Personal Computer World articles from August 2008

Personal Computer World archives from August 2008

Commercial translation options.(Brief article)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Stephen Copestake Commercial translation options As a test, we translated a simple phrase ('this cake is covered in nuts') into Italian and French, using the principal free services discussed here. Babel Fish and Windows Live...

Translate web pages.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Stephen Copestake Translate web pages Never before have so many websites been incomprehensible to so many people. Now, though, it's easy to translate foreign-language sites, explains Stephen Copestake As one more step in...

Devices and desires.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Mark Whitehorn Devices and desires A mobile broadband USB stick tested and a solution to a speed-critical problem Advertising exists to influence other people, not me. Yeah, right. A long while ago, I saw an elderly...

Screen grabbing.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Ken McMahon Screen grabbing Everything you ever needed to know about screengrabs, but were afraid to ask It will come as no surprise that I spend a lot of time making screengrabs, but I'm not alone. For teachers, software...

That syncing feeling.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Gordon Laing That syncing feeling In August's Hardware column, I described how file synchronisation software may deliver a superior backup solution for many people than dedicated backup software. The main benefit is having...

DIY Windows Home Server.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Alan Stevens DIY Windows Home Server How to put together your very own Windows Home Server I thought it was about time I started to get some hands-on experience of Windows Home Server (WHS), especially now that the first...

Speed up with able cable.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Gordon Laing Speed up with able cable The quality of your cabling can make a difference to network speeds A recent house move meant I had to lay some fresh network cable, so I took the opportunity to upgrade. I'd previously...

Flanging and phasing.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Niall Magennis Flanging and phasing A lesson on making the most of modulation effects in your music Back in the August issue, we started to take an in-depth look at audio effects and how you can best use them in your music....

Pitch shifting.(Brief article)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Niall Magennis Pitch shifting Although the pitch shifter effect has been superseded in modern audio sequencers by more complicated and realistic-sounding time-stretching algorithms, the effect is still used as a way of...

Pivot Tables explained.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Stephen Wells Pivot Tables explained Explore how Excel's Pivot Table can help you to make sense of your data Whether you call it a table, list or flat-file database, a series of records all neatly split into the same...

Searching solutions.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Tim Anderson Searching solutions How to add a search feature and display an image in Visual Studio Last month's column showed two approaches to managing data in Visual Basic, using an SQL Server Compact Edition image...

Fixing disappearing data.(Brief article)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Tim Anderson Fixing disappearing data There is an ugly problem with the way Visual Studio handles local databases. If you add a local database following all the defaults, you get a SQL Server CE database in your project. You...

Visual clues and breadcrumbs.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Tim Nott Visual clues and breadcrumbs Disk space in pictures, a trail of breadcrumbs, a screensaver mystery solved, and more Where's my disk space gone? Who among us has not asked themselves this question? I know I have...

Little boxes.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Tim Nott Little boxes Find out how to manipulate Word's text boxes and use a macro for counting words Last month we looked at some of the things you can do with Word's newspaper-style columns and text boxes. However,...

Essential extras.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Barry Shilliday Essential extras Get more out of your new Linux installation with these packages Last month we looked at the recent releases of two popular Linux distributions, Fedora 9 and Ubuntu 8.04 LTS. Overall, the...

Question time.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Various Databases QI've seen a great feature on someone else's Access 2003 form that I'd like to use in my own database application. On the form is a hyperlink to a Word document. As you'd probably guess, clicking the link...

October 1983.(Brief article)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Emil Larsen October 1983 "The unbeatable TI Home Computer. It's all the computers your family will ever need." That's a pretty bold statement for a machine with only 16KB of Ram (expandable to 52KB) and for which a "floppy...

October 2003.(Brief article)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Emil Larsen October 2003 We were reeling from the effects of the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act in October 2003, with our Editor Dylan Armbrust kicking off the issue saying innovation would be sacrificed by such laws. He...

October 1993.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Emil Larsen October 1993 October 1993 saw the first appearance of PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect), the new local bus. The design separated the processor and memory from other devices in the computer, and promised...

