The magazine for members of
Omega: the first full user’s report
Internet Special: from getting on line to getting a website
USB connects with RISC OS
Issue 47 — Autumn 2003 The First Full Report On Omega
fter all the months of waiting and Obviously, Castle have plans to Awondering about Omega, the extend the uses of RISC OS in wider first machines are now in the hands of markets, with improvements which users. will spread out to benefit computer users. As you may know, the Club was fortunate enough to win one of the The new ownership should also mean first two, which were offered in prizes tighter control, which will prevent at the Wakefield Show. This has given any risk of diverging versions of the us the chance to have the first full software coming from rival report on Omega, written by Tom developers. We will watch with Hughes after two months of use and interest for further developments. testing. During, this time, Omega has been updated and further As well as the exclusive full report on improvements are no doubt still being Omega, we are featuring another made on machines not yet delivered. special section this issue, this time about the Internet, following the So, finally, we have two new RISC success of last issue’s Digital OS computers and we look forward to Photography Special. seeing how both of them develop over the months ahead. If you found the black and white reproductions of the pictures There’s more good news too in the illustrating those articles rather announcement that the ownership of frustrating you can see them in their our operating system is now full colour on the Club’s website at completely back in the hands of www.armclub.org.uk/eureka/issue46 Acorn-succession computer makers pictures.html. with the purchase of RISC OS from Pace by Castle. Peter Jennings
All opinions expressed in Eureka are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Club or its Committee members and officers. CONTENTS
4 Omega: full report INTERNET SPECIAL The first full report from a user of the long awaited new computer. 24 Internet access in a nutshell 14 Completing your auction sale The various alternatives The final instalment of our series available to get you on line. on buying and selling on eBay. 31 18 ARM Arena Choosing an ISP The latest games and the return of More decisions to make to get some old, updated, favourites. the best Internet Service Provider for your needs. 23 The Midlands RISCOS Show Plan now for your visit to the 35 Club's big Birmingham Show in A permanent presence November. How to keep the same internet address even if you eventually 24 Internet Special want to change your ISP. See the next column for full details. 38 Site seeing: travel & holidays 53 Double Cross puzzle Helpful websites to visit if Your regular chance to test your you're heading for sun or way with words. sights.
54 RISC OS Rhymes 42 Getting a website Our poetic Risc PC relates the How to have a website of your mad computer enthusiast's song. own, with the help of some free software.
2 Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 56 USB comes to RISC OS 64 Aunty Gill’s Journal Iyonix users get a USB mass Help and advice on some of those storage class driver and there's a more personal problems that the 6-1 USB card reader from R- Technical Help team can't tackle. Comp. Club Contacts 63 The Double Cross solution Who and where to contact the See how well you did with our person for all your membership word puzzle. queries and suggestions.
Our full report on Omega See you at the shows follows on the next page. There was not room there for our RISC OS South East usual information panel so the Saturday 18th October 2003 details are below. 10am-4pm Main Building Guildford Technical College Omega Stoke Road (A320) Price: Standard case £1149 Guildford, Surrey Mini Tower £1189 Entry £5 at the door Desktop £1190 Web: www.fillin.co.uk/seshow/ (all plus £20 delivery charge) index.html Supplier: MicroDigital Limited 37 Titus Street Midlands RISC OS Show Saltaire, Shipley BD18 4LU Saturday 29th November 2003 Tel: 01274 618774 10am-4.30pm Fax: 01274 619482 National Motorcycle Museum Email: Solihull, Birmingham [email protected] See full details on page 23. Web: www.microdigital.co.uk
Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 3 Omega: The Full Report
any of you will already know Before going any further I should Mthat The ARM Club was lucky make it clear that the precise status of enough to win one of the two the machine being reviewed here is MicroDigital Omegas offered as unclear. I believe it to be more or less prizes at the Wakefield Show. I took a production machine — certainly the machine away from Wakefield neither I nor the club has been given and have had my hands on it for the any information to contradict that —
Tom Hughes gives us the first full user’s report of the long awaited new computer which has, until recently, been available to try only as demonstration models. last two months, during which time I but it is possible that production have attempted to put it through its machines may differ slightly from paces. that on which this review is based.
My first experiences with the Unfortunately, MicroDigital seem to machine were summarised in a have decided not to cooperate with us preview put together during the four in the production of this review — all days between our winning the my emails to both their published machine and my going off on holiday support address and directly to for three weeks. That preview was members of their staff have gone sent out by email, while I was away, unanswered. As a result, I have been to those of you whose addresses we unable to obtain clarification from know. If you didn’t get a copy then them regarding any questions I had now would be a good time to remind and everything in this review is based the Membership Secretary of your on my hands-on experience and email address so that we will be able reports from other Omega users about to include you in future. what MicroDigital have told them when they asked about various things.
4 Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 The Machine The machine itself is housed in a mid sized tower case, finished in a dark grey colour. The front of the case has two doors; the upper, larger, door opens to reveal the floppy and CD drives, while the small lower door reveals two USB ports and two 3.5mm audio sockets for connecting a microphone and headphones. In the centre of the front panel is a power button, a recessed reset button and two LEDs: one power light and one hard disc activity light. Tower cased Omega Moving to the back of the case we find two PS/2 sockets for a mouse and keyboard, a video output socket and With the lid off, the case is revealed to standard serial and parallel ports as contain no fewer than seven drive well as a further two USB sockets. In bays: three 5.25” bays which can be the topmost expansion slot is a sound accessed from the front of the case card with a full set of connectors: five and are hence suitable for removable 3.5mm sockets to provide 5.1 channel drives; three 3.5” bays hung beneath output as well a microphone the 5.25” bays and not accessible connection and line input and a 15 pin from the front but perfect for hard D connector. drives and the like; and a single 3.5” bay on top of the 5.25” bays which Opening the case requires removing holds the floppy drive. the front panel; a simple ‘grab it and pull’ job, followed by four screws Also present in the case is a standard which then allow the cover to be slid 250W ATX power supply, a very large forwards slightly before being lifted (120mm) fan mounted on the rear of up and placed to one side. the case and the motherboard...
Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 5 The Motherboard 5+6, which suggests that the At the rear of the motherboard are hardware may be able to support an four 32-bit 5V PCI slots, the top one additional pair of USB ports if an of which contains a sound card as appropriate socket was connected. previously mentioned. The sound card has two CD audio input Near the USB connectors is another connectors (for different types of CD spare header labelled Serial Port 2 drives) and an auxiliary input which may suggest that a second connector. The CD audio wasn't serial port is a possibility in the future. actually connected in our machine The ALi M1535+ South Bridge chip although I assume that was a simple used in the Omega certainly supports oversight and that it would normally two serial ports, as can been seen be connected. from the Iyonix which uses the same South Bridge chip. Some other things not connected to the sound card are the front audio To the right of the PCI slots are the sockets. The cable from these is floppy drive connector and two IDE hanging loose in the case. So far I connectors, one of which is used to have been unable to identify any connect the 33GB Maxtor hard drive connector on the sound card to which and the 52x CD drive. these might be connected so it is unclear whether or not these can ever Both the floppy cable and the IDE be made to work. cable are rounded cables rather than the more common flat ribbon cables The front USB sockets are connected and this should help to provide to the motherboard, however, as there improved airflow inside the machine. are currently no USB drivers available, it is impossible to say At the top end of the motherboard, anything more about the USB and just below the ATX power subsystem at the moment. There is a connector, are a pair of DIMM spare header on the motherboard, sockets designed to hold PC133 alongside the connection for the front SDRAM memory modules. In our USB sockets, labelled as USB Ports machine one of these sockets is
6 Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 populated with a 256Mb Hynix Switching On memory module. After connecting up the keyboard, mouse, video and power leads Ð no In the centre of the motherboard is a mouse or power lead was supplied surface-mounted SA-110 StrongARM with our machine but I assume that processor alongside the custom North the regular production machines Bridge, implemented on a 200,000 would come with these Ð throwing gate Xilinx FPGA chip. This is the the main power switch on the back of core of the custom hardware in the the machine brought it to life without Omega and implements VIDC any need to press the soft power compatible video and IOMD switch on the front. The soft power compatible memory access as well as switch is used to turn the machine on providing access to the PCI bus. when it has powered off by the operating system as the result of Between these two chips and the shutting down the system. memory slots is a large high density connector labelled as XScale(tm) When I first received the machine Processor Card Connector which is powering on the system didn't bring it where the XScale expansion card will straight up however. Instead a kind of plug in once it becomes available. graphical test card would appear and it was necessary to press the reset One minor problem with the button to get the machine booting. motherboard is that it seems to be That problem has been fixed by very poorly supported in the bottom subsequent firmware updates right corner. There are two fixing however and the machine now boots holes here which are unused and as a cleanly when powered on. result you would need to be very careful not to flex the board too much When the machine starts to boot, it when inserting or removing the initially brings up a screen floppy drive connector. Inserting announcing itself as a MicroDigital cards in the bottom two or three PCI Omega and that it is searching for slots would probably also call for a IDE devices. This is almost fair degree of care. immediately followed by an
Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 7 indication that the hard disc has been At this point I decided to use a floppy located and then, some five to ten to copy some software onto the seconds later, that the CD drive has Omega in order to start benchmarking been located after which the normal it. I was rather shocked to find that the RISC OS boot sequence commences. machine was unable to read the floppy that I presented to it and that it The desktop is reached in just a few crashed when asked to format a seconds Ð at least it did until I added floppy. This problem has now been all my normal applications to the boot largely resolved; a recent firmware sequence Ð and looks reassuringly update allows the Omega to read and familiar. I was slightly surprised to write floppy discs although it still see two hard drive icons on the icon can't format them at the moment. A bar but it turns out that the Omega is future firmware update is expected to using a variant of APDL's IDEFS address that problem. rather than ADFS and hence it has support for multiple partitions on one Given the lack of a working floppy drive. In this case there was one small drive and the fact that the network partition with !Boot and the normal card for the Omega is not yet bundled applications, and one large, available, I was forced to fall back on empty, partition. using my Iyonix and/or my Linux box to write CDs in order to get some Looking at the task manager I was software onto the Omega to test it. slightly surprised to see that the machine seemed to think it had only Performance 64MB of RAM despite the fact that My first task, once I had copied some the DIMM that is installed is clearly a software onto the Omega, was to run 256MB part. This is something that some benchmarks to try to get an idea seems to have gone uncorrected by of just how well it performed. I started either of the two firmware updates by running the RISCOSmark issued since I received the machine benchmark (from www.richardspenc but doubtless it will be addressed in er.freeuk.com/riscosmark/) and the due course. results are summarised in the table opposite.
