JULY 1996 Everything you need under one cover ALL ABOUT MEMORY 486 to Pentium Overdrive chips Awards 1996 P172 ● Monitors group test

July 1996 £2.95 http://www.pcw.vnu.co.uk Overseas Price £3.95 Germany DM 20,00 Italy 18,000 Lire Win Cyrix upgrade chips Spain 1,225 PTS Malta Lm 2.85c Holland HFL 17,95 Belgium 364.00 BFr Finland FIM 49.50 Canada CAN$12.95 PLUS £35,000 of Internet VNU Business Publications ● Accounts p267 Language translation ● Iomega Jaz drive - 1Gb to go Your votes and our verdicts on the best

● products ● and suppliers for 1996

http://www.pcw.vnu.co.uk Iomega Jaz Drive 1gigabyte to go

Interactive July 1996 26 Monitors How to buy a CD-ROM See page 8 for details 891 61644 PCW:0 4 o DEMOS n CRICKET o r e e m ALLIED GENERAL Second p180 Superb cricket simulator n a li i World War strategy game Tested t l WIN95 o R AVENGER Defendor style SHAREWARE h N e I X shoot ‘em up Inkutils collection h t O BLUE BOOK l N WIN 3.* l personal database complete business a @

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project planning system F Interactive flight K system for £2000 TOPCAT a cat for your desktop edutainment DOS SHAREWARE WINGS, Midway to Hiroshima ENIGMA bat & ball game interactive multimedia CINEMANIA 96 rolling demo CLIPART 1000 IMAGES EXTRAS 25Mb of Mac software, WINDOWS and DOS Duper VGA drivers HP LaserJet 5M IF YOUR CD-ROM AND 3.5" DISK ARE MISSING PCL 6 arrives ALL HARDWARE TESTED ASK YOUR NEWSAGENT BY THE VNU LABS VOL19 NO7 3 COLOUR SCANNERS DOUBLE DISK PACK £300 on the street p134 July 1996 PCW July 1996

Contents Reviews Cover Story 56 Gadgets 80 Partition Magic 2.0 Cutting Edge The weird, the wonderful and the just plain very useful. 80 TypeReader Professional 3.0XA 221 Introduction PCW Online PCW Awards 88 58 Iomega Jaz drive 82 Starlite Stardraw 2D 222 Focus: Microsoft R D S Uses fast, A ' 9 W

6 A We’ve waded through sackloads of votes, removable 83 Forehelp 2.95 226 Focus: Steve Oualline we’ve deliberated, cogitated and digested and 1Gb cartridges. Help authoring. 229 Net.newbies are now ready to reveal the winners of the 230 Net.news 236 Net.answers sixth annual Personal Computer World awards. 61 Intuit Quicken 5 134 Flatbed Scanners Kingston Turbochip 133 vs PCW Futures PCW Cover Illustration Andy Parker 63 Three excellent Make-it 586 244 Innovations colour scanners, all Upgrade your 486 processor. 245 Horizons Features for well under 400 quid on the street. 246 Bluesky Gordon Laing reveals all. Group Test 64 Hewlett Packard LaserJet 5M 247 Retro Computing 162 PCW Media Canon BJC-210 146 Translation 66 248 Books 180 How to: Software 258 CD-ROMs Spreadsheets 66 Attachmate Emissary 1.1 Machine translation Monitors Web browsing and file doesn’t yet take the skill PCW Fun Part 2: practical management. out of translating 253 Kids’ Stuff advice on Excel 7 from languages but it can 263 Screenplay (with Stephen Wells, who uses a 68 Fractal Designs Poser remove the slog. Adele Leisure Lines, cafe to demonstrate its A computer artist’s mannequin. Dyer explains the page 266). analysis technology and rounds up 267 Competition: WIN abilities. 70 Viglen Dossier CD three top contendors. silver membership Feature-packed multimedia accounts to Global 133MHz notebook. 156 All-in-one Online (plus special offers) and Make-it Memory Types 74 Toshiba TF-461 Internet Software upgrade chips. , copier, printer. Software that aims to integrate all The mysteries of PC memory Internet services into one seamless explained by Thomas Leyrer, a 76 MacroMedia Extreme 3D bundle. Paul Fisher tries out the field application engineer with alternatives, from and Texas Instruments. 78 Steinberg Cubase 3 Quarterdeck. Civilisation II: Screenplay page 263 172 79 Softwindows 95 ● The computer peripheral you use most had better be a good emulation for the Hands On one. Gordon Laing tests a mountain of 15in and 17in monitors. .

Interview: Regulars 269 Introduction Steve Oualline 8 COVER DISK NOTES 43 Home Front 270 Windows 95 Author, programmer and 278 Windows 3.1 teacher, Steve Oualline talks 18 Newsprint 45 Straight Talking 280 32-Bit to PJ Fisher. Boost for speech input as Warp 284 Word Processing Focus: 222 bundles voice recognition; RAM 47 Business Matters 288 Spreadsheets Microsoft and retreads hit the market. 292 Databases 118 226 49 Letters 296 OS/2 The Internet 34 News Analysis Readers write: the possibilities of 299 Numbers Count The newest thing in Nippon piracy; praise for good service. 300 Hardware Five go mad notebooks. 304 3D Graphics with £2,000 Instability in the chip industry. 86 Long Term Tests 306 Graphics & DTP The PDF challenge to HTML. Star LC-200 310 Multimedia Five PCW staff members were FastMap OS Sheet Manager 3.2 314 Sound sent on a mission: to return with a 318 Visual Programming 39 Computations complete business system; PC, 334 Buyer’s Guide NEW! 322 Networks Microsoft’s war-chest of new Internet Rowland Morgan’s facts and software and printer. 326 Macintosh tools and strategies explained by Tim figures. Direct 349 329 Computer Answers Anderson. Buyers’ World 331 Beginners 41 Sounding Off 531 ChipChat

6 7 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 ON THE CD Demos DOUBLE DISK ● Allied General - SUPER PACK Second World War strategy game ● EasyCAD design program ● Sonic Jukebox - music player ● Virtual Karts - racing mayhem JULY 1996 ● Virtual snooker On your CD-ROM and ● Avenger - Defender-style game 3.5" Disk this month: ● Blue Book - personal database PCW Windows 95 utilities

ON THE CD Demos DOUBLE DISK ● Allied General - SUPER3.5" PACK DISKSecond World War strategy game ● EasyCAD design program ● ● Sonic Jukebox - music player ● Virtual Karts - racing mayhem Inkutils collection ● Virtual snooker On your CD-ROM and ● Avenger - defender style game ● Blue book - personal database 3.5" Disk this month: Windows 95 utilities 3.5" DISK ● Inkutils collection Windows 3.* shareware ON THE DISK ● Family - family organiser ● ● Multiwave - WAV player Cricket - superb cricket ● Ncrypt - encryption program simulation game ● Power planner - project system ON THE DISK Sonic Jukebox - midi file player Clipart ● ● Windows 3.* shareware Topcat - desktop cat 1000 clipart images July 1996 Run A:\PCW.EXE from Windows JULY 1996 Interactive Turn to page 8 for full details Personal Computer World CYAN•MAGENTA•YELLOW•BLACK ● Family - family organiser ● Cricket - ● Multiwave - WAV player PCW INTERACTIVE: superb cricket ● Ncrypt - encryption program simulation game ● Power planner - project system CD-ROM Sonic Jukebox - midi file player Clipart Entire Contents List See page 8 for details ● ● Topcat - desktop cat 1000 clipart images 91 61644 PCW:08 4 o n Cricket o r e Run A:\PCW.EXE from Windows JULY 1996 Superb cricket simulator e m DEMOS Cover in a l WIN95 t il ALLIED GENERAL Second Turn to page 8 for full details o R SHAREWARE h N World War strategy game e I X AVENGER Defendor style Inkutils collection h t O shoot ‘em up l N WIN 3.* l @ BLUE BOOK a

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. o U F project planning system K WINGS, Korea to Vietnam Allied General — World War II strategy TOPCAT Interactive flight edutainment a cat for your desktop WINGS, Midway to Hiroshima A cracking cricket simulation, music while DOS SHAREWARE interactive multimedia game Enigma bat & ball game CINEMANIA 96 rolling demo CLIPART 1000 images EXTRAS 25Mb of Mac software, you work and the virtual cat. Avenger — Defender-style shoot-em-up WINDOWS and DOS Microsoft Duper VGA dri- Bluebook — Fast and versatile personal vers database nternational Test Cricket music while you carry on with follow your mouse around! EasyCAD — Wicked design program Iis an accurate, statistic- computing tasks, or while the ● Minimum Requirements: 386SX Cinemania 96 — Rolling demo based cricket Test Match program is minimised. If you processor, Windows 3.x/Windows 95, 4Mb Scrutiny Beyond The Great Realms — simulation. want some entertainment while RAM, VGA display. New Age experience Select your teams from a the computer is busy doing Robin Nixon Sonic Jukebox — Powerful music player SHAREWARE FOR WINDOWS 3.1 squad of 20 players and play something, or while you wait for Virtual Karts — Racing mayhem Cricket — Cricket simulator up to six Tests in a series. You can play a document to print, watching out for the To install the Cover Disk programs, from File Virtual Snooker — Snooker at it’s best Family — Family organiser against an intelligent CPU opponent or a program’s random animations is more Manager or Windows 95 Explorer, double click Wings, Korea to Vietnam — Interactive HTML assistant — Powerful, web page human one and complete player averages than a match for twiddling your thumbs. on the program displayed in your floppy disk root edutainment aircraft demo creator and records are calculated. Your team, its Some of the animations appear very director and follow the instructions. Wings, Midway to Hiroshima — Superb Multiwave — WAV player batting and bowling order and level of rarely, so SJB will hold a surprise or two interactive multimedia demo Ncrypt — Encryption program aggression can be set, as can the pitch, for you for quite some time. Power Planner — Project planning PLEASE READ THIS ball, bounce, weather and outfield Note that this demo version of the SHAREWARE FOR DOS systemCONTINUES OVER conditions. program does not allow you to add your If you have problems with the Cover Disk such Enigma — Bat and ball game Topcat — Feline desktop fun ● Playing a League: The ability to play in own tunes to the play list. as receiving a “Cannot read from drive A” PCW Interactive CD-ROM a league allows you to play home and ● Minimum Requirements: 386SX error, please return the disk to the duplicator: FOLD HERE away series of however many tests you processor, Windows 3.x/Windows 95, 4Mb TIB PLC (PCW), TIB House, 11 Edward choose, with several squads playing. RAM, VGA display. Street, Bradford BD4 7BH (who may be The very best in PC Each squad can be controlled either by a contacted on 01274 736990) together with a SHAREWARE FOR WINDOWS 95 BEST OF BRITISH player or by the computer, and points are Evolution Audio demo stamped addressed envelope and two 25p and Mac Inkutils — Collection of 11 excellent Vast collection of the very best awarded for wins, ties, or draws. Evolution Audio is a MIDI sequencing stamps. Where it is a duplication fault, the entertainment, utilities Shareware from UK publishers ● Playing a Series: A series can be package that allows you to integrate 8-bit postage will be returned along with a information, played as a one-off between two teams or or 16-bit CD-quality audio with MIDI. The replacement disk. MAGAZINE REGULARS as part of a league. At the end of each result is a low-budget home recording If your problem is not due to a faulty disk, applications, utilities, All the files from articles in this issue Video for Windows — Version 1.1e series, all the records are compared and studio on your PC. You can record on up and a phone number is shown for the movies and more. (Win 3.x only) updated. A series summary will be to 256 tracks, include audio patterns publisher of the program in question, then it PCW Back Issues Index CD Test — CD-ROM integrity checker displayed unless it is a league match, in (.WAV files) and even a chord track with will probably be quicker for you to call them The contents of the cover floppy disk which case it will continue onto the next 16 preset styles. first as they will be able to provide direct MAIN FEATURES MACINTOSH series. Produced by UK musical software assistance on their own programs faster than Demos CLIPART 25Mb collection of the latest For full details on how to use the developer, Evolution Electronics, the might otherwise be possible. ● Allied General: If you like games 1,000 clipart images from Crown shareware and demos program, please refer to the software provides a unique combination of Alternatively, ring our floppy cover disk such as Fantasy General then you’ll Computers CRICKET.WRI document in the CRICKET Digital Audio, Easy Play features and MIDI hotline on weekdays between 10.30am and love this strategy game based on World directory which is created by the cover recording. Its user-friendly graphical 4.30pm on 0891 715929. Calls are charged at War II. The aim is to work your way to ● disk installer. interface leaves you free to concentrate on 39p per minute cheap rate and 49p at all other becoming the ultimate power. Minimum requirements: 4Mb free RAM (some can be in a permanent swapfile), 386SX/33 processor, Windows 3.1. Users with less than this should be able to run all the ● Minimum Requirements: 386SX the most important thing: making great times. ● Avenger: The good old days are DOS programs on the CD-ROM directly from DOS or Windows (rather than using the processor, Windows 3.x/Windows 95, music. Please refer to README.WRI in The PCW cover disk is virus checked at back again with this superb clone of front-end). For best performance we recommend: 8Mb installed RAM, 486 DX/50 4Mb RAM, VGA display. the EVADEMO (it is every stage of production. However, PCW will Defender. It was one of the first space processor, Windows 3.11 or Windows 95. created when you not accept liability for any problems arising shoot-em-ups to venture into the arcade Sonic Jukebox install the cover disk from the use of the disk. Installing or running and has now been revamped into an Sonic JukeBox (SJB) is a fun way to software), for full any of the programs on the disk indicates your impressive up-to-date version. film reviews. insert your virtual cash and select your play a whole batch of sound files on a details on using this agreement to this condition. ● Bluebook: A fast and versatile ● Scrutiny Beyond The Great Round: desired track. suitably equipped PC or compatible. demo. You are advised not to install any software personal database. Weird to say the least, this was the winner ● Virtual Karts: Step hard on the throttle Unlike Sound Recorder and Media on a networked PC before checking the disk. ● EasyCAD: Easy CAD gives you the of the Milia D’Or Grand Prix. Just sit back in this mad mayhem driving demo. All the Player it allows you to select a number Topcat While PCW maintains a high standard of power to create any sort of building or and enjoy this New Age delight. thrills and spills of kart racing are here. of music files and play them, either one Now you can have quality control, disks may be damaged in mechanical design you want. ● Sonic Jukebox: You can now have ● Virtual Snooker: Interplay first by one, or randomly using a special your very own virtual transportation. Check the disk’s shutter before ● Cinemania 96: A huge database of your very own jukebox on your desktop: released about a year ago Shuffle mode. It can work in the cat on your desktop. inserting it in the drive by sliding it to the left information on movies and films. It background so you can listen to the Watch it play and and allowing it to spring back. includes hours of footage and stacks of CONTINUES ON PAGE 131

8 9 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 COVER DISK CD-ROM OTNE RMPAGE 9 CONTINUED FROM

option and quit again. All the files from articles in this Testing your CD-ROM issue, and you If you suspect that your CD-ROM may can take pot be faulty or damaged you can run the file luck with virtual CDTEST.EXE in the SYSTEM directory snooker as well of the CD-ROM. The program will then as other examine every byte of data in the PC entertaining partition of the disc to see if it can be features. correctly read. The process takes up to If you like 35 minutes and generates a verification playing war code if the disc passes the test. If the games, you can CD-ROM fails this test, try cleaning it play the Allied with a light solution of washing-up liquid General or enter and dry it with a lint free cloth and run the space and test again. If it still fails, return your CD- shoot up aliens ROM to the magazine for a free replacement. You are free to copy the and it was a superb CDTEST.EXE program to your hard disk game. Now the company in order to test other CD-ROMs, as long has taken a step into as it is not distributed in any way. If you snooker. Designed with are running CDTEST from your hard the aid of the six-times drive you need to specify the CD-ROM world champion, Steve drive to test, as follows: Davis, this is an CDTEST D: exceptional game which Note: We offer this tool purely as an aid feels as if you were to diagnosing possible faults, some of playing the game for which may occur because an older real. If you have two version of MSCDEX.EXE is in use and PCs, you can link them not because of a faulty CD-ROM and together and play head- disclaim any responsibility for any to-head. erroneous error reports that it may ● Wings, Korea to generate. Vietnam: Interactive demo based on the IMPORTANT — READ THIS! aircraft, the missions and ● General Protection Faults the strategy of the If you receive General Protection Faults warplanes in the Korean when running PCWI, or playing any and Vietnam wars. digital videos it is probably because your graphic display driver may not be 100 Macintosh percent Microsoft compatible. The For Mac users, there’s answer, therefore, is to install one of 25Mb of the very best Microsoft’s own drivers, as follows (but new games and utilities. NOT if you are using Windows 95, as the drivers supplied with it are even newer Configuring Video than the ones on this disc): for Windows 1. Run “Windows Setup” from File If you select the “New Manager, then select, “Options” followed users start here” button by “Change System Settings”. on the first page of PCW Interactive, the Video for Windows page which allow 2. Scroll through the list of displayed you’ll have the opportunity to install the you to fine-tune your PC’s performance graphic drivers until you get to the final latest version of the Video for Windows without having to leave PCW Interactive entry “Other Display (Requires Disk from runtime, so that you can view the digital or restart Windows. In particular, you can OEM)”, and select it. movies on the CD. If you haven’t choose to have digital movies played 3. Insert this month’s CD-ROM into the installed Video for Windows from a PCW back on your PC at full-screen drive and replace the “A:\” prompt with Interactive CD before, then you should resolution,: without having to resort to “D:\SYSTEM\SVGA256” (changing the install this new version, as it contains the hardware add-ons such as MPEG cards. D: to the correct letter if your CD-ROM is latest drivers which deliver higher quality, But remember: when you exit from not in drive D:), then press Return. a larger size and a faster playback rate. PCW Interactive, if you leave the option 4. Scroll through the new drivers until If you don’t install the new version, some for full-screen video selected, then all you find the ones beginning “Super videos will display the message “Cannot video in other applications will also be full VGA…” and select the one for the display this video”, or similar warnings. screen. If you don’t want this, re-run resolution you prefer to use. The driver There are also some extra buttons on PCW interactive, select the “Windowed” will then be installed and Windows

131 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 CD-ROM COVER DISK

There’s range of top British shareware for you your manuals for full details. to enjoy, as well as something for inky ● Windows NT and OS/2 thinkers. Plus, go arty Unfortunately Macromedia Director, the crafty with our 1,000 free program used to create PCWI, is clipart illustrations incompatible with earlier versions of Windows NT, but works just fine with the “XXXXXXXX.YYY latest release. You should be able to run cannot be updated as it PCWI from OS/2 by simply calling up is a shared file”. The PCWI.EXE from the command line. answer is to delete the Robin Nixon file “XXXXXXXX.YYY” (or whatever it is called) and reinstall Video for Windows. PCW Advice & Contacts restarted. PCWI and Video for Windows should then have no further ● PCWI is slow to load, or runs The PCW CD-ROM is virus checked at problems. slowly every stage of production. However, PCW If this works (which it should in 95 You need at least 4Mb of RAM free to will not accept liability for any problems percent of cases), you may wish to use PCWI. If necessary, you can obtain arising from its use. You are advised not contact the supplier of your graphic card this by creating a permanent swap file of to install software on a networked PC to see if they have an updated graphic up to 4Mb. You are also advised to before checking the disc. driver. If Microsoft’s drivers don’t work enable read cacheing of your CD-ROM For technical support on the CD-ROM you will need to contact your graphic card by adding its name to the SMARTDRV and the programs on it call the VNU 24- supplier anyway. line in your AUTOEXEC.BAT file. You hour Hotline on 0891 616 444. This is a should also allow MSCDEX to set up its computerised touch-tone advice system, ● If Video for Windows install own buffers by adding a line such as providing hints and tips on a wide range of fails /M:10 to the MSCDEX line, also in your topics. It also offers you the opportunity to If the Video for Windows installation fails AUTOEXEC.BAT file. Please refer to speak to a member of our technical and you receive support staff during office hours by an error such as pressing the 0 key on your keypad. Calls cost 39p min off-peak and 49p at all other times (tone phones only). Go bats with Using the computerised system you your own virtual can access the information you need very Test Match. quickly. If you request to speak to a Or go cats and member of our technical support staff and let your feline we cannot answer your question friend keep you immediately, we will offer to call you back company on at our expense. Outside office hours you your desktop. can leave us a message by pressing the 9 And with the key. If you leave your phone number we’ll Family call you back at the earliest opportunity Scheduler, you during office hours. can keep that If you prefer, you can email family in line! [email protected], or on CompuServe 70007,5547.

132 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 Editorial Advertising Sales Director Brin Bucknor Editor Ben Tisdall Head of Portfolio Sales Paula Barnes 0171 316 9194 News Editor Clive Akass Portfolio Sales Manager Pranav J Oza 0171 316 9466 Cutting Edge Editor PJ Fisher Assistant Ad Manager Kevin Elderfield 0171 316 9303 Features Editor Chris Cain Reviews Editor Gordon Laing PC Consumer Sales Technical Editor Eleanor Turton-Hill Jon Miles 0171 316 9302 Associate Editor Simon Rockman Ben Hedges 0171 316 9308 Staff Writers Adele Dyer / Dylan Armbrust Nick O’Connor 0171 316 9304 Reporter Jessica Hodgson Matt Rigney 0171 316 9306 Editorial Assistant Joanna Scott Beccy Carr 0171 316 9307 Columnists Brian Clegg / Barry Fox Stuart Mills 0171 316 9439 Michael Hewitt / Tim Nott / Rowland Morgan Micromart Sales Executive Robert Miskin 0171 316 9305 International Correspondent Tim Bajarin Portfolio Account Handlers Emma Beagley 0171 316 9502 Maggie Bedwell 0171 316 9504 Editorial Phone 0171 316 9000 Paul Heslop 0171 316 9501 Editorial Fax 0171 316 9313 Catherine J Russell 0171 316 9461 Editorial Email Portfolio Administrator Janaya Warren 0171 316 9525 first name—last [email protected] VNU Web Site http://www.pcw.vnu.co.uk Advertising Customer Services Susie Ross 0171 316 9465 Sandhya Tanna 0171 316 9372 Production Paul Peters 0171 316 9435 Production Editor Lauraine Lee Credit Control Manager Tosh Bruce-Morgan 0171 316 9667 Sub-Editor Patrick Ramus US Sales Representative Global Media Representatives, Inc 0101 415 306 0880 Design Taiwan Sales Representatives Grace Chu/Kent Lai 010 886 2717 7663 Production Art Editor Darrell Kingsley Designer Simone Stern Production Controller Melanie Thomson 0171 316 9481 Production Manager Adrian Brown 0171 316 9484 New Media Circulation Internet Editor Angela Collins Disk Editor Robin Nixon Subscriptions Manager Leisha Bulley 0171 316 9712 Subscriptions Supervisor Joanne Nicholls 0171 316 9713 VNU Labs Publishing Labs Manager George MacDonald Founder Angelo Zgorelec Labs Technical Director Julian Evans Publisher Jon Ross 0171 316 9187 Labs Testing Editor Jonathan Ricks Marketing Manager Juliet Parker 0171 316 9191 Operations Manager Alan Rider Head of Corporate Marketing Erik Hoekstra Corporate Marketing Manager Tony Evans Labs Phone 0171 316 9067 Marketing & Sales Co-ordinator Timothy Mickelborough 0171 316 9820 Labs Fax 0171 316 9059

Test Results are based wholly or in part on methodologies provided by National Software Testing Laboratories, a division of McGraw-Hill Inc, and licensed to Personal Computer World. Neither NSTL nor the Publisher guarantees the accuracy or adequacy of its testing activities and makes no representations or warranties regarding tested products. Articles or portions of articles translated and reprinted (or adapted) in this issue from PC Digest or Software Digest Copyright (c) 1994, by National Software Testing Complaints or queries regarding any advertiser in this Laboratories (NSTL), a division of McGraw-Hill, Inc, 625 Ridge Pike, Conshohocken, Pennsylvania magazine should, initially, be presented in writing to: 19428, USA. Reproduction of the NSTL material in any manner or language in whole or in part without Anthony George, ‘Customer Relations Department’, permission of NSTL is prohibited. VNU Business Publications, VNU House, 32-34 Broadwick Street, London W1A 2HG. Readers are reminded that we are unable to provide technical help/support services, either written or verbal. 149,890 JULY-DEC '95 VNU BUSINESS PUBLICATIONS

REPRINTS SUBSCRIPTIONS We offer a full reprint service for reproduction of all or part of any current or Annual subscription, £24.95. One year Europe only, £95. Rest of World, previous articles. Minimum order 1,000. For details contact Susie Ross or £125. P&P included. Freephone 0800 526669. Fax 0171 316 9699. Email Sandhya Tanna (0171 316 9000). [email protected]. Credit card orders welcome. USE OF EXTRACTS BACK ISSUES We are delighted for people to use quotations and segments of articles for We keep a stock of past issues and can provide individual copies at a charge of internal or promotional purposes. For clearance, contact Juliet Parker £5. Freephone 0800 526669. (0171 316 9000).

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12 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 Editorial Next EB APPLIANCES AND CUT- W down network computers are variations on a theme. Both are based Month on the idea of taking intelligence out of the terminal/client end of things and putting it on the server. Web appliances are targeted at consumers, while cut- Windows NT 4.0 down clients fulfil a similar role for The next release of Microsoft’s industrial companies. There’s nothing new about the idea. strength OS arrives. Dumb terminals have been around for ages. However, since PCs arrived on the scene, dumb terminals have been Group Test on the back foot. The general trend has been towards putting more power and intelligence on the desktop, not less. Pentium 133s Diskless PC workstations never really caught on because of their impact on 18 Multimedia network performance and because users wanted local hard disks on which PCs. to keep their stuff. The difference, this time around, is the Internet factor. Or so chief appliance proponent, Oracle, would argue. Yet network appliances face some problems. Hot consumer products need to be cheap, but cheap 200MHzPentiums appliances may not include the 3D graphics, full multimedia and virtual — the fastest yet. reality that will make them compelling. Although there is potential for building Internet capability into products like televisions, cut-down network Paint Packages computers make more sense for — all you need to be quick on the draw. businesses. They keep costs down because, instead of upgrading machines on every desktop, you only need to upgrade the server and they improve security and manageability. Document IBM, Sun and Oracle are all putting efforts into cut-down network Management computers. Not everyone agrees they’re going to succeed, though. Chief sceptic, unsurprisingly, is Microsoft with software its vast vested interest in full-blown applications and operating systems. And a recent report from market From paper to researchers, Forrester, comes to the the PC. same conclusion. Forrester reckons the technology won’t be good enough and New Macs that a fully featured PC may drop as low as $1,000 in 1997, reducing the — Apple attempts to bite back. appeal of cut-down machines. The truth is that it’s a multi-billion dollar question and no-one is sure of the answer. ● Special cover CD Ben Tisdall A multimedia introduction to the Internet and Microsoft Network that doesn’t need a Editor modem. PLUS, a 30-day free trial to MSN with unlimited Internet access.

August 96 issue September 96 issue — On sale Thursday 4th July — On sale Thursday 1st August

* Next month’s contents subject to change.

13 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 NEWSPRINT

Friendly NT sends out shockwaves

icrosoft has sent out Some will skip Win95 in fav- out of its depth. But defections hide the fact that IBM, H-P and PCW M200,000 late beta copies of our of NT, which has both desk- are rising and NT 4.0 has forced Sun back their own brands. Newsprint the long-awaited Windows NT top and server versions. In fact a closing of ranks in the Unix is not about to die. Unix- NewsNEWSPRINT NEWSPRINT NEWSPRINTprint NEWSPRINT 4.0, which could have more NT, rather than ‘95, is said to be fragmented Unix community. ware, recently shed by , is impact than Win95. Microsoft’s path to the future. At a Unix press conference at to get tighter links to Netware, Many companies have held A drift to NT could hit Comdex, heavyweights from still by far the most used local BM and, reportedly, Corel are back from Win95 upgrades to because it runs on rival Power- seven major Unix houses stood net software. And H-P and SCO Ito bundle voice recognition Enter, the age of the await NT 4.0’s launch this sum- PC, MIPs, and DEC Alpha chips up to declare their undying faith could come together for a 64-bit with major products. Their aim is mer. The new enterprise-level as well as on the x86 dynasty. in SCO’s Unixware for Intel. Unix to run on the P7, the chip to woo users from Microsoft but has a ‘95 inter- Unix still rules in very big sys- But the presence of , H-P is developing with Intel. (see they could trigger a big shift to listening PC face, allowing the same look and tems, where change is slow and Data General, ICL, NCR, Unisys Tim Bajarin Reports, page21). voice input and thus transform feel from desktop to back-office. sure, and NT is seen as being Olivetti, and Siemens could not Clive Akass computing, or so thinks IBM. Corel would not confirm the leapfrog the technology inside will be largely command based. The next version of OS/2 move but it makes sense. Corel Windows 95…The whole point of Let’s wait and see how good the Short Stories Warp, codenamed Merlin, will is about to launch a new version Merlin is to make OS/2 more dictation facilities are.” incorporate IBM’s well-regarded of WordPerfect and needs to accessible.” But if voice facilities prove What’s the big IDEA? Morgan offshoot ● VoiceType technology to give it persuade the huge base of Microsoft’s desktop applica- popular Microsoft could be The designs shown here may be Morgan’s, famous for its end-of-line bargains, has an edge over Windows 95. WordPerfect users not to join the tions manager, Oliver Roll, said: forced to follow IBM’s lead. At where the industry is going: PCs in formed a division called everything. They come from a This is the first time dictation drift to Microsoft Word. “Voice dictation technology still present it offers only a software Megatron to sell new PCs facilities have been built into an The drift is due more to the has a long way to go before it’s kit to allow developers to California start-up called Diba, from Taiwan-based DTK. operating system, though easier overwhelming success of the accurate enough to incorporate incorporate voice recognition headed by Farzard Dibachi who Prices range from £799 voice control (which requires suite, which into the operating system. I into Win95 applications designed Oracle’s network PC for (excl. VAT) for a multimedia only a tiny vocabulary) has long includes Word, than to the rela- suspect the OS/2 Warp version Jessica Hodgson Larry Ellison. PC based on a Cyrix 5x86, to been bundled with Windows. tive worth of the two products. Dibachi calls them IDEAs £1,699 for a 166MHz Pentium Wally Casey, head of client Both the Dragon and IBM (interactive digital electronic Tower. product management, said: systems need a sound card and Now you’re talking appliances) and they are a Megatron 0121 454 8700 “Just as the Macintosh changed 16Mb of RAM — more or less an sing VoiceType is like teaching a child,” says computer marriage of computer and the industry when it introduced a entry-level system for Win95. “Uconsultant Mark Turrell. “You have to persevere, but it’s worth household goods: the phone (shown, graphical user interface, OS/2 IBM claims VoiceType will it.” Within three days of buying IBM’s voice dictation package top) doubles as an email terminal, Merlin will alter the way people recognise up to 70 words per VoiceType, Turrell had used it to compile a 15-page report. and the remote-control (far right) interact with computers.” minute, with an accuracy of VoiceType is quick to set up: you need to speak to it, then Voice- turns your TV into a . Corel is to bundle another between 95 percent and 98 Type programs your phonetics into the system, taking about three Neatest is the recipe book (right), successful voice system, Drag- percent. hours. The vocabulary in the standalone product is about 30,000 designed to be mounted under a on Dictate, with WordPerfect, OS/2 brand manager, Nick words, but you can customise it. “VoiceType is too noisy for a mass shelf or cabinet in the kitchen, to according to Dragon Systems. Davis, said: “We believe this will work tool,” says Turrell. “But it’s ideal for single offices.” provide cooking and nutritional information. NSPCC-saver Dina 001 415 596 1177; www.diba.com ● A in aid of the NSPCC is available at Mobiles could be grounded www.microsoft.com/uk/nspcc following a collaboration with Governments warn of millenium madness Microsoft. anufacturers seem at last to Mbe making true mobiles but he US and UK governments issued a warning are bafflingly loth to sell them. Tlast month about the “millenium bomb” in sys- The NEC model, pictured, is tems that store dates as two figures rather than four. Cheapest yet interesting both for its size, This saves a byte of memory per date, which is CD recorder which is between that of a finger- fine until the century changes, when 00 will be in- lasmon is selling a CD crippling organiser and a terpreted as 1900 rather than 2000. Other errors Precording kit for just £540. notebook, and for the fact that may stem from trying to subtract 99 from zero. The CDR 4240 offers quad- NEC is unsure whether to let it IT managers questioned for a survey put the speed read and dual-speed out of Japan. average cost to a large company at £10 million — Web bargain write in a choice of disk-at- NEC describes it as a port- but fewer than one in ten have done anything ● Tandy is to sell one of the once, multisession, track-at- able email machine. Toshiba has about it. Only 15 percent of senior managers are cheapest Internet bundles yet once, and fixed and variable brought out a smaller model, the aware of the problem, says the survey by the DTI, at a flat £79.99 a year including VAT and software. packet modes. Multimedia Libretto, but again is unsure the CTTA, PA Consulting and the Computing Ser- The service was set up by software is included. whether to export it. Our man in Toshiba UK representatives, which can have a 12.1in SVGA vices and Software Association. Internexus for Energis, which Plasmon 01763 262963 the US, Tim Bajarin, has seen who visited PCW to show off colour screen and 133MHz Pen- Technology Minister, Ian Taylor, warned of a uses a fibre-optic network that both and raves about the Libretto their flash, new, zoomed-video tium chip. But at 4lb, and starting “serious threat to business”. And US Congress- piggy-backs on the UK Visit PCW’s Web page at but was disappointed that the notebook made no mention of at £2,400, it is too heavy and too man Steve Horn said after a special hearing on the Wretched computer ordered me this as electricity grid. Local rate www.vnu.com/hc/pcw for a NEC runs on DOS (see Analysis, the Libretto. IBM showed us its expensive for a mobile. problem: “We have an immovable deadlne.” my new company car... connections are available all news update. pages 34 and 36). beautiful, slimline, Thinkpad 560 Clive Akass Details at www.cssa.co.uk/cssa over Britain.

18 19 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 NEWSPRINT

Tim Bajarin reports RAM retreads firm gets from the U.S. no thanks for the memory t is two years Isince Intel announced a joint develop- inance markets last month took a dim view of a ment, with Hewlett-Packard, of Fsuperficially flawless way to boost world a 64-bit VLIW (very long memory production by up to 40 percent — instruction word) processor potentially a $20bn-a-year industry. codenamed the Merced, aka One reason RAM prices are so high is that up to the P7. six in ten chips are discarded as defective. Due out in1998, Merced will not be true VLIW. Rather it The Memory Corporation, in Scotland, makes what refines the Pentium Pro’s amounts to RAM retreads, in which defective technique of decoding instruc- addresses are remapped to good ones (see tions into “micro-operations” caption). It attracted a lot of interest and shares for simultaneous execution. peaked last year at 554p but plunged after poor One goal is to use sales. Last month they fell 37p to 133p after a dis- instruction-level parallelism as appointing forecast. But MD, Cameron McColl, much as possible. A second is predicted great interest in the latest modules. to use pre-decoding and These include 60ns and 70ns fast-page SIMMs tagging to create a corres- suitable for use with Triton-chipped Pentiums. pondence between micro-op streams and the chip’s EDO and SDRAM modules are expected this year. functional units. If the production cost is reflected in Memory’s Top and bottom views of an early 16Mb RAM There will be special prices, which are only ten percent below those of retread, or Variance Controlled Memory (VCM) decoders for x86 and HP-PA standard RAM, the operation would be vulnerable module. The upper surface has nine 2Mb chips; instructions and a new to market swings. Also, the Scottish plant is set up the extra one is to cover dud cells. compiler will maximise 64-bit to produce only 6,000 modules a month. McColl The smaller lump on the lower surface is an performance. said: “The production line is designed to be EEPROM, storing addresses of defective cells. scalable. We can ramp up production very quickly.” The large lump is a custom chip containing Happy Valley Clive Akass redirection logic and 300,000 spare memory ● It was said last year that VCM (DEALERS) 01604 859333 cells. Later versions have more spare cells and Silicon Valley’s glory days ● See analysis page 35 dispense with the extra RAM chip. were over. But new figures show that $12.7bn in profit pulsed through the Valley in1995 from its top 150 public companies. No wonder the Acrobat set to be WYSIWOG king venture capitalists are smiling. Internet hype is still helping dobe has pitched the new icrosoft and Adobe are collaborating on a universal font format some firms to make a killing. Acrobat 3.0 to become a de A which will end the font-format wars. The new Open Type Yahoo! closed its first day as a facto standard for WYSIWOG M public company with a book format combines TrueType and Type 1 technologies, and includes (what you see is what others get) value of $800m; and it has yet compression for efficient Web use. publishing on or off the Web. to make a penny profit. This Microsoft and Adobe will cross license Type-1 and TrueType to Acrobat 3.0 is also packaged was just a week after Lycos, each other and make the OpenType specification available to for managing and storing another search engine others. Acrobat 3.0 and the next version of Windows will support company, doubled its value in scanned documents. OpenType, which is claimed to be 100 percent compatible with its first day of trading. Acrobat was one of the first existing Type-1 and TrueType fonts. See next month’s Hands On products to offer a way of Graphics and DTP for details. making documents look the Notebook split Gordon Laing ● I recently visited Compaq same on any platform. But and had lunch with CEO, Adobe made a big mistake in and Sitemill for creating and also store a bitmap, for legal Eckhard Pfeiffer. He spoke of charging for the first Acrobat managing Web sites. The most fallback. Compaq’s success in selling reader, thus ensuring that its important new feature of Acrobat ● Catalog; indexes and high-end server systems Portable Document Format 3.0 is that it will come with utili- searches PDF files. helped by a 300 percent (PDF) would not become an ties that were previously expen- New features include interac- growth in sales of Microsoft NT instant global standard. sive add-ons. These include: tive forms, embedded controls in server products in 1995. WYSIWOG became an issue ● Distiller; for translating into PDF files, page by page down- Compaq staff told me about with the explosion of Web pub- PDF the output of any postscript- loading, and progressive their new notebooks. There will be two new models for lishing, because HTML-based enabled word processor or rendering of text, links, images power users and at least one Web pages look different on publishing package. and fonts. No price had been set ultra-slim model for people ● different machines. Capture; which will OCR a as we went to press but Adobe willing to sacrifice features for Major browsers already scanned document and store it said it would be “above £90 and portability. support PDF files, which can as a PDF file. This lets you store below £400.” Most notebook makers now contain hypertext links, and documents as both image and Clive Akass see the market splitting into Adobe has launched PageMill searchable text. Optionally, it will Adobe 0181 606 4000 these two groups.

21 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 NEWSPRINT

Short Stories Troubled Netcom Pipex boosts access speed as launches in UK ● US provider, Netcom, den- MSN relaunches on the Web ied that it was “running away” from failure in the States by launching into Britain. ompetition in the crowded own provider, albeit in a different Netcom stocks on Wall UK Internet market reached market. Street fell four points C between 1st February and fever pitch last month with three MSN, in addition to time-based last month’s UK launch. Last major moves. charges for small users, offers a year Netcom posted record One; Netcom became the lat- flat-rate service at £14.95 a first quarter revenues, but still est US provider to set up shop in month; just 5p less than Pipex. had a net loss of $1.3m. Britain (see Short Stories, left). But it offers much more Chairman, David Two; Pipex announced that it on the Microsoft Network (MSN), CompuServe-style value added Garrison, said: “We want 50 has boosted its links to support together with a revamped inter- content in the way of online percent of Netcom revenue an unofficial extension to the face. MSN now offers Web links magazines, specialist areas and to come from outside the US V34 standard, raising the fastest at 28.8Kb/sec at local rates from information sources. in the next five years.” data transfer rate by 16 percent, anywhere in Britain. This may be why Pipex chose Netcom offers national local-call access with 24-hour from 28.8Kb/sec to 33.6Kb/sec Microsoft officials freely admit to jump the gun on the V.34 exten- support and no start-up fee (see below). the company screwed up its sion, which will not be available to for a fixed £12.75 a month Paul Rivers, head of dial-up online policy last year, when it MSN users until later this year. excluding VAT. Faced with services, claimed this made tried to promote a proprietary Pipex also said users will now AOL’s monthly charge of Pipex the world’s fast national closed network. be able to access their mail from £5.95, and without any dial-up network. He also announ- It has completely scrapped anywhere in the world, which is content, Netcom will have to ced an upgrade to Pipex’s dial the UK infrastructure set up last another selling point for a global pull out all the stops. up software (see picture). year for the launch of MSN with service such as MSN. Netcom 01344 395 500” Three; Microsoft finally Windows 95. It now uses Pipex Clive Akass Jessica Hodgson launched its Internet capability links, and so is competing with its Pipex 0500 474739; MSN 0345 002000 Report predicts Notes decline ● Lotus Notes has just two years left as the dominant Buyers face new groupware product, states an Input report. It will have 18 million modems tangle users by late 1998, compared with nine million ipex’s decision to back the unofficial V.34 users of other Web products extension (see above) means yet more such as WebShare and P confusion for modem buyers. It looks like a re-run Workflow Metro. of V.Fast, the unofficial 28.8Kb/sec specification By then, these will be catching up with Notes on used by some modem makers before V.34 was functions, and Notes will ratified. Many V.Fast models only worked fully with have become fully Web others of the same make. aware, but competing with V.34 was supposed to be the final standard, products written from the hitting the theoretical limit for bit-rates on standard bottom up, for the Web. phone lines. But refinements allowing 33.6Kb/sec Input analyst, James were being mooted even as it was ratified. Eibisch, believes there is a Pipex could adjust easily to 33.6Kb/sec shift to Web-based because its US Robotics modems are software applications from those tied upgradable. USR Courier’s latest best-selling USR to a particular hardware and operating system. He said: Sportsters already support the extension. However, other modem makers like Hayes, “Notes is in the first wave of Paging all notebooks this shift.” Motorola and Pace are waiting until the extension Input 01753 530444; www.input.com is ratified, possibly in October. Pace technical This pager can be used either as a standalone or director, Derek Oliver, said a lot of fine tuning was with a notebook, plugged into the PC Card slot top Check IT more necessary to get models of all makes working with provide messaging services all over Europe. The ● WinCheckIT developer, each other when a new standard is ratified. US designer, Socket, says it is the result of 12 Touchstone, has released He said: “I am very sceptical of software months of collaboration with Euro messaging the £129 CheckIT Diagnostic upgrades. They are useless if there is a hardware providers. It is available with software for PCs, the Kit to troubleshoot both PC change to be made… But as soon as the V.34 Apple Newton and MacOS-based PowerBook, and hardware and software under extension is ratified we will have a product.” Hewlett-Packard LX palmtops. There is also a Win95, Win3.1 and DOS. Motorola 01293 404343; USR 01734 228200; Pace 01274 software kit for developing applications. Touchstone 0181 875 4456 532000; Hayes 01252 775577 London Pager 0181 343 9393

22 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 NEWSPRINT

Short Stories Company raises Cain over rival Web names service

move to hive-off the registration of Web ourselves to be the victims of a malicious attack.” A addresses in Britain has led to mud-slinging Cain denied launching an attack. He said: “I Excel gets on between two companies and an accusation of was interested to see how the NomiNation server sabotage. was connected to the rest of the Internet. In the the AA road map Registration used to be run by Government- process of checking bandwidth, you need to ● The mapping facilities in funded UKERNA, which manages JANET, the UK momentarily overload the circuit to check the the latest version of Excel can be enhanced with a £90 academic branch of the Internet. In April, UKERNA return traffic. I was called away in the middle of this package from Kingswood, set up a not-for-profit company called Nominet to and the server was flooded for about 30 minutes.” based on the AA digital map manage the task. This decided to set a £50 annual Nominet chairman, Dr Willie Black, said he did dataset. Excel can use the charge for registration, which was previously free. not believe there was a deliberate sabotage. But information to display data in Some internet providers objected and on 30th Dr Tim Chown, of Southampton University com- a geographical context. April a company called NomiNation was launched mented: “It’s very hard to do it accidentally.” ● The Mathworks has charging £5 to register a name, plus £20 per year. Cain’s account at the university has been announced Excel Link, which The NomiNation server went down on 10th May suspended. He complains that NomiNation’s name allows MathLab users to having been flooded with Internet data. The source is too close to NomiNet’s and that the company integrate data from Excel was traced to a former student account, at South- runs two name servers on the same connection. spreadsheets. ampton University, in the name of Chris Cain, NomiNation chairman, Stephen Dyer, said: “We Kingswood 0181 994 5404; Mathworks 01223 462244 director designate of Nominet. Justin Clements, are offering a much cheaper service, and this has MD of Mailbox Internet which provides facilities for upset a lot of the cosy little cartels.” Hayes logs NomiNation said: “At the time we believed Jessica Hodgson off Chapter 11 ● Modem pioneer, Hayes, put 18 months’ of financial Vendors welcome problems behind it with news that it has emerged from Chapter 11, a form of plan to provide bankruptcy protection, having paid off all its creditors with the aid of a $70m credit deal. schools with PCs It has fought off takeover bids by Diamond Multimedia plan to spend £125m on PCs into the school arena could and US Robotics and has 250,000 PCs for schools do more harm than good.” seen one rescue package A collapse since it hit severe has been welcomed by vendors. Acorn’s Kevin Coleman said: cash-flow problems in late The provisional budget prices the “We certainly believe £500 is a 1994 — caused, ironically, by PCs at £500 each. realistic price point.” demand outstripping supply. An unnamed Minister told the But O’Sullivan stated that it Hayes, originator of the Financial Times that companies would only cover the cost of command set used by most may be expected to donate kit: cut-down network PCs, which modems, made $6m profit on “We are offering a tremendous might not be suitable for some Dataphone $77.2m sales for the 1996 opportunity here for schools. Primary and secondary first quarter. manufacturers to massively schools needed computers for price Pacesetter Hayes 01252 775500; www.hayes.com expand their market.” The Cabi- different reasons. He said: “The net Office stated that no manu- Government needs to match the K modem specialist, Pace, is Use your video to facturers had yet been given a technology to suit the schools.” Uoffering this mobile back up your PC brief. Coleman commented that dataphone card for just £249 ● A very cheap device, which Labour is setting up a com- Acorn’s Pocket Book, based on (excl. VAT), or £349 including the is said to allow you to use a mittee to look into IT in educa- the Psion 3a, was a good choice phone. The Microlin GSM data video-recorder to back up tion and points out that half the for secondary pupils, as it allows card is compatible with the your hard disk, has been computers in primary schools, data on field work to be Panasonic G400 and BT Roamer developed by Cheshire- and a third in secondary collected easily. “It’s the mix of 7 phones, as well as the Microlin based Danmere. schools, are more than six years technology that’s important, not model pictured. It comes with fax The £34 Baker is an 8-bit old. just having the technology. The and comms software and ISA card with software that Brendan O’Sullivan, MD of concern I have is that people will Vodafone Business Extra will pack 1.5Gb on to a three- Xemplar, a company set up by just dump old products into the connection. hour tape. It will be reviewed Apple and Acorn to exploit the educational marketplace.” Pace 0990 561001; Hugh Symons (dealer) in PCW next month. 01202 740853 Danmere 01606 74330 education market, said: “Making Jessica Hodgson a fast decision to dump 250,000 Xemplar 01223 724200

24 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 NEWSPRINT NEWSPRINT ● Comdex special report ● ● Comdex special report ●

Short Stories Short Stories CD drives hit ten-speed Slow start for the first Comdex UK New notebooks he first Comdex UK not looking for crowds. Comdex UK showed and exchange ideas. get fast Pentiums ioneer and transfer rate is constant but T was a modest Some exhibitors said at the very least that Among the Comdex ● Texas Instruments has PPinnacle have both access times are slower. affair, with no mega- they were disappointed Britain has a need for launches featured here added two 100MHz Pentium Webbed feat announced ten-speed This can be preferable for star speakers, and and there was talk that this kind of show. When are two we considered colour notebooks to its ● Microsystems Software CD-ROM drives which tasks such as video relatively few exhibitors the first Comdex UK it works, Comdex is to be co-stars of the range. The £2,195 Extensa has announced its Web spin data off at delivery, where steady fast or visitors. But would be the last. But rather more than just a show: the Pioneer ten- 570CD and the £2,595 Scheduler which lets you 1.5Mb/sec — the data transfer is more impor- organisers, Softbank, Softbank called it a platform for new prod- speed CD (opposite), 570CDT come with a 1Gb access its CaLANder fastest yet. tant than access speed. had pitched for success and said it ucts: it is a talking shop and the Casio digital hard disk and CD-ROM. scheduler over the Web. The Pinnacle drive The Pioneer drive corporate buyers and IT would be back with a and a meeting place; camera (below). You can try it on calweb. is essentially a speed- provides the option of a professionals and were new show next year. somewhere to learn Clive Akass calendar.com:8080. You ed-up eight-speed, but mixed CAB/CLV mode, have to select from one of the Pioneer introduces with an access time of the two user names: twain, mark; technology allowing an access times, but the data transfer rate order of 150ms and a sustained or sawyer, tom. Respective Casio clicks the passwords are twain and rate of 80ms, getting close to slows to 660Kb/sec towards the transfer rate of 1.5Mb/sec. sawyer. that of a slow hard-disk. centre of the disk. The Pioneer Super 10x drive digicam price barrier Microsystems 01344 874111 It offers two modes. The CAV mode is good for tasks costs £199 with an ATAPI Sharp’s latest Pentium faster Constant Angular Velocity such as accessing text interface and £250 for the SCSI asio’s new QV-10a camera notebooks (above) focus on (CAV) is like that used in hard archives, where access speed version. The Pinnacle 10Xtreme offers good-quality digital display and sound. The Brother first C 133MHz PC-9070 features ● Brother showed what it drives, where the rotation rate is is more important than transfer drive is expected to cost about colour photography for the first an SVGA 800 x 600 TFT claims to be the first colour constant but the linear velocity rate. £250 for an internal IDFE time at a price approaching display, capable of 65,536 inkjet word processor. The (how fast the head moves over Most CD drives use version. consumer level. It costs £400: a colours. LW-750iC comes with the the tracks) varies with position. Constant Linear Velocity (CLV) Pioneer 01753 789789; full £100 less than the earlier The 120MHz PC-9040 GEOS palmtop operating This speeds up mean access mode, by which the data Pinnacle (31) 20 653 4949 QV-10 even though it packs comes with a 16-bit system built in, plus a more features. Soundblaster-Pro spreadsheet, and drawing Superficially, it looks like a compatible soundcard, a and address book facilities. of TV, concurrently,” he said. He believed the initial point-and-click Boots special 1.1Gb removable hard drive The LW-750iC costs £749 Stand by for and six-speed CD drive. (plus VAT). use would be for teleworking. “Companies are find- and indeed it is fully automatic. ing it economical to let some employees work at Its 16Mbit flash memory holds NEC has cut the price of Brother 0161 330 6531 bandwidth by the its top-end Versa 4000 home.” He predicted that the price of LCD screens, up to 96 pictures — individual range for the second time which account for much of the cost of a notebook, frames can be erased and Monitor TV gigabyte, says TI this year by a total of almost ● Nokia has launched the will drop to the level of standard monitors. written over out of sequence, 30 percent. 417TV, a monitor that unlike on the Chinon E-3200, This takes the price of a switches to a colour TV at which costs twice the price. Versa 4080H, with a 1Gb the touch of a button, without Uniquely for a device of this a SCART socket. Other new 200 and 900 pictures on a hard disk, from £3,995 to the need for a software price, the QV-10a has an LCD features include facilities to 170Mb hard disk in a built-in PC £3,295. driver. viewing screen at the rear. The swap pictures between cam- Card slot. Dual Technology’s The 417TV is operated by definition is only 320 x 240, eras, and to hide selected stored The disk can, of course, be notebooks can now be a handset, which contains a which is boosted to 640 x 480 — pictures (the mind boggles as to used to transfer the pictures to a voice-enabled. The PMDIII “drawer” with buttons for comes with Kurzweil Voice far from print-quality, but well what this might be used for). PC, thus avoiding a time- textual applications. for Windows, as standard. good enough for snapshots, Kodak showed its DC-50, a consuming serial download. It is Imago Micro 01635 861122 NEC 0181 993 8111; identity pictures, or Web pages higher-resolution version of Chi- expected to cost less than £900. Dual 01223 576622; Phone video omputing is on the verge of its third major Pictures can be downloaded non’s EZ-3200. Canon 0181-773-6000; Texas Instruments 01784 212746; paradigm shift, said Texas Instruments mobile to a PC via the serial port, or to Canon offered its PowerShot Kodak 01442 6112 ● Vizitel’s ScreenShare C Sharp 0800 262958 enables voice and interactive computing guru Dr Pallab K. Chatterjee in a a TV or video recorder fitted with 600, which can store between Clive Akass image communication over Comdex keynote address. He commented that the Autodesk spin-off any Windows application first shift, from mainframes to the PC, came as the ships 3D apps across standard phone lines. cost of chips fell and people asked the question: Video editing DragonDictate ● Autodesk has launched a Catalyst Communications 01734 886922 “What if silicon were free?” for the desktop new division, called Kinetix, The next shift, to the graphical interface, came cuts through noise to target 3D technology at a Tough customer as the cost of MIPs (millions of processor instruc- ast has launched what it range of new markets, ● Dolch claims its Notepac is tions per second) fell and people asked: “What if Fsays is a professional-level ragon Systems showed the latest version 2.0 of its DragonDictate including professional video the world’s toughest processing power were free?” Now, said video editing kit for £999 (excl. Dfor Windows voice-recognition software. It claims to have ironed and animation, and Web notebook. Parallel universe publishing. Chatterjee, president of TI’s personal productivity VAT). The AV Master board uses out many of the problems which curbed interest in the technology. Sales manager, Mike products, the networked society is being launched f you don’t feel up to joining the networked society PCI bus mastering to give fast DragonDictate 2.0 can now work in up to 100dB of background Kinetix is shipping 3D Kennet, said that driving a Studio Max, a 3D modelling by the question: “What if bandwidth were free?” yet, and need a cheap and cheerful way to video data rates. noise. It can distinguish, from context, words with identical pronuncia- car over the machine, or I and animation application Cheap memory and processors fuelled the first connect PCs, Nighthawk’s new Netbox allows up to Video and audio signals are tion and different spellings such as Wright, right, write and rite. Word- pouring water into the running under Windows NT, keyboard, would fail to two great shifts and the powerhouse of the third will four PCs to share two printers and exchange files locked to ensure synchronis- Perfect now bundles DragonDictate with its products. and Hyperwire, an icon- damage it. The 100MHz be the digital signal processor (DSP), which is opti- with each other via the parallel port under Win95 or ation. The suite comes with the Dual technology’s notebook computers can be voice-enabled, based Web authoring tool DX4-based Notepac costs mised to cope with audio-visual data. “We’re close Windows for Workgroups. It lists at £165, but can be latest 32-bit Media Studio 2.5 for allowing you to dictate, send email and control CD-ROM that creates 2D and 3D titles from £7,000. to delivering 1Gb/sec over a single fibre channel. bought for less. Windows 95. presentations by voice. in a Java environment. Dolch Computer Systems 01908 263622 At that speed, fibre can deliver a million channels Nighthawk 01789 540881 Fast 0181 968 0411 Dragon Systems 01242 678581 Autodesk 01483 303322

26 27 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 NEWSPRINT

Short Stories Web boom as UK upgrade pitched as new tops PC league ● Britain has Europe’s highest proportion of homes superfloppy standard with a PC, says a new report EZ-135 from Olivetti. Nearly one in yquest has announced what three UK homes owns one, it is pleased to call a new compared with 21 percent in S France, and 20 percent in standard for a Power Disk Germany. Cartridge(PDC) in a bid to regain Another report, from IDC, the initiative in the booming but says Britain will have confused superfloppy market. 7.7million Web users by the PDC provides an upgrade year 2000. Author, Kathy path from Syquest’s 135Mb Burrows, predicts that the big EZ-135 drive, providing initially money over the next year will for backward-compatible 540Mb be in intranets, followed by and 230Mb drives but net security and information guaranteeing larger capacities content. She warned: “The small — all at hard-disk speeds. The EZ-135 was rushed out Internet providers will either Xyratex’s new Maxit drive takes 540Mb cartridges and can be acquired, or will have to as an answer to Iomega’s Zip, read Syquest 270Mb cartridges. Xyratex was saying, as merge because the margins which is not compatible with its being made are very small.” new 1Gb sibling Jaz drive (see we went to press, that it would be made PDC-compatible First Impressions). The EZ-135 within a couple of months. The recommended price is is likewise incompatible with £399 (excl. VAT) and cartridges will cost about £54. Syquest’s answer to the Jaz, the 1.3Gb SyJet, due next month. and Xyratex (see above) are is remains to be seen, with 3.5in Worse, from Syquest’s point committed to making PDC floppy drives at ten-a-penny and of view, is the fact that the PDC products. Compaq reportedly having to is not compatible with the 40Mb- None of these removables is sacrifice performance for com- HeLp is here 200Mb drives that the company compatible with “Ye Olde 3.5in patibility. Initially, it will only be ● L-drivers, fearful of the new did manage to establish as the floppy” — but a new 120Mb available installed in machines. written theory part of the Test, medium of choice for print superfloppy from Compaq is. Xyratex 01705 498851; Syquest 01624 can find tips and a mock test shops. Kao, Maxell, Polaroid How much of a selling point this 362266; Iomega 0800 973194 at BSM’s web site at http://www.bsm.co.uk Microsoft buys Silicon in Soho Off the wall ● has opened a £2m studio in Soho, British, again London, to train people in icrosoft has bought shares in Oxford-based digital authoring and prod- uction. Equipment includes 25 MHelicon five months after selling its 18 percent Indigo2 IMPACT stake in another UK multimedia company, Dorling workstations. Kindersley. Helicon owns Hutchinson, publisher of Silicon Studio 0171 478 5000 the Multimedia Encyclopedia — a major competitor www.studio.sgi.com/Training/London.html of Microsoft’s Encarta. Helicon’s Bridget McLeod said: “We are delighted. The Microsoft money allows us to do things we haven’t been able to do for ages. The initial idea behind Helicon was to publish up-to-date reference material of the first rate. We can now make sure our resources are of the best quality, take on good contributors and generally bring things up-to-date.” Visioneer clone Both products will now be in “friendly but ● The Sicos DMS 2000 On-screen, futurologist Arthur C. Clarke, shows off aggressive competition” but will share editorial scanner comes with desktop- Fujitsu’s new Plasmavision, the kind of monitor resources. They each cost £49.99, and are target- level document management people may hang on their walls some day. He was ed at different markets. “Encarta has more basic software unashamedly aping opening, via a live satellite link from Sri Lanka, the text for each reference, Hutchinson has more ref- the successful Visioneer pack Futurevision exhibition at Granada Studios in erences. Hutchinson is truly British-compiled in a at less than half the price. You Manchester which demonstrates the convergence way that Encarta will never be,” said McLeod. can find it for as little as £99. of broadcasting, multimedia and computing. Jessica Hodgson Eurebis 001 353 1456 9383 (Dublin) Granada Studios hot-line 0161 832 4999 Microsoft 0345 002000; Helicon 01865 204204

28 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 NEWSPRINT

Quicktime boosts Short Stories Apple’s fortunes

pple’s Quicktime plug-in will Apple has been working to Movie is not even close to being A be included in the new extend its use to the Internet commercial. And, Apple is Netscape Navigator 3.0 browser, and is just about ready to ship delivering these Quicktime plug- under a deal which is expected its plug-ins. About ten beta sites in’s in both Mac and Windows to boost the use of video on the are starting to deliver Quicktime formats simultaneously. (By the Web. movies. Once the final technolo- way, these movies are based on Apple has created a Quick- gy ships, during the next 60 MPEG 1, with MPEG 2 probably time VR extension to facilitate days, you can expect to see not supported until late 1997). the creation and use of virtual thousands of Web sites using it The addition of Quicktime 3D environments on the Web. to deliver movies, 3D images movies being delivered over the Apple executives in charge and enhanced audio. Net is hot and Apple can be of Quicktime laid out their strate- This could change the nature proud to be a major supplier of Stop, thief! ● gy for me recently, writes Tim of the Web almost over night this technology for the Internet One answer to Mac thefts is this stainless-steel clamp, Bajarin. Quicktime is already a and adds another dimension to community. described as “cost effective” robust technology used for mul- Apple’s position in the Internet Netscape Navigator 3.0 can be downloaded at £135 (plus VAT). timedia elements for the Mac market, where it already claims from http://homenetscape.com; a beta of the Granville Row 01799 513344 OS or Windows. To date it has 40 percent of the servers. Quicktime VR extension is available at qtvr.quicktime.apple.com been used mostly on CD-ROMs. Microsoft’s competing Active Mac DOS board ● Reply will next month ship Pentium-based DOS boards Mac clones for UK that fit into PCI slots in Power Mac 7200, 7500, 8500 and MC is to launch a PowerPC range running the Mac OS. 9500 models. Base price for IThe machines are made by scanner specialist, Umax, a board with no silicon will be which bought Radius’s MacOS systems division. around £400. The first model, due this month, will be a high-end Reply 0181 832 8300 graphics workstation costing about £3,000. A mid-range model costing about £1,600 will ship next month and a Time logger ● sub-£1,000 consumer model is expected in the autumn. Mac users who charge for time spent on a project can IMC, a digital imaging specialist, has formed a use a new £99 package from division called IMC Computer to sell the range. Hi Resolution. Watchit! logs IMC 01344 872800 who spends how long on what file using which application, then produces a Last report. Top 10 Peripherals Last Top 20 Windows Product Manufacturer month Product Manufacturer month Hi Resolution 01892 891291 1 Quadspeed CD-ROM Drive Goldstar 1 1 Encarta 96 Microsoft 1 2 Epson Stylus Colour II Printer Epson 2 2 Windows 95 U/G Microsoft 4 French dictionary ● 3 Online Internet Modem Motorola 4 3 TurboCAD 2D/3D IMSI 2 The Collins French Diction- ary with 555,000 translations 4 Epson Stylus Colour IIs Printer Epson - 4 MS Office 4.2 U/G Microsoft 5 is available from Harpur Coll- 5 SoundBlaster 16 Value Creative Labs 7 5 First Aid for Win95 RMG 4 ins at £49 (plus VAT) on IBM 6 850MB IDE Hark Disk Kit Western Digital 5 6 Cleansweep 95 Quarterdeck 10 compatible CD only. 7 Primax Colour Mobile Primax - 7 Masterclips Prem. Collectn. 35,000 IMSI - HarperCollins 01903 873555 8 Motorola 3400 Pro Motorola - 8 MS AutoRoute Exp UK & IRE Microsoft 6 9 MS Home Mouse Microsoft 9 9 MS Office 95 Microsoft 18 Online survey 10 PaperEase Primax 6 10 MS Office Pro 95 Microsoft 10 ● Ulster University wants 11 MS Plus Microsoft 11 anyone interested in elect- Top 10 DOS 12 Dr Solomons Anti Virus Qrtly ‘95 S&S Intl. 14 ronic information commerce 1 Flight Simulator v5.1 Microsoft 2 13 QEMM 8 Quarterdeck 7 to participate in a survey at 2 Pc Anywhere v.5 Symantec 7 14 Pass Your GCSE Maths Mathsoft 3 survey.infj.ukst.ac.uk. 3 Wordstar v6.0 Softkey 2 15 Quickview Plus for Win 3.1 Inso 15 Newsprint welcomes 4 MS DOS v6.22 U/G Microsoft - 16 Uninstaller 3.5 RMG 12 feedback. Send your news 5 Pegasus Solo Payroll Pegasus - 17 Quickbooks v3 Intuit - and views to 6 Windows For Workgroups 3.11 Microsoft - 18 Page Plus Home/Office Serif 16 [email protected]. 7 386 MAX v7 Qualitas - 19 Dr Solomons Anti Virus Qrtly S&S Intl. 14 compuserve.com 8 Turbo C++ v3.0 Borland - 20 MS Office Pro 4.3 Microsoft 8 or fax them to 0171 316 9313 9 Supercalc v5.5 Computer Assocs -

10 Sterling Payroll Sage 4 Figures supplied by Software Warehouse and relate to bestsellers for April 1996.

31 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 NEWS ANALYSIS NEWS ANALYSIS

Europe. In fact, Toshiba ARLIER THIS YEAR, WE Near notebook nirvana estimates only modest sales E saw the price of RAM When the chips are down of 150,000 units before next drop sharply, returning the March. balance of power to the buyer A mini sub-notebook, newly available in Japan, holds I think this estimate is too after more than two years of The sharp drop in the price of RAM has exposed the worldwide potential — but will they let it out? low, especially if Toshiba tight supply. instability of the chip making industry. releases it in other markets. In There were two major the US alone, there are over reasons for the sudden am tired of carrying around a want more, rather than less, 15 million professional change. Firstly, Windows 95 followed suit. Ifour or 5lb notebook when power in their notebooks. notebook users. For many of didn’t sell in the numbers During the past six months all I want to use it for is writing I am convinced that they these, email is the killer expected and second, not this precarious process has and email. I don’t want all the are missing a real opportunity. application. In fact, Lotus enough PCs found their way worked to the benefit of the power of my desktop with me So, when Toshiba recently Notes and its functionality into Christmas wrapping paper consumer but the market has everywhere I go — I want a introduced a mini sub- demonstrates how email can at the end of last year. The still not settled. The street mobile email machine. notebook in Japan, I really increase productivity. And, result was that memory price for 8Mb of EDO RAM The feeling struck me even took notice. Called the with -hell being one manufacturers found can vary from as little as £77 more forcibly after I acquired Libretto 20, it weighs in at 1.7 of the most inefficient ways to themselves with an to as much as £140. The the new Megahertz Allpoints lbs and is about 8ins long and communicate, email has outrageous glut of RAM chips. reasons for this are not initially wireless modem and 6ins wide. It has a 6.1in colour become the most important This series of events clear. Those selling at the6 7 connected it to Wynd Mail, a 640 X 480 VGA TFT screen form of business exposed the instability of the higher prices insist that their great service for wireless and a real keyboard that a communication since the chip making industry and its memory is of superior quality, email. The ability to send touch typist can use. invention of the telephone. obvious dependence on the that it is sourced from more , email, pages and even It uses a lithium-ion battery That is why many analysts fortunes of the computer prestigious manufacturers and EDO phone messages, any time, providing at least three hours are watching the Libretto very business. The process is that it has been more anywhere, has leant a lot of of use, unplugged, a 270Mb, closely. And many notebook complicated by the huge thoroughly tested. power and flexibility to my 2.5in hard drive, an AMD vendors have told their investment needed to build “The main factor in business life. 486DX 75 processor and 8Mb Japanese associates to buy a fabrication plants, and the differently-priced SIMMs is I have become a wireless of DRAM and runs Windows Libretto 20 and check it out. large span of time required to quality,” said Nicola Ellis from communications addict: I was 95. Also included is an IRDA- They, too, are very interested do this makes it impossible for Kingston Technology. “There’s recently skiing in Tahoe when compatible infra-red port, in this machine and will be manufacturers to react a lot of inferior quality memory I got an alpha page from a serial and printer ports and watching closely to see if it effectively to sudden changes on the market. Lots of it is larger memory distributors try to client asking me an important one Type II PC Card slot. takes off in Japan and in demand. stolen or made up from keep their prices as low as question. While riding on the Although the 486DX 75 is whether Toshiba takes the For chip manufacturers, seconds.” possible by buying in bulk. So ski lift, I just pulled out my slow for running Windows 95, plunge and brings it to the US. this is logistical nightmare. A Jamie Kelly, marketing when Windows 95 failed to sell in Allpoints-equipped Newton it does work. More My view is that given new fabrication plant can take manager at Memory Bank,9 the the numbers expected,10 lots of and faxed the answer to my importantly, a low-powered Internet access, the Libretto over a year to build and can largest memory vendor in the dealers were left with a huge client’s paged message. computer like this is fine for has a lot of potential outside cost over $1bn. Because of UK, said: “We have decreased surplus of RAM stock. Large The Wynd email service writing and Japan. the long lead times involved, our prices a lot in the past six stocks take time to move, will use a computerised voice email. In Tim Bajarin manufacturers will run plants months; as much as the especially when you’re trying to to read out a typed message if Japan, it to full capacity even when market can sustain. Anyone recoup costs during a RAM the recipient is equipped only sells for demand has slumped. This selling SIMMs at lower prices slump, so this is the more likely with a voice phone, which 198,000 leads to a surplus of chips and must be cutting corners on reason for the current price came in handy when I had to Yen (or plummeting prices. quality.” confusion. warn my mother that I would about The reverse situation is It is true that the reject rate If this is the case, then cheap be late. US$1,980). also true: when demand is of RAM chips in fabrication SIMMs are not necessarily bad This brings me back to the I am very high, plants are unable to plants is appallingly high and quality SIMMs and neither are need for a small notebook with excited about This new increase their output capacity, that quality control may vary they sold without warranty. In a decent screen and keyboard this computer pen-driven leading to a shortage of RAM from one company to another. fact, many of the lower-priced you can really use for typing. and would like to have NEC portable is and inflated prices. For the average PC user, it is SIMMs available now are sold I’ve had various discussions one. There is only one another mobile the This instability in the RAM a confusing situation — with a five-year warranty and with notebook makers, problem: Toshiba is unsure Japanese are keeping market is reflected throughout especially so, considering that return policy — enough to extend suggesting that they create whether or not to bring the to themselves. the computer industry. most are not hardware beyond the life of most PC one but they argue that users machine to the US, Asia or Towards the end of last year, experts. systems. Power to your notebook Intel was in the business of The quality and warranty David Furby, a partner in procuring parts for its arguments are taken very Novotech, insisted that the More news of interest to mobile users came last This is good news for users who are migrating motherboard customers. But seriously in the SIMM correlation between low-priced month from IBM, where researchers have to notebooks as replacements for their desktops — as RAM prices started to fall, business and people are often SIMMs and quality is unfounded. designed a new hard drive for notebooks with a a trend that has kicked in now that Pentiums, which Intel’s knee-jerk reaction was prepared to pay extra for what “The failure rate of all products data density of 1Gb per square inch — a long-time draw little electrical power, have become available. to dump all its surplus stock on they believe to be a higher- we buy is incredibly low,” he said. target of component designers. In fact, Intel sources say we will have a 150 the open market. This put quality product. “The proof of the pudding is in the IBM says it will soon begin selling drives, made MHz Pentium for portables by the Autumn, several major PC Although quality is always a eating and they’re not coming from this technology, to PC manufacturers. They providing users with the option of having just about manufacturers in a panic and, factor in any market, it doesn’t back as faulty once they’ve been will have a capacity ranging from 1.08Gb to as much power on a notebook, as they could get on terrified of being left with an fully explain the current fitted into machines.” ANALYSIS

ANALYSIS 2.16Gb. a desktop machine. excess of RAM, they all soon disparity in RAM prices. The Eleanor Turton-Hill

34 35 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 NEWS ANALYSIS WYSIWOG andtheWeb JULY 1996 WORLD COMPUTER PERSONAL 36 HTML format forHTML format Web publishing. Adobe’s aseriouschallenge PDFcouldpresent tothe

ANALYSISbecoming dated? email butisitindangerof Psion 3ahaswireless In search ofthedefinitive mobile Y N it isbeginningtolookdated.H-P’sLXpalmtops of Nokia’scombinedorganiseranddataphone, transfers nowupto4Mbit/secandtheadvent might getaninfra-red(I-R)portnextyear. hardware frontseemedtobethattheSeries3a conference, whentheonlynewson for thecompanyafteritsComdexUKpress producing aworld-beatingorganiser,butIfear page, withnocompromisesin magazine-standard Web instance, tooutputa Acrobat allowsyou,for too greedyontheprice. do wellifthecompanyisnot want todowithPDF,should everything youarelikelyto bundle, whichoffers case, limited. formatting facilitiesare,inany decide thetypestyle.Its then leavesyourviewerto “stick thisheadlinehere”and guarantee WYSIWOG.Itsays description language,cannot throw upaWebpage. you sendthemadocumentor Others Getontheirswhen on yourscreenisWhat to ensurethatWhatYouSee Format (PDF)does,whichis Adobe’s PortableDocument month ( ou can’targuewithPsion’ssuccessin The 3aisanexcellentmachinebutwithI-R Adobe’s newAcrobat3.0 HTML, theWebpage the wordWYSIWOGthis EWSPRINT p21 had I-Rfouryearsago. ) todescribewhat COINED a keyboardbigenoughto type on. switchable backlighting,and plain LCDscreenwith have excellentcomms,a on. Myguessisthatitwill technology hasyettocatch mobile fortoday’s power-hungry screensand best ofitstype.Adefinitive though thekeyboardis Series 3aistoosmall Battery life,without For mypurposes,the subscription (sameratesas the Web.Itisavailableonlyby advertisement. marrying aTVandnewspaper interesting experimentin chess. There’salsoan able toplayotherreadersat the classifieds.Youwillbe the subject.Youcansearch of lastnight’sITNfootageon on apictureandgetre-run HTML cando.Youclick do moreorlessanything deceptive becausePDFcan look asgood. every reasonwhytheyshould the same;onlythatthereis printed editionsshouldlook suggesting thatonlineand printed edition.Iamnot which looksexactlylikethe peek attheonline enthusiasm stemsfroma desktop-publishing package. design, straightfroma The Moreover, thesimilarityis My growingAcrobatic European Send yourideastousat ● the PC. seem torememberthatiswhatIBMsaidabout reaction wasthatItalking“lowend”. UK chiefMikeLunchlastmonth,hisimmediate muttered somethingalongtheselinestoIBM Omnibook orIBM’snewThinkpad560.WhenI nearest theygetareslimlineslikethe producing anythingsocheapandsimple.The (see Bajarin’s currententhusiasm,theLibretto network PCbutnotinthepriceleagueofTim walking, talking,versionofLarryEllison’s and better-wiredPsion3a.Notfareitherfroma power supplyand12Mbit/secdataconnection. a cheap,robust,universaldockingplugwith5v year, couldtransformmobiledesign,providing and willcostlessthan£400. machine, anadjuncttoadesktopornetwork, The mobilewillbedesignedasasecond drives, willbedaysorweeksratherthanhours. What’s yourideaofthedefinitive mobile? is notyeton Notebook makersshowlittleinterestin So wearelookingatsomethinglikeabigger Intel’s newUSBport,duetoappearthis European p34 ). , challenger toHTML. could makePDFaserious big pushontheWeband Meanwhile, Adobeismakinga the differenceinsignificant. bandwidth enoughtorender or later,wewillhave over thebulkierPDF.Sooner advantage thatHTMLhas an issueandistheone cheap add-oncard. Teletext onaPCusing You canalreadydownload printing onyourlocallaser). of publishingwillgo(perhaps this issurelythewaykind downloading bysatelliteand have bothlookedat Murdoch’s NewsInternational, that critical. sleep, sodownloadtimeisnot up atcheapratesasyou But theideaisthatyouhook for theservicebynextyear. offer fastenoughconnections Green, believestheWebwill development manager,Peter download. minutes foraneditionto ISDN line,takingabout15 for theprintedversion)onan For themoment,filesizeis The The paper’stechnical Newsprint European . , and Clive Akass Computations ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Borehole bore power stations with which to Oil companies are preparing for a crowning enter its grave new world. era in marine oil drilling. New carbon-fibre Energy-sipping tethers for rigs will make it possible to drill could be supplied in large numbers if China for oil to depths of over 2Km, thereby produced them at Taiwanese speed: over emptying not only most of the future two million a year. About 120 million could generations’ oil as we are now doing, but all be coming from the People’s factories: a of it. stack about 4,800km high. China catch-up ● Source: Kvaerner. Dupont Inc. offers endless gallows humour for our planet: when the Chinese catch up with The Green-Gauge South Korea’s current air travel, for instance, they will have more than twice Nokia Communicator 9000 the US’s polluting airliner take-offs; over Energy draw: 2.3W 6,000 a day. If the Chinese adopt UK flying Weight: 397gm BY ROWLAND MORGAN habits, the country will have 17 million Take-back: Recyclable airliner movements a year, averaging over Packaging: Recyclable Chinese checker 46,000 a day (or 32/sec). This is one Taiwanese computer penetration is reason that the polluting airlines say they Citizen PN 60 notebook printer estimated at 67 units per 1,000 workers. intend to have £500m a working day being Energy draw: 2.3W With mainland China racing to catch up, spent building world airports in the year Recycled paper: Approved the world’s biggest population promises 2000. The only snag will come when the Polymer coding: Yes to be operating 33.5 million workplace world decides their kerosene should be Packaging: Grune Punkt computers as soon as they can be taxed. Or when the skies turn brown. supplied. If built on current lines, the ● Sources: Euromonitor Int’l Mktg Data machines would consume some 12bn & Statistics 1994. RM/BAA plc annual Bomb culture Watts of power, needing six major power report. The Hutchinson Guide to the Talks are under way to establish a stations of the Didcot-A type. That should World/Building No.40 vol CCLX. Craig T. moratorium on nuclear bomb testing, now be no problem, though, as Beijing has Chin on http://gurukul.ucc.american. that it can be done by computer game. announced plans for 1,000 coal-fired edu/MOGIT/cc3461a/taiwan.html Perhaps Britain should foot the bill? According to unrelated reports in New Scientist magazine, Britain has five times Is there intelligent life? more personnel than the USA working on Your neighbour is 98.2 percent brainless. Yes, the H-bombs. Staff numbers at the core brain’s average percentage of human body weight nuclear weapons programme at Los is only 1.8. But even so, researchers believe a Alamos, USA, are reportedly down to 900 human brain makes more connections than all the while those employed building H-bomb phone callers in the US in the past decade, with warheads at Aldermaston are put at 5,000, estimated brain nerve cell connections amounting which, incidentally, is the number of to one quadrillion. Now, let’s see, in which synapse people said to be employed in cabinet did I store my elastic bands? North Korea’s entire civil ● Source: National Geographic vol 188 no.4 nuclear power industry. ● Sources: New ● Walk on the wild side: If you relish the wilder side of facts, I can heartily recommend Scientist Nos. you buy my new factbook, Digitations, published by Michael O’Mara at £4.99. 1929 & 2000. Song Ui ho, The Korean, Moscode March 1994 pages Just one percent of NATO’s 1,200 staffers, each of them costing an 252/267. Carnegie Intl average £550,000 a year, can speak fluent Russian. Endowment for Peace. ● Sources: Andrew Mackinlay MP, Hansard vol. 264 no.143, col Vertic. 228. NATO (NATO HQ budget $1bn).

Shifty control A major survey indicates that over two million UK small businesses have yet to STATELLITE computerise. But even slower than trade is justice. Apparently, no High Courts in Wales ➽ For every job created in the and England use computers to keep their records, although a £15m computer system is industrialised world, 12 must be created in being installed for immigration officers to screen non-EU visitors to the UK. developing countries. Medicine is not exactly dashing into the digital either: 21 percent of Britain’s 19,508 ● Source: The 1994 Information Please medical receptionists still don’t have practice records on computer. Worst of all, though, Environmental Almanac, Houghton Mifflin has to be education: 17 out of 18 UK primary school children have no classroom USA. computer. ➽ Nearly 46 million Japanese residents do ● Sources: Banner. DTI. Law Society Gazette. ICL. Computer Weekly. DoH, without flush toilets. Hansard Vol. 242 no. 94 col. 370 (1993 survey). BBC News & Current Affairs. ● Source: OECD. Nature vol. 369, no. 6475.

39 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 COLUMNS Sounding Off

idden horrors that lurk on the download a .WAV file of one of the surefire chat-up lines so you can see how effective it “HInternet” screamed the Evening Standard’s might be. Here’s a verbatim transcription (the emphases are Ross’s own): “…so think headline (25th April). According to the author, about this: how surprised would you be to actually find yourself really enjoying spending Richard Holliday, the horrors include time with me? Like maybe to the point instructions on cannabis cultivation, “loads where you can picture us, over coffee, of information on Satanism”, a list of laughing and having the best time. And London’s seedier tourist spots, cannibalism you’re starting to really get excited over it.” for beginners, secrets of “speed It appears to be a subtle variation on the seduction”, and DIY atom bombs. “Get your coat darlin’, you’ve pulled” line. The gist of the piece was that these Whether a 12-year-old would be able to things are guaranteed to corrupt deliver it with the necessary gravitas is, impressionable young minds. The however, open to some doubt; whether positive side (the fact that it could at the object of his desire would be able to least keep them quiet during the school stop giggling long enough to supply a holidays) wasn’t even touched upon. suitable riposte, even more so. You know my views on the Internet “Butchering the Human Carcass for by now: it is to intelligent information Human Consumption”, comes courtesy gathering what a Pot Noodle is to haute of Bob Arson. “This is a step-by-step cuisine. But the Standard’s apocalyptic guide on how to break down the human warnings of stoned, priapistic, Satan- body from the full figure into serviceable, worshipping, cannibalistic 12-year-olds choice cuts of meat,” he says. And so it is. If rampaging around with their fingers on the your plane has just come down in the Andes, nuclear trigger sounded intriguing. So I I suppose it could be of some practical decided to log on and get thoroughly value, but to the Big Mac generation, used corrupted. Where possible, I sought out to getting their sustenance in seconds, Holliday’s recommended sites. MICHAEL HEWITT cooking the nextdoor neighbour is going to HempWeb is an All You Need To Know sound much too time-consuming a process. About Cannabis site. There are terrabytes Now, if Bob had come up with a recipe for of narcoleptic material on the history of ecclesiastical versions of Rentokil to deal Instant Man, i.e. “just add boiling water cannabis: how to grow it (“High nitrogen with the problem. Youngsters will find out and leave to stand for three minutes”, then fertiliser…is great for the vegetative more about Satanism, in a more readable he might have been on to something. phase”), ways to prepare it, how to smoke form, from buying a Dennis Wheatley novel, Finally, to Outlaw Labs’ file on how to it, and so on. Unfortunately, the overall available from virtually any bookshop. make your own atom bomb. It looks academic tone makes the stuff sound so Squiffy’s Guide to London has the detailed; but once Junior has sourced his “establishment” and its production so amazing revelation that there are strip clubs 110lbs of plutonium, together with the Percy Throwerish, that impressionable in Soho — but would the average spotty beryllium and polonium needed for the teenagers could be turned right off and on teenager get past the door-man? If he neutron source, he’s going to be really upset to something more hip instead; like Ribena. doesn’t, and is feeling understandably when he gets to the bit about assembling the On to Satan’s Playground, which poses frustrated, rates for prostitutes are also detonating head. Here, it says: “The amount the question: what is a Satanist? “I am,” quoted. But I can’t see them being of much of pressure needed to bring about… [a chain says David R. Ondrejko who also goes use to an impecunious youth: the cost of reaction]… is unknown and possibly under the nom de voyage of Von Draco, even an economy “quickie” is far in excess classified by the US Government for reasons “…but I reserve the right to call myself a of a whole month’s pocket money. of national security.” So after all that effort, plate of fruit salad if I so desire.” The self- But maybe the teenager doesn’t need to and all that mess on the bedroom floor, all indulgent, west coast USA tone renders avail himself of the services of a professional he’s got is a dud. Satanism about as alluring as membership lady. According to Ross Jeffries’ Seduction It’s all harmless garbage. If Holliday of a bowls club. Actually, 80 percent of the Site, “You could get the hottest woman wants to mount a crusade, I’d suggest he material here is anti-Satanist, from rabid lusting and eager for you within 20 minutes turns his attention to those dubious 0891 Christian Fundamentalists: “Ten ways to of meeting you, without even having to chat lines, such as the “Instant Connections tell you’ve been possessed by a demon.” If bother with a date.” The technique is called to up to 45 WOMEN LIVE ON LINE”, on so, they provide Web addresses for “Speed Seduction”. I took the trouble to page 42 of the Evening Standard.

41 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 COLUMNS Homefront

software. Every release brings more: there ne thing computer users are never stuck are more features, more options, more for is a suitable acronym. I could easily fill buttons, more menus — but less paper to O explain it all. this page with some of my favourites and doubtless There are some honourable exceptions: CorelDraw still comes with a pair of door- one day will, but for now I want to step manuals and PageMaker has a stout concentrate on just two. The first is FAQ — slip-case full of documents; AutoCad comes a frequently-asked question. It’s an with over 2,800 fun-packed pages but a expression used by the on-line cognoscenti to price tag of over £3,000 makes it an make newcomers feel small and stupid. expensive read. “How do I stop my printer spitting out So where have all the manuals gone? alternate blank pages with WordSoup 8.0 Usually, most of them end up either on the for Windows?” an innocent asks at the hard disk or on the installation CD-ROM, appropriate CIX conference. or a bit of each. And this is a pain in “Ha!” says the first on-line several slightly different but equally cognoscente (OLC) “That’s a FAQ.” sensitive areas of the bottom. “Yes” chimes in a second. “We had First, the documentation is stored on that one a few weeks ago. Definitely a your hard disk rather than the FAQ.” publisher’s paper. Second, if you need to “And a month or two before that, consult the bits that reside on the CD, then ISTR” adds a third OLC, “starting with you need to have this in the drive rather message 2,784” (knowing full well that the than your favourite reference work or music newcomer won’t have message 2,784 or any disk. idea of how to find it). Third is the question of portability. I used CIX is a friendly and helpful place, to like reading computer manuals in the however, and after a few rounds of this bath. Perhaps I should qualify that preludial banter, someone will have the statement: I’d rather read almost anything decency to actually answer the question. TIM NOTT else, but if TFM had to be R, then the bath “You have to manually edit was a good place to do it. For a start I could WordSoup.INI, adding the lines legitimately claim to be working and then, if ‘stickextradamnpagein=FALSE’, set the my brain got full, I could put the book down dipswitches on the printer to 1010011010, whatever the current version of MSDOS is and submerge it (brain, not book) for a then hold down the shift key every time you officially called, came one 95-page book, while. So, until someone invents a dinky, load WordSoup.” which is hardly a snack. floating, waterproof PC the bath is no longer Less kindly souls might tell the enquirer Microsoft Office has also seen a drastic an option. to RTFM. This stands for “Read The cut: 2,000-plus pages of serious reference Back in the old days, people bought FAQing Manual” — at least, that’s what it has shrunk to just one “Getting Results” third-party manuals such as “Mastering sounds like — and it’s this delightful book. And to be fair, it’s not just Microsoft WordSoup” largely because they’d nicked acronym that is the object of my concern, as — Lotus Smartsuite’s documentation has the software. But that was in the days when it has become an endangered species. It declined from five solid inches of bookshelf WordSoup fitted onto two floppy disks and could soon be relegated from the living real-estate to a pair of flimsy booklets. The the act of piracy could be carried out in a language to one of those historical manual, as we know and love it, is on the few minutes. Now, it’s probably more cost- curiosities such as ITMA or FAB which are way out and with many new shrink-wrapped effective to buy a legitimate copy, rather understood only by BOFs. applications the most substantial piece of than attempt a clandestine transfer Let me elucidate. With MSDOS 4 came documentation is the licence agreement. involving fifty floppies. But having done the manuals totalling around 1,000 pages. Were this because software was getting decent thing, it’s rather irksome to have to Windows 3.0 added another 640. The simpler, then it would be a time to rejoice. fork out another £30 or so to get some combined upgrade to DOS 5 and Windows Although this may be true for many printed explanation of how it all works. 3.1 cut this literary banquet slightly, as the consumer titles, which run direct from the So I’m starting a campaign for real GW-Basic course was removed, but the total CD without human intervention, it certainly application paperware. Just as soon as I can was still over 1,200. With Windows 95 and isn’t the case for most serious business think of a suitable acronym.

