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Date: 2005.10.16 15:41:54
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13 - 26 October 2005 ISSUE 120
PLUS
BEST MP3 PLAYERS
PLUS
DIGITAL MUSIC SPECIAL
WORKSHOP: EDIT
YOUR MP3s
iTunes phone - read our verdict
PLUS
JOHN PEEL - HEAR HIS
DEBUT RADIO 1 SHOW
MORRISSEY
BRIAN WILSON
ALANIS MORISSETTE
JAMES BLUNT
STARSAILOR
WALLACE & GROMIT
Watch clips from the new film
FREE email
software on test
Google Earth
A complete guide
Latest
bidding
tool tested
www.webuser.co.uk
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Welcome
from the Editor
Music revolution
13 – 26 Oct 2005
I
’ve always embraced technology, but if
you’d told me 10 years ago that I’d have
the world’s largest record shop in my
spare room and would be carrying my
entire record collection in something the
size of a soap bar, I’d probably have
suggested you take a holiday. Today,
music is easier than ever to explore and
enjoy thanks to the internet and technologies like the iPod.
Discovering new artists, golden oldies and live performances
now takes minutes not months. Buying a new record is even
quicker with the superb download services now available. And
you can even edit the pops and clicks out of your recordings –
something you could only have dreamed of during the vinyl era.
This issue, we’ve gathered the very latest tools and services for
everyone with an interest in music (page 20), plus we’ve shown
you where to get started with some free music downloads.
See you next issue!
Andrew Craig Editor
[email protected]
Issue 120
contents
Features
12 Phishing scams
Online fraudsters will try anything to get their
hands on your cash. We reveal their latest ploys
20 The ultimate guide to digital music
The best hardware and software – and where to
find the freshest tunes and your favourite golden oldies
p20
26 Beat the queues
Still lining up in the bank, the airport check-in or for cinema
tickets? Jump these and other queues online
28 Wireless troubleshooting
Solutions to common Wi-Fi problems
52 Group Test: Free email software
p52
We test Outlook Express and its main rivals
Regulars
4 News All the latest on the web this fortnight, including
Unplugged and Downloads of the Fortnight
10 Letters 14 Best New Websites
30 Sitefinder: Reference websites
32 Broadband User 35 Downloaded
43 CashPoints & Shopping Challenge
In thisissue
p45
£1.85
Including the best price for a Rio Carbon
Pearl music player
307
we
bsi
tes
ins
ide
!
ERS
DVD PLYAY
READER!
ABEBLE
! PORTFIR
OX FOR EVER≥
WIN
S £5 OFF AT
PLU
NIGHT
EVERY FORT
p20
ISSUE 120
ber 2005
13 - 26 Octo
p20
PLUS
AY
BEST MP3 PL
p60
ERS
PLUS
p54
PECIAL
MUSIC S
DIGITAL
rdict
SHOP: EDIT
WORKUR
YO MP3s
rth
Google Ea
guide
A complete
bidding
Latest ted
tool tes
ve
e - read our
iTunes phon
PLUS
- HEAR HIS
JOHN PEEL IO 1 SHOW
DEBUT RADY
MORRISSE SON
BRIAN WIL RISSETTE
ALANIS MONT
JAMES BLU R
STARSAILO
p35
ROMIT
WALLLAACE & G
ser.co.uk
www.webu
FREE emailon test
software
Your top Wiso-Filved
problems
p50
p55
p28
Subscribe
to Web User
Average sales, Jan-Dec 2004,
44,211 copies per issue
65
72 Web User Essentials
74 Seen this? & Next Issue
p47
Practical Web User
p57
Manage and edit your photos with Picasa 2
60 WorkshopMasterclass
Edit your MP3 files using Audacity
am
11:22:38
5/10/05
dd 1
p52
mobile phone with iTunes • Onbidder
Classified including Web User Directory
57 PracticalFeature
e new film
ps from th
Watch cli
p40
p43
45 Competition: Win goodies from Firebox!
47 Most Wanted
50 Instant Expert: Google Earth
54 New Products • Motorola ROKR E1
Get a fantastic deal on the UK’s
favourite internet magazine
– see page 44 for details
61 DIY WebPages 62 ProblemSolver
63 ReaderHelpsReader 64 Hints&Tips
What to download and
where to find it this fortnight…
…and audio books
35 Music
39 Games
40 Film & TV
…trailers and clips
42 Sport
…and game extras,
previews and demos
…video and
audio coverage
FEATURING LINKS TO 307 WEBSITES
13 October 2005
3
News
≥ [email protected]
All the latest on the web this fortnight
≥ ISPS
≥ MUSIC
NTL and Telewest
join forces
olling Stones fans will soon have a new way to
hear the veteran rockers’ latest album – on a Flash
memory card.
Virgin Records plans to release the Stones’ A Bigger
Bang on a thumbnail-sized Micro SD card in early
November that can be played on some mobile phones or
put into an adapter and then read on any device with a
SD-card slot.
Tracks will be encoded so that people can’t copy the
files onto their computer hard disks.
However, all this technology doesn’t come cheap. It’s
expected the memory card will cost around $40 (£23),
almost three times the cost of a CD.
In separate news, fellow rockers The Darkness are also
using new technology to promote their latest single, One
Way Ticket. The track will be available as a ringtone six
weeks before its official release.
www.rollingstones.com
www.thedarknessrock.com
R
elewest customers have expressed concerns about the
future of their internet service after the cable company was
bought out by NTL.
The deal is still subject to various government approvals, but if
it goes ahead the combined company will become the largest
provider of residential broadband services in the country with
2.5 million broadband subscribers, 3.3 million TV subscribers
and 4.3 million fixed-line telephony subscribers.
NTL spokesman Malcolm Padley told Web User that from
NTL and Telewest customers’ point of view it will be
‘business as usual’, with no changes expected any time soon.
NTL’s image has improved recently after the lows of 2002
when, according to Ofcom, it was the most complained
about telecoms company in the UK.
Aggrieved customers started their own website, nthellworld,
as a way to vent their spleens about the ISP. NTL ended up
buying the site in an effort to dampen the fury.
On the Web User forums, Telewest customer Metal Mickey
posted: “I hope this doesn’t mean I will be subjected to the
atrocious service that NTHell customers have.”
But Telewest’s site states: “There is no change to
existing products, services and prices. There are also no
changes to contracts or terms and conditions. We remain
focused on delivering the high standard of products and
services you deserve.”
www.telewest.co.uk/ntl_telewest_agreement.html#how_
affect_me
T
Quote
of the fortnight
It is to me a
fundamental right
to have access,
“
4
NTL
TELEWEST
3.3m customers
(1.6m broadband)
1.8m customers
(853,000m broadband)
■ 1Mbps broadband £9.99
(for 12 months) (3Gb usage
allowance)
■ 512 Kbps £9.99 a month.
No usage limit
■ 2Mbps £24.99 a month
(30Gb usage allowance)
■ Up to 4Mbps (rolling out)
£19.99 for first three months,
then £25. No usage limit
■ 3Mpbs £37.99 a month
(30Gb usage allowance)
■ Up to 10Mbps (rolling out)
£35 a month. No usage limit
13 October 2005
”
San Francisco Mayor Gavin
Newsom arguing that Wi-Fi
should be available
free to all
Rolling Stones’ new
album will be sold on a
Flash memory card
≥ WEBSITES
Million dollar
rip-off
I
mitation may be the sincerest
form of flattery, but in the
case of Alex Tew’s Million
Dollar Homepage, it looks like
straight copying.
Last issue we told you about
Tew’s attempt to sell a million
pixels on his site for $1 each.
To date, the Cotswolds
student has sold more than
250,000, but now other people
are jumping on the bandwagon.
Website Milpixel.com is
tracking the phenomenon, and
lists more than 50 similar
websites, many of which feature
a slight twist.
Cameron Henkel and David
Gooden’s Projectpixels.com,
aims to make $1m in 90 days,
Competition Where’s Netty?
but so far they haven’t sold a
single pixel.
Another example is
BuyBrianABeer.com, made by a
web development company as a
promotional tool and as a way to
get free beer for their neighbour
Brian, an ex-postal worker who
lives on a disability benefit.
www.milliondollarhomepage
.com
www.milpixel.com
www.projectpixels.com
www.buybrianabeer.com
Football-loving Netty was showing off his skills on page 11 of last issue. Spot
≥ Your news team
Quentin Reade
News Editor
Veronique De Freitas
Staff Writer
Inbrief
≥ eBay seller left short
The man who tried to sell
everything he owns via eBay
in a bid to clear debts has
been left further in a hole after
the winning bidder refused to
pay up. Steven Hartwright,
23, of Derby, said the buyer
pulled out of the £22,100
sale when the lot had just
30 seconds let. eBay said it
is investigating.
http://buy-my-stuff.
blogspot.com
≥ The typical web user
JUMPIN’ JACK
FLASH
≥ LEARNING
Back to eBay school
uction site eBay has announced the
Autumn schedule for its eBay University
– weekend classes designed to help
people get more out of the auction site.
Two courses are now offered – ‘Beyond
the Basics’ is aimed at those who have
mastered the basics of selling but would like
to move onto the next level.
The second course is called Advanced
eBay Skills and focusses on learning about
specific topics and skills in greater depth.
Topics include search and email
marketing, maximising the opportunity of
your eBay shop, and PayPal.
eBay University’s next sessions will be
held in Hertfordshire, Manchester and the
Midlands. It costs £30 for the basic course
and £50 for the advanced.
www.ebay.confpeopleevents.co.uk
A
≥ VIRAL EMAILS
Emails win prizes
I
f you think you have what it takes to make a classic
viral email, you’ll love Channel 4’s new
competition.
Channel 4’s
IdeasFactory has
joined forces with viral
email site Bore Me
(www.boreme.com) to
run ‘Germ’ – the UK’s
first viral email
Have you got a germ of an idea?
competition.
The competition is open to everyone, with different
categories for media agencies and the general public,
and prizes including the Palm Treo 650 Smartphone
and an NEC monitor. But, perhaps more importantly,
your work could be seen by millions of people.
Channel 4 has created a site with information on
how to enter the competition, a breakdown of the
categories and advice from industry experts on how
to create a good viral email.
Entries can be submitted online from 17 October
to 5 December.
www.channel4.com/germ
him this time round, email [email protected] and you could win a prize (Issue 117’s winner: Jason Craker)
The average UK internet user
is likely to be a middle-aged,
suburban mother or father in
the 35-44 age group,
according to a new study
from online bank Cahoot.
The report also reveal a
large online take-up (60 per
cent) by those approaching
retirement.
www.cahoot.com
≥ Ad-free Opera
Opera Software has dropped
the advertising banners from
the free
version of
its PC
browser
software.
The Opera
browser features
pop-up blocking, tabbed
browsing, integrated
searches, RSS newsfeed
and IRC chat support, among
other features.
www.opera.com
Security STOP
watch
Security experts have
identified a new type of
spam email which
features an embedded
Midi file that plays music
the second the email is
previewed or opened.
According to email
management specialist
Email Systems, while this
latest technique appears
to be relatively innocuous,
it opens the door for
possibilities such as
pornographic or offensive
voice recordings.
www.emailsystems.com
13 October 2005
5
News
Internet telephony heats up
UnPlugged
Web on the move
■
All the latest on the web this fortnight
In-flight mobile
Bmi is set to
become the
first British airline to offer an
in-flight mobile phone service.
The airline is preparing to test
the service on an Airbus A320
in late 2006 with passengers
travelling from Heathrow.
The technology, from OnAir,
will let passengers use GSM
mobile phones and other
GPRS-enabled devices such
as the BlackBerry.
www.flybmi.com
≥ PHONE CALLS
ore and more companies
are scrambling to get on
the internet telephony
bandwagon as the popularity of
the technology skyrockets.
Vonage, BT and OneTel have
announced new Voice over
Internet Protocol (VoIP) deals,
while Wanadoo says it now has
50,000 internet telephony
customers. Dixons Group has
started selling a VoIP service
called Freetalk, which costs
£79.99 for a year, or £6.99 a
■ Wireless web
month, and includes free
Mobile provider 3 has
national calls.
launched a new service
According to a survey
called Wireless Web
commissioned by VoIP
Number
that lets its
company Skype, 48
customers
per cent of Britons
of the fortnight
connect their
are aware they can
laptops to the
use their computers
the percentage of taxi
internet via
to make free calls
drivers, pub landlords
their handsets.
over the internet.
and hairdressers who
Costing £45 a
had never heard of
month, the service
blogging
offers download
≥ BROADBAND
speeds of 384Kbps,
with a download limit of
512MB a month.
www.three.co.uk
M
70%
■
O2 shopping
O2 has launched a new
mobile internet service called
i-mode that is geared towards
shopping. The service lets
you make secure credit card
transactions, with major
retailers such as Amazon,
Interflora and Lastminute
already on board. Initially the
service will be available
on four handsets and will
include around 100 sites.
www.o2.co.uk
■
Asterix game
A new mobile game has been
released to tie in with the
33rd Asterix the Gaul book.
Asterix – Rescue Obelix sees
the Gaul set off to save his best
friend from the Romans and
is set over 12 levels in three
different worlds. The game is
playable on most modern
handsets,
and is out on
14 October.
www.asterixmobile.com
6
13 October 2005
The research also shows that
people over the age of 55 are
more likely to use the internet to
keep in touch with friends and
family than younger age groups.
● Latest VoIP deals:
OneTel: Connect with a PC
phone, subscription fr om £1.99
a month.
BT Communicator: Until 31
December, calls to 30 popular
international destinations
such as the USA, Australia,
Spain and France will cost 0.5p
a minute.
Vonage: Has doubled the number
of areas it offers unlimited UK and
Ireland local and national calls.
www.onetel.co.uk
www.bt.com/btcommunicator
www.vonage.co.uk
www.skype.com
www.wanadoo.co.uk
www.freetalk.co.uk
≥ TV
24Mbps service a pipe dream? BBC trials
internet
M
player
any people hoping to transfer to the super-fast,
up-to-24Mbps broadband service offered by new
player Be may in reality only be able to connect at far
lower speeds.
Be is one of the first ISPs in the UK to run ADSL2+
technology, which allows higher speeds. But as this runs on
BT copper cables, the maximum speed will drop rapidly the
further away people are from their local telephone exchange.
One Web User reader said he was only offered a
maximum of between 3 and 4Mbps because he is more
than 3km from the nearest unbundled exchange.
However, Be spokesman Paul Smyth said it is trying to
be as open with people as possible, and offers to check
what speed people will get before they sign up.
“Our fastest connection to date is 19.1Mbps,” he said.
“There are issues [regarding speed] the further away you
are from the exchange. That’s why we call it an ‘up-to
24Mbps service’.”
Blair Wadman, broadband product manager at
comparison site uSwitch.com, advises Web User readers
to check the maximum speed of a service before switching.
www.bethere.co.uk
he BBC has
started trialling
an online
media player that
lets people catch
up on TV shows they have missed.
Almost 30,000 people have registered
to try the iMP (integrated Media Player) and
5,000 have been chosen to participate in
the trial.
The iMP lets people watch TV and radio
programmes via the internet for seven days
after the original broadcast.
Tony Ageh, BBC controller of internet,
said he believes the iMP has the potential
to revolutionise the way people watch and
listen to programmes.
The purpose of the trial will be to gauge
public interest, as well as to evaluate the
public value of such a service, and any
potential market impact. The information
gathered will help the BBC Board of
Governors make a decision on whether to
approve iMP for a full roll out.
www.bbc.co.uk
T
Ahmed salim [a _ [email protected]] To: Webuser Subject: urgent and confidential investm
Spam of the fortnight From:
with your corporation… I am the personal assistant to MOHAMED OULD NAFAA (The Minister of C
≥ [email protected]
Inbrief
≥ Downloads up
Increased demand
for music on the
internet and mobile
phones is nearly
matching the decline
in traditional music
sales, new figures show.
In the UK, physical sales (CD,
records and tapes) fell by four
per cent in value but digital
sales saw massive growth.
Single track downloads alone
increased tenfold to 10 million
units in the first half of 2005.
www.ifpi.org
≥ Scottish speeds
≥ MUSIC
Franz Ferdinand head online
cottish indie-band Franz Ferdinand are keeping up
their computer skills while on their world tour as they
update their website with digital photos, blogs and
other content.
Armed with laptops, microphones and digital cameras,
the band plan to upload exclusive footage from around the
world, and say they hope online interaction will help build
closer links with fans.
Each band member will write their own blog, which will
be available as an RSS feed from US website www.franz
ferdinand.tv. Fans can also sign up to receive a digital
newsletter that features even more links to exclusive videos
and content.
Franz Ferdinand’s second album, You Could Have It So
Much Better, is out this month.
www.franzferdinand.co.uk
S
Competition
WIN!!
WIN
1 of 5
Superman DVD
box-sets!
≥ SEARCH ENGINES
P45 for Jeeves?
earch engine Ask Jeeves
looks set to drop Jeeves
the butler from its
website in a bid to draw
our attention to its
latest features.
Ask spokeswoman
Lisa Meakin told
Web User: “Over
the last year, we
have been actively
engaged in testing
the role of the Jeeves
character, and
how it affects users
recognition of how
the search engine has
evolved and dramatically
improved.
“This research shows
S
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s a
mouth-watering Superman DVD
box-set featuring all four films
starring Christopher Reeve as the
caped man of steel. To stand a
chance of winning one of the five
copies we’re giving away, just
answer the question posed at
www.webuser.co.uk/competitions.
● The Complete Superman
Collection is out to buy on DVD from
Monday 17 October through Warner
Home Video
use of the character as the
prominent symbol of the
brand may inhibit people
from recognising that
our search engine
has changed, and
now gives a better
and unique search
experience, and that
it is good for all types
of searches, not just
questions.”
She said because
of this Jeeves may be
phased out as the
prominent icon of
the brand, although no
timeline or details have
been determined.
www.ask.co.uk
ent. Dear Sir, I received encouraging information about you and how trust worthy you are… I am interested in the partnership investment program
Construction) of the Western Sahara State in the democratic Republic of Sahara (A tiny country in the Desert)… (Email received by Web User.)
Telewest Broadband has
increased the web speed of
40,000 Scottish customers to
up to 10Mbps. The first round
of its promised internet speed
increases took place in
Motherwell, Dumbarton,
Castlecary and Uddingston.
The company also announced
the roll-out schedule for other
areas of the UK, with 100,000
customers in London set to
receive bandwidth boosts in
the coming weeks.
www.blueyonder.co.uk/
evenfaster
≥ eBay charity
eBay.co.uk has launched a
new service that lets people
donate
profits from
sales on the
site to
charity. The
new eBay for
Charity service will let charities
develop their own eBay shops
and also let anyone who sells
something on eBay.co.uk
donate a percentage of the
proceeds directly to their
chosen organisation.
www.ebay.co.uk/eBay-forCharity
≥ Skype update
Skype, the VoIP company,
has updated its software for
Windows users. The new
Skype for Windows offers
callers increased mobility
options, new ways for callers
to personalise Skype with
original ringtones, sounds and
pictures, better sound quality,
and improved usability.
Seventy-six per cent of Skype
users use the service at least
once a day.
www.skype.com
13 October 2005
7
News
COMMENT
Free Sky?
All the latest on the web this fortnight
Downloads of the fortnight
≥ dotBookmark 1.0
dotBookmark is a free piece of
software that lets people access
their bookmarks from any PC.
dotBookmark will keep a copy
of your bookmarks so you can
reach them from any computer.
A version for the Firefox browser
is ‘coming soon’.
Download at: www.dot
bookmark.com/download.aspx
File size: 5.8MB
Minimum requirements:
Windows 98 or better
Better on broadband!
.com/store/content/promotions/
zap4/zap_trial.jsp
File size: 4.8MB
Minimum requirements:
Windows 98 or better
Download at: www.blinkx.com
File size: 5.96MB
Minimum requirements:
Windows 2000 or XP,
Microsoft Office up to 2003
Treat offers of free Sky
television on your PC with
extreme caution. I speak as
someone who recently
wasted an hour or two seeing
if it was actually possible to
get Premier League football
free over the internet.
So what happened? Well,
the games are there. Live
internet video streams from
broadcasters as far away as
Saudi Arabia and China can
be found with a little
research, a broadband
connection and a football
fixtures list.
However – this is the
disappointing bit – watchable
they ain’t. Even if you can put
up with the tiny fuzzy picture,
the fact that it constantly
freezes will drive you mad
within minutes of kick-off. A
search on Google for ‘free live
≥ Blinkx v3.5 (beta)
Search engine Blinkx has
unveiled a new version of its
toolbar. Free-to-download,
Blinkx searches for information
both online and on your
Desktop, including PDF,
PowerPoint, MS Excel, MS
Word, email and JPEG files. The
≥ Zone Alarm (Update)
new version includes enhanced
The new ZoneAlarm offers even support for multimedia formats,
more security, including better the addition of a Wikipedia
spyware checkers, a threechannel, integrated password
layer firewall, and monitors all support for Lotus Notes users
activity on your computer,
and more.
alerting you when a new
application tries to access the
internet. A 15-day trial is free.
It also features email security
that detects and quarantines
malicious email attachments
and automatic wireless
security that detects and
secures wireless networks.
Download at: www.zonelabs
≥ SpanishUno 3.01
Download this new Spanish
course from SpanishUno. It
isn’t aimed at the total
beginner, but those with a bit of
knowledge should benefit from
the audio stories, jokes and
slang sections. It’s free to try,
but you’ll have to pay a monthly
subscription for additional
features.
Download at: www.spanish
uno.com
File size: 1.84MB
Minimum requirements:
Windows 95 or better
There’s generally no
“schedule
and if there is it
isn’t in English
”
What’s hot
Andrew Craig
Editor
football’ or ‘free sky tv’ usually
produces a bunch of sites
offering access to hundreds of
channels in return for a oneoff fee. To save you wasting
your money, I’ve tried one of
these services and can tell
you what I got: an enormous
list of links to video streams
from all corners of the
internet. So far so good, but
frankly this isn’t Sky TV.
There’s generally no schedule
and if there is, it isn’t in
English. There’s no guarantee
that any of the links (therefore
channels) will work, the
picture will almost certainly
be tiny and interrupted, and
as for digital, widescreen or
surround-sound... It really
annoys me that these sites
promise so much, yet offer so
little. It’s frustrating enough
that so much sports coverage
is only available at a
premium, but if you’re hoping
to save money by using these
sites, don’t bother.
8
13 October 2005
≥ SHOPPING
Man Utd
It’s a wrap!
www.manutd.com
The most searched-for
football club online.
