Micro Mart Forum / Magazine/Website Feedback & Suggestions / The Micro Mart Magazine / Micro Mart Forums

Issue 1032 - Installing Linux Etc

Bruce R — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 19:35:36 GMT

Great Article by Phil Thane in Issue 1032. (The depicted Ubuntu 8.10 installer is what's also being used in Mint6rc1.)
I'm looking forward to his next article, apparently about VectorLinux, which is new to me. :)
After a useful steer towards using Applications, Add/Remove, I was surprised that he didn't illustrate how easy it is to add Ubuntu Restricted Extras (which in Synaptic Search and Apply etc is [i]ubuntu-restricted-extras[/i]) as it more simply adds not only Java but Microsoft Fonts, Flash Player and the LAME MP3 encoder etc, stopping short of installing [i]libdvdcss2[/i] which is already installed in LinuxMint Main Edition. ;)
However, I was puzzled at 'Ask JW' being absent from Issue 1032, so I hope that all is well.

Logging Off

The_Pumpkin — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 20:07:08 GMT

Would just like to say that Logging off this week was a most entertaining read(it usually is though), nice to see that intrusive software installations get on your nerves as much as they do mine.

Once again excellent read.

Minor gripe: Why is the MM Magazine issue number so small?

bombus — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 22:35:08 GMT

Why not print it a bit bigger so I don't need to be 15cm away to read it!?

Basic Ram Article

rossmclean — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 12:46:30 GMT

Hi,
I have read MM on and off for about 6 years I guess. Really love the mag, and well done. I although I have a OK understanding of Ram specs and stuff - I did read the bit that was in a few weeks ago, I still feel I don't really understand it 100%. Whats all the latency stuff about 5-5-5-14? etc, matched and things (OK i can sort of work thins out for my self, but more detail would be nice) dual channel? buffered, unbuffered, etc, etc, etc.
I would like to see a ice clear simple explanation of all the thing that effect ram, and how they effect the over all performance of a PC. Maybe you could even extend this out to all the core components of a PC?

Cheers
Ross

SFF reviews

nitrowing — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 21:48:19 GMT

I like small PC's (hence my Drawer PC) so I was quite interested in the article... but...

No Eee Box (or indeed Eee as it can simple have a monitor, mouse and keyboard plugged in).
No Mac Mini?

Price certainly didn't keep models from the article!

That fag packet sized model looks sweet!

Invitation to Amiga UK Event

Niceguy1979 — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:09:21 GMT

Hi there,
just wanted to say that I really enjoy picking up a copy of Micromart whenever possible and reading Sven's Amiga mart section.

My name is Luke Stowe and I am the organiser of the Midland Amiga Group (MAG) and I just wanted to officially invite Micromart to come along to our UK Amiga event. On Sat 1st November we are holding a UK Amiga gathering and are expecting a good turn out of attendees AND exhibitor.

At the moment we have Amigakit (retailer) and Hyperion (developers of AmigaOS) coming along to name just 2! I would love to see the Micromart team come along and set up shop and meet the people that come along. If you want to bring some subscription forms, latest mags and promotional materials I am sure you will enjoy your day.

Email me for more information - l_stowe@hotmail.co.uk

Cheers
Luke Stowe (Niceguy1979)

http://www.midlandamigagroup.info/

Google Rival Cuil artricle page 82 Issue 1017

cocorico — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:31:38 GMT

Google article Cuil, page 82, Issue 1017

The article is right in that 'Cuil' got it wrong. But the article isn't entirely right either. 'Cuil' is a declination in adjective form of the word Cul. While in noun form 'Cul' it can mean 'side' or 'corner' example : Cul an bothair [The side of the road] in adjective form it ALWAYS means 'back' or 'bottom'.

The name of the area which I spent my teenage years was called Cuil Moin [meaning back of the bog] because there was a turf fuel harvesting area to the front of the roadway into the village.

Cul is actually not originally an Irish word, but was imported into the Irish language around 1798 and comes from the influence of France over the Irish language during the 'Years of the French' You will probably be familiar with the french phrase 'Cul de Sac' meaning a road that leads nowhere [dead-end], Translated literally from French it means 'bottom of the bag'.

There is indeed a legend regarding the 'Salmon of Knowledge' - 'An Bradan Feasa', although the most common word generally used for 'Knowledge' is 'Eolas' a derivative of the word 'Solas' meaning 'light'.....but Fionn's last name is not spelled 'Cuil' or 'Cuill' but rather ''Cumhail' but is still pronounced 'cool'.

Many bastardizations of Irish language exist globally as a result of small pockets of people of Irish origin being divorced from their parent culture resulting in cultural and tradition bankruptcy. This is most notable in the United States where some people actually think that bagpipes are Irish - they are not, they are Scottish only!