43 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 COLUMNS Straight talking

am delaying my planned column for this month BTI hijacked CompuServe so that it dialled BTI’s access number and, not surprisingly, to make room for an urgent warning. If you are thinking of failed to connect. I BT’s bizarre advice is that the computer subscribing to BT’s new Internet must be “reset” if the user wants to access another Internet-capable program like service, insist on a short-term trial before CompuServe after using BT Internet. This subscribing. Once again, BT has succeeded advice is buried in a Readme file which in snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. comes up on-screen towards the end of I say this after having first tried BT installation but without the option to print Internet (BTI) on a Pentium and then what will be complete gibberish to BT’s giving up and failing on a 486. The user targeted consumer base. software is such a pig’s ear that BT had My first attempt at loading BTI on a already cobbled together a revision spare 486 failed: the system froze and (v1.1) soon after the service launch. But crashed. On the second try BTI installed, you must be an existing user, and but when I tried to Register online (with successfully online, to download it! my latest re-reg code) it crashed out of I’ve spent ten times longer on BTI than Windows to DOS giving the error message I would normally spend on any software “No free file handles. Cannot load trial. I did this because CompuServe and Command. System halted”. AOL are too smug and need some serious The Helpline blindly read from a memo competition. I smelled a rat at the pre- advising that “If system crashes launch press conference when BT’s director continuously…” the subscriber should be of multimedia services, Rupert Gavin, and sent a disc with a new version of Spooler.exe his managers promised “ease of use”. BARRY FOX and Launcher.exe. But until someone has We were given various items including a registered they cannot launch or spool, or do piece of cardboard the size of a CD-ROM anything except get very angry. and a fresh banana with a stick-on label. We startup code works only for the first PC on Edit Config.sys to increase the Files= saw an edited video of a BT engineer which it is used. BT justifies this because the line from 30 progressively to 80, advised the installing the software but there was no service is aimed at consumers who are new Helpline. The PC still crashed on any software for us to take away and try. “We to computing and have only one PC. attempt to register online. But as a bonus I are trialling it now,” admitted Rupert So tough luck on those who hope to use now got an error message warning that my Gavin. “We are making final revisions.” BTI on both a desktop and a portable. If, “path statement exceeded the maximum” In April, after the service had been safely like me, you end up in such a mess with the and advice from the Helpline to alter my launched on an unsuspecting public, BT software that the only way out is to re- System.ini file by changing the order of the provided review software. During install, you must get a re-registration code Vcom and Serial device lines. Then there installation, my Pentium with Windows 95 which only works for one more try. When the was talk of adding an EMM-exclude threw up a stream of error messages. BT’s software installs, it renames existing files command, and I was told how to “disable” Helpline advised a string of fixes which “to avoid conflict” (even “escape” can’t stop the default compression setting because BT’s would be way over the head of the novice it). Renaming files is always risky. I servers cannot cope with compression — user at whom BT is targeting its product. answered “Yes” to the question “New remember, this is a service for novices! Some staff were blindly reading from User?” when I should have answered “No”: And still no joy. Maybe I’ll try a third PC. memos, obviously with no understanding of up came questions about Pop-3, Popserver, What I want now is an answer to the what they were advising. Others gave up and SMTP and Mailhost, culminating in “Error question I put to Rupert Gavin: “Did you promised that someone else would phone 513. Try again later”; later was just as bad. ever personally try installing this half-baked back. A few admitted that the help line was “Checksum does not validate” was my system on your own PC, without an engineer being swamped with distress calls. punishment for failing to notice a “Re- giving you personal assistance and working Because BT Internet works on the “all load?” option for my re-reg code. When I only from the screen and helpline prompts you can eat” principle, giving subscribers finally got BTI working thanks to the file like a paying customer?” Rupert Gavin fast, unlimited access for the flat access fee renaming, a BT Mail Spooler kept popping claims that he registered successfully, of £15 a month, BT wants to stop several up causing error messages and preventing without technical assistance. He says 93 people sharing one password. So the master me from shutting down Windows 95. Worse, percent of BT’s customers have, too.

45 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 COLUMNS Business matters

combination of Sun’s remarkable initiative or a number of years I was involved with a in coming up with Java, and Microsoft’s equally remarkable U-turn on the Internet, F major UK company’s executive information has not so much moved the goal posts as shot them into space. systems. These are probably the hardest computer systems Java applets and the Microsoft equivalent, ActiveX components, make it to get right. The theory is simple: the people possible to have Web pages which are who run the company need fast access to any applications in their own right. A graph in a information that will help them improve the Web document need no longer be a static business. This is a complex mixture: from snapshot: it can now be updated on the fly, historical performance figures to stock from a database. Interaction with Web market data, to competitor intelligence, to pages can be much more powerful. news. It would seem that computers, Suddenly, an intranet has become an particularly PCs, would make the ideal ideal development environment for an vehicle for serving up this information. EIS. If only it were that easy. Most It’s a beguiling picture. An EIS executives prefer to dictate a letter to a needs the ability to be tailored: secretary or ask a question of a personal executives are used to the world being assistant, than battle with a computer. tweaked to their requirements and this is Better user interfaces help but the already possible on the Web, as pages like technology remains a substantial barrier. the personal Times newspaper and MSN’s As executives haven’t got the time to spend home page demonstrate. If you haven’t seen half a day learning to use software, the these or other examples, check out my executive information system (EIS) has to Business Matters links via my home page, redefine the word “intuitive” (or perhaps I http://members.aol.com/NotAHome/. should say, restore its original meaning). An EIS needs to be easy to navigate: the Most importantly, unlike the majority of the BRIAN CLEGG Web is built around this premise. An EIS workforce, the executive has a choice: no- needs to be easy to update: the popularity of one is going to tell them off for not using the applications once more. What was lost in the Web has generated a host of tools to company system; they have to want to use it. immediate speed of development was more create Web pages and update Web sites. So far, the EIS has moved through three than compensated for by flexibility and the Probably, above all (and most difficult with distinct generations. Early versions used ability to build-in a corporate look and feel. earlier implementations) an EIS needs to be mainframes. To keep things simple they That takes us to the present day. All flexible. It’s a bit like preparing for Prime consisted of a series of basic menus, leaving three generations still exist in different Minister’s question time — you never know limited scope for the user to explore. The organisations but I’ve a feeling that it’s time where the supplementary questions may next breakthrough came with the to launch EIS “The Next Generation”. The lead. With the Web, the world’s resources availability of off-the-shelf packages. These catalyst for this change is the use of are available to follow up on an issue. Of were often PC-based, providing the intranets, the clumsily-named private course, there’s lots of junk out there but developer with tools to package highlights of implementations of the World Wide Web. there’s plenty of quality information, too. the company’s databases in a (relatively) An intranet uses Web technology but is Conventional EIS has always been an easy-to-use structure. By this stage there accessible only from within a company, expensive game. It’s a small market and the was more flexibility in what could be based on its local area networks. This has buyer pays the price of exclusivity. Web achieved but the in-house developer was been seen for some time now as a great way technology, on the other hand, is the often frustrated by the boundaries placed on to publish documents — in fact, some cheapest around with parsimonious them by the environment. consider it a serious threat to the impressive companies like Microsoft falling over As is often the case, the next generation but very resource-hungry groupware giant, themselves to give away software. It all adds was a throwback. The advent of visual Lotus Notes. If Web technology had been up to a significant inducement to boldly go programming languages like Visual Basic frozen in time last summer, that’s probably into the next generation with a cheap and made it worth writing bespoke EIS all an intranet would ever have done, but a effective executive information system.

47 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 LETTERS

Send your letters to: The Editor Warehouse and Gateway Mosaic was the first WWW Personal Computer World 2000, can only be described browser (News Analysis, PCW VNU House as bizarre. May). It wasn’t. 32-34 Broadwick Street However, the main purpose If you want to run the real of my letter is to propose granddaddy of them all you ‘ll London W1A 2HG accolades to companies who need a NeXT computer: Tim or email, on: have never let me down: Berners Lee’s original [email protected] Novatech and Action WorldWideWeb.app was or CompuServe 71333,2330 Computer Supplies. Neither developed on NeXTstep (as it or fax 0171 316 9313 has ever failed to have goods was spelled then) way back in delivered to me the following 1990. Playing with that gives a day. Novatech has just been kick that no Windows (X or honest enough not to accept Microsoft) application could an order for an item which was ever do. Talk to Chris out of stock and the delivery Bidmead about it. Letters date uncertain. Action’s best Malcolm Crawford was to deliver a Toshiba [email protected]. Price disparity builders have to pay; even for portable, ordered at 4.30pm, ac.uk Keith Miller (Letters, June) systems from relatively small to my door at 11.15 the next seems to think that Gateway suppliers. morning. Clive Akass replies: Thanks pays far less for Microsoft This is not just sour grapes. I also remember ordering for your interest. If you read Office than UK manufacturers The Office of Fair Trading has from a firm called Microtronics my piece carefully you will see simply because it employs taken up the complaint and (which advertised on your I did not say Mosaic was the good negotiators and buys in referred it to the Competition Micromart pages). Halfway first Web browser. I referred to very large volumes. Sorry, Directorate of the European through taking my order late the earliest Mosaic. NSCA, Keith, but this simplistic view Commission. Some one afternoon, the gentleman incidentally, has just released is just not the whole story. companies are also at the other end of the phone a new version. The concern is that there’s considering High Court action dashed out into the yard to I interviewed Tim Berners no price parity between the against Microsoft should the stop the van leaving so that Lee two years ago and wrote US and the UK, and that EC find against it. my order could be on it. The of his early browsers. His American companies selling Phil Stanton goods arrived at 8.15am the father told me this was the first into the UK from bases in Eire [email protected] next day. major article on him, in Britain. (i.e. Gateway) therefore have I wholeheartedly agree with I did not see his NeXT a price advantage. Super-service Joseph Farrugia (Letters, browser, but I understood it to Microsoft, of course, denies I have been following the June): if you don’t get the be text-based. One of my that there is any disparity in correspondence about service you expect, don’t reasons for doing the piece pricing, yet a quick standards of service and repeat the business. was that it seemed TBL was comparison of prices of delivery delays (Letters, May Neil Howie not getting the credit he is systems sold in the US, with and June). [email protected] due. And, of course, he is and without Office, shows that Some of my experiences English. the difference is much less with well-known companies, Browse beater Mosaic was not even the than it would be if prices were such as Computers by Post, It vexes me greatly that you first graphical browser, or at in line with what UK system Technomatic, Software gave the impression that least there was one out at

49 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 LETTERS

Short and sharp Microsoft didn’t do it to stop piracy, but to save disk and What the Dickens? Will the real Mr Capaldi PCW for a while and I was duplication costs. It appears, I’m sure that I cannot be the please stand up? beginning to think that it might in retrospect, to a degree that only one to have spotted the I can’t believe it! I actually got have disappeared from your surprised Microsoft (since they liberty you have taken with a letter published in the great spell-checker; but no. know it can be copied, too) to Dickens (“Balancing Act”, PCW (Letters, May) — The word you want is forte have curtailed much of this PCW May). thanks. (sic). There is no accent in sort of “casual” copying. Mr Micawber did not say Aagh! I can’t believe it! any of its manifestations, from that happiness was You’ve put somebody else’s Latin (from fortem, the acc. of Did I hear you right? dependent on an annual name and address at the end fortis) to Italian (forte), and I read Mark Whitehorn’s piece expenditure of £19.96, as I’m of the letter. Who is Colin finally to English (forte; with on noise cancelling (Horizons, sure you all know! Did you Barnes, 100273,504? Thanks us since the 17th century, via May) and was disturbed by really think your readers a lot! In frustration, the French, fort); in any case, two basic errors. wouldn’t understand Mark Capaldi the stress is on the “o”, not Humans, with good hearing, “nineteen shillings and 100610,3057@ the “e”. can hear sounds covering the sixpence”? Or were you compuserve.com Continental accents are an frequency range 20Hz to 20kHz setting a trap for old fogies unavoidable nuisance in (twenty thousand), not 20MHz like me who aren’t afraid to Not PCW’s forte many cases, without as stated in the piece. The error admit they remember what a There it is again! On pagé 339 inventing more. So, may I is compounded by the half crown was? of thé Juné issué (whoops! plead with you forte, forte, to calculations further along in the Adrian M Attwood Now I’ve caught it!), that drop “forté”? article. Additionally, what does 101727,3500@ mysterious word “forté”. Mr P Ghiringhelli “they can reduce sound levels compuserve.com I had not seen forté in Bradford by 50 to 95 per cent” mean? Who did you get to check it for accuracy? Errors like this much the same time, called pigeon? Or even personally Tim Frost replies: You are make me wonder what other Cello; it never took off to the delivering filthy lucre into your dead right that there is nothing blunders you get away with on same degree. sweaty mitts? — getting a bit to stop those who know about subjects about which I am not My point that the early desperate by now. “Nope.” these things from copying a specialist. Mosaic opened up the Web Forgive me if I am wrong, DMF disks. What I tried to Terry Metcalfe still stands, I think. but all your articles seemed to highlight in the article, by not acoustic consultant suggest that MSN was concentrating too much on the Ipswich Can’t sign up to MSN intending to make itself a piracy issue, was that it was Having just read the May serious contender in the “casual” piracy (i.e. home and Mark Whitehorn replies: issue of your excellent mag service providers’ market. I am individual office users copying Ouch! Sorry, I admit it; it was a (flattery seems to work a great admirer of Microsoft disks for friends) that is mistake. In a previous life wonders!), and having been products, but as far as service disappearing. (before I was seduced by mightily impressed by the providers go, they don’t even Not all of that is down to computers) I did know that the articles on MSN (particularly come up to CompuServe’s DMF. Software is cheaper upper limit of hearing was as they offer 100 percent local boots! now and the culture of about 20kHz. Time, and a long call access across the UK), I Paul Drawmer software piracy is lessening association with computers, attempted to sign up “on-line”. CompuServe 73064,1461 while the culture of software obviously transposed the units I am currently a ownership is expanding. But to MHz in my brain. Once the CompuServe member and DMF doesn’t prevent DMF is part of that. Copying transposition had been very satisfied with the service. piracy Microsoft’s disks needs, firstly, effected, I rattled the incorrect However, CompuServe offers What is Tim Frost on about an understanding of what numbers into the calculations. only 85 percent local call (Innovations, June)? There’s DMF is about. Secondly, a However, my foolish error access — and guess what? nothing to stop anyone copy of Norton or a shareware doesn’t affect the explanation I I’m in the other 15 percent. creating or copying DMF equivalent. Thirdly, an gave about how active noise All went well until I reached format disks: there have been understanding of how to use it suppression works, nor does it the “methods of payment” bit. shareware programs around to copy these disks. stop it functioning. The options were MasterCard for some time, and the current You and I and many As for the second query, or Visa. As I have neither of version of the Norton File computer-literates may have this means that the amplitude these cards I rang the Help Manager will copy and format all of this, but I’d suggest that of the wave can be reduced by desk and offered to pay by DMF disks with 1 or 2K as PCs become just another between 50 and 95 percent. Switch. “Sorry, we are unable sectors. “brown-goods” product like a The actual figure will depend to accept this method of I don’t think the people at VCR, that you buy and use on various factors such as the payment”. Microsoft would be dumb preloaded with software, fewer frequency and the initial Okay; how about if I send enough to think that this type and fewer users qualify on all amplitude of the wave. you a cheque?. “Sorry that of format would deter “casual three counts. In future, I promise to keep won’t do either”, came the piracy” for very long. I did say that the anti-piracy my errors to something less reply. Well, what about a Les Kneeling element of DMF was a side than three orders of bankers draft? Cash by carrier [email protected] issue. And indeed it is. magnitude!

50 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 LETTERS

Noisy fans need OS in particular) yet states often stem from continually- locking up that he has “never looked changing, fashionable I found your recent back” since moving to teaching methods and the article (PCW, May) Windows 95 — a system resultant poor teaching about 100MHz “entry renowned for its “command- standards. They are simply level” Pentiums very line” interface… NOT! unable to satisfy modern interesting. I thought that The illogical defence of one employment criteria; in the Doom2 test and the operating system over particular, the use of new Corel test were very another, and the resultant technology. revealing. confusion, is a prime reason No-one can teach. Good However, I find that for the current level of “teachers” merely aid learning one of the most irritating computer illiteracy among by stimulating curiosity and things about computers adults. Computers are mere passing on their enthusiasm is the fan noise. Many tools, and the educational for a subject. Bad teachers people, like myself, buy “merit” of the Mac OS (or any recite dogma and old news. their PCs from mail order other system) is totally System preferences are firms, so it is not possible irrelevant. incidental to the task of making to judge the noise level Furthermore, knowledge of people want to use computers before purchase. fundamental principles is not and enjoy them. Schools My Viglen Genie 486 DX66 of Illustrator, Photoshop and always essential to actually should use Macs, Amigas, is a very noisy machine. PageMaker were available to doing things. Why doesn’t Dr Windows PCs, or even Indeed, some other makes I students for around £100, they Styring say what he really fluorescent pink, steam-driven have heard are so loud that would sell more copies. An means: if it isn’t difficult to fridges, running a variant of they are difficult to work next additional benefit would come learn, it isn’t worth it? Unix written by Anthea Turner, to. A friend of mine had to from having large numbers of Many computer users work just so long as their teaching place his Amstrad PC in a young people, with a good quite happily with only a staff pass on a desire to cupboard (suitably ventilated, I knowledge of their products, rudimentary knowledge of the explore computing! would add) because its fan who would probably be more operating procedures of their Hardware/software differences was unbearably noisy. likely to use them in the future. machines. The introduction of are no substitute for insight. In future tests, could you I can’t see what large the Mac GUI and Windows P.S. If Dr Styring knows how provide some guide on the companies like Adobe have to made computing accessible to to get Photoshop running on noise levels of various lose by letting students have millions. His comparison of the “My First Computer”, could he makes? And does the noise discount prices on software. Mac OS with Speak and Spell pass on the information? It vary among different Sam Breuning and My First Computer is would save a fortune on machines of the same make? [email protected] simply re-hashing the mid- equipment! Could you also provide some eighties “Macs and Toys” Clive Routley hints on how to reduce this Who owns Acorn? myth — one which died, Birmingham intrusion (bearing in mind the My pleasure at reading a incidentally, with the ventilation problem)? Thank reasonably objective article commercial use of DTP and The cost of access you for a great magazine (“Cambridge revisited”) in computer graphics. Why don’t In your June issue you Jeremy J Mann PCW (June) about the Acorn we all become Luddites? published a price comparison 101530,2700 company was rather “Down with computers and of the cost of ISDN Net diminished by the reference to calculators! Destroy anything access, in which you quoted Under-16s want it being “a wholly-owned that makes the world easier!” UK Online’s ISDN Net discounts, too subsidiary of Olivetti”. In fact, it Or, we could stop arguing connection price at £314.99; I read with interest the item in is now roughly 50 percent about which is the better OS the same as its standard Newsprint (Short Stories, owned by that company and and get on with doing things. modem dial-up connection. June) that Microsoft gives its shares (quoted on the UK Dr Styring (and others This is true, but doesn’t tell the student discounts on its stockmarket) have been rising within the education system) whole story. software products. I fully quite consistently in 1996, may be shocked to discover The £314.99 figure is for agree with Lord Avebury’s partially due (“sources that their real task lies not in our unlimited time family view that under-16’s should suggest”) to institutional discussing teaching access scheme. This actually also get the discounts, but I investors wanting to invest in a methodology, but in a buys you up to four separate think that other software major player in the NC market. transmission of skills and Internet connections. Yes, you companies should give Stuart A Bell enthusiasm. Far too many could have four Internet ISDN discounts, too. [email protected] teachers regard the means as connections. As the price is For instance, the Adobe being more important than the inclusive of VAT, the real cost publishing suite costs over OS confusion causes end product: a fact confirmed per ISDN connection can be £800. Fair enough for large computer illiteracy by the poor rate of basic as low as £33.74. Not many publishing companies and Oops! Dr Styring (Letters, literacy among many school people know this. graphic design workshops, but May) seems to have lost the leavers. Steve Patient only a dream for people like plot. He derides the As a training advisor, I senior editor, UK Online. myself (a 16-year-old studying educational value of “point and work with the long-term Steve Patient at home for GCSE’s). If the collection click” interfaces (and the Mac unemployed. Their problems [email protected]

52 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 GADGETS GADGETS

LapTalk notebook speakers Iomega Jaz cartridge New Media, known for its PC cards, is branching out into notebook This is the cartridge for Iomega’s long-awaited Jaz drive, reviewed in First speakers with LapTalk. Apart from looking the business, the Impressions (page 58). Barely bigger than two floppy disks stuck together, speakers also sound surprisingly good, due in part to the “custom these removable cartridges store 1Gb and are expected to cost £89 (plus designed, tuned port acoustic enclosures” no doubt. And VAT) each. Using conventional hard disk technology they’re quick, too, because they take their power straight from your notebook’s virtually matching the performance of a typical 1Gb drive. The Jaz drive is PS/2 port they don’t need batteries or an AC adaptor. They also available in several flavours: internal SCSI-2 for £399 (excl VAT), or feature a high-quality built-in microphone and weigh just 450g. To attach external SCSI-2 at £499 (excl VAT); both are RRPs. Internal IDE models the speakers, you stick mounting brackets onto the back of your will follow. Everybody will want one, but watch out for SyQuest’s notebook’s screen. Thereafter, it takes just seconds to get them on or competing SyJet drive, due soon. off, and they lock together rather Contact Iomega 0181 899 1734 neatly for easy transportation. Other features include jacks for sub-woofer out and line-in for a CD player. Price £135 (excl VAT) Contact Portable Add-Ons 01483 241404

Casio OH-20

Casio’s new OH-20 is the world’s lightest and most compact overhead projector. Weighing Canon MP10 just 1.1kg, it measures 134 x 184 x 293mm when open but folds down to a mere 58mm thick: this is a truly portable presentation device. You’ll need mini acetates to use as slides: Hot on the heels of Toshiba’s TF-461, reviewed in First Impressions the OH-20 comes with ten of these, pre-punched for use in the binder which is also (page 74), is another multifunction device from Canon. The MP10 supplied along with a spare halogen bulb and a soft case. Magnification ranges from 6.4 boasts the usual array of all-in-one features including printing, to 15 times, while projection distance is 1.2 to 2.6m. faxing either standalone or from the PC, copying and greyscale Price £599 (inc VAT) scanning. The MP10 is based around Canon’s BubbleJet Contact Casio 0181 450 9131 technology and prints at 360dpi. There’s a 20-sheet automatic document feeder, a full hour of backup memory, 47-page fax transmission/reception memory and the capacity to receive 100 sheets of pape. Remarkable, and a full review next month. Price £799 (excl VAT) Contact Canon 0181 773 6000

Decent multimedia speakers are all the rage, so it’s not surprising to see a respectable set from Sony. Its SRS-9C300D active system consists of the common three-unit design: two, small, magnetically shielded IBM Thinkpad 560 “satellite” speakers which sit (or can be attached to) either side of the monitor, and a single, large sub- The days of lugging around thick, heavy notebooks could be ending woofer which handles the less directional deep bass — so long as you’ve got enough money, that is. Several major sounds. The beauty of such a system is that the sub- notebook manufacturers are excitedly touting their new, svelte woofer unit, complete with controls and amplification, may goods for release over the next few months. Here’s IBM’s be positioned out of sight under your desk but performing Thinkpad 560: a phenomenally slim model, lightweight at 4.1lbs Mackie happily. Sony’s system pumps out a total of 25W which will but by no means light on features. There’s a choice of 12.1in enhance your sonic experience, be it Duke-Nuk’em or Encarta. active matrix or 11.3in dual-scan SVGA screens, and 100MHz Price RRP £139 (excl VAT) or 120MHz processors. A 133MHz will be available later. Contact Sony 0181 760 0500 Price Not available at press time

Photography by Bruce Sony SRS-PC300D active speakers Gadget PCW Gadgets

56 57 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 FirstFirst ImpressionsImpressions Things moving a bit slowly? Contents VNU European Labs Jaz them up with Iomega’s 58 Iomega Jaz Drive VNU Labs tests cover the backbone of all the VNU Labs system 61 Intuit Quicken 5 every kind of hardware evaluations but it’s nearly impossible to and software including pin an application result to a specific 63 Kingston Turbochip 133 vs new drive. Intuit’s Quicken is PC hardware, printers, machine component. Only system-level Make-it 586 network products, tests (also known as low-level tests) can spruced up, and Turbochip 64 Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 5M modems and software reliably tell the difference. VNU Labs’ 66 Canon BJC-210 applications. The tests are continually system-level test suite is called and Make-it help you whizz developed and enhanced to reflect Euromark. The tests, which are mainly p63 66 Attachmate Emissary 1.1 hardware and software developments. Windows-based, are used to isolate along the upgrade path. 68 Poser for Windows 95 Our tests closely simulate real-world specific components like hard disks, p78 70 Viglen Dossier CD use. For example, our suite of PC graphics cards and CD-ROM drives. benchtests uses complete versions of ● To make them easy to read at a Hewlett-Packard’s latest 74 Toshiba TF461 industry-standard Windows 95 glance, all graphs in PCW are drawn so 76 MacroMedia Extreme 3D applications — currently Word, Excel, that the bigger the bar, the better the printers boast PCL, Poser for 78 Steinberg Cubase 3.0 WordPerfect and FoxPro. result. Normally we’ll also 79 SoftWindows 95 We also run a graphics re- include the original data Windows lets you draw test using CorelDraw we worked from: for 80 PartitionMagic 2.0 6, and a Doom 2 frame example, the time in manipulate the human form, 80 TypeReader Professional 3.0XA rate test which is a good minutes and seconds to p64 82 Stardraw 2D indication of games print a page in a and Cubase 3.0 tunes in. 83 Forehelp 2.95 performance. comparative test of Application tests are printers.

HARDWARE

We tried the Jaz on a Pentium take it with you if you wish to transfer files take 650Mb cartridges costing £40, or Iomega Jaz Drive 150MHz with an Adaptec 2940 PCI to a Jaz-less machine. A similar feature 1.3Gb cartridges at £60, with a A fast, economical drive with plenty of garage space. SCSI-2 card under Windows 95. The helped the Zip to make inroads into print performance roughly matching that of the Bench utility in Adaptec’s EZ-SCSI 4 and imaging shops, loosening the hold of Jaz. Syquest is also bringing out a range software measured the Jaz’s sequential rival Syquest drives. of drives which will be backward torage has replaced processing insertion to provide transfer rate as being close to that of the The drive is well fast enough for a compatible with the EZ-135 (see Spower as the major bottleneck in access to well- 1Gb Seagate ST31230N SCSI-2 hard video data stream and a single cartridge Newsprint). PCs. There is little point in being able to tried Winchester disk, and between a quarter and a third can hold several hundred digital photos. But both Iomega and Syquest have process huge multimedia files if you have read-write slower in random access times: the You can boot from the Jaz, so it also been guilty recently of what might most nowhere affordable to put them. By heads. Seagate is fast, so the Jaz measured up offers an easy way to run multiple kindly be called strategic hyperbole. coincidence or not, the cost of storage The drive very well indeed. operating systems from different When the stakes are as high as they are has suddenly begun to drop as fast as comes with a The software sets itself up in seconds cartridges. fighting for, you can only believe what processor prices. choice of IDE with a flurry of animated logos. The tools A big question is whether you will be you see on the shop shelves. Iomega started the trend last year with or SCSI-2 are based on the Zip toolkit with its able to get hold of a Jaz. Iomega could Clive Akass its Zip drive, which took removable interfaces and a suite of emphasis on easy one-step backup, and not keep up with the demand for the Zip 100Mb cartridges and offered the first Mac or Windows file- help you keep track of files on different and it has yet to prove it has solved its cheap high-capacity alternative to the management tools on a bundled disks. production problems. And then there is PCW Verdict Price £399 (plus VAT) internal; £499 (plus ageing 1.44Mb floppy. Now the company pre-formatted cartridge worth £89 (plus Right-clicking the Jaz icon in Windows Syquest. It rushed out the EZ-135 VAT) external has its competitors on the run again with VAT). 95’s My Computer offers several (reportedly losing $40 on each one sold) Contact Iomega 0181 899 1734 the Jaz drive, which takes 1Gb We got to test the £399 SCSI 2 additional options. These directly activate to counter the Zip and has been forced to cartridges. internal model which fits into a standard the numerous utilities, such as formatting, pre-announce a Jaz rival called the SyJet Good Points Fast. Cheap. Large capacity. Bad Points First in a rapidly developing, The Jaz is essentially little different 3.5in bay. The £499 external version, with backing up or making a complete copy of which, on the face of it, looks to be a fiercely competitive market. from a hard disk, except that the twin its 8.5in x 5.5in x 1.5in case, is styled identified by colour: blue for the Zip, dark an entire drive — space permitting. better bet. Conclusion Everyone will want one. Watch platters sit in a cartridge protected by a much like Iomega’s other low-cost red for the (tape-cartridge) Ditto, green Another utility allows the drive to Syquest claims the SyJet will be this space for rivals. dust-proof shutter which springs open on removables though they are easily for the Jaz. “guest” on another PC, so that you can available this summer at £349, and will

58 59 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 FIRST IMPRESSIONS

SOFTWARE Intuit Quicken 5

A wash and brush-up for a respected personal finance manager.

hen you begin with a well thought Wout and well executed product, it is Right The new inevitable that upgrades will be largely HomeBase screen cosmetic enhancements — just a tweak Below Opening a new here and a polish there, but nothing to current account in grab you by the throat and shake you. Quicken This is the case with the latest version of Quicken which has received a wash and brush-up. There are several enhancements to clicking the the reporting features. For example, heading. You EasyAnswer Reports are a set of pre- can specify defined report templates that answer high, low, and common questions such as “How much volume for any did I spend between June and investment September on eating out?” All you have price, link an to do is choose EasyAnswers from the investment Reports menu, select the appropriate account to a question and make selections from drop- bank account down lists. Using EasyAnswers makes it that lets you a doddle to create common reports about hold uninvested your finances. cash, and write You can now resize column widths in cheques. reports simply by dragging small markers Overall, I get between the column headings. You can the feeling that show or hide report columns, too. complicated features such as investment Intuit recognises the threat offered by Quicken lets you group categories tracking and loan setups. Money, which now has an interface as together into supercategories to give There are loads of Help features — crisp and clean as a banknote straight off yourself a simplified picture when you which may indicate that Quicken has the press and it’s oh-so-easy to use. The report on your finances. For example, grown top-heavy. Flyover Help is a sort weight and variety of help features in you could have separate categories for of bubble help that tells you what an icon Quicken 5 is telling, as well as the efforts books, magazines and newspapers, but does. The new QuickTours give you an to spruce it up with HomeBase. There is lump them together as a supercategory overview of common Quicken tasks more that can be done and I suspect called “reading materials”. You can then (Video QuickTours is available in more substantial changes are in the organise cash flow reports and summary Quicken Deluxe CD-ROM only, as is the pipeline. reports by supercategory. on-screen manual). And Troubleshooting In the meantime, Quicken has loads of There are several enhancements to Help tries to answer the most frequently features, comes bundled with two printing reports. For instance, you can encountered problems. There’s also additional and optional packages now print a report on a single page (no Quicken Tips which at startup provides (QuickInvoice and Home Inventory) and, matter how wide the report) and change useful tips for achieving the best from unlike Money which is Windows 95 the report orientation, to portrait or Quicken. specific, Quicken runs under 95 and landscape, in the Print Report window. There are loads of very small Windows 3.1. The Print Preview window now also enhancements. For example, there are Paul Begg shows your report in the font in which it several new investment actions: you will be printed. can transfer shares between accounts, PCW Verdict Moving around Quicken has been accommodate corporate name Price £64.95; upgrade £44.95 (both prices made easier with the introduction of changes, corporate securities spin-offs, include VAT) QuickTabs and the newly-designed corporate acquisitions (stock for stock), Contact Intuit 0181 990 5500 HomeBase; a lift from Money but not half and stock dividends. In the Portfolio Good Points It will do almost anything you as attractive, which gives you almost one- View you can sort your investments by want it to. click access to Quicken’s most important security name, type, symbol, or any of Bad Points Now a little top heavy and a bit features. Another new feature is the Custom View columns (like market daunting. EasyStep, which is a quick introduction to value, estimated income, and Conclusion A cosmetic upgrade. using Quicken’s slightly more percentage market value) just by

61 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 FIRST IMPRESSIONS

HARDWARE Kingston Turbochip 133 vs Make-it 586

Whizzer chips to upgrade your processor.

n a world where most new software The Kingston Irequires Pentium-class power to upgrade processor is operate effectively, the vast majority of based on the AMD machines in big corporations, small Am5x86 and also companies and homes are still 486s of has a 16Kb one kind or another. Not surprisingly, chip cache. It comes manufacturers are falling over with a similar set themselves to solve this problem in the of bits and pieces form of overdrive upgrade processors. including a chip Turbochip Here, we’ve tested two of the lesser- extractor too and a comes with a known upgrade chips on the market: the built-on cooling fan. lifetime warranty, Kingston Turbochip 133 and the Make-it There’s also a socket extender too, but the 586 from Improve Technologies. Both which improves the chip’s compatibility technical support chips are competitively priced to Intel’s with certain styles of zif socket. you receive is P24T overdrive chip and both make Installation was not quite such plain dependent on the unbelievable claims: installation within sailing this time. Although pin 1 was reseller. With such a huge market in minutes and performance increases of correctly aligned, the chip did not fall upgradable 486 machines, a further drop between 200 and 400 percent. Using an naturally into place and required a in price is to be expected over the next few IBM system with a 486 DX/33 processor certain amount of pressure on each side. months. we tested both chips for ourselves. As before, we turned on the machine and Eleanor Turton-Hill The Make-it 586 is based on the Cyrix the chip was recognised — no BIOS or ● See this month’s Hands On Hardware 5x86 100MHz processor and jumper alterations. You don’t have to (page 300) for full details of processor incorporates a 16Kb internal cache. It worry about the fan as it’s already stuck upgrades. comes with a metal extraction tool for on to and powered by the chip rather removing your existing 486 processor, a than directly from the PC’s power supply. Comparative fan, a heat sink, and a small installation Using popular, everyday applications Performance Graph manual. The chip itself will upgrade like the Microsoft Office Suite and Lab test 486SX and DX processors on 16, 20, 25, CorelDraw, we put each chip through our and 33MHz systems as well as DX2-66s. VNU European Labs tests, noting before 1.00 Once you’ve removed the existing and after results. Interestingly, we found 1.44 chip, installing the new Cyrix processor is significant improvements in the cacheing 1.53 a surprisingly straightforward procedure. of each chip after upgrading the 1.80 Just line up the bevelled corner of the machine’s BIOS; the Kingston Turbochip new chip with pin 1 and the processor producing an overall performance 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 slips straight in. The transparent fan then increase of 44 percent, and the Make-it Intel 486 DX/33 Make-it 586 Kingston Turbochip Intel overdrive clips on top of the chip with its power 586 chalking up a 53 percent increase. cable plugging directly into the PC power These results compare with Intel’s supply. With everything in place, we 83MHz overdrive chip which, on the PCW Verdict turned on the machine and the new same machine, achieved a massive 80 Make-it 586 processor was recognised first time — no percent performance increase. Price £149 (plus VAT) expected street price BIOS alterations, and no jumper settings As I began writing this, Intel’s Contact 0181 498 2100 to change. overdrive chip was set at a price of £209. Good Points Fair results. Excellent technical As I finished, the price had dropped to support, warranty and return policy. £149. Likewise, the Make-it 586 chip has Bad Points Could be cheaper. dropped from £175 to £145, although Conclusion Good, safe deal if you’re not a the Kingston overdrive chip hardware expert. remains at £104. Kingston Turbochip Despite disappointing Price £104 (plus VAT) performance results, both chips Contact 01252 303500 tested here do offer serious Good Points Cheap. competition to Intel’s product. Both Bad Points Disappointing performance offer compatibility with a wide range of results. 486 machines and the Make-it 586 chip Conclusion Better option for experienced comes with an excellent warranty, return users. policy and technical support. Kingston’s

63 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 FIRST IMPRESSIONS

HARDWARE Hewlett-Packard LaserJet 5M

HP’s latest, fast printers talk a new PCL.

he arrival of a new HP LaserJet compatibility. The Windows drivers come they replace. The controls are well- Tprinter is always cause for excitement in two portions: JetAdmin for network use, designed, with a scrolling display, simpler and particularly so, if like this one, it which requires 4.5Mb, and a selection of options and a job-cancel button. All accompanies a brand new version of the fonts — custom installation 2Mb, typical feature the same true 600 x 600dpi company’s PCL (printer control 6Mb, or 23Mb for the lot. technology which, with resolution language). PCL 6 will be fitted to all future HP enhancement and microfine toner, It has been two and a half years, in LaserJet printers but curiously the produces superb quality. fact, since the announcement of the product line which débuts the language The standard base tray has a 250- LaserJet 4 with PCL 5e — the “e” isn’t titled, say, the LaserJet 6 series. The sheet capacity, while the multi-purpose standing for the enhancements to support three new models are the LaserJet 5, 5N input tray which folds out from the front HP’s first 600dpi printer. But there are no and 5M, which replace the 4Plus and holds an additional 100 sheets (or ten letters tagged on here. PCL 6 is a 4MPlus workgroup printers. The letter N envelopes). An optional 500-sheet base complete rewrite, this time using far more refers to Network ready in that it has built- tray increases the printer’s maximum efficient object-orientated code. in Ethernet support with 10-Base T and capacity to 850 sheets. It’s quick too, with The modular architecture of PCL 6 10-Base 2 BNC ports along with HP’s a 12ppm engine, new hardware-assisted allows it to be easily modified or JetAdmin software. The letter M in HP’s compression and greyscaling, and a enhanced in the future while book still refers to Macintosh compatibility 33MHz processor, as opposed to the more or, more specifically, PostScript fitted: like 4Plus and the 4MPlus’s 25MHz chip. The earlier LaserJet M models, the 5M also 5 and 5N come with 4Mb memory features the network options. Both the expandable to 52Mb, while the 5M comes 5 and 5N may be fitted with an with 6Mb expandable to 38Mb. optional PostScript SIMM, and the Disappointingly, infra-red (IR) is an 5 is also network upgradable. optional extra. This is particularly curious PostScript for now is since HP is big in the IrDA committee and Adobe Level 2 flavoured. the 5P and 5MP IR-equipped models However, as we reported looked like they might start a trend. HP in last month’s claims that its surveys indicate IR is low Newsprint, HP will on the list of desires for workgroup not be supplying printers, so left it off to save costs. In genuine Adobe reality, IR adds very little to the cost of a PostScript from the printer like the LaserJet 5 and its absence middle of next year. comes across as a missed opportunity for Instead, the company will the standard to gain momentum. source PostScript from a PCL 6 is a bit uninspirational, doing clone, thereby saving itself what PCL should have done a long time lots of money without ago. The overall result is quicker than its alienating the vast majority of predecessor but much of this is due to its customers. If desired, you can still the 32 percent faster hardware. buy an official Adobe PostScript SIMM for Nevertheless, these are about the only efficient your LaserJet printer but you’ll have to get blemishes on an otherwise great product code, along with it from a third party; bad news for Adobe, from Hewlett-Packard. The company faster accompanying which had to reveal that a whopping five really doesn’t muck about with printers, hardware, promises accelerated times to percent of its total revenue last year came and the new 5’s come up to expectations. first page and return to application. PCL 6 from licensing PostScript to HP LaserJet Gordon Laing commands closely match the graphical printers alone. device interface (GDI) commands of Back to the new printers. The new 5, PCW Verdict Windows. Consequently, the printer 5N and 5M workgroup printers join the driver can translate GDI to PCL 6 much tiny 5L machine, the 5P and 5MP Price LaserJet 5 £1,220; LaserJet 5N £1,429; faster and retain truer what-you-see-is- personal printers, the 5Si and 5SiMx LaserJet 5M £1,659 (all prices excl. VAT) Contact Hewlett-Packard 0990 474747 what-you-get output. PCL 6 is a printer network workhorses and the Colour language in its own right however, and LaserJet 5. Only the fast A3 4V and 4MV Good Points Great performance and output. differs from the dumb engines of cheap models are waiting to join the LaserJet 5 Bad Points No IR. PCL 6 hardly GDI printers which are completely reliant family. revolutionary. Conclusion Another solid product from HP. on the Windows GDI. PCL 5e is The new printers resemble a sleeker, integrated into PCL 6, offering backward curvier version of the LaserJet 4’s which

64 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 FIRST IMPRESSIONS

HARDWARE Canon BJC-210 Surprising quality from a budget colour inkjet.

he BJC-210 is Canon’s latest budget print on almost any media, but Tcolour inkjet, providing 360 x 360dpi in the BJC-210 is evidence that colour mode and 720 x 360dpi in black research in the field of ink chemistry and white. The BJC-210 follows the still has some way to go. On plain typical low-cost design with one three- copier paper, colours appeared colour cartridge, an upright input tray at dull and grainy and certain the rear and a front panel which opens shades of purple and brown towards you. The colour cartridge can be came out very dark. On swapped, as one would hope, for a black glossy paper or high one for plain text printing. gloss film, colours were completely of control over output In tests, the Canon BJC-210 produced transformed, becoming sharp, bright and quality with special settings for printing some surprising results. Particularly crisp. So if you want excellent colour photographic images and graphics. noticeable was the high quality of solid results you must first invest in high-quality Eleanor Turton-Hill blacks while in colour mode. Unlike four- inkjet paper. Using the black cartridge colour printers, which boast a dedicated however, plain text printing produced PCW Verdict black, those with only three produce a near-laser quality output even on cheap Price £170 (plus VAT) street price composite black by mixing cyan, yellow copier paper. Contact Canon 0800 252223 and magenta. This frequently results in Drivers for the BJC-210 are compatible Good Points Compact design. Excellent dark green or purple but on the BJC-210 with Windows 3.x and Windows 95 quality. composite black was virtually although both types are still 16-bit Bad Points Complex images are slow; indistinguishable from the real thing. programs as they are wrapped up in a results are very dependent on paper quality. One of the major goals of inkjet common setup routine. The driver is Conclusion An all-round good deal. manufacturers is to develop the ability to impressive however, giving a high degree

SOFTWARE Attachmate Emissary 1.1 Browse the Web and open files — all from one application.

missary comes in a neat, CD-sized is clever enough to launch the relevant Ebox with a friendly manual that lets applications externally. In the bottom left- you get going fast. Shame the boot hand corner sits a bin where you can drag procedure isn’t as fast — it takes an age and drop files, text, or Web shortcuts, Drag & drop file management and to load — so unless you leave your PC on either to use in interactive email (only snazzy email with Emissary all the time this could become tedious. available to other Emissary clients) or to However, once you’re in, you are insert in other files. The OLE-like needs developing because too many of presented with a default full-screen technology is clever: you can drag and its features are easily matched by application, and anyone who likes drop a typed Web address on to the Netscape 2.0, including email, newsgroup Windows File Manager will feel at home browser button and off it goes to find it. access and proxy server connections. right away with a directory tree on the left Usually. PJ Fisher and scaleable window for file contents on Emissary proved robust in most the right. But the real difference is that departments but was often flaky when it PCW Verdict right window: it also acts as a Web came to opening Web sites, especially if Price £115 (plus VAT) browser, email editor and, for certain files, chosen from the directory tree or bin. Contact Attachmate 01734 890390; Web an editable display. On top of that you can Organising bookmarks is hard: you have http://www.twg.com/emissary/emissnews.html read news, Telnet and FTP via Emissary to scroll down the left window just to get to Good Points Drag-and-drop integration. if you have an Internet connection. the Web directory, which can get very big. Snazzy email. File management. Emissary ships with its own TCP/IP stack, And it can’t cope with HTML 3.0 Bad Points Expensive. Web browser at least Runtime, but works just fine with Windows extensions. two generations behind Netscape. Won’t view 95’s own. There is support, too, for all It is useful, though, to interact with LAN Office documents. major sound and graphics files. file directories and the Internet and that is Conclusion Far too expensive for what it Emissary can’t read Office 95 files but what makes Emissary stand out. But it does.

66 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 FIRST IMPRESSIONS

SOFTWARE Poser for Windows 95

Strike a pose with this figure-forming utility.

rawing human figures has Dtraditionally been a skill that took years of practice to perfect, allowing Far left competent figure artists to charge large Here you can see the sums for their years of toil at art colleges. simple and quick-to- Fractal Design is now claiming to be able draw wire render and to put that skill into the hands of anybody the more impressive with a PC. smooth muscle render Poser, first launched for the Macintosh, has taken the best Centre part of a year to reach There are a number of Windows. It offers everything supplied props and from a replacement of the backgrounds. Here, our traditional artist’s hero is resting on a mannequin to a “prop” box in an powerful 3D image imported forest generation tool background scene with a choice of backgrounds, Left surface There is also a range of textures and female forms from which bump maps. to choose Rendered figures can be exported for It is possible to create two figures in the use with other same window — handy if you want a paint and 3D dancing couple, for instance, or an adult graphics holding a child’s hand. A limited range of packages. stock props can be added, too, including Launch useful starting point. a staircase, a block, a cane, or a ball. the program You will find a selection of Custom objects can be introduced in the and you will male and female figure-types with shape of an imported background. Any find yourself different frames, weights and ages. picture or photograph can be inserted confronted with an If you can’t find the model you want, behind the model, offering added outline figure within a you can select certain parts of the realism. window, or “studio”. body to enlarge or reduce: if you were Poser is a supremely useful utility that Clicking and holding so inclined, you could create a runs pretty well on low-spec machines. any limb or joint allows Quasimodo with a massive chest and a The recommended system requirements the user to move it and head the size of a walnut. are a 486, or faster, running Windows create a pose. Trying to The clear advantage Poser has over 95. If you are interested snap up a copy make the model move as you the artist’s little wooden mannequin lies quick as the price quoted below is a want can be tricky with the in its rendering facilities. There is a short introductory offer only. The mouse alone so there are also choice of stock surfaces: from an Macintosh version is currently retailing at “Parameter dials” with which anatomically realistic skinless muscle, to £149 (plus VAT). the user can dictate the angle tight-fitting cycling shorts and vest. of each limb by typing in a Custom textures such as leopardskin or PCW Verdict number. Poser will allow you to snakeskin can be imported and mapped Price £89 (plus VAT) introductory offer; £149 contort joints into physically onto your subject, creating some (plus VAT) thereafter impossible positions, so interesting effects. One annoying Computers Unlimited 0181 200 8282 achieving your desired pose oversight is the lack of ability to create Good Points Easy-to-use interface. without breaking the laws of loose-fitting clothes or hair — a feature Bad Points Lack of clothing facilities. nature can often prove difficult. which, hopefully, will be included in future Conclusion Anyone who’s serious about However, a library of poses is versions. computer graphics should take a look. supplied and this can be a Your figure need not exist on its own.

68 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 FIRST IMPRESSIONS FIRST IMPRESSIONS

HARDWARE viewing angle of an active matrix screen Type II and one Type III PCMCIA slot can’t afford the £2,884 (plus VAT) top-of- is 70 to 80 degrees, or about twice that of which can be used simultaneously. the-line Pentium 133 model, you can a dual-scan display. If needs be, you can There’s a rather large Duracell NiMH always start with the entry-level Pentium Viglen Dossier CD make use of an external monitor and battery too, that will give you 1.5 hours of 75 dual-scan display model with 540Mb achieve a comfortable 1024 x 768 display battery life. HDD and 8Mb RAM for £1,990 (plus in 8-bit colour or 1200 x 1024 in 4-bit With a Pentium 133MHz CPU, 256Kb VAT). Either way you’ll be sorted. You’ll need a bit of muscle to carry this sturdy, colour. of pipeline burst cache and 16Mb of RAM Dylan Armbrust bells-and-whistles notebook. As its name implies, the Dossier CD (upgradable to 40Mb) its Windows 95 Comparative comes with a fixed, quad-speed CD-ROM performance, in tests, was a slightly uring the past few months we’ve had look at monitors from (by Toshiba) as well as a fixed 3.5in disappointing ten percent above the Performance Graph Da lot of highly-specced notebooks Apple, for instance, floppy. No module swapping or plugging- Toshiba Pentium 90-based benchmark. Lab test come through the doors of PCW but this you’ll find that most are in cable for external drives is needed The look and feel of the Dossier CD 1.26 is the first time we’ve had the opportunity actually manufactured by here. Sound capability is included via the itself is somewhat stylish but lacks the 1.39 to get a good look at a Pentium 133MHz Sony and the quality use of an integrated Opti 930 16-bit finesse of the better known (and higher Doom Test model. remains, as is the case sound chip. This allows for stereo sound priced) brands. There’s plenty of wrist- 29 fps Compared with many of the players in with the Dossier CD. via the two wrist-rest speakers but as with rest room for typing and a slightly off- 49 fps the market, Viglen is a relative newcomer The model that Viglen almost all in-built notebook speakers the centre Glide-Pad controls the mouse 1 2 3 4 Faster to selling notebooks, but that hasn’t sent us was filled with all the sound is quite tinny and weak. There are function, while the battery, disk and Toshiba Satellite Pro Pentium 90MHz dampened its ambitions for a share of the bells and whistles anyone three audio jacks for line in, speaker out power status are shown on an LCD Viglen Dossier CD Pentium 133MHz pie. The company has an excellent could want. Our Dossier came and microphone in. display. reputation for producing a well-built, with 1Mb (upgradable to 2Mb) of The Dossier CD external connections The Dossier CD is a solid machine. reliable product and the Viglen Dossier video memory for its 10.4in active consist of a PS/2 mouse/keyboard, Perhaps even a bit too solid: at 3.6kg it’s PCW Verdict CD comes across as maintaining this matrix screen. This will provide 800 x enhanced serial, enhanced parallel, the heaviest notebook we’ve seen — and Price £2,884 (plus VAT) reputation. We couldn’t help thinking that 600 resolution in 16-bit colour: enough game/Midi, infra-red and VGA ports, all that doesn’t including carrying the AC Contact Viglen 0181 758 7000 we’d seen this machine before; and the to get the best colour from the vast located at the rear. If you want, Viglen adaptor about. This extra weight comes Good Points Crisp display. Everything built- truth is, we have. majority of business and graphics can provide you with a PCI mini docking from the permanent presence of the CD in. Carry-bag included. Viglen uses a company from Taiwan applications currently available. The station, into which you can plug the and floppy disk drives so the trade-off Bad Points Slightly heavy at 3.6kg and not which makes notebook components for quality of the display is excellent. Colours Dossier, for greater home or office made here is all-in-one versatility over particularly unique. many other vendors in the market, so are sharp and there’s no fuzziness flexibility. portability. Conclusion A feature-packed notebook that the Dossier isn’t the most unique model affecting icons or fonts. It’s a perfect tool There’s a removable 1.2Gb hard drive On the whole, the Dossier CD does all offers fair value for money. available. But this is no bad thing. If you for mobile presentations as the average (upgradable to a massive 2.1Gb), one right, and the beauty of it is that if you

70 71 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 FIRST IMPRESSIONS

HARDWARE Toshiba TF 461

Fax, low, print print low, goes this combo.

oshiba has an amazing reputation for Tnotebooks, but none of its other products have ever really hit home. The 461 is a combined fax machine and printer but it is a device which shows that Hewlett-Packard still leads the field in this respect. The print mechanism is provided by Lexmark but proved to be slow and not particularly good, with a little banding and too much ink on the paper. It was also astonishingly slow. The fax side is pretty standard Group 3 stuff but where the 461 really disappoints is in the missed opportunities. It was supplied with a Windows 3.x driver that installs using a DOS-based program. The antiquated software is matched by a similarly user- hostile interface on the fax machine which requires two-digit codes to be typed in. The machine could not be set up without the manual and even then there is a fair bit of trial and error involved. The doubling-up of the inkjet might get pages mechanism is half-baked: if you must of junk faxes, have a printer for your fax machine, then you don’t want to you might as well put on a parallel keep expensive interface to allow the computer to use it paper in the as a printer. But once you do this, you hopper. In some should look at some other cases you’d get embellishments. It should be possible to a more legible use the device as a fax-modem and as a result from a scanner. The 461 does this but Toshiba thermal fax than charges an extra £100 for the software from the 461. (Winfax Pro) and cable: with an RRP of If the unit £650 (plus VAT) for the basic unit, this is were bargain-basement priced then the If you want to send and receive faxes over the top. The printer has a colour need to re-cable and re-plug ink with your computer, you’ll need option but won’t copy mono documents cartridges would be forgivable, but at this additional software. Toshiba unless the mono cartridge is installed. price you would expect something which, recommends Delrina Winfax Pro, above The scanner is monochrome. like the OfficeJet, had good Windows 95 As a printer, the performance is support, setup through the computer lamentable. Our VNU Labs test showed it software and used a bi-directional PCW Verdict to be slower and very much worse than parallel cable as just that. Colour cheap inkjets, with particularly atrocious scanning and, potentially, colour faxing Price £649 (plus VAT) performance when dealing with white text would be an easy and sensible addition. Contact Toshiba 0800 525106 on a black background. The print engine As it is, there are plenty of better and Good Points Small footprint. puts far too much ink on the paper. Better cheaper solutions: the best bet wears the Bad Points Cost. Performance. Lacks ease printer paper would help alleviate this Hewlett-Packard OfficeJet badge. of use. problem but in an application where you Simon Rockman Conclusion Don’t blame us if you buy one.

74 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 FIRST IMPRESSIONS

SOFTWARE

can load in textures from a bitmap drawing MacroMedia Extreme 3D package but we found it very difficult to get the right bit of a texture in the right place on a shape: mapping a bitmap dinner A fast trip into the world of 3D modelling. jacket onto a 3D torso would be very difficult. The animation uses a “score” which is a time-line of events: this is a similar system ike RayDream Studio, Trispectives to that employed by other packages and Land TrueSpace 2, Extreme 3D is a 3D The processes of 3D modelling. Build it’s easy to define the keyframes. The animation program. The grandaddy of your shape and view it in wireframe software tweens effectively but it’s not a these packages is Autodesk 3D studio, before committing to a lengthy render great animator; there are no options for where the renderer is most important, things like “gate” where a character walks followed by the modeller as a to predefined paths. necessary front-end, leaving the But of all the aspects of this animator as a way of converting a program, the one which is most number of single frames into a disappointing is the renderer. It’s movie. Extreme 3D turns this important to realise that Extreme combination of modeller-renderer- 3D is not a ray-tracing program. It animator upside-down. The renderer estimates what a surface looks is not only the least important aspect like, so shadows are not properly of the program, it’s the weakest. The calculated. You can’t project light modeller and animator are both through a stained glass window, excellent. There is full support for and most seriously you won’t see TrueType fonts and the program is one object reflected in the mirror supplied with 500 fonts. finish of another. You can fudge How do you represent a 3D world the effect by viewing the scene on a 2D computer screen? The from the viewpoint of the shiny solution has to be a 2D view of a 3D object, capturing that as an world and this is where the problems environment map for the shiny usually begin. Extreme 3D uses a object and then mapping it on, system whereby shapes are but this is limited to each angle described on a plane, which is of view — not what the program usually parallel to the screen. The is supposed to be about. shape is then worked on to give it a Nevertheless, for adequate 3D form. By moving the viewing images Extreme 3D is a breeze angle you can change the plane on to use. which you work within the 3D world. You can model very fast, so if This is an excellent approach, and getting up and running quickly, unlike that used by any other rather than ultimate quality, is modelling packages. the prime consideration then this The usual way to produce a is the package for you. If you shape is to define a profile and then need the ultimate in shiny extrude it. Extreme’s tools to define surface control then look the profile will be familiar to most elsewhere. people who are used to a 2D Extreme 3D alone costs £549 drawing package and include (plus VAT) but surely the more polylines and splines. There is a tool sensible choice would be to go to produce Bezier curves and a set of you can build up objects from cross- for the Freehand Graphics Studio, which standard shapes such as circles, ellipses, sections. The built object can then be includes Freehand 5, Fontographer, X- squares and regular polygons. There are twisted, bent, tapered or skewed. All RES and Extreme 3D for an incredible also 2D tools to convert polylines to these tools are great for defining building £494 (plus VAT) — surely the bargain of splines, to trim, offset and fillet, which blocks which can then be amalgamated the year. rounds the corners of a shape. to form a final model and there is a variety Simon Rockman The 2D shape is extruded, or lathed, to of construction tools to help you get this turn it into a 3D shape. One form of alignment correct. PCW Verdict extrusion is called a sweep — it takes one Once you’ve built all the players in Price £549 (plus VAT) shape along a path defined by the profile. your scene, you will want to light and Contact Computers Unlimited 0181 200 8282 You can scale the first shape as it travels texture them. Here, the software doesn’t Good Points The best modeller on the down this path. If you have built up a seem as flexible as that in some other market. skeleton of a shape you can clothe it with packages because the 2D slice in a 3D Bad Points Tied to a lukewarm renderer. the “skin” command. More conventionally, world approach doesn’t work as well. You Conclusion Movies made easy.

76 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 FIRST IMPRESSIONS FIRST IMPRESSIONS

SOFTWARE SOFTWARE Steinberg Cubase 3.0 SoftWindows 95

Classic MIDI sequencing package, with full audio If you need Win95 emulation on your PowerMac — here it is. capability.

hen Apple launched the original ast December Wrange of PowerMacs in 1994, most LSteinberg released configurations included a copy of Insignia version 2.0 of Cubase, its Solutions’ SoftWindows. The aim was to industry-standard MIDI Above Cubase 3.0 can trigger digital show potential users that you could move sequencing package. audio samples with the same ease as from PC to PowerMac without sacrificing Less than six months on, conventional sequenced elements your investment in existing software. The and barely long enough Left Faders, transport controls, and don’t Windows emulation was slow and ran for users to uncover the lose that timecode! only in standard mode but no-one could new features in version deny that it did what it promised. 2.0, the new version 3.0 Insignia’s latest product is SoftWindows comes along with yet of the sample you want. 95, designed to emulate an Intel 486DX another stack of new Wavelab Lite, a cut-down version of PC running Windows 95. features. This time Steinberg’s 32-bit wave editor (reviewed Supplied on a single CD-ROM, around, though, the last month) is bundled with the package, SoftWindows 95 runs on any PowerMac emphasis is on digital audio. MIDI and audio are seamlessly should you need to edit samples at low- with 16Mb of RAM and System 7.1 or Ever since MIDI appeared in the early integrated in the arrange window to the level. The program is integrated with higher. Insignia claims its new code is 35 eighties, musicians have been extent that anything that can be done Cubase and opens files for editing when percent faster than SoftWindows 2.0 and connecting synthesisers to computers to with MIDI, can be done with audio. This they are double clicked. Wavelab Lite guarantees total compatibility with all record and edit their performances using includes the way in which tracks are provides all the features you would Windows 95 applications. sequencing programs. Because MIDI recorded, parts moved around and so expect from a wave editor, along with a Once SoftWindows 95 is installed, it information consists of very short, simple on. When an audio section has been parametric graphic equaliser — you will needs to be configured to your system for data stored in the PC’s hard disk file, Yes, it’s Windows 95, running on a messages describing such things as recorded, it can be displayed as a name, need Windows 95 or NT to run it, though. the best results. There are three main shared folders can be made to work Macintosh using software emulation. which note was hit, how hard and held for or as an image of the waveform. You can If you prefer to use another editor, this features to take into account: PC between the two systems. It’s slow, but it works how long, you don’t need a powerful trim and move parts around from the can be set from within Cubase to be Extended memory, Deltacache and the Features new to the Windows 95 computer to sequence tracks of MIDI arrange window, but for greater accuracy opened when a file needs to be edited. Desktop size. Each of these has an affect version include PC SCSI support, MIDI data. To manipulate digital audio in the you can open up the editor by double- Anybody who knows Cubase will only on the program’s performance and the handling and improved network support. get into Windows 95 much faster than same way, however, requires heaps of clicking on the section. need to spend half an hour or so to learn amount of RAM needed to run it. It’s The former lets you access Mac SCSI normal, with all your programs and processing power and this is something The audio editor allows you to zoom the audio features: everything is so basically a case of the more memory you devices from the Windows environment documents as you left them, by taking a that has only recently become available in on the waveform and define the start straightforward and, more importantly, give to the emulation, the better it will run, and allows you to work with items such snapshot of the last session and loading on the desktop PC. and end points for any section. This is quick to use. The only niggles I have are and the amount of free memory available as PC-formatted hard disks, ZIP drives, it back on restart. With version 3.0, Cubase now offers done by dragging handles at the that you cannot group tracks and there is displayed at the bottom of the screen. Syquests and scanners. Aside from problems with the network full audio capability across its entire beginning and end of each sample. The isn’t a way to record fades and panning Once configured, the PC boots up and Using QuickTime’s General MIDI setup, SoftWindows worked with range as a standard feature. The number bar ruler displayed at the top of the information in real time. Overall, though, eventually the Windows 95 desktop technology, you can now play back PC everything we threw at it including Office of audio tracks Cubase can play back window makes it easy to position audio this is an excellent buy and pricing hasn’t appears. As SoftWindows 95 is emulating MIDI files as well as standard .WAV files. 95 and several CD-ROM titles. However, largely depends on your PC and how it is parts accurately. The start points of each been affected with the addition of audio. a PC running Microsoft software, SoftWindows 95 boasts SoundBlaster emulation speed is still its biggest configured. A Pentium system fitted with sample, or part, can also be quantised in There are three versions of Cubase everything looks the same as it does on a compatibility but this option is not problem. The program is far too slow for 16Mb RAM is needed to play the the same way that MIDI information can. 3.0: the standard costs £329, Cubase bona fide Wintel machine. Going to the available in DOS. You won’t hear the day-to-day use, even running on a maximum of eight 16-bit stereo tracks at All audio editing in this window is non- Score 3.0 offers additional scoring facilities Start menu brings up the Programs and music in your favourite games but titles 132MHz 604 with 48Mb of RAM. 44.1kHz. destructive, which means the edits you for £499, and Cubase 3.0 XT (£699) Document menus. Calling up Explorer or like Microsoft Encarta 96 and Cinemania If you really want to run Windows 95 Just as important as a fast processor perform only effect a “virtual” copy of the supports additional professional music going to My Computer and clicking on the are fully compatible. on your PowerMac, then SoftWindows 95 and huge quantities of RAM is a fast hard original recording. hardware such as the Session 8 and hard disk icon displays a directory of The improved networking options now is the cheapest solution at the moment. disk. Because audio files are too large to The Audio Pool is where your Yamaha CBX-D5 (prices include VAT). Drive C. By default this is a 130Mb file on give built-in support for Novell Netware 4 But that’s really all you can say about it. fit into RAM (up to 10Mb per minute) they samples, or recordings, are Steven Helstrip the Mac’s hard disk, although it can be and Microsoft LAN Manager and Chris Cain are “recorded” directly to disk. To play administered. It displays each recording expanded up to 256Mb using an SoftWindows users can link directly to what is effectively 16 tracks of audio, the and any images made from it. From here PCW Verdict additional utility. other Windows 95 users on the same PCW Verdict disk must sustain around 3Mb per you can listen to each take, normalise, From this point on you can install and network. However, testing this particular second for glitchless playback. Therefore, time-stretch and apply other effects. Price Standard £329 (incl VAT) run Windows applications and cut and feature over our Novell setup required a Price £287.92 (plus VAT); upgrade from Contact Harman Audio 0181 207 5050 a fast enhanced IDE (EIDE) or SCSI-2 Time-stretching is an invaluable feature paste data from Windows to the Mac and lot of messing about with DOS older version £90.75 (plus VAT) drive is essential. that enables you to slow down or speed Good Points Easy and quick to learn and vice versa. The display resolution can be configuration files and in the end I still Contact Insignia Solutions 0800 667706 Cubase 3 supports any 16-bit up recordings without changing pitch. It use. 32-bit audio editing. set up to 1024 x 768 pixels but all modes couldn’t get it to work. Whatever Good Points Excellent emulation. Cheaper Windows-compatible sound card. A is usually applied by defining a ratio, or a Bad Points Creating a fade is a tad are limited to 256 colours. SoftWindows happened to plug and play? than hardware. cumbersome. duplex card such as the Turtle Beach percentage, of the sample to be effected. can make direct use of the Mac’s floppy Other new bits in SoftWindows 95 Bad Points Painfully slow. Conclusion The best sequencing package Tropez is recommended, though, for Cubase makes it really easy and only and CD-ROM drives as if they were PC include better PC printing and a nice Conclusion Useful only if you desperately just got better. need Windows 95 on your Mac. simultaneous record and playback. requires you to enter the required tempo devices, and while the Mac can’t see the touch entitled TurboStart. This lets you

78 79 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 FIRST IMPRESSIONS FIRST IMPRESSIONS

SOFTWARE

careful who you let loose on it. PartitionMagic 2.0 PartitionMagic eliminates the fear of As you would expect, FAT and HPFS partitioning your hard disk are supported, but the more eclectic file Get more from your hard disk and partitions. systems such as NTFS (New Technology File System) developed for Windows NT and OS/2 are there as well. artitioning your hard drive is useful if This makes it an excellent utility for Pyou want to run more than one creating multi-boot PCs. operating system or simply organise For example, it takes just five steps to different types of files, but how about all free-up space on a Windows-equipped your applications on drive C and PC to add OS/2 and create space for a documents on drive D? It’s a scary thing Boot Manager at the beginning of drive C. to do unless you really know what you’re After that, install OS/2 onto the new drive at. PartitionMagic doesn’t make it any with OS/2’s FDisk utility. less scary but it certainly makes it If you understand partitioning, this is easier. an excellent utility which performs It’s an odd program. It installs into complex procedures unbelievably easily. Windows 95 but only runs from DOS and PJ Fisher when opened it presents a Windows 95- style interface! Despite the manual’s PCW Verdict suggestion, don’t reset the properties of Price £65.74 (incl VAT, postage and packing) PartitionMagic in Windows so that it Contact POW Distribution 01202 716726 defaults to DOS when you launch it: you lose mouse control. It’s better to launch Good Points One-shot partitioning. Highly DOS and run PartitionMagic from its flexible. Bad Points Only works in DOS. Could be directory. dangerous in the wrong hands. But the interface couldn’t be simpler. controlled by on-click buttons or slider Partitions can be checked for bad Conclusion A good-value, genuinely useful Drives and partitions are graphically bars. You can create new partitions, sectors. For the brave, it’s also simple to utility. represented and all operations are easily delete old ones and resize existing ones. format or delete a partition — so be

SOFTWARE

but this is not always possible. TypeReader can automatically rotate, TypeReader Professional 3.0XA and thus straighten, pages if they are skewed up to 15 degrees. Document scanning a-go-go. You can distinguish between text and picture regions and you can re-create ptical Character Recognition (OCR) operations singly. In the few tests we verifier in a pop-up window displays that tables and pages where text wraps Ois the incredibly useful and time- have carried out, it has proven more part of the original image corresponding around a picture. The program can saving process whereby a computer accurate and faster than both OmniPage to the selected, recognised, text. recognise and retain bold, italic and automatically converts scanned pages of Pro and WordScan Plus, the two market There’s an option to create deferred underlined text, as well as superscripts words into editable text documents, leaders. jobs — batch jobs that scan now and and subscripts, and it can map the saving you all the work of re-typing. After the material has been recognise later. You can also create, recognised text to three approximate TypeReader provides a single button recognised, you can switch views save and load templates which can be fonts of your choice. which automatically scans, selects between the original image and the used to tell the program to recognise only TypeReader Professional isn’t cheap. regions, then converts words to text, results in order to correct any highlighted, specific parts of each page. It is priced in line with the high-end OCR although you can carry out these uncertain characters. An on-screen There are standard word processing products which it beats in terms of functions for editing the recognised text, accuracy and speed. including a user dictionary. There are Panicos Georghiades and specialised dictionaries too, including Gabriel Jacobs geographic, medical and legal versions. Type that is skewed (crooked) on a PCW Verdict page cannot be located and recognised Price £495 (plus VAT); competitive upgrades very accurately by OCR programs: you £215 (plus VAT) can fix the problem by adjusting the Contact Tekware 01384 392121 paper so that text is scanned in straight, Good Points Faster and more accurate than the main competition. Bad Points None. Fast and accurate optical character Conclusion If speed and accuracy are your recognition from TypeReader main OCR requirements, this is a good buy.

80 81 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 FIRST IMPRESSIONS FIRST IMPRESSIONS

SOFTWARE SOFTWARE

Basic or Visual C++ and the manual window shows the relationship of a topic Stardraw 2D contains some sample code for doing Forehelp 2.95 to its neighbours, giving point-and-click this. It also states, wrongly, that Microsoft navigation between topics. There is a Word “comes with Visual Basic” and spell-checker and thesaurus, and the Plan a stage lighting rig — but don’t try this at home, folks. makes reference to a sample file that isn’t You’ll never walk alone with this standalone help authoring tool. editor supports user-defined paragraph supplied, so I wasn’t able to test this styles for quick, consistent text feature. formatting. Bitmaps can be imported, with tardraw is a computer-aided design Stardraw claims to indows help is great for end-users the Windows help viewer itself. The basic a double-click placing them into “Sheg Spackage aimed at stage lighting import the Autodesk Wbut painful for developers. Every unit of any help file is a topic and in editor” mode — a reference to the designers. The company, Starlite standard DXF files as Windows installation includes a program Forehelp you edit topics by typing into segmented hypergraphic (.SHG) files Systems, specialises in stage lighting well as Windows and called Winhelp, a viewer for hypertext this main window. Creating simple help which the compiler uses to create hotspot equipment as well as CAD. What CorelDraw 4 files in the familiar .HLP format. The files is simplicity itself. When you start a areas on a picture. For example, you Stardraw will do is produce plan drawings metafiles. However, format of an .HLP file is not documented, new project, Forehelp prompts you to could import a screenshot from your of a lighting rig for assembly on-site. DXF files from four so the only way to create one is by using create a first topic called Contents. Click application and have explanatory pop-up What it won’t do is design and model a different applications Microsoft’s help compiler bundled with OK, and type a list of further topic windows appear as the user clicks lighting plot — you’d need 3D drawing were all badly broken most Windows development tools. names. Then, select the list and choose different parts. and rendering for that. on import. You can’t The help compiler munches on a Tools — Make Multiple Jumps. Forehelp Building effective context-sensitive Stardraw is a 32-bit application and export drawings or collection of source files — the main one automatically creates a topic for each help into an application is not trivial. The comes on two disks, with three more for reports to a different being a document in Rich Text Format item. If you now press Control and click programmer has to include context installing the Win32s format, nor, it seems, (RTF) — and if you are lucky spits out a an item, its topic comes up for editing. numbers that identify the help topic to be extensions — necessary if can you copy them help file at the end. The tricky bit is Once you have entered the text, Alt-C displayed. Forehelp can generate a you want to run under via the clipboard to formatting the source document in a way returns to the table of contents. There is context map file which defines numeric Windows 3.1. It also comes other applications. the compiler understands, using such a Test button which runs the help file constants that programmers can include with a “dongle”, an anti- Attempting to insert a things as footnotes and hidden text in an application. Developers will also piracy device that you have Above Stardraw OLE object codes to structure it correctly. The more make use of Winhelp macros, easily to connect to your parallel Assigning into a variety of other ambitious your help file, the more added to a hotspot by choosing from a port. Though Stardraw will properties to a applications failed, difficult it becomes. A help authoring scrolling list. These macros call routines run without this, it will neither Stardraw too. tool simplifies matters greatly and is in the Winhelp dynamic link library. For print nor save files. symbol… What Stardraw almost essential for complex projects. example, you can enable and disable Stardrawing can be a has in abundance is Forehelp is the best of a number of buttons in your help system, run other very long-winded business. … and (left) room for products available. Some help help files or execute other Windows If you want to draw a seeing the improvement. For authoring tools are Word add-on applications. You can define your own precisely sized and placed results in report under £100 you can products but Forehelp is a standalone macros which call the Windows API or rectangle, you first draw it form get better CAD: tool, with the shrink-wrap containing all your own DLL code, making the help roughly with the mouse, Autosketch, system totally extensible. then edit its “properties” to Turbocad and Drafix In many cases, online help goes hand fine-tune the dimensions and position. “Report view” with the information QuickCAD all leave Stardraw standing in in hand with printed documentation. Similarly, if you want to draw an arc or a displayed in a table and the totals shown terms of drawing facilities; all support Left Forehelp can generate a manual in rich pie section you have to edit an existing where appropriate. The bundled symbols symbol libraries and the last will also Forehelp’s main text format, preserving any styles used. It circle. For general CAD it can’t really be have some of the attributes already export reports of non-graphic attributes window displays a will also convert pop-up windows into a taken seriously: the drawing tools are defined but here I began to have doubts to a spreadsheet or database. What you single help topic and glossary section. It’s a useful feature, but too basic, there are no editing tools about the care that had gone into this: are paying for here is the specific lighting the navigator makes developers wanting to co-ordinate printed such as trimming or chamfering, and can a 4.8 metre beam really weigh just symbol and gel libraries. If you need it easy to click and online help may prefer one of the dimensioning is primitive, to put it one kilogram? these, then Starlite Systems has got you between topics tools that works as an add-on to Word, kindly. Although user-defined attributes don’t by the proverbials; and the near- Above such as WexTech’s Doc-to-help. Where it starts to get more promising appear by default on the drawing, you can paranoid armoury of dongles and lack of By adding macros to Forehelp is otherwise outstanding and is with the 266 bundled symbols. These choose to show them as text export facilities means they plan to keep hotspots, humble can serve not only as a utility for consist of drawings of lights, gantries, superimposed on the symbol, so, for it that way. help files can become application developers, but also as an control desks and other equipment, example, you could show the wattage of Tim Nott full multimedia easy-to-use multimedia authoring tool. drawn to scale. It also includes kit from every light. You can add a “legend” to publications Tim Anderson Strand, Clay Paky, Selecon and other your drawing, showing a list of symbols PCW Verdict companies. You insert these from a against their descriptions, like a map key, Price £295 (plus VAT); £100 (plus VAT) for PCW Verdict cascading menu, and can create your but this too is bugged — the larger the Stardraw 3D users you need including the Microsoft almost exactly as it will look when Price £295 (plus VAT) own symbols, too. Click on the original symbol, the smaller the Contact Starlite Systems Technology compiler. Version 2.0 runs on any version finished, and finally you can click Build to 0171 511 4400 Contact Oxford Computer Consultants “Properties” of a symbol and as well as descriptive text. of Windows, and 2.95 runs on Windows generate and compile the RTF source 01203 690934 the drawing attributes you get a whole On-line help is frankly appalling, Good Points Report generation and a good 95 but can also create 3.1 help files: the code. load of user-definable fields such as consisting solely of a list of menu range of symbol libraries for stage-lighting reason for two versions is that the Simple help files may be easy but Good Points Rich features. Ease of use. Full Windows 95 support. Weight, Hire cost, Fader channel, Lamp, commands — there’s no overview and designers. Windows 95 help engine supports a host larger projects inevitably become Bad Points Poor documentation. Expensive. Bad Points A Word add-on is better when a or Gel — there’s a built-in library of over little explanation. The 75-page printed of features not available in older versions complex. One problem is preserving a No export. Mediocre CAD features. printed version is needed. 300 coloured filters. manual does somewhat better but is still of Windows. sensible structure and Forehelp’s Conclusion Eminently resistible unless Conclusion The best help authoring tool All this information can be printed out too brief and poorly indexed. you’re a stage-lighting professional. The main Forehelp Window looks like Grapher tool assists by displaying a tree available. as a report. Pressing a button switches to You can “drive” Stardraw via Visual a cross between a word processor and view of the whole project. The Navigator

82 83 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 LONG TERM TEST ogtr tests term Long PCW How You Can Contribute To The Long Term Tests Section SOFTWARE YEAR We welcome contributions from readers for our Long Term Tests section. If you’ve been using a piece of hardware or software intensively for some time, just write a 450-word article (for hardware) or a 750-word piece with screenshot — OS/2 GIF format — for software and send it on disk, in MS Word (Mac or PC) or ASCII format, to: Adele Dyer, Personal 3 Computer World, VNU House, 32-34 Broadwick Street, London W1A 2HG. Mark your envelope clearly “Long Term TEST Tests”. Or email it to [email protected]. We’ll pay for any contributions we use. Although appearing to be heavily configured and HARDWARE

MONTH intimidating, OS/2’s Multitasking, file adaptability offers huge management Lexmark ExecJet IIc 4076 bonuses in file and memory 9TEST handling via management. HPFS all made OS/2 v2 a great A well-built, N SEPTEMBER 1995 MY LEXMARK have been avoided had it been designed FIRST STARTED ON COMPUTERS improvement IExecJet IIc 4076 cost £249 in the high to be mounted on the right. It would have Iwith a used CP/M machine, then over Windows adaptable street (close to mail order prices). I had been nice not to have had to change moved on to an IBM-compatible printer that laps selected this particular printer, despite cartridges to and from colour: the ink computer with DOS. I added Windows up graphics and having read some lukewarm reviews, to cartridge does have a tendency to dry out 3.0 and DesqView with QEMM for better replace my huge Mannesmann Tally if left unused for a while in the printer. A task and memory handling and upgraded graphic fonts. MT330 24-pin matrix printer. purge cycle usually restores good to Windows 3.1. Then I discovered OS/2, But it can be a One of my requirements had been that operation, although it sometimes requires and have been using it and its upgrades bit on the I needed DOS as well as Windows a manual clean-out. for more than three years, in my antique and it allowed me to use printing. LocoScript Pro 2 is a DOS As for print quality, even when using woodworking tools business. my scanner and smudgy side. application which is an enhanced version high-grade paper, character edges look One of the first questions to ask is everything else — I’ve of the package shipped with the Amstrad slightly “splattered”. Colour results are what hardware OS/2 needs. When first never looked back. PCW range of dedicated word pleasant but cheap paper can be a reviewed it was slated for needing at least The memory handling processors, so for this I installed problem, as “soaking” causes the paper a 386 and 8Mb of RAM. It will run is via the High the HP DeskJet 500C to ripple in the areas of dense colour. The reasonably well on this but more RAM will Performance File System printer driver which sheet feeder needs help to cope with speed up most tasks and 12Mb is a (HPFS). It doesn’t have worked well. card but the printed result is actually sensible minimum. My hardware is a the cluster size penalties I had intended to use better than with white copier-grade cobbled-together system: an old ISA-bus of FAT, so there is no colour from LocoScript, but paper. The Lexmark also deals 486SX with 16Mb of RAM and parts from more jiggling between it transpired that colour is successfully with envelopes and an earlier 386. I have an external CD, a extended and expanded available only in raster cheques, but these require careful hand scanner and a modem. memory and I gained disk space on a experience, and necessity, the configur- images and not while loading to ensure a straight print. All versions of OS/2, from 2.0 to Warp, larger drive. HPFS even has automatic ation options are easily unravelled and printing text, and there is no I like being able to load single sheets have installed on my non-standard bad track recovery, which saved me the adaptability it offers is a huge bonus. set of escape codes of paper at the front without first having to machine without problems. Installing the when my hard disk became corrupted. Some may ask “Why not change to available to select remove the paper in the rear sheet right drivers for your video card can be a One criticism often laid on OS/2 is its Windows 95?” My answer is: because printing in colour. This feeder. In this case, I find it best when problem but this applies equally to other lack of native applications. Mine were Warp is solid and it gives me all that was a disappointment loading paper, cheques or envelopes, to operating systems. either DOS or Windows apps and all ran Windows 95 does, most of what about which I could operate the lever which disables the rear My initial reasons for trying OS/2 without problems, except parts of PC Windows NT does, and some more of its not have known by sheet feeder, otherwise it tends to grab a stemmed from using a DOS-based hand Tools which had direct hardware access. own besides. The lack of magazine reading the manual; sheet from the feeder as well. scanner and from answering the phone, Again, OS/2 was criticised for not coverage given to it results in it being indeed, getting any Apart from the rickety output paper which may sound silly so I’ll explain. I use allowing direct hardware access, yet this more difficult to keep up with changes, support from Lexmark has tray, the construction quality is good and I the scanner to copy outlines of wooden is now considered a good thing under new applications and all the little tips for been quite hard work haven’t yet broken anything. I yearn for a moulding planes from a catalogue, but it Windows NT. which magazines are very useful, but compared with Mannesmann traditional on/off switch, since the printer will not run under Windows. The The number of native applications is good electronic support is available via Tally. All such problems with is always in standby mode when I apply telephone is an issue as I often have to reasonable but they are less well known. CompuServe and the Internet. I would colour vanish, of course, when mains power: at switch-on, it messes quickly look something up in a word- It runs most Windows 95 and almost all suggest you set up a separate partition printing from Windows. about for ages before being ready to use. processed document or a database while Window 3.1 applications. There are a few for DOS and use OS/2’s built-in boot The old MT330 used to handle Colin McCormick a customer is waiting, hence the need for applications that will specify a particular manager to access this. Games will run graphics and graphic fonts badly, yet my multitasking. Before turning to OS/2 I was operating system and if you cannot live under OS/2, but not as well as they will Lexmark laps them up. The Windows 3.x PCW Verdict running Windows under DesqView. The without that package, then your choice of under DOS. driver is well integrated and gives combination worked and gave me better operating system is limited. At least OS/2 Charles Stirling sensible warnings if you try to print a Good Points Adaptable. control over my work, but was tedious all is customer friendly — its boot manager colour document with the black ink Bad Points Some smudging on cheap the same. will let you boot in to other operating PCW Verdict paper. cartridge loaded, for instance. My first thoughts were to keep systems with ease. Good Points Solid, reliable, adaptable. Conclusion Reliable. A storage compartment is supplied to upgrading DesqView in the hope that OS/2 can be heavily configured, which Bad Points Games run better under DOS. prevent an unused ink cartridge from Price Current equivalent: Lexmark Windows would become more stable and can seem rather intimidating to begin Conclusion Excellent file management. ColourJet Printer 1020, £220 (plus VAT) drying out. This clips on to the left side of better at multitasking with newer with. However, most of the changes you Price From £65 (plus VAT) The Lexmark gives great graphics, Contact Lexmark 01628 481500; the printer but causes an increase in the releases. Instead, I became impatient and can make are hidden below the surface Contact IBM 01329 242728 even if there is a lot of smudging Technical Services 01923 208484 printer footprint, a problem which could upgraded to OS/2. This was version 2.0 so initially I left most of it alone. With

86 87 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 PCW Awards 1996 PCW Awards

he gongs have been polished, the champagne is chilling in the icebox, the votes are in and counted. NowT we can reveal the PC players of the year. Once again you’ve had your say, and for the last few months the D PCW office has had to make room for R S the sackfuls of nominations. A ' 9 While we sit in judgment over the W latest hardware and software, it is you, 6

the readers, who actually go out and A buy the stuff and have to live with it. That’s why your opinion is important, and we are delighted that so many of you responded to our call to vote in the Readers Awards section. To keep pace with computing developments, a number of new award categories have been introduced this year. Reflecting the growing importance of the Web we now have a Best UK Web Site Award and Best Web Site By A Small Company. Who knows, next year we may have a category for best Network Computer. Meanwhile, the Most Innovative Software and Most Innovative Hardware sections reflect a year where real advances have been made. Changes elsewhere mirror the growing sophistication of key peripherals which are now broken down into categories; sound cards, CD-ROM drives and graphics cards are all now judged individually. As more PCs are bought for the home and become multimedia devices, so we felt the need for a category of Best PC For The Home. In the Readers Awards we have split Best Telephone Support into software and hardware categories to take account of the difference in each PCW Awards CONTENTS area’s requirements. And you certainly responded well to 91 Readers Awards our new Best Advertisement category, 92 Most Innovative Hardware; which proves that people do notice PC Best PC System advertising. Those vendors who still 94 Best PC for the Home; Best Notebook think the best way to sell kit is with a 97 Best Printer; Best Budget Printer picture of a woman with no kit on, 99 Best Sound Card; Best CD-ROM Drive should maybe think again. 101 Best Modem; Best Graphics Card Once again, we are the only PC 104 Best Gadget; Most Innovative Software magazine that gives its readers a 105 Best Business Software Application; voice, and we know the industry cares Best Creative Software what you think. So sit back and find out 106 Best Suite/Best Utility who’s won. 108 Best CD-ROM/Best Game 111 Comms/Online Awards; PCW Illustration by Andy Parker ● Please note that all prices quoted in this Table of Contacts feature are street prices and exclude VAT 112/115 PCW Team Awards except where otherwise stated.

88 89 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 Readers Awards

R D S A ' 9 W

6 A or the second year running Gateway hit the spot as Fwe opened the PCW the No 1 hardware annual awards to our readers vendor while its and the response was advertising campaign phenomenal. The Readers was your favourite by a Survey forms have been processed and mile the results assessed by our resident Cray Supercomputer. Now the winners can be officially revealed. The PCW Awards are not just about great products: they’re about service as well. The most innovative product in the world is nothing if it breaks down after two weeks and the service department hasn’t been set up yet. And being put on hold for two hours is no-one’s idea of a good time. To really judge the market this year we and support where it matters, in the split up the Telephone Support awards market. into Hardware and Software categories to So may we congratulate this year’s monitor support in these fundamentally champions in the PCW Readers Awards different areas. That’s why the service for 1996, for Best Software Vendor, Best awards you see on this page are entirely Hardware Vendor, Best Telephone judged by PCW’s readers because only Support, Best After Sales Service, Most you can be the real arbiters of service Reliable PC and Best Advertisement.