Lloyds TSB
ou can now create custom Christmas
wrapping paper using your own photos.
At Jessops’ website you can design
your own personalised wrapping paper and
have any image repeated into a 33 by 24in
sheet of what they assure us is ‘high-quality
gift-wrap’. The service costs £2.99 per sheet,
or £4.99 for two.
If you want to have it delivered it will cost
you an additional £1.50, but you can choose to
collect it from any of the 270 Jessops stores.
Wrapsody.com is offering two sheets for £10.
www.jessopsphotoexpress.com
www.wrapsody.com
Y
www.lloydstsb.com
UK banking site remains
the most visited.
Bill Gates
www.forbes.com
Still the wealthiest man
in the US, with an
estimated fortune of
$46.5bn (£26m).
Posh and Becks
www.yahoo.com
Now less searched for
than Charlotte and Gavin.
Rogue pharmacy sites
www.usdoj.gov/dea
US Drug Enforcement
Administration (DEA) has
closed more than 4,600
dodgy sites.
What’s not
Up for grabs!!!
Meanwhile, web monitoring company
•
Hitwise believes that the UK online retail sector
is set to grow 25 per cent by Christmas.
It anticipates that visits to online retailers will
peak during the week ending 3 December, with
more than one in every seven internet visits
going to online retailers that week.
Last year, eBay was the most popular retail
site, followed by Amazon, Kelkoo and Argos.
www.hitwise.com
Win a pair of Quad 12L speakers, closes 11 November
www.hifibitz.co.uk/competition.asp?id=4
≥ [email protected]
Everyone’
s
cli
c
king
on…
Our guide to this fortnight’s most clickable sites
mybookmarks
This fortnight, one the
Web User team picks
three of their favourite
places on the web.
THIS GAME
Andy Shaw
Technical &
Reviews Editor
HyperFrame
www.shockwave.com/contentPlay/shockwave.jsp?id=hyperframe
Cubes, the staple of puzzle gaming since Mr Rubik had a bright idea a while
back, receive another makeover in this devilish game where you have to
link like-coloured boxes to one another. Of course, there’s a time limit, a
limited amount of space to negotiate and all the boxes are vying for almost
the same route. Well, it wouldn’t be a challenge otherwise, would it?
THIS TIME-WASTER
Office Guns
Neil Gaiman’s Journal
www.officeguns.com
Unlike US postal workers who always seem to have automatic weapons to
hand, guns are hard to come by in the workplace and that’s just as well.
Monday mornings, meetings and colleagues are all good reasons to go on
a shooting spree, although it’d be better to use the plans here to make your
own non-lethal shooters out of clips, pens and highlighters.
THIS BIZARRE SITE
Rent A German
www.rentagerman.de
No, think about it, it’s not that crazy an idea – there are plenty of times
when one would come in handy. Take holidays – they’re all about relaxing,
and the last thing you want to do is get up early to make sure you can get a
sun lounger. Hire one of these Teutons and they can bagsy a spot by the
pool while you have a lie-in.
Web User’s clicking on…
Sites that have kept us busy this fortnight…
1
Zombie squirrels
www.mindistortion
.net/games/zsa
Stop the undead nut
gatherers from taking
over the world.
2
Unruly cookery
www.thomasscott.net/iron/pancakes/
How to cook with an iron, kettle and
industrial lamp.
3
Boy bands
www.damnfunny
pictures.com/html/
Original-Boy-Bands.html
www.neilgaiman.com/
journal
It stands to reason that the
best blogs are likely to come
from professional writers, but
Neil Gaiman’s blog is, in my
opinion, the best out there.
While being a publicity tool
for Gaiman’s novel, film and
comic work, he also fields
queries from fans, offers tips
for budding writers and
documents his life.
Linkbunnies
www.linkbunnies.org
‘Interesting web stuff for
short attention spans’ pretty
much
sums this
up – most
of the time
I can’t even
get through
the huge number of links
these net addicts post on a
daily basis. But it’s well
worth a look as they can
unearth some real gems.
Bloglines
www.bloglines.com
As you might have gathered
from the above, following
blogs can take up a large
chunk of my life. So Bloglines
is invaluable, mostly so I
don’t waste time visiting a site
that hasn’t been updated.
Check out the lookers
we had before Boyzone.
4
Impress loved ones this
Christmas with Jessops’
personalised wrapping paper
Win a family trip to Disneyland Resort Paris, closes 30 November
www.winabreak.com
Bring It On
www.channel4.com/sport/microsites/B/
bringiton/bringiton
.html
WG Grace
smacks the
Aussies for six. Did
you hear we won
the Ashes?
Win £25,000, closes 1 November
www.virginradio.co.uk/thestation/25000 _ joke.html
Your Bookmarks
Send short reviews (30 words
each max) of your favourite
three sites to mybookmarks
@web-user.co.uk
13 October 2005
9
Letters
Star Letter
Have your say: [email protected]
Hot Topics
These are some of the questions and
subjects you have been debating on
our forum in the last fortnight. Have your
say at www.webuser.co.uk/forums.
An AOL report claims mothers ‘rule
the roost’ when it comes to the
internet. Who rules the roost in your
home when it comes to the net?
1
Oh definitely me. I pack the kids off to
school, get home, switch the computer
on, set about the housework with MSN
on in the background and stop every now
and then for quick chats. Then sit down
with coffee and biscuits for a proper
gossip. Much easier than the phone as
you can come and go as you please.
Doing it now, plus paying bills and I even
order shopping when feeling really lazy.
max2619, via Web User Forums
Online searches for the Nano, the
latest iPod from Apple, have surged
by 200 per cent since its launch last
month. Are you planning to get one?
2
Scam advice
please
Nominet responds
In reference to the iTunes domain case letter
in Issue 118; a domain name is not property
– it is just a database entry. When you
register a domain name you are asking
Nominet to provide a service to you: to tell
the internet-using public that your domain
name is linked with a particular internet
address. As part of that, you have some
responsibilities to Nominet and the public,
including a duty not to register or use the
domain name contrary to the rights of others
(termed an ‘Abusive Registration’). This is
not Nominet’s invention, but laid out clearly
by the courts.
In this case the complaint was about
usage: the domain name had been inactive
for a year and a half, but was then reactivated
and (according to the independent expert)
pointed to Napster. Attempts were then
made to sell it for tens of thousands of
pounds. If the domain was worth that, the
expert felt, it was only because Apple, not Mr
Cohen, had made the ‘iTunes’ name famous,
and Apple should not have to pay for its own
success. That too was already law. See the
decision for yourself at www.nominet.org.
uk/DisputeResolution/Decisions/
Drs02223Itunes.html.
I recently put a couple of
items for sale on a few
internet sites and received
a reply on the same day.
We agreed the price and, as
the man I was selling to was in
America, he was going to get a business
associate in the UK to send me a cheque
for the amount. I agreed and sent my
address and phone number. Then I got
an email telling me he was sending me a
cheque for five times the amount and I
had to take out my share, the amount for
the item and then transfer the rest of the
money to a shipping company.
I realise this could be one of those
scams, but what should I do about it? I
have no idea. My email account is full of
Nigerian scams and other people telling
me about my family history and how much
money they have left and how I can claim it
if I pay a certain amount up front. So can
you let me know what I can do about these
so others don’t get scammed too?
Debbs, via email
required to acknowledge this procedure by
Edward Phillips, Nominet’s company solicitor accepting our Terms & Conditions before
Sadly, we live in a world where ‘musthave’ fashion consciousness has
replaced individuality. The media and
advertising have a lot to answer for
in this regard and Apple clearly has a
massive advertising budget (hence the
inflated prices?). Anyone with an ounce
of common sense could easily find a
reasonably priced alternative following a
modicum of research.
TheFatController, via Web User Forums
Those of you who like point-and-click
type online games, which one have
you found the toughest or most
enjoyable so far ?
3
I’ve just found out that My Diamond Baby
(http://ctime.cool.ne.jp/
MyDiamondBaby) is now in English. You
will require help. It took me a week at
least on and off, but then it was in
Japanese!
Domain woe
I thought your readers should be warned
about what happened to me when I set up a
website for £1.99 with 1&1, only to be faced
later with a debt collection agency bill for
over a £100. How did this happen? (I did
not read the micro print on the contract.)
The registration with Nominet is
automatically renewed and if
they don’t check
their emails then a
subscriber will only
find out about this
when a letter comes
through the post
from the debt
collection agency. I
was told that it’s not
1&1’s policy to send paper reminders of the
re-registration.
Trev Moore, Gosport
ourstanley, via Web User Forums
Editor replies: We asked 1&1 to explain its
registration policy. A spokesman told us:
“All 1&1 domain name registrations are
renewed automatically to ensure that no
domain name can ever be ‘lost’. It is
explained very clearly on the 1&1 website,
before a customer requests their domain
name that the domain will be renewed until
the customer lets us know they wish to
cancel it. Customers signing-up are also
10
13 October 2005
Your Shout!
their order is accepted. Should a customer
wish to cancel their package, it is important
they inform us immediately and provide
up-to-date contact details.”
eBay debate continues
I’ve been using eBay for about two years
now and have only ever bought goods on it.
I feel sorry for sellers who have false claims
made against them that the items they sold
never arrived at their intended destinations,
but I’ve suffered the opposite as a buyer.
Out of over 70 purchases I’ve had two cases
where I’ve won bids, paid for them with
PayPal, but never received my goods.
I emailed the sellers repeatedly, and
complained to both eBay and PayPal, which
investigated and de-registered the users in
question, but could not refund me as there
was no money in the sellers’ PayPal
accounts. There’s literally nothing eBay and
PayPal can do other than ban the user, and
what’s stopping them re-registering?
I reckon if you’re a buyer you should
never buy anything where you can’t afford
to lose your money, unless the seller has a
massive positive feedback rating and you
trust them. If you’re a seller, make sure
you get all postal assurances to cover
yourself, then why not empty your PayPal
account of all funds? That way you can’t be
had up for an automatic refund.
Steve Leworthy, Cardiff
Do you use PayPal? Yes 66% No 34% (Source: www.webuser.co.uk)
LETTERS
[email protected]
Ask Web User
Got a non-technical query about the
wonderful web? Email it to askwebuser@
webuser.co.uk and we’ll try to help
Free radio
I am a dedicated
subscriber to your
magazine, which I get
sent to Hong Kong
every issue. A few
issues ago there was
a free internet radio
website where you could create, upload
and broadcast free of charge, and all it
asks for is a donation. Do you remember
what the site was or do you have any
other suggestions?
Q
Think hard before hitting
the Send button to reply
to emails from dodgysounding customers
Editor replies: From your description
Debbs, we certainly think this is a scam, as
it seems to be a lot of hassle for you to go
through. We asked Carole Theriault, senior
security consultant at Sophos, for her
opinion. She said: “There does seem to be a
dodgy element to this transaction. I would
recommend the seller extricate themselves
from this particular deal and sell to someone
who is willing to abide by the seller’s terms
and conditions – namely pay directly for the
amount agreed. They might also want to set
themselves up on a PayPal-like service,
which allows anyone in the world to transfer
money safely and directly to and from
anywhere in the world. If it’s a large amount
PhotoBox success
In Issue 117 you had an article about Digital
Photo Printing. What caught my eye was
value for money and print quality on your
Gold Award. Surely these would be of
utmost importance to someone who
wanted special photos developed. You put
PhotoBox last with a low score for these
features. I have used PhotoBox for about 18
months and have always been satisfied. My
neighbour had two cards full of her new twin
grandsons that she wanted to be able to pick
and choose from. Postage and packaging
was £1.50 – excellent value for that amount.
Delivery time was approx
36 hours; quality of
pictures – very good.
Maybe some things are
not as good at PhotoBox
but its cost and quality
get five stars from me
and my neighbour.
Angela McDonald,
via email
of money, the buyer can send the money
via a Western Union service, where the
seller would pick up the money at their
end before delivering the service.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of scamlike emails out there. I would follow the ‘if
it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it
is probably a duck’ philosophy, and
simply delete the emails and block the
senders that are sending them.”
Our News Feature on page 12, reveals
the latest techniques employed by email
fraudsters, while our Web User Essential
Guides (www.webuser.co.uk/guides) are
designed to provide you with the knowhow for staying safe online.
Newsletter
Sign up now for our free email newsletter
– in your Inbox every fortnight.
See www.webuser.co.uk/newsletter
Contact us!
Letters page: [email protected]
Problem Solver: [email protected]
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[email protected]
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Subscriptions: [email protected]
Web User, Room 0305, IPC Media, King’s Reach
Tower, Stamford Street, London SE1 9LS.
All contributions to Web User must be original, not copies or duplicated to other
publications. The editor reserves the right to shorten or modify any letter or
material submitted. IPC Media or its associated companies reserves the right
to reuse any submission sent to the letters column of Web User magazine, in any
format or medium.
≥ SUBSCRIBE TODAY
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GETTING WEB USER If you can’t find an issue in your local newsagent, call 020 7907 7777.
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Or write to Web User Back Issues, PO Box 666, London, E15 1DW. Prices: UK £3.50; Europe (airmail) £4.00; Rest of the world (airmail) £5.00.
Cheques/postal orders/international money orders should be Sterling and made payable to IPC Magazines.
Have your say in our latest poll at www.webuser.co.uk
Nick Willsher, Hong Kong
Web User says: We think you may
be thinking about London-based
station Last FM (www.last.fm). The free
service notes what you listen to and
makes recommendations based on your
tastes. You can fill in a profile or just let
the system track your listening habits.
A
Is LimeWire legal?
People in work keep telling me about
LimeWire – one of those websites
where the contents of your hard drive are
shared online. Surely going on to this site
and downloading music or programs is
illegal? My colleagues keep telling me it is
not because of a “legal loophole”. Can
you please confirm whether I should
avoid this site like the plague?
Q
Ian, via email
Web User says: LimeWire lets
people transfer files free of charge
to other users. This in itself is not illegal,
however, it is illegal to reproduce,
distribute or receive copies of software,
video or music without the consent of the
holders of copyright or other intellectual
property rights. Record labels have
previously taken legal action against
Limewire users for this reason. LimeWire
is currently working on tools that will
prevent users of future versions of its
software sharing copyrighted works.
A
Home movies
What was the name and address of
that site you featured a few issues
ago that enables you to put digital home
movies online?
Q
J Symons, via email
Web User says: Mydeo (www.
mydeo.com), featured in Issue 108,
lets you upload Windows Media Video
files and then choose how you want to
distribute them – either on a website or
via email.
A
13 October 2005
11
NEWS FEATURE
INTERNET CONS
PHISHERS CAST
A TIGHTER NET
Fraudsters
are exploiti
ng
everthing fr
om Hurrica
ne
Katrina to
football fev
er
in a bid to g
et your cash
,
reports Ro
ss Wigham
12
13 October 2005
NEWS
FEATURE
INTERNET CONS
ake charity websites asking for
money to help those made
homeless by Hurricane Katrina,
lottery sites for World Cup 2010
tickets and an email from an
elderly wheelchair-bound woman
asking for advice on eBay. All are
examples of the new ploys high-tech
fraudsters are using to try to part you
Gavin Hyde-Blake, fraud expert
from your money.
Phishing attacks, where emails are
sent from seemingly legitimate
businesses in a bid to obtain personal
Hyde-Blake’s warnings are backed by
information, are nothing new, but are
estimates from the FBI that more than 60
becoming more elaborate and
per cent of the 4,000 websites collecting
increasing in frequency. Recent
for victims of Hurricane
figures from internet security
Katrina are bogus and are
firm Sophos show there have
simply used to capture
been triple the number of
people’s money or credit
attempted attacks compared
card details. Graham Cluley,
to the same period last year.
senior technology consultant
Bogus emails claiming to
at Sophos said these sites
come from a range of
demonstrate the growing
organisations, such as
trend for criminals to pose
PayPal, Yahoo Photos, eBay
as charities.
and Visa, have long been
“We see thousands of
doing the rounds, trying to
these every year and
dupe web users out of
the basic theme is
financial information and
usually the same,
log-in details. Fraudsters
although there are
are becoming more
various methods of
sophisticated in their
actually duping
approach and new scams may
people,” said Cluley.
be harder to avoid as they use
“People should be
events in the news and
just as vigilant about
other methods to hook
Fake emails announcing
web communications
people’s interest.
you’ve won a cash prize
are just one method
as they are with written
A good example is the
or face-to-face
‘FIFA scam’ that appeared used by scammers
dealings.”
this month. The hoax
But despite reams
email preys on interest in the 2010
of media coverage and increasingly
Football World Cup tournament,
advanced online security, people are still
claiming recipients have been selected
getting hoodwinked.
to receive a million US dollars. FIFA,
Figures from Sophos suggest that
the international football governing
problems arising from Trojans – covert
body, is so concerned about the email
software that monitors a computer user’s
scams that it has posted a warning on
keystrokes – are also increasing.
its website.
According to Cluely: “It’s worryingly
widespread. Trojans and viruses are
Gavin Hyde-Blake, a fraud examiner
travelling without users even needing to
who specialises in the internet, said
open emails or attachments. The sheer
the biggest threat is still coming
volume emphasises that there’s lots of
from abroad.
money to be made by criminals.”
“Overseas gangs are still making big
money from these types of scams
A new report from the Information Security
because they are very hard to stop.
Forum (ISF) also warns that Trojan-based
They will normally aim to get money by
attacks are becoming more sophisticated
appealing to people’s greed or their
and harder to stop, with more than a third of
conscience,” he said.
its members also affected by phishing.
“There are lots of scams about and I
“Often, the first time an organisation
think the biggest ones are still the
knows it is under attack is when customers
fraudulent emails. It’s often a variation
notice money missing from their accounts,
on a theme but the fraudsters tend to
so it will become vital to put early warning
stick to the tried and tested methods.
mechanisms in place,” said ISF spokesman
They will hook into some of the latest
Andrew Wilson.
events to try and exploit people.”
F
“They aim to get
money by appealing
to people’s greed”
Charity scams
Overseas gangs
Harder to stop
Protect yourself
There are now many websites, RSS feeds
and newsletters dedicated to the latest
scams, and organisations such as
Spamhaus.org, Sophos, Surfcontrol and
MessageLabs all have tools to help combat
this growing menace. But, as Cluley points
out, it’s often easy for fraudsters simply to
tweak the way they operate each time a
scam is discredited.
Ultimately, according to Hyde-Blake,
the best advice is to use common sense:
“People want to get rich quick or want
something for nothing and that’s the main
way they get drawn into these types of
scams. The internet and email offer a kind
of anonymity that lulls people into doing
things they wouldn’t normally do.
“You should always stop and think before
doing anything online. If something looks
suspicious, search the internet and you can
often find out if it is a scam,” he added.
“If it looks too good to be true then it
probably is.”
Related links
www.spamhaus.org
www.sophos.co.uk
www.millersmiles.co.uk
www.surfcontrol.com
www.securityforum.org
THE LATEST SCAMS
■ Bogus charities: Fake emails
and websites pose as official charities
collecting money for the victims
of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.
The FBI believes 60 per cent of all
websites collecting for hurricane
victims are fraudulent.
■ Football lottery: Fraudsters try to
lure consumers with the news of a
major financial windfall as part of a
special lottery in association with the
2010 World Cup. Once people show an
interest in the email, scammers will
attempt to obtain bank details or other
personal information.
■ Spear phishing: This method uses
the same principles as phishing, but
the hoaxer sends emails to employees
posing as a company boss or manager.
Online security firm MessageLabs
warns this threat is rising and is part of
a wider trend of corporate phishing.
■ Bogus emails (phishing):
A perennial problem for web users,
these fake emails often lead to
duplicate websites designed to look like
a bank or some other secure location.
The latest incarnations include
communications from fraudsters
posing as PayPal, Yahoo Photos, eBay,
Amazon, Bank of America and Visa.
13 October 2005
13
Best New
Websites
We review this fortnight’s
The freshly scrubbed-up
NME website is packed with
up-to-the-minute news on
bands such as Garbage (right)
SITE OF THE FORTNIGHT
NME
www.nme.com
Our rating
★★★★★
The NME has finally revamped its
site, turning a lumbering beast that
contained acres of information
into a clean, modern-looking site
that is easy and intuitive to get
around. The forums are so well
established and used they contain
literally tens of thousands of posts,
news is bang up-to-date and
reviews contain the right mix of
acerbic bite and deep musical
knowledge. Of course, there’s a gig
guide and tickets for sale, but the
real jewel here is the media player
teeming with exclusive audio and
video footage. Our only real
complaint was that some of the
images were missing from news
stories when we looked, but it’s
early days in the re-launch and
sure to be fixed.
Recycle for London
www.recycleforlondon.com
Our rating
Uefa
★★★★★
Apparently, Londoners produce 3.4 million tonnes of rubbish
a year. According to Recycle for London, that’s enough to fill the
capital’s Canary Wharf tower every 10 days. The Recycle for
London campaign has been developed by the Greater London
Authority, London’s boroughs, the Association of London
Government and the London Recycling Fund in a bid to cut waste.
Their site includes info on what you can recycle (broken into easy
to digest sections), and tells you how, where and when to do it.
There’s a phone line to call for advice, and interesting figures
peppered throughout (did you know that each year an estimated
two million TV sets and one million computers go into landfills?).
14
13 October 2005
www.uefa.com
Our rating ★★★★★
Batchelors Cup a Soup
www.agreatbighuginamug
.com
Our rating ★★★★★
As the cold weather rapidly
zooms in (dammit!), Batchelors
has launched a site to promote
its winter warmers. You can
check out all the different styles
and flavours (far more than you
would expect), read about the
nutritional value of each, and
see a list of ingredients via
cute little animations. Click
on Hug Buddies and the site
will recommend the perfect
sandwich to eat with each
flavour (mind you, whipping up
a bacon, avocado and tomato
ciabatta to go with chicken cupof-soup seems a little over-thetop). You can watch the TV ad, if
you really want, and also enter a
competition to win a spa-break.
European football’s governing
body has re-launched its site –
and it now creaks under the
weight of its own features.
News and all the usual sections
make the starting line-up, but of
special note are sections where
you can chat with players and
ask the resident expert anorak-y
questions like ‘When Olympique
de Marseille beat AC Milan in
the 1993 Champions League
final, what was the score and
who were the two goalies?’.
Uefa offers a seven-day free
trial of its video service that
delivers all the action from the
Champions League straight to
your desktop (after that
it’s only around £3
a month and
features an
archive of more
than 5,000
clips). Well
worth a visit.