Safe as houses.
August 7, 2008... Safe as houses How to build a monitoring system using your existing PC setup In this month's Hardware column, we're taking a look at security monitoring from a PC perspective and revisiting the subject of file synchronisation as an...

NETWORKS GALORE.(Brief article)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Nigel whitfield NETWORKS GALORE Networks are just about everywhere these days, and in this month's Hands On Hardware we look at how you can use them for home security, while in Performance we find out if you really will notice...

Creating bootable ISOs.(Brief article)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Scott Colvey & Kelvyn Taylor Creating bootable ISOs Most readers will be familiar with booting a PC from a CD or DVD disc. This is possible thanks to an extension to the ISO 9660 standard called El Torito. This specifies the...

Microsofti?1/2s hidden gem.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Scott Colvey & Kelvyn Taylor Microsoft's hidden gem No versions of Windows support working directly with ISO or other image files; a great omission according to most users. But for some time Microsoft has provided a...

Burn an ISO image onto a CD.(Brief article)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Scott Colvey & Kelvyn Taylor Burn an ISO image onto a CD In this feature we've concentrated on working with ISO files in a virtual format but there will be occasions when it makes sense to burn the files to disc to create a...

Image is everything.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Scott Colvey & Kelvyn Taylor Image is everything Disc images, such as ISO files, are incredibly useful and not difficult to use once you understand the basics. Scott Colvey and Kelvyn Taylor explain Anyone who has...

Mysecurity247 mybusiness247.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Alan Stevens Mysecurity247 mybusiness247 See what's going on in your office wherever you are Conventional burglar alarms and surveillance systems can be costly, especially if you opt for a monitored solution, and even then...

Powerdsine 7000G High Power.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Alan Stevens Powerdsine 7000G High Power Deliver more power over the Lan with these new hubs Now a part of Microsemi, Power over Ethernet (PoE) pioneer Powerdsine has introduced a new range of mid-span hubs able to offer a...

Synology DS508.(Product/service evaluation)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Alan Stevens Synology DS508 Share files and a whole lot more with this neat little appliance With dual network ports, five hot-swap disk bays and support for cross-platform network file sharing, the Disk Station DS508 from...

Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Alan Stevens Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security Take the worry out of protecting your network As its name implies, Worry-Free Business Security (WFBS) from Trend Micro is designed to take the worry out of protecting a...

Extrinsica Office Anywhere.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Alan Stevens Extrinsica Office Anywhere Take the office with you A- wherever you go Extrinsica Office Anywhere is a little different from other hosted software services. It uses Citrix software to provide remote access to...

break the barrier.(Brief article)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Alan Stevens break the barrier English may be the language of business, but with the spread of the internet, there's an increasing need to be able to understand what customers, competitors and partners in other countries are...

D-Link DSM-330.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Paul Lester D-Link DSM-330 Price [pounds sterling]135 Contact D-Link 0208 955 9000 www.dlink.co.uk D-Link teamed up with DivX to produce the DSM-330, originally offering access to DivX's Stage6 video download portal. This...

Archos TV+.(Product/service evaluation)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Paul Lester Archos TV+ Price [pounds sterling]169.99 Contact Archos www.archos.com Better known for its portable media players, it's perhaps no surprise the Archos TV+ exhibits many of the features found on its 605 Wifi...

Apple TV.(Product/service evaluation)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Paul Lester Apple TV Price [pounds sterling]200 Contact Apple 0800 048 0408 www.apple.com/uk No media streaming group test would be complete without a look at the Apple TV, and now iTunes is increasing the amount of video...

Whati?1/2s online?
August 7, 2008... Byline: Paul Lester What's online? As well as streaming from a home network, many media streamers offer access to online services. You can stream or download videos, movies, music and photos, and other resources such as weather...

Streaming software.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Paul Lester Streaming software When you set up a streamer on a home network you'll need to make sure the media you want to share is accessible, and there are a range of ways in which you can do this. One of the most common is...

Pinnacle Showcenter 250HD.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Paul Lester Pinnacle Showcenter 250HD Price [pounds sterling]129 Contact Pinnacle 01753 655 999 www.pinnaclesys.com A rather bland-looking device, the Showcenter 250HD won't win any design awards, and despite offering...