8 Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 Performance
Risc PC Omega Iyonix Processor 100% 152% 262% Memory 100% 245% 208% Rectangle Copy 100% 155% 5812% Icon Plotting 100% 135% 33% Draw Path 100% 152% 102% Draw Fill 100% 146% 65% Block Read (MB/s) 100% 1169% 1274% Block Write (MB/s) 100% 389% 1067% Stream Read (KB/s) 100% 70% 199% Stream Write (KB/s) 100% 211% 400%
The figures in the table are relative to Iyonix although this does not appear a baseline established on my 202MHz to square with other memory StrongARM Risc PC running RISC benchmarks that I ran. For example, OS Select. The Iyonix used for the in the tables on the following page test is running RISC OS 5.03 so has there are the peak memory read UDMA enabled for hard disc access. bandwidths and the corresponding The Omega was also tested using a peak memory write bandwidths (in firmware build that has UDMA MB/s) as measured in various screens enabled. All the tests were run at modes using some hand crafted 800x600 with 256 colours. assembler.
As can be seen, the processor is As you can see, both the read and almost exactly 50% faster than the write bandwidths on the Omega are Risc PC, as would be expected given significantly higher than on the Risc that it is clocked at 306MHz. The PC, as expected, although the memory test shows that the memory numbers do start to drop off in higher is considerably faster than the Risc resolution modes as the video system PC and also apparently faster than the is contending with the processor for
Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 9 Peak memory read bandwidths (MB/s)
Risc PC Omega Iyonix 800x600x256 41.53 99.57 171.20 1280x1024x32K 41.39 91.62 171.19 1280x1024x16M 78.01 171.22 1600x1200x32K 77.11 171.21
Peak memory write bandwidths
Risc PC Omega Iyonix 800x600x256 39.71 125.76 122.17 1280x1024x32K 39.38 125.75 122.17 1280x1024x16M 71.37 122.17 1600x1200x32K 90.68 122.17
access to the memory. By contrast the On the graphical front we can see that measured bandwidth on the Iyonix is the Omega is definitely an constant across all screen modes and, improvement on a Risc PC. The story in the case of writing, is more or less changes somewhat as we increase the identical to the Omega in lower resolution of the display however. resolution modes. The results shown in the table opposite were gathered at 1280x1024 One thing that I don't understand is with a full 16 million colours. why the peak write bandwidth on the Omega is often higher than the peak Note that for this test a 233Mhz read bandwidth. On the face of it this StrongARM Risc PC with a would appear to make little sense, so Viewfinder+ card was used, as a more investigation may be required normal Risc PC can't manage that here. resolution. The Omega shows a much
10 Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 Graphics tests
Risc PC Omega Iyonix Rectangle Copy 100% 3% 145% Icon Plotting 100% 1638% 1604% Draw Path 100% 313% 265% Draw Fill 100% 1208% 1622%
bigger improvement over the Risc PC indicate that the IDEFS in the Omega in some of these tests but a disastrous does less buffering than ADFS on the reduction in one critical test, the block other machines. copy test that simulates what happens when you move a window. This is Graphics because there is no 2D graphics An area where I had expected the acceleration on the Omega at present Omega to be a significant although it is promised for a future improvement over the Risc PC is the update. graphics subsystem; in particular it ought to be able to manage Going back to the original figures and significantly higher resolutions and looking at I/O performance, we can colour depths than an unexpanded see that disc I/O is generally much Risc PC. The specification for the better on the Omega than the Risc PC, machine does after all claim to as would be expected. Block I/O in support 1600x1200 with 16 million particular is greatly enhanced, colours at a nice solid 90Hz refresh especially reading, which has rate. performance roughly equal to the Iyonix. Block writing doesn't seem to Unfortunately, I have so far been show such a large increase, which somewhat underwhelmed. Even may indicate that UDMA is not ignoring the current lack of currently used for writing. There also acceleration, it seems that any attempt seems to be a surprising reduction in to push the display beyond fairly low stream read performance, which may resolutions results in the appearance
Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 11 of vertical artefacts in the display and attempts to communicate with them once higher resolutions such as and we have not therefore been able 1600x1200 with 16 million colours to obtain the updates directly. are reached (even at low refresh rates) Fortunately, however, I have received the display becomes more or less copies of the updates from other unusable. sources.
I'm using the Omega with a 19º The first update, released on the 17th Iiyama VisionMaster Pro 451 and of June, actually came in two I've tried using MicroDigital's versions, one with sound and UDMA generic 19º CRT monitor definition enabled and one with them disabled, that ships with the machine and my which was described as more stable own monitor definition that I use on and able to run RISC OS Select, my Risc PC and my Iyonix and both although I haven't actually tried that give very similar results. yet.
The really odd thing is the Omega I The second was released on the 3rd saw on the RISC OS Ltd stand at the July and fixed a number of problems: RISC OS Expo in Holland recently it allows the floppy drive to read and was much better. Unfortunately, write floppy discs, although not to because MicroDigital have refused to format them, and it gets sound card reply to me, I have been unable to input from audio CDs working, determine if this means there is some although there is a small volume sort of problem with the specific problem that can be patched around machine that I have. and should be fixed in the next update. A small downside is that Firmware UDMA is disabled, apparently to Since we received our Omega at allow CD writers to work. Wakefield, two new versions of the firmware for the machine have been The second update appears to have released by MicroDigital. As made our machine fairly unstable mentioned previously, MicroDigital though Ð it generally only manages have not responded to any of our a few minutes before locking up and
12 Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 having to be rebooted. I would try Conclusions going back to the previous firmware In general terms, I would say that the except that I have now managed to Omega is certainly a significant step render the machine unbootable by up from the Risc PC, at least if I could unplugging a key module so until I manage to find a solution to my manage to get that resolved my work problems with the graphics system. with the machine is stalled. The processor is significantly faster, as is memory access and disc I/O, at Software Compatibility least when UDMA is enabled. As expected, given that the hardware is intended to be entirely compatible Now that the floppy drive is largely with the Risc PC architecture, there working the main problems would are few problems on this front. In fact appear to be graphics and a distinct I have so far failed to find any lack of stability. So if those two issues software which won't run on the can be addressed then the machine is Omega although I've run only a fairly certainly a workable and usable small number of programs. machine. The problem is that, even with the improved performance Obviously compatibility with the relative to a Risc PC, it still isn't as XScale expansion, when it appears, is fast as an Iyonix on most counts and it another matter altogether and we will costs more. Of course the Omega has have to wait and see before making an the advantage of a 26 bit processor, so assessment there. if you use a lot of software which hasn't been ported to 32 bits, or which Likewise, it is always possible that won't run under Aemulor, then the software that is tightly linked to some Omega might be a better option. obscure hardware feature of a previous machine might fail. The balance between the two Obviously anything which tries to machines may also move once the talk to the Podule bus will fail for XScale upgrade for the Omega is example, as there isn't one on the available. Hopefully we'll be able to Omega! tell you more about that in a future article.
Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 13 Completing Your Auction Sale
fter listing your item for sale on hopefully not have to answer the same AeBay, you can sit down and wait question twice. for the bidding to start. Although there are a number of jobs you will It is useful to write a form email have to do before completion. message to send on completion of the item to inform the bidder they have You will usually get a number of successfully won the auction. This questions emailed to you from email can also be used to outline the
In the final part of his series on buying and selling in on-line auction, Matthew Cook advises on how to complete your sale on eBay when the bids have arrived. bidders asking anything from the different accepted payment methods postage costs to detailed item and to give contact details. information. When the auction finally completes, This is why I stressed the importance after three, five, seven or 10 days, you of getting the listing right in the first have three working days to contact place. You may also find people the winning bidder to agree payment asking for the auction to be ended methods. You may find if you have early offering a fixed price for an detailed online payment methods item. This is against eBay policy and such as Pay Pal and Bill Point in the I strongly recommend that you let the auction listing then the winning item run for the auction period. bidder may have already paid.
A useful tip is to add the answers to Once you have received payment bidder's emails as additions to the from the winning bidder try and send item listing as well as replying by the item as soon as possible. Swift personal email. That way you will delivery keeps the buyers happy. You
14 Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 There’s no shortage of help, advice and information are perfectly within your rights to It will be useful to track the items you wait for cheque payments to clear, have posted and those you are still although you might only want to do waiting for payment. This can be this for items over a certain amount, achieved in two different ways, either £10 and over for example. I have not with a spreadsheet or by way of the had any problems with bounced eBay feedback process. cheques and once a bidder has bought one item, I dispatch any further items I leave feedback for the winning as soon as I receive the cheque bidder once I have posted the item. thereafter. That way the status of shipping is
Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 15 There’s every encouragement to take part
known to both the buyer and yourself Hopefully, if everything goes to plan, the seller. the winning bidder will contact you to let you know the item has been When sending the item at the Post received okay and will leave positive Office it is recommended that you feedback. You are now ready to list gain a Proof of Purchase certificate some more items on eBay. as you will then have a receipt that you sent the item if the winning If you do need to obtain the contact bidder claims the item has not be details of the winning bidder you can received. apply via eBay to have these emailed to yourself. If you start to list more It is also wise to write a return and more items you may want to take address on the back of the envelope in advantage of the eBay watching the case of mis-delivery. facilities. eBay allows your to
16 Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 There’s even an invitation to join the Community monitor 30 items. You can monitor My final words are simple: you will the auctions to see how much items encounter all sorts of people trading similar to yours are being sold for and and bidding on eBay. It mirrors the ensure you do not list a similar item at real world. It pays to be polite and the same time when the auction price calm at all times even if you get silly is low. or impatient email messages. It will be better in the long run to have 100% However, if the auction price is high positive feedback, having bitten and there are a number of bidders one's tongue a couple of times, than to competing for an item you have to have winning bidders leaving list, you can take advantage of the negative feedback over petty issues. interest in the other item and list your Good luck and happy eBaying. item before the other auction completes. See Internet Special starting page 24
Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 17 ARM Arena
fter a brief lull during the Spring, FreeCIV Athe gaming scene seems to have A major release arising from Peter warmed up quite a lot with a buzz of Naull's Linux/Unix OS porting activity in the last few weeks project is FreeCIV, a Linux port of the including a major release. formerly commercial game Civilisation2 that was released under With this activity occurring in the the General Public License (freely same space of time as the available sources but any
Our regular round up of the gaming scene, by Andrew Weston, includes the new arrivals and some old favourites making an upgraded come-back. announcement of Castle Technology modifications must also be released acquiring the rights to RISC OS, you publicly), which has in turn been could almost be forgiven for thinking ported to RISC OS by Peter. that some of the good old days of Acorn were upon us again! Readers might remember the SDL multiplatform programming routine With regards to gaming, it's not clear library that was mentioned in this yet if the arrival of the Iyonix has column several months ago brought spurred on any significant interest in to RISC OS by eQ R&D. This library games development but one things for has since been ported to RISC OS certain Ð with the platform's again with enhancements by Alan development assured it is hard to Buckley and, in fact, FreeCIV was imagine that anybody will be put off written using SDL. Thus, with a RISC from bringing new projects to the OS version of SDL, it was just a RISC OS domain. matter of utilising RISC OS SDL to convert FreeCIV for use under RISC OS.
