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The TP-Link TL-SC3130G ‘Surveillahce’ Camera

May 13th, 2010

No the title is not a typo, the box really does say “Surveillahce Camera”

Off to a bad start then, this camera offering from TP-Link promises many features: High quality images and video, ’surveillahce’ software, camera monitoring from smart phones, wireless connection, 2-way audio, dual video streams for long-term recording and local monitoring, 16-camera management, automatic restart on errors…

The TP-link camera

So an impressive feature list for a camera in this price range. But beyond these claims we have found a couple of issues. Annoyingly, and as is the case with many such cameras, it only works fully in Internet Explorer. Although I should say is supposed to only work fully in Internet Explorer. Weirdly, when the camera is accessed locally all is well, but remote access tirelessly crashes Internet Explorer every time. Ok, so we can look in on the camera with a smart phone or other internet browser, but we can’t set up motion detection or some other features.

Ok, that’s an irritating bug so we’ll move on and try the software which is “capable” of the same and more than should be possible in Internet Explorer. The installation went smoothly, but immediately I get the feeling the interface is less than brilliant. To start off I still haven’t found a way to move the window around. It is determined to be full screen. This would be ok except I am trying this on a computer with 2 screens. The second screen is just used for a powerpoint presentation and isn’t facing me. So when I open the second half of the program – the recordings and playback bit – and it does the same trick of not being moveable – and resolutely and immovably appears on the second monitor which I cannot readily see – I am not best pleased.

Giving the product a few plus points at this stage – the image quality is very good both for stills and video, and it does work with smartphones. The audio section seems to work well too although has quite a serious flaw. The Camera is wireless so you can have flexibility in placing it, but it does not incorporate a speaker. So where ever you put it (usually in the top corner of a room) you going to have to somehow place speakers near it if you wish to use this feature.

A final nail in the coffin was the scheduling feature in the “surveillahce” software, which does not.

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Warning about emails pretending to come from us

February 23rd, 2010

We have recently had some emails stating that they are from cbits/ComputerBits now we know we didn’t send them, but if YOU received such an email would you spot it?

See article on cbits.net blog

Tags: email, malware, spam, warning
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Worst Product 2009 – Our Nomination

December 5th, 2009

Replacement Battery Chargers have become an increasingly important product range for us over the last few years, manufacturers exercise great ingenuity in their constant ability to make the charger for their product different, either by voltage/Ampage AC/DC or plug/Socket from that for any other product

Laptop Computers have been amongst the top tier of these racketeers, a replacement transformer costing anything up to a £100 from the original manufacturer. (Mark you, laptop batteries are if anything worse !!) A couple of years ago “Compatible” Universal transformers started becoming available and we have seen a steady reduction in pricing, for both the original part, and the compatibles.

The problem with the compatible ones is that you have to figure out the amps your laptop needs then the correct plug to fit your laptop and check it’s polarity, then, (assuming you have the right plug) set a switch on the transformer to the correct voltage (get this wrong and you might blow your laptop!)

So recently Universal transformers have come along that you set using an LED or LCD display to the voltage required by your laptop that’s an improvement … saves time and trouble doesn’t it??

…well no, in fact products like the UA100 by Compucase require that EACH TIME you connect your laptop you set the voltage to the correct one for your laptop as in between times it sets itself down to 14volts to protect your equipment!

So each time you have to remember your laptops voltage (or re-discover it on the small print underneath your laptop (or even worse on the old lost/discarded/broken original transformer)) and go into the dongle on the cable and reset the switches.

At least with the older models once you had set the voltage you could reasonably assume it was set when you reconnected your laptop.

No doubt some designer somewhere is being lauded for this progress…

Tags: adapter, adaptor, charger, Compucase, Computer, Laptop, notebook, poor design, replacement, transformer
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To be 7, or not?

October 14th, 2009

Windows 7 is it another Disasta (Vista)? and,

Should you upgrade to Windows 7?