Irish pipes are called Oileann Pipes and sound is produced not by blowing into them but injecting air with a bellows mechanism kept under the arm!

Other examples of irish cultural/tradition bankruptcy are:

1. Spelling 'Sean' like 'Shawn' , 'Shaun' and other variatons.

2. The last name 'Mahoney' and being pronounced 'MAH-HONE- EE' The right spelling is 'Mahony' and pronounced 'MAH-NEE'

3, The last name 'Kinsella' being pronounced 'kin-SELL-a' with emphasis on the middle sylabel. The right pronounciation is 'KIN- sla' emphasis on the first sylabel and roll the remaining two sylabels into one.

4. The last name 'Moran' being pronounced 'MOR-ANNE' The right pronounciation is 'MORE-in' emphasis on the first sylabel.

5. The last name 'Shaughnessy' being pronounced 'Shawn -nessy'. The right pronounciation is 'Shock-nessy'

I could go on - do you all have time for this? LOL.

Oh yeah, and the perception that the only stout in Ireland is Guinness, and the most popular Irish whiskey is either Bushmills or Jameson.

Many Thanks John

Upgrading your Sky HD box

ricedg — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:42:54 GMT

Excellent article and how-to.
It's something I've always thought about as with 5 of us the damn things always near full.
I assumed it would be hideously complicated, but it's not.

Great background information on what the box allocates to what to.

Gordon Hulmes subnotebook under £50

marc.knuckle — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 10:09:25 GMT

i read this article with interest as i thought it would be perfect to let this missus loose on the net without risking my new laptop.

i eagerly looked for the lifebook b-2154 but can't find any anywhere near that price so unfortunately it looks like they are all gone from that seller.

can anyone recommend a subnotebook almost solely for internet usage, ideally wirelessly even if i have to buy a card, for anywhere near £50 or under?

cheers

The Micro Mart Xword issue 1023

mfraser — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:58:36 GMT

You've made the crossword far too easy this week - the answers are right next to the questions!! Any chance of having last weeks answers published at some point?!

Magazine Colour Scheme

Drumvesta — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 19:42:41 GMT

Simon, recent copies of MicroMart are becoming difficult to read due to printing black text on coloured backgrounds.

For a time I thought perhaps my 62 year old eyes were the cause of the problem but having had my 20 year old grandkids have look I find that they too think the colour schemes are difficult to get on with.

I stopped taking PCAdvisor for just this reason, until eventually enough people complained and they stopped doing it.

Simon, I ask you to stop with this nonsense asap. If you don't I will be forced to suspend my subscription.

I enjoy MicroMart more than any of the many computer mags out there but I believe you are cutting your market down to only those people who have eyes as good as an outthouse rat.

Over to you..... it's your choice entirely.

try to keep the use of colourful language to a minimum child and family friendly policy here :P

Getting started

Stantaff — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:34:57 GMT

I have downloaded the JDK6 Update 7 and installed on my machine. I have, so I believe, carried out the instructions to get Windows to recognise the program and it all seems OK but I cannot get the Javac -version part to work so the last part is wrong ? I notice the installation instructions are for XP so is there a difference with Viata; I get to properties in a different way so I wonder. Any suggestions (as long as they are not painful or rude) would be grately appreciated

My machine is an ACER Aspire T180; AMD Athlon 64 S2 4400+; 2Gb DDR ii RAM and 250 GB HDD running Windows Vista Home Premium.

Caffeine

Rad68 — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 22:35:42 GMT

Good to see that those residing at MM Towers are finally getting 'treatment' for their caffeine addiction! I was starting to think that Liz had taken all the required drugs paraphernalia (kettle, filter coffee machine, etc) with her when she left... :D

Rad :cool:

Which Tiny Laptop

malc_wright — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 11:38:31 GMT

I just thought I would write in in praise of the Tiny Laptop review in issue 1021 by Roland Radaelli.

I've not noticed Roland's work in MM before, but consider his review to be one of the best I've read of late.

It appears a well balanced, informative and authoritative review, just the thing to help me through the minefield of Tiny Laptops.

Thanks again MM for being informative and providing a good read.

Ask jason deja vu

alex3410 — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:51:17 GMT

this weeks ask Jason is the same as last weeks :P pictures and all

Java Programming in issue 1020

mfraser — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 12:35:54 GMT

In the article covering programming with Java, there are some instructions on how to install the JDK on Linux.

I'm not sure where those instructions came from, but I'm not happy with telling everyone to log in as root. I've been told this is a tell tale example of a Linux Newbie. A better way would be to use either su or sudo depending upon the distro.

The Six ISP's That Bottled It.