18 Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 FreeCIV joins the RISC OS strategy games scene
FreeCIV is a turn-based strategy standard modem-based connections game similar in concept to Artex (56K and less) being almost 8MB in Software's TEK1608 but involving size. the construction and leadership of civilisations with the eventual goal of More SDL dominating a planet. Peter Naull has also used the SDL port to RISC OS to make available a It is turn-based as the player competes number of Linux SDL games and against the computer or connects to these are also available on his the internet to a dedicated web-server website. where he/she can join a game with another player. Many of these games have a recognisable style of play from days FreeCIV can be downloaded from gone by, such as Asteroids, Peter's website but be warned it is a Moonquake, Breakout, Pacman and very big download for those with Boulderdash. However, support for
Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 19 Patience Computer versions of card games are very abundant in the RISC OS community and a highly configurable release of Patience Now you can complete it has been released by Phil Donsback and can be found at his these games is only available to website, given at the end of this subscribers to Peter's Unix porting article. project so any reliability problems which I detected on testing one of Repton these games will have to wait for any Over the past few years David updates made to the game as a result Bradforth of ProAction has been of subscriber feedback to Peter. either commissioning or collating various conversions of BBC games Starfighter 3000 and one set of games which he A regular visitor to this column is this brought together for RISC OS is the popular Fednet game which was Repton collection, enhanced and repackaged by iSV Software (now available from APDL) Repton being the unforgettable lizard and has been subsequently enhanced who starred in numerous and regularly by Chris Bazley who runs massively selling titles on the BBC the Starfighter website. Micro.
He has been working on an Iyonix- One incredibly annoying bug that has compatible version of Starfighter apparently been carried over in the which will be available as an upgrade conversion is that which prevents the to owners of the enhanced version most complex and involved of all the CD. Reptons Ð Repton 2 Ð from being completed! At least one person had The game will also run in the desktop tried to complete it on the BBC and as an added bonus for owners of this couldn't and having bought the 32-bit powerful new machine. version, still couldn't do it over a
20 Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 Descent and Quake Author of one of these PC conversions, David McEwen, has been trying to find time to update both titles (including Descent 2) to be Iyonix- compatible. I'm told that all that remains is to update the sound routines before Iyonix owners can try out these games at a much faster speed than previously available. David is also hoping to include some additional features Take your pick of Patience games into both Descent 1 and 2 which were not available in the decade later. Fortunately, an update original release. Both titles in their has been made available on APDL's Risc PC form are sold by RCI. website and I'm informed that the game can finally be completed. I Beebit wonder what the original author The popular freeware BBC Micro would have said?! emulator !Beebit has been made Iyonix compatible along with various
Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 21 other updates to the application meaning that tape and disc images, Contacts (entire data of tape or disc in single file) of old BBC games available on Unix Porting Project the internet (sometimes breaching Website: www.chocky.org/unix/ copyright it should be noted) can be FreeCiv page: run on the latest RISC OS machine, www.chocky.org/unix/downloads.html itself a descendent, one could, say of #freeciv the famous old Acorn 8-bit machine. SDL page: www.riscos.info/sdl/ Other SDL games: Beebit is available for download from www.chocky.org/unix/downloads.html Michael Foot's website along with various other 8-bit associated utilities, Starfighter links and games. www.starfighter.acornarcade.com
Final words ADPL The arrival of the Iyonix has certainly Phone: 020 8778 2659 seemed to have been accompanied by Website: www.apdl.co.uk an interesting set of gaming Repton update: developments and with the future of www.apdl.co.uk/proact.htm#repton RISC OS hopefully safe in the skilled hands of Castle Technology, any Patience ongoing projects such as the Unix http://perso.worldonline.fr/donsback/ porting efforts together with ARM Arena regulars such as Beebit will RCI certainly have added incentive to Phone: 01925 757377 continue. Website: www.rcomp.co.uk
It will be interesting to see what Beebit releases the near future will bring. http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/mjfo ot/ See you next time.
22 Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 RISC OS RISC OS
2003 2003 MIDLANDS RISCOS SHOW
at CASTLE CASTLE The National Motorcycle Museum Solihull Nr Birmingham Saturday 29th November 2003 Adults £3, Arm Club members £2 Doors open 10am - 4.30pm Children under 14 (with an adult) FREE !
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RISC OS N M6 Junction 4
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Solihull Balsall Common & Kenilworth . IYONIX
by public transport or by road Easy access
voL o volvo National Motorcycle Museum 60450
A free coach service from Birmingham International rail station to and from The National Motorcycle Museum is available. Birmingham International Airport is also only 10 minutes away and you could catch the monorail to the train station to use the free bus from there.
Fot further details: Tel. 07010 709 849 - Fax. 07020 954 018 - EMail. [email protected] Web page: http://www.armclub.org.uk - ftp site: ftp://ftp.armclub.org.uk
Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 23 Internet special
Internet Access In A Nutshell
s part of our Internet special discount schemes, such as BT’s Aedition, this article aims to Friends and Family, to reduce call explain the different internet access costs. ISP numbers allegedly account methods available to members, their for more than a third of BT ‘Best pros and cons and any issues relating Friends’, getting a 20% discount on to using RISC OS with them. call costs.
Toby Smith begins our Internet Special series of articles with information on how to get connected and the choices in services available to RISC OS users.
Pay as You Go Dialup Equipment wise, you’ll need a Basic dialup access to the internet is standard telephone line from any now very common in the UK. This provider — BT or cable. You’ll also uses your normal phone line to need an external modem (or internal if transmit and receive the data and, as possible on your machine) and the such, stops you making or receiving relevant software, freeware or other calls during an internet session. commercial. Technically you should have no problems accessing an ISP Due to a peculiarity of our using RISC OS but do avoid ISPs unregulated telecoms industry, ISPs which require you to use their own can make profit on 0845 local rate software. dialup numbers, providing cheap access to the customer, without the Speed will be dependant on your need for a monthly fee arrangement. modem and the quality of the phone This ideally suits low usage levels, as line. Modern modems have a 56k you pay for precisely what you use in theoretical maximum, though most the value of the phone call. More usually only attain high 40s. If you regular users may wish to consider have a low quality phone line,
24 Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 Internet special especially one using overhead lines, Unmetered dialup you may get less. You’ll probably not A step beyond basic dialup is be able to tell the quality difference on unmetered dialup, where you pay a a normal voice call and there is fixed monthly fee for your internet usually little BT can or will do about access and can then use it as much as low speeds. I’ve had many reports of you want, as there are no fees related regular good connections using cable to usage levels. telephone lines, however, presumably due to more modern connections and The most common deals available cabling. from most ISPs require a BT telephone line. You will need to allow Caller Line Identity (commonly known as the The first deal covers Evenings only or 1471 service) when making these Off Peak, giving unlimited access calls. This allows the ISP to attach between 6pm-8am Monday to Friday your telephone number to their and at weekends (6pm Friday to 8am records, so that if any illegal activity Monday). Daytime usage requires a needs to be traced it can be linked to different (0845 local rate) phone a telephone number and thus address. number.
Most ISPs will allow you to sign up The second deal covers the whole for ‘free’ or Pay as You Go style day, all week and generally gets accounts online on their own website. called Anytime. You may need the help of a friend with an existing account, or a bit of These schemes use exactly the same time in an internet cafe or similar to equipment as normal dialup and only start your first account. Often these differ in the billing arrangements. You signup procedures require browser will pay a flat monthly fee by direct features not available on RISC OS debit or regular credit card payment to machines, so it may be worth using a your ISP. Internally this fee is split PC if possible. between BT and the ISP for their costs and profits.
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Unmetered schemes are tied to one you use the internet and can browse phone number and as such you cannot around without this kind of concern. use them when visiting friends or Even if you're not near the relatives as you can with Pay as You breakpoint, would knowing you had a Go arrangements. fixed fee make you use the internet more for a wider variety of things? Note that these services are not designed for constant access to the If your telephone line is with a cable internet. You will usually find that company rather than BT you can't there is a maximum call length of access either of these deals. However about two hours, after which you'll you may find that cable providers need to redial. The computer will offer a similar deal, often tied to their usually do this automatically for you own ISP. without problem. Similarly, if you use the service for long periods on a ISDN line continuous basis your ISP may spot While covering dialup access it is this and suggest moving up to ADSL worth briefly mentioning ISDN. An or similar. ISDN line is (roughly) a telephone line designed for two-channel digital Financially, the break-even point for transmission, rather than the analogue unmetered access is where your style of normal phone lines. metered dialup calls per month are equal to the monthly fee. Assuming a ISDN lines have a different and 0845 of peak call (1p a minute) with higher quarterly cost from BT and Best Friend discount, this is about 31 require different equipment. You can hours in the month (seven hours a use ISDN lines with normal week or one hour a day average). telephones via adapters or different sockets. Also with an ISDN line However, it is also worth considering you'll need an ISDN Terminal the advantages of an unmetered Adapter (TA) instead of a modem. access method. You won't have to worry about the costs mounting up as ISDN calls guarantee a basic rate of
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64k, higher than for modems but not Cable Broadband by much. At this rate you'll also be Cable TV companies have started able to make and receive voice calls offering broadband packages down the other channel. If you use providing a high speed, always on, both channels for data you can connection through their cable achieve 128k, which is quite a good network. Prices vary depending on speed and probably more than enough supplier and bandwidth. to handle the browsing requirements of one or two people. As a rough As a generalisation, you will be measure, the internet cafe at most provided with a cable modem device recent RISC OS shows has run that will give you a single standard comparatively comfortably off 128k network connection to attach one ISDN covering 10 or so machines. computer. If you wish to connect several machines you will need one ISDN can be used with metered and acting as a network gateway. Most unmetered accounts alike as long as cable providers use DHCP dynamic you check carefully with the ISP addressing, which will work on details that they accept ISDN calls on Linux, Windows or Mac systems and these services. Usually ISDN will RISC OS 5 or appropriate versions of have a different phone number to call. Select. Check very carefully to ensure that they'll support 128k or bonded calls if ADSL you wish to use the higher data rate. ADSL is a method of converting a At the last check, only BT Openworld single standard BT telephone line to supported this on a Pay as You Go take internet traffic. The data traffic is deal. Note that for 128k you'll pay sent as a high frequency sound down twice as you're essentially making the line, while the normal voice traffic two phone calls. remains on normal voice frequencies.