Wapsite of the fortnight www.bornsilly.com Loads of jokes to read while sitting on the train.
crop of the best new and revamped websites
(Clockwise from below) Franz Ferdinand,
Foo Fighters and The White Stripes are
just some of the acts found on nme.com
London Architecture
Diary
Cravendale
www.protectingthetaste
www.londonarchitecture .com
Our rating ★★★★★
diary.com
Our rating ★★★★★
Oh how we laughed.
You have probably seen the TV
ads – you know, the ones where
the cows are trying to get their
milk back. No, we didn’t take
any notice of what they were for
either – but apparently they
promote Cravendale milk and
Cravendale wants you to know
that all milk isn’t created equal.
The company says it does a filter
thing that makes the milk taste
better and last longer, and you
can learn all about it at this
amusingly put together site, as
well as get recipes, download
screensavers, play a cowherding game and watch the
telly ads. Oh, and you can also
learn about Friesian cows.
13 October 2005
15
Reviews by Quentin Reade and Toby Earle
The beauty of simple sites is
their simplicity, and the London
Architecture Diary is an example
of just that: it clearly provides
a detailed events diary,
searchable by type (Talks, Tours,
Exhibitions, Conferences etc)
and date. And that’s about it,
except you can also sign up for a
newsletter to receive email
alerts. It would be nice to see
more photos – surely actually
seeing some examples would
add interest – but despite that,
the site will provide a great
resource for students, architects
and building enthusiasts. It also
features a great links section.
Best NewWebsites
What House
www.whathouse.co.uk
Our rating ★★★★★
Searching for a new home
online is now even easier.
What House is a great new
website that lets you look for
property by area, and view
sale prices, schools, transport
links, supermarkets, pubs,
restaurants and gyms. You
can then refine your search by
house type, and price. Each
listing carries a photograph –
find a picture that takes your
fancy and you can request
details or book a viewing and
then get mortgage, insurance
and legal advice. With more
than 120,000 properties, the
What House site is a massive
resource and definitely worth
a visit if you are thinking of
buying or moving.
Indigo Guide
Capri-Sun
Swatch
Bonio
www.capri-sun.co.uk
www.indigoguide.com
www.swatch.com
www.bonio.co.uk
Our rating ★★★★★ Our rating ★★★★★ Our rating ★★★★★ Our rating ★★★★★
Going to the Med? Then visit
Indigo Guide, a new site with info
on travelling and holidaying in
Cyprus, France, Greece, Ibiza,
Italy, Majorca, Malta, Portugal,
Spain and Turkey. There are the
usual sections – weather, food
and drink, history etc – plus a
forum (only one posting to date).
Overall, it is well-written and
easy to use, although
we found the font
a little too small and
difficult to read. But
sections such as
advice on parking at
airports around the UK
are probably worth the eye
strain. Oh, and try the subsections on City Breaks,
Cruises and Safaris.
Split into two sections – one for
‘mums’ and one for ‘not for
mums’ – Capri-Sun’s site offers
more than a drinks website
really needs to, such as craft
ideas to do with children, plus
information on learning (for both
adults and kids) and fun days
out. There’s also a competition
to win £150 worth of
HobbyCraft vouchers,
product info and
nutritional advice, and
you can sign up for an
email newsletter
that suggests yet
more ideas on things
to do. The ‘not for mums’
bit lets you create a track
on a virtual turntable and is
quite a good laugh.
The makers of those colourful
plastic watches have launched a
new site with some nifty treats.
You can enter your location on a
world map, and then see where
in the world everyone else is
looking at the site from, before
scooting across to check out the
Swatch beach volleyball
team. Join the Swatch
club (there are a ton
of Swatch fanatics/
freaks/enthusiasts
out there) or buy from
the huge range of
watches (there’s even one
covered in diamonds, a snip at
£800). You can also watch the
firm’s ads, learn about the history
of the company and ‘Mr Swatch’,
and find your nearest store.
Old favourite www.engrish.com –not PC, but these examples of Japanese English are funny
It’s amazing what’s being tacked
onto corporate sites in order to
attract people to them. Dog food
firm Bonio’s fancy trick is a
section where you can get all
your dog-related questions
answered by experts. For
example: “Why does
my dog welcome
people with a
piddle?” Answer:
“Submissive
urination is most
often seen in young
dogs, particularly
females, but usually
ceases as the puppy
gains confidence in a stable
human family.” Of course, there’s
also info on all the products and
even an online shop.
13 October 2005
17
BestNewWebsites
BlogOn C
The Lost Numbers
http://thelostnumbers.
blogspot.com
The survivors may all have
model looks and a distinct
lack of injuries, and the
bounds of credibility may be
routinely stretched, yet there’s
no denying Lost is a TV
phenomenon. It’s weaponsgrade entertainment and a
devilishly constructed slice of
hokum, and if you’ve seen
how the first series unravels
(by fair means or foul) you’ll
know that numbers come to
the story’s fore.
Here’s where the
newsreader would say, “If you
don’t want to know the
scores, look away now”,
because from here on in there
are some spoilers you might
not want to hear about.
Certain numbers pop up fairly
early in the series – the coordinates
from the
French
woman
being their
first obvious
appearance
– but as it
turns out the digits 4, 8, 15,
16, 23 and 42, which
constantly reappear during
the show, completely
permeate the programme’s
fabric. And this person has
logged their every single
manifestation, from the
most glaring to the most
fleeting. It’s scary stuff, both
in terms of how it reveals the
show has an agenda and the
time this guy has taken to
record where the digits pop
up. But it is impressive, and
significantly adds to Lost’s
already striking lore online.
The Lost Blog
C
BlogOff
www.filmfodder.com/tv/
lost/
While Lost Numbers (above)
gives the show a greater depth
and a sense of mystery, this
just blows the gaff wide open
with explicit spoilers. Cheers.
18
13 October 2005
Death to Hollywood
www.deathtohollywood.
com
Our rating ★★★★★
The website is as ugly as sin,
but don’t let that put you off.
Death to Hollywood features an
enormous range of independent
films to download. Movies such
as Bored of the Rings maybe
a little risqué, but the site offers
its own rating system so that
you know what you are in for.
Death to Hollywood offers an
excellent opportunity to catch
films that will never make it to
your local multiplex, but are
just as inventive and made
with as much passion as
anything you will see on the
big screen. Oh, and you can
buy posters and all sorts of
other guff as well.
Millions of Games
www.millionsofgames.com
Our rating
★★★★★
Attention all online games fans, be prepared to be entertained
for hours. Millions of Games is inspired by bookmark sharing
sites such as del.icio.us and lets people list their favourite
games. It also reveals how many other people have also listed it
– giving you an idea of a game’s popularity, and, in theory, how
good it is. The site splits games into genres too, so you can
easily see and play the ones you like the best. You could spend
hours trawling the net and wouldn’t find all of these – it really is
awesome, and definitely one to add to your favourites.
Giveitamiss
Afterlife
www.itv.com/afterlife
Our rating ★★★★★
Heinz2U
Travel Click
www.heinz2u.co.uk
www.travelclick.co.uk
Our rating ★★★★★ Our rating ★★★★★
Big baked beans fan? Heinz2U
offers baked beans plates, a
baked beans shopping bag, or
Heinz-branded soup
bowls, mugs and a
recipe book. You can
also buy from the new
Heinz low-carb range, or
stick to traditional Heinz
fare. The site explains
why many people are
moving to a low-carb diet, the
potential benefits of eating this
way, and also provides a menu
planner. If you buy more than
£10 of products, delivery is free
and it guarantees your goods
will reach you within five to
seven days. Or you could just
go to the shop.
Travel Click is a new site that
uses live data feeds provided
by one of the largest UK travel
agents to search all the
major tour operators for
available holidays. It is
really simple to use and
easy to book online. We
quickly found some
cheap last-minute deals,
and liked the way we could
also narrow down where we
wanted to go by location and
price, though, unfortunately, the
flight-only and ski holiday
options weren’t working when
we visited. The site also features
travel and weather reports, so
you don’t have to visit elsewhere
to do further research.
Subscribe today! See page 44 for details
Afterlife, the new ITV show
about a psychic is brilliant
television. That’s why it’s a
real pity this website doesn’t
live up to that. The site
features all the usual
sections – a character guide,
an episode guide and so on–
but is let down by a weak
game and not very nicelooking design. Being able
to download highlights of
the programme is a good
idea but the site just doesn’t
have that extra edge to
make it worth more than
a passing look.
FEATURE
DIGITAL MUSIC GUIDE
THE UL
ULTTIMA
IMATTE GUIDE TO
From where to find free tracks to the best MP3
players, Chris Price tells you everything you
need to know about downloading music
WHERE TO FIND FREE MUSIC
ONLINE
Ø
With the explosion of paid-for music sites you may think that free downloads have disappeared from the web.
But there are still plenty of sites that offer tracks legally without charge. Here are some of the best.
Top site for cutting-edge music
Epitonic.com
www.epitonic.com
Epitonic has a large library
of free dance MP3s, covering
house, techno, breakbeat,
drum and bass, abstract,
ambient, downtempo and
trance.
Top site for new artists
Peoplesound
www.peoplesound.com
As well as paid-for content from
established artists like James
Blunt and the Sugababes,
Peoplesound also offers a number
of free MP3 downloads from
‘emerging’ artists like Rob
McCulloch, Red and Drawbacks.
Top site for streaming music
MP3.com
www.mp3.com
You can’t download free MP3s
here, but you can get free
streams of new tracks and
albums from the MP3.com
Listening Room. You’ll find
lots of good stuff, including
tracks by recent chart-toppers
The Pussycat Dolls.
20
13 October 2005
Top site for world music
Vitaminic
www.vitaminic
.com
Broaden your musical
horizons with
Vitaminic, which
boasts a wide
collection of content,
including a world music
section catering for
everything from
Aborigine to Yiddish
music. Other sections
include Latin American,
jazz and alternative.
Top site for classical music
Karadar
www.karadar.com
Extensive and free classical
library comprising 11,000
MP3s from all the major
composers. Just enter the
name of the composer
and up pops a list of their
work, the length of the
piece of music and the
size of the file to
download. Great
resource for classical
music lovers.
FEATURE
DIGITAL MUSIC GUIDE
WHERE TO BUY MUSIC DOWNLOADS
Once you’ve stockpiled your free music downloads, your attention should turn to the giddying range of paid-for music
content online. We’ve whittled down the ever-increasing field to six of the best sites.
✓
Napster www.napster.co.uk
iTunes www.itunes.co.uk
OUR CHOICE
What’s good: A must-visit site for music lovers,
Napster is an extremely flexible service, available
in three versions. You can either pay 79p per
track using the Napster Light service or you can
join one of the two subscription services,
Napster (£9.95 per month) or Napster to Go (£14.95 per month).
With the £9.95 Napster service you can download as many tracks as you like to
your PC each month for as long as you are a subscriber. However, to burn these
tracks to CD or transfer them to a portable music player, you’ll need to shell out
79p per track. With the pricier £14.95 Napster To Go service, you can transfer
your tracks to a portable player at no extra cost.
What’s not good: If you’ve paid a per-track fee (currently 79p) you own the track
for life, but all other downloads under Napster’s subscription services are only
valid while you are a member and won’t play if you leave the service. Also,
Napster’s music library isn’t as big as iTunes’, you can’t use iPods with Napster,
and the service is only compatible with PCs.
Virgin Digital www.virgin.net/music/digitaldownloads
What’s good: Until August 2005 Virgin offered its ‘Digital
Downloads’ services via the OD2
platform (see below right). However,
it recently re-launched as Virgin
Digital. Essentially, it’s a very similar,
flexible service to Napster’s, with a
pay-as-you-go option (79p per
track) and two monthly membership
services: £9.99 to download and
stream music and £14.99 to
transfer these tracks to a digital
music player. Up to one million
songs are available from a whopping 15,000 record labels.
What’s not good: Like Napster, subscribers can only continue
listening to music downloads if they continue their monthly
payments. Again, this service isn’t compatible with iPods or
Apple Macs.
Wippit www.wippit.com
What’s good: Unlike most other services you
don’t need to download special software before
downloading music at Wippit. You can either pay
per track/album or subscribe (£4.99 per month
or £50 for the entire year) for downloads.
Wireless Wippit lets you download music to
your mobile phone as an MP3 or a ringtone.
Usefully, for some tracks MP3 and WMA files are available,
making the service compatible with all digital music players –
yes, even iPods. Unlike the Napster/Virgin/HMV services, all
downloaded tracks are owned outright – rather than ‘rented’ –
by the user. This means that you don’t need to continue the
monthly subscription in order to hear previously downloaded
tracks.
What’s not good: New albums and tracks are quite pricey
(typically 99p per track, £8.99 per album) and the selection is
slimmer than at other sites – around 60,000 songs. Also, recent
albums are often not available to subscribers immediately.
What’s good: Apple’s iTunes boasts a massive
online music library comprising two million
songs, 15,000 podcasts and 11,000 audio
books. Individual tracks cost 79p per
download, while most albums will set you back
around £7.99.
Extremely easy to install on your PC, the
latest version of iTunes (version 5) lets you
synchronise Outlook/Outlook Express contacts
and calendars to your iPod.
What’s not good:
Unfortunately, it’s not
possible to listen to the
tracks before you buy.
What’s more, the
website is intended
exclusively for iPod
owners. Any non-Apple
MP3 player won’t work
with iTunes.
HMV www.hmv.co.uk/digital
What’s good: Like Virgin Digital, HMV has recently launched a
music download service with ‘pay-as-you-go’ (Permanent
Download) and monthly subscription (HMV Unlimited) options.
Up to one million songs are available to choose from and it’s
also possible to stream commercial radio stations such as Heart
FM and Kiss FM. Free software for the service is available either
via the HMV website or the company’s network of 200 stores.
What’s not good: The software
is slow and the site’s
instructions are hard to read.
HMV Digital is for PCs only, and
you need to keep up your
subscription if you want to play
back tracks from the ‘HMV
Unlimited’ service.
MSN www.msn.co.uk/musicdownloads
What’s good: One of several sites powered by online music
distribution company OD2 (others include Tiscali.co.uk,
MyCokeMusic.com, Wanadoo.co.uk and MinistryofSound.com).
Instead of subscribing or paying per track, all OD2 sites operate a
credit system in which you increase your account with a credit
card before buying music (up to £50 can be put on a card at a
time). Albums are very
competitively priced at
£6.99 and it’s also
possible to listen to tracks
for a penny per play.
What’s not good: The
credit system is a little
confusing, and only
around 350,000 tracks
are available. Tracks are
encoded in the WMA
format, so it’s not
possible to play them
on iPods.
13 October 2005
21
FEATURE
DIGITAL MUSIC GUIDE
WHERE TO FIND CLEVER AUDIO SOFTWARE
Now it’s time to enhance your music downloading using these software gems.
CONVERTING FORMATS
SmartSoft Audio
Converter
www.smartaudio
converter.com
Audio
Converter/
Audio Grabber
www.e-soft.co.uk
Converts between the
most popular audio
ormats including WMA,
WAV, MP3, OGG, AVI/
MPEG audio, MPC and
more. Fee: $19.90
(£10.76).
Both these tools convert
between any of 16
digital audio formats,
including MP3, WMA,
WAV and Ogg Vorbis.
Free to download.
RECORDING STREAMING AUDIO
Total Recorder
www.highcriteria.com
Easy Recorder
www.easyrecorder
.com
Total Recorder lets you
record streaming audio
from media players.
Captured recordings
can be stored as WAV or
MP3 files. Fee: $11.95
(£6.77).
Record audio files or live
streams as MP3s. It also
gives you the option of
recording online audio
conversations such as
VoIP phone calls. Fee:
$24.95 (£14.13).
RIPPING AND BURNING SOFTWARE
Free RIP
www.mgshare
ware.com/frmmain
.shtml
Roxio Sonic
Record Now
www.roxio.co.uk
Software which can
convert and encode
WAV files to Ogg Vorbis
or MP3 files. Also lets
you rip CD tracks to
various formats. Free
to download.
This product from Roxio
contains everything you
need to burn CDs and
DVDs. Includes unlimited
conversion tools.
Fee: £43.99.
DELETING FLAWS FROM TRACKS
Diamond Cut 32
www.enhancedaudio.com
Diamond Cut
Millennium
www.diamondcut.com
Remove pops, clicks and
hiss from analogue sources
(LPs, tapes, etc). Also features
equalisers and filters to enhance
old recordings. Free to
download.
This is a more advanced
version of Diamond Cut,
boasting a full suite of audioediting features and conversion
tools for mono and stereo files.
Fee: $59 (£33.41).
MIX-MAKING AND DJ SOFTWARE
Audacity
http://audacity.
sourceforge.net
Audacity lets you record
and edit digital music.
Cut, copy and mix sound,
and even convert tapes
and records into digital
recordings. Free to
download.
22
13 October 2005
Adobe Audition
1.5 (formerly
Cool Edit Pro)
www.adobe.co.uk
Turn your PC into a fullon sound-editing studio
with Adobe Audition
1.5. Offers advanced
audio mixing, editing
and effects processing.
Fee: £143.
FEATURE
DIGITAL MUSIC GUIDE
MP3 PLAYERS – FIVE TO TRY
Think MP3 players and you immediately think iPod (see page
47), but here are five others worth a look.
OUR CHOICE
✓
BEST FOR
FEATURES
CREATIVE ZEN MICRO 5GB
http://uk.europe.creative.com
Clearly influenced by the iPod mini, the
cute and extremely compact Creative
Zen Micro is available in 10 colours.
Up to 2,500 songs can be stored on
the 5GB hard disk with the battery
providing up to 12 hours life on a single
charge. Shuffle your songs with the DJ
feature or tune in to your favourite radio
stations using the FM tuner/recorder (up
to 32 stations can be stored). A built-in
microphone is provided for audio
recording and there’s even a mini
organiser (calendar, address book, to-do
list) to help you sort your life out. Given
all the features, the price represents a
great bargain.
RRP: £189.99. Buy it for £134.99 (inc
delivery) at www.play.com
IRIVER H10 5GB
www.iriver.com
View digital JPEG images
on the move using the
impressive highresolution, colour LCD
screen. A built-in FM tuner
lets you listen to your
favourite radio stations and
there’s also an integrated
voice recorder for interviews
or ‘memos to self’. Both MP3
and WMA digital music files are
supported and the removable battery lasts up to 12
hours. Available in a number of colours including lounge
grey, triple platinum and trance red, the iRiver H10
weighs just 96g and is small enough to fit into a pocket.
It’s a great alternative to the iPod mini, especially for
gadget fans who want all the latest features. Around
2,500 songs can be stored on its 5GB hard drive.
RRP: £139. Buy it for £132.99 (plus £6 delivery) at
www.dabs.com/uk
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FEATURE
DIGITAL MUSIC GUIDE
MP3 PLAYERS – FIVE TO TRY Continued
BEST FOR SOUND QUALITY
BEST FOR
SONY NETWORK WALKMAN NW-HD5 20GB CAPACITY
www.sony.co.uk
TOSHIBA GIGABEAT
Once synonymous with portable music, Sony was extremely
MEG-F60 60GB
late joining the digital music revolution. Still, the NW-HD5
http://gigabeat.toshiba
Network Walkman has been worth
.co.uk
the wait. Available in silver, black and
red, it’s not the most stylish MP3
player around, but its sound quality is
the best we’ve heard, providing you
replace the supplied headphones.
Various audio formats are supported
(WMA, WAV, MP3, ATRAC3 and
ATRAC3plus) and up to 13,000
songs can be stored on the 20GB hard
disk. Battery life is an impressive 40
hours of continuous
playback.
RRP: £199. Buy
it for £168.09
(inc delivery)
at www.
comet.co.uk.
Want to transfer your massive
music collection onto your digital
music player? With a 60GB hard
disk the Toshiba Gigabeat has a
huge storage capacity, yet is still
compact enough for easy
handling. An innovative crossshaped display is provided for
navigation and control, and
there’s a 2.2in LCD panel for
displaying JPEGs. Capable of playing MP3,
WAV and WMA files, the Gigabeat comes with 28 graphic
equaliser settings and the rechargeable battery offers up to 12
hours playback.
RRP: £299. Buy it for £269.94 (inc delivery) at
www.mx2.co.uk.
BEST FOR VALUE
recording and there’s a backlit LCD display for
track details. It stores up to eight hours (120
tracks) of music in MP3 or 16 hours (240
tracks) in WMA mode and gives up to 15
Perfect for jogging or for use down the gym, this skip-free digital hours continuous playtime from a single
music player. The device appears as a mass storage device on
AAA battery.
your PC and files can be ‘dragged and dropped’ to the player very RRP: £59 (512MB version). Buy it
quickly thanks to the super-fast USB 2.0 connection. An
for £49.48 (inc delivery) at www.
oyyy.co.uk.
integrated microphone provides up to 16 hours of voice
CREATIVE MUVO TX 512MB
http://uk.europe.creative.com
COOL MP3 AND IPOD ACCESSORIES
Drool over these add-ons that’ll enhance your MP3 players and iPods.
iDeck speakerswww.i-deck.com
Turn your iPod into a hi-fi with this new separates speaker
system from Monitor Audio. Unlike some iPod speaker
systems, the iDeck actually sounds impressively powerful.
What’s more, the iDeck is compatible with various iPod
incarnations including iPod 3G and 4G models, iPod Photo
and iPod mini (but not the iPod Nano yet).
RRP: £249.99. Buy it for £249.99 (inc delivery) at
www.shop.bt.com.
Chameleon case www.griffintechnology.com/
products/chameleon/index.php
With a chameleon case you can customise your iPod mini with its
own cover. There are 16 designs to choose from, including some
swirly, psychedelic and kaleidoscope patterns. Made of a tough
rubber material, the case is designed to provide ultimate
protection for the digital music player, but we still wouldn’t advise
dropping it too often!
RRP: $14.99 (£8.48). Buy it for £9.41 (plus £6.99 delivery) at
www.macheaven.co.uk.
24
13 October 2005
FEATURE
DIGITAL MUSIC GUIDE
COOL MP3 AND IPOD
ACCESSORIES Continued
Belkin cassette adaptor
http://catalog.belkin.com
Listen to music from your digital music
player in the car with this cassette
adaptor. Just plug it into
the cassette deck and
put the lead into the
headphone socket of
your digital music player.
The sound quality isn’t the
best in the world, but it’s a very
convenient and cheap way of listening to music in your motor.
RRP: £8.95. Buy it for £7.35 (plus £5.99 delivery) at www.amazon.co.uk.