Netgear EVA8000.(Product/service evaluation)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Paul Lester Netgear EVA8000 Price [pounds sterling]210 Contact Netgear 01344 458 200 www.netgear.co.uk This streamer from Netgear was released more than a year ago and, despite offering bags of potential, ultimately let...

Linksys 1600.(Product/service evaluation)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Paul Lester Linksys 1600 Price [pounds sterling]220 Contact Linksys 0800 068 0327 www-uk.linksys.com It's been around for some time now, but the Linksys 1600 was fairly successful on initial release and, after a series of...

Stream machines.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Paul Lester Stream machines Paul Lester gets up close and personal with the latest media streamers that promise to set your digital movies, music and photos free If you're a fan of home cinema and haven't come across media...

Freecom Mediaplayer 450.(Product/service evaluation)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Paul Lester Freecom Mediaplayer 450 Price [pounds sterling]149.99 Contact Freecom 01423 704700 www.freecom.com With a short but successful history in the media streaming market, Freecom has been updating its range by...

Media streamers editor's choice.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Paul Lester One factor we noticed about almost all of the media streamers in this group test is that both standard definition performance and format support is very good across the board when using an 802.11g wireless network. Some...

D-Link DSM-510.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Paul Lester D-Link DSM-510 Price [pounds sterling]170 Contact D-Link 0208 955 9000 www.dlink.co.uk Despite the similar name, this player is very different to D-Link's DSM-330. It's also one of the most compact streamers...

Lock down your PC.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Jason D'Allison Lock down your PC Jason d'Allison shows you how to use the free Windows Steady State tool to create an almost indestructible Windows installation, suitable for use at home or in the office If you've used a...

Alternatives to Steady State.(Brief article)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Jason D'Allison Alternatives to Steady State Where there's a market, there's usually competition, and so it is with Steady State. Out of the several alternatives to Steady State that are available, probably the most prominent...

How to tweak Steady Statei?1/2s Disk Protection.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Jason D'Allison How to tweak Steady State's Disk Protection 1 Disk Protection is great, but it can be somewhat inflexible. As you've seen, it will stop every one of the PC's users from permanently storing personal data on the...

Sandisk Sansa Fuze.(Product/service evaluation)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Paul Lester Sandisk Sansa Fuze Can this recent addition to the Sansa range challenge Apple's Nano? There's little doubt Sandisk is pitching the Sansa Fuze as a direct competitor to iPod Nano. Although around twice as...

Switch on and save.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Nigel Whitfield Switch on and save Choose the wrong power supply and your PC could end up costing more than you think. Nigel Whitfield investigates If you're thinking about upgrading or building a computer from scratch,...

PSU standards.(Brief article)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Nigel Whitfield PSU standards Standard PC power supplies should conform to the ATX industry standard to ensure they will fit in an ATX-compliant case and power any ATX-compliant factor motherboard. There are several other form...

Branded for life.(Brief article)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Nigel Whitfield Branded for life While many people are familiar with the main brand names for most PC components, few could name many power supply manufacturers. Some reputable names to look out for are Akasa, Antec, Be Quiet,...

NEC Versa S9100.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Emil Larsen NEC Versa S9100 A lightweight marvel with solid business credentials, but little glamour Ultraportable notebooks have been given a kick up the innovation backside with the arrival of the Macbook Air. NEC...

Ion VCR 2 PC.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Ken McMahon Ion VCR 2 PC Digitise your VHS videos at the touch of a button One of the drawbacks associated with converting old VHS tapes to digital video is the number of cables involved. The Ion VCR 2 PC, available from...

Magix Xtreme Photo & Graphic Designer.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Ken McMahon Magix Xtreme Photo & Graphic Designer Some useful tools, but this suite could do with tighter integration A suite of three applications, Magix Xtreme Photo & Graphic Designer comprises a photo editor, vector...

Converting VHS to DVD using Rescue your Videotapes.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Ken McMahon Converting VHS to DVD using Rescue your Videotapes 1 Connect your camcorder or VCR to the video converter using an S-video cable if it has an S-video port. Otherwise connect the composite video output to the yellow...