(See panel for details of ISDN BT does conversion at their exchange Routers at the end of this article). to direct the data traffic over their own networks to your choice of ISP and
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An Alcatel ADSL modem then onto the wider internet. At your ADSL, voice calls can still be made end you'll need a special filter in each and received at any time. of your phone sockets to separate the voice and data frequencies. ADSL To get ADSL you'll have to check if packages cover a range of speeds but your local exchange is ADSL the most common for domestic use is enabled. Most ISPs will have a web 512k, which is more than enough for page into which you can enter your even the most active household. With phone number to check. You'll also
28 Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 Internet special need to be within 5km (in terms of ADSL accounts vary in cost but are telephone line distance, not physical usually around the £25 a month mark distance) from that exchange. (paid by direct debit etc to the ISP). Features and services vary between Equipment wise, you'll need an ISPs, so do shop around. ADSL router, for £50-100. You'll need a network card in each machine (See the following article, which that is to access the internet, (prices deals with this topic). vary) and cabling. You'll also need an ADSL filter for every phone socket in Others your house, including the one for the Several other more exotic methods ADSL Router. It's worth getting good exist for providing broadband, filters and they cost about £10 each. generally focusing on regions that are not ADSL enabled. Several RISC OS dealers are now providing packages for ADSL Several providers exist using two way including a suitable router and microwave or radio systems from relevant networking equipment. If dishes on your house or office to their you are using a RISC OS machine local transmitters. Other providers with broadband it is worth going for offer a two-way satellite system for one of these packages so that you internet connection. Connection know it will work with your browser methods, speeds and prices vary. and network capabilities. If you're considering one of these (Tip: To reduce the number of filters, options, you may like to check with either for cost or because they’re a the Club's Technical Help Service little unsightly, you can play a bit who may be able to translate the clever depending on your phone provider's web pages into you what layout and re-cabling abilities. For a you'll need. good series of articles on the topic see www.clarity.it). See the details of routers on the following page.
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Routers A router is a device than allows a network or set of computers in one location access to another network. In the domestic setting, this means a small device, about the size of a book, that handles all the internet access for you, presenting a standard RJ45 network connection for several computers.
If you have several computers on a home network, then a router can give them all access to the internet equally, as opposed to having only one with internet access, or having one computer which dials the internet for the others. (In fact you do have one computer that does that; the router is a computer albeit a purpose built one).
Routers are generally controlled through a web interface from your normal computer, and all the internet access settings entered though this. You can then configure them to dial the internet on demand (for ISDN), or keep their connection up permanently (common for ADSL).
On the home network side, routers will generally offer a built in network hub for 4 or 8 computers over standard 10baseT network cable. All computers will need their own network card. The router will handle local IP addresses through DHCP, which will work on Linux, Windows or Mac systems, and RISC OS 5 or appropriate versions of Select. Alternatively you should be able to get the IP range the router is using from its web interface and assign a static address to older RISC OS machines.
ADSL and ISDN routers cost in the region of £50-100 depending on features. For ADSL they are the standard connection method. ADSL modems do exist (where the connected computer controls the connection) but generally cost more than routers with better features. If you wish to control a router from a RISC OS machine, it is wise to buy from a RISC OS dealer who can confirm for you that it can be controlled from your RISC OS browser software.
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Choosing An ISP
o access the internet at home size (how much space you can use). Tyou'll need an account with an Fifteen MB is about the average for a Internet Service Provider (ISP). In home-based account (as distinct from addition to connectivity, ISPs all business accounts). This is a provide a varying array of internet seemingly high limit, but if you use related services. lots of images, especially photos, you can quickly eat up the space. Here's our guide to the kind of services on offer, and how to rate each Advanced features include the ability ISP's offerings to see if it suits your to run certain provided CGI scripts personal requirements. (such as counters and email response
It’s import to get the right Interent Service Provider (ISP) to get exactly what you want from the internet.Toby Smith tells you what to look for when choosing one.
Each section covers the basic features forms). More advanced is the ability that most ISPs will provide. Some of to upload and use your own scripts. the more advanced options in each area are only available from specific Some providers also provide web ISPs. Choose which level will suit usage logs or statistics so you can see your internet work best, you can then who is using your site. If you're select an ISP providing all the running a significant site covering features you want. more than the usual family interest stuff, then this may be very useful in Web space analysing how your site is being Many providers will offer basic found, and what pages people are webspace, allowing you to build looking at. yourself a small website. Check for
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Email addresses In most cases all these addresses will All providers will offer basic email be sent to the same single POP box for address provision with their accounts, collection together. This has the usually collectable from one single advantage of being able to collect all mailbox. the mail in one go but that may not be ideal if you want to filter it, for Advanced features include a webmail example having different family interface so you can read your email member's email collected on their without having to download it. This is own machine. useful when not at home, such as on holiday or visiting others. In this case, some ISPs also offer the ability to collect specific addresses, While most providers offer a limited usually by changing the mail login number of addresses, certain from (for example) place.isp.co.uk to providers also offer an unrestricted fred.bloggs+place.isp.co.uk. Often number of email addresses within you'll have to experiment to see if this your own domain (such as: works, or hunt hard through FAQs
This allows you to create different Web proxy addresses for family members and A web proxy is a (set of) machines on also to maintain different personal the ISP's network through which identities as relevant. You might not requests for web pages from want to be called [email protected] customers can go. The proxy keeps a when emailing your CV for a job copy of each page, text and graphics, interview. Being able to be that all of the customers ask for [email protected] and (unless that page is marked as [email protected] dynamic and uncacheable). If the offers the choice for a much more page is requested again, it can be professional appearance when served from the proxy on the ISP's needed. network rather than requested from the original website.
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This often provides a much faster downtime etc) then the ISP’s support response and a better management of channels will be important to you. the ISP’s upstream connections to the rest of the internet, especially for Be wary of support help lines that are popular image heavy sites, but it can based around premium rate numbers, cause errors in some cases. Opinions especially when not backed up with a vary as to whether proxies are a good (free) email/web-form based system or bad thing but in general they do help. as well. Check newsgroups and web forums for a general opinion of how We recommend looking for an ISP good their support is. However, do that quotes a web cache that you can remember that one person with a use if you wish (opt in) but don’t have grievance tends to be much louder to either by requirements or by the than ten who where perfectly happy. ISP automatically putting all requests If the noise of grievances is deafening through their cache. though, take heed of it.
Support If you’re already technically All ISPs provide both email and knowledgeable about internet access, telephone support. You can probably levels of support are often more expect the vast majority of ISPs to not important rather than less. By the time be able to help with RISC OS related you have a problem, a basic support issues and most won’t even have system may not be able to help. Check heard of people not using Windows or that you can quickly gain access to Mac. However, certain specialist ISPs ‘intelligent’ support who can remain in the RISC OS market that understand your issue. can help you, or you can use other technical support systems available. News access The RISC OS scene is blessed with a If, however, you encounter a problem number of well populated and that’s not RISC OS specific (such as genuinely useful usenet discussion missing emails, failure to connect to groups for general discussion and some websites, personal web hosting assistance with RISC OS related
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problems. This In general this will not make much is another difference. However there are a few mark of our scenarios where static IP is better. great remaining Firstly, if you need any secure or community restricted access to machines on other spirit. If you parts of the internet, then static IP will enjoy mean that your machine can be following the simply identified to the other machine newsgroups, for security rules. If this applies to check that the you, you’ll probably know and other ISP provides a security methods that don’t rely on news feed and static IP exist. that there isn’t a restricted set Secondly, if you have a permanent of groups that connection and want to run any doesn’t services on your computer (your own include the incoming mail server, web server, ftp comp.sys.acorn server etc), static IP will be necessary A choice of hierarchy. so your machine is always accessible Acorn newsgroups in the same ‘place’.
Static IP Backup connection An IP address is the number that For an ADSL ISP, check to see if the uniquely identifies each machine ISP provides a modem backup line for connected to the internet. With most you to call if your ADSL service is accounts, you’ll be provided with down for any reason. For static IP dynamic IP, where you have one of ADSL connections, see if the modem the ISP’s pool of addresses, changing connection can take over your ADSL each time you connect. With static IP IP to keep your services up and you’ll always be given the same running in the same place. address.
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A Permanent Presence
ne of the perennial problems on Get a Redirectable address Othe internet is becoming tied to Many services have cropped up one ISP as your contacts get used to recently where you can apply for an your email address, making you email address that can be configured reluctant to change it. However you to forward on to your normal address. can lose that address when you need If you quote this redirectable address
Changing you ISP can be a problem if it means having to change your email address too. Toby Smith explains some of the ways to make your address permanent. to change to take advantage of a better to your contacts, you can safely connection deal, or if the ISP ceases change your underlying ISP. Simply to trade. update the forwarding (usually through a web interface) and hey This is all the more important if you presto, all your existing contacts have are working for yourself, for example, no need to know! and trying to maintain a permanent address for work reasons. Redirectable services are available from an increasing number of Similarly, many email addresses end professional bodies, school or up looking silly, unprofessional or University alumni associations and rather forced and you end up with similar bodies, even our own [email protected] — not an Association of Acorn User Groups. address that is all that memorable, or that pairs well to your name or Other commercial services abound location. on the internet with a variety of domains (the bit after the @) and So what can you do about this? prices.