AirClick remote control
www.griffintechnology.com/
products/airclick/index.php
The iPod is a great digital music player,
but it doesn’t come with a remote
control as standard. Thankfully, Griffin
Technology can provide one as an
optional extra. The AirClick can be
used through walls up to 60-feet away,
and comes with a holder for attaching
to a bike or car steering wheel.
RRP: $39.99 (£22.64). Buy it for
£17.95 (plus £2.95 delivery)
at www.blueunplugged.com.
Sennheiser PX200 headphones
www.sennheiser.com/sennheiser/icm_
eng.nsf/root/products_headphones
Most digital music players (including the
iPod) come with poor quality earphones
so it’s worth upgrading to a decent
pair. Sennheiser makes some of the
best headphones around and this
pair offers excellent sound
reproduction plus a foldable design
which makes them ideal for use
while travelling.
RRP: £39.99. Buy it for £32.70 (inc
delivery) at www.discountdiscs.co.uk.
DIGITAL PLAYERS
FOR THE HOME
œ
You don’t have to use a
portable player if you want
to listen to digital music in
the house. An increasing
number of traditional
electronics manufacturers
are now embracing the
MP3 music revolution with
digital designs especially
for your home – so you can
Philips 40GB
listen to music without being tied
Streamium
to headphones.
For example, Philips offers a range of
Streamium products that can play tracks from
your digital music collection. This includes a
stunningly designed wireless music centre with
a built-in 40GB hard disk (WACS700) and a
mini ‘ghetto blaster’ called the Shoqbox. For
more information, see www.streamium.com.
Meanwhile, Yamaha offers a similar solution
with its MusicCAST products (www.yamaha
.com/yec/products/MusicCast). Among the
goodies available is a digital audio terminal
with speakers that can
be mounted on virtually
any wall of the house.
There are also a
number of audio devices
that will play your
MP3s. These include
the Wayne Hemingwaydesigned Bug DAB
digital radio (www.
thebug.com) and a new
hi-fi from Panasonic
Wayne Hemingway’s
called the SCPM7190.
Bug DAB digital radio
Comprising a micro
hi-fi with a five-CD
player, a portable MP3 player and 512MB SD
memory card, the Panasonic device can rip
your CDs directly to the memory card and can
also be hooked
up to your
computer
for digital
music
transfer. See
www.
panasonic
.co.uk for
more
Panasonic SCPM7190
information.
IN OUR NEXT ISSUE
The complete guide to internet phone calls
We show you how to make them and where to find the cheapest prices
ON SALE THURSDAY 27 OCTOBER
13 October 2005
25
FEATURE
QUEUE JUMPING
Beat the
queues
So the British love queuing? Not likely.
Jane Hoskyn celebrates the sites that
help you jump the line
1
BEAT THE AIRPORT CHECK-IN QUEUE
Top site: British Airways
www.ba.com
It’s goodbye to the twohour bag-kicking shuffle.
At BA’s website,
passengers over the age of
16 can check in from
home, from 24
hours before
departure. The
service has
caught on
fast, and is
now used by more than
240,000 people a month.
Ticket-holders simply go
to Manage My Booking,
follow the instructions
and pick a seat (www.
seatguru.com can aid your
choice). Print your
boarding card at home
3
BEAT THE BANK QUEUE
Top site: Smile
www.smile.co.uk
Say what you like about
banks, but they’re not slow to
embrace technology. Smile,
from ethical bankers Cooperative, has won hundreds
of awards since its 1999
launch. No wonder: the
website is fast, engaging, full
of security innovations and
accessible to new and
existing customers. Smile
was the first online bank to
offer features such as online
standing order management,
direct debit cancellation and
bill payment.
Other bank queue-beaters:
Prudential’s Egg (www.egg
.com) was an online
trailblazer, though it’s since
BEAT THE POST OFFICE QUEUE
Top site: Post Office
www.postoffice.co.uk
Get some kitchen scales, buy
your stamps online and you
need never queue to have
another eBay parcel weighed.
The site’s weight/postage
tables give you the full
26
(domestic flights) or use
the airport kiosk
(international). Leave
luggage at the fast-drop
facility, and you’re off.
Other airport queuebeaters: Virgin Atlantic’s
DIY Check-In (www.virginatlantic.com) covers flights
to the US, South Africa
and the Far East. Air
France (www.airfrance
.com), KLM (www.klm
.com), Air Canada (www.
aircanada.com), Cathay
Pacific (www.cathay
pacific.com) and others
have online check-in on
selected routes, and BMI
(www.flybmi.com) is
expected to be the first
low-cost airline to join in.
2
13 October 2005
rundown, from 21p for a
Second Class letter up to 60g,
and up to £11.65 for a 20kg
package by Standard Parcels.
If your parcel is too big for the
post box, leave it in the Post
Office collection area – no
queuing necessary. It’s a great
site, but sadly you can’t
download forms for TV licence,
vehicle tax and so forth.
Other Post Office queuebeaters: The DVLA
(www.dvla.gov.uk) lets you
download driver and vehicle
forms. Print, fill in and post.
been eclipsed by high-street
names such as Halifax
(www.halifax.co.uk),
Alliance & Leicester (www.
alliance-leicester.co.uk)
and Lloyds TSB (www.
lloydstsb.com), whose
online-only savings rates
and innovative features
continue to impress.
FEATURE
QUEUE JUMPING
MORE QUEUE-BEATERS
8 Beat the toy queue
4
BEAT THE SUPERMARKET QUEUE
Top site: Ocado
www.ocado.com
All the big supermarket
websites rescue you from
checkout
queues, but
Ocado edges
it for ease of
shopping,
search
engine
efficiency
5
and stock availability.
There are loads of details of
products, plus recipes and
one-click recipe ingredient
purchase (see also www.
sainsburystoyou.co.uk).
Adding and removing items is
quick and easy, and if an item
is out of stock, Ocado lets you
know before you click Buy.
Other supermarket
queue-beaters: They’re all
pretty good really. Tesco
has a brilliant price-checker
that compares items at four
supermarkets (www.tesco
.com/pricecheck), and
like Waitrose (www.waitrose
deliver.com) it offers clear
pictures that let you read the
products’ labels. Asda
(www.asda.co.uk) has a
picture-free option – useful
for slower connections.
BEAT THE TRAIN STATION QUEUE
Top site: TheTrainLine
www.thetrainline.com
This simple, fast website lets
you book and pay for a train
ticket to anywhere in the UK.
You can also check the
timetable and schedule news
without queuing at the info
desk. Register free of charge
and click on My Account
whenever you need to check
your order status or apply for a
refund. It now includes a travel
store for international rail,
flights, hotels, car hire and
travel insurance.
Other station queue-beaters:
Users of London’s ‘travel
smart card’ Oyster (www.tfl.
gov.uk/oyster) can renew and
top up online. You can also
apply for cards at www.
family-railcard.co.uk and
www.senior-railcard.co.uk
(PDF download).
6 BEAT THE BUS QUEUE
Top site: National Express
www.nationalexpress.com
This is a nicer place to hang
out than your coach station.
You can find routes with the
interactive journey finder,
specify times and number of
7
passengers, and book and
pay securely online. Less
glossy, but equally efficient is
budget service Megabus
(www.megabus.com).
Other bus queue-beaters:
Regional bus companies
the last minute to collect your
guaranteed tickets. Site extras
include Coming Soon
bookings, e-postcards, special
offers and a listings email.
You can also book via Sky
9 Beat the tourist queue
No booking fee to jump the
Tussauds queue? Surely some
mistake. Golden Tours (www.
goldentours.co.uk/tour.
php?120) conquers the
country’s most famous tourist
queue, and also helps you past
the crowds at Alton Towers
and Legoland.
10 Beat the traffic queue
Avoid traffic jams by
checking AA Travelwatch
(www.theaa.com/travel
watch/travel_news.jsp)
before you leave. Frequent
drivers could invest in a
portable GPS navigator
from TomTom or CoPilot
(www.handnav.co.uk).
11 Beat the duty-free
queue
www.firstbus.co.uk and
Scotland’s www.citylink.
co.uk let you
buy tickets
and renew
passes
online.
BEAT THE CINEMA QUEUE
Top site: Odeon
www.odeon.co.uk
Odeon’s website used to be a
fussy, Flashy, slow affair, but
it’s much improved – there’s
even a text version for superquick access. Browse by film,
time or venue to pick your
flick, and book tickets for
collection at the cinema.
This way, you can turn up at
This year’s Buzz Lightyear
Memorial Riot is likely to focus
on the Robosapien V2 and the
Xbox 360, both of which go on
sale in November. Amazingly,
people still queue at midnight
for these things – when all you
need to do is pre-order online.
Go to www.amazon.co.uk,
www.boysstuff.co.uk or www.
firebox.com for Robosapien
V2; Amazon and www.comet.
co.uk for Xbox 360. To find the
cheapest pre-orders, use
www.kelkoo.co.uk.
Active interactive TV.
Other cinema queuebeaters: UGC Cinemas
(www.ugccinemas.co.uk)
has an excellent booking
website that includes a
MyUGC tool for personalised
one-click booking. Other
good examples include
www.picturehouses.co.uk
and www.myvue.com.
Berry Bros & Rudd (www.bbr
.com/heathrow) lets you order
at home, choosing from over
4,000 tax-free wines and
spirits. Collect before
departure at Heathrow.
12 Beat the taxi queue
Where2Guv (www.where2
guv.com) is invaluable for
queue-averse travellers who
want to get home quickly from
the airport. Book your cab at
no extra charge via the web,
email or text.
13 Beat the tax office
queue
The Department for Work and
Pensions (www.dwp.gov.uk/
resourcecentre/claim_forms.
asp) has scores of forms to
download. Includes forms for
Carer’s Allowance and
Statutory Sick Pay.
13 October 2005
27
FEATURE
WI-FI TROUBLESHOOTING
WIRELESS
PROBLEMS
SOLVED
Last issue we revealed how
Wi-Fi can revolutionise your PC
use. Here we provide solutions to
common wireless problems
GETTING STARTED
Basic sources of problems
First, check the obvious things. Are all your Wi-Fi adaptors,
routers and/or modems plugged in properly? Spotting this early
could save a lot of wasted time. On laptops with built-in Wi-Fi,
check that the wireless capability is turned on using either a
physical switch or an icon in the System Tray.
Check network status
Next, is your network actually working? Use the ping command
to test whether your computers can talk to each other. Click
Start, Run then type ‘cmd’ then click OK. Now type ‘ping
192.168.0.x’, where ‘x’ is a number between 1 and 254. If you
receive no reply, or a ‘request timed out’ message, the problem
is likely to be on that PC. If you get a response, the network is
alive and your Wi-Fi hardware is installed correctly.
Get the right passwords
You configure your router using a web
browser and in most cases pointing it
to http://192.168.0.1. Your router
will probably ask for a password
which should be in your manual
(the default is often Username:
admin, Password: password or
1234). You will also need to
enter your ISP username and
password in the router’s
configuration screen so it can
access your broadband connection.
28
13 October 2005
Wired can be easier
If you’re struggling to get your computer to connect to your
router wirelessly, try resorting to wires. If you have a USB router,
or can connect an Ethernet cable between your PC and router,
you’ll almost certainly be able to call up the router configuration
page in a browser (see Get the Right Passwords box) without
problem. Once you’ve finished configuring the router, you can
unplug it and try your wireless connection again.
Avoid mixing hardware
You can greatly reduce the likelihood of experiencing
Wi-Fi problems by buying all your wireless kit from the
same manufacturer. This also gives you one point of
contact if things go wrong.
FEATURE
WI-FI TROUBLESHOOTING
CONNECTION PROBLEMS SHARING
Eliminate interference
Share files and folders
Your wireless connection can be slowed down by interference
from both physical objects and radio waves. Walls, floors,
mirrors and even leather are cited as
objects that will reduce your
wireless signal quality, so
moving your PC or router
may be the answer. You
can also experience
interference from
devices like cordless
phones, microwave
ovens and baby
monitors. Overcome
this by changing the
channel number on your
router, or on each PC if you
have an ad-hoc network.
First, right-click on the folder you want to share, then select
Sharing and Security. Tick the ‘Share this folder on the network’
and, if desired, ‘Allow network users to change my files’. A hand
icon should appear underneath the folder, indicating that it is
now shared. To minimise security risks, you should only share
folders, not entire drives (eg C:\). Also consider passwordprotecting any sensitive folders. Right-click on the folder, select
Properties, click Sharing then tick the ‘Make this folder private’
option. Click Apply and you will be prompted for a password if
you don’t already have one on your PC.
Repair a broken connection
If your wireless
connection unexpectedly
fails, try the Repair
facility in Windows XP for
a quick way to get online
again. Right-click on the
Wireless Connection
icon in the System Tray
(the icon shows a
computer with three
waves at the side) and select Repair. Windows XP Service Pack
2 has an updated and enhanced version of the Repair feature.
Get it at www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2/default.mspx.
Reset after a crash
LINKS
One of the simplest and most common cures for computing
problems is to reboot. It’s no different with Wi-Fi. First, shut
down your computers, then if you’re using a router either press
the Reset button (this may be small, hidden and require a pin
to press) or just unplug the power for 15 seconds. Once your
router is restarted and has had time to establish an internet
connection, boot up your PCs.
Share a printer
You can share a printer with all the computers on your network.
On the computer with the printer attached, click Start, Settings,
Control Panel and select Printers and Faxes. Right-click on the
printer icon and select Sharing. Now select Share this printer,
then enter a name for it in the ‘Share name’ box and click OK.
You will now be able to select this printer on the other computers
in your wireless network.
Good neighbours
Avoid accidentally logging on to your neighbours’ wireless
networks by setting yours as the default. Right-click on the
Wireless Connection icon in the
System Tray. Then left-click
on View Available
Networks. Every
wireless network
available should be
displayed (if not,
press the Refresh
List option under
the Network
Tasks tab on the
left). Highlight
the network you
want and press
Connect. Your PC
should then default
to this setting each
time you switch it on.
Microsoft
www.microsoft.com
Numerous articles about troubleshooting
and improving your wireless network.
Linksys
www.linksys.com
Includes live chat and the Easy Connect
Wi-FI Wizard.
Practically Networked
www.practicallynetworked.com
Dozens of network troubleshooting tips
and tutorials.
Netgear
www.netgear.com
Useful networking knowledge-base and
support forums.
US Robotics
www.usr-emea.com
Includes free printable Home Networking
for Dummies book.
Tom’s Networking
www.tomsnetworking.com
Plenty of Wi-fi problem solving in the
FAQ section.
13 October 2005
29
Sitefinder
Know-it-all websites
By Quentin Reade
The web can answer your every question. But where should you look?
Wiki knows best
www.wikipedia.org
Wikipedia has established itself as the daddy of online reference tools.
The English version has more than 739,000 articles written and edited
entirely by volunteers, and while this can lead to some dodgy entries,
the site is pretty good at self-policing and most of the information is
great. The site’s founder Jimmy Wales said he wants Wikipedia to reach
or better the quality of the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
According to the site, “there are no formal distinctions between
different editors on Wikipedia, and decisions are ideally made by
reaching consensus among those involved”. During January 2005,
Wikipedia had about 13,000 users who made at least five edits that
month; and a more active group of about 3,000 users made more than
100 edits per month.
Answers galore
Worldwide advice
It doesn’t matter whether your
question is random, bizarre, or
straight-forward, you can post it
on this forum. Hopefully people
will know the answer.
Before you go anywhere, check
VT’s mass of info on hotels, things
to see and tourist traps. With over
600,000 members worldwide –
it has a lot of shared knowledge.
Nuts and bolts
Straight to the point
www.howstuffworks.com
www.answers.com
Computers, electronics, health – no
topic is too big or too trivial for How
Stuff Works. Find out how much
sugar they put in soft drinks, how
fusion reactors work and more.
Answers.com is a bit like a search
engine, but instead of giving you a
list of links it displays ‘quick,
snapshot answers with concise,
reliable information’. Give it a go.
Mind your manners
Pay for help
www.eHow.com
http://answers.google.com/
answers
www.theanswerbank.co.uk
www.virtualtourist.com
eHow claims it offers clear
instructions on how to do (just
about) everything. A great site for
advice on lifestyle topics such as
food, etiquette and relationships.
Can’t be bothered doing your own
research? Pay someone else to do
it via Google Answers. Promises
satisfaction or your money back.
A.C.R.O.N.Y.M. help
CIA factbook
Has a PC manual ever made your
head spin from all the acronyms?
Then get along to What Is. The site
has sections with titles like “Kilo,
mega, giga, tera, peta, and all that”.
The CIA has posted a list of
everything it thinks you need to
know about every country in the
world. Has maps, flags and more.
http://whatis.techtarget.com
www.cia.gov/cia/publications/
factbook/index.html
On the other hand…Do some answering
30
13 October 2005
Others’ thoughts
Twenty questions
www.epinions.com
www.20Q.net
It’s quite American, but useful
when looking for buying advice.
Reviews are written by fellow web
users, so sometimes need to be
taken with a grain of salt.
Turn the tables and provide answers
yourself. 20Q.net is an experiment in
artificial intelligence that learns as
you play the game. It will amaze you.
13 October 2005
45
Shot at Cliveden House
Capture movie
moments… and leave
the best man speechless
With the chic new Xacti C5 from SANYO, you can
capture those priceless movie moments in an instant
anytime, anywhere.
Slim, elegant, and beautifully crafted, the Xacti C5 is an
accessory with a difference. You can record up to an hour’s
worth of DVD quality video, as well as being able to capture
stunning 5.1 MegaPixel still images at the same time.
And because it’s so small, you can take it with you wherever
you go. So whatever happens, you’ll never miss the moment.
Available exclusively from branches of Dixons and Currys
www.sanyo.co.uk
Mybroadband
By Andrew Ferguson
[email protected]
Wireless broadband
is not always king
’m sure I am not alone
Wi-Fi may mean a
in having problems
world without wires,
getting a decent
but how thick are
wireless signal to all the
your walls?
nooks and crannies of a
property. I get sent a lot of
wireless kit and while
some of it is better than
others in terms of
coverage, the speed
reductions caused by a
couple of walls will
become more noticeable
with the rise in 8Mbps
and even faster
broadband connections.
The packaging on some
of the latest ‘boosted’ wireless kit in the highstreet stores promises vastly improved coverage,
but very often this is based on a house with
plasterboard walls. Put the kit into the average UK
brick-built home and performance is very
different. There are solutions to this: one recently
launched example is from D-Link, which has
launched the DWL-G710 wireless extender which
picks up an existing wireless signal and relays it,
at the same time boosting the signal. The ultimate
solution is to wire your house up with an Ethernet
network point everywhere you need it, but this
can be expensive and inconvenient, especially if
you have recently decorated. An alternative is to
consider using a different set of cables in your
property – the power sockets.
Powerline networking (also called HomePlug) is
not new, but is often overlooked. It works by using
the mains wiring of your property to carry a data
signal, using an adapter at each end of the link to
encode and decode the signal. Two suppliers of
such devices in the UK are www.devolo.co.uk and
www.solwise.co.uk. I’ve had the high-speed
Devolo units for a while and found they run as fast
as most turbo 802.11g kit. With the Devolo kit
I’ve transferred files at 20Mbps, which is much
better than most wireless kit once it has gone
through a wall or two. The hardware is not cheap,
at roughly £50 for each adapter, but they get the
job done. It also means you can have internet
access in any part of the house and your signal
won’t be interrupted by things getting in the way.
I
Broadbanduser
News, views and reviews from the world of broadband
broadbandbookmarks
Point-and-click games: Fans of point-and-click games will know how important
it is to have a broadband connection – you can literally spend hours playing them.
Here are three of our favourites.
Mystery of Time and Space
www.albartus.com/motas
This can only be described as the
ultimate online point-and-click
adventure game, guaranteeing several
hours, if not days, of brow-furrowing
fun. As with all games of this type, the
way to play is to click on everything you
can see in your quest to solve intriguing
puzzles. There are 13 aggravating
Lose all sense of time and space with this
levels to play here.
infuriating online adventure game
Swan’s Room
The Casino
http://mofuya.com/flash/swan _
en.htm
www.anodeetcathode.net/games/
casino
Feeling dizzy, you find yourself in a
room with no window and a locked
door – how will you get out of the
Swan’s Room? Tip: click everything!
The latest addtion to a splendid series of
‘escape the room’ games. If these aren’t
enough, turn to Seen This (page 74) for
a further point-and-click challenge.
A - Z of broadband ISPs
Freenetname www.freenetname.co.uk
Freenetname
Max:
Freenetname Max
Plus:
Freenetname
Unlimited:
Up to 2Mbps,
£18 per month,
free set-up and
modem, 5GB
monthly
download limit
Up to 2Mbps, £28
per month, free setup and modem,
20GB monthly
download limit
512Kbps, £24 per
month, free set-up
and modem, no
download limit
fairBROADBAND www.fairadsl.co.uk
Google
Sightseeing
What On Earth?
www.googlesight
seeing .com
Our regular pick of the best
We’re not convinced by its
extras for Google Earth
strapline ‘Why bother
seeing the world for real?’, but
you could certainly save a few Air
Miles here, with links to noteworthy places across the planet.
Works with both Google Earth and Google Maps.
32
13 October 2005
FairHome Plus: FairHome 1M Plus: FairHome Velocity:
512Kbps,
£21.73 per
month,
£58.75 set-up
fee, no
download limit
1Mbps, £29.95 per
month, £58.75 setup fee, no download
limit
1Mbps, £19.96
per month,
£58.75 set-up fee,
1GB monthly
download limit
Get the full A-Z at www.webuser.co.uk/broadband
For the latest broadband deals turn to page 73
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PEOPLE WHO KNOW BROADBAND
CHOOSE PIPEX
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They also tell their friends about us, which
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This fortnight’s new music, film, TV, games and sport downloads
Edited by Daniel Booth ([email protected])
13 - 26 Oct 2005
What to download and where to find it
Watch music
legends live
Brian Wilson Live download (video)
Available: Now Fee: £8.99
From: www.boxoffice365.com
Live download (video)
Available: Now Fee: £15.99
From: www.boxoffice365.com
Morrissey
These downloads
(approximately 600700MB) of previously
available DVDs feature
triumphant live
performances from two
musical legends who have
enjoyed career-boosting
revivals over the last few
years. Brian Wilson, after
many reclusive decades,
wowed fans by performing the whole of Pet
Sounds – the Beach Boys’ classic 1966 album –
live at London’s Royal Festival Hall in 2002.
Highlights of this 56-minute DVD-quality film
include spellbinding versions of the tracks
Wouldn’t it Be Nice and God Only Knows.