Time base correctors.(Brief article)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Ken McMahon Time base correctors Many of the problems that are associated with poor VHS quality are due to mechanical differences that make it impossible to play back the video signal from the VHS tape in the same way that it...

Commercial conversion services.(Brief article)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Ken McMahon Commercial conversion services If you don't fancy the DIY route, there's no shortage of companies offering to transfer your VHS tapes to DVD for you. These companies are conversion specialists and can work with most...

Other codecs.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Ken McMahon Other codecs The only codec you need to know about for making DVDs is MPEG2. But if you want to encode HD video, put movies on a website, or play them back on a handheld, you might want to expand your codec...

Convert VHS to DVD.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Ken McMahon Convert VHS to DVD Don't let your old VHS tapes rot away in your loft A- use the latest technology to preserve them, says Ken McMahon Consumer digital video has been with us, in one form or another, for more...

What youi?1/2ll need to get started.(Buyers guide)(Brief article)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Ken McMahon What you'll need to get started Here's a summary of the converter products we've mentioned in this feature, plus some alternative USB converter boxes you might like to investigate. Magix Rescue your Videotapes...

Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Cliff Joseph Adobe Acrobat 9 Pro The popular Acrobat series branches out into multimedia Coinciding with the decision of the ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) to adopt the Acrobat PDF file format as an...

Advent 5313.(Product/service evaluation)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Emil Larsen Advent 5313 Price [pounds sterling]399 Contact Advent 0844 561 0000 www.pcworld.co.uk Undercutting our price barrier by [pounds sterling]100 while offering a good processor, Ram and hard drive is an impressive...

The second-hand alternative.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Emil Larsen The second-hand alternative The rate at which a computer's value depreciates can be severe, but as there's no regulated market for used hardware, there are no official guides to second-hand value. Laptops have...

Toshiba Satellite Pro A300D-131.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Emil Larsen Toshiba Satellite Pro A300D-131 Price [pounds sterling]421 Contact Toshiba 0870 444 8944 www.computers.toshiba.co.uk Toshiba has produced some excellent notebook designs in the past year, and the A300D-131 is...

Samsung R410.(Product/service evaluation)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Emil Larsen Samsung R410 Price [pounds sterling]499 Contact Samsung 0870 726 7864 www.samsung.co.uk The R410 has been given Samsung's traditional all-black lick of paint A- glossy on the LCD backing and matt on the rest of...

PC Nextday Logiq 12.1in Laptop.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Emil Larsen PC Nextday Logiq 12.1in Laptop Price [pounds sterling]499 Contact PC Nextday 0870 609 0125 www.pcnextday.co.uk At first glance, the Logiq looks like a highly desirable laptop. With a 12.1in screen and compact...

MSI Wind.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Emil Larsen MSI Wind Price [pounds sterling]329.99 Contact MSI 020 8813 6688 www.msicomputer.co.uk With a 10in screen, the MSI Wind isn't far off PC Nextday's Logiq 12.1in display. However, excluding the power adapter, it...

Notebooks that pack a punch.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Emil Larsen Notebooks that pack a punch Low-cost laptops are certainly taking the market by storm. Emil Larsen puts eight models through their paces and picks the best of the bunch The back-to-school period is upon...

Hi-Grade D7000SRL.(Product/service evaluation)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Emil Larsen Hi-Grade D7000SRL Price [pounds sterling]499 Contact Hi-Grade 020 8532 6111 www.hi-grade.com Hi-Grade's D7000SRL is one of the most desirable laptops. Its LCD backing is a chequered pattern with the Hi-Grade...

Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Pi 2540.(Product/service evaluation)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Emil Larsen Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Pi 2540 Price [pounds sterling]499 Contact Tesco 0845 600 4411 www.tesco.com Vista is the first Windows operating system to implement desktop compositing, where the 2D desktop (with 3D...

i?1/2499 laptops editor's choice.(Product/service evaluation)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Emil Larsen There was only one laptop with a discrete graphics card this month, and it managed to include this without having to make cuts elsewhere. But it wasn't just a graphics card Fujitsu Siemens managed to squeeze into its...