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Buy a domain Alternately, you could choose a third Your own internet domain (such as party domain hosting service that will armclub.org.uk) will not only provide register the domain for you, and then the ability to take your email address forward email and web traffic to the around with you, but also give the addresses of your choice (configured same benefit to your website. through a web interface, often). This Domains cost surprisingly little these often provides the best flexibility. days, so this could be a worthwhile option for you. The domain hoster's interface generally allows you to set a single You could choose to purchase a address where email to any address in domain through your current ISP, who the domain will be invisibly can then tie it to your existing email redirected. Some services also allow a account and website. When you come set of specific addresses within the to change ISP, the domain (which domain to be forwarded to other should be your property) can be specified addresses in addition to the transferred to your new choice of ISP. catchall method. Similarly, web This has the advantage of handling all requests can be forwarded to your internet dealings in one place. wherever your site is hosted through a However there are some variety of methods. disadvantages. Some ISPs restrict what type of accounts can be linked to One point to note is that while domain domains, so your pay-as-you-go registration is a very competitive and account may not be suitable. Often thus low priced, with two years buying through your ISP is a little more forwarding on a .co.uk address in the costly, as the assumption is that if you region of £2-3, these prices represent want a domain you'll be getting more only the initial registration period. web and email traffic, which may not After this initial period, expect be the case. In the event of a change, subsequent periods to be around £50. the domain transfer can take some When choosing a domain hoster, it's time, and does depend on a degree of also worth checking for their transfer cooperation between the two ISPs. out fees should you have problems
36 Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 Internet special with their service and wish to move other countries and a selection of new your domain elsewhere. Some of the equivalents to .com such as .biz and cheaper providers do give quite .info which are yet to take off in exorbitant costs on this, which should common usage. be avoided. Think also of the interaction with the How do I check? initial part of the email address too. Most companies that can register [email protected] is a domains for you will provide some little repetitious and won’t extend form of online interface to see if your very well to personal addresses for chosen domain name is still available. other family members, for example. My personal favourite is provided by However, bloggs.me.uk may well www.simply.com as it will check a already have been registered, even for large number of endings in one go and uncommon surnames. allow you to look up who has the address if it is already registered. If Beware of words in your domain you’re going for a permanent name that are ambiguous to spell, presence on the internet, think unless you purchase all of the variants. carefully about what your domain Similarly, look up any domains that should be. might be related, like yours with extra punctuation for example or the com Think about your choice of top-level version of your chosen co.uk and have domain. Do you want to end with ‘uk’ a quick look at their websites. It’s not to indicate your location? ideal if people mistyping your address Traditionally the most common get led to a site you’d not want to be domains are within .com associated with. (companies), co.uk (UK companies), org.uk (UK organisations and non So once you’ve chosen your domain commercial ventures, including a lot and provider, you should find that this of personal domains) and the more is the last ‘change of address’ you’ll recent .me.uk (for personal ever have to make. Just remember to domains).Other top levels exist for keep the Club updated too!
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Site Seeing: Travel & Holidays
y the time you read this I will bizarre! I suppose if you just want to Bprobably be back from my get from one major city to another on travels but at the time of writing I am mainland Europe it would be OK but busy using the Internet to plan our I'm a rather awkward customer. Next annual holiday. More and more I tried their rivals, the RAC people, it seems, are going through (www.rac.co.uk/). They were even
Sue Clamp plans her holiday online and finds some interesting and informative websites to book the journey and guide her to her chosen destinations. this process now, rather than using the worse. Not only did they not traditional travel agent on the High recognise my home town but their Street. advanced route planner, which includes European routes, didn't This year I decided to try finding seem to work in Oregano. route maps online and started with the AA site at www.theaa.com/travelwat My last port of call was Michelin at ch/planner_main.jsp. Here you can www.viamichelin.com. Never having plan routes in Great Britain, Ireland used the site before, I was pleasantly (Republic and Northern) and Europe. surprised to find how comprehensive I was disappointed that although I it was. Not only did it recognise the could plan routes really well for one town where I live and my UK small town to another in England, destination but I was also able to plot once I tried small towns in Europe the accurate routes across Europe, site couldn't really help me. The including the obscure towns that we options it gave for Tarazona in plan to visit. Also, by clicking on northern Spain, for example, where I symbols at various places en route I hope to visit family, were somewhat could access lists of hotels,
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A ViaMichelin map pinpoints the Hotel Cygne in Tours restaurants and places of interest in traffic information. ViaMichelin is those areas. These are categorised, not without adverts though, but at described and contact details given, least they were unobtrusively placed where appropriate. Maps pinpointing at the bottom of the page. these places can also be shown. Apart from the routing service you can also There are, of course, other map and access maps, including street maps, of route finding sites, including many towns and cities across Europe, Multimap.com. I compared a route as well as weather forecasts and produced by Multimap with one
Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 39 Internet special recommended by Michelin and found Ryanair site, who recently bought that the Michelin route was much Buzz. I would imagine that Easyjet is closer to the one that I would similarly easy to book with, but I normally take for that journey. At the wasn’t going to book a flight just for moment only routes on mainland the purpose of this article! Great Britain are available at Multimap. Once you have selected your destination, you need to find For pinpointing an exact address in accommodation. Using key words in the UK, Streetmap.co.uk is hard to a search engine will come up with beat. The Ordnance Survey maps are long lists of hotels or apartments. large, clear and have an arrow Sometimes these are booked via sites pointing to the exact location. In this who specialise in this, like an online respect it is better than Multimap travel agent, rather than directly with which attempts to circle the location the hotel or apartment owner. One but this doesn’t work in Oregano 1; such ‘travel agent’ site is the hotel the circle appearing to the bottom left booking engine at www.venere.com/, of the map — pretty useless. whose slogan is “Sleep With Us”!
Booking flights online has been The sites I like best are those which possible for a few years now and, as I give you a real flavour of the region am a frequent flyer to Germany, I you happen to be visiting. A superb have often used this facility and in the example of this is past used the budget airline, Buzz. www.donlorenzo.com/casas.htm. Las Their website was always easy to use Casas de Lorenzo is a site which has and gave no problems in Oregano, been set up by a character called until relatively recently when a Lawrence Bohme. Obviously his change in their javascript made it main aim is to rent out his houses and difficult, though not impossible, to apartments in the area around enter the country information on the Granada in Spain but the site gives its address details page. This fault seems visitors much more than just a to have been carried over to the description of the properties, prices
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The Las Casas de Lorenzo site provides extensive guides to the areas around Granada as well as offering houses and apartments to rent. and contact details. Lorenzo, as he is his web sites that I believe them to be known in the area, has written essential reading for anyone thinking extensive guides, illustrated with of visiting the area, not just those digital photos and pen and ink wishing to rent one of his properties. drawings, to the area where his houses and apartments are, and also I always enjoy the planning of a of Granada. On the site you will find holiday Ð it's so exciting; the many of these and a link to his other Internet can bring the world to your site, specifically about Granada, computer's screen. called ¡Viva Granada! So good are
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Getting A Website With WebGen
few years ago if you'd come First of all you'll have to download all Aback from holidays with a few the images from the camera, then rolls of film, you'd get them probably run quite a few of them developed and then mount the through a photo retouching package, pictures in a photo album for friends to correct under or over exposure, that and family to view. In today's modern annoying slight tilt of the horizon
Like your own website, to show your snapshots or display your other interests and views. David Ruck explains how to do it the easy way with free software. digital age, friends and family can be most of my shots have (I don't think spread out around the world, so why my eyes are quite level!) and, if wait to see them in person to show off you're a bit more adventurous, clone your snaps? Take advantage of your out lamp posts and that pesky friend digital camera and create an online who keeps wandering into the edges album on the World Wide Web for of shots. everyone to enjoy. You'll have to find out the details However, if computers really did from your ISP on how to upload the make everyone's life easier, you'd images to your website via FTP and, connect the camera to the computer if you have a modem, spend a and hit the upload to website button considerable time transferring the and everything would be done for data. But, hold on, when you view you. Of course the technology never your web page all you find is a list of quite lives up to its billing and making filenames. You can click to download a web album is quite a bit more work them but that also takes ages for the than the old fashioned equivalent. large pictures from modern multi- mega pixel digital camera. Where is
42 Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 Internet special the nicely laid out grid of small they wouldn't let me control all the thumbnail images of the pictures, parameters used by ChangeFSI. allowing you to click to get the larger but web friendly main picture? Well Once WebGen is loaded it sits on the you could create all this by hand. First icon bar waiting for you to drag a you'll need to know a bit of HTML so directory of images to it. You don't you can create an index page have to worry about copying your containing a table and links to images first as it won© t alter anything thumbnails and main pictures. Then in this directory Ð unlike some of the you'll need to run each of your other programs which could destroy pictures through a program such as your original images. Clicking on its !ChangeFSI twice; once to scale icon pops up the setup window and down to thumbnail size and again to a this is where the main improvement reduced size and/or quality for the of version two over version one is main image, so it won© t take as long to apparent. Instead of a large window download as the raw image from the packed with all the options, they split camera. into logical groups, accessed via a pop up menu in the top right. There This sounds like a lot of work and are a vast number of options which you'd be right to think so. But before can seem quite daunting but luckily you give up and go back to film and you can leave many of them at the plastic wallets, there are programs to default values. If you do happen to set help out with the website generation them all up, they can be saved and and this is where !WebGen2 by D.E. retrieved for use again using the Stratford comes in. It's not the only buttons at the bottom of the window. program in this field, I've previously tried half a dozen others but !WebGen The first page controls the style of site was the only program that did to be generated. You can make just a everything I wanted. With the other table of thumbnails, which could be programs I often had to fiddle with useful if you want to link the the HTML by hand, or even thumbnails to your own pages. The regenerate all the pictures because style I use most is the classic table
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The first page controls the style of site to be generated layout of thumbnails which leads to commercial sites I've visited. The last the large images when clicked on. style is to create a table of thumbnails Unlike other programs which just on the left and when the mouse moves display the large image, requiring you over them a larger image is shown on to keep hitting the back button to go the right. Your browser must have back to the index, WebGen actually javascript enabled for this to work leads you to a page containing the and all your images must be the same picture along with forward, back and size or they will be shown stretched. I return to the index buttons, so you can don© t really like this style of site as it move between the large pictures more makes it harder to download the large easily. It doesn't put a previous button images as when you move the mouse on the first image, or a next on the off the thumbnail to the large image to last, which is better than many save it, it disappears. I think this could
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The second page allows for text and the number of thumbnails be fixed by different javascript, titles and headings on the page and although you might want this as a also the number of thumbnails that feature to discourage people from will appear on the index page. After downloading your pictures but it is this number is reached a new index possible to find out their URL from page will be started. It's a good idea looking at the source of the page if not to put too many thumbnails on a you know what you are doing. page as, otherwise, it can take a long time before the page is downloaded The second page has fields to allow initially and also to redraw if you you to enter the text that will appear in keep flicking back and forth between the index and the images in the same window.