As you may know we have all been pretty unimpressed by Microsoft’s Vista operating system, and despite them claiming it to be a great success the fact that within 2 years they are releasing a new Operating System whereas the previous version (XP) lasted for more than 5 years says it all.

Windows 7 is scheduled for release on 22nd October 2009, and we have been playing with it for a few months, it is in many ways similar to Vista (not necessarily a plus!)

Here are some of our thoughts:

Nick: The first thing you will notice about Windows 7 is that it looks a lot like Vista. This may immediately put you off the new Operating System but don’t be deceived, hiding behind the even better looking user interface are many significant changes. Few criticise Vista for its appearance and I am surprised how complacent people have become about the truly hideous Window XP teletubby style green and blue theme. In my opinion Windows 7’s interface is visually just about spot on (maybe with a few easily made tweaks).

The second thing you will notice as you stop looking and start using is that the taskbar seems to be missing the bars for your open windows, or is it missing your quick launch icons? In fact it’s either both or neither, that is they have been merged into one. Applications appear as icons on the taskbar whether they are open or have just been “pinned” there. This may seem crazy when coming from vista or XP but the thinking behind it is logical. When you go to an application on the taskbar why should you care if it is already open? You went to the taskbar because you want the application now. Why should it matter if it’s already open, or will be opened when you click? This approach combined with a much better looking and performing way of managing multiple windows of programs like Internet Explorer makes the taskbar a good addition to Windows 7. This fairly drastic change may worry or annoy some, but persevere and it starts to make sense.

The next improvement over Vista is the speed of this new offering. Both to boot from off to desktop and general performance have been improved noticeably over Vista and is comparable if not faster than XP. This is partly due to Microsoft implementing better support to take full advantage of your Multi-Core processor.

Other improvements of Windows 7 are less obvious. I have found that when it offers help after there’s been a problem, sometimes it actually does help. This is in stark contrast to previous versions whose “help” is a great way to waste 5 minutes watching a progress bar. Other tweaks include completely new version of Notepad, Calculator and Windows Games, Desktop backgrounds can be cycled every few seconds or minutes to produce a nice, gentle slideshow on your desktop. Also support for fingerprint readers, location sensors and other such devices has been added as well as the interface being optimised for touch screens (for applications like windows’ Coffee table computers).

Terry: In my opinion this is a much better operating system than any before. It still has flaws which mostly come from Vista;

Wireless networking was very easy to use in Windows XP; Vista came along and made it more confusing, and Microsoft has for some strange reason chosen to keep this way.

Windows 7, has very much the same look as Vista, not a bad thing as it is very pretty, but I did like Microsoft XP with the word “Start” and not just a round circle.

One of the main improvements is when putting a blank disk in; you are asked what you want to do.

Eg:

	As you can see you have two choices:Burn an audio CDThis is just for musicBurn files to discThis is used to backup data files etc.

	This is where things have improved. As you can see you have two choices:The “like a USB flash drive” is new, and is a welcome edition as I have plenty of cup mats, after burning a disk and finding something missing that I had forgotten.

The new Windows Media player is now able to play DVD’s without loading any other software. and you also have the ability to write to DVD’s without third party software (Nero, Roxio et al).

Ben:

Easier Navigation

Programs can be pinned to the taskbar similar to Quick Launch in XP and Vista. The new advantage is that these programs opened are listed as icons on the taskbar. Now it’s easier to see what you have open and to find the specific pages you need.

Quick and responsive

Windows 7 will use similar amounts of memory and hard disk space as Vista, but it can manage the use of these resources much more efficiently. Switching between programs, opening images and browsing the web are much smoother. In Vista you found that all of these tasks would bottle-neck and cause your computer to become sluggish in its efforts; Windows 7 (whilst not completely foolproof depending on your system specs) is a VAST improvement.