How you voted

● Best Software Vendor (or Dealer) ● Best After Sales Service 1 Software Warehouse 1 Dan 2 Microsoft 2 Gateway 2000 3 Technomatic 3 Dell 4 PC World 4 Evesham Micros

● Best Hardware Vendor (or Dealer) ● Most Reliable PC PCW 1996 1 Gateway 2000 1 Dan Awards 2 Dan 2 Dell 3 Dell 3 Gateway Nominations: 4 Simply Computers 4 Compaq Winner ● Best Telephone Support ● Best Advertisement NEW Up for grabs this year was a Dan 1 Dan 1 Gateway Ultimate 133MHz Pentium PC. And 2 Gateway 2000 2 Dell ultimate seems to be the right word, with 3 Dell 3 Dan 16Mb of RAM, 1Gb hard disk, 2Mb of 4 Evesham Micros 4 Software Warehouse VRAM, quad-speed CD-ROM drive and a SoundBlaster AWE-32 sound card. ● Best Telephone Support - Software And to complete the picture, a high-res 1 Microsoft 17in monitor. A suite of Microsoft 2 Software Warehouse software is pre-installed to get you going 3 Borland fast. 4 Serif ● The winner is: BS Duncan, of Verwood, Dorset.

91 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 Most Innovative Hardware

1 Iomega Zip drive; £149 (street price) faster than the Pentium, thanks to better 2 Cyrix 6x86; from £99 to £269* design of the pipeline, making it the 2 IBM Thinkpad; £1,575 quickest thing on pins around at the 2 Panasonic PD; £489 (street price) moment. It’s the spring in the keyboard which R D S A ' 9 W

6

A s that a gigabyte in your puts a spring in the step of an IBM Ipocket? At 100Mb each, the Thinkpad user and makes the Thinkpad disks for the Iomega Zip 100 Butterfly second runner-up. Clever drive far outstrip the capacity of mechanical design means that the a standard floppy. It seems to keyboard pops out to give a sensible have become the rewriteable format of typing area despite the Lilliputian choice since the 2.88Mb floppy failed. dimensions of the machine. Sadly, the Good software support, partly thanks to Butterfly was not a big commercial the Mac’s understanding of all things success and has now been SCSI and Windows 95 plug-and-play, stock. The Zip’s success has sent discontinued. But the whole Thinkpad means that setting up a Zip drive is easy. Iomega’s share price rocketing, and its range, including the many models with Transfer rates are disappointing when 1Gb Jaz drive has just been announced. conventional keyboards, reflect the re- compared to a hard disk but ultimately First runner-up is the Cyrix 6x86. Both birth of IBM. No longer able to trade on it’s a great backup medium: tapes might Intel and Cyrix set out to produce a chip its name, the company has resorted to be cheaper per megabyte but are which was better than the Pentium. Cyrix producing some great products. awkward to use if you just want one file succeeded, Intel failed. Cyrix went with a Last but not least is the Panasonic out of a backup. IBM invented floppy chip which was a little better; Intel was PD Drive. It works as a conventional disks as a way of getting data from a too ambitious. In the right circumstances quad-speed CD drive but, with machine where it was inputted to a a Pentium Pro can run rings around a Panasonic’s PD disks, becomes a drive machine where it could be processed, Pentium or a 6x86, but those which can write in its own format to store and the Zip drive is ideal for this. circumstances don’t include day-to-day up to 650Mb on a forty-quid cartridge. A The biggest problem you might have use of Windows or Windows 95. Even at storage watershed. is finding a dealer with a Zip drive in its slower clock speeds the Cyrix 6x86 is * Manufacturer’s bulk purchase cost

Best PC System

1 Gateway P5-166 Sovereign; £2,099 specifications, software bundle and 2 Vale Platinum SE P150; £1,844 warranty deal. 3 Armari eXPS-100; £1,824 A special mention goes to Dan for its 4 Dan Dantium 95/s 120MM; £1,444 Dantium 95/s 120MM. It won our P120 group test, not because it was the fastest R D S A ' 9 W 6 ew processors have been or the cheapest, but because it was the

A Ncoming at us thick and fast best all-round machine for the price. this year, knocking the slower Armari wins the third prize. The chips out of the way. In the new system the company put into the P100 year Intel released the Pentium group test was the best-specced machine 150 and Pentium 166 processors, and the was saw all year. For a price close to Pentium Pro appeared at the end of ‘95. many of the other PCs in the test, Armari The DX2/66, while still available from managed to cram in a CD changer and a some sources, has for the most part been tape backup unit: both extremely useful consigned to history. Intel is promising a pieces of equipment. 200MHz Pentium soon, while Cyrix has The runner-up prize goes to Evesham taken them on with the 6x68. Micros for its excellent Vale Platinum SE To match this increase in processor P150. With a 2Gb hard disk, TEAC six- power, memory prices have been falling speed CD-ROM drive and Matrox fast. More machines are bundled with Millenium video card with 2Mb of WRAM, 16Mb of RAM as standard and much it fair trashed the opposition and was larger hard disks, some up to 2.5Gb. Most offered at a decent price. manufacturers have swapped from FPM But Gateway wins the Best PC RAM to EDO RAM and from standard L2 System award for its P5-166 Sovereign. It cache to pipeline burst cache. is very fast and well specced, and if you The winners we have chosen in this machines we look for the best price and are looking for a P166, it is one of the category have won their various group performance, but we also take into best all-round and best value machines tests this year. In choosing the best account such factors as the overall on the market.

92 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 Best PC for the home

1 Apricot MS530 Diamondtron 17; among readers. £2,799 (inc VAT) The winner of the Best Home PC 2 Compaq Presario 5520; £1,531 award for 1996 is Apricot’s MS530 3 Apple Performa 5200; £1,275 Diamondtron 17. It classifies as a truly 4 Dell Dimension XPS P100t; £1,459 outstanding all-in-one multimedia home PC that combines Pentium power with R D S A ' 9 W 6 he selection for the Best point-and-click simplicity. The MS530 can A THome PC was one of the be a games centre for the kids, an office toughest choices we had to suite for Dad, or a TV for the whole make. Reader response was family. overwhelming in volume but The MS530 is based around a incredibly varied in votes, showing that Pentium 120, 133 or 166MHz CPU. Its everyone had their favourite. After much standard features include full 16-bit hand-wringing and debate, the judges sound capability, on-board graphics with managed to whittle the field down to one 1Mb of VRAM, 1.7Gb Quantum hard winner and three runners-up, all perfect disk, quad-speed CD-ROM, integrated examples of a multimedia home PC. speakers with audio enhancement, The Dell Dimension XPS P100t came V.32bis fax/data/voice modem, and a in fourth. It was the only desktop PC from Teletext TV tuner with 122 channels. a direct seller to make the cut, but with its Remarkably, all of these features are Pentium 100MHz power and high-spec Compaq seemed to be the one that accessible via an infra-red remote subsystem it’s not an unusual choice. started the craze for the all-in-one control, including the mouse pointer, and What is unusual is our third-place home multimedia home PC, and the Presario are fully integrated into Apricot’s Media PC, the Apple Mac Performa 5200. It 5520 with an Intel Pentium 75MHz chip Manager and message centre. It allows a seems that the judges just can’t ignore was the company’s first entry-level family to leave messages for each other, the virtues of a true plug-and-play PC. Pentium-based machine. With its receive email, watch TV, play games and Coming in second, with lots of popular excellent build and strong software more. The MS530, with all its features, is support, is the Compaq Presario 5520. bundle, it’s not surprising it was a hit a most worthy choice for this award.

Best Notebook

1 IBM Thinkpad; from £1,920 squeezed it out of the frame in our March 2 Dell Latitude; from £1,700 ‘96 group test, but PCW readers’ votes 3 Toshiba Satellite Pro; from £2,100 left us with no choice but to choose the 4 Gateway Solo; from £2,349 IBM Thinkpad as our best notebook for 1996. R D S A ' 9 W

6 BM had several miserable Runner-up was the Dell Latitude.

A Istabs at portable computing in Funnily enough, Dell had as many the eighties, first with the IBM problems with its early notebooks as IBM Portable, then with the with its portables, but the Latitude range Convertible and finally with the has confounded the critics. Two PCW P70 386; all dismal, weighty machines staffers use them all the time and have that more or less sank without trace. Big no complaints. They’re designed by Dell Blue had to wait until the nineties for its but built by Sony, whose credentials in first decent portable computer. Since snazzy electronics need no introduction. their launch in early ‘94 the Thinkpad Latitudes are known for particularly good notebooks have done very well, regularly battery life, thanks to Lithium Ion leading the market in innovation, design batteries, but also offer good build quality and specification. and great screens. And prices, while not Innovations include the much copied cheap, are at least affordable. eraserhead pointing devices and the Consolation prizes go to the Toshiba Thinkpad Butterfly’s ingenious collapsible Satellite Pro and the Gateway Solo. keyboard. For design, look no further Toshiba, which makes no desktop PCs, than the stylish black casings, the still dominates the notebook market and emphasis on modularity and the excellent Thinkpad 760CD. looking at the Satellite Pro it’s not hard to keyboards. Specification — you want Usually the only thing which puts see why. Finally, Gateway, Dell’s arch built-in multimedia, a big hard disk, a fast prospective buyers off Thinkpads is the rival, has a decent product with its latest processor and a large TFT colour price. The close-to £6,000 price tag of a Solo notebook. It’s nicely designed and screen? You’ll find it all in the IBM top-of-the-range multimedia Thinkpad just competitively priced.

94 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 Best Printer

1 HP LaserJet 5P; £585 cuts down the production cost of laser 2 Panasonic KX-P6100; £265 printers by using Windows’ own 3 NEC Superscript 610; £255 description of the desktop to drive the 4 Tektronix Phaser 140; £1,150 printer. Panasonic’s KX-P6100 uses the same GDI technology but with an R D S A ' 9 W 6 unusual upright design which gives it a A his year we’ve looked at all Tkinds of printer, from the tiny footprint. Both printers have PCL chest-freezer sized 4700II Level 4.5 in reserve, and both have a to tiny portable printers like the street price of around £300. They get 3rd Citizen PN60. In such a diverse and 2nd place respectively in our Best market it’s difficult to single one out as Printer category. “the best”, so here we’ve given a special The overall winner in the Best Printer mention to printers from different market category goes to the HP LaserJet 5P, a segments. large 6ppm printer which comes with PCL One of the most memorable from 5e and 2Mb of RAM as standard. The August 95’s round-up of colour printers is feature which really gives this printer the the Tektronix Phaser 140, which earns edge is its IRDA-compliant infra-red port itself fourth place in this year’s awards. which allows you to print from your The Phaser 140 is a four-colour inkjet notebook, pocket computer or even the with each colour stored in a separate address book in your mobile phone. cartridge so that you only ever need to Options for the 5P include Ethernet and replace the colour which runs out. As well PostScript with a Macintosh interface as coming with PostScript Level 2 and their mark this year as manufacturers (this latter is marketed as the 5MP). HP’s producing stunning colour output, the have found new and inventive ways of resolution enhancement technology puts Phaser 140 also has Parallel, LocalTalk cutting costs. NEC’s Superscript 610 was the 5P head and shoulders above the and optional Ethernet, TCP/IP, and one of the first GDI printers on the other lasers in our November round-up, NetWare ports. market, offering great 600dpi text and a producing excellent results in our quality Cheap laser printers have also made print speed of 6ppm. GDI technology tests with its pristine 600dpi text.

Best Budget Printer

1 Canon BJC210; £170 producing stunning-quality colour and 2 Sharp JX9210; £319 mono output. Like Epson’s Stylus Colour 3 Lexmark Winwriter 150c; £255 II the 150c holds two cartridges, one for 4 Epson Stylus Colour II; £251 colour and one for black ink, so you can switch between colour and black text in R D S A ' 9 W

6 A ver the past few years both the same document. Oinkjet and laser In the cheap laser printer category, it’s technologies have been steadily still the GDI printer with its simplified refined to produce a more and design which offers the best value for more polished output at a money. The most impressive we’ve seen cheaper and cheaper price. And in a is the Sharp JX-9210, a compact laser continually changing market, competition printer with a footprint of just 11.8in x between printer manufacturers is always 11.9in and superb 600dpi text output. fierce, particularly at the budget end. For most people though, it’s the inkjet The monochrome inkjet appears to which provides real versatility and value have disappeared altogether now, with for money, which is why our Best Budget new colour models dominating the home Printer award goes to Canon’s new user market. In PCW’s last group test of BJC210. Despite its three colour colour printers it was the Epson Stylus cartridge design, the 210 produces the Colour II which we found particularly best composite black we’ve seen to date. impressive. Epson was the first banding effect common in inkjet printers. From the mono cartridge black text manufacturer to introduce piezo electric A special mention must go to the output is crisp and clear even on plain technology to the inkjet printer, which Lexmark Winwriter 150c which earned copier paper, and we found the quality of offers a much improved speed and output itself Editor’s Choice in our August colour documents from such a small quality over conventional inkjets. This is round-up. Using the Windows Printing printer to be exceptionally good. You can combined with Epson’s “microweave” system, the 150c scored exceptionally get hold of the BJC210 for a street price technology which virtually eliminates the well in our performance tests as well as of about £170 or less.

97 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 Best Sound Card

1 Creative Labs SoundBlaster applications, the Waverider offers a great AWE-32; £150 deal for just £79. 2 Orchid Nusound; £99 At the higher end and earning second 3 Aztech Soundgalaxy Waverider Pro place in the sound-card category is the 32 3D; £79 Orchid Nusound, which comes with an 4Turtle Beach TBS 2000; £145 amazing 343 samples compressed into 1Mb of WaveTable ROM. Installation R D S A ' 9 W

6

A he popularity of multimedia under Windows 95 went smoothly. Under Tover the last few years has test, it produced low noise levels and high accelerated the development of sampling rates, making it suitable for the sound card, and the fierce some of the more high-end audio competition between applications. And with great expansion manufacturers has followed its usual capability, Orchid’s Nusound is one of the pattern, resulting in more sophisticated and-play cards. It comes with 2Mb of more versatile high-end cards around. technology at lower prices. Wavetable general MIDI-compatible wavetable The best sound card award for this has made a massive improvement to the samples and produced excellent results year goes, not surprisingly, to Creative quality of sound when compared to the in our tests, earning it fourth place in this Labs’ AWE-32, another of the first few synthesised sounds of a few years ago, year’s best sound card category. plug-and-play sound cards on the market as has DSP (Digital Signal Processing) Third in line is Aztech’s Soundgalaxy and winner of Editor’s Choice in our last which allows reverb, delay, and other Waverider Pro, a cheap all-round group test. It has 512Kb of sampling digital effects to be applied to instruments multimedia card with a leaning towards memory which is expandable to 28Mb or samples. the games market. The Waverider using the 30-pin SIMM bank, as well as a This year we’ve seen a whole range of comes with a 1Mb Wavetable synth feature connector for adding a Wavetable new sound cards with the first “plug and containing reasonable on-board sounds, daughterboard. play” offerings finding their way into our plus 3D sound effects for sprucing up Despite its higher than average price, testing labs. Particularly impressive in our your video games and movie the AWE-32 is undoubtedly one of the April group test was the Turtle Beach soundtracks. With a pair of headphones most flexible and compatible cards we’ve TBS-2000, one of the first genuine plug- included and a healthy bunch of bundled seen in the past year.

Best CD-ROM Drive

1 Teac CD-56e; £95 drive of any variety, came up with the 2 Plextor 6PLEX; £225 software to deliver the goods. Coming as 3 Aztech 6 Speed; £69 standard with all Plextor’s CD-ROM 4 Toshiba 3701B; £249 drives, these excellent drivers considerably reduce the load. The 6PLEX R D S A ' 9 W

6 A D-ROM drives are earned Editor’s Choice for SCSI CD- Cspeeding up and dropping ROM drives last year. in price faster than almost any Earning Highly Commended in last other computer peripheral. The year’s CD-ROM drive group test and a days of expensive single-speed runner-up award here is Toshiba’s super- drives is only a distant memory in terms fast 3701B SCSI drive. Where most of price and performance. Double-speeds manufacturers stopped at six-speed, set the standard after single, to be Toshiba stretched out to a genuine 6.7, replaced later by quads, which are now comfortably beating all in terms of all but superseded by six-speeds. While performance. our awards are concerned with six-speed The marketing material claims six- drives, eights are becoming common on speed, but many drives fell short in our new systems, and already several tests: most six-speed CD-ROM drives manufacturers have announced 10- delivered a somewhat lower 4.5 to 5 speeds. SCSI drives. Last year, the two SCSI speed performance. Perhaps one Our first runner-up award goes to drives that particularly impressed were shouldn’t grumble, considering the low Aztech for its ATAPI six-speed drive, Plextor’s 6PLEX and Toshiba’s 3701B. prices, but Teac thought differently. Its which cost less than most people’s quads As CD-ROM drives spin faster and ATAPI CD-56e, fitted to many PCs, won when first released. ATAPI CD-ROM transfer more information, a greater Editor’s Choice last year and earns itself drives which can be fitted to an Enhanced strain is placed on the processor. Drivers the PCW award for Best CD-ROM Drive IDE controller are so common these days can do a certain amount to relieve this, thanks to a rock-bottom price tag and that you’d be forgiven for forgetting about and Plextor, first out with a six-speed genuine six-speed performance.

99 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 Best Modem

1 Motorola 3400; £169 The modem market has just been 2 US Robotics Sportster; £199 thrown into confusion by a decision by 3 Linnet 34 fx; £199 major Internet provider, Pipex, to support 4 Hayes Optima 288 V34; £315 an unofficial extension to V.34, allowing connections at up to 33.6Kb/ses (see R D S A ' 9 W

6 ur top modem, the Motorola Newsprint). This is expected to be

A O3400, won the Editor’s incorporated into the official V.34 this Choice award in our February October, but the latest model of the US group test and supports the V.34 Robotics Sportster, one of our three standard for 28.8Kb/sec runners-up, has jumped the gun on the connections; the fastest officially revised standard and already supports available. 33.6Kb/sec. This was Motorola’s first mass-market This kind of pre-emptive action is risky modem after years of supplying high-end as there is no way of testing the modem models, and won acclaim for robust with non-USR implementations. The connections and security features such Sportster would need a ROM swap if its as password-enabled callback. configuration turns out to need a tweak. The 3400 comes in a smart beige Another runner-up is the Linnet 34 fx, case, with an array of status lights and, from the UK firm, Pace. Like the Sportster confusingly, two names: the Online and it lists at £199 (excl VAT) but can be the Pro, differing only in the bundled bought for less than £160. software. Both include an idiot-proof Our final runner-up, the Hayes Optima setup routine but the Online also packs a 288 V34, is more expensive at £315 suite of Internet software, a couple of street price (excl VAT) but is designed for games and an IBM network trial. “Internet Solution, is £10 more. Service critical business tasks. Hayes, Pace and Motorola says it is about to drop prices providers are more or less giving away Motorola are all waiting for a 33.6Kb/sec on both. The Pro can be bought for about Internet software at the moment, so the standard to be agreed before £169; the Online, sold in a bundle called Pro is marginally the better bet. implementing it.

Best Graphics Card

1 Matrox Millennium; £215 everywhere. 2 ATI Video Xpression; £130 The runner-up in the graphics card 3 VideoLogic GrafixStar 700; from category is the new ATI Video Xpression, £249 which came tops in our recent survey. A 4 Diamond Stealth 64 Video 3400XL; great performer, this new card looks set £200 to be big in the future, and with a street price of around £130 (RRP £175) it R D S A ' 9 W 6 aving conducted a group certainly has a head start, and is one to A Htest of graphics cards in our watch. May issue, choosing a winner After much debate, this year’s winner for the Best Graphics Card of the Best Graphics Card award is the category should have been a tried and tested Matrox Millennium. piece of cake. The product awarded Available in 2Mb, 4Mb and 8Mb WRAM Editor’s Choice in that issue is obviously configurations, it’s a well-made product the one that gets this years’ annual that’s become increasingly popular over award, right? the last year. Many manufacturers offer it Not quite. Our annual awards look at as an option with their PCs, and in the merits of products past and present, software tests it has proved to be one of and your input counts for a lot as well. So the most compatible and well-supported the best graphics card is more likely to be cards on the market. a popular, high-performance model that’s Other notable features on the already proving itself in PCs, rather than Millenium include an 85Hz refresh rate in just the one that scored the highest in our nearly all modes and support for 3D most recent tests. steals third place. Both are good all- graphics, with hardware accelerated This year, an honourable mention round devices that speed up Windows gourad shading and Z-buffering. There’s goes to Diamond for the Stealth 64 Video and improve the playback of Video for even a version that works on the new PCI 3400XL, and Videologic GrafixStar 700 Windows AVI files. Ideal for upgraders Macs. Top marks.

101 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 Best Gadget Best Business Software Application

1 Psion 3a; from £269 (incl VAT) proper formatted files ready for use in 2 Visioneer PaperPort VX Scanner; over 100 applications. Automatic OCR 1 Word for Windows; £229 £229 (RRP) launches when you drag a thumbnail into 2 Excel; £229 place, and this year it runs off with first 3 Gyrations Gyrapoint; £119 a document. In our tests. the results with 3 Lotus Notes 4; from £125 prize as well. The former goes to Excel, 4 Logitech Trackman Marble; £60 pictures were disappointing, but as a 4 Quicken; from £26 the best spreadsheet on the market and cheap way of getting documents into your the standard by which others are judged. R D S A ' 9 R D S W A ' 9 6 W A hen a Psion 3a alarm computer without occupying loads of 6 ast year’s finalists for the The new Windows 95 release is easier to

A W goes off in the PCW office desk space, it’s great. LBest Business Software use than ever before, with features such a gaggle of writers look for their Also innovative is the Gyrations Application award were Intuit, as the Answer Wizard online help ESC key. It’s become the de- Gyrapoint, a pointing device which Lotus and Microsoft. QuickBooks system, improved drag-and-drop editing facto personal organiser, which doesn’t need to be kept flat on a desk. grabbed first prize, Lotus 1-2-3 and AutoCorrect. Here at PCW we use it isn’t bad for something which has seen The clue is in the name — the Gyration came in second and Powerpoint brought to help plan our issues and manage our off pretenders from Apple, Hewlett- GyraPoint has a tiny gyroscope hidden up the rear in third place. Oddly enough, budgets. Packard, Sharp and Casio over several inside. A wireless version makes it great this year the same finalists are lining up The winner of Best Software years. for presentations. This is a technology again in a different order with different Application 1996 is Microsoft Word. By What makes the Psion 3a so great you won’t be able to put down. products. far the most widely-used product in the isn’t its 60 hours from a set of batteries, Finally, the Logitech Trackman Intuit receives an honourable mention PCW office, and a huge favourite with our or its 640 x 400 LCD screen. It certainly Marble. The quest is no longer for a for its easy-to-use accounting program, readers, Word keeps going from strength isn’t its 8086-based CPU. What makes better mousetrap but for a better mouse. Quicken. A remarkable little application, to strength. As with Excel it’s now easier the 3a special is its software. This starts Logitech has improved on the pointing Quicken makes home and small business together more efficiently, and version 4.0 to use than ever before, with the ability to with the custom multitasking operating led to a profusion of third-party programs. technology with a system called “marble account handling understandable — fun is the best yet. Its features include automatically correct words, change system (you really do need to get from At the price, it’s a cheap way to make sensing”. This uses a sensor to track the even. If you need to balance your excellent shared information databases, symbols and format documents as you the spreadsheet to the diary to the yourself considerably more productive. movement of patterns of dots printed on budgets we recommend you take a look email facilities, and the ability to set up type. It integrates seamlessly with other address book instantly if you are looking Document scanners have proliferated an inner layer of the ball, itself protected at this. conferences where users can share parts of Office, via OLE, and can be used up things while making an appointment), in the last year, led by runner-up, the from wear by a special coating. The result In reverse order, third place goes to ideas and talk to each other even though to edit HTML pages with the additional to the applications and the programming Visioneer PaperPort VX Scanner. Teach is a trackball which works much more Lotus for its ground-breaking groupware, they may be several offices apart. We’re Microsoft’s Internet Assistant. There language. You might not want to program your computer to read. The PaperPort accurately and laughs in the face of dirt Lotus Notes. Notes provides all the even implementing Notes, here at VNU. simply is no better word processor for the your Psion but the standard tools have sucks in documents and turns them into and dust. facilities needed to get people working That leaves Microsoft with second PC.

Most Innovative Software Best Creative Software

1 95; £59 product for years”. It’s not (upgrade) better than Visual Basic, 1 Macromedia FreeHand 5; £450 CorelDraw 6 is the latest chapter in 2 Borland Delphi; £400 overall, which remains the 2 Macromedia Director; £995 the story, offering all the familiar 3 Netscape Navigator 2.0; £59.95 product of choice for database 3 Photoshop version 3; £540 elements, stacks of fonts and clipart, and 4 Macromedia Shockwave; Free and cross-application 4 CorelDraw 6; £495 a few new ones, including a 3D module. download development. But Delphi’s However, what CorelDraw boasts in R D S A ' 9 W built-in compiler and ease of 6 he applications which really value and sheer size, it often loses in A R D S A ' 9 W

6 A aybe we’ve all got used to use has made it a first choice Timpress in this fiercely usability. This is where our winner steps Mthe Internet since last year RAD (Rapid Application competitive environment are in: Macromedia FreeHand 5 is simply the when three of the awards in this Development) tool for extremely capable products. All greatest drawing application around. category went to Internet- corporate developers. four selected here deserve the FreeHand is developed by Altsys, which related software. After all, it is The Internet is still driving title of Best Creative Software but there used to license the product to Aldus. difficult not to be affected by the biggest software development and for can only be one winner. Adobe Illustrator and Aldus FreeHand product launch in the history of the second year Netscape’s Runners-up include Macromedia fought it out on the Macintosh platform for computing. For those PC users who have Navigator is in contention, as Director, ubiquitous in multimedia years before making it onto Windows. taken the plunge, Windows 95 has been than many dared believe. version 2.0 maintains its position as the authoring. Everyone’s old favourite, Shortly afterwards Adobe and Aldus a revelation. Few who have tried it would Of course, Mac users like to point out world’s best Web browser. Adobe Photoshop, remains an invaluable merged, forcing the company to drop one want to go back to Windows 3.1.1. that they have had these tools for years, The Web is changing rapidly and, tool for any kind of image manipulation. of them. FreeHand returned to Altsys, Windows 95 has brought an easy-to- and that’s true, but the real difference is increasingly, innovation in the Internet is The latest version 3 now boasts layers, which recently licensed it to Macromedia use, multitasking operating system to 95 percent market share. And that’s why coming from third parties eager to extend while Plug-ins, which allow third parties to in time for version 5. millions. Add a plug-and-play system that Windows 95 is important. Worryingly for the limits of Web browsing. MacroMedia’s expand and enhance the product, are a CorelDraw 6 is, deservedly, our third While Adobe neglected Illustrator for works, Internet and networking Microsoft’s competitors, it can only get ShockWave plug-in for Navigator 2.0 is firmly established standard. Almost all runner-up for Best Creative Software. Windows, Altsys and Macromedia integration, long filenames and Shortcuts, better. just such a product. It brought real bitmap paint and photo-retouching The Canadian package always ploughed on, releasing new versions and you have a Microsoft OS that makes Elsewhere, Borland’s Delphi has come multimedia to Web sites with download applications are compatible. One such is represented great value with its number across platforms shortly after each other. a PC fun to use. It still crashes and needs from nowhere to take 12 percent of its times on a par with the average graphic. Corel PhotoPaint, available as a separate of bundled modules, but lacked The result is a superb and well-supported 16Mb of RAM to make it fly, but there is market — and deservedly so. Tim While everyone talked about the promise product but still also part of the all- consistency between them. As time went product which is leaps and bounds ahead no doubt it’s an advance and far better Anderson described it as “Borland’s best of Java, Shockwave actually delivered. encompassing CorelDraw graphics suite. on Corel unified the interface. of the competition.

104 105 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 Best Suite

1 Microsoft Office Pro 95; £425 make the components work better 2 Lotus SmartSuite 96; £129 together by introducing features like 3 Novell Perfect Office 3.0; n/a MOM (Microsoft Office Manager) and the 4 CorelDraw v6: £275 Office Binder which lets you create a single file containing a mixture of different R D S A ' 9 W 6 icrosoft Office is the types of documents such as worksheets A Msoftware used by the PCW and letters. What it still hasn’t managed editorial team and has between to do is reduce the huge memory and 80 and 90 percent of the suite disk requirements of its increasingly market depending on whose monolithic applications. figures you look at. Microsoft Office Runner-up, Lotus SmartSuite, consists polled just over four times as many votes of Lotus 1-2-3, WordPro (formerly as second-placed Lotus SmartSuite AmiPro), the Freelance presentation ,making it the resounding winner of our package and Lotus Approach with the Best Suite category. Each of the added bonus of the Organizer PIM. component applications, Word, Excel, SmartSuite matches Office for Powerpoint and Access, are outstanding functionality and has some loyal fans, but in their own right and would probably win doesn’t achieve Office’s level of most of the individual categories if we still integration. Still, Lotus has an ace up its had awards for word processors, worked hard to integrate them by making sleeve in the shape of the Notes spreadsheets presentation packages and the interfaces more alike. It has also application components due for launch databases. added a host of new features, notably the this summer. Microsoft pioneered the concept of the much hyped, copied and, dare we say it, Our two remaining runners-up, in no software suite. At first it was little more useful intellisense which spell-checks on particular order, are CorelDraw v6 and than a marketing device and consisted of the fly and tidies up typing errors, and Novell Perfect Office 3.0. Ironically, with putting three very different products, Microsoft Access, an optional but Corel’s recent acquisition of Word, Excel and Powerpoint, into the powerful database. PerfectOffice, WordPerfect has been same box. Since then Microsoft has Microsoft has also made efforts to subsumed into Corel Office Professional.

Best Utility

1 Symantec’s ; £129 Running a close second is the totally 2 Quickview Plus; £39 different, yet just as handy, QuickView 3 Qemm; £79.95 Plus from Inso. An easy-to-use file viewer 4 WinZip; shareware (US$29) that replaces the standard Quickview facility in Windows 95, it lets you display R D S A ' 9 W 6 veryone with a PC has their just about any type of file with a couple of

A Eown favourite utility, that one mouse clicks. Over 200 file formats are small piece of life-saving supported including Word, Excel, GIF, software they use almost every TIF, JPG, BMP, RTF and ASCII text. You day. It’s just the sort of thing that can also display HTML pages, as used makes choosing the best one difficult, on the Internet, and view and extract data especially when you’ve recently compiled from Zip files. an issue with 50 of the best (PCW June). The winner of our Best Utility award is Our judges managed to get it down to a Symantec’s Norton Utilities. A must for winner and three runners-up, but it’s any serious PC or Mac user, Norton’s has worth stressing that all of the products become the standard by which other here are great in their own right. diagnostic programs are judged and The honourable mention goes to despite some valiant attempts it has yet WinZip, downloadable as shareware to meet its match. Its Disk Doctor and from the Internet. As you may have UnErase programs are renowned for guessed, it provides a quick and easy saving data where other recovery way of compressing and unpacking files the standard way of dealing with PC programs fear to tread, and its Speed in the popular ZIP format. Guaranteed to memory deficiencies and getting the most Disk helps keep working drives in tip-top make your computer life easier. out of that first 1Mb of system RAM. The condition. Finally, Norton Backup Third place goes to the best PC latest release, version 8, helps with provides a fast, reliable way to archive memory manager on the market; QEMM Windows 95 applications as well as all valuable files and keep them safe. An from Quarterdeck. QEMM has become those DOS games. excellent all-round utility.

106 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 Best CD-ROM

1 Microsoft Encarta 96; £49.99 innovative and very stylish. 2 You Don’t Know Jack; £29.95 The runner-up, You 3 A Stroll Through 20th Century Art; Don’t Know Jack, can £44.99 perhaps only be loosely 4 DK’s World Reference Atlas; £69 described as educational, but it had to be the most R D S A ' 9 W

6 A his year, multimedia has entertaining CD this year. Tbeen a huge growth It comes from Berkely industry. CD-ROM drives are Systems, the selling like hot cakes and a people, and is a trivia quiz staggering amount of new CD- of the most bizarre ROM publishers have appeared, hoping extremes, in the guise of a to get in on the act. radio quiz. If you are a dab Education and entertainment are hand at Trivial Pursuit and paramount for most people when buying have a liberal sense of a CD-ROM. The winning CDs this year humour, you could easily have been chosen according to these get addicted. same criteria, and because they appeal Century Art. There are any number of Finally, this year’s award for best CD- to a wide audience. CDs out there on the subject of fine art ROM has to go to Microsoft for the Dorling Kindersley’s World Reference but so many of them follow the same Encarta 96 Encyclopedia. This year saw Atlas deserves a special mention as the repetitive formula — digital images of the the release of the UK version — all the best of DK’s excellent products this year. paintings and a few words of description. old data plus a whole host of localised It is much more than an atlas and This CD, however, breaks the mould. You information, originated from a team in the includes a wealth of information on are guided around the Maight Institute by UK. In addition, the US spellings have geology, demographics and cultural a video filmed on a handheld camera, or been purged, the interface has been facts. you can flick through a wealth of refined and the content is now Third prize goes to Grolier information on the art in the collection, the outstanding. It is simply the best Interactive’s A Stroll Through 20th artists and their works. It is truly encyclopedia money can buy.

Best Game

1 Duke Nuk’em 3D; £34.99 hit, Duke Nuk’em 3D. 2 Doom2; £54.99 Despite the fact that only 3 Command and Conquer; £32.99 the shareware version is 4 Fatal Racing; £44.99 available at the time of

R D S writing, Duke Nuk’em 3D is A ' 9 W

6 A eciding on the winner of clearly ahead of the DPCW’s Best Game award competition. Everyone in always takes us a lot longer the office, and possibly the than expected. Every year, the PC gaming world, is editorial team is forced to spend awaiting the final release hours on end playing the latest titles to from US Gold, which should see which comes out tops. It’s a hard life. be on sale by the time you Taking fourth and third places read this. respectively this year are the network- Duke 3D’s key features ready racing game, Fatal Racing from include fast, smooth- Gremlin, and Virgin’s strategy great, moving 3D graphics at Command and Conquer (C&C). Fatal resolutions up to 800 x 600 pixels — Racing had the whole office screaming who haven’t), it’s your typical 3D orgy of almost eight times more graphical detail around the Novell network at breakneck death and destruction. Doom changed than Doom. There’s a huge array of speed during the editor’s absence, while the face of PC gaming, and Doom2 is weapons to choose from, bags of music C&C held its position in the charts and on more of the same. Rumour has it that a and speech, and the bad guys show our reviewer’s hard disk for several third episode, entitled Final Doom, with some intelligence. You can choose months. two new 32-level episodes, is due soon. between a standalone “me against the Doom2 is still so popular that it takes But this year it was agreed by all that world” scenario, or the full network the number two slot and becomes this the winning game had to be better than deathmatch experience. Best of all, it year’s main runner-up. For those who’ve Doom2. After much debate only one runs fine in standard resolution on a never seen it (and there can’t be many game fits the bill — 3D Realm’s smash 486DX2/66 with 8Mb of RAM.

108 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 Comms/Online Awards

R D S A ' 9 W Best On-line Service/Service 6 t may be dull, it may still be end in the shape of Turnpike. In fact,

A Provider Itoo damn American, but Demon liked it so much, it bought the 1 CompuServe; £6.50 per month for PCW’s readers still love company. A new 45Mbit connection 5 hours then £1.95 an hour, billed per CompuServe: once again, it across the Atlantic should also help minute. tops the poll as Best Online Demon’s growing band of users. 2 Demon; £10 per month regardless Service/Service Provider. CompuServe On the Web, the Electronic Telegraph of hours used plus £12.50 joining fee is, of course, now both. continues to set the standard for online (once only). Recent hardware improvements and newspapers, but the competition from UK 3 Pipex; £19.99 sign on. £15 per better support have meant that rivals The Times and The Guardian month unlimited access. CompuServe is less likely to be engaged means there is no resting on laurels over 4 CIX; £10 sign on. £15 per month for these days and it has recovered from its at Canary Wharf. 25 hours, then 1p per minute. post-Christmas nightmare when so many Rise is an umbrella site which acts as people were signing up with shiny new a cool repository for popsters Pulp and Best of British — Best UK Web PCs that it simply couldn’t cope. But the style mag, Dazed and Confused. Site being first in the market still carries a lot Manchester United are champions of the 1 Electronic Telegraph of weight. Price wars continue and Premiership and FA Cup winners, and 2 BBC CompuServe has been foremost in the club’s professional site is also in a 3 Rise reducing the cost of going online. But league of its own — well done, the Reds. 4 Manchester United with AOL, Europe Online and others now As for sites by small companies, gaining market share, the days of Flames and The Games Domain Best Web Site by a Small CompuServe domination could be over. continue to be popular, while Private Eye Company Demon remains number two and will and CyberFi from the Virtual Publishing 1 Flames no doubt consolidate its position as the Company complete the picture in this 2 Games Domain UK’s biggest home-grown ISP. It, too, new category. Both proved you don’t 3 Private Eye has responded to criticism and improved need zillions of dollars to produce good 4 Four 11 its technical online magazines. But with thousands of support sites, it’s a category that will get harder to (especially for judge, and the sites that win are the ones new users) and that combine intelligent design with fast now has an access — and content people actually elegant front- want to read.

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Contacts

Supplier Phone Website Supplier Phone Website Apple 0181 569 1199 www.euro.apple.com/uk Grolier Interactive 01865 245770 www.grolier.com Apricot 0800 212 422 www.apricot.co.uk GT Interactive (Id) 0171 258 3791 Armari 0181 810 7441 www.armari.com Intuit 0181 990 5500 ATI 01235 833666 ISO (QuickView Plus) 01344 885224 BBC www.bbcnc.org.uk Lotus 01784 455 445 Berkley Systems 0181 741 8299 Macromedia 01344 76 1111 www.macromedia.com Borland UK 01734 320022 www.borland.com Manchester United www.sky.co.uk/sports/manu/ CIX 0181 390 8446 www.compulink.co.uk Matrox 01793 441144 Compaq 0181 332 3000 www.compaq.com Microsoft 0345 002000 www.microsoft.com CompuServe 0181 371 1000 www.compuserve.com Netscape www.netscape.com CyberFi www.virtual-publishing.com/cyberfi/ Pipex 0181 296 9666 www.unipalm.pipex.co.uk Dan 0181 830 1100 Private Eye www.intervid.co.uk/intervid/eye/gateway.html Dell 01344 720000 www.dell.com Quarterdeck UK 01245 496699 http://qdeck.com Demon Internet 0171 573 4100 www.demon.co.uk Rise www.rise.co.uk Diamond cards Serif 0800 924925 www.serif.com/ (Evesham Micros) 01386 765500 Simply Computers 0181 498 2100 Dorling Kindersley 0171 753 3488 www.dk.com Software Warehouse 01645 466 467 Electronic Telegraph www.telegraph.co.uk Symantec 01734 814230 Evesham Micros 01386 765500 Technomatic 0181 205 9558 Flames www.gold.net/flames/ US Gold 021 625 3366 Games Domain www.gamesdomain.co.uk/ VideoLogic 01923 260511 Gateway 0800 973120 www.gateway2000.com Virgin Interactive 0171 368 2255 Gremlin 0114 275 3423 WinZip www.winzip.com

111 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996

CYAN•MAGENTA•YELLOW•BLACK PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PCW Team Awards

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ou’ve seen the phone all-in-one. Wow, man.” Ywinners, you’ve Eleanor Turton-Hill, PCW’s read the reviews and now it’s resident technophile and, naturally, time to hear the wise words of Technical Editor, found her favourites the PCW staff. Unburdened by off the beaten track of the PC world. democracy, objectivity and the “My first favourite is a small wireless readers’ selections, the PCW keyboard made by Sejin. It sounds team discuss their winning like a ridiculous gimmick but it’s an products for 1996. extremely useful tool if you’re short of Our Net man, Cutting Edge desk space. There are no wires, so Editor, PJ Fisher, found just move it out of the way if you need Internet growth trailblazing the more desk space. Definitely one of way, with the major players the most useful products I’ve come readying for head-to-head across in the past year. battle. “For me, Netscape Then there’s Ameol. If you’re a continued to set the pace with CIX user, you’ll appreciate this utility. ever better versions of Ameol is an offline reader which Navigator. But I was even more long-awaited Jaz drive. Old software helps you to cut your phone bills by impressed with Microsoft’s ability to turn favourites such as Adobe Photoshop and automatically dialing up CIX, logging on around its whole Internet strategy in a Doom continue to impress. Corny as it using your CIX name and password, matter of weeks, and may sound, the two things that have capturing all unread messages and 2.0 (soon to be 3.0) is proving a highly made the biggest positive difference in logging you off again. It’s an intelligent worthy contender, especially if you run my computer life this year were Windows and useful product and the best thing Windows 95. QuarterDeck’s Web Server 95 and the Internet. Comms in general about it is it’s free. Just download it from shows that you don’t need to be a Unix- have played an important part — using http://www.compulink. head to set up a personal Web site and is the Lotus cc:Mobile client on a notebook co.uk/cix/support/ameol/.” a remarkably easy (and robust) way for with a data-capable digital mobile phone Mac aficionado, games master, and individuals and small companies to get is about as cool as it gets. Well, not quite. Features Editor Chris Cain was duly on the Web using a PC as a server. The absolute coolest, and winner of my impressed with this year’s offering from Recently, I have been impressed with personal award, is Nokia’s Communicator Apple as well as the introduction of more CyberPilot Pro from NetCarta. This is an 9000. A PDA, web browser and mobile 3D games and multimedia for the PC. excellent Web mapping utility which “The Apple 7500/100 saves time, both for provides excellent Web surfers and value, is a well Web masters. And thought out design as for the Internet — and has a secure well, it just gets more upgrade path. I liked mind boggling every the review model so month.” much, I bought one. Reviews Editor, The best arcade Gordon Laing, game of the year is continues his the Sega Saturn tradition of eclectic version of Virtua product choice, Fighter 2 (see ECTS proving that you can’t Awards news in pin a good reviews Screenplay this editor down. “It’s month). It’s the best been a busy year. conversion I’ve seen NEC’s ChromaClear and has amazing 3D tube technology is graphics. Lastly, I’d pretty cunning. have to pick Storage is hotting up Macromedia’s with innovative Director 5.0. It’s the products like best multimedia Panasonic’s PD Iomega Jaz Drive authoring tool for CD- system and Iomega’s ROM and the Internet,

112 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996

CYAN•MAGENTA•YELLOW•BLACK PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD and is much easier to learn than OCR their documents without previous versions. Big having a beast of a flatbed improvements include movie scanner taking up most of the preload.” office, and, like the Visioneer News Editor, Clive Akass, PaperPort, most come with looks to the future and excellent document contemplates its direction and management software. diction. “My regular gripe at the “Lastly, there was one moment is that no-one is making utility that I instantly loved — true, usable mobiles. So the Unitype. It lets you type in Nokia Communicator 9000, a whatever type and character combined GSM phone and set you want in your own word personal organiser, would come processor, without being high on my list of top products driven berserk by the old Alt because it shows an insight into and three-figure number the way mobiles will have to go. configuration for getting My belief is that sooner or later foreign language characters.” we are going to agree a standard, Dylan Armbrust, PCW reinvented, handwriting for staff writer, has been wowed computers to read (see News by the advances of home PCs Analysis). So Graffiti, which does and the stuff that goes into just that on the HP Omnigo and them. “I was impressed by the Apple Newton, scores high on the concept of the Apricot MS530 software front, but I’m afraid I’ll Diamondtron. It’s an all-in- have to plump for, yawn, Cyrix 6x86 one, remote-controlled home Windows 95. It’s a hodge-podge, it’s PCTV. It’s not stylish or beautiful and it infuriating, but it has dragged PC around for a while in the form of printers still has a way to go, but I wouldn’t turn it software kicking and screaming into the from Tektronix and the Jolt from Data down if you offered me one. 32-bit world that hardware entered way Products, but it’s the Tektronix Phaser “Also impressive is the introduction of back in the eighties. 340 which really shines. It gives high- processors with muscle. Intel’s Pentium “My top hardware of the year is quality, reliable and cheap (per-copy) Pro really is a leviathan, especially the Iomega’s Zip drive, first of the new breed colour printing. Other manufacturers may 200MHz chip. In a few short years I’m of cheap mass storage that will be be looking to lasers but it’s the Phaser sure we’ll all have them in our PCs. But needed for the next stage of multimedia 340 which has got it right. And they have the Cyrix 6x86 chip, which outperforms a evolution.” got it so right that the technology is sewn similarly-clocked Intel Pentium, has Simon Rockman, PCW’s Associate up with patents, which means it may well shown that clock speed is now irrelevant Editor, finds one product has caught his take rivals a very long time to catch up. and what really counts is design. The attention. “Editorial team choices are Don’t wait. Buy one.” irony is that, in terms of CPUs, we ain’t usually something special and, taking a Intrepid Staff Writer, Adele Dyer, seen nothing yet!” bit of a plunge, I’m going to nail my reminisces about a few of her favourites. The last word goes to PCW’s Editor, colours to a technology-in-waiting — “A couple of things caught my eye this Ben Tisdall. He was sceptical at first, but phase-change printing. This has been year. Firstly, the appearance of the Cyrix has now become a convert. And exactly 6x86, not because it was what faith has he found? You guessed it, the fastest thing in Windows 95. “I was cynical about it to silicon to come out this start with and nearly driven mad by the year, but simply way it crawled in 8Mb of memory. But because it was a good once I had it installed on a 16Mb Pentium all rounder and it wasn’t and had figured out how to make file an Intel product. extensions visible and how to stop CD- “Secondly, the ROMs auto-loading, I grew to like it. I can proliferation of document sometimes go a whole week now without scanners has been a single system crash; under Windows astounding. Small- 3.11 I was lucky to last a day. business and home “My other favourite is Modemshare users can scan and from Artisoft, a neat and easy-to-use piece of software that lets you share Virtua Fighter 2 modems across a network.”

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CYAN•MAGENTA•YELLOW•BLACK PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD FiveFive gogo mad mad with with

And that was when £1,500 was a lot of money?

1979 £1,500 bought a Research Machines 380Z with 16Kb RAM, tape interface and a second-hand teletype printer. PCW Location by John Millar 1983 You could get a BBC Micro with disk £2,000Product by David Whyte £2,000 machines had even lower specs: one IBM will have some PowerPCs and the filing system and 800Kb of storage on two prospective purchaser went to Dixons PowerMac will have been around long 5.25in floppy drives, a Microvitec colour and ended up with a Packard Bell enough not to be a novelty.” Come June monitor, Computer Concept’s WorldWise “Gosh! I say, you chaps!” exclaimed Ben IVE GO MAD WITH £1,500 is Legend sporting just 2Mb of RAM and an ’95, none of these predictions had come and an Epson FX-80 dot-matrix printer. something of a tradition in 85Mb hard disk — and this machine was true. Yes, Pentiums were available but 1986 A system based on an Apricot F10 Personal Computer World. This meant to run Windows 3.1! even the 75MHz versions would swallow and a Shiwa CP-80 dot-matrix printer. one sunny morning. “Wouldn’t it be a year, we put the budget up to By June ’94, the basic specifications up most of the entire £1,500 budget. A 1989 By now, you might have bought an £2,000F not because you can’t buy a had more or less doubled. A typical typical choice was an Evesham Popular Elonex PC 88C with a 10MHz V20 smashing wheeze to get in a boat and sail complete business system (PC, printer example supplied by Gateway, then new DX2-66MHz machine with 8Mb of processor and 640Kb RAM for £695, plus and software) but because the choice is to the UK, was a full-blown 486DX memory (the memory was an optional an extra £250 for EGA graphics. Add a so restricted it would otherwise have 33MHz machine fitted with a 424Mb hard upgrade because pre-Windows 95, 4Mb Star LC10 9-pin dot-matrix printer for £299 off for the day to spend all your pocket made pretty dull reading. disk and 8Mb of RAM, though it was still was pretty common on entry-level and still have enough cash left for a DOS- Back in July ’93, a typical selection only possible to buy Works for Windows machines), a 528Mb IDE hard disk and a integrated package like Ability Plus at money? Mum can pack a hamper full of was a Viglen 486SX 25MHz machine and a cheap inkjet printer to complete the multimedia kit consisting of a double- £199. with a 120Mb hard disk and 8Mb package. speed CD-ROM drive and a 16-bit 1992 A Viglen Genie 386SX cost £847 buns and pop and extra wads of fivers for memory. The software was Works for Our ’94 round-up concluded with the Soundblaster sound card. Software was with 1Mb RAM. An HP Deskjet 500 was a Windows supplemented by Quicken for words: “We will repeat the exercise next supplied by Lotus Smartsuite, then snip at £499, rounded off with Microsoft’s Windows and the printer was a year, by which time Pentiums will be old available for just £50. Works 2.0 at £145. you all!” So off they set… monochrome H-P Deskjet 500. But some hat and Cyrix will have shipped the M1, So what does 1996 bring? Pentiums

118 119 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 BUYING COMPUTER EQUIPMENT

are now the standard chip to go for, CD- employed plumber or carpenter for Morgan prices: the fact is, you are buying ROM drives are at least quad-speed, accounts, estimates and designs. My last year’s model, albeit a good one. EIDE has displaced IDE on hard disks choice this year still provides the basics I did not envisage my small business and the PCI bus is standard on all for a small business but I have been doing a lot of printing, so a low-cost inkjet motherboards. Windows 95 has driven frankly self-indulgent on the extras. with a colour option would suffice. There up demands for memory to the point The system is built around an AST are several suitable models but I chose where 16Mb is what you need. Fifteen- Advantage PC from Morgan’s in central the Canon BJ-210C from among the inch monitors are also now the entry- London, which specialises in end-of-line cheapest. It has a street price of around level standard, and many people are or dated machines. The Advantage’s £157 (plus VAT). going one better by opting for the 17in 90MHz Pentium processor and PCI bus For those not interested in fripperies, variety. Finally, the Internet phenomenon are hardly behind the times but it is note that we have here a fairly future- has occurred, making a modem a preloaded with Windows 3.1 rather than proofed system with all you need for a tempting add-on for anyone thinking of Win95, and I suspect AST sold it to small business for £1,359 (incl. VAT). buying a new system. Morgan’s as an easier option than Now for the indulgence. I toyed with All these factors mean it’s still just as upgrading. the idea of getting the latest Fast AV tough to spend £2,000 wisely and end up For £1,000 (well, £999.99) you also Master audio-video system which I with a complete and usable business get a 540Mb hard disk, 8Mb of RAM, a drooled over at Comdex UK, but at system. Read on to find out how our five 14in SVGA colour monitor, 256Kb cache, around £1,000 (plus VAT) it would have hopefuls fared. a graphics card with 1Mb of video RAM, a pushed me way off budget — especially quad-speed CD drive, a 16-bit Creative as it likes all the RAM it can get. Labs sound card with speakers and a So I went for musical toys instead. A 14.4Kb/sec fax-modem. There are two good MIDI keyboard was tempting but as PCI and five ISA slots for expansion. a long-time fretboard player I’ve been In addition, you get Microsoft Works intrigued by reports that Roland had which gives you all the basic business produced an acceptable MIDI guitar applications you’ll need, plus Intuit’s best- module, the GI-10P. selling Quicken accounts package, Keyboards are natural input devices Winfax, a CompuServe trial account, and for MIDI but a guitar is a trickier Encarta, Golf and Cinemania CD-ROMs. proposition, offering nothing so definite I decided not to upgrade to Win95 as as a keypress to send information. The part of my £2,000 budget because this GI-10P bundles a pick-up and a would have involved adding 8Mb of costly sophisticated analogue-to-MIDI Clive Akass RAM and a larger hard disk — but the converter, which in effect translates a option is open for the future. The modem sound into the instructions for playing that ensible” was my watchword for this is a little below par for graphical Internet sound. MIDI allows you to change those “Sfeature last year, when I picked a use but is fine for email and faxes. These instructions so that you can transform the system that might be used by a self- are the compromises you make paying guitar into an entire orchestra. The Roland pick-up provides a separate PCW Shopping List output for each string, allowing you to attach a different instrument to each. The GI-10P, by repute, faithfully tracks Product Price the hammering, slurring and bending of strings that gives the guitar its distinctive Roland GI-10P £491.06 sound. But at £535, it is a luxury unless Yamaha DB50-XG £129.36 you are a professional musician. Cubasis Audio £212.77 Luckily, the ADT SoundBlaster card AST Advantage £1,000.00 has an expansion socket for a MIDI Canon BJC-210 £157.00 synthesiser. Roland provides a suitable TOTAL £1,990.19 daughter board but I took my colleague (plus VAT) Gordon Laing’s advice and went for Yamaha’s cheaper DB50-XG (we have both in the office, so I’ll give you my verdict on these, and the GI-10P, in a later issue). Finally, I picked CuBasis Audio as my sequencer software. This allows you to PCW Contacts mix and match MIDI and audio tracks, so that if the GI-10P does not reproduce a Canon 0121 680 8062 pure guitar sound as you would like, you Harmon 0181 207 5050 can always record it in the traditional way. Morgan 0171 255 2115 Sound clips can be edited in and out just Roland 01792 702701 like MIDI clips. That leaves about a Yamaha Kemble 01908 366700 tenner to spend on any odd cables you later find you need.

121 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 BUYING COMPUTER EQUIPMENT

the 5300. The overall look is tidy and the hardware, along with System 7.5, allows the Mac to be just as at home in and around 20 software titles are either the living room as in the bedroom or pre-loaded or on CD-ROM. Among the study. There are no messy cables best are Dorling Kindersley’s educational sticking out the back and one plug The Way Things Work, a game called powers both computer and integrated The Daedelus Encounter and Apple’s 15in monitor. Smart. Internet Connection Kit, which provides All of this is run by a meaty 120MHz everything you need to go off and explore PowerPC 603e, a low-voltage version of the World Wide Web. the original 601 used in desktop models. For my printer, I chose to stick with As standard you also get a 256K level-2 Apple and get a matching StyleWriter cache, 1.2Gb hard disk, quad-speed CD- 2500 colour inkjet. With a resolution of ROM drive and 8Mb of RAM. I opted to 760dpi x 360dpi in “best mode”, CMY and Chris Cain spend another £99 on a 72-pin SIMM for black ink cartridges, 64 TrueType fonts a more sensible 16Mb system. and a 100-page sheet feeder, this nice s the other four were either buying or The 5320 comes with 16-bit stereo little number comes in at just £319. It can Abuilding PCs, I decided to spend my sound, a 14.4 modem and slots for an also take advantage of Apple’s £2,000 on a Mac. Contrary to popular optional Apple MPEG card and TV ColourSync technology to give the best belief, Macs aren’t limited to DTP. You Tuner. It doesn’t offer a PCI expansion colour matching possible. can just as easily use one for general bus, but then nearly everything you could With a complete system now under business purposes. The only immediate ever want is either already built-in, or can my belt, I could spend the rest on problem I could see was getting a decent be added. improvements. Speed Doubler and RAM system for the money — Apple isn’t The only compromise the 5320 makes Doubler from Connectix are two excellent exactly known for its affordable hardware is on video. The machine has 1Mb of utilities that enhance the performance of — but then, as if by magic, Apple non-expandable display memory and the any PowerMac and you can buy both dropped its prices. built-in monitor offers a maximum of 832 together for £50 from Dabs Direct. And Today’s Mac line-up is split into x 624 pixels in 256 colours, or 640 x 480 it’s absolutely essential that every Mac modular desktops and towers, known as in thousands. The resolution isn’t really a owner should own a copy of Doom II, the PowerMacs, and complete ready-to-roll problem because the Mac OS has been best Mac game yet, costing £39. systems called Performas. These are carefully designed to look good at most That still left me £24 to play with so, exactly the sort of thing I was looking for, resolutions (unlike Windows, which really taking advantage of the generous ten so after having weighed my options I needs 800 x 600 minimum) but percent discount, I renewed my went for a top-of-the-line Performa 5320 mathematically the lack of colours at the subscription to Britain’s best selling at £1,469 from Computer Warehouse. high resolution is puzzling. computer magazine (yes, PCW!) for only The Performa 5320 has a compact all- ClarisWorks, the best selling £22.45. The rest went on a well-earned in-one design introduced last year with integrated business suite, is bundled with half pint of Fosters and some munchies at the Star & Garter.

PCW Shopping List

Product Price

Macintosh Performa 5320 8/1.2Gb/CD/14.4 £1,469 8Mb RAM SIMM £99 StyleWriter 2500 colour inkjet £319 Doom II £39 Ram Doubler and Speed Doubler £50 Subscription to PCW £22.45 Refreshments £1.55 Adele Dyer TOTAL £2,000 (plus VAT) ou should have heard the whingeing Yin the office about trying to get a system for £1,500. In the end, the editor had to give in and let us have an extra £500. The problem was not that we PCW Contacts couldn’t get a system for £1,500 but that we couldn’t get the one we wanted. Computer Warehouse 0171 724 4104 Not all of this can be ascribed to greed Dabs Direct 0800 680000 or being power mad. Since last year, specs have shot up. Pentium 100s are now the entry-level standard and with the

123 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 BUYING COMPUTER EQUIPMENT

advent of Windows 95, RAM Vibra 16 chip on the Dell will do fine. The Man, was I impressed with this requirements have risen drastically; CD-ROM drive is a six-speed one — dynamic way of selling. So it was on to although you can run it on 8Mb, 16Mb is always useful, even if you only want to Dixons in Oxford Street. The atmosphere a sensible minimum. load applications from it. couldn’t have been more different. A Additionally, I was not willing to settle But I did want a decent pair of Saturday afternoon and the first sunny for anything less than a 1Gb hard disk speakers. After a hunt through the pages day for weeks and Oxford Street is and was really looking for 1.6Gb, or at the back of the magazine, I found the heaving. Inside Dixons is like it always is; above. 256Kb of secondary level cache same speakers as Dell was offering, bewildering. Packard Bell, Compaq and was quite important, too, as it makes a rebadged, but at nearly half the price: £45 Apricot machines were stacked high on difference of about 20 percent when from Watford Electronics, as opposed to the shelves. running office applications. I had opted to £80 from Dell. My intention of getting a 16Mb buy direct, so I had to choose from the When it came to deciding on a printer, machine evaporated quickly. Every adverts in the magazine. I wanted to go I opted for a laser rather than a colour machine at my price point came with 8Mb to one of the larger direct sellers, with a inkjet. Since I have only included Office only. An extra 8Mb fitted by Dixons would good reputation for technical support. Pro in the bundle, there is not a great deal cost nearly £4,001, so I decided to try to In the end I fulfilled all these criteria of scope for colour printing. I’m probably make do. After all, they say you can run and got a Pentium 166 by settling for going to get shot down in flames for Windows 95 with 8Mb. Dell. This really surprised me because saying this but there is something I decided to approach a salesperson: this particular Dell has brand new inherently naff about spot colour on a “I want to buy a PC. What are these technologies, including a new RAM type letter. So instead I opted for a cheap, Packard Bell’s like?” (SDRAM) and the new Triton 430VX small laser, which will give me much “Er, they’re really good,” came the chipset. In fact, it is similar to the one we better quality monochrome printing than authoritative reply. reviewed in last month’s Pentium 166s an inkjet, for around the same price. Armed with this knowledge, I looked at roundup, but it’s the scaled-down version The final choice was the Canon LBP a Packard Bell P75 system that with £100 with only a 1.6Gb hard disk and a less 460, a GDI with a print quality of 300dpi, off was priced at £1,499. But it really impressive graphics card and multimedia which will produce four pages per minute. wasn’t that well specified: only a 75MHz kit. However, it does have 512Kb of L2 I picked this up for a snip, at £265, from Pentium, 850Mb hard disk and 1Mb cache and as a basic machine it Dabs Direct. VRAM. There was no modem and I promised to do everything I want. MS After all that, I was left with £42 wanted to connect to the Internet. Like all Office Pro is included in the bundle, so it burning a hole in my pocket. That was not Packard Bells, it was pre-installed with really shaped up very well as an office nearly enough for half the fancy Windows 95 and had a good range of workhorse. applications I could have chosen, so I software including Works, Money and The rest of the spec was less finally opted for some anti-virus software Lotus Organizer. But it was ugly. important. Ideally, I was looking for a — better to be safe than sorry — and While I was browsing, I did notice a video card with at least 2Mb of VRAM bought a copy of Norton Antivirus from good deal on a Lexmark ColourJet 1020 and really wanted a Matrox Millennium, Watford Electronics. at £199.99, including a free copy of Corel or a GraphixStar 700. Nevertheless, the Draw 3. Even better was the STB card that I got will do me for the Canon LBP460CA for moment. Similarly, the multimedia is not £349.99 which was what I as high-level as it could be. If you really had set my heart on. want top quality audio, then a decent The PB P100 would give soundcard is a must but if all you want is me 100MHz speed for to listen to the odd CD, then the on-board £1,699, but I still wasn’t convinced. I had no modem PCW Shopping List and I really couldn’t live with that weird combined monitor and speaker system. Looking over to the neighbouring racks, the Product Price Apricot P120 caught my Dell Dimension XPS P166s £1,649 eye. A 120MHz system, Canon LBP 460w £265 1.2Gb HD, fax modem and AT75 80W Ultra four-speed CD, all for £1,799 — that was Power speakers £45 PJ Fisher more like it. What’s more, it looked good Norton Antivirus £42 and seemed well built, too. A definite possibility. But I wasn’t yet convinced to TOTAL £2,001 y first stop was the plush new part with all my cash, so in the end all I (plus VAT) MGateway 2000 showroom in Covent Garden. Around 15 people were browsing bought at Dixons was the Microsoft PCW Contacts the Gateway range with two members of Easyball for my nephew when he comes staff ready to welcome them into the around. Dell 01344 720000 Gateway family. You can’t take anything Next stop was John Lewis, the finest Dabs Direct 0800 558866 home, so if you do want to buy a Gateway department store on Oxford Street. The Watford Electronics 01582 487777 there’s a freephone number for you to computer department is up on the fifth ring in your order and it will take ten days. floor where the IBM, Compaq, Packard

124 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 BUYING COMPUTER EQUIPMENT

considerably more than popping down to the shops, or picking up the phone. The big box shifters have such good deals, especially with software vendors, that Bell and AST ranges are all neatly they can throw in copies of Windows 95 displayed. It also has a good range of and Office Pro 95 for next to nothing, accessories. whereas buying these separately would Ignoring the Packard Bells and set you back hundreds of pounds. Compaqs, I was tempted by the IBM Perhaps you have a few parts lying Aptiva 2144-141. A 100MHz, 8Mb around that could be recycled? A case, machine with a 1.2Gb hard disk: at power supply, mouse, keyboard and £1,799 it seemed OK but the salesman floppy drive, along with the all-important began steering me towards the AST software could begin to make the range. Initially, I was sceptical, but then it Gordon Laing homebrew PC a financially attractive began to make sense. AST is a good option. However, it’s still not going to brand. The machines look smart and or the past couple of years I’ve used save you a fortune so the following is seem solidly built. And the price was Fthis feature to sing the praises of the aimed squarely at those for whom outstanding. Apple Mac and fight for its cause… you reasons number one and three fill their I could have an AST Advantage 623, know the sort of thing. I remain a huge hearts with inspiration. with six-speed CD-ROM drive, 100MHz, fan of the platform, but I’m abandoning it I could build a PC with E-IDE and all 28.8 fax/data modem built-in and a good this year in favour of my screwdriver, the same components as the one found looking pair of Labtec speakers, as well soldering iron and nylon shirt. That’s right, in virtually every box out there — a clone as Encarta 96, Cinemania 96, AST I’m building my own PC. of a clone, so to speak. But since we’ve Works and a free CompuServe trial — all There are only three reasons why you already given up on the idea of saving for £1,599. It wasn’t as fast as that make your own anything, be it a bathroom money, I’ll suggest something just a bit Apricot, back at Dixons, but what really suite, kit car, or Victoria sandwich cake. different — after all, that’s the fourth and swung it was the John Lewis free two- Number one: you can completely lesser-known reason for building it year on-site warranty. customise, and only go for precisely what yourself: originality. I still had plenty of money left over so I you want. Number two: it’s often cheaper The best place for great prices is the decided to splash out on a Psion 3a, than going for the ready-made solution. Direct Buyers World section at the back PSIWin, a copy of MS Works 95 and Number three: you get the joy and of PCW: just browse and note down the finally, my Canon printer which was £20 satisfaction of having done it yourself. cheapest deals. I’ve quoted the best cheaper than at Dixons. Well, John Lewis Sadly, in these competitive days, prices found in last month’s issue. is never knowingly undersold. examples of reason number two are Years ago, I discovered that I/O So my PC system was complete and becoming rarer than a lone twitcher. makes or breaks a system. ready to take home and work out my VAT Particularly so in the case of PCs: Consequently, mine is based around a returns. Taxi! building your own may well cost fast and expandable SCSI (pronounced scuzzy) bus. I’ve chosen Adaptec’s 2940UW PCI Ultra Wide adaptor with a PCW Shopping List bandwidth of 40Mb/sec, costing £194. It can support up to 15 internal or external Product Price devices, so even though I’m only fitting a hard disk and CD-ROM for now, I’ve got AST Advantage 623 £1,361 the future covered. Canon LBP 460 £280 SCSI peripherals include CD Writers, Psion 3a (512k) £212 scanners, tape drives, and removables. Microsoft Easyball £21 Into this, I’ll connect a 1Gb Conner PSIWin £67 CFP1080S hard disk (£167), and a Microsoft Works for 95 £59 Toshiba 3701 6.7-speed CD-ROM drive (£169) delivering 1Mb/sec. TOTAL £2,000 Decent graphics performance is (plus VAT) essential too. I’ve opted for the quick VideoLogic GrafixStar 700 with 2Mb, costing £179. This will drive a superb NEC XV15+ monitor, that you can buy for a mere £270. PCW Contacts My motherboard is an Asus P/I- P55T2P4 with 256Kb of burst pipeline AST 0181 587 3000 cache, together costing £156. Onto this Canon 0121 680 8062 I’ve fitted 16Mb of 60ns EDO RAM in two Psion 0171 262 5580 8Mb 72-pin SIMMs, leaving two slots Microsoft 0345 002000 free. I could only afford an Intel Pentium 133MHz (£209), but like the 100MHz and 166MHz chips, it has the advantage of

126 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 BUYING COMPUTER EQUIPMENT

PCW Shopping List

Product Price

Adaptec PCI 2940UW £194 VideoLogic GrafixStar 700 £179 16Mb EDO RAM £180 Conner 1Gb SCSI hard disk £167 Toshiba XM3701B 6.7-speed CD-ROM drive £169 driving the board at a fast 66MHz. Intel Pentium 133MHz £209 Case, power supply and floppy drive Asus P/I-P55T2P4 came to £86. There was not enough cash motherboard £156 for a laser, so I plumped for the excellent NEC XV15+ monitor £270 Canon BJC-210 colour bubblejet (£169). Canon BJC-210 £157 Now for the Microsoft portion: Microsoft Windows 95 £111 Windows 95 (£111) and Works 95 (£52). Microsoft Works 95 £52 My choice of rodent is a Logitech Pilot Microspeed keyboard £44 mouse at £16, while the keyboard is Logitech pilot mouse £16 courtesy of MicroSpeed at £44. Case and PSU £86 Building your own PC is as easy as Screwdriver £3.50 Lego, with the added excitement of static Cono Sur Reserve Comparative and incorrect motherboard jumper Pinot Noir 1995 £6.50 Performance Graph settings. Mine took an hour and a half to TOTAL £2,000 build, split roughly down the middle Labs Test 2.22 (plus VAT) between construction and software 2.52 installation. The only tools you’ll need are 12345 PCW Contacts a Philips screwdriver and a bottle of wine: Doom Test fps I recommend a Chilean Pinot Noir and 55.2 All (except wine and screwdriver!) from our Cono Sur does a reserve bottle for £6.50 Direct Buyers World section at the back of the 20 40 60 80 100 magazine. that really does the trick. Gingermicros home brew Gateway P166

At the end of the day...

There are no winners in Five go mad, only problems, with half a dozen companies to chase opinions, but here is a completely partisan up instead of just one. For the enthusiast, though, view of The Five. it’s great to have that much control over the final Clive Akass went the Morgan’s spec. And if you already have usable components discontinued stock route. With just £1,500 from an old PC hanging around, it can make for a complete business system this made financial sense too. sense but with the budget increased to Paul Fisher went to a retail outlet. Research £2,000 it seems a lot of money to spend on shows that very few PCW readers choose to do yesterday’s technology. Particularly at the so and looking at Paul’s selection it’s not hard to small office home office (SOHO) end of see why. But for some, the pros of a rock-solid things Windows 3.1 is on the way out. two-year John Lewis guarantee will outweigh the Frankly, Clive’s effort doesn’t really fulfil the brief as roughly half cons of an indifferent spec. his notional budget was spent on musical extras. Paul’s spec is not all bad news, either. Although his final choice Adele Dyer had a better stab at the target. She at least only has 8Mb of memory that doesn’t matter if he only plans to use managed to buy a state-of-the-art machine with plenty of memory Microsoft Works and is prepared to eschew the many extra, but often and hard disk space. Although Dell isn’t one of the cheapest direct unused, features of Office. Paul also found enough spare cash to add suppliers it does offer some very attractive bundles. It’s able to a Psion Organiser to his list. buy Microsoft Office, for instance, very cheaply and can pass the Followers of Chris Cain’s articles in PCW will know that his saving onto its customers. Dell also has a decent reputation for enthusiasm for all things Macintosh borders on the obsessive. service and support which makes it a safe choice. As they used to However, his selection demonstrates that it’s possible to buy a highly say of IBM, probably no-one has ever been sacked for buying capable Macintosh system for a price comparable to a PC. There are Dells. For business use, Adele’s choice of a laser printer also few compromises in Chris’s selection and 16Mb of memory with the makes a lot of sense: the higher printing speed and lower running combination of Speed Doubler and RAM Doubler utilities makes for costs will, for most people, outweigh the advantage of colour. extremely snappy performance. Gordon Laing chose self-build. For most business users, Any better ideas? If you have other views about how to go mad with homebrew is an indulgence. You generally end up paying more in £2,000 or violently disagree with any of our selections, please email us the end and for a decent price you have to shop around like crazy. at [email protected] or write to us at the address on page 49. Sourcing components from multiple sources has its own Ben Tisdall

129 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 FLATBED SCANNERS FLATBED SCANNERS

sheet paper should look no further. such as hard disks. However, a flatbed is essential if you If you want to scan film properly, you’ll want to scan anything thicker than sheet need a transparency adaptor. These are paper, such as an open book, a usually replacement lids with their own magazine page, the side of a box or even light source. Out of our three contenders, an object like a set of keys.There are one only Umax offers a transparency adaptor or two colour-capable document option, at an RRP of £495, or between scanners on the market, but a flatbed is £300 and £400 on the street. Umax also The still the only serious colour solution. offers a Pro version of the S6E, which Epson GT-5000 Prices have dropped at the entry level, comes with the transparency adaptor and our three contenders for the thrifty and a full copy of Photoshop, for £1,145 throne are not unknowns. They are RRP or around £699 on the street. best-laid products from the three largest sellers of If you’re into OCR and fancy leaving colour flatbeds in the UK. the scanner to feed through a wad of Hewlett-Packard’s ScanJet 4P, loose pages, you’ll need an Automatic Epson’s GT-5000 and Umax’s Vista S6E Document Feeder, or ADF. HP offers are brand new models. All three have an one for its ScanJet 4P for £415 RRP, optical resolution of 300dpi and work in while Umax’s costs £495 RRP. Epson 24-bit colour. All offer interpolation, the does not offer a transparency adaptor or process of guessing non-existent ADF for its GT-5000. HP ScanJet 4P inbetween values to bump up the As regards software, Umax bundles apparent resolution. The HP interpolates Adobe Photoshop 3.0.4 LE and Presto, up to 1200dpi, the Epson to 2400dpi, and an OCR and document management scansThree flatbed devices show the Umax to 4,800dpi. Check out the package. Umax supplies the same scans of the same six-point letter “g” at TWAIN driver with all its scanners, and Gordon Laing what they can do. each of the unit’s highest interpolated it’s superb. Expert users can select resolution to see how they compare highlight and shadow points, or adjust [page 136]. tone curves and histograms, while The HP 4P boasts a maximum beginners or lazy users can tick auto- scanning area of 216 x 356mm, adjust for an instant, high-quality Umax Vista S6E compared to the 216 x 297mm of both exposure and colour correction. the Umax and the Epson: that’s a 59mm Hewlett-Packard supplies Corel (around 3in) difference in the HP’s favour, PhotoPaint 5 Select and management Epson bundles full Corel PhotoPaint 5 and essential for long documents. software designed originally for the for image editing and retouching, and The HP, however, is the largest box Visioneer Paperport document scanner. TextBridge OCR and Xerox Colour overall, measuring 580 x 365 x 110mm Launching it, or selecting Acquire from Document Management Suite, which as opposed to the Umax’s 526 x 336 x the File menu, gives you the HP includes Visual Recall Personal Edition to 131mm or the even smaller Epson at 443 PictureScan Task manager. Four buttons look after your document needs. x 297 x 87mm. It doesn’t sound like a big optimise the scan for pictures, OCR, Fax Curiously, CorelDraw 4 is also included. difference but the HP occupies or other pages. Clicking any of these (Both CorelDraw and PhotoPaint are significantly more desk space, making straight away makes a preview scan and currently on version 6.) Epson’s TWAIN the Epson look tiny in comparison. This is automatically selects any objects in the driver is good, but does not match the an important consideration with all flatbed window. sophistication of Umax’s. canners are beginning to sell scanners, since the area they occupy on The software is extremely easy to When it comes to performance all in big numbers and their your desk is effectively dead; nothing can use. During installation you are asked three scanners were extremely quick, but popularity is largely due to conveniently or safely be placed on top of what kind of printer you plan to output on the Umax had a slight edge overall. Ten the improving OCR (optical the lid for long. (this can be changed later). With printer seconds for a colour preview on the character recognition) All three scanners are SCSI devices type and user optimisation information, Umax and the Epson compared to HP’s process.S Most manufacturers have requiring a SCSI interface on your PC. If the package is capable of working 15 seconds. The Umax took 17 seconds realised that many users don’t need you don’t already have one fitted, you everything else out. In fact, in many to scan an A5 photo in 24-bit 100dpi, colour and don’t want a large flatbed could use the ISA SCSI interface cards cases it doesn’t even bother waiting for compared to HP’s 22 seconds and device on their desk. They have supplied with each model. Umax bundles confirmation, instead shooting off for the Epson’s 25. A4 mono speeds using developed tiny document scanners a rebadged Adaptec 1502T, Epson final scan by itself. This is great if you settings suitable for OCR were even dedicated to dragging a page of A4 supplies an Adaptec 1510, while HP has want foolproof, quick scanning, and it is closer. through itself, somewhat like a fax, then gone for an 8-bit NCR model. If you’re ideal for beginners, but I found it a little We ran the same quality tests as in OCRing it. buying a SCSI card independently we patronising, preferring instead to select the last PCW scanner group test. These We rounded up eight such document recommend an Adaptec model, my own options. But this can be tricky are based on the Agfa IT-8 target, scanners in PCW March 1996, and those particularly a PCI version if you want high with HP’s software, which successfully boasting a tricky range of colours and who definitely only want to OCR or fax performance from other SCSI devices hides the ugly technicalities. grey levels. All three scanners resolved

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the same number of grey levels as easily As to which is best overall, it’s a very than the HP which, once installed, will as units costing over £1,000 last year. close thing. Those intimidated by the hold your hand at every step. Epson’s The Umax won here, resolving the most scanning process should look no further scanner offers great quality and is ideal greys very distinctly. It was closely for situations where space is at a followed by the Epson, then the HP premium. Ultimately the Umax Vista S6E which, while good, wasn’t quite so clearly gets our top vote, being a slightly better resolved as the other two. The original overall performer with preferable As far as colour was concerned, the 5” x 7” colour software, more flexible hardware options HP had many gaps in its range. The print, and costing a little less, to boot. Umax and Epson ranges were smooth, scanned But all three scanners are absolutely without gaps, and only fell off at the using a fabulous, and would have been highly extreme ends of the spectrum. reference recommended in the £700-£1,000 professional Consequently these would fare better bracket of last year’s test. That they can drum scanner than the HP after further optimisation; be picked up on the street for between Epson had the slightest edge over Umax. £300 and £400 is truly remarkable.

A six-point letter g scanned at the highest interpolated resolution of each scanner. Each colour photo was scanned using the scanner’s automatic settings. Epson GT-5000 HP ScanJet 4P Umax Vista S6E

PCW Contacts PCW Contacts PCW Contacts Epson GT-5000 Hewlett-Packard ScanJet 4P Umax Vista S6E Price £350 (street) Price £369 (street) Price £299 (street) Contact Epson 0800 220546 Contact Hewlett-Packard 0990 474747 Contact IMC 01344 872800 Good Points Compact size and quality. Good Points Extremely easy to use. Good Points Great software and quality. Bad Points No ADF or transparency options. Bad Points Could infuriate experts. Bad Points Not as easy to use as HP’s. Conclusion Superb unit, bettered only by the Conclusion Excellent entry-level flatbed, Conclusion Has the overall edge, unless Umax. particularly for novice users. you’re a complete novice.

136 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 LANGUAGE TRANSLATION SOFTWARE LANGUAGE TRANSLATION SOFTWARE

approximation, or to translate from their translate a large number of documents. own into a language they do not fully The dictionary contains more than understand and risk getting it badly 250,000 words and you can add wrong. Now another approach is specialist dictionaries, of legal, banking, available. Several systems, mostly under chemical or military terms, for example. development, offer simple sample Each of the three languages (French, sentences that can be assembled and German and Spanish) has different then translated, doing away with the specialist dictionaries. Dictionaries can problem of mistranslations. be tailored, either by one user or by Mind your We have looked at a variety of several users accessing them translation packages, each tackling the over a network. subject in a different way. Which one is We tested the right for you depends on your language software with three skills and how you intend to use them. pieces, selected for their different Globalink series styles. None were Globalink produces a range of translation pre-edited. The packages, all based loosely on the same first, from engine but with individual dictionaries. L’Etranger by Albert language The three we looked at were the high-end Camus, was chosen Power Translator Professional, the for its simplicity of Deluxe version and the bottom-of-the range Language Assistant. Power Translator How do you get from français to italiano? Teaching Professional is a commercial computers to digest text and spit it out into something package aimed at those who palatable in another language has proved to be a tough simple task, and the end regularly results are much more likely to be consistent proposition. Adele Dyer samples some of the leading when translated into a number of languages. translation packages. The simplest implementations of MT are the most successful. The Canadian weather forecast authority has a system known as METEO that translates weather reports, sent from French-speaking Canada, into OFTWARE THAT At the moment, MT falls into two English and vice versa. It has a dictionary SAUTOMATICALLY translates categories: the real world applications of only 2,000 words, of which 700 are languages is considered by some to be that commercial enterprises use to place names. The translation produced is the best idea since the wheel. It has translate large portions of their near perfect because the input is style. Giving literary revolutionised the translation of many documents; and the world of academic expected, if not predicted. A shipping passages to an MT documents and has been especially research. One is geared towards forecast follows set patterns and these system is usually useful with tedious technical manuals. providing solutions that can be tailored to are easy to program into the system. disastrous, but this one With machine translation (MT), translators specific circumstances and give workable Ideally, everyone would like to see a coped well. The have been able to sidestep the long hard results, while the other is more interested system that could translate one text into translation was not slog of routine translations and use their in posing tricky problems and stretching numerous other languages all in one go. perfect, the French narrative skills instead to post-edit the output. the limits of the science. At the moment, however, it is only past tense was mistranslated, Yet for the average user, MT is still a In the real world, the uses of MT are possible to translate language pairs, for but it was a good attempt and easy deeply unsatisfying process. You cannot limited and so is the scope of the example from Spanish to French and vice to post-edit. give a passage of text to a piece of language that can be successfully versa. However, work is underway to The second extract was a piece of software and expect it to come up with a translated. It is best suited to dealing with create a universal grammar that would literary criticism by Émile Zola. Again the perfect translation. Instead you get just mundane translation needs — legal allow any language to be translated into output was good, but not perfect, and the the gist of the text, which you might want documents, engineering manuals, any other. One system could, for translation fell down on idiomatic to see yourself but could not send out to weather reports and the like. example, take an Italian text and translate phrases. Lastly, we tried a piece from Le clients. But things are slowly improving, All text to be translated by machine it into all the other languages spoken in Monde, famed for its precious prose with many products on the market has to be pre-edited to avoid syntactical the European Union. style. This was the least successful of the aiming to make translation easier and difficulties, to check all the words are in Until now, home users have had only three samples but the program still coming up with new strategies for the dictionary and to strip out any two options: to translate from a foreign conveyed the gist of the passage.

increasing its accuracy. ambiguity. Editing formulaic text is a language into their own and get a rough PCW Illustration by Nick Grant In the reverse direction the output was

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Power Translator Professional

An extract from Albert Camus translates reasonably A story from the prestigious French newspaper Le Monde accurately, although the result needs some post-editing gives Power Translator a little more trouble

equally patchy. The package did well on has the same translation engine but a construction of German sentences. It has a piece from The Guardian but was smaller dictionary and no specialist a tendency to put the verbs in the wrong unable to cope with the conversational dictionaries or networking facilities. place and mixes up some constructions, tone of a book on speech recognition. Tested with the same pieces, it produced such as time, manner and place. You can There were one or two glaring exactly the same output. use it to translate directly but you will get problems. The system was incapable of Globalink’s Language Assistant more out of the system if you choose the correctly translating the English simple series is aimed at home users wanting to interactive mode. This also makes it a past, giving a past participle only in the translate simple prose. It covers French, broader tool, good for some aspects of French. And if the verb was with a German, Spanish and Italian and will language learning. pronoun, for example “he said”, rather translate both to and from the chosen than with a noun (“the man said”), the language. It is intended only to give a PCW Contacts program could not translate correctly. rough draft of the passage. Instead of The program can also become confused huge specialist dictionaries, the Globalink series between adverbs and direct and indirect emphasis is on interactive translation, Price Power Translator Professional (French) objects. Such basic faults are helping the user to find the right context £399 (plus VAT); Power Translator Deluxe disappointing. and to conjugate verbs. (French) £129 (plus VAT); German Assistant £49 (plus VAT). Power Translator Deluxe is a step The program has limitations, Contact Globalink 0800 752752 down from the Professional version. It especially when it comes to the

German Assistant Deluxe

The screen is divided into two windows: one for source Individual words can be looked up to help the user define language and another for keying-in the translation the context and translate interactively

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Word Translator Word Translator This is a handy utility for translating individual words. The Handy for linguists, Word Translator main part of the package consists will give equivalents for individual of dictionaries of more than words and can be integrated into your 22,000 words in each language. normal word processor. This is the They can be used to translate opening screen individual words in a document and there are utilities for translating either interactively (you prompt the system to make the right choices) or directly (it does it all itself). The system appears not to have any rule base — a coherent way of recognising what parts of speech it is looking at and translating You can look up a word and them accordingly. The dictionary gives paste it in without having to more than one translation for many launch or swap in and out of words. For example, “the” in English is other applications listed with all three French equivalents and the quick translate facility chooses the first one as the default. The resulting translation is rougher than sandpaper. Translation services on the Internet In other ways the package has great strengths. It can be integrated into your The Internet is likely to explode the use of post-edited by native speakers, hence the normal word processor, so you can type MT. It is all very well to talk about a global charge. as normal and then just look up and community, but if you visit only English CompuServe also has its own paste in a word without having to either language sites you could be missing out. A translation service, offering both machine launch another memory-hungry number of companies are now producing and human translation. There is a charge application or cut and paste between packages to maximise access to the Web. on top of the usual CompuServe applications. Word Translator takes up a Globalink has been pressing especially hard subscription but the company says it has a mere 2Mb of disk space, integrates to get translation software running in tandem global membership needing to exchange seamlessly with Word and supports with the Net and has started various mail and documents, so it is an extremely WordPerfect, AmiPro, Write and Works. projects, including one linking schools valuable service. It covers English, French, As a translation system it is patchy, across the globe which communicate with German and Spanish, any one of which can but as a utility it is extremely good value. the aid of Globalink translation packages. be translated into any other. You can either You might not be able to use it in the The Globalink Web page choose machine translation at four cents a same way as the Language Assistant (www.globalink.com) features a new button word, or translation post-edited by native series, but at a fraction of the price it is that will take you directly to a translation speakers at ten cents a word. The output perfect for those with a working service. Using Globalink’s Barcelona should come back to you within 24 hours; it knowledge of a language. technology you can enter up to 1,000 words is often much faster. directly onto its Web PCW Contacts page. These are Word Translator translated by machine, Price £39 (plus VAT) to give a general gist of Contact Creative Technology 01889 567160 the passage. The service is free at the TransWrite moment and should Here is one of the new breed of limited take less than 24 hours. translators that can offer perfect output. Alternatively, you The idea is simple: the application can download the contains a database of sentences and company’s Translation phrases and their correct translation. By Direct software. You clicking on the sample sentences you enter the number of can create a number of business letters words you want that are guaranteed to be correct. translated, the language The application is very limited. You and the level of service will not be able to translate a piece of you require: the free prose but you can at least be sure of software estimates the sending out a correct letter in the first delivery time and cost place. The distributors claim the package so you can decide whether to proceed with The Globalink Web page will take is intended for those who have no the idea. The machine translation output is you to a translation service knowledge of a foreign language but if

150 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 LANGUAGE TRANSLATION SOFTWARE

In the beginning

As infants, we learn to speak by a process of deduction based on the third person plural simple present tense of “to have”’, so you need what we can see and hear compared with the noises that are being to write the code in such a way that it presumes all verbs to be made at us. The main problem for a computer is that it has only the compound, unless it finds a noun phrase following after the apparent information we give it and cannot use the outside world to make auxiliary. So in the English grammar you would have to have leaps of logic. Language therefore has to be broken down into something like this: patterns of speech. The parts of speech become variables, while the verb_phrase IF auxiliary AND participle OR words are parameters of those variables. verb_phrase IF simple_tense If you accept the basic premise that all sentences must have a If you add direct and indirect objects, these refer to the verb and verb, you can start to build up a basic pattern. The order “March!” is so should be included in the verb phrase. Thus you could have a a simple imperative present tense and can stand on its own. The grammar structure such as : subject of the verb is implied, not stated. For machine translation to verb_phrase IF simple_tense AND noun_phrase be successful in this case we would have to include in the code a Time phrases, too, are part of the verb phrase but should not be rule which stated that a single verb followed by an exclamation mark translated either as direct or indirect objects, or as adverbs. For implies the imperative. Any verb and associated information can be instance, you would not want to translate the following two sentences classified as a verb phrase, that is: in the same way: “He arrived late” and “He arrived flustered”. sentence IF verb_phrase Once you have broken down one language into its constituent The next step is to deal with the subject of the verb. Subjects can parts, can you simply build up the new language in the same way? be anything from a simple number or pronoun (“I”, “you”, “he”) to a The answer is no. Every language has its own rules about how a complex structure including an article (“a”, “some” or “the”) and one sentence should be constructed. When you have broken down a or more adjectives. For example: sentence in one language into its syntactical and semantic roots, “Children”; then you have to bodge and manhandle it to make it fit the target “Some children”; language structure. “Dirty children”; To take an example: German splits verbs, putting participles at “The naughty, dirty children”. the end of the sentence while the whole of the verb automatically The easiest way to deal with all these permutations is to call a leaps to the end of the sentence in subordinate clauses. The subject a noun phrase. Combine this with the first rule and you have sentence “He sat on the chair reserved for the chairman” would be two options: constructed as “He sat on the chair, which for the chairman reserved sentence IF verb_phrase OR was” — imagine the bodges in code you need to get that to fit! sentence IF noun_phrase AND verb_phrase Today’s machine translation systems may appear to be When you try to break down verbs, or verb phrases, the first ineffectual, but they are highly complex pieces of software. If problem you encounter is compound verbs. For a verb such as language was rational, machine translation code would be no more “have eaten”, you have to look up both the auxiliary (“have”) and the difficult to write than for a word processor. The progress of such past participle (“eaten”). You do not want the machine to think it has systems is handicapped by the complexity of our thought patterns.

you are to enter into a correspondence it machines that we finally got it to load the application, it crashed repeatedly. might help to have some idea, just to read correctly. The installation program ran There was nothing in the documentation to the letters you receive in reply. without a hitch but when we tried to run explain this. The options contained are many and However, once varied enough to allow you to write a the program is up coherent letter, and you can add your own and working, the sentences if you know them to be correct. interface makes it However, the package as it stands should extremely easy to see you through more occasions than you find what you need would normally need. and to build a Installation was far from easy and it sensible letter. The was only after trying it on three different translation is almost instantaneous and TransWrite you can switch between source and target languages. Within its limitations, this is one of the most useful translation packages on the market. The secret of programs like Transwrite is to give you set PCW Contacts phrases that you can assemble to concoct a perfect letter TransWrite Price £199 (plus VAT) Contact ProLang Interactive 01734 773423

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INTERNET PACKAGES

also tell you if mail is being delivered to your account. You can decode multi-part mail and news articles — a useful feature takes you on but really no more than you would expect. a whole tour The FTP function works equally well of the and automatically sends anonymous Internet. This requests and email addresses as is what you passwords to FTP sites. There are a see when number of FTP sites already listed for you you first to get started in downloading files. launch this However, it doesn’t do anything to relieve multi- the tedium of waiting for FTP files to talented arrive. FTP works best when you know application exactly where files reside and their well directory listing, but that comes with experience. connected The Web Browser bears a remarkable resemblance to Microsoft’s Internet be accessed from a desktop shortcut double-click on an article to read it in a Explorer (both are based on Mosaic), PJ Fisher examines two leading packages that provide confusingly called the GuideBook which separate window and reply if you wish. right down to two identical menu buttons. duplicates the function of the CommBar. The mail application is better. It is However, unlike Explorer, this browser access to all the major services available on the Internet. This is unfortunately hidden by easy to set up and uses Microsoft won’t support the more advanced HTML applications running at full screen and Exchange. It’s a simple matter of extensions of Java and ShockWave. turns out to be a little tetchy about how it configuring the Exchange for your mail Whether you miss these depends on how wishes to perform: sometimes it works server (consult your ISP for the correct much you value such niceties and with all of CommSuite’s parts, other mail server and what kind of protocol it whether you have the bandwidth for them times not. CyberJack (the suite within a uses) after which, sending and receiving anyway. Otherwise, it is a functional suite) often failed the CommBar mail is plain sailing. The CommBar will enough browser with all the basics such entrance exam. as bookmarks and navigation buttons, OMMSUITE AND CyberJack and it will read the CInternetSuite are both This is an Internet suite all on its own majority of Web designed to bring together the and handles the Web browser, FTP sites. major services that the Internet access, email and newsgroup functions. The offers, including the Web, FTP, It’s not a great reader, however. You bookmarking email and newsgroups, into one can only choose one newsgroup at a procedure is seamless bundle. Instead of time so you cannot collect a number of similar to the one collecting and running many items to read off-line and then pick them used by Explorer different applications, both take up at one go. But in use this reminds me 2.0: you save you directly to different parts of of that excellent application Ameol: you favourite Web sites the Internet from a single into a folder held in application. the GuideBook. Below Users of Internet Explorer will Quarterdeck’s offering is There are a feel at home with Delrina’s Web strictly an Internet-only tool. number of pre-set browser — no Java or multimedia Delrina’s CommSuite is more folders (arts or support, though expensive but it does more. Not just an and a Pentium. If you want to use entertainment, for Internet tool, it also has fax, voice data TalkWorks, the voice data package, example) or you and a general comms device. then you will need a voice-capable Above can make up one of your own. I would To use either of these two packages, modem, too. For those who prefer to have instant access to you are going to need a modem and an Following a typical install, you will prefer bookmarks, though, as in Netscape Internet account with one of the many have said goodbye to around 64Mb Netscape Navigator 2.0. service providers ready and eager to of hard disk space but custom Navigator, Altogether, CyberJack is a useful part part you from your cash. installations are available. Although Cyberjack can of CommSuite and its Mail and FTP fully integrated, CommSuite is really be configured functions are extremely well designed. Delrina CommSuite 95 four separate packages: WinComm, modem setup via wizards. CommSuite is to work with It’s a pity that, in contrast to InternetSuite Now part of the Symantec group, WinFax, CyberJack and TalkWorks; plus fond of wizards and they pop up the world’s for instance, all functions don’t happen Delrina has rewritten its CommSuite as a mini application, CommBar. This is a everywhere. They are useful for the best browser, within a single window. a 32-bit program to take advantage of floating palette which sits on the desktop novice but can seem a little over-eager to too Elsewhere, works Windows 95. Make sure you order the both as an access point to CommSuite’s the more experienced user. smoothly as long as you can find CD version, unless you really enjoy functions and as a visual reminder of The CompuServe wizard sets up an someone else with whom to chat. And installing from 21 floppy disks (tough modem or network activity. ISP CompuServe account and is on that Finger works well. QuarterDeck’s product luck if you don’t have a CD drive). You CommSuite can connect via the LAN 21st disk if you want it — I didn’t, thank can match neither of these but they are of can get by on 8Mb of RAM and a 486 and a leased line but many users will you very much. minimal importance to many of today’s but you would be better off with 16Mb have to configure CommSuite for the All CommSuite’s constituent parts can Internet users.