The third page controls the settings for the thumbnails. You can choose the size, which should be from 80 pixels to 200. It is important to get this right, as too small The third page controls the thumbnail settings and it may be impossible
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The fourth page controls the size and quality of the main pictures to tell what they are but too large will which corresponds to about eight 120 lead to slow downloads and wasting pixel wide thumbnails plus gaps and of your web space. The quality setting scrollbars. for thumbnails can be quite low; down to as little as 50% because they The fourth page controls the size and are so small there isn© t a lot of detail to JPEG quality of the large pictures. be lost by using a lower quality You should again aim for the size of setting and the thumbnails then screen most people are using but you download quicker. The number of may also have to take into account thumbnails across the page should be how much web space your ISP chosen in conjunction with the width allocates and reduce size and quality to ensure the page isn© t too wide to be if the site becomes too big. Quality displayed on most browers. 1024x768 settings from 75% to 90% work best. is still the most popular screen size, Scaling down images by an even ratio tends to give better results. I choose 800 for my 1600x1200 camera pictures, as this will halve the size of both landscape and portrait pictures. The maximum size seems to be 999 pixels, which may prove a limitation if you want to provide huge pictures for lucky broadband users, hopefully The fifth page allows links to other this restriction will be lifted in future pages on your site to be set up versions.
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The sixth page controls your site’s appearance
The fifth page isn© t as obvious as it The sixth page controls the could be and I had to refer to the appearance of the site. You can !Help file for information. If your choose the font face and the colours picture gallery is going to be part of a used for the text and backgrounds. larger site, this allows you to put links The font face attribute is widely on the thumbnail index pages to take supported by non-RISC OS browsers you other pages on your site, or but only by Oregano 2 on our perhaps your friends' sites. Links to platform, so you may not be able to the previous, next and home page can see the effect of this. be set up, along with a mail-to link, as people will be desperate to email you The colours can be entered as and say how great your pictures are. hexadecimal values to match a graphic or other pages on your site but Alternatively it is likely to be if you can't easily see colours in terms harvested by spammers trawling your of hex RGB triplets, the pop-up web pages and you© ll receive a lot of menus contain a range of more junk email instead, so I wouldn© t meaningful named colours. My recommend too much use is made of favourite feature is being able to pick this feature. a background image to be tiled behind the index and picture pages.
Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 47 Internet special
Finally, the seventh page allows the unseen information to be added
The seventh and final page (pheeew!) After going through all the set up, or allows you to enter the invisible as much as you need, you are ready to information on the web page such as hit the build site button. Your options the description and keywords fields. will be checked and any warnings When search engine robots examine (such as forgetting to enter a heading) this page they can use the information will be displayed in the bar just above in the keywords to build their indexes, the buttons but if all is well a save box allowing people to find your site will appear allowing you to name the when they enter similar search website directory and drag it to where phrases. you want it created. Note that if you are using a pre-RISC OS 4 formatted Use as many keywords as you can disc, you need to ensure that the think of to get the best results, location supports long filenames or although don© t repeat any as this could the site won© t be generated correctly. reduce your rating and above all be !RaFS can be used for this, although honest! my recommendation is to upgrade to
48 Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 Internet special
Now you can start putting the words and pictures on your new website
RISC OS 4 and get the full benefit of big camera pictures. Not only do you long filenames everywhere. have enough time to make a cup of tea but you© ll easily be able to mow the Next comes the generation stage lawn and wax the car before it where the HTML is created and the completes. I would prefer it to have an pictures are passed through your copy option to run the image processing of !ChangeFSI to create the program in a task window like thumbnails and large images. This the !JClean does. You could then carry only part of the program that I am on with other things while it disappointed with as it single tasks completes. At least a comprehensive during this process, which can take a progress dialog is displayed showing very long time with a large number of you how far it's got and how much
Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 49 Internet special
longer you are likely to have to wait the main reason it won© t run is the way based on the speed it has processed the BASIC program is compressed the previous images. and it will work fine on a 32bit machine if this and one other minor My other niggle with the program is issue is corrected. I© ve passed this that currently it is 26bit only, as the information on to the author and generation process would benefit hopefully a 32bit compatible release greatly from the increased speed of will be forthcoming. the Iyonix. I© ve looked in to this and
50 Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 Internet special
Once the generation is done, you can Simon. You didn© t think we spent our then admire your results browsing entire time sat around playing with locally before uploading to your web computers did you? space. The pictures opposite and above are of an example site I© ve just Just after writing this article, I knocked up with a few (out the 500) emailed the author, Dave Stratford, to pictures I took on my recent trip congratulate him on the excellent across Canada with fellow ARM Club program and to mention the couple of Committee members Mark, Tom and issues with Iyonix compatibility,
Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 51 Internet special large image size and multi-tasking. this could be done with a utility such The next day I received an email as !FSI_Batch or !BatchFSI which saying that he had produced an Iyonix allows groups of images to be compatible version for me to try. This processed by !ChangeFSI. All this is was very welcome and a quick test mentioned in the help file and creating a site from eight 1600x1200 interactive (no marks to me for not original pictures converting to 120 spotting it) but he agreed it would be pixel 75% thumbnails and 800 pixel more convenient to allow large maximum large images, gave the images to be produced within the following results: program and raised the limit to 2000 pixels. Risc PC Kinetic 233 90 seconds Iyonix 31 seconds. Finally, on the subject of multi- tasking, Dave is now looking into That©s a very impressive 3x speed using task windows for future increase, benefitting from both the versions but in the meantime he is Iyonix©s faster processor and ultra working on a facility to pause the quick UDMA disc system. It does, processing. Not as good as full however, pose a nasty problem: using multi-tasking, but it does mean if you the Iyonix means there won't be time start getting in a blind panic because to wax the car or mow the lawn while you haven© t checked your email for 10 my 500 holiday pictures are being minutes, you can log on, collect your processed! I©ll have to settle for a quick spam, and then resume processing sprinkle of the hose for each of them afterwards. So not only a great before the computer is free again! program but superb support from the author too; which is another example Dave went on to point out that the of why the RISC OS scene is good. limitation of 999 pixels for the large image could be circumvented by !WebGen 2.02 is available to be leaving the field empty, in which case downloaded, free of charge, from the pictures would just be copied and www.argonet.co.uk/users/daves/ not scaled down. If scaling is required software/index.html
52 Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 The Double Cross Puzzle
Our regular word teaser from Roger King
E R O A N O E I A U N N C R L A O L T R O N E I T I R A P S U S A I U T E U L N C E H R S U S P P S © Place the 42 letters M A shown below into the grid to make valid words. R X I Place the 42 letters shown below into the grid to make valid words H E A C I O U U L T A C I O V A D K O Y A E A E L O Y A E M R Z B H M R Z B H N S Z The solution is on page 63.
Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 53 RISC OS Rhymes
The latest verses from Alan Wickham’s poetic computer, with apologies to Lewis Carroll.
The Mad Computer Enthusiast's Song
1) He thought he saw a Megaflop, that cluttered up his Screen. He looked again and saw it was a yellow limousine. The one thing I regret, he said, is that it isn't green.
2) He thought he saw a Floppy Disc, flying like a kite. He looked again and saw it was Compressed Kilobyte. If this turns up again, he said, I will have seen the light.
3) He thought he saw a Textofile that hunted for its Bits. He looked again and saw it was glass of slivovitz. Should I drink this, he said, I© ll land up having fits.
4) He thought he saw some Bits-per-Sec converted into Bauds. He looked again and saw it was a can of nemetodes. We can't have this, he gruffly said, it all depends on Codes.
5) He thought he saw a Wysiwyg that questioned him in `C'. He looked again and saw it was total lobotomy. It gives one fright, he said aright, but the Software does come free.
54 Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 6) He thought he saw a Vector Font that nestled in his Disc. He looked again and saw it was hyped-up basilisk. I'd like to play the Game, he said, but cannot take the risc.
7) He thought he saw a Data Bus waiting for its Master. He looked again and saw it was a faulty TV Raster. Had I more speed, said he indeed, then it would go much faster.
8) He thought he saw an Analog, a thing he'd never mention. He looked again and saw it was within the Fourth dimension. Such a state, he did relate, only causes tension.
9) He thought he saw a Printer Head that Dithered in its Kerning. He looked again and saw it was a lady not for turning. If this be true, he said anew, it isn't worth the learning.
Arnold Kilroy Byte
There will be another epic poem from our literary computer next issue.
Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 55 USB Comes To RISC OS
he new Iyonix and Omega offer can store files, including anything Tgreat opportunities for expansion from the tiny solid state hard drive on due to the inclusion of industry a key ring, to digital cameras and standard interfaces such as PCI and readers for various memory card particularly USB, which is used by formats such as SmartMedia, almost every peripheral these days. Compact Flash and Memory Stick. However, so far support of USB
With USB connection now being brought to RISC OS, David Ruck looks at the Iyonix USB Mass Storage Driver and R-Comp’s 6-in-1 USB Card Reader. devices other than keyboards, mice The new Castle driver will allow most and printers, has been slow coming (but not all) of these types of devices both on the Iyonix and the USB to be accessed. It is currently only podule cards for older machines. available as a free upgrade for Iyonix Castle have now started to address machines and can be downloaded that with the release of a mass storage from the internet and installed with class driver, which is a very welcome the minimum of fuss, using the Iyonix development that will allow the use of Update Watcher. However, Castle many new and previously intends to release the driver for the inaccessible peripherals on a RISC Castle USB podule card for older OS machine. machines too. Whether this will also be free is not yet known. The aim for USB was to cut down on the number of drivers and make Once installed, the new driver sits similar classes of devices compatible dormant until a suitable device is and accessible with the minimum of plugged into one of the USB sockets additional software. Among the most on the machine or an attached USB common and useful are devices which hub. A black removable drive icon
56 Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 will suddenly appear on the iconbar prefixed with SCSI:: as the USB between the hard discs and the floppy driver presents the drives as pseudo drive icons. The drive works just like SCSI devices. I would have expected a DOS format floppy, allowing you to to see a USB filing system rather than read files from the devices and, in SCSI, as support for real SCSI cards most cases, write files back to it. It's (both PCI and Podule) are being as simple as that! But like DOS disc worked on. It remains to be seen if the remember to dismount before limit of eight drives per filing system removing it, to ensure the completion proves to be a restriction if eventually of all writing operations. you have both USB and real SCSI drives connected at once. The only niggle with the system is that, because most cards are DOS I mentioned that the Castle driver will formatted, they are accessed via access most, but not all, storage DOSFS which does not support long devices and that's because there are file names. At the time of writing some devices which don't conform to Warm Silence Software are still the mass storage specification. These dragging their feet on the issue of require specific drivers when used porting their extremely useful under Windows, so will be unlikely to software to 32bit and the excellent work on RISC OS. You can tell if the Win95FS is not available. File names device is likely to work by enquiring over eight letters will be truncated, its class. This can be done with the which results in something like very nice graphical !USBinfo utility longfi~1.jpg instead of by Paul Reuvers longfilename.jpg. It's less of a (www.xat.nl/en/riscos/sw/usb/), or problem with digital camera images from the command line. Use than general file storage, as the names *USBDevices to list devices and then of the pictures tend to be short and so *USBDevInfo with a parameter of the won't be mangled. devices number from the first command. The device class, sub class Incidentally, you'll notice from the and protocol will be displayed and if title bars of any filer windows you the numbers are 8-6-0, 8-6-1 or open on the drive that they are 8-6-80 the device will be supported.
Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 57 Example:-
*usbdevices No. Bus Dev Class Description 1 1 1 9/ 0 NEC OHCI root hub 2 1 2 9/ 0 Iiyama Hub 3 1 3 0/ 0 Prolific Technology Inc. IEEE-1284 Controller 4 1 4 0/ 0 Logitech USB Mouse 5 2 1 9/ 0 NEC OHCI root hub 6 2 2 0/ 0 Chicony USB Keyboard 7 1 5 0/ 0 Genesys Logic Flash Reader 8 2 3 FF/FF OLYMPU C-2100 Ultra Zoom
*usbdevinfo 8 USB release : 0110 Device class : FF Device subclass : FF Device protocol : FF Max packet size : 08 Vendor ID : 07B4 Product ID : 0100 Device ID : 0100 Manufacturer : `OLYMPU' Product : `C-2100 Ultra Zoom' Serial number : `' # of configs : 1
When the driver was released I was using Photodesk's !PhotoLink on holiday in Canada but I found out software to transfer the images from about it while checking my email. my Olympus C2100UZ via serial. The Iyonix mailing list was flooded This was slow, back when I got my with reports of successful attempts to first digital camera with a 16MB card access Olympus cameras and I was taking 20 minutes, but now with a very pleased. Up until then I had been 128MB, a 64MB and three 16MB
58 Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 cards all full of pictures, downloading cards, but it’s actually a tiny silver by serial would take almost as long as box, measuring just 8cm x 6cm and the three-week holiday! 1.5cm thick. The front looks as though it has been scratched to reveal However, when I got back and shiny metal underneath but it hasn’t plugged my camera in to the machine, been damaged in transit — that is I was most disappointed to find it was actually the design, as weird as it not recognised. As you can see from looks at first. Around the edges are the the details opposite, its class numbers USB connector and holes to insert the are FF-FF-FF which means a various types of card which are proprietary driver is needed. My supported, which are: C2100UZ is now a couple of years old and was one of the last to have • Compact Flash serial and the first to have USB, so the • SmartMedia USB support is not mature. All the • MicroDrive newer USB-only Olympus cameras • Memory Stick (as with those of most other • MultiMedia Card manufacturers) do support the mass • Secure Digital storage class driver. Actually there are only four holes, as As luck would have it, a few days a MicroDrive is an impossibly small later R-Comp made an announcement hard drive compatible with Compact that they were selling a 6-in-1 USB Flash, and MultiMedia Cards and card reader and I was able to go and Secure Digital cards share the same see it in action at the Dutch Show. The connector. The reader should allow previous incarnations of card readers the majority of storage devices from were parallel port affairs, which were cameras and PDAs to be accessed. clunky to connect and were not always reliable. However, the new The reader comes with a very good generation of USB readers are very quality zip-up pouch to store the unit much improved. From the size of the and the cable, with pockets which can box I was expecting some huge unit, hold a couple of storage cards, which to cater for the six different types of means you can take it with you and
Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 59 The reader comes in a zip up pouch which also holds the cable and a couple of cards use it on a variety of machines. Inside has USB sockets round the back, the pocket is a CD clipped to the size you’ll definitely want a to get a USB of a credit card, which means it won’t extension cable. work in vertical CD-ROM drives; but this contains only PC drivers which On plugging in, four black drive icons aren’t needed on the Iyonix or most immediately appear, one for each of modern PCs for that matter. Only a the distinct types of card. short length of cable is provided but, Unfortunately these are just labelled once straightened out, it is long 0: to 3: and there is no indication of enough for the unit to reach the desk which drive is for which type of card. when plugged into the front USB There are two ways to find out which sockets of the Iyonix. Unfortunately, is which. One is to put a card in the it is not quite long enough to let it sit reader and click on each, the wrong on top of the case without it springing ones will give a drive empty error and off. If used with a machine that only the right one rewards you with a filer
60 Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 window. The second way is to notice the single sheet of documentation which R-Comp provides which explains the order!
Interestingly, while on a PC the card reader appears as one drive and you can access only one card at a time, under RISC OS you can put a card of each type in to each of the four slots and read each simultaneously. I don't know how likely it is you will want to be able to copy files from say a SmartMedia to a CompactFlash but it's An extension lead may be necessary if the USB something for you to socket is at the back of the computer boast about over PC owning friends, as you can slot both in with the added advantage that the at the same time and copy directly, reader is powered from the USB whereas they have to copy to hard disc, cable, whereas my camera still runs of swap cards and copy back again. batteries when connected to USB Ð and doesn't last long on even the The first test of the unit was to read all highest capacity NMiHs. the holiday images of my cards which. despite the increased speed of I did a couple of speed tests reading the USB, still took more than a and writing images to and from the quarter of an hour to download all Iyonix hard disc, using a SmartMedia 240MB. Much faster than serial and card from my camera and
Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 61 CompactFlash card borrowed from a the cards, used by the manufacturer to PDA. The SmartMedia reading speed enable features on the camera. is considerably faster than the speed quoted on the box, which is good. The The card reader is now also available CompactFlash reading is as claimed. in an internal version to mount in the Writing to the cards is quite a bit spare 3.5º bay. slower than reading but this is normal with the storage technology used in So, thanks to Castle and R-Comp, the cards. RISC OS has taken another leap forward, opening up the use of a vast SmartMedia: number of new toys. Following on Read 362KB/s Write 245KB/s from our Digital Photography Special CompactFlash: in the last issues, there is now no Read 360KB/s Write 126KB/s excuse for not getting into this exciting field with the ease pictures With the small size of the unit and its can be downloaded to your favourite convenient carrying case, writing computer. files onto card is an alternative to blowing a CD to take your processed Castle USB Mass Storage driver is images (or other data) to a friend's free to Iyonix users. machine or in to work. Be careful to Web: www.iyonix.com delete any files you have put on cards to be used in cameras, as they may not be able to clear non picture files, or 6-1 USB Card Reader those stored outside the directory Price: £36 including VAT structure they create. In which case Supplier: R-Comp you will have to do a reformat on the 22 Robert Moffat, High Legh, camera to get the full space back on Knutsford, Cheshire WA16 6PS the card. Formatting cards is not yet Tel: 01925 755043 supported on RISC OS but it is not Fax: 01925 757377 always a good idea to reformat a card Email: [email protected] used by a camera on a computer, as it Web: www.rcomp.co.uk can lose any special information on
62 Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 The Double Cross Solution
The puzzle is on page 53.
Z E B R A O A N D O Z E N I A U A N A N A C R L T A B O O Z L O T Y R O N E V I C T I R A O P O S S U M I S L A M I C U T E U H L A N C E H T R Y S T H U R S T P P S © U M I A K R X I S H E E R U L T E A S E S
Get it all correct? There’ll be another chance to check your word power in our next issue.
Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 63 Aunty Gill’s Journal
PC depression then this could still be your best Dear Aunty Gill, course of action. Another drawback to this is that it limits your social My boss is evil and cruel. You see, he contact. Let me explain that complex insists I use a Windows PC at work idea. It means meeting and chatting to and even spends company money on people. No, not online. In person. PCs on a regular basis. What can I do? Speaking aloud. Of course, you may consider that quite an asset. Depressed
Gill Smith reveals her abilities as a knowledgeable and caring Agony Aunt and deals with some of the questions outside the range of our Technical Help Team.