Eye catching graphics/interfaces

Similar to Vista’s graphics, Windows 7 offers transparent taskbars and windows, lush new desktop backgrounds and colourful detailed icons. Finally it’s putting up a fight against the new Apple OS X.

Easy to use networking – sharing documents and printers at home

When connecting more than one computer at home with Windows 7, you can run what is called ‘Homegroup’. This is the newer and easier way of sharing documents, music and pictures between your Windows 7 PC’s and Laptops. It’s secure too. During the initial setup, you’re given a password that you then enter every time you link a new Windows 7 computer to the Homegroup.

In our experience using Vista, wireless networking could turn out to be a real pain. Setting a connection as ‘public’ would not allow you to access the internet. More to the annoyance was the inability to change this option. You were stuck with a computer not being able to ever access the internet using that network again. Windows 7 offers the choice to change this location at a later date (should you wish to do so).

Final thoughts

Windows 7 will be the saving grace for Microsoft over the next 3-4 years. It improves on XP and Vista taking their advantages and leaving their disadvantages. If you want to upgrade, don’t think twice about it.

AJ: It is a smaller operating system that the current Vista (But that has grown via updates since it’s launch) and on my laptop fires up much quicker, which is a crucial improvement.

Driver software again seems like it could be the Achilles heel of “Seven”, my own laptop was 6 months old when Vista was launched and despite being a ATI Mobility Radeon neither ACER nor ATI bothered to write VISTA Drivers for it (Shame on them!)

With earlier OS’s this wouldn’t have mattered, an enthusiast somewhere would have written the software and made it available but with Vista such drivers would seem to install but not be used because Vista will only use drivers “digitally signed” by Microsoft. (No doubt this involves fees that no “enthusiast” is going to bear!)

Seven seems to have similar settings and my laptop therefore has poor graphics performance, we have had similar problems with a Fujitsu Laptop where we were simply unable to get the Wireless Network Card to work as Seven simply did not support it.

In general on “new build” PCs we are seeing less of this type of problem.

Tags: Computing News, Operating Systems, Software Reviews
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Browser Wars

January 3rd, 2009

Which is the best browser out there? Here are some of our opinions and thoughts…

Adam: Mozila Firefox

My preferred browser is Mozilla Firefox, although I admit I haven’t had much experience with Opera or Chrome.

Internet Explorer, in my opinion, is the worst of the lot. In my experience, it has been the slowest in terms of the time web pages take to load. It has also been the most pop-up prone and the user interface is exceptionally poor – for example the way the new versions have the menu bar hidden by default and how even simple tasks like changing your homepage have been made as confusing as possible. And you can forget about features like searching your history, which I would have thought were pretty much standard by now.

Safari, Apple’s own browser which they have recently released for Windows, is definitely the best looking of them (as you might expect if you’re familiar with Apple products), however porting Apple’s “Aqua” visual style to Windows has, as we have seen with iTunes, come at the cost of taking up a completely ridiculous amount of memory while running. However, having said this, if you have the RAM, it is definitely a usable alternative to IE. The UI is beautifully designed and works as well as it looks, however there is limited support for plug-ins additional to the Flash, Java and QuickTime it comes with.

Mozilla Firefox, I feel, is good browser which, although it takes a pretty long time to start up on my PC, runs quickly and smoothly on every OS I’ve used and loads pages faster than IE most of the time. Its best feature, in my opinion, is the huge library of extensions available to download for free from the Firefox website. Extensions are little add-ons which, yes, extend the browser in some way. For example, “Google Preview” gives you a thumbnail image of each site next to your search results. “Resizer” lets you resize text boxes on web pages, and InterClue can be used to find out whether a link is worth clicking or not by popping up a little window with a summary of the page’s contents. If you’re that kind of person, there is also a similarly varied library of themes which can completely change the appearance of the browser, including everything up to the window’s border and titlebar (which is decided by your operating system). And if what you find in the libraries isn’t enough, there is a tutorial on the website which demonstrates how to make your own Firefox extensions and themes. It is this almost unlimited extra functionality that in my opinion sets Firefox apart from other browsers.