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can send faxes direct from the desktop? WinFax is one of the best known faxing Create the fax from hell utilities and deservedly so. with the comprehensive Faxing from the desktop means you set of design tools found can enrich documents with OLE- in WinFax embedded Word files, Web shortcuts and even .zip files which can all be read on the recipient’s PC desktop. If paper is your bag, WinFax includes Tools numerous options for customising your One outstanding unit among faxes with pictures, stamps and other the plethora of tools in this decoration. Or you can design a fax — box is the Image Manager but you might waste hours trying to that allows you to design a fax when you should, instead, manipulate images sent or, just send it. The OLE shortcuts work, too. more likely, downloaded from the Internet. Quite a Upgrade patches sophisticated tool it is too, A neat feature of CommSuite is the with blur, sharpness, rotation ability to get upgrade patches directly and posterise controls. from a BBS as and when they are Along similar lines is the available, keeping CommSuite Zip Manager, a slick little file constantly up to date. This is a feature de-mangler which other suppliers would do well to emulate. automatically opens when A wizard walks you through the process. downloaded .zip files are double clicked; these were decoded WinFax Quarterdeck InternetSuite without fuss. This, on the other hand, is a widely No faxing or bulletin boards here, just A Ping function in all applications useful tool especially for small essential Internet applications. And no allows you to quickly test Internet businesses and those working from 21 disks either. Much to my relief, connections to see if they work. I wish home. Why buy a fax machine when you Quarterdeck supplied the CD-ROM more applications bothered to include this version which useful device. installed in seconds. It comes WinComm Pro with just two This is the old-fashioned comms part of manuals: an CommSuite. It enables dial-up of bulletin installation and boards and remote email systems such Internet connection as AT&T and MCI. guide, and the main It is all quite simple to set up and how-to manual. configure but in these Web-dominated Both are far less days I wonder how many people bother daunting than the with dial-up services of this type — and library that comes US-based email systems are of very with CommSuite. limited use to UK users. Nevertheless, if Following you need it, WinComm Pro is, like the installation, it’s rest of CommSuite, well laid out and easy immediately to use. obvious that this is a leaner package Above FTP access is — just 10Mb of made easy in hard disk space — but at least 8Mb of InternetSuite and the RAM is still required. interface is consistent Be careful on install if you already among all the have a working Winsock installed: applications InternetSuite offers to overwrite and install its own. I would advise against this Left Quarterdeck’s as nothing gives more trouble to Internet browser is not connections on PCs than ill-configured advanced but the Winsock.dll’s. Leave yours alone and interface and layout Internet Suite should work just fine. The make up for that. The one advantage of using Quarterdeck directory lists on the Winsock is that it provides a network left are an activity window so you know exactly outstanding feature what is happening to your connection. Once you have got over the Winsock

159 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 INTERNET PACKAGES

advanced features such as Interrupt and Abort if running an application on a remote computer is taking too long. In Quarterdeck reality Telnet is a nerd’s tool, not really has provided used by mainstream Internet users, but four helper it’s good to know it’s there. applications Global Chat allows you to talk to for the Web others in real time via the keyboard. I had which you no problem connecting to chat servers can install but no-one wanted to talk to me… the when needed story of my life. InternetSuite can also work with Global Chat from Mosaic. If you find an open chat site on the Web, just select Internet Chat and the Global Chat application fires up. InternetSuite certainly works with Windows 95 but doesn’t look as though it has been redesigned for it. Many of the windows still have that 3.1.1 look to them dilemma it’s over to those clever wizards buttons for sending, composing and and the manual itself doesn’t refer to again to configure your Net connection replying to mail and news. A complete Windows 95 at all. Strange. via the LAN or modem. Six programs will history of mail and newsgroup activity can then install themselves into the be logged in the left-hand window. I like Conclusion InternetSuite program group: a Web this combination which means that you I liked both these packages and cannot browser, message centre (combined mail can work with standard email and fairly judge either as the best, especially and newsreader), FTP, Qterm (a Telnet newsgroups at the same time. Formatting given the price difference. If you want application), Global Chat, and a Location mail messages is standard and should fax, talk and comms capabilities, go for Manager for setting up an Internet present no problems, even to new users. CommSuite. Delrina has left nothing out account. And, of course, you can insert .txt files and created an intelligible package which Like Delrina, Quarterdeck has based into the message and, de rigeur these will get even newbies traversing the Net its browser on Mosaic but it seems days, your own sig file. with ease. It is well integrated and apart archaic. It scores over Delrina’s browser Newsgroup activity is getting out of from one or two glitches with the by placing all its bookmarks (or hotlists) control so it pays to carefully select those CommBar (which is hardly in a window which is shown next to the newsgroups to which you want to indispensable) everything worked fine. It Web page currently being displayed. This subscribe. The first time, there is no way is a well thought out package and is a drag-and-drop list and makes it easy of getting around a full listing (over considering how much you get, a good to organise favourite Web sites. But in 12,000) but InternetSuite allows you to value one. the era of frames, Java and Shockwave, choose whichever take your fancy. If you don’t need all that, or simply this is still basic stuff. Subscribe to them and get new feeds can’t afford CommSuite, Quarterdeck’s The design of the browser is cool, when you next log on. These can be product makes good sense. It is even though. I like the 3D effect which raises ordered into folders that display in the better integrated than CommSuite, well Web pages off the window and the arrow left-hand window. designed and does all it promises. It is let buttons which give the impression of InternetSuite has no zip utility and down by an archaic browser but even “turning” Web pages. You can assign instead relies on the Unix Tar format and that is alleviated by the hotlist directory in new icons to Web sites in the hotlist, uuencoding. It’s okay but a zip utility, far the left-hand window. It will even help you which can make navigating easier. more common in the PC world, would connect to your ISP, a task which many Somewhat duplicating the functionality of have been a worthwhile addition. people find daunting. For a reasonable other areas of InternetSuite, you can QFTP and QTerm look after FTP price it offers more than enough for most access newsgroups and email from the controls and Telnet respectively. You can Internet users. browser. FTP to more than one site at a time and, These are two fine Internet packages But what about doing it properly? The once again, the main window comes into that advance the cause of making the Quarterdeck Message Centre is play with FTP sites listed on the left and Internet available to everyone. Just designed expressly for both email and file directories on the right. Selecting and improve those browsers. newsgroups. This is one of the best parts downloading files is simply a matter of of InternetSuite: it eases mail and news clicking on the relevant file and letting PCW Details access while remaining comprehensive. InternetSuite do the rest by placing files Delrina CommSuite 95 Switch to Message Centre and the same on your hard disks or on any drive on the Price £129 (plus VAT) window that contained Web pages and LAN. These can be accessed by Contact Delrina 01628 592320 ☎ hotlists now comprises mail and news launching the Windows file manager Quarterdeck InternetSuite directories on the left and files to be read, within InternetSuite’s main window — a Price £59.95 (plus VAT), includes 30- opened on the right. This is real cool trick which enables the dragging and day free Internet access with Easynet integration and one of the reasons dropping of files. offer InternetSuite is so easy to use. If you need to access a remote Contact Quarterdeck International ☎ The toolbar at the top now comprises computer, the Telnet tool has some 01245 496699

160 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 WORKING WITH EXCEL: PART 2 WORKING WITH EXCEL: PART 2

X2 Fig 2 2X Automatic summaries Quite similarly to the way a Contents page will encapsulate all the information in a book, Excel will automatically create an outline of a worksheet which can be instantly expanded or collapsed. Fig 2 The report of Sort your data. Then daily sales for each choose Data, Subtotals item for each café, and the used area of imported from a your worksheet is company database automatically selected and a dialogue box Café offered, Fig 2. You can pick from drop- down lists the category to be summarised (here by Café), the function to be used (Sum), and the fields where the subtotals should be added (Sold and societysociety Gross). The resultant display, Fig 3, immediately shows the subtotals for It’s into The Greasy Spoon and on to the beans on toast as Stephen Wells each café. The Grand Total is at the uses a café setting to demonstrate Excel 7’s analysis abilities. top because we didn’t check the “Summary Below Data” box. At top left there are three new buttons. 1 removes everything except magine you’ve been invited to Let’s call the chain The Greasy Spoon. Analyze it with MS Excel, Fig 1. That will the Grand Total. 2 gives a list of all the join the board of a national chain It has six locations in shopping malls. open an Excel worksheet and feed the subtotals and no detail. 3 gives the of cafés serving traditional There are six entrées served and these data onto it. If not, no problem. Just detail with interlaced subtotals, as English cuisine. Among other are the only items, as other concessions, choose Data, Get External Data and here. things provided at your initial sharing the same snack area seating, Microsoft Query will open offering a To the left of the row numbers are briefing is a temporary password offer beverages and desserts. The cafés Select Data Source dialogue box in which added minus marks. Click the one to the company’s database covering a are open the same hours as the malls you can search for databases in a variety opposite row 3 and Blackpool’s details Fig 3 Irepresentative week — the first in April. except they’re closed on Sundays, so of formats including Paradox, FoxPro, will disappear, leaving just the subtotal. Fig 3 The results of the entries in the Before you give them your decision you there are six days of results. dBase and text. Other ODBC (Open The minus becomes a plus. Click the plus Subtotal dialogue box. Each café’s difference in locations. Row 5 displays a obviously will visit some of the facilities, If the company happens to use Access Database Connectivity) drivers are and the details reappear. For each minus details can be displayed or forecast of the total number of meals to but you also decide to do a little analysis 7 for its database then you just select any available from Microsoft. sign there is a bracket which embraces summarised be sold by each café. Each cell contains of the sample week using the built-in report: there’s a drop-down selection of When you install Microsoft Query with the rows which will disappear. the formula: features of Excel 7. export options and you can select Microsoft Excel, you install two different This outlining procedure lets you foot of the table. Actual results are =110*B2*(B12+500)^0.5 programs: the Microsoft Query add-in switch from summaries to full details shown in bold in rows 4 and 6. Although where, in column B, B2 is the weighting and the Microsoft Query application. The at a click. we will be examining the potential factor and B12 is the cost of media add-in acts as a bridge between Excel results of new policies here, it is useful advertising. It assumes that advertising and the application. It places the Get Projecting different strategies to keep this example of a representative will lift sales above a base figure, but with External Data command on the Data From The Greasy Spoon’s database we week in front us. diminishing returns. For the sake of this

Fig 1 menu. This command starts the Microsoft have already extracted the turnover for Row 2 carries a weighting to allow for tutorial it can be any comparable formula Query application so you can select how each café for each day of the you want to return data to the worksheet. first week in April. We can also You can filter data that is too large to look up new data like the weekly Fig 4 fit on a Microsoft Excel worksheet. You cost of running each café and can also join two or more separate tables the amounts spent on of data based on specific criteria; retain advertising. We can total the the order of data after updating results; number of meals sold and can and repeat queries for weekly, monthly, calculate the average price of a or quarterly reports. You can also import meal. data stored in file formats that Excel We can carry these to a new cannot open as a worksheet. sheet in our workbook like Fig 4. The actual average meal price and cost are in the box at the Fig 1 Microsoft Access 7 offers a button to automatically create an Excel Fig 4 Calculating the average 7 worksheet and export an Access cost of a meal report to it

162 163 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 WORKING WITH EXCEL: PARTX 2 which is meaningfully related to other number of meals (B5). The share of Company 2Overhead, row specific cells in the column. The Gross Margin (B9) is the Project 13, is 13% of each café’s projected The projected turnover in row 7 is the Turnover (B7) minus the Cost of Sales turnover (B7*0.13). Total Costs, row 14, average price of meals ($B$19) times (B8). The entries for each café’s are the sum of rows 11 to 13. Profit, row this number of meals (B5 in column B). overhead and advertising allocations on 16, is Gross Margin minus Total Costs The Cost of Sales in row 8 is the rows 11 and 12 are entered and not (B9-B14). The Profit Margin is Profit average meal cost ($B$20) times the calculated. divided by Turnover (B16/B7) formatted

Another point of view

APivotTable is the most powerful data analysis tool Step 1 available in Excel. It allows you to quickly answer any question which can reasonably be asked within the parameters of the available data. Step 1 is the database of sales on an Excel worksheet. It shows the total number of each entrée sold, each day, at each café. On April 1st, for example, the Blackpool outlet grossed £243.75 from selling 125 portions of Beans on Toast. Column D looks up the price of each meal on another sheet in the workbook. Column E calculates the total sales of that meal (=C2*D2). To make the PivotTable you just choose Data, Step 2 PivotTable and the PivotTable Wizard starts. Step 1 offers you a choice of sources to use. Assuming you take the default, “Excel list or database”, Step 2 displays the range of your current worksheet and gives you the option to change the range covered. The illustration shows Step 3. You simply drag the fields, or column headings, displayed on the right into the designated areas on the left. Here the overall heading is Café with each row a different date, each column a different entrée and the gross sales figures given in the data table. Step 4 just lets you enter, or point to, the cell of the worksheet where the PivotTable is to start. Step 3 is the result. All the displayed data here is about one café. Although Blackpool is shown, there is an arrow to drop down a choice of all the other cafés. The dates from the worksheet’s column A are now labelling the rows as requested. The entrées from Step 3 column B become the labels for the columns. The facts are the same. The Blackpool café still grossed £243.75 from sales of Beans on Toast on April 1st. And we can see the gross sales on that day of all the different meals of that location. The beauty of a pivot table is that you can view the information so many different ways quickly and easily. You don’t even have to go back to the PivotTable Wizard to do it. In Step 4 we’ve simply dragged the Date label up to the page heading position, “Café” down to the column headings position, and “Entrée” to the row label position. Now for each selected date you can see Step 4 the sales of each meal at each café. You also have many options on the data table. Choose Data, PivotTable Field, Options, Show Data As..., and you can see the percentage of gross sales made by each meal in each café. You could as easily see the percentage of all sales of one entrée made by each café (% of row). You can also still use the sort ascending and descending buttons on the Standard Toolbar to see the best and worst income producers at each café.

167 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 WORKING WITH EXCEL: PART 2

Fig 5 X advertising, how can we maximise2 the profit? If only one variable were involved we could choose Tools, Goal Seek. It offers a dialogue box which helps you set one cell to one value by changing one other cell. But we need to change a range of cells. Choose Tools, Solver and specify the parameters of the query in the Solver dialogue box, Fig 5. The target cell is H16, the weekly profit for the chain. We have a choice of finding the Maximum, Minimum or a specific Value. We select Maximum. The primary range we want to change is that for advertising, B12:G12. Click Solve and Excel comes up with a solution. By choosing Tools, Scenario and displaying the second dialog box in Fig 5, we can retain both versions and switch Fig 5 Changing the back and forth to compare them. A range of cells in Scenario is simply another version of an the Solver existing worksheet. dialogue box The new version increases the overall amount for advertising but not evenly: four of the cafés have their ad budgets increased, Blackpool and Scarborough have theirs reduced. The amount of overall profit increases by 9%, from as a percentage. let it try out all the variations until the £2,542 a week to £2,769 (although the We can try out some what-if situations optimum solution is reached. profit margin on the new turnover on this model as it stands. But rather than As it stands, the profit margin of the reduces insignificantly from 4.72% to fiddle around experimenting with different model is 4.72% of Projected Turnover 4.67%). manual entries, a better way is to tell (H17). The question we can ask is: Every category on the worksheet Excel what you’re trying to achieve and Based on a different appropriation for except the fixed figures for café overheads changes. So, the expected Making a Data Form new turnovers in revenue and numbers of meals for each café are given, as well as the profit for each café. In the first two parts of this Excel tutorial I’ve illustrated some of the most significant features of Version 7. There are over 200 built-in functions and almost as many again available through the add- ins supplied with Excel, so although improvements continue to be made to Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) it is now quite realistic for developers to create powerful individual applications without writing any code. And it is Once you have transferred a segment of a On selecting a data entry box, an arrow will advantageous to do so: functions database to an Excel worksheet, you can appear, offering a drop-down list of executed through the new Excel built-in create a form for making additions to it. If appropriate entries to pick from. calculation engine run faster than similar you have the full Office 95, you can choose Of course, as with earlier versions, routines written in VBA. Data, Access Form and a Wizard starts to Excel 7 still offers you a simple automatic • Next month, we’ll look at the help you create it. Actually, this is a data entry form by choosing Data, Form. A presentation features of Excel 7. shortcut to the Access Wizard and you dialogue box appears which includes all of create an Access form with a wide choice the named fields and spaces for making PCW Contacts of decorative backgrounds like the clouds new entries. Results of calculated fields for above. existing or new entries are provided. It Stephen Wells welcomes comments and suggestions via PCW Editorial at The Wizard automatically adds a button looks more utilitarian than the Access form, the usual address or at on the database list for displaying the form. but does the job. Stephen—[email protected]

169 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 MEMORY

MEMORY

A burst cycle consists of four data the biggest portion of silicon storage in a transfers where only the address of the PC system. Thus, it is very important that first 64 bits (32 bits on a 486 processor) the transfer cycles between DRAM and are output on the address bus. CPU are as fast as possible. Specialised SRAM technology has The DRAM controller in the system been developed to achieve zero wait- logic (chipset) is responsible for the state access for consecutive burst read timing and control of the SIMM modules cycles. These pipelined-burst modules In general, first and second-level allow a transfer timing of: caches contain the most frequently used Aide memoire ● 3-1-1-1 cycles for the first burst cycle; code and data from the main memory. and Therefore, the storage capacity is not Memory man Thomas Leyrer explains ● 1-1-1-1 cycles for consecutive burst enlarged by the addition of reads. cache memory. Cache These numbers refer to the number the ins and outs of your PC’s memory of clock cycles for each access of a burst mode memory read. and uncovers some of the For example, 3-1-1-1 refers to three clock cycles for the performance gains you can make by first word and one

adding more of it.

cache is on the CPU and is used for temporary storage of instructions and data organised in is used in order to blocks of 32 bytes. The hard disk cache enhance access speed only. is on the hard disk drive and is used for The DRAM interface uses the same temporary storage of frequently-used file burst protocol as the external cache blocks in sizes of 512 bytes. controller. With standard DRAM or Fast- Here, we give you Page-Mode DRAM, a typical burst timing the basics of how PC memory CPU on-chip cache cycle for each of 7-3-3-3 for a 50MHz bus can be works and explain some of the The CPU’s on-chip cache is the fastest subsequent word. achieved. In this case, the lead-off cycle performance gains offered by adding form of storage. Because it’s built in to A cheaper solution for second- contains six wait-states, which more memory to a PC. In PCW we the chip with a zero wait-state (delay) level cache is to use asynchronous significantly decreases the performance. always recommend specifying 16Mb on a interface to the processor’s execution SRAM. With this type of memory, all An enhancement of the Fast-Page- PC to ensure acceptable performance — unit, it is limited in size and is typically burst read cycles have a timing of Mode DRAM is EDO (extended data out) now you can find out why. 16Kb. The control logic of the on-chip or 3-2-2-2 on a 50 to 66MHz CPU bus, memory. At the same bus speed, this EMORY IN first-level cache keeps the most which means that there are two wait- memory saves one wait-state on MPCs IS A The PC storage pyramid frequently used data and code in the states for the lead-off cycle and one subsequent data transfers, with a typical CONFUSING business. Novices often On a fully-configured PC the programs cache and updates external memory only wait-state for the following three transfers burst timing of 7-2-2-2. As CPU bus confuse disk space with RAM but even and data are used on four storage levels. when the CPU hands over control to External or second-level cache of the burst cycle. experienced PC users have been known Table 1 illustrates the four basic storage other bus masters, or during direct (SRAM) Table 2 Burst-timings for a to confuse processor cache with disk levels, with their main characteristics, for memory access by peripherals such as The same control logic is used for the Main memory (DRAM) Pentium processor cache. a typical PC system. The processor floppy drives and sound cards. external cache or second-level cache. Going another step down the PC Typical size for this storage level is storage pyramid is the main External Memory Burst-Timing 256Kb. The medium used for the memory, which is normally built Table 1 PC storage pyramid with key features external cache is SRAM. up from DRAM devices soldered Second Level Cache (SRAM) Storage Bus Speed Bus Width Size Access Time Transfer Rate The aim of the second-level cache is on to a 72-pin SIMM module. Pipelined Burst Cache 3 - 1 - 1 - 1 to supply stored information to the The four sockets on a typical Asynchronous Cache 3 - 2 - 2 - 2 CPU on-chip cache 75 — 200MHz 32 Bits 8 — 16Kb 5 — 10ns 300 — 666Mb/sec processor without any delay (wait-state). PC motherboard allow main External cache 33 — 66MHz 32, 64 Bits 256Kb — 1Mb 15ns 133 — 528Mb/sec For this purpose, the bus interface of the memory sizes of up to 256Mb. Main Memory (DRAM) Main memory 33 — 66MHz 32, 64 Bits 8 — 256Mb 60ns 66 — 264Mb/sec processor, which runs at speeds of up to Compared to 16Kb of first-level Fast Page Mode DRAM 7 - 3 - 3 - 3 Hard disk 8 — 33MHz 16, 32 Bits 500Mb — 4Gb 10 — 20ms 1 — 8Mb/sec 66MHz, has a special transfer protocol cache and 256Kb of second-level Extended Data Out DRAM 7 - 2 - 2 - 2 called burst mode. cache, the main memory is by far

172 173 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 MEMORY

frequency moves up, synchronous bus and the speed of the EDO memory. printer. The virtual cache can take up to a DRAMs will be used to keep pace with Systems without external cache can be quarter of the main memory. Table 2 the processors of the future. accelerated by ten percent using EDOs. (page 173) summarises the various burst In order to get performance benefits On systems with external cache, the timings based on a processor bus speed from EDO memory, the system must system performance increases by a of 50 - 66MHz. support it with the chipset and the BIOS maximum of five percent. (basic input/output system). Essentially, Some parts of main memory are also Hard disk speed enhancement depends on the type used as a virtual cache for the hard disk, The last storage level is used to load of chipset, the speed of the processor the CD-ROM, the file system and the application software into main memory

Memory Results

Using VNU application-based labs tests. These figures indicate only broad trends because components, such as graphics cards, hard disks and cache memory, impact performance. Processor RAM 0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5

486DX4-100 8Mb 0.75 16Mb 1.00 32Mb 1.04

Pentium-75 8Mb 1.11 16Mb 1.50 32Mb 1.54

Pentium-120 8Mb 1.32 16Mb 1.89 32Mb 1.93

Pentium-166 8Mb 1.43 16Mb 2.14 32Mb 2.21

175 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 MEMORY

for execution and to store information after processing by the application program. The hard disk is a mechanical device and is therefore much slower to access. The transfer rate depends on the speed of the physical rotation of the magnetic disk. The typical size of a hard disk is in the range of one gigabyte. Hard disks are a lot slower than silicon memory. The fastest EIDE hard disk drives reach a maximum transfer rate of 13.8Mb/sec by using a 32-bit bus width. Standard 16-bit IDE controllers limit the transfer rate to 5Mb/sec, although the The first group spends less than three reaches the 16Mb boundary of the main latest UltraSCSI standard offers a hours a day in front of their PC and memory. transfer rate of up to 40Mb/sec. includes small offices and home users. A single application will run Because main memory is limited in PC The next category includes office reasonably well under Windows 95 with systems, operating systems like Windows users in companies, using a networked 8Mb of memory. We ran our NSTL 95, or Windows 3.11, use swap files to PC all day with standard applications. application tests with a selection of “virtually” enlarge the main memory. The Finally, there are professional users different processors using different advantage of this technique is that the and programmers who really challenge memory configurations. operating system can administer memory their system with memory and graphics- In all cases performance was ranges above main memory without intensive tasks. acceptable with 8Mb of memory, but using more silicon — it uses the hard disk For the first type of users, 16Mb of improved (sometimes drastically) by instead. The drawback of this technique main memory is perfectly acceptable. upgrading to 16Mb of RAM. For example, is the far slower access time and transfer Although PCs running Windows 95 will a Pentium 75Mz with 16Mb of RAM rate of the hard disk, so the fast CPU work with 8Mb, it doesn’t make sense if outperforms a P166 with 8Mb of RAM. does not benefit if the program is any kind of multitasking operation is However, single tasking is no longer executed from the hard disk. required, as the high-speed CPU has to the standard scenario under Windows 95. wait for the much slower hard disk. For Often, five or six applications are run How much memory do I need? Windows NT-based PCs a minimum of simultaneously. Although we do not yet You can split PC users into three broad 32Mb is recommended, because the have NSTL benchmarks for multitasked categories based on the amount of time operating system requires at least 12Mb applications, there a couple of ways to they spend working on a PC and the without any applications loaded. Just a look at how much your PC’s performance application software they use. single application under Windows NT is constricted by memory. The simplest method is to look for hard disk activity either by listening for it Unified Memory Architecture or looking at the hard disk indicator light fitted to most PCs. Switching between In order to cut system costs, a new memory architecture has been developed. The Unified applications using the Alt-tab key or by Memory Architecture (UMA) shares the same chips for video memory and main memory in cutting and pasting from the clipboard will a PC. show up use of virtual memory. The main memory contains the topical program and data for execution and processing, A second, and more precise, method while the video memory is a window within the main memory to display information on the is to use the System Monitor utility monitor. The video memory resides on the graphics adaptor and varies in size depending supplied with Windows 95 and display on the resolution and colour depth. usage of the swapfile. A default By sharing the same chips, this allows you to save the costs for the video memory. The installation of Win95 does not install it so trade-off with UMA is a slower access to the memory due to the arbitration overhead and you’ll need to go to the Add/Remove- the fact that you are losing between one and 2Mb of main memory. Thus, it is not Programs icon in the Control panel to do recommended to use UMA on machines with less than 16Mb of main memory. so. Windows NT offers a more sophisticated Performance Monitor which

176 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 MEMORY

Glossary of terms

Cache A buffer of high-speed memory filled at medium speed from main memory. A cache increases memory transfer rates and system performance. DRAM Dynamic Random Access Memory — Volatile memory chips that use capacitors to store information as an electric charge. DRAM chips offer high can be found under Administrative Tools. density at a low cost, but they must be frequently refreshed. Here the paging file is the virtual extension of the main memory. DSP Digital Signal Processor — A computer, orientated towards maths-intensive The system monitor can be used to applications; often a single chip or small chipset. monitor the size of the swapfile over a EIDE Enhanced Integrated Drive Electronics — Hard disk drive compatible with period of time. Replacing an 8Mb swap register sets and transfer modes of EIDE standard. file with the same amount of main FPM DRAM Fast Page Mode DRAM — DRAM with faster data transfers within certain memory has a drastic effect on memory blocks (pages). performance: over 20 percent on a DX4- 100 and as much as 50 percent on a LED Light Emitting Diode — Illuminated dot often used to indicate device Pentium 166MHz. When multitasking, a operation. DX4-100 with 16Mb of RAM will MPEG Moving Picture Experts Group — A standard for digital video and audio outperform a Pentium with 8Mb of RAM. compression. PCI Peripheral Component Interconnect — Graphics adaptor using CPU local Adding memory bus standard for fast data transfers. There are several ways to add main SIMM Single In-line Memory Module — A small circuit designed to accommodate memory to your PC. In general, the surface-mount memory chips. SIMMs use less board space and are more motherboard offers four SIMM sockets compact than more conventional memory-mounting hardware. which will take single-sided or double- sided SIMMs with module sizes of SRAM Static Random Access Memory — A high-performance storage medium that 4, 8, 16, 32 or even 64Mb. As the does not require refresh. Asynchronous SRAM is SRAM which runs not in Pentium processor has a 64-bit phase with CPU clock. Asynchronous SRAM is slower than synchronous external data bus, two modules of the SRAM. same size are required as a minimum UMA Unified Memory Architecture — Standard for using main memory as video configuration. memory on entry-level PCs. When you buy a new system, be sure that only two memory sockets are occupied. This leaves you with the Applications such as video memory with typical sizes between 32 possibility to upgrade the memory without communication, speech recognition and and 256Mb. throwing away the existing modules. It is handwriting recognition enter a new level The price of the fastest Pentium not advisable to use motherboards which of hardware requirements for PCs. chip, a 17in monitor and 32Mb of main allow the use of only one memory These applications require massive memory are almost identical. Price module. These platforms have parallel execution of digital signal reductions of the main memory and the significantly less memory throughput processing tasks which cannot be monitor are historically slower which lowers system performance. There handled by the fastest x86 processor compared with the price drop of the is more granularity on 486-based available today. These processors do not processor. It makes far more sense to platforms in terms of memory upgrade have an architecture optimised for digital buy the right amount of memory and a because full memory bus width is signal processing and a dedicated DSP good monitor in the first place, than to reached with one module. device is far more efficient. In terms of run the fastest Pentium processor The future of personal computing is in main memory, future applications (as available, constrained by inadequate improving the man-machine interface. already mentioned) can use the same memory. It can be concluded that the best SIMM sense price/performance ratio in PCs today is obtained by optimising the memory Most SIMMS are compatible with others, whether they are from a PC, a Mac, a mainframe rather than by increasing the speed of or even a laser printer (although there are some oddities knocking around). The three issues the processor, especially when taking affecting compatibility are speed, parity and number of pins (data width). account of new multitasking operating Speed is simple. You just need to check that the memory meets the minimum systems such as Windows 95, requirements of your system. Windows NT and OS/2 Warp. Parity is a way of checking the validity of data. It either exists or doesn’t and is identified by an extra bit per byte, i.e. nine bits or 36 bits. If your system doesn’t require parity you can PCW Details still use SIMMs with parity. Many PCs have an option in the BIOS, or via a jumper, to disable parity. Thomas Leyrer, Dipl.-Ing. (FH), has The final issue is the number of pins on the SIMM. On PCs, 30-pin SIMMs have now worked as a field application engineer for Texas Instruments, Germany, since been replaced by the 72-pin variety. 1990.

178 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 GROUP TEST: MONITORS GROUP TEST: MONITORS

Screentest Gordon Laing directs our 26-strong monitors

group test of the cream of the crop among

15in and 17in models.

HE HUMBLE MONITOR IS Tperhaps the most important computer peripheral you’ll ever buy, monitors — at their simplest, these simply because it is used at all times. include built-in powered speakers. In It is nothing less than the primary addition, many fit microphones and means of communication from some even boast cameras, ready for computer to user. It conveys all your video conferencing. precious information. All manufacturers in this group test Poor displays can give you have multimedia monitors in the Monitors CONTENTS headaches or even emit harmful pipeline. In a few months’ time, it may 186 ADI Microscan 4V radiation so why is it, when buying a be possible to do a 100 percent 186 ADI Microscan 5V new PC, most users will go for the multimedia monitor group test — for 187 CTX 1569MS fastest chip and the biggest disk the present though, some models were 187 CTX 1785S possible yet skimp on the monitor? available whereas others were not. 189 Goldstar 1727 There is time to redeem yourself, Just under half of the monitors we’ve 189 Goldstar Studioworks 56M 195 Hitachi 17MVXPro2 though — that money you saved for an gathered together here, feature 195 Iiyama Visionmaster MF-8617E overdrive processor may be better multimedia of some description. 195 Mitsubishi Diamond Scan 17HX spent on a new monitor. In this group test, we’ve covered a 195 NEC M500 When buying a new system, you major portion of the monitor market. 196 NEC XV17 could devote a larger portion of your We’ve reviewed no less than eleven 196 Nokia 447V budget to the display. It would seem 15in and fifteen 17in monitors. All are 196 Nokia 449M (092) that many already are: Romtec multi-scanning devices, capable of 196 Panasonic 15MM reported that 15in monitors are fast displaying a resolution of 1,024 x 768 197 Panasonic 17MM becoming the minimum requirement in non-interlaced at a flicker-free 75Hz. 197 Philips 17B the third-party market, while 17in is the We’ve given in-depth explanations of 197 Philips Brilliance 15A 197 Samsung Syncmaster 15M most popular size for upgrading. Over how a CRT monitor works, the 198 Samsung Syncmaster 17GLI the past few months, 17in models have alternatives and exactly what you 198 Sony 15 SFII even been outselling 15in models from should know about power saving and 198 Sony 17 SFII some manufacturers. safety standards. 198 Taxan Ergovision 730 TCO-S Monitors now are not just The best news of all is that decent 201 Viewsonic 15GA display devices. PCs with sound 15in monitors cost around £300, while 201 Viewsonic 17GA capability have become so 17in come in at about £500 — such 201 Wyse WY-15E widespread as to prompt quality has never been this cheap, and 201 Wyse WY-17E most manufacturers to a good monitor will long outlive your 182 Anatomy of a CRT monitor put two and two PC. So do your eyes a favour: read on, 190 Monitor safety together and come and then make the best purchase of 203 How we did the tests up with multimedia your computer life. 205 Editor’s Choice 206 Performance Graphs 206 Table of Features PCW Monitors Photography by David Whyte

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Behind the screens Anatomy of a CRT monitor

colour cathode ray tube (CRT) is say one, three and five until the screen is the operating system’s desktop, A like a huge glass bottle with three full, then return to the top to fill in the even expressed as a horizontal by vertical electron guns in its neck and the inside of blanks (say lines two, four, six and so on). figure. Bog-standard VGA resolution is its bottom coated with phosphor. The This process is known as interlacing and 640 x 480 pixels while other, popular, three guns (one each for red, green and results in an undesirable flickering settings include 800 x 600 and 1,024 x blue) fire beams of electrons at the display. Non-interlaced is where every 768 pixels. phosphor screen. Phosphors are line is drawn before returning to the top Remember that Windows objects, chemicals which emit light when excited for the next frame, resulting in a far icons, spreadsheet cells and title bars will by a stream of electrons: different steadier display. always be the same number of pixels in phosphors emit different coloured light. Consequently, it’s recommended that size whatever the resolution. The screen (or the bottom Consequently, at higher of the bottle, to continue the resolutions they will appear analogy), is covered with a smaller and you’ll be able to matrix of dots. Each dot fit more onto the desktop. Of consists of three blobs of course, make them too small coloured phosphor: one red, and you won’t be able to see one green and one blue. them at all, which is why These groups of three higher resolutions work phosphors make up what we better on physically larger know as a single pixel. The monitors where the pixels electron guns are aimed at are correspondingly larger. their respective blobs and Suitable resolutions on each is illuminated to a certain sized monitors are: greater or lesser extent. The 640 x 480 on a 14in; 800 x phosphors in a group are so 600 or 1,024 x 768 on a 15in; close together that the human 1,024 x 768 or 1,152 x 882 eye perceives the on a 17in; and 1,280 x 1,024 combination as a single, or even 1,600 x 1,200 on a coloured pixel. A metal mask 20in/21in display. All separates each dot to monitors have a maximum minimise “overspill” where the The CRT is like a large glass bottle with supported resolution, so electron beam would otherwise illuminate electron guns in the neck and its bottom work out what resolution you’d like to run more than one dot. The material coated with coloured phosphor. Notice and whether the model in question will commonly used for such masks is Invar. how the holed mask sits directly before cope. the phosphor to aid guidance and avoid The combination of a particular Refreshing facts overspill resolution at a certain refresh rate will Magnetic fields can drag the electron produce a unique signal frequency which beam to strike any point on the screen. you only ever buy a monitor which can your monitor will have to recognise and The beam starts in the top left corner (as support your desired resolution at a high lock on to. The beauty of a MultiSync or viewed from the front), scans across to refresh rate, in non-interlaced mode. multi-scanning monitor is that it will lock the right, then drops down a line and Interestingly, all current broadcast on to any signal within its horizontal and starts again at the left. This process is television systems implement an vertical scanning frequencies — if your repeated until an entire screen is drawn, interlaced display; our own PAL system graphics card is supplying something in at which point the beam returns to the top refreshes at 50Hz. That’s why a TV this range the monitor should be able to to start again. picture appears to flicker considerably display it. All the monitors in this group The number of times a complete more than a computer monitor, why a TV test are multi-scanning devices. screen is drawn per second is the refresh is cheaper at the same tube size and why The maximum resolution of a monitor rate, measured in Hertz (Hz). The higher ultimately you wouldn’t want to sit 18ins is dependent on more than just its highest the refresh rate, the less flicker appears away from one, typing for hours on end. scanning frequencies. It is also limited by on the screen up to the point where the Hence, the three key specifications to the physical distance between adjacent brain perceives it as perfectly steady. A look out for on a monitor are: the groups of phosphors — this is known as refresh rate above 70Hz is generally maximum resolution it will display, at what the dot pitch and is typically between considered to be flicker-free, although refresh rate and whether this will be non- 0.25mm and 0.28mm. standards bodies such as VESA are interlaced. Since each phosphor group pushing for higher rates of 75Hz or 80Hz. The working resolution is the number represents the smallest pixel the monitor Some monitors draw every other line, of pixels the video card uses to describe is physically capable of resolving, trying

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interesting of all, Trinitron tubes were steady in only one or two places, exposes more phosphor than a Common CRT phosphor and mask arrangements made from sections of a cylinder, horizontally. conventional dot-trio design. The result is vertically flat and horizontally curved, as The problem is that built-in speakers not quite as bright as an Aperture Grill but opposed to conventional tubes using would have the same effect as much more stable and still brighter than sections of a sphere which are curved in continually tapping the case, which is the dot-trio. both axes. why Sony hasn’t fitted any to its However, the slotted mask is a Rather than grouping dots of red, computer monitors. Trinitron TV sets get complex beast and until very recently, no green and blue phosphor in triads, away with built-in speakers due to their manufacturer could build one fine enough Trinitron tubes lay their coloured much coarser, and hence sturdier, for high computer resolutions. NEC got phosphors down in uninterrupted vertical grilles. A TV’s resolution is little above there first and announced its slotted mask stripes. Consequently, Trinitron tubes use VGA. design, ChromaClear, last February. masks which separate the entire stripes Every copyright expires eventually Unsurprisingly, the company fitted its instead of each dot and Sony calls this and Sony’s on Trinitron did so a few debut ChromaClear monitors with the Aperture Grill. Since less of the years ago. However, only one speakers and microphones and claims screen area is occupied by the mask and manufacturer, Mitsubishi, has bothered that they are “The new multimedia the phosphor is uninterrupted vertically, to develop its own version of Trinitron standard”. Using the same phosphor and Dot trio Slotted mask Aperture grill more of it can glow, resulting in a (called Diamondtron), which uses three mask arrangement as most TV sets, the brighter, more vibrant display. separate guns. Diamondtron tubes were colours of computer video clips closely A simplified, close-up view of three CRT phosphor and mask arrangements in common use today: dot trio, slotted mask and The down side is that either one or two a little flaky at first but more recent resemble what many of us are used to. aperture grill. It is clear which designs expose the most phosphor, resulting in a brighter display, although often at the risk of very fine wires must be run horizontally attempts have been much improved, with There are limitations to the mechanical instability. The distance (shown in each diagram) between each like-coloured phosphor is the dot pitch across the display to hold the Aperture the added advantage of a large 21in ChromaClear tube technology. NEC may Grill in place — they are just visible if you model — Sony stops at 20ins then jumps have manufactured a slotted mask much to address anything finer will result at should even be circular blobs. The vast percentage of the screen area. Where look closely. Trinitron tubes below 17ins to much larger TV-type models for finer than a TV set but it’s maximum best in a blurred image. If the signal falls majority of computer monitors do, there’s portions of mask, there’s no or so get away with one wire, while the presentation use. resolution is only 1,024 x 768. The out of the scanning frequency range, no however, use circular blobs of phosphor phosphor to glow and less light means a larger models require two. There is a third blob arrangement in company has not managed to produce image at all will be displayed. and arrange them in triangular formation. duller image. A further down side is mechanical popular use today. Virtually all non- one capable of higher resolutions and, for These groups are known as triads and In the sixties, Sony developed an instability. Tap a Trinitron monitor on the Trinitron TV sets use elliptically-shaped now, is sticking to 15in and 17in models Mr Blobby the arrangement is a dot-trio design. alternative tube technology known as side and watch the image wobble phosphors grouped vertically and only. Consequently, those interested in There’s more than one way to group This is all very well, except that the Trinitron. It combined the three separate helplessly for a moment — it’s not hard to separated by a slotted mask. It is high end CAD or DTP, requiring a large three blobs of coloured phosphor — mask used to avoid overspill, called a electron guns into one device: Sony understand why when you consider the mechanically stable due to the criss- screen and high resolution should look indeed, there’s no reason why they shadow mask, occupies a large refers to this as a Pan Focus gun. Most aperture grill’s fine vertical wires held cross of horizontal mask sections but elsewhere.

ADI MICROSCAN 4V ADI MICROSCAN 5V CTX 1569MS CTX 1785S

ADI’s MicroScan 4V is a The 17in MicroScan 5V is physically CTX has no less than five CTX couldn’t get us its new multimedia straightforward-looking 15in unrelated to the 15in 4V. different series in its range of 17in model so we reviewed the 1785S monitor. There is no multimedia nor Again, the case is very simple but monitors, catering from entry level to from its low to mid range Expert series. on-screen display for that matter. It is, all the controls are hidden behind a high end. Somewhere in the upper CTX has chosen a very clean, however, very cheap at a cost of front panel. Here, you’ll find a set of middle range is its multimedia series, modern, cabinet design for its typically less than £250 on the street. buttons to adjust the brightness, consisting of two models: a 15in multimedia and Expert series, with little All controls are on the front panel. A contrast and correct the image. reviewed here, and a 17in which CTX round buttons on the front surface — single button cycles through all the There’s no on-screen display, but could not supply in time for this review. not unlike NEC’s non-multimedia range, options, with an LED indicating whichever is currently selected; and the large power light flashes at the On both its multimedia models, CTX has opted to fit the speakers except with thinner bevel surrounds. two further buttons adjust. All the lights flash at the upper and lower upper and lower limits of the selected range being adjusted. down the left and right sides of the case. CTX’s are thinner than most, For a reasonably cheap model, the 1785S boasts a high maximum limits. Brightness and contrast are adjusted with conventional dials. The 5V meets MPR-II for emissions and conforms to DPMS, avoiding the need for a wide cabinet. They sound good, too, at horizontal scanning frequency of 85KHz, capable of displaying 1,280 x Plug’n’play is supported with VESA DDC, as is DPMS for powering powering down from 110W to below 15W in suspend, then less than reasonable listening levels, only becoming harsh and breaking up at 1,024 non-interlaced at 75Hz. It is VESA DDC plug’n’play compliant, down from 85W to under 5W in “off” mode. Emissions conform to 8W in “off” mode. Additionally, it is VESA DDC plug and play high volumes. There’s a microphone built-in at the front, along with a conforms to MPR-II in terms of emissions, and supports VESA DPMS MPR-II and the tube is capable of displaying 1,024 x 768 non- compatible and is capable of displaying 1,024 x 768 at up to 80Hz non- headphone jack. Volume, contrast and brightness are adjusted by power management, dropping to under 10W in suspend mode, then interlaced at up to 76Hz. Resolving power was fairly poor all over, interlaced. separate dials, unconnected to the otherwise excellent on-screen below 6W in “off” mode. affecting focus and convergence. Nevertheless, the 4V easily beats Performance is good in the centre but, like many, falls off a little display which controls everything else. The on-screen display adjusts everything apart from brightness and any 15in monitor below the £250 price mark and comes recommended towards the edges. Despite this, however, it is better than many The OSD is very clear, with legible, sometimes animated, icons. contrast, which are catered for by dials. The OSD features decent on this strength alone. budget 17in monitors and the overall image is bright, clean and vibrant. Resolving power is fair, and icons, some of which are If you are interested, check There are several good convergence and colour PCW Details animated to indicate their PCW Details PCW Details PCW Details out Goldstar’s StudioWorks sub-£500 multimedia-less evenness are both excellent. Price RRP n/a; function.The 1785S’s Price RRP n/a; 56M as well, which offers Price RRP £315 (plus VAT); street 17in monitors tested here Price RRP £585 (plus VAT); The overall picture quality is street price £299 (plus VAT). performance is not up to the street price £499 (plus VAT). similar quality, multimedia and price £240 (plus VAT). and the 5V is definitely one street price £469 (plus VAT). high, which along with power Contact CTX Europe 01923 818461 superb 15in multimedia CTX Contact CTX Europe 01923 818461 Contact ADI Systems UK Contact ADI Systems UK an OSD for just a bit more. Both to be considered. saving, plug and play, TCO Good Points Excellent picture, good but it is still good, Good Points Above average image 0181 236 0801 0181 236 0801 perform much more Other budget contenders 1992 Emissions and above multimedia. nonetheless. Every aspect and OSD. comfortably at 800 x 600 Good Points Good for the price. include the CTX 1727, Good Points A fair image for the average multimedia in an Bad Points None, considering the was slightly above average, Bad Points No multimedia. Beaten by resolution and will do so at high Bad Points Poor image, no Nokia's 447V, Samsung's price. attractive cabinet, results in low price. resulting in a good image, 15in model. refresh rates. multimedia. 17Gli and the Wyse WY-17e. Bad Points No multimedia or OSD. an excellent buy. Conclusion Great value. Highly but nothing to rave about. Conclusion A fair overall performer Conclusion Good budget buy. Conclusion Good sub-£500 choice. recommended. from CTX.

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interacts with the buttons available. It’s a the mechanical instability of Aperture Controls matter of personal taste. Grill monitors doesn’t seem such a big Not so long ago, advanced controls were deal after all. found only on high-end monitors. Now, Multimedia monitors even budget models boast a wealth of Sound facilities are becoming Alternative display image correction controls. The most commonplace on many PCs, requiring technologies common is barrel/pincushion, which additional loudspeakers and possibly a There are alternatives to the ageing corrects the image from dipping in or microphone, too. Why have lots of cathode ray tube. LCD panels, as found bowing out at the edges. Trapezium separate boxes and cables when you in notebook computers, are also sold correction can straighten sides which could fit everything into a monitor and separately as computer monitors. They slope in together, or out from each other. have a one-stop shop? are currently very expensive (over Parallelogram corrections will prevent Enter the multimedia monitor, which £2,000 for one capable of 1,024 x 768) your image leaning to one side, while always has built-in loudspeakers of some but specific applications can swallow the some models even allow you to rotate the sort, maybe a microphone and in some cost. City banks need to get as much entire image. cases a camera for video conferencing. information to their brokers in as small a Making more common appearances, At the back of these monitors are space as possible; so LCD panels are too, these days are on-screen controls. connections to your sound card. popular. The hang-on-your-wall large These are superimposed graphics which Before you get too excited, most screen TV is still some way off, though. appear on the screen (obscuring parts of manufacturers are jumping on the Presentations generally require much the main image) usually indicating what multimedia bandwagon and fitting fairly larger than 21in displays. Options you’re about to adjust. It’s the same as cheap speakers to their monitors. Adding include large screen TV sets, modified TV sets superimposing, say, a volume only a few pounds to the cost of to handle VGA signals, or video bar when you’re adjusting the sound. manufacture, most are only suitable for projectors which work like slide There’s no standard for on-screen basic sound reproduction: the occasional projectors, but with a video signal. Video graphics, so consequently there’s a huge beep or ding for confirmation, the CD- projectors come in two varieties. One range of icons, bars, colours and sizes ROM titles which chat briefly to you, or uses red, green and blue CRTs (high on out there. Some are much better than the odd bit of games playing. quality, but low in convenience) and the others. The whole point, however, is to If you are serious about your sound, other uses a small LCD panel and a render adjustments as intuitive, as quick then you should go for decent external single light source and lens to project it and easy as possible and that’s very speakers which can also be properly — high on convenience but expensive much a combination of how the display magnetically shielded. With this in mind, and often low on quality.

GOLDSTAR 1727 GOLDSTAR STUDIOWORKS 56M

Goldstar’s 1727 has recently been Goldstar has launched three new reduced to the bargain retail price of multimedia StudioWorks models, the £502, perhaps, to make it attractive 14in 44M, the 15in 56M and the 17in when compared to the forthcoming 78M. We couldn’t get hold of the 78M, multimedia-equipped StudioWorks but did manage to check out the 56M. 78M model. Goldstar couldn’t get us a Unlike the 78M which has tall, thin 78M in time for the review, so we speakers running down the left and plumped for the silent 1727. right sides, the 44M and 56M have It’s a very plain-looking monitor, theirs fitted to the bottom corners. Sound quality on the 56M was with only a power button visible on the front. A panel opens to reveal good at low volume but became quite harsh when loud. The front brightness and contrast dials, with several more buttons for adjusting panel offers headphone and microphone jacks. This latter is picture size, position and geometry, via the basic on-screen display. connected directly to a similar jack on the rear, since Goldstar has Its 65KHz maximum horizontal scanning frequency is capable of neglected to build in a microphone to any of these three monitors. 1,024 x 768 non-interlaced at 77Hz. VESA DPMS compliant power The 56M’s buttons are fitted to the front panel, and activate and saving drops to under 15W in standby or suspend, then down to below adjust image and volume via the good on-screen display. The 8W when “off”. Emissions comply to MPR-II, but the 1727 is one of OSD features decent icons, words, and bars and numbers to today’s few monitors not to feature VESA DDC plug’n’play indicate the range of a particular adjustment. compatibility. Image performance was below average, with lack of resolving Results are average, with power, poor convergence, PCW Details PCW Details reasonable focus, luminosity and colour Price RRP £502 (plus VAT); street Price RRP £315 (plus VAT); convergence and colour evenness. There were price £440 (plus VAT). street price £260 (plus VAT). evenness. The 1727 falls even slight discolourations Contact LG Electronics UK Contact LG Electronics UK down on relatively low 01753 500400 in the bottom corners, 01753 500400 brightness, but at a street suggesting poor speaker Good Points Cheap. Fair performer. Good Points Cheap. Good OSD. price of around £440, shielding. Not bad for the Bad Points Forthcoming multimedia Bad Points Poor image. No represents fair value for low price, though, and 17in is more exciting. microphone. money. Conclusion Fair, for the low price. much better in 800 x 600. Conclusion Budget buyers only.

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Monitor safety: emission accomplished

The CE mark, which became law in the being made to establish MPR-III as an switch to less than 30W in standby mode and UK on 1st January this year, forced international standard to consolidate MPR less than 8W in suspend. electronics companies into more stringent and TCO. Level “A” would be the equivalent Apart from Sweden, the main impetus has testing methods. But in the last few years of TCO, level “B” the equivalent of MPR-II. come from the US. In 1993, VESA initiated its monitor manufacturers have been DPMS standard, or Display Power adjusting to a whole raft of safety standards Power saving Management Signalling. A DPMS compliant driven by Sweden and the US. The TCO standards require automatic power- graphics card enables the monitor to achieve The MPR-II standard of the early down based on the Swedish Nutek four states: on, standby, suspend and off, at nineties, based on the recommendations of specification 803299. A monitor is only user-defined periods. Suspend mode must Swedac, the Swedish testing authority, was entitled to use the TCO Power label if it can draw less than 8W so the CRT, its heater and a response to anxiety about the effect of its electron gun are likely to be shut off. electromagnetic fields on the reproductive Standby takes the power consumption down system. It also reduced electrostatic to below about 25W, with the CRT heater emissions with a conductive coating on usually left on for faster resuscitation. the monitor screen. MPR-II has now The other power saving standard is been adopted as an international EPA Energy Star. Mandatory in the US standard. and widely adopted in Europe, it Another standard, entitled requires a mains power saving mode TCO, set up by the Swedish drawing less than 30W. Energy Star Confederation of Professional was initiated in 1993 but really took Employees, was introduced hold in 1995 when President in 1992. TCO 92 set stiffer Clinton announced that the US levels for emissions and Government, the world’s largest PC required monitors to meet the purchaser, would buy only Energy international EN60950 Star compliant products. standard for electrical and fire safety. The UK market The most stringent label so far It’s hard to buy a monitor which isn’t is last year’s TCO 95, which has MPR-II and DPMS compliant but the four become the first global environmental major players — NEC, Philips, Sony and labelling scheme. The result of Taxan — report lower demand for TCO in the collaboration with the Swedish Society for UK than throughout the rest of Europe. For Nature Conservation, it is more most manufacturers, TCO has necessitated comprehensive than the German refinements to power supplies, cancellation Blue Angel label and more coils and the shielding on the reflection yoke. exacting than the ISO international For many, an extra anti-reflective coating standards. The display, system was required to achieve TCO 92 labelling. unit and keyboard can be certified NEC quotes an extra £5 to bond it to the separately and the manufacturer’s surface of the monitor while a third-party environmental policy is addressed glare filter, which has the same effect, adds at every stage from production to £15-20 to the end user cost. disposal. Across Europe, Philips sells MPR-II, TCO Over and above TCO 92, the 92 and 95 models but its mainline UK product may not contain cadmium product range is only MPR-II compliant due or lead, the plastic housing must to lack of interest. The company will call be of biodegradable material and TCO product from Europe — but at a price. free of brominated flame A low radiation 17B has a list price of £570 retardants and the production (plus VAT) in the UK; the TCO equivalent process must avoid the use of would currently cost about £650 (plus VAT). Freons and chlorinated solvents. Taxan carries MPR-II and TCO 92 This has required manufacturers to models in all sizes except 14in. It is gradually invest in changes which, for the phasing out MPR-II in favour of TCO 95 but moment at least, may be passed quotes a higher margin on “95” versions for on as extra cost to the end user. the moment, due to initial development The emission and power saving costs. A typical off-the-page price for the requirements remain unaltered Monitor power saving can be activated 17in Ergovision 730 LR without TCO is £485 although picture performance and from the Windows 95 display control (plus VAT). For £507 (plus VAT) you can buy luminance uniformity have been panel — just set the number of minutes the TCO 92 version. A 730 TCO 95, however, addressed. before power saving kicks in will currently set you back £580 (plus VAT). At the time of writing, there is an attempt Nicky Glatter

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HITACHI 17MVXPRO2 IIYAMA VISIONMASTER MF-8617E Hitachi’s improved and An increasing number of PC recently relaunched 17in manufacturers offer Iiyama monitors 17MVXPRO2 monitor may be a bit of with their systems. The company’s two mouthful to say but it more than makes most common 17in models are the up for this in terms of performance. It is VisionMaster MF-8617E and the produced in Europe and complies with VisionMaster Pro MT-9017E. The latter TCO 1992 for emissions and power is based on a superb high-spec saving. Mitsubishi Diamondtron tube and The high maximum horizontal carries a street price of around £620. scanning frequency of 82KHz offers non-interlaced resolutions of Iiyama chose to send us the 8617 FST model, which will soon be 1,280 x 1,024 at 75Hz, or 1,024 x 768 approaching 100Hz. available with multimedia for an extra £30 or so. Test results were very good, with high resolving powers, sharp The 8617 uses a high-specification tube, with a maximum focus and convergence, virtually no streaking or ghosting, and high horizontal scanning frequency of 86KHz capable of displaying 1,280 x brightness and colour evenness. 1,024 non-interlaced at 80Hz. Emissions conform to MPR-II and the The case is a little old-fashioned looking, while the on-screen monitor is VESA DDC plug’n’play compliant, along with supporting display relies on large, clear icons accompanied by bars, but no words DPMS, powering down to below 8W in suspend and under 6W when in or numbers. “off” mode. Under instruction from a VESA The on-screen display is detailed, although a little small and DPMS compliant video card, the unit PCW Details cluttered compared with the spaciousness of others. There are two powers down from 110W to below 5W Price RRP £599 (plus VAT); sets of video inputs, so it’s PCW Details in “off” mode. It is also plug‘n’play street price £499 (plus VAT). possible to connect two PCs complaint with VESA’s DDC standards. Contact Hitachi Business and switch between them on the Price RRP £575 (plus VAT); street It may not look flash, or offer Systems 0181 849 2000 same screen. The 8617 is price £536 (pus VAT). Contact Iiyama UK 01438 745482 multimedia, but the 17MVXPro2 boasts Good Points Excellent sharp, with good convergence one of the best displays of all the display. Good price. and excellent power regulation. Good Points High spec. Dual monitors tested here. It’s competitively Bad Points No multimedia. It is a highly recommended inputs priced, too, and comes highly Unimaginative case. monitor but check out the 9017 Bad Points No multimedia. recommended. Conclusion Superb monitor. for a more vibrant display. Conclusion Excellent all-rounder.

MITSUBISHI DIAMOND SCAN 17HX NEC M500

Mitsubishi’s Diamondtron aperture NEC, inventor of MultiSync grill tube is the only decent alternative technology, has gone for a hat to Sony’s Trinitron, but the company trick of firsts with its debut multimedia decided to submit one of its 17in FST monitor. Check out its curves: the case models instead. slopes inwards from all directions The 17HX is an above average toward the rear, resulting in a compact, specified monitor, with a high 78KHz space-conscious box. maximum horizontal scanning Slotted masks, as used in many TV frequency capable of 1,024 x 768 non-interlaced at 95Hz, or 1,280 x tubes (explained in our main text), offer brightness and focus nearing 1,024 non-interlaced at 72Hz. It does not offer multimedia but has that of aperture grill tubes such as Trinitron, but boast considerably reasonable on-screen controls. higher mechanical stability. NEC is the first company to develop a In our tests, the 17HX scored well in terms of resolving power, slotted mask with a pitch fine enough for high-resolution computer colour intensity and convergence but suffered from visible streaking applications; NEC calls it ChromaClear and it’s capable of 1,024 x 768 and ghosting. Its luminosity and colour evenness were slap bang in the non-interlaced at 85Hz. The result is a bright display with superb colour middle of all the monitors tested here. alignment and convergence: resolving power and regulation are The 17HX is a fair all-round monitor and reasonably priced at average, however. NEC’s additional video booster along with around £520 on the street but is overshadowed by its more expensive unsurpassed on-screen controls offer extensive customisation and Diamondtron sibling. enhancements. Motion video PCW Details At around £600 on the street, colours resemble those on familiar PCW Details Mitsubishi’s superb 17in Price RRP £695 (plus VAT); TV sets. The otherwise adequate Price RRP £529 (plus VAT); street street price £520 (plus VAT). Diamondtron is available in guises speakers can be improved by price £410 (plus VAT). Contact Mitsubishi Electric Contact NEC UK 0645 404020 from several manufacturers. It fiddling with the controls: bass, 01707 278614 boasts a slightly higher scanning treble and simulated surround. Good Points Innovation from all frequency and even two sets of Good Points Fair all-rounder. From June the 15in M500 and the directions. Bad Points Diamondtron switchable video inputs. This is new 17in M700’s emissions Bad Points Pricey. Some may version is much better. dislike the cabinet. certainly the model to go for if you’re comply with TCO 1992; avoid Conclusion Spend a bit more Conclusion The most original interested in a Mitsubishi monitor. early MPR II models. and go for that one instead. monitor yet — it’s good, too.

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NEC XV17 NOKIA 447V

With the new multimedia M series, Nokia’s 447V is an attractive 17in NEC now offers four ranges of monitor with downward-firing built-in monitors. The other three, in speakers: small, neat grilles in the descending order of cost and bottom corners betray their presence. performance are XP for professional, Sound quality is good, but whacking XE for efficiency, and XV for value. up the volume disturbed the picture The XV17 will set you back around itself, particularly when playing back £550 on the street, which is fairly high loud CD music. There is no built-in for a “value” 17in but then at least NEC’s name ensures you are still microphone. getting a decent product. No less than eight rocker switches adjust volume, balance, Its 65KHz maximum horizontal scanning frequency is good for brightness, contrast, and the variety of image controls. There’s no on- 1,024 x 768 at up to 80Hz non-interlaced. The tube is dark and delivers screen display, but the entire display flashes dark and light to indicate a high-contrast, vibrant image. The design of the case is very clean the maximum and minimum ends of the range. and modern, and features NEC’s trademark wide surrounding bezel. The 447V powers down from a relatively high 150W, to below 30W The on-screen controls are colourful and even crudely animated at in suspend and under 8W in “off” mode. Emissions conform to MPR-II times to indicate the results of an adjustment. Brightness and contrast but plug’n’play is not supported. The maximum non-interlaced refresh are adjusted with a pair of traditional dials, without indication of on- rate at 1,024 x 768 is 80Hz. screen controls. The picture quality is generally very good and the image is well Our results show the XV17 PCW Details focused, while the power PCW Details to be bright and colourful but Price RRP £799 (plus VAT); street regulation is excellent. It’s lacking ultimate focus and price £550 (plus VAT). not a bad street price Price RRP £549 (plus VAT); street resolving power. It is still a fair Contact NEC UK 0645 404020 either. price £475 (plus VAT). Contact Nokia Monitors 01793 512809 monitor although slightly Good Points Good OSD and The 447V is ageing, but overpriced, especially image. shows how a well-designed Good Points Fair image. Nice case. considering the lack of Bad Points No multimedia. model can still hold its own Bad Points No OSD or plug’n’play. multimedia. Expensive. against younger blood. Conclusion Ageing but still Conclusion Slightly overpriced. respectable.

NOKIA 449M (092) PANASONIC 15MM

We reviewed the Nokia 449M (O92) Panasonic’s debut multimedia version which conforms to TCO 1992 monitors feature the company’s Top emissions. It’s based around a 15in Dome stereo sound system, originally Sony Trinitron tube: a component designed for its small, domestic, which becomes immediately obvious television sets. as soon as you switch on the monitor. The 15MM is a good-looking The image is as bright and vibrant as monitor, with the speaker grilles all typical Sonys. running down the left and right sides. The 449M uses a single wire to hold the Aperture Grill in place, They are quite narrow, however, and do not overly widen the cabinet. which, like the 15in Sony, somewhat disconcertingly fades in and out Emissions conform to TCO 1992 levels, while DPMS compliant of view, as if twisted. video cards will drop the 120W power consumption to below 8W in The 449M is VESA DDC plug’n’play compliant and also powers “off” mode. The 15MM is VESA DDC plug’n’play compliant too. down with a DPMS signal from 100W to under 30W in suspend mode The on-screen display is operated by two buttons to select the and below 8W when “off”. The monitor supports a 1,024 x 768 desired option, while another two adjust. The icons are okay and cover resolution non-interlaced at up to 76Hz. A disk of Nokia monitor typical controls, apart from rotation: there are two preset colour specifications is supplied for Windows 95. temperatures. The volume is adjusted from a separate pair of keys, Compared with the newer models, the 449M’s case looks a little along with a mute button and the level is indicated on the OSD. There old-fashioned. Two buttons select options, which two more adjust with are no tone controls. the aid of the on-screen display. Picture quality is average but PCW Details The image lacks better than the 17in version. Price RRP £399 (plus VAT); street resolving power and PCW Details Most image aspects were okay price £340 (plus VAT). convergence toward the Price RRP £379 (plus VAT); street price in the middle but began to lose it Contact Panasonic 0500 404041 corners but power £325 (plus VAT). towards the corners. This Good Points Great speakers. TCO regulation is good. Overall, Contact Nokia Monitors 01793 512809 included convergence, focus 1992. the 449M is good, but Good Points TCO 1992. Vibrant image. and colour uniformity. On the Bad Points Average picture quality. competes directly with the Bad Points No multimedia. plus side, Panasonic’s speakers Conclusion Outperformed by Conclusion Good, but check out the popular Sony 15sfII. were well above average. cheaper models. Sony 15in.

196 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 GROUP TEST: MONITORS

PANASONIC 17MM PHILIPS 17B

Panasonic’s 17in multimedia monitor In Philips monitor hierarchy, the B shares the speaker technology the models represent the middle of the company employs in its small TV sets, range. The 17B is a plain-looking resulting in sound quality equal to or monitor with only a turquoise power above most of the models in this button for style, but its performance is feature. The speaker grills are fitted by no means dull. vertically on the left and right sides of There’s no microphone and the the case, but are narrow enough not to rated power of the built-in speakers is widen it too much. A microphone is built in. low, but the sound that emerges is really rather good with an unusually The on-screen display features reasonable icons and a fairly spacious stereo effect. The 17B supports all the usual standards, methodical navigation, two selection buttons and another two to adjust. including MPR-II for emissions, VESA DDC for plug’n’play and DPMS Volume is controlled by another two buttons, while the level is indicated for power saving. It powers down from 110 Watts to under 15 Watts in on the OSD. The 17MM conforms to TCO 1992 for emissions, VESA suspend and less than 5 Watts in “off” mode. DDC for plug’n’play compatibility, and DPMS which reduces the Volume, contrast and brightness are adjusted with dials, leaving maximum consumption of 120 Watts to below 8 Watts in “off” mode. image correction to the gaudy, but clear and informative, on-screen The image is slightly unfocused in the corners, where convergence display. Functions like Geometry Correction are described by large also begins to fall out of line. There are slight discolourations, icons and words. Focus and resolving power are below par, while suggesting inadequate magnetic shielding from the speakers. The convergence, colour 15MM model is by no means a PCW Details evenness and luminosity PCW Details great performer but outguns the are just alright. Power Price RRP £735 (plus VAT); street Price RRP £570 (plus VAT); 17MM, particularly in terms of regulation is excellent. £685 + VAT street £540 (plus VAT) brightness. Panasonic has got Despite these average Contact Panasonic 0500 404041 Contact Philips Consumer Electronics the multimedia aspect right results, the overall picture 0181 689 4444 Good Points Great speakers; though, with above-average experience is bright, TCO-1992. Good Points Good sound. speakers. vibrant and good enough Bad Points Poor image, pricey. Bad Points A tad too pricey on the street. for most budget Conclusion Too expensive for its Conclusion Beaten by many budget performance. applications. 17in’s.

PHILIPS BRILLIANCE 15A SAMSUNG SYNCMASTER 15M

Philips monitors fall into three ranges, Samsung’s first multimedia range C, B and A, in ascending order of arrived in time for a review of the 15in, performance. Subsequently the but sadly not the 17in model. The Brilliance 15A is Philips’ top-end 15in SyncMaster 15M is a good-looking monitor. monitor, with its speakers fitted down Not a company to hold back on the left and right sides of the display. self-praise, the 15A boasts what The resulting case is fairly wide but still Philips calls “Brilliant Sound”. It’s attractive. There is a built-in actually a technical term referring to the number of audio features microphone. unique to the 15A. Principal is Philips’ Acoustic Horn Technology, Mounted on the front surface are buttons to mute the speakers, configured specifically to the 15A. The resulting sound is certainly deactivate the microphone and adjust the sound properties, which above average but is slightly tinny and distorts at high volumes. include bass, treble and balance. Behind a panel lie the image The cabinet is stylish, with many curves and grills, along with a big controls. All sound and image adjustments are aided by the fair on- silver power button. The speaker grills are fitted down the left and right screen display. sides, and the built-in microphone sits above the tube in the middle. Resolving power begins to fall off in the corners, but convergence Volume, brightness and contrast are adjusted with three and regulation are good and there is little or no streaking. Cycling conventional dials, while image correction is catered for by a set of through plain coloured test patterns revealed the slightest magnetic buttons and accompanying lights. Shock horror! — no on-screen interference from the built-in speakers, but this is not at all noticeable display: Philips claims it in daily use. As compensation the PCW Details chose to spend the money speakers are very good and fail PCW Details on the audio instead. to distort or affect the image Price RRP n/a; street £291 (plus Resolving power, colour Price RRP £350 (plus VAT); except at very high volumes. VAT) evenness and luminosity street £280 (plus VAT) The 15M didn’t come out too Contact Samsung Electronics Contact Philips Consumer Electronics 0181 391 0168 are above average, but well in our colour evenness and 0181 689 4444 power regulation is poor luminosity tests; indeed, it did Good Points Speakers; price. and some streaking is Good Points Sound, style and price. look a little dull, but otherwise Bad Points Image beaten by visible. Bad Points No OSD; average picture. represents good value for money. many. Conclusion Good, but bettered by some. Conclusion Better 15’s out there.

197 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 GROUP TEST: MONITORS GROUP TEST: MONITORS

SAMSUNG SYNCMASTER 17GLI SONY 15 SFII VIEWSONIC 15GA VIEWSONIC 17GA

Samsung’s multimedia-less GLi Sony’s original 15sf won awards left, Viewsonic’s multimedia monitors are Viewsonic’s 17GA multimedia monitor series consists of four models: two 15in right and centre, including one from rebadged Panasonics. The 15GA is a is a rebadged Panasonic 17MM in a and two 17in. The higher-end £699 ourselves, and fast became one of the Panasonic 15MM in a slightly different slightly different case. Like the RRP 17Glsi supports a maximum best-selling 15in monitors around. It box. Where Panasonic’s is flush with Viewsonic 15GA, the 17GA’s speaker horizontal scanning frequency of displayed the typical Trinitron the bevel all the way around, grilles slope in towards the tube 85kHz, while the cheaper £599 RRP properties of being bright, vibrant and Viewsonic has its speaker grilles whereas Panasonic’s sit flush with the 17GLi, reviewed here, offers 65kHz colourful without compromising on slightly indented at the tube side. There bevel. There is a built in microphone. delivering 1024 x 768 at up to 76Hz. sharpness. The 15sfII’s cabinet is the is a built-in microphone. Panasonic based its monitor All Gli models feature good-looking cases with a slightly rounded same neat design as the earlier 15sf: a shrunk down version of the The speakers still run down the left and right sides and, like the speakers on those it fits to its small TV sets and the same technology lip, and most controls are hidden behind a front panel. Brightness and 17sf and sfII. A thin surround gently curves out in the lower right corner Panasonic, sound well above average. Viewsonic rather modestly found in the Viewsonic 17GA certainly sounds very good. Perhaps not contrast are adjusted with conventional dials without on-screen help, to accommodate adjustment and selection controls. The on-screen labels them “PerfectSound Multimedia”. Volume and mute are the “PerfectSound Multimedia” promised but well above average. The while all other controls are operated via the clear OSD. One small but display is informative, with bars and numeric indicators. The 15sfII is controlled by three buttons while all image adjustments are made with on-screen display is good and includes settings for the sound volume. annoying point is that the screen flickers momentarily when the OSD MPR-II compliant and there’s a TCO-1992 version available. an additional four: two to navigate and two to adjust. All controls The 17GA is VESA DDC plug’n’play compliant, conforms to TCO- is switched on or off. Trinitron Aperture Grilles are sensitive to mechanical interference, including multimedia are aided by the on-screen display. 1992 emissions and supports DPMS, powering down from 120W to The 17GLi is VESA DDC plug’n’play compliant, supports DPMS, which is why Sony hasn’t fitted speakers to any of its new monitors. The 15GA is VESA DDC plug’n’play compliant, conforms to TCO- under 8W in “off” mode. A maximum 86Hz non-interlaced refresh rate powering down from 100 Watts to below 15 Watts then under 5 Watts Fine wires running horizontally keep the Grille in place — two on a 17in 1992 emissions and supports DPMS, powering down from 120 Watts is offered at 1,024 x 768. in suspend and “off” modes respectively. Emissions meet MPR-II. or larger, one on anything below. The single wire on our 15sfII was to under 8 Watts in “off” mode. It will do 1024 x 768 non-interlaced at Apart from good sound, TCO-1992 conformity and a nice case, The unit had some difficulties PCW Details slightly twisted, appearing to 86Hz but loses resolving power, particularly towards the corners, at there’s not a lot else to recommend the 17GA. Its image is okay but resolving the toughest patterns, but fade in and out and this resolution. There’s mis- nothing special and loses focus at a 1,024 x 678 resolution. Its typical Price RRP £599 (plus VAT); PCW Details made up for that in terms of very consequently more visible convergence in the corners too, PCW Details street price is much street £479 (plus VAT) Price RRP £395 (plus VAT); PCW Details good convergence, power Contact Samsung Electronics than the two of the 17sfII. It’s street £300 (plus VAT) and signs of poor power Price RRP n/a; street £359 (plus lower than the figure regulation, and above average 0181 391 0168 not quite as good a performer Contact Sony Computer Peripherals regulation. VAT) Panasonic quotes for Price £589 (plus VAT), street; RRP n/a colour evenness and luminosity. It’s either, lacking the resolving Sound and design are in the its 17MM but cheaper Contact Viewsonic Europe 0181 781 6986 Good Points Above average 0181 760 0500 Contact Viewsonic Europe a good budget monitor, but is close power and shocking vibrancy 15GA’s favour, but both it and 0181 781 6986 models still out- performance. Good Points Good image and price. Good Points Great speakers; TCO-1992. to the price of much better models. Bad Points No multimedia. of the 17sfII. Still a great Bad Points Not as impressive as the the Panasonic 15MM are Good Points Speakers; TCO-1992. perform it. Bad Points Poor image. Conclusion Good, but beaten monitor though. 17sfII. outperformed by cheaper Bad Points Average image. Conclusion Overpriced, but cheaper than by others Conclusion Should be considered. models. Conclusion Overpriced. Panasonic.

SONY 17 SFII TAXAN ERGOVISION 730 TCO-S WYSE WY-15E WYSE WY-17E

Switch on Sony’s sfII and According to Romtec, First things first: the WYSEvision WY- Like its smaller 15in counterpart, the you’re immediately in love. Taxan had the largest 15E is a very cheap monitor. At an WYSEvision WY-17E is a rock bottom It’s just so much brighter than any market share of monitor sales in the RRP of only £265, it’s reasonably fair budget monitor. It shares a similar case other monitor in this test. The UK last year. It’s not surprising, with to expect and perhaps even forgive a styling, with a huge curved lip and very vibrancy of the Trinitron tube literally the company sourcing the highest few problems. There is no built-in simple front panel controls. There are jumps out and grabs your attention quality components and putting them multimedia however, which keeps no built-in speakers or microphone. — without inducing a headache, we together in competitively-priced costs down. The specification is similar, meeting might add. packages. The case is at least quite stylish, MPR-II in terms of emissions, The attractive cabinet is no The Ergovision 730 TCO-S is one of Taxan’s new multimedia with a large curved lower section and an incredibly simple front panel. supporting DPMS for powering down to below 15 Watts then under 8 different to the 17sf which came highly commended in last year’s range, and the company has clearly gone for a bolt-on approach. The One button actives the fair on-screen display, while the brightness and Watts in suspend and “off” modes respectively, but offering VESA group test. This version II model still features a small lip at the bottom lower speaker section is attached to the main unit, saving Taxan the contrast rocker switches double up as selectors and adjusters. DDC plug’n’play compatibility — a feature the WY-15E is missing. The right, where the adjustment controls are located. Choose your option, cost of manufacturing a completely new cabinet. Audio controls are The WY-15E supports DPMS, powering down from the maximum on-screen display is okay but not used to indicate the brightness and then adjust using the excellent on-screen display as an indicator. located on the outside while all other controls are hidden behind a 100 Watt consumption to under 15 Watts in suspend, then below 8 contrast settings. Due to the mechanical instability of the Trinitron Aperture Grille panel. The sound quality is average, but this whole lower portion Watts in “off” mode. Emissions conform to MPR-II but the monitor is The WY-17E’s performance is better than the 15in model, with Sony has chosen not to figure out how to fit and suitably shield built-in comes across as cheap and badly thought out. not DDC plug’n’play compatible. Convergence is good, but in every superior convergence and video bandwidth, but focus still loses it speakers. Instead, the updated models boast improved specifications Fortunately the rest of the monitor is good. It conforms to TCO 1992 other image respect the WY-15E is poor. It particularly falls down on towards the corners. There’s still the problem of a poor power and compatibility, including plug’n’play and DPMS. Emissions emissions, and indeed Taxan is one of the few companies that will sell focus, while a poor power regulator is revealed by a temporarily regulator, resulting in a short bout of image instability and general conform to MPR-II although a TCO 1992 version is also available. you a TCO 1995 model if so desired. It’s plug’n’play and DPMS wobbling and jumping image when you maximise a window. wobbling whenever, say, a window is maximised. Resolving power is excellent, as are convergence and focus. compliant and features a The WY-15E could The conclusion is the same PCW Details PCW Details PCW Details There’s no ghosting and colour PCW Details basic, but clear, on-screen display the test signal of as the WY-15E. The WY-17E is evenness is above average. display. Price RRP £695 (plus VAT); 1024 x 768 at 75Hz non- Price RRP £265 (plus VAT); undeniably cheap, but pays for Price RRP £474 (plus VAT); street Price RRP £649 + VAT; There may be no Performance is good, street £507 (plus VAT) interlaced, but that’s about as street £249 (plus VAT) it in terms of quality. It will £465 (plus VAT) street £500 + VAT multimedia but the price is low with sharp focus, no moiré Contact Taxan Europe 01344 484646 far as it goes. If you want a Contact Wyse Technology display our test signal but is Contact Wyse Technology Contact Sony Computer enough for you to buy external patterns or streaking, and Good Points Good image, cheap monitor to drive at 01734 342200 best suited to lower resolutions. 01734 342200 Peripherals 0181 760 0500 speakers, and the performance decent convergence. specification and price. lower rates it’s worth Good Points Cheap; interesting case. Good Points Nice case design; Good Points Fantastic image. is nothing short of superb. Colour evenness and Bad Points Multimedia a bolt-on considering, but otherwise try Bad Points Poor image. cheap. Bad Points No multimedia. luminosity fell in the middle afterthought. elsewhere. Conclusion Only for the real budget Bad Points Picture quality low. Conclusion A clear winner. Conclusion Good all-rounder. of our test results. buyer. Conclusion Budget buyers only.

