Personal Computer World articles from April 2007

Personal Computer World archives from April 2007

The demise of the floppy is a timely reminder to back up.(Viewpoint essay)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Dylan Armbrust The demise of the floppy is a timely reminder to back up As the floppy disk finally bites the dust, Dylan Armbrust wonders if we can place our faith in any storage format An interesting milestone was reached...

Panasonic Toughbook CF-Y5.(Product/service evaluation)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Emil Larsen Panasonic Toughbook CF-Y5 A durable, portable and stylish notebook, but you'll need deep pockets The Toughbook CF-Y5 is Panasonic's latest foray into the corporate rugged laptop market where businesses might...

Ricoh Caplio RR730.(digital camera)(Product/service evaluation)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Paul Monckton Ricoh Caplio RR730 A low-cost compact camera that's simple enough for the first-time user While they're hardly the most stylish cameras on the market, Ricoh's digital compacts have an uncanny knack of...

Philips VOIP841 phone.(cordless telephone)(Product/service evaluation)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Cliff Joseph Philips VOIP841 phone Versatile cordless phone for Skype and landlines calls There are plenty of Skype handsets around at the moment -- and most seem rather overpriced, selling for between [pounds sterling]100...

Joined in perfect harmony.(information technology professionals and cartesian joints)(Column)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Mark Whitehorn Joined in perfect harmony Cartesian joins can bite, unless you know how to tame them All good database professionals have a set of tools they can apply to various problems they encounter. Of course, to use...

Photoshop gains extra magic.(Photoshop CS3 from Adobe Systems Inc.)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Mark Whitehorn Photoshop gains extra magic Adobe's latest version of Photoshop has some major improvements In December last year, Adobe announced it was releasing a public beta of Photoshop CS3. Since then, the beta has...

Start at the very beginning.(using Microsoft Windows Vista)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Gordon Laing Start at the very beginning What you need to consider before taking the plunge with Vista Like many people, I've spent the past few weeks installing Windows Vista on my PCs and, like many, I've enjoyed varying...

Send in the clones.(dual boot configuration)(Column)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Barry Shilliday Send in the clones A look at the ins and outs of running other operating systems alongside Linux Recently, we looked at setting up hard drive partitions on a PC, with dual-boot configurations for Linux and...

Network superstores.(Column)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Alan Stevens Network superstores A look at what Nas is, and the options available to home and business users Prompted by a number of reader emails, the topic for this month's Networks Hands On is network attached storage...

DIY Nas.(network attached storage)(Brief article)(Column)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Alan Stevens DIY Nas You don't have to buy a dedicated Nas appliance. If you've got an old PC and a few hours to spare, you can build one of your own. If it has Windows on it then all you have to do is create some...

The trouble with arrays.(network attached storage)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Alan Stevens The trouble with arrays One of the emails that prompted this month's article was from a reader bemoaning the loss of a vital file accidentally deleted from a Nas appliance -- something the reader thought he was...

Blu-ray thinking.(how to view blu ray movies on media PCs)(Column)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Gordon Laing Blu-ray thinking What you need in order to watch Blu-ray movies on your media PC If you have a sufficiently quick processor and graphics card, you can equip your PC for high-definition movie playback with...

Conditional formatting.(Microsoft Excel 2003)(Column)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Stephen Wells Conditional formatting Excel can highlight the information that really interests you, making it easier to read Jason Harper writes, "I am using Excel 2003 to keep a list of the contents of my freezer. When I...

Something for the weekend.(calendar using Excel)(Brief article)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Stephen Wells Something for the weekend If you have a range of dates and wish to draw attention to the Sundays, highlight the range, and choose Conditional Formatting. If the range of cells is from B2:E9, the Conditional Format...

Hyperactive hyperlinks.(tips on web navigation)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Tim Nott Hyperactive hyperlinks We solve an unusual hyperlink problem and help you with Windows Update Here's a piece of weirdness I've been investigating with our spreadsheet columnist, Stephen Wells. And since we...

Day of reckoning.(how to use Microsoft Excel and Word)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Tim Nott Day of reckoning Word can do your sums for you. It can even look at the new Docx format Spreadsheets -- who needs them? Well, we probably all do, but Microsoft Word is no slouch when it comes to doing...

Information at your fingertips.(web sites design and management)(Column)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Nigel Whitfield Information at your fingertips Make your site easy to navigate with any browser, and confound overseas spammers When you have a large website, one of the trickiest things is making sure that people can find...