My favourite:

AJ: Undecided – Can I design my Own?

I currently use Opera on my Desktop at work, Google Chrome on my Laptop, and Firefox (from Mozilla) on my Media Centre at home, they all have plus points, and unfortunately negative ones. Internet Explorer has the burden of being the “brand leader” and this means it is subject to the most virus and malware attacks making it the least “safe” browser to use. I find however it views websites better than the others (webdesigners will check what their site looks like in IE, but not necessarily in the rest), I find fonts frequently look different and inevitably worse in Firefox, than IE.

Opera: I like the speed dial feature, where you can have a page that views mini pages of your top nine sites, for some weird reason Google’s version of this selects your “most visited” sites (so if you have a problem with say Microsoft and have to keep visiting them they feature in your “favourite” page), how annoying and Big Brother Tendency is this?

Tags: browser, chrome, deepnet, firefox, IE, mozilla, opera, safari
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Funkwerk Does Not Work

March 26th, 2008

Recently we had a customer who needed to move office and downsize. The requirement was to provide email and telephone services for three users at a location adjacent to the proprietors home, previously they had occupied an industrial unit with tens of users.

The costs of removing or replacing their telephone system alone would run into a couple of thousand pounds, and the ongoing costs of telephone calls and line rentals needed to be far less than they had been paying.

As we saw it this was grist to the mill, we could provide VOIP lines and an e-mail server, as the location was remote we elected to take over the customers existing Broadband connection to his home, to use as a “backup” in event of problems.

Because Openreach (BT) could not provision a line to the customers’ property using the existing phone number for us (this takes 15 days), we asked BT to transfer his existing number but just one line (he previously used a block of 4r through his PBX. This they promised in a week but in fact took 4 days longer.

To handle the customers’ communications we selected a Funkwerk TR200aw.

To quote Funkwerk:

“The Funkwerk TR200 is a multifunctional gateway designed for versatility and flexibility with a huge variety of professional features from routing, WLAN and telephony”

It looks good doesn’t it? An ADSL Router, that will support VOIP telephony as well as all the traditional features of a wireless router, and will integrate a normal PSTN phone line into a “mini PBX”, all for £350-ish.

Well if it sounds to good to be true, that certainly has been our experience.

We supplied the customer with a number of Funkwerk IP phones and three and then a fourth SIP trunk line, giving the users a direct VOIP line each and keeping their existing BT number as a customer line, backed up with our Broadband on the line and a link across his courtyard to connect a PC and phone in the main house with a secondary ADSL line (routed to a different central pipe). This would seem a fairly robust setup at a fraction of the price he would pay elsewhere.

First problem. The Funkwerk TR200aw does not work properly with normal phone lines – if a call was made in from a BT line and answered on the IP or if a call was made out to BT line, the user experienced a loud echo of their own voice a millisecond or so behind speaking, that overrode the person at the other end, making normal conversation impossible.

We had purchased the router from a distributor who didn’t offer technical support, but no problem, prior to purchasing I had spoken to Funkwerk’s International Sales Manager, who had assured me we could get support from them. In fact it turned out that UK support was initially handled by their main UK distributor, the guys there did what they could but clearly weren’t particularly familiar with the product, and no doubt were miffed we hadn’t got the product via them.

In desperation we bought a second unit from this distributor (more expensive, but no-one else seemed to have stock). We connected this up at our premises and lo – exactly the same problem.

Tags: Funkwerk, router, VoIP, wi-fi
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Windows Vista Preview

September 26th, 2006

The King’s New Clothes?

Popular folklore says that it is not until the third version that Microsoft gets a program “right”, and certainly those of us who remember Version 1 of Windows would agree with this. By Windows 3.11 for Workgroups they had something that was both useful and understandable.

Since then we have had 95, 98 and the dire ME, again becoming a good(ish) product in the various forms of XP.