198 201 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 GROUP TEST: MONITORS

Monitors How we did the tests

Measurement of colours may seem to be in the realm of fine art, but there are well-defined units to express both colours and brightness. Colour spaces enable the mapping of tristimulus (red, green and blue) values into a 2D graph. In 1931, the Commission Internationale d’Eclairage (CIE) proposed a colour model as an international standard for colour measurement. This model was further refined in 1976. Our measurements are made in CIE 1976 colour space. Brightness, or luminosity, also has its own units of measurement. Again, the actual level of luminance is unimportant, provided that it is even enough across the entire screen area. All monitors are affected to some extent by ambient electromagnetic fields, such as those emitted by neighbouring items of electrical equipment, from the earth’s magnetic poles and also from steel-framed buildings. VNU Labs’ test bed was set up to minimise these effects: screens were tested 1,024 x 768 pixels, in 16-bit colour at a 75Hz DisplayMate for Windows offers an away from other electrical equipment, and in vertical non-interlaced refresh rate. invaluable suite of monitor test the centre of the room. The first test measures the maximum utilities Starting from an ambient temperature of brightness of a monitor displaying a plain 18˚C, the monitors were switched on to warm white screen: this reading gives a good up for an hour and a half before being tested indication of the monitor power supply unit’s and were degaussed prior to measurements (PSU) capacity. The PSU is one of the most screen centre’s values. Many monitors now being taken. It’s a general rule that analogue important components of a good monitor and allow adjustment of the colour temperature circuitry reaches greater stability at its affects many other facets of display quality and doing this affects the absolute colour operating temperature, so the colour like screen regulation and transient space readings, but not the relative colour analyser was also calibrated after having responses. Following the first test, all purity which is mostly affected by poor been warmed-up for an hour. monitors were adjusted to give a luminance internal shielding and poor screen A Minolta CA-100 colour analyser was reading of roughly 50cd/m^2 on the white degaussing. used to measure the evenness of colour screen. Results are expressed relative to the across the edges and in the centre of each Next, readings figures were obtained for Panasonic Panasync 17in. Colour purity and screen. This device is a colorimeter, which white, red, blue and luminosity give a good indication to the produces x and y CIE green screens, quality of a monitor. These results do not colour co-ordinates generated at their take into account dot focus and independently of hues maximum saturation misconvergence, which were judged and brightness, using levels. The tests render subjectively by a panel of users. Built-in a handheld two sets of speakers were tested with CD music, games photodiode sensor measurements (colour and Windows system sounds with attention probe. A PC running and luminance) for each paid to distortion and image interference, DisplayMate for of the five points along with subjective quality. On-screen Windows (with a mentioned, and the controls were again shown to a panel which Matrox MGA display overall monitor commented on presentation and ease of use. adaptor) provided the performance is The overall results and winners are test images. The calculated by taking the mentioned in the reviews and conclusion. drivers were set for deviation from the VNU European Labs

203 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 GROUP TEST: MONITORS Monitors Editor’s choice

Today’s monitors are far more the quality of better models, the 4V easily than just plain displays. They outperforms those awful, bundled 14in boast automatic power saving, monitors. Also recommended, but not award- on-screen controls, plug’n’play and, in many winning, is the Philips Brilliance 15A. cases, built-in speakers, microphones, and A second Highly Commended award even video cameras. goes to the breathtakingly innovative NEC Fortunately, their primary function, of M500. Not only is it NEC’s first desktop image display, has improved in quality while multimedia monitor, but it also boasts an overall prices have dropped — isn’t the excellent OSD, a brand new tube technology computer industry a wonderful thing? £300 and one of the most unusual cases we’ve will get you a respectable 15in, while £500 ever seen. Not cheap at £410 (plus VAT) on gets you a decent 17in; both monitors the street, but certainly original. capable of locking on to a range of signals up The Editor’s Choice in the 15in section to resolutions of 1024 x 768 non-interlaced at Editor’s Choice goes to CTX for its new multimedia 1569MS. 75Hz or higher. ● CTX 1569MS It’s a clear winner, with a great picture, above However, before discussing the winners ● Sony 17 sfII average sound quality, a clear OSD and and losers in this group test, here are our even compliance with TCO-1992 for findings on the technological advancements. Highly Commended emissions, all for £299 (plus VAT) on the ● On-screen displays (OSD) were once ADI MicroScan 4V street. ● unusual but are now the norm. All but the Hitachi 17MVXPro2 ● oldest or cheapest models in this round-up NEC M500 17in monitors ● feature the superimposed graphics which Taxan Ergovision 730 TCO-S Moving swiftly on to the 17in monitor sees supposedly help you adjust your monitor fewer multimedia models but a fierce battle settings. There are no standards for OSDs, successfully detects a DDC-compliant on image quality. Iiyama and Mitsubishi so quality, scope and usability vary monitor but sets it to run at a much lower offered excellent monitors, just missing enormously. Many users prefer a huge row of refresh rate than both it and the graphics awards, although given the choice we’d buttons instead of navigating a potentially card are capable of — another case of set it sooner opt for the Diamondtron versions tortuous array of nested options with only a manually until all hardware and software from both companies. pair of buttons and a load of graphics for manufacturers get up to speed. Hitachi’s 17MVXPro2 is a bit of a mouthful company. Once again, OSDs are another Multimedia is another slightly missed and has a disappointingly old-fashioned look aspect of monitors which are subjective: opportunity. Before you dismiss a monitor about it, but the picture is superb and, at while some are obviously great, others are without multimedia, bear in mind that most of £499 (plus VAT) on the street, earns itself a awful, so try before you buy. the manufacturers are fitting extremely Highly Commended award. There’s fortunately no trouble with power cheap speakers. Some sound adequate for Scoring low in the bolt-on speaker design saving. So long as your monitor and graphics general use but you’ll achieve the same stakes, Taxan’s Ergovision 730 TCO-S gets card are VESA DPMS compliant (see the results with a pair of external speakers the thumbs up in every other department: box, “Monitor safety: emission costing up to £30. Of course, separate great picture, fair sound, TCO-1992 accomplished”), you can look forward to an speakers are not as neat a solution as compliance and a good street price of around environmental- and money-saving future. having everything built in, but it’s not the end £507 (plus VAT) means it comes Highly Just set the power-down for x minutes in the of the world if they don’t. Those serious Commended. boxes in your graphics card or Windows 95 about their sound should certainly invest in The overall 17in winner is… shock- display properties and you’re literally “off”. separate-powered speaker packages, many horror… not a multimedia monitor: indeed, Another VESA standard, DDC 1 and 2 of which consist of two satellite units and one there are technological doubts as to whether A/B, offering the infamous plug’n’play sub-woofer, hidden conveniently out of view. its tube design could support built-in compatibility, is different matter. The idea is a speakers. Nevertheless, almost from the good one: the first level of DDC has the 15in monitors moment we plugged it in there was no doubt monitor deftly communicating its capabilities On to the Editor’s Choice, and 15in monitors that this would be our Editor’s Choice in to anyone who’s listening, while the second first. It would seem that the first models to be terms of sheer image quality. Sony’s new level allows a two-way conversation. The shipped from brand new multimedia ranges and improved 17sfII, at £500 (plus VAT), is graphics card says “Hey, I can do this, what are 15in sizes, with 17s having to wait for a so vibrant it almost smacks you in the face. can you do?” to which the monitor replies couple of months. Having said this, our first Its colour evenness and luminosity were “Nice to meet you — I can’t do that, but I can Highly Commended award goes to a leaps and bounds above the rest. Another do this.” A little more banter later and both multimedia-less model representing superb triumph for Trinitron: just buy yourself a pair devices are automatically working at their value: at £240 (plus VAT) on the street, of powered speakers to sit alongside and optimum. ADI’s MicroScan 4V is the best of the budget you’re complete. However, in our experience, Windows 95 15in monitors we tested. Although not up to Gordon Laing

205 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 GROUP TEST: MONITORS

Performance Results Overall colour and luminosity geometric mean Manufacturer Model 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 Totals

SONY 17 SFII 2.34 ADI MicroScan 4V 2.05 Hitachi 17MVX Pro2 1.80 Viewsonic 156A 1.65 Wyse Wysevision WY-17E 1.61 Wyse Wysevision WY-15E 1.48 CTX 1569MS 1.48 Panasonic Panasync 15MM 1.41 Philips Brilliance 15A 1.40 NEC Multisync M500 1.35 Samsung Syncmaster 17GLI 1.33 Nokia 449M 1.31 Goldstar 1727 1.29 ADI MicroScan 5V 1.26 NEC Multisync XV17 1.22 Mitsubishi Diamondscan 17HX 1.15 Ilyama Vision Master 17 1.14 CTX 1785S 1.12 Nokia Valuegraph 447V 1.01 Panasonic Panasync 17MM 1.00 Phillips 17B 0.91 Sony Multiscan 15SFII 0.90 Editor’s Choice Taxan Ergovision 730(TCO-S) Highly Commended 0.88 Goldstar Studioworks 56M 0.84 Samsung Syncmaster 15M 0.63 Viewsonic 17GA 0.57

MONITORS TABLE OF FEATURES 1 CTX Goldstar Goldstar ManufacturerADI ADIADI ADICTX CTX CTX Goldstar Goldstar Model MicroScan 4V MicroScan 5V 1569MS 1785S StudioWorks 56m 1727 Visible tube size 348mm 407mm 352mm 405mm 353mm 408mm Speakers ❍❍3 + 3 W ❍ 2 + 2 W ❍ Microphone ❍❍ ● ❍ ❍❍ Plug n Play ●● ● ● ●❍ Horizontal frequency 31 - 64 kHz 30 - 64 kHz 30 - 70 kHz 30 - 85 kHz 30 - 65 kHz 30 - 65 kHz Vertical frequency 50 - 100 Hz 50 - 100 Hz 50 - 120 Hz 50 - 120 Hz 50 - 110 Hz 50 - 120 Hz Max bandwidth 85 MHz 95 MHz 85 MHz 135 MHz 110 MHz 111 MHz Dot pitch 0.28mm 0.28mm 0.28mm 0.26mm 0.28mm 0.28mm Emissions MPR II MPR II TCO 1992 MPR II MPR II MPR II Max consumption 85 W 110 W 100 W 130 W 90 W 100 W Suspend consumption < 30 W <15 W <15 W <10 W <15 W <15 W Off consumption < 5 W < 8 W < 8 W < 6 W < 8 W <8W On screen display ❍❍ ● ● ●● Size/position control ●● ● ● ●● Pincussion control ●● ● ● ●● Trapezoid control ●● ● ● ●● Rotation control ●❍ ● ● ●● Preset colour temps 1 1 3 3 2 1 Dimensions (whd) 364 x 368 x 390mm 402 x 416 x 435mm 395 x 395 x 407mm 418 x 439 x 417mm 359 x 372 x 385mm 420 x 438 x 479mm Weight 14.3 kg 17.5 kg 13.6 kg 17.5 kg 13.4 kg 22 kg RRP £315+VAT £585+VAT n/a n/a £315+VAT £502+VAT Typical street price £240+VAT £469+VAT £299+VAT £499+VAT £260+VAT £440+VAT Contact ADI Systems UK ADI Systems UK CTX Europe Ltd CTX Europe Ltd LG Electronics UK LG Electronics UK Telephone 0181 236 0801 0181 236 0801 01923 818461 01923 818461 01753 500400 01753 500400

KEY ● Yes ❍ No

206 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 GROUP TEST: MONITORS

MONITORS TABLE OF FEATURES 2 NEC NEC ManufacturerHitachi HitachiIiyama IiyamaMitsubishi Mitsubishi NEC NEC Model 17MVXPro2 MF-8617E Diamond Scan 17HX M500 XV17 Visible tube size 404mm 400mm 400mm 349mm 393mm Speakers ❍❍❍2 + 2 W ❍ Microphone ❍❍❍● ❍ Plug n Play ● ● ● ● ● Horizontal frequency 24.8 x 82 kHz 27 - 86 kHz 31 - 78 KHz 30 - 69 kHz 31 - 65 kHz Vertical frequency 50 - 120 Hz 50 - 160 Hz 50 - 130 Hz 55 - 120 Hz 55 - 100 Hz Max bandwidth 135 MHz 160 MHz 135 MHz 85 MHz 85 MHz Dot pitch 0.26mm 0.26mm 0.26mm 0.25mm 0.28mm Emissions TCO 1992 MPR II MPR II TCO 1992 MPR II Max consumption 110 W 110 W 125 W 100 W 130 W Suspend consumption < 30 W < 8 W < 30 W < 30 W < 30 W Off consumption < t5 W < 6 W < 8 W < 1 W < 8 W On screen display ● ● ● ● ● Size/position control ● ● ● ● ● Pincussion control ● ● ● ● ● Trapezoid control ● ● ● ● ● Rotation control ● ● ● ● ❍ Preset colour temps 2 3 3 5 5 Dimensions (whd) 410 x 429 x 465mm 412 x 422 x 415mm 410 x 406 x 425mm 372 x 406 x 405mm 407 x 424 x 450mm Weight 22 kg 21 kg 20.5 kg 15 kg 20.8 kg RRP £599+VAT £575+VAT £695+VAT £529+VAT £799+VAT Typical street price £499+VAT £536+VAT £520+VAT £410+VAT £550+VAT Contact Hitachi Business Systems Iiyama UK Mitsubishi Electric NEC UK NEC UK Telephone 0181 849 2000 01438 745482 01707 278614 0645 404020 0645 404020

KEY ● Yes ❍ No

MONITORS TABLE OF FEATURES 3 Panasonic Phillips ManufacturerNokia NokiaNokia NokiaPanasonic Panasonic Panasonic Philips Model 447V 449M (092) 15MM 17MM Brilliance 15A Visible tube size 397mm 345mm 355mm 410mm 352mm Speakers 2 + 2 W ❍ 2 + 2 W 2 + 2 W 2.5 + 2.5 W Microphone ❍❍●●● Plug n Play ❍●●●● Horizontal frequency 31 - 64 kHz 30 - 62 kHz 30 - 69 kHz 30 - 69 kHz 30 - 66 kHz Vertical frequency 48 - 100 Hz 48 - 100 Hz 50 - 160 Hz 50 - 160 Hz 50 - 110 Hz Max bandwidth 90 MHZ 90 MHz 86 MHz 86 MHz 108 MHz Dot pitch 0.28mm 0.26mm 0.27mm 0.27mm 0.28mm Emissions MPR II TCO 1992 TCO 1992 TCO 1992 MPR II Max consumption 150 W 100 W 120 W 120 W 100 W Suspend consumption < 30 W < t30 W < 30 W < 30 W < 15 W Off consumption < 8 W < 8 W < 8 W < 8 W < 5 W On screen display ❍●●●n Size/position control ●●●●● Pincussion control ●●●●● Trapezoid control ●●●●● Rotation control ❍●❍❍● Preset colour temps 1 5 2 2 1 Dimensions (whd) 427 x 430 x 483mm 370 x 370 x 398mm 374 x 383 x 407mm 438 x 418 x 438mm 404 x 334 x 398mm Weight 19 kg 14 kg 15 kg 18.5 kg 13 kg RRP £549+VAT £379+VAT £399+VAT £735+VAT £350+VAT Typical street price £475+VAT £325+VAT £340+VAT £685+VAT £280+VAT Contact Nokia Monitors Nokia Monitors Panasonic Panasonic Philips Consumer Electronics Telephone 01793 512809 01793 512809 0500 404041 0500 404041 0181 689 4444

KEY ● Yes ❍ No

208 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 GROUP TEST: MONITORS

MONITORS TABLE OF FEATURES 4 Sony Sony ManufacturerPhillips PhilipsSamsung SamsungSamsung Samsung Sony Sony Model 17B 15M 17GLi 15 sfII 17 sfII Visible tube size 410mm 350mm 400mm 353mm 404mm Speakers 1 + 1 W 1.5 +1.5 W ❍❍ ❍ Microphone ❍●❍❍❍ Plug n Play ●●●●● Horizontal frequency 30 - 66 kHz 30 - 65 kHz 30 - 65 kHz 31 - 65 kHz 31 - 65 kHz Vertical frequency 50 - 130 Hz 50 - 120 Hz 50 - 120 Hz 50 - 120 Hz 50 - 120 Hz Max bandwidth 110 MHz 110 MHz 110 MHz 60 MHz 60 MHz Dot pitch 0.28mm 0.28mm 0.28mm 0.25mm 0.25mm Emissions MPR II MPR II MPR II MPR II MPR II Max consumption 110 W 80 W 100 W 100 W 130 W Suspend consumption < 15 W < 15 W < 15 W < 15 W < 15 W Off consumption < 5 W < 5 W < 5 W < 8 W < 8 W On screen display ●●●●● Size/position control ●●●●● Pincussion control ●●●●● Trapezoid control ●●●❍❍ Rotation control ●❍●●● Preset colour temps 2 2 2 2 2 Dimensions (whd) 417 x 426 x 450mm 403 x 396 x 421mm 428 x 420 x 439mm 368 x 373 x 385mm 406 x 427 x 451mm Weight 18.5 kg 16 kg 18 kg 13.8 kg 19 kg RRP £570+VAT n/a £599+VAT £395+VAT £649+VAT Typical street price £540+VAT £291+VAT £479+VAT £300+VAT £500+VAT Contact Philips Consumer Electronics Samsung Electronics Samsung Electronics Sony Computer Peripherals Sony Computer Peripherals Telephone 0181 689 4444 0181 391 0168 0181 391 0168 0181 760 0500 0181 760 0500

KEY ● Yes ❍ No

MONITORS TABLE OF FEATURES 5 Wyse Wyse ManufacturerTaxan TaxanViewsonic ViewsonicViewsonic Viewsonic Wyse Wyse Model Ergovision 730 TCO-S 15GA 17GA WY-15e WY-17e Visible tube size 394mm 357mm 412mm 348mm 401mm Speakers 1.5 + 1.5 W 2 + 2 W 2 + 2 W ❍❍ Microphone ●● ● ❍❍ Plug n Play ●● ● ❍● Horizontal frequency 30 - 69 kHz 30 - 69 kHz 30 - 69 kHz 30 - 68 kHz 30 - 68 kHz Vertical frequency 50 - 120 Hz 50 - 160 Hz 50 - 160 Hz 50 - 100 Hz 50 - 100 Hz Max bandwidth 86 MHz 86 MHz 86 MHz 85 MHz 85 MHz Dot pitch 0.28mm 0.27mm 0.27mm 0.28mm 0.28mm Emissions TCO 1992 TCO 1992 TCO 1992 MPR II MPR II Max consumption 150 W 120 W 120 W 100 130 W Suspend consumption < 30 W < 30 W < 30 W < 15 W < 15 W Off consumption < 8 W < 8 W < 8 W < 8 W < 8 W On screen display ●● ● ●● Size/position control ●● ● ●● Pincussion control ●● ● ●● Trapezoid control ●● ● ●● Rotation control ●❍ ❍ ❍● Preset colour temps 3 2 2 1 3 Dimensions (whd) 411 x 424 x 462mm 374 x 383 x 407mm 438 x 418 x 438mm 358 x 382 x 405mm 411 x 419 x 424mm Weight 18 kg 15 kg 18.5 kg 12.2 kg 17.5 kg RRP £695+VAT n/a n/a £265+VAT £474+VAT Typical street price £507+VAT £359+VAT £589+VAT £249+VAT £465+VAT Contact Taxan Europe ViewSonic Europe ViewSonic Europe Wyse Technology Wyse Technology Telephone 01344 484646 0181 781 6986 0181 781 6986 01734 342200 01734 342200

KEY ● Yes ❍ No

212 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 On the

CUTTINGCUTTING EDGEEDGE PCW

elcome to PCW Online PCW Futures Cutting Edge, the W 222 Focus — Microsoft hopes to set 244 Innovations — Tim Frost section in Personal standards for the Web with its outlines Sony’s proposals for a armoury of new Internet tools. Tim recordable CD file system as an Computer World that Anderson assesses its plans and extension of the hard disk. combines our regular products. 245 Horizons — Paul Miller writes reviews of games, books 226 Focus — Steve Oualline: of the joys of virtual instrumenta- and CD-ROMs, with features programmer, author and teacher, tion for product testing talks to PJ Fisher about all things keeping you right up to date programming, the Internet, and junk 246 Bluesky — Toby Howard on with computing and the software. nanotechnology and the chances of voice-activated sticky Internet. 229 net.newbies — How to get tape. We now have the most online, with ease. 247 Retro Computing — You comprehensive coverage of 230 net.news — Europe Online needed big biceps and a big launched in UK; Spyglass buys wallet to handle the first colour these topics available in a Surfwatch in $12.6m deal; 3D Web portable, says Simon Rockman. general computing Workshop for Windows under way… and more news and opinion magazine. Stay with us and from PJ Fisher. PCW Media we’ll take the pain out of 236 net.answers — Finding your 248 Books — Our daring reviewers keeping on the cutting edge. way around the Internet throws up read their survival guide before all sorts of queries. Nigel handling an assault on reality Whitfield has the solutions. and the pursuit of a cyber- criminal.

Screenplay: Future Shock 258 CD-ROMs — Fine art, Bluesky 246 education, singing, myths and legends, and let’s make no bones about Dogz.

PCW Fun

253 Kids’ Stuff — Disney, Bellamy and the Gingerbread Man (a very mixed gathering!) and Paul Begg opens Pandora’s box, too.

Steve Oualline: Focus 226 263 Screenplay — Why not create your ideal civilisation? You could hand out a bit of abuse, too, but don’t hit absolute zero. Plus, games news.

266 Leisure Lines — Puzzles with JJ Clessa.

Vermeer: CD-ROMs 258 267 Competition — Loads of prizes, including Global Woody: Kids’ Stuff 253 Online accounts and Make-it upgrade chips.

221 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 PCW PCW FOCUS: MICROSOFT FOCUS: MICROSOFT

phenomenon that has grabbed such as Unix cannot view the public attention, but is still only ActiveX presentations. a side issue for most companies. The commercial Front Page and TheThe empireempire strikesstrikes backback importance of the Web has yet Internet Studio to be determined. Microsoft is A recent Microsoft acquisition also carrying a significant was Vermeer Technologies, Microsoft is aiming to regain market dominance independence of the Internet? financial burden by devoting so whose FrontPage product is now by setting standards for the Web. Tim Anderson Platform-independence is not much development effort to to be integrated with Microsoft assesses the products announced at the San just incidental: without it, initia- products like Internet Explorer Office. It is an HTML authoring CUTTING EDGE

CUTTING EDGE tives like email, newsgroups and that are given away in an tool that goes further than most Francisco developers conference. the World Wide Web would attempt to win market share. never have succeeded. If It might just pay off. The Microsoft’s products work only Internet is still growing and with Windows, the Internet com- intranets may well become This Web application munity will reject them. On the pervasive. Although Microsoft is depends on VB Script for other hand, the company has to likely to stumble in some parts its calculations — the pizza give Windows unique of its strategy, there is enough never arrived, though advantages that will preserve its here to secure it a hefty slice of dominance on the desktop. future Internet business. The result is a nod towards Internet standards but with the Internet Explorer focus firmly on Windows. By Internet Explorer started life as FrontPage displays a Web site icrosoft has Internet Then in March, at the Web sites. Another is that exist- licensing Java and submitting a version of NCSA’s Mosaic, in hierarchical and graphical fever. Only last year Professional Developers Confer- ing Windows technologies and proposed HTML extensions to once the dominant Web views, with double-ckick analysts were ence (subtitled Building Internet applications should be Web- the World Wide Web browser, for bundling with the access to its own HTML editor Msaying that the Applications) in San Francisco, enabled, to make publishing Consortium, a specifications Plus add-on pack for Windows company had no Web strategy. Microsoft laid out an armoury of documents on the Internet no committee, Microsoft is showing 95. It soon became clear that The MSN bulletin board was too Internet tools. In his keynote more difficult than printing some commitment to open stan- Microsoft was not going to let and another for Schedule Plus. competitors by allowing a whole expensive, slow and content-free. speech, explained the them, and to ensure that OLE dards. But on closer investiga- Netscape walk away with the Office for the Internet PowerPoint users can also Web site to be visualised and In the language wars, platform- strategy. works as easily across the Web tion, the commitment looks thin. browser market, as Explorer To exploit the market dominance use the ActiveX Animation navigated through the FrontPage independent Java from Sun was “As a user, you should as between Word and Excel. For example, use of Visual Basic version 2.0 and 3.0 followed in of its Office application suite, Player, which shows Explorer. hailed as the way of the future. encounter one interface every- A third implication is that Script in Web pages will require quick succession. Microsoft has released a set of PowerPoint’s animation, sound Double-clicking a Web page Database giant Oracle began where, for file access, for mes- HTML, the language of Web VB Script-enabled browsers, This third version, in beta at Internet Assistants which con- and special effects. In Navigator in Explorer opens up the Front- talking about network comput- sages, for pages, and for documents, should become the which initially means only the time of writing, is the first vert documents in Word, Excel 2.0 or Internet Explorer 3.0, Page editor where content can ers: cheap and simple Web documents. You shouldn’t face Windows standard as well. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. truly distinctive Internet or PowerPoint into HTML ver- which support inline playing, the be edited without resorting to workstations designed as a different metaphors for brows- Microsoft has provided exten- While implementing VB Explorer, adding support for sions ready for loading onto a presentation will appear seam- raw HTML code. FrontPage also replacement for the PC. Users ing the Web and browsing your sions to Windows together with Script on other browsers and Active controls and Visual Basic Web site. There’s an Internet lessly within the browser. There comes with a personal Web would depend on the Internet hard drive. There should be a an array of new tools to make all platforms should not be too Script as well as for the obliga- Assistant for Access 95 which is limited Macintosh support, server so that sites can be tested not only for communication but single standard for graphics and this possible (see page 224). difficult, OLE presents a bigger tory Java applets. Another key converts data into HTML tables, but users on other platforms on a local PC. also as a file and application multimedia, and you should The strategy is all-encompassing problem. OLE is a feature of feature is support for Document server, avoiding the need for expect complete integration of and includes specifications for Windows, and one that only Objects, first seen in the little- Digital Signatures local hard disks bulging with data and services, across both Internet telephone and for virtual comes into its own on Windows used Office Binder. This allows executables. Meanwhile, PCs and the Internet.” reality on the Web. For develop- 95 or NT. If Active controls catch Internet Explorer to host a Netscape’s Navigator dominated Several things follow from ers Microsoft has now brought on, there will be plenty of frus- document belonging to another The IT industry is nervous about viruses and know the source of the code and can decide the Web browser market, cater- this. One is the idea of a unified together all its OLE and OCX trated Web users. It all seems application, similar to OLE in- has yet to be convinced that Java is really safe. whether it is safe. If certified code proves ing for a majority of users with browser, a single Explorer Web technologies under a new unnecessary since although OLE place editing but with the whole If Java may be risky, what about Active suspect, it should also be possible to trace the versions for Windows, Mac or application for both files and ActiveX banner and made avail- controls are easy to use, it is browser page taken over by the controls, unrestricted executable components supplier. The process is supported by the Unix. For the first time able a new Internet Devel- hard to envisage many situations Doc Object. that are downloaded to a user’s PC? Microsoft WinVerifyTrust API, an extension to Windows. since Windows ousted oper’s Kit (IDK). where a Java applet would not Eventually Microsoft intends does not pretend they are inherently safe but This initiative will not have an easy ride. It is DOS on the desktop, It’s a beguiling do instead. to integrate Internet Explorer has a response in the form of the Digital an added expense and an administrative burden the industry began to scenario, but where does There is a stronger case for with the file management Signature initiative. It works like this. A for developers and vendors. Further, there is glimpse a Microsoft- it leave the platform- this proprietary technology on Explorer, so that all Windows company that develops executable code for the concern that secure encryption of code may not free future. intranets, internal to a company, users will get it whether they Internet obtains a digital certificate for that be legal under current US security legislation. The company’s One of the first active where compatibility problems want it or not. In combination code from a third-party authority. The vendor Finally, one or two rogue Active controls, response has been controls, this one is can be overcome by network with the Doc Object technology, then signs the code by encrypting the certificate created by hackers who somehow steal keys or energetic and decisive. animated and displays administration. this could allow you to do all into the executable, using a private key. When fake certificates, could undermine confidence in In February it was different types and Nobody can now accuse your Web browsing, file man- the user tries to download it, the browser the system. Such a thing is meant to be restructured to create styles of chart. Hardly Microsoft of not taking the agement, and document decrypts the signature using the vendor’s public impossible, but security-conscious corporates an Internet platform exciting, but it works Internet seriously. Indeed, it may creation and editing, without key. If it checks out correctly, the user will will take a lot of convincing. and tools division. have staked too much on a ever leaving Explorer.

222 223 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 PCW ● FOCUS: MICROSOFT CUTTING EDGE

NT 4.0 Server and Workstation

Microsoft is aiming two NT products, connector wizard which allows you to set to be released later this year, squarely at up Web pages that can interact with NT the Internet and intranet market. or any other databases connected to the The NT 4.0 Workstation, which network. It also has full CGI capabilities incorporates an improved Windows 95 and adheres to the Internet Server API front-end, is to be shipped with Internet (ISAPI) standard. The server can be Explorer 3.0. It will take advantage of administered entirely over the Web. the ActiveX components and DirectX The NT 4.0 Workstation will include graphics system to allow NT to use peer Web services, enabling users to set audio, video and other multimedia up their own small-scale Web servers capabilities over the Internet. from their desktops. Microsoft hopes it The NT 4.0 Server will come as will increase the need for easy-to-use standard with the Internet Information HTML authoring tools. Server (IIS) Version 2.0, which will be During the summer Microsoft also installed automatically during setup. IIS plans to make available the ActiveX 2.0 manages to make setting up and server, allowing fully interactive ActiveX running an Internet or intranet site easy. applications to run from an NT server. It includes an Internet database Mark Prigg

The puzzle is that Microsoft has been automate Active controls embedded in Web working for some time on a home-grown pages, but not external OLE controls. Java product, originally called Blackbird. The classes are automatically exposed as if they initial release of this tool for authoring pages were Active Controls, so VB Script can destined for the Microsoft Network was integrate Java with OLE. cancelled, and Microsoft announced that it Another bonus for Visual Basic developers would be converted to work with HTML is the Internet Control Pack, a generous set of pages, under the new name of Internet OLE controls offered free for download. The Studio. An early version was previewed at HTML control gives drop-in Web browsing the March Internet conference, but it is capability to any development tool that sup- unclear how or why FrontPage and Internet ports OCXs. Other controls enable use of the Studio will co-exist. A reasonable assump- TCP/IP network protocol via Winsock, read- tion is that adapting Internet Studio to work ing and posting to newsgroups, file transfer with HTML is taking too long and that Front- via FTP, and Internet mail. Page was bought in as a quick-fix solution. A final twist is that Microsoft has a licence from Sun to create a Windows reference Programming tools implementation of Java. There will be a devel- For the developer Microsoft’s Internet opment product called Jakarta which will strategy consists of a mass of extensions to integrate into the Development Studio envi- OLE and the Windows API, to make ronment also used by Visual C++. Windows an integrated Internet platform. This is the lump of technology known as Internet Information Server Sweeper or the Active Internet Platform, and Once known as Gibraltar, the Internet Infor- it includes ActiveX controls, Document mation Server is Web server software for Objects, unified browsing, Internet protocols Windows NT 4.0 (see box, above). IIS sup- like FTP and Gopher, and the Internet Server ports ISAPI, a set of extensions to the Win- API, or ISAPI. Developers will be helped by dows API which developers can use instead extensions to the Microsoft Foundation of the traditional and less flexible Common Classes, some already available and some in Gateway Interface or Perl script. preparation. IIS is a free download, although Microsoft Visual Basic script is part of Internet charges a substantial £2,495 for the add-on Explorer 3.0 and Microsoft has made the connector that allows Web access to SQL source code available in the hope that third Server databases. The Internet Information parties will implement VB Script on other Server sits comfortably alongside SQL Server browsers and plaforms. Like Java, VB Script and Exchange Server to create a comprehen- is made safe by the omission of file input sive set of back-end components. and output and has no means of calling the Windows API. At its simplest, VB Script is a PCW Contacts way of embedding VB code into HTML pages http://www.microsoft.com/icp/ so the browser can perform calculations or http://www.microsoft.com/INTDEV/ respond to choices. VB Script can also

224 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 PCW PCW FOCUS FOCUS

re-inventing the wheel product. It’s hard for them to out of the machine. The vast ticks — then you could be a tends to foster a more entrepre- information. Drag-and-drop was configuration problem. Plug- and making it square. see the longer-term benefits. majority I see have learned programmer. neurial spirit than the Japanese, another case: that interface and-play now installs almost But most of the time enough to get a new job but then for example. They foster a group remained unpublished until after everything automatically. But I’m it’s not a matter of which PJF: As a teacher, does it seem unfortunately stopped learning. PJF: C++ has become quite mentality. As students they tend Microsoft products were using it. sure most people have found style you use, but getting to you that programming is still The people who are the best are topical lately, mostly because of to do their homework in groups There is supposed to be a that the difference between people to use a good style considered a “cool” thing to do? those who like to “play with their the hype surrounding Java. What so that you will get the same “Chinese wall” at Microsoft HQ “almost” and “everything” is still and sticking to it. One What’s the attitude among the software”. I know of at least one do you think of the hype? As a answer five times. But they don’t between the OS department and there! company got a style guide- people you train? company that has built into its programmer, you must have a allow for an individual to say the applications department, A lot still needs to done. The line but forgot to give it to SO: The students I see in San structure time for their engineers clearer view of Java. “you’re all wrong and I’m going That just does not exist! No-one security is laughable. Got a sys- the programmers! Diego have been affected by to play with software. They are SO: I am still on the “wait and to prove it”. seriously believes that. And they tem based on NT or Windows CUTTING EDGE

CUTTING EDGE major downsizing in the defence given “G-jobs” (short for “gee see” list. This is about the fifth Take recent events: a guy told still get money from DOS 95? You’d better keep it locked PJF: What kind of qualities budget. These people are saying, whizz”) something that people product that is going to save the Microsoft that the Internet was licenses to subsidise other up, if it’s on the network. Let CC does a good programmer “I know how to make bombs and want to do for fun. world. We’ve had structured the way forward and that he was products. other people onto the network, need? torpedoes but I need to learn a programming, artificial going to form a company and they’ve got the files. SO: Think before you do. I skill so that I can survive.” In the PJF: You started programming at intelligence, expert systems, build a browser. Microsoft said PJF: But is that unfair, or just have had some programming retraining business, the vast the age of 11. Is it a young object-oriented programming fine, but we are going to create good business? PJF: So what should you use? assignments where it’s taken majority of people I see are in it person’s game or can people pick and now we are on Java. This our own proprietary network and SO: It’s considered unfair if you SO: Unix has solved the me two days to figure out what because they think there is it up later in life? week, it’s going to save the it’s going to stop the Internet. have a monopoly which is used networking problem and it’s the students are trying to do. world, next week it’s not, and Well, we know what happened to subsidise other things. As far fast. I have an old Sun 3.0 from We have two problems right then the week after something next! as the justice department in the 1988 running at 20MHz and I’ve hear now: one is to get programmers else is going to save the world. I’m not sure it’s the education US is concerned, that is unfair, compared it to a 66MHz PC to realise that style is very Let’s wait. It’s so new that the system. It doesn’t prepare pro- and they keep on talking to system running Windows. I Steve Oualline, important; the other is to get people who are saying it’s going grammers very well, it teaches Microsoft about it. always thought the Sun was programmer management behind producing to save the world haven’t got more conformity than experi- faster, but benchmark tests quality, and what it takes to much beyond “Hello World”. mentation. “It’s not proved that not to be the extraordinaire, produce quality. The biggest The people who come out case. But you can’t tell. It spoke to impediment to quality is the PJF: Why has it been so hyped? of the system best are the necessarily the comes down to the software: PJ Fisher about management structure. Why is it different from other ones who ducked class and when you change windows things you mentioned? played around with programming on the Sun, they change. programming, the PJF: Including companies you SO: The main point is that it’s computers instead… The joker in the pack is Internet and why have worked for? an interpretive language that’s hard, but Linux. It’s pretty decent SO: Yes — but most companies designed to be portable across PJF: …like Bill Gates. Has he quality, it’s essentially free, Microsoft in general. There’s always a the Net so that it can be used in built an evil empire that the attitude” documentation is getting produces junk tendency to want to make web pages. There will be a produces junk software or has abundant because people like software. money, which in most cases is programming language for the it been good for the industry? me are writing it, it connects to good. But there are better ways Web; whether it can break out of SO: You have to study them. PJF: They always seem to be the Internet, and you can now of doing things. At O’Reilly, the Web remains to be seen. They are good and bad, and yes, talking to Microsoft. get commercial software like T THE TENDER AGE OF 11, authors are made to read Programming languages I think their software is junk. But SO: I wish they would talk a little WordPerfect. It’s biggest draw- A Steve Oualline discovered manuscripts to a group meeting. need to learn from experience. the real question is, “Is junk harder. Microsoft is going too back is still configuration but programming. Since then, com- You learn a lot that way. You get C++ is still learning, it’s still not software bad?” Much to my far in that department. They companies like RedHat are panies such as Motorola and a better writer out of that. stable. Java is going to take an surprise, the answer is no, have done very well in selling working on that and it will begin Hewlett-Packard have benefited In my first book I used the evolution to get it right. The only because people pay an awful lot WPs and spreadsheets, partly by to approach the ease of installa- from his experience, as have word “that” when I shouldn’t language that didn’t learn was of money for their software and writing some good software and tion of Windows 95. many hundreds of students. have. O’Reilly gave me back a ADA, mostly because of the aren’t too upset by the fact that it partly by subsidising it. I think The interesting thing about manuscript and said “fine, just defence environment from is extremely slow or buggy. where they have fallen down free software is that it has much PJF: Are there really highly put in these changes.” I swear which it was formed. That lan- But Microsoft’s monopoly of badly is in the networking better support and seems to run religious beliefs in the “correct” there were 10,000 “thats” which guage is still very much the OS market and the way it environment and multitasking much faster than the commer- way to program? Do you have I had to edit out — that is not a Steve Oualline controlled by the Defense uses that to subsidise its operating systems. Microsoft cial stuff. The size of the Linux specific rules? mistake I have repeated. Department, whereas everything competition with its smaller Windows claims to be multitask- development team around the SO: While there are religious With programming it’s the money there. But there’s still SO: Yes. It’s not necessarily the else is controlled by the market. rivals is wrong. Some of its ing — well, try changing from world can easily rival some of wars over ways of doing things, same thing. You get five what I call the Midnight programming that’s hard, but techniques of putting secret one window to another and it’s Microsoft’s teams, but the inter- I believe it’s better to just use a programmers, you go through Programming Society; the the attitude. You need a PJF: Why does so much interfaces in the OS are wrong: time for a tea break. esting thing is that none of them common style. I use procedures the code and you explain to people willing to stay in front of combination of curiosity and programming and software they have undocumented inter- are getting paid. which make programs clear them where they could have the computer between midnight persistence — that will get you development happen in America faces in there that only other PJF: But is it getting any better, while others use things that done things simpler or better. It and three o’clock in the morning. very far in programming. and so very little elsewhere? Microsoft programs can use. though? PCW Contacts don’t: one of which is the will improve that piece of code The hard-core hackers — pro- If you have the persistence, if What does the US have that the For example, when the OLE SO: With Windows 95 Microsoft Steve Oualline is the author of Microsoft notation, also called and it will improve the gramming for the sheer joy of it. you want to go in and see how UK doesn’t? Is it the education standard was published, two could afford to massively beta Practical C++ Programming and the Hungarian notation, but I programmer, but management things work, if you say “I’m system? The military budget? days later Excel could use that test their software and feed that Practical C Programming. Both don’t like to discourage a race of tends to see it as taking five pro- PJF: Are they the best? going to try this because it’s SO: I don’t know too much with Word. Well, no-one could data back into products that will are published by O’Reilly & Associates. people; I’d rather just discourage grammers out of circulation for SO: Yes. They are generally the new”, and if you are willing to about the UK but software is develop something that fast run on multiple platforms, and Microsoft. That was a case of an hour and delaying the people who can get 110 percent take apart your PC to see how it still in its infancy and America unless they had advance Windows 95 did solve the Http://www.ora.com

226 PCW Illustration by Miles Cole 227 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 PCW ONLINE net.newbies hese pages are designed Tto be an easy-to-use Getting started on the Net: reference guide to the Internet for the novice. what to do, where to go CUTTING EDGE

So what is the Internet? The Internet consists of millions of computers interconnected in a global network. The number of a modem which runs at a speed issue of PCW. than it used to be. Perhaps users is difficult to measure, but of at least 14,400Kbps is vital. Full Internet access, which better for the raw newbie is those worldwide who can at Fortunately, these have allows you to use email and Easynet or UK Online. The latter least exchange electronic mail plummeted in price over the past Internet services for any amount is a special case; a cross messages is estimated to be 30 few years and now cost as little of time, limited only by the size between an Internet provider million and growing. as £100. If you have the money, of your potential phone bill, and an online service. For £8.50 go for a 28,800Kbps V.34 costs more, currently between to £12.75 per month it offers What about this World modem. Over time, you’ll recoup £8.50 and £15 per month. There unlimited access to the Internet, Wide Web then? the added cost by reducing your are dozens of companies partially “censored” to make it It is not the Internet. It is a phone bills. offering this kind of Internet safer for children to browse, service on the Internet which access, none of them big plus access to online magazines uses special software known as Okay, I’ve got a modem. enough to dominate the market. and other services. Web Browsers (usually available Now what? The basic service being offered Any good service provider free) to give users access to For a modem to bring you is largely the same, although should provide you with appro- pages of information with information, it has to have a some higher-priced providers priate access software when you pictures and multimedia instead number to dial. This is where a may claim to offer a more sign up, and if you want to of just text. About 15 million “service provider” comes in — personal service or a better choose something different, people around the world have you have to subscribe to one if selection of access software. most of it can be acquired access to the World Wide Web. you want to get online. online, free of charge. Whatever kind of connection Why don’t I just join Sounds great. What do I you have set up, you will have CompuServe? PCW Contacts need to get on? to pay your phone costs on top Or you could try AOL, Europe AOL 0171 385 9404 ☎ A PC of almost any age can be of any subscription, unless you Online, UK Online and MSN who CompuServe 0800 289378 ☎ connected to the Internet as are lucky enough to get free all now offer Internet access and email:70006.101@csi. long as you can plug it into a local calls through a cable also have a large number of compuserve.com modem. You don’t even need to company. services of their own to which Delphi 0171 757 7080 ☎ be able to view graphics on your The bigger service providers only their subscribers have email: [email protected] machine to look around will have the numbers you dial, access. These services include Demon 0181 371 1000 ☎ (although it helps). PoPs (points of presence), official technical support for email: [email protected] A modem allows your PC to scattered across the country so hardware and software by email: [email protected] dial in to another computer with you only have to dial a local electronic mail, online games, Easynet 0171 209 0990 ☎ a modem and communicate number. vast indexed software libraries Europe Online 0171 447 3400 ☎ with it. They come in different If there’s no company near to and databases of business or Global Internet speeds, from 2,400Kbps to your home which offers Internet consumer information. A 0181 957 1003 ☎ more than ten times that. When access, you may have to pay monthly subscription tends to email: [email protected] you are using the Internet, the long-distance phone rates. Once cost between £5 and £10 per UK Online 01749 333333 ☎ speed at which things work is connected, though, it doesn’t month, plus a charge per hour if email: [email protected] more likely to be limited by the matter where the information you are online for more than a ● If you don’t understand speed of your modem than by you are accessing is physically set number of hours in that what’s written here or have that of your computer. Buy the located: you are always charged month. But as the market any suggestions, please let fastest you can afford. An old at the same rate. A list of becomes more competitive, us know. Contact 2,400Kbps model is fast enough providers and telephone prices continue to fall. [email protected]. compuserve.com, or to exchange electronic mail numbers is available in the panel Demon Internet is the best “snailmail” (Internet-speak messages, but to send and below. For more details, have a known and most popular of the for the post) to the PCW receive files, or use the more look at the supplement which standard Internet operators and Editorial address on page 12. exciting services on the Internet, was banded with the January is certainly more newbie-friendly

229 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 PCW ● ONLINE PCW ONLINE CUTTING EDGE

Spider,Spider, manman Plug-in net.news URNING YOUR WINDOWS 95 desktop into Ta mini Web server could become a reality to this Candace Johnson of Europe Online with the release of software currently under development at Microsoft. Codenamed SERS OF MICROGRAPHX ABC “Tarantula”, it is designed to let NT and 95 UGraphics Suite will soon be able to users publish information over the Internet, or view and interact with graphics created intranet, direct from their desktops. with the package inside Web browsers. A

CUTTING EDGE The technology is designed to work with plug-in for Netscape 2.0, currently avail- Europe Online, Nashville (the upgrade to Windows 95) and is able from the Micrografx Web site, is the based on a cut-down version of Microsoft’s first part of the QuickSilver pack which Internet Information Server (IIS — see Focus). will eventually support both Netscape online Users won’t have to wait until Nashville is and Microsoft browsers. released in 1997 however, as Tarantula will be QuickSilver uses “object graphics” VEN THOUGH IT MAY BE LATE, European families will love AOL a head start in the UK included in the Microsoft Internet Plus! pack designed to simplify hot-linking of it. That was the official line at the UK launch of Europe Online by delaying its launch to due for release in the Autumn. graphics for Web sites. Graphics can E at a glitzy affair in London’s Covent Garden. Spring 1996. www.microsoft.com retain links and other dynamic actions The Luxembourg-based operation is making much of its Euro- “We are 100 percent even when transferred from one site to pean origins and local content. And unlike rivals, its service is local from day one. We are another, or kept in a graphics library. based wholly around Netscape Navigator 2.0. not taking an American QuickSilver will support all formats “We wanted a service that reflected the rich cultural diversity of product and adding one or two British specialities. We are providing Not only, but also… supported by ABC Graphics Suite. Europe. People will be able to communicate with each other no what we think people here will want to use. It is a product for the “While companies are working with matter what language they speak,” said Candace Johnson, founder market in Europe.” static graphics today, it’s our belief that of Europe Online. The service uses a modified version of Navigator 2.0 and all areas PageMill the use of active or interactive graphics She dismissed suggestions that Europe Online may have given take advantage of the browser’s HTML extensions, including frames is a logical choice for customers in the ✪Net Opinion and Java. It will offer full Internet access as part of its pricing, for future,” said Micrografx. including news and email provision plus exclusive access to Europe www.micrografx.com/quicksilver.html Expresso Java — Online’s editorial content. The top level pages will always be available to all Web surfers but Windows just in time the rest of the site will be for subscribers only. DOBE HAS ANNOUNCED VERSION 2.0 of sers of Netscape can look forward to faster Java executions with Europe Online is heavily against proprietary software such as that A PageMill, its successful Web editing pack- Uthe announcement of Borland’s AppAccelerator — a “just-in- used by CompuServe or AOL and is convinced that a Web-based age. Formerly a Mac-only product, it will be time” Java compiler which compiles Java applets as they are down- service is the way forward. “The exclusive role of online services simultaneously released for Windows 95, NT loaded by a client browser. should be to make life easier in terms of structuring and organising and the Macintosh and, it is hoped, goes some Netscape plans to embed the compiler in future Windows 95 and the chaos of the Web,” said Jurgen Becker, CEO. way to answering criticisms levelled at the first We’re rich! NT versions of its Navigator browser which, Borland claims, will Prices start at £3.95 per month for three hours access and £1.85 version. make Java executions between five and ten times faster. per hour thereafter. An introductory trial offer provides one month’s Undoubtedly easy to use, it missed out on HAT BEGAN AS A Other vendors developing just-in-time compilers include Sun, free access. supporting the extensions to Netscape 2.0 and W college project has caused yet Symantec and Microsoft. www.borland.com Europe Online www.europeonline.com ● 0800 10 66 10 HTML 3.0. New features include WYSIWYG another Internet sensation on Wall table creation, integrated viewing and editing of Street. The Yahoo flotation almost HTML and inline support for movie and sound immediately valued the company at EVELOPMENT PLANS ARE files. For the first time, table editing will include around $1bn before it fell back later as Dunderway for Specular’s 3D Webbed fingers in support for nested tables making it easier to trading closed at $33 per share. Web Workshop for Windows, create “newspaper-style” Web pages. In the process, Yahoo’s founders, now that the Mac version has the Workshop However, according to Adobe, multimedia David Filo and Jerry Yang, who started just launched. The 3D Web support only extends to QuickTime and Adobe Yahoo while at Stanford University, page design and layout pack- LogoMotion can generate 3D for 3D text and object viewing, PDF files and no mention is made of either Java have become instant paper millionaires. age, previously codenamed elements and animations. as well as animations. or Shockwave support, or Microsoft Internet The fact that Yahoo lost $643,000 on “Fireball”, is predicted to be Specular’s WebHands are QuickTime movies can be Explorer extensions. sales of $1.4m in its first ten months ready for the PC by December pre-made graphics that can be incorporated right onto the Adobe claims that over 100,000 copies of did not seem to dampen enthusiasm on 1996. The Workshop is an inte- fully edited and customised Web page and LogoMotion’s PageMill have been sold on the Macintosh plat- Wall Street — nor, indeed, did the grated studio package made up with the Web Workshop tools animation capabilities have form and hopes to repeat that success in the inability of anyone to figure out exactly of Specular’s TextureScape, to been tuned for Macromedia Windows market where it will compete against how Yahoo might make its money in the LogoMotion, WebHands and create original artwork for Web Shockwave. Specular claims InContext Spider and Microsoft Front Page. future.s Adobe PageMill. pages. There are over 1,000 no HTML knowledge is PageMill 2.0 will be available by the end of Yahoo is now partly owned by TextureScape’s Web edition WebHands: from 3D buttons required. July, at around £75, with upgrades available Japanese software house, Softbank, creates☞ background patterns and titles to tileable background Joanna Scott from version 1.0. which has boosted its stake to 37.02 and bevelled buttons while images, to preset camera styles http://www.specular.com Adobe 0131 451 6888 percent. http://www.adobe.com www.yahoo.com

230 231 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 PCW ONLINE

Net Opinions

The fight for font-friendly Web browsers blazes and presents a standards issue which should not be fought out in the marketplace.

E REPORTED, LAST month, Netscape and Microsoft’s PostScript technology. TrueType failed to break through in the W ambitions to make their Web browsers font-friendly.w That is, professional markets. to liberate them from the limited screen fonts currently available Microsoft now believes it has an advantage. Millions of TrueType

CUTTING EDGE which often clash with advanced HTML formatting. fonts are preloaded and used on a daily basis on Windows PCs Once Web designers start specifying real typefaces on their around the world, mostly for mundane office documents and pages, just as graphic designers do now, the Web will make the next reports. Of course, most people view the Web on exactly the same leap forward as an alternative publishing medium. PCs — not surprising therefore that Adobe should line up with Microsoft took the lead by supporting a limited range of Netscape to try and head-off a TrueType-dominated Web. For its TrueType fonts through simple HTML tags, but of course you must part, Apple lost interest in TrueType some time ago and in its be using Internet Explorer 2.0 to see pages designed this way. And it current mood is probably happy to fight Microsoft over anything. is developing ways of downloading fonts to client PCs. In reality, this is a serious standards issue that should not be Adobe (and its partners, Netscape and Apple) is working on a fought out in the marketplace. The HTML standards committee technology based around PostScript, the lingua franca of the news- should take the initiative and work with all parties to define what it paper and magazine industries. And so another standards war is should be. underway on the Web. Netscape, Microsoft and Adobe have it in their power to create a Some years ago, both Microsoft and Apple tried to break what digital publishing standard for the next millennium. They should they saw as Adobe’s monopoly of the font market by developing the seize the opportunity to build a font architecture that can work TrueType standard that dispensed with separate screen and printer within HTML and be available, free, to any browser on any platform. fonts. But PostScript was already an accepted standard and the A font standards war, on top of everything else, is in no-one’s publishing world wasn’t about to abandon its investment in interest. PJ Fisher Surfwatch under new board

OSAIC DEVELOPER, SPY- has proved popular with parents SurfWatch will not only MGLASS, HAS purchased wishing to regulate what their improve our component tech- SurfWatch in a $12.6m deal. The children find on the Web and nology offerings, but its name employees and operations of newsgroups. recognition and electronic SurfWatch will become a divi- However, Spyglass sees distribution channels will sion within the ambitious Web potential for filtering technology improve our ability to tap technology company. in other markets such as the corporate customers,” said SurfWatch was the first filter- newly-emerging Intranet. Spyglass. ing software for the Internet and “The acquisition of Continuing on the acqui- sition trail, Spyglass also purchased OS Technolo- gies, a company that develops Also aimed at Web conferencing technology. corporates is the new Web Electric The moves come at a time Technology Kit (WTK), a multi- when Spyglass is seeking to fire- platform development kit which wall itself from the browser war, will enable corporate developers libraryland which looks like being a straight to create bespoke Web software ITTING AROUND IN THE British Library could soon be a fight between Microsoft and and applications. Sthing of the past for researchers when the library’s vast Netscape (see Net Opinion). Current technologies catalogue is made available on the Web. Blaise Web is a new Instead, Spyglass is looking at supported include JavaScript, service which uses search and database technology to give the corporate market, wishing to VBScript, ActiveX and OpenDoc. access to 17 million bibliographic records. move from off-the-shelf Web Prices start at around $25,000 Based around the existing Blaise Line online service, the new browsers to internal corporate for a 1,000-user licence. service will be subscription based. Web development. A deal with Spyglass Mosaic is based on Books or documents can be ordered for retrieval via the Web software giant Computer the original Mosaic Web browser using simple forms. Subscription charges have not yet been set. Associates and Spyglass will developed by the NCSA at the British Library 0171 412 7111 develop a combined Web server University of Illinois. and database package. www.spyglass.com

232 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 T www.dhl.com points throughoutthe for it.Parcelsstillintransitwillrevealshipmentstatusandscan users canseewhethertheparcelhasbeendeliveredandwhosigned package tracking. enhancements toitsownsitewhichincludes,unsurprisingly, across theworld.Nowitsmajorrival,DHL,hasannouncedsome by RuairidhLappinAssociatesin restrained, Pulpitispublished for alongtime.Cooland designed WebsitesIhaveseen ● In thePulpit http://www.pantone.com must trythatonmyWebsite. that colourcombination—I remember whattheyreadusing People aremorelikelyto might imagine,blackonwhite. documents andnot,asyou best combinationforbusiness tion isthatblackonyellowthe more. anyone whowantstoknow useful guidetocolourtheoryfor products italsoservesasa its guidetoPantone’srangeof and publishingindustries,with colourful. described as… only be site whichcan launched anew at Pantonehave ● Pantone journey. Net.surf This isoneofthebest- Colour gurus By typingintheten-digitairwaybillnumberandcountryoforigin, Its mostinterestingrevela- Aimed mostlyatthedesign Web. Itallowscustomerstotracktheprogressofpackages SITEHASBEENoneofthemostsuccessfulsiteson HE FedEx “Ain’t nonet small enough like an design. focuses on Pulpit and palm Pipex with Uni- association It’s abit very Underground ground cool. And genuinely kooky and it’s funny, except that like cept it’sabit out. Incon- checking that’s worth magazine called ● Underground press www.underground-online.com 001 7082682498 major cities. Shimomura FAQ. unofficial MarkoffMitnick things. www.pulpit.com in adjoiningcubicles. Gallagher andSirNormanFoster Paul SmithlovestohaveNoel weakest partofthesite)andwhy Common People”(actuallythe interpretation of“Pulp’s noodle barchain,atypographic can readabouttheWagamama I havefoundanew(ish)US The latestissuefeaturesthe .net In thefirstonlineissueyou …” .net Blueprint online versionof ated withdesign”. tag normallyassoci- “shake offtheelitist lishers wantPulpitto except thatthepub- costs £3inmost isn’t anyofthose Internet Under- Internet magazine ESNLCMUE WORLD COMPUTER PERSONAL ONLINE PCW JULY 1996 235 CUTTING EDGE PCW ● ONLINE PCW ONLINE CUTTING EDGE

Slow, slow, quick? No, slow

Why is the Internet so slow? Too the Internet are within the United Q.many people on there at one States, and you may find that while particular time, or a slow connection? some sites still provide a fast I’m using a 28,800bps modem but I’ve connection, another not too far away zapped it to 115,200bps, and I’m not may be so slow that your Web browser net.answers entirely sure why it is so slow even at or FTP program times out. The reason is this speed. because different sites may be connected I find that in the middle of the day via different providers in the US, each of it’s at its fastest, but during off-peak whom may be experiencing problems of times it’s at its slowest. their own. CUTTING EDGE Lost on the Internet? The reason why the Internet seems Nigel Whitfield shows The Internet is suffering from slower during off-peak hours is two-fold. A.rather too much popularity at Firstly, if you’re accessing it from home, you the way to go. the moment, and there are certain you’ll probably be sharing the parts of it that are very slow — transatlantic links with many more particularly when you try to access people than during the daytime. sites outside the UK. Increasing the Secondly, although the evenings may be speed of your modem will only really our off-peak time, they coincide with the make a difference when data is larger part of the working day in the US arriving at your ISP fast enough. when many companies will be using the Some of the worst affected parts of links, creating a capacity problem.

should I use? computer itself is called “fags”. That 5. What are the essential doesn’t matter, as the PPP connection is attributes that a provider should have to allow still allocated the address given to it by the above? Demon, so to the outside world I’m still “stonewall.demon.co.uk”. However, as a CompuServe at your A. Although many of the computers that rule, you’ll have fewer problems if your convenience make up the Internet may run Unix, computer’s name is the same as the name Q. Is there a convenient way of providers themselves usually concentrate of your account, and on many versions of having access to two ISPs from on the mass market, which means Windows Unix that’s limited to eight letters. one PC? I find that I have to and Mac, so don’t be surprised if the help The choice of mail and news software is rename the -Winsock.dll- for desk doesn’t seem too clued up on Unix. quite a personal one, but when it comes to CompuServe whenever I want Taking your questions in order, you can mail do check to make sure you have the access via Cityscape, and vice CompuServe’s Internet can be configured with details system, the main benefit being certainly use an SLIP or a PPP connection most up-to-date version of programs: some versa. Am I doing something Dialler doesn’t always co- for more than one provider. the seamless and automatic mail to collect mail using UUCP. However, you old versions of sendmail, for instance, have glaringly wrong and is there a exist very happily with other You should also consider and news collection. I can easily won’t find many providers who can support serious security problems. Sendmail is very simple solution? Internet software, due to a upgrading to Windows 95, as see how to do this with a UUCP- this as it will mean much more work for popular but not terribly easy to configure, clash of winsock files the Dial Up Networking facility type account, but a TCP/IP them, and unless you have a very good and many people prefer smail instead. A. Depending on which can be used to create setups for account also allows telnet and reason not to, you should collect your mail Another alternative is MMDF, which is very providers you’re using and what other Internet software, install more than one provider, and you FTP. The problem is that the via SMTP or POP. flexible but less widely used. software you have on your sys- WinCIM first, then move can select which one you wish to providers I have spoken to seem The choice of a fixed address or a ran- For news, there are a number of tem, you’ll have varying winsock.dll into the same direc- use each time you connect. not to know much about it, which dom one doesn’t matter too much, though if solutions. You can simply use an online amounts of difficulty, as some tory as Wincim, before installing It’s important to remember, is odd when Unix is the “native” you’re using SLIP it’s much easier with a newsreader, but if you read more than a programs simply don’t bother to your CityScape software. however, that not all Internet Internet environment. My fixed address as there’s no standard way of few articles you’ll be better off transferring check if you have already There are alternative applications rely solely on the questions are: configuring your link automatically, whereas them to your computer, so you’ll have to installed a copy of winsock.dll solutions, however. If your information provided by your 1. Should I/can I use SLIP/CSLIP PPP is capable of negotiating the necessary decide between either C-News or INN, both and replace your existing one provider will give you the details winsock. For instance, your to simulate UUCP (my kernel level options. However, depending on the TCP/IP of which are very popular. C-News is older with a new one. necessary to work with a TCP/IP email program will have details does not have dependable PPP)? software that you have on your computer, and designed for much more than just the CompuServe’s software can stack of your choice — you’ll of your account in its own con- 2. Do I have to have static rather you may find that it’s virtually impossible to Internet; if you’re starting from scratch, be particularly bad at this, but need to know login details, what figuration files, so it might not than random IP addressing? make everything work reliably unless you you’ll probably be better off going for INN there is a relatively simple solu- sort of authorisation is used, necessarily work properly if 3. If my account is called have a fixed address. from the start. tion, which is to make sure that and addresses for your machine you’re connected to an alterna- [email protected], does this refer to Your computer can be called anything Finally, when you’re looking for a the CompuServe winsock file is and a name server — then you tive provider. the provider? What then should you like as long as it will respond to the provider to use with a Unix-based system, installed in your CompuServe could use a winsock that allows my machine be called, given that address that’s allocated to you by your you should ideally look for as many as pos- directory (usually something like you to choose between different Internet called to some providers allow me to provider, whether that’s a fixed address or a sible of these features: a choice between c:\cserve) rather than in your configurations more easily. For account over Linux choose my own sub-domain different one each time you log in. For PPP and SLIP (as you might not have the Windows directory. So, if you’re instance, the NTS stack included Q. I am intending to open an name? instance, although the node name in my choice on your system), mail delivery via installing both CompuServe and with software such as Turnpike Internet account using my Linux 4. What mail/news transport Demon account is “stonewall”, the SMTP, and a fixed Internet address. None of

236 237 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 JULY 1996 WORLD COMPUTER PERSONAL 238 increasing volumeofourproductionis has beensenttocusomersworldwideasan on muchofourCompanyliteratureandthis tered ourowndomain,wehaveincludedthis and receivingmail. office, Accounts,Designetc)fromsending this wouldprecludeotherusers(ourSales standalone PC,i.e.notonournetwork,as facility foremailandwecan’treallysetupa will giveusasolution?Weonlyneedthe subscription. solution andhaveofferedtoreturnour helpful astheycanbutsaythatthereisno believe). TheInternetproviderhasbeenas between itandNovell(TCP/Stacks,I until theyrealisedthattherewasaconflict net software:technicalhelpwerepuzzled receive mail. a daywewouldquitZetafaxandthensendor on thesameworkstationandattwosettimes was thatwewouldloadtheInternetsoftware that’s whenourproblemsbegan.Ourthinking and registeredourowndomainname, same way. use theInternetforEMAILONLYin modem attachedtooneuser,andwewant Win95. WehaveZetafaxrunningviaasingle 3.12. WeuseamixtureofWFWG3.11and Q. MycompanyrunsanetworkwithNovell but withtherightsoftware The mailmustgetthrough— make itmucheasiertoseteverythingup. these isstrictlynecessary,buttheywill A furthercomplicationisthathavingregis- Is therenoothersoftwarethatexists We founditimpossibletoloadtheInter- We signedupwithanInternetprovider CUTTING EDGE PCW ● ONLINE it wasn’tpossible. it’s rathersurprisingthatyourprovider said [email protected]. Giventhis, [email protected] and domain sothatyoucanhave,forinstance, ent addresseswithinyourregistered are capableofhandlinganumberdiffer- on aPCconnectedtoNetWare,andboth Chameleon SamplerandTurnpikewillwork well. Forinstance,bothNetmanage software workwithaNovellnetworkas possible tomakealotofordinaryInternet money youwanttospend,anditshouldbe to theInternet,dependingonhowmuch available thatwillletyouconnectanetwork unable toaccessitcompletely. sages thatarriveforyourdomainifyouare automatic responsetobesentanymes- provider iftheycanarrangeforan short termyoushouldaskyourcurrent (the technicaltermis“delegation”).Inthe pily beabletotakeovermanagingitforyou still registeredandmostproviderswillhap- can’t makeitworkwithoneprovider,it’s you’ve registeredasadomain.Evenifyou don’t worryaboutthecompanynamethat A.There areanumberofissueshere.First, through this. that IcanaccesstheCompanyaddress have Eudoraonmyownhomecomputerso exported. Asatemporarysolutiontothis,I the samepicturefordifferentthings the extraimagetagsmeanyoucanuse helping yourbrowserlayoutpages, Same picture,differentsize.Aswellas There isalargeamountofsoftware pen automatically,andyou’ll very easytomakethingshap- ware: youmayfindthatit’snot between Zetafaxandothersoft- can easilyshareamodem ISP. decide tomoveadifferent should checkthisbeforeyou users onyournetwork,andyou to havemailavailableallthe will chargeyouextraifwant ever. Oneisthatsomeproviders you needtobeawareof,how- will suityourneeds. who canworkoutexactlywhat speak toaspecialistconsultant the bestwaytogetadviceis PC oronyourNovellserver,and tems thatcanrunonaWindows number ofthese,includingsys- company aswell.Therearea with emailaroundyour systems, whichcanprovideyou to considermoresophisticated puter onthenetwork. part ofTurnpikefromanycom- read bypeopleusingtheoffline network drivesothatitcanbe received mailtobesaveda and youcanarrangeforthe there’s alsoanetworkversion, Secondly, checktoseeifyou There aretwoissuesthat However, youmayalsowant In thecaseofTurnpike Microsoft’s InternetExplorerhas solutions. Forinstance, anything aboutthisproblem. ply isn’tthefacilitytodo with manybrowserstheresim- things thatit’snowusedfor;and designed todomanyofthe with HTML,whichwasn’t A. You’rerunningintoaproblem of displacementonscreen. the jerkingoflatterasaresult that ofmytext,doesnotresultin download ofgraphics,following ics be“blockedoff”,sothatthe HTML documents)thatthegraph- problem: thatofspecifying(inmy solution toasimplegraphics Q. Ihavebeenunabletofindthe graphics ontheblock Striving forthebest of Zetafax. latest Windows95orNTversion be abletoresolveitusingthe ence thisproblem,youshould server isrunning.Ifyouexperi- to themodemwhilefax not allowotherprogramsaccess versions ofZetafax,whichwill certainly thecasewithearlier net programstwiceaday.Thisis fax softwareandstarttheInter- have tosomeonestopthe However, therearesome and youcanspecifyeitherthe tag are“width”and“height”, image fullsize. extended tags,you’llseethe that doesn’tunderstandthe if youviewthepageinabrowser places —thoughrememberthat display it“buttonsized”insome can simplytellthebrowserto files foralog,instance,you that ratherthanhavingtwoGIF change thesizeofapicture,so fetched. will movewhentheimagesare text roundthem,sothatnothing space onthescreenandrun sees thesetags,itcanreserve be loaded.Whenthebrowser the sizeofimagesthatareto Web documents,whichspecify extended imagetagsinyour Explorer andNetShark,istouse of browsersincludingNetScape, supported byagrowingnumber towards it. completely, itgoessomeway this doesn’tsolvetheproblem images havebeenloaded.While each imageisloaded,orafterall page shouldberedrawnafter allows youtospecifywhethera an optioninitspreferencesthat The extensionstotheimage You canevenusethetagsto The bestsolution,whichis picture onthepage: the appropriatespaceforyour instance, thislinewouldreserve program) orapercentage.For from yourimageediting (which you’llbeabletofindout size oftheimageinpixels ESNLCMUE WORLD COMPUTER PERSONAL width=”50%” height=”50%”> alt=”Small logo” alt=”Company logo”width=72

; CUTTING EDGE PCW FUTURES

Manager and leaving the official Table of Contents alone. To delete a file VDD just removes its name from the File Manager, so when you look at the disk it is no longer listed. To Innovations update a file, CD-RFS uses Explorer to add just the changed part of the file and adds a pointer to the File Manager. So if you make some minor changes to a large spreadsheet file, you only

CUTTING EDGE On the record write the changes onto the CD-R rather than rewriting the whole Sony is proposing software that thing, thus saving more disk space. will enable the popular When it comes to reading, CD-R format to store as the whole file is read and the much data as other pointers look for the additional file data that contain the update PC media. changes, and insert them. By using a CD-RFS disc on a PC with read/write software you have full ith a mass of new low- access to all the files at Wcost CD-R ROM drives any time. When the disc poised to hit the market later this is “finalised”, the File year, recordable CD has at last Manager information is grown out of its audio roots. It is placed into the Table of used to create either whole disc Contents and you have a copies at one go, or in multi- normal ISO9600 disc, session mode to store just a few usable on any CD drive. very large files. One major defect In its non-finalised state of the format has gone largely things are a little more com- unnoticed: the file space over- plicated, as a multi-session head used for each new drive will not be able to recog- recording session and the nise the File Manager or VDD. almost DOS-like working So when a disc is first written practices that it demands. you have the option of loading The CD-R’s Table of Contents store a file; it’s not in track of the the read part of CD-RFS into an system is set up in such a way the general spirit of Windows. name and position of ISO9660 formatted part of the that each time a new session is So some more modifications each file on the disc. The Virtual disc. Pass the disc on to some- recorded, the Table of Contents are being made to CD-R. But this Device Driver goes between the one else and the drive sees the is rewritten, using up hundreds time it’s not the hardware or File Manager and the “real” CD-RFS read-only software and of kilobytes. If you are just media format that is changing, Device Driver, adding address loads it into Windows so the recording a dozen or two dozen it’s the software. With a system mapping capability that can fool disc can be read. files out of the total 650Mb called CD-Recordable File Sys- the whole system into acting like The beta CD-RFS software capacity, then it’s not a major tem (CD-RFS), Sony is leading rewritable media. With the VDD supports Windows 95, with problem. But as CD-R drives proposals to provide a standard- in place you can make changes other OS versions being worked enter the standard PC world, ised software solution to make to a file or even delete it. on. Discussions are still going users will want to use the CD-R appear to work in the The read/write CD-RFS soft- on with the major CD-R recordable CD as an extension of same way as any other PC stor- ware comes on a disc with the manufacturers to finalise the the hard disk, storing hundreds age media, like a floppy or a drive. Once loaded, it puts the software so it incorporates other or thousands of simple files at hard disk. CD-R on the desktop, just like developers’ ideas. different times. The software driver comes in any other drive. Files are trans- Sony sees this system as a If you attempt to use CD-R two parts, a File Manager and a ferred to the CD-R by simply route to selling more CD-Rs. like that, after a couple of days Virtual Device Manager, and will “dropping” them in. Deleting and It is treating it as an open the disk will be full of Table of work with any CD-R that updating files works, as far as system with no licence fees and Contents and very little in the supports packet recording, the user is concerned, in exactly seems to be welcoming the way of useful data. On top of which copes with data in small the same way as with the hard- assistance of others to develop that, you don’t really want to chunks rather than finalised data disk. What is really going on is software using the same basic boot separate CD-R recording files. The File Manager is a sepa- that the VDD is constantly principles. software each time you want to rate indexing system that keeps updating the CD-RFS File Tim Frost

244 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 PCW FUTURES

conventional code with re- sizeable icons for While and For/Next loops, sequence and case structures. There are also formula nodes, for example, and highly versatile tools for dealing with clusters and multi-dimen- Horizons sional arrays of controls or data. This “block diagram” is effec- tively the source code for the VI Pressing all the right buttons and looks rather like a pictorial solution to a programming exer-

Simulation software makes the task of testing products cise. Fig 2 shows the block dia- CUTTING EDGE gram for the temperature- simpler and cheaper. logging VI as an example. Tem- perature data is 2 acquired in the N MY FIELD OF AUDIO AND form of a 10- Ivideo, we’ve been frustrated by element array at a the lack of commercial rate set by the instrumentation available to update period probe esoteric phenomena such within the For/Next as digital jitter. This problem has loop. If the analysis been solved by the advent of vir- boolean is true then tual instruments (VIs), which the mean and stan- simulate a “real” instrument dard deviation of panel with knobs, dials, pushbut- the data, along tons and graphical displays and with a histogram, indicators that are all swiftly is calculated within addressed via either a keyboard the Case structure. or a mouse. and FFT analyser, all available on- drivers and acquire data from The results are passed to shift Arguably the most flexible screen at the click of a mouse. plug-in cards and/or external registers which return data to and widely-used system of this Fig 1 shows an example of a instrumentation. the beginning (the left) of the type is LabVIEW, a program simple GUI, the front panel of a In my own lab, flexible VIs While loop within which the development application temperature-logging VI. This have been developed to control entire program is running. produced and supported by type of development package various Hewlett-Packard signal In general, the sophistication National Instruments. LabVIEW has a minimum system require- generators, digital scopes and and code efficiency of any VI is is a graphical programming lan- ment of a 386/25 with 387 co- both HP and Roahde & Scharwz largely dependent upon the skill guage with built-in libraries to processor, though a 486 with spectrum analysers which now and experience of the program- cater for data acquisition, data floating-point capability and act as computer-controlled mer, yet development packages analysis, processing, presenta- 8Mb RAM is strongly signal sources and acquisition like LabVIEW remain incredibly tion and storage. recommended. sites. Analysis of data is quicker versatile tools that are currently For example, with a general Native versions of LabVIEW and more thorough in the virtual in use in areas as diverse as purpose data acquisition card are available for Windows 95, environment of the PC. defence, medicine, education performing analogue I/O, timing NT and 3.1. Visa, GPIB, VXI, VI programming is both hier- and electrical/mechanical and digital I/O functions, it is RS-232 and Data Acquisition archical and modular; applica- engineering. Crucial to the pro- possible to create a customised (DAQ) libraries are available to tions are divided into a series of grammer working within R&D or test station with a virtual Digital call standard National tasks which, if necessary, are production, however, is the fact Multi Meter (DMM), oscilloscope Instruments DLLs and device further sub-divided so that a that the precise nature and exe- complex application can be bro- cution of these instruments is 1 ken down into a sequence of now user-defined, as opposed to simple sub-tasks. vendor-defined like traditional Sub-VIs are programmed to hardware instrumentation. In accomplish each sub-task and this instance, the software really are then called upon by higher- is the instrument. level VIs when necessary. This Paul Miller optimises the management of system resources and makes the PCW Contacts inevitable de-bugging of code Paul Miller is the technical editor that much swifter. of HiFi Choice and develops The programming language custom VI programs. He can be (G as opposed to C) employs reached on 100576.3021. graphical representations of compuserve.com

245 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 PCW FUTURES

using the existing proven technique of Chemical Vapour Deposition. A recent article in Scientific Bluesky American took a rather negative view of nanotechnology, asking: What about thermal noise? Quantum uncertainty? Loose molecules? Out-of control assemblers reducing the world Tiny science to a grey goo? Within weeks, an extensive and convincing rebut- Voice-annotated sellotape: now tal by a leading nanotechnologist

CUTTING EDGE there’s a good idea. Sounds was published on the Web. It is not hard to understand daft? It could work, if the scepticism with which many nanotechnology takes off. people view the ideas and promises of nanotechnology. Consider tiny molecular ast Christmas, struggling at possible to machines with on-board com- Lthe eleventh hour with manipulate puters which enter our bodies unwrapped presents and fum- individual and perform surgery from the bling fingers, I had an idea: atoms as if they inside; mouthwashes that con- voice-activated sellotape. The were marbles. In tain tiny robots to look after our tape comes off the roller, 1990 two teeth; furniture that can change unsticky, and you coil it around researchers spelt colour and shape; entirely new the thing you need to wrap. On out the name of their classes of substance, compris- your command, it sticks. If it’s employer, IBM, using thirty ing billions of tiny molecular twisted or unsightly you say five atoms of xenon, each one Copyright (1996) Xerox Corp machines physically and compu- “unstick”. It obeys, and you try dragged into position on a crys- and Institute for Molecular tationally linked together to form again. A crazy thought. But not tal of nickel using the sharp tip Manufacturing. All rights a kind of super-crytalline struc- for proponents of the emerging of a Scanning Tunnelling Micro- reserved. ture. This might form a wearable science of “nanotechnology”. scope. The conditions required fabric which responds to tem- Recognising that everything were harsh — an ultra-high vac- One of Drexler’s proposed perature; a flowable “smart” is made from atoms, nanotech- uum at almost absolute zero — assemblers is one ten-millionth paint that spreads itself evenly nologists suggest that we work but within the year other of a metre in length and made of on your wall; ultra-thin layers of directly with them. Chemists, of researchers were manually posi- four million atoms. Its structure molecules that function as loud- course, have been doing tioning individual atoms at room is bewilderingly complex, a speakers or huge video screens. precisely this for a very long temperature. But building entire Heath Robinson affair of Next to these, my voice-activated time. Given the circumstances in molecular structures this way is grippers, rotary joints, worm sellotape looks rather quaint. which they work — typically impractical. The difference in drives, bearings, shafts and When speculating about with randomly colliding scale between the constructor gears, each created from a few future technologies, an open molecules in solution — their and the components is too atomic components. mind is essential. But not too success at synthesising great. What is needed is a tool Although Drexler’s assembler open. To date, Drexler and his compounds is extraordinary. that is itself atom-sized. Enter K sounds far-fetched, funding nanotechnologists are theorists. With nanotechnology, the Eric Drexler and his concept of agencies are already paying They model their atomic idea is to work bottom-up, phys- the “universal assembler”. researchers to work on machines using CAD packages, ically assembling atoms one by Drexler is perhaps the best- computer models of engineering and look to the chemist and one into molecules, and then known exponent of nanotechnol- structures such as bearings, physicist to make the ideas assembling the molecules ogy and some of his ideas are hinges and pumps, all made actually work. Perhaps it will together. In theory, as long as compelling. His proposed from a few atoms. Workers at never happen. But perhaps no physical law is violated, it “assembler” is essentially a sub- Xerox PARC have demonstrated something like it will. Until then, should be possible to create any microscopic computer- the feasibility of molecular bear- nano news is good news. amount of any substance. controlled robot arm, able to ings which require no lubrica- Toby Howard The idea has its roots in an manipulate and bring together tion, constructed from several after-dinner speech given at the atoms and reactive molecules hundred carbon atoms. PCW Contacts California Institute of Technol- such that chemical bonds occur Also under study is a Toby Howard is a Lecturer in ogy in 1959 by Richard at specific sites. To synthesise “hydrogen abstraction tool” Computer Graphics at the Feynman. He said: “The princi- material on a macroscopic scale, which can be precisely University of Manchester, and co- ples of physics, as far as I can billions of these assemblers will positioned over an atomic sur- editor of The Skeptic magazine. see, do not speak against the work in parallel. But you only face and can selectively remove A collection of links to information possibility of manoeuvering ever need to build one assem- hydrogen atoms from it. Such a about nanotechnology may be things atom by atom.” bler, since each assembler can tool could greatly increase the found at http://www.cs.man. ac.uk/aig/nano/ He was right. Today, it is replicate itself. yield of diamond synthesis

246 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 PCW FUTURES

Retro

Luciano’s CUTTING EDGE

The Toshiba 5200C100 was the first colour portable on sale and it was BIG. Inside there was a chip sandwich and the screen lacked salt and vinegar.

HAT KIND OF COMPUTER undoing 14 screws the case Dr Who. Wwould you expect for failed to budge. A further six and The £7,000? A portable? If so, it it started to give way but not ghosting would have to be jolly small, enough to really get to the PCB. wasn’t un- blindingly fast and have a stun- User upgrades (RAM and a co- attractive but ningly good colour screen. processor) were fitted by remov- it was very Back in 1990 PCW saw its ing four screws along the front brave of first colour portable, which, edge which then allowed you to Toshiba to unless you had a lap the size of prise off the keyboard. A second supply the Pavarotti’s, could hardly be board was mounted on the review described as a laptop. removable panel and inverted, machine with a We’d seen a technology making a chip sandwich. copy of Flight demonstration of colour before The CPU was a 20MHz 80386 Simulator 4 on (from NEC) but the Toshiba which was said, by PCW’s light which went in, came out. It the hard disk: a gentle roll in the 5200C100 was the first model reviewer, to “tick along pretty was still appalling but that didn’t Cessna showed as a trail of designed for sale. Back then, speedily”. He added: “It is stop the marketing departments pixels as the horizon rotated. Toshiba dominated the portable always impressive to work on a reaching for the book of superla- Normal flight gave a realistic market with a 65 percent share portable machine which is this tives — especially the haze to the horizon and tumbling — the move to stay ahead in powerful” — so remember that Americans. “The day of the the glider from 11,000 feet technology was an important when we next claim the 200MHz portable desktop computer has caused the wings to turn into a one. Pentium is something special! finally dawned in earnest,” blur of pixels. At 37cm wide by 39cm deep The most important aspect of gushed Tom Martin, vice presi- A more normal use, and one it was a big machine but the machine was its screen. A dent of marketing for Toshiba’s cited by Toshiba, was to run allowed a standard complement 16-colour VGA colour, it used a computer systems division. His Windows 3.0. Here, the colour of interfaces: two 9-pin serial double-supertwist nematic boss, the VP and general man- mapping problems manifested ports, a 15-pin VGA socket and display with filters for red, green ager of Toshiba US, Bill themselves as green bars where a connector which doubled up and blue, and a pigment- Johnson, was no less forthcom- Windows expected grey and the as a printer and external disk dispersed microcolour filter ing, claiming: “Colour is the last persistence led to the pointer van- drive port. Power was supplied allowing you to see 16 colours barrier between portables and ishing when you moved it quickly. through a traditional kettle lead as opposed to eight. Toshiba satisfying the needs of 90 per- It was a problem with which we next to a well-recessed on/off claimed nearly twice the contrast cent of computer users.” In were to become familiar. rocker switch. It had two slots and brightness of previous truth, this claim was for a Sometimes, new technology (one full and one half length) passive colour displays. machine with a poor VGA, with is wonderful and exciting, but all and a briefcase-style combina- Improving the contrast not 16 colours from a palette of 16. too often, as with the tion lock to keep your business only made the screen easier to A utility called VCHAD could be T5200C100, it’s a bit disappoint- secrets intact. read but also cut down the size used to re-map the colours but ing (mobile comms is a bit like The T5200C100 was of the backlight needed, thus beyond that the screen suffered this today). The first colour reviewed in the days when PCW reducing the computer’s weight from other LCD traits, with a machine certainly wasn’t worth tried to take portables apart, but and power consumption. not-quite clean blackboard £7,000, but it was worth some- even back in screwdriver- Toshiba claimed a 20 percent smudginess persistent on the thing — it was stolen shortly friendly days, getting into the transparency for the display: in screen with each row of pixels after the review. T5200 was hard work and after other words, only a fifth of the fading like a special effect from Simon Rockman

247 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 WORLD COMPUTER PERSONAL 248 B Survival Guide The ComputerUser’s ticularly froman computer usersoutthere,par- more. Forthehugenumbersof repetitive straininjury(RSI)and muscle ache,theever-popular stress, possiblemiscarriage, puter use,suchaseyestrain, gamut ofinjurycreatedbycom- intensive computeruse. that canafflictyoufollowing tecting yourselfagainsttheills pretty convincingcaseforpro- Stigliani, hasmanagedtowritea combat. Theauthor,Joan albeit withoutthehand-to-hand this isn’ttoofarfromthetruth, the computer.Funnilyenough, engaged inmortalcombatwith

Stigliani coversthewhole CUTTING EDGE think thatthehumanraceis y thesoundofthistitleyou’d BOOKS on theWeb. for hacking; where guidetofindingwhat, andavaluable arrest ofKevin onesideofthestory Mitnick’s sixth of theInternet; A guidetohappy, view healthyandproductive computing;adark BOOKS PCW illness thatcouldmanifestitself the potentialtimebombof of childrenusingcomputersand discusses thenascentproblem design assistinreducingRSI. posture andkeyboard/mouse with muscleachewhileproper techniques andstretcheshelp situation. Simpleself-massage provides solutionstoremedythe RSI-related nerveinjuriesand ailments likemuscleacheor poor health. of poorhabitsthatcanleadto environment andridthemselves to takecontroloftheirwork across thatcomputerusersneed strives togetthemessage prove tobeinvaluable.Stigliani view, thisinformationcould employee/employer pointof More importantly,theauthor The bookextensivelycovers proper tools message: one simple boils downto of herbook whole thrust of thisandthe clearly aware Stigliani is environments. most work permeates puter usethat of poorcom- by theextent but bestruck you can’thelp read thebook but whenyou mon sense, It’s allcom- ventive action. without pre- For MarkSlouka,theInternetis the assaultonreality War oftheWorlds— Rating Price ISBN Publisher Author Guide The ComputerUser’sSurvival happy andproductive. pay forkeepingworkershealthy, £18.50 couldbeasmallpriceto that, particularlyforemployers, do justicetobutsufficeitsay than thisreviewcouldpossibly tive workenvironment. and properusemakeforaposi- Stigliani coversmuchmore 1-56592-030-9 £18.50 ✒ ✑ Joan Stigliani O’Reilly &Associates Dylan Armbrust They aremissingthepoint. this canonlybeagoodthing. an artificialchannelforviolence, Internet allowstheseindividuals strangers. havoc onseveralcomplete mously wreakedemotional engagement, thispersonanony- weakening oftheidentityandan mean psychosisasmucha the bulkofsociety,thiswon’t wellbeing canbedisastrous.For the consequencesforourmental as muchzealChristianity.And ism thatdeniesthephysicalwith a newbrandoftranscendental- ities”. Cyberspacehasdeveloped out theirlivesin“substitutereal- humans areincreasinglyliving picture ofaworldinwhich War oftheWorlds Many wouldarguethatifthe new thought,but depraved. It’snota ety’s most Inferno forsoci- little morethanan or physical against emotional as afirewall Using cyberspace other characters. and assaulted “virtually” raped himself MrBungle Dungeon) calling (Multiple User playing inaMUD which acharacter life incidentin describes areal- lution. Slouka of thedigitalrevo- home adarkerside really hammers War oftheWorlds paints a Richard Feynmanheldasimilar National Laboratorysince researcher attheLosAlamos youngest post-doctoral become (attheageof19) child prodigy,heroseto achieving Japanese-American.A Tsutomu Shimomuraisanover- Takedown Rating ISBN Price Publisher Author on reality War oftheWorlds—assault tale, theory andasinistercautionary it. Butasabrilliantconspiracy overview oftheInternet,forget he suggests. petrate themass-brainwashing the bandwidthavailabletoper- and sadists.Theresimplyisn’t monopoly onfanatics,loners wheel. Cyberspacehasno electricity, andpossiblyeventhe response, includingtelevision, have beengreetedwithasimilar most life-alteringtechnologies is importanttorememberthat is justsomuchtechnophobia.It any significance. reams ofinformationwithout who swimamidincreasing “drones”; theordinarycitizens complete controloverthe by technologywillhave “digerati” whoareempowered ing anewclassstructure:the fairer place,cyberspaceiscreat- to countitsdead.” any morethanabeehivethinks hive willnotmournitsdrones the digitalfuture...thehuman the ThirdReichtoflourish.“In kind ofmobculturethatallowed ness, itspassivity…”withthe worst oftelevision,itsaddictive- mind —“…itcombinesthe Orwellian policestateofthe Slouka, isonestepfroman idea ofadigitalworldvillage,for ever-growing conformism.The entertaining trip. If youwantaserious At timesSlouka’spessimism Far frommakingtheworlda War oftheWorlds 0-349-10785-8 £9.99 Mark Slouka ✒ ✑ Abacus Jessica Hodgson is an episode intothemoralityof on cellphoneconversations. the FBIandotherstoeavesdrop other words,scannersenabling “field diagnosticdevices”—in lular phone,tobuildandsell the ROMchipinsideanOKIcel- written, byreverseengineering momura andafriendhad nick wasafterthecodethatShi- times, Mitnickwasback. Despite havingbeingjailedfive systems throughouttheUS. havoc onphoneandcomputer Kevin Mitnickwhohadwrought began torevealthehackeras petrator. Tauntingmessages was goingtotakedowntheper- broken intohedecidedthat that hisownsystemshadbeen ever, andwhenhediscovered computer security. America’s leadingexperton lifestyle andareputationas have earnedhimawealthy many inSiliconValleyhisskills backbone oftheInternet.Like his belovedUnixsystems—the computer security,especiallyon fascinated with became right people. friends withthe meet andmake he managedto computer clubs with cult hanging around have been.By before heshould university way high schooland found himselfin temporaries, he most ofhiscon- not alittleluck. sive intellectand physics, amas- advanced appetite for mura’s voracious through Shimo- about partly 1942. post backin This isarevealinglittle Originally, itseemedthatMit- Even hewasvulnerable,how- But healso Too cleverfor This came he is.Yousoontireofhispro- with examplesofjusthowclever almost everypageislittered ing theman’sintelligencebut and himself.Thereisnodoubt- little modestyintothisbook— couldn’t writeahacktoinject no writer. his geniusforcomputing,he’s nor hisploddingstyle.Despite is Shimomura’sincorrigibleego this. Whatyouwon’tgetoffon email systemsyou’llgetoffon shells, cellulartechnologyand inner workingsofUnixlogfiles, If youlikereadingaboutthe tracking Mitnickandhiscohorts. plunged intothelogisticsof good storyandwearesoon morality standinthewayofa sations? Mitnick toscanprivateconver- the FBIhaveanymorerightthan from OKI.Andsecondly,does admits theyreceivednosanction engineering theROMchip?He what rightdidtheyhavereverse but therearetwoissues.Firstly, have noproblemwiththisatall, hacking. Shimomuraseemsto What apityShimomura But Shimomuradoesn’tlet heart ofcorporateAmerica. actually strikesterrorintothe understood betterwhyhacking mura andMitnickbetter, might havegottoknowShimo- had writtenthisbookalonewe mura one-waystreet.IfMarkoff as co-authorbutit’saShimo- billed tribute tothisbook?He’s the authorofCyberPunk,con- none ofthis. round outitskeyplayers:weget else. Adetectivestoryneedsto restaurants. Hedoesverylittle ing outinhealthfood his passionforskiingandhang- ESNLCMUE WORLD COMPUTER PERSONAL What thendidJohnMarkoff, chip butintheendyouareleft wanted thesecretstoOKI the firstplace?Hemayhave Why didheattackShimomurain This wouldbehissixtharrest. tors byvomitingonhiscarpet. responds tohisunwelcomevisi- unmarked vans.Mitnick scanners, allhiddenin cellphones (OKIs?)and in onMitnickarmedwith the FBIandothersfinallyclose ing attheendwhenShimomura, called Juliawhoshares love withawoman nick. Shimomuraisin nothing ofhisprey;Mit- computers andvirtually other thanhisloveof tle aboutShimomura tion attheageof19. exalted researchposi- finally achievingthat an earlyagebefore and explorescienceat he learnedtoexperiment pharmacologist mother biochemist fatherand guidance ofa life story.Thankstothe (admittedly) remarkable over toShimomura’s Real World”,isgiven ironically entitled“The clever orasfastheis. his colleaguesisnotas just everysingleoneof his otherhobby),how great skierheis(that’s gramming feats,whata Takedown But whydidMitnickdoit? But welearnverylit- A wholechapter, BOOKS gets almostexcit- PCW JULY 1996 249 CUTTING EDGE PCW ● BOOKS CUTTING EDGE

wondering: did he bite off more than he veronica, WAIS and gopher, explaining how could chew, or was it an act of self-destruc- new, graphical, versions of these clients can tion? It is said serial killers want to be work for you. With a little patience you can caught. Are serial hackers the same? get these tools to work far more effectively To those who argue that Mitnick never than many of the well-known WWW search harmed anyone, Shimomura says that Mit- sites. For those who still prefer the Web, nick’s real crime was against the “original Gilster has a chapter on how to get the best spirit of the hacker ethic” and that because from Web-based search engines. of him the Internet is no longer open as net- It’s not cheap, but reading this book from works rush to build firewalls to keep Mitnick cover to cover could save you far more in and others like him out. But what of the FBI online charges. Recommended. and their tricks; are they any different? PJ Fisher Poor Mitnick, he barely gets a look-in on this Paean to Shimomura’s ego. There is Finding It On The Internet more to this story and it needs another book Author Paul Gilster to tell it. Publisher John Wiley PJ Fisher Price £16.99 ISBN 0-471-12695-0 Takedown Rating ✒ ✒ ✒ ✒ ✑ Author Tsutomu Shimomura & John Markoff Publisher Secker & Warburg Price £9.99 ISBN 0-436-20287-5 Rating ✒ ✒ ✒ ✑ ✑

Finding It On The Internet Finding information on the Internet is easy, right? Just type a couple of words into Yahoo or Alta Vista and it comes up with hundreds of irrelevant listings, for which you need another search engine to find what you want. There are other ways of doing searches — you just need to know how and learn a little more. Paul Gilster’s book will show you how. Coming from the Internet “old school” he still believes in such tools as Archie,

Top Ten Books: July 1996

1 Java in a Nutshell: Desktop Quick Reference O’Reilly £10.95 2 Visual Basic Programmer’s Guide to Win32 API (Book/CD-ROM) Ziff-Davis £46.99 3 Teach Yourself Java in 21 Days (Book/CD-ROM) Sams.net £37.50 4 Programming Windows 95 (Book/CD-ROM) Microsoft Press £46.99 5 Running Linux O’Reilly £18.50 6 Microsoft Windows 95 Resource Kit (Book/CD-ROM) Microsoft £46.99 7 Hooked on Java (Book/CD-ROM) Addison-Wesley £24.95 8 More Effective C++ Addison-Wesley £22.95 9 Essential Distributed Objects Survival Guide Wiley £22.50 10 Introducing Microsoft Exchange (Book/CD-ROM) Microsoft Press £27.99

List supplied by The PC Bookshop, 11 & 12 Sicilian Avenue, London WC1A 2HQ Tel: 0171 831 0022. Fax: 0171 831 0443

250 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 PCW FUN CUTTING EDGE

Go cartoony loony and peek at Pocahontas, Toy Story and others. An artrageously good art-based CD has family appeal

and David Bellamy fwonts a CD-WOM about can use as wallpaper and as a screensaver. endangered wildlife. With Paul Begg. The pictures are great but I find and wallpaper vehicle, expanding on the movie a bit boring, especially when and video. there’s neither animation, nor ust recently I took my daughter, Siobán, to Disneyland As well as the story, you get sound effects, nor music. Paris for a long weekend. We did the works, even to play games with Meeko and Nevertheless, the savers and Space Mountain, about which I can tell you nothing Flit, explore Powhattan’s village wallpaper were fun and above all because I had my eyes closed in terror from and the English settlement. And different — even novel enough Jbeginning to end. comprehensive help is available to be used in the office! One of the attractions there is the Main Street Parade, a at a mouse-click. What your children might special part of which was this year given over to Pocahontas, so I enjoy, though, is the puzzle came away rather looking forward to reviewing the CD-ROM. Toy Story Screen game which comes with the Scenes Screensaver package — you know, those puzzle squares where you have J You can either read the story The latest Disney movie, Toy to move one piece a square at a or have it read to you and a click Story, is a 3D computer- time to complete the picture. on red highlighted words gives animated romp which is some This is a computer version of you a definition (often followed of the best fun you will have had that game. You can shuffle the Pocahontas by a new animation). This all in a cinema with your children pieces, set a difficulty level from Animated Storybook makes Pocahontas not just a for a long time. The CD-ROM 12 to 192 pieces, and check storybook, but also a learning isn’t exceptional, it’s merely your progress. The game can be If you have young children who scenes absorbing: using enjoyed the movie and maybe Pocahontas — it’s difficult from the Toy Story wallpaper and up hours of futile even have the video, they’ll love to beat Disney movie screensavers plus a game — concentration. this easy-to-use CD. which you it actually grows on you!