Beating the spammers.(using email filtering software)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Nigel Whitfield Beating the spammers Spam isn't just a problem for email; anyone who runs a forum will know there are plenty who sign up and post spam. Unscrupulous marketing fools even sell programs specifically designed to...

Belkin Wireless 802.11g all-in-one.(print server)(Product/service evaluation)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Mark Wilson Belkin Wireless 802.11g all-in-one Connect multiple computers to a single printer or MFD wirelessly A large proportion of homes now have more than one computer and this is reflected in the increase in home...

An on-screen keyboard.(Microsoft Office XP, Excel)(Brief article)(Column)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Various An on-screen keyboard Spreadsheets Q I am using Office XP running under Windows XP. Is it possible to display a working keyboard on the screen for use with Excel? Cathy Russell A Certainly. You can display...

Database makes no sense.(Brief article)(Column)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Various Database makes no sense Databases Q I have a serious need for a simple database on which to recreate my telephone list. Ideally, it will have about four or five fields, sortable by surname and printable on A5 by...

Question time.(Microsoft Excel 2002, Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Word 2007)(Column)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Various Digital imaging Computer age Q I have a large archive of 35mm black and white negatives, which has built up over the past 40 or so years. There are approximately 800 and, at the moment, they are stored in folders...

Programming Google Calendar.(Column)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Tim Anderson Programming Google Calendar Here's how to link to Google's online services from your applications Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is not just for browsing the web. Although that was its original purpose,...

Make the most of your PC Welcome to another month's Hands On. We have our usual pick of useful information and tips for you this month, including a look at some curious side effects in CSS for web developers, how to make Word do your sums in Word Processi.
April 19, 2007... Byline: Nigel Whitfield Make the most of your PC Welcome to another month's Hands On. We have our usual pick of useful information and tips for you this month, including a look at some curious side effects in CSS for web developers,...

Microsoft Expression Web.(web design software)(Product/service evaluation)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Tim Smith Microsoft Expression Web The apparent successor to Frontpage is expensive but it's easy to use Frontpage is dead, long live Expression Web. That may not be the official Microsoft line, but with no new versions of...

Lexar Image Rescue 3.(image recovery software)(Product/service evaluation)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Karl Foster Lexar Image Rescue 3 Recover your accidentally deleted photos with ease Digital camera menus are such that it's common to find Delete Frame sat next to Delete All Frames, or Format Card, hence catastrophic data...

Aten Altusen KH1508.(switch for keyboard, video and mouse purposes)(Product/service evaluation)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Alan Stevens Aten Altusen KH1508 Server remote control over Cat 5 cabling When it comes to managing rack-mounted or blade servers, KVM (keyboard, video and mouse) switches are a popular alternative to software remote...

A Perl mea culpa.(Practical Extraction and Report Language)(Brief article)
April 19, 2007... A Perl mea culpa Perl is a great language; it's so flexible that people have even written poetry in it. And like many great languages it has its fans, one of whom, Ant Skeleton, wrote to point out a couple of errors in the code I presented...

Myob.(MYOB Accounting Plus 16.0)(Product/service evaluation)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Alan Stevens MYOB Accounting Plus v16 A worthwhile update to a long-established package The well-respected and popular small business accounting package MYOB (short for Mind Your Own Business) is available for both Windows...

Lexmark C534dn.(laser printer)(Product/service evaluation)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Alan Stevens Lexmark C534dn Fast monochrome and colour printing in one compact device Colour lasers for small businesses spend most of their time churning out monochrome business documents. But they also need to be able to...

Solwise Vesenet Homeplug Camera.(network camera)(Product/service evaluation)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Alan Stevens Solwise Vesenet Homeplug Camera Network surveillance for next to nothing... almost Network cameras have fallen in price considerably but they can still be expensive, especially wireless products. So at little...

Adaptec Snap Server 650.(network attached storage device)(Product/service evaluation)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Alan Stevens Adaptec Snap Server 650 A Nas appliance with power and capacity to burn The Snap Server 650 from Adaptec is more powerful and scalable than most of the other network attached storage (Nas) appliances we've...

Parallel futures.(dual-core processors)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Peter Jackson Parallel futures Peter Jackson explores the challenges and choices involved in moving from today's processors to a new generation of massively parallel systems As dual-core processors become mainstream in...