Asus F5RL.(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Emil Larsen Asus F5RL Price [pounds sterling]479 Contact Asus http://uk.asus.com Asus submitted its F5R laptop to our [pounds sterling]499 group test 11 months ago, and since then very little has changed. It's the same...

Mesh Elite IQ 2180.(Product/service evaluation)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Will Stapley Mesh Elite IQ 2180 Basic price, with decent performance Opening up a desktop PC and inspecting the internals gives a few clues as to how much care and attention has gone into the making of the machine. It's...

Brother MFC-7840W.(Product/service evaluation)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Anthony Dhanendran Brother MFC-7840W A compact printer/scanner suitable for home offices For an office workhorse device, the Brother MFC-7840W is surprisingly small. Despite packing in a scanner, copier and fax...

Akasa Power Xtreme 1200W Price: i?1/2224.(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Simon Crisp Akasa Power Xtreme 1200W Price: [pounds sterling]224 www.akasa.co.uk Overall: HHHHH Akasa's latest high-end power supply is rated at 1,200W and features six independent +12v rails, a rated 80 per cent...

Zerotherm ZEN FZ-120 Price: i?1/228.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Simon Crisp Zerotherm ZEN FZ-120 Price: [pounds sterling]28 www.quietpc.com Overall: HHHHH Zerotherm's Zen FZ-120 is a four heat-pipe CPU cooler that uses a standard 120mm PWM (pulse width modulated) fan which...

Western Digital Scorpio Black 320 Price: i?1/269.30.(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Simon Crisp Western Digital Scorpio Black 320 Price: [pounds sterling]69.30 www.wdc.com Overall: HHHHH The latest additions to Western Digital's Scorpio 2.5in drive line-up lurk under the banner of Scorpio Black...

PNY XLR8.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Simon Crisp PNY XLR8 Price: [pounds sterling]84.99 www.pny.com Overall: HHHHH This 2GB kit is the current top-of-the-range memory in PNY's line up. It consists of two 1GB PC2-9384 (DDR2 1,173MHz) models. Both are...

Dimastech Bench Table Easy V2 Price: i?1/2138.(Product/service evaluation)(Brief article)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Simon Crisp Dimastech Bench Table Easy V2 Price: [pounds sterling]138 www.dimastech.it Overall: HHHHH If you're into overclocking, the last thing you need is a case to put everything in - instead you'll need to...

Coolermaster Z600 Price: i?1/235.(Brief article)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Simon Crisp Coolermaster Z600 Price: [pounds sterling]35 www.coolermaster.com Overall: HHHHH A passive CPU cooler, the Z600 is designed in an X-shape with six U-shaped heatpipes that run from the copper base and...

Buffalo Firestix PC2-8500 Price: i?1/245.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Simon Crisp Buffalo Firestix PC2-8500 Price: [pounds sterling]45 www.buffalotech.com Overall: HHHHH This 2GB kit comprises two 1GB modules of PC2-8500 DDR2 memory clocked at a standard 1,066MHz and with CAS5...

Samsung NV24HD.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Paul Monckton Samsung NV24HD A powerful pocket camera with HD video recording Samsung's NV cameras all look and feel very similar, with only relatively minor cosmetic differences apparent from the outside. Cameras of this...

Pinnacle Studio 12 Ultimate.(Product/service evaluation)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Jonathan Parkyn Pinnacle Studio 12 Ultimate Has this home movie editing app reached the peak of its powers? Version 12 of Pinnacle Studio is hardly what we would call a drastic reinvention. There appear to have been few...

Ability Office Business.(Product/service evaluation)
August 7, 2008... Byline: Tim Smith Ability Office Business Is this value office suite good enough value to ward off Open Office? Competition is fierce in the office suite market. Few suites can match Microsoft Office for collaboration and sheer...

Apple Mobile Me.
August 7, 2008... Byline: Cliff Joseph Apple Mobile Me Apple extends its online service to PC users too A- but with mixed results Mobile Me started life as .Mac (pronounced 'dot-Mac') A- an online email and storage service for Mac users. It also...