Soon (although actual dates keep receding) we are due to get a “new” Windows, to be called Vista. It has taken a record time to get to this point and Microsoft needs to get some income coming in. We have been reading reviews of Vista that have been very favourable, and have been asking Microsoft for some time when we could get our hands on the software to trial.

Finally last Friday we received a package from Microsoft, including lots of new software, and I decided to try Vista and the new version 12 of Office Suite. We installed onto an Acer Ferrari laptop with an AMD Athlon XP-M2500+ CPU, 60GB Hard Drive, 512MB DDR RAM, and an ATI Radeon 128MB Graphics card. This comfortably met the minimum system requirements, though we do find problems as we go along.

My feelings are probably influenced by an installation of Mandriva Linux that I did along with a customer recently. The software went on easily, formatted the drive (including several options for partitioning) and installed itself along with a couple of Graphical Interfaces and some Office type applications in around 30mins.

Vista however popped up a Graphical Drive formatting gizmo, which, whilst it capably formatted and partitioned the drive, really gave no idea about the how or why. The whole installation took over an hour (and it needed an internet connection to do so). When complete it seemed it had correctly recognised the hardware and located drivers so, heigh ho away we go.

Well no not exactly…

Our first shock was the dire, dreary interface, featuring Dark Grey and large chunks of Black (one of my pet hates is those websites that have a black background, now my “Computer menu” has a black background with no obvious way of changing it).
Next is the red X on the top right of a window, which is sometimes there and sometimes not – now if like us you have spent the last few years trying to re-assure users that the best “safe” way to close unwanted windows was not to touch any “close” or “no thanks” buttons; simply hit the red X on the top right, you are mystified as to why this standard has been dropped.
In the evening I took the laptop to a local hostelry which offers (free) wireless access intending to install the office software. Now I like to think I am something of a wiz at wireless, however Vista has certainly managed to get my number – it can hide wireless connections better than the Scarlet Pimpernel could French Royalists. It features a plethora of windows with no obvious way forward or back (and no red X). What has happened to the “View Wireless networks” in XP? By the time I had managed to discover the Access Point and connect to it the laptop battery was flat, and I discovered that Microsoft had not provided Activation Codes for the Office Software.
The rest of the weekend was spent e-mailing Microsoft asking why we had no activation for the office suite, trying to recharge the laptop via the car charger (I had forgotten that we had used it to recharge a customers laptop and had it set to the wrong voltage for the Acer hence it didn’t recharge). In the end I went out and bought a PC Magazine which had a “free” copy of the Office Beta software, as an easier way than trying to get an answer from Microsoft.

Well things are moving along (don’t they always?) and we have spent a long period playing with wireless network access – we now have two wireless hotspots based at the ComputerBits store as well as our own wireless network. These are Free-Hotspot.com and Zonerider – we would welcome you to come along and try wireless access from the Market Place, or one of our local pubs or cafes, and you can add your comments to this article.

Yesterday evening a crisis arose – we got home and number one daughter (actually the only one thank goodness) decided to push the speakers of the Media System onto the floor in her enthusiasm to connect it up and become square eyed. This meant we had no sound AND the cordless mouse stopped working (dead battery). Attaching the mouse I use with the Acer Ferrari worked but the amplifying USB speakers I use with it didn’t!

No matter, we set up the Laptop in place of the Media Centre, loaded in a “Back to the Future II” DVD and off we went. First I realised we had not installed DVD software onto the Vista system, but to my delight Vista Media Player said “Do you want me to play this DVD?” , Oh Boy, Oh Great , you can do that?, you’re good, oh Yes please!.

<!–[endif]–>

What do you mean, “copyright problem”? I paid good money to buy these DVDs from Blockbuster; Vista you are wrong!

A night without TV…..

Further reseach today suggests this problem is a bug and has been encountered by others, nonetheless this O/S is proving an embarrasment

BUT – frankly the Acer is needed to check out the functioning of Wireless signals and with the Vista O/S it simply cannot cope. This is not a bug within Vista; it is to do with the thinking behind it. Microsoft is making the bits of XP we found useful either unavailable or hidden so deep within the system that we cannot find them. We think this is their idea of making it simple – “the system does it itself” – so the user does not need to know about connection details. However, the fact is we want a simple “view available networks” and this is not there!

So… Terry has spent most of this morning uninstalling the hapless VISTA, and re-installing XP onto the Ferrari.

That means that until we get another PC – preferably with a 64bit CPU – we do not have a Vista system running. I have installed “Office 2007″ onto my Desktop PC and will be saying something about this, but for the short term Vista remains..

To Be continued…

Tags: vista, windows
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Creative Sound Blaster Audigy

June 24th, 2002

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy

- Record straight from electronic keyboard or guitar to your hard disk
- Format and copy music to MiniDisc
- Edit digital videos, adding captions and effects.
- Using a CDRW (Recordable CD Drive) you can create your own music or Video
  CDs

Overall Verdict:	Audigy turns your PC into an entertainment Centre, quality of the digital files it can produce is excellent. It has its own brilliant musical instruments built in, but these can be customised. This will replace most of our Stereo systems with something far better
Computerbits rating

Most of us are happy with basic sound, all we want is decent sound effects in
games and the possibility of playing the odd CD as “background” whilst
we are doing other work

If you want music – use your hi-fi ?? well this was once true but now the PC
is coming into it’s own as an entertainment centre.

Creative Labs rapidly became the major player in computer sound over ten
years ago. The initial SoundBlaster card gave us the effects we wanted at the
time, mainly bleeps and whistles and squeaks! They rapidly saw off competition
from Gravis and Aztech Labs and became “the standard”

Nowadays most PC’s come with soundcards fitted (usually built into the mainboard)
- but in the add-on and replacement market the Sound Blaster Live! series is the
major mover. These cards have 1024 voices (or instruments) and produce quality
“surround sound” that will indeed rival most Stereo systems.

But now Creative have produced a sound card which simply puts this into the
shade, the Sound Blaster Audigy is an upgrade that will really make your PC into
a Stereo System worth having. For £80 you will get an interesting piece
of equipment, firstly along with the usual audio connections you will find a
FireWire port (FireWire is a very fast system to connect Video cameras, external
Hard Disks, digital jukeboxes etc) – A FireWire Card on its own is about £30

The important point though is the quality of the audio which is awesome, both
for CD playing or computer-generated music the sound is clear and undistorted
(given the Caveat that you are using speakers suitable to handle this!)

There is however even more to come the Soundblaster Audigy Platinum. This
adds a panel to the front of your PC (fits a standard 5¼” bay) featuring
an additional FirewirePort, Input and output for digital devices (such as
MiniDisc), Midi connections for music keyboards and an additional audio input.
There is also a Remote Control Handset that will control the PCs Audio and Video
features.

As usual with Creative Products the Retail versions of these cards come
packed with software, this more or less turns your PC into a recording Studio.
You Can:

On the downside installation can be tricky (Though if you buy from us we sort
this problem). The software is not the easiest to understand and patience
is needed to get the best from these cards

ComputerBits Special Offer Prices !!!

Product	Price Exc VAT	Price Inc VAT
Creative Labs Audigy Player	£55.50	£65.21
Creative Labs Audigy Platinum	£149.00	£175.07
Creative Labs Audugy Platinum FX	£195.00	£229.13

Please Note pricing is subject to change without notice and supply is
dependant upon availability. Please check and agree at point of order.

Tags: audigy, creative, sound
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Windows Millenium

July 22nd, 2000

Windows ME logo

Well, its September 14th and another release of the Microsoft’s world dominant operating system is upon us. Available in your shops today is Microsoft’s latest release. The OEM version has been out for about a month now, but the upgrade is now available for you to purchase for around £80. Why does any serious gamer care about an operating system I hear you cry? Well I will stake my life on it that 95% of you play all your PC games on some form of Windows operating system. This article will tell you whether or not it is worth the £40 you’ll end up paying for it.

Minimum Specifications

The first thing that struck me about Windows ME, are Microsoft’s minimum specifications for the operating system. The system requirements from the Microsoft web site are as follows:

VGA or higher resolution monitor

Pentium 150MHz processor or better

32MB of RAM or better

480MB to 645MB free hard-disk space

CD-ROM drive

28.8 Kbs modem or faster with current Internet connection

Sound card

Speakers or headphones

Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device

That is some serious hardware. You have got to question why you need a sound card, modem, and speakers just to run an operating system. Well, we tested the ‘minimum specifications’ and it turns out that Microsoft should have listed them, as ‘recommended’ specifications as Windows ME will run quite happily without a sound card, modem or speakers. Another thing that is striking about Microsoft’s specifications is the amount of disk space your installation will gobble up. If you still have an old system with a 1 or 2 gig disk then you’re going to need an upgrade as Windows ME will eat up a good 500MB of your hard disk. For comparison, Windows 98 took up 180MB on first installation and Windows 95 only 100MB. Microsoft will tell us all that the large amount of space required is needed to sustain all the new features which may be true but it also raises questions that if any of their other operating systems are anything to go by, more code means more bugs. I’ll get to those later though.

Installation

Well, you will be glad to know that Windows ME is the easiest operating system ever to set up and install onto you’re system. The mandatory questions are asked at the start, but after that you can sit back and relax while Windows ME installs and sets itself up on your system. Hardware drivers disks shouldn’t have to be inserted at any point in the installation, unless you have some brand spanking new hardware that it can’t find. It detects and sets up most systems with a correct set of drivers that seem to function correctly. While you install you can make yourself a cup of tea and then probably go for a quick jog down to the newsagents to get the morning paper as it takes almost an hour to copy all the files. Once its finished though, you should have all the hardware correctly detected and installed and Windows booting in much quicker time than Windows 98.

New Features

There are plenty of new features that come with Windows ME. Windows Media Player 7 adds new features such as an MP3 to your desktop. You can put yourself in the director’s chair with Windows Movie Maker. Import and edit video from your analogue or digital camcorder. Then splice scenes easily or add graphics, narration, and musical scores. When you’re done, you can share your creation with friends and family via e-mail or on a Web site. A handy new feature is the way in which you can browse through your pictures on Windows ME. You can view the entire contents of your picture folder viewing a preview of the image before you select the image you want. This can make finding that image you downloaded last night a cinch.

Windows ME Image Browser

Home networking has also been improved since Windows 98. If you have a network at home then sharing devices between two or more computers is simple with the home networking wizard that simply sets it up for you. You can even share the internet connection across the network, although this is harder to set up than Microsoft like to make you believe.

Windows ME comes complete with the latest release of Internet Explorer 5.5 which makes browsing the web even easier. Outlook Express 5.5 is also included which is also extremely easy to set up your multiple e-mail accounts.

Speed

There is no doubt, that if you want an operating system that will run on a minimal PC (Pentium) then a release of Windows 95 or 98 is the system for you. Windows ME has a host of new features but they eat at your disk space, memory and CPU power like no other operating system before it. We tested it on a 450MHz AMD K6-2 with 128Mb of RAM and I can still catch Windows ME running off the swap file on the disk. It requires a good PC to run efficiently and if you don’t have one then your best off with Windows 98 or a hardware upgrade. I haven’t tried to run Windows ME on a 150MHz Pentium, but I wouldn’t want to either.

Stability

Does Windows ME crash? The simple answer is yes. It is about as stable as Windows 98. The dreaded blue screen appears now again when you try to run too many programs and explorer is still prone to the odd fatal error. If you want a system that will multitask properly and run more than about 5 applications at once then Windows has never been very good. For most purposes though, games and word processing run quickly and sturdily under Windows ME. As far as running games goes, the operating system is just as stable as Windows 98 and makes it easy to network computers together so having a LAN party is a breeze to set up under Windows ME.

The Verdict

To be honest the host of new features supplied by the latest Microsoft operating system are only needed for those people who want to stay up to date with the latest releases of operating systems. This isn’t, and was never intended to be a next generation operating system representing the kind of breakthrough that was made when Microsoft released Windows 95. It is a host of bug fixes and enhancements that Microsoft hopes will end the Win9x chain of operating systems. Everything that Windows ME does can be set up to run on Windows 98, if you know where to download a good MP3 player from, and understand how to set up a network. If you are a novice with a new computer that is fast, and want an easy to set up operating system then Windows ME is for you. However, if you are still running Windows 98 on an old Pentium then the upgrade will slow your computer down and, frankly, add only a host of gadgets and gimmicks, and still no system stability, to what is still Windows 98.

Tags: me, windows
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Should you buy a CD-ROM or DVD drive?

July 22nd, 2000

What do you Buy: A DVD Drive or a CD Drive?

The DVD drive is slowly replacing the CD drive on the PC market. The challenge is to decide whether to invest in a DVD drive, or stick to the humble CD drive.

Listening to Music

A CD drive is fine for listening to music. Music comes on CDs, not DVD discs. There’s no dedicated DVD disc for music, as yet.

Software

Software comes on either a CD-ROM or a floppy disc. The few DVD discs that exist for software are compilations of software available on CD. In the future programs will come on DVD, but the current expense is keeping manufacturers on CD-ROMs. There’s no doubt that as software grows in size it will start arriving on DVD-ROMs, but that’s unlikely to occur within the year.

Watching Films

If for some reason you want to watch films on your computer, then you need a DVD drive. There are two methods of reading a film from a DVD, software and hardware. Software is the cheaper option and is prone to jerky playback. Hardware is the faster option and gives smoother film play, but requires a separate decoding card, adding extra cost.

Writing to a DVD disc

CD-R/RWs are becoming a feature of a lot of PCs and are falling in price. Hardware for writing to a DVD is more expensive and is frankly, a bit of a mess. A single standard has not been introduced, which gives us incompatibility and transport problems with varying expense.

A DVD-R drive can burn a DVD disc once only, which reduces the uses of such a drive unless you wish to perform a very large backup. The DVD-Ram standard allows multiple records. There is a transporting between machines problem, as only a DVD-Ram compatible drive can read from the disc. They are ideal for backing up and archiving your own data. A promising standard DVD-R/W allows for multiple recording for the future. Currently a DVD-Ram costs several hundred pound. It is likely to cost several thousand pound if you want to create your own film DVD discs.

The expense of a blank DVD disc is a consideration, currently over 10 times the price of a blank CD disc. Backing up on a CD R-R/W is a much cheaper option, even though more discs are required.

The Verdict

Stay with a CD drive for now, maybe upgrade to a DVD drive in a year or so. CD drives did cost as much as DVD drives do now. The price will eventually fall and when it does, a DVD drive is an attractive proposition. You may even save money buying a DVD drive later, and will get a faster, better drive in the process.

Pros. of a DVD:

A DVD disc is double sided.

A DVD disc currently holds 8x more data than a CD (2.6 GB per side).

A DVD drive can read from CD discs as well.

A DVD drive can hold a complete movie on one Disc.

Cons. of a DVD:

A DVD drive is 3 times the cost of a CD drive at present.

A blank DVD disc is 10 times the cost of a single CD disc.

There’s no set standard for writing to your own DVD.

A disc created on a DVD-Ram drive can only be used on a similar DVD drive.

You can’t create your own film on DVD discs using a standard DVD writer.

Tags: cd, dvd
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