Virtual Center for VMware Server.(virtualization software)(Product/service evaluation)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Alan Stevens Virtual Center for VMware Server Manage your VMware servers from a single console Winning a PCW Business Recommended award in our June 2006 issue, the free VMware Server product we reviewed lacked only one...

take me to the server When it comes to managing servers it's hard to beat sitting down, right there in front of the console, but it's not always convenient. In this month's Business Section, therefore, we look at the next best thing -- remote control softw.
April 19, 2007... Byline: Alan Stevens take me to the server When it comes to managing servers it's hard to beat sitting down, right there in front of the console, but it's not always convenient. In this month's Business Section, therefore, we look at...

Cut yourself loose.(remote management techniques)(Column)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Alan Stevens Cut yourself loose Remote management systems can make it much easier to keep your network running. Alan Stevens explains how Whether you have one server to look after or a whole rackful, day-to-day management...

Vendors of small-business KVM solutions.(keyboard video mouse)(Directory)(Brief article)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Alan Stevens Vendors of small-business KVM solutions Adder Technology (www.adder.com) -- affordable small-business KVM products, including Adderlink-IP using VNC software. Aten (www.aten.co.uk) -- full range of...

Lights out.(remote control of servers)(Brief article)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Alan Stevens Lights out The leading computer vendors understand the need for server remote control and other remote management facilities and increasingly offer such options as standard. Dell includes several management...

Setting up PGP encryption in popular email clients.(Pretty Good Privacy)(Microsoft Outlook)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Mark Schroeder Setting up PGP encryption in popular email clients Outlook To use encryption in Outlook, you'll need the English version of the free GnuPG plug-in from G Data (http://tinyurl.com/yszus). Install it and...

Lock up your emails.(use encryption)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Mark Schroeder Lock up your emails The contents of an email can usually be seen on any machine it passes through. But it doesn't have to be that way, as Stefan Greiner and Mark SchrA[paragraph]der explain When it...

Yoggie Gatekeeper Pro.(internet security device)(Product/service evaluation)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Paul Monckton Yoggie Gatekeeper Pro An easy-to-use, pocket-size USB internet security suite You'll probably regard the firewall as that thing the IT department at work uses to stop you larking around on the likes of...

Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 3000.(tv tuner card)(Product/service evaluation)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Terry Relph-Knight Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 3000 PCI tri-mode TV tuner card with satellite, Freeview and analogue support The Hauppauge WinTV-HVR 3000 is a PCI TV tuner card that provides both analogue and digital tuners. ...

Testing times.(testing websites with every browser after designing the site)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Tobias Hause Testing times Websites can quickly be built, but making sure they work in every browser is a lengthy process. Tobias Hause looks at some of the tools that will help you T o build a successful website you have...

Useful tools for testing your site Capabilities of the individual browser: www.aadmm.de/en.(Brief article)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Tobias Hause Useful tools for testing your site Capabilities of the individual browser: www.aadmm.de/en Browser compatibility for CSS: www.webreference.com/authoring/style/sheets/browser_support/Microsoft Virtual PC:...

Resident Evil 4.(video game)(Product/service evaluation)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Jonathan Parkyn Resident Evil 4 How does this classic console horror survive its transition to the desktop? Resident Evil 4 for the PC has taken a long time to arrive. The game was originally released in 2005 for the...

Other self-publishing organisations.(Brief article)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Ken McMahon Other self-publishing organisations It's difficult to find anything else in the self-publishing world that matches Lulu.com for simplicity and value for money. In spite of the fact that they use print on demand,...

How do I get my book on Amazon?(Brief article)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Ken McMahon How do I get my book on Amazon? Lulu offers two fee-based distribution options. 'Published by Lulu', which costs $99.95 (approx [pounds sterling]50), is available outside of the US. With this distribution service...

Publish yourself.(self publishing)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Ken McMahon Publish yourself Everyone, it's said, has a book inside them. Thanks to online publishing services, it's easy to become an author. Ken McMahon explains how Self-publishing and its relative, vanity publishing,...

Shuttle SD39P2.(personal computers)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Emil Larsen Shuttle SD39P2 Price [pounds sterling]330 Contact www.shuttle.com Overall HHHHH The SD39P2, which includes a motherboard, case and power supply, can take all of Intel's fastest processors, including its latest...

Solar Technology Freeloader.(battery charger)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Will Stapley Solar Technology Freeloader Price [pounds sterling]29.99 Contact www.solartechnology.co.uk Overall HHHHH Seeing your mobile phone flash 'battery low' when you're miles away from a power socket is never a...

Any media, anywhere, anytime.(using home theater equipment with personal computer)(Column)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Gordon Laing Any media, anywhere, anytime Gordon Laing explains how to plan and create a multimedia home network, and how to ensure it keeps going smoothly Today, PCs are increasingly found at the heart of our home...