Morrissey meanwhile, after several thumbtwiddling years of inactivity marooned in Los
Angeles, returned to form last year with his You Are
the Quarry album. This 85-minute live video, titled
Who Put The ‘M’ In Manchester?, captures the
maestro of melancholy treating his hometown
crowd, at Manchester’s MEN Arena, to a mixture of
new tracks such as I Have Forgiven Jesus and Irish
Blood, English Heart and Smiths classics like The
Headmaster Ritual and Shoplifters of the World
Unite. Sadly though, there’s no sing-along rendition
of Happy Birthday, despite the gig taking place on
the day Morrissey turned 45 – 22 May, 2004.
Music
36
Download a new Alanis
Morissette single, hear a new
Starsailor session and listen
to John Peel’s first ever show
on Radio 1
Games
39
Try demos of Age of
Empires 3 and FIFA Manager
06. Plus the latest games to
buy, and downloadable extras
and previews
Film & TV
40
Watch clips and
interviews with the stars from
Guy X, Wallace & Gromit: Curse
of the Were-Rabbit and Corpse
Bride. Plus the best short films
Sport
41
Watch A1 Grand Prix
highlights, plus the build up to
the Rugby Union Super League
final and video coverage of the
national hunt season
13 October 2005
35
MUSIC
Where to find this fortnight’s best music downloads
John Peel
Radio 1 debut show (audio) F
Available: Mon 24 Oct –
Sun 30 Oct
From: www.bbc.co.uk/6music
If radio shows were antiques,
this would be worth several
Ming vases, a lost Da Vinci
masterpiece and a first edition
of The Bible signed by God. It’s
John Peel’s first ever show on
Radio 1, recorded in 1967 and
called Top Gear. Yes, that’s right
– weirdly it does share the
name of the TV programme that
made Jeremy Clarkson famous.
If you miss the show’s live
transmission, which features
a session from Pink Floyd,
you can hear it for seven days
on BBC Radio’s Playback
facility. An excellent way to
commemorate the first
anniversary of the great
man’s death.
Keep it Peel
Musicon the move
iBall wireless speaker
The iPod has certainly
revolutionised the portable
speaker market, with all manner
of clever designs vying for our
ears. Few though are quite as
ingenious as the Oregon Scientific iBall. This spherical 8in
beauty can broadcast music wirelessly from your player
from up to 30 metres away. Its transmitter base can also
charge your iPod and even synchronise it with iTunes on
your computer. The iBall works with all members of the
iPod family, including skinny new upstart the Nano, and
is priced at £200. Full details can be found at www.
oregonscientific.com.
Hiddengems
Starsailor
JAMES BLUNT – Radio session (audio) F
www.virginradio.co.uk/music/artists/james_blunt
Five session tracks from the chart-dominating exsquaddie recorded in July, including the mega-hit You’re
Beautiful. There’s also an interview.
36
13 October 2005
Get the latest
Session and interview (audio) F
Available: Fri 21 Oct
From: www.xfm.co.uk
Once indie also-rans prone to stodgy introspection, Starsailor
have reinvented themselves as purveyors of meaty and intense
rock. Talking about their new album On the Outside, singer James
Walsh says he was aiming for a sound “as pure and pristine as
Rufus Wainwright and Jeff Buckley – but with the aggression and
rock’n’roll attitude of Liam Gallagher”. See what you think by
listening to this three-track session, which includes the
excellent new single In the Crossfire.
updates at www.webuser.co.uk/downloaded
MUSIC
Podcastpick
Unsigned bands
Skepticality
www.skepticality.com
Skepticality casts a doubting eye
over the mumbo-jumbo that clutters
up life. Urban myths are shattered,
pseudo-sciences are discredited
and paranormal claims are
debunked. Essential listening if you
still think Captain Pugwash
contained dirty words and psychic
mediums chinwag with the dead.
Better than iPod?
Ministry of Sound
MP3 player
The latest addition to Ministry of Sound’s
rapidly-expanding arsenal of digital audio
players is the MOSMP055. This 5GB model can
store around 1,250 songs in MP3 format or 2,500
in WMA and features a voice recorder for
encoding tracks on the fly. It comes with a
docking station that both charges the unit and
keeps it secure while transferring files from your
PC, and is pre-loaded with exclusive tracks from
Ministry of Sound’s Chill Out Sessions 2005
album. Battery life is on average 12 hours, while
the player will set you back £150. Find out more
at www.ministryofsound.com.
Gig bonanza
Live gigs (audio)
Available: Now until
mid-November
From: www.nokiaraw.co.uk/
RAWtour/downloads.aspx
The Nokia Raw Tour, featuring
16 acts and continuing
throughout Britain until
November, is one of the most
ambitious music download
projects yet. Each gig will be
available to download in its
Get the latest
entirety just 36 hours after it
takes place, and remain live
indefinitely. Established
artists include Irish indie
warblers JJ72, Californiabased singer-songwriter
Brendan Benson (above
right) and Belgian DJ icons
Radio Soulwax. But it’s also
a cracking opportunity to
catch up with new bands
such as Pure Reason
XOO – Cattle Farming on
Mars F
www.alien8.co.uk
From: London
Sound like: A Flock of
Seagulls trying to convince
Pink Floyd that they know
how to play spaced-out
prog-rock.
Sample lyric: “There’s
nothing left to do on Mars/
As the sunlight fades away”
MyTunes
Putting your iPod or MP3
player on random is a great
way of getting a crosssection of your musical
tastes. Here are the first 10
tracks that appeared
randomly on the MP3 player
of reader Allan Lindsay from
Greenock. Tell us what’s on
your music player on the
Open Forum at www.
webuser.co.uk/forums.
The Beautiful South –
The Sound of North America
ELO – Blinded By the Light
Paul Simon – The Boy in the
Bubble
Dire Straits – Sultans of
Swing
Andrew Gold – Lonely Boy
Culture Club – Karma
Chameleon
The Stranglers –Golden
Brown
Peter Gabriel – Solsbury Hill
Terry Jacks – Seasons in
the Sun
Bob Marley (below) – I Shot
the Sheriff
Revolution, The Needs and
El Presidente (main pic).
For a full list of dates visit
www.getlive.co.uk/shows/
nokiaraw.
TuneTribe’s policy is to let
the artist set the price of
each download, so fees will
vary from act to act – though
you will be able to download
individual tracks as well as
entire gigs.
updates at www.webuser.co.uk/downloaded
13 October 2005
37
MUSIC
INDICNATTEENST.
FREEhCeOr content
All otpaid for at
is s set by
rate e site
th
F
Where to find this fortnight’s best music downloads
Audio books
Alanis Morissette
Spoken-word highlights from
iTunes (www.itunes.co.uk)
Download single – Crazy
(audio)
Available: Now
From: Most download stores
Whenever a major artist
releases a greatest hits
anthology you can bet that it’ll
be accompanied by either a
rubbish one-off single, or a
kooky cover. Alanis
Morissette has chosen the
latter option, tackling Seal’s
1990 hit Crazy – you may have
seen her perform it at the
recent World Music Awards.
The single is available to
download now, three weeks
before its high-street release.
The best-of album, titled The
Collection, follows on 14
November and contains hits
such as Head Over Feet,
Thank U, Ironic and You
Oughta Know.
≥ Fiction
The Lambs of
London –
Peter
Ackroyd
(read by Alex
Jennings)
6hr 13min
£24.95
Epic novel
set in 18th
century London about the
discovery of a lost
Shakespeare play.
Dave Gorman’s
Googlewhack
Adventure –
Dave Gorman
(read by
Dave
Gorman)
£10.95
3hr 0min
The comedian
narrates his
Googlewhacking-inspired
odyssey around the world.
Also online
THE CARDIGANS
Album preview: Super
Extra Gravity (audio) F
Available: Now
The Swedish band
return with their sixth
album, their first since
2003’s Long Gone
Before Daylight. Hear it
at XFM’s Listening Post.
From: www.xfm.co.uk
EMI PODCASTS
Band interviews
(audio) F
Available: Now
EMI’s monthly
podcast contains
exclusive interviews
with Starsailor, We Are
Scientists, Liberty X and
Bob Geldof.
From:www.the-raft.com
38
13 October 2005
PUSSYCAT DOLLS
Live session (video) F
Available: Now
The recent charttoppers play their huge
hit Don’t Cha.
From: http://uk.launch.
yahoo.com
SIMPLY RED
Album preview Simplified (audio) F
Available: Now
Listen to Simplified,
Mick Hucknall’s new
album of stripped-down
Simply Red tracks –
including new versions
of Holding Back the
Years, Something Got
Me Started and Ev’ry
Time We Say Goodbye.
From:
www.capitalgold.com
PAUL WELLER
Album preview – As Is
Now (audio) F
Available: Now
Hear the modfather’s
first new album of
original material since
2002’s Illumination.
From:
www.capitalgold.com
STEVIE WONDER
Album preview: A Time
2 Love (audio) F
Available: Now
The music legend
returns with his first
new studio album in
nearly 10 years.
From:
www.capitalgold.com
THE UNDERTONES
Documentary (video)
Available: Now
Fee: £7.50
Download Teenage
Kicks – The Story of
the Undertones, a
compelling film about
the new wave legends,
including interviews with
John Peel and the videos
Get the latest
for Teenage Kicks and
My Perfect Cousin.
From:
www.boxoffice365.com
THE DANDY WARHOLS
(pictured)
Live performance
(video) F
Available: Now
America’s greatest
bohemian oddballs play
three tracks from their
new album Odditorium
or Warlords of Mars .
From:
http://tinyurl.com/7eq2t
EL PRESIDENTE
Album: (audio) F
Available: Mon 17 Oct
Listen to the self-titled
debut album from indie-
glam outfit El Presidente.
From: www.xfm.co.uk
THE KOOKS
Session and interview
(video) F
Available: Thurs 20 Oct
Hotly-tipped indie
upstarts play three
tracks for XFM, including
their recent single
Eddie’s Gun.
From: www.xfm.co.uk
SANTANA
Album preview – All
That I Am (audio) F
Available: Mon 24 Oct
Hear the guitar legend’s
new album a week
before it hits the shops.
From:
www.capitalgold.com
updates at www.webuser.co.uk/downloaded
Demos to try
Age of Empires 3 F
From: www.ageofempires3.com
The third outing for this real-time strategy franchise,
available in the shops on 5 November, takes up the
timeline with the colonisation of America by the
European powers. Advanced battle action and lush
graphics are hallmarks of AoE 3, as you’ll see in this demo
that includes two single-player missions. Click on the
download link at the very bottom of the page.
Games to buy
TOCA Race
Driver 2
From: www.metaboli.co.uk
Fee: Available as part of a £12.95
monthly subscription
With 35 cars (including the Aston
Martin Vanquish and Jaguar XKR)
and 48 tracks to speed around, there’s plenty of race time
here. A full single-player campaign with
movie-style cut scenes is provided, plus
an online head-to-head race mode.
TOCA 2 features a highly realistic driving
model which will challenge the most
experienced virtual driver.
FIFA Manager 06 F
From: http://largedownloads.ea.com/pub/demos/Fifa/
Manager/FIFAM06_demo.exe
FIFA’s latest football management game, available to buy
now, boasts authentic team and player names (with over
2,000 clubs detailed), a match analysis system that lets
you dissect your tactics, and a host of realistic elements
such as dealing with the press. Best of all, the belting goals
and sliding tackles are played out with quality 3D graphics.
Age of Mythology
From: www.metaboli.co.uk
Fee: Available as part of a £12.95
monthly subscription
An off-shoot of Microsoft’s Age
of Empires series, this is a similar
real-time strategy affair in which
you must adeptly manage economic
and military tactics. What’s different
is the mythological setting, which
means that you can call on the Gods
to help you with lightning bolts, earthquakes and
creatures like the Cyclops.
Game previews
Game extras New levels, gameplay, content
WANTON DESTRUCTION
(for Shadow Warrior) F
www.3drealms.com/news/
2005/09/wanton_destr
uction_for_shadow.html
An official expansion pack
that never made it to the
shops. It’s a free download
for Shadow Warrior
patched to version 1.2.
DYSTOPIA DEMO (for HalfLife 2) F
http://dystopia-game.com
Here’s something slightly
different – a demo of an
upcoming mod. Dystopia
involves team combat and
a Matrix-style virtual
reality. It’s a very promising
project.
GAMES
Where to find this fortnight’s best games downloads
CODENAME: PANZERS
PHASE TWO PATCH
V1.05 F
www.stormregion.com/
index.php?articleID=170
This new patch contains
plenty of tweaks, including
fresh multiplayer maps,
interface enhancements
and the usual bug fixes.
DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE:
STORMREACH F
http://tinyurl.com/849Kd
Dungeons & Dragons Online brings the
famous RPG to the multiplayer gaming
world. This trailer shows off the character
classes that will populate the game.
13 October 2005
39
FILM & TV
Where to find this fortnight’s best film downloads
Dynamic duo
Wallace & Gromit:
The Curse of the
Were-Rabbit (interviews
and clips) F
Available: Fri 14 Oct
From: www.mymovies.net
Britain’s best loved plasticine
duo (apart from Jordan and
Peter Andre) won’t fail to pack
the cinemas with their first bigscreen outing, where they take
on a rampaging bunny. Sweet
relief after a disappointing
summer of brainless
blockbusters, this homemade
triumph is packed with
inventive flair, quality gags and
a salt-of-the-earth charm that’s
hard to beat. Let’s hope come
Oscar time the Wensleydale
fancier and his knitting dog are
up for Best Picture.
TopTrailer
TOP FILM TRAILERS
March of the
Penguins F
UK release: 9 Dec 2005
http://wip.warnerbros
.com/marchofthe
penguins
Studio bosses in
Hollywood are scratching their heads in disbelief at the
success of this documentary about Emperor penguins and
an epic journey to their barren breeding ground. It’s been a
phenomenal box office barnstormer, knocking some
glitzier and more expensive pictures for six. Listen out for
Morgan Freeman’s spellbinding narration.
Freaky footage
Duck and Cover F
www.archive.org/details/
DuckandC1951
In 1951 the US government
produced a film that advised kids,
in the event of a nuclear attack, to
kneel and clasp their hands over
their heads. Bless them for trying,
but we can’t help thinking that it
was a slightly naïve approach to
surviving a radioactive blast.
40
13 October 2005
Get the latest
Guy X (interviews and clips)
F
Available: Fri 14 Oct
From: www.mymovies.net
Starring Jason Biggs ( American Pie), Natasha
McElhone and Michael Ironside, this black military
comedy revolves around a Catch-22-style scenario
in which a solider is accidentally sent to an Arctic
army base during the (very) Cold War.
updates at www.webuser.co.uk/downloaded
FILM & TV
FILM COMPETITION
WIN! 1 of 5 The
Exorcist DVDs!!
Online TV treat
Highlights short films F
1Dead Shift
www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2677542
When a zombie wanders into a
convenience shop during the graveyard
shift, the clerk expects him to be a
difficult customer. He is, but for reasons
he could never have imagined.
For the first time all five Exorcist
films are being released together
in a DVD box-set. Extras include
commentaries from Exorcist
author William Peter Blatty and
director of the first film William
Friedkin. To stand a chance of
winning one of the five copies
we’re giving away, just answer
the question posed at www.
webuser.co.uk/competitions.
• The Complete DVD
Resurrection of The Exorcist is
out to buy on DVD from Monday
17 October through Warner
Home Video.
Mission: Paintball F
http://player.narrowstep.tv/?player
=blueyonder&void=5077
This show sets challenges for the
UK’s top paintballing teams to
discover which outfit is the SAS in
the world of the weekend warrior.
Contains all the fun of armed conflict
but without the blood.
NEXT ISSUE
2Call Me Crazy
www.studentfilms.com/film/get.
do?id=991
Desperate to get the girl of his dreams to
go escort him to the prom, Jack resorts to
an extreme plan to convince her. He tells
her he’s Brad Pitt’s cousin. Smart move.
The Brothers Grimm directed by
Terry Gilliam, plus Antonio
Banderas in Legend of Zorro
On sale Thurs 27 Oct
3Baby Dogs
www.bbc.co.uk/dna/filmnetwork/
A5564603
Revealing
exactly what
dogs would be
talking about
down the local,
this has a bunch
of hounds
drinking and
gassing over a game of pool, and using a
bit of frisky language too.
4Gallows Hollow
www.undergroundfilm.org/films/
detail.tcl?wid=1014483
Shades of The Blair Witch Project in
this short. The mysterious murder of a
group of campers adds further weight to
the argument that sleeping under the
stars is bad for you. Expect some
shocking moments.
5Street of Pain
www.atomfilms.com/af/content/
street_pain
Corpse Bride (interviews and clips)
F
Available: Fri 21 Oct
From: www.mymovies.net
Many contend The Nightmare Before Christmas is Tim
Burton’s best work, and here he revisits animation with a
stunning tale about a man who accidentally marries a dead
woman. Utterly mesmerising, and the cast list (including
Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter) is incredible.
Get the latest
Steve Carell, star of the US version of
The Office and The 40-Year-Old Virgin,
takes the lead
in this spoof
revenge
thriller in
which one
guy cleans
up the streets
– by playing
dodgeball.
updates at www.webuser.co.uk/downloaded
13 October 2005
41
SPORT
Photo: Getty Images
Where to find this fortnight’s best sports downloads
Motor Racing – A1 Grand Prix
Video highlights
Available: Now
From: www.skysports
broadband.com
Fee: £5 per month
As the Formula One season speeds
past the chequered flag, all eyes will
be turning toward the young upstart
of the motor-sport world, the A1 Grand
Prix. The inaugural championship is well
under way after two close-fought races
and the third – set for Estoril in Portugal –
promises to be just as exciting. Sky Sports has
snaffled all TV rights for race days and qualifying
sessions, but subscribe to its broadband service
and you can watch post-race highlights. Keep
an eye on the official site at www.a1gp.com too.
Only still images are offered at the moment, but
video footage is on its way.
Nelson Piquet Jr
celebrates victory
at Brands Hatch
Horse Racing –
National Hunt openers
Live video coverage
Available: Now
From: www.attheraces.com
Fee: £9.99 per month
Although National Hunt racing
is a year-round pursuit these
days, the season proper
actually runs from midOctober through to April.
Along the way are some of
racing’s most famous meets,
such as the Grand National
and the Cheltenham Gold
Cup, and the vast majority
of these races are shown
on At The Races. The site
broadcasts live horse racing
from 28 UK and 27 Irish
courses. Check out the
archive feature to bone up
on the form of the nags in
previous races.
WORLD OF SPORT
Rugby LeagueSuper League Final
Video build-up and highlights F
Available: Now
From: www.bbc.co.uk/rugbyleague &
www.skysportsbroadband.com
With the final eliminator yet to be played as we went
to press, Bradford and St
Helens were still in with a
shout of travelling to Old
Trafford to take on Leeds
on Saturday 15 October.
Either way, the final is
sure to be a belter and
you can savour the
build-up by watching
video interviews on the
Beeb’s rugby league page, while another visit to Sky
Sports will yield video highlights.
Injury time
Cheese Rolling F
http://tinyurl.com/7s452
Ah, the West Country. Home of The Wurzels,
lumpy cider and, er, cheese rolling. Watch in awe
as grown men charge down a near-vertical hill in
pursuit of a 7lb chunk of Double Gloucester.
Ankle breaks are practically compulsory.
Base Jumping F
http://tinyurl.com/9hsdb
Ueli Gegenschatz can justly
claim to be the greatest base
jumper alive. In September
2005 he raised the bar for the
sport by climbing and leaping
from the Swiss mountains
Eiger, Moench and Jungfrau
in 11 hours 45 minutes. Watch
the vertigo-inducing video of
his jumps here.
42
13 October 2005
Get the latest
updates at www.webuser.co.uk/downloaded
We comb the web for tips on stashing, splashing and making more cash
shoppingchallenge
What we’re shopping for
Rio Carbon Pearl
Rio’s ultra-thin pearl-coloured 5GB rival to the
iPod Mini has 25 per cent more memory and a
much more attractive price. This tiny player
stores 80 hours of MP3 or 160 hours of WMA
music, with a superb battery life of up to 20 hours
and a built-in microphone for recording. Add USB
2.0 connections, simple menus and intuitive
controls, and you have the perfect mini MP3
player. Find out more at www.rioaudio.com.
winner
Currys
www.currys.co.uk
The high-street giant has a fantastic website,
with well-stocked shelves and an equally
packed homepage. Featured items, top 10
deals and technology news are given pride of
place, and the product range stretches from
burglar alarms to BlackBerries. There’s also
DVD rental (with Screenselect) and
partnerships with Napster and AOL
Broadband. Delivery is free on certain
goods, including all MP3 players.
Basic price: £99.99
Delivery charge: Free
SAVED
MONEY
Brightspark
£80
Rectifi
www.rectifi.org.uk
Ex-fundraiser Jonny Platt wanted
“web users to
use their
consumerist
appetite to
raise money
for charity”.
So he
founded Rectifi, a search engine that
finds best prices at 400 online shops.
Each click-through generates
commission, of which 90 per cent
goes to charity, with the rest covering
costs. Platt doesn’t make any money
out of it. The site has a down-loadable
toolbar and tips on ethical shopping
and investment.
£179.9T PRICE
9
Each issue we scour the net to find the
best deals on a popular product such
as this MP3 player. If you’ve got a
challenge, let us know
HIGH-ST
REE
The new Mint
Card features a
new security
service, called
Mint Secure,
that prevents
unauthorised use of your card on
the internet.
How does Mint Secure work? First
you sign up and select a private
password, and then when you’re
shopping online you’re automatically
prompted to enter the password at
the checkout – a bit like entering your
PIN at the supermarket. If the correct
password isn’t provided, the
purchase doesn’t go through. It’s free
to register online, but it will only work
with participating online stores
including www.johnlewis.com, www.
dabs.com, www.ba.com and www.
tesco.com/entertainment.
Can I use Mint Secure with other
credit cards? Yes. You can register any
Mint Cards, Royal Bank of Scotland
cards or NatWest credit cards in a
single registration process, and use
the same password for all of them.
What if my credit card expires?
You’re issued with a new card and
Mint Secure is automatically updated
with the new information. But if your
card is lost or stolen, you need to
report it and then register your
replacement card with Mint Secure.
Can I manage everything online?
Yes. You can organise Mint receipts,
change account settings and
deactivate or reactivate your Mint
Secure membership.
What about the Mint Card itself? It
offers 0 per cent on balance transfers
until 1 July 2006 and a fairly average
rate of 14.1 per cent thereafter.