253 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 PCW ● FUN PCW FUN CUTTING EDGE

The Interlink — play The Lion King add difficulty levels, so all ArtRageous feel of the painting. games, uncover the Activity Centre the family can play. All Light looks at the ways in hidden picture and these games are designed Far and away the most impres- which light and dark affects the learn about This is the final package to to stimulate and develop logic, sive package we’ve seen this drama of a piece. endangered come our way from Disney this word and organisational skills month is ArtRageous. It’s so The Timeline shows you what animals month. I looked at the Aladdin and simple mathematical good that I began to doubt happened in the world of art and Activity Centre last month and concepts. whether it was a kid’s product at when, and also sets it against all. There is no question, though, the background of what was solving games to that this is family software: going on in the world. There is acquire knowledge. On

CUTTING EDGE enough justification for it to be an outstanding database of the other hand, if your reviewed here. And if you have artists, schools of art and child isn’t interested in older children with an interest in techniques, too. wildlife, I doubt that art, they should have this disk. Overall, ArtRageous is a this CD-ROM will inspire them to learn. Perhaps the injection of some infectious enthusiasm from David bit of a scam. You could buy this CD-ROM Bellamy into the video footage and narration in the mistaken belief that it was written by would have helped. Bellamy, or at least narrated by him — which could be a big plus in the purchasing The Gingerbread Man decision if your kids like David Bellamy — but he has merely endorsed the product. Do the following words mean anything to You explore the world of endangered you? “Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll wildlife either through Games or a Tour. The begin.” So opened the BBC’s Listen With games include jigsaws, word-searches, Mother, a radio series I fondly recall and crosswords, noughts and crosses, and memories of which came flooding back The Lion King — you can At the Magic Pool you can quizzes. when I launched The Gingerbread Man. choose where to play watch six lengthy extracts from The Tours take you to meet all 44 classes Not only did it begin with those famous the movie, complete with music of endangered species, across six words but also the story is narrated by the Lion King isn’t hugely and the voices of the cast of the continents, and is designed to help children Daphne Oxenford, the storyteller on Listen different except for the original movie. understand about wildlife and conservation With Mother. characters and the settings. Young children like familiar ArtRageous fun, but the issues. The Gingerbread Man is the first title in From Pride Rock you can things. No matter how good a ArtRageous isn’t really simi- serious side is a database of The program includes 200 photographs the new Read & Play series from Europress, survey the Pride Lands and piece of software might be, it lar to anything else, which in a artists, artistic terms, schools and more than 30 colour full motion videos which will include Goldilocks and the Three decide whether to visit the can often be exceptionally diffi- way is what makes it so good. It and so on. Superb software of creatures in their natural habitats. All the Bears and The Three Little Pigs. Jungle, Rafiki’s Tree, the cult to get your child to change is one of those rare animals: a facts in the program can be printed for It is the usual animated storybook — Shadowlands or the Magic Pool. from something tried and program uniquely designed for cracking product: well worth school reports, extra-curricular activities or read the story yourself or hear it narrated, At each location there are trusted. The great thing about the computer and doing what trying to get a look at and bed-time reading. watch some animation, start other anima- different activities. For example, these Disney packages is that couldn’t be done in any other definitely a must-have for The game is fairly simple though tion by clicking the on-screen hotspots. in the Jungle you can play Pum- they are based on movies chil- medium. anyone interested in any aspect absorbing while you are playing it. Essen- Europress claims The Gingerbread Man baa’s Hidden Animal Friends, dren know and love, so you can The world of ArtRageous is of painting. Superb! tially, you have a board (similar to a chess- “contains hundreds more audio and graphic Timon and Pumbaa’s Spelling be almost certain that your arranged around a central plaza. board) on the screen, which is called an effects than any other children’s program Game or Timon’s Bug Matching investment will be rewarded by You move right or left to what David Bellamy’s “Interlink”. Behind each square is part of a for the PC.” It is nicely drawn and animated Game. To each game you can the software actually being used. are called “neighbourhoods” in Endangered Wildlife picture. You have to remove the squares to and should provide a lot of pleasure. ArtRageous-land. These neigh- reveal the picture and you do this by solv- Adults will Thumbelina bourhoods are Colour, After ArtRageous, David ing puzzles, playing games, typing in find a section The Gingerbread Man Composition, Light, Perspective, Bellamy’s Endangered Wildlife answers to questions, and so on. Along the about the has it away on his toes While we are in the area of cartoons, let me make quick mention of Database and Timeline. seems a bit basic. way, you learn about different endangered Thumbelina, from VCI Software. If anybody rivals (and perhaps even With Colour you can mix it, “Many of the world’s most species. surpasses) Disney, it is Don Bluth who has made some cracking change it, and discover ways in magnificent animals are heading Frankly, I’m not sure what to make of animated features. His Thumbelina, with some lacklustre songs by which it can have an impact on for extinction,” writes Sir David this CD-ROM. It is aimed at children aged Barry Manilow, seemed to passed almost without notice (well, I your favourite works of art. in the manual. “If I didn’t believe eight upwards yet I wonder if children of didn’t notice it) but it is a nice story and charmingly animated. Perspective unsurprisingly they can all be saved then I that age will really find enough here to keep The interactive CD-ROM will read you the story or let you read it looks at perspective in paintings, wouldn’t be wasting your time.” them entertained. yourself and allows you to paint, match animals with their names how it has been used down the As far as I can see, this short The trouble is, if you have a child who is and sing along to the songs. centuries and how you can introduction is David Bellamy’s interested in wildlife, especially one The CD was first released a couple of years ago, by Time-Warner create angles and illusions. sole contribution to this CD- sufficiently interested to find playing these Interactive, and VCI has anglicised it a little and now offers it at a Composition looks at the ROM — apart from allowing his games enjoyable, they will probably have low price — good value for money for three- to eight-year-olds. details in a painting. You can see photograph to grace the box. I got all the information on this CD in a book how moving them changes the don’t mind this, but I think it is a and won’t need the incentive of puzzle-

254 255 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 JULY 1996 WORLD COMPUTER PERSONAL 256 L been told,astherewasn’tonein gingerbread cutterinthebox(orsoIhave gingerbread ontheCDaswellafree bread!), andthereisarecipefor bread (whichusedtobemadefromstale origins ofgingerandthemakingginger- two Nikolaistories and YellowHippo,the Green Bear,RedRhino, books: BlueTortoise, electronic colouring column). There’sthefullsetofAlanRogers which havebeenpreviouslyreviewedinthis Entertainment Pack. namely Corel’sSuperTenKids bargains tohavecomealonginalongwhile, children’s softwarewithoneofthebest Entertainment Pack Super TenKids story ortaleyoucanplayonyourcarCD. can playaloneorwithyouandabedtime worlds: ananimatedactivitywhichchildren audio CDplayer,givingyouthebestofboth is thattheCDcanbeplayedonanordinary et’s endthismonth’ssort-throughof Rating Fax Tel Contact Price ArtRageous Rating Fax Tel Contact Price Thumbelina Prices The LionKingActivityCentre Toy StoryScreenScenesSaver Pocahontas AnimatedStorybook Ratings Fax Tel Contact

This containstenCD-ROMs(mostof CUTTING EDGE The nicethingabouttheEuropresstitles 0181 7892000 01923 255558 0171 6052400 0181 7895626 01923 817968 0171 6052984 £24.95 (inclVAT) £14.99 (inclVAT) £44.99 ★★★★★ ★★★★✩ Softkey International VCI Software Buena Vista ★★★★✩ ★★★★✩ ★★★✩✩ FUN PCW 1 ; £24.99 1 3 2 2 ; £44.99 Miseries releases the Pandora 3 my 1 3 (incl VAT) box). PCW 2 Details Interactive Alphabet. Wild Cards,BoardGamesandThe Neow-Neow). PlusAdventureswithEdison, is anadventurewithNikolaiandhistoycat (Nikolai’s TrainsandNN’nNToyMakerswhich T worth takingalookat. history ofGreekcivilisation.It’snotgreat,but Curriculum requirementsforthe mythology. and tellsatraditionalstorydrawnfromGreek Don Bluthanyway—butitisn’texpensive exceptional cartoon—notafterDisneyand Corel isPandora’sBox. Rating Fax Tel Contact Price Pandora’s Box Rating Fax Tel Contact Price Rating Fax Tel Contact Price Rating Fax Tel Contact Price David Bellamy’sEndangeredWildlife Super TenKid’sEntertainmentPack The GingerbreadMan Pandora’s Box o completelyroundthingsoff,newfrom It’s anicewaytoreinforcetheNational It isbrightandcolourfulbutnotan 01480 496666 01703 812755 01703 812755 01625 859333 01703 813830 01703 813830 01625 879962 01480 496189 £19.95 (inclVAT) £19.99 (inclVAT) £39.95 (inclVAT) £19.99 (InclVAT) ★★★✩✩ ★★✩✩✩ ★★★✩✩ ★★★★✩ GSP Channel Marketmakers Channel Marketmakers Europress PCW PCW MEDIA MEDIA

The CD is based on the Do you know, the mad Guinness Book of Records — monk can guide you CD-ROMs the best-selling copyright around? No, but you book in the world (after non- hum it, he’ll play it Fun, culture and the stuff of legends. It’s all here: from a copyright books such as the virtual dog zone, to various Vermeers, to exploring myths Bible and the Koran) — and sticks closely to the same with a mad monk. formula as the book but with added video to jazz it up. up staircases and down particularly good, as students The Art of Singing The two main search CUTTING EDGE

CUTTING EDGE corridors, peering at the various representing all the vocal types Contact Notting Hill routes are via topics or doors in an attempt to find what rehearse a piece, taking hints 0171 229 0531 superlatives, so you could you are looking for. from their teacher. Price £39.95 (incl VAT) look up the oldest Oscar win- You cannot go directly to any There are two technical Rating ●●●❍❍ ner (Jessica Tandy, for Driving part of the disc but have to walk niggles on this disk. The first is Miss Daisy) via either the film around the building to get there. that you can only run it in 256 section, under “topics”, or via So, you might want to hit Alt F4 colours — I prefer to run in at “oldest” in the superlatives. The Art of Singing to get out quickly rather than least 16-bit colour. Secondly, The variety of topics cov- Notting Hill, the maker of this spend the two minutes or so it when run on an external quad- ered is astonishing, ranging you will have to find CD, was set up last year by takes to exit via the way out. speed CD-ROM drive attached to from satellite pictures of Jupiter The emphasis, despite the their co-ordinates and tap out Andreas Whittam-Smith, former Each room has its own my Mac it ran very badly — the to the world’s longest poem. If dull interface, is on fun and for the numbers on rune stones that editor of The Independent. theme. You can go into the con- sound was broken up and the you just want to delve, you can the price it does give good value magically appear out of the sea. The company’s latest product cert hall to listen to some of the graphics were very jerky. I had Guinness Multimedia Disc of look through the random access entertainment. You are given a cheat inside the takes strongly after the current greats, including Luciano no such problems with a six- Records section which presents various Adele Dyer case, which is just as well: you vogue for virtual reality environ- Pavarotti and Maria Callas speed drive on the PC, so it’s not Any child of the seventies could facts in caption form, together might otherwise play around for ment CDs. singing various arias, or go into certain whether the problems hardly fail to be touched by the with a photograph. You cannot Guinness Multimedia Disc of Myths and Legends Vol 2: ages trying to find the right All the information can be singers’ dressing rooms to hear were inherent in the Mac version cult of bizarre world records. access the main article from the Records Lost Cities and Mythical Lands combinations to get beyond the found by wandering around in them speak on various subjects. of the dual format disk, or Record Breakers, with Roy random search: you must go to Contact Grolier Interactive Myths and Legends is a series opening screen. the Academy of Song: a sort of There is a seminar with whether it was the speed of the Castle and Norris McWhirter, the topics search and look 01865 245770 from EMME, best known for its The “lands” covered are: mythical opera house, complete Jonathan Miller, answering drive. was compulsive weekly viewing afresh for anything that has cap- Price £24.99 (incl VAT) fine art CDs. The first volume Atlantis, the Tower of Babel, with concert hall, practice questions from such late But these troubles aside, The as we breathlessly waited to see tured your imagination. Rating ●●●❍❍ was on monsters and mythical Easter Island, Eldorado, the rooms, dressing rooms and luminaries as Mozart and Art of Singing is highly how many tap dancers they While the CD is pri- creatures. This is Bermuda Triangle, the labyrinth seminar rooms, plus a few Wagner. entertaining. could get all tapping together or marily for trivia fans, it slightly less of Daedalus, Stonehenge, added peculiarities such as a The practice room is Adele Dyer how many dominoes would top- has some appeal as a ghoulish and Herod’s temple, the Garden of doctor’s surgery. ple over with just one push. form of encyclopedia. concentrates on Eden, and the Fountain of The VR approach is Perhaps it is only when The sections on natural mythical places. Youth. Not all strictly cities or great fun. As you walk you reach adulthood that wonders and sports When you first lands, but perhaps that’s just around you come across all you realise just how strange events, for example, launch the CD being pedantic. sorts of things that you many of these records are. are just as relevant to you appear in a In each land there is a video might not necessarily look Indeed, you can appreciate both but the Guinness room of a castle, introduction from either the mad for, such as the creative the incredible lengths to Book of Records furnished in monk or a sort of Greek oracle, room where there are which people will go to break version is at least a gothic style with hammed up by Amanda McLaine extracts from all kinds of these bizarre records: to little less precious. an organ, stained (Shirley’s daughter). These are sources on the subject of achieve their life’s goal of, glass windows the funniest aspects of the CD. singing. and a huge globe. The overacting is extreme and However. there are a Click on the organ the dialogue is hilariously over few down sides. It takes a and a ghostly the top. while to find out where monk appears, playing a The main information screen you are going as you dramatic tune and giving is based on text and pictures flounder about, shooting you a hyperbolic descrip- alone but the content is never- tion of the background to theless comprehensive and very the CD. well written. It concentrates To get into the worlds mainly on descriptions of the places, origins of the myth and Above Listen to a performance or visit Above “Here, Genghis, any truth behind the myth. The the singers in their dressing rooms don’t forget your packed information goes way beyond Left You must find your own way around say, eating more pickled lunch this time” the usual trite facts and digs the Academy of Song gherkins than anybody else. The Left Hmm… I wonder: deeper. It is certainly not a CD Right “Do-re-mi…” — drop in on a appeal of the disc comes from who’s eaten the most aimed purely at children and practice room exactly this type of weird and gherkins at one sitting? should appeal to anyone. wonderful trivia. The only slightly annoying

258 259 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 PCW PCW MEDIA MEDIA

aspect is the music. It is quite quite attached to their as an electronic Painting by numbers, it’s not: pleasant at first but it continually new-found friend. I’ve edition. “Woman Holding a Balance” — loops until you are forced to pull actually managed to teach There is nothing is she weighing up her modelling fee? the plug on your speakers. mine to do handstands and flashy about the CD- All in all this is a highly enter- juggle a ball on his nose for ROM: multimedia taining CD, especially with all the bones! might as well not gothic horrors, and includes To run Dogz you need exist, because there enough information to make it a either a 486DX PC with 4Mb aren’t even any pho- real treat. of RAM, Windows 3.1 or tographs. All you get Adele Dyer higher, VGA, a mouse and is a sophisticated CUTTING EDGE

CUTTING EDGE 6Mb of hard disk space, or a search engine and the Myths and Legends Vol 2: Lost 68040 or PowerPC Mac with text — and nobody Cities and M ythical Lands 4Mb and 8Mb of disk space. should need more, Contact Koch Media Chris Cain although some 01420 541880 Woolf. Stephen pub- photographs would be nice. Above Who’s in the dogz Price £39.99 (incl VAT) Dogz lished the first volume This is a superb and impres- house? Rating ●●●●❍ Contact Mindscape in 1882, until his sive reference source. You can Left Rover-round and 01444 246333 health broke down scroll through the articles apply- pick your pup — he’ll Price £14.99 (incl VAT) and the project was ing one of several criteria, such bounce with health Rating ●●●●❍ carried forward by as name, occupation and con- holding down the mouse Sidney Lee. When tributor, including a word button over him, and you George Smith died in search. You can print or copy to can teach him to perform 1917, his widow disk, in ASCII format, a whole a wide variety of tricks. In bequeathed the copy- article or just selected text. Or time your puppy grows, covered for each of the paint- the presentation becomes a little right to the Oxford University you can copy directly into your Dogz so train him early for the ings, including its history, an boring: there is no interaction Press. word processor. The interface is If you’ve always fancied best results. analysis and the techniques apart from choosing which clip From 1907 the decision was neat and clean, the program is owning a dog but can’t For those moments used. The subjects are broken you want to look at, so instead taken not to alter the original easy to use and has so far been quite cope with a pooper- Chip who’s best described as when you’re not at your down into numerous sub- you sit in front of the screen like entries. This has made the DNB the only software to have scooper, the latest release from cute but stupid. If you can’t keyboard Dogz can act as a Vermeer — an exploration of categories and most are a couch potato, gradually paying a primary source rather than an impressed a computer-phobic Mindscape could be for you. decide which dog is best for screensaver. When the “Guard the artist and his techniques presented as short video clips. less and less attention. But, accurate and up-to-date refer- friend of mine who was truly Dogz, “your computer pet”, lets you, a short Pup Quiz can sort Dogz” option kicks in, your dog As with many of the art CDs In fact, there are over 100 docu- taken a bit at a time, this is one ence tool. enraptured with it. The DNB is you adopt a virtual pooch com- you out. goes on patrol stomping around currently available, this one is mentary sequences mostly con- of the better art CDs we have With the approach of the 21st what CD-ROM is all about — it plete with a never-ending supply Once you’ve adopted your the screen and letting off the tied to an exhibition, or in this sisting of stills photographs of seen for a while. It is slick and century it became clear that a is serious, solid, jam-packed of food and water. puppy the idea is to train him to occasional howl. You can set a case exhibitions, in Washington various works, perhaps with accomplished without being wholly new Dictionary of with information and provides Dogz gives you five breeds of respond to your commands. To password, too, so he will bark and the Hague. But you do not some panning between views overly pretentious, and has National Biography was needed. many a happy hour of browsing. dog to choose from, each with a this end the program provides when someone attempts illegal need to have seen the and a narrative played over the some interesting things to say. Public funds for this task were Paul Begg different look and its own char- you with all the essential tools, access. exhibitions to enjoy the disk. top. There are relatively few text Adele Dyer made available to the OUP in acteristics. Bootz is a large, including balls for him to fetch, Apart from that there’s not a The CD covers four works in passages and these are fairly 1992 and one of the first things The Dictionary of National strong Setter, Scrappy is a play- treats for when he does well and lot else to Dogz. It really is just detail: Girl with the Red Hat, skimpy compared with the Vermeer — an exploration of it did was to capture the DNB on Biography ful Terrier and Chi Chi is a some- a small water spray for those good clean fun. The graphics Woman Holding a Balance, View narrated texts. the artist and his techniques CD-ROM for use by those com- Contact Oxford University Press what timid-looking Chihuahua. disobedient moments. are wonderfully lifelike and I of Delft, and Girl with a Pearl The amount of information Contact New Media Solutions piling the new edition. One result 01865 267815 Me, I went for a mongrel called You can pet your pup by can see some people becoming Earring. Various subjects are crammed onto the CD is 0171 229 1708 is that the DNB is now available Price £350 (plus VAT) impressive and it is equally Price £39.95 (incl VAT) Rating ●●●●● heartening to see works covered Rating ●●●●❍ Get clued-up on Culpeper in this much detail. Many art CDs go for quantity of paintings The Dictionary of National rather than detail and this disc Biography makes a refreshing change. The Dictionary of National Biog- Nevertheless, it does also raphy (DNB) is a collection of include a good number of biographies of notable Britons. It works. There are 17 of is particularly renowned for the Vermeer’s other paintings and quality of writing by its contribu- 75 related works hidden among tors and is regarded as one of the sequences, but as there is the major historical and literary no index these cannot be found achievements of the nineteenth other than by chance. century. The video approach is It was the brainchild of pub- strangely in keeping with lisher George Smith and who put Vermeer’s style — relaxed and the editorship in the hands of leisurely. However, in the end Leslie Stephen, father of Virginia

260 261 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 PCW FUN

NEWS Screenplayplay

Nordic naughties Who got the gongs? CUTTING EDGE

and dark deeds scars, BAFTA and PCW awards Oaside, in the games industry (or to be precise, the interactive entertainment T Interactive is set to release Vikings: The Strategy of and leisure multimedia industry) it’s the GUltimate Conquest. annual ECTS Awards that have real pres- As a viking living in the ninth century, you must secure tige. The Spring 1996 European Computer information from mystic storytellers and flirtatious serving Trade Show saw Command & Conquer, from Virgin, pick up the wenches to strengthen your hordes of fighters and award for Computer Software Game of the Year 1995, while Sega’s weaponry. Simultaneously, you must plan your destiny Virtua Fighter 2 won of the Year. while scheming, plotting and planning for invasion Psygnosis was voted Developer of the Year with games such as combat. Wipeout and Destruction Derby to its credit. Software Publisher of the There are two options for gameplay style: Year went to Virgin Interactive Entertainment. continental domination or mythical quest. Further award winners at the event were Ocean’s Worms, Encarta 96 Vikings will cost £39.99. from Microsoft and Mortal Kombat 3 from Sony. Meanwhile, nominated Also from GT Interactive comes Hexen: Death hardware Sega Saturn and Microsoft Sidewinder Pro 3D were beaten by the Kings of the Dark Citadel. It’s an extension pack Sony Playstation which won the Best Hardware award. of 20 all-new expert levels to follow-up Beyond Heretic and is out now, retailing at £14.99. A Win95 version of Hexen will be released in Where there’s August. Also on the Win95 format front, Mortal Kombat 3 is now available. muck… GT Interactive 0171 258 3791 should retail at £44.99. Gearheads, also from Philips Charts Media, is a strategy game of battling wind-up toys. Pick a toy ew titles from Philips Media from your toy box, let it wind up 1 Worms (CD) Ocean Nto be released over the next and then release it towards your 2 Worms: Reinforcements (CD) Virgin six months are an assortment of opponent. All the toys have dif- 3 Dogz (CD) Mindscape adventure, racing, strategy and ferent strengths and weaknesses 4 Civilization 2 (CD) Microprose 3D flying shoot-em-ups. so a little strategical planning is 5 Duke Nukem 3D Demo (CD) US Gold Philips Media is hoping for an advantageous before launching 6 Command and Conquer (CD) Virgin animation award for its classic another toy into battle. 7 Com. and Conquer… Covert Operations (CD) Virgin adult cartoon adventure, Down The game has a simplistic 8 TFX EF2000 (CD) Ocean in the Dumps. Despite the game concept so it’s easy to learn, but 9 Grand Prix Manager (CD) Microprose being set in the scene of a stink- it’s far from easy to master. Its 10 Star Trek The Final Unity (CD) Microprose ing rubbish dump, Philips claims makers believe it could become 11 FIFA ’96(CD) EA it is one of the most beautiful as addictive as Tetris. With a 12 Sam & Max: White Label (CD) Virgin adventure games ever to grace frenzied musical 13 PGA European Tour (CD) EA the computer screen. Down in accompaniment, the hybrid CD- 14 7th Guest — White Label (CD) Virgin the Dumps has taken French ROM will be available from June 15 Premier Manager 3: Deluxe (CD) Gremlin developers, Haiku Studio, over retailing at £29.99 (incl VAT). 16 Championship Manager 2 (CD) Domark two years to make using SVGA Philips Media 0171 911 3000 17 Virtual Snooker (CD) Interplay graphics and fully-rendered 18 Magic Carpet 2 (CD) EA characters. It is 19 Need For Speed (CD) EA due for release 20 Crusader (CD) EA in October and

263 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 WORLD COMPUTER PERSONAL 264 I tion andeconomywiththeneed ance thegrowthofyourpopula- the samegoal.Youhavetobal- civilisations arestrivingtowards to sixothercomputer-controlled you aren’taloneintheworld:up colony inanewstarsystem.But the globeandyouhavestarteda point whereyourempirespans and youtrytoadvancethe corner ofanunexploredworld begin withaprehistorictribein little descriptionisinorder.You how passedyoubyin1991,a Civ withknobson. in thesequel—CivilizationIIis addictive, there’slotsmoretolike found theoriginalcompletely 850,000 copies:ifyou,likemany, “God-sim” hit,whichsoldover sequel toSidMeier’soriginal weaknesses ofCivilizationII,the Price Civilization II The brain-bashing sequel to a gripping God-simgame. sequeltoagripping brain-bashing The

If “Civilizationmania”some- CUTTING EDGE the strengthsand t doesn’ttakelongtosumup £44.99 (inclVAT) FUN PCW ● Contact Microprose 01454893893 variables simultaneously.Ifyou yourself jugglinglotsofdifferent ward, butyouwillsoonfind things appearfairlystraightfor- When youarejuststartingout and there’salargewallchart. in theformof“Civilopedia”, pages long,there’sonlinehelp is. Therulebookisnearly200 your ownpopulationhappy. encourage trade,andtokeep them fromattackingyou,to other computerplayerstokeep age yourrelationshipswiththe opponents). Youhavetoman- attack (ortheneedtocrushyour to defendyourgainsagainst “civilopedia” hyperlink tootherpartsofthe buy. Youcanusethecolouredtextto One ofthemanynewunitsyoucan It soundscomplicated,andit pieces ofaddedmultimedia One oftheless-than-inspiring 640 x480 is onlyat screenshot — andthis your screen area onto much more you canfit graphics With SVGA gloss inthegame’sinterface. last fiveyears,there’smore advanced substantiallyoverthe Since computerpowerhas now bedamagedandrepaired. has beenbeefedupsounitscan alliances. Thecombatsystem have temporarycease-firesand with yourneighboursyoucan choose betweenpeaceandwar marines. Insteadofhavingto including paratroopersand units tomovearoundthemap, ity. Therearenow51different even moredepthandcomplex- but CivilizationIIwillgiveyou you hoursofplayingpleasure, challenges Civilizationwillgive musketeers oreventanks. find yourenemyhasinvented elephants andlegions,youcould If youthriveonthesetypesof mighty armyofcavalry, scientific R&Dtobuilda if youhaveskimpedon your citieswillrevolt.And them entertainment,and too fastwithoutoffering Build upyourpopulation down andwipeyouout. ian hordeswillsweep up youreconomy,barbar- concentrate onbuilding a 60MHzCompaq Windows 3.1on game under I triedthe worlds ifyou’retiredoftherandom onesprovided Civilization IIallowsyoutocreate yourown opponent. satisfying toplayasahuman will everbeaschallengingor improved artificialintelligence, puterised player,evenwith the lackofnetworkplay:nocom- development canbetricky. provided, organisingscientific with itsaidandthewallchart you needtobuildone,buteven and tellsyouthetechnologies or buildingyouwanttodevelop which allowsyoutoentertheunit “development wizard”feature ing? Thereisanew you havediscoveredhorserid- can’t inventgunpowderunless guerilla warfare?Orthatyou developed communismand you shouldhavepreviously build mechanisedinfantryunits Would youguessthatinorderto produce somestrangeresults. handle scientificadvancescan still frustrate.Thewaythegames are enjoyable,therepartsthat people. you canopttosee3Drendered computer player’sambassadors there andwhenyoutalktothe clips havebeenaddedhereand it wasn’tatallslow.Afewvideo Pentium with16MbofRAMand The biggestdisappointmentis While bothCivilizationIandII 01454 893893 Contact Price 66MHz isrecommended. space onharddisk.486DX2 Windows 3.1or95.35Mbfree graphics, double-speedCD-ROM, or better,8MbofRAM,SVGA System Requirements £44.99 (inclVAT) Microprose David Brake 486DX/33 W heat-seeking kitted outwith dog-like creatures the badguysaredemented terrible fate:thistimearound, save theworldfromyetanother its boxforever. installed, theCDcangobackin 13Mb ofdiskspaceand,once megs ofRAM.You’llonlyneed tium systemfittedwithazillion moment, doesn’trequireaPen- many othergamesatthe Windows 95and,unlikeso Windows 95.Itevenrunsunder installs automaticallyunder tive gameplay. up forintheannoyinglyaddic- of graphicsisquicklymade off. WhatAbuselacksbyway nightmares. Butdon’tbeput quite asmanyre-occurring 3D actiontobehadandnot about thelatter,butthere’sno tad moreviolence.Iwasright more weaponstohandanda like Abusethere’dbeeven in thepost,onlywithaname Doom-esque pastimetoarrive was halfexpectinganother3D Price Abuse Deal thedeath blow todementeddog-demons. The ideaofthegameisto Abuse issuppliedonCDand £39.99 (inclVAT) review thisgameI hen Iwasaskedto dig theChannelTunnel That’ll bethemachineusedto ● Contact Electronic Arts01753672080 a somewhatmodest Earth, yousetoutwith the surfaceof world. reaching theoutside prevent thesemonsties you, asheroNick,to the walls.Itisupto minded weaponson power fromlike- some prettyheavyfire the ChannelTunneland machines usedtodig encounter the human flesh.You’llalso missiles andatastefor Twenty milesbelow extra cashwiththeleveleditor Create yourowngamesandmakesome uncover, each weapons to There areseven power yourself. find seriousfire however, untilyou doesn’t takelong, every angle.It attacked from all youarebeing pants. Innotimeat clean pairofunder- laser pistolanda get ’em! Go onNick, ESNLCMUE WORLD COMPUTER PERSONAL 01753 672080 Contact Price CD-ROM. 13Mb diskspace,mouse, 5 (runsunderWindows95), 486DX/50 with8MbRAM,DOS System Requirements reassuring toknowbecausea pistol neverrunsout,whichis in useful.Thankfullythelaser carry itallbutcertainlycomes know howNickmanagesto tion tobepickedup—Idon’t leave behindcratesofammuni- be partiallyinvisibleandtofly. These allowNicktorunfaster, come across“powerups”. Along thewayyou’relikelyto you toshootinanydirection. screen, whilethemouseallows keys movehimaroundthe keyboard andmouse:cursor throughout thegame. becoming moreeffective of monsties. seemingly never-endingsupply the nightwithitspuzzlesand guaranteed tokeepyouuphalf however, greatfuntoplayand awards forinnovation.Itis, When shot,mostmonsties You controlNickwiththe Abuse isunlikelytowinany scrolling platformgame, much damage. size 12bootisn’tgoingtodo £39.99 (inclVAT) For whatiseffectivelya Electronic Arts Steven Helstrip PCW FUN JULY 1996 265 CUTTING EDGE JULY 1996 WORLD COMPUTER PERSONAL 266 E begins withtheVRTunnelinter- begins. in andyourmissiontosurvive game. Afterthis,themusickicks unfortunately continuesintothe the AtariST—atraitwhich that Ithoughthadgoneoutwith plodded alongataframerate unimpressive introsequence.It than ataddisappointedwiththe mum performance,Iwasmore full 350Mbinstallationformaxi- one ofJupiter’smoons. nasty racelurkingonEuropa, has uncoveredaparticularly part ofaminingexpeditionthat from home.Thistime,youplay ing alienstobits,alongway has youflyingaroundandblast- Commander-esque affairthat them. It’sanotherWing latest fromDomark,isn’toneof fraternity. AbsoluteZero,the talking thanjustthegaming and playableitgetsmorepeople letters andnofloppydisks)to:PCW PrizePuzzle-July1996,P.O. divides by12345,then12345wouldbetherequiredanswer. the numberformedbyreversingdigits.Forexample,if54321 ● chance towin. give thereadersinnon-geniuscategories(ifthereareany!)a but sincewe’vehadafewdifficultproblemsrecently,IthoughtI’d A nicerelativelyeasyproblemthismonth.Probablyabittooeasy, This Month’sPrizePuzzle be in16thposition? 4 areputintoascendingnumericalsequence,whatnumberwould If allpermutationsofthe4-digitnumberswhichusedigits1to Quickie Price Absolute Zero non-staggering fly-and-blast game. fly-and-blast non-staggering onthis 46keyboard controls astaggering are There Find a5-digitnumber—alldigitsdifferentwhichisfactorof

The actioninAbsoluteZero Having decidedtogoforthe CUTTING EDGE Answers onapostcardorthebackofsealedenvelope(no £44.99 (inclVAT) appears that’ssofresh very sooften,agame FUN PCW ● Contact Domark 01817802222 Brainteasers courtesy ofJJClessa. courtesy Brainteasers more powerfulweaponsare As thestoryunfolds,though, begin with,somewhatlimited. vehicles and mining colony,the alien craft. ings andadviceon updates, teambrief- with regularnews tion isathandtoo, Other vitalinforma- diary andemail. your character’s enables youtoread on differentmodules face, whereclicking weapons atyourdisposalare,to Being setina Leisure Lines Leisure turn next. way. Meanwhile,toallthealso-rans,keeptrying,itcouldbeyour Oxfordshire. Congratulations,MrPerrins,yourprizeisonits Paper Clips(0.34),Notebooks(3.71),andapostagestamp(0.01). gives lessavidpuzzlersthechancetowinaprize. hope itwasfun,andlikethismonth’sproblem(alsoabiteasy) Quickie wasmoredifficult(thecrypticmessage).Anyway,we almost 250entrieswerereceived.Quiteafewpeoplesaidthatthe All tooeasy,asoneentrantputit.Andhowrighthewas,since Winner ofApril1996PrizePuzzle July 1996.GoodLuck! Box 99,Harrogate,N.YorksHG20XJ,toarrivenotlaterthan20th destroyed bythebaddies.Flying machinery hasn’tbeen cobbled togetherfromwhatever Our winnerthismonthisMrDarrellPerrinsofBicesterin The solutionwasthatAlmaboughtRubberBands(3.94), ahoy! Spaceships Europa way around Blast your staggering 46toremember. keyboard controls—therearea gives youtimetorecaponthe takes aneternity,butthisatleast force. Loadingeachmission and instructionsaregiven.It’s but eachtimeyoufail,newhints which atfirstisn’talwaysclear, unspectacular fashion. and yourshipexplodesinan down; gettooclosetothehills slow andyoucomecrashing around Europaisn’teasy:gotoo destroy muchoftheenemy enough yourbuddieswill you hangaroundlong you arepartofafleet,soif not aloneonthefirstmission: good toknowthatyourare Absolute Zeroisn’tascool Each missionhasaplot Contact Price ROM. Mouserequired. review. as soonIfinishthis 350Mb ofstoragejust I’ll befreeingupthat and strategygames, fan ofshoot-em-ups penetrate. WhileIama slow anddifficultto its titlesuggests:it’s £44.99 (inclVAT) Domark 01817802222 and double-speedCD- ATI orWeitekchipset) 6.0, SVGAcard(S3, 486/66 with8Mb,DOS System Requirements Steven Helstrip COMPETITION Global Online accounts and

CUTTING EDGE Make-it chips WinA jamboree bag of 660 prizes: we’ve got silver membership accounts, special offers on Global Online subscriptions, and Make-it upgrade chips — all for the online... taking.

N THE BIGGEST ONLINE Iservice give-away ever in PCW, Crownhawk Ltd will offer registration and one year’s subscription to Global Online, silver membership, for each of 150 lucky winners. Five hundred runners-up will each win the chance to take up a year’s subscription at only £25, the registration fee (saving £48). Q1 To win one of these Once you have your account, there are no online charges and no accounts, just tell us what the charges for downloading files. word modem is short for. Is it: Rules of entry The services you will find include your own Internet email 1a) modulator/demodulator This competition is open to all address and access to thousands of online files covering such 1b) modern demonstrator readers of Personal Computer subjects as games, education, utilities, music and sports. 1c) mobile disk emulator World, except for employees Additionally, there is online shopping, online conferencing, games and their families, of VNU and a bulletin service. Business Publications, The software is user-friendly, even to the novice. Crownhawk Ltd and Improve All you have to know is how to use a mouse. Technologies. Entries must arrive by 19th July 1996. The Editor of PCW is the sole judge Make-it of the competition and his deci- sion is final. No cash alternative upgrade is available in lieu of prizes. chips If you just can’t deal ● PCW would be How to enter with your present 286, interested in finding To enter the competition, just write 386, or even if your 486 is your answers on a postcard, or on out how our winners getting you down, you need an the back of a sealed envelope, get on with installing upgrade chip, and Improve Technology has along with your name, address their upgrades and and daytime telephone number, really come up with the goods. It is offering ten would like to talk to upgrade chips from its Make-it range. and send to: July Competition, them for a possible Personal Computer World You can read our review of the Make-it chips feature, so please Editorial, VNU Business in this month’s First Impressions. include a day-time Publications, VNU House, The ten chips we are giving away are: phone number on 32-34 Broadwick Street, One 286 to 486 chip your entry. And don’t London W1A 2HG. ● Two 386SX to 486 chips Q2 Here is the question: forget to specify Remember: We would like to Two 386DX to 486 chips What does CPU stand for? which upgrade chip hear your comments when you’ve installed your upgrade chip, so Five 486 to 586 chips 2a) Co-Processing Unit you would like. 2b) Central Processing Unit please include your day-time 2c) Co-ordinate Placing Utility phone number on your entry.

267 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 Hands On Contents

OPERATING SYSTEMS Hands On is the place where readers can contribute to PCW, Windows 95 270 and as always we’ll pay for What a load of rubbish... left behind after an anything we use. Macros, sections inefficient uninstallation. Tim Nott tidies up. of code and hints and tips will be rewarded with a £20 book or record Windows 3.1 277 token (please say which you’d Tim Nott gets down to some dirty DOS-ing and prefer) and we’ll pay hard cash for gets hip to the Calypso beat. Give us a twirl... longer, more involved pieces. Please include relevant screenshots in .GIF format. 32-Bit 280 All submissions should be Chris Bidmead is in matchmaking mode as he emailed to the author of the suggests a tie-up between Apple’s Copland and appropriate section or snailmailed IBM’s PowerPC-based OS. to Hands On, Personal Computer OS/2 296 World Editorial, VNU House, It was an accident, honest — Terence Green’s 32-34 Broadwick Street, London Netscape/Web Explorer pics together, that is. W1A 2HG. Questions and short hints and tips can be faxed on 0171 316 9313. APPLICATIONS We’re constantly working to Word Processing 284 improve the contents of Hands On. Corel’s PerfectOffice suite is not, well, If you have any suggestions, send perfect. Tim Phillips explains. them to the Editor at the address above, or email them to: [email protected] Spreadsheets 288 The man from the Met Office wonders Visual Programming 318 whether Excel will help him in his work. Tim Anderson checks the fine pattern of Stephen Wells, he say yes. threads in Delphi 2.0.

Databases 292 AND THE REST... Mark Whitehorn has a heavy date — with Access. He’s getting on well with SQL, too. Hardware 300 Processor push-ups fortify the 486s... upgrades, that is. Roger Gann shows you 3D Graphics 304 how to put your hardware into Overdrive. How to cope with the pleasure of vibrant 3D images and the pain of the file management involved. With Benjamin Woolley. Networks 322 To fragment or defragment your hard disk; or Graphics & DTP 306 not? That is the question. Stephen Rodda has If you don’t know your Serif from your Sans the answer. Serif, you need our font of all knowledge, Gordon Laing. Macintosh 326 Multimedia 310 Chris Cain shows off his Office skills as he There’s a new Director in town and Panasonic sorts out the top ten problems with this calls “cut” on cheaper storage. Panicos software. And woof! Meet his desktop dog. Georghiades and Gabriel Jacobs look on.

Sound 314 Computer Answers 329 A note from Steven Helstrip on improving Frank Leonhardt pulverises problems and Windows 95’s audio performance. Plus, quashes queries. Then it’s straight in to his Electric Dreamz to make you snooze. Bargain Basement for a rummage around.

PROGRAMMING Beginners 331 Numbers Count 299 CPU, cache, RAM, hard disk — Eleanor Descriptive number sequences revisited. Turton-Hill gets down to basics. Mike Mudge is your guide.

269 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 HANDS ON ● WINDOWS 95 HANDS ON ● WINDOWS 95

vates your original editor, even after you’ve And the waiter brought a tray got rid of MegaPaint and removed its entry, or entries, from the “File Types” list. In the April issue, we looked at a cluster of utilities that sit in the “System Tray” or Sometimes you’ll find that the original “Notification Area” — that recessed bit of the Taskbar at the other end to the Start button. program will “mend” its associations. If not, I’ve now discovered a rather neat application that lets you add your own shortcuts to the and you don’t want the trouble of re- Tray. Stick Brian McCarty’s TrayIcon in your Startup folder, and you can have one-click installing it, you’ll have to create a new file access to your favourite applications. Setting it up doesn’t brim with user friendliness — you type. The easy way is to double-click on can’t preview icons, for example — the file and when the “Open With” dialogue but it’s simple and it works. You appears, type in a description — this is don’t have to register it, but Brian what will appear in the “File Types” list and would appreciate $5 if you find it Gone, but not forgotten… the Explorer “Type” column. Make sure useful. It’s on our free, cover- the “Always use this program…” box is mounted CD-ROM under ticked and choose a program from the list. Trayicon.zip. Inefficient uninstallation leaves rubbish behind: You might notice that certain file types, in particular those of bitmap editors which Fig 3 Add your favourite Tim Nott provides a cure. And for a bit of R&R, can normally handle a variety of formats, applications to the system tray he goes quackers with a kludge for an icon editor. have more than one extension associated with them. The neat thing about this is that all these extensions will appear with the .txt entry and you’ll find this points to faxes sit proudly displayed in your “Sent ll applications that bear the Windows the left-hand pane. Each of these should same “Type” in Explorer. Both .BMP and “txtfile”. So all you need to do is add an Items” folder as if nothing were amiss. You A95 logo should come with an unin- have three corresponding entries in the .PCX files, for example, default to the type extension key. Make sure you have have to look in your “Inbox” to discover a stallation routine but in my experience it right-hand pane. “Bitmap Image” which opens with Paint, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT selected and message from the “System Administrator” doesn’t always work. The first should be empty. The second but you can’t edit or add to this list directly expanded, and “Edit/New/Key”. that the fax was “Undeliverable”. Beta software seems particularly sus- shows the name of the application as and it doesn’t seem possible to specify This is just like creating a folder, so type I’ve since discovered another equally ceptible to a half-baked uninstall. One shown in the “Add/Remove…” list, which multiple extensions in a new file type. the name “.asc” (without the quotes but daft touch. Do not trust the “Received” col- application I looked at recently required an may not be the same as the name of the Often, this may not be a problem — it’s with the full-stop) in the space provided. It umn — it tells lies. You know that annoy- hour of manual deletion and registry prun- key. The third shows the command to quite useful to have Log or Ini files retain a won’t be in the correct position in the list, ing message you get when you’ve viewed ing to clear up all its droppings. uninstall the application. Delete the entire separate identity from Text files, even but don’t worry. With “.asc” still selected, a fax?: “Do you want to save changes to I take this sort of thing rather personal- key and the entry in “Add/Remove…” will though they open with Notepad. At other double-click on the “(Default)” entry in the this item?” I couldn’t really see what ly. If the companies involved are hoping for disappear. Note that unlike editing times, you might want to class ASC files, right-hand pane and enter “txtfile” (without changes I could have made and thought it the goodwill of beta testers and reviewers WIN.INI, you don’t need to explicitly save say, as Text files rather than giving them a the quotes) in the “Value Data” box. And might be a distant cousin of the Notepad with a product that may be unfinished and the Registry after editing. separate type. This has the added advan- that’s it. Close Regedit, and you’ll find that bug, that asks this when you’ve turned on unstable, then they could at least have the tage that any other right-button commands “Text Documents” now includes “ASC”. word wrap but doesn’t actually do any- courtesy to make sure that the victims Joining the association (e.g. “Print”) are already set up for you. If thing. But I was wrong. have a reliable means of getting rid of it all. While we’re in the area, what if an applica- you want to create a new multiple exten- Exchange and barf Just out of curiosity I answered “Yes” Three common problems seem to be: tion has stomped all over an existing associ- sion file type, then create the type with the You may have noticed a singular lack of the other day and was pleased to discover leaving items in the start menu, leaving ation? Let’s say you have a bitmap editor, first extension and close the dialogue. If discussion about Microsoft Exchange in that a fax I’d had to turn upside down was registered file types, and leaving items in with which files such as .TIF, .JPG and you want to add to an existing file type, this column. This is because most of the saved that way. Excellent, except that the the uninstall menu itself. The first is easy .TGA are associated. You install “Mega- then skip that bit and go straight to Reged- time I try not to think about it. “Received” date had also changed to that to cure — open the Start menu (right click Paint for Windows Demo Version” from a it, having carried out the usual precaution- My PC isn’t networked and I use CIX of the save. Call me pedantic, but I did on the Start button) and delete the relevant cover disk and this grabs the association, so ary backup. for email. I use the MS Fax driver straight rather expect this column to record the folders and/or shortcuts. that double-clicking on these no longer acti- For the sake of this example, let’s say from the word processor for sending faxes, original time and date that the item had Curing the second involves a visit to the you want to add .ASC files to the but I’m stuck with Exchange for receiving landed on my machine, rather than that “View/Options/File Types” dialogue from type “Text Documents”. First, you them. It’s slow to load and for some bizarre when I last looked at it. any Explorer or Folder window (Fig 1). need to find the middleman, the reason it can take a while for a received There is, you’ll be relieved to hear, a Scroll down until you see the offending internal name used by Windows to fax to show up in the in-basket. What on Way Round This: with the “Inbox” open, go entry, highlight it, and hit the “Remove” but- specify the type. If you look in earth is it doing all that time? Up until ton. Before you start congratulating yourself HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT, which is recently, I thought the dumbest bit of Fig 2 Customise Exchange with on a job well done, open WIN.INI and check where all this stuff is stored, you behaviour was the way failed outgoing different columns for each folder for corresponding entries in the [Exten- won’t see a key for “Text Docu- sions] section; if these exist, delete them as ments”. If you search for it, you’ll well, otherwise the Registry may add them find it in the right-hand pane, corre- again next time you start Windows. sponding to a key entitled “txtfile”. Getting items that have been removed That’s the middleman. off the “Uninstall” list that you see from You’ll notice that there are two Control Panel “Add/Remove Programs” sorts of entries in HKEY_CLASS- involves editing the Registry, but it is very ES_ROOT: extensions, preceded straightforward. Having backed up the reg- by a full-stop, and the “middlemen” istry, run Regedit and go to to which the former point. Check the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft \Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall Click on the plus sign and you’ll see a Fig 1 One file type, several number of folder icons (called “keys”) in extensions; but how is it done?

270 271 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 HANDS ON ● WINDOWS 95

to “View/Zoom/Custom…” and pick Fig 4 Roll your own icons with “800%”. From “View/Zoom” again, turn on Windows Paint the grid and the thumbnail view and design away. Turn on “Thumbnails” from Now here comes the incredibly cool bit: the “View” menu or toolbar and the top left pixel sets the “transparent” make sure “Edit/Drag” or the colour; i.e. any part of the icon that’s the “Hand” button is selected. This same colour, as this will change to that of way, you can avoid the scroll the current background. bars and page up/down buttons When your tiny masterpiece is finished, completely — it’s much easier to save it with the extension .ICO. It’s not a navigate between pages with Paint option so you’ll either have to type it the thumbnails, and on the same in or rename the file once saved. What you page with the “Hand” tool — you have then is not a true icon (.ICO) file, it’s just drag the page around. still a .BMP. But it looks like an icon, it Just to show I’m fair, there’s walks like an icon, and if you attach it to a something I do like about suitable sound-clip, will even quack like an Exchange — the little arrow on icon. In fact, you don’t even have to save it to “View/Columns”. My goodness, there’s the column headings that shows you how with the .ICO extension because if you a lot of stuff here you never knew you they’re sorted. Now, if they could make it a pick “All files” from the “Type” box when needed, so when you’ve had a good play little more visible, the programmers could browsing for an icon, Windows will be with it all, remove the “Received” column offer it to those who created Explorer. In happy with any .BMP file. It will even from the right-hand pane and add the return, the Explorer programmers could resize it if it’s not 32 x 32 pixels, though the “Sent” column instead — this doesn’t offer the “one click on the heading” to result isn’t usually very good. appear to change. You can jiggle the order reverse the order, instead of the “right- This is all part of the same trick as dis- of the columns with the “Move Up” and click/menu” seen in Exchange. playing Paint icons as miniatures of the “Move Down” buttons, but don’t bother images that appeared in the January issue with the width: it’s much easier to do this Quacking good icons column (Fig 4). However, it does make by dragging the joins in the column head- A while ago, I was bemoaning the lack of browsing far easier, and you’ll also find ers themselves. a decent icon editor for Windows 95. I’m that saving as, or renaming to, *.ICO auto- The fax viewer itself is a rather strange pleased to report that I’ve now found one, matically displays the file as an icon with- beast. On my system, at least, new faxes from a rather unexpected source. It’s free out having to hack the Registry. seem to default to an unreadable 25 per- and you don’t even have to download it or So how do you get around the problem cent view. The trick here is to avoid the install it from the cover disk. of not being able to open “real” .ICO files, pre-set zoom levels and set the view to “Fit Open Paint. Yes, the Mspaint.exe that or those embedded in another file? Brace Width”, either from the Zoom menu or the you get with Windows. Go to “Image/ yourselves: though I say it myself, this is a toolbar button. This seems to avoid the Attributes…” and set the height and width kludge little short of brilliant. peculiar effect of the sheet “jumping side- to 32 of those things Microsoft calls “Pels” First, you need the icon you want to edit ways” when you move between pages. but which everyone else calls “Pixels”. Go displayed full size in a folder. Resize the folder window so that not much more than Take six... the icon you want is visible. Alternatively, 1. Any application You can open any registered file from the generic “File/Open…” open the icon browser dialogue and and “Save As…” dialogues. With Notepad, for example, select browse/scroll till you see what you want. “All files (*.*)” from the “Type” list and right-click, then “Open” the Grab a “screenshot” to the Clipboard by one you want — let’s say it’s a .BMP. Unlike a double-click or pressing Alt + Print Screen. pressing the “Open” button, this will load the file into a new instance Create a new file in Paint, as before, of Paint. with the image attributes set to 32 x 32 pix- 2. Word 7 To get a list of every Word command, go to “Tools/Macro” and els. Paste the screenshot into Paint and select “Word Commands”. Scroll down to “ListCommands” and run you’ll be informed that the image on the it. You’ll end up with a table showing commands, keystrokes and Clipboard is larger than the bitmap and modifier keys. asked whether you want the latter 3. “Run…” command Windows remembers the last 26 things that you’ve “Run” from the enlarged. You don’t. “Start” Button. Click on the arrow beside the input box to see a After you’ve pasted, you’ll notice that scrolling list. you can drag the oversize image around 4. Media Player Double-clicking on the title bar toggles between hiding and showing until the bit you want is centred in the Paint the full “set of controls”. editing area. Select another tool, and 5. More Multimedia If you “Open” rather than “Play” a media clip from the right-button bingo — you’ve caught the little blighter menu, the “player doesn’t close when the clip is finished”. and can edit and save it. 6. Paint icons We covered this in the January issue but I’ve had so much email from those who missed it, here it is again: open the Registry, and PCW Contacts go to “HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/Paint.Picture/DefaultIcon, then double click on “Default” in the “Name” column. Change the “Value Tim Nott can be contacted by post via Data” to “%1” without the quotes. Paint file icons will then appear PCW or by email at as miniatures of the file. [email protected]

272 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 HANDS ON ● WINDOWS 3.1

s I have mentioned before, this A column now flies the DOS as well as the Windows 3.1 flag. I haven’t given the former much coverage over the last two months so let’s rectify that now. A perplexed Henry Bevan emailed, saying: “In my c:\ directory, I have got these copies of Autoexec and Config. Which ones can I delete? Autoexec.000, Autoexec.001, Autoexec.bak, Autoexec.bat (I know I can’t delete that one…), Autoexec.cdd, Autoexec., Dirty DOS-ing Autoexec.old, Autoexec.bat, Config.000, Config.cdd, Config.dos, Config.old and Config.sys (…nor that one).” Tim Nott gets his hands dirty in DOS and brings Good question. As Henry and I would news of Calypso, a freeware utility which brings imagine everyone else realises, you two of the best bits of Win95. Autoexec.bat and Config.sys are the startup files in current use. So what are all the rest and where do they come from? you can always compare with the backup “Protected Mode” drivers are installed for The most likely explanation is that an and add your own REMs. It’s worthwhile all your devices. But if you have; again, installation of new hardware or software doing it at the time as you can then delete don’t delete them. has changed these files and backed up the relevant backups. If not, it’s worth the originals. There’s no real rhyme or keeping them around, at least until you’re A matter of Choice reason to the naming but if you’ve recently sure everything is working correctly. Reader Mike Coe asked: “I believe there is installed a “Cacophonous Custom Though I said there’s no rhyme or reason a way of defining alternative startup config- Doomblaster” card, that’s probably where to the naming, there are a couple of excep- urations for DOS. Specifically, I like to boot the .CCDs came from. Any polite tions. If you use the Windows System File into Windows by default (i.e. just by turning installation routine that makes changes to Editor (SYSEDIT.EXE) to edit these files, it the computer on and waiting). However, I these files should firstly make backups, will automatically create backups with the would like to be able to boot to a DOS and secondly tell you what it’s called them. extension .SYD. prompt as an alternative, just by pressing a Really polite installation routines will com- The other extensions to watch out for single key on start-up, so that AUTOEX- ment the new files, something like this: are .DOS and .W40. If you’re dual-booting EC.BAT is processed in its entirety, except REM - Following line added by between Windows 95 and Windows 3.1, for the last line, ‘WIN’.” Doomblaster the system maintains two sets of Well, there’s an easy way and a device = c:\dblaster\bignoise.sys AUTOEXEC.BAT and CONFIG.SYS, complicated way to do this. The easy way REM - Previous line added by which are renamed on startup. When involves using the MSDOS “CHOICE” Doomblaster you’re in Windows 95 or DOS 7, then the command. This comes with version 6.x but or if it removes a line Windows 3.1/DOS 6 (or earlier) set is was widely available before that. You can REM - device = c:\oldcard\oldcard.sys renamed with the .DOS extension. When only use it in batch files and what it does is - removed by Doomblaster you’re in the earlier version, the 95 set is prompt the user for a choice, then act REM statements (REMarks) tell the PC renamed with the .W40 extension, so don’t according to the “ERRORLEVEL” to ignore the rest of the line — they are just delete these. Just to confuse matters, you returned. To do what Mike asks is simple there to inform humans. If the setup may not have these files under but let’s first practice on a dummy batch routine didn’t comment the lines it added, Windows 95, as it doesn’t need them if file. Create this with Notepad, or DOS EDIT and save as “CHOOSE.BAT”. @ ECHO OFF CHOICE /C:YN Start Windows now? IF ERRORLEVEL 2 GOTO SKIP ECHO You pressed Y GOTO END :SKIP ECHO You pressed N :END The “@ ECHO OFF” stops the commands “Echoing” to the display: with- out this you see everything twice. The next line invokes the CHOICE command and will produce the prompt “Start Windows

Will the real configuration files please stand up?

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now? [Y,N]” which is fairly self-evident. CHOICE returns an ERRORLEVEL The DOS help file gives the full depending on the key pressed — the first lowdown on this versatile command choice produces 1, the second 2. In this Vernon Buerg’s file viewer — vintage just 8,192 bytes of code. It’s called example, we have only two choices but 1987, but still excellent LIST.COM and it was written by Vernon D you can have more. Number nine dream Buerg in 1987. While it’s not — as far as I What’s important is the way DOS One of my all-time favourite DOS utilities is know — marketed as shareware, the help interprets ERRORLEVELS. “IF” state- just coming up for its ninth birthday. It’s a can load a series of files by using screen suggests that: “If you find LIST of ments will be deemed to be true if the text viewer that, unlike Windows Notepad, wildcards. Type *.TXT at the load prompt, value, a gift of $15, or any amount, would ERRORLEVEL is equal to, or greater can display any size file. It will search for and Ctrl + Page Down/Up will cycle be greatly appreciated.” I don’t have an than, the number specified. Hence, in a text, view in hex or ASCII, filter out junk, through all the .TXT files in the current online source, but it’s on this month’s simple two-way choice, “ERRORLEVEL split the display into two windows, and you directory. cover-mounted CD-ROM. 1” will always be true so we have to You can change the number of lines process the ERRORLEVELS in Keeping control and the display colours, shell to DOS PCW Contacts descending order. The next line, therefore, Last month, the Shift key had the spotlight without closing the current file, and there’s Tim Nott can be contacted either by post c/o tells DOS to go to the label “SKIP” if the — this month it’s the turn of that ever even online help. PCW or by email at ERRORLEVEL is two — i.e. the user popular denizen of the keyboard, the Unbelievably, all this packs away into [email protected] pressed “N”. Note that labels themselves Control key. (:SKIP and :END in this case) are Tripping the light Calypso preceded by a colon, but references to the 1. File Manager labels (…GOTO SKIP) aren’t. When dragging files between directories, Back in the gloriously GUI-world of If the user pressed “Y”, then the “IF” holding down Control forces a copy, even Windows, the most fun I had this statement is false and the first GOTO on the same drive. month was with a prototype model of ignored. The message “You pressed Y” is 2. Program Manager Li-Hsin Huang’s Calypso. This was ECHOed to the screen, the next GOTO The same trick works for copying Program written in Borland Delphi and there’s bypasses the SKIP label and the “You Manager icons between groups or to the no complicated installation routine — pressed N” message. same group. you just copy the files to a new direc- CHOICE is a fairly user-friendly 3. Clipboard tory. Run Calypso and two little icons command — it isn’t case sensitive, unless Control + C copies to it leaving the original, appear at the left of your screen: one you use the /S switch to make it so, and if Control + X copies and removes the entitled “System”, the other “Trash”. the user types any other key it will just sit original. Control + V pastes from it. Double-click on the System icon and there and beep until “Y” or “N” is pressed, a window with all your disk drives or Control + C which cancels the batch file. 4. Write appears. Double-click on one of these There remains, however, one further Control + click in the margin selects the and all the directories and files in the refinement to satisfy Mike’s brief. Add the whole document. root appear in a separate window, switch “/T:Y,5” to the CHOICE command. 5. More Write and so on down the line. You can This will instruct CHOICE to wait five Control + B, I or U toggle Bold, Italic and drag files to the Trash icon, drag them seconds (values can be from 0 to 99) Underline on and off. between windows and create short- before returning a default choice of “Y”. cuts to files or directories on the desk- So, moving on to the real thing, it’s 6. Even more Write top. And if all this sounds terribly even simpler. If you substitute the follow- Control + Enter forces a page break. All familiar, well, it is almost like Windows ing for the “WIN” line at the end of these work with Word, too. 95. It’s on the cover CD as AUTOEXEC.BAT, you’ll get five seconds 7. Most applications Calypso.zip, and the author can be in which to opt for Windows or DOS. Do Nested folders and Control + Z undoes the last action. contacted as [email protected]. Remember though, this is a nothing, and Windows will load as before. right-button shortcuts prototype and hence, freeware. Read the documentation for CHOICE /C:YN /T:Y,5 Start Windows now? 8. Paintbrush — Calypso brings the a list of possible problems. You should also note that it won’t IF ERRORLEVEL 2 GOTO DOSPROMPT Dragging a “cut-out” with the Control key Windows 95 look to 3.1 work with the “large fonts” option of display drivers and that WIN held down leaves the original in place. the Trash Can auto-empties itself on exit. :DOSPROMPT

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forwardly. He told Wall Street analysts Merlin, is due to be unveiled. Copland has ‘slipped’, that is really a com- that Copland will be “a 1997 event” — so At the moment, the only thing I know ment about perception,” he told me. Ah, I now we know. about Merlin is that it’s not the cross-plat- see. “Copland is probably the largest sys- Or do we? It seems possible to me that form, microkernel-based OS/2 we were tem software project ever undertaken in Copland may not turn out to be an event promised by IBM last year. Merlin is Intel- the personal computer industry,” he contin- at all. A day or two before Amelio “clari- only and like Warp, it’s predecessor, stays ued, “a massive, massive project, so clear- fied” the Copland schedule, the news tight and efficient by avoiding the mes- ly the timescales are long.” came through that David Nagel had left sage-passing interfaces required by micro- This really wasn’t what I wanted to the company. Nagel was in charge of kernel architecture. hear. When it comes to “massive, massive R&D and I’m very concerned that this There is a microkernel OS/2 in exis- projects” Apple has already been there, might mean the “temporary freeze” in that tence: it’s the PowerPC version which was done that, got the T-shirt. In the mid-eight- department is destined to become perma- quietly released last December. IBM has ies Apple got caught up in the develop- frost. Frankly, I think without Copland, or said it will leave it alone for a year and Mixed marriage ment of “Pink”, the object-orientated buzz- something very much like it, Apple is then, if there’s a market for it, the company word operating system to end all operating going to end up as a toymaker. will consider further development. This is a systems, which was so slow coming and bit like leaving a weakling child on a Apple’s Copland and IBM’s PowerPC-based OS are such a drain on resources that it nearly put Meeting Merlin mountain-top in winter and saying you’ll paid to the entire company. And so it As I write I am due to go to Nashville, Ten- drop round at the same time next year with both floating free so how about a relationship, would if the then CEO, John Sculley, nessee, to spend a week with IBM when some food and blankets — if they’re still proposes Chris Bidmead. Plus, NTRigue and NeXT. hadn’t managed to palm Pink off onto IBM the new version of OS/2, codenamed needed. as part of the joint venture they set up together. Running NeXTStep on a 486 pple doesn’t get much space in this any case, we reassured ourselves, Cop- Pink became Taligent, fizzled down Acolumn, for the reason that its ven- land as a long-running development pro- from a be-all, end-all operating system to I’m conscious that NeXTStep is a luxury not everyone can afford, so I’ve been writing about erable co-operative multitasking OS (at ject probably didn’t qualify as “new just another application development envi- it with some caution. I love it, but then, I don’t have to pay for the hardware and software. If I heart, on a par with Windows 3.1) doesn’t spending”. And Apple’s PR people were ronment, changed its name (unmemo- did, Linux would probably be my OS of choice. But hardware prices are coming down and in my view qualify as a modern 32-bit keen to point out that the new CEO, rably) to CommonPoint, got absorbed into today’s so-called “entry-level” machine, at least as far as the processor is concerned, operating system. Gilbert Amelio, was no mere bean counter IBM, and, er, is now just a tiny footnote in actually has a higher spec than the 100MHz 486 Canon object.station I have here on my and wouldn’t be operating a slash-and- the history of computing. And here was network, running NeXTStep. Perhaps that’s why I’m getting so many queries from readers The heart of the matter burn policy to get Apple back into shape. Nick Graves telling me that Copland was now about NeXT. One such comes from Dominic Hopton ([email protected]). I’ve certainly been looking forward to Cop- I very much hoped that this would be bigger than Taligent. He has a 486DX2 66MHz with 16Mb of RAM and wants to know if he can run NeXTStep on land — in fact there’s an Apple PowerMac true. Apple, as a company and as a com- “The man-hours associated with Cop- it. Here’s the full spec: here waiting to run it. Last year we heard puting environment, is different. And if this land are far greater than something like ● 16Mb RAM that the launch of this microkernel-based column is about anything, it is about Taligent,” insisted Graves. “I would stake ● Adaptec 1542cf SCSI card truly pre-emptive multitasking operating exploring the merit and the merriment of my life on that.” Interesting choice of ● 2 x 500Mb SCSI Seagate hard drives system had been deferred until the middle just these kinds of differences. Different words, Nick, but it’s clear that Copland is ● SoundBlaster 16 of this year. 32-bit multitasking operating systems can more than mere vapourware. ● NEC Atapi 1.2 Compatible CD-ROM In January, amid the financial crisis at mix and match in a way that the rigid old 8- “Currently, we have what we call the ● USR V.34 modem Apple that finally shed Michael Spindler, a and 16-bit operating systems never could. ‘Developer Tools’ release of Copland out ● Cirrus Logic 5426 VLB Gfx card with 1Mb, upgradable to 2M. leaked internal memo from Apple’s Senior I want healthy plurality. with people who, er, write developer tools,” ● AMI BIOS VP, David Nagel, revealed that the compa- But is Apple’s heart still in the game? he told me. “There will be a wide develop- ● 14in, 1152 x 864 refresh rate monitor ny was freezing all new spending on Earlier this year I had a long chat with Nick er release this spring. Then through the NeXTStep is broadening its hardware base all the time as new drivers come on line. To research and development. Okay, this was Graves, Apple’s European Marketing Man- middle of the year there will be a release get the latest news on this, I checked with Paul Lynch of P&L Systems who’s been helping qualified by the word “temporarily”, and in ager, and asked him about the slippage of into customers’ hands. We’re calling it ‘the me set up my own NeXTStep installation. Here’s what Paul calls his generic-type answer, Copland, hoping to customer evaluation release‘— with such because obviously it’s hard to be too specific when you don’t have all the details: hear that it was now a big project it’s very difficult to talk about Memory: 16Mb is okay. “You’ll get noticeable swapping, but it’ll run,” says Paul. “Not as steaming ahead on alphas and betas.” bad as Windows with 4Mb. About the same as NT with 16Mb. Commercial customers all cylinders. Instead, What I wanted to know was, would usually have 32Mb as a minimum.” I got some intricate Copland be out, released, finished, this Paul considers that the processor, the Adaptec card, the SoundBlaster and the hard foot-work. “We never year. And what he was telling me, translat- drives are all great. Personally, I’d have thought the processor a touch on the slow side. announced a date, ed into English, was “No”. The NEC Atapi 1.2 Compatible CD-ROM? Paul tells me that NEC isn’t on the supported list, so when people say Gilbert Amelio says it more straight- which means that it may or may not work. “Atapi CD-ROMs can be made to work, although you will need to ftp some driver disks from NeXT before you can even attempt an install.” Good news for Linux The USR V.34 modem is fine, but only for data, as it’s not supported by any of the fax software. The Cirrus Logic 5426 VLB Gfx card is okay-ish, says Paul. “There is a GD542x Last month I mentioned a reader, Boris Stojnic, who driver: this supports 2-bit greyscale, possibly up to 800 x 600. SoftPC (the DOS emulator) thanked me for getting him interested in Linux. Since then I and NEXTIME (the movie module) don’t work on it properly. You really want 1,024 x 768 16- have discovered that Boris, who it turns out used to publish bit colour to feel happy.” Amiga World in the former Yugoslavia, is pursuing his vision The AMI BIOS should be no problem. The monitor is probably a little small, thinks Paul. for Linux by establishing a new magazine, Linux World. The “Most people use 17in as a minimum.” first issue should be out by the time you read this. So, some hardware swaps might be necessary but on the whole NeXTStep will run. ● Linux World (subscriptions), 66 Maxted Road, London Personally, I’d go for 32Mb. On top of that there’s the price of the NeXTStep operating Codenamed Merlin, IBM’s newest OS/2 will be out sometime SE15 4LF (tel 0171 771 6170); email boriss@cix. The system, which, as I say, isn’t cheap. NeXTStep is £530 plus delivery and VAT. Academic soon, voice enabled, and with a different look and feel magazine’s email address is: [email protected] pricing is £220 plus delivery and VAT. ● If anyone wants to follow this up, they can talk to Paul Lynch directly on 01494 432422.

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Mate, and we can take it from there.

NeXT: the guts under the GUI The great thing about NeXT as far as this column is concerned is that underneath it’s a reference-quality Unix, while on top it’s a beautiful object-orientated interface that’s more than just a pretty face. Here’s a great example of how the interface and the underlying operating system marry up. The screenshot alongside shows a shareware application written by NeXTStep veteran, Scott Hess. It’s called “Stuart”. Essentially, it’s just a terminal window along the lines of xterm or the Terminal app that comes as standard with every NeXT machine. A terminal window like this emulates the old DEC VT100 See what I’m thinking? Here’s IBM with dumb boxes that used to be the this microkernel, PowerPC-based OS for Stuart is a shareware application most common way of communicating with which it has no market and doesn’t know written for NeXTStep, and a great computers. It’s what you use on an operat- what to do with anyway. And there’s Apple, example of how old-style command- ing system like NeXTStep or Linux when with an installed base of something like a line computing can work with modern you want to punch your way through the couple of million PowerPC machines, drag-and-drop GUI to get to the guts and do some raw struggling to bring down to earth a “mas- character-based computing. sive, massive” operating system project Stuart is no dumb terminal, though. that seems to be stalling in mid-air. Optionally you can give it a “shelf”: a sub- As it stands, OS/2 is not what Apple I did promise more on NTrigue this class of the shelf in the NeXT WorkPlace users want. The OS/2 interface, already month but in the event I deferred work on Manager, also used in the Librarian and Mac-like, could probably easily be fixed it for a week while I waited for the delivery the Finder. Icons of files or folders can be and would bring much useful object- of a new Pentium from NEC. It’s a Power- dragged from the WorkPlace Manager and orientated, drag’n’drop magic to the party. Mate V100 with a 1Gb hard disk — a mod- dropped onto Scott Hess’s shelf at any The big problem with OS/2 is that it est enough spec these days but a giant of time while you work inside the terminal. won’t run Mac users’ old apps. But micro- a machine compared with my network of Why would you want to do this? Well, kernel operating systems are designed to ageing 486s. one of the boring things I find when working make backward compatibility like this I’d first installed NTrigue on a 25MHz in char-based Unix is switching around easier to implement. If Apple and IBM Mitac with 16Mb RAM, and was pleased between various directories. Okay, I know aren’t sick of trying to work together after to see it working at all. In fact it’s quite there are some nifty shortcuts to do this in the Taligent fiasco, it’s just possible there usable, bearing in mind that I’m the only shells like csh and bash — one day I really might be some spark to be struck here. user on this network. But with the Power- will learn them. Meanwhile, on the NeXT Mate, I hope to see some real speed. I machine I just pick up a directory icon, drop NEC to the rescue say this, because just as I was setting up it onto the terminal window and it automat- In my previous column I just managed to the PowerMate on the network the news ically produces the cd on squeeze in a screenshot of NTrigue, which came through from Insignia Solutions the command line. I finally got working. I blamed Windows NT that version 1.1 of NTrigue was on its This odd meeting of old-style comput- for the hold up because its “rsh doesn’t way. It seemed sensible to wait for that, ing and modern drag-and-drop happens work in a way consistent with Unix”. particularly as the installation of NTrigue elsewhere in NeXTStep, too. Any time an I apologise to Windows NT. The problem involves a fairly convoluted ritual with application pops up, the standard file was at my end. The version of NTrigue licence numbers. selection panel allows you to choose a file- that Insignia Solutions had sent me includ- You install it, run a validation program name for loading or saving: you can pick ed printed instructions that got you as far which provides you with a magic number up a directory or file icon and just drop it on as installing the software, but stopped derived from the machine and the date the panel, whereupon the appropriate short of actually telling you how to set up and then fax that number to Insignia, entry appears in the text entry window. Windows sessions so they can magically which then faxes you back another num- pop up on every workstation on your net- ber to unlock the software. The catch is PCW Contacts work capable of running the X Window that you have to enter the number the Chris Bidmead is a consultant and System. Eventually, I stumbled on a .PDF same day you get it or it becomes invalid. commentator on advanced technology. file on the CD-ROM which took me though So hopefully, next month, I’ll have He can be contacted on the rest of it. NTrigue 1.1 safely installed on the Power- [email protected]

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Recording a macro using Recorder, Windows 3.11 and Works. Use this for the invoice numbering solution

TrueType for- Imperfect timing mat. It’s a good, simple Tim Phillips gives his overview of the new beta version 7 features idea and the fact that I didn’t included in PerfectOffice and think of it first WordPerfect. shows that I’m hardly a cheerleader for Microsoft but I just not cut out for this entrepreneurial The output of predict that it will not displace many stuff. f you’ve been waiting patiently for me to the fonts Microsoft Office sales. Like Office, Per- You supply the logo to Formula and in Ireview WordPerfect 7, then I’m sorry: macro. So fectOffice has traded up in its hardware return you get a TrueType font — basical- you’ll have to wait another month as I’ve congratulations requirements and we’ve ended up with ly, versions of the logo instead of letters. only just received my beta copy. But I can to young Bill word processors that react sluggishly on You choose the logo characters just as fill you in on the new features of the Corel- Gates of anything below a Pentium. you would choose a font in your word owned PerfectOffice 7. At this point, I’m Redmond for processor and the logo is in your docu- not going to tell you how good they are as this creditable Lista’ fonts ment: scalable, with no loss of definition. I’ll need longer to work that one out. effort Several of you have helpfully pointed out This additionally solves the problem of WordPerfect 7 has finally woken up to that the macro to display all your fonts document growth that some of my corre- the Internet! There’s an Internet publisher (Hands On, June) has already been sup- spondents experience — Formula esti- supplied as an integral part of the pack- The Format, plied by Microsoft. Well done, Microsoft — mates that this adds about 30 bytes per age. It’s easy to make HTML documents Font dialogue you don’t get a prize, as you’re richer than logo to a document. Since when did a using the Publisher, which uses a series of box with a Croesus already. The macro in question graphic file occupy only 30 bytes? On the pull-down menus to give you the elements preview font. (shown in Fig 1) is found in the Word 6 down side, the logo needs to be mono — of HTML markup. Conversion from HTML Congratulations template called Macro60.dot. but the output is exceptional. If you’re to WordPerfect format is in there, too — to young Bill It takes a few minutes to chug through interested phone Formula on the number not revolutionary, granted. Gates etc etc all your fonts but the result is a document shown in our Contacts panel. Spell checking, grammar which shows them all, with names. This is checking and the Thesaurus are only useful if you print it out because Word Look — no macro! now in one dialogue box, so if you shows previews of fonts in the Format, William Barneby, of Madley, adds a use all three it makes the whole Font dialogue box. macro-free solution (see page 286) to the thing easier. On the other hand, if invoice number challenge (Hands On, you don’t use all three (which, True to type April and May) for all you Works for Win- judging from my postbag, could Here’s something for TrueType fans: For- dows users. This uses Recorder, the apply to most of you) this isn’t an mula Solutions of Ilford is offering you the much ignored keystroke macro generator improvement. chance to get a company logo produced in that Windows 3.x uses. Perhaps the biggest benefit for Fig 1 Out for the count If you remember, users is the amount of common the challenge is to pro- applications in the suite. There’s a Sub MAIN duce a document which neat, common address book — CR$=Chr$(11) + Chr$(9) can be used to gener- good for small businesses but ate invoices: it automat- irrelevant for larger ones — that FileNew.NewTemplate = 0,.Template=”Normal” ically assigns a has made the mailmerge much sequential number to better. Corel claims that Per- MyFonts=CountFonts() the invoices as they are fectOffice has more common For count=1 To MyFonts generated. code than any other suite. A$=Font$(count) 1. Open a blank word The remainder of the improve- Font A$,16 processor document. ments are playing catch-up to Insert A$+CR$ 2. Embed a two-column Word and Word Pro: improving the Insert “ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ” + CR$ spreadsheet on the automatic correction and autoformatting, and long filename support. There’s rotated First thoughts are: it’s fine if you des- Insert “abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz” + CR$ right-hand side, stretch- including a Quick-Finder and a right-click text in tables, but as you can guess, I’m perately want to retain your WordPerfect Insert “0123456789?£@%&()[]{}*-_=+/<>~,” + CR$ + CR$ ing the length of the context sensitive menu, adding tabbed dia- struggling to find a good reason to buy Per- commitment in a 32-bit environment; but it Next count page. logue boxes to contain all these functions, fectOffice 7. does nothing more than Word can do. I’m End sub 3. In cell A1, type ‘0’.

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Tim’s Macro Club

Teleprinting More on A5 booklets Two letters in a matter of days from the enthusiastic Graham Brown To recap: Alison Walley wanted to print word processor output as an of Brent Cross about his macro for Word 6 called Teleprinter. It’s one A5 booklet. I’ve had a letter from Jean Elliott, who actually does this of those simple but useful ideas that I never have: the macro simply to produce booklets for Word users who she trains. Warning! types your document back to you, with the speed being dependent Exhaustive process follows: on what value you use in the loop “For y=1 to 25:Next”. More than 1. Make a landscape template called “Bookpage” which has wide 25, it’s slower. Less than 25, it’s faster. The idea, Graham says, is to margins so that the text area is 4.35ins wide. help with proof-reading, or to make a demo screen. 2. When you finish each page, make that text into a piece of Sub MAIN AutoText and call the AutoText by its page number. Remember — EditSelectAll to make AutoText you highlight the text and select Edit, AutoText. a$ = Selection$() 3. Use the template organiser to transfer the AutoText items to FileNewDefault another landscape template, which is set up with columns 4.35ins For x = 1 To Len(a$) wide. Start a new document and type the page numbers in printing Insert Mid$(a$, x, 1) order, with page and section breaks to match. This is a bit subtle, as For y = 1 To 25 : Next Jean shows. For a 24-page booklet, the order would be: Next 11121310 End Sub 09141508 Now, I’m not answering any email from users who say they can’t 07161706 get it to work… but, hardly had I read Graham’s first letter than 05181904 another one hit my desk — with a revision. The revised version 03202102 contains pauses for punctuation. This month’s prize goes to Graham. 01222300 I’ve found this macro extremely useful already, as I edit a lot of copy where is a carriage return, a column break, a and reading it on screen can be a nightmare. page break, the end of a section, and page 00 the contents Sub MAIN page. EditSelectAll 4. Move to each number and press F3. The AutoText item is a$ = Selection$() automatically inserted. FileNewDefault 5. Page numbering: set up a one-row, three-column table as a footer, For x = 1 To Len(a$) using odd and even page footers and section breaks. Insert Mid$(a$, x, 1) 6. Print the first page of each section on one side of A4; the second If Mid$(a$, x, 1) = “,” Then For y = 1 To 300 : Next page on the other side. If Mid$(a$, x, 1) = “.” Then For y = 1 To 600 : Next 7. Lie down in a darkened room. If Mid$(a$, x, 1) = “;” Then For y = 1 To 500 : Next So what if it’s not the most elegant solution? It gets the job done. If Mid$(a$, x, 1) = “:” Then For y = 1 To 400 : Next I’m happy to hear of any more elegant methods but I’m not sure there For y = 1 To 10 : Next are any. Next End Sub WordPerfect, A5 booklets and Initial caps The next challenge in developing this is to make it stop for Three of my most favourite things in one! I’d better get on with it or I’ll changes. There needs to be an interrupt command to allow you to wet myself with excitement. Following on from Jean-Luc Addams’ stop the macro executing so that you can edit the document. At the excellent WordPerfect 5.2 A5 booklet macro last month, he has moment, you need to run it from the Tools menu to get the macro written a follow-up macro to allow you to use drop caps in a controls and press Escape to stop the macro, which is a bit clunky. document. I have put it on this month’s free, cover-mounted CD- More work on this one, please — and versions for other platforms. ROM — I’ve left the explanation in, but when retyping you can It’s not a taxing concept, so I’m expecting a good response. leave it out.