Readers' Drives: A clutter-free life.
April 19, 2007... Byline: Gordon Laing Readers' Drives: A clutter-free life PCW Reader Bartley O'Malley had a compelling and all-too-familiar reason for setting up his home media system. "My lounge was chock-full of videos and DVDs. They took up a lot...

Readers' Drives: A logical choice.(home entertainment systems)(Column)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Gordon Laing Readers' Drives: A logical choice PCW reader Martin Jones already had two PCs and a server for business purposes at home, so it seemed a logical step to use them as a basis for a media network. "I wanted to...

Windows Home Server.(operating system)(Product/service evaluation)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Gordon Laing Windows Home Server Windows Home Server is a new Microsoft product designed for families who own multiple PCs and want to easily store, share and back up their information. First announced in January and...

The legalities of ripping.(data encryption from compact disks and digital videodisks)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Gordon Laing The legalities of ripping It is common for people to transfer or 'rip' the contents of CDs or DVDs onto their hard disks, usually in a compressed format to make the resulting files small and manageable. The aim...

JUNE 2002.
April 19, 2007... Byline: Emil Larsen JUNE 2002 Five years ago this month, we led with 100 advanced tips for Windows 95, 98, ME and XP. The 40 keyboard shortcuts ranged from bypassing the recycle bin to delete items, to one-button renaming of files....

June 1992.
April 19, 2007... Byline: Emil Larsen June 1992 The big news on the front cover of PCW in June 1992 was the launch of IBM's OS/2 2.0. OS/2 was the biggest rival to Windows. It was more advanced, as it was capable of real-time multitasking, which...

June 1982.
April 19, 2007... Byline: Emil Larsen June 1982 The cover of our June 1982 edition showed a chimp playing with Clive Sinclair's ZX Spectrum, a follow-up to the hit ZX81. Our reviewer David Tebbutt wrote that Uncle Clive had done it again by producing...

Roxio Easy Media Creator 9 Deluxe.(desktop video software)(Product/service evaluation)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Paul Lester Roxio Easy Media Creator 9 Deluxe An already bustling suite gets an upgrade As you'll read in our review of Easy Media Creator 9 (www.pcw.co.uk/2165753), Roxio's media suite is impressive. This Deluxe version...

ECS NF650iSLIT-A.(motherboards)(Product/service evaluation)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Emil Larsen ECS NF650iSLIT-A A mainstream motherboard with good features and performance The new ECS NF650iSLIT-A motherboard is based on Nvidia's middle-of-the-road 650i chipset. This is closely related to Nvidia's 680i,...

Revival of the fittest.(Olympus America Inc. introducing E-410 and E-510 digital single lens reflex cameras)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Gordon Laing Revival of the fittest Olympus looks set to regain its place as one of the top three camera manufacturers. And the other two will bea[bar] ? Like Germany's Photokina show, the US-hosted Photo Marketing...

One laptop, one child -- many problems.(One Laptop Per Child project for developing nations)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Barry Fox One laptop, one child -- many problems The stark realities of poverty in the developing world could derail the laudable One Laptop Per Child project In rural India, kids beg for pens -- not pennies, but pens. This...

Money matters.(prices of self publishing)(Brief article)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Ken McMahon Money matters A key difference between Lulu.com and other self-publishing companies is that there are no up-front fees and you pay only for the books you produce. So you only pay for a book to be produced when you...

Canon Pixma IP2500.(color printer)(Product/service evaluation)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Will Stapley Canon Pixma IP2500 No speed demon, but a decent alternative to high-street printing There's no shortage of printers under [pounds sterling]50 these days, many housing built-in scanners. Canon's new budget...

Panasonic NV-GS80.(digital camera)(Product/service evaluation)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Emil Larsen Panasonic NV-GS80 An entry-level model that attempts to get the basics right The NV-GS80 is Panasonic's latest entry-level digital camera and it uses familiar MiniDV tapes to record digital widescreen footage....

Copyright & licensing.(Brief article)
April 19, 2007... Copyright & licensing The copyright in a book automatically belongs to the author -- there's no need to register anything. When you publish your book on Lulu.com, you can choose from a number of licensing options. The standard copyright...

Asus M2A-VM.(motherboard)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Emil Larsen Asus M2A-VM Price [pounds sterling]52 Contact www.asus.com Overall HHHHH The Asus M2A-VM motherboard features AMD's first chipset with integrated graphics since the company took over graphics specialist ATI. ...