Cashpoints
£9
9.9 ICE
9
CREDIT CARD SECURITY SYSTEM
Mint Securewww.mintsecure.co.uk
BES
TW
EB P
R
Moneysaver
Claimed delivery time:
5-7 working days
Returns:
Within 14 days of delivery
How to pay: Visa/Delta/MasterCard/Maestro/
Diners/Amex
Dabs
www.dabs.com/uk
Pixmania
www.pixmania.co.uk
Basic price: £99.99
Delivery charge: £3.50
Claimed delivery time:
Basic price: £118
Delivery charge: £9.70
Claimed delivery time:
1-3 working days
How to pay: Visa/Delta/
MasterCard/Maestro
TOTAL PRICE: £103.49
3-4 working days
How to pay: Visa/MasterCard/
Maestro/Solo/bank transfer
TOTAL PRICE: £127.70
Next issue: The best price for a Motorola MPx220 smartphone
EuroSimm
www.eurosimm.com
Basic price: £125.73
Delivery charge: £4.99
Claimed delivery time:
1 working day
How to pay: Visa/Delta/
MasterCard/Maestro/
Solo/Amex
TOTAL PRICE: £130.72
13 October 2005
43
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The latest hot kit on the net
Apple iPod Nano, £139 (2GB); £179 (4GB)
The slimmer, smaller and smarter iPod
With the huge success of the iPod Shuffle and new iPod Minis,
it’s certainly been a bumper year for Apple. Now comes the
cream of the crop in the form of the iPod Nano, touted by
many as the best MP3 player yet. As thin as a pencil and
smaller than a credit card (90 x 40 x 6.9mm), it certainly lives
By Robert Irvine
up its ‘impossibly tiny’ tag, yet packs in either 2GB or 4GB of
storage, depending on the model. That’s enough for 500 or
1,000 songs, or the equivalent in digital photos, which can be
viewed on the Nano’s bright colour display. Available in
tasteful white or black shades, battery life is a decent 14 hours,
while extra features include games, a calendar and a contacts
book. Apple has admitted a small number of Nanos have
defective screens and has said it will replace all faulty units.
Where to see it: www.apple.com/uk
13 October 2005
47
The latest hot kit on the net
By Robert Irvine
Lexmark P450, £150
Print photos to paper or CD
Once you’ve printed your digital photos, it’s
always wise to back the files up, in case a computer
crash, virus or accidental deletion wipes them.
The Lexmark P450 lets you do so instantly, without
going near a PC, thanks to a cleverly integrated
CD burner. Simply pop your memory card into
one of its slots, or connect your camera to its
PictBridge port, and you can transfer your images
directly onto disc. You can even edit your shots
first on the 2.4in colour screen, cropping, rotating
and removing red-eye, as well as applying effects
such as sepia. Additionally, there’s an optional
Bluetooth adapter for printing pictures wirelessly
from your camera phone.
Where to see it: www.lexmark.co.uk
48
13 October 2005
comingsoon
Trust Slimline Keyboard Aluminium KB-1800S, £20
Stylish and slim keyboard with extra features
What with the iPod Nano making other MP3 players look porky, slim is
definitely in at the moment. Great timing then for Trust’s new
keyboard, said to be so thin it almost becomes one with your desk. The
Slimline Keyboard Aluminium KB-1800S is a mere 20mm thick and
complements its lack of girth with some interesting features. These
include high-precision ‘scissor-type’ keys that allow for smooth and
accurate typing, and seven function keys for one-touch access to the
internet, email and Windows Media Player. There’s also a Wake Up/
Sleep Key for placing the computer on standby mode, and folding feet
for placing the keyboard at an angle.
Where to see it: www.trust.com
Incredibly small MP3 player
MP3 players are becoming so small we’ll
soon be able to insert them straight into
our ears. The latest miniature marvel is the
Support Plus Q-Be, which measures a
miniscule 24 x 24 x 24mm and weighs only
18g, yet still manages to fit in a voice
recorder, clock and either 512MB or 1GB of
storage. Priced at £85 and £110, you can
buy one (if you can find it) from www.
dixons.co.uk.
TV with built-in Freeview
No longer do you
need a chunky
set-top box to
appreciate such
great digital
channels as ITV2,
BBC3 and E4. The
Roadstar
CTV1042D is a 10in
portable television
with a built-in
digital tuner, as well as
analogue for when you’re
not in a Freeview area. It also features a
multi-system function for use abroad and
an electronic programme guide. Order one
for £200 from www.amazon.co.uk.
Creative Zen Vision, £340
Minature media player with everything
Portable entertainment has now reached such a
sophisticated level that we actually look forward to long
journeys. This is definitely the case with the Creative Zen
Vision, a sleek digital entertainment centre that makes the
ideal travel companion. Offering 30GB of storage, it lets
you carry up to 15,000 songs in MP3 or WMA format; 120
hours of video; or tens of thousands of images. A 3.7in
colour screen provides excellent image quality even in
bright conditions; while a memory card slot lets you
transfer content from your digital camera. Add to this an
FM radio, voice recorder and personal organiser, all
packed into a device that measures just 124 x 74 x 20mm
and weighs only 239g.
Vodafone’s ROKR rival
If you’re unimpressed by the Motorola
ROKR iTunes phone (reviewed on page 50),
news of Vodafone’s latest handset may be
music to your ears. The Toshiba 803 sports
a clamshell design with an integrated
MP3 player, and control buttons positioned
on the outside. It also
features a 2.3megapixel
digital
camera and
Bluetooth.
On sale in time
for Christmas, see
www.vodafone.co.uk
for details.
Where to see it: http://uk.europe.creative.com
13 October 2005
49
INSTANT EXPERT
GOOGLE EARTH
INSTANT EXPERT GUIDE TO...
Googlle
Goog
Robert Irvine reveals how to fly
around the world without leaving
your Desktop using Google Earth
ith its all-conquering search
engine, email service and imageediting software, Google has long
been tipped to take over the world. Well,
now it has done, in the form of Google
Earth – a 3D interface to the planet that
you can download free from http://earth.
google.com. It’s an 11MB download and
you’ll need a Windows PC less than four
years old plus broadband.
Essentially a globe that sits inside your
PC, Google Earth lets you point and zoom
into any place in the world that you’d like to
explore. Once there, you can easily access
local facts and points of interest, view
detailed satellite images of specific areas
and even get driving directions from one
address to another. Come fly with us as we
navigate the program’s main features.
W
Fly in from space
Like the stunning shot that opens the film
Contact, only in reverse, Google Earth lets
you zoom in from outer space to any point on
the Earth’s surface. Simply type an address
or point of interest into the Fly To box and hit
Search. High-resolution satellite photos
ensure a seamless visual journey from above
Looking for gyms near Gateshead? Click on the
Local Search tab and key in your request
the clouds right down to street level, as
buildings, bridges and even cars come into
focus in many areas. It’s ideal for checking
out holiday destinations and distances, as
well as virtual-touring of places it would be
impossible or inadvisable to visit in real life.
But be warned, some places are covered by
cloud or are low-resolution, although Google
is addressing this.
Find a business
Fancy a pizza in Paris? Or need to hire a
car in Chicago? Google Earth can find you
either in a matter of seconds. Click on the
Local Search tab, enter your query and
you’ll immediately be presented with 10
relevant results, including contact details
and the distance from the area you
specified. Even better, each business will
be pinpointed in the map on the right so
you know where to find it. Double-click
on a business name to zoom in and get full
information, including customer reviews.
You can also make quick queries by typing,
for example, ‘gyms in Gateshead’ into the
main Fly To box.
Get driving directions
Zoom in from outer space to your local fish ’n’ chip
shop, your nearest plumber or anywhere you fancy
50
13 October 2005
If you like the look of a town enough to
want to get in your car and drive there,
Google Earth will map your route. Click
on the Driving Directions tab and enter
your departure and destination details.
You’ll then be provided with turn-by-turn
Click on Driving Directions and enter start and end
points for turn-by-turn instructions
instructions, with each step marked
clearly on the map. Click on the Play
button below the directions and Google
Earth will kindly fly you through the route
in close-up, ensuring you don’t end up in
the back of beyond. You can also get
directions for businesses by clicking the
‘To here’ link that appears in their pop-up
information windows.
View layers of information
When exploring a location, you can turn
on and off various layers of mapping
information such as roads, restaurants,
INSTANT
EXPERT
GOOGLE EARTH
Earth
Google Earth extras
As if all that functionality wasn’t
enough, there are numerous optional
extras to make Google Earth even more
useful. Here are some of the most
interesting add-ons from popular thirdparty site www.googleearthhacks.com.
Hurricanes – live tracking
With recent events in the US taking
everyone by surprise, it pays to be aware
of where the next weather menace is
lurking. This tool shows you the position
of all current hurricanes and storms,
updating its data every 10 minutes.
Flickr Images
Add a Placemark to save your searches – Google
Earth already has some interesting places marked
petrol stations, golf courses and other
features of interest. The layers you see can
be selected from an extensive menu in the
bottom-left corner of the main Google Earth
window. If one of your chosen options
appears in the current map view, it will be
highlighted and accompanied by an icon.
Click on this icon and Google will
automatically carry out a search for further
information.
Control your view
Unlike the flat viewing angle of traditional
mapping sites, Google Earth lets you zoom,
tilt and rotate its maps in whichever way you
please. Just use the slider bars and controls
beneath the main map window to immerse
yourself in the destination of your choice.
There’s even a special 3D view for some
American cities that lets you view buildings
from the ground up.
Save your searches
Google Earth uses Layers to display all sorts of
information. You can select which Layers to use
Install this extra and every time you stop
moving the map, the closest 50 images
posted on photo album site Flickr.com
(based on your current viewing area) will
appear in tiny pop-ups after 10 seconds.
Click on one to view the photo full-size
on its Flickr page.
If you want to revisit your search results, you
can easily save a result to the Places
directory by clicking the ‘Add a Placemark’
icon. Double-clicking on a saved place will
fly you back to that location, while if you
select multiple placemarks and then click
the Play button you’ll be given a virtual
tour. Google includes several famous
placemarks to get you started, including
the Grand Canyon and Beijing’s incredible
Forbidden City.
Next issue: Instant Expert guide to digital photos
News around the World
This network link pulls the latest news
from around the world and places it on
the map. Each item is shown as a
placemark which includes a link to the
full story, courtesy of Google News.
Jupiter
If you’re bored of browsing the Earth,
why not head out into space to explore
some planets. This add-on allows
you to fly around Jupiter via Google
Earth, employing photos taken by the
Voyager spacecraft.
13 October 2005
51
GROUP TEST
FREE EMAIL SOFTWARE
By Andy Shaw
Freemail
Outlook Express isn’t
the only free email
software available,
so we’ve put its closest
rivals to the test
B
ecause most of us use Windows,
and Windows comes with Outlook
Express already installed, we
usually end up sticking with the free
email program by default. However,
there are lots of free alternatives
available – some old favourites and
others new to the scene. These
programs all have the same basic
function: to download, organise and
display your email. But they also offer a
wide variety of extra features, from
decorating your emails with flashy
graphics to helping rid your Inbox of the
dreaded spam. With added extras like
these on offer it’s worth considering
whether your email software could do
with an upgrade, so we examined
Outlook Express and its rivals to see
what the latest versions had to offer.
Mozilla Thunderbird
www.mozilla.org
The biggest challenge to
Outlook Express comes
from Thunderbird. This is
a straight-forward email
program with a standard
layout. You can add any
number of accounts and
folders, and organise your email just the
way you like it.
One of its key features is the spam filter.
As email comes in, you can mark things
like spam or phishing emails by clicking
on a special junk icon. This automatically
moves them to a junk folder, from where
they’ll be automatically deleted at a later
date. It isn’t perfect and you need to keep
working at it, but it can remove a large
chunk of your spam if you find yourself
getting a lot.
It can also be used to keep up with your
RSS feeds, so you can check new content
on your favourite blogs and news sites
when you check your email. And if there
are any other features you can think of
that it doesn’t have, chances are someone
else has already developed a plug-in.
Thunderbird takes the familiar look of
Outlook Express and streamlines it,
Outlook Express
www.microsoft.com/uk
Outlook Express
is an easy option
when it comes to
choosing your
email software,
mostly because
you don’t have to download
anything new. This isn’t to say
it’s a bad choice though – it’ll
do most of the important jobs,
such as handle a family’s worth
of different email accounts,
automatically filter emails into
folders, maintain an address
book of contacts and generally
52
13 October 2005
facilitate the sending and
receiving of emails.
If you’re feeling creative,
you can also fiddle about
with backgrounds and fonts
to give your emails a little
pizzazz, though the templates
it offers aren’t as extensive as
Incredimail’s.
Features
Performance
Ease of use
OVERALL
★★★★★
★★★★★
★★★★★
★★★★★
adding important, useful features without
cutting back on anything. There’s not a
giant leap between this and Outlook
Express, but the small steps it has taken
add together to give Thunderbird a
significant advantage.
Features
Performance
Ease of use
OVERALL
★★★★★
★★★★★
★★★★★
★★★★★
GROUP
TEST
FREE EMAIL SOFTWARE
Pegasus
www.pmail.com
Incredimail
www.incredimail.com
You’ll know
when you
receive an
email from
a keen
Incredimail
user – it will usually be
littered with smileys,
backgrounds, flashing
fonts and generally fun,
but unnecessary,
detritus. This is all very
well if you’re mostly
sending emails to friends
who are happy to receive
such nonsense, but
don’t forget to turn it off
when sending out a CV
or writing to your bank
manager.
Plenty of things have
been put in place to
ensure Incredimail is
simple to use and it’s
certainly lots of fun if you
like personalising
everything. There are a
few annoyances though,
such as the permanent
envelope symbol
the program leaves in
your System Tray
whether you’ve got new
mail or not.
Features
Performance
Ease of use
OVERALL
★★★★★
★★★★★
★★★★★
★★★★★
Also try:
If none of the major programs here tickle your fancy,
there are still other free programs you can try:
yMail
www.spacejock.com
Simple email software that can also act as a spam
filter for your existing email program.
Columba
http://columba.sourceforge.net
An open-source program created in Java that’s
attracting a lot of attention from the internet’s
technical denizens.
Foxmail
http://fox.foxmail.com.cn/english
Despite the name, this has nothing to do with
Mozilla or its Firefox browser, but is an independent
free email program created in China.
If you’re looking for function
over design and ease of use,
Pegasus has plenty going for it.
For example, if you’re sharing your
email software with other people
and you want to set up profiles for
each, so they can’t download
each other’s email, Pegasus can
do this for you. This is particularly
useful if you live in a shared house
or similar environment and work
on a communal computer.
However, it does make things a
bit more complicated and, when
added to its comparatively
unfriendly presentation, it’s
among the trickier of the email
programs to get the most out of.
Features
Performance
Ease of use
OVERALL
★★★★★
★★★★★
★★★★★
★★★★★
Eudora
www.eudora.com
Eudora has two free modes – an
advert-supported version and a
version with reduced features,
which you can swap between as
you wish. If you don’t use the
version with adverts you lose
essential functions such as the
ability to create filters for
automatically channelling email
to different folders .
Eudora has a slightly different
way of working that’s more like
an in and out tray, effectively
meaning that the Outbox and Sent
tray are in a single view – an email
that hasn’t yet been sent is simply
marked as such. This makes it a
bit confusing for standard email
users, but it is something you
could probably get used to if you
think the concept sounds like a
good idea.
Features
Performance
Ease of use
OVERALL
★★★★★
★★★★★
★★★★★
★★★★★
Mozilla Suite
www.mozilla.org
Not to be confused with
Thunderbird, the Mozilla Suite is a
complete set of internet programs,
including some email software,
that will be very familiar to anyone
who used Netscape a few years
ago. The email client is presented
in a slightly different way to
Thunderbird, but is essentially
similar, and includes Mozilla’s
handy spam filter.
The downside is that the suite
really revolves around the Mozilla
browser so you can’t just install
the email software. If you’ve
already got a browser you’re
happy with and don’t want to try
Mozilla’s, it’s something of a
waste of hard disk space.
Features
Performance
Ease of use
OVERALL
★★★★★
★★★★★
★★★★★
★★★★★
Verdict
Thunderbird is to email what Firefox is to browsing. It’s small, it’s fast, can start you on the battle against spam,
and we love it. Outlook Express is a close second though: it’s familiar and comes pre-installed on Windows computers, leaving those
who don’t want to be fussed with a new program with a perfectly decent option. If you want to go to town on fancy emails then
Incredimail’s your software, but remember that some people don’t like having to download all the extra bits you’re sending them.
Next issue: Download managers On sale 27 October
13 October 2005
53
NEW PRODUCTS
MOTOROLA ROKR E1
By Robert Irvine
MOBILE
MUSIC
MAESTRO
Does the first mobile phone
with iTunes signal the end
of traditional MP3 players?
We put the ROKR through
its paces
rior to its launch, the world’s first
iTunes phone was heralded as
the way forward for portable audio,
eliminating the need to carry around a
separate MP3 player. Ironically, it has since
been overshadowed by the ultra-slim iPod
Nano, but the ROKR E1 remains a desirable
all-in-one device for the mobile music lover.
P
★★★★★
Features
The phone’s main selling point is that you
can carry around and play 100 of your
favourite songs in AAC or MP3 format,
stored on the supplied 512MB memory
card. Sadly, by today’s standards, this isn’t
a great amount – between six and ten
albums. And while iTunes offers more than
one million tracks to choose from when the
ROKR is connected to your computer,
frustratingly you can’t download any on the
fly. However, we do like the way playback
automatically pauses when you receive an
incoming call. Other features are merely
standard for a mid-range handset, such as
a VGA camera, multimedia messaging,
MPEG-4 player, Java games and web access.
Performance
★★★★★
Testing the ROKR with iTunes 5.0, we
found that although it synchronised
seamlessly with the software, music
transfer over the USB connection was
painfully slow, especially compared to
its speedy iPod cousins. The interface on
the phone itself also seems sluggish, with
functions not responding instantly to
their respective buttons. Much more
impressive is the stereo sound, which is
rich and crystal clear, far from the tinny
audio of rival phones. Unfortunately,
the same can’t be said for its murky
digital photos and video.
Ease of use
★★★★★
Aside from iTunes, one aspect that unites
the ROKR with the iPod family is its
simplicity. All the main options –
54
13 October 2005
Compare this to other mobile phones at www.webuser.co.uk/products
NEW
PRODUCTS
ONBIDDER
Onbidder
By Andy Shaw
Messaging, Phonebook, Multimedia
and iTunes (which also has its own
button) – can be accessed from the top
menu level, while other features are
logically located and the navigation
joystick is small but thumb-friendly. The
memory card slot is rather inconveniently
positioned beneath both the battery and
SIM card, though this annoyance
certainly isn’t unique to this phone.
Value for money
★★★★★
With VGA camera phones now available
for as little as £70 and a 512MB iPod
Shuffle only £69, the ROKR doesn’t
offer a massive saving on buying
separate devices but scores points for
convergence. Its closest competitor,
the Sony Ericsson W800i Walkman,
costs almost twice as much and doesn’t
work with iTunes but has the advantages
of a 2-megapixel digital camera and 1GB
expandable memory. Also, for
a joint Motorola and Apple venture,
the ROKR lacks the gorgeous gadget
factor of the former’s RAZR V3 handset
and the latter’s iPod.
Verdict
★★★★★
It’s difficult not to be disappointed
with the ROKR, which promised so
much but delivers relatively little.
While the integration with iTunes is an
attractive feature, the limited storage
space and unavailability of over-the-air
downloads makes it little different from
other MP3 mobile phones. We’d also
prefer wireless transfer of tracks to
the slow USB connection. Hopefully,
these criticisms will be addressed by
future iTunes models. In the mean time,
hang on to your iPod.
Motorola ROKR E1 £189 inc VAT
For Fully compatible with iTunes
software and music store ■ Excellent
sound quality ■ Easy to use
Against Can’t download music on the
move ■ Only stores 100 songs ■ Slow
transfer speed via USB
Specifications MP3 player with
iTunes software ■ Built-in VGA camera
with video capture and playback ■
512MB memory card for storing music,
data and photos ■ 1,000-name
phonebook ■ MMS and email ■ Web
access via WAP 2.0 ■ Two Java games
■ Animated screensavers
Contact Virgin Mobile, 0845 6000 600,
www.virginmobile.co.uk
Bidding buddy
A bidding tool that aims to help
you win more eBay auctions for
less money
nyone who has ever bought something
on eBay will know that feeling when
you’ve spotted a bargain, put in your
bid, sat and watched it for days, and then
someone else comes in at the last minute
and gets the item for 20p more than you’d
offered. Chances are that person was using
a sniper tool, which waits until the last
seconds before automatically making a bid
in the hope other eBayers don’t have time to
increase their offers. Well, you know what
they say – if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.
A
Features
★★★★★
Install this software and you’ve got
everything you need to find, manage and
snipe auctions. The tool is built around a
browser interface so you can access eBay
directly from it, while it also provides an
alternative interface for managing your
auctions. You can search for items by
browsing or by using Onbidder’s search
tool, and pull auctions you’re interested in
through into the software. Then simply put
in your maximum bid, activate the auction
and Onbidder will put in a last-minute offer
in the hope of avoiding a bidding war (where
two or more people get over excited and
artificially push up the price of an item
they’re fighting over). As long as you leave
your computer on, the software will log onto
the internet and bid at exactly the right time.
Performance
★★★★★
Perhaps even more useful is the multiple
auction tracker, which can track a number
of products at once and ensure you’re
bidding on the best value item. If you are
outbid it’ll head off and find an item
finishing later on and bid on that instead.
This means you can ensure you get the
lowest price available. The one thing it’s
missing is that the main auction lists don’t
display how much postage and packing
will be, so you still need to visit eBay
directly to find out the exact amount you’re
going to have to pay.
Ease of use
★★★★★
eBay isn’t exactly the toughest of websites
to get your head around but this software
Subscribe to Web User, see page 44
You can hunt out eBay bargains
by using Onbidder’s search tool
complicates matters a little. Getting started
is simple, but its advanced organisation
tools take a bit of working out. If you buy
a lot on eBay or you want to use this to
track regular auctions, you also need to be
prepared to do a bit of folder organisation.
Value for money
★★★★★
Onbidder suggests that its ability to
avoid bidding wars is certain to save you
money. This is probably true if you do a
lot of bargain-hunting on eBay and are
going to be able to recoup the annual
subscription charge of £20. But the
casual eBay user, who buys one or two
low-priced items a month, is probably
not going to make this up. There are
rival programs available, though most
subscription options are similarly priced.