4. In cell B1, type ‘1’. up Recorder and start recording. It will Complete the invoice and then save as 5. Reduce the width of column B to zero. record your keystrokes, which should be a separate document in an invoice 6. Select any cell in column B. as shown in Fig 2. directory. 7. Save the document as a template. 9. Customise your invoice template and That’s it for this time. Note my new 8. Record the macro (Fig 2) in Recorder. If save it under the same name. CIS number, shown in the Contacts you haven’t done this before, simply start To use the invoice, open the document panel below. I won’t be answering mail and the last on the old address, so please use the Fig 2 A macro-free solution invoice number new one. I much prefer my Internet (go to) will be in A1. address anyway! B1 (cell containing seed number) Double-click on (copy) the spreadsheet PCW Contacts (moves to A1) column and run Contact Tim Phillips by surface or airmail (opens edit window) the macro, which to PCW, otherwise email him at his new S (paste special) will add one to CIS address A (add to value in A1) the number and CompuServe 104047,2750 (confirm and close menu) save the template or [email protected] (saves template with new number) for next time. Formula Solutions 0181 252 4444 ☎

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Excel will automatically create a useful form for data entry. It can also It never rains be used for searching

An everyday story of Met Office folk, told by Stephen Wells. Plus, at last, has ordered Excel and looks forward to some good moos about cows... analysing the 40 years of data held at his station.

n the clifftop near where I live is a version of Excel The cows came home Obrightly-painted box on legs. Every the Met is using I blame myself for leading Farmer John In a follow-up email he sent a listing for day, a man on a bicycle arrives to open it and queried if astray. In the April column I talked about his macro and a further query: “How do I up and take readings from the instruments they didn’t have a three ways of creating a custom dialogue clear the data entry boxes, hopefully after inside. There are hundreds of these volun- technical support box in Excel 7. All of them involved using the data has passed to the spreadsheet?” teers across the country, all feeding in service or help VBA (Visual Basic for Applications). Fortunately, John is on the Microsoft valuable information to the Met Office. I group for their vol- I received an email from Mr JA Page Network so I was able to get him to send received an email from one who runs a unteer stations. asking how you persuade an Excel work- me his complete Excel 7 workbook without West Midlands co-operating station within When the disk sheet to display the data you’ve already posting a disk in. the Met voluntary network. arrived — accom- entered in such a home-made dialogue The first page of his workbook gave the Cedric Geoffrey Roberts wrote: “I have panied by the box. “I have spent hours searching for the annual averages of eight different tests on been watching comments in your column widest print-out required command to no avail.” Ah — the his cows’ milk. These were calculated on importing SuperCalc data into Excel. I I’ve ever seen, guilt one feels on receiving such heart- from the next 30 pages which give the have been well satisfied with SuperCalc consisting of two rending appeals. monthly results of those tests, all through 5.5 for DOS. It has given me an ideal pieces of 14.5in base for producing data analysis. But I continuous listing Down the wire have been increasingly worried about the paper stuck eventual demise of DOS. I would like to together — I ran it on my old 386SX which A tiny section of a very large spread- In the February issue, I illustrated the MS Excel 95 Forum page which you can access via move over to Excel which is extensively has SC5.5 loaded. sheet used by someone who is trying the Help option in Excel 7, assuming you’re on the Microsoft Network. used by the Met Office but have been put There were DCOUNT formulas like: to do something about the weather Time moves on. With Microsoft’s Internet Explorer 2 (which you can download for free off by the prospect of having to redo all of DCOUNT($BB$1:$BB$11,0,BE1:BE2) from MSN), or the Beta Version 3, you can now reach the Excel Web page which is just a my spreadsheet files to comply with the A lot of AND statements, like: click away from the MS Office Web site. new software. When I had to move over AND(BB2>=-15,BB2<=-10) its own initiative goes into Export mode Finding the information you need is now so much easier, with clearer groupings and from BBC to PC, I had to re-plan the And some daunting IF statements like: and translates the file. Now it will be better indexing. Downloading is easier too. Icons we can all understand appear by each whole system. IF(U17>=0,AN17-(.000799*1000*(T17- recognised by any version of Excel or item. A document item is obviously one you can read online or download with the familiar “Each month I complete an 11-page U17)),AN(17(.00072*1000*(T17-U17))) Lotus 1-2-3. File, Save As action. Free macros and things have a little disk-drive icon. Click one of those spreadsheet with rows for each day. There were also a lot of formulas with ^ Then I loaded the file into Excel Version and the item is downloaded. Finally, comms is almost as easy as switching on a TV set. Pages 1 and 2 are the main data pages (to the power of) signs in them. 4 on my old machine and Excel 7 on my You don’t have to worry about paying BT for all those Web page graphics to come down which are entered manually or filled with But it’s seldom because of complex new one and checked that the formulas the line. After the first time you view a page, you can save it in the Favourite Folders file logged information imported from CSV maths that you run into import/export prob- were producing the same results as (along with the PCW files. The other nine pages analyse this lems. It’s the translation of dates, some before. No problem. As a reader has pre- Web site) and open it data with scores of formulae. They calcu- functions or names. And Mr Roberts is not viously mentioned, the type comes out in up in a flash. late the MSL (Mean Sea Level) pressures using any date-formatted cells, unusual blue, but it’s easy to change that by select- To think: all those from the station level barometer readings, functions nor any range names. ing Format, Font, Color (sic), Black. years I never owned a humidity, dew points, and numbers of Fig 1 shows an example of some of the I was able to email back to Mr Roberts modem and now I days of snow, sleet, frost and much more. categories, though I’ve moved things that I could foresee no translation prob- use it more often than “As a pensioner, I’m dubious about around and reformatted some revised lems other than that separate SC5 pages my CD drive. I expect spending over £200 on Excel if it will not data in Excel 7 because these days even would have to be saved as individual files. I’ll be buying a work with most of the formula. I’m particu- the weather is probably copyrighted. But I suggested that his biggest expense microwave oven next. larly concerned about SC5.5 DCOUNT As documented in the CA-SuperCalc was going to be the hardware for running formulas. Data for just one year is broken Version 5.1 User’s Guide, you save in the the latest version of Excel. At the moment, down into four seasons, and then every normal way but, when the file name apparently, the Met is using Excel 5 but, month has an 11-page spreadsheet.” appears on the edit line say, JAN.CAL, like the weather, I expect they’ll change The Excel Web I suggested that he send me a range of you just edit it to JAN.WKS and press soon. page: just a click his spreadsheet including all the formulas Enter. No special exporting: just a save Anyway, the final word from Mr Roberts away which bothered him. I asked him which with a different extension. SuperCalc on suggested he is moving on up. He said he

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‘94, ‘95 and to date in ‘96. Another planet the routes of different holiday packages. Then he had a series of DialogSheets Email from Stephen Kennedy. Subject: An advertising agent could show his showing graphic designs of individual dia- Split identity? clients which areas of a country have the logue boxes for each milk test item. And I’m a subscriber to PCW so I often see biggest concentrations of particular target finally, some module pages with Show your name in print. I also read NMEweeks markets. A commercial radio station could statements in them. and seeing your name always makes me illustrate its strongest reception area. A With further communication, I discov- wonder : you’re not the same Stephen fast-food franchise could pinpoint its out- ered that John had no real desire to start a Wells (SWells) who writes for NME are lets on one map and on an overlay show DIY training scheme in VBA but just need- you? :-) Please put me out of my misery... the catchment area of each. A hospital ed a quick solution for entering the milk authority could superimpose its defined samples to help in his everyday work. So, To S.K. from S.W. Subject: Doppelgängers service region over a map of actual or pro- although to answer his specific questions, In a word, no. But they are both common jected traffic accident blackspots and envi- I told John about changing the Value prop- names. What is NME? New Microsoft ronmentally hazardous areas. erty of the target cell, and defaults in the Exchange? Nice Mothers of Ecuador? The fact is, a map can be just as impor- EditBox object, I also made him up a new tant a tool for data analysis as a financial sample workbook with the simple instruc- To S.W. from S.K. Subject: Identities statement is. And it can be used in so tions for creating and using a Data Form. NME is New Musical Express —what many areas of endeavour. It has been Fig 2 shows John’s basic table for Feb- planet have you beamed in from? ;-) estimated that almost 90% of business ruary this year with a data entry form which data contains reference to a location. Excel will create instantly for you. In Excel The logical response was the one word, That’s what business growth is all about. 4, you had to define a database before you Uranus. But I kept schtum, believing in One corner shop might provide six jobs could make a data entry form. But since turning the other cheek. and serve a village. A chain of shops might Excel 5 you’ve been able to create one for employ 6,000 and serve a country. an ordinary worksheet. choose, “Advanced Filter”, “Filter the List, It doesn’t have to be a huge company Assuming there is no blank row in-place”, and “Unique Records Only”. to do business over a wide area. A group between the entered results and the head- TO RETURN ALL RECORDS you choose of local newspapers could depict circula- ing labels, you can click in the first blank “Show All”. tion trends and show where their concen- cell below the entered results and press TO TRANSFER A CLEAN LIST you choose trations of readership are. To project new Alt+d,o (or choose Data, Form on the “Copy to Another Location”, “Unique subscription sales, they could have an menu bar). If there is a blank row below Records Only”, and insert a cell address in overlay using demographic information the labels, as in the illustration, just choose the “Copy to” box. about income, food sales and travel the first cell in that blank row. Not only expenditures. does this immediately produce a data Putting it on the map Mapped data not only allows you to entry form with labels for each item, but it I’m going to make a prediction. At the time visualise data in a geographic context, but gives you some options which it would of writing, there are seven Hands On to correlate the data threads that unify dif- take you a long time to program on your columns in the Applications group. I have ferent regions. own. no inside knowledge but I would bet in less There are two reasons why I think it will Now you can press Alt+w (or choose than a year there will be one for mapping. become an important application in its own the New button) to enter a new record and Both of the leading spreadsheets, right. One is that there is so much informa- press Cltr+; (semi-colon) for today’s date. Excel 7 for Windows 95 and Lotus 1-2-3 tion which is affected by a geographic con- Press Tab to go on to the next data item Release 5.01 for SmartSuite 96, include text. The other is that there is a huge (Fat, here). And so on to end of the Form. mapping features in their extensive pack- potential for a wide variety of software Then click New. Enter the next date. And ages. That’s a logical marriage. To navi- publishers. Route information, demo- so on to the end. When you’ve finished gators of the sea or air, a map is called a graphic data, rates of employment, crime entering the records you just click Close. chart. And charts have long been a way of statistics and heritage sites are only some At any time you can show in the boxes graphically illustrating the tabular data in a of the innumerable databases which could the previous or next record. You can also spreadsheet. be supplied for map users. click Criteria and enter a filtering formula In its simplest form, you might have a Then there’s the use of satellite like >15/2/96 in the Date box to just show text list of the names of countries of imagery to show weather patterns or air those records dated after Feb. 15th. Europe in one column, with the numerical pollution concentrations. And some vehi- As John said in his final email, “Why values of the populations of each in the cle navigation systems include a portable use a sledgehammer to crack a nut?” I adjacent column. It’s logical that a tradi- PC with a CD drive. could tell he was happy to get the good tional atlas map could be drawn from this Until that new column appears, you can moos. with colours used as a key, say red for be sure your humble correspondent will be countries of 50 - 55 million people, blue for keeping an eye on this application for you Weeding out 55-60 million, and so on. and reporting developments. Speaking of writing unnecessary macros: I Immediately, your mind will race ahead have received several emails on the to many other possibilities. The map itself PCW Contacts theme of “How do I check an Excel data- is a constant graphic. You might zoom in Stephen Wells welcomes comments on base for duplicate records?” and out, but the shape of a continent, a spreadsheets, and solutions to be If you have Excel 5 or 7, it’s easy. All country or a county must always remain shared, via PCW Editorial at the usual three of the following options start out by the same. And yet there are so many address or [email protected]. choosing Data, Filter. things we can communicate with a map. Files can be attached if you’re on MSN. TO FILTER OUT DUPLICATES you then A travel agent could show her clients

290 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 HANDS ON ● DATABASES HANDS ON ● DATABASES

3 (3) The full set of date manipu- lations described in the text...

Do you have problems with dates?

Mark Whitehorn can’t help you with your love life, but date/time types are another matter.

4

have received several Iquestions about handling (4) and dates in Access, particularly how they about ways in which specific appear, dates (like the first day of the at least quarter) can be found. The how they following includes some ele- did gant examples that I culled appear from the FAQs on the on the Microsoft Web site. 13th The Date/Time data type April in Access is stored as a dou- ble-precision, floating-point number. The integer part represents the date and the decimal part represents the Access includes several useful func- This can be presented on screen in dif- time. Clearly, we are only tions for date manipulation. For example, ferent ways by playing with the format. concerned with the integer Date() returns the current date (as a num- I realise that so far this list of functions part during this discussion. ber of course). This can be formatted to and their abilities must sound a little appear in a variety of ways on-screen tedious, not to say boring. However, given (say, in a form) by choosing the appropri- a working knowledge of these five func- 2 ate format from the properties box (see tions, you can combine them in such ways Figs 1 and 2). as heaven’s wonders to perform. Year() Month() and Day() are three For example, to find the first day of the functions which will extract the relevant current month, you can use: part from any date. Without wishing to =DateSerial(Year(Date()), over-stress the point, this means that Month(Date()), 1) these functions will extract that information The first of the next month: from a number since dates are stored as =DateSerial(Year(Date()), numbers. Clearly, these functions can be Month(Date()) + 1, 1) given an actual number (such as 31234), The last day of the current month (a or they can be given Date() which in turn clever one this!): will provide them with “today’s” number. DateSerial() can be used to manipulate Fig 5 the day, month, and year components of a EMPLOYEES date. It takes three arguments and returns Employee First Last Date Date (1) Setting the format properties to show how a serial version of the date. Thus: No Name Name Of Birth Employed the value from Date() can be interpreted DateSerial(1990,4,2) 1 Bilda Groves 12/04/56 1/5/89 1 returns 2 John Greeves 21/03/67 1/1/90 (2) How the formats appear 02/04/90 3 Sally Smith 1/5/67 1/4/92

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Fig 6 Date())-1)/3)*3+4,0))-Date() gang screens themselves must be data- duplicated records. Fig 13 SALES and so on (see Figs 3 and 4, page 293). bases. Sounds reasonable to me. (But not If we projected SALES on [SaleNo], Sale Employee Customer Item Supplier Amount The possibilities are almost end- to me — Ed.) [EmployeeNo] and [Customer] then the Employee First Last Date Date Sale Customer Item Supplier Amount No No less… answer table (Fig 11) will contain seven No Name Name Of Birth Employed No 1 1 Simpson Sofa Harison £ 235.67 SQL tutorial records because in the original table the 1 Bilda Groves 12/04/56 1/5/89 1 Simpson Sofa Harison £ 235.67 2 1 Johnson Chair Harrison £ 453.78 Gang screens Last month I started looking at SQL and values in [SalesNo] are unique. 1 Bilda Groves 12/04/56 1/5/89 2 Johnson Chair Harrison £ 453.78 3 2 Smith Stool Ford £ 82.78 I don’t want anyone to think I am began with the operators that it uses. We 1 Bilda Groves 12/04/56 1/5/89 6 Simpson Sofa Harrison £ 235.67 4 2 Jones Suite Harisonn £3421.00 obsessed with gang screens, but… covered Restrict (aka Select), Union, Dif- Summary 1 Bilda Groves 12/04/56 1/5/89 7 Jones Bed Ford £ 453.00 5 3 Smith Sofa Harrison £ 235.67 Windows 95 ference and Intersection. That only leaves The following is not rigorous, nor is it 2 John Greeves 21/03/67 1/1/90 3 Smith Stool Ford £ 82.78 6 1 Simpson Sofa Harrison £ 235.67 Right click on the DESKTOP, select two major ones, Product and Projection. detailed, but if you have read and under- 2 John Greeves 21/03/67 1/1/90 4 Jones Suite Harisonn £3421.00 7 1 Jones Bed Ford £ 453.00 NEW, FOLDER and name it “and now, Once more, the sample tables are pre- stood the previous section it should pro- 3 Sally Smith 1/5/67 1/4/92 5 Smith Sofa Harrison £235.67 the moment you’ve all been waiting for”. sented here (Figs 5, 6 & 7). vide a quick reference to remind you what Press Enter, right click on the folder the operators are and what they do. Fig 7 and rename it to “we proudly pre- Product Two of the operators (Restriction and Difference, Intersection and Product) all Go-slow on speed SALES2 sent for your viewing pleasure”. The product of two tables is a third which Projection) operate on single tables. perform operations on two tables. I have said that I’d look at the speed of the Sale Employee Customer Item Supplier Amount Press Enter again, right click and contains all the records in the first one, ● Restriction (aka Select) extracts ● Union adds the records from two tables different SQL solutions to the long-running No No rename the folder once more to added to each of the records in the sec- records. together. meter problem. However, last month I 3 2 Smith Stool Ford £ 82.78 “The Microsoft Windows 95 Product ond. Thus, if the first table has 3 records ● Projection extracts fields. ● Difference subtracts the records in one published another solution and asked for 5 3 Smith Sofa Harrison £ 235.67 Team!”, now open the folder. (Just and the second has 7, the product will The remaining four operators (Union, table from those in another. comments on both its match to the 213 3 Williams Suite Harisonn £3421.00 type in the words, not the inverted have 21 records. The product of ● Intersection locates the records that relational model and its speed potential. 216 2 McGreggor Bed Ford £ 453.00 commas.) EMPLOYEES times SALES is shown in are common to two tables. There is a delay between my writing this 217 1 Williams Sofa Harrison £ 235.67 Excel 95 Fig 8. Fig 9 ● Product multiplies the records in the two column and you reading it, such that as I 218 3 Aitken Sofa Harison £ 235.67 First open a new Excel workbook This product operation has been ANSWER tables together. write this month’s you still haven’t read 225 2 Aitken Chair Harrison £ 453.78 and go to row 95. Select the entire applied quite correctly; however, the FirstName LastName Assuming that each operation is per- last month’s. So, I’ll delay the speed issue row, then press tab once to move astute reader will note that the table in Fig Bilda Groves formed on a pair of tables with 20 and 10 one more month, and then let you know =DateSerial(Year(Date()), the cursor into column B (the entire row 8 contains seven rows which appear to be John Greeves records respectively, the number of what I found. Month(Date()) + 1, 0) should remain selected). Pop down Help, “meaningful” and 14 which are not. Note Sally Smith records in the answer table will have: The first day of the current quarter: About Excel, hold down CTRL and SHIFT that we are dealing with a raw operator ● Union — between 20 and 30 The first job is to perform a projection =DateSerial(Year(Date()), together and select the Technical Support which takes no account of the values in ● Difference — between 20 and 10 on these tables. Next we need to perform Int((Month(Date()) - 1) / 3) * button. A new window will open. Walk for- fields, nor of any meaning that those val- Fig 10 (assuming that we subtract the table with a selection which removes the records 3 + 1, 1) wards slightly, turn around 180 degrees, ues may imply or indicate. 10 records from that with 20) where EMPLOYEES.EmployeeNo is not SALES The last day of the current quarter: walk up to the wall and type “excelkfa”. A In practice, the product operation may ● Intersection — between 0 and 10 equal to SALES.EmployeeNo. (Finally, Employee No Customer =DateSerial(Year(Date()), secret door will open and I leave it up to need to be modified by further operations ● Product — 200 we might optionally remove some fields 1 Johnson Int((Month(Date()) - 1) / 3) * you to navigate across the top of the wall in order to yield a meaningful answer. from the answer table.) 1 Jones 3 + 4, 0) to the next room. The even more astute reader will have Join We might express a join in this form: 1 Simpson Number of days remaining in this What has this to do with databases? Er, noticed that Fig 8 contains two fields with Join is often used as a relational operator EMPLOYEES JOIN (EMPLOYEES.EmployeeNo 2 Jones quarter: the gang screens present data about the identical field names. This state of affairs and it can be built up from the simpler = SALES.EmployeeNo) SALES 2 Smith =(DateSerial(Year(Date()),Int((Month people who wrote the products, so the is not permitted in a table, and in practice ones described earlier. Think of it as a and the result would be as shown in 3 Smith an RDBMS will have to cope with this mixture of the product and restriction oper- Fig 12. Fig 8 in some way, perhaps by renaming one ators, sometimes with an added dash of To be a little more accurate, the table Fig 11 of the fields. projection. in Fig 12 is the result of what is known as Employee First Last Date Date Sale Employee Customer Item Supplier Amount However, as has been said before, ANSWER Suppose that you want to examine the an equijoin. The table in Fig 13 is the No Name Name Of Birth Employed No No these relational operators are the SaleNo Employee No Customer sales that have been made by your result of a natural join. 1 Bilda Groves 12/04/56 1/5/89 1 1 Simpson Sofa Harison £ 235.67 “primitives” from which more complex employees. In order to do this, you need The simplistic difference is that one of 1 Bilda Groves 12/04/56 1/5/89 2 1 Johnson Chair Harrison £ 453.78 systems are constructed and it’s usual- 1 1 Simpson information from both the EMPLOYEES the fields used in the join has been 1 Bilda Groves 12/04/56 1/5/89 3 2 Smith Stool Ford £ 82.78 ly the job of these higher-level con- 2 1 Johnson and SALES tables. (In fact, the table removed from the answer table. 1 Bilda Groves 12/04/56 1/5/89 4 2 Jones Suite Harisonn £3421.00 structs to cope with problems like this. 3 2 Smith SALES2 contains information about more There is slightly more to this than 1 Bilda Groves 12/04/56 1/5/89 5 3 Smith Sofa Harrison £235.67 4 2 Jones sales, and if we wanted to include this meets the eye, however. Joins come in 1 Bilda Groves 12/04/56 1/5/89 6 1 Simpson Sofa Harrison £ 235.67 Projection 5 3 Smith information we would first use the union several flavours and you will hear people 1 Bilda Groves 12/04/56 1/5/89 7 1 Jones Bed Ford £ 453.00 Projection selects one or more fields 6 1 Simpson operator. However, for the sake of brevity, talking about natural, equi, theta, outer 2 John Greeves 21/03/67 1/1/90 1 1 Simpson Sofa Harison £ 235.67 from a table and generates a new table 7 1 Jones we will assume that we are only interested and semi-joins. 2 John Greeves 21/03/67 1/1/90 2 1 Johnson Chair Harrison £ 453.78 which contains all the records, but only in the sales recorded in SALES.) While it is true that all of these joins 2 John Greeves 21/03/67 1/1/90 3 2 Smith Stool Ford £ 82.78 the selected fields. Thus, if we project differ in usefulness, they nevertheless all 2 John Greeves 21/03/67 1/1/90 4 2 Jones Suite Harisonn £3421.00 Fig 12 Fig 12 EMPLOYEES on [FirstName] and [Last- find their way into discussions about 2 John Greeves 21/03/67 1/1/90 5 3 Smith Sofa Harrison £235.67 Name] the result is as Fig 9. SQL. So, we’ll have a look at them in 2 John Greeves 21/03/67 1/1/90 6 1 Simpson Sofa Harrison £ 235.67 Employee First Last Date Of Date Sale Employee Customer Item Supplier Amount This seems straightforward, but if we No Name Name Birth Employed No No more detail next month. 2 John Greeves 21/03/67 1/1/90 7 1 Jones Bed Ford £ 453.00 project SALES on [EmployeeNo] and 1 Bilda Groves 12/04/56 1/5/89 1 1 Simpson Sofa Harison £ 235.67 3 Sally Smith 1/5/67 1/4/92 1 1 Simpson Sofa Harison £ 235.67 [Customer] the result is as Fig 10. 1 Bilda Groves 12/04/56 1/5/89 2 1 Johnson Chair Harrison £ 453.78 3 Sally Smith 1/5/67 1/4/92 2 1 Johnson Chair Harrison £ 453.78 PCW Contacts Despite the fact that [SALES] has 1 Bilda Groves 12/04/56 1/5/89 6 1 Simpson Sofa Harrison £ 235.67 3 Sally Smith 1/5/67 1/4/92 3 2 Smith Stool Ford £ 82.78 seven records, the answer table has 1 Bilda Groves 12/04/56 1/5/89 7 1 Jones Bed Ford £ 453.00 Mark Whitehorn welcomes readers’ 3 Sally Smith 1/5/67 1/4/92 4 2 Jones Suite Harisonn £3421.00 only six. This is because one of them: 2 John Greeves 21/03/67 1/1/90 3 2 Smith Stool Ford £ 82.78 correspondence and ideas for the 3 Sally Smith 1/5/67 1/4/92 5 3 Smith Sofa Harrison £235.67 1 Simpson 2 John Greeves 21/03/67 1/1/90 4 2 Jones Suite Harisonn £3421.00 Databases column. He’s on 3 Sally Smith 1/5/67 1/4/92 6 1 Simpson Sofa Harrison £ 235.67 would be duplicated in the answer 3 Sally Smith 1/5/67 1/4/92 5 3 Smith Sofa Harrison £235.67 [email protected] 3 Sally Smith 1/5/67 1/4/92 7 1 Jones Bed Ford £ 453.00 table, and tables cannot contain

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OS/2 Warp Connect Questions and using Web Explorer then try this: open the Answers, and the IBM Worldwide Configure pull-down menu, choose Load- Electronic Resource Guide. No doubt it’s ing and ensure the second box (Display a copyright thing. Publishers are well images while loading) is not ticked. known for the care they take to establish The OS/2 Config.sys Information electronic re-publishing rights. I’ll check Centre (CFGINFO4.ZIP) is one of those the situation and upload the missing bits if essential utilities for users who like tweak- possible. ing their systems and it’s also a great Accentuating the positive, the good introduction to the CONFIG.SYS file (see news is that IBM hasn’t excised the OS/2 Fig 1). It loads your CONFIG.SYS into the Hardware Compatibility List information in top window and a detailed explanation of this shrunken version of Just Add Warp. If the CONFIG.SYS, complete with hints you’re at all interested in running Warp and tips, in the lower window. You can you really should try and use hardware step through your configuration files and Sorry, it was an accident that’s on this list, the latest version of make sure they’re as they should be for which may be found at http://www.austin. your system. .com/pspinfo/os2hw.html, because an WorkPlace Shell Tools (WPTOOL18 Terence Green’s pic of Netscape and Web Explorer side by side in blissful OS/2 system running on solid hardware is .ZIP) are for the slightly more advanced harmony has prompted readers to ask how it was done. Well, it was like this… miles more fun than one running on user. This set will work its way through marginal kit. your OS2.INI and OS2SYS.INI files Readers often ask which is the best tracing all the redundant links and offering system on which to run OS/2 and the to remove them. The reason you might answer is: one that supports it. So if you’re want to use such a tool is that the thinking of buying a new machine for OS/2 WorkPlace Shell remembers everything and you’re not particularly keen on all this you ever did with it, so that network drive might as well start with another darned looked at the May issue cover CD, some Guide — an interesting demo but hardly propellor-head stuff, find a vendor who you briefly visited a year ago and all those Iapology. It was a mistake to include the OS/2 information has already made its the fact-packed JAOW we were expecting. has an OS/2 OEM agreement with IBM. In programs you installed and then removed, screenshot with a snap of Netscape 2.0 way onto the CD. This is a direct the UK these include Adams Technology, still have references to them in the INI and Web Explorer running side by side consequence of a reader querying Just add a bit of Warp Atomstyle, Aztec, CTX, Dell, Electrowide, files. There’s a reason for this behaviour: (PCW March). Ever since, I’ve received whether Just Add Warp (JAOW), A little investigation revealed a slight Elonex, Escom, ICL, Osborne, Racal, and it’s they way OS/2 keeps track of emails asking me how I did it. It was an mentioned in the March column, might be discrepancy between the 3Mb Just Add Viglen. WorkPlace Shell objects that puts it a cut accident, okay? I discovered this not long included as it’s normally a 3Mb-plus Warp files, downloadable from the above operating systems that rely on after my original copy had disappeared download. Wheels ground into motion and Internet, and those on the PCW cover CD. That darned Web Explorer again absolute file paths. As a result, the WPS into the editorial department where they voilà! Unfortunately, there seems to have The missing bits are mostly the interesting Some OS/2 Warp utilities I’ve uploaded can keep track of stuff when you move it turn my rough-hewn phrases into finely been a slight hiccup in its passage as the ones, namely OS/2 Warp Frequently deserve longer descriptions. The Web around. polished prose. Ensuing versions of the cover CD highlights the Interactive Warp Asked Questions, Stupid OS/2 Tricks, Explorer 1.03b update is a useful fix but But one of the niggling omissions in Netscape 2.0 beta crashed and the information in the Readme is even Warp is a simple way of cleaning up burned when faced with running more helpful. If you’ve been caught, as I redundant links. The WPS only knows that under OS/2 Warp. have, by the exploding swapper file while I visited that file server directory; it doesn’t Several people sent emails detailing their preferred methods News Focus: OpenDoc and no doubt many of them worked just fine but the quick If the advance information is on the ball by picking up a lot of coverage lately, in particu- answer at the time, an update to the time you read this, IBM will have started lar because of a cross-platform language the virtual DOS TCP/IP protocol shipping beta versions of OpenDoc for called Java. This raises the possibility that stack, was hidden on an IBM Windows NT and Windows 95. This is good OpenDoc could be the integrating tool for FTP server in Colorado. Along news for developers who are intending to applications composed of Java applets. with some other stuff I’ll detail develop cross-platform applications. IBM has licensed Java and has it ported below I’ve uploaded the fix, Microsoft Windows covers a lot of desktops to OS/2 and AIX already, and is preparing a IC11173.ZIP, to the PCW and some servers but it doesn’t account for Windows 3.1 port, too. They’ve also noticed editorial team which I hope will all the computers out there. the neat match between OpenDoc and manage to squeeze it onto the OpenDoc is a cross-platform Java. They recently demonstrated an PCW cover-mounted CD-ROM development tool for the development of Internet application in which Java applets disc. If any of this stuff doesn’t small, mostly specialised, object-orientated were linked into an OpenDoc application make it onto the CD, you can find applications. It is based on a system object running on OS/2, Windows NT and AIX. it online. model (SOM) which enables OpenDoc OpenDoc for OS/2 and OpenDoc for As you will have noticed if you applications (sometimes called parts) Apple Macintosh are ready now. OpenDoc running on multiple platforms to communi- for AIX is also in beta. OpenDoc support for Fig 1 The OS/2 CONFIG.SYS cate with one another. Because SOM is the AS/400 (OS/400) and IBM mainframes Information Centre is one of the language-independent it will be possible to (MVS) is coming. many useful OS/2 Warp tuning use any programming language to code For more OpenDoc information, try the utilities that are available as OpenDoc parts. Club OpenDoc home page at freeware or shareware By coincidence, the Internet has been http://www.software.ibm.com/club-opendoc

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know that I’m not going back there again quick scan for peace of mind. To this end, of three, I’d put Dr Solly’s product first. so it keeps the reference. And it doesn’t I’ve added the McAfee scanner. It’s share- I’m often asked how one contacts IBM include an uninstall function that removes ware, and as with all shareware should be for problem support via email. There are program references when we delete registered if you plan to use it regularly. email addresses for support but they like programs, which is where WorkPlace But before you decide on the IBM or to see a structured problem report. The Shell Tools comes in. Just remember to McAfee anti-virus products consider Dr Problem Report Generator use it with care, to have a backup ready Solly’s Anti-Virus for OS/2 instead. In a list (OS2PROB.ZIP) is what you need. It helps and to make an archive if possible before you to create a detailed problem report starting to prune your INI files. and stores it as a file which you can email I’ve been playing with the latest IBM Fig 2 PMJPEG seen capturing an OS/2 to IBM. AntiVirus tool. It’s nice and it works very screen showing RPF Zip Control being well, but it costs money. You may suspect used to unpack the Just Add Warp file Shareware/Freeware utilities you have a virus but just want to run a downloaded from the Internet I’ve sent the editor a bunch of useful OS/2 utilities for our free, cover-mounted CD- ROM. Most of these are in response to reader emails. BootOS2 (BOOTOS2.ZIP) is a useful tool for creating bootable OS/2 diskettes and partitions. OS/2 PM Commander (EFCOMM.ZIP) is a neat file manager clone. RPF Zip Control (ZIPCT228.ZIP) is a front-end for OS/2 file ZIP file compression/decompression utilities, and ZOC 2.13 (ZOC213.ZIP) is a well- regarded terminal application for OS/2. I like the ZOC licence which states, “ZOC must not be used in an army environment or for purposes that are related to military or arms production”. The illustration of Zip Control (Fig 2) shows an example of PMJPEG (PMJPG173.ZIP) in action, capturing a screenshot in OS/2. PMJPEG is just one of a gazillion screen capture and image manipulation utilities for OS/2. You can find tons of OS/2 shareware and freeware on CompuServe (GO OS2SHARE), and on the two Internet sites mentioned in a previous column; LEO in Germany and Hobbes. Another site worth looking into is OS/2 “Must-Have” Utilities and FTP Links at http://www.os2.hammer.org/uhtml/Warp/h 3/h3index.html, as they seem to keep their site up to date. If you would like to be on top of OS/2 developments but don’t fancy wading through the comp.os.os2.* news- groups, you might want to subscribe to comp.os.os2.announce only as this is a moderated newsgroup.

Fig 3 Raj Singh’s home page is an excellent starting point for unofficial OS/2 information on the Internet

PCW Contacts

Terence Green can be contacted either by post c/o PCW or by email to [email protected].

298 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 HANDS ON ● NUMBERS COUNT

3 1 1 2 Jonathan Ayres has failed to discover any two-dimensional self-descriptive or amicable descriptive sequences, having 2 investigated up to DS1000(0) and beyond. However, he observes that 2DS( ) must Back in sequence lead to a recurrent sequence because it is fixed in size. The biggest 2DS( ) gets in Descriptive Number Sequences, part two, size is 19 rows by 19 columns and since each position contains a digit 0..9 then presented by Mike Mudge. there are 10361 possible values for 2DS( ), but half the possible positions on average ontinuing the study of Numbers amicable descriptive pair consisting of are spaces and half the remaining num- CCount, June 1996: Recall the defini- 103142132415 & 104122232415 bers are fixed because they are the digit tion, due to Jonathan Ayres, of Leeds: Problem D. Are there any number bases number, so maximum period is about 1081. dsn(m) where n is the index of the with period four or larger amicable Problem F. Investigate two-dimensional sequence and m the original number. descriptive sequences? descriptive sequences with a view to Thus: DESCRIPTIVE SEQUENCES OF finding self-descriptive or amicable ds1(0) = 10 ORDER GREATER THAN ONE descriptive patterns. because the original number consists of 1 Here the digits are regarded in groups of Any investigations of the above zero; whilst order n which may be either CONSECU- problems may be sent to Mike Mudge, 22 ds2(0) = 1011 TIVE...TYPE I, or GROUPED..TYPE II? Gors Fach, Pwll-Trap, Carmarthenshire because ds1(0) consists of 1 zero and 1 In type 1 the number zero generates SA33 4AQ, tel 01994 231121, to arrive by one. the following: 1st October 1996. All material received will 2 Problem A. Is there a way of deciding if a dsc 1 (0) = 0100 be judged using suitable subjective criteria given initial number, x say, leads to a self- which is then split into 01, 10 & 00 and a prize will be awarded by Mike 2 2 descriptive number (such as 1031223314) dsc 2(0) = 010001010110 and dsc 3(0) = Mudge, to the “best” entry arriving by the without calculating the whole descriptive 0200040104100111 ... closing date. sequence? whilst in type II the number zero Empirical evidence suggests that as x generates the following: Feedback: November 1995 — 2 increases, the likelihood of a sequence dsg 1(0) = 0100 Squambling becoming self-descriptive decreases. Why (because order two uses two digits so 0 This proved to be a remarkably popular is this? goes to 00 and 1 goes to 01) topic. Why? Gareth Suggett established the 2 Problem B. Is there any function which dsg 2(0) = 01000101 answer to the original Sunday Times relates the chances of a number becoming i.e. one zero and one one. problem as 46, for which one iteration of the 2 self-descriptive with the magnitude of the dsg 3(0) = 01000301 squambling function gives 232, and a number? i.e. one zero and three ones etc. second gives 47. He found all of George 2 COMPLETELY DESCRIPTIVE It is found that dsg 989(0) and its amica- Sassoon’s loops and lists a 105-step loop, SEQUENCES, Ds(n) ble descriptive partner are each 395 digits 40372656... whose smallest entry is 5 and 2 These are similar to descriptive long; whilst dsc 41(0) having 395 digits largest entry is 43055027. He found mod- sequences, but the next number in the also is part of an amicable descriptive pair. squam less interesting, being monotonic sequence refers to all the digits zero to Problem E. Analyse completely the decreasing and ending (always) with 1. nine i.e. it does not omit the reference to behaviour of type I & type II descriptive Nigel Hodges proved that squambling non-occurring digits. sequences of order two, consider the sequences and their various generalisa-

Ds1(0) = 10010203040506070809, extension to higher orders. (Remember tions cannot diverge. However, this month Ds2(0) = 100211213141516171819 the order is the size of the subsets of digits the prize is awarded to G.D. Williams of 18 This process converges to the being counted.) Mawnog Fach, Bala, Gwynedd LL23 7YY, amicable descriptive pair: TWO-DIMENSIONAL DESCRIPTIVE who displays an awareness of the problems 2 Ds6(0) = 10714213141516171819, SEQUENCES, DS(n) of integer overflow even when program- Ds7(0) = 10812213241516271819 Descriptive sequences can be generalised ming in Turbo C++. Mr Williams has noted Problem C. Do all numbers n lead to the from one-dimensional “lines” of numbers the basic difference in the behaviour (as he above amicable descriptive pair? to two-dimensional “planes” of numbers. perceives it) between sqm( ) & modsqm( ). WHAT HAPPENS IN DIFFERENT One way to do this consistently is to define There is scope for further investigation 2 NUMBER BASES? the columns, m, of DSn+1(x) to be equal to of this function, in particular when the In binary, for example, ds1(row m) as is illustrated by the following number base is different from ten. ds1(0) = 10, ds2(0) = 1011 whilst example: 2 PCW Contributions Welcome ds3(0) = 10111 DS1(0) = 10 (because ds1(0) = 10) We have 11 ones since 3 is thus Mike Mudge welcomes readers’ 2 represented in binary as 11; subsequently DS2(0) = 1110 (because ds1(1) = 11 correspondence on any subject within the ds9(0) = ds10(0) = ... = 1101001 and ds1(0) = 10) repeated iteration areas of number theory and computation- a self-descriptive number in binary, having leads to: al mathematics, together with suggested 2 subject areas and/or specific problems for three zeros and four ones. DS5(0) = 4 1 2 1 Example: in base 6 there is an 1 0 1 1 future Numbers Count articles.

299 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 HANDS ON ● HARDWARE HANDS ON ● HARDWARE

Supercharging an Overdrive Intel has gone to considerable lengths to make the potentially fraught matter of processor Socket 7 A white 321-pin ZIF socket; the upgrading as simple as possible. It must be as uncomplicated as possible if it’s to be a retail current standard socket for the entire Pen- product, likely to be installed by a non-technical end-user. tium range. It can take future Pentium At its simplest, all you have to do is take out the old CPU and bung in the new one. At upgrade processors. worst, you might have to move some motherboard jumpers. The down side of this approach Socket 8 The largest ZIF socket of all, for is that it limits your choice somewhat: if you had an old 25MHz 486SX and wanted to fit a the Pentium Pro. Pentium Overdrive, you could only buy the 63MHz version because the faster, 83MHz version is meant for 33MHz motherboards. Or, if you were looking at a DX4 you’d have to fit The upgrade choice the 75MHz version rather than the 100MHz one. So given the right socket, the range of Nevertheless, most motherboards (even quite old ones) were designed to take a variety upgrade processors you can fit is quite of processors and so were able to run at a variety of speeds, typically 25MHz or 33MHz. wide. If you’ve got a 486SX/25 with a Socket 3 you’ll be able to choose between Processor push-ups These so-called “clock speeds” are normally determined by a set of jumpers on the four Overdrives: the 486SX2, which is a motherboard, so if you could adjust the clock speed from 25MHz to 33MHz you’d be able to speed-doubled version of the SX; the fit the 83MHz Pentium Overdrive rather than the slower 63MHz version. Sure, it would cost 486DX2, which is a speed-doubled CPU you more, but you’d be getting a faster PC at the end of the day and thus it’s definitely worth Give that lazy old PC a kick up the socket with a processor upgrade. with maths co-processor; the DX4, which paying the extra £30 or so. However, setting the motherboard speed jumpers can be fiddly is a speed-trebled processor with maths Roger Gann tells you how to fortify the 486s. and you’ll need the assistance of your motherboard handbook to tell you which ones to co-processor; or, a 63MHz Pentium move, but the hassle is worth it in the long run. Overdrive.

PCW Chip Photography by Graham Pearson Note that Intel is in the process of phas- What performance gains can you expect? ing out the slower Overdrives and you’ll y steely gaze Simply fitting a more powerful processor doesn’t commensurately increase the overall power have to move fast to snap up any of the Malights this month Two of the upgrade chips currently available — of your PC — it’ll have a greater impact on some tasks than others. Yes, you do get gains 486SX2 or DX2 models before the sum- on processor upgrades. Intel’s Overdrive and Cyrix’s 586 Turbochip mer. That leaves the 75MHz and 100MHz from upgrading your processor but nowhere near as great as you might have hoped for. As sure as night follows DX4 and the 63MHz and 84MHz Pentium Synthetic benchmarking may reveal integer and floating-point performance improvements day, the PC you buy Overdrives. Their prices start at £112 for today will inevitably of as much as 100 percent as a result of such an upgrade, but the real-world improvements the entry-level DX4. The 100MHz DX4 appear to run slowly you can expect will be much lower: in the 20 to 30 percent range. and the 63MHz Pentium Overdrive are tomorrow, weighed Other factors such as installed memory, hard disk and graphics have just as great an £145 each and the top-end Pentium Over- down by the ever- influence on overall performance and will dilute the apparent gains to be had from installing a drive is £209, but street prices are much increasing burden of processor upgrade. So if you do a lot of processor-intensive tasks, such as spreadsheeting lower. running the latest 32-bit or multimedia, then provided the price is right, a processor upgrade is worth considering as a And what about Pentium owners? software and operating PC’s mid-life booster. Although it’s always been possible to systems. Luckily, for the upgrade Pentium 75s and above, simply vast majority of PC own- by replacing them with faster, “loose”, ers it’s possible to revi- handful of 486SX processors that were There are several sorts of ZIF socket. OEM (original equipment manufacturer) talise their sluggish PCs soldered down were, typically, additionally The type of socket will determine what versions sold in the retail market, this lux- by upgrading their exist- provided with an empty upgrade socket. processor upgrade options are available, ury was denied to owners of older 60MHz ing processor and The original Pin Grid Array (PGA) sock- so it pays to take a peek under the bonnet and 66MHz Pentiums. This has now been replacing it with a more et held the CPU in by friction, which meant to see just what sort of a socket you’ve rectified with the recent release of the lat- powerful one. Luckier that the chip didn’t just lift out: the unit and got. est clutch of Pentium Overdrives, which still, this is a relatively its 168 pins had to be levered out. Normal- There are four types of ZIF socket cater for 60, 66, 75 and 90MHz Pentiums. simple task. Overdrive vs “loose” ly, the pin holes in a traditional processor installed in 486-based PCs: It costs £246 to buy a 120/133MHz Pen- This month I’ll be looking at upgrading socket tapered slightly to ensure a good Socket 1 A 169-pin, blue, ZIF socket; this tium Overdrive — 125MHz in the case of your CPU and divulging the odd tip or two. You don’t have to look too far to see that plenty of dealers these days are selling both electrical contact; the chips were effective- can only accept 486 Overdrive processors. 75MHz upgrades (reviewed in the April I’ll concentrate on upgrading 486s as not ordinary and Overdrive processors. Internally, these chips are almost identical but they ly tightly held in by friction, hence their Socket 2 A 238-pin, blue, ZIF socket; this issue of PCW). only are they the most plentiful but they carry quite different price tags: an Intel 486DX2/66 Overdrive might go for £85 while just £22 reluctance to be removed. Luckily, every can accept both 486 and Pentium Over- also have the most pressing need of will buy you a ST486DX2-66-GS CPU made by the French chip giant, SGS. Overdrive kit comes with a high-tech crow- drive processors. Alternatives to Intel upgrading. Although the 486 is now techni- The two chips are, to all intents and purposes, identical but one is almost four times the bar (chip-puller) to prise old 486s out of old Socket 3 A white, 237-pin, ZIF socket; this But don’t think it’s Hobson’s choice when it cally obsolete, the world is awash with price of the other. Surely only a fool would buy the dearer of the two? Well, when confronted PGA sockets. is essentially the same as Socket 2 but comes to CPU upgrades — there are them: according to Intel, there are already with bargains like this, you have to bear in mind the reason for the price difference: you get To make CPU upgrading a lot easier, can take the low voltage 3.3v DX4 and alternatives to Intel. Cyrix has left the 50 million upgradable 486s out there. This more if you plump for the Intel. even though it’s a task you’ll probably only Pentium Overdrive. The “missing” pin is upgrade market per se but its processors is no bad thing from an upgrading point of The cheaper CPUs are invariably sourced from the OEM (original equipment ever do once or twice, Intel designed the used to correctly orientate the square chip. turn up in third-party upgrade products — view, because the 486 family was manufacturer) market and so aren’t meant to be sold in the retail market — they are Zero Insertion Force (ZIF) CPU socket. A Socket 6 A 235-pin socket for DX4 the new 5x86, for instance, turns up in the designed from the outset to be upgradable. intended to be installed by PC manufacturers and not end-users. They are supplied in bulk, ZIF socket is a little larger than a normal processors. PowerLeap/586 (contact Future with little or no packaging, no instructions and no support: when you buy one of these, PGA socket and uses a lever, or handle, to Pentium-based machines have even Upgrades; see PCW Contacts panel). This Sockets you’re on your own. clamp the chip pins tightly. To remove the larger ZIF sockets: is as powerful as the Pentium Overdrive The key to processor upgrading is that With the Overdrive you get full instructions, tech support, software, a three-year warranty chip, you unclip the lever and lift it. This Socket 4 A white, 273-pin, ZIF socket; this 83 but at £95 is less than half the price of most, if not all, 486 processors are socket- and a money-back guarantee. You also get special versions of the chip that will allow a 3.3v unclamps the CPU which then lifts out is used for Pentium 60 and Pentium 66 its Intel rival. The catch is that the 5x86 is ed. This means that it’s a simple task to Overdrive CPU to run in a 5v socket, for example. very easily — with zero force, in fact. Most processors. extract the old processor from its socket If you know what you’re doing, CPUs that are sold “loose” are a bargain. But if you’re 486s and all DX4s and Pentiums feature Socket 5 A white, 320-pin, ZIF socket; this is How to upgrade your processor — and plug in a replacement. Even those new to the processor upgrade game it’s best to play safe and go down the Overdrive route. ZIF sockets. used for Pentium 75 processors and above. see over page

300 301 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 HANDS ON ● HARDWARE HANDS ON ● HARDWARE

Explanation of acronyms and terms used

Low level CPU Central processing unit.

Hard drive and peripheral interface standards BIOS Basic input/output system.

Other terms Clock speed The speed, in MHz, at which a microprocessor runs.

● If you have a “verbose” BIOS, which signs on with lots of information, it may tell you what sort of processor it recognises. To be extra sure, install the supplied diag- nostic software that came with the upgrade just to make sure everything is A-OK.

Further reading pin holes remains visible on all four sides The lever on the ZIF socket allows you See First Impressions for a review of the so modern, it’s only suited to the more The bevelled corner of the new chip of the ZIF socket. to lock the new chip into place MAke-it 586, from Improve Technologies, recent motherboards. Kingston Technolo- must be lined up correctly. Here, Pin 1 ● Simply drop in the CPU, lower the lever vs Kingston Technology’s TurboChip 133. gy does a range of processor upgrades as is marked on the motherboard and clip it into the locked position. If it’s a well, the “Turbochip” range (contact PGA socket then you’ll have to use some Datrontech; see PCW Contacts panel). force to insert the chip — make sure the Step 5 PCW Contacts the old processor: it may help you orien- chip is level and goes in “straight” and ● Reassemble the PC, replace the lid, do Roger Gann can be contacted either by tate the new chip. evenly. Be very careful, too, not to over- up the screws and plug everything back in. post c/o PCW or via email at ● ● Remove the processor. If it’s in a ZIF flex the motherboard. You may need to Plug in all the cables and power up the [email protected],net socket, simply unclip the release lever and shift a few motherboard jumpers at this PC. You’ll soon know if the new processor Datrontech 01252 303333 ☎ lift it up — you can now lift out the proces- point to identify the new CPU, so have that has gone in okay — if it hasn’t, the PC Step-by-Step Future Upgrades 01732 465566 ☎ sor. If it’s in a PGA socket, use the special motherboard manual handy! won’t boot. UPGRADING YOUR lever supplied in the upgrade kit to prise it out — be careful to insert it between the PROCESSOR socket and the chip and not to put it under When handling processors it’s particularly the socket. Use gentle pressure and lift all important to remove any static electricity four sides of the CPU evenly. Put the old you might be carrying by earthing yourself CPU somewhere safe. — don’t forget, you’ll be handling some- thing expensive that’s easily zapped by Step 4 static! ● Because all current processor upgrades are square (i.e. symmetrical) it’s quite pos- Step 1 sible to attempt to fit it into the socket in ● Power down and unplug the PC from any of four ways, so take care to correctly the mains and disconnect all other leads. orientate the new processor. This is easy: the socket will have a bevelled corner, or Step 2 mark indicating the position of the corner ● Take the lid off the PC. It’ll be held on by pin; and the CPU will have a correspond- four or five self-tapping screws and you’ll ing dot, or bevelled corner. most likely need a Phillips screwdriver to ● Marry the two marks up and insert the undo them. Keep them in a safe place. chip, quickly checking beforehand that ● Locate and identify the 486 processor. It none of its pins are bent. Note that some might be a good idea to remove some or Overdrive chips use an additional pin to all of the expansion cards to give yourself orientate the chip in the socket, which more space. makes it impossible to fit it the wrong way. If the ZIF socket is of the large Pentium Step 3 Overdrive sort, insert your 486 Overdrive ● Note the orientation of the printing on in the centre of the socket so that a line of

302 303 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 HANDS ON ● 3D GRAPHICS HANDS ON ● 3D GRAPHICS

Supposedly, saving a file as a “project” Apple’s eworld online service, have a door overcomes the problem of having to deal leading out into a street with buildings rep- with all these different file types (materials, resenting different services: point and click 2D shapes and other elements are stored at the library, and you are offered a series in the one .PRJ file), but you still have to of information services; point at the bank remember where all the texture maps are, and you get financial services, and so on. It the lofts and shapes you may have used in sounds quite seductive but so far nothing some earlier version of the project, and the much has come of the idea. Nevertheless, clip models you may want to merge into things may be about to change. the scene. Also, any large project is likely One modest first step into the realm of to comprise a number of smaller ones the 3D interface is DIR3D, a Beta version of merged together. which I downloaded from the Web site of No pain, no gain Windows packages (such as True- the program’s authors, Regnoc (www. space, Visual Reality, Extreme 3D and regnoc.com). It’s nothing more than a ver- Vibrant 3D images can cause file management Ray Dream Studio) overcome a few of sion of the Windows 95 Explorer or 3.1/NT headaches. Benjamin Woolley looks at ways of these problems because you are better File Manager, in which the contents of local integrated, with a friendlier operating and network drives are represented as a dulling the pain, and dips a toe in the water of the environment. You have the Registry and 3D bar chart with the height of the bars 3D interface with DIR3D. Explorer on hand to help. Also, with showing the size of the directory. Windows 95 and NT, you can use long Regnoc prefers a more glamourous files names — an advantage you should urban metaphor in its description of the pro- his spring, Silicon Graphics package, or even a utility for the PC, that exploit to the utmost. gram, calling each directory a “building”, Tannounced its development environ- takes all the pain out of file management and each file within it known as “floors”. ment for creating Web content, “Cosmo”. (if anyone knows better, I would love to Avoiding problems The Manhattan skyline, as produced by kept all you need but never quite knowing Hierarchy (the relationship of directory to Among the suite of fabulously sophisticat- hear from them). But I would easily rate Nevertheless, no matter how disciplined DIR3D’s view of my local hard disk whether that “bricktmp.bmp” was really sub-directory, to sub sub-directory and so ed and glamourous tools (including tools dear old DOS-based 3D Studio (3DS) as you are, problems will still arise, so here drive. The two World Trade Center just a temporary scratch file for the brick on) is represented by the z axis: the root for integrating VRML and Java) was a one of the worst. are some ways of avoiding them. towers are, inevitably, my overloaded surface you used in an earlier version of directory is at the front of the scene, the rather uninteresting-looking fellow called When you install 3DS on your hard Firstly, there is the obvious trick of cre- Windows and System sub-directories: the project, or the one you ended up using. next level of directories behind it, their sub- “MediaBase”. All it apparently did was help drive, it creates a series of directories for ating a single sub-directory for each pro- see how they dwarf the 3D Studio sub- Unfortunately, being an anal-retentive directories behind them. you organise your files. What a dull job. each of the constituents that are likely to ject. However, it is often better to add directory on the left of the picture. The is the only solution to the file organisation You use DIR3D by moving around the Well, unfortunately, that dull job turns make up a 3D project: meshes (the actual some sort of structure to this directory, so toolbar contains navigation buttons problem until some clever company pro- city, finding the building (i.e. directory) and out to be one of the most important in geometries for 3D models), materials (for texture maps are in a sub sub-directory duces a version of Cosmo MediaBase for then the floor (i.e. file) you want. When you generating any sort of media-rich content materials libraries), lofts and shapes (both called “maps”, and so on. likely to be getting them from all over the the PC market. It is not a very glamorous click on the floor, it slides out — the urban and this applies, squared, to 3D. Think of it for building 3D models out of 2D shapes), Secondly, there is the less obvious trick place: from a clipart library, off the Internet, product category at a time when everyone metaphor is beginning to collapse here. as the bureaucracy of beauty (if that is not fonts, images, maps (for texture maps, of trying to work out in advance what types from your own image directories, from is wanting to be the next Netscape, so This selected floor can then be subjected to too tortuous): to get those wonderful, though sometimes these are to be found in of files you will need to use. This depends scans and from other rendering projects. don’t hold your breath. any of the usual file operations that you colourful, incandescent, textured images, the images sub-directory), processes on the sort of package you are using. Are Worse, you will often accumulate would use with Explorer: copy, move and you will need a lot of files — and you will (containing the IPAS routines, or “plug-ins” there separate formats for 2D geometry, several versions: a high-resolution colour Beyond the GUI delete. You can right-click on the floor to get need to know where they all are and what as they are better known in the rest of the for example? Do texture files need to be version for the texture map, a 32-bit When Alan Kay and his cohorts at Xerox’s the associated file’s properties and run it to do with them. graphics universe) — the list scrolls on converted into a particular proprietary version for Alpha channel data, a low- Palo Alto Research Center came up with (assuming the file type is registered). I have yet to encounter a 3D graphics forever. format (as they do in Extreme 3D)? Can resolution greyscale version for the bump the design for the graphical user interface, As implemented in DIR3D, the 3D inter- you make the conversions in advance and map, maybe a traced version to form the it was but a short logical step from a two- face idea seems to be little advanced but do you need to keep the originals? The basis of a 2D shape for lofting. You have to dimensional space (a “desktop”) into a the program demonstrates a couple of answer to the latter is yes, if you cannot discipline yourself to performing a regular three-dimensional space. interesting things. First, it shows a potential reconvert. cull of these files, printing out (or writing Researchers at PARC itself have toyed use for OpenGL, the 3D renderer built in to Thirdly, you need to think about texture down) scene details for each project so with this idea, producing proposals for Windows 95 and NT. OpenGL works and bump maps. These files, which will be you know what you have used. what they called the “Information Visualiz- efficiently on Pentium systems, enabling bitmaps (in some cases, including video A good tip is to keep an offline backup er… a user interface paradigm that goes programs like DIR3D to create pretty solid- sequences and animations) are the ones (on tape, say) called something like beyond the desktop metaphor to exploit looking 3D environments on the fly (not that cause the most problems. The “originals” where you lodge one good high- the emerging generation of graphical per- Doom standards, but that will come). reason? They are often huge and you are res copy of every image you use, when sonal computers and to support the Secondly, DIR3D suggests some possible you first use it. Then you can afford to emerging application demand to retrieve, ways of using VRML. delete online files when you reckon you store, manipulate, and understand large As most people now know, Microsoft is It took a total of 23 separate files to make have no further use for them. amounts of information.” planning to integrate Web browsing into up this scene, including some project It is tempting to believe that such How, then, would one go “beyond the Windows 95. It might be possible to files for individual elements (e.g. the problems will not arise as long as you bung desktop metaphor”? You could have a 3D integrate 3D browsing too, so the interface flags), more project files to render up all the required files into your new project representation of an office with a 3D desk- to your system could be a VRML scene textures (the stars on the flag material), sub-directory and sort out the mess later top, a 3D filing cabinet with 3D drawers full populated with 3D shortcuts to local files as images generated by other programs (the (my usual strategy). If you have a spare of 3D files, a 3D waste paper basket well as remote resources. Mandelbrot used in the floor material, gigabyte or two of disk space this might (wow!) and, down the corridor, doors lead- from a fractal generator), texture maps work, but in the real world you will soon find ing into the 3D “offices” of other users in PCW Contacts from clip libraries (the marble finishes), yourself having to make room for new your network neighbourhood. Benjamin Woolley, writer and broadcaster, can 3D mesh files containing objects used to materials the whole time, deleting and You could, borrowing from the be contacted at [email protected]. His cut out the arch shapes, and so on moving files on the fly, hoping you have metaphor used in the interfaces such as home page is www.illumin.co.uk/woolley/

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Serif or sans-serif? There was a time, not so long ago, when all computers were limited to displaying one font on their monitors. Similar to mechanical typewriters, all the letters took up the same amount of space on the page, regardless of their actual size. This is known as mono or non-proportional spacing. Look at the letters m and i. The i is much narrower, but occupies the same space on the page as any other letter in a non-proportional system. This extra space Type casting looked messy and spurred type designers to artificially widen the narrower charac- If you thought Sans Serif was a resort in Spain, ters to fill the gaps. The design they came up with for typewriters was Courier, a style read on. Gordon Laing tells you things you always familiar to all of us and over-used in recent wanted to know about fonts but were afraid to ask. times to convey a retro or Mission Impos- sible-type mood. At the time, most printers came with the option of choosing from a couple of built-in ❝ ypographic arrangement buck on to the word “fount”, which it fonts. These were usually selected by a Tshould achieve for the reader describes as “a complete assortment of switch on the printer and were described what voice tone conveys to the listener.” types of one sort, with all that is necessary simply as Serif, or Sans-serif. Serifs are We’re talking about fonts — I can’t get for printing in that kind of letter”. lines or curves projecting from the end of a enough of the things. However much my The word fount comes from the Latin, letterform. Fonts with these additional colleagues snigger at my obsession, I “to cast”. Indeed, much of electronic pub- strokes are known as serif fonts. know they have a secret yearning to join lishing terminology harks back to the old The word “serif” is derived from the me in a little typographic trainspotting. You days of the printing press. The part about chiseling marks found in Roman stone see, they’re really into it, too. It’s just that “all that is necessary for printing” refers to monuments; indeed, serif fonts are often they don’t yet realise it. the old, individually cast, characters; one referred to as Roman. However, uncapi- With the advent of personal computers, for each style and size. The word “font” is talised roman describes vertical charac- graphical user interfaces and vector page an Americanism of “fount”, but in its elec- ters as opposed to italic. Italic characters description languages (such as Post- tronic form means much the same thing, in slope to the right and are often known as Script, the digital typeface) are an every- that each comes with “all that is necessary oblique. day reality. All Windows and Macintosh for printing”. “Sans” is the French word meaning users take scalability, what-you-see-is- “without”; making sans-serif fonts those what-you-get and smooth without the additional output for granted. strokes. Probably the most But like most aspects of famous sans-serif font is computing, there’s a fair Helvetica (or Arial). amount of technology work- Times is the best known ing behind the scenes. serif font. Studies have Unsurprisingly, there are shown that at body-text also competing formats and sizes, serif fonts are easier implementations, each fight- to read — the idea being ing for your attention. that the serifs help guide the It’s always handy to eye from letter to letter. At understand the inner work- larger or smaller than body- ings, and it’s been a while text sizes, sans-serif fonts since the subject’s been cov- seem to work better. ered, so this month’s Graph- ics & DTP is everything you The advent of wanted to know about fonts WYSIWYG but were afraid to ask. Proportional spacing and Who’s Mimi? For now, a demonstration of proportional spaced fonts. scalable fonts arrived on The letter m is usually the widest character, and the letter i the Font or fount? the desktop around 1984 thinnest. At the top is Courier, a non-proportionally spaced font. So, what is a font? Those courtesy of Adobe, just one Notice how the serifs are artificially widened to make all characters with active vocabularies will year after it developed the the same width. Below is Times, a proportionally spaced font, with almost certainly think of bap- PostScript page description naturally thin i’s and wide m’s. Out of interest, a wide dash is known tism, but as far as typefaces language. typographically as an em dash, since it is the same width as a letter are concerned, the dictio- The shape of each char- m in that font style; narrow dashes are en dashes nary immediately passes the acter in Adobe’s Type 1

306 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 HANDS ON ● GRAPHICS & DTP

upper case arm beak counter ascender ear

x-height cap height point size

tail serif letter spacing descender baseline (kerning) lower case font format is described by a PostScript looked like we were stuck with the jaggies formats and implementations sprung up to program. These descriptions can be dis- for a while. compete. played and printed at any resolution, in Then, in 1989, Adobe Type Manager TrueType was developed as a joint any colour and at any degree of rotation. (ATM) arrived. It took outline printer fonts venture by Apple and Microsoft. Windows Each character incorporates spacing and rasterised them on the fly, at any res- 3.x, NT, 95 and Macintosh System 7.x information. olution, for on-screen use. This apparently operating systems come with a rasteriser Type 1 fonts also contain hinting infor- processor-intensive task was absorbed by for TrueType, but not Type 1 fonts. ATM is mation. Certain line weights and serifs faster hardware becoming available, and the only rasteriser for Type 1 fonts, costs may look great on characters output at two any pause of a couple of seconds as the £40, and is bundled with many applica- inches high but could look fiddly, or even screen re-drew was more than compen- tions, notably those from Lotus and, unsur- illegible, at smaller sizes. Hinting is the sated for by the smooth and accurate font prisingly, Adobe. Incidentally, ATM is built process of adding information to a charac- shapes. into IBM’s OS/2. ter’s outline, slightly altering various ATM could even rasterise Type 1 fonts TrueType fonts do not require accom- aspects to improve its appearance at low for non-PostScript printers. Under Win- panying pre-rasterised bitmaps on either resolutions and point sizes. dows, it even handled the installation and Windows or Macintosh. It is possible, but PostScript software and Type 1 fonts management of Type 1 fonts — a totally not recommended, to use Type 1 fonts on are device independent, meaning they are invaluable utility for Windows or Macintosh a Macintosh without ATM. On such a Mac, not tied to a specific device or resolution. users of Type 1 fonts. the system relies on screen fonts for dis- The same Type 1 font can be used for a play and that’s why all Macintosh Type 1 72dpi display screen, a 300dpi laser print- Just my type fonts must have at least one pre-rasterised er or a 2400dpi imagesetter. In order to be You’d be forgiven for thinking the digital bitmap screen font for compatibility. Since printed or displayed it must still be turned type world consisted entirely of fonts into a bitmap, but the same single outline encoded in Adobe’s Type 1 format. While description can be used for all devices; Type 1 was the original and remains the one very flexible file, requiring little space standard in professional publishing, other and offering the desirable prospect of con- sistency across devices. The process of turning a vector outline (such as a Type 1 font) into a bitmap at the desired resolution for printing, or display, is known as rasterisation. If you wanted to view or print the shape, it needed to be rasterised into a bitmap. PostScript print- ers could rasterise Type 1 fonts for print- ing, but for a while nothing could do it for on-screen use. Each Type 1 font consist- ed of several files: one for the vector out- line (useful for the printer alone), and a small collection of pre-rasterised bitmaps Fonts under Windows 95. Double- for on-screen use. Hence the terms “print- clicking a TrueType font file offers the er font” and “screen font”. helpful information, right. PostScript When a size was chosen for which a Type 1 fonts are handled by Adobe bitmap didn’t exist, the on-screen result Type Manager, ATM, above. The appeared jagged. Imagine zooming in and current version does not offer out of documents, effectively requesting previews of Type 1 fonts countless bitmaps at obscure sizes: it

307 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 HANDS ON ● GRAPHICS & DTP

Font of the Month

Windows requires ATM to install Type 1 Bitmaps — the last word fonts (which can also rasterise them), With scalable outline fonts galore, you’d bitmaps are not required. wonder whether it’s worth bothering with Each OS happily operates with True- bitmaps ever again. The answer is a Type and Type 1 fonts simultaneously — resounding, “kind-of ”. even in the same document. But which is Many Windows and Macintosh system better? fonts are bitmaps — they’re the ones you Adobe claims that ATM is relatively find on title bars, on menus and under more intelligent than the TrueType ras- icons. They look fine at that fixed size but terisers. Consequently, Type 1 fonts can try to scale them and the jagged edges will be smaller in file size than TrueType and reveal themselves. take less time to download to a printer. FON files are Windows bitmap fonts Smaller file sizes require less space on without accompanying outlines. They may your hard disk, too. On the other hand, consist of bitmaps at a number of sizes Windows only downloads the actual char- and are often used within email messages acters of a TrueType font used in a docu- to ensure compatibility with as many other ment, whereas ATM downloads the whole systems as possible. character set. Adobe Type 3 fonts are bitmap descrip- PostScript and Type 1 still dominates tions not requiring ATM but are rarely seen the professional printing world. It’s been these days. One small advantage over around longest and consequently has an Type 1 and TrueType is their ability to con- almost religious following in publishing cir- tain anything other than a solid fill — they cles. Although TrueType is catching up could have a pattern of some kind. fast, there are currently more fonts avail- A final word on file extensions. TTFs able in the Type 1 format. are, unsurprisingly, the TrueType outline In publishing, there’s the big issue of files while Type 1 Windows fonts consist making sure the people who print your typically of two files: PFM and PFB. The pages have exactly the same fonts you’ve PFB is the outline description, while the used on your document. Missing fonts, PFM contains information about the font resulting in substitution and reflow, is a such as letter spacing. surprisingly common nightmare. Merely Next month we’ll take a further look at sharing the same names isn’t enough: the fonts, including character sets and the fonts have to come from the same foundry many gems the Internet has to offer. and supplier and this level of certainty is only truly offered by Type 1. One big Font of the Month endorsement comes from the Internation- Typographer Eric Spiekermann’s aversion al Standards Organisation, which in ISO to Helvetica as a corporate typeface is well specification 9541 identifies Adobe’s Type known. His alternative, Meta, was 1 format as the worldwide standard for out- designed in 1991 and has become Font- line fonts. works’ best-selling typeface. Eric has Of course, if you’re outputting only to a revised his original design, adding addi- local printer or aren’t bothered about tional weights and cleaning up the kerning absolute perfection, then any format will and some outlines. The result is the fabu- do. In this situation, it boils down to price lous FF Meta+ (pictured above), exclusive- and availability. There are a huge number ly available from FontWorks. of budget collections, more often than not in TrueType format, many consisting of PCW Contacts subtly different copies of famous proper Any burning font questions or tips? Write fonts. to me at the PCW address on Broadwick Serious typographers will gasp with Street or email me as horror that anyone could even consider [email protected]. using these imposters. but they’re more compuserve.com ☎ than sufficient for the majority of users. FontWorks 0171 490 5390

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…and here is the news

● Asymetrix has released a new version of its Toolbook CBT edition (version 4.0), and Aimtech has released CBT Express version 2.0. Aimtech is also said to be about to release a sub-£1,000 version of its IconAuthor package, called IconAuthor Lite. And the new version of Macromedia Director is now shipping (see page 312). ● Data Translation’s Multimedia Group has launched version 2.6 of its Media 100 (£8,795, excl VAT) professional non-linear video editing system. This offers broadcast-quality pictures using 2:1 compression, eight tracks of CD-quality sound, and many more features. ● The ubiquitous Microsoft has unveiled two more technologies. One is SIPC — Simply Interactive PC framework — to give some brains (that is, parts of the Windows operating system) to dumb hardware such as VCRs, TVs and consumer hi-fi systems, so that PCs and consumer entertainment machines can communicate with each other via a universal Mad March gets our men in a muddle serial bus. The other Microsoft technology is ActiveMovie, a cross-platform digital video technology for the desktop and the Internet. With this you’ll be able to create and deliver titles on Oops! Panicos Georghiades and Gabriel Jacobs have been the hapless multiple platforms with synchronised audio/video and special effects. Benefits will be fast playback of all popular media types over the Internet and MPEG-1 victims of the great banana-skin bug... On a brighter note, Panasonic playback in software-only on a Pentium 90 with a low-cost graphics card at 24 frames per pitches in to help developers, and a new Director gets ready for action. second with 11KHz audio. MPEG II (which will be used on the new Digital Video Discs) is also supported. This has meant the creation of a new file format: .ASF (ActiveMovie Streaming Format) which is data independent. Streaming means that playback can start without having to arch wasn’t too good a month for Well, the fact of the matter is that the A drive for multimedia download the entire file. Mus in terms of accuracy! A number cheapest price for a single 4Gb drive is developers of people working in higher education around £650. What we really wanted to The same theme — cheaper storage — performs in areas related to multimedia pressing plants. Also, because of the emailed us about our section in the March say was that you can obtain 4Gb of hard- brings us to the Panasonic PD optical development. inexpensive disks and relatively fast Multimedia column entitled “When it disk space for about £400, and what we drive. With the recent cuts in the price of The PD drive is, in fact, two drives in performance, it should be a good option for comes to the Crunch”. Our fault: the email had in mind was the new Iomega Jaz 1Gb this drive (you can get an internal version one. It is a rewritable optical drive: each backing up. And then there’s simultaneous address of the Association for Learning removable drives. Cartridges have been for as little as £350 plus VAT), this has cartridge holds 650Mb (about the same work: it ought to allow you to work on many Technology in Oxford should have read: advertised at less than £100. A similar now become a pretty big temptation for as a CD-ROM) and costs £39. It is also a projects at the same time instead of being [email protected] drive from Syquest claims a transfer rate multimedia developers who generally four-speed CD-ROM drive. It can only act restricted to the normal hard disk. We also apologise if (on page 297 of of 4Mb/sec — good enough for video require more disk storage and higher as one of these two things at any one We first tested the drive using standard the March issue) we gave the impression work. performance than most other people in the time, but it automatically detects what testing software from Adaptec. The results that a single 4Gb hard disk costs £400. Note that you can also obtain the computer field. So we thought that it would kind of disk is in, and then re-identifies varied from about 250 to 1,280Kb/sec, Two readers, A.J Elliott <100112.2612 Seagate 2.1Gb ST32140A drive for about be a good idea to test one and see how it itself. depending on the size of the file used (2Kb @compuserve.com> and Sumeet Kapur £240. We can’t name If you have a SCSI adaptor, installation to 512Kb), and whether access was — dbae005 — specific suppliers — so is simple. If you don’t, you have to go sequential or random. However, standard have been asking where they can get look in the advertisement through the rigmarole of installing a SCSI software of this kind uses small files for the one? section. adaptor: something which will either give tests which are not representative of you a nervous breakdown or be as easy multimedia applications using audio and as pie, depending on your PC video files. configuration. Panasonic supplies an In our own, similar, tests of reading and Adaptec SCSI-2 adaptor, as an option. writing large files to the drive we found the The PD drive installs itself as two extra average transfer rate to be about drive letters: one for the optical disk and 350Kb/sec. another for the CD-ROM. The drive managed to play three tracks The CD-ROM behaves well. The of 44KHz 16-bit mono audio files at the transfer rates and access speeds we got same time with no problems, and four from our tests matched approximately tracks with very little crackling noise (four those of the specifications (600Kb/sec mono tracks amount to 4 x 44.1 x 2 = and 195ms). The CD-ROM drive also 352.8Kb/sec). played our Video CD disks — using a We also managed to grab video directly Showtime Plus board — with no on the drive using a resolution of 384 x 288 Above The Panasonic PD drive is problems. And we managed to grab at 25fps and with a transfer rate of ideal for testing multimedia CD-audio data via the SCSI port digitally 350Kb/sec without losing a single frame. applications designed to run on a and save it as a WAV file, using Corel’s At a setting of 400Kb/sec it lost about 15 quad speed CD-ROM CD player utility. percent of the captured frames. Though Of greater interest to us, however, was you wouldn’t actually use such a drive to Left Pansonic’s PD System combines the optical drive. Because its capacity is capture video, you would definitely want to a 650Mb rewritable optical disk with a near that of a CD-ROM, in theory it ought use it for testing playback. quad-speed CD-ROM drive to be a good means of testing multimedia Given, then, that the optical disk’s applications, instead of writing one-off speed and transfer rate are similar to those CDs and sending data to CD-ROM of a four-speed CD-ROM, the drive will

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Macromedia Director 5 now offers support for the Internet, using Shockwave

addresses), and can take you to HTML (hypertext) pages on the Net. You can link to other Director movies on the Net, too. At the moment there’s support for Netscape Navigator 2.0, with support for Microsoft Explorer 3.0, CompuServe, AOL/Navisoft, and SGI WebForce to come. If you wish to see an example, visit the Deep Forest Web site (developed by M/B Interactive in the US (phone 001 212 539 6992), which uses no HTML. It’s all done using Director movies. Some of the other new features include built-in formatted text (you can now import RTF files) and there are controls for text manipulation such as kerning, tracking, line spacing and indents. Text is indeed be perfect for testing material to storybook-type titles. Director 5 is the automatically anti-aliased against any run from a four-speed CD-ROM, though its second Windows release, but the fifth for background to smooth out jagged edges. performance for material to run from a two- the Macintosh, and as with version 4 you There’s now support for speed CD-ROM will, of course, be on the only need to author once, to distribute on Photoshop/Premiere image filters, and optimistic side. both machines. you can alter filter parameters over time to As for the drive’s usefulness and cost- Version 5 extends itself now to the create animated effects. effectiveness for working on multiple Internet. As we have seen with IconAuthor Director 5 introduces a new cross- projects, yes, certainly, since the 7 (last month), the Internet is clearly the platform standard for third-party alternatives are still a bit more expensive area where development-tools software extensions, replacing the use of XObjects — and some not even there! The Iomega companies are seeing the largest growth and DLLs. It’s claimed that Lingo now Jaz and Syquest 1Gb drives we at the moment. We’re not saying that the executes 50 percent faster. Movies can be mentioned earlier are still not available at Internet is where most users will get their pre-loaded in the background, giving you the time of writing and the blanks are multimedia information but this is the area more control over managing performance. advertised at about £100. The cheapest where most development will happen. There’s now a Lingo debugger, too; over hard disks (which can be made Why? Simply because everyone wants to 100 new Lingo commands, and a new removable) are about £250 for 2Gb. In put pages of their business onto the Net — user interface consistent with other addition, the PD disks have a longer it’s the in thing. Macromedia products. lifetime than hard disks: they are Director’s support for the Internet is And there’s so-called onion skinning — guaranteed for at least 15 years. through Shockwave. This is essentially a the ability to see other cast members in When it comes to sending data to software tool which makes the Internet the Paint window, making cel animation pressing plants on a PD disk, six out of ten provide support for Director, instead of the easier (yes, that’s cel, which is animation places we contacted would accept these other way around. created by moving an object over a disks; so little or no problem on that score. A utility called Afterburner post- background). Our verdict is, therefore, that this drive processes Director source files to protect Additionally, it’s worth mentioning that generally comes up to our expectations. and compress the content by 40 to 60 OLE objects can now be used as cast It’s really very good for storing data and for percent, in order to increase performance. members in Director movies. testing CD-ROM material and we can You can control the type and amount of Director 5 supports Windows NT, 3DO, recommend it as a good buy for compression for each media type OS/2, OS/9, SGI and Enhanced CD. multimedia developers. It’s also a very including LZ77 lossless compression, IMA good backup system, and you get a CD- audio compression and lossy image PCW Contacts ROM drive to boot (to ruin a phrase!). compression. If you have any multimedia-related For longer Director movies, Streamed problems or queries, email us at A new Director hits town Media Xtras allows users to receive a [email protected]. We’re Macromedia’s Director is probably the constant stream of data from a server to sorry, but we can’t answer queries by most widely known and used multimedia their computers, so that they notice no personal reply — we’d be at it all day! authoring package around as far as delay as they view video or listen to audio But we’re glad to publish queries, with commercial CD-ROM titles are concerned. as it downloads. our answers, which we think will Its great success can be attributed to its You can also connect to the Net from a interest PCW readers generally. dual-platform compatibility (with Mac and hot-link in a Director movie played from a Data Translation 01734 796100 ☎ PC) in addition to its animation facilities, CD-ROM or your hard disk. New Network Panasonic 01344 853913 ☎ which suit both presentation-type and Lingo commands support URLs (Internet Macromedia 01344 55644 ☎

312 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 HANDS ON ● SOUND HANDS ON ● SOUND

Chord of the Month This month’s chord is C6. It is often used panel, which makes the handling of sound to thicken texture in blues pieces and is you the time of finding and loading them banks and samples much easier. popular among guitarists. individually. The control panel allows .wav files to be When played with an A in the bass, the ● Windows 95 tip: The quickest way to loaded into RAM without having to create chord becomes Am7. restart Windows is to hold down Shift and sound banks and provides a “virtual” key- select “restart computer”. This restarts board, enabling you to play samples with- Windows only and not the PC. out having to load up your sequencer. I have several grudges, though. Firstly, Cubase goes audio Vienna doesn’t like to share the AWE-32 Last month I wrote about an update for with any other MIDI applications. There- Cubase Score 2.0 that fixes problems with fore, when you need to edit a sound bank, printing and enables Windows 95 users to you must first close down any MIDI appli- see the MIDI activity display. Since then, Rise and shine cations that are running. and less than six months after Score 2’s Secondly, you still cannot save entire release, the boys at Steinberg have updat- sessions, or the contents of user RAM, as ed Cubase to version 3. They don’t hang Polishing up Win95’s audio performance and one file. This is very frustrating: each time around, do they? upgraded Windows software for AWE-32 are at the I need to go back to an old song, I have to Although there’s nothing new or excit- load anything up to 20 files, individually. ing to be found in the MIDI department, top of Steven Helstrip’s ladder this month. Plus, Thirdly, several months back I men- audio has been added to each program short-cuts to keyboard skills. tioned that the paths and file names for along with 32-bit editing. Existing prices user banks are stored in a file called will remain, which means you can buy the sbwin.ini; in the new software, this file no industry standard package with audio mproving the audio performance of degradation. To do this, you need to insert longer exists. It’s now stored in the Win- mouse button on the file icon, you can thrown in for only £329 (incl VAT). IWindows 95 is a subject that seems to a line into the System.ini file, which can be dows 95 Registry, as I recently discov- select either Edit or Merge. Edit displays Like Quark XPress is to publishing, have every MIDI-related Web page talking found in the Windows directory. ered. In stumbling across this, however, I its contents as text, which can then be Cubase has always been the only serious at the moment. Although Windows 95 has Under the heading [vcache], type have devised a system that allows whole copied and pasted into your sequencer’s option for the professional market. Before bags of utilities to increase disk perfor- MaxFileCache=2048 sessions to be saved and re-loaded. It’s a notepad for future reference. Alternatively, now, this was reflected in the price of mance, sometimes these can have a neg- If you have only 8Mb of RAM installed, bit cumbersome, I admit, but it works. The Merge enters the data back into the Reg- Cubase Audio; a massive £900. Now, at a ative effect when it comes to recording and this amount should be set to 512. file you need can be found buried deep istry. When you next restart Windows, the fraction of that cost, it will force the likes of playing back audio. 3. Virtual Memory inside the registry editor. To run this, type files will be automatically loaded, saving Cakewalk and Musicator Audio to be sig- From the many hints and tips I have When left to its own devices, Windows 95 “regedit” from the Run dialogue found in nificantly cut in price, which come across, I have found three that work will determine the size needed for the the Start menu. is good news for all of us. If effectively: SwapFile, or Virtual Memory. To quickly find the folder needed, select you want to find out more, 1. Read-ahead optimisation Like its disk cacheing system, this can “Find” from the Edit menu and type User- there’s a review in this This is a feature that Windows 95 uses to increase and decrease in size depending Bank. The contents will be displayed in the month’s First Impressions. increase disk performance. It works by on how it sees fit. By setting a fixed size, right-hand column. From the File menu reading more data from disk than is actual- audio performance can sometimes be you then need to export this file, preferably Play-along-a-Liszt ly requested by an application. improved. It is recommended that you allo- to a new folder since this will enable you to I am often asked, “What’s In most cases, full optimisation is rec- cate two and half times the amount of RAM quickly find the files at a later stage. the best way to learn the ommended. However, you may find that you have, for a SwapFile. Therefore, if you There are two ways in which you can piano, or keyboards?” turning this function off will provide better have 8Mb of RAM, the SwapFile should be manipulate these files. By clicking the right Always, my answer is that results when playing back multiple tracks set to 20Mb. The applet to of audio. change these settings can Cubase now comes with It is also worth experimenting with 16 also be found in the Perfor- eight tracks of audio as and 32Kb settings. To adjust these set- mance section of the System standard tings, open the Control Panel and double- dialogue. click “System”. Then go into the Perfor- Creative Essentials: Electric Dreamz mance section and select File System: a Windows 95 in AWE slider enables you to choose from 4 to Windows 95 software for the This is the fifth CD from the Creative Essentials library. Like the 64Kb of read-ahead optimisation. There is AWE-32 is now available from others in the series, it has over 200 samples in both audio and no definitive setting, since every machine Creative Labs. It contains 16-bit .wav format. It starts with around 40 analogue pads (which is different. updated drivers and support bored the socks off me) before getting into some meaty Bass 2. Disk cacheing for long file names in each Station samples. Many of these have been recorded over several Unlike Smartdrive, found in Windows 3.1, application. octaves, and with varying degrees of filter applied to them. the disk cacheing system within Windows One of the best reasons to After the Bass Station come some mad analogue effects, 95 does not have a fixed size. The amount upgrade, though, is to take which definitely belong in The X Files. Further into the CD come a of memory needed for cacheing can advantage of the new control load more effects, then some more and, er, some more. Some of increase when disk-intensive applications the sounds available are quite curious, with names like Spanner in the Works, Welcome to are running, which in turn forces data stored the Machine, Glass Spider and Night Stalker. in memory to be paged out to slower virtual The new control panel for Many samples originate from a wide range of analogue synths. However, some rather memory. This can interrupt the data flow the AWE-32 makes life unorthodox instruments have been used, too. Screwdrivers, a frog and tin cans are just a few needed for solid audio performance. easier, but not too much of them. If you’re looking for original sound effects to use in games or film, this CD is a worthy By setting a maximum size for the buy. Otherwise it doesn’t have much use. Electric Dreamz is available from Time + Space. cache, you can avoid some performance

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Importing MIDI files into your sequencer You, too, can be a great classical, enables you to view jazz or ragtime pianist with the and print full scores Pianist series

there isn’t a best way, and that nobody fected them yourself. dows, Mac and Atari ST, from Turnkey. If should go through ten years of classical There are also plenty of programs you hurry, you’ll get a free copy of The training if all they want to do is play “Roll around to help you learn technique and Ragtime Pianist with any order. out the Barrel” down at the local on a Fri- improve your reading. One of my day night. favourites is the Pianist series, a collection PCW Contacts At the end of the day, nothing can beat of eleven programs covering classical, a solid practice regime: say, one hour a jazz, ragtime and Gospel styles. Readers’ contributions to the Sound day, or more if you have the time. There Each program comes with around 90 column are music to our ears. If you have are, however, lots of short-cuts if you own MIDI files, all professionally recorded, with any hints or tips, any MIDI-related items a PC with a sound card or MIDI setup. a weighted MIDI keyboard. An on-screen or general comments, send them in to the usual PCW address, or to Every style of music is now widely keyboard displays the keys being played [email protected]. available in standard MIDI file format; from and you can view each piece in traditional compuserve.com Bach to Bon Jovi and everything in notation, too. between. By loading these files into a MIDI In addition, you can test your music Creative Labs (Windows 95 software for the AWE-32 from around £12) sequencer that has a score editor, not only knowledge with the trivia quizzes and find 01743 248590 ☎ can you view the music and print it out, you out everything you ever wanted to know, Harman Audio (Cubase updates, £329 can also hear it being played by the pro- and more, about each composer featured incl VAT) 0181 207 5050 ☎ fessionals. The main advantage of using in the programs. The accompanying MIDI Time + Space (Electric Dreamz, £19.95) this method is that you can slow songs files can be imported into any sequencer 01442 870681 ☎ down, solo the left-hand part, and even for further study. Turnkey (Pianist series £49.95 incl VAT) loop difficult sections until you have per- The Pianist series is available for Win- 0171 379 5148 ☎