Dear Depressed, A second possible option is to change what's inside your box at work to a There are several options available to RISC PC, given that your boss is you. Of course, the first is to give up highly unlikely to notice. So long as your job and sit at home, playing on you have a big grey box on or under your RISC machine and rehearsing your desk, no one's going to pay very your evil laugh. I'm not sure why the close attention to its internal laugh is necessary but it'll probably mechanisms. Unless, that is, someone add to the fun. else tries using it while you're away, when it then might end up There is one small drawback to this enlightening the technical support option and that's the lack of a regular people at your company. Of course, salary, so I don't recommend this they might just hit it with a hammer, option if you like, say, eating. Of completely destroying it. This option course, if instead of Dominos doing does have its difficulties, as they so, your mother provides your food, might not like you sneaking out with
64 Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 a computer every night to protect your I hope that helps you, Depressed. You OS. see, there are so many alternatives available to you. Just like on a menu, Of course there is a very simple only without the one you wanted alternative. Just shut up and put up greyed out because you haven’t with it. Everyone else has to and they remembered to do something don’t even get to know, as a smug complex before even looking at the secret, that computers that do exactly menu. as you ask them even exist. The rest of the world’s poor fools think that Aunty Gill making up what someone once thought you might like to consider Doleful docs users doing, based on some tick-box you Dear Aunty Gill, left on because you’ve never found it, is actually acceptable and normal. I simply don’t know what to do. All my friends keep emailing me Word You could even laugh (that well- docs and, although my superior RISC rehearsed evil laugh) out loud machine can of course open them, I whenever your machine crashes, really feel that these poor souls should ignores your instructions, or simply learn the error of their ways. How can takes forever to do a trivial operation. I get my friends to understand that OK, so your colleagues may be led to there is another way? How can I think that you’re mad as a hatter but enlighten them, so that they turn from you can enjoy your knowledge that the path Microsoft, towards the light you definitely made the right decision that is RISC OS. on buying your efficient home machine. And of course, laughter Odd One Out leads to fewer wrinkles than frowning. Dear O3,
So your new motto could be this: “for You’re quite right to show such deep the sake of your skin, when it crashes, concern for your friends and their grin.” affliction. And, may I add, well done
Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 65 on having friends in the plural. Are you’ve physically met — who do you sure you’re not related to any of share your superior knowledge. the people you’re talking about? It’s good to have people around Anyway, concerning your valiant sometimes who understand just how attempts to open their eyes. Of course, difficult it can be to keep a straight you must keep trying to explain the face when yet another friend tells a way forward to them, as this simple tale of their PC crashing yet again, enlightenment could improve their while yours hasn’t been turned off lives beyond their wildest dreams… since you last took it apart to upgrade unless they have very wild dreams, the memory. like that one about… mmmm. Oh! What was I saying? Oh yes. Do Instead of laughing, take continue to explain gently to your encouragement from these shared friends the delights of RISC OS. stories of Windows-based problems. They can work wonders for restoring Be careful not to try too hard though, your joy at just how well your own or you may (just maybe) come across machine works. as a little dull, only focused on this one topic and, by doing so, you then You may have to accept that some of will quickly solve the problem of your your friends will never, ever see the friends sending you Word files, as light. All you can do is be strong, O3. they’ll quickly stop sending you You know that you are using the right anything, other than restraining machine. Remind yourself that you orders. save hours that others waste rebooting and cursing at problems. Of course, it can be difficult to maintain your commitment to RISC Those extra hours might even be OS, when all your friends and family enough to allow you to have a life simply don’t understand it. This is beyond computers but let’s just start why it’s important to also have some with small steps. For now, you have friends –- and, for a nice change, enough of a challenge in perfecting these can either be online, or ones keeping a completely straight,
66 Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 sympathetic face, when you hear of a and buying one. Peer pressure in this virus that does untold damage to the area can be huge, as well as your own hard drive, all from a macro within a natural curiosity. So stop berating word-processing program. yourself for having these thoughts. They don’t make you a bad person. Now come on, that’s not nice. Stop grinning. Well, OK, you can get away The trick, of course, is to know that with it for now, so long as no one can such an idea is entirely foolish and not see you. But I think you’d better keep to follow through and act on it. I’m practising. sure that when you’re in your right mind, you wouldn’t even consider it. Aunty Gill You probably have these thoughts PC mania more when you’re feeling tired, or ill, Dear Aunty Gill, or stressed. Do remember that Windows will only add to your I’ve been finding myself thinking stress-levels and leave you feeling yet about PCs more and more –- and the worse and needing another try. A thing is, they aren’t RISC PCs. I hate quick go on Office can sometimes feel myself for these thoughts but in my like a quick-fix but in the long run, darker moments, I’ve even been you do yourself much more harm than considering buying one. What can I good. do? Don’t even be tempted to dabble. You Crazy should avoid such dens of iniquity as internet cafés and, if necessary, even Dear Crazy, friends’ houses, when they invite you to just give it a try. One thing can, Of course, I can understand why this sadly, so easily lead to another. is worrying you so much but you must calm down. Don’t let it take over your Don’t become another victim. You life. Many people have, at times, might think you can control it at first. thoughts of PCs, or consider giving in You’ll say that you aren’t addicted.
Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 67 But sooner or later you’ll find You won’t be able to give up while yourself crying over a crashed PC that you’re still hanging around you’ve sneaked into the house. You’ll Powerpoint or Outlook. wake in the early hours after nightmares about all your work being Of course, there are substitutes. If you lost and the mother-board frying don’t think you can go cold keyboard, itself. It’s really not a pleasant ask your technician to prescribe you a scenario. course of Apple Mac work. It gives a somewhat similar effect to Windows, If you’ve already been dabbling, without all the trauma and can wean you’ll be pleased to know that it isn’t you very gently back to your RISC. too late to save you. There are several It’s a sort of a middle step. solutions and you may find you try several before you really can quit. Naturally, this is only available once you’ve taken the first step and Naturally, just cutting out all contact admitted your problem to a trained with these machines is the best way, if professional. If you can convince you can do it. But I do understand that them of your commitment to quit and that isn’t easy. You’ll find that you’ll that this is a method that will suit you, get urges to create a quick Word then they will offer support document and you’ll crave an Excel throughout the program. formula. Resistance is the only option here but it isn’t an easy one. Otherwise, I suggest you join a quitting support group –- such as The If you plan to try this, get friends and ARM Club. This, as I’m sure you family to surround you with RISC know, stands for Always Risc machines and whenever you crave a Machines. Group therapy can be a fix, ask their help to distract you. To very good way of moving on from make it easier on yourself, keep away this dangerous addiction. It may even from the places where you’d normally be worth going to regular meetings boot-up and the people you’d open even if you’re claiming you’ve only Windows with. ‘tried’ it a few times. It’s amazing how one ‘try’ can lead to another and
68 Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 cravings for yet another. Act before www.oikade.plus.com/eureka/index.h you find yourself addicted. tml.
Best of luck, Crazy. OK, so for starters, have you ever tried conversation with a girl? Not Aunty Gill online. In person. No? Let's get right back to even more basics. Do you Girl getting actually know any girls? First you Dear Aunty Gill will need to meet one and you'll need to do so without any faffing. I've trained myself to eat tomatoes, I regularly go outside in natural light, Now, I accept that this can be a tricky to avoid an unhealthy glow, and have challenge but I do have some tips that a single phone/PDA, to avoid might help. One is that you'll need to carrying too much technology on my get yourself to a place where girls belt. Yet I still can't seem to get a girl. hang out. That makes it much easier What can I do? to find them and especially to get talking to them. Lonely Let's start with where they're not. Dear Lonely, Real, interesting girls (as opposed to posters from FHM) are not currently I'm glad to see you're trying and you in your bedroom, nor are they sitting are certainly moving in the right near your computer, or alongside your direction. However, I suspect you widescreen TV. So you will have to haven't taken all my advice, offered go to other places. In fact, available, in these columns in the past. Perhaps interesting girls probably aren't even you've missed a suggestion or two, in your house at all, unless you that might really help. You know, happen to share the place with one, in Aunty Gill has made sure you can which case, stop writing to me and get always go back over my past articles practised chatting to her. Even if she's on the web, any time you need them, not available, girls often have friends. on:
Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 69 You’ll need to prove you can manage you won’t be able to be there as well conversation first, as girls do like as following her) and eventually, to their friends and won’t introduce you your very own restraining order. if you can’t at least smile in the right direction. Now, after your initial greeting and assuming she responds, the next bit of To find one elsewhere, I suggest you the conversation is harder. Unless she start by leaving the house. And that’s asks a question, in which case, some not just for the journey to work. You sort of answer is then appropriate. If need to go to a social place, where the question is “Do I know you from many people gather. Pubs, clubs, somewhere?” the answer is not to ask restaurants, the supermarket, even the what her online nickname is. local library. You’ll find that there are women there. If it’s “What the **** do you ****ing think you’re doing, you ****ing Now, conversation is definitely freak?” then you’ve probably trickier but, like a wise man once said, followed her into Tescos’ Tampax the code of a thousand OSs started section, or perhaps the ladies’ toilets. with a single line. Your chat with the This is not so much a question, as a bit young lady that you happen to have of a hint to leave her alone. Right found starts with a single word. Try ‘ now.
“Hello” or for variety “Hi”. Then However, elsewhere, the response is smile. If you greet the woman you’ve unlikely to be quite this extreme. just discovered with a cheery phrase Assuming a simple greeting back but a facial expression that makes you from her, you can take one of several look like a stalker, she will think you options. But please, do think carefully are some kind of stalker. Which is, of about the venue you’ve met her in. course, another option for getting to For example “Would you like a know a woman but perhaps not the drink?” can be really good in a bar or most highly recommended, as it can pub. However if this attempt at a lead to such drawbacks as losing your conversation is going on in the job (unless she works with you, as Sainsbury’s cleaning aisle and you’re
70 Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 currently T-shirt. You will also be forgiven for waving a bottle temporarily removing your ARM of extra strong Club pin badge for the occasion. bleach at her, she may feel that Do not start trying to impress with your intentions your dancing, unless you have aren’t friendly. attended enough classes, run by professionals, to at least have found Remember also out what the beat and the rhythm Don’t wave your to temper your actually are. Ideally, you should also arms around volume of be able to find them. Even then, too much speech, based on please don’t wave your arms around when dancing, where you are at too much –- a mid-air collision might the time. At the damage your typing fingers. library, shouting “Do you come here often?” will quickly ensure that you So, you’ve found a girl and had a don’t. However if she’s currently conversation. Slowly, after lots of browsing through a Val McDermid, talking to her, she becomes a friend. whispering “So you like Crime then?” Now, I hate to break it to you but just is acceptable there. If she’s downing a because she’s a girl who is also a vodka and Red Bull in the bar, it may friend, this does not make her a sound to her like an offer to take her girlfriend. joyriding. She may look deeply shocked and run away from you. Or if But perhaps that extra leap into a she’s the sort to say yes to this relationship is a bit much all at once. tempting offer, while I’m sure you Don’t rush things –- and hopefully could hotwire an IBM, she may prefer she’ll think you’re a gentleman, the letters BMW. rather than just clueless.
Well, Lonely, I’ll leave you to practise Good luck! the conversation bit. Don’t forget that when you do so, you shouldn’t be Aunty Gill wearing the geek uniform of a Sci-Fi
Eureka 47 — Autumn 2003 71 Club contacts
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