Light users, however, may be able to
find better value snipers that offer similar
services on a per-snipe basis or for a small
percentage of the final sale price, which
could work out a lot cheaper.
Verdict
★★★★★
Auction sniping can be irritating to casual
eBay users but, if you’re not in the sniping
game, you may be unnecessarily losing
auctions or paying over the odds for your
wins. Having said that, because sniping
services cost money, you need to be
a serious eBay bargain hunter to recoup
the price of the software. If you are that
serious, Onbidder can make a good job
of organising and sniping your auctions,
and you’ll have enough tools to ensure
you’re at least as well armed as your most
tooled-up bidding rivals.
Onbidder £19.99 inc VAT
for a 12-month subscription
For Could save you money in the long run
■ Helps organise auctions
Against Needs a lot of eBay activity to
make back the subscription price ■
Doesn’t display additional postage and
packing charges
What you need Windows 98 or better
Contact Z Group, www.onbidder.com
13 October 2005
55
Whenever you bid
on eBay, get the edge
and win with
Onbidder, award-winning software,
that gets you the best price every time.
www.onbidder.com
Going, Going, Mine!
Only £19.99
Onbidder is your bidding buddy that makes your eBay
bids for you automatically, at the last second. Just tell
it your maximum bid, in advance, and Onbidder will do the
rest for you.
Onbidder costs just £19.99 for a 12-month subscription
and works seamlessly with eBay. It even comes with a
14-day money back guarantee. Download securely at
www.onbidder.com.
The way it works is simple. You tell Onbidder the maximum
bid you want to make. Then, seconds before the auction
closes, it makes the lowest bid possible – closing the sale
at the best price. And, because it makes the bid at the last
moment, other people don’t have time to react. Once the
bid’s made, the item’s as good as yours.
Simple to use.
One click to easily add an item and Onbidder bids for you.
Save time and money
with Onbidder.
Onbidder saves you time. You don’t have to stay up to
see an auction close, or stay in front of your computer
tracking its progress. You just tell Onbidder what to do,
and get on with your life.
And Onbidder saves you money. Because it only bids at
the last minute, there are no unnecessary bids earlier in
the process, which push the price of an item up. Other
bidders don’t even know that you’re interested in the item,
until the very end – by which time it’s too late for them to
counter. And of course, it bids the lowest price possible.
Bid on multiple auctions of the
same product and only win one.
There may be several similar items for auction at the same
time. No problem. Onbidder can track multiple auctions,
and bid for the lowest priced item across all of them.
Its sophisticated bidding technology will ensure that you’ll
only win one item at the lowest price. It couldn’t be simpler.
Easy bidding.
Onbidder software tracks all of your bids in one location.
Practical WebUser
Web User’s Practical pages help you get the best out of the web – whether answering
your queries or showing you new techniques. For an index of previous Practicals,
visit www.webuser.co.uk/practicals
PracticalFeature
Get more from your images with Picasa 2
WorkshopMasterclass
How to edit MP3s with Audacity
57 DIYWebPages
Readers’ websites/web-building advice
60 ProblemSolver
Q&A/ReaderHelpsReader
PracticalFeature
61 Hints&Tips
64
The best tips sent in by readers this issue
62 Essentials
72
The web’s best products and services
You can now download selected Practical Features
and Workshops in PDF format. More details at
www.webuser.co.uk/workshops
Picasa’s
hidden gems
We explore Picasa 2’s advanced
options for editing, managing and
sharing your digital photos
e last ran a Practical Feature on Picasa 2 in Issue
104, concentrating on its tools for organising,
enhancing and backing up your digital photo
collection. But there are plenty more features in this free
image editor, so we’re now going to delve into some of the
other options.
One of the best things about Picasa 2 is the scope it
gives you to work creatively with your pictures. No
simple name and store restrictions here – you can turn
your images into collages, screensavers and even movie
slideshows, which can then be posted on the web or
shared by email.
Picasa’s creator, Google, has also integrated the
program seamlessly with the world’s most popular
blogging service Blogger, which, of course, it also owns.
This lets you post photos directly to your blog from
within the software, resizing and adding borders and
captions as you go. Another Google tool, Hello, lets you
share pictures easily with friends who are online.
Here we explore some of these handy features you may
not know about.
W
About Picasa 2
Picasa 2 is free to download from www.google.com/
downloads. The program works with Windows 2000 and XP
(but sadly no longer Windows 98 or Me) and is compatible
with all major image file formats. It requires at least 64MB of
memory and 50MB of hard disk space.
13 October 2005
57
Practical WebUser
5
Section 1: Manage your folders
1
2
The Make Collage button will
now open. From the first
drop-down menu, select the Type
of collage you’d like to create 1
and then choose a background
from the Options menu. 2 Next,
use the Location menu to specify
where to save the collage to, for
example as a Desktop Picture, 3
and click the Create button. 4
1
2
3
4
1
When Picasa scans your computer for new pictures, it
concentrates on the Desktop, My Documents and My Pictures
folders by default. To change the folders that appear in the program,
click on the Tools menu 1 and select Folder Manager. 2
6
You can also save the
collage file into a folder on
your computer. Select the
‘Choose a Folder’ option from
the Location menu and then
click the Choose button to
open the Browse For Folder
box. Select the desired folder
1 or click the button to make a
new one 2 and click OK. 3
1
1
2
3
4
2
2
The Folder Manager will now display a list of all the folders on
your PC. 1 Click on a folder’s name on the left and then select
one of the three options on the right: Scan Once 2 to find the
pictures within it now but then ignore it in future scans; ‘Remove
from Picasa’ 3 to stop scanning it altogether; or ‘Watch for
Changes’ 4 to monitor when images are added or removed. Click
Yes if you’re asked to confirm the action.
3
Folders that
you ask
Picasa to
monitor will
appear in the
Watched Folders
box in the
bottom-right
corner. 1 Once
you’ve made the
required
changes, click
OK 2 to confirm
them and exit the
Folder Manager.
1
13 October 2005
7
Picasa can combine your photos into a movie slideshow,
suitable for watching on-screen, emailing, or posting online.
Highlight the images you’d like to use – you can quickly select a
whole folder by clicking the All option beneath its name 1 – then
click on the Create menu 2 and choose Movie. 3
2
2
Picasa lets you present your pictures in a creative fashion by
compiling them into a collage. To use this feature, first drag
and drop the pictures you want to include from the main Library
window into the Picture Tray. Once selected, click the Collage
button on the toolbar.
58
Section 3: Create a movie
3
Section 2: Make a collage
4
3
1
8
When the Create
Movie box
opens, use the dropdown menu to
specify the delay
between pictures, 1
up to five seconds.
Now choose the size
of the movie when
it plays on-screen
from the three
options available 2
and click OK. 3
1
2
3
Practical Feature
9
In the Video Compression box that opens, choose a Compressor
(or codec) format from the drop-down menu 1 to make your
movie easier to send by email or post on the web. Click the Configure
button 2 to fine-tune the compression settings and then click OK
3 to create and watch your movie.
1
2
3
1
3
2
12
You’ll now be asked to specify the size of your images as
they appear in your blog posts 1 and your image archive.
2 You can also add borders to your photos. When you’ve finished
adjusting the settings, click Save. 3
13
The Bloggerbot screen will now open. Click on a photo in
the left-hand side of the window, 1 then type a caption into
the box on the bottom-right 2 and click the Publish button. 3
1
Section 4:
Post pictures to your blog
10
If you have a Blogger account, you can post your photos from
Picasa directly to your blog. First though, you’ll have to install
a tool called Hello. Click the Hello button on the bottom toolbar and
choose a username 1 and password. 2 Type in your email address
and perform the word verification, then click Submit.
2
3
14
The photo
will now
start uploading
to your blog and
1
you should
receive a
message from
the Bloggerbot
telling you that
the post has
been successful.
1 Your blog will
open in a separate window, displaying the uploaded image.
1
2
11
The download should begin automatically. If not, click on the
Download link. Once Hello has downloaded, complete the
installation process and return to Picasa. Now select the photos
you’d like to use in your blog and click the Blogger button on the
toolbar. Blogger will then open in a new Hello window. Type in your
username 1 and password 2 and click Sign In. 3
1
2
3
15
You can also use Hello to share photos with friends who
are online and have accounts with the service. Click the
Hello button on
the Picasa toolbar,
then select a friend
1
from the list of
contacts, 1
choose a photo
and click Send. 2
You can also
email people you’d
like to view your
photos by clicking
3
2
the ‘Invite by email’
button. 3
13 October 2005
59
Practical WebUser
WorkshopMasterclass
Program: Audacity 12.3 Time: 10 mins
Edit your MP3 files
ne of the best things about MP3 and other digital audio
formats is the control they give you over the music you
listen to. If there’s an annoying glitch, extended stretch of
silence or simply part of an MP3 track you don’t like, you can
easily chop it out. This is particularly useful when compiling
homemade CD compilations, as you can tailor your tracks to
fit the running time, even speeding them up slightly if
O
STEP 1
necessary. All you need is an audio-editing program, of which
our favourite is Audacity. Packed with useful effects and
tools, this excellent software lets you import MP3s and adjust
them to your liking. Audacity software is free to download
from http://audacity.sourceforge.net. Make sure you also
install the free Lame MP3 Encoder, which lets the program
export MP3 files.
1
STEP 6
1
3
Alternatively, you may want to use
part of a song as a mobile phone
2
ringtone or audio clip for your
website. If so, highlight the
relevant section in the same way
as in the previous steps, then click
on the Edit menu 1 and select
Trim. 2 If you make a mistake, simply choose Undo Trim from the same menu. 3
Once you’ve installed Audacity,
2
launch the program from the
Start menu, then click on the File
menu 1 and select Open. 2
Browse your hard disk for the
audio file you want to edit, then select it and click Open.
STEP 2
The program will now start importing
the MP3 file. Depending on how large
it is, this can take a while, but the
progress bar 1 and ‘Remaining
Time’ figure 2 will give you an idea.
1
2
Audacity also provides a range of
effects you can apply to your
MP3 files, such as fading a track
in or out. To do this, highlight the
first or last few seconds of a
song, then click on the Effect
menu 1 and select Fade In or Fade Out. 2
STEP 3
2
Once imported, the track appears in
Audacity in the form of a graph. 1 You
now need to locate the section of the file
you want to edit. If you’re not sure where
it occurs in the song, click on the Play
button 2 to listen to it and note the
approximate time from the timeline. 3
3
1
2
STEP 4
3
1
When you’ve found the appropriate section,
it’s wise to look at it in a little more detail. Click
on the graph just before the part you want to
edit and drag the mouse pointer to just after it
finishes. This area will now appear shaded.
1 Now click on the View menu 2 and select Zoom In. 3
From the same Effect menu you can
also speed up or slow down all or
part of a song without affecting the
pitch. Highlight the area you want to
1
apply the change to, and then select
Change Tempo. Now drag the slider
bar 1 to the left or right depending
on whether you want to increase or
decrease the tempo.The new length
3
of the highlighted area will be shown
in the box below. 2 You can click
Preview 3 to hear what it sounds like, and then click OK to confirm. 4
3
13 October 2005
1
2
You can zoom in as many times as you need to
get the desired amount of detail. If you’re
1
editing a glitch or pause, you will see an
obvious change in the track’s graph indicating
where to chop. 1 Use the mouse pointer to
highlight the area, this time more accurately,
and then click on the Edit menu 2 and select Cut. 3 The selected section of the
track will now be removed.
60
2
STEP 8
STEP 9
STEP 5
1
STEP 7
When you’ve finished making
changes to the audio file,
click on the File menu 1 and
select Export As MP3. 2
Choose a folder on your hard
disk to save it into and then
click Save. Alternatively, to
save only the currently
highlighted area, select
Export Selection As MP3. 3
Next issue: Encrypt your email
2
3
2
4
Practical WebUser
DIYwebpages
Useful advice to help you start and improve your website from Andy Shaw
Readers’ websites
Hackney and Leyton Football League
www.hackneyandleytonfootballleague.co.uk
here seems to be a lot of interest in
football sites at the moment – probably
something to do with the new season.
However, not all sites are slavering shrines to
teams and players. Dino Constantinou has
created a site for the Hackney and Leyton
Football League, an amateur league playing
on East London’s Hackney Marshes, that has
brought such football delights as Paul Ince,
Ian Wright and Terry Venables into our lives
and was featured in the Nike ‘Park Life’ ad.
The site has an attractive design, but also a
few extraneous features such as the doorway
page, that do not add anything to the site.
What we found most interesting was that
Dino uses a lot of images for content, which
are updated externally and then uploaded to
the site to refresh the information. We suspect
that this must be because he’s using software
on his PC to keep the league results organised
and then screen grabbing these to paste onto
the site. It isn’t the best way to attract search
engines or dial-up users, but the key thing
with this site remains the quality of the
information and, if this helps keep the site as
bang up to date as it was when we visited, it’s
probably worth the sacrifice.
T
Create RSS feeds from any site with RSS Builder
favourite sites for updates at once. But if
you have a regular website, that doesn’t
automatically create an RSS feed, you can
use this software to create and organise your
feeds manually.
Players and teams in the League can keep
abreast of their fixtures...
...and rejoice (or otherwise) at their results
Email details of your not-for-profit website to [email protected]
Find more tips on web building at our Readers’ Websites forum at www.webuser.co.uk/forums
Blog your feelings
Lycos is publicly testing a new personal
blogging service focusing on feelings.
JubiiBlog is a bright, brash and colourful
place that might be able to give Blogger a
run for its money on ease of use. Plus it has
the ‘categories’ option to let you theme your
posts that Blogger is
sorely missing.
Intrepid bloggers
looking for a new
home can join the
free test at www.
jubiiblog.co.uk. You
can get more
templates to play with
if you agree to accept
Feeling jubilant?
emails from Lycos’s
Then tell the world
marketing partners.
with JubiiBlog
Countdown to Christmas
People rightly hate the fact that Christmas
seems to start earlier and earlier each year,
but if your site earns you a bit of pocket
money by affiliating with Amazon or the like,
it’s a good idea to check that it’s all in order
before the spending sprees start. It’s worth
Are all your affiliate links
spruced up and ready for
impulsive Christmas
shoppers?
having links to
products on your site
– people think about
presents at the
oddest times and
may not be specifically shopping when they
notice a particular item that solves the
problem of what to buy Great Uncle Alfie
this year. Leave your pre-Christmas dustdown until you’re starting to think about
your own Christmas presents and you may
have already missed a wealth of potential
ad-clicking visitors.
Free feeding
Web User Forum member Marcus has
pointed out a handy free program to us –
RSS Builder, downloadable from http://
home.hetnet.nl/mr_2/43/bsoft/rssbuilder.
Bloggers will already know how handy it
is to create an RSS feed of their blog,
which lets people use feed readers (like
www.bloglines.com) to check all their
Back to basics:
HTML vs WYSIWYG
Thinking about designing your first website
can be daunting. There are essentially two
ways to start: the HTML way and the
WYSIWYG way. HTML (Hypertext Markup
Language) is the code that web designers
use to put the basics of all websites onto the
web in a way that our web browsers can
understand. It’s nothing to be afraid of and is
far, far simpler than proper programming.
WYSIWYG
(pronounced
‘whizzy-wig’ and
standing for What
You See Is What You
Get) is the concept
of using a software
tool to create
HTML or WYSIWYG? It’s
websites in a more
visual way, which is your choice
undoubtedly easier
to learn than HTML, but comes with its own
drawbacks – sites can be slower, harder to
edit later and tied into a specific tool. While
we’d recommend the serious amateur
should get stuck into HTML, those wanting
to knock out a quick web page may be better
off with WYSIWYG software. To get you
started, check out www.w3schools.com/
html to learn HTML or consider the Gold
Award winning CoffeeCup HTML Editor
(around £27, www.coffeecup.com) if you’d
prefer to go the software route.
Top 5
1
2
3
4
5
web-design
discussion topics
What is bandwidth?
Free web space
Making newsletters
Free RSS feeds
Building forms
From Reader-helps-reader at
www.webuser.co.uk/forums
Share your site with other readers in our Readers’ Websites forum
13 October 2005
61
Practical WebUser
ProblemSolver
Each fortnight our experts answer your technical questions about the internet. If you’re
puzzled by a problem, we’re here to help. Contact us at [email protected]
ASK OUR
EXPERTS
Andy Shaw
Robert Irvine
SPYWARE
When you wish upon a spy
I have downloaded some items from
the internet and along with them
came some add-ons that I don’t
want. They are called WhenU products and
I want to get rid of them because my PC has
slowed down. I have looked in the Add/
Remove Programs panel to uninstall them,
but they are not listed. I have found them in
the Program Files folder, but it only gives
me the option to delete the files, which will
merely send them to the Recycle Bin. How
can I successfully uninstall them?
Q
Ellen, via email
MULTIMEDIA
Real Player refuses to play
I used to watch the Sky at Night
programmes on the BBC site using
Real Player, but something went
wrong and I could only play the sound
without pictures.
A friend suggested
that I download
the older version
of Real Player
from www.
oldversion.com,
which I did and it
worked fine the
first time. But
then Real Player If you’re having problems
with Real Player, try the free
would not play
and fast Real Alternative
another program
unless I accepted the upgrade to version
10.5. Very reluctantly I let Real Player do the
installation, but now it will not work.
I tried to contact Real Networks but you
can only send an email if you pay to be a
subscriber. Perhaps you know of a way to
Q
WhenU is a spyware program,
usually bundled with other software
downloaded from the internet,
especially peer-to-peer file-sharing
programs. It can also reach the computer
by accessing certain web pages, which ask
for confirmation to install an ActiveX
control. Once installed, WhenU bombards
you with pop-up ads and redirects you to its
sponsored links when you’re surfing the
web. WhenU sometimes shows up in Add/
Remove Programs as separate applications
called WeatherCast, ClockSync and
A
solve this problem? I am running Windows
98 with a 2Mbps broadband connection.
Wilf James, via email
The easiest and quickest way to
solve this dilemma is to remove all
versions of Real Player from your
computer and instead install Real
Alternative 1.43 from www.free-codecs
.com/download/Real_Alternative.htm. This
free program lets you play all Real Media
files on your PC or downloaded from the
internet, including streaming audio and
video content from the BBC site. It works
with Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and
Opera and employs a simple and speedy
Media Player Classic interface.
A
GENERAL COMPUTING
Downloading large files
Please can you help me understand
how to download some free
software? I have registered with
Corel (www.corel.com) and requested the
free trial versions of Paint Shop Pro 9 and
Q
Download WhenU Remover to uninstall annoying
WhenU spyware components from your PC
SaveNow, which you can usually remove
from there. If not (and even if you can, just
to be on the safe side), you can download
and run a dedicated WhenU uninstaller
from www.lavasoftusa.com/support/
download, aptly named WhenU Remover
1.01. You should also ensure your antispyware software is up to date and
perform a thorough scan of your system.
Paint Shop Pro 10. When I click on the link
to download these programs it says that
each will take over five hours to download.
My problem is that my computer shuts
down long before then. When I try to
connect again I have to start from the
beginning. It is a never-ending saga.
D Taylor, via email
From the long quoted download
time, we assume you’re using a
dial-up connection to access the
internet. In which case, the most effective
way to receive large files before your
computer shuts down or connection cuts off
is to use a download manager. The best of
these currently available is LeechGet from
www.leechget.net. This lets you break large
files into smaller chunks to make them
easier and quicker to download. It also
resumes downloads automatically should
your connection be lost and even lets you
schedule downloading for specific, quiet
times of the day. Best of all, it’s free and very
simple to use. We are running a group test of
download managers in our next issue.
A
Helpline... Open 7 days a week 8AM – 11PM
Got a technical problem that’s frustrating you and there’s no one around to help?
Then call Web User’s helpline for an immediate solution.
Our dedicated and trained staff will be on hand to give you the advice and support
you need on any problems – from setting up your connection to sorting out
difficulties with your software.
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the solution.
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62
13 October 2005
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Calls cost £1.50 a minute and each call you make will show up on your standard
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Practical WebUser
ReaderHelpsReader
Please send your questions and answers to [email protected]
or join in the ReaderHelpsReader discussion online at www.webuser.co.uk/forums
BROWSERS
Upgrading Firefox
hen I upgrade to the latest version
of Firefox, will it preserve all my
settings and include all the
extensions on installation?
W
Fusion, via Webuser.co.uk/forums
Yes it will. Settings, themes, extensions,
passwords and toolbar layout preferences
are all stored in the Profiles folder. This is
unaffected by upgrading whether it’s done
by uninstalling the older version before
installing the newer one, or installing over
the top of the older version. It’s best to
always keep a copy of the Profiles folder
though, just in case it is ever needed.
Mart, via Webuser.co.uk/forums Updating Firefox shouldn’t change your settings
EMAIL
Catch the Express
emails from June backwards. Luckily, I still
have a Desktop shortcut to Outlook Express
6 where everything is normal. Can I change
the program that opens when I click the
envelope icon?
Radiogandy, via Webuser.co.uk/forums
Click on Start, then Control Panel, then
select Internet Options (from Classic View),
then the Programs Tab. The second box is
your email default, so click the arrow and the
options available should drop down. Choose
Outlook Express and click Apply. Now your
envelope icon should open Outlook Express
when you click on it.
Wild Thing 666, via Webuser.co.uk/forums
Getting started
I’m only a beginner but I recently
downloaded Windows Updates as
recommended. Now if I try to access my
email via the envelope icon on the toolbar in
Explorer, Outlook 2003 only shows my
Piranha, via Webuser.co.uk/forums
GENERAL PC
Excellent advice
I am running Microsoft Office 2003 and am
setting up an Excel file simply for storing a
list of the CDs I own. When I click New, it
comes up with a spreadsheet with what
seems like endless columns. I only need
four, so how can I delete all the rest so I have
just four columns and hundreds of rows?
Becci, via Webuser.co.uk/forums
WEB DESIGN
Make sure your favourite email program is the default
There are companies out there that are fairly
reliable, and others that are not, so you need
to pick one that offers a reliability guarantee.
Also, think about support: try contacting a
few companies by telephone or email to see
how quickly they respond and be careful of
expensive phone numbers. A large
proportion of companies seem to charge a
lot and give standard answers to support
questions. The smaller companies are often
cheaper and can offer personal support but
might not offer the level of support you need
or the guarantees of the larger companies.
Don’t pay for a whole year’s hosting up
front. It is often cheaper to do so, but unless
you have tried and tested the company and
know it is good, you may wish to leave and
struggle to get a refund – I had this situation
recently. You wouldn’t believe the trouble I
had in getting the refund I was due!