317 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 HANDS ON ● VISUAL PROGRAMMING HANDS ON ● VISUAL PROGRAMMING

Books for Visual Programming

C++ 4.1, an important update which adds Wrox Press delivered one of the first books ● Charles Petzold’s Programming Windows MFC support for the Internet Information on Delphi 1.0, and now repeats the 95 is a major new edition of a book revered Server, Microsoft’s Web server for Win- performance with The Revolutionary Guide by developers for its clear description of how dows NT. A generous set of 12 third-party to Delphi 2.0. Unfortunately, the trick is partly Windows hangs together. The emphasis is OLE controls has been added to Visual illusion, since much of the book covers 16-bit on understanding Windows internals, starting C++ 4.1, including Desaware’s souped-up Delphi. This is a multi-author title aimed at with the creation and control of windows list box, the Sax Basic Engine for adding those already competent with Delphi and themselves and going on to include text and macro language support to your applica- attempts to cover every aspect of the graphics, resources, memory management, tion, and Protoview’s Interactive Diagram- package, making it a mixed bag. There are input devices and dynamic link libraries. ming Object for displaying data in the form good chapters on debugging, component There are brand new chapters on the user of a diagram that can be visually modified writing and the Windows API, along with interface, multitasking and multithreading Right, said thread… by the user. skimpy coverage of the Borland Database and OLE, two of which are by co-author, Paul Finally, Microsoft has released the Engine, ReportSmith, and issues specific to Yao. Given the huge complexity of Windows, Tim Anderson explores threads in Delphi 2.0, Solutions Development Kit, a CD which 32-bit Delphi. It would have been better to Petzold is remarkably clear and concise. updates the Office Development Kit for focus exclusively on Delphi 2.0 and cover There is nothing here about Microsoft picks up snippets from the VBITS conference, those building applications with Office for fewer issues in greater depth. Nevertheless, Foundation Classes, Visual Basic or Delphi, and answers your VB queries. Windows 95. For the latest news on the authors are knowledgeable and most but simply an explanation of the Windows Microsoft’s tools, browse around the com- Delphi developers will find plenty of valuable API with examples in C and occasionally pany’s home page at http://www. tips here. C++. Highly recommended. icrosoft’s theme for 1996 is the It’s also been announced that Visual microsoft.com. MInternet, which featured strongly at Basic 5.0, due out this year, will be able documentation for Delphi’s multithreading protected the recent London VBITS conference for to create Active controls; another name Finding threads in Delphi 2.0 support is some sketchy online help and constructor Create(panel: TPanel); Visual Basic developers. for lightweight OCX components for Inter- The word “thread” is not to be found in the one sample application. It is just another procedure Execute; override; At one session, the presenter rashly net use. index of any Delphi 2.0 manuals. Although example of Delphi’s rough-and-ready doc- procedure UpdateColour; asked how many delegates were actually The Internet again features in Visual a major feature of 32-bit Windows, the only umentation, but is particularly disappoint- end; developing for the Internet. A scattering of ing given that this is unfamiliar territory All classes based on TThread must hands were raised. Okay, how many plan for many developers. As it happens, Del- override the Execute method as this is the to develop for the Internet? A few more phi’s Visual Component Library includes a procedure which runs when the thread hands. The message is that while tools TThread object that simplifies object is created. If you create the new vendors steam ahead with Internet prod- multithreaded programming. What follows thread class by choosing Thread Object ucts, the actual developers are mostly is a quick look at how it works. from Delphi’s object repository, the skele- stuck in the old world of databases, Under Windows 95 and NT, each 32- ton declaration will do this for you. accounts and local networks. Visual C++ bit running application is described as a Another key question is how many version 4.1 “process” and has its own space in mem- Keeping in step developers have switched to 32-bit Win- comes with ory. A thread is an execution path within a The essence of multithreading is that at dows. Microhelp’s VB or OLE tools is a additional process, sharing its memory but able to any time the operating system may switch new product, available in 16- and 32-bit third-party execute independently, with processor processing time between one thread and versions, and distributor Contemporary controls time allocated by the operating system. another. This is no problem if the threads Software, exhibiting at VBITS, reports that including This means you can create applications are truly independent, but what if they sales in the first quarter of 1996 were 57 the Sax which are more responsive, performing interact? percent in favour of the 32-bit product — a Basic lengthy background tasks while remaining For example, TPCWThread needs to one-off statistic but an indication that the Engine available to the user. Unfortunately, multi- update a panel on a form. Other threads, move to Windows 95 and NT is finally threading makes program design even including the main application thread, also happening. more difficult and introduces new possibili- have every right to update that panel. This Those who did attend found a high ties for bugs and conflicts: that is no rea- is the reason for the warning comment that standard of presentations, including API son to ignore threads, but it does suggest appears when you create a new Thread guru Daniel Appleman’s demonstration of The caution. Object: “Important: Methods and proper- how to write a VB interface that runs as Solutions The example application is designed to ties of objects in VCL can only be used in a fast as C++. The answer is don’t use con- Development cycle through 140,000 colour combina- method called using Synchronize.” trols, use VB’s drawing methods instead. Kit is for tions, displaying the results in a panel con- “Synchronize” is a TThread method Of course, if you write VB applications like high-level trol. Real-world applications would not do which performs a vital function, letting you that you will be even less productive than development this, but might be rendering an image or safely call VCL components such as Del- your C++ counterpart. Even so, a point with downloading a file from the Internet, to phi forms and controls without conflicts. well made and a warning to go easy on Microsoft name two common background tasks. Synchronize takes a method name as its controls, and especially VBX or OCX add- Office. This In order to spin this off as a separate parameter. ons, if fast performance is a priority. page shows thread, we derive a new thread class from In this example, there is an Update- As expected, there are plenty of new how to create TThread, declared as follows: Colour procedure which updates the Internet add-ons for Visual Basic and Visu- an office- TPCWThread = class(TThread) panel, called from the main Execute al C++. Microsoft’s Internet Control Pack is compatible private method via Synchronize. a free download (beta at the time of writ- toolbar iRed: integer; ing) and contains OCX controls for inte- iGreen: integer; Calling the thread grating Web viewing, email, newsgroups iBlue: integer; When the user clicks the “Start a thread” and FTP file transfer into applications. thispanel: TPanel; button, the following code executes:

318 319 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 HANDS ON ● VISUAL PROGRAMMING

Parent problems

Chris John is contemplating a move to Visual Basic 4. He asks: “I Declare Function SetParent Lib “user32” (ByVal hWndChild have been thinking of upgrading from VB 3 to VB 4 but have been As Long, ByVal hWndNewParent As Long) As Long concerned about the problems of converting existing applications. I but the good news is that you probably don’t need it. have written to Microsoft which has given me some comfort In VB 3.0, although you can add new container controls like regarding conversion, but the company was rather non-specific frames or picture boxes at runtime through a control array, the only when referring to API calls. Your reference to the API call way to add child controls to the new container is through the SetWindowPos [in the April issue] has encouraged me. However, I SetParent API call. VB 4.0 controls have a new Container property have also used the call: that overcomes the problem. For example, if you loaded a new frame Declare Function SetParent% Lib “User” (ByVal H%, ByVal J%) at runtime, you could add an option button to it like this: to enable me to add and remove member frames to, or from, an Load Option1(OptionIndex) array of frames together with their contents (other control arrays) at Set Option1(OptionIndex).Container = Frame1(FrameIndex) runtime. Can you tell me what modifications to this call might be Option1(OptionIndex).Visible = True ‘ Display new button needed, or does version 4 provide for the addition of members to an array of frames together with their contents, which would do away with the need for an API call?” Visual Basic 3.0 code should run fine in VB 4.0 16-bit version, but the move to 32-bits is problematic. For a start, VBX add-ons are not supported and although OCX versions are generally available, the transition is not always smooth. Next, although most API functions have a 32-bit equivalent, it is a different API and the declarations need changing. VB 4.0 comes with an API text viewer applet that lets you copy the declarations you need. In this case, the new declaration is:

This application shows how a control's Container property is used to add option buttons to a frame at runtime

You can check on Threads remains responsive: the user can resize in a Delphi 2.0 application the window or move it around the screen. by showing the Thread Each thread can be suspended and Status window. In this resumed, or heartlessly terminated before demonstration, three are it finishes its task. The user can also con- running, one for the main trol the priority that Windows gives to each application thread and two thread. TPCWThread objects. The All these are great benefits for certain user can control the priority types of application but this does not make of each thread while it is it easy, so for serious multithreaded work, running. A thread can also developers will need to look well beyond be suspended or terminated Delphi’s sparse manuals. PCW Contacts procedure TForm1.cbStart1Click(Sender: TObject); large a slice of processor Tim Anderson welcomes your Visual begin action the thread receives. A Programming comments and tips. He can cbStart1.Enabled := False; corresponding radio button is be contacted at the usual PCW address, MyThread:= TPCWThread.create(Panel1); checked. or at [email protected] Mythread.FreeOnTerminate := true; Finally, a procedure is or http://www.compulink.co. Mythread.Priority := tpNormal; assigned to the Terminate uk/~tim-anderson/ rbNormal1.Checked := True; event, so that the application Visual C++ 4.1 and the Solutions Mythread.OnTerminate := MyThreadTerminate; can take appropriate action Development Kit CD are available as part end; when the thread finishes its of a Microsoft subscription. The Solutions work. In this case, all the Development Kit will also be sold To avoid creating two MyThread OnTerminate procedure has to do is re- separately, price not yet available. objects, the first line of code disables the enable the button. Phone 0800 960279 ☎ button. Next, the thread object is created There is no space here to print all the Books with the display panel passed to the con- code but it can be found on our free, All books available from Computer structor. The FreeOnTerminate property is cover-mounted CD-ROM together with a Manuals 0121 706 6000 (prices incl VAT). ☎ set to true, which means the thread object compiled executable that anyone can run. The Revolutionary Guide to Delphi 2 is automatically destroyed when the The finished application enables two (Wrox Press). Book and CD £46.99 thread stops running. Then, one of seven TPCWThread objects to run side by side. Programming Windows 95 priority values is assigned, controlling how Even with both running, the program (Microsoft Press). Book and CD £46.99

321 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 HANDS ON ● NETWORKS HANDS ON ● NETWORKS

Network platform integration Doing my usual check on the various versions of software which have come lately to the market, I am still amazed that Page- Maker 6, although reasonably true to the format of the document used, still doesn’t store PC and Macintosh files in a common format. I like to keep tabs on inter-platform compatibility and of course this is one of the things I wanted to check out. PageMaker 6 must still make a copy of the document when converting between platforms. Fig 3 Some do, some don’t shows that the open original radio button is greyed out and that the only choice here is to open a copy of the original document. Stephen Rodda takes the Executive approach to fragmentation and On the same sort of subject, I notice that NT Server’s automatic conversion from Mac- defragmentation, and tries to quell some concerned response to a intosh to PC format and back again has schools networking query. been disabled for Windows 95 clients. When a Macintosh user saved a Microsoft Word file as, say, “Letter to Fred Bloggs and Co Fig 3 Pagemaker 6’s file open dialogue Pentium, and that a better processor than ome file systems fragment; some utilities rears its ugly head. this from Executive Software at 31-5-96” to a Macintosh share on NT Server, box showing the “Original” radio a P5-75 would be appropriate for the Win Sdon’t. When I first started using a Do I need to defragment? The answer http://www.execsoft.com. I found that it a Windows 3.x client would see the button greyed out NT Server. However, I was not certain defragmentation utility it was done in the to this question depends very much upon was impossible to contact the Web site document as something like “Letter~1.doc” whether you were suggesting that Win NT foreground and took about a minute to the operating system and how it is used. and opted for the download from CiX and Word would be able to open the docu- Workstation would run satisfactorily on a run. This, of course, was *COMPACT and Novell maintains that with the random instead. ment quite happily from a double-click on the tosh users (and this isn’t easy, considering 486DX100 equipped with 8Mb of RAM, or it was on the BBC Micro. No wonder it access nature of any file server (since The company additionally supplies a document. Under Windows 95 as a client, they’ve all had total filename freedom) to whether it should be a P5-75 or better took only one minute. All it had to do was many users are likely to be demanding file defragmentation utility for NTFS, but it the document’s name appears as “Letter to use the DOS extension convention and to processor. to move less than 200Kb of data on a different data and files at the same time) appears that this requires constant Fred Bloggs and Co 31-5-96”, but without save, say, PageMaker publications as .PM6, I have always assumed from what I floppy disk. Nowadays, with very much defragmentation of a NetWare server is upgrading between service packs. It has the extension, so it’s a case of guessing XPress documents as .QXD, Word have read that one ought to use a reason- larger hard disks, the spectre of disk not necessary. Of course, we all know also been alleged that this firm is associ- which program created it. The only solution I documents as .DOC and so on. I hope ably fast Pentium with Win NT Worksta- fragmentation and defragmentation what advantages are to be gained by ated with the Church of Scientology. I can currently see is to persuade the Macin- Microsoft sorts this thing out in due course. tion in order to obtain adequate defragmentation of a downloaded the file and ran it on my NT performance from it; e.g. a P5-90 or DOS FAT or HFS setup. Look at Fig 1 to see what it found. better with at least 16Mb, if not 32Mb, the (Macintosh) drive I put the results down to the fact that I Other schools of specification increasing according to the using either the have restored the system to a clean disk, thought about applications one intends to run. proper utilities or by as I wrote last month, and this together networking By the way, I am examining the best backing up all files, with the fact that most of the data itself My reply to Stuart way forward for my own organisation, deleting them and resides on the file server, means that my Davies in the May which will have a full complement of four then restoring them. NTFS machine’s hard disk doesn’t issue seems to have staff, but using high-end systems in part.” Now the jury change very much and therefore doesn’t stirred up a hornets’ David Priestley appears still to be get fragmented. I must say that after nest. Here are some of out under NTFS. restoring the whole contents of the hard the letters which I have Thank you for your comment. The Either we look at the disk, disk operations seemed to run at received: suggestion that I made for the NT server network as a whole breakneck pace, and since the hard disk “I read your article — that a high-end 486 (such as a 486DX- (in the case of a file was exactly the same model this is addressing Stuart 100) will outperform a lower specified server) or we probably the reason — I’m sure the Davies’ school Pentium (such as a P75) — also holds consider just the access time of the hard disk won’t have networking query in the good for the workstations. With the user who has the changed. May PCW with interest. current availability of DX4-120 chips at computer as a desk- I still feel, however, that whether a file However, I was a little reasonable prices, I feel that from a top machine. Of server is running NetWare or Windows uncertain regarding performance point of view it would, as course, NTFS NT, or anything else as a file service one aspect of it. I note you rightly suggest, not be a good idea to becomes fragment- platform, the fragmentation is less that a 486DX100- use a Pentium running slower than ed and there is a important than that of a workstation type equipped machine can around 90MHz; so, yes, unless you’re utility for measuring of machine. The reason is that given by outperform a low-end using code specifically optimised for the Novell, and what with elevator seeks and Pentium, stick with the 486 until Pentium so on (where disk requests are sorted prices come down — they will, especially Fig 1 Fragmentation into sequential requests depending upon Fig 2 This with clone chip makers like AMD and Analysis Utility the address of the sector on the hard disk screenshot of the Cyrix entering the fray. from Executive required, so that the heads don’t thrash), help file for the We are also looking at educational Software, showing the impact upon data transfer speeds fragmentation utility machines, not at production machines. fragmentation on through fragmentation should not be an explains the The reason I suggested NT Workstation my NTFS disk issue. analysis in Fig 1 is that, in my experience, NT outperforms Windows 95, and that running a single

322 323 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 HANDS ON ● NETWORKS HANDS ON ● NETWORKS

application (or two at a pinch) would not resource a password.” are either by setting up a NetWare server network manager, this is by way of a and only by having either knowledge of an overtax the machine. Paul Oakham or by running Windows NT as you secondary description: I spend most of administrative login and password, or Of course, in a working environment, [email protected] suggest. my time teaching — this is what the direct and unsupervised access to the file these machines would indeed benefit school pays me for. Network server, could anyone break into the sys- from more memory, but lessons tend to The first problem is that, as far as I am “I’ve just read your reply to the perplexed management has to take about one or tem. This naturally follows for schools as advance at a more relaxed pace than a aware, (1a) is not possible without a school computer manager in May’s PCW. two hours a week at most and therefore I well as for the corporate sector, as does working environment and therefore a remote control package. You could then, I must say, that while I normally respect place a high value on the support I get unauthorised access to the system areas. small speed trade-off, rather than using something like Carbon Copy for your magazine’s advice and bow to you from my supplier. I haven’t got time to Apart from some specially-designed embroiling the school in a full lease Windows 95, get the machine to play an as a network expert, I sincerely hope the take apart all my 286s, insert new boards front-end to Novell NetWare I can contract, would be acceptable. audio CD simply by taking control of it poor guy doesn’t take your advice. and set up a network all on my own — not conceive of nothing which would make from the remote machine. On the other Educational networks are a slightly if I want to stay sane. Most school the administration of a file server as easy “After reading your column in May PCW, I hand, an audio CD should play different breed from your standard busi- network managers feel the same as that which is already built in to NT think you are the one to ask concerning automatically when inserted, but if you ness setup and they operate in because schools are so pushed for cash Server. Believe me, file servers are as Windows 95 networking. I have two particularly like the CD, I suppose you significantly different ways. Firstly, you these days they can’t afford to employ impregnable to attack as the computer questions: could get the remote machine to play it have far more users than machines. In people who spend all their days tinkering room or their passwords. It’s as easy as 1. I have a quad-speed EIDE CD-ROM again (and again) with a remote control my own school there are over a thousand with the kit. that; you need no specially-crafted soft- drive in one of my computers. I can share package. users and a network of 50 machines. You Lastly, schools have no capital — they ware nor hardware to secure an NT (or, this drive, and map a network drive to it. Not being a particular games player (I can’t expect (as you would in a business) are in effect given running expenses each come to that, a NetWare) file server. But how do I make Windows 95 think that get enough excitement playing with that because Sally is using the computer year. In good times they can save out of Thirdly, server administration is not a this is a CD-ROM drive and not just a net- hardware on my machines), I’m afraid I in that office today, she’ll be using the these running expenses to finance big wholly automatic process. You have to work drive? By tricking Windows 95 into don’t really understand the requirement. only one using it. The system has to be purchases but you must have noticed that change backup tapes and so on, and to thinking that it is a CD-ROM drive, I can Is it that the games software actually set up so that PCs are user-independent. these are not good times for schools. purge outdated files. At the end of an achieve the following: requires the MSCDEX in order to fool it In my own school, everyone has their Teachers are being made redundant, academic year, you will have to remove a) playing audio CDs on a remote that there’s a CD loaded before it will run own area on the hard disk and these and experienced teachers are being the logins and files of those who have left computer; and over a network connection? If so, then areas are secure from other users; pushed into early retirement (newly the school or college, and at the b) using applications that require you’ll have to pester the manufacturers. students can log on to the system at any qualified teachers are cheaper) because beginning of each academic year you will MSCDEX, such as most CD-ROM It’s more likely that the game hits the point in the school and get to their own there is no spare cash. That’s why many have to generate new accounts for that games. MSCDEX extension directly, rather than (password protected) area. schools are having to go towards leasing year’s intake. Adding a network card to a 2. When I click on the ‘Access Control’ bothering with niceties such as DOS’s Secondly, in business, security against if they want reasonable kit.” machine is a trivial matter in comparison, tab from Network in the Control Panel, I own filing system, so you’ll probably be in users is not a huge concern. But in Phil Hardcastle best carried out during the holidays, can see that there is an option for ‘User the same boat even if you do manage to schools, if your system is not completely perhaps with help from a computer- Level Control’. What is this? I can’t find load MSCDEX anyway. tamper-proof, some eager beaver will be Thank you for your interest. I note your literate parent or two. The somewhat any reference to how to set up this facility. The user level control you mention in rooting around in system areas or, even points and would like to defend my extreme reference you make to Do I need Windows NT? (All my the networking control panel in section (2) worse, trying deliberately to bring the suggestions. “spend(ing) all their days tinkering with machines use ‘Client for Microsoft of your letter is available only to Novell whole thing down for a laugh. The first aspect you mention is “hot- the kit” is, of course, a knee-jerk reaction. Networks’ from Windows 95) — I have NetWare clients, and requires a NetWare Alternatively, they will use the system to desking”, which basically is the industry Once a network adaptor or motherboard heard that this will allow me to choose server to be installed on the network. This play lots of games and this is not really term for having fewer computers and is installed, it stays there. I concede that which users can access which shared server does all the user validation what it was bought for, was it? desks than computer users. The thing you can always find people who will resources, as opposed to giving a required. The only ways to achieve this Thirdly, when I describe myself as a with Microsoft Windows 95 and, indeed, willingly fit this model, but now that we with NT is that each user will have their have left the pioneering days behind, own area on the file server in which to computers are serious business store files — naturally. This is what file machines with hardware stability to match servers are all about. Indeed, NT and and this sort of involvement is neither Windows 95 specifically allow separate desirable nor necessary. desktops to be stored for each user so My reasoning behind the advice not to this will allow hot-desking with no prob- lease is that I felt the upgrade to the lem. Furthermore, NT has even better equipment could be financed out of what support: one’s desktop will follow one would, in effect, have been one year’s through a whole organisation over any leasing fees. To this effect, no new money number of NT machines. would have needed to have been found Your second point makes differences — what they were probably prepared to between the security needed by a busi- pay in leasing in the first year would ness and an educational site. The thing almost definitely have provided the about business is that in some concerns, upgrades required for that year. as you suggest, security may not be an Remember that leasing can be the issue but I think you are over- financial equivalent of trying to fill the bath exaggerating a school’s need for security with the plug out. as opposed to that of a large organisation. At any one time there must PCW Contacts be thousands of confidential documents stored on a large business’s file server to Stephen Rodda is an independent which the management would not want computer consultant specialising in DTP and networking. He may be contacted as just any member of the company to have [email protected] access. Security is therefore paramount,

324 325 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 HANDS ON ● MACINTOSH HANDS ON ● MACINTOSH

Microsoft Office sort-out: the top ten support questions… and answers

Designed for both 68K and PowerPC machines, Microsoft Office is When I bring ClipArt into PowerPoint via the ClipArt the standard business office suite for the Macintosh. The current Q Gallery, a grey box is displayed instead of the image. version, 4.2.1, is bigger and better than ever before but sometimes it Can I fix this? just doesn’t want to work the way you do. Thanks to Microsoft’s Mac Yes. This problem occurs on PowerPC 603 machines and a software support team I’ve got the answers to the top ten most temporary workaround is to go to the Memory control panel and turn commonly asked technical support questions. If you’re having off the Modern Memory Manager, then restart. This isn’t an ideal problems with Office, read on. situation, but it works.

When I open Excel I get the message “Cannot find When I launch PowerPoint I get the message “Please Q English Lexicon” and the program fails to load. How can I Q Locate the Speller”. Why? fix this? This usually occurs when the PowerPoint preferences file is damaged, It’s the business Having made sure that the Excel icon is in the Excel 5.0 folder, the and there are two ways you can try to fix it: first step is to rebuild the desktop by holding down the Command and Fix method 1: Drag the file Microsoft PowerPoint Settings (4) to the Option keys on startup until prompted to Rebuild. Answer yes and wastebasket, run Office Setup in maintenance mode and choose Chris Cain finds the answers to some common problems with running then try to run Excel. If the Lexicon message still appears, remove Add/Remove. Under installed components click the option triangle for the Registration Database and Embedding Preferences from the PowerPoint. Leave the PowerPoint option on the second level Microsoft Office on Macs. There’s bumps, raves and sprockets, too. Preferences Folder and try again. If it works, then the program will selected and click the following options to clear them: Presentation create new preferences and the old file can be deleted. Translators, Help, Quick Preview, Templates, Genigraphics Drivers, If this doesn’t work, ensure that Virtual Memory is switched on in Clip Art Files. Under Installed Components, click the option triangle for the Memory Control Panel and restart. Finally, try running the Tools. Leave the spelling option selected but click the other four program after booting with a clean system disk. options to clear them: Microsoft System Information, Setup, Fonts and hile Microsoft is often seen as the which should fit into any current PCI by 1Mb of VRAM and an ATI Mach64 Shared Resources. Now Click continue and then OK. After the Wbaddie of the Mac world, in reality, model. They feature a choice of either a graphics controller. PowerPoint gives me the message “The Server program finishes its business run Setup again, choose Add/Remove almost everyone prefers to use its soft- 100MHz Intel Pentium or another “586”- The 586 version will be slightly cheaper Q Application or Source File cannot be found”. Why? and select Microsoft PowerPoint and Tools. Click Continue and ware. Despite the fact that Apple bundles class processor. and is a 7in card with 128Kb of second- This can happen when inserting an object from the Insert menu. To then OK. the integrated suite ClarisWorks with its The Pentium version is a 12in card with level cache, a maximum of 64Mb of RAM fix it, first make sure that the Shared Code Folder and Shared Code Fix method 2: If you can select the UK English Dictionary but cannot Performas, Word is the most popular Mac 256Kb of secondary cache, 8Mb of RAM and 1Mb of non-expandable DRAM or Manager are in your Extensions folder and that the Microsoft Folder spell-check your document, reset the spelling checker locations in the word processor with over 3.6 million units expandable to 72Mb and SoundBlaster 16 video. Both boards will run DOS, Windows has not been moved from its original position (it’s normally installed following way. Drag the Microsoft PowerPoint Settings (4) file to the sold. Excel is also up there in the high compatibility. It supports networking via 3.1, 3.11 and Windows 95, and come with on the root directory of your hard disk). Next, double-click on the Wastebasket and empty it. Start PowerPoint and on the Tools Menu numbers, and many businesses with both Ethernet and both VGA and SVGA video System 7.5.3 and MSDOS 6.22. ClipArt gallery application in the Microsoft folder in an attempt to click Spelling. When the dialogue box appears, click MS spelling and PCs and Macs have standardised on displays, driven I’ll be writing more about re-register it. then UK English Dictionary. If you’re still having problems remove all Microsoft Office. these products when I get my If this doesn’t help, there are three more steps you can try. First, installed components and re-install Office. On the opposite page we take a look hands on them. try increasing the program’s preferred memory size in its Get Info at the top ten support questions regard- box. Next, check for an extension conflict by turning off all other When I try to load Excel I get the message “OLE2 cannot ing Microsoft Office. If you can’t get Goodbye, David extensions except those required to run Office. Finally, try removing Q be found” or “Visual Basic Apps Lib Cannot Be Found”. Excel to load or are having trouble with The down side of the Mac news and re-installing the ClipArt Gallery and files using the Office Setup Everything is installed so what’s the problem? Word file formats, then this is for you. this month is that Dr David program. Both of these errors occur on a PowerMac when virtual memory is Nagel, Apple veteran and head switched off. Due to the way in which PowerMac code is written, with Bumps bounce prices of the R&D Labs in Cupertino, I’m running System 7.5.2 and now that I’ve installed Office VM turned off the entire code base for Excel must be loaded into Apple is set to release its “Speed Bump” has resigned from Apple to head Q my Mac won’t Shut Down. Why should this be? memory in order to run it. So you must have enough free memory PowerMacs, officially known as the up a division at communications There is a known conflict between System 7.5.2 and version 4.2.1 of available. 7600 and the 8200. giant AT&T. David was a like- the Microsoft Office Manager (MOM). A free patch called Office With VM turned on, the Mac becomes more flexible and the The former is a 120MHz 604-based able, prominent figure on the Manager 4.2.1b will fix this. The only other workaround is to use the PowerPC can load its programs in component chunks when they are desktop model in the same case as the Mac scene and I for one will miss applications without the MOM Control Panel. needed. The amount of memory required to run the software is 7500, while the more impressive-sound- his evangelistic presentations. drastically reduced. Unfortunately, using VM with System 7.5.2 has ing 8200 is a mini-tower based on either Why do I keep getting an Error 11 in all the Office quite a performance hit and a better solution in some cases is to use a a 100MHz or a 120MHz 601. Both Rave on Q applications? third-party product such as Connectix RAM Doubler. This flips the machines have all the usual Mac good- In a bid to carry PowerMacs for- Error 11 can crop up when running Office on a PowerMac, usually in component switch and uses data compression rather than swapping ies and the 7600 comes with a 256Kb ward in the 3D graphics and Word and Excel. To fix this, you need to place a patch called Office files to hard disk. second-level cache as standard. entertainment arenas, Apple has 4.2.x PowerMacintosh Update into your Extensions folder. The launch of these machines has come up with two new software I have to use virtual memory to load Excel but the brought PowerMac prices down and technologies designed to give Is there a way to increase the number of Import/Export file Q application startup time is ridiculous. Is there a way to the range now starts with the developers the flexibility they Q options in Word 6? speed things up? 7200/90/8/500/CD at a street need and get maximum per- Yes. A supplemental converter kit is available from Microsoft Product Yes. Installing Apple’s System 7.5 Update 2.0 will take your system price of around £1,150. An formance form the hard- Support Services. software to version 7.5.3 and significantly speed up launch times 8200/100/1.2Gb/CD will go for ware without breaking when using VM. £1,500 and a 7600/120/ the rules laid down in the How can I open a file created in Word 6 with Word 5?A 16/1.2/CD for £1,875. All prices operating system. The Q supplemental converter is available that lets you open both If you were having trouble with Office, then hopefully one of these exclude VAT. first new arrival is Quick- Mac and PC Word 6 files in Word 5. The converter is installed by solutions will have cured the problem. Special thanks to Janine and Draw 3D Renderer dropping it onto the Word Commands folder in the main Microsoft colleagues at the Microsoft Mac Support Team who can be contacted Card sharp Acceleration Virtual Word folder. during office hours at the numbers given in our Contacts panel, page 328). Apple has announced two new New “Speed Bump” PowerMacs Engine, or RAVE. DOS compatibility cards for PCI systems, boast even better performance According to Apple, this is a software

326 327 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 JULY 1996 HANDS ON ● MACINTOSH

Utility of the Month: Fat Cursors layer designed to support the low-level rasterisation operations required for inter- active 3D rendering. In other words, it’s a low-level 3D driver that works in a similar way to traditional 2D APIs except that it provides support for Z buffering, used to perform hidden surface removal; double buffering, to conceal the flashing that occurs when images are drawn and re- drawn on screen, and to decrease those awful tearing artefacts as seen in Doom2; and texture mapping. RAVE is aimed primarily at specialist application vendors (i.e. games and enter- tainment developers) and at third-party hardware manufacturers who can produce 3D accelerators. It doesn’t replace Apple’s Catch that cursor! Why give yourself a hard time trying to find the standard cursors on existing QuickDraw 3D technology; rather, your screen when you could have a nice fat arrow and a big broad I-beam? It’s useful it works with it to accelerate applications. enough on a standard Mac screen but could also make PowerBook users’ lives a lot easier. The documentation claims that Fat Cursors v1.2.1 works with just about all Sprockets abound applications, even those that install their own cursors. Apple’s other new technology is Apple It installs simply and displays its icon at startup. With the set of buttons provided, you Game Sprockets, a series of developer can switch from fat to standard cursors whenever the fancy takes you. Tthere are “Fat” tools designed specifically for game cre- Keys and “Find” Keys options — you use the former to enable or disenable the fattened ators. The set comprises DrawSprocket, cursor while selected modifier keys are pressed. “Find Keys” can be used to select for 2D graphics routines and buffering; modifier keys to enable (or disenable) the “find cursor” function: when invoked, a large SoundSprocket, for 3D location-based circle will flash around the cursor’s present location. sound; NetSprocket, for developing multi- Fat Cursors is shareware. It costs $10 to register and can be downloaded from Scott’s user titles; SpeechSprocket, for user-inde- Place which has some useful Mac shareware (some of which has been written especially pendent voice recognition; and Input- for disabled computer users): http://www.ecnet.net/users/gnorris/place.shtml Sprocket, for controlling joysticks and Patrick Ramus other input devices. QuickDraw 3D RAVE is a spin-off of the new Sprockets. Just how good any of these tools are Mac’s best friend using various toys and treats, and watch remains to be seen. Whether developers There’s a wonderful little program I’ve it grow into a fully-fledged pooch. will start to take Mac game development been playing with, called Dogz. “Dogz — The things you can do with your dog seriously is another matter, but rest your computer pet” is a hilarious piece of include playing fetch with a ball, teaching assured that as soon as the first Sprocket- software that gives you your own virtual him tricks, and indulging in a bit of tug-of- assisted title appears I’ll bring you a full dog on the Mac. war with an old shoe. You also have the report. Plus, I’ll be checking out both these You start by adopting one of five pup- option of making him into a Guard Dog developments in greater detail in a future pies, each a different breed with its own screensaver when you’re not at the key- column. characteristics. You train your puppy board. Totally useless but tremendous fun, Dogz is a must for all mad Mac owners.

PCW Contacts Chris Cain loves to hear from Mac users and can be contacted via the usual PCW address or on email as [email protected]. com or [email protected] or [email protected]. Apple Computers 0181 569 1199 ☎ Apple’s home pages are www.apple. com and www.euro.apple.com Microsoft’s Mac Software Support Team 01734 271580; Fax 01734 271974 ☎ Microsoft 01734 271676; ☎ Woof! Dogz gives you Web www.microsoft.com your own virtual dog on Dogz is £14.99 from Mindscape the desktop 01444 246333 ☎

328 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 HANDS ON ● COMPUTER ANSWERS

“I am currently using three PCs in a Qlimited space (each of which is constantly being accessed by modem) and would like to ditch two of the monitors and keyboards and access all three machines via a single monitor and keyboard connected by a ‘box of tricks’ to all three machines. For ‘political’ reasons I am unable to network the machines and hence I wondered if you knew of any products which would be of use to me?” Paul Starling Any questions?

What you ask sounds relatively simple, a three-way switch, but there are problems If you have a PC problem or think you could help which make it rather more expensive out other readers, contact Frank Leonhardt. than you may have expected. While switching the video signal between monitors is easy enough, assuming you’re not using a fancy “green” monitor I have two questions. Firstly, my HDD unit, should you choose to add one) which turns itself off, keyboards are a lot transfer rate is currently rather slow should work without problems. more stroppy. There is a fairly constant (<800Kb). I am planning to purchase an From your description, I suspect you two-way conversation taking place EIDE controller: are my current CD-ROM have a Creative Labs CR-563 CD-ROM between the PC keyboard controller and player and HDD compatible with an EIDE drive. These have a Panasonic rather the processor in the keyboard. If this gets controller? If this is the case, can you than an IDE interface, although the 40- interrupted then both the PC and the suggest which one (brand/type)? way cable is the same. There should keyboard are prone to becoming Secondly, my motherboard can only be no conflict between either the sound confused. take 8Mb on-board and for an additional card or special interface board you A keyboard switch has to pretend to all 8Mb I have to use a proprietary memory are currently using to attach the the connected PCs that they are board. But I have read that my board will CD-ROM. constantly talking to their own keyboard accept any 16-bit memory expansion As for the memory question, although and convince the keyboard that it is board and this is what I plan to purchase. memory boards were popular in earlier always talking to the same PC. This rules Do you know of a ‘good’ 16-bit memory years, processor speeds have greatly out the possibility of a simple and board which can take 8Mb of RAM and is outstripped the fixed expansion bus inexpensive manual switch. compatible with OS/2 Warp?” performance and have created an Although you didn’t mention a mouse, BL Halim unacceptable bottleneck. these are just as much trouble as the Apart from upgrading PS/2 machines keyboards. If you can stand having three EIDE adaptors added to existing with a micro-channel (which is faster keyboards and possibly three mice but machines often seem to cause trouble, and allows wider addressing) I don’t just one monitor, then the cheapest except when they are being added solely know of anyone still making such solution is a simple video switch. If you for a CD-ROM drive. That being said, boards. Unless any readers know want to switch more, you’d better check your existing hard disk (and a second differently? your bank balance. There is actually a software solution to Pushing the file limits in DOS this problem which doesn’t involve remote control over a network. MARC “I need to develop a DOS application which must have about 100 files open at the (Multi-Access Remote Control) is a same time. DOS states a maximum of about 255 but I have written a few package which successfully allows one programs (C++, QBasic) which all fail at around 20. I have fiddled with PC to control many others using simple CONFIG.SYS and even played around with the standard C header files, but with no success. serial connections as well as a network. Is there a (relatively) easy method of overcoming this 20-file limit under DOS?” It has the added advantage that you can Chris Fellows see a shrunken display of all the PCs you are controlling on-screen at once. I take it you have already tried increasing the limit in CONFIG.SYS using the FILES= entry? If you set FILES=30 you have the chance to open a maximum of 30 files at any one time, and Which controller? What so on. I suspect you may be having trouble with the stdio libraries which came with your “C” memory? compiler. These often have an internal limit imposed on the array of file handles. It can “I am currently using a 386DX system sometimes be determined by looking at the manifest constant FOPEN_MAX in stdio.h. upgraded with a Cyrix DRX2-66 To increase the limit, you can often adjust the symbol definition and recompile the processor. It is equipped with 8Mb of libraries. Alternatively, the array can sometimes be dynamically allocated at run-time — RAM, a SoundBlaster CD-ROM player consult your compiler documentation or, more reliably, have a good rummage through the (2x speed) and a Quantum LPS420AT startup module source. The alternative is to design your software in a way which doesn’t IDE HDD (420Mb). I use OS/2 Warp and require so many open files in the first place — DOS isn’t terribly efficient at juggling lots of Lotus SmartSuite for OS/2. open files!

329 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 HANDS ON ● COMPUTER ANSWERS

Frank’s bargain basement Waking up to PC fax “To take full advantage of Windows 95, I Things are looking interesting on the CPU front at present. You can always buy the latest, recently upgraded my motherboard to a greatest Pentium from Intel, but for those on a budget, price/performance is more important. 133MHz Pentium with 16Mb of RAM. I So how do you get the most bangs per buck? My favourite, for quite a while now, has have also installed an external been the Pentium 75: I never liked the P-60/66, which ran at 5v rather than 3.3v and got fax/modem connected to the serial port. rather too warm. A P-75 can be had for well under £100 now and they perform rather well. The fax/modem runs from the same line All current Pentiums run at external speeds of 50, 60 or 66MHz. A P-75 actually runs as the phone with the equivalent of a externally at 50MHz, multiplying this internally by 1.5. The P-100 is actually the same chip, splitter box to filter calls. clocked externally at 66MHz. Faster Pentiums simply multiply the external clock by two or The computer has an energy-saving 2.5, ending up with a P200 multiplying up a 66MHz by three (so it is said). feature, as emblazoned by the BIOS at Intel doesn’t guarantee that a chip sold as a P-75 will run at 100MHz if you change the bootup, but I have not yet enabled this jumper on the motherboard, but plenty of people have done this for a long time now without feature. According to the manual, the problems and saved about £100 each. It may reduce the life of the CPU, so doing this is jumper switch can be enabled if I install entirely at your own risk but who wants to keep the same processor forever? an energy-saving switch on the front You not only have Intel processors to choose from now: Cyrix and IBM are launching a panel. The manual states: ‘System will be 686 which fits into a Pentium socket (the Cyrix 585 is actually a souped-up 486). AMD is wake up while the keyboard or mouse be about to deliver something, too. touched’ (sic). I understand that part, but From what I’ve seen, the claims made for the 686 aren’t justified. While some instructions it doesn’t really apply in my case; what I are undoubtedly faster than a Pentium, floating-point performance doesn’t look so good. In would like to do is leave the computer addition, the entry-level 686 runs at double the external clock rate rather than 1.5x like Intel’s. switched on, and then ‘wake up’ if a fax This gives its internal instructions a boost but each time it goes out to the bus the advantage comes through. Would this work? Failing disappears. This isn’t to say it’s not a good chip — and when a .35 micron version is that, if I switch off the monitor and leave produced, it should be even better. Whether it gives a better bang-per-buck than a P-75 the system running permanently, would depends on its final selling that consume a lot of electricity? price and this is not available As I live in Italy, power cuts are not at time of writing. exactly unknown: so if we have one, If there is an update to this would there be any problem about the it will appear first on the computer re-setting? Which .INI file Computer Answers Web site would I need to install the Fax .EXE file to (see the Contacts panel). reload? I use Eclipse software, which was supplied with the Electronic Frontier A P-75 chip, costing less Modem as recommended in your recent than £100, runs rather well tests [February 96]. It seems to do a good job.” Nigel Hinton fraction of what they used to. use. Getting a PC in the way has got to The power consumed by a processor be a step backwards. Some machines can be programmed to is proportional to its clock speed. Energy To get programs to start automatically “wake up” on receipt of a ringing signal is used each time a transistor in the chip when you boot Windows 95, place them from an external modem (pin 22 goes changes state, and the faster it is running in the Start Up section of the Start menu. high in time with the ringing) but these the more switches occur. Turning down You can do this by placing them in the are fairly rare. External boxes are the processor speed is therefore a good “Start Up” folder, which is usually found in available which use the ringing signal to idea if you can do it. Beware the “turbo” the \Windows\Start Menu\Programs. If turn on a mains socket into which you buttons, found on many motherboards, your system is set up to keep start menus can plug your whole computer. which actually turn down the bus speed separate for each user then yours will be Although this sounds like a good idea, and leave the processor running at full in \Windows\Profiles\username\Start you are then left with the problem of tilt. If you want to turn down the processor Menu\Programs, where “username” is getting the machine to turn off again: clock rate, a switch connected to the your user name. unless the fax software supports this speed selection jumpers is often the only feature, it’s not easy. Then your caller way. PCW Contacts has to wait for the machine to boot before You can leave the PC out of things Frank Leonhardt is an independent it can start receiving faxes. These could and use a type of fax/modem which technology consultant who can be be some of the reasons why these stores incoming faxes until the PC is contacted on 0181 429 3047 or devices can no longer be found on the turned back on. As you’d expect, these via email as [email protected] or market. cost more and their storage capacity is [email protected]. Using the low-power mode of your PC necessarily limited, but for a small office There is a Computer Answers Web site at http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/ is probably the best idea. The bulk of the they could be just the job. ~wombat/answers/ which may contain power consumption normally goes on the Personally, I have always had a real late-breaking news. Letters may be sent monitor so having one of these, which fax machine for incoming transmissions to PCW at VNU House, 32-34 turns itself off, would be a great asset. — and a solid, reliable, commercial one Broadwick Street, London W1A 2HG. Next to this, the disks and the processor at that (purchased second-hand). The Sorry, but due to the high volume of are the most power hungry — though beauty of fax should be that it is always correspondence, individual replies are small (in size) modern drives use only a available, quick and straightforward to not normally possible.

330 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 HANDS ON ● BEGINNERS

used on the next. Such data needs to be stored somewhere close at hand so it is put into address registers and data regis- ters on the CPU itself. This prevents the processor from having to access the mem- ory every time it generates data.

RAM One of the concepts which confuses beginners is that of the location of data. The CPU spends its time fetching instruc- tions and executing them according to Hardware basics what program is running. But where is the data? Is it in the hard disk?… the memo- ry?… the cache? Well, the answer is that Eleanor Turton-Hill looks under the bonnet to data is continually moved around. It’s in demistify and explain the workings of your PC’s different places depending on the particu- engine components. lar stage of the CPU cycle. The CPU can perform operations

udging by some of the emails ADDRESS ADDRESS Jand letters I’ve been getting BUS BUS recently, there’s still a fair amount of confusion out there when it CPU CACHE MEMORY comes to understanding hardware. DATA BUS DATA BUS All computers have four basic elements: a processor, memory, storage devices and I/O devices. A “cache hit” occurs when data required Understanding the relationship between by the CPU is found in the cache. directly on data stored in its own registers, these four units is an essential starting Because the cache provides data at high but it can also perform operations on the point if you’re trying to get to grips with speed, it can dramatically improve the data in memory and on data stored on hardware, so here’s an overview. performance of the whole system disks or tapes. But data on your hard disk or tape must first be brought into memory CPU before the CPU can do anything with it. One of the first things you’ll hear people results. The particular instructions which RAM stands for Random Access Mem- talking about is the type of processor in the CPU is following at any one time are ory. It’s the working memory used by your their machine. This is the central process- determined by the program it is running. computer to store instructions and data ing unit (CPU) and is the single most If I say that my computer is able to pro- before they can be committed to the hard important component in the machine duce reports, what I mean is that it has a disk. Because RAM works much faster because it processes data and controls all program which instructs the CPU to exe- than the hard disk, it’s used for handling all other parts of the computer. cute a particular group of instructions the data which is in constant use while pro- Even the simplest processor is an which create a report. If I say that my com- grams are running. The hard disk is used extremely complex device. I’m not going to puter knows my friend’s phone number, for dumping any data which the system go into great detail here, but it is useful to what I actually mean is that the number is does not currently need. have an outline of its main functions. stored on my PC’s hard disk. If you take the lid off your computer you Often, the CPU performs several oper- Cache will see several flat, black, blocks stuck to ations on the same data, or it may need to Modern computers have a very large a green board. The CPU is the big square hold the result from one operation, to be amount of memory compared with the first one usually marked “Intel” but sometimes “Cyrix” or “AMD”. Essentially, what the processor The hierarchical view of does is to store, move and manip- END USER hardware can be extended to ulate data. It can only do very sim- software. The ultimate aim of a ple things like move numbers from computer is to provide a set of one place to another or perform PROGRAMMER applications for the end-user. very basic mathematical opera- These applications are developed tions, but it does all of these things END USER by the application programmer very fast. using a particular operating The CPU works by continually OPERATING SYSTEM OS DESIGNER system (OS). The OS masks the retrieving instructions from memo- details of the hardware from the ry that tell it where to get data, COMPUTER HARDWARE programmer and provides the what operations to perform on the programmer with a convenient data and where to store the interface for using the system

331 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 HANDS ON ● BEGINNERS

PCs of the early eighties and this has had layer is required an effect on the development of the PC’s in the storage CPU REGISTERS architecture. hierarchy. Storing and retrieving data from a very A device called large block of memory is more time con- a cache sits in CACHE suming than from a small block. With a between the large amount of memory, the difference in CPU’s registers time between a register access and a and main memo- FASTER MEMORY GREATER memory access is very great and an extra ry. This cache is ACCESS STORAGE much faster than Hard disk speed main memory but slower than the HARD DISK The speed of a hard disk can be measured CPU’s registers. in lots of different ways, and it is important to Its advantage is OTHER STORAGE DEVICES know exactly what figures are being quoted that it can hold TAPE STREAMERS when you’re shopping for a new one. The more data than performance of your hard disk is very can be held in important to the overall speed of the system: registers and can work faster than main In order to perform satisfactorily, the a slow hard disk will hinder a fast processor memory. PC uses a hierarchy of memory/ like nothing else in your system can. When the CPU goes to read data from storage technologies. As you go down As an initial gauge, look for the drive’s a certain address in memory for the first the hierarchy, the cost per bit “average access time”. This is the time time, the cache goes to find it from memo- decreases. Thus the smaller, more taken by the drive to locate the right track on ry. When it has retrieved the data, it expensive memories are which a piece of data is stored, and the records the address and data in its own supplemented by the larger, cheaper, specific place on the track where that data is fast memory. Eventually, the cache’s slower ones sitting. This time is usually quoted in memory fills up with records of addresses milliseconds. and data that the CPU has requested and inside the disk drive and are not remov- As well as “average access time” look when those same pieces of data are able like many other media. They also spin out for “transfer rates”. The transfer rate is requested again, they are taken directly very fast and have high recording densi- the speed at which the drive can deliver the from the cache. ties, which means that they must be kept data from the disk platters to the CPU. This When the requested data happens to free from dust and any other kind of envi- is generally described in megabytes per be in the cache, a “cache hit” is said to ronmental contamination if they are to be second. have occurred. Any requests which are maintained properly. In order to get an accurate view of a hard made for data which is not already in the Thankfully, for the user, most hard drive’s performance, the average access cache result in a “cache miss” and one of disks look pretty much the same and peo- time and the transfer rate should be looked the records in the cache is then replaced. ple rarely know much about their internal at together. Drive makers and dealers have workings. Hard disks have changed radi- a reputation for bending the truth on such Hard disk cally over the years, especially in terms of issues and are often found to quote the fast The hard disk is the part of your system capacity. The smallest hard disks held a access time of a drive without any mention which holds all the programs, documents tiny 5Mb while these days 8Gb is the max- of the transfer rate. You’ll also see this in and data when your PC is switched off. imum hard disk capacity. The average PC advertisements. Unfortunately, a high The longer you have your computer bought today has between 500Mb and access time coupled with a slow transfer and the more documents you create and 1Gb in hard disk storage. rate produces a slow drive. the more data you store, the more valu- Data is recorded onto the magnetic sur- Because access time is measured in able your hard disk becomes. In fact, hard face of the hard disk in exactly the same milliseconds and transfer rate is measured disks which crack up can put small com- way as it is on floppies or digital tapes. If in megabytes per second, the overall drive panies out of business in a flash. Your you’ve ever defragmented your hard disk, performance can be difficult to get your hard disk is the storage place for all your then you probably have some mental head around. Essentially, you’re looking for valuable work. image of how the surface of the disk looks. the lowest possible access time and the The programs which you run (i.e. your Essentially, the surface of your hard disk is highest possible transfer rate. word processor, graphics package or treated as an array of dot positions, each Another measure of hard disk spreadsheet) are replaceable. When you of which can be identified and set to a performance of which you should be aware buy your PC, you’ll often get some of this binary “1” or “0”. The position of each array is “seek time”, which is conveniently software pre-installed on the hard disk, but element is not identifiable in an “absolute” confused (by some) with the access time. you’ll also get a set of floppy disks which sense, and so a scheme of guidance Seek time is also measured in milliseconds you can use to re-install it if anything goes marks helps the recorder find positions on and defines the amount of time it takes a wrong. Anything else which you create the disk. The need for these guidance hard drive’s read/write head to find the should be instantly backed up onto a markings explains why disks have to be physical location of a piece of data on the spare floppy disk. formatted before they can be used. disk. The seek time says absolutely nothing The hard disk inside your PC is made about the speed of a hard drive. The of aluminium alloy covered with a magnet- PCW Contacts importance of the access time and transfer ic coating. This makes the disk itself a Eleanor Turton-Hill welcomes feedback rate is that they tell you how long a hard pretty rigid plate: hence the name “hard” and suggestions from readers. She is on drive takes to locate and retrieve data. disk. Hard disks are completely sealed [email protected]

332 PERSONAL COMPUTER WORLD JULY 1996 NO-NONSENSE BUYER’S GUIDE

NO-NONSENSE BUYER’S GUIDE standard. PCW Best Specification older Nicad (Nickel Cadmium) What to look batteries. Our Best Spec is as good a PC as you are for in a • TFT screens TFT or active response times? likely to need for most software. For some notebook matrix screens are starting to • Check the technical support. Is it free? specialist applications, like professional DTP • Pointing device replace the slower dual-scan or Is it easy to get through to? or CAD, you may need to add even more There’s been a passive matrix screens. It means memory, a bigger hard disk, a more powerful wholesale move the screen image is refreshed graphics card, or a larger monitor. from trackballs to much more quickly. PCW Minimum • Windows 95 trackpads. Some • Warranty Drop a notebook and Specification • Pentium 133MHz PC notebooks, notably it may well break, so it is This is the absolute minimum spec we think • 512Kb secondary cache IBM Thinkpads, use especially vital to check the you should even consider buying now. It’s • 32Mb EDO memory stick technology (a device which looks terms of your warranty. How long is it? suitable for general business use: word • 2Gb hard disk like the rubber on top of a pencil and is What level of service is provided. processing, databases and spreadsheets. • 3.5 in floppy disk drive controlled using one finger). • Windows 3.11 • Six-speed CD-ROM drive • CD-ROM drives are rapidly becoming PCW Minimum • 486 DX4 100 MHz processor • 17in colour monitor standard in notebooks. If your notebook Specification • 8Mb RAM • 2Mb VRAM graphics card (this means your is going to be your only machine, it’s Notebooks change rapidly. It’s often possible • Graphics card with 1Mb of memory graphics card can display more colours and a worth getting one. to pick up end-of-line machines with 486 • 540Mb hard disk higher resolution on your monitor — 16 • Floppy disk drive Often there’s a processors from brand-name manufacturers • 3.5in floppy disk drive million colours at a resolution of 800 x 600, to choice between a CD-ROM drive and a such as Toshiba and Compaq at discounted • Double-speed CD-ROM drive be exact) floppy disk drive. Again, if the notebook prices of £1,000 or less. These can be a very • 14in colour monitor • 32-bit sound card is to be your only machine, specify both. good buy. Just make sure they can run the • PCI local bus • Quality speakers Otherwise, reinstalling an operating software you need to use. They probably • PCI local bus system can mean returning the machine aren’t up to running Windows 95. If you’re buying the PC for home use, you’ll to the manufacturer. probably want full multimedia capabilities so Other things to consider • PC cards Modern notebooks all have PCW Recommended that you can use CD-ROM games and PCs have become a lot more similar in at least one PC card slot. They take Specification edutainment products and play video clips. the last few years. The days when credit-card sized expansion cards which • Windows 95 This should include at least a smallish computer companies designed can add a fax-modem, a network • Pentium • 16-bit SoundBlaster-compatible sound card their own chipsets (the computer chips interface card or even an extra hard disk • 256Kb secondary cache • Speakers that assist the computer’s main to your computer. • 16Mb RAM processor) are long gone. Most small • Battery life Battery technology keeps • On-board graphics with 1Mb of memory, PCW Recommended box-shifters buy their motherboards from improving, but unfortunately the power PCI local bus Specification Taiwanese manufacturers. Larger demands of ever more powerful • 500Mb hard disk If you’re not completely strapped for cash this companies either design their notebooks tend to • 3.5in floppy disk drive and/or dual- is the PC specification we recommend. No- motherboards themselves (Apricot, keep pace. Battery life speed CD-ROM drive. one who works at PCW would settle for less. Compaq, IBM) or get motherboards built varies from as little as • Dual-scan screen. • Windows 95 by other companies to their specifications 30 minutes over six • Pentium 90MHz or 120MHz processor (a (Gateway). hours. Lithium Ion and PCW Best Buying a PC faster processor will make your computer run Nickel Metal Hydride Specification more quickly and smoothly) batteries have now The state of the notebook art. • 256Kb secondary cache (again this makes Buying a largely replaced the You’re either loaded, or your he one universal rule is that PCs get cheaper, better and faster your computer run faster) company’s picking up the Tall the time. The result is that your state-of-the-art PC can • 16Mb EDO RAM. 16Mb of memory speeds NOTEBOOK tab. become outdated and old-fashioned in a couple of years. It may still your PC up a lot, particularly if you’re • Windows 95 or Windows work perfectly well, but it probably won’t run very fast and won’t run multitasking (using more than one application otebooks are one area in which it’s 3.11 the latest software. If you’re just planning to do simple word simultaneously) Noften safer to stick to brand-names. • Pentium • Graphics card with 2Mb of memory Not that some of the Far Eastern kit • 256Kb secondary cache processing, this may not matter. But we’re assuming here that you • 1Gb hard disk — modern computer doesn’t work perfectly well, but reliability • 16Mb RAM want to buy a general-purpose multimedia PC that can play games, software takes up a lot of space does seem to be a problem and it can be • On-board graphics with use CD-ROMs and run a range of modern software. • 3.5in floppy disk drive fiendishly difficult to obtain spares. The 2Mb of VRAM memory, • Quad-speed CD-ROM drive (video clips will other useful guideline for notebooks is to PCI local bus play more smoothly; you will be able to try before you buy. • 1Gb hard disk Things not to do when buying space. Spend extra cash on the next hard access files on CD-ROM disks more quickly) Standard notebook specifications are • 3.5in floppy disk drive • Don’t buy a machine with less than disk size up. • 15in colour monitor (one inch doesn’t sound generally a step or two behind the • Quad-speed CD-ROM 16Mb of memory if you plan to run • Memory is expensive, but extra memory a lot, but is easier on the eyes) desktop equivalents. For example, drive Windows 95. often makes more difference than a faster • 16-bit SoundBlaster-compatible sound card quad-speed CD-ROM drives are still not • Active matrix TFT • Avoid older VESA local bus processor. • Speakers standard on notebooks, whereas on screen motherboards. • Look at the bundle. What other software • PCI local bus desktops the six-speed variety is already • Long battery life • Avoid cheap 14in monitors. is included — is it worth having? well established. The latest generation For recent notebook • Check the warranty. Is it for on-site or of colour screens can cope with 800 x reviews, see PCW Things to do when buying back to base repairs? If it’s on-site, does For up-to-date PC reviews, 600 resolution, but that’s still a step Notebook March, page 133 • You can never have too much disk the manufacturer offer guaranteed see our May ‘96 cover story behind the desktop 1,024 x 768

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GLOSSARY OF COMPUTING: IMPORTANT TERMS AND ACRONYMS

by Apple, that is incompatible with read: you can’t make changes to it as Parallel Ports I PCs. Developed as a rival standard, you can to RAM. It is commonly Used by your PC to communicate A keyboard, monitor and disk drives. are more common) but sitting inside IBM-compatible its operating system looks like used for things that will never need with the outside world, usually via a Access Time Bit the PC. Expansion cards are Originally meant any PC compatible Windows, except that it predates it to be changed, such as the printer. Information can travel in The time it takes for a device to Binary digit, the basic binary unit for designed to be fitted and removed by with DOS. Now tends to mean any and (in many people’s view) looks information the computer requires parallel along a series of lines, access data. The access time, storing data. It can either be O or 1. people with little knowledge of PCs. PC with an Intel or compatible and works much better. when you start it up. making it faster than serial ports quoted in milliseconds (ms) for hard A Kilobit (kbit) is 210, 1024 bits; and processor capable of running DOS Maths co-processor Modem which can only handle one piece of disks and nanoseconds (ns) for a Megabit is 220, which is just over F or Windows. A specialised chip that handles The word is a contracted version of information at a time. memory, is usually an average, as it a million bits. These units are often Floppy disk drive Internet mathematical calculations (floating “modulator/demodulator”, which Pixel can vary greatly. Together with the used for data transmission. For data Practically all PCs come with a (See net.newbies, p229) point operations) for the processor. means that a modem is a box (or, Picture element. The smallest transfer rate, it is used to gauge the storage, Megabytes are more floppy disk drive. 3.5in HD (high IDE Modern processors such as the less commonly, an expansion card) possible addressable dot displayed performance of hard disks and other generally used. A Megabyte (Mb) is density) 1.44Mb floppy disks are Integrated drive electronics. A Pentium have a co-processor built that lets your computer talk over on a monitor. devices. The lower the number, the 1024 kilobytes (Kb) and a Kb is now the standard. They come in hard control system designed to allow into them. phone lines to other computers. PowerPC better the performance. 1024 bytes. A Gigabyte (Gb) is 1024 plastic cases and have replaced the computer and device to Mbit (megabit) (See Bit) They are commonly used for This family of RISC chips is the Acronyms Mb. A byte (binary digit eight) is refers to the main processor or chip older, literally floppy 5.25in disks. communicate. Once the standard for Mb (Megabyte) (See Bit) sending electronic mail and result of a collaboration between These form most of the composed of eight bits. inside a PC. (See Processor) Fonts PC hard disks, now being replaced MCA accessing the Internet. (See IBM, Apple and Motorola. It is now technobabble which has been Bug (See Crash) Crash A font is an alphabet designed in a by EIDE (enhanced IDE) which A kind of bus designed by IBM to net.newbies, p213) used in all Apple Macintosh refined over many years to confuse Boot Common term for when your particular style. Fonts apply to both offers improved performance and beat EISA. Although faster, it never Monitor computers and many IBM you, the user, and keep us, the Short for bootstrap. Refers to the computer freezes. Can be caused by screen and printed letters. Modern extra features. EIDE can support became popular because every Your computer’s screen. Signals are workstations. writers, in business. Try to take as process when a computer loads its a power surge, a bug (which is a TrueType and Type 1 fonts are four external devices including hard machine that used it had to pay a sent to it from the video card. Processor little notice as possible of it: the operating system into memory. fault in software), or a GPF. stored as shape descriptions, disks and CD-ROM drives. royalty to IBM, and because it was Motherboard The chip that does most of a computer industry is littered with Reboot means to restart your scalable to any size. IRDA not backwards-compatible with ISA. The main printed circuit board which computer’s work. TLAs (Three-Letter Acronyms). computer after a crash, either with a D Format Infra Red Data Association — MPEG (Moving Picture Expert houses the processor, the memory Programs (See Applications) Applications warm reboot (where you press Ctrl DRAM (See Memory) To wipe a floppy or hard disk in standard for exchanging data using Group) and various other components. Public Domain An application, or package, is one or Alt Del) or a cold reboot, where you DOS (Disk Operating System) order to prepare it to accept data. infra red typically from PDAs or A standard for compressing video Software that is absolutely free. The more programs used for a particular switch the computer off and back on Once the standard operating system Graphics Card notebooks to a PC or printer. available in several flavours: MPEG 1, N author usually retains copyright, task: for example, word processing, again. for PCs, it is now being replaced by An expansion card that interprets ISA (Industry Standard MPEG 2 and MPEG 4. JPEG (Joint Network but you can make as many copies invoicing or spreadsheeting. Bulletin board systems (BBSs) Windows 95 and Windows NT. commands from the processor to Architecture) Photographic Expert Group) is a A network is a group of computers as you want and pass them to other Applications are bought shrink- A kind of electronic forum now DPI (Dots Per Inch) the monitor. If you want a better, This was the original bus standard for still image compression. linked together with cable. The people. Public domain software wrapped (wrapped in cellophane for being replaced by the Internet. (See Common measure of the resolution higher-resolution picture or more architecture on 286 PCs. Also Memory most common form is a LAN (Local often consists of small utilities the general use) or custom-built for net.newbies, p229) on a printer, a scanner or a display. than your existing setup, you’ll need known as the AT bus (the 286 was The term normally refers to RAM Area Network), where electronic author feels might be useful to more specific uses. Bus Drive controller card to change your graphics card and/or known as the AT), it is still in use (Random Access Memory). This is mail and other files can be other people. It is often confused ASCII (American Standard Code for A “data highway”, which transports An expansion card that interprets your monitor. today. Slow by modern standards, the kind that disappears whenever exchanged between users without with shareware. Information Interchange) data from the processor to whatever commands between the processor GUI (Graphical User Interface) but so widely accepted that you turn your computer off and is swapping floppy disks. Printers and Usually a synonym for plain text component it wants to talk to. There and the disk drives. (See Windows) expansion cards are still made for it. much faster to access than a hard other resources can be shared. Q without any formatting (eg italics, are many different kinds of bus, Drivers (See EISA, PCI) disk. It acts as a kind of staging post Typically, all the PCs on a LAN are QWERTY bold or hidden text). Since including ISA, EISA, MCA, and local Pieces of software that “drive” a H ISDN Integrated Services Digital between your computer’s hard disk connected to one server, a powerful The name of a standard English computers naturally use binary bus (PCI and VL-bus). peripheral. They interpret between Network and its main processor. PC with a large hard disk that can language keyboard, derived from the rather than Roman characters, text the computer and a device such as a A digital voice and data telephone •DRAM Dynamic Random Access be shared by everyone. There are first six letters on the top row. The has to be converted into binary for C CD-ROM. If you have a SCSI CD- network which looks set to replace Memory many other forms of interlinking French equivalent is AZERTY. the processor to understand it. Cache (See Memory) ROM drive connected, you will be the current analogue one. ISDN This requires its contents to be computers including WANs (Wide ASCII assigns binary values to COAST able to use it on a PC or a Mac, just adaptors are already starting to replaced every 1/1000th of a second Area Networks). R Roman characters. RTF, a Microsoft Cache On A Stick. by loading up the relevant driver on replace modems as a fast way of and is the most common form of RAM Random Access Memory (See standard, adds extra formatting CD-ROM each machine. accessing the Internet and memory in PCs. O Memory) features to plain ASCII. A CD-ROM is the same as a normal transferring data. •SRAM StaticRAM Operating System Reboot (see Boot) audio CD, except it can store data as E JPEG (See MPEG) Retains memory until the power is The operating system RISC B well as sounds. A CD-ROM player EIDE (See IDE) Hard disk Kbit (kilobit), Kb (kilobyte) switched off. communicates with the hardware Reduced Instruction Set Computing. Backwards compatible can be attached to your computer to EISA (Extended Industry Standard Sometimes called a fixed disk, hard (See Bit) •VRAM VideoRAM and provides services and utilities to These are starting to replace CISC Compatibility of hardware or read information from the CD-ROM Architecture) disks are hermetically-sealed rigid Faster than DRAM, this is used by applications while they run, such as (Complex Instruction Set software to older versions of the into the computer’s memory in the A bus standard designed to compete disks able to store data and L graphics cards. saving and retrieving files. Computing), as they are generally product or standard. same way that a domestic CD player with MCA now being replaced by programs. Disk capacities increase LAN (Local Area Network) •EDO Extended Data Out RAM faster. The PowerPC chip is a typical Baud rate reads information from the CD into PCI. Its advantage was that it was all the time. The standard is now (See Network) The latest type of memory, offers P example. The amount of data that can be sent your hi-fi. The advantage of designed to be backwards 1Gb, but disks of up to 9Gb are Local Bus improved performance. Package ROM (Read Only Memory) (See along a communications channel distributing information on CD-ROM compatible with the now-ancient but available. PCI (Peripheral Component Cache memory (See Application) Memory) every second. In common usage, it rather than other media is that each still dominant ISA interface (as the Hardware Interconnect), developed by Intel, is Temporary memory set aside to PC Card RTF Rich Text Format (See ASCII) is often confused with bits per one can hold up to 680Mb of data — name implies). All electronic components of a now the standard for local bus store the information that is Formerly PCMCIA. A standard to second. These days modem speeds equivalent to some 485 high-density Electronic mail (E-mail, email) computer system, including architecture. It is faster than the accessed most frequently. The allow PCs, particularly notebooks, to S are normally measured in bits per 3.5in floppy disks. The disadvantage, (See net.newbies, p207) peripherals, circuit boards and older VL-Bus (Video Electronic Pentium processor has 8Kb of cache be expanded using credit-card sized SCSI second. (See V* and Bit) however, is that you can only write Expansion card input/output devices. Standards Association local bus) it built in. This can be further speeded cards. Small Computer System Interface is BIOS once on CD-ROMs, but this makes Circuit boards that fit inside PCs to HTML (Hypertext mark-up has now largely replaced. up by a secondary cache, typically PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) a bus that comes as standard in a Basic Input/Output System them ideal for archiving. provide extra functionality. For language) 256Kb. Part of your DRAM is also Small electronic organisers. The Macintosh and is starting to rival (pronounced buy-oss). Software CISC (See RISC) example, one might be an internal The standard language used in the M often used to cache your hard disk. Psion 3a is a typical example. EIDE on PCs. It is commonly used routines that let your computer CPU modem, providing the same creation of World Wide Web pages. Macintosh (Mac) ROM Read-Only Memory PCI (See Local Bus) for connecting devices such as hard address other devices like the Central processing unit. Normally functions as an external one (which A kind of personal computer, made A kind of memory that can only be PCMCIA (See PC Cards) disk drives and CD-ROM drives.

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GLOSSARY OF COMPUTING: IMPORTANT TERMS AND ACRONYMS Buying a Inkjets Serial Port Software VGA Windows 95 The serial port, of which there are A generic word for programs or Video Graphics Array is the name Major improvement to Windows 3.11, SCANNER sometimes two (com1 and com2), is applications given to a popular display. VGA with a redesigned interface. Less used by your PC to communicate graphics have 640 pixels horizontally prone to crashes and easier to use, canners are used to import text, with the outside world. Serial ports T and 480 vertically, and can display 16 but requires more memory. Sgraphics or pictures into a PC. They are predominantly used by modems Tape Streamer colours. SuperVGA (SVGA) graphics WYSIWYG vary from low-cost hand scanners not and similar devices, which Magnetic tape recorder designed for can display 800 x 600 or 1,024 x 768 An acronym for What You See Is What much bigger than a mouse, to drum communicate quite slowly. Some backing up data from your hard disk. in as many colours as the memory in You Get, used to describe much scanners costing thousands of pounds. mice also use them. Faster your graphics card will allow: up to modern software. What you see on The latter are designed to scan communications are achieved via U 16.4 million, or true colour. the screen is exactly what you see photographic transparencies to the parallel port. UART (Universal Asynchronous VL-Bus (See Local Bus) when you print your work out. Inkjets professional standards. Shareware Receiver Transmitter) VRAM (See Memory) Inkjets work by spraying ink onto paper. A way of distributing software which Pronounced you-art. A chip that They are cheap to buy but more Flatbed scanners is often used by smaller allows your PC to cope with high- W Z straight to your printer. expensive to run, and slower. Even The most common type of scanner. They programmers rather than big speed communications. Windows ZIF (Zero Insertion Force) They will only work with Windows, but cheap inkjets can print in good-quality range in price from £300 to over £3,000. software houses. It is freely V34, V32bis A GUI (Graphical User Interface) Sockets used for large CPUs. Lifting a are cheap and fast. They are also only colour. They’re capable of scanning colour pictures available, but not free. You are A series of CCITT standards that developed by Microsoft. Windows is handle lets you remove the processor. suitable for a personal printer and will to a high standard. Most have transparency honour-bound to pay a small fee to defines modem operations and error supposed to make programs easier ZIP not work across a network. Recommended Products adaptors as an optional extra. the software’s developer if you correction. There are over 20, but to use by giving them a standard, Better known as PKZIP, this is a Epson Stylus 800 colour: Epson 01442 continue to use the program after a the key ones are: mouse-driven interface. widely used shareware utility that 61144; street price £350 (see PCW August Document scanners set period. • V32.bis — the standard for Windows 3.11 compresses files, so that they take up Recommended Products 95). Canon BJC-610: Canon 0500 246246; This is a new category which aims to SIMM (Single Inline Memory 14,400bps modems. 16-bit operating system. less room. You can tell when you have Cheap lasers Epson EPL-5500: Epson 0800 street price £370 (see PCW, February 96). combine the reliability of flatbeds with Module) • V34, the new standard for Windows NT a ZIPped file as its name ends in ZIP. 220546; street price £300 (see PCW speed and portability. They’re intended for The standard modules for memory 28.800bps modems (see Baud). Robust, fully 32-bit operating It is widely available from bulletin February 96) Hybrids OCR and document management. Most expansion on PCs. Older 30-pin Don’t buy a modem that doesn’t system. Currently has the Windows boards. PKZIP is the most common Sub-£750 lasers Hewlett-Packard 5P: For home use and small offices a hybrid will cope with photographs and some with SIMMs have now been replaced by comply with one of these standards. 3.11 interface, but will soon be form of compression of its kind. Hewlett-Packard 01344 369222 (see PCW could be the answer. These combine a colour, but it’s the 72-pin variety available in VESA available with the Windows 95 November 96) printer, a fax machine and some copying not their capacities of up to 16Mb. (See Local Bus) interface. Glossary ends Network lasers Hewlett-Packard 5P: capability in one unit. forte. Hewlett-Packard 01344 369222 (see PCW Flatbed scanners February 96) Recommended Products Hewlett-Packard OfficeJet LX: HP 01344 369222; street price £499 (see PCW December 95) Continued from page 335 Laser printers Buying a PRINTER

There are two main types of printer: Hybrid printer laser and inkjet. PCL Recommended This stands for Products: Flatbed Lasers Printer Control Scanners Most office printers are lasers. They work Language, and it Professional — Arcus II: Agfa 0181 231 pretty much like photocopiers, and are is Hewlett- 4200; street price £2,600. cheap to run and print quickly. Their Packard’s Intermediate — Epson GTX 9000: Epson disadvantage is higher initial cost and alternative to UK 01442 61144; street price £750. mono output. Laser printers are available PostScript, licensed Budget —Umax Vista S6E: IMC 01344 in all sizes and at all prices. Small desktop to many clone- 872800; street price £299 (PCW, July 96). printers cost as little as £400. You can buy printer colour laser printers but they are still PostScript manufacturers. Recommended Products: expensive, typically £5,000 or more. This sends an outline in vector form (see Printers using this tend Document Scanners “Drawing Software”) to the printer where it to be cheaper than PostScript ones, but Visioneer PaperPort VX: Computers is rasterised (converted into dots) and output will vary from one printer to Unlimited 0181 200 8282; street price Types of laser printed to the device’s best ability. another, making it less suited to £299. Logitech PageScan Colour: PCs work by sending a description of the PostScript is device-independent so that professional use. Logitech 01344 894300; street price page that’s being printed down a printer the image looks the same on a monitor Document scanners £299. cable. There are three commonly-used (75dpi), a laser printer (300dpi) or a GDI (graphical device interface) Plustek PageReader 800: Scan Direct page description languages (PDLs): professional image setter (2400dpi). These printers download the description 01292 671676; street price £149 (PCW, of your page already used by Windows March 96).

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maximums. Buyers should go for quad- x 480 pixels, while other typical modes speed or higher. There is little to choose include 800 x 600 and 1,024 x 768. The between models, but off-the-shelf more pixels, the more you’ll be able to fit Buying a supplies are frequently short. Internal IDE on screen, but everything will be smaller quads start at around £100 and six- and may only be suitable on a larger Graphics card FAX-MODEM speeds around £130. screen. Go for a 15in or 17in monitor Fax-modem capable of running a resolution of 1,024 ou’ll need a modem to connect to Recommended Product: by 768, non-interlaced, at 70Hz or higher. Ythe Internet or an online service CD-ROM Drive The visible area of most monitors (and such as CompuServe or AOL, and to Teac CD56-E six-speed: fitted to many TVs for that matter) is smaller than the send and receive email. Modems are new PCs and costing around £170 (PCW model implies: a 15in may only have available in three formats: as PC cards January 96) 14.5in, and a 17in only 16in. to plug into notebooks, as external boxes, and as expansion cards. PC Recommended Products: card modems cost the most and Monitors external modems cost slightly more Buying a For 15in try the CTX 1569MS (around £300) than the expansion card variety. or the NEC M500 multimedia around £410 Apart from the case and the MONITOR on the street. At 17in there’s the Sony 17sfII external power supply, there’s often or the Taxan Ergovision 730TCO-S at little difference between the internal around £500 (PCW July 96) and external versions of a modem. egardless of your computer Most modems now have fax Rapplication, you’ll be looking at your capability built in, which means you monitor all day — so get a good one. Buying a can receive faxes on your PC to Some people claim not to see view or print out. If you’re strapped monitor-flicker, but your brain will, GRAPHICS for cash, a V32bis 14,400Kbits/sec resulting in fatigue and headaches. A modem is adequate. However, refresh rate of 70Hz or higher will CARD prices have now fallen so rapidly produce a flicker-free image on most that a V34 28,800Kbits/sec modem monitors. Interlacing also results in he graphics card sits inside the PC is probably a better bet. flicker. Always run in non-interlaced Tand controls the features that the usable. Also, check out the performance modes and ignore interlaced quotes. software can display on the monitor. capability of the card. Video cards come Recommended The resolution refers to the number of Check the amount of memory on the as 16-bit, 32-bit, 64-bit and even 128-bit Products: dots (pixels) horizontally and vertically on card. 2Mb is about standard these days, — all you need to know is that a large Fax-modems Buying a screen. Standard VGA mode runs at 640 1Mb is skimpy and 512Kb is barely numbers of bits means faster External — Motorola 3400 Online: performance and more colours. Motorola 01923 404343; street price CD-ROM ust about the only things which differ on The most important aspect of your £160 (see PCW February 96) Jtoday’s CD-ROM drives are their speed video card, and the most frequently DRIVE and means of connection. The most common quoted feature, relates to the resolution connection is IDE or Enhanced IDE (EIDE). It which the card supports in Windows. This is possible to connect an IDE CD- is measured in terms of the number of ROM drive to most existing IDE pixels that the card displays on the hard disk controllers. Older PCs screen. The absolute minimum these may need a newer EIDE days is 1,024 x 768 with a refresh rate of controller. IDE controllers are also 70Hz. The refresh rate is important, as it found on many sound cards. relates to the flicker that you will perceive The first CD-ROM drives from your monitor. spun the disc at the same Finally, find out whether your video speed as an audio CD and card is “local bus” or not. “Local bus” is a were called single-speed, type of interface which connects your delivering a sustained data video card to the motherboard. It allows transfer rate of 150Kb/s. the memory in the card to be addressed Double-speed drives spun directly by the CPU which makes it a lot twice as fast, doubling the data faster than the standard ISA (Industry transfer to 300Kb/s, and quad- Standard Architecture) interface. speeds twice as fast again, raising transfer to 600Kb/s. Recommended Products: Quads are currently the Graphics Cards standard, with six-speeds ATI Video Xpression: ATI Technologies (900Kb/s) becoming 01235 833666; around £175 (Graphics card increasingly common. group test p150) Manufacturers are beginning to Diamond Stealth 64 VRAM: Diamond 01753 CD-ROM Drives Monitors release eight-speed drives, 501400; from around £190 offering up to 1200Kb/s. All VideoLogic GrafixStar 400: VideoLogic figures are theoretical 01923 260511 from about £115

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● CONTACT MANAGERS (see PIMs) to be easier to use than full-blown accounts database. For Microsoft Office you pay SmartSuite respectively. Buying a packages. extra for Office Professional which ● PROGRAMMING TOOLS Applications D Recommended products: Quicken is the contains Microsoft’s Access database. designed for writing software. These range SOUND CARD ● DATABASE At its simplest, an outstanding product in this category and has Recommended products: Microsoft from “low-level” languages which are electronic card index. For just a few no serious rivals. Office is now close to the industry powerful but difficult to learn and use, to s their name suggests, they add hundred names and addresses, an ● REMOTE CONTROL SOFTWARE standard. Its high level of integration gives “high-level” languages which are much Asound capability to a PC. Check electronic filofax such as Lotus’s Software which lets you access and control a it the edge over the opposition. easier to use but generally sacrifice compatibility with your CD-ROM drive, Organizer may be more appropriate. But PC remotely usually using a modem. performance and flexibility in the process. and remember that 16-bit cards for more sophisticated applications like Recommended products: Reachout, for its P Recommended products: Delphi 2.0 is a capable of 44KHz provide higher- tracking products and customers, the simple interface and support for different ● PERSONAL INFORMATION great example of scalability, catering for quality sound than slower 8-bit cards. power of a relational database is required. networks, particularly TCP/IP. MANAGERS (PIMs) PIMs are an beginners and serious developers working Better sound cards now include Databases are generally the least user- ● SPREADSHEET An electronic version of electronic way of storing names, on major projects. Visual C++ is the pick of wavetable synthesis which means they friendly of the main suite applications. In an old-fashioned ledger. Ideally suited for addresses, phone numbers and the high-end Windows development tools. have samples of real instruments held most office environments you’re more balance sheets and sales figures. They now appointments. Contact managers take the in ROM. likely to use a database application that include excellent graphing and charting idea one step further to include business V The quality of wavetable synthesis somebody else has written for you. facilities. information about dealings with clients. VISUAL PROGRAMMING (see still varies widely. Even cheap cards Recommended products: Lotus Recommended products: Lotus 1-2-3, Recommended products: Sidekick 95 Programming Tools) which have the inferior Frequency Approach, Microsoft Access Microsoft Excel and Organizer are excellent PIMs. For Modulation synthesis should have a ● DRAWING SOFTWARE Programs for contact managers we recommend W daughterboard connector allowing drawing that work using vectors. This S Goldmine for Windows. WORD PROCESSOR An application in Sound card them to be upgraded to wavetable. The means each shape drawn is described ● SUITES These days, most general ● PRESENTATION GRAPHICS which you write letters and reports or even newer cards are also plug’n’play which using mathematical equations. business software (word processors, Increasingly the trend is towards doing produce a simple newsletter. The latest word means, in theory, that you should be Recommended products: At the budget spreadsheets, presentation graphics presentations on a PC and the latest processors have advanced features such as able to plug them straight into a PC end, GSP Designworks 3 stands out. At packages) is sold in Suites. Two suites are packages tackle this by including sound, outliners, table editors and facilities for without any extra configuration. Most the professional end of things it’s widely available: Lotus SmartSuite and sophisticated transitions between slides adding up columns of figures. cards are bundled with extra software, FreeHand 5 which gets our plaudits. Microsoft Office. If you buy them bundled with and support for video clips. Recommended products: Microsoft Word normally sequencers, wave editors and a new PC, they can cost £100 or less. Bought Recommended products: Powerpoint is the clear market leader. audio players. I separately, they cost between £200 and and FreeHand are both capable products WordPro (formerly AmiPro) ● IMAGE EDITING SOFTWARE A £300. Lotus SmartSuite also contains a that are sold with Microsoft Office and is a capable alternative. Recommended Products: program for editing bitmap files (files Sound Cards made up of pixels). Typically used for A-Z of Recommended Software Products Creative Labs AWE-32: 01245 265265; converting graphics files, retouching £199 (PCW April 96) photographs and preparing pictures for Category Product Supplier Contact Price Date of PCW review Budget: Aztech SoundGalaxy Waverider printing. A Accounts Lakeview LM3 Lakeview Computers 0181 303 3329 £8,750 Jan-96 Pro: Aztech 01734 814121; £79 (PCW Recommended product: For simple Accounts Exchequor SBS Financial Systems 01202 298008 £5,980 Jan-96 April 96) image editing the popular shareware program Paintshop Pro is fine. For C CAD AutoCad Release 13 Autodesk UK 01483 303 322 £3,150 Oct-95 professionals, Adobe’s Photoshop is the CAD Drafix Quick CAD Roderick Manhattan 0181 875 4400 £69 Oct-95 industry standard. D Database Approach Lotus 01784 455 445 £99 Nov-95 ● INTEGRATED PACKAGES Typically Database Access Microsoft 01734 270 001 £220 Feb-96 Buying SOFTWARE these combine the functionality of a Drawing Freehand 5 MacroMedia 01344 761111 £450 Apr-96 database, word processor and Drawing Designworks 3 GSP 01480 496789 £39.95 Apr-96 spreadsheet in one application. This I Image Editing Photoshop Adobe 0181 606 4000 £382 Apr-95 ust a few years ago there were dozens of different software makes it easy to move data from one Image Editing Paintshop Pro Digital Workshop 01295 258335 £49.95 Jun-95 applications in each category. In the last two years or so, however, J component to another, but integrated Integrated Package Works Microsoft 01734 270 001 £79.99 Oct-95 packages tend to lack some of the there’s been rapid product consolidation. Other magazines list large O OCR Omnipage Caere 0171 630 5586 £595 Nov-95 advanced features of individual numbers of packages, most of which are out of date and aren’t worth OCR Textbridge Xerox Imaging Systems 01734 668 421 £349 Nov-95 considering. We’ve distilled each category down to just one or two applications in the Suites. Recommended product: Microsoft P Personal Finance Quicken Intuit 0800 585058 £49.95 May-96 recommended products. Works PIM/contact manager Organizer 2.1 Lotus 01784 455 445 £99 Mar-96 ● OCR SOFTWARE Optical Character PIM/contact manager Goldmine for Windows Elan Software 0171 454 1790 £395 Mar-96 Recognition software converts printed text PIM/contact manager Sidekick 95 Starfish UK 0181 875 4400 £39 Mar-96 Software A-Z C into computer text you can edit. You will Presentation graphics Freelance Lotus 01784 455 445 £415 Sep-94 ● CAD SOFTWARE Computer Aided also need a scanner or fax card to get the Presentation graphics Powerpoint Microsoft 01734 270 001 £220 Sep-94 Design covers everything from printed text on to your PC. OCR saves re- Programming tools Visual C++ Microsoft 01734 270 001 £379 Feb-96 architectural drawings through office keying documents and can cut down Programming tools Delphi 2.0 Borland 01734 320 022 249 Feb-96 A planning to complex engineering drastically on paper filing systems. R Remote Control Reachout Stac Electronics 01483 740 763 £110 Nov-95 ● ACCOUNTS SOFTWARE One of the drawings. Recommended products: Omnipage is S Spreadsheet Excel Microsoft 01734 270 001 £220 May-95 few categories in which there are still Recommended products: AutoCAD, the best product we’ve found, but Spreadsheet 1-2-3 Lotus 01784 455 445 £365 May-95 masses of packages on the market at a now at release 13, is still the industry TextBridge offers most of the same huge range of different prices. Accounts is standard. However, it’s expensive and capabilities for less cash. Suite Office (Standard) Microsoft 01734 270 001 £360 Mar-96 also one of the last bastions of DOS. complex. For the casual user, Drafix ● PERSONAL FINANCE These help you Suite Office (Professional) Microsoft 01734 270 001 £460 Mar-96 Recommended products: Lakeview QuickCAD is a cheap and accessible way manage home finances. They’re also well W Word Processing Word Microsoft 01734 270 001 £220.00 Feb-95 LMS and Exchequor from SBS Systems. to try your hand at it. suited to some small businesses and tend Word Processing WordPro (AmiPro) Lotus 01784 455 445 £99.00 Jun-95

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in acid for six days. So, in writing these instructions, we naturally tend to assume that your skull is Oops! filled with dead insects, but we mean nothing by it. OK? Now ●In our review of Cheyenne’s let’s talk about: InocuLAN (First Impressions, May), we OPERATION OF THE inadvertently stated that it could not DEVICE. download regular virus updates: in fact, WARNING: WE Cheyenne has a BBS set up for just MANUFACTURE ONLY THE that. Updated monthly, it can be ATTRACTIVE DESIGNER accessed on 0990 143012. CASE. THE ACTUAL WORKING CENTRAL PARTS OF THE DEVICE Discovered on the Internet: ARE MANUFACTURED IN Bubba’s User Manual JAPAN. THE I once unpacked a SCSI drive shipped INSTRUCTIONS WERE from Bubba’s in Louisiana and it arrived TRANSLATED BY MRS. with these instructions in the packaging: SHIRLEY PELTWATER “IMPORTANT! READ THIS BEFORE OF ACCOUNTS USING YOUR NEW DEVICE RECEIVABLE, WHO Congratulations! You have purchased HAS NEVER ACTUALLY BEEN TO an extremely fine device that would give JAPAN BUT DOES HAVE MOST OF together with but not you thousands of years of trouble-free “SHOGUN” ON TAPE. excluding all those certain parts service, except that you undoubtedly will INSTRUCTIONS: For results that can thereunto, shall be warranted destroy it via some typical bonehead be finest, we advising that: NEVER to against all defects, failures and consumer manoeuvre. Which is why we hold these buttons two times!! Except malfunctions as shall occur ask you to: battery. Next taking the (something) between now and Thursday PLEASE FOR GOD’S SAKE READ earth section may cause a large afternoon shortly before 2, during THIS OWNER’S MANUAL CAREFULLY occurrence! However. If this is not a which time the Manufacturer will, at BEFORE YOU UNPACK THE DEVICE. trouble, such rotation is a very no charge to the Owner, send the YOU ALREADY UNPACKED IT, DIDN’T maintenance action, as a kindly device to our Service People, who YOU? YOU UNPACKED IT AND (something) virepoint as Drawing B. will emerge from their caves and PLUGGED IT IN AND TURNED IT ON WARRANTY engage in rituals designed to AND FIDDLED WITH THE KNOBS, AND Be it hereby known that this device, cleanse it of evil spirits. This NOW YOUR CHILD, (THE warranty does not cover the SAME CHILD WHO ONCE attractive designer case.” SHOVED A POLISH SAUSAGE INTO YOUR Four more ways to VIDEOCASSETTE confirm that you like RECORDER AND SET IT ON computers too much for ‘FAST FORWARD’); THIS your own good: CHILD IS ALSO FIDDLING 1. If you have more friends on the WITH THE KNOBS, RIGHT? Internet than in real life. WE MIGHT AS WELL JUST 2. If your favourite part of the six o’clock BREAK THESE DEVICES news is comparing their latest satellite RIGHT AT THE FACTORY weather picture with yours. BEFORE WE SHIP THEM 3. If your lap-top computer costs more than OUT, YOU KNOW THAT?!? your car. We’re sorry. We just get a 4. If your four basic food groups are: caffeine, little crazy sometimes because we’re fat, sugar, chocolate. always getting back “defective” merchandise where it turns out that the consumer inadvertently bathed the device Microsoft announces… For the first time, in… oh, a decade I think…4 something from Microsoft shipped on ENSORSHIP OF THE INTERNET time: Jennifer Katharine Gates, weighed 8lbs 6oz when she was downloaded, er, born Chas some odd side effects. The on Friday at 6:11p.m (Pacific time). Mother and daughter are home and doing fine. latest victim of “American-rude-word” And what do Baby Gates and Daddy’s products have in common? ooops! paranoia is the delightful South ● Neither can stand on its own two feet without a lot of third-party support. Humberside town of Scunthorpe. On ● At first release they’re relatively compact, but they seem to grow and grow and AOL, Scunthorpe will henceforth be grow with each passing year. CENSORED! ● known as Sconthorpe. Unfortunately, Although announced with great fanfare, pretty much anyone could have produced PCW editorial policy means we’re not one. able to spell out why. ● They arrive in shaky condition with inadequate documentation.

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