Mitch — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 23:07:52 GMT

I have just read Mark's article and I can sense the anger in the piece - and rightfully so. It is outrageous and I am blooming fuming about this. A few of us discussed this recently and while I understand the concerns about illegal P2P usage and certainly don't condone it, I disagree with the course of action suggested and signed up to by the ISP's (if only in principal).

I have some concerns too and can give you examples of why it's unworkable or at least flawed and some serious gripes in general:

1) I recently downloading a zipped up Linux Distro. It was a big file, but it came down fairly fast. P2P is very good for popular items and a Linux distro is 'safe' as it is open-source. After downloading it I unzipped it and found a huge MPEG in there. I opened it, safe in the knowledge that my PC is pretty secure and I could stand the re-install if anything sinister happened. It was 3 hours of hardcore pornography. Why on earth anyone would want to dress up pornography as a Linux distro - I have no idea at all? Perhaps it was a joke or something? I am broadminded, deleted it and laughed it off. BUT that could have been 4,000 copyrighted MP3's with say, the current top 100 albums in the charts. Now is my ISP going to be sympathetic to this situation? Doubt it.

2) Another point that seems to have escaped the record industry is that they have had a pretty good deal for many years. I have bought the same album, sometimes 3 times as format/media changes have been introduced. I don't recall any record companies asking if I wanted to swap my vinyl album for a cassette tape and then swap that for a CD, then that for an MP3. I wonder how much music has been bought several times by a listener over the years, as formats change. A LOT I would guess.

3) ISP's throttling my connection as they deem me to be doing something illegal is a pee take. I would like to throttle the ISP's for giving me an appalling service for many years. Whatever package I sign up for, with whichever ISP I sign up with, I get 50% less than what is advertised. How many other industries would get away with that? I can just imagine Pizza Hut giving me half a pizza and telling me that the full pizza was just an estimate and it depends how close to the oven you sit, if you want the whole pizza. Or after eating a quarter of the pizza they take the other quarter away as it infringes their fair pizza eating policy, even though it is an 'eat all you can' buffet. They are less than perfect themselves and the infrastructure in this country is woefully inadequate, considering we are such a well developed, yet tiny little country. The rest of the world is sniggering at the service we get and price we pay.

4) As I have said before in another thread, people downloading copyrighted music off the internet is not necessarily a terrible thing and shouldn't be viewed as a lost sale. They are happy to post YouTube clips on internet but don't want people downloading it. It is hypocritical. They love the internet but hate it at the same time. You have to take the rough with the smooth. Illegal downloaders will almost certainly, at some point in their life, go and watch the band live or at least buy a proper CD if they like what they hear. Also, and to quote the other thread "driving P2P underground [with encryption etc] will stop them from catching the biggest culprits, i.e. the shifty gits that make a living selling poor quality copies of whole albums or films. They should be the ones they concentrate on as these people are known to use the money to fund other crime and terrorism. Someone having a couple of dozen songs off Limewire isn't intentionally profiteering and I maintain that the same way I used to tape my favourite songs off the radio, people will eventually go and buy the material or watch the band in the long run. The RIAA [doing this sort of thing, and] banging on factory doors and demanding money to listen to the radio, as happened the other day to the factory my father is the MD of, will drive a wedge between them and the public. My father argued this point and they recommended the 200 strong workforce in a huge quarter mile long paper factory with spinning machines and many many fork trucks, all wear iPods, honestly, they couldn't see the health and safety implications. My father has now had no choice but to ban radio's completely...pathetic eh? [how does this promote music exactly?] Now this is going to turn people against the media companies, that there is little doubt of. Even my father was furious and refused to pay it. His words were "if they think I am paying £2000 per year to keep Robbie Williams in new Jags, they are on acid. How dare they hold hard working, working class people to ransom, well I am not paying it and I will ban radio's" of course this was met with fury from the shop floor but they supported the reasons why he did it. I can imagine all 200 of them getting home and firing up Limewire before their coats had even hit the sofa" They are making a massive rod for their own backs here as P2P will go encrypted. Also, anyone using P2P in the future will have to be ultra cautious what they download, and the nasty pieces of work out there will be targeting us, to try and get our internet throttled, because if you think about it, it is worse than getting a virus. Another threat to worry about, just what we need in computing eh?

5) How on earth (as Mark said) are the BPI getting hold of our IP addresses and what on earth do the ISP's think they are doing discussing my download content with ANYONE? That is outrageous and as I write this, the next tab open in my browser is on the BT complaints webpage. I will be airing my views to BT and have decided to look for a new ISP regardless, one that isn't on the list and doesn't have the spine of an amoeba. If the ISP's put as much energy as this - into catching and reporting the sicko's who are downloading truly illegal content, then perhaps the world would be a more pleasant place. Perhaps Lavasoft should work on a new program ISPAWARE? I mean, what is the difference really?