Octigen 3.5in enclosure.(hard disk enclosures)(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Kelvyn Taylor Octigen 3.5in enclosure Price [pounds sterling]17.99 Contact www.octigen.com Overall HHHHH Octigen's USB2 drive enclosure accepts any size of parallel ATA (Pata) hard drive. Installation is a bit fiddly, but...

Quite a picture.(connecting monitors with microprocessor)(Column)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Paul Monckton Quite a picture The technology to link your PC to your monitor is evolving, promising easier connections and more flexibility for multimedia. Paul Monckton compares the next-generation interfaces There's very...

STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl.(computer games)(Product/service evaluation)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Jonathan Parkyn STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl Just how much of a Russian revolution is THQ's post-nuclear shooter? Many games stretch the boundaries of taste -- from Grand Theft Auto's meaningless acts of wanton violence, to...

Infernal.(computer game)(Product/service evaluation)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Jonathan Parkyn Infernal Eidos' flame-grilled action game finds itself stuck between heaven and hell Gamers are used to an unending flow of generic, derivative games -- usually in the strategy genre. Unoriginal action...

HP Touchsmart IQ770.(personal computer)(Product/service evaluation)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Emil Larsen HP Touchsmart IQ770 A touchscreen kitchen or living room PC with notebook innards As PCs go, the Touchsmart IQ770 doesn't look like a machine on which you can do any useful work. Strange angles and an excellent...

A matter of spin.(hard disk drives)
April 19, 2007... Byline: RenA[c] Grau A matter of spin Storage capacity has never been more affordable and the improvement in performance is enormous. RenA[c] Grau tests 236 models and points out some future trends With solid-state disks, hybrid...

Last bit standing.(magnetic recording technoology in hard disks)(Brief article)
April 19, 2007... Byline: RenA[c] Grau Last bit standing At 500GB you reach the limit for traditional magnetic recording technology on hard disks -- you just can't physically cram more data horizontally onto the disk. For this reason, hard disk...

Hard disks for Vista.(Brief article)
April 19, 2007... Byline: RenA[c] Grau Hard disks for Vista One of the latest developments in mass storage is the hybrid hard disk. To give extra performance and reduce power consumption in laptops, an extra non-volatile cache memory is mounted on the...

Syncwrangler workshop.(audio software)(Brief article)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Mike Williams Copy or synchronise only chosen music and video files with Syncwrangler 1Tired of restrictive, one-way iTunes to iPod synchronisations? Syncwrangler can copy music in the other direction, too, effectively making...

Syncwrangler upgrade.
April 19, 2007... Byline: Mike Williams 25 per cent off Acertant software NEW FEATURES Restore previous versions of documents Protect against accidental deletion Compatible with all file types/apps Explorer integration for easy...

Syncwrnagler.
April 19, 2007... Byline: Mike Williams Syncwrangler Advanced music and video synchronisation for iTunes and the iPod Most iPod backup and synchronisation tools use little more than file names and modification dates when they're deciding what to...

Serif workshop.(PhotoPlus graphics software)(Brief article)(Column)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Mike Williams Three ways Photoplus can add a professional touch to favourite images 1Photoplus has plenty of interesting and fun effects to play with. Click Effects > Instant Artist to change any image into a painting, for...

Serif upgrade.(Serif Photoplus Studio graphics software)(Brief article)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Mike Williams Save [pounds sterling]10 on Serif Photoplus Studio NEW FEATURES Many new filters and effects Integrated screen capture tool Paint tools support anti-aliasing Easier layer management Email...

Serif.
April 19, 2007... Byline: Mike Williams Serif Photoplus 8 Sophisticated photo editor packed with tools and special effects In a world full of competent photo-editing packages, it's far from easy to make your program stand out from the crowd. This...

Microsoft upgrade.(virtual hard disks)(Brief article)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Mike Williams more Virtual Hard Disks This is the very latest version of Virtual PC, not cut down in any way, so there's no upgrade available. If you're a business user interested in getting more out of the technology, though,...

Disc Magix workshop.(Magix Photo Clinic image processing software)(Brief article)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Mike Williams Fix common photo problems in a couple of clicks with Magix Photo Clinic 1Magix Photo Clinic is an ideal image-editing solution, even for inexperienced users, thanks to its 1-Click menu. Select this and you'll get...

Magix upgrade.(Magix Photo Manager 2006 Deluxe)(Brief article)
April 19, 2007... Byline: Mike Williams Magix Photo Manager 2006 Deluxe NEW FEATURES Create a photo slideshow on DVD Find and delete similar photos Export your photos to any format Automatically optimise your photos Share your...