Finally, consider what size package you
need in terms of disk space and bandwidth,
plus the features required, for example
databases, PHP and so on. Choose a host
where you can change packages or upgrade
at any time. My advice would be to check out
a few hopefuls before you make your final
decision, and ask for recommendations.
I’ve read the ‘Build your own website’ feature
in the magazine and am interested in doing
this, but am unsure where to start and which
companies are the best for web hosting.
Sir Dave, via Webuser.co.uk/forums
The web hosting market is flooded with
businesses offering their services to you.
You see hundreds but it will only print
enough to fill one page. If you want it to print
only the four columns that contain your lists,
highlight the columns you want with the
mouse, click File, then Print Area, then Set
Print Area. Then just click Print. If you want
to show the gridlines on your printout, go to
File, Page Setup, select the Sheet tab and
finally put a tick next to Gridlines.
Richie P, via Webuser.co.uk/forums
Can you help?
I have recently installed Outlook Express
6 with Windows XP, and when closing,
on each and every occasion I receive an
Application Error message ‘msimn.exe’
informing me that the memory could not
be written, whereby I have to close via
clicking OK. There is more than sufficient
memory available and any suggestions to
rectify this problem would be appreciated.
Ron Forster, via email
I have recently set up a new website called
www.MobyPhones.co.uk and am worried
about its findability through search engines.
Get more advice at www.webuser.co.uk/forums
My domain name provider has given me
a choice of framed, framed to a single
page or non-framed web forwarding and
I am unsure about how this affects the
site’s listing and ability to accept cookies
for the affiliate scheme I have joined.
Chris, via email
13 October 2005
63
Practical WebUser
Hints&Tips
Send your tips to [email protected] – we pay £25 for the best tip we
receive each fortnight. Or visit the Hints & Tips forum at www.webuser.co.uk/forums
£25 Winner!
BROADBAND
Extension blues
have had an absolute nightmare over
the last year with the connection for
broadband on BT. After much
discussion on your forum and also with
friends I still couldn’t resolve the problems,
which included the connection dropping
constantly. This weekend I moved the PC
and used a shorter extension cable
(reduced from about about 30ft to 4ft)
between the modem and the phone
socket. Problem solved. Apparently length
does make a difference!
I
The length and quality of the wire
between your PC and your phone
socket can have an impact on your
broadband connection
mr2rob, via Webuser.co.uk/forums
program and then browse for the file that
needs repairing (default location is C:\
Documents and Settings\YOUR USER
NAME\Local Settings\Application Data\
Microsoft\Outlook). Another annoying thing
is that depending on your settings, you may
not be able to browse and find this file since
some of the folders needed to reach it are
hidden, so you may need to change your
folder viewing options to show hidden
content (from the folder choose Tools,
Folder Options, View, then ‘Show hidden
files and content’). Once you’ve found the
file, it’s a matter of seconds till it’s repaired
and Outlook will be back to normal.
k_khalil76, via Webuser.co.uk/forums
EMAIL
Cleaner mail
EMAIL
Personalising Gmail
After a recent update, Gmail’s help files
suggested that you could change the
address that your email appeared to come
from, so you can get replies sent to a
different email address or alias. However,
when we tried it out, we couldn’t find the
options described, but we did find an
alternative way to do it. Click on the Settings
link in the top-right corner of any page.
With the General tab selected, find the
section labelled ‘Reply-to address’. Type
your desired email address into the empty
box and click the radio button next to it to
select this address rather than your Gmail
one. Scroll down to the bottom of the
page and click on Save Changes and your
Gmail will now appear to come from your
other address.
Change how your name appears in Google Talk
clicking on ‘Name and more’ you can change
your display name. Sign out then sign back in
to see the change take effect.
Metalmickey, via Webuser.co.uk/forums
GENERAL PC
You can download the latest free version of
MailWasher from Download.com
Device shortcut
To get to your Device Manager speedily, hold
down the Windows key and press the Pause
Break key. Then click on the Hardware Tab.
William Thomas, via Webuser.co.uk/forums
Andy Shaw, Technical and Reviews Editor
Alan Jones, via Webuser.co.uk/forums
EMAIL
GENERAL PC
Outlook saviour
Make it look like Gmail is sending your messages
from another email address
INSTANT MESSAGING
Change your Google Talk name
For those of you who are trying out the new
Google Talk instant messenger, you may have
noticed it displays your real name instead of a
display name like most of the others do. To
change this, simply click on Inbox which
takes you to your Gmail account, then click
on Settings then Account Settings. By
64
13 October 2005
A new version (5.1) of MailWasher Free is
available. You can download it from www.
download.com/MailWasher-Free/ 30002382_4-10434568.html?tag= pdp_prod.
My PC
recently
crashed while
Outlook was
open and
when I
restarted I
could no
longer see the Search for Scanpst.exe if your
Inbox or the
Outlook Inbox needs fixing
emails that
were there. Instead there was a grey page
saying that there was an error in the outlook.
pst file and that I should use the Inbox repair
tool. Strangely enough, this tool is not in
Outlook itself – you need to close Outlook
and run a search for the file Scanpst.exe
(which is the Inbox repair tool). Run the
User Profile shortcut
Here’s a quick way to see the contents of your
User Profile folder, which is where things like
your My Documents and Favorites folders are
kept. Click on the Start button, select Run,
type in a full stop (yes, just a ‘.’) and press OK.
FifeFlyer, via Webuser.co.uk/forums
Access your user profile folder quickly and easily
with a few button presses
Subscribe to Web User now. Call 0845 676 7778
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65
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13 October 2005
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13 October 2005
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8.Canon PowerShot SD550 •
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(Source: most clicked-on cameras at www.dpreview.com)
user
Webuser
Updat
every isesude
≤
ESSENTIALS
Our regular guide to the web’s best products and services
Top choice
≥ ONLINE SITE BUILDERS
Lycos Web Hosting
OneClickSite, from £4.99
per month
http://webhosting.lycos.co.uk
hardware
≥ DIGITAL CAMERAS
Apple iPod Shuffle, £69
Kodak EasyShare LS753, £250 www.apple.com/uk
www.kodak.com
The winning
element of this
camera is its
usability,
which is second
to none, though it also
takes rather good snaps.
The top-selling musical marvel
from Apple. No bigger than a
pack of gum, these sleek, stylish
devices play up to 240 songs in
a random fashion.
★★★★★
Our rating
iRiver H10, £179
Our rating
★★★★★ www.iriver.com
Slightly larger than its rivals but
Konica Minolta DiMAGE
the H10 weighs a mere 96g and
X60, £230
is slim enough to slide into the
www.konicaminolta.co.uk
If you’re after something that will
slide into the smallest of pockets,
but still provide excellent quality
shots, you need look no further.
Our rating
★★★★★
Canon PowerShot A520, £239
www.canon.co.uk
A great camera, but you have to
trade-off its size and shortage of
megapixels with its extra optical
zoom and high-quality snaps.
tightest of pockets.
Our rating
★★★★★
Toshiba Gigabeat F20, £230
This matt black cigarette-boxsized camera can take pictures
of up to 5 megapixels with a 3.4x
optical zoom.
Our rating
★★★★★
www.gigabeat.toshiba.co.uk
This is a handy 20GB player,
especially if you’re looking for an
iPod-like device that can be
controlled from the likes of
Windows Media Player.
Our rating
★★★★★
≥ VOIP HARDWARE
Our rating
★★★★★ Olympia Cordless
DUALphone, £74
Fujifilm Finepix F455, £240
www.dabs.com/3L27
www.fujifilm.co.uk
One of the drawbacks to webdesign software is that once
you’ve used the tools on offer to
create a basic site, you’re keen
to develop your skills and pages
further. Often, there simply
isn’t the capacity to do so and
you’re left with a sense of
untapped potential. Lycos has
taken this on board with its
terrific OneClickSite service,
which offers a wealth of
features to help you fulfil your
website dreams. It works using
a content management system
rather than templates, giving
you greater control.
Applications available to
install include weblog software
WordPress, image gallery
creator Singapore, discussion
forums from phpBB and many
more. Each of these modules
lets you customise your site
without any programming,
and is rated for ease of use in
an online guide. Better still, as
the name of the builder
suggests, everything is
accessible with a single click
from within the main control
panel so you can revise your
site in a matter of seconds.
Pages created with the service
look superb, with a professional
feel that rivals many standalone
commercial products.
Connecting to both a wall socket
and your PC’s USB port, the
DUALphone lets you make and
receive calls to and from Skype
users, landlines and mobiles.
of some models, the E-Zi simply
plugs into a USB port on your
computer.
Our rating
★★★★★
≥ WEBCAMS
Philips SPC 300NC, £30
microphone, but its USB 2.0
connection means it can handle
video capture at 640 x 480
pixels with great picture quality.
Our rating
★★★★★
≥ SCANNERS
www.consumer.philips.com
HP Scanjet 4850, £99
This Philips camera comes
with a separate microphone
that can be attached to a lapel
via a clip and plugged into the
back of the PC.
www.hp.com/uk
comes with
everything you
need to start video
chatting with an
instant messenger.
recognises 48-bit colour and
scans photos and negatives
very quickly.
An attractive, ultra highresolution scanner that’s as
quick as it’s easy to use but
comes with a whopping 450MB
of software.
Our rating
★★★★★
Our rating
★★★★★
Logitech QuickCam
Our rating
★★★★★ Our rating
★★★★★ Communicate Plus, £49.99
Epson Perfection 3590, £99
www.logitech.com
www.epson.co.uk
≥ MP3 PLAYERS
Firebox VoIP Cyberphone, £30 Not the cheapest
Epson’s Perfection 3590
Creative Zen
www.firebox.com
webcam on the
has a maximum scanning
Micro, £150
One of the first consumer VoIP
market, but it
resolution of 3,200dpi,
http://uk.europe.
creative.com
It may not have
the fashion icon
status of the iPod
Mini, but for value
and versatility the
Zen Micro beats all competitors.
handsets to arrive in the UK is
also one of the best, combining a
simple yet attractive design with
excellent value for money.
Our rating
★★★★★
Our rating
★★★★★
Our rating
★★★★★ Canon CanoScan 4200F, £79
PDT VoIP Cyberphone
www.canon.co.uk
Speakerphone, £40
Creative WebCam Instant,
If price is one of your major
Our rating
★★★★★ www.pmctelecom.co.uk
£24.99
considerations, but you want
This silver variation on the
http://uk.europe.creative.com
top-quality scans and don’t
Apple iPod Nano, £139 (2GB), standard Cyberphone provides The Creative WebCam Instant mind a bit of a learning curve,
£179 (4GB)
has a great software suite, but if this is an excellent option.
the same functionality as the
www.apple.com/uk
Our rating
★★★★★
you’re thinking of using it for
original handset, along with –
Like a Shuffle with a screen,
you guessed it – a speakerphone. chatting, you’ll need to buy an
Our rating
★★★★★ extra microphone.
Lexmark P4350, £100
Apple’s latest music player is
Our rating
★★★★★ www.lexmark.co.uk
small and sexy. Its flash memory
A handy all-in-one photo
(good for exercisers and battery Waitec E-Zi USB VoIP
Trust 360 USB 2.0 Spacecam, scanner and printer that
life) comes in either 2GB or 4GB Phone, £33
www.boysstuff.co.uk
£29.99
produces good results across
capacities, storing around 500
Shaped more like a mobile
www.trust.com
the board.
or 1,000 songs respectively.
Our rating
★★★★★ phone than the brick-like design This camera doesn’t have a
Our rating
★★★★★
72
13 October 2005
websites
software
≥ FREE IMAGE EDITING
Brightfilter, £25 per year
Picasa 2, free
www.brightfilter.co.uk
http://picasa.google.com
Brightfilter is relatively new, but
has the advantage over rivals of
being UK-based.
Picasa is a real joy to use,
providing everything you need to
work with your digital images in
a beautifully presented package.
Harder to get the most out of
than some, but has an excellent
reputation for beating spyware
and staying up to date.
Our rating
★★★★★
Our rating
★★★★★
≥ ONLINE SITE BUILDERS
Our rating
★★★★★ Cybersitter 9, £22
Lycos Web Hosting
www.cybersitter.com
OneClickSite, from £4.99 per
Serif PhotoPlus 6, free
Cybersitter sets up a powerful
month
www.freeserifsoftware.com
Serif’s full-price software is up
there with the best so it’s great
to be able to download an older
version free of charge.
≥ ENTERTAINMENT
Cartoon Network
www.cartoonnetwork.co.uk
With microsites for each of the
TV channel’s shows, you can get
your fix of videos, wallpapers and
biographies of your favourite
cartoon characters.
★★★★★
system shield, and scans for and
removes objectionable material
present on your hard disk.
http://webhosting.lycos.co.uk
Our rating
Lost
(See Top Choice, left)
www.channel4.com/lost
reputation for disabling spyware.
An essential tool for all net users.
operation, Moonfruit SiteMaker
4.0 makes creating a quality
website a breeze.
www.getlive.co.uk
Our rating
★★★★★
Microsoft AntiSpyware
Beta, free
1&1’s online site builder offers
a broad selection of
professional-looking designs
in tasteful shades, and plenty
of scope for customising your
web pages.
www.karmadownload.com
SpywareBlaster.
webbuilder
www.bl.uk/turningthepages
WebBuilder is free and beginnerfriendly, but can also be a bit
slow and inflexible.
Giving you access to rare books
such as Jane Austen’s early
handwritten works and a
notebook of Leonardo Da Vinci.
Our rating
★★★★★ One of the flashiest websites
Our rating
★★★★★
we’ve seen for a while. It may
≥ ANTI-SPYWARE
Moonfruit SiteMaker 4.0, from help you unravel the mysteries
Our rating
★★★★★ ≥ ANTI-SPYWARE
free
behind the TV series.
Spybot – Search & Destroy, free www.moonfruit.co.uk
Our rating
★★★★★
FastStone Image Viewer, free www.safer-networking.org
With a clean, intuitive interface
www.faststone.org
A thorough scanner with a great
GetLIVE
and wonderfully smooth
Includes plenty of editing tools to
cover most of the common tasks
you’ll use on a day-to-day basis.
★★★★★
Our rating
★★★★★
Our rating
SpywareBlaster, free
www.javacoolsoftware.com
≥ WEB FILTERING
SurfControl CyberPatrol 7,
£22 per year
www.cyberpatrol.com
Packed with features, yet simple
to use, CyberPatrol ensures safe
surfing for all users of your PC.
Real-time protection from
incoming spyware and a perfect
accompaniment to Spybot.
This new concert ticket site
offers a range of functions from
downloadable PDF gig guides to
SMS gig alerts.
Our rating
★★★★★
1&1 WebsiteBuilder, from
Our rating
★★★★★
£4.99 per month
www.1and1.co.uk
Karma Download
The UK’s biggest independent
music download service offers
150,000 tracks from leading
independent labels at 89p each.
Our rating
★★★★★ www.microsoft.com/athome/
Our rating
★★★★★
security/spyware
Our rating
★★★★★
≥ INFO/EDUCATION
ContentWatch ContentProtect, The latest anti-spyware program
£17 per year
British Library: Turning The
matching the scanning of Spybot Tripod WebBuilder, free
www.contentwatch.com
www.tripod.lycos.co.uk/build/
Pages
with the real-time protection of
Behind its simple interface,
ContentWatch has a strong set
of options for monitoring your
family’s web activity.
Our rating
Our rating
★★★★★
Ad-Aware SE Personal, free
★★★★★ www.lavasoft.de
Our rating
★★★★★
broadband
★★★★★
www.wiktionary.org
Best broadband deals for light users (Surfing 1 hour per day, email, online shopping)
Package name
Our rating
Dictionary Wiki
Speed Service restrictions Set-up cost
Monthly rate
1st year cost
1
NTL 1Mb Broadband
www.ntl.co.uk
1Mbps
3GB bandwidth
Nil
£9.99
£119.88
2
UK Online 1Mb Broadband with modem
www.ukonline.net
512Kbps
Unlimited use
£29.99
£9.99
£149.87
3
Telewest Blueyonder Broadband
www.telewest.co.uk
512Kbps
Unlimited use
Nil
£14.99
£169.88
4
PIPEX Start with modem
www.solo.pipex.net
2Mbps
1GB bandwidth
Nil
£14.99
£179.88
=
Tiscali 1Mb Broadband
www.tiscali.co.uk
1Mbps
Unlimited use
Nil
£14.99
£179.88
=
PlusNet Broadband Plus
www.plus.net
2Mbps
Unlimited use
Nil
£14.99
£179.88
=
Virgin.net Broadband Plan Three
www.virgin.net
512Kbps
3GB bandwidth
Nil
£14.99
£179.88
A multilingual dictionary and
thesaurus that tracks evolving
definitions of words, with
thousands of entries in the
English edition.
Our rating
BBC Learning
★★★★★
www.bbc.co.uk/learning
If you’re looking for a new career,
further education or just fancy
learning something new, the
Beeb offers plenty of options.
Our rating
Count On
★★★★★
www.counton.org
Data based on users paying by Direct Debit and requiring a broadband modem.
≥ Next Issue: Best broadband deals for medium users
Correct as of 2 October 2005
Data supplied by www.uswitch.com
This site offers maths resources
to pupils of all ages, including
help for parents, careers advice
and entertaining games.
Our rating
★★★★★
13 October 2005
73
EDITORIAL
Editor Andrew Craig + Deputy
Editor Claire Woffenden
+ Technical & Reviews Editor
Andy Shaw + Features Editor
Daniel Booth + News Editor
Quentin Reade + Staff Writer
Veronique De Freitas + Art Editor
Jann Fabia + Staff
Photographer Alan McFaden +
Production Editor Anthony
Green + Senior Sub Editor
Richard Lloyd +
Editorial Tel: 020 7261 7294
Sorry, no technical or buying
advice, for subscriptions call
01444 475675
ADVERTISING
Email: advertising@web-user
.co.uk Advertising Director
Jean Christie + Advertising &
Sponsorship Manager Nicola
Ponting, 020 7261 6597 + Senior
Sales Executive Lucy Ferguson,
020 7261 7539 + Sales
Executive Paul Briggs, 020 7261
5605 + Advertising Production
Stephen Turner, 020 7261 5513
CLASSIFIED
Head of Classified Sales Chris
Templeman, 020 7261 5634 +
Classified Sales Manager
Katie Thomas, 020 7261 6290 +
Sales Executive Alan Clarke,
020 7261 2933
INSERTS
Innovator Sales
Nick Barnard, 020 7261 7498
PRODUCTION
Production Director Richard Hill
+ Production Manager
Peter Wesson
MARKETING & CIRCULATION
Marketing Manager Gavin
Bonthron, 020 7261 7541, gavin_
[email protected] +
Circulation Executive
Peter Hayward
PUBLISHING TEAM
Marketing/Publishing Director
Angie O’Farrell, 020 7261 7294 +
Managing Director Paul Williams
+ Origination FE Burman Ltd,
Crimscott St, London SE1 5TF +
Printers Southernprint, Upton
Industrial Estate, Poole, Dorset
+ Cover printed by
Wyndeham Litho, Grafton Way,
West Ham Industrial Estate,
Basingstoke, Hants
A look at the lighter side of the web www.webuser.co.uk/seenthis
WEIRD WEBCAMS
The goat
in the grey
fedora
www.otterarchives.com/
CONTINENTAL DRIFT CAM
www.sudftw.com/contdcam.htm
Promising ‘decades of fun for the
easily amused’, this cam shows
you Africa slowly shuffling north
into Europe and India squeezing
the Himalayas higher. From the
people who brought you other
exquisitely silly cams as the Superfluous Shrubbery
Cam and the Peeling Paint Cam.
bounty2/index.html
If you like Jimmy Tarbuck, you’ll love this point ‘n’
click adventure, which has enough dodgy puns to fill
the London Palladium. But if you can stomach the
dire gags, you’ll find this a great little black-and-white
cartoon crime solver. Take on the role of Detective
Nick Bounty, who is hired to find a missing ceramic
goat. It seems straightforward, but then you find
yourself under fire from a pair of menacing goons.
Sudoku Challenge
Here’s the latest grid in a new series of Sudoku
puzzles. You can also tackle a new Sudoku every day
at www.webuser.co.uk/sudoku.
● The answer to this issue’s puzzle can be found at
www.webuser.co.uk/answers
Weirdometer rating: Off the scale
BEAT WEBUSER:
Funky Truck 4WD
www.teagames.com/games/funkytruck4wd/play.php
Can you beat our score of 11,300? If so,
email the proof to daniel_booth@ipcmedia
.com and we’ll honour the best in Issue 122.
Congratulations to Richard Gethin from
Birmingham whose 3,203 was the best
score we received for Excuse My Brother
(www.themitchellbrothers.co.uk/excusegame) featured
in Issue 118.
● Revisit previous Beat Web User games and highscores at www.webuser.co.uk/beatwebuser.
THE
WHACKING CHALLENGE
This issue’s challenge is to find a
SPOONABLE
Googlewhack containing the word:
When you’ve found one, email it to [email protected].
Five randomly chosen Googlewhacks will be honoured at www.
webuser.co.uk/googlewhack.
In Issue 119 we asked you to find a Googlewhack containing the
word ‘Doofuses’. Our favourite was ‘doofuses spoonable’.
Next issue on sale Thur 27 October
INTERNET
PHONE CALLS
Plus:
Don’t
miss it!
■ Google’s hidden gems
■ Trace your family online
The best sites for discovering your roots
■ Trounce Trojans
Transform the way you make calls with
our definitive guide to web telephony
Use Ewido to thwart Trojans, spyware and
keylogger scams
■ Organise your downloads
The best software to manage your downloads
Web User™ is an IPC Trade Mark © IPC Media 2005 Published on the Thursday as coverdated by IPC Country & Leisure Media Ltd, a part of IPC Media, a Time Warner company. Distributed by Marketforce (UK) Ltd, King’s Reach Tower, Stamford Street,
London SE1 9LS (Tel: 020 7633 3333). © IPC Media ISSN 1473-7094. © Copyright IPC Media Ltd. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or system or in any means without the prior written
permission of the publisher or the editor. This is considered a breach of copyright and action will be taken where this occurs. This magazine must not be lent, sold, hired or otherwise disposed of in a mutilated condition or in any authorised cover by way, or by
trade, or annexed to any publication or advertising matter without first obtaining written permission from the publisher. IPC Media Ltd. does not accept responsibility for loss or damage to unsolicited photographs, manuscripts and product samples.
74
13 October 2005
Contents subject to change
We rummage in Google’s treasure trove
of goodies