To summarise, Mark is right, this is a huge invasion of privacy and the ISP's should be made to panic. Write an email as soon as you can. Let them know that this is not going to be tolerated or we will be having emails bouncing as the wording of the email is not how they like it either. The record companies are pushing this through for one reason, and one reason only, cash. They see a huge potential to charge us yet again, to update our record collections and they are not working with the artists best interests at heart. For crying out loud, if Prince and George Michael are anything to go by, the record companies are promoting slavery. They want a digital pay day. I can think of something else to give them!

Issue 1017 - Motherboards - GA-P35C-DS3R

Lone Star — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 15:23:29 GMT

Just a quick point on the comments on this board in this weeks cover article. The review states that the board has no provision for firewire or e-sata. I don't know whether this is true of later versions, but I have a Rev.1.1 example which came with an expansion panel to install in a PCI slot, providing e-sata capability if required.

Micro Mart back issues.

Red_Breast — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:17:06 GMT

Sitting here now I'm trying to remember how long I've been buying MM. I think since 2001 although I've never had a subscription and for one reason or another I've missed a few.

Anyway the reason I posted was I wanted to ask if there is a list on the site/anywhere that lists the main articles that appeared in each issue.
I've been trying Xbox Media Centre recently and I know MM had an article once about modding your Xbox that I wanted to look at again. But going through them all would be a nightmare.
Anyone know of such a list?

Biased reviews, ATI 4870

micromac — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 22:31:25 GMT

I'm sorry to have to write this but the recent review of the HD4870 by Mark Pickavance was nothing short of a waste of four pages. He may as well have used a bigger font and just blazoned I LOVE ATI NVIDIA STINKS across a single page and left the other three for something helpful/useful or informative.

Who was he trying to kid that using Call Of Juarez was in anyway a fair medium for comparing an ATI card to an Nvidia card. You may as well race red water down hill while trying to push green water up hill with a sieve. I don't know of any game that favours an ATI card more.

While i do appreciate that the correct cards to compare a 4870 to were unobtainable by yourselves, i still feel that this review was at best misleading as to how good the 4870 is compared to what Nvidia can offer.The fanboyish undertones of comments about how the physx can skew results in favour of the Nvidia card are just laughable considering the chosen test which i have already covered.

The content of the mag is generally very good but articles like this only serve to undermine the trust people will have in the reviews.

Yours regretably

Micromac

Wall of Fame

marc.knuckle — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 21:23:43 GMT

something i like in custompc as i also read that is their regularly updated best buys of PC components. it only needs to take up 1 maybe 2 pages but i for one find it really interesting and helpful to see the best of the current crop.

Browser Comparison

darrelljon — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:00:56 GMT

The web browser comparison in issue 1012 was great - thanks.

Apple Targets Windows User Article....

Mitch — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:42:42 GMT

1) In "The Price is Right" box out the author bragged that his G5 PowerMac that cost £920 second hand, was now worth £280. Well 3 years ago and up until recently, I had an AMD Athlon x64 3500+ based system, that had an X800PRO Graphics Card, 2gb of XMS Corsair, a Coolermaster CPU fan so I could over-clock, a Coolermaster cased and PSU. All this didn't cost me anywhere near £920 in fact it was nearer £650 and before I sold it, I had the option of upgrading the CPU to a dual-core X64 4400 AMD for circa £70 to keep it around current spec for another year or so. So that hardly makes a 3 year old PC valueless and I can qualify that further, as follows:

I sold the RAM recently for £80, the Graphics Card for £25, the HSF for £10 and the MB and CPU I sold to a friend for £100 to upgrade his old Athlon system (Which saved him going out and buying a new PC). I am reusing the case and PSU. When you look at it that way, the Mac still represents pretty poor value as forgive me if I am wrong, but there is little you can upgrade on a Mac and all the parts that I bought, were brand new?

2) The introduction of Intel Mac's causing a 37% increase in sales is curious too. Could this not be because of bootcamp? Therefore one has to assume that people want to run XP or Vista on a Mac....why so, when Mac's are so perfect??? Perhaps people want to use Windows but want the vanity of a Mac?

3) The Mitchell and Web adverts are very childish, make some incredibly dubious arguments that are bordering on lies, and should have been challenged by Microsoft. Mind you, I doubt Microsoft would want to be dragged into anything as childish as that.

4) It has took me a while to comment on this too, but a few editions ago, I think the same author tried to convince people that Apple invented the GUI and that it was churlish to suggest otherwise. I take exception to that, for a very simple reason, they didn't invent the GUI...Xerox did. Why should Apple be credited with something they didn't do? Pathetic.

Having listened to these inane ramblings for years (I used to work for a repro-graphic company) you get to the point where the Mac users seem to convince themselves that they have made the better choice. I don't know if