRANGEMENT AS

THE SONG DEVELOPS

QTHE INSTRUMENT EDITOR

(CTRL-Y) IS COMPATIBLE WITH

GENERAL MIDI, GS AND XGSYNTHS. YOU CAN SELECT

INSTRUMENTS FOR EACH

CHANNEL, APPLY EFFECTS AND

BALANCE THEIR LEVELS

hands onw o r k s h o p : C u b a s i s A u d i o L i t e S E

You don’t need a whizzy PC to get started. The minimumsuggested specification is a486DX/66 with 16Mb RAM,although you’ll need a large harddisk to store audio files. (See“More about audio”, page 244.)

Setting upAfter installation, one of the first thingsto do is to optimise the audio settings for your sound card, to ensure that audioand MIDI tracks are tightly synchronised.

1LOCATE THE CUBASIS FOLDERin the Start menu and run the Sync

Test utility. When you hit the Startbutton, the program automaticallydetects the DMA block size for yoursound card’s record and playback wavedevices. Unless you install a new soundcard, you need only do this once.

2TO ALLOW AUDIO AND MIDItracks to be heard simultaneously,

ensure their levels are set to maximum inyour sound card’s mixer applet. If you donot plan to record audio from anexternal source, such as a CD player ormicrophone, mute the mic and lineinputs to keep noise levels to a minimum.If you have an AWE-64 sound cardthere’s further tweaking to be done. The AWE-64 features a software-basedsynthesiser that uses the card’s audiochannel to play back its instruments.When this channel is in use, Cubasis will not be able to access your soundcard properly and will report an error on loading.

3USING THE SETUP MMEprogram, which can also be found in

the Cubasis folder, the softsynth can bedisabled: in the MIDI output section,select the WaveSynth and AWE MIDIMapper drivers in turn and hit theInactive button. You will need to restartyour PC for the effects to take place.

4THE SETUP MME PROGRAMenables you to rename and set the

order in which MIDI devices appear inCubasis. The rename facility isparticularly useful because, rather thanselecting, say, SB16 MIDI Out (330) toplay the instruments on a WaveTabledaughterboard, the device can be given a “real” name, like DB50XG. If the sameMIDI port is the one you’re likely to usemost frequently, set this as your primarydevice using the move up and movedown buttons.

Cu-basicsWhen Cubasis loads, you’re presentedwith the Arrange window [Fig 2, page244]. This is where most recording andarranging takes place. ● The screen is divided into twosections: on the left is the track list andtrack info column, and to the right is thepart display. The default arrangementcontains 18 empty tracks: two for audio,and 16 for MIDI. ● The MIDI channel for any track canbe changed at any time by clicking in theChn column. It’s worth noting at thispoint that all values in Cubasis aredecreased with the left button andincreased with the right. This goesagainst standard Windows conventions,but makes logical sense. ● To the right of the channel column isthe MIDI output, or port, assignment.Most sound cards have three ports toselect either the main WaveTable synth,the FM synth or an external MIDI device.Unless you have an external tone module,select the WaveTable output for thehighest-quality playback. ● The track info column on the far-left of the screen enables you to select aninstrument for each track using bank andprogram change parameters. ● There are three more parameters:Volume, Transpose and Velocity. Volumedoesn’t need much explaining, apartfrom the fact that values can be set forthe whole track or individual parts. If noparts are selected (i.e. highlighted),values are applied to the whole track. Transpose enables you to shift the pitchof instruments up or down in semi-tonesteps. If your keyboard has only two orthree octaves, Transpose can be used toreach notes beyond its range. This isparticularly useful when working withpercussion and drum kits on MIDIchannel 10, since each key has a different instrument assigned to it. ➨


Keyboard shortcutsKeyboard shortcuts are invaluable inCubasis. Perhaps the most important andmost frequently used are those to operatethe transport controls. Using the numerickeypad, these are: Play EnterStop 0Rewind Page down(shift)Fast forward Page up (shift)Record * Go to left locator 1 Go to right locator 2 Cycle on/off / More useful shortcuts available in allwindows:Quantise QQuantise and snap resolution 1 to 6Solo SMetronome CHorizontal zoom G/H Vertical zoom G/H (shift)

¿FIG 1 IF YOU NEED A MIDI CONTROLLER

KEYBOARD, EVOLUTION HAS FIVE PRODUCTS

IN ITS RANGE STARTING FROM £35 (EX VAT).THE MK-149, SHOWN HERE, IS A FULL-SIZE

FOUR-OCTAVE KEYBOARD WITH ASSIGNABLE

MODULATION AND PITCH-BEND WHEELS

Velocity describes how hard a key was struck. In most cases, this can beused to increase or lower the volume of a part, or track. ● Before you can record into Cubasisyou first have to set the bars, ormeasures, where you want to record to.Click on the bar ruler with your left andright mouse buttons. Alternatively,pressing L and R opens the locator boxesshown on the transport bar. ● Each part is given the same nameas the track on which it is recorded, so it pays to label your tracks before you reach for the red button. It is notuncommon to use 20 or more tracks in a song, and when nothing’s labelledproperly the parts in the arrange windowbecome tricky to work with. When cyclemode is activated on the transport bar, Cubasis will loop between the left andright locators, which is useful forbuilding-up complex drum patterns or for “jamming” over the chorus

section until you’re ready to record. Theinternal metronome is referred to as the“click track” in Cubasis. To togglebetween on and off, press C.

● Audio is recorded in much the sameway as MIDI parts. However, you maywant to import a sample that’s alreadystored on your hard disk. To do this,create an empty part on an audio track(Ctrl-P) and double-click on the part.This opens the import sample dialog. Any audio files that are used in anarrangement are stored in the audiopool, which can be found in the Audiomenu. Files can be dragged straight intothe Arrange window from here, orremoved from the song altogether.

The key to efficient programming is in mastering the tools that are availablein the arrange and edit pages. To bringup the toolbox at any time, click andhold your right mouse button while usingthe cursor to select one of the availabletools. In the Arrange window, theseinclude an Eraser to delete parts, Scissorsto cut or splice parts, a Magnifying Glassto audition parts, a Pencil to lengthen orshorten phrases, and the Glue tool forjoining parts together.

Pencil and glueMany of the tools carry out differenttasks when used with the Alt key. Forexample, extending a part with the Pencilcreates copies, and the Glue will join upevery part on the track. Try them all —they offer some valuable shortcuts.Different tools are available in the editpages. Score provides three icons to insertnotes, rests and text objects. List has apaintbrush for inserting a series of events.

More about audioIt is possible to record and playbackaudio on more than two tracks in thearrange window. But because the systemis limited to two channels, only twotracks can be heard simultaneously. Iftwo audio parts assigned to the samechannel overlap, the part that startsfurthest to the right of the screen willalways take priority. The quality of audiorecordings depends largely on the quality

of your sound card, not thesoftware. However, recording atthe highest sampling rate(44.1kHz) will produce the bestresults. This is selected from theAudio menu. Note that one minute of stereo audio recorded at

44.1kHz stereo will eat into 10Mb ofhard-disk space. Recording in mono, or lowering the sampling rate to 22kHz,will reduce this by half.


Steven Helstrip can be contacted via thePCW editorial office (address, p10) or [email protected]

Evolution 01525 372621

PCW CONTACTS

FIG 21 TRACK INFO COLUMN

2 TRACK INFO COLUMN HIDE/DISPLAY

3 VELOCITY OFFSET

4 TRANSPOSE OFFSET

5 TRACK/PART VOLUME

6 PROGRAM SELECT

7 BANK SELECT

8 MIDI CHANNEL

9 MIDI OUTPUT

10 TRACK NAME

11 CLICK IN THIS COLUMN TO MUTE A TRACK

12 TRACK CLASS: MIDI OR AUDIO

13 CURRENT MOUSE POSITION

14 LEFT LOCATOR

15 RIGHT LOCATOR

16 SONG POSITION POINTER

17 MIDI ACTIVITY DISPLAY

18 TIME SIGNATURE

19 RECORD

20 PLAY

21 STOP

22 REWIND

23 FAST FORWARD

1

2

5

6

7

8

9

10

11 12 13 14 15 16

171820232122 19

4

3

Try all the toolsavailable– they offersome valuable shortcuts

hands onw o r k s h o p : C u b a s i s A u d i o L i t e S E

M YOB (Mind Your OwnBusiness) takes youone step beyondpersonal accountspackages, to provide

a complete accounting system for yourbusiness. It can produce records anddocumentation that will keep both youraccountant and the Inland Revenuehappy. But you need to familiariseyourself with a few basic terms beforeyou get started. Once you’ve done so,running through the dummy book-keeping procedures of Widget Ltd, whichserve as the MYOB on-screen tutorial,will equip you with all you need to set upMYOB to handle your own company’saccounts. And, if you’re blinded byfigures, don’t worry. Beneath all theaccounts and bookkeeping jargon ismerely the use of addition,subtraction and multiplication.

Firstly, you need to know thestructure of your company’sfinancial year. In which month does itbegin and end? It won’t necessarily beginon 1st April along with the InlandRevenue’s. Establish whether you needan extra accounting period built-in tocope with transactions at your year-end.You may want to set expenses occurringafter your year-end against your incomein the year that’s just finished, forexample. Whichmonth will you startusing MYOB to recordyour accounts? Thiswill be known as yourconversion month.What are the balancesof your accounts at thestart of this conversionmonth? This can betricky to establishbecause unfortunately,customers don’t allconveniently pay by thefirst of every month.But don’t worry, youraccountant will knowthe answers to all these questions.

Okay, those are the basics as theyapply to your business. You also need tounderstand the fundamental accountingterms. First, let’s grasp the six basic typesof account: assets, liabilities, capital,income, cost of sales and expenses.

Assets are all the things your business owns: the cash you hold in your accounts, your stock, furniture andfittings. If Smith Ltd owes you £100 forwork or goods you’ve supplied, that is an asset, too. On the other side of thesheet are liabilities: all the money youowe, whether in loans, on credit cards,unsettled bills and so on. Subtract yourliabilities from your assets and what you have left is your capital. Incomeis any money you receive for products

and services you sell. Cost of salescovers the price of your raw materialsand wages — all your major variablebusiness costs. And the rest of your costs are the expenses — your postage,rent, rates and the rest.

These figures are combined to paint a picture of your firm’s financial state.Assets, liabilities and capital come

together to form the balance sheet, asnapshot of your financial position at acertain date. The bigger picture, theprofit and loss account, is constructedfrom the income, cost of sales andexpenses over a fixed period (a month, aquarter or a year). This is the infamousbottom line, and tells you whether yourbusiness is in profit or not.

Getting goingLet’s run through the Widgets Ltdtutorial, which will cover all theaccounting procedures you’ll need. Thenyou can apply the lessons to your ownbusiness. Once you’ve installed MYOB,launch the program and the Welcome to

MYOB window appears. Click onOpening an Existing MYOB DataFile. Select TUTORIAL.DAT and theCommand Centre Window [Fig 1]will be displayed. To get Widgets Ltdin business, we need to rustle up

some capital. Your friendly bankmanager has stumped up £30,000,enough to rent premises, buy materialsand take on staff. Let’s put this workingcapital on deposit.

1CLICK THE CHEQUEBOOK buttonin the Command Centre. (Notice the

flowchart which appears. This convention runsthroughout MYOB and not only makes the

package easy to use, but simplyand graphically teaches you howcompanies work.)

2HIT THE Make aDeposit button and you

will be taken intoGeneral BankAccount. Yourcursor is in theDate field. Typein “1/1/97”, tabdown to Amount

and enter “£30000”.

3TAB TO MEMO andenter “initial funding of

company”. Tab toAllocation Account [Fig 2],hit tab again and you’ll begiven a choice of accounts.


MYOB is free on our cover disc this month. It’s a friendly financial package that takes thedrudgery out of business accounting. John Rennie takes you through the on-screen tutorial.

QFIG 1 EVERY

FUNCTION IN MYOBBEGINS AT THE

COMMAND CENTRE

hands onw o r k s h o p : M Y O B

Balancing act

Hard information that willsatisfy your accountant

and the tax man

4DOUBLE-CLICK on Paid in Capital.You’ll be returned to the Make a

Deposit window, where all your start-updetails are now entered.

5YOUR OPENING BALANCE ishighlighted so type in “£30000” once

more and hit tab. Blank out the figure inthe VAT field, then click Record andCancel. You’re now back in the ControlCentre and ready to start things rolling. If you were to view your balance sheet atthis point it would show that you havecapital of £30,000 (as yet, of course, youhave no profit and loss account).

Office rentRight, now we’ve got the capital, we needto rent some office space.

1BACK IN THE CHEQUEBOOKsection of the Command Centre,

hit the Write Cheques button [Fig 4].

2GO TO THE AMOUNT FIELD andtype in “£1000”. Enter the name of

your landlord in the Card field.

3TABBING FROMHERE will take you

to a blank form whereyou can permanentlyenter your landlord’scontact details. ClickNew and the card indexwill pop up. Tab fromfield to field, enteringphone number, fax,address and so on. Besure to select Supplier asthe Card Type in the pop-up window at thetop of the card.

4CLICKOK to get

back to theWriteChequeswindow. Thename of thelandlord will behighlighted:hit tab andhis details will

be filled in automatically.

5TAB TOMEMO and

key in a descriptionof the transaction:for example, “firstmonth’s rent”.

6TAB TOALLOCATION

Account, then tabagain. Double-clickon Rent and againyou return to theWrite Chequeswindow.

7KEY IN “E” inthe VAT column

to indicate that yourrent is exempt from

VAT. Click Record and your renttransaction is logged as part of yourprofit and loss account. You can followthe same procedure for buying officefurniture and for other expenses. Alwaysselect “Supplier” as your card type andestablish whether the goods or servicesyou are buying are VAT payable or not.

StockThe business of Widgets Ltd is buyingwidgets and selling them at a profit, sowe need to buy a stock of widgets.

1BACK AT THE CONTROL CENTREwindow, hit Stock Control [Fig 3] then

Items List. Click New: the window thatpops up is your method of booking-initems of stock.

2CLICK IN YOUR ITEM NUMBER(we’ll use 100-101A5 for this

particular stock item) and tab to Name(“widgets” in this case).

3THE ITEM INFORMATIONwindow you’re working in is used to

track all your stock movements, so itincludes all the information aboutbuying, selling and stocking widgets. To activate these three elements of yourstock control, click the three check boxesat top right: “I Buy...”, “I Sell…”, “IStock…”. MYOB will automatically linkthese accounts, so whenever you buy or sell widgets, your overall stock levelwill be adjusted.

The profit motiveBalance sheets aren’t called balancesheets for nothing, so when you spend£500 on a new stock of widgets the total


QFIG 2 THE

CHEQUEBOOK

BUTTON TAKES YOU

TO THE ALLOCATION

ACCOUNT, WHERE

YOU DEPOSIT

CAPITAL

RFIG 3 THE STOCK

CONTROL BUTTON

LETS YOU BUY STOCK

FOR THE BUSINESS

PFIG 4 GO VIA

WRITE CHEQUE

TO PAY YOUR

COMPANY’S RENT


in your assets column won’t change: the£500 will simply shift from your bankaccount to your stock total. And neitherdo profits come out of thin air, so forevery sale you make there will be acorresponding debit in your stockholdingwhich will be added to your “cost ofsales” total. Hopefully, the revenue youtake in from sales is greater than the cost,and that’s called profit. This simple butfiddly balancing business is what MYOBdoes for you automatically, transferringvalues between the various accounts.

Let’s say you want to buy 100 widgetsfrom World of Widgets. Go back to theincreasingly familiar Command Centrewindow and hit Purchases.

1CLICK THE PURCHASES button.When the Purchases window pops

up, hit Type then select Item. Click OK.

2YOU NOW TYPE “World ofWidgets” into the Supplier field and

tab out. MYOB won’t recognise thecompany as it’s a new supplier, so justclick New and we return to the card fileentry last seen when we were renting ouroffice space. Just follow the sameprocedure and hit OK. This takes us back to the purchase order window, with World of Widgets highlighted as the supplier.

3TAB TO THE RECEIVED FIELD,type “100” and tab on.

4PRESS TAB TWICE: the selectionwindow is displayed with the first

item highlighted. Double-click on“widgets” and you’re taken back to thepurchases window with the item number“100-101A5”, you’ll recall, filled in.

5TAB TO PRICE, type in “£9.50” (theunit price of a widget) and MYOB will

work out the total cost, the VAT and thebalance due. You can also tab down toComment and enter any specialinstructions to your supplier, such as“Don’t deliver Mondays”, “Phone beforedelivering” and so on.

6HIT PENDING, then Cancel to closethe window. No money has changed

hands, but the purchase order is in apending file waiting for the delivery ofyour goods. When they arrive, you willRecord the order and it will become anaccounting event.

Paying for the goodsNow your widgets have arrived, it’s timeto pay up. Go to Command Centre.

1HITPURCHASES,

then the Purchasesbutton. Hit tab,and a list ofsuppliers will bedisplayed.

2DOUBLE-CLICK on

“World of Widgets”and a list of yourlogged purchaseorders will pop up.Double-click onyour pending widget order and thePurchases window will pop up again.

3HIT RECORD and your first order islogged. Everything comes back to the

Command Centre, including sales.

Handling customersYou’ve got the stock, so let’s get somerevenue into the company. Widget Eatershas offered to buy widgets at £25 apiece(a gross margin we’re unlikely to attain inthe real world, but widgets are scarce).

Hit Sales and then the Sales buttonon the flowchart. Type your customername into the Customer field, which willbe highlighted as you enter the window.

The rest is straightforward: you clickthe New button and it’s back to the CardFile Entry system we’ve used to log oursuppliers. Once that’s filled out, OK willbring you back to the invoice window.

One note of caution: make sure youhave Item Invoice selected. You can fill inthe rest of the details as shown and hitRecord to submit your invoice.

The bottom lineFrom here on, matters are much easier.As you buy more stock and fill moreorders you will encounter pre-filled fields,so there is no need to re-enter theinformation for Widget Eaters, yourlandlord and your suppliers.

As you sell widgets to differentcustomers at varying discounts and buystock at various prices, MYOB willcalculate the overall costs and revenuesand calculate your balance sheets andprofit and loss account accordingly.

Where MYOB will help you is in thenumerous reports it provides about yourbusiness. The two we’re interested in arethe balance sheet (the snapshot of yourfirm’s standing on a certain day) and theprofit and loss account (the bottom lineat the end of the accounting period).

1CLICK INTO the Command Centrewindow, highlight Nominal Ledger

and go to Index to Reports under theReports menu. You’ll be given anexhaustive list of report options on yourbusiness (we’ve taken the example of thebalance sheet to show you how the insand outs of the firm have beenaccounted for so far [Fig 5]). These canbe printed out for an instant rundown ofyour company’s state of health.

Money managementIn our examples we’ve brought in a lot ofinformation and detail which you maynot be interested in mastering. But that’sokay; as long as you’ve been fastidiousabout entering every expense and everyitem of income (a discipline you shouldbe maintaining anyway) MYOB willcollate the data for you. And it’s hardinformation that will satisfy youraccountant and the taxman.

RFIG 5 BALANCE

SHEET SHOWS AT A

GLANCE HOW YOUR

BUSINESS IS DOING

John Rennie can be contacted via the PCWeditorial office (address, p10) or emailJohn–[email protected] £229.13 (£195 ex VAT). Direct fromBestware, £6 carriage Contact Bestware UK 01752 201901www.myob.co.uk

PCW CONTACTS

hands onw o r k s h o p : M Y O B


Y ou may have thought a 56Kmodem was more than fastenough, but there arealready plenty of people whoare trying to push modems

ever faster. If you have an ISDN line, youmay be used to the concept of channelbonding, where instead of using one 64Klink, you can use two and get double thespeed (for the cost of two phone calls). In fact, the same trick is performed withmy own internet connection. Most of thetime it relies on the permanent line to myoffice, but when that exceeds 95 percentcapacity, the ISDN comes on stream todouble the link. The latest modems in theUS, from the likes of Diamond, are notjust V.90. They’re dual V.90 with twophone leads, and use two lines to bumpup the connection speed to 112Kbps. If you have a call waiting on one line, it will even dynamically disconnect one ofthe lines to your ISP when someone’sphoning you, and reconnect afterwards.Ship a few of these to the UK, swap to a cable operator that charges you thesame for two lines as BT does for one,and who needs ISDN?

Flat on its faceFor the most part, many people will findthat the biggest difference they see is notin download times but in the number oftrees used to print their phone bills, nowwith double the call costs. Okay, so youmight have a 56K modem now; but howoften do you see flat-out downloadspeeds? And how often do you sit therethinking “2.8K per second isn’t great, isit?” I’ll bet the latter is rather more likely.

Of course, you’re welcome to spendthe money if you like, but think howmuch of what you download really isneeded and how much is bloat. Whatabout those massive graphics on webpages where a font change and plain text would do? Or huge updates tofurther bloat the size of your webbrowser? Sure, you need some of it;

but what you probably need just as muchis fast access to the information that’sreally important, whether it be games,research, or anythingelse. And using twophone lines, or dual-channel ISDN, isn’tgoing to make thatarrive much fasteruntil something else happens.

It’s time for internet providers (few ofwhich make much profit out of domesticcustomers) to look at providing morevalue to their business users. Rather than tossing 5Mb more web space atpeople who pay a tenner a month, theneeds of many might be better served ifthe charges levied for fixed connectionswere lower. A fast connection at home

may be fine, but if the companies andorganisations running the web servers you want to access have to pay around

£500 everymonth for apermanent netlink that only runs at 64Kbps, youwill neverdownload filesquickly from

them, will you? Speed does matter on theinternet, but not just when you’re thewrong side of a modem. If surfers have tostay online longer to see the informationthey want, while information providersare paying a fortune for links barely fasterthan a single modem, is that really soundeconomics for anyone concerned,including the providers? ➨

56K modems? Pah! They don’t work at thatspeed. In the US, dual V.90 modems will boostyour connection speed to 112Kbps. NigelWhitfield reviews the need for speed on the net.

GET YOUR MODEMS

ON THE WEB: FROM

COMPANIES LIKE

SHOTGUN

TECHNOLOGY ROR ALTERNATIVELY

HOOK UP WITH ISDN

P

ISPs should providemore value to theirbusiness customers

hands oni n t e r n e t

Speed ills

hands on


Can I connect to theinternet without

getting an ISP? As a student,I find that the phone linecosts enough without themonthly charge from an ISP.

For most people theanswer is a straightfor-

ward “no”. The internet is acollection of networks, whichpass information betweenthem. An ISP operates one ofthose networks and, for a fee,provides access to it. But thereare two avenues worth investi-gation. The first is a servicethat BT plans to launch laterthis year. You’ll pay by theminute (no subscription) butthat may prove expensive forheavy use. The second optionis to find out what facilitiesare available where you’restudying. Many universitieshave some form of dial-upaccess which can be used toconnect to the net, but you’llhave to contact the appropri-ate people and ask them ifthere is a service you can use.

I’ve discovered a good(freeware) program

called Catch-up. It tells youif there are any updatesavailable for the programsyou are using. It informedme that Rvplayer andRaplayer files could beupdated to version 5 (I don’tknow where these files camefrom: part of InternetExplorer, I think). Anyway, Idownloaded the update andran it. It would appear tohave removed Rvplayer andreplaced it with realplay.exe.But the Raplayer file stillexists as version 2.1. Is thisprogram required, or, in theupdate from 2 to 5, hasRealmedia changed both thedefault location andfilename, thus leavingredundant files around?

These files are part ofthe Real Audio and Real

Video systems which are usedto enable you to hear soundsor watch videos over the netwithout having to first down-load the whole file. It uses atechnique called streaming.There used to be two separateprograms, one for video andanother for audio, but with thelatest version they’ve beencombined into one RealPlayer,the file realplay.exe. You cansafely remove Raplayer fromyour system.

I need to identify theemail address of callers

to my web site, so I triedusing the Server Side Includetechnique you talked aboutin your January column, butwith no luck. AOL said thiswas a “coding” issue andoutside the rules of its support line. Do I have toget my provider to switch onthese SSI goodies? How do Iget these environment references to show withinmy HTML?

Yes, Server Side Includesdo need to be enabled on

the server to achieve the effect Iwrote about. However, thereare some alternative solutionswhich can be used with browsersthat support scripting and haveit turned on. There are a num-ber of variables that are setautomatically in JavaScript, so ifyou want to find out wheresomeone was before they came

to your page, you need to lookat the “document.referrer” variable. How you use thisdepends on whether you want todisplay to the user where theycame from, or save the informa-tion for your own

purposes (likely tobe more difficult). You can findplenty of examples at www.java-goodies.com, with a script toshow the last site visited atwww.javagoodies.com/comingfrom.html. To save theinformation you may need touse JavaScript to load the “document.referrer” into a hidden field on a web form,which can be posted when theuser clicks onanother link. Butunlike using SSIs,there’s no fool-proof way to

ensure youreceive thisinformationwhenever

someone looks at your page, asmany people may have turnedscripts off for security or speed.

● Eudora update In theAugust column I mentioned using EudoraPro for access to multipleemail accounts. Thank you,Susan Lear and Tony Yates,for pointing out that youcan do this with the Liteversion by creating a sepa-rate directory for each user.Making a Windows short-cut gives the path to thedirectory as part of the

command line. Youcould specify the name ofthe INI file if you want toshare folders but have dif-ferent email addresses. Macusers can create copies ofthe Eudora Folder (SystemFolder) for each user, with a unique name, and startEudora by clicking on theSettings file in the appropriate folder.

a

a

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Q

Q

Questions& answers Q REAL-TIME

VIDEO AND AUDIO

STREAMING

¿DO SOME

DETECTIVE WORK

USING JAVA

GOODIES

Nigel Whitfield by post via PCW (address,p10) or email [email protected]

PCW CONTACTS

i n t e r n e t

T hese Hands On columns are filed early in the PCWproduction cycle and at thetime of writing I’d only beenusing the final cut of

Windows 98 for a few weeks, althoughI’ve been running the beta for severalmonths. One rather good feature is theSystem Tune-up Wizard. It provides one-stop shopping and scheduling for diskutilities such as Scandisk and Defrag.

I had a joyous email from regularHands On correspondent PeterMcGarvey who stated that following adefrag, the time to load Word 97 haddropped from nine seconds to two. Andthis on a modest P133 with 32Mb ofRAM. You’re kidding, I quipped merrily. Ibet you’re timing from a session whereWord has recently been loaded andmuch of it is still cached in memory. Andlo, McGarvey restarted his machine fromscratch, clicked on the Word icon andtwo seconds later had it up and running.

Unlucky for some On this machine I have an even moremodest P100 but with 64Mb of RAM, somy 13 seconds seemed comparable withPeter’s original nine. So, other thingsbeing equal, I should see the load timedecrease to three or four seconds after agood defragging. Given the marvellousdual opportunity to speed up my systemand go out for lunch at the same time, Iset it optimising away. An hour later wehad both finished. I clicked on the Wordicon. But other things were evidently notequal, as it still takes 13 seconds.

While we’re on the fragging subject,David O’Callaghan has requested that I“stop betting food items to people thatMicrosoft FindFast is the cause of alltheir hard-disk-gnashing” (Q&A, June).He cites screensavers, monitor power-downs, background printing and


Defrag’s a drag……but it has to be done. Tim Nott relates the triumphsand the tears. And what aboutthe final cut of Windows 98?The System Information tool is just one of the features thatwill cheer you up.

Windows re-adjusting the swap file asother possible defrag or scandiskstoppers. Well, I wouldn’t have thought ascreensaver would have causedproblems, but Roger Metcalf wrote fromArlington, Texas, saying that he too hadexperienced problems with night-scheduled defrags. He wrote: “I wasfinally able to trace the culprit back to ascreensaver program that occasionallywrites to the hard drive. Since I switchedback to a Microsoft screensaver I havenot experienced the problem.”

Snooping aroundTony Bolton still had the problem afterdisabling FindFast. Doing a Ctrl+Alt+Del(always a good idea to be able to knowwhat’s really running, see Fig 1) revealedseveral possible culprits, including:“Tk_schen, a virus-check scheduler;Loadwc, a web checker but I don’t knowwhat it does; Iowatch, something to dowith my Zip drive; and Ptsnoop (I haveno idea what this does). As far as I know,the only other thing running is Dr.Solomon’s WinGuard.”

The short answer to all this is thatanything which writes to the disk being

scanned ordefragged willcause theprocess to restart. And I’m rather surprisedat the lack of warnings telling you thiswhen you start. It’s best not to haveanything else running. Applications whichAutosave are another possible culprit, as isanything that logs data to a file.

Tooled upOne thing I don’t like about Windows 98 is the hideously slow Welcome toWindows tour, which is a triumph ofdesign over content. But it did lead meto (eventually) discover something I dolike: the System Information tool. This issquirreled away in Start menu,Programs, Accessories, System Tools,which is why it took a little time to findit. And it’s not a brand-new invention, asOffice users have had a similar featureavailable from the Help, About box.

There’s loads of wonderfully techieinformation here about IRQs and DMAs.This alone is enough to keep a seasonedanorak happy for hours but the reallyjoyful, and mostly new, stuff is all in the Tools menu.

¿FIG 1 WHAT’SGOING ON? CTRL +ALT + DEL REVEALS

ALL

hands onw i n d o w s


Is there a way ofcreating a shortcut to

change the resolution andcolour depth? I have severalgames that will not run inmy normal 1024 x 768 x16.7 million colour mode,and it’s a pain to have tochange back and forth toplay them.

MICHAEL ESKIN

Not that I know of.Some games are better-

behaved in that they do thisfor you automatically (orsometimes after asking). Thenearest thing I can recommendis QuickRes. This is part of thefree MS Powertoys and givesquick access to all the resolution/depth combinationsyour display adapter can support from an icon in theSystem Tray.

I’m network managerat our school and have

over 100 PCs. I currently usePOLEDIT to restrict accessto the Start buttonfunctions like Control Paneland Printers. What I’d reallylike to do is restrict access todrive C: for everyone butparticular users.

NICK FURNELL

Although there are moresecure third-party

solutions, you can hide drivesin Explorer with the later versions of TweakUI (seescreenshot, above). You should(at least according to theWindows Resource Kit) beable to do this with POLEDIT,too. But for a straight Registryhack try the following, havingtaken the usual precautions:HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ExplorerNoDrives=hex:04 00 00 00.

You may have to create theNoDrives entry as a BinaryValue. The “04” will hide C:and all zeroes shows every-thing. And no doubt somebright spark will tell us howthe other drives are calculated.

I have a large file calledSYSTEM.1ST in my

C:\ folder. What is it, andcan I get rid of it?

BARNEY RISSINGTON

This is a copy of the original Registry created

when Windows was installed.It isn’t essential to the workingof Windows but provides alast-line backup should theRegistry become corrupt. Ifyou’re desperate for disk spaceyou could zip it up (unsetthe hidden and read-onlyattributes first) and stick iton a floppy.

I am about topurchase a new PC

with a 6Gb disk. Although Iam sure you covered thesubject some years ago, I amunable to find the particularissue of PCW that dealt withusing Windows 95 andWindows 3.11/DOS asalternatives. Can this still bedone? And if so, how?

HAROLD ALEXANDER

Yes. First you will haveto FDISK the hard disk

into smaller partitions, lessthan 2Gb each. Next, installWindows 3.11. Then installWindows 95 or 98. Ignore allthe blandishments to replaceyour existing operating systemand insist it installs the newversion to a different directory.You’ll then be able to dual-boot by pressing F4 or F8 atboot-up.

I have just bought aPC to help my wife

who has started using themat work. The system at her

office uses Windows 3.1. Isthere any risk in installing3.1 on the same machine asWindows 95, as long as theinstallation directory iscalled something other thanWIN or WINDOWS? Theidea is that I would closedown 95 and go into DOSfrom where I would start 3.1from the other directory.

EDDIE MCCABE

You cannot runWindows 3.1 that way

but see the answer to HaroldAlexander’s query (previouscolumn). But, as Mr Blairwould say, there is a ThirdWay. Practically all Windows3.1 programs will work fine in95 (or 98) and you can stilluse the Program and FileManagers that Windows 3.1users have come to know and,possibly, love.

Following a spate ofcrashes and Safe Modestarts, I now get the

StartUp option screen everytime I switch on the PC.Eventually, if I don’t pressanything, it counts downand launches into Windows,but it’s rather a nuisance.How can I stop this?

NIGEL COMLEY

Open Explorer andmake sure that “View

all files” is selected in “View,(Folder) Options, View”. Thenin the root of C:\ you will finda file called MSDOS.SYS.Make a backup, then right-click, Properties, and turn offthe Read-only and Hiddenattributes. Open the file inNotepad — despite the nameit’s a simple text file, but ifyou use the “Open with” command make sure the“Always use…” option is notticked. You’ll see a sectionheaded [Options] and in herewill be an entry namedBootMenu=. If this is set to 1,then you will always get theStart Up menu. If it is set to0, you only get it when youpress F8.

a a

a

a

aa

Q

Q

Q

Q

QQ

Questions& answers

¿TWEAK HERE TO

HIDE DRIVES. ITWORKS IN EXPLORER,TOO

● There’s a System Configuration utility[Fig 2] that lets you disable entries inAutoexec.bat, Config.sys, Win.ini andSystem.ini. More importantly, it lets you disable all those things that start up automatically when you loadWindows, but are triggered from deep in the bowels of the registry rather thanthe StartUp menu.

Star turns Then there’s a System Report tool, to letyou inform Microsoft in the unlikely eventof your having any problems, and variousother bits and pieces. The stars of theshow, for those of a diagnostic bent, arethe Version Conflict Manager and theSystem File Checker.

The first of theseshows a list of all files thathave been replaced withnewer versions bysoftware installation(including the Windows98 upgrade). If you getproblems with a particularapplication you can tryrestoring the original file.

The second, as itsname suggests, checks allyour system files (with lotsof options) and should itfind any corrupted, willwinkle out a freshreplacement from the CD-ROM without the userhaving to trawl about inthe CAB files.

Font list tips ride again● More tips on the font list front. Youmay remember the problem of getting aprintable or saveable list of font names,together with their file names (July issuecolumn)? Brian Handscombe has writtena purpose-built DOS program that doesjust this. You can get it free fromwww.users.globalnet.co.uk/~cdman/. ● One thing I’d add to the Readme file isthat to save the list, use the redirectionsymbol (for example, TTFNAMESC:\windows\fonts > fontlist.txt). ● And here is a beautiful piece of lateralthinking from David Mooney. RunRegedit. Go to MyComputer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE|

Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Fonts. You will see a list of names andfiles in the right hand pane. Export thebranch as, say, FONTS.TXT and thenload it into Notepad [Fig 3].

If all else fails…Here is a little lesson for us all. Followingan enquiry from Duncan Stewart on whyhis CD Autorun didn’t, I rounded up theusual suspects — Auto Insert Notificationin Device Manager, AutoPlay as defaultaction, and so on.

It still would not work, so Duncantook the eminently sensible step ofcontacting the supplier, because themachine was still under warranty. Andthey advised him to pop down to

Woolworth’s and spend £9.95 on a CD-ROM cleaner disc. So he did. Andnow it all works perfectly.

Crazy as a foxRegular readers may remember that thisall started with the obscure tip of

changing the “Quickbrown fox…” text inWindows font viewer(PCW, March). There isnothing like a bit of triviato get the correspondence

flying, and the response has been sogreat that I don’t have room to namenames. The search for the perfect 26-letter pangram produced, among others: ● Veldt jynx grimps Waqf zho buck. Yes,all in the dictionary. But I can’t reallymake any sense out of it. ● Cwm fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz. Verypopular, but I’m a bit uneasy about thisNordic sea inlet in a Welsh valley. ● XV quick nymphs beg fjord waltz. I’lllet the XV stand, but surely not a goodplace to dance?

None of the French ones I receivedconsisted of just 26 letters but theycomfortably beat the 73-letter defaultscreed: Servez a ce monsieur le petit juge blondassis au fond, une biere hollandaise et des kiwis.

No more! You’ll get me into trouble.


Tim Nott can be contacted via the PCWeditorial office (address, p10) or [email protected]

PCW CONTACTS

QFIG 2 START-UP MYSTERIES

REVEALED

QFIG 3 DIYFONT LISTING

FROM THE

REGISTRY

hands onw i n d o w s


16 - b i t

T here is still some debate overwhether Windows 9x is atrue operating system orwhether it’s just Windows 4riding atop DOS 7, just as

Windows 3.1x sat on top of MS-DOS 6.2[Fig 1]. Windows NT 4.0 has the familiarDOS command-prompt capability, butit’s virtually impossible to extract thisfunctionality and serve it up as a stripped-down command-line-only version. Youcan perform this stunt with Windows 9x,however. I guess it depends on what youmean by “operating system”.

Up and runningThere’s no question that the WindowsGUI functions on top of a lower-leveloperating system that looks and behavespretty much like DOS. However, eventhough this subordinate part of the OSlooks like DOS, its system files are very

different from those in all previous DOSreleases. Also, while Windows 9x isdependent on DOS (which, let us notforget, stands for Disk OperatingSystem) to load its keyfiles, once they are loadedmost of the original DOScode, particularly the diskdevice drivers andmemory managementstuff, is discarded infavour of 32-bit protectedmode versions. So, whileWindows 9x is dependenton DOS to get it up andrunning, once it is up, itlargely ignores it.

Until the final releaseof MS-DOS (v6.22) DOSloaded the IO.SYS andMSDOS.SYS files at boot time (and theDriveSpace driver, if you were using diskcompression). These files were hidden

system files and consisted of executablecode. Now, in Windows 9x, IO.SYS andMSDOS.SYS still exist but the latter is atext-based configuration file.

Under Windows 95, the IO.SYS file isa monolithic replacement for four DOSfiles: IO.SYS, MSDOS.SYS, CONFIG.SYS,and AUTOEXEC.BAT. The new IO.SYShas all the instructions the operatingsystem needs to initially interact withyour hardware. It also loads somedefault CONFIG.SYS andAUTOEXEC.BAT commands and itcontrols much of the remaining bootsequence.

IO.SYS loads first, followed byMSDOS.SYS. This text file containssettings for several boot options,including the GUI status, networksupport and the boot menu — the onethat pops up when you hit F8.

Incidentally, I notice that underWindows 98 you don’t get much of aprompt to hit the F8 key, as the usualclue — the “Starting Windows 95” notice— just isn’t displayed under Windows 98.After loading MSDOS.SYS, IO.SYS thenloads the system’s Registry files,USER.DAT and SYSTEM.DAT from the\WINDOWS directory.

Legacy optionThe next step in Windows 95’s bootsequence is to load COMMAND.COM,CONFIG.SYS, and AUTOEXEC.BAT.Note that booting Windows 95 withoutloading CONFIG.SYS andAUTOEXEC.BAT is preferable becausethe default 32-bit drivers will be fasterand consume no conventional memory.

So why include this legacy option?

Purely to ensurebackwardscompatibility

WELCOME TO 16-BIT — DOS AND WINDOWS

Welcome to thefirst column of

a new addition to theHands On section. 16-bit replaces the oldWindows 3.1 column.Its brief has beenextended to embracethat other 16-bit PCoperating system, DOS.We’ve made this changeof emphasis because, forthe past few years, DOShas been woefullyignored as everyonepoints and clicks anddrags and drops withtheir new, super-duper,32-bit GUI. And yetDOS hasn’t gone away:scrape a little off theWindows 98 desktopand underneath you’llfind that familiar, stark

C:\> prompt. Yes, there are still somecomputer activities thatcannot be performedwithout resorting to“the dark half”, as I’mwont to refer to DOS. If you try installing anew hard disk, I’m verysorry, but you’ll have toget your hands dirty anduse the DOS utilityfrom hell — FDISK. There must be a legionof Windows 98 userswho shy away from theMS-DOS prompt,simply because it is toointimidating. You’llhave to take my wordfor it, but really, it isn’t.It will be the aim of thiscolumn to shed light onthe dark half and to

show you ways ofconfiguring it andmaking better use of it.And a word ofreassurance for all oursteadfast Windows 3.1xusers — don’t worry, it’snot going away. I’ll stillbe devoting columninches to the doyen ofPC GUIs. But for a shortwhile I’ll be rectifyingthe shortfall in DOScoverage by spendingmore time on DOS andless on Windows 3.1x.One thing won’t bechanging, however, andthat is the column’susual dependence on itsreaders to providefeedback and problemsto solve.

Roger Gann

Don’t be scared of DOS, urges Roger Gann — it’s not asintimidating as you might think. You can make better use of it.

Prompt response

¿FIG 1 THE

WINDOWS GUIRELIES ON A DOSBASE


1 6 - b i t

with older hardware and software. Forexample, to install Windows 98 on a virginhard disk you’d need to boot with a DOSdisk that had the necessary device driversto make the CD drive accessible. Someolder programs look for these start-upfiles to make sure they have the rightsettings, and when they can’t find them,they complain.

For example, some legacy softwarerequires 20 “file handles”; the defaultFILES setting in Windows 95 is 60. Suchprograms might parse the CONFIG.SYSfile for the existence of a FILES command.To keep a program like this happy, addthis line to your CONFIG.SYS file:FILES=60

It won’t actually change anything, butit will keep one program happy!

Another reason for having these start-up files is that if you frequently restart inMS-DOS mode none of the internal,protected mode drivers will be availableto you unless you’ve loaded them inCONFIG.SYS or AUTOEXEC.BAT. Youcan also use the DOSSTART.BAT batchfile here and this is something I’ll belooking at in subsequent columns.

DOS into Linux does goChris Bidmead [Hands On Unix] can’thave it all his own way with Linux. Believeit or not, there are DOS equivalents ofLinux out there. FreeDOS and DR-DOSmay not be the equivalent in terms ofpower or functionality but arenevertheless free. Both are (or will be)close clones of MS-DOS. The former istotally free and the latter is free forevaluation purposes.

DR-DOS will be familiar to manyPCW readers of old. Its roots hark backto good old CP/M 86. Having lost out to

Microsoft as theOS of choice forthe IBM PC, CP/M86 later resurfacedon the originalAmstrad PC1512front-ended byGEM (an earlyGUI). Encouragedby success and thepoor receptionthat MS-DOS 4.0received (Microsoft

made the mistake of letting IBM have asay in developing it), Digital Researchreleased DR-DOS 5.0 which offeredmany advantages over the weakalternative from Microsoft. Its successspurred Microsoft on. Being keennot to repeat the mistake, itlaunched MS-DOS 5, a muchbetter OS.

But DOS wasbecoming lessimportant as Windowsbecame the dominantoperating environment,and despite offeringstiff competition toMS-DOS, DR-DOSslowly faded away.Digital Research wasbought by Novell,which released NovellDOS 7, but that didn’thalt its decline.Eventually it was soldto Caldera, a Novelloff-shoot, and wasrenamed OpenDOS, although justrecently it assumed its original moniker.

Caldera has further refined the OS. Itis Year 2000 compliant and the kernel willcorrect the system date even if your BIOSdoesn’t support the Year 2000. It alsofeatures a genuine multitasking kernel.As before, the OS is ROM-able and issuitable for embedded devices such asPDAs and set-top boxes. A DOS-basedinternet browser, Caldera DR-WebSpyder, was recently released. Sothings are happening with DR-DOS.

You can download a copy of DR-DOSand DR-WebSpyder from Caldera’s ftpsite at <ftp.caldera.com>. Follow thelinks on the ftp site to /pub/drdos. Thefull set is a 6Mb download. Caldera’s

web site can be found at <www.caldera.com/dos/index.html> [Fig 2].

FreeDOS is a very different kettle offish. This is a straight clone of MS-DOS3.3 written by volunteers and academics(a bit like Linux). Why MS-DOS 3.3?Simply because DOS remainedfundamentally unchanged from thatversion forward. It’s a 16-bit single-taskingOS based around the DOS-C kernelwritten by Pat Villani and includes theusual utilities and command.com shell.

Another interesting thing about theFreeDOS project is that it is largelywritten in MICRO-C, a freeware Ccompiler, which encourages developersfrom all over the world to chip in withsuggestions and code samples, à la Linux.

The project is still at the late betastage so doesn’t guarantee 100 percentDOS compatibility at present, but it canrun WordPerfect 5.1 and Doom. It

cannot, however, runWindows. Its raisond’être is that there areusers out there who

either don’t need the power of a modern32-bit operating system, or lack thenecessary computer hardware to runthem on. And it is free, under the termsof the GNU General Public Licence.

You can download it from the SunSiteftp site at <ftp://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/micro/PC-stuff/freedos>. The completesuite is an 8Mb download. The web site isat <http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/index.html> [Fig 3].

Roger Gann can be contacted via the PCWeditorial office (address, p10) or [email protected]

PCW CONTACTS

QFIG 2 FREEDOS ISA CLONE OF MS-DOS3.3

PFIG 3 DR-DOS IS A

DOS EQUIVALENT OF

LINUX


I don’t tend to delete files I want to keep. Indeed, with hard-drivecapacity as big as it is today Idon’t tend to delete files at all. But it seems that other users do.

If you’re the administrator for a WindowsNT network, you’re likely to be plaguedwith demands by users to restoreinadvertently trashed files.

The Recycle Bin goes some waytowards resolving the issue, but if thepurpose of deleting files is to free-uphard drive space, then users will eitheruse Shift-Delete (to carry out apermanent deletion) or go and empty theRecycle Bin anyway. And in any case, theRecycle Bin doesn’t catch files deleted ina variety of ways (from the commandprompt, for instance).

A product designed to address thisissue is Executive Software’s NetworkUndelete and, as the name suggests, not only does it work on an individualclient or server system, but even across the network. It’s ideal for harassed administrators.

Road to recoveryFollowing installation of NetworkUndelete, your Recycle Bin disappearsaltogether, to be replaced by a RecoveryBin. This seems to catch files no matterhow they are deleted — even thoseremoved by software de-installationprograms. In fact, there’s a danger thatUndelete will go too far and catch allsorts of rubbish that you couldn’tpossibly want again.

Recognising this, Network Undeletesupports an exclusion feature [Fig 1]which allows you to specify certain filetypes, file names or even folders that youdon’t want to be able to recover. As

standard, the exclusion list contains suchthings as the file extensions typicallyassociated with temporary files.

By default, the recovery bin size is setto 20 percent of your drive but you caneasily change that. You can also opt tohave a single recovery bin for all drives,rather than one per drive, and turn offthe feature on a per-drive basis which isuseful if you’ve adopted the advice of thiscolumn and set up an entire drive forhandling temporary files.

The right stuff Installation of the product isstraightforward (although it does require

a reboot) and recovery itself couldn’treally be easier: just right-click the nameof a file in the recovery bin and selectRecover from the drop-down menu.

Network Undelete will even restorefiles that have really been deleted: forexample, if you clear the recovery bin offiles that have been excluded fromrecovery bin processing. It will even findfiles that were deleted before NetworkUndelete was installed [Fig 2]. However,on NTFS partitions, you cannot restorecompletely deleted files that are large or really huge (files that have more thanone record in the MFT).

I’m sure that none of you would everkeep questionable content on your ➨

The Recycle Bin can’t alwaysregurgitate inadvertentlytrashed files, so NetworkUndelete is a godsend forharassed administrators.Andrew Ward explains why. And, share and share alike,provided you have permission.

¿ FIG 1 IF

NETWORK

UNDELETE

BECOMES

TIRESOME, YOU

CAN EXCLUDE

FILES FROM BEING

RECOVERABLE

R FIG 2NETWORK

UNDELETE WILL

EVEN FIND FILES

YOU THOUGHT

HAD DISAPPEARED

YEARS AGO

hands onw i n d o w s n t

Bin there, done that


hard drive so you wouldn’t be worriedabout the implications of this product.Nevertheless, from a security point of viewonly someone with administrator rights, orthe original owner of a file, can recover it. Asingle end-user client copy of NetworkUndelete is £35 (ex VAT) and theadministrator version is £140 (ex VAT).There’s a starter pack of one administratorplus five client copies for £235 (ex VAT)and Network Undelete should be availablefrom software resellers.

Good questionReader Gordon Bamber has raised a verygood question: what exactly are thedifferences between share-levelpermissions and directory-level filepermissions, and when should you useone or the other? First, a bit of history.Share-level permissions are a feature ofMicrosoft networking and have beenaround for longer than Windows NT. Butwith the advent of NTFS, the ability to setfile- and directory-level permissions hasalso become possible (to add security,say, in the case where a single desktop

computer is usedby two or morepeople). File anddirectorypermissions areintrinsic to themachine itself andthus add a newlayer of securitybeneath the sharepermissions. Asyou might expect,both layers ofsecurity work (oneis not negated bythe other) so it’seasy enough tofathom out whatwould happen inany particular set of circumstances. Forinstance, there’s a user directory on my

system called “Andrew”, which is notcurrently shared. I’m the only user whocan access the directory. If I then decideto share that directory, regardless ofwhat share permissions I do or do notspecify, I’m still the only user who canaccess that directory. If I set up a sharethat only a user called “Linda” canaccess, then even though she can get tothe share, she can’t get to the directory.And across the network I can’t get to theshare at all, because only Linda isallowed access to it. Thus, in a normalnetworked environment it seems to makesense to use only the share-levelpermissions, and for most applicationsjust ignore the fact that NTFS alsosupports file and directory permissions.

No place like home There’s one important exception andthat is networked home directories. If you had many hundreds of users andshared all their home directories, you’dcreate an absurdly large browse list. Butby creating one directory called “Users”and sharing it, you can create sub-directories for every user and setdirectory-level permissions [Fig 3] onthose so that only a user can access theirown home directory. ➨

UNWANTEDSHARES

A final word on the subject ofgetting rid of unwanted

shares. When, in the June issuecolumn, I first suggested thatone way of deleting them was touse the registry error, there wasactually an error in the registrypath I showed, which was spotted by Julius Clayton. Instead of:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\ÁLanmanServer\SharesI should of course have specified;HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\ÁLanmanServer\Sharesbecause ControlSet001 may not be the one currently in use.(Key : Á Code continued on next line)

Julius also points out a valuable use of this key. Changing an NT system from adomain controller to a server, or vice-versa, requires a fresh install of NT. Andwhat happens when you reinstall NT? Well, you lose all your shares, which, asJulius says, can be rather annoying if you have hundreds of them. But by savingthe key before you carry out the installation you can later import it again, whichwill recreate the shares and share permissions for you (following a reboot). ● To save the key, run REGEDIT, navigate to the appropriate key, then selectRegistry / Export Registry File… from the menu (and Import Registry Filesubsequently, to re-import it).

RFIG 3 SHARE-LEVEL PERMISSIONS

ARE SET VIA THE

SHARING TAB, AND

DIRECTORY AND FILE

PERMISSIONS VIA

THE SECURITY TAB

H A HANDY WAY

TO SAVE SHARES

WHEN UPGRADING

FROM SERVER TO

DOMAIN

CONTROLLER


HERE’S AN APOLOGY. A while ago Iwrote about Service Pack 4 (SP4)thinking that by the time my articleappeared (PCW, August) SP4 would havehit the streets. After all this time, youwould have thought that I would realiseMicrosoft never moves quite as fast aswe’d like. In fact, it may be that SP4 isnot even out by the time you read this,although I do have Frank Utermoehlen,Microsoft’s OEM marketing manager(Europe), on record as having said thatSP4 would be released “this summer”.(He also said that NT 5.0 would be outaround April next year, but I’m not sure Ibelieve that, either.) If I do wait for theservice pack to come out before tellingyou about it, there’s a delay of two orthree months. What you can be certainof is that as soon as SP4 is available it willappear on our PCW cover disc (providedthere is room for it and that Microsoft isforthcoming with permission).

Simon Corner raises the question ofwhether they should be installed at all?With Windows NT, the answer is usuallyyes — Microsoft generally manages to fixfar more problems than it introduces.Most significantly, security holes arefrequently being found in Windows NT,and each new service pack fixes all those

that are known at the time. And yes, newsoftware does expect the latest servicepack. Plenty of application software forWindows NT 4 specifies Service Pack 3 asa prerequisite. Oh, and you also only everneed to install the latest version because itincludes previous fixes.


Andrew Ward can be contacted via the PCWeditorial office (address, p10) or [email protected]

PCW CONTACTS

PROCESSORSTEPPING

Elliot Moore runs Windows NT4.0 Server on a dual Pentium 133

SMP system with two differentprocessor steppings but has noproblems at all. According toWinMSD, one of the processors isFamily 5 Model 2 Stepping 12 andthe other is Family 5 Model 2Stepping 11. Intel provides someinformation on mixing steppings athttp://support.intel.com/support/processors/pentium/KBDL567U.htm. There’s a compatibility chartwhich highlights any problems orworkarounds that might be necessary(for almost any combination,pipelining must be turned off). And fairly obviously, both processorsmust be running at the samefrequencies and at the same bus/core fractions.

THE YEAR 2000 AND WINDOWS NTR eaders have

asked for moreinformation onWindows NT 4.0’s non-compliance asregards the year 2000.The place to look iswww.microsoft.com/ithome/topics/year2k/product/WinNt40wks.htm, but these are the four areas of non-compliance that Microsoft hasfound so far:

1. THE USERMANAGER does notrecognise the year 2000as a leap year and willnot accept 29 February2000 as a valid date toexpire an account.

2. THE CONTROLPANEL Date/Timeapplet’s date displayedmay jump ahead onemore day than expected(although the systemdate is still correct).

3. WHEN THEPROPERTIES ofOffice files are modifiedfrom the shell, only 2-digit years are allowed,and they are assumed tobe in the 1900 century.

4. THERE ARE DATEENTRY fields in theStart Menu / Find /Files or Folders / DateModified tab that will

show non-numeric dataif the year is greater than1999.To fix these problems,download the patchesfrom http://backoffice.microsoft.com/downtrial/moreinfo/y2kfixes.asp or wait forService Pack 4.I won’t embarrass thosewho have written insuggesting that the year2000 is not a leap yearafter all, by mentioningtheir names. But fortheir benefit, here isSection II of the 1751“Act substituting theGregorian for the JulianCalendar” [24 Geo. IIcap. 23]:“That the several yearsof our Lord 1800, 1900,2100, 2200, 2300, or anyother hundredth year ofour Lord, which shallhappen in time to come,except only every fourhundredth year of ourLord, whereof the yearof our Lord 2000 shallbe the first, shall not beesteemed or taken to bebissextile or leap years,but shall be taken to becommon years,consisting of 365 days,and no more; and theyears of our Lord 2000,2400, 2800, and everyfour hundred year ofour Lord, from the yearof our Lord 2000inclusive, and also all

other years of our Lord,which by the presentsupputation areesteemed to be bissextileor leap years, shall forthe future, and in alltimes to come, beesteemed and taken tobe bissextile or leapyears, consisting of 366days, in the same sort ormanner as is now usedwith respect to everyfourth year of ourLord.”For those whoselinguistic skills and/orattention span arechallenged by longsentences, what it says isthat every hundredthyear is not a leap year,except for every fourhundredth year, whichis, starting with the year2000. What the Act failed totake into account, ofcourse, is the fact thatthe year 4000 shouldnot be a leap year — soanyone currentlywriting software has towork on the principlethat it is, knowing that anew Act will be passed atsome point and that itwill all change again. Bywhich time there will behundreds of computersper inhabitant of theworld, and trillions ofdifferent pieces of code,all busy miscalculatingleap years.


T he web is full of sharewareand freeware. Notunreasonably, you may betempted to download someand run it. If so, you should

find out what processor is fitted to yourmachine (e.g. MIPS, SH3) because youmay be confronted with differentdownloads compiled for differentprocessor types.

Most commercial softwareautomatically detects your processortype and installs the version you need,but this isn’t always the case forshareware. If you need the information,have a look in Control Panel, System andselect the General tab. My HP 620LX isrunning on a Hitachi SH3 [Fig 1].

RAM under controlWindows CE machines have no hard diskso they store information in ROM andRAM. Thus RAM in a CE machine can bemade to function like a hard disk andused for storing applications and data. Itcan also function like conventional RAMin a PC (used for runningapplications). Have a lookin the same System area(see above) but select theMemory tab [Fig 2]. Thisis where you can controlthe way in which RAM isallocated between thesetwo functions.

It is up to you to decidewhat the optimum setting

for your usage happens to be, andprobably, when you get the machine, youwon’t have a clue. Fine. Leave the settingwhere it is, but remember that this iswhere the information is stored. As soonas you seem to be running out of spacefor either function, pop back here andtake appropriate action.

Bin and goneThe Recycle Bin is mega-useful on aWidows CE machine, just like it is on

95/98 and NT.Not, youunderstand, that Ihave ever deletedanything bymistake, but I have a friend who once…Anyway, my advice is to leave the RBoperational. However, if you find thatyou are becoming very short of space,you can turn it off by Alt Tapping the RB icon and un-checking “Do Not MoveFiles…” to free up more space [Fig 3].You can also take the less radical step

of setting the RB


The world according to Windows CE, as Mark Whitehorn presents some handy help and hints.

QFIG 1 THE

GENERAL TAB OF

THE SYSTEM

PROPERTIES REVEALS

ALL…

HFIG 2 …BUT THE

MEMORY TAB OF

THE SYSTEM

PROPERTIES REVEALS

MORE

QFIG 3 DISABLING

THE RECYCLE BIN IN

WINDOWS CE. THIS IS POSSIBLE,BUT ONLY

RECOMMENDED

IN EXTREMIS

(SEE TEXT)

hands onP D A s

See hear — it’s CE

to take up less memory.While on the subject of saving

memory, another useful trick is to saveyour documents as *.txt rather than*.doc files because they take up lessspace. You can also have a hunt throughthe file system and delete any sampledocuments, *.BMP and *.WAV files thatyou don’t actually use.

Power savingSo much for saving “disk” space. Whatabout saving battery power? ● Use the backlight as infrequently aspossible when running on batteries.● Don’t abandon your machine for dayswith alarms bleeping and lights flashing.It will feel that you don’t love it andflatten its battery in a fit of pique.● Sounds not only irritate everyonearound you, they also drain power.● Don’t leave the machine docked whileon internal power.● One of the biggest power hogs aremodem PCMCIA cards, so only use onewhile on mains power.● NiMH batteries last longer thanconventional Alkaline.● Conventional batteries last longer thanrechargables, but the latter are cheaperin the long run.● Lithium rechargables are better thannormal rechargables because essentiallythey have no “memory”.

No PDA, no funThere are some old people (“old” definedin this instance as one who was sentient

in the early 1980s) who argue that PCshave become more boring in moderntimes. As PCs have passed from

“interesting toy” to “cutting edgecorporate tool” they have undoubtedlybecome more productive. But are they


I’m looking for anidiot’s intro to

programming the Palm 3.Hope to see one soon.

MIKE RILEY

<[email protected]>

This is one of the fewemails I’ve had that

refer to the Palm. I’ve no prob-lem with doing a tutorial on

programming for Palms,Psions and/or Windows CEmachines. Please let me knowyour thoughts.

I would like to ask youabout the possibility

of using Polish fonts inPDAs. I used to have an HPOmniGo 100 and I now owna Psion 3c. The former usedEnglish fonts as well asFrench and German ones,but no Central Europeanversions. I can use Polish

fonts when I work with myPsion 3c, but can you tell mehow it would look in thesystems using Windows CE(I mean the “keyboardable”ones) and Epoc 32?

PRZEMYSLAW SPERLING

<[email protected]>

I haven’t the faintestnotion of how to get a

Windows CE machine to runwith Polish fonts.Nevertheless, I have the greatest faith in the readership

of PCW. Can someone outthere enlighten us?

Can small Windows 95or NT-based programs

be run on a Windows CEpalmtop?

IAN DAVIES

<[email protected]>

The simple answer to this one is “No”.

Despite the name, WindowsCE is essentially a totally dif-ferent operating system.

Questions

Q QQ

aa a

& answers

MORE TIPS AND TRICKS FORWINDOWS CEJohn Kennedy

<[email protected]>has provided theseuseful tips for WindowsCE machines.

● Speed up yourdesktop by keeping onlythe bare minimum ofshortcut icons on it.Each icon redraw takestime, and if you have alot you can spend fiveseconds watching yourdesktop appear. Deletethose you don’t need.● If your HPC hasshortcut buttons (e.g.Philips Velo) use theminstead. You can launchapps in a second or less.● Keep your mostfrequently usedapplications running all the time, minimisedin the Start bar. Youwon’t even have to waitfor them to load.● Use the ControlPanel “Owner” applet

to display your nameand contact when theHPC is turned on. Makesure you have a “Rewardif returned to owner”message display.● Upgrade to WindowsCE v2 because the extrafeatures are definitelyworthwhile. Forexample, I can keep arecord of all myimportant and personalinformation such as CCnumbers and ISPpasswords in a PocketWord document foreasy access. And, asWindows CE v2 willencrypt files, I don’thave to worry aboutlosing it.● Use Power Toys,available from theMicrosoft web site. ThePocket Paint utility isreason enough todownload it, but thereare plenty of othergoodies, too.

● Windows CE v2knows about Ethernetcards and networking.You can even connectyour HPC to your LANand browse throughWindows 95/NTdirectories if youdownload theNetworking tool fromthe Microsoft web site.● Customise it! Windows CE allows abackdrop image to beused. Use your favouritepaint program, such asPhotoshop orPaintShop Pro, toreduce the colours andadd dithering. Thensave as a BMP and copyit across. ALT-tap onthe screen to bring upthe screen properties,and select your newpattern. There areplenty of pictures on the web if you don’t want to makeyour own.

any more fun?“No” is the shortanswer. This isone reason that Ilove PDAs. Theyhave yet to

attract the interest of the suits, so theyare still fun.

Take a look at Fig 4. This is an aerialshot of John Kennedy’s house. Heobtained it by tying a DC25 digital

camera to a kite that he flew,one assumes, from his backgarden.

What has this got to dowith PDAs? John wasexperimenting withmanipulating images withPDAs, sent me the image forthe fun of it, and it seemedto me to sum up why I likePDAs.

On the other hand,please don’t do this athome. Please don’t tie your

two-year-old child to a kite in an attemptto better John’s artistic composition.Don’t try to move images from a digitalcamera to your PDA. I wouldn’t want youto start enjoying this stuff!

Hotel guide“I’d like to let you know about a newPsion product our company has justreleased. You can find full details on our

web site http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Fawnbench. It’s anelectronic version of the popular AAHotel Guide book. Being in electronicform means a user can now filter, sortand locate geographically the types ofhotel in which he is interested. It alsolinks with our ‘Geographical Database’application, allowing a hotel entry to belocated on a map — and all from thePsion screen.”

[email protected]

Been there, looked at it, and it seemslike fun. This brings us rather neatly tothe topic of mapping with PDAs. As thisseems to be a recurrent theme, we’ll startlooking at it next month.


Mark Whitehorn welcomes readers’correspondence and ideas for the Hands OnPDAs column. Contact him via the PCWeditorial office (address, p10) or email [email protected]

PCW CONTACTS

HFIG 4 ALL YOU

HAVE TO DO IS

WORK OUT WHAT

THIS HAS TO DO

WITH PDAS

hands onP D A s

TIPS FOR PSION 5 USERS

From John Goss’s monster bundle<[email protected]> here

are some more tips, the first of whichwere published in last month’scolumn.

● Shift-Ctrl-C brings up a window,letting you insert special characters.● Sometimes programs can wastememory when they are closed andleave you with less space than youshould have. An occasional soft resetcan be a good idea, or download MMU, a program which frees up thewasted space. ● It is possible to connect your Psion 5 to a PC via infra-red. Mostlaptops and some PCs now come with infra-red ports, so it’s a good idea tomake use of them, and here’s how :

1Uninstall PsiWin.

2Now you need the latest IRDAdrivers from Microsoft. Get them

from <www.microsoft.com/windows95/info/irda.htm>.

3Install the driver you need andthen go to your relevant infra-red

Com port and set the speed to themaximum available.

4Go to Control Panel and into theinfra-red settings. Click on the

options tab, make sure everything is onthe right settings and enabled on theright port.

5Install PsiWin 2.1. (Note: If youdon’t have PsiWin 2.1 you can get it

from <www.psion.com>.)

6Double-click on your connectionmonitor, go to the connections tab

and tick the infra-red box. Also put thebaud rate to 115200 if it’s not therealready.

7Now turn on your Psion, enablethe remote link on infra-red (press

Ctrl-L to bring up the dialog) andpoint at your PC’s infra-red port. Waita few seconds and it should connect.You can also find this information on the web at <5alive.psionking.com/Archives/Reviews/IrDA.htm>.

ROM display● This tip is courtesy of Tim Jeffries<[email protected]>.If you want to access the Psion Series5’s ROM drive (Z:):

1View the directory tree window, butrather than use the standard

keyboard shortcuts of Tab or Ctrl+G,use the alternative of Ctrl+Tab.

2Wait a while until all the directorieson C: are displayed

and then click on the box at the top left that reads “C” (without the quotes).

3Press Tab, and then click on “Z”from the drop-down list that

appears.

4The ROM drive will be displayed.Press Enter to view it in normal

mode.If you want or need to do this often,you could press Shift+Ctrl+B tobookmark this folder. Then you canjust press Ctrl+B to get back to it. Note that this will override any otherbookmark settings you have made.Although you cannot changeanything, because it is stored in theROM and is therefore read-only, youcan view it and it is useful to find outabout the Psion’s architecture.

Just browsingNice one, Tim! I didn’t know aboutthis one and spent a happy hour justbrowsing. Glad to know that you aren’t the real Judge Jeffries (nor yetJudge Dred).


A T&T calls it the “nextgeneration compressiontechnology” and claimsthat it achievescompression ratios as high

as 1000:1, which is five to ten timesbetter than existing methods. DjVu(pronounced déjà vu) can squeeze a full-colour picture scanned at 300dpi downto less than 60Kb, instead of the typicaluncompressed size of tens of megabytes.The idea is to make high-res colour and

black-and-white documents easilydistributable over the net.

You’ll find a set of Linux utilities tohandle DjVu at http://dejavu.research.att.com. AT&T recommends using abrowser to display the compressedimages, and includes a plug-in forNetscape. Alas, plug-ins are operating-system dependent and the one theysupply only works with Windows. Butyou can display a compressed .djv imageby using the ddjvu decompression utility

Picture thisDjVu is compression technology that aims to make high-resdocuments easily distributable over the net. Results, like theexample above, can be impressive, says Chris Bidmead.

HERE’S A BIT OF CLASS: CARAVAGGIO’S JUDITH

BEHEADING HOLOFERNES. THE MAIN PICTURE IS

A .DJV FILE COMPRESSED TO 28K FROM THE

110K JPEG ORIGINAL (BACKGROUND).A STRAIGHTFORWARD CDJVU COMPRESSION

PRODUCED THE 11K DJV FILE YOU CAN SEE

LISTED AT THE TOP OF THE XTERM WINDOW BUT

THIS WAS RATHER TOO LOSSY, SO I DOUBLED UP

THE PIXELS ON THE ORIGINAL BEFORE

COMPRESSING IT (CDJVU HAS A -UP2 SWITCH FOR

THE PURPOSE) TO RETAIN MORE DETAIL

[SEE MAIN TEXT, BELOW]

and piping the result into Display, theutility that comes with ImageMagick.Chances are you already have thisexcellent graphics suite in your Linuxdistribution. If not, or if you’re running adifferent platform, visit the home page atwww.wizards.dupont.com/cristy/ImageMagick.html. You compress youroriginal jpeg, gif or tiff (it also handlesbmp, ppm and pgm) using the cdjvuutility. For example, to squeeze theCaravaggio (above), I used:# cdjvu judith.jpg judith.djvThe ddjvu utility decompresses the imageagain, and you can feed it into Displaylike this:# ddjvu judith.djv | display

I tried putting that line into Netscapeas a helper app but it seems not to likethe pipe. If anyone knows how to makethis work, do please drop me a line andI’ll pass on the information.

hands onu n i x

hands onu n i x


● Last month I may have made getting Xto work with the Matrox Millennium IIsound more complex than it is. That’sbecause I did it the hard way. The easyway is just to get a recent Linuxdistribution that uses XFree86 3.3.2 orlater, because this has Millennium IIsupport built into the standardXF86_SVGA server.

If, like mine, your Linux uses an earlierversion of X you don’t need to downloadand install the whole of XFree86 3.3.2. Intheory it’s only the server that needschanging. I got it from Suse at www.suse.de as xmatrox.tgz. It’s just over 1Mb insize, so it’s a manageable download.

Untar this with tar xvzfX332SVGA.tgz to extract the server. Nowcd to the appropriate X directory. Withmy Caldera OpenLinux installation it’s/usr/X11R6/bin but various Linuxdistributions still differ on this. An easyway to find it is to use the locatecommand to look for XF86_SVGA. Nowrename your old X server (if it alsohappens to be called XF86_SVGA) andcopy the new XF86_SVGA into thisdirectory. Conventionally the server isevoked as X, so you’ll need to establish asymlink. From inside the X bin directoryyou can do it with:ln -s XF86_SVGA X

You can now check that the link isthere with ls -1, which should showsomething like X -> /usr/X11R6/bin/XF86_SVGA

When X loads you don’t normally runit directly. The usual way is to run a scriptcalled startx, which runs a binary calledxinit, which in turn evokes X. When itloads, X consults a configuration filecalled /etc/XF86Config. You need to besure this is set up with the rightparameters to trigger the Millennium IIfeatures in the server. Unless you’re anout-and-out geek you’ll probably needthe XF86Setup script to do this.

Earlier versions of XF86Setup don’tknow how to set the appropriateMillennium switches, so be sure to

download thenew version thatgoes with 3.3.2.The version onthe Suse site isxsuseconfig.tgzand includes adatabase file called Cards. In my Calderainstallation these two files go respectivelyinto /usr/X11R6/bin and/usr/X11R6/lib/X11. You should checkthis first by using the locate commandagain to see the locations of your currentversions of XF86Setup and Cards.

Now use the new XF86Setup torecreate /etc/XF86Config and youshould be able to run startx as usual.

Ah, but there’s another catch…

Nanny stateThis will work fine as long as you’re root,but if you’re any other user you’ll find Xwill refuse to load, with a messagewarning: “You should be using Xwrapperto start the server”.

This is because XFree86 3.2.2 hassuddenly become HAL in the film 2001and is nannyishly warning you that you’ve

hit a security issue. Xwrapper is a binarythat XFree86 3.3.2 inserts into the startx->xinit->X sequence to get around thissecurity hole. Unfortunately, even whenI’d tracked down XWrapper I stillcouldn’t run X as a user. The samewarning kept coming up and I noticed itcarried a rider: “We strongly adviseagainst making the server SUID root!”

Because X has to do some hairysystems things, it needs to be runningwith root permissions. The point ofXwrapper is to ensure that these rootpermissions cannot be exploited by amischievous user. As the only person onmy network I made the judgment call thatgetting X to work was more importantthan guarding against security breaches,so I gratefully picked up the clue in therider and made X the SUID root.

Insecurity guard Setting SUID root on an executable is abit complicated to explain but simple inpractice. If root owns an executable filebut allows me to run it (which is theusual case with Unix utilities), normallythat file will run with permissionsappropriate to my user status (rm, forexample, won’t allow me to delete root-

¿PETER GODDARD <[email protected]> REMINDS ME TO

MENTION CHRISTIAN BOLIK’S TKDESK. MANY READERS ASK ME TO

RECOMMEND A GUI FILE MANAGER — TKDESK IS THAT AND MORE. IT RUNS

ACROSS A NUMBER OF UNIX PLATFORMS, AND BORROWS IDEAS FROM NEXTAND THE APPLE FINDER. “…AND (SHOCK HORROR) WINDOWS 95, FOR

SOME OTHER (OF COURSE, MINOR AND UNIMPORTANT ;-)) INSPIRATIONS,”AS BOLIK PUTS IT

(ILLUSTRATION FROM http://people.mainz.netsurf.de/~bolik/tkdesk/)

Modifying permissions in X# ls -l XF86_SVGA -rwxÑxÑx 1 root root 3261116 Mar 7 11:46 XF86_SVGA # chmod -v u+s XF86_SVGA mode of XF86_SVGA changed to 4711 (rwsÑxÑx) # ls -l XF86_SVGA -rwsÑxÑx 1 root root 3261116 Mar 7 11:46 XF86_SVGA

[FIG 1]


owned files). Setting the file SUID givesthe executable full root permissions foras long as it is running.

This was the old, insecure way ofrunning X, and I wanted it back! You cando it easily. Become root, switch to thedirectory the executable is in (or give itsfull path name in what follows) and thenuse chmod to modify the permissions. Ilike to use ls -I before and after to see thepermissions. If you want to see them asthey change you can use the —verboseflag for chmod, too [Fig 1].

Eye spyReader Neil Homer <[email protected]> writes that this column is to blamefor pushing him off the straight andnarrow (his job is administeringWindows NT networks) in the directionof Linux. Sorry, Neil.

He calls Linux an eye-opener: “Ibought RedHat 5.0 and installed it athome, and on a PC at work — much tomy employer’s annoyance. I wassurprised at its ability to integrate into amultitude of environments. Strangely,developers who work in the samecompany were also going misty-eyedwhen I fired up our first Linux box.”

Once he’d added ApplixWare hefound that “If you can do it usingWindows, then you can do it using Linux.I can’t believe that I can do whatever Iwant with Linux and ApplixWare forabout £140, that would otherwise costme three or four times as much to dowith Windows 95 and Office, never mindthe rest of the server products that comewith Linux.”

Like many of you, Neil concedes thatLinux probably has a long way to go

before it’s a direct challenge to Windowsfor the desktop. I’ve never seen it like thismyself: if Windows does what you need,then fine; but if you want some controlover your own machine, you should lookelsewhere. Linux is a good place to start.

Package tourPhilip Sweeting <[email protected]> writes: “Could you tell mewhat the extension ‘rpm’ signifies inLinux? How does one unpack it (I amassuming it is some sort of compressedfile or something)?”

It stands for RedHat PackageManager. As the name implies, it wasoriginally developed by RedHat (withfinancial support from Caldera). It’s thestandard package manager (method ofinstalling and deinstalling apps, utilitiesand the OS basics) on these twoplatforms, and on others (like Suse), too.Go to www.rpm.org for more details.

Stamping groundIn the August issue I mentioned a tipfrom Andy Holyer <[email protected]> about using tar to move entiredirectories. Alex Holden <alex _ [email protected]> has emailed to point outthat Andy and I have made a mistake inassuming that cp cannot be used topreserve file stamps. “The command lineoption you should use is -a or -archivewhich is analogous to -dpR. This copies adirectory structure recursively andpreserves as much as possible (includingtime stamps) in the process.”

Alex is right, of course. But tar still hasone advantage. Andy Holyer points outthat adding the v flag to tar, as in:

# cd /var ; tar cf - spool | (cd /somepartition ; tar xvf- )

prints out a log to the terminal of what’shappening and, on a slow network “letsyou know whether it’s worth going forcoffee.”

Alex added a further thought whichsparked a three-way discussion betweenus: “Mv won’t move files between filesystems because it doesn’t actually movethe files at all, but basically just modifiesthe directory entry.

“It sometimes annoys me when Iforget that /usr/src and /home areseparate partitions and I try to mv a filebetween them. Perhaps mv should beextended to test if the source anddestination are on different file systemsand, if so, perform a copy and deleteaction instead of a rename.”

I told Alex I found the idea ofmodifying mv horrifying. “I hate the ideaof complicating a long-standing and wellunderstood utility,” I said. “Particularlyas it would be fairly simple to write ashell script that behaves as you suggest.”

Andy agrees with me that thelimitation of mv to a single file systemcan be a useful safety measure whichwarns that you may not be doing whatyou think you are doing.

Alex rose to the challenge with asimple script [Fig 3]. The brief was for ascript that “behaves as you suggest”,which would include error checking.Anyone care to improve on this?

Chris Bidmead can be contacted via thePCW editorial office (address, p10) or [email protected]

PCW CONTACTS

Challenge Alex! Modifying mv with a simple script#! /bin/sh# mov- A simple shell script to move files or directories, with the added# capability to move across file systems (which mv does not do).## You’ll have to just ignore the error messages as piping them to /dev/null# seems not to work. You’d also better make sure the arguments are just# simply “mov source dest” or bad things might happen like deleting something# you don’t want to delete.if !(mv $@)then

cp $&rm -fr $1

fi

[FIG 3]

W hile responding toreaders’ letterscomplaining aboutIBM’s marketing ofWarp, it occurred

to me that Warp users would be a lotworse off now if IBM hadn’t decided tofocus on its key OS/2 customers. HadIBM continued to go against Windowson the desktop, it’s quite possible that wewould now have even less choice. As itstands, we’re guaranteed Fix Packs andthe latest Java developments as theyappear. It’s a testament to thatcontinuing support that we barelymanaged to get Fix Pack 6 and Java 1.1.4on the PCW cover disc before they wereovertaken by Fix Pack 7 and Java 1.1.6(about which more later).

A word on WarpMike Hitchcock is not only dismayed byIBM’s rejection of the SoHo andconsumer PC market, but also doubtfulof the benefits for home users in the Javaand network computing direction thatWarp is headed. I’m convinced thathome users will benefit, but it may take awhile to filter through. Some of the Javadevelopments mentioned on these pages,particularly the PalmPilot/Warpconnection but also the OS/2 Java FAQsites, begin to show how it can be used tounite today’s PCs with the handheld andconsumer devices of tomorrow.

Java will also help reader DarrenHufford, who dislikes having to useWindows 95 at work and then having to convert to the older Windows 3.1programs that run on his home OS/2 system.

The same program can run on both.Admittedly there are not yet that manyshrinkwrap choices, but when there are,

Warp will be among the first to supportthem. Being able to run the sameapplication on Warp and Windowswould make my life a lot easier, too.

I’m writing this column from afriend’s home in Cape Town on aWindows 95 system! When I set it up ayear ago I would have preferred to haveset it up as an OS/2 system because myfriend’s main applications are wordprocessing and email; but I set it up as aWindows system for an importantreason. When things went wrong, as theydid because my friend is a completecomputer novice, she had access to lotsof people who could offer help. Had shebeen an OS/2 user it would have beendown to me to maintain the system from8,000 miles away.

Now, with Java emailers becomingavailable (and Lotus SmartSuite forWarp to take care of the wordprocessing) it’s looking a lot morepossible to set up the Cape Town PC as arock-solid Warp box. This would be agreat improvement over the Windowssystem which, whenever it cannot dialout, suggests reconfiguring Windows 95.These misleading messages create havocamong novice users.

While I’m pleased that IBM took the

decision to focuson key Warpaccounts,

because it has brought benefits for homeusers, there is a gaping hole in thisargument which concerns individualWarp users in companies of all sizes. Ireceive many emails from readers whofeel cut off because they have chosen torun Warp at work. They receive nosupport from their IT department and yetthey regularly report better reliabilityfrom their computers than those ofcolleagues running Windows 95.

I can understand IBM taking theWarp spotlight away from consumers,but leaving all single-unit purchasers inthe dark prevents individual Warp usersin companies from being able to providea practical demonstration of a solidalternative to Windows 95.

Java 1.1.6On our PCW cover disc you’ll find a copyof Java for OS/2 Warp. Java 1.1.6 istotally groovy. It supports Warp 3 andWarp Connect with FixPak 32 or later,Warp 4, Warp Server and Workspace OnDemand, so there’s a single codebase tosupport all versions of Warp. It works


Terence Green looks at Javapossibilities for Warpwannabes. His handy tipsalong with the software givenaway free on our cover CD,means you can be Java’d up in no time at all.

HJAVA 1.1.6 IS NOW

IN THREE REDUCED-SIZE PACKAGES FOR

EASIER DOWNLOADS

hands onO S / 2

Jumping into Java

with the latest Netscape 2.02 forOS/2 release and IBM has split offa runtime version for those who don’twant the full developers’ kit. It’s Year2000-ready, too.

Earlier Netscape 2.02 updatesincluded a Java 1.0.2 runtime which madefor big downloads and created problemsfor Warp users who added one of the later

IBM Java forOS/2 packages.This resulted intwo Javainstallations inseparatesubdirectoriesand potentialconfigurationproblems. The19th Juneupdate ofNetscape 2.02for OS/2 (whichshould be onour cover CD)now works withJava 1.1.6 andno longer needsto include itsown Javaruntime.

This will begood news forreader Jean-Yves

Rouffiac, who ended upwith two Java installations

and a pile of problems. He can now junkthe previous installations using SelectiveUninstall, or by deleting thesubdirectories and removing allreferences to them from CONFIG.SYS,after which he can upgrade to Java 1.1.6.

The 1.1.6 download now comes in

three versions: runtime; runtime withUnicode font for Japanese, Korean andChinese versions of Warp; and the 1.1.6Development Kit which includes tools,samples and a debugger. The Runtimewithout Unicode, which you need forNetscape 2.02 releases dated 19th Juneor later and also for running Java appletsand applications, is only about 8Mb. Theseparate Developer Kit is a 12Mbdownload and the Netscape 2.02download size drops to around 5Mb.

We’ve previously mentioned the Year2000 problem in respect of Fix Packs,and Java for OS/2 is only Year 2000-readyfrom 1.1.4 onwards, which means thatprevious Netscape 2.02 releases thatshipped with Java 1.0.2 are not. You canbring Java and Netscape up to Year 2000readiness by upgrading to Java 1.1.6 andthe latest Netscape package.

One item you won’t find on the coverdisc for a while yet is VisualAge for Java2.0. It’s due for release in October, whichmeans we can get it onto our cover discfor the January 1999 issue. I know it’s along delay, but we’re assured that the 2.0version is worth waiting for.


BY THE WAY…

The following snippets were gleanedfrom WarpCast at www.warpcast

.com/. ● If you want to know more about Javaand Warp, have a look at the FAQ whichFernando Cassia has at http://fc.home.ml.org/javainst.htm and the screenshotgallery at http://fc.home.ml.org/javinos2.htm. ● If you have a PalmPilot or IBMWorkPad you might want to try outJPD (Java-Pilot-Desktop), a Javaconnection for the PalmPilot written byOS/2 people at www.castrop-rauxel.netsurf.de/~arnd.grossmann/jpd/index.html. ● There’s a new IDEDASD.EXE forWarp 3 and Warp 4 which supportsEIDE drives greater than 8.4Gb andfixes some problems in Fix Pak #35 and

#6. Find it at http://service.software. ibm.com/os2ddpak/html/30ABBBF6ABD9D85F86256598006908FA.html. ● Fortify at www.fortify.net/main.html has released a new free patchfor Netscape for OS/2 to enablestrong (128-bit) encryption asopposed to the iffy 40-bit stuff weare stuck with outside NorthAmerica. Note that it’s intended forthe service level 8 version ofNetscape, not the one on our PCWcover disc. Hopefully the situation willhave changed by the time this appearsin print and there’ll be a patch fromIBM for the latest level of Netscape, butdo check the service level beforeinstalling the patch. If you open theHelp menu and select “About

Netscape”the servicelevel showsup in thetitle bar ofthe browserwindow.

HUPDATED SUPPORT FOR

THOSE EVER-GROWING IDEDRIVES, AND THIS ONE

INCLUDES DOCS FOR

REMOVABLE DRIVES

A FRESH SET OF

YEAR 2000-READY

JAVA RUNTIMES FOR

THE NETSCAPE FOR

OS/2 BROWSER

Terence Green can be contacted by post viathe PCW editorial office (address, p10) oremail [email protected]

PCW CONTACTS


Style counselTim Nott likes our style — the style of our Questions &Answers section, that is. Somuch so, that he thoroughlyrecommends it and shows youhere how it’s done.

I ’m not responsible for the layoutof this column — that’s the job ofthe production staff — but I dofind it helpful to use a similarformatting style for the Q&A

section, with the question in bold type,followed by the questioner’s name, alsoin bold, followed by the answer in normaltype. Furthermore, I like to have no linespaces within each query but a blank linebetween each complete Q&A, which allmakes for a more logical and legible life.

It wasn’t until several months afterthe Q&A sections started that I botheredto spare the few minutes that have sincesaved me hours fiddling with formatting.For all you agony-column writers outthere, here’s how to automate it in Word.

Create a new style, based on Normal.In my case Normal is 12-point Times NewRoman regular with 12-point spacingafter each paragraph and none before.Call it, say, “Querysig”. Make it bold (andwhatever else you want) and set theParagraph spacing to zero before andafter. Now the clever bit. In the “Style forfollowing paragraph” list, select Normal.Now create another style, called, say,Query. Format this similarly, but set the“Style for following paragraph” to“Querysig”. Give the “Query” style ashortcut key: mine’s Alt+Q.

And that’s it. I hit Alt+Q, type in thequestion, hit return, type in thequestioner’s name, hit return again andI’m back in Normal to type in the answer.Assuming that I know what it is, that is.

Missing links Tony Cattermole, you may rememberfrom July’s column, had a problem with amysterious, but unknown, keycombination that would cause Word 7to close without saving files. Sean Blessithad some interesting insights to offer on“losing” documents in general. Althoughthese defaults won’t close Word itself,

they are potential traps for theunwary, especially those of uswho frequently have to lookdown at the keyboard. Control + Aselects the entire document. The next keytyped will replace the selection, so if, forexample, you start to type “A majorproblem…” and accidentally hit theControl instead of the Shift key, thefollowing space will wipe out the entiredocument. Undo! Undo!

Similarly, Control + N starts a newdocument so when you look up you’ll seevast blankness; but the originaldocument will be hiding beneath it. Themost insidious, however, is Control + W,which closes the active document.Imagine, as Sean suggests, that you startto type the word “Windows” but again,hit Control instead of Shift. If you’re notlooking at the screen, and don’t havesounds turned on, you may not noticethe “Save changes?” alert after Control +W. Word will then ignore the “i”, but willrespond to the “n” by closing theunsaved file. Nasty, eh?

The solution is to go to Tools,Customise, Keyboard, and remove theoffending shortcut keys from thecommands in the File menu. It might alsobe worth checking that no otherpotentially dangerous shortcut keys havebeen assigned: FileExit, for example, doesshut down Word. But there’s a catch(isn’t there always)? On both my Word 7and 97 installations, the Control + W

shortcut doesn’t appear inthe list of items under File.You need to go to “All

commands” and look for “DocClose” inorder to nail the key combination.

WordPro tipsFurther to July’s plea for help in solvingthe propensity of WordPro’s customdictionary refusing to accept anyadditions, I have had one reply. Thanksto Dave Mooney for the followingselections: “With the spell bar on-screenselect Options, Edit Dictionary. Type thenew word in the Edit box, and the Addbutton will un-grey. Press, and bingo, anew entry.” His second suggestion is toopen Explorer and find c:\lotus\compnent\spell. Turn off both the Read-only and Archive attributes. This seemsto cure the problem permanently.

Viagra fallsA little fun. Start a Word document, setthe language to US English, and type thephrase “Unable to follow directions”,without the quotes. Highlight it, hit Shift+ F7, and see what the thesaurus offers.

¿TURN OFF THOSE

DANGEROUS

SHORTCUT KEYS

Tim Nott by post via the PCW editorial office(address, p10) or at [email protected]

PCW CONTACTS

hands onw o r d p r o c e s s i n g


Questions& answers

Whenever I open a document from within

Word 97 it displays a lot ofdocument information atthe bottom of the page. Thisdoes not happen if I openthe document from theRecent Documents list orExplorer. How do I stop the

superfluousinformationappearing?

PETER MOODY

This sounds like youhave “Extract text from

any file” set as the default“Files of type” in the WordOpen dialog. This will appenda list of Styles and other infor-mation that is stored in thedocument along with the text.It will also lose the formatting.This setting is “sticky” so ifyou use it once, it will staythat way until you change itback to “Word Documents”.

Can you default theMicrosoft Write

application which comes aspart of Windows 3.x toautomatically save as textand not as Write format? Idon’t want to use Notepadas it has a restriction as tohow much text can beopened. Are there anyMicrosoft Write or(Notepad) spell-checkingutilities which can beattached?

ANTHONY HUNTE

No to the first question.Yes to the second.

Take a look at the SoftwareLibrary on July’s cover CD-ROM and you will find bothWindows 3.x and Windows 95trial versions of SpellWrite,which checks spelling in any application. If you missed that issue youcan get it from www.nerdsunlimited.com.

I wouldlike to use

Word 97 to writedocuments that

subsequently are to betransmitted byteletypewriter. The softwarethat does the convertingdoes not recognise wordwrapping. Is there a way toautomatically add a carriagereturn when the cursorreaches the end of a column?

GAETANO TIMPERI

Yes, this canbe easily

done. Save As…then from the “Saveas type” list, choose “Text onlywith line breaks”.

In previous versions of Word you could set

a “dirty” value to controlwhether Word prompted the user to save the changeddocument. Is this possible in VBA?

PETER GUTTRIDGE

Indeed it is — theincantation is Active

Document.Saved=True. For the full dirt, look upSetDocumentDirty in the Visual BasicEquivalents for WordBasiccommands section of the Word VBA help file.

I’ve recentlywritten a

series of physicstextbooks. A

contributor sent me a fileconverted fromWordPerfect. Theantineutrino uses a Greeknu with a bar over it. Whenthese were translated fromWP to MS Word, thetranslation retained theoverprinting. But I can’t findany info about it in the helpfiles, nor has anyone in oneof the word processingnewsgroups been able tosuggest any cause. A MarsBar for a correct answer!

MARK ELLSE

This is Word beingclever. If you turn on

Field Codes you’ll get a clue.The bare nu (looks like a scriptv) is from the Symbol font.This is followed by anADVANCE field that reposi-tions the text following, in thiscase six points to the left, fol-lowed by the overscore charac-ter (Alt + 0175) in the defaultfont. You can achieve a similareffect by typing the nu, select-ing it and adjusting the charac-ter spacing from Format/Font.One important point is that ifyou obtain the nu fromInsert/Symbol, rather thanjust by changing to the Symbolfont and typing “n”, you’ll find

it stays protect-ed if the font ofthe surroundingtext is changed.

a

Q

a

a

Q

Q

Q

a

¿WATCH OUT! THIS WILL REMOVE

FORMATTING AND

ADD UNWANTED

INFORMATION

¿CHECK SPELLING

ANYWHERE: FROM

OUR JULY CDa

Q

QALL THE NUS

THAT’S FIT TO PRINT

M any of a spreadsheet’sfunctions can bewritten as equationsand this depiction ofthem is often

provided in the help files. An engineerand a maths student both recently askedme how they could produce graphics forthese or other equations. Office includesa program, the Microsoft EquationEditor, which does this. Access it fromExcel: just choose Insert, Object,Microsoft Equation 3.0.

I like to run it independently [Fig 1].In Explorer, click on Eqnedt32.exe in theC:\Program files\Common Files\MSShared\Equation directory. When you’vecreated your equation, just choose Edit,Select All, copy your handiwork to theClipboard and then paste it into Excel oranother program for printing.

The Equation Editor has acomprehensive help file but you can useit intuitively. You build equations simplyby picking templates and symbols fromthe toolbar and typing variables andnumbers in the slots provided. As youbuild an equation, the Equation Editorautomatically adjusts font sizes, spacingand formatting in keeping withmathematical typesetting conventions.You can also adjust formatting as youwork and redefine the automatic styles.

Backup and recoveryFollowing the recent coverage in thiscolumn about backing up and recoveringspreadsheet registry and data files,George Mucho has kindly contributedthe following: “The Emergency RecoveryUtility located on the Windows 95installation disk will recover registry filesand more.

“All the files can be restored bybooting into DOS, finding the directorywhere the information was saved, andtyping ERD. It is not necessary to mess

around withattributes. I havebeen using thisutility for two yearsnow and it hasnever failed.”

George hascreated an illustrated MSWord file,ERD.doc, which suggests how to use thisutility and I have included it on thismonth’s cover-mounted CD-ROM.

ConsolidationCedric Roberts has written in severaltimes in past years, while convertingweather forecasting data from SuperCalcto Excel. He writes: “Excel is superb formy requirements and I have finishedentering the data from 1956 onwards. Inow want to extract information on avariety of topics: hottest day, wettest day,

number ofground frostsand latest airfrost.”

I wouldrecommendCedric becomefamiliar with the usefulinformation inthe help files inthree areas:

Consolidation, Microsoft Query, and theTemplate Wizard with Data Tracking.Excel offers you 3D formulas just asSuperCalc did.

On a summary sheet you could findthe highest rainfall for the year with =MAX(January:December!Rainfall)If you choose Data, Consolidate,Function you’ll find nearly a dozenfunctions in the list box but there aremany more you can enter yourself.

For other readers, Fig 2 shows acommon use of the consolidationfeature: summarising monthly financialrecords into quarters. Each of 12worksheets holds monthly records. The13th sheet summarises it in quartersusing formulas like =SUM(January:March!AG2) which totals the values in cell AG2 onthree separate monthly worksheets.


Add that into the equationStephen Wells looks at theMicrosoft Equation Editor,which is accessible from Exceland lets you produce graphicsfor your equations.

¿FIG 2 EXCEL

MAKES IT EASY TO

CONSOLIDATE ANY

GROUP OF SHEETS IN

YOUR WORKBOOK

BY USING 3DREFERENCES ON A

SUMMARY SHEET

¿FIG 1 USING THE

EQUATION EDITOR

TO WRITE THE

FORMULA FOR

EXCEL’S STDEVPFUNCTION WHICH

CALCULATES THE

STANDARD

DEVIATION OF A

POPULATION

hands ons p r e a d s h e e t s

● Michael Garner asks: “I am creating aspreadsheet and have the date stored incolumn A. I then want the month to bestored in column B (i.e. January,February) without having to re-enterinformation already stored in column A.Is there any formula that I can place incolumn B to make this happen?”

Excel stores all elements of a date as anumber. To repeat the date, enter =A1 incell B1. If you mean you want to displaythe full name of the month, do it byentering =A1 and using the Customformat MMMM for B1.

To display the number representingthe month (3 for March, 6 for June) usethe formula =MONTH(A1) and formatthe cell as General.● “How can I count the number of cellscontaining text strings?” asks Jim Smart.

One way to count the number of cellsin the range B1:B8 that contain text is: =COUNTA(B1:B8)-COUNT(B1:B8)

COUNTA tells you the number of cellswhich are not empty. COUNT tells youthe number of cells holding numbers.● Anthony Atkinson wants to know:“How do you insert symbols in Excel 97?There seems to be no way to do it fromthe Insert menu.”

The Insert route is the way MS Wordworks. In Excel you have two choices. Theeasiest is to choose Start, Programs,Accessories, Character Map, Symbolsand copy what you want. The other thingto do is learn the keyboard shortcuts orkeep a list of the common ones. Makesure the Num Lock key is on. ThenAlt+0188 is a quarter. Alt+0189 is a half.Alt+0234 is e with a grave accent.Ctrl+Alt+a (or Ctrl+Alt+e) is an a (or ane) with an acute accent.

Regarding those features in MS Wordthat are not available in Excel, PhilippaSutton makes the useful suggestion:“Regarding small caps in Excel 95, I justformat the cell and then choose a SmallCaps font like Copperplate gothic.”Depending on the overall typographicdesign, that could be just the ticket.● Chris Eaton asks: “How can I put thefile path into an Excel header or footer?”

Choose File, Properties, Summary


SORTING COLUMNS

R equests forshowing how Excel

can sort columns arepiling up, so here’s aneasy method. Say yourlist has seven columnsand (for now) 14 rows,including the headings.Keep a safety copy of itbecause, during sorting,Excel won’t change theaddresses to which anyformulas refer. Nor will

it re-adjust the columnwidths. 1. Insert a new row atthe top of your list andin it enter the order youwant. In the exampleshown here you can seewe want column G tobecome A, F to becomeB, and so on. Column Bwill become G. 2. Select the range A1 toG15. (In a row sort you

just select one cell in thelist, but this is different.)Fig 4 (below) shows A2to G15 highlighted butExcel displays that. 3. Now choose Data,Sort, Options and selectthe “Sort left to right”button and OK. 4. The Sort dialog boxshould show Sort by 1.Click OK. That’s it. Sorted.

¬ FIG 4 YOU

CAN SORT COLUMNS

IN EXCEL BY

INSERTING A

TEMPORARY ROW AT

THE TOP OF YOUR

LIST AND CHOOSING

‘SORT LEFT TO

RIGHT’

and enter the path under Title. Thenchoose View, Header and Footer, dropdown the Header list and select the path.

You could alternatively enter thefunction, =INFO(“directory”) in the toprow of a sheet, choose File, Page Setup,Sheet and select the Row and Headingscheck box. The directories of the path willbe shown.

To include workbook and sheetnames as well, save the file once, then use=CELL(“filename”).● Byron Simmonds wants to know:“How can I adjust the horizontal placingof an Excel header or footer so that itlines up with an adjusted margin?”

Excel headers and footers always use

a 0.75in side margin and you have to goalong with it. But you can easily adjustthe margin of the print area of yourworksheet if you want them to line up.● Martin Hayes enquires: “What’s theformula for getting the ‘tab’ sheet nameto appear in a cell on the same sheet?”

The formula in Fig 3 displays boththe workbook and sheet name. Excelputs in the curly brackets when you enter this as an array withCtrl+Shift+Enter. But as you just wantthe worksheet name (which appears onthe tab) you might prefer the semi-automatic but simpler formula=RIGHT(CELL(“Filename”),7) assumingthat the name on the tab is sevencharacters. Change that number to suit.

‘Tab’ sheet name formula{=RIGHT(CELL(“Filename”),LEN(CELL(“Filename”))-MAX(IF(NOT(ISERR(SEARCH(“\”,CELL(“Filename”),ROW(1:255)))),SEARCH(“\”,CELL(“Filename”),ROW(1:255)))))}

[FIG 3]

Stephen Wells welcomes readers’ problemsor solutions relating to spreadsheets. Write tohim via the PCW editorial office (address,p10) or email [email protected]

PCW CONTACTS

I was fortunate enough to spendsome time at the IBM research labin Santa Teresa recently. In anoblique way, the visit broughthome to me how much Big Blue is

prepared to invest in pure research. I was in Ron Bingham’s office talking

about IBM’s business intelligence toolswhen I noticed two patents hanging onhis wall and idly enquired as to what theycovered. The first turned out to be for atheoretical system that enables any andall data to be classified and stored.

“Surely you can’t mean all data,” Isaid. “How many objects can it classify?”

“Well,” replied Ron (an IBMresearcher), “more than there arefundamental particles in the observableuniverse.”

The second patent describedsomething which would allow such astorage/classification system to beimplemented. It involved a hierarchy ofservers that communicate and issueclassifications. It also seems to allow forcompression so that objects can bestored more efficiently. I say “seems to”,because the patents were fairlymathematical and my brain couldn’tcope with the details. In fact, I apologiseto Ron if I have misrepresented them.The point is that IBM gave him time towork on a topic that is currently totallytheoretical. One day, someone will needthis kind of ability in their database andIBM will be there, patent at the ready.

On the trail oftransactions And with that, we move elegantly from ahighly theoretical subject with nopractical application, to transactions, atheoretical subject with very immediateapplications. So first, the theory, andthen, why its application is so important.

Certain operations in more complexdatabase applications are intimately tiedtogether, at least in the logical sense. Forexample, Andy buys Sophie’s car. Theprice of the car is removed from Andy’sbank account. Then it is placed inSophie’s account.

If the system performing these actionsshould crash and only part of the processwere completed, then Sophie is going tobe very upset (and neither will Andy bebest pleased). So, what we do is “tell” the DBMS that these two operations

form an entitycalled a“transaction”.The DBMS is told to treat thistransaction asone object. Either the entiretransaction mustsucceed, or it

must all fail; there must be no halfmeasures, even if the database crasheshalfway through the operation.

Roll callIn order to provide this facility the DBMSmust, before it starts to carry out theoperations in the transaction, write thedetails of what it is about to do to a fileon disk. Then, if the database crashes,when it comes back up it can look at thefile and “roll back” the unfinishedtransactions. (The same can happen ifthe workstation that initiates thetransaction crashes.) The ability tomanage transactions in this way can becalled “transaction control”.

The step from here to “transactionlogging” is simple. Instead of discardingthe information about each transactiononce it is complete, the information isretained in a log file. Indeed, every


Patents impending Two IBM patents, for datastorage and classification,highlight the company’scommitment to research.When the theory needs tobecome practice, IBM will bethere, says Mark Whitehorn.

TO BE PRECISEIrecently looked at

converting charactersusing the built-in upper-case function. AnthonyBlyth <[email protected]> sent a

function (see code.txt on our cover CD-ROM)based on the ASCIIcodes allocated to letters.This method requires amore intimate

understanding of ASCII codes but itenables precisemanipulations andconversions. It’s trickier,but gives greater control.

¿FIG 1 ACCESS

OFFERS A LIMITED

FORM OF

TRANSACTION

CONTROL. I KNOW

OF A SYSTEM WHERE

TRANSACTION

LOGGING HAS BEEN

IMPLEMENTED, BUT

IT’S NOT A

STANDARD FEATURE

OF THE JET ENGINE

hands ond a t a b a s e s

operation carried out against the data inthe database is logged in this file.

Now, imagine a system that’s backedup at midnight on Sunday and that workproceeds as normal until 3.27pm onMonday when a crash’n’trash eventoccurs. You restore the database to thestate at the last backup, and then “rollforward” through all the completedoperations in the transaction log, thusbringing the database back to the state itwas in just before the crash. Incompletetransactions are, of course, not rolledforward. The restoration and rollingforward can be handled automatically bymost client-server DBMSs.

Transaction control and transactionlogging work to ensure the integrity ofyour data in an uncertain world.

The moral of the story? “Take nothingfor granted” — except recently, I did.

The stingWhile in the US I was asked to attend apresentation, given by the vendor of afinancial application, to a prospectiveclient. The package was a client-serversystem with clients running Windows 95and the back-end running on Unix.

The motivation for purchasing thesoftware came from the financial arm ofthe organisation, which was satisfiedwith the way it performed the requiredfinancial transactions. I was happy toaccept their opinion, accountingprocedures being outside my remit.

As for the underlying structure of theRDBMS, I initially took it as read that theproprietary software sat atop WUT (wellunderstood technology) — somethinglike Oracle, or DB2. It took a regrettablylong time for me to twig that not onlywas the software proprietary, but alsothat the data was stored in a proprietaryflat-file system and that a proprietaryprogram was used on the Unix box toaccess and control that data.

Out of controlAt this point, even I could no longer failto hear the tolling of alarm bells. Afterall, although it’s quite possible for agroup of dedicated programmersworking for a small company to create anentire DBMS, it is unlikely that they willdo better than the entire might of Oracle,or IBM, or Microsoft. So I had tobacktrack on the questions I was putting

forward and start asking aboutfundamentals like transaction control.The answer was simple: there was none.If a workstation hung during orderprocessing, the entire system had to beclosed and utilities run to check theintegrity of the data files.

There was no transaction log, so even if the system was backed up once a night, any orders created after thebackup and prior to a system crashwould have to be re-entered.

From bad to worse This is bad, and it happened to be worsein this particular case. Creating an orderautomatically printed a paper copy ofthat order, complete with an ordernumber that was issued sequentially toeach as it was created. These papercopies were ready for immediatedespatch to suppliers by snail-mail.

It follows from all of this that to re-create the order information whichmay already have been sent to suppliers,it is necessary to re-enter the data inexactly the same order as was used priorto the crash. If not, re-generated orderswon’t bear the same order number as

the original. The bad news is that re-entering the data in exactly the sameorder is essentially impossible, given amulti-user system.

This is not a diatribe against smalloutfits producing proprietary software —far from it. The imagination and flair ofsuch companies adds enormous value tothe existing offerings of big corporations.Small companies can react quickly, fillingniches and producing brilliant products.However, there is a strong argument forbasing such products on existing DBMStechnology and putting programmereffort into making it a superlativelyinterfaced and highly customised“accountant’s friend”.

Access has some degree oftransaction control [Fig 1] but if youwant proper transaction control asdescribed here, you would be welladvised to look to a client-server system.

DOS-TO-ACCESS TRANSFER


Thorkil Mailand<thorkil.mailand@

has.dk> from Denmarkhas asked abouttransferring data froman older DOS program

to Access. In general, thebest approach is toexport the data fromthat package in a formatwhich Access canimport [Fig 2].

Mark Whitehorn welcomes readers’suggestions and feedback for the Databasescolumn. He can be contacted via the PCWeditorial office (address, p10) or [email protected]

PCW CONTACTS

¿FIG 2 ACCESS

IMPORTS FROM

SOURCES INCLUDING

DBASE, EXCEL,FOXPRO, TEXT

(CSV AND

STRAIGHT) AND

ODBC

I t’s been quite a while since I lastbroached the subject of SCSI andthere have been some significantdevelopments in that time,principally the launch of the

Ultra2 standard. But first, some briefbackground. The Small ComputerSystem Interface — SCSI, prounced scuzzy— is a general-purpose parallel bussystem that originated from Al Shugart’s1979 SASI (Shugart Associates SystemInterface). It became an official ANSI in1986. SCSI in all its flavours is now anacknowledged and very well standardisedmulti-purpose interface, supporting awide variety of devices such as hard disks,removable disks, magneto-opticaldevices, tape drives, printers, WORMs,CD-ROMs, scanners, medium-changers(jukeboxes) and communication devices.

SCSI was originally an 8-bit I/O-busthat allowed connection of up to eightdevices, including the host adapter card.SCSI-1, as it became informally known,was a high-speed bus system comparedwith the peripheral devices around atthat time. SCSI-2 followed in 1994. Itwas not a major leap forward, but ittightened up the standard and added theability to double and even quadrupledata transfer speed on the SCSI bus.

Faster, Wider, Ultra!The SCSI-2 specification introduced usto Fast SCSI. Or, rather, faster SCSI,because it was a rather broad termreferring to devices with data transferrates up to 10Mbps — twice that of plainvanilla SCSI. It also introduced us toWide SCSI, which was wide in the sensethat it offered a 16-bit data pathcompared to SCSI’s normal eight-bitpath and it, too, doubled the datatransfer rate to 10Mbps. Add Fast toWide and you got a data transfer rate of20Mbps. But Wide SCSI-2 never reallymade it, as SCSI-2 devices would needtwo cables to transfer 16 signal bits.

The most recent SCSI-3 specificationextends the original SCSI interface tosupport Ultra SCSI, which permits the

SCSI bus to operate at double thetransfer rate. Some of the goals for SCSI-3 include “scatter write” and“gather read” capability, 16 devices per bus, longer cable length, auto-configuration of device addresses,operations on other physical layers such as fibre optics, and16-bit transfer using asingle cable. Just toconfuse matters evenmore, the three SCSIstandards — 1, 2 and 3 —were recently re-christened by the SCSITrade Association. Undera new naming conventionthey’re now referred to asSCSI-1, Fast SCSI andUltra SCSI respectively.

ULTRA2 IS the latestSCSI technology, offeringhigher performance andimproved flexibility inperipheral configuration.It’s no longer based on thesingle-ended physicalinterface that previouslylimited SCSI signallingdistance and hence cablelength. Previously, as thedata transfer rate increased,so the maximum cable length decreased.Ultra2 is also not based on the originalhigh-voltage differential (HVD) interface.Instead, it uses a low-voltage differential(LVD) interface which offers severaladvantages, in particular extended cable

lengths — as long as 25m in certain cases.Under Ultra2 SCSI, transfer rates on aneight-bit bus will increase to 40Mbps.With 16-bit Wide Ultra2 SCSI devices,transfer rates soar to 80Mbps. The Ultra2SCSI bus supports seven Ultra2 SCSIdevices, while the Wide variant supports

up to 15 devices.Both bus typessupport only LVDtransceivers.

The first Ultra2 Wide SCSI card to hitthese shores was the snappily named


Flag down some sound advice on the venerable Small Computer System Interface — SCSI, orscuzzy, as it’s more popularly known. Roger Gann presents a run-through of its development.

SCSI types compared

Mode Bus Width Synchronous Speed (Mb/s)SCSI 1 8-bit 5Fast SCSI 8-bit 10Fast/Wide SCSI 16-bit 20Ultra SCSI 8-bit 20Wide Ultra SCSI 16-bit 40Ultra2 SCSI 8-bit 40Wide Ultra2 SCSI 16-bit 80

hands onh a r d w a r e

The SCSI bus stops here

¿THE ONLY ULTRA

2 SCSI CARD AT

PRESENT IS THE

WIDE ADAPTEC

AHA-2940U2W. A NARROW VERSION

IS IN THE PIPELINE


Adaptec AHA-2940U2W. Despite thesimilar model number, this card is, infact, completely different to itspredecessor, the AHA-2940UW. The newPCI host adapter positively bristles withSCSI interfaces and has no less thanthree internal SCSI ports, for Ultra2 Wide(68-pin), Ultra Wide (68-pin) and“ordinary” 50-pin Ultra/Fast SCSIheader. It also has an Ultra2 Wideexternal connector, plus a spare UltraWide socket on a blanking plate, sopretty much every SCSI angle is covered.It comes complete with four cables: aSCSI-2 Wide 68-pin three-connectorribbon cable, a SCSI-2 50-pin three-connector narrow cable, a five-connector

Ultra2 Wide terminated cable, and aninternal-to-external 50-pin Ultra cablewith two additional internal connectors.

ONE ADVANTAGE OF SCSI is that itguarantees backwards compatibility witholder devices. As a result, devicesequipped with any SCSI interface can bemixed and co-exist on a common SCSIbus. However, the performance of theSCSI bus is limited to the features thehost adapter and the devices have incommon — that is, the lowest commondenominator. Which means that if aSCSI-1 device was on the bus, everythingelse on that bus would run at 5Mbps.Adaptec’s SpeedFlex technology,employed on the AHA-2940U2W, allowsyou to mix Ultra and Ultra2 SCSI deviceson the same SCSI bus and run each attheir maximum speed, rather thandefaulting to the slower rate.

The SCSI forecastThe SCSI Trade Association forecasts thata SCSI transfer rate of 640Mbps is withinreach, and that a rate of 160Mbps will beavailable within 12 months. More than32 SCSI devices may be present on theseadvanced buses. Beyond Ultra2 SCSI, theSCSI Trade Association is talking aboutUltra3 and Ultra4 SCSI. Fibre Channelmay be offering these kinds ofthroughputs now, but there’s plenty of life

left in the old SCSIdog! But why go forUltra2 SCSI anyway?Doesn’t Ultra DMAdeliver fast datathroughputs, too? It’strue that Ultra DMAand its maximum datatransfer rate of33Mbps narrows thegap between EIDE andSCSI, but raw speed isonly one element in theequation. EIDE offersonly limited expansionpotential. Althoughsome EIDE controllers

cansupportmorethan twodrives,and youcan nowinstall

two EIDE controllers ina system, EIDE still isn’t as flexible asSCSI, which lets you chain up to 15devices. Another restriction is cablelength: an EIDE cable can’t exceed half ametre in length, regardless of how manydevices you connect. This can be a royalpain with tower cases, because it’s oftenquite a stretch from the motherboard tothe drive. By contrast, SCSI cables cantotal three metres in length. A moreserious restriction is that EIDE controllersand drives can process only one I/Ocommand at a time, while SCSI canhandle multiple requests simultaneously.This alone will keep EIDE devices out ofhigh-end NT desktop systems. UnlikeWindows 95, NT can take advantage ofSCSI’s ability to simultaneously processI/O commands from multipleapplications and get the most out ofmultiple SCSI-device chains.

SO, SHOULD YOU INVEST in Ultra2SCSI hardware? Let’s look at prices: anAdaptec AHA-2940U2W host adapterwill set you back around £235 (ex VAT),while an Ultra2 SCSI drive, such as the9Gb Seagate Barracuda, will cost £525 (exVAT). Comparable Ultra Wide SCSIsolutions would cost £175 and £500, sothe premium you pay for double thebandwidth is modest. However, mostmodern motherboards incorporate UltraDMA so the cost of this technology is zero,

while acomparable 9GbSeagate UDMA

drive costs £200 (ex VAT). This makes thecost of upgrading to SCSI large enough towarrant economic justification.

OK, what about the performancegain: doesn’t that justify forking out theextra for Ultra2 SCSI? Well, if you’rerunning a network file server, or agraphics workstation where you routinelyhandle multi-megabyte image files, oryou are into real-time video editing, thenundoubtedly you’ll appreciate the veryreal benefits of Ultra2 SCSI.

BUT IS ULTRA2 SCSI WORTH IT forthe average Joe/Josephine? I’d have tosay, probably not. While theperformance is very impressive, ineveryday use Ultra2 SCSI won’t offer anyperceptible performance gains over UltraDMA. Don’t forget that the data transferrates quoted are the maximum or peaktransfer rates, and sustainedthroughputs are typically half this. It istrue that Ultra2 SCSI is more resilient todemanding tasks and can cope betterthan EIDE when stressed, but on astandalone PC it is unlikely to encountersituations that put it under much strain.You’d go down the Ultra2 SCSI route forother reasons — flexibility, and the abilityto use very long connecting cables. ➨

¿ADAPTEC’S WEB

SITE DETAILS JUST

HOW LITTLE ULTRA

DMA DELIVERS IN

REAL PERFORMANCE

GAINS

Ultra2 SCSI won’t offer anyperceptible performancegains over Ultra DMA

One of the big bug-bears about installingSCSI devices is that while the hostadapter may be plug-and-play, thedevices that you attach to it are not self-configuring and have to be manuallyadjusted in order to get them to work.Two things have to be set: first of all theSCSI ID. All SCSI devices have to beassigned a unique ID number, betweeneither zero and seven, or zero and 15.Generally speaking, the host adapteritself takes the highest ID and the otherdevices have the pick of the remainingnumbers. If you want a bootable harddisk, you should assign SCSI ID 0 or 1 toit. And what if you want to change theSCSI IDs later on? No problem with theexternal devices, you just click on abutton or flick some DIP switches. But internal devices? This entails thecomplete removal of the unit simply togain access to a set of miniature jumpers.

Roughly coinciding with the launch ofWindows 95 and the upsurge of interestin all things plug-and-play, somethingcalled SCAM surfaced. SCAM stood forSCSI Configured Auto-Magically (no,really). SCAM is a protocol for automaticSCSI ID assignment: the SCAM master(typically the host adapter) scans the bus for attached SCSI devices. Forcompatibility, it also needs to find andidentify legacy — that is, standard —manually assigned SCSI devices. Thus theSCAM master gets a map of the attacheddevices and assigns a valid “soft” IDto each SCAM-compliant SCSIdevice. After this process, theSCAM master keeps this devicetable in a non-volatile memory toprovide, if possible, an identical IDset up for further boot processes.So, in theory, SCAM extended someof the functionality of plug-and-play across the SCSI bus.

Well, that was the theory. It promisedto make the installation of all SCSIdevices a whole lot easier, the only thingleft to worry about being termination. Inpractice, the promises made by SCAMhave still to be delivered.

WHILE MOST MODERN SCSI harddisks support SCAM, the feature isn’tenabled by default, so you have toexplicitly enable this plug-and-playfeature, which is a little odd. The same istrue of SCSI host adapters: on theAdaptec AHA-2940U2W card, SCAM isan option but by default is disabled. The

originalrelease didn’teven havethis feature.The storygets worsefor otherperipherals.Mostexternal SCSIperipherals –scanners andre-writabledrives, forexample –don’t featureSCAM at all.Which allseems to bea very greatpity, havingseen whatplug-and-play hasdone tosimplifyconfigu-ration forotherperipherals.Perhaps I shouldn’t be too depressed bythe damp squid of SCAM; after all, it was only a partial solution and otherthings need to be set, too. As well assetting the SCSI ID on a device you

also have to work out whether toterminate it or not. Just as you have toterminate Thin Ethernet network cabling,so you have to terminate your SCSI chainto prevent ghost signals from bouncingback from each end.

SETTING TERMINATION is a painbecause every time you add a new SCSIdevice to the chain, you have to double-check to make sure that only the devicesat the ends of the chain are terminated.If you get it wrong, devices becomeinvisible to the host adapter. And theway you actually turn termination off or

on differsfrom deviceto device. So it wouldbe nice if

SCAMcould sort out terminationautomatically as well, but it doesn’t.Actually, in a weird and ratherclumsy way, termination is takencare of automatically by Ultra2 SCSIbecause instead of the devicesthemselves being terminated, it’s theSCSI cable that does the business.The rather unusual-looking “mares

nest” LVD SCSI cable features a 40 x60mm printed circuit that takes care oftermination issues on the Ultra2 bus.However, the other SCSI buses on thecard still need conventional termination.

More on matters SCSI in nextmonth’s column.


hands onh a r d w a r e

Roger Gann can be contacted via the PCWeditorial office (address, p10) or email [email protected]

PCW CONTACTS

¿THE SCSI TRADE

ASSOCIATION’SWEB SITE AT

WWW.SCSITA.ORG

IS AWASH WITH

NUGGETS OF USEFUL

SCSI INFO

In theory, SCAM promisedto make the installation ofall SCSI devices a whole loteasier... the promises havestill to be delivered


I n last month’s column we set outto create a mixer map to controlthe AWE synth parameters. Likeany other synthesiser, whether it’san inexpensive sound card or a

£2,000 workstation, the AWE presetinstruments fail to do the card justice. It’sonly when you start to program foryourself that the instruments come tolife. So let’s complete the front end byassigning the remaining controllers.

So far we have created two objects: aswitch to “turn on” the NRPN MSB and afader to control frequency cut-off,(effectively a low-pass filter). With thefader set to 127, the filter is fully openand there is no change in timbre. As youlower this value, the sound becomesmore muffled as the higher frequenciesare filtered out. There are nine morecontrollers to complete the filter section,including resonance, a six-part envelope,envelope depth and LFO depth.

ResonanceResonance is the second most importantparameter in any filter section. Essentially

it allows you toroute the filteredsignal back into thefilter circuitry, whichin turn creates a

feedback loop. The result is greateremphasis around the frequency rangeof the filter cut-off.

High settings can produce squelchy 303-like blips, although some care must be taken not tooverload the feedback loop at lowfrequencies as this can damage yourspeakers at high volumes.

Fade to filter Rather than create a new object forresonance, copy the filter cut-off faderby dragging the object with the Alt key.This automatically opens the objectdefinition dialog, letting you enter thenew controller values. The input lineshould read B0,62,16,B0,26,XX [Fig 1]. The decimal translation is:

Hex Meaning (Decimal)B0 CC Status Byte62 CC 98: NRPN LSB16 Parameter 22: ResonanceB0 CC Status Byte26 CC 38 Data Entry LSBXX Variable

The filter envelope allows you to shapethe filter over time and provides delay,attack, hold, decay and sustainparameters. A master control to set the overall envelope depth is alsosupported, along with depth for the

first LFO (low-frequencyoscillator).

The AWE has two LFOs which can be setindependently, withparameters for rate anddelay. When applied to thefilter envelope, you cancreate anything from subtletremolo and Leslie effects towarped, Prodigy-like synthpatches.

Fig 2 shows the remainingparameter values to completethe filter section.

As with the resonancecontroller, copy an existing

fader to create the new objects, changingthe input line and names accordingly.Note that the minimum and maximumvalues for envelope depth should be setto 64 and 127 respectively.

To make the panel layout moreauthentic, I have copied the design of theRoland JP-8000 synth and assigned dials

Bring your instruments to life. Having created a mixer map tocontrol parameters, Steven Helstrip shows you how to completethe assignment of controllers to the front-end of your synth.

FIG 1 HERE’STHE OBJECT

DEFINITION FOR

RESONANCE

Filter envelope parametersParameter Input LineDelay B0,62,04,B0,26,XXAttack B0,62,05,B0,26,XXHold B0,62,06,B0,26,XXDecay B0,62,07,B0,26,XXSustain B0,62,08,B0,26,XXRelease B0,62,09,B0,26,XXEnv. Depth B0,62,18,B0,26,XXLFO1 Depth B0,62,17,B0,26,XX

Amplitude Envelope Delay B0,62,0A,B0,26,XX Attack B0,62,0B,B0,26,XXHold B0,62,0C,B0,26,XXDecay B0,62,0D,B0,26,XXSustain B0,62,0E,B0,26,XXRelease B0,62,0F,B0,26,XXLFO1 Depth B0,62,14,B0,26,XXPan B0,0A,XX

EffectsReverb Send B0,62,1A,B0,26,XXChorus Send B0,62,19,B0,26,XX

LFO1Rate B0,62,01,B0,26,XXDelay B0,62,00,B0,26,XX

LFO2Rate B0,62,03,B0,26,XXDelay B0,62,02,B0,26,XX

PitchLFO1 Depth B0,62,11,B0,26,XXLFO2 Depth B0,62,12,B0,26,XX

MIDI Reset B0,79,XX

[FIG 2]

hands ons o u n d

Big finish


Use style sheet‘standfirst’ with xcs

‘standfirstred’ appliedappropriately

I have the musicalacumen of a cricket

stump, so your series ofarticles has stimulated me to dabble in computer-generated sound andcomposition. I have aSoundBlaster 16 and useEvolution Audio forsequencing. The FMsynthesis of the first 16 GMinstruments is very good.After that, however, allinstruments are justvariations on an organ. How

do I get more realisticinstrument sounds, or is thisa case of getting what youpay for? I don’t have aseparate MIDI MapperApplet in the Control Panel:should I have one?

[email protected]

You don’t have to replaceyour sound card if it’s

just higher- quality instrumentsyou’re after. The SB16provides a feature connectorthat allows you to connect aWaveTable daughterboard. By far the best upgrade isYamaha’s DB50XG, which you

can get hold of foraround £89, or it maybe worth checking outa software synthesiser.Again, Yamaha isleading the way withits S-YXG50. This offers abetter spec than the DB50XG(up to 128 voices) althoughthere is some latency whenplaying the synth directly. So,the bad news is that you will

still have to makedo with more FMorgans whilerecording parts.For a 90-day freedemo, go to

www.yamaha.co.uk. The MIDIMapper applet was a feature ofWindows 3.1. Windows 95 hasa similar utility, although this isfound in the MultimediaControl Panel.

a

Q

Questions& answers

¿YAMAHA’SVIRTUAL SYNTH.WATCH OUT! ITHAS A HUGE

APPETITE FOR

RESOURCES

to envelope and LFO1 depth. For the titlebar, simply create a text object andchoose a background colour to suit.

Envelope settingsNext come the envelope settings foramplitude, or level. This is a six-partenvelope with identical parameters to the filter envelope. Using the Alt key,select the envelope objects from the filter section and drag them to a cleararea on the screen. Fig 3 shows thecorresponding parameter values for this envelope, along with the remainingcontrollers.

A standard CC:10 is used for settingthe pan position. To centre the pan potby default, check the Centred option inthe object definition dialog. Continue to

create newobjects for each of theremainingcontrollers andgroup them

under theheadings:Effects,LFO1, LFO2and Pitch.The effectsparameterscan be

positionedbeside theamplitudeenvelope, while

the LFOs and pitch controllers are bestgrouped together.

To complete the mixer, all you need isa switch to reset the instrument patch incase anything should go wrong while youare tweaking away. This is a standardCC:121. However, don’t forget toreinstate the NRPN MSB, or powerswitch, following a reset.

To create a 3D, or embossed, effectfor the banks of controls, create anempty text box and select the embossedstyle from within the object definitiondialog. When the box is correctly sizedand positioned, choose Send Behindfrom the Mixer Local menu.

By setting up groups, it is possible tocontrol two or more faders from just oneobject. This is particularly effective whenthe faders in question are frequency cut-

Steven Helstrip can be contacted via thePCW editorial office (address, p10) or [email protected]

PCW CONTACTS

off and resonance, moving in contrarymotion. To set this up, create a newobject (a fader, say): 1. Within the Master section, set themode to Prop and select Group 1. 2. Open the cut-off and resonanceobjects in turn and set both to group 1. 3. To achieve contrary motion, select theReverse option from one of the objects. 4. To try it out, set both frequency cut-off and resonance to 64 and “play”the new controller.

And there we go: a virtual front-endfor the often untouched AWE synth. Thefinal mixer is on this month’s cover disc.

Storing with SnapShotThe intended purpose for mixer maps isto control various parameters in real timeand record your movements to a specialmixer track. However, using theSnapShot feature, you can store yourinstrument settings, or patches, and playthem back at the start of anarrangement.

Once you have the desired settings inplace, select all the objects (Ctrl-A) andclick on SnapShot. Up to 22 settings canbe stored. To “play” them back, simplyclick on the newly-created icon.

FIG 3 THE

FINISHED

MIXER MAP: IT LOOKS ALL

RIGHT, DON’TYOU THINK?

hands ons o u n d

C reating great-lookingbuttons for a web site is amuch easier business thanit used to be because mostbitmap editors now include

lighting controls and bevel filters. For allbut the most simpleweb sites you need toproduce quite a fewbuttons, so it will speedthings up if you canautomate part of theprocess. By usingPicture Publisher’s BevelFactory and LightingStudio to enhance thelook of your buttons,and using the commandcentre to automate theprocess, you can quicklycreate a bucketful ofexcellent-lookingbuttons. You can usebroadly the sametechnique in anyapplication thatsupports scripting, likeAdobe Photoshop,Corel Photopaint orMetacreations Painter.

1CREATE A NEW DOCUMENT of400 x 100 pixels at 72dpi (it’s easier to

work on at this size). Next, select therectangular mask tool and set the optionto a constrained size of 350 x 75 pixels.

2PRESS F7 TO BRING UP theswatches palette and load either the

Internet Explorer or Netscape palette,depending on which browser your site is optimised for [Fig 1].


Ken McMahon looks at fasteners —buttons, that is. With lighting controlsand bevel filters it’s now easier tocreate them for your web sites.

R FIG 3 IN THE COMMAND CENTRE YOU CAN

GROUP OPERATIONS TO MAKE EDITING EASIER,BUT ALL YOU REALLY NEED TO DO IS DOUBLE-CLICK THE TEXT COMMAND AND SUBSTITUTE

THE NEW TEXT. TO CHANGE THE PANEL

COLOUR YOU WOULD SIMILARLY DOUBLE-CLICK THE TEXTFILL COMMAND FROM THE

PANEL GROUP, THEN PRESS RESET AND PLAY

¿ FIG 1 LOAD A BROWSER PALETTE AND

CHOOSE CONTRASTING COLOURS FOR THE

BUTTON PANEL AND TEXT. BY USING A NETSCAPE

OR EXPLORER PALETTE YOU’LL AVOID DITHERING

OR UNWANTED COLOUR CHANGES WHEN THE

IMAGE IS DISPLAYED IN THE BROWSER

Q FIG 2 USE THE

LIGHTING STUDIO

AFTER BEVEL FACTORY

TO CREATE A SPOTLIT

EFFECT. IF YOU

HAVEN’T COMBINED

THE TEXT AND PANEL

OBJECTS YOU’LL HAVE

TO DO THIS FOR EACH.MAKE THE APERTURE

AT LEAST 40 OR

YOU’LL GET

UNPLEASANT

SHADOWS AT THE

EXTREMITIES

hands ong r a p h i c s & d t p

Button up

3SELECT A COLOUR for the buttonand use the active colour fill tool to

fill the mask. Then convert the mask toan object by pressing Ctrl-W or by using the object menu.

4PICK A CONTRASTING COLOURfrom the palette, select a suitable

sans serif font (I’ve used Arial Black) and use the text tool to create the buttonwording. Don’t worry if it doesn’t fitexactly: you can use the transform tool to resize the text before moving it intoposition. Remember to leave sufficientspace around the edges for the bevelwe’re going to apply later, and to leavespace top and bottom for ascenders anddescenders. It’s also a good idea to startwith the biggest word first, so you can besure all the others will fit. If you createyour template for the “home” button (as I have done) you’re going to haveproblems with “about certification” orany other long text. If you combine thebutton and text objects using “combine

objects together” from the object menu,the subsequent light effects will apply toboth the text and the panel but youwon’t be able to move it independently,which you may need to do forsubsequent buttons [Fig 2].

Effective lightingIf you don’t combine the text and panel,you’ll need to apply the same lightingeffects independently to each.

1SELECT THE NEW OBJECT(or just the panel if you haven’t

combined) and choose Bevel Factoryfrom the effects menu.

2DRAG THE PREVIEW WINDOWso that you can see the top left corner

of the button and set the parametersuntil you get the desired result. I’ve used abevel width of 12 with a smoothness of 6,light intensity 85, highlight 95 andshadow depth 32.

3IF YOU CHECK the light studio boxand click OK, you’ll go straight to the

light studio dialog, but via this route itbehaves strangely and givesunpredictable results. Instead, leave thebox unchecked, click OK, then selectLight Studio from the effects menu.

4IN LIGHT STUDIO use a spotlightpositioned at the top left of the

button and position the focus point atthe bottom right. Use a fairly wideaperture setting (I’ve used 50) and anintensity of 100. Check the gloss lightingbox and click OK.

5SELECT SIZE from the image menuand change the width to 100 pixels.

The height will size proportionately, usingthe default settings.

That’s the button finished. Save thefile as a .ppf, remembering to check thesave command list box. Then open thecommand centre from the edit menu. Ithelps to see what’s going on if you group

the steps. I’veorganised theminto threefolders: panel,text and effects.Just shift-selectthe relevantsteps, hit the

group button on the edit panel andrename the folder [Fig 3]. To create newbuttons, double-click on the text stepand insert your new text in the dialog thatappears. Then select the steps tab, clickthe reset button and press play. You canedit the button colour in the same way,by double-clicking on the tintfill step.

Finally, if you want a transparentbackground, export the button in gifformat: use the eyedropper to select thewhite background as the transparentcolour. If you want to check how yourbutton will look against a tiledbackground, hit the browse button andselect your web page tile, then hit the full-screen preview icon.

Map copyrightFollowing Ian Cargill’s question aboutreproducing maps (PCW July) a numberof you wrote regarding the copyrightposition on copying OS maps. AndrewNewton thinks we’re on dangerousground. “As I understand it,” he writes,“the law is very strict in stating that

written permission must be gained beforecopying a map…”. My personal opinionis that if you are creating a new map,rather than a direct facsimile, and areonly using an OS map as a reference,there’s no problem. But where copyrightis concerned, it pays to check. Andrewhas provided contact details (below).

289

PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD ● OCTOBER 1998 ●

BOOKSAdobe Photoshop 5.0Classroom in a BookI looked at this one last month butAdobe has now released a newedition for version 5.0. It has almostdoubled in size and is virtuallycompletely rewritten. There is achapter on using spot colour and asection at the back on Adobe Imageready. Disappointments? There’s stillonly a 14-page colour section andlittle on using the new layer effectsand history palette.ISBN 1-56830-466-8Price £41.50

Fine Art Photoshop —Lessons in digital drawing

by MJ Nolan and R LeWinter

Here’s a Photoshop book with adifference. Where numerous othersattempt to enlighten you on theinnermost workings of a package,this one shows you how to dosomething creative. Forget all thosewatercolour and charcoal effectfilters, this book shows you how todraw and paint the traditional way,using Photoshop as a digital aid.If you are interested in developingyour traditional drawing andpainting skills in a digital direction,this would be an excellent tutor.Published Hayden BooksISBN 1-56205-829-0Price £37.50

Ken McMahon can be contacted by post viathe PCW editorial office (address, p10) oremail [email protected] Copyright Branch 01703 792913

PCW CONTACTS

A 3D graphics authoringpackage claiming to offerprofessional-gradefeatures for around £600has got to be worth a look,

given that alternatives can cost three orfour times as much.

The product in question, Infini-D, is arather odd one in terms of its position inthe market. Version 4.5 was launchedlast April and I finally got my hands on areview copy in June. I was eager to seewhat you got for such a reasonable priceand keen to experiment with its ability toproduce objects that are compatible withMetaStreams, the new file format forstreaming 3D over the web.

More on MetaStreams below, butfirst I’ll deal with the Infini-D packageitself. It claims to offer “Maximum 3D forVideo Professionals” and substantiatesthat claim by littering its publicitymaterial, documentation and CD withexamples of its use to generate titlesequences for television shows such asAmerica’s Funniest Home Videos.

Cheers!This is 3D graphics at its cheesiest: flyinglogos, glinting text, crude colours andmessy design. I suppose someone has todo it — and they evidently do it withInfini-D. However, it would be a mistaketo view this package as being as hideousas some of the images it produces. Itturns out to be quite a powerful tool forcreating animations for video.

It is published by MetaCreations aspart of a rather haphazard kit of 3D toolsthat the company has acquired throughvarious mergers (Bryce, Poser, Painter3D). MetaCreations even boasts anothercomplete 3D authoring suite in its line-up, Ray Dream Studio (which is onlyabout half the price of Infini-D), nowaimed at graphic designers, webdevelopers and multimedia producers.

Infini-D bears no obvious relationshipto any of these other products; it does noteven support their respective proprietaryfile formats. It stands alone, offering a

different interface and feature set. You can tell that it is aimed at video

production because the renderer includesmany of the tools you need to successfullyoutput animations to video. Probably themost important is that it will render tofields as well as to frames. This is essentialbecause video is made up of two fields foreach frame, one interlaced with the other.If an animation is rendered without fieldsyou end up with a flickery result when it isconverted into video.

Other useful video-specific facilitiesinclude automatic colour adjustment toensure that the colours in the final rendercome out the same no matter whetherthe video is to be broadcast using NTSC,the video encoding standard used inAmerica and Japan, or PAL, used in mostof Europe (except France) and parts ofthe Far East.

Infini-D will also check that thecolours are “safe”. In other words, thatthey do not go beyond the legalbroadcast limits set by broadcasters andregulators (to stop TVs being blown up).

Another feature which produces asubtle but important difference is anability to render “non-square” pixels: i.e.pixels that are slightly stretched to reflectthe aspect ratio of a TV screen, which isflatter than that of a computer monitor.

Compositing, where you layer oneimage (usually a computer-generatedone) over another (often live action) iswell supported. For example, there is the“ShadowCatcher” facility. This is aproperty that can be set for an object sothat when it is rendered, its shadowinformation is put into the alphachannel, which can then be used as amask to add the shadow to thebackground.

Audio (another element of post-production) is supported via theanimation sequencer. Theimplementation is adequate butrendered rather useless if you don’t usethe QuickTime movie format for sound;no other format is supported.

These are the minimum facilities youneed when you are using 3D graphics to

create video and it is worth looking outfor them when choosing an authoringpackage. Infini-D provides an adequatethough hardly lavish set, combined witha good modeller and texture editor.

On the Mac trackInfini-D has a few peculiarities andseveral omissions, though. Most of theserelate to it being a Mac product almostgrudgingly turned into a Windows one.

For Mac users, this turns out to begood news. Not only do you get networkrendering but almost complete supportfor authoring QuickTime media (forexample, QuickTime VR panoramas likethat illustrated above). QuickTime isexcellent and version 3.0 works wellunder Windows. The trouble is, most ofthe tools and conversion utilities will onlyrun on the Mac.

The price is wrongThese are mere quibbles, however,compared to my biggest criticism ofInfini-D, or rather the company selling it:you can buy it in the US for the samenumber of dollars as pounds in the UK —we have to pay well over a third extra forexactly the same product (the sameapplies to Ray Dream Studio).MetaCreations even has an online store


Maximum impactWhat’s packed with professional features, fairly priced, and oneto watch in video production? Benjamin Woolley puts the newInfini-D in the frame. Plus, MetaStreams: will it swamp VRML?

hands on3 D g r a p h i c s

at its web siteoffering the productat a knockdown US

price — and then informs you that onlyUS and Canadian customers are eligible.For the (almost) £150 price difference,you could afford to fly out to Americaand buy a copy there!

Streaming 3DVRML is facing competition fromanother quarter, other than Microsoft(see box, below) in the form of the newMetaStreams standard. MetaStreamswas developed by MetaCreations incollaboration with Intel (which isinterested in any development that

demands a fast Pentium system to befully appreciated) and is designed to“stream” 3D content over the internet.

To use it, you need a special viewer,from <www.metacreations.com>. Itworks very smoothly, running as anInternet Explorer 4 plug-in on a 300MHzPentium II. The streaming means thatlow-resolution versions of the model andits textures are downloaded first andthese become steadily more refined asmore data arrives down the line.Meanwhile you can inspect what you’vereceived so far, using the viewer’s simplebut effective navigation tools.

The streaming has partly been madepossible by MetaCreations’ Real TimeGeometry (RTG) technology, which

provides a method of dynamicallycontrolling the resolution (i.e. number ofpolygons) of 3D objects, or the framerate at which they can be animated.Infini-D 4.5 is the first package thatsupports both RTG and the MetaStreamformat, and my experience of both is thatthey are neat and powerful.

So is MetaStreams going to swampVRML? MetaCreations claims it isdesigned to do a more specialist job, as itis about delivering 3D objects, ratherthan worlds, over the internet. However,the company intends the standard tobecome a public rather than proprietaryone, which means that it clearly wants toestablish its use across the web, not justin some particular niche.

Worse, from VRML’s point of view,Microsoft has just negotiated a licence tointegrate it with DirectX, which is alreadyestablished as something of a standardon Windows 95 systems. This will meanthat soon everyone with an up-to-dateversion of DirectX running on theirWindows system will be able to viewMetaStreams files without going throughthe bother of downloading a viewer.


FRIENDS, ENEMIES & CHROME 3D There were once

hopes that VRML,the 3D modellinglanguage for the web,would become aswidespread as HTML. Itdoes not now look solikely. Microsoftlaunched an attack onVRML’s technologicalinadequacies at theinfluential WinHEC

conference in March,and if you’ve gotenemies like that, you’regoing to need powerfulfriends. Microsoft wasannouncing its ownversion of a 3Dlanguage for Windows,codenamed “Chrome”.Details remain sketchy,and it could yet turn outto be another of

Microsoft’s tacticalmanoeuvres rather thana technologicaldevelopment. Itdemonstrates, though,that at least as far asMicrosoft is concerned,3D is too valuable toleave to the publicdomain. ● See also, “Streaming3D”, main text

¿A QTVRPANORAMA,CREATED USING

INFINI-D

PCW CONTACTSBenjamin Woolley can be contacted viathe PCW editorial office (address, p10)or email [email protected]


I f you have an idle moment, trythis: right-click the Windows 95 orNT 4.0 desktop, choose New TextDocument and then double-clickto open the new file in Notepad.

Type some exotic code like:Msgbox “No more batch files”

Save the document and then renameit with a .VBS extension. Double-clickand a message should appear. If not, noproblem. You need the WindowsScripting Host, which is free and is anoption in Windows 98 setup, or in theNT 4.0 Option Pack, or as a downloadfrom Microsoft’s web site. Onceinstalled, you can run either VBScript orJScript straight from the desktop [Fig 1]— a neat trick which is evidence thatMicrosoft is serious about scripting.

VBScript started life as a rival toNetscape’s JavaScript in Internet Explorer3.0, but has developed to the pointwhere a full COM automation scriptlet,or script object, can be created with

Notepad and a few lines ofcode. How useful this isremains to be seen, but itdoes mean that VB skills cannow be used anywhere inWindows.

Windows scriptingWindows scripting is based entirely onCOM, ActiveX, or whatever you like tocall Microsoft’s object technology. At itsheart is an ActiveX scripting interfacewhich sits between client applicationssuch as Internet Explorer or the WindowsScripting Host, and script engines suchas VBScript and JScript. If you feel soinclined, you can create your own scriptengine (a Perl script engine is availablefrom a third party).

You may be wondering whichlanguage to use. VB is easy, performswell, and is most likely to be familiar toWindows users. JScript is based onJavaScript and conforms to a standardlaid down by the ECMA (EuropeanComputer Manufacturers Association).JScript is the best choice for web pagesbecause used with care it will run inNetScape as well as Internet Explorer,although in this case you will need to

The scriptlet zoneWhy bother with batch fileswhen you can run VB Scriptright off the desktop?Tim Anderson explores theworld of scripts and scriptlets.

SNIPPETS

The Sax Basic Enginelets you add macro

programming to yourVB application or anythat supports COMautomation. The newversion is VBA-compatible and makesit easy to add customextensions. By using theActive Template Library,Sax has halved runtimesize and removeddependency on VB orMFC runtime files.● Delphi users shouldtake a look at WordProcessing Tools v2, a

native Delphicomponent for workingwith rich text. It’s usefulfor 16-bit Delphi usersor for situations whereDelphi’s rich textcontrol is not enough.Version 2.0 supportstrue WYSIWYGprinting, embeddedobjects and full undo.

There are some roughedges, particularly in thedocumentation, but onthe plus side the authoris responsive toproblems, full source isavailable, and it isinexpensive. Delphi 4.0support was notavailable at the time ofwriting.

¿ FIG 1 THE END OF THE

BATCH FILE? NOW YOU CAN RUN

VBSCRIPT STRAIGHT FROM THE

DESKTOP

P FIG 2 CALLING THE

SCRIPTLET FROM VISUAL BASIC¿ FIG 3 ADDING THE

SCRIPTLET CONTAINER TO A

VISUAL BASIC APPLICATION

QWPTOOLS IS A

NATIVE DELPHI

RICH TEXT

CONTROL WITH

MANY ADDITIONAL

FEATURES. IT EVEN

WORKS IN DELPHI

1.0

hands onv i s u a l p r o g r a m m i n g

56● 295PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD ● OCTOBER 1998 ●

avoid its ActiveX extensions. InternetExplorer 3.0 can run scripts but althoughthis opens up great possibilities fordynamic web pages or web applications,it is a messy way to program.

It is hard to avoid bugs if you havelittle sections of script strewn all over anHTML page, and if you want to re-usecode on another page the only option iscopy and paste.

Scriptlets, introduced inInternet Explorer 4.0, arean attempt to bring scriptsunder control. Instead ofincluding all your script inthe current page, you cancreate dedicated scriptletpages that become a codelibrary. You can thenreference those pages usingthe Object tag, setproperties and callmethods. Figs 4 & 5 showthe simplest example.Although in this examplethe scriptlet has beenhidden using the visibilitystyle tag, there is no problem with havingit display a user interface. Looking at itone way, you are simply embedding oneHTML page inside another. Looking at itanother way, a scriptlet is the easiest wayto create an ActiveX control.

Container control To prove the point, Visual Basic 6.0comes with a scriptlet container controlthat lets you include a scriptlet in a VBapplication [Fig 2]. Yes, an ordinaryapplication that runs from the desktop.

Here is how you can include yourscriptlet: 1. Start a new, standard VB application,right-click the toolbox, chooseComponents, and select MicrosoftScriptlet Component [Fig 3]. 2. Add a Scriptlet control to the form. 3. Set its URN property to point to thescriptlet page. This can be either a filelocation or an ht address. 4. Now you can write code that talks tothe scriptlet [Fig 6 ].

Mein HostLike Internet Explorer, the WindowsScripting Host (WSH) is a clientapplication for the ActiveX Scriptinginterface. The difference is that WSH issmall and lightweight — so much so, thatyou will not notice a significant loadingtime. Scripts such as the “no more batchfiles” example (mentioned at the beginning)have a file association with WSH, so whenyou open them WSH runs the script.

You also get the benefit of the Wscriptobject which is a COM interface to theWSH. Crucially, this has bothCreateObject and GetObject methodsthrough which you can get at anyautomation objects available on yoursystem. Fig 7 shows how you could start anew Word document the WSH way.

Save this as a text file with a .vbsextension, double-click and, all goingwell, Word will open. I know there areeasier ways to open Word but the point is that once you have a reference to theWord object, you have full control overWord with interesting automationpossibilities.

This also means that when you wantto know how to do something with WSH

A simple client page using a scriptlet (Requires Internet Explorer 4.0)Note: You must change the Data tag in the OBJECT element tothe URL of where you placed the page in Listing 1. In thisexample they are in a local directory, D:\WebTest. <html><head><title>PCW Script test</title></head><body><p>Click the button to see a scriptlet at work</p><BUTTON TYPE=”BUTTON” LANGUAGE=”VBScript”Áonclick=”TestScriptlet”><p>Click me </BUTTON> </p><OBJECT ID=”ScriptObj” TYPE=”text/x-scriptlet”ÁData=”file://d:\WebTest\pcwScriptlet.html”style=”visibility:hidden”></OBJECT><SCRIPT LANGUAGE=”VBScript”>Sub TestScriptlet()ScriptObj.whattosay = “Hello from the scriplet”ScriptObj.sayMessageEnd Sub</SCRIPT></body></html>(Key : Á Code continued on next line)

[FIG 5]

Word the WSH way

setwd=createobject(“Word.application”)wd.Visible = Truewd.Documents.AddSet wd = Nothing

[FIG 7]


A simple scriptlet<html><head><title>MessageÁ

Scriptlet</title></head><body><p>You will see this unless you hide the object </p><SCRIPTÁ

LANGUAGE=”VBScript”>Dim public_whattosaySub public_sayMessage()MsgBox(public_whattosay)End Sub</SCRIPT> </body></html>(Key : Á Code continued on next line)

[FIG 4]

Talk to the scriptletPrivate Sub Command1_Click()Scriptlet1.whattosay = “Hello from VB”Scriptlet1.SayMessageEnd Sub

[FIG 6]

57 ● PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD ●296 ● PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD ● OCTOBER 1998

(how to do the equivalent of Net Use in abatch file, for instance) you need to finda COM object model that exposes theparticular feature. The Wscript objectitself provides many of theseadministrative tools and instead of Net Use you could tryWshNetworkObject.MapNetworkDrive.It is documented in the Platform SDK —the set of online documents that describethe Windows API.

Sometimes you may want to run ascript without user intervention.CSCRIPT.EXE is a command-line versionof WSH which can suppress all display ofuser prompts and script errors if you usethe appropriate switches.

You can also customise how thegraphical version runs scripts, by right-clicking a script file and choosingProperties. This creates a file with a .whsextension, and if you run this instead ofopening the script directly, then thechosen properties will be applied.

A neat feature of using WSH insteadof batch files is that you can step throughthe code in a debugger. You candownload a free script debugger fromMicrosoft, or use Visual InterDev for full-featured debugging with watch windowsand the ability to edit on-the-fly.

Other scriptletsFinally, there is yet another scriptlettechnology, now available in beta. Theseare called Server scriptlets or XMLscriptlets (the name may change).

Server scriptlets are full COM controlswith a ProgID and optionally a ClassID.The ProgID is the name of the scriptletobject in dot notation, while the ClassIDis a GUID (Globally Unique Identifier).

The easiest way to experiment withXML scriptlets is by visiting the Microsoftscripting web site and downloading theScripting wizard. You will also find acontrol that lets you include a scripting

I write a lot in VB, andover the years I’ve built

a large repository of codewhich I use regularly. Ibelieve it’s possible to createan ActiveX DLL which canhold all these routinesglobally. But the $64,000question is, how? I havetried, but each time I try tocall a DLL’d function fromwithin a project, I can’t.

GRANT MATTHEWS

Here’s how you can dothis with a VB DLL.

Note that you need theProfessional or Enterprise version of VB. 1. Create a new project, ensuring that the Project Typeis ActiveX DLL. DLL functionsneed to be in a class moduleso, if you do not have one inyour project, add one from theProject menu. The class module itself has properties. 2. Set the Instancing toMultiuse.

3. In Project properties, setthe name as required (say,MyFuncs). Now add your functions to the class module.Fig 8 shows an example calledGetSquareRoot. Choose MakeMyFuncs.dll from the Filemenu to compile the project.4. Start a new Standard project. From the project menuchoose References, and in thedialog check MyFuncs. 5. Write code like that in Fig 9to use the functions in the DLL.There are a few points to note.First, you have to create aninstance of the ActiveX objectbefore calling its functions.

This is achieved with New or,alternatively, CreateObject.You could do this with a global

variable of typeMyFuncs andinstantiate itwhen your pro-ject starts up,if you want touse your codelibrary fromany point. Second, useAdd Project toload both theDLL project aswell as your

client project, so that you candebug the code. Third, whenyou deploy your dll to othermachines, you will need to reg-ister it either manually withRegSvr32, or by using the VBsetup wizard which does thisfor you. Finally, once you getto the point where applicationsare using the DLL in earnest,you need to keep future versions compatible with yourfirst version, and to use binary compatibility when you com-pile. See also, Creating anActiveX Dll in the VBComponents Tools Guide.

a

Q

Questions& answers Class module

Code for the class module in MyFuncs.dll:Function GetSquareRoot(num As Double) AsÁDoubleGetSquareRoot = 0If num < 0 ThenErr.Raise vbObjectError + 600,Á

“MyFuncs.Class1”, “Invalid number”ElseGetSquareRoot = Sqr(num)End IfEnd Function(Key : Á Code continued on next line)

[FIG 8]

DLL client appCode for an ActiveX DLLÁclient application:Private Sub Command1_Click()Dim mf As New MyFuncs.Class1Dim num As Doublenum = Val(Text1.Text)MsgBox “The square root is: “Á+ Str(mf.GetSquareRoot(num))End Sub(Key : Á Code continued on next line)

[FIG 9]

capability in your own applications. Notethat you should run scriptlets on theserver if your web site is open to thewhole internet, as this is Microsofttechnology that will not work onbrowsers other than Internet Explorer 4.0or higher. Another cautionary note is thatscripts are neither as fast nor robust ascompiled code. All the same, scriptletsand scripting makes impressive use ofCOM and are great for quick-and-easytasks as well as for structuring and re-using script on web sites.

Tim Anderson can be contacted via thePCW editorial office (address, p10) or emailvisual @pcw.co.ukMicrosoft Scriptingwww.microsoft.com/scripting/Sax Basic Engine £381.88 (£325 ex VAT)from Contemporary Software 01344873434 www.contemporary.co.uk/Word Processing Tools For information, seehttp//members.aol.com/jziersch/

PCW CONTACTS



“Clients”) where the files were copied to,and select the “Use existing shareddirectory” [Fig 2].

5Select the floppy drive type, clientand network card from the next

window. We are creating diskscontaining the Network Client for MS-DOS and Windows but you might findyou have a problem with the networkcard. There are not many to choose fromin this menu, which is strange given therange of devices supported within NT.

If your network card does happen tobe among those listed, congratulations,because you’ve got an easy life and therest of the process is plain sailing. Formost of us, however, we will havesomething else installed in our clientmachine and so we have a bit of jiggery-pokery to perform. To begin with, justselect any old card — I chose the 3ComEtherlink III — and we will fix theconfiguration files later.

6The next window [Fig 3] is where wespecify the unique computer name

we want toassign the clientmachine, anyuser namewhich hasaccess to the NTServer where theclient files arelocated (best tomake this oneAdministratorequivalent), thename of thedomain to

authenticate to, and the networkprotocol to use. You may only have oneavailable, so the TCP/IP settings may ormay not be applicable. If you selectTCP/IP you can then specify whether ornot to get IP info from a DHCP server. Ifnot, you can enter the IP address, subnetmask and default gateway yourself.Either take a look at my previous columnon IP addressing, or stick to IPX/SPX tokeep things simple.

The final bit to enter here is thedestination path, which is usually your floppy drive.

No, not things that go bump in the night, but a utility thatautomates network installation. Bob Walder investigates.

T here are still occasions whenyou may need to have a setof network client disks foryour PC in order to attachto the network without

booting into Windows 95 first. Leavingaside the possibilities of corruptWindows installations which might forcesuch drastic moves, I can cite onepractical example of my own.

When I create new machines for thetest lab, I use a nifty utility called Ghost<www.ghostsoft.com>, which is designedto automate the process of installingWindows 95, NT and OS/2. The idea isthat you create a “standard installation”on one PC and then create an image ofthe hard drive in a special “Ghost file”that can then be written to any number of other PCs at the click of a mouse.

The spirit of DOS The catch is that you need to Ghost frompartition to partition, or from disk to disk,and when creating a client you need to runGhost from DOS rather than Windows.The easiest place for me to store thestandard Ghost files is therefore on mynetwork drives, but this necessitates beingable to boot to DOS and attach to thenetwork in order to access those files.

This is done using the Network ClientAdministrator, a utility which is installedvia the standard NT Set-up routine. Once installed, you must log in as

Administrator (or equivalent) and runthrough the following procedure:

1Click Start, Program, AdministrativeTools (Common), Network Client

Administrator to fire up the utility. Youare presented with the window in [Fig 1].

2Making a full installation disk set is apain, and the available client options

for that are limited, so we will make aNetwork Installation Start-up Disk. Clickon the appropriate option and thenContinue. The difference with this optionis that the resulting disk merely boots andattaches to the network, following whichit automatically runs afull client installationfrom the server to thelocal hard drive.

3The next windowlooks like [Fig 2].

If this is the first serverto host the utility, youcan allow it to copythe client installationfiles to the local server

hard drive andcreate a sharecalled “Clients”, simply byentering the source path (theinstallation CD) and selecting“Copy files to new directory, andthen share”. Alternatively you canleave them where they are on theCD-ROM by selecting the “Share

Files” option, although the CD must thenbe available each time you perform aclient installation.

4After the files have been copied to aserver, you will simply enter the server

name and the share name (usually

[FIG 1]

[FIG 2]

[FIG 3]

hands onn e t w o r k s

Ghost story


Bob Walder can be contacted via the PCWeditorial office (address, p10) or email networks@ pcw.co.uk

PCW CONTACTS

SYSTEM.INI[network]filesharing=noprintsharing=noautologon=yescomputername=COMPAQ_NT40lanroot=A:\NETusername=newuserworkgroup=domainreconnect=nodospophotkey=Nlmlogon=0logondomain=domainpreferredredir=fullautostart=fullmaxconnections=8

[network drivers]netcard=elnk3.dostransport=ndishlp.sysdevdir=A:\NETLoadRMDrivers=yes

[Password Lists]

[FIG 6]

AUTOEXEC.BATpath=a:\neta:\net\net initializea:\net\nwlinka:\net\net startnet use z:\\COMPAQ_NT40\Clientsecho Running Set-up...z:\msclient\netsetup\Ásetup.exe /$

[FIG 7]

7The confirmation screen is at [Fig 4].Insert a floppy disk which has been

formatted as a system disk (i.e. format a:/s) but is otherwise blank. Clicking OKwill start the file-copying procedure

Once all the files have been copied,you have a disk that contains the filesCOMMAND.COM, CONFIG.SYS,AUTOEXEC.BAT and a directory calledNET. The important stuff is all in the NETsubdirectory, which contains the basicclient software, configuration files andnetwork card driver.

If you selected the correct card in step5, then you are home free at this point:just stick the floppy disk in your client PC,

reboot and away you go. Forthe rest of us, it’s time forthat jiggery-pokery Imentioned earlier.

The first step is to put thecorrect driver on the floppydisk. This is difficult tospecify exactly, since everyvendor constructs its driverfloppies differently. Inessence, however, you arelooking for a subdirectorycalled NDIS, or perhaps

DOS, which will be somewhere on thedriver disk that came with your networkcard. In that directory will be a file withthe .DOS suffix. In my case, the driver forthe 3Com Fast Ethernet XL 10/100 PCInetwork card is called EL90X.DOS, sothis file should be copied to the NETsubdirectory. Just to be on the safe side,why not delete the driver that is therecurrently, which is called ELNK3.DOS.

OK, we now have the correct driver onthe disk, so the next job is to amend theconfiguration files to point to it. Look inPROTOCOL.INI [Fig 5] for the line whichsays DRIVERNAME=ELNK3$ and changeit to reflect the name of your new driver.

Leave out the .DOS suffix, butmake sure you leave the $ on theend. In my case the line will nowread DRIVERNAME=EL90X$.

A similar operation must alsobe performed with theSYSTEM.INI file [Fig 6]. Hereyou are looking for the [networkdrivers] section, for a line whichreadsNETCARD=ELNK3.DOS.

This time, you are going toreplace the entire filename, so inmy case the new line readsNETCARD=EL90X.DOS.It’s not difficult to do, but it’sjust not that obvious if you’renot used to it. All you need todo now is insert the floppy diskinto the client workstation andreboot. OK, I lied. Becausewhat actually happens, if youtake a look at theAUTOEXEC.BAT file [Fig 7], isthat the client software isloaded, the PC attaches to thenetwork and then installs thefull client from scratch on yourlocal hard drive (that’s whatthe z:\msclient\netsetup\setup.exe /$ does).

PROTOCOL.INI[network.setup]version=0x3110netcard=ms$elnk3,1,MS$ELNK3,1transport=ms$ndishlp,MS$NDISHLPtransport=ms$nwlink,MS$NWLINKlana0=ms$elnk3,1,ms$nwlinklana1=ms$elnk3,1,ms$ndishlp

[ms$elnk3]DRIVERNAME=ELNK3$; IOADDRESS=0x300; SLOT=1; MAXTRANSMITS=6

[protman]drivername=PROTMAN$PRIORITY=MS$NDISHLP

[MS$NDISHLP]drivername=ndishlp$BINDINGS=ms$elnk3

[ms$nwlink]drivername=nwlink$FRAME=Ethernet_802.2BINDINGS=ms$elnk3LANABASE=0

Of course, that means you have to goback and redo the changes you have justperformed on the new installation onthe hard drive. To be honest, I usuallyremove that last line of theAUTOEXEC.BAT and use the floppy diskitself to boot and attach to the network,replacing the NET USE Z: mapping topoint to the shares I actually want touse. For instance, if you share the C:drive of your server as DRIVEC, you canreplace the above command with:net use z:\\COMPAQ_NT40\DRIVEC

[FIG 4]

[FIG 5]

hands onn e t w o r k s

T he Mac is back —and in more waysthan one. To tie inwith this issue’sredesign, PCW has

decided to bring back the MacHands On column.

Macs may be hugelyoutnumbered by Windows PCsbut there are lots of companiesthat still have die-hard Macusers in various departments.There are also more than a fewpeople who have PCs in theiroffice and a Mac at home, so wedecided to keep you up to date on thepractical side of dealing with the Mac.

Back from the brinkHaving stared death in the face for thepast couple of years, Apple seems to beon the mend at last. The new G3 PowerMacs and PowerBooks have arrestedApple’s falling sales, and this month seesthe launch of the ultra-cool iMac,Apple’s first real attempt to get back intothe consumer market for several years.

There’s a lotstill to be done,though andApple’s not-so-interim CEO,Steve Jobs, is stillrethinking thecompany’sproduct line and technology strategy. Sowe’ll also be using this column toexamine various aspects of Apple’scomeback strategy, such as its futureplans for Rhapsody and the Mac OS.

Rhapsody is the next-generationoperating system on which Apple hasbeen working for the past couple ofyears. The original plan was forRhapsody to completely take over from

the current Mac OS, which isgetting a bit long in the tooth.

But Rhapsody seemed toget put on the back-burner when SteveJobs mounted his coup and took over atApple once more. At first, Apple said thatit would be used as a server operatingsystem while an updated Mac OS wouldcontinue to be the main operatingsystem for desktop Macs.

Then, at its recent developerconference, Apple announced thatRhapsody 1.0 would be released later

this year butthere would beno Rhapsody2.0 after that.This wasthought to meanthat Rhapsodywas dead but

what’s actually happening is that theRhapsody technology will be repackagedand merged with the current Mac OS.

At the moment, the Mac OS is atversion 8.1, with version 8.5 planned forthe end of September. Rhapsody 1.0 isdue soon after that. Mac OS 9 isscheduled for the first half of 1999 andthen towards the end of that year, Appleplans to release version 10, which will be

called Mac OS X. This will bea humdinger of an upgradethat merges the Mac

interface with the high-tech Unixarchitecture that underpins Rhapsody.

Some people have suggested thatMac OS X should actually be calledRhapsody 2.0, but that’s incorrect. Theproblem with Rhapsody was that it wasan entirely new operating system.Although Apple planned to provide aMac OS emulation mode that wouldallow Rhapsody to run existing Mac OSsoftware, software companies were stillrequired to develop new Rhapsodyversions of their applications to make themost of this new operating system.

Mac OS X eliminates this problem byintegrating Rhapsody’s new features,such as protected memory and multi-processing, into the existing Mac OS.This means that Mac users can continueto use their existing software anddevelopers can upgrade theirapplications to use these new featureswithout having to completely rewrite theapplications from scratch.

Apple hasn’t done a very good job atexplaining all this, but it’s a much bettersolution and should keep users anddevelopers happy.


So it was more au revoirthan goodbye. Yes, theMac column returns toPCW with newMacmeister Cliff Josephat the helm. Thismonth, there’s morerhapsody than blues.

¿APPLE PLANS TO

MERGE THE MAC OSAND RHAPSODY AT

THE END OF 1999

The Rhapsodytechnology will berepackaged and mergedwith the Mac OS

hands onm a c

Return of the Mac

There’s still a lot of detail that needsto be filled out in this roadmap (see left),but the MacWorld Expo starts in NewYork a few days after this issue goes topress and we hope to have more news onRhapsody and Mac OS X for next month.

OS upgradesIn the meantime, a lot of Mac users havebeen wondering whether or not toupgrade to OS 8.1. This minor upgradefixes quite a few bugs and updatesfeatures such as PC Exchange, whichallows the Mac to read PC-formattedstorage devices.

One of the mostimportant featuresof OS 8.1 is a newdisk formattingsystem that Applecalls Mac OS Extended Format.However, many people are simply callingit HFS+, as it takes over from the HFSformat (hierarchical file system) that theMac has used up until now. Just toconfuse matters, Apple is now referringto HFS as Mac OS Standard Format.

Mac OS Extended Format makesmore efficient use of your hard disk spaceand is particularly useful for disks thatare 1Gb or more in size. However, Macsthat are still using the old StandardFormat can’t see files stored on disks thatuse the new Extended Format. So if youtry to exchange files with other Mac userson a network, or are using removabledevices such as Jaz disks, they may not beable to see the contents of your disksunless you’re all using the same diskformatting system.

The other problem is that hardly anyof the current Mac disk utilities canhandle Extended Format either, althoughSymantec isplanning a newversion ofNorton UtilitiesFor The Macthat willsupport the newformat in a fewweeks’ time.

Fortunately, the new ExtendedFormat is an option that you can chooseto do without when upgrading your Macto OS 8.1. This allows you to install OS8.1 while retaining the Mac OS StandardFormat on your hard disks. This isprobably the best bet until the various

disk utility products have been properlyupdated. Whatever you do, remember toback up all your important files when youmake any changes to the formatting ofyour hard disk.

You can download OS 8.1 and getfurther info on Mac OS Extended Formatfrom swupdates.info.apple.com.

Virus alertYou don’t hear of many Mac virusesthese days, but there’s a new one goingaround that really has been making anuisance of itself. (Some wits have

suggestedthat as viruses areonce againbeing writtenfor the Mac,

this is proof of Apple’s recovery).The “autostart worm” can be

spread on floppy disks and removablestorage devices like Jaz and Zipcartridges, as well as between hard disks on a network. If you’re runningQuickTime 2.0 or higher, with theAutostart CD or AutoPlay CD optionenabled in the QuickTime control panel, the virus can infect your hard disk and overwrite some of your data files with garbage.

Deactivating Autostart CD canprevent infection but doesn’t help if your

hard disk has already been infected.Most commercial anti-virus programs

have been updated to cope with theautostart worm. If you don’t want to payfor anti-virus software, you can getdetails of how to tackle the wormyourself from www.macintouch.com.


BOOK NEWSIf you’re interested in thebackground to Apple’s recent trialsand tribulations, you might wantto take a look at On The Firing Line:My 500 Days At Apple. It’s written byGil Amelio, the man who wastoppled from Apple’s top-spot bySteve Jobs’ little boardroom coup.I’ve read a few extracts and there’squite a bit of muck-raking andscore-settling going on here.If you can’t find it at your localW.H.Smith, the book is availablefrom the amazon.com onlinebookstore for about $25.

The ‘autostart worm’can be spread on floppydisks and on a network

R DEACTIVATING

QUICKTIME’S AUTOPLAY

OR AUTOSTART FEATURE

WILL PROTECT YOUR MAC

FROM THE AUTOSTART

WORM VIRUS

Cliff Joseph welcomes correspondence andfeedback on the Mac column. Contact him viathe PCW editorial office (address, p10) oremail [email protected]

PCW CONTACTS

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O R D E R H O T L I N E 0 1 7 9 5 4 1 4 8 7 0

INCLUDES JUNE 98


leisure linesW elcome to our new-look Leisure Lines section.

To help you find your way around the features

and reviews, each month we will be giving

Leisure Lines fans a brief outline of what this jazzed-up section

contains. In Screenplay this month you’ll find that our

reviewers were seriously impressed with a number of the games

featured. My teacher is an alien is a game for the

younger generation where the player has to track down their

extra-terrestrial teacher, while Commandos: behindenemy lines is a combat game which uses real footage

from WWII. Then there’s Unreal, the game that

is set to kill Quake II. There’s something for every-

one in the CD section: a Formula One racing

encyclopaedia, the new IBM World Book that you talk to, French cuisine, and

a rather peculiar piece of lusty psychological profiling software called

Tender Loving Care. We check out the new Crayola Print Factory

in our Kids section, and if you

want to learn HTML in a

weekend you’d better

not miss our reviews of

the month’s best books.

Try your luck at winning

a Canon printer, a

Hayes modem or a copy

of Windows 98 in our great

competitions. Or if it’s a copy of the brand-new

Chambers dictionary you’re after, just correctly complete

the crossword. As usual we have our delightful Retro

column which this month features Commodore,

and life wouldn’t be the same without Brainteasers to

get those little grey cells going. If you have any comments

or suggestions concerning the Leisure Lines section,

then email Etelka Clark at [email protected].

SCREENPLAY

311 Unreal; My Teacher is an Alien

312 Xenocracy: Solar War

312 Might & Magic VI

313 Gex3D: Enter the Gecko;

Commandos

CD S & KIDS314 Formula 1 Encyclopaedia ’98;

A Taste of France

315 Tender Loving Care; IBMWorld Book Speech Edition

COMPETITIONS317 Hayes modem, Canon printer

319 Windows 98

BOOKS320 Easy guides, and HTML

RETRO322 Commodore: long gone,

fondly remembered

BRAINTEASERS323 Puzzles, prize crossword

Contents


Probably the mostanticipated game ofthe year, and toutedas the “Quake IIkiller”, Unreal deliversthe goods with its

majestic environments, unrivalledartificial intelligence and a powerful,eerie soundtrack. You begin as a prisonertrying to escape from a ship that hascrashed on an alien planet ruled by theevil Skaarj who have enslaved the moredocile Nalis. Your job is to exterminatethe former, using any means available.

The difference between Quake andUnreal is evident from the start. Theplayer starts off without a weapon and ittakes a good half an hour of gameplaybefore you get one — time to tremble atthe thought of an impending attack!

Unreal is able to depict both indoorand outdoor environments with aplomb.And it endows your enemies with

artificial intelligence that is strangelyhuman: the creatures don’t just chargeblindly, but often hide behind pillars andwait for you to come to them.

You may need a good graphics card

to achieve Unreal’s full glory, but this will be one of the scariest games you’llever play.

AJITH RAM

The long-awaited ‘Quake-quasher’. It’s scaaaary!

Unreal

Aliens have landedand only you can dealwith them! Playing onthe success of thebook series, this game

PCW DETAILS★★★★★Price £24.99Contact Ablac 01626 332233www.ablac.co.uk/ablac.htmSystem Requirements Windows 95,Pentium 75MHz processor, 16Mb RAM,30Mb free hard-drive space, SVGAgraphics (256 colours at 640 x 480resolution), 4X CD-ROM drive, DirectX-compatible sound card, mouse.

sends you back to school as one of threeteenage characters. After finding astrange communication device in one of

the school corridors, you knowsomething is up. Martians haveinfiltrated the classrooms and it’s yourjob to uncover the impostor — the fingerpoints directly at your teacher!

Select your character and follow theirtimetable, from class to class. By clickingon the sentence options on-screen, youcan talk to your friends and teachers.Listen carefully to what they say, for thereis one vital clue that might give the gameaway. Watch out, though, because thereare the school bullies. If they catch youon your own you’ll find yourself trying tododge a vicious flurry of stink bombs.

With its easy-to-use mouse-driveninterface and fabulous cartoon graphics,this game cannot fail to appeal toyounger gamers.

NIK RAWLINSON

¿PICK YOUR CHARACTER, CHOOSE A ROOM

PCW DETAILS★★★★★Price £34.99Contact Epic 01202 521011www.unreal.comSystem Requirements P200, 16MbRAM, Direct X compatible, 4X CD-ROM.

REVEN THE OPENING SCENE

IS FORBIDDING

PWATCH OUT FOR THE

SCARY SKARJ WARRIORS —GET THEM BEFORE THEY

GET YOU!

My Teacher is an AlienGoodbye, Mr Chips! An alien has taken your place.

PCW RECOMMENDED

PCW RECOMMENDED

PCW RECOMMENDED

PCW RECOMMENDED

The year is 10,600 of the Common Era.Mankind hascolonised space,founding a solar

dominion. Its new-found wealth has onlybeen made possible by the existence of aliquonide mineral called Lycosite, andtension has mounted between nationsdue to the desire for this mineral.

In this game of spacecombat you play the WingToucher, commander of anelite squadron of UnitedPlanet Nations warships.Your squadron is in charge ofmaintaining the status quobetween Earth, Venus, Marsand Mercury, the solarsystem’s four superpowers.

The gamer has threeoptions of play: arcade,simulation or internet. Thefirst provides you with a fastshoot-’em-up fix and Iguarantee that you’ll comeback for more. In simulationmode you can plan your

strategy, refine your ship and select yourown wingman and weapons officer.When you begin to play in this mode youwill soon realise that this game is farbetter than a simple space blaster.

With missions created randomly overmore than 70 different locations, plusout-of-this-world ships and weaponsfrom which to choose, this game is in theline-up for the best of 1998.

ETELKA CLARK

SC

RE

EN

PL

AY

> >


Might & Magic VI is a single-player gamein which the goodKing Roland has wonthe war against his

PCW DETAILS★★★★Price £39.99Contact Grolier Interactive 01865 264800System Requirements Windows 95,133MHz Pentium processor, 16Mb RAM(32Mb recommended), 10Mb free hard-drive space, SVGA card.

brother Archibald, but something hasgone horribly wrong. King Roland ismissing and a demonic cult is trying totake over the kingdom. Has King Rolandlost the divine right to rule? You are

plunged into the middle of this chaos,and with the help of powers given by a

mysterioussorcerer you setout to find theking. The gameenthralls you asyou search for

clues and fight a myriad ofmonsters. You start with a basicset of magic spells that increase asthe game progresses. You canchoose the skills of the friendshelping you, but choose carefully:

it could determine whether you live or die. The game has faults, though. It is

not 3D accelerated and there is toomuch emphasis on fighting rather than mystery-solving. Also, themonsters’ become tedious as they walkinto walls and generally act stupid.However, the graphics are great and thegameplay is gripping.

AJITH RAM

QYOU AND YOUR TEAM

NEED ARMOUR AND

WEAPONS TO FIGHT

GOBLINS AND ZOMBIES

Might & Magic VIFind King Roland and restore him to power.

PCW DETAILS★★★★Price £39.99Contact Ubisoft 0181 944 9000www.ubisoft.comSystem Requirements P133, 16MbRAM, DirectX-compatible, 4X CD-ROM.

Xenocracy: The Ultimate Solar WarCommand your elite squadron and maintain the balance of power in space.

¿REFINE YOUR SHIP AND

CHOOSE YOUR WINGMAN

QTHE ARCADE OPTION PROVIDES

A SHOOT-’EM-UP FIX

leisu

re li

nes


In this game you play a wisecrackingsuper-hero geckowhose days of savingthe planet are over.Now, he can only find

solace in cuddling up to his faithful TVwith an armful of doughnuts.One day, his arch-nemesis,Rez, threatens to take over thecountry’s TV broadcasting,forcing Gex to reluctantly leavehis sofa and become a super-hero once more. This oldplatform format hasreceived a majoroverhaul, with vast3D landscapesincorporatingcartoon and filmimages for Gex tobounce around in.The stunning

graphics and use of exaggerated colourenhance the atmosphere of escapism. Inone of the “toon” scenarios you hoparound collecting carrots and feelinclined to jump down a rabbit hole. Reappearing in a bunny-suit at the otherend you find Elma Fudd lookalikes

Off his sofa and off-the-wall, the super-hero lizard returns.

Great fun, avisual feast!Making use oforiginal newsreelfootage, theevents leading upto the Axispowers’ real-lifedomination ofEurope in WWllare outlined,providing thebackground tothis engrossinggame. Your firstmission takesplace in thesnowy wastes ofScandinavia shortly after the exile of theNorwegian royal family. The Nazis havethe power to attack any point in theNorth Sea and it’s your job to ensurethat they never reach Britain.

As a commando you are the best ofthe best, but you’ll still receive extensivetraining. Each soldier in the platoon will

PCW DETAILS★★★★Price £29.99Contact 0181 944 9000www.ubisoft.comSystem Requirements Pentium 166,32Mb RAM, 3Dfx graphics accelerator, 4X CD-ROM drive.

have differentskills and you willbe instructed inthe use of eachweapon andvarious methods of manoeuvring.

With realistic sound putting you atthe heart of the action, and an entirely

mouse-basedinterface, you’ll be

fightingalongside thenation’s bestwithinminutes.Commandos

may not requirethe skills of a

“Street Fighter”combat expert, but

this game’s engrossingstoryline and challenging puzzles ensurethat every mission you play will bedifferent. You’ll be enjoying it for months to come.

NIK RAWLINSON

Commandos: Behind Enemy LinesBecome a conquering commando and bash the bosch in WWll.

PCW DETAILS★★★★★Price £49.99Contact Eidos 0181 636 3000www.eidosinteractive.comSystem Requirements Windows 95,Pentium 90MHz processor, 8Mb RAM,60Mb free hard-drive space.

¿MULTIPLE VIEWS

GIVE A GREATER

FEELING OF

AUTHENTICITY TO

THE GAME

¿HEYYY… FAR-OUT GRAPHICS,MAN

QULTIMATE ESCAPISM

Gex3D: Enter the Geckohunting down the “wabbit” with theirblunderbusses. With over 125 possiblemoves, you get a real feel for pullingGex’s strings. A little skill is required andthe game’s difficulty is well weighted soyou can get in some early practice. Actor Leslie Phillips gives the sharp-toothed Gex his one-liners. Althoughsome of the quips are corny, when youeventually hear Phillips’ familiar “Weeell, heelllooooo!”, all is redeemed.

IAN ROBSON

PCW RECOMMENDED

PCW RECOMMENDED

CD

-RO

M> >

leisu

re li

nes


Koch Media has been responsible forsome of the most unintentionally hilarioussoftware ever to have found its way intothe PCW office, with “The WorstDisasters” being particularly prominent.Formula 1 is the latest in this proud line,

and Koch has achieved quite a coup in itspresentation: it has managed to make thesubject of flying around a race track at

180mph seem almostimpossibly dull. The

interface isrelatively basic:simply click onthe racinghelmet for driver

data, miniaturetrack icon or

racing-track history,and the like. This is where,

apart from the rathercheap-and-nasty look andsound of the software, themain flaw of this CD-ROM

is glaringly apparent. The presentation of every facet of the sport is presented in nearly the same way, with lists of factsand figures. A comprehensive list ofdrivers is accompanied by ratherawkward prose that is at its clumsiestwhen describing the death of AyrtonSenna, where the author seems to havetotally lost the grasp of his tenses.

Despite the boast of 30 minutes of“dynamic” video footage, all thisreviewer could find was a series of ratherrough-looking full-screen scans of driversand cars. Avoid at all costs.

PAUL TRUEMAN

Billing itself as “a food and wineextravaganza”, Taste of France featuresFrench recipes from Thuries magazine, agourmet guide as important to theFrench as garlic. Choosing from coursesor menus you can sift through a varietyof appetisers, first and main courses,and some delicious desserts. As well asrecipes, prospective “chefs de cuisine”are given an idea of what kitchen toolsand utensils they may need.

Four options are available from themenu bar: recipes, regional tour, imagesof France, and trivia. Recipes and menusaside, there is not much to keep you reallyenthralled. Who cares how many cups of

chocolate Voltaire put away over thecourse of a day? The regional tour splitsFrance into fourregions andconcentrates ona fairly generaloverview ofeach, plusseveral slides tokeep youinterested.“Images ofFrance” is aslight misnomer,as it actuallyincludes a spotof vocabulary,information onwine, and asingularlyuseless sectioncalled “tableetiquette”.Overall, if you cut out some of the floss,the recipes and menus are interesting andat the price it is pas très cher.

JIM HARYOTT

★Price £19.99Contact 01256 707767 System Requirements IBM-compatiblePC, Pentium processor, 8Mb RAM, MPC-compatible CD-ROM drive, SVGA, 30Mbfree hard-drive space.

PCW DETAILS

Formula 1 Encyclopaedia 1998The exciting world of F1 racing, reduced to pedestrian level.

¿DYNAMIC VIDEO FOOTAGE.NOT! Õ THE F1 ENCYCLOPAEDIA

INTERFACE IS QUITE BASIC

¿¿THE SLIDE SHOW OF DIFFERENT

REGIONS IS NICE TO WATCH

¿THERE ARE MANY ENTICING FRENCH

RECIPES TO CHOOSE FROM

PCW DETAILS★★★Price £19.99Contact Europress 01625 855060www.europress.co.ukSystem Requirements 486 or faster,4Mb RAM, 256 colours, mouse, soundcard, Windows 3.1/95.

A Taste of FranceVive la France, in particular its splendid cuisine. Bon appetit!

Based around the story of a family whohave lost their only daughter in a caraccident, Tender Loving Care is anenticing exploration of the humanpsyche. The actor John Hurt leads theplayer through this computer fantasy,playing a psychiatrist who has a closeinvolvement with the family. He explainsthat something strange happened to thehousehold following the appearance of a

nurse who came to assist the grievingmother. The player is asked to become a“fly on the wall” and observe the storyfrom beginning to end. Meanwhile, thesoftware is assessing the player. Theformat is split into three parts: videoclips of the story, exploration sceneswhere you cansnoop aroundthe house

looking for clues, and ThematicApperception Test sessions which consistof deeply personal questions for theplayer to answer. As the story unfolds, it

becomes clear thatthis is a tale of lustand deception,featuring scenessuitable for adultsonly. The answersto the questionsactually determine

the way the story ends and features apsychological profile of the player.

This is a unique and gripping piece ofsoftware for adults who have 50 hours tospare — that’s how long it lasts — andwho want to discover their hidden self.

ETELKA CLARK


Tender Loving CareHow this story ends depends on your answers and your psyche.

IBM’s World Book encyclopaedia isnothing new and neither is its ViaVoicedictation software, so it was inevitablethat the two would be combined. Theresult is an extensive research book thatcan be navigated without the keyboard,which is great for kids, the elderly andthose who suffer from RSI.

The content is impressive,successfully matching a result for each ofour searches. We could then ask for thetext to be read to us, which makes thispackage great for users with impairedvision. The sticky-notes function allowed

PCW DETAILS★★★★Price £34.99Contact Funsoft www.funsoft-online.comSystem Requirements Windows 95,P60, 8Mb RAM, DirectX 2.0 supported.

¿WATCH

AND SEE HOW

THE STORY

UNFOLDS

QTHE PLAYER

IS ASKED

PERSONAL

QUESTIONS

PCW DETAILS★★★★Price £79.99 Contact IBM 0800 214887www.worldbook.com System Requirements Windows 95,Pentium 150MHz processor, 32Mb RAM,95Mb free hard-drive space, SVGAmonitor, SoundBlaster 16 or 100%compatible sound card, double-speed CD-ROM drive, mouse.

us to dictate memos and shortreminders to save us making paper-based notes while browsing theencyclopaedia. A version of the standardWindows Notepad is included andintegrated with the added functionalityof voice recognition to allow thedictation of this review; although theresults were fairly accurate, extensiveediting was necessary. Even on a fairly

fast PC, though, it would have beenquicker to have typed it instead. To keepthe encyclopaedia up to date, an onlinesection will allow users to download newinformation to their local hard drive andreceive day-by-day news from around theworld. And for those using the softwarein education, there are homework tips orcurriculum pointers for teachers.

NIK RAWLINSON

IBM World Book 1998 Speech Ed.If you want to know, ask: no keyboard, just your voice will do.

¿THE CONTENT IS

IMPRESSIVE

Q YOU CAN NAVIGATE

WITHOUT NEEDING

TO TOUCH THE

KEYBOARD

The introductory screenincluded this gem: “I’m not likethose lumps of metal, Trashand Pako. All they do iswonder round the houseloosing bolts and leaking oil.” The instructions for the “educationalpuzzles” are also frustratingly obtuse,and many of them do not seemeducational at all. Finally, it asked me to

solve a non-existent puzzle, at whichpoint I threw my hands up in despair and decided to leave Byko to it.

SUSAN PEDERSON

KID

S> >

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Byko and the Numbers is hyped as aneducational game that will teach basicmaths and calculus. Featuring theeponymous monocycle robot, you set offon a quest to find the scientist, DoctorWhy, who has swallowed one of his ownconcoctions and turned into a plant. Bysolving various maths problems andinterrogating the Why household, youcan find out where the scientist is andchange him back into a human.

The sounds and the graphics areexcellent and Byko is a rather charminghero. But there are a lot of fundamentalproblems with the game. Both thegrammar and the spelling are atrocious;so much so that I fear for Finson’splanned “Byko and the Letters” series.

‘On yer bike, Byko,’ says our nonplussed reviewer, astounded at some basic – and serious – errors.

Byko and the Numbers

PCW DETAILS★★Price £19.99Contact Finson 0171 723 4003System Requirements Pentium PC, MS-DOS 5.0 or above, Windows 3.1 orabove, 8Mb RAM, mouse, SVGA graphicscard (video resolution at least 16-bit).

IBM and Crayola Print Factory Colour ’em in, fold ’em up and have fun. We did!

The best thing about these computerisedcrayons, apart from the fact that two ofthem talk and introduce you to thepackage, is that, unlike the real thing,their labels don’t come off and there isno chance of them melting onto thecarpet. Split into five main sections, thispackage helps kids

create everything fromgreetings cards and postersto frogs and paper planes.Use the on-screen brushes,pens and crayons to colouryour choice of pre-drawndesign, before printing themin glorious colour. Twopages will appear in theprinter’s “out” tray — thefirst containing your design,and the second showing howyou should fold it to achievethe desired effect.

A quick “Blue Peter”session in the PCW officeproved that it was a design ofwhich even Boeing could be proud. The3D fold-up frog was replicated many

times and sat atop variousmonitors, proving thispackage to be great fun. Everyoffice should have one to

stave off the onset of RSI.NIK RAWLINSON

RIT MAY LOOK LIKE

IT’S JUST BEEN RUN

OVER, BUT FOLD IT

UP AND IT’S A FROG

PCW DETAILS★★★★★Price £19.95Contact Iona Software (Rep. of Ireland)00 353 1 836 6328 http://indigo.ie/~ionasoft/home.htmlSystem Requirements Windows 3.x or95, 486/33 processor, 8Mb RAM, double-speed CD-ROM, 19Mb free hard-drivespace, SVGA monitor, printer.

PCW RECOMMENDED

PCW RECOMMENDED

HHE’S CHARMING,BUT HE CAN’T SPELL

RYOU’LL HAVE TO

SOLVE SOME PUZZLES

TO GET INTO DOCTOR

WHY’S HOUSE


The Hayes modem shares its 20thanniversary this year with Personal

Computer World! So, to celebrate this,Hayes is giving away five of its ExternalACCURA 56K speakerphone modems,each worth £129.

The ACCURA 56K modem supportsRockwell and Lucent’s K56flextechnology, and essentially doubles thespeed of downloading information fromthe internet. Main features of thismodem include: V.42 standard errorcontrol that prevents line noise fromcorrupting data; fax send and receive;voice answerphone; hands-freespeakerphone; and microphone.

The origins of the modem go back to1978, when you couldn’t buy a modem,you could only rent one. The GPO ranthe UK’s telephone network and did notallow connection of non-GPO devices toits network. Meanwhile, in Georgia, USA,a young engineer called Dennis Hayes,

WIN an ACCURA56K modem

Canon would like to give away two of its recently launched bubblejet

printers. The BJC-7000, worth £269, iscapable of producing photo-qualitycolour — even on plain paper,exceptionally clear text, and water-resistant printing on all media.

The BJC-7000 is the first printer touse bi-level inks, with Canon’s exclusiveseven-colour ink printing technology. Bycombining low-density photo inks withconventional inks, the BJC-7000 iscapable of nine levels of graduation —more than four times the levels ofcompetitive printers.

This BJC-7000 printer, which has aprint resolution of up to 1200 x 600dpiand a colour print speed of up to3.2ppm, also has truly flexible mediahandling, supporting A4 full-bleedprinting, as well as Canon’s extensiverange of media, from high-gloss film toT-shirt transfers.

To try your luck at winning one ofCanon’s BJC-7000 bubblejet printers,just answer the following question:

WIN a Canon BJC-7000 printer

competition

RULES OF ENTRY

These competitions are open to readers ofPersonal Computer World, except for employees(and their families) of VNU BusinessPublications, Hayes and Canon. The Editor of Personal Computer World is the sole judge of the competitions and hisdecision is final. No cash alternative is available in lieu ofcompetition prizes.

HOW TO ENTER THE COMPETITION

1. Via our web site at www.pcw.co.uk or,2. Write your name, address and daytimetelephone number on a postcard, or on theback of a sealed envelope. Mark your card(s)with the name of the competition(s) you areentering and send to: P.O. Box 191, Woking,Surrey GU21 1FT, by Friday 31st October ’98.Please state clearly on your entry if you do not wish to receive

promotional material from other companies.

Q. How manycolours doesCanon’s exclusive inkprinting technologyhave? Is it:

(A) 5?(B) 6?(C) 7?

See the box belowfor details on how to enter.

together with a colleague, was lookingfor a way to enter the emerging marketfor home computers. They decided to tryto break into the market by assemblingmodems. And so, by hand-building five modems a day on a kitchen table,they began what was to become a multibillion-dollar business.

If you’d like the chance to win one ofHayes’ External ACCURA 56Kspeakerphone modems, just answer the following question:

Q. How old is the Hayes modem?(A) 10 years?(B) 15 years?(C) 20 years?

See the box at the bottom of this page fordetails on how to enter the competition.


We’re sure that by now, mostcomputer users are aware of

Microsoft’s new arrival, Windows 98. If you are intending to upgrade buthaven’t got round to it yet — it could be that you’re unsure whether youactually need to upgrade — then whynot try your luck at winning one ofthe ten upgrades we have on offerthis month?

Windows 98 builds on thebreakthrough features in Windows95 to offer many benefits. Amongmany notable features, there is: ● improved ease of use throughinternet integration; ● the use of key Internet Explorertechnologies to unify and simplifythe desktop, making it quick andeasy for users to find and navigateinformation, whether it resides ontheir PC or on the internet; and ● finding help has been dramaticallysimplified with the addition of newtroubleshooting wizards and web-based help features.

Windows 98 ushers in a newrange of hardware andentertainment functionality. Notonly do games run better onWindows 98-based PCs than ontraditional console devices, but Windows98 includes native support for USB,which makes adding hardware devices aseasy as plugging in a toaster.

In addition, Windows 98 providesDVD and television broadcastcapabilities, allowing a PC with atelevision tuner card to seamlessly receiveand display TV and other datadistributed over broadcast networks.

To enter this competition, just answerthe following question:

“Windows 98 includes nativesupport for USB, which makesadding hardware devices as easy asplugging in a…”

A) HairdryerB) ToasterC) Kettle

See the box on the right for details onhow to enter the competition.

Win a copy of Windows 98

competition

RULES OF ENTRY

This competition is open to readers of Personal Computer World, except foremployees (and their families) of VNU Business Publications and Microsoft.

The Editor of Personal Computer World is the sole judge of the competition and hisdecision is final. No cash alternative is available in lieu of competition prizes.

HOW TO ENTER THE COMPETITION

1. Via our web site at www.pcw.co.uk, or2. Write your name, address and daytime telephone number on a postcard, oron the back of a sealed envelope. Mark your card with the name of thecompetition and send it to: P.O. Box 191Woking Surrey GU21 1FTEntries must arrive by Friday 31st October 1998.Please state clearly on your entry if you do not wish to receive promotional material fromother companies.

Recently I wasconfronted for the first

time with the task of puttinga plug onto a network coax

cable, atrickytask ifyou don’tknowhow. Notone ofsome tenexpensiveUS

networking books I consulted gaveany advice on the matter. Days laterNetworking in Easy Steps plonked throughthe PCW portals with the best part of anentire chapter on the subject, completewith detailed diagrams. Clearly theauthor, Peter Ingram, had agood sense of priorities.

The title is a littlemisleading as it only coversnetworking using the facilities

bundledwithWindows95,togetherwithinternetaccess viamodems andISDN. Thebook came with

two others in thesame series from UK publisherComputerStep:QuarkXpress in EasySteps and InternetUK in Easy Steps. Allare written inEnglish, with UKreferences whereapprop-riate,which is awelcome

change in a market floodedwith US works. The networking book,for instance, refers you to UK suppliersand its internet stablemate includes aDemon sign-up disk. There is some

overlap between thetwo, though InternetUK concentratesmore on what youcan do online rather than how to get there.

The Quarkvolume coversboth the Mac andPC versions of thedesktoppublishing suite.The coverageseems fairly

comprehensive, although Ifound no warning in the paginationsection about the program’s annoying

habit ofshufflingpagesaroundwithoutwarning ifyou delete anopening rightpage, whichcan bedevastating fora novice in a hurry. Theinformation in allthree books is rudimentary but no lessthan you need to make a good start onthe subject. In general, publishers are tooaware of the fact that people buycomputer how-to books when they reallyneed them, which is why manuals tend tobe twice the price of more generalreference works.ComputerStepdeserves supportfor bucking thistrend: each ofthese volumescosts just £8.99 —about the sameprice as thenetwork plugs Imessed up due toa lack of goodadvice. Note there are about 40 titles inthe same series.

CLIVE AKASS

books


★★★★NETWORKING IN EASYSTEPSAuthor Peter IngramPublisher Computer StepISBN 1-874029-92-XPrice £8.99

PCW DETAILS

★★★INTERNET UK IN EASYSTEPSAuthor Chris RussellPublisher Computer StepISBN 1-847078-006-1Price £8.99

PCW DETAILS

★★★★QUARKXPRESS IN EASYSTEPSAuthor RobertShufflebothamPublisher Computer StepISBN 1-874029-99-7Price £8.99

PCW DETAILS

With the explosivegrowth of the

World Wide Web, manybooks are making anappearance in an effort toexplain to beginners howto get started with HTMLand web publishing. LearnHTML In A Weekend isanother in the same vein asthe “Dummies guides”that have proven verypopular. It is written in a

tutorial style, and offersyou the chance tostructure your entireweekend around a set oflessons, should youreally have nothingbetter to do with yourtime. You can of coursemake the decision tospread these lessons overa more convenientperiod. The frameworkand history of the

internet isexplained, alongwith the basis ofthe World WideWeb and otheraspects such asFile TransferProtocol (FTP).The tutorials begin with basic formattingand move on to incorporate images, lists,links, tables and frames. The commands,or “tags”, used to achieve these areexplained, with additional information

Have a nice weekend with HTML★★★★LEARN HTML IN AWEEKENDAuthor Steven E. CallihanPublisher PrimaISBN 0-7615-1293-4Price £23.49

PCW DETAILS

It’s easy when you know how: Networking, the Internet, and Quark XPress, step by step


With Microsoft recently announcingthat its next version of Office is to

be called 2000 (even though it couldcome out as early as December this year)users have only a limited amount of timeto get acquainted with the currentincarnation, Office 97, before thoseMicroserfs needlessly obsfucate andcomplicate it with the new release.

If you are the average home user andhave Microsoft Office installed on yourcomputer, the chances are that youprobably use Word for typing letters,Excel for the odd graph or table, andyou’ve never even looked at Powerpoint.You may even wonder how Microsoft canget away with charging exorbitantamounts of money forwhat seems to amountto little more thanclever word-processingsoftware. Well, I know I did, even though Iknew there was a lotmore to it than that.Which was why I wasintrigued by the latestrelease from theMacmillan Masterseries, a rathersmashing range ofbooks that covers abewildering variety oftopics from C++programming toShakespeare. Thebook covers the threeOffice programs

alreadymentioned,plus thedatabaseprogramAccessincluded inMS OfficeProfessional97. The book aims to cater for bothbeginner and intermediate Office user,with each program getting three or fourchapters to itself, starting with the basics. It wasrather disheartening to realise that, evenafter a few years of using Office, I’d never heard of half the tricks taught in

the chaptersdealing with Word.

MasteringMicrosoft Office is alucid read. It’s notexactly fun-packed,but its methodicalapproach paysdividends the nexttime you sit downto write a letter. Itcovers Office 97specifically, andwhatever does notapply to itspredecessor isexplained in thetwo versions. I stillcan’t figure outhow to uninstallthe damn office

Master plan: Microsoft Office

★★★★MASTERING MICROSOFTOFFICEAuthor Helen Holding &Clare MartinPublisher MacmillanISBN 0-333073059-3Price £8.99

PCW DETAILS

10T O P

b o o k s

Prices include VAT on disks and CD-ROMs. List supplied by The PC Bookshop, 21 SicillianAvenue, London WC1A 2QH. Telephone: 0171 831 0022. Fax: 0171 831 0443.

1 MCSE: The Core Examsin a NutshellO’Reilly£14.95

2 C++ ProgrammingLanguage, 3rd EditionAddison-Wesley£27.95

3 Design Patterns:Elements of ReusubleObject-OrientedSoftwareAddison-Wesley£31.50

4 Java in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition O’Reilly£14.95

5 Cisco CCIE Exam GuideMcGraw-Hill£49.99

6 HTML 4 for the WorldWide Web VisualQuickstart GuidePeachpit Press£14.99

7 Microsoft WindowsArchitecture Training KitMicrosoft Press£93.99

8 The Internet & WorldWide Web: The RoughGuide 1998Rough Guides£5.00

9 MCSE Exam Cram: NT Server 4Coriolis£22.00

10PalmPilot: TheUltimate GuideO’Reilly£21.95

on the extra attributes you can use tofurther enhance your HTML documents.The differences between web browsersand computing platforms are alsomentioned so that you know how todesign for as wide an audience aspossible. One of the book’sshortcomings is that it doesn’tacknowledge that most people will startto write web pages using an HTMLeditor. As such, it doesn’t mention howto use popular authoring software suchas Microsoft FrontPage or NetscapeGold. Neither does it tell you how topublish your pages once you’ve written

them, which is likely to leave most peopleat this level confused and irritated. Thebook comes with a CD-ROM that has arange of shareware and freewaresoftware for creating web sites. Softwarepackages notably absent from the CD —even in demo format — are popularHTML editors and browsers such asNetscape and Internet Explorer. Thisbook is one of many routes into DIY webpublishing and overall is quite extensive,but you would ideally need to combine itwith another source of information togain a basic knowledge.

DAVID CUSHING

prizes. However,this computerhad features foreveryone, from

the programmer to the gamesenthusiast. Its games were state-of-the-art — there are still more than 1000Commodore games titles available todownload from the internet.

Commodore then decided to re-market the C-64 as a business computer— or, rather, as a portable businesscomputer. In January 1983, it releasedthe SX-64. This bore a striking similarityto the Osborne 1 portable computer andwas housed in a similar steel case aboutthe size of a personal filing cabinet. TheSX-64 was a neat, matt-black unit with awonderful padded handle; you flippedthe top down to use the keyboard andview the internal 5in composite colourmonitor. Packed in to the right of themonitor were either one or two 5.25infloppy drives and a slot to acceptCommodore program cartridges.

But the SX-64 did not sell well.Commodore released this make in theUS under the Executive-64 brand name,

but its sales trailed. There wascompetition from the dominantOsborne range, and the Commodoremachine was too expensive and tooheavy. To its credit, the colour monitorwas impressive, and if you could affordit, the steel box made a great portablegames machine.

Commodore did not waste too muchtime on the still very new executiveportable market. It moved on from theC-64 to the C264, a computer with a fewextra hardware features and a suite ofapplications supplied in firmware. Thencame the Commodore 128, whichincluded a second Z80A processor tosupport the CP/M operating system. Ithad great graphics features and waspopular with video and designcompanies; I even saw it used by twobroadcast TV companies to producequick titles and animated title effects.

The Commodore products provideda host of ground-breaking innovationsand a wide range of software. The SX-64 provided an interesting diversionand the best range of games software on any colour portable. ❏

RE

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Trawling through the cupboards atRetro Towers, I kept coming across dustycomputers with the Commodore badge.Here was a company that helped definethe personal computer market andproduced a fantastically popular andinfluential range of home computers.

I visited Commodore HQ in the lastyear of its existence and there was still abuzz about the place, although it wasnothing compared to the days when itwas one of the world’s most prolificcomputer manufacturers. Everyoneknows the Commodore PET, a businesscomputer legend that we have covered inpast Retro columns, but it was the VIC-20 and C-64 that made Commodore ahousehold name. What is rather less wellknown is Commodore’s attempt to enterthe portable computer market.

The VIC-20 helped to kickstart thehome computer market. It enjoyed thesupport of software and third-partyhardware suppliers. The electronics werecrammed under the comfortablekeyboard and a standard TV was usedfor display. The VIC had masses of greatfeatures aimed at the home user, and thegames player in particular. At the heartof the machine was a custom chip thatprovided 320x200 colour graphics, withmultiple sprite levels that gave VIC gamesprogrammers one of the best platformsaround. This custom chip also managedthe neat sound synthesizer, the MIDIport and the connections for the lightpenand joystick. Software was suppliedeither on cartridges that fitted into theback of the computer or by loading froma cassette tape. Cartridges providedinstant access but were expensive.

The VIC-20 sold out across theworld. Encouraged by its success,Commodore launched the moresophisticated C-64 in 1982. More than18 million C-64 computers were sold andit still has an extraordinary following onthe internet, where games, tools andutilities are available. The C-64 lookedjust like the VIC-20 but doubled thegraphic resolution, upped the memory to64Kb and improved the main processor.

The main unit was brown, withbrown keys, and the stubby, fat keyboardlook won no contemporary design

Simon Collin remembers a company that’s long gone, but still has a very dedicated following.

Carry On, Commodore

¿MORE THAN

18 MILLION C-64S

WERE SOLD BY

COMMODORE

QuickieFor those of you who couldn’t solve lastmonth’s quickie, here’s another one totry that should help.

What number when written as aword has its letters in alphabeticalsequence?

This Month’s Prize PuzzleThis one’s a real PC-whirrer! I took sixdifferent digits (zero not included) andused them to generate as many primes,perfect squares and cubes as possible.No digit appeared more than once in anyof the numbers generated.

I then discovered that if I divided thenumber of primes generated by the total

number of squares and cubes combined,the answer was an exact power of two.

Which six digits did I use? (By theway, so as to avoid all the phone calls to the Editor requesting clarification, the smallest prime number is 2, and 1 is both a square and a cube.)

Send your answer on a postcard oron the back of an empty sealed-downenvelope, to: PCW Prize Puzzle – October 1998 P.O. Box 99, Harrogate N. Yorks HG2 0XJto arrive not later than 20th October1998. Please do not send your solutions onfloppy disks, emails, or in envelopes. We cannot accept them as valid entries.

Winner of July Prize PuzzleWe received about a hundred entries forthe not-too-difficult problem about thegraduated sticks. Graduations 212 and309 most nearly coincide, or if you lookat it from the other end — as our winnerand many others did — graduations 789and 1150.The winning entry came from Mr David Cunliffe of Rochdale, who gets our congratulations immediatelyand a prize shortly.

Usual condolences to the also-rans —keep trying! It could be your turn next.

JJ CLESSA

Please note that Brainteasers entries arenot used for a direct mailing database.


ACROSS7 Pictorial objects in a

window (5)8 Integrated circuits,

commonly (4)9 Instruct an application

that a file is required (4)11 Machine such as a

printer, modem, scanner and so on (6)

12 Not capable of being erased or modified (4-4)

13 No place like this page? (4)

15 Protocol for e-mail message storage (3)

16 Instruction replaced by a sequence of other instructions (5)

19 Frequency of screen display regeneration (7)

20 Like data or files damagedor unusable (7)

23 Fundamental language? (5)

25 Old colour graphics standard (3)

26 A set of particular letters, numbers and symbols (4)

28 The C of PCW! (8)30 Blinking screen indicator

(6)32 Section of the frequency

spectrum lying between certain limits (4)

33 Small drink for dynamic memory! (4)

34 Crispy biscuit for integrated circuits? (5)

DOWN1 Dull pain (4)2 One involved with

machinery or physical structures (8)

3 Treatment (7)4 Javelin (5)5 Japanese car company (6)6 Rind (4)10 Storm (7)14 Musical drama (5)17 Become mature (5)18 Love story (7)21 Act of passing on to

another (8)22 Stuff your face? (7)24 Obstruct (6)27 Read closely (5)29 Ellipse (4)31 Cooker (4)

brainteasers

It’s onlywords — and there’smillions ofthem in the newChambersDictionary.Each month,one lucky PCW crossword entrantwins one. This time, it could beyou. Send your completedcrossword to “PCW October Prize Crossword”, VNU House,32-34 Broadwick Street, LondonW1A 2HG, to arrive not later than25th September, 1998.Please state clearly if you do not wish to receive promotional material fromother companies.

1 2 3 4 5 6

7 8 9

10

11 12

13 14 15 16 17

18

19 20 21

22

23 24 25 26

27

28 29 30 31

32 33 34

prize crossword

September solutionsACROSS7 Explorer 9 Output 10 Tape 11Encrypted 12 ASCII 14 Manager18 Cookies 19 Fortran 22 Traffic24 Modem 26 Sound card 28Drag 29 Access 30 MachinesDOWN1 Expansion 2 Clue 3 Greed 4Gory 5 Statue 6 Fund 8 Racial 13Ink 15 Atom 16 Beef 17 Caretaker20 Two 21 Disarm 23 Roused 25Edict 26 Sack 27 Dusk 28 Drip


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660


WORLD

DIRECTBUYERS

Personal Computer World Buyer’s CharterIf things go wrongMail order protection schemeAnthony George, our Customer Services Manager, ishere to help you if things go wrong or if you have acomplaint about advertisements that have appeared inPersonal Computer World. Write to him with details ofthe complaint and he will contact you.

Anthony GeorgeCustomer Relations DepartmentVNU Business PublicationsVNU House, 32 - 34 Broadwick StreetLondon W1A 2HG

Buyers CharterWhen you order goods as a private individual readerfrom a UK supplier’s advertisement in PersonalComputer World and pay by post in advance of deliveryto that Mail Order Advertiser who subsequently ceasesto trade and goes into Liquidation or Bankruptcy priorto delivery of such goods, you may, under the “BuyersCharter”, qualify for compensation, providing:1. You have not received the goods or had your moneyreturned.2. You have followed the “Personal Computer World”guidelines when placing your order.3. Have taken all reasonable steps to effect delivery orrefund.

4. You have retained proof of purchase, for verificationpurposes:a) A copy of the original advertisement from which thegoods were ordered.b) A copy of Personal Computer World’s “Details ofTransaction Form” (on opposite page).c) Comprehensive proof of payment.5. Submit claims so as to arrive “NOT EARLIER THANTWENTY EIGHT DAYS AND NOT LATER THANTHREE MONTHS” from the official sale date of themagazine.Claims must be submitted to the Customer ServicesManager IN WRITING, summarising the situation and lodgedstrictly within the time schedule stated.Claims received outside this period will not qualify forconsideration for compensation under the “BuyersCharter”.After a supplier who has advertised has become subjectto either liquidation or bankruptcy proceedings,Personal Computer World guarantees to process asexpeditiously as possible those private individualreaders’ claims made and submitted, in accordancewith those procedures outlined, up to the followinglimits.a) £2,000 for any one advertiser so affected.b) £100,000 in respect of all advertisers so affected inany one year.

These sums define the Publishers maximum liabilityunder the scheme, and any additional payments aboveand beyond these thresholds will be entirely at thediscretion of the Publishers.As soon as legal confirmation that a state of liquidationor bankruptcy exists, the processing of claims willimmediately commence. If, however, assets areavailable and the receiver/liquidator appointedconfirms that an eventual payment will be made by wayof a dividend, all claims under the “Buyers Charter” willbe subject to re-processing and will take into accountany shortfall which may then exist.Payments under the scheme will take into considerationthe obligations and liabilities of other interested partiessuch as credit card and/or insurance organisations etc.This guarantee only applies to advance postal paymentsmade by private individuals in direct response for goodsitemised/illustrated in display advertisements. It doesnot cover goods ordered from inserts, classifiedadvertisements, or catalogues obtained from any advertiser.The “Buyer’s Charter” is designed to safeguard thePRIVATE individual reader. It does not provideprotection to any companies, societies, organisations,unincorporated bodies or any other commerciallyorientated outlet of any description. Similarly, cover is not provided for orders placed from or to any overseascompanies or for goods purchased for resale.

Sometimes you just want to know the names of the best products, when they were reviewed, how much they cost andwhere you can get them. That’s where our new, no-nonsense

buyer’s guide comes in. Over the following four pages we’ve picked outthe outstanding PCs, peripherals and software packages that we can recommend without hesitation. To make it even easier, we’veincluded the current manufacturer’scontact number and price (inc VAT),as well as details about when andwhere we reviewed the product.

For the full review, why not checkout PCW on CD-ROM? Updated quarterly on a rolling basis, PCW

on CD-ROM contains the full edi-torial from the past 24 issues, insearchable Adobe Acrobat format — it even comeswith a copy of Acrobat for viewing, searching and printing.

Each CD costs just £9.95 including postage and packing, or£8.96 for subscribers. Call 01795 414870 to order your copy, or turn

to our PCW Reader Offers on pages 306 and 307 for further details.

GORDON LAING, Editor

All the best buys are here

Contents662 PCs

& portablesEntry-level to high-end PCs,notebooks and PDAs.

663 Printers& scannersInkjet, lasers, photo printers and multifunction devices.

664 PeripheralsFrom digital cameras tomodems, monitors to storage,graphics and sound cards.

665 SoftwareThe greats of software. Classicproducts like Adobe Photoshop,Visual dBase and MYOB.

buying advice

Sporting AMD’sK6-2 processor, thissystem from Meshhas everything youcould want: 1Mb of L2cache, a 40X CD-ROMdrive, a superb set of sixspeakers with anAWE64 sound card and a lovelyADI 5GT monitor. But it’s theblistering speed that will have you reaching for your credit card. ➠PCW October 1998, p187

Price £1,198.50, Contact Mesh 0181 452 1111 Also Recommended: MertecHome Media Price £1,173.83 Contact Mertec 01792 473700 •Panrix Nitro3D, Price £1,173.83 Contact Panrix 01132 444958 (both PCW Oct ’98)

EN T RY-L E V E L PC

If you want a PII 400 forunder a grand ex VAT, youcould do a lot worse thanthis Dotlink. It has 64Mb ofRAM and a 5Gb harddrive, as well as a 56Kmodem andSmartSuite 97. Andwith a BX board there isplenty of room for laterexpansion. ➠PCW October 1998, p89

Price £1,174 Contact Dotlink 0181 903 6508 Also Recommended: MeshElite Professional PII Price £1,145, Contact Mesh 0181 452 1111 •DanDantum II/W5 Price £1,175 Contact Dan 0181 830 1100 (both PCW July ’98)

MI D-R A N G E PC:

Built around Intel’s fastest PII yet andrunning at 450MHz, this machinesurpassed the scoresachieved in tests by400MHz PCs. Addto this a lightning-fast 10Gb hard driveand you have got theultimateperformancemachine.➠PCW Oct ’98, p79

Price £2,231 Contact Evesham 01386 769600 Also Recommended: ViglenC2 Plus 400 Price £2,349 Contact Viglen 0181 758 7000 •Roldec Predator XLPrice £2,349 Contact Roldec 01902 456464 (both in PCW Sept 1998)

HI G H-E N D PC


Built for the road warrior, this thin,light, notebook excels in its buildquality. Based around a variety ofprocessors, ranging from a Pentium233MMX and going right up to aMobile PII 266, it also has a huge 4Gbhard drive, 32Mb RAM and a 13.3in TFT screen. ➠PCW July 1998, p79

Price £4266.43, Contact IBM 0870 601 0136 Also Recommended: Gateway Solo 9100 Price £3876.33 Contact Gateway0800 282000 (PCW June 1998)

HI G H-E N D N O T E B O O K

With a fantastic spec for anincredibly low price, the GatewaySolo 2500 is enough to keep anymobile professional happy. Itcomes with a Mobile PII 266MHzprocessor, a whopping 64Mb RAMas standard and a huge 4Gb harddrive. Add in a glorious 13.3in TFTscreen supported by 2Mb of graphicsRAM and you have yourself a perfectsystem. ➠PCW October 1998, p94

Price £2,500 Contact Gateway 0800 55200Also Recommended: Viglen Dossier M Price £2,466.33 Contact Viglen 0181 758 7000 (PCW August ’98)

MI D-R A N G E N O T E B O O K:

For cutting-edge technology inyour pocket, Hewlett-Packard’s620LX has to be the only choice.It’s based on the latest WindowsCE2 operating systemand is the first PDA we’veseen with a colour screen. It’sutterly gorgeous and, at £799, aserious threat to many notebooks.PDA fans should also check out thePsion Series 5 and the 3Com PalmPilot.➠PCW May 1998 p262.

Price £799 Contact HP 0990 474747. Also Recommended:Psion Series 5Price £429.9 Contact Psion 0990 143050 • 3Com PalmPilot Pro Price £229 Contact 3Com 0800 225252 (Both PCW May 1998)

Hewlett-Packard 620LX

PDA

Mesh K6 3D 300A

Dotlink Power Tower-400SE

Evesham PII 450

Gateway Solo 2500-S6266SE

IBM ThinkPad 600

best buys


As all-round colour inkjetprinters go, Hewlett-Packard’s DeskJet 890C ishard to fault. Equallyhappy with photos orbusiness graphics, it’s ourchoice for the home or smalloffice. Meanwhile, those on abudget should look no furtherthan Canon’s BJC-250, but those wanting the bigger picturewill not be disappointed with HP’s DeskJet 1120C A3.➠PCW September 1998 p186.

Price £317.25 Contact HP 0990 474747 Also Recommended: Canon BJC-250 Price £116.33 Contact Canon 0121 680 8062 •HPDeskJet1120c Price £446.50 Contact HP 0990 474747 (both PCW Sept ’98)

Hewlett-Packard DeskJet 890C

CO L O U R I N K J E T:

A decent laser printer at under £200excluding VAT? That’sPanasonic’s KX-P6300, whichnot only turns out great results infast time but also boasts one ofthe smallest footprints of anyprinter. Its unusual vertical design,along with being a great-value all-rounder, made it our Editor’sChoice in our entry-level laser grouptest.➠PCW February 1998, p194

Price £217.38 Contact Panasonic 0500 404041 Also Recommended:Kyocera FS-600 Price £280.83 Contact Kyocera 01734 311500 •MinoltaPagePro 6 Price £351.33 Contact Minolta 01908 200400 (both PCW Feb ’98)

PanasonicKX-P6300

BU D G E T L A S E R P R I N T E R

Good laser-print qualityfrom this quiet machine.It’s intelligent enough todetect a document droppedinto its feeder and it willlaunch an idiot-proof menufor scanning, copying andemailing. Fast, accurate OCRand 2Mb memory for incomingfaxes when the paper supply isexhausted, makes the 3100 an ideal multifunction device.➠PCW June 1998, p83

Price £629 Contact HP 0990 474747Also Recommended: Canon MultiPASS MPC20 Price £370.13 Contact Canon 0181 773 3173 (PCW January 1998)

Hewlett-PackardLaserJet 3100

MU LT I F U N C T I O N D E V I C E

Colour inkjets have split into twocategories, with this typeclearly designed to reproducethe most realistic colourphotographic prints. Epsonhas for a long time beenthe undisputed leaderand its Stylus Photo700 is our choice forinkjet photo printing.However, Lexmark comes very close behind with its 5700.➠PCW September 1998, p188.

Price £273 Contact Epson 01442 261144Also Recommended: Lexmark 5700 Price £229 Contact Lexmark 01628 481500 (PCW September 1998)

Epson Stylus Photo 700

CO L O U R P H O T O P R I N T E R :

King of the laser printers,Hewlett-Packard has impressedus yet again with its latest officemachine. Being 25 percentfaster than the LaserJet 5, with10,000-page toner cartridge,two 250-sheet input trays,network interfaces as standardand boasting superb output, the4000TN should be the first choiceas an office workhorse. ➠PCW February 1998 p77

Price £1662.63 Contact HP 0990 474747Also Recommended: QMS DeskLaser 1400P Price £938.83 Contact QMS01784 442255 (PCW March 1998)

Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 4000TN

BU S I N E S S L A S E R P R I N T E R

Once again, the UmaxAstra 610P parallel-portscanner has won ourbudget flatbed scannergroup test, boasting anunbeatable combination ofperformance and value. Notethat our three recommendedscanners require enhancedparallel ports found only on modern PCs, so older systems, orusers wanting top performance, should stick to SCSI.➠PCW September 1998, p229.

Price £69.33 Contact Umax 01344 871329 Also Recommended: AgfaSnapScan 310P Price £116.50 Contact Agfa 0181 231 4200 •MicrotekPhantom 330CX Price £75.95 Contact Microtek 01908 317797 (PCW Sept’ 98)

Umax Astra 610P

FL AT B E D S C A N N E R

Once again Kodak hasproduced the bestdigital camera forunder £1,000. Notonly does it have a highresolution, producingexcellent images at1,536x1,024 pixels butalso has a 3X zoom. Addits advanced features, including scripting facilities and you havea highly desirable and indispensable camera.➠PCW October 1998, p226

Price £899 Contact Kodak 0800 281487 Also Recommended: EpsonPhotoPC 700 Price £587.50 Contact Epson 0800 289622 •Ricoh RDC-4300Price £599 Contact Ricoh 01782 753355 (both PCW October 1998)

KodakDC260

DI G I TA L C A M E R A

This smart little K56Flex modem featuresa headset, allowing it to be used as ahands-free telephone. Add a pair ofspeakers and you’ve got a fullduplex speakerphone. TheK56EV also supportsAudioSpan (SVD)operation, enabling voiceand data to betransmittedsimultaneously. ➠PCW July 1998 p80

Price £119.95 Contact Direct Source 0118 981 9960 Also Recommended: Pace 56 Voice Price £139 Contact PMC 0990 561001(PCW November 1997)

BT Prologue K56EV Plus Modem

MO D E M

A cut-down version of theheavyweight EWS64XL,Terratec’s S model still boastsmuch of the same samplingand processing capabilities and isalso a great games card withaccelerated DirectSound andpositional 3D audio. There’s a digitalI/O option, upgradeable samplememory and the decent software bundleincludes Cubasis AV.➠PCW July 1998 p210

Price £149.23 Contact Terratec 01600 772111 Also Recommended: Creative Labs AWE 64 Gold Price £129.25 Contact Creative Labs 01245 265265 (PCW July 1998)

Terratec EWS64 S

SO U N D C A R D


No matter what you do, it’s vitalto get a good monitor with aclean, flicker-free display. In April1998’s group test we looked at17in models and found Nokia’sMultigraph 447Za to be the bestin our entry-level category. Thosewith more to spend should checkout the Mitsubishi, (see panel,below) which was our Editor’sChoice in the high-end section.➠PCW April 1998 p204.

Price £440.63 Contact Nokia 01793 512809Also Recommended: Mitsubishi DiamondPro 700 Price £569.88 Contact Mitsubishi 01707 276100 (PCW April 1998)

MO N I T O R

With such differingcapacities,interfaces andprices, there’s noone removablestorage device tosatisfy all needs. As anoverflow for your existing hard disk,the SyQuest SparQ is a clear winner, boasting excellentperformance and low price. The external Iomega Zip Plus offersa good combination of ease of use and portability.➠PCW May 1998 p196

Price £169.99 Contact SyQuest 01189 880207 Also Recommended: IomegaZip Plus Price £143.83 Contact Iomega 07000 466342 •Iomega Jaz 2GbPrice £441.71 Contact Iomega 07000 466342 (both PCW August 1998)

SyQuest SparQ

RE M OVA B L E S T O R AG E

Blisteringly fast both on 2Dand 3Dapplications, thethe MatroxMillenium G200 isbased around a new 2D/3Dchip, the G200. Not only is itthe fastest 2D/3D card we haveseen, it also produces Matrox’slegendary image quality. It conforms to theAGP 2X standard and supports up to 16Mb of RAM. ➠PCW October 1998, p92

Price £129, Contact Matrox 01753 665544Also Recommended: ATI Xpert@Play Price £139.83 Contact ATI 01628 533115 (PCW December 1997)

MatroxMillenium G200

GR A P H I C S C A R D

Nokia Multigraph 447Za

best buys


Ideal for the owner-manager and goodfor bookkeepers too,Mind Your OwnBusiness (MYOB) isour choice foraccountancysoftware. We alsorecommend TASBooks which offersgood bookkeeping and very powerful analysis. ➠PCW June 1998 p198

Price £229.13 Contact Bestware 01752 201901Also Recommended: TAS Books Price £116.33 Contact Megatech 01372 727274 (PCW June 1998)

Tas BooksMYOB

AC C O U N T I N G

The first 32-bit version ofBorland’s classicdatabase manager is asignificant upgrade fromversion 5.5 and a must-have for dBase developersso long as 16-bitcompatibility is notrequired. Access isparticularly good valuewhen bought with Office 97 Pro.➠PCW March 1998 p92

Price £292.58 Contact Borland 01734 320022Also Recommended: Microsoft Access 97 Price £276.13 Contact Microsoft0345 002000 (PCW October 1997)

DATA B A S E

With version 5,Photoshop isbetter than ever,although someweb designers willwant a little more.The legendaryPaint Shop Proand funPhotoDeluxe caterat entry level.➠PCW June 1998 p88

Price £763.75. Contact Adobe 0181 606 4001 Also Recommended: AdobePhotoDeluxe 2 Price £57.58 Contact Adobe 0181 606 4001 •Paintshop Pro 4Price £58.69 Contact Digital Workshop 01295 258335 (both PCW Dec ’97)

IM AG E ED I T I N G

Microsoft MoneyFinancial Suite 98 isour choice forpersonal finance. Itoffers online bankingand updatingfacilities, plus Sagecompatibility, all at abargain price.➠PCW May 1998p196

Price £49.99 Contact Microsoft 0345 002000 Also Recommended: Quicken 98 Price £39.99 Contact Intuit 0181 9905500 (PCW June 1998)

Microsoft Money Financial Suite 98

PE R S O N A L FI N A N C E

Inexpensive, easy touse and surprisinglywell equipped.PagePlus 5 offersextremely capabledesktop publishing.Those wanting thechoice of professionalpublishers will haveto fork out more forQuark XPress 4.0. ➠PCW June 1998 p132

Price £99.95 Contact Serif 0800 376 7070 Also Recommended: Quark XPress 4 Price £1,169 Contact Quark 01483 454397 (PCW June 1998)

DTP

Not one of Corel’sclassic years but this isstill the Windowsdrawing package toown. Version 8 of thegiant suite boastsbetter drawing and newinteractive tools.Budget drawers shouldcheck out theMicrografx Windows Draw 6.➠PCW October 1998, p203

Price £464.13 Contact Corel 0800 581028 Also Recommended:Adobe Illustrator Price £351.32 Contact Adobe 0181 606 4000 • FreehandPrice £327.82 Contact Macromedia 01344 458600 (both October 1998)

DR AW I N G

Borland Visual dBase 7

Adobe Photoshop 5

Serif PagePlus 5

CorelCorelDraw 8


Is someone trying to tell us something?Have our contacts in the PR world

been spying on PCW journalists as theysneak into the Star Café on the morningtoast run? Maybe we’re all just gettingtoo self-conscious after receiving notone, not two, but three missivespromoting slimming products. First therewas a fax for the diet that would see uslosing a rather worrying 17 pounds injust seven days. This was closely followedby a promo for the Ultratone Futura: aportable electronic slimming deviceconsisting of four pads strapped to thewaist, it sends impulses that cause yourmuscles to flex. No sooner had thislanded on the ChipChat desk than wereceived notification of CLOtherapy —clothing that actually makes you thin. As the badly-designed web site<www.adrenalin.tm> explains, wear oneof these sweatshirts and the mesh panelrunning up the back will keep you cold,causing your body to burn more fat in its efforts to keep warm. Any otherbizarre get-thin-quick schemes, sendthem this way. Makes a nice change from get-rich-quick spams.

chipchat

“Despite being told never tohug TVs in public, play wasinterrupted when a stray setwalked onto the pitch” wasthe winning caption in ourAugust competition (belowright), from an anonymousentrant. As no prize couldbe awarded, it is carriedover until next month. So, for a chanceto win a staggering £40 in book tokens,supply the caption that goes with thepicture above. Entries can be emailed [email protected], while modem-incompatible submissions should besent to October Caption Competition,Personal Computer World, VNUHouse, 32 - 34 Broadwick Street,London W1A 2HG.

Caption CompetitionR “The good old days...Thatcher,Wham andTeenyboppers... how we miss them.”

“Strawberry Pop Tarts may be acheap and inexpensive source of

incendiary devices. Toasters which fail toeject Pop Tarts cause the Pop Tarts to

emit flames 10-18inches in height.” Withan opening like that, wejust had to read on.

The “Strawberry Pop Tart Blow Torch”homepage < http://www.sci.tamucc.edu/~pmichaud/toast/>, sister site to Funwith Grapes (the same address, butreplace the word “toast” with “grape”)was the inspiration for much frenziedactivity in the PCW kitchen last week.Two broken microwaves, a broken

Oops!■ Our August “Small Business” sectionstated that BT was the only companyinstalling ISDN2. A list of otherinstallers can be found on the net at<www.cable.co.uk>. Further, the nameZyxel Cambridge ISDN should haveread simply Cambridge ISDN, who canbe reached on 01223 495929.■ In our September group test wequoted £2461 inc VAT at the end ofour Lexon review. The real price was£2109 inc VAT, as shown in thefeatures table.■ Also in the September issue westated that Eudora Pro Email 4.0 ranon Windows 3.1. It in fact runs onMicrosoft Windows 95 or WindowsNT 4.0 or greater.

toaster and a flame-licked ceiling later,we deduced that maybe this is not thebest way to pass an empty lunch hour,and so moved on to <www.glubco.com/weaponry/mag.htm>, the temptingly-titled “When your microwave stopsworking the fun begins”, a site thatdemonstrates exactly what it’s possibleto achieve using components from abroken television when they arecombined with the internal workings ofa non-functioning microwave oven.Undaunted, we turned to the TwinkiesProject <www.twinkiesproject.com>. Finding Twinkies in London wasnot an easy task, but once they had beenlocated we were able to recreate therapid oxidation (burning) andgravitational response (dropping fromthe roof of our building) tests withmoderate success. We were also on thelook-out for a new toaster to replace theone we had ruined with our Pop Tartexperiments, and happened across theTalking Toaster <www.the4cs.com/~corin/cse477/toaster/>. No longer, itseems, is it necessary to twiddle withheat-setting dials or even to lower thebread into the machine. The toaster will

instead ask how well done you want yourtoast, recognising your spoken answers.The only downside is that it seems to bea one-off model. If anyone knows wherewe can get one, send your ideas this way.

Lean times

Kitchen devils

RSCORCHING

COMBINATION: THE

TV/MICROWAVE

COMBO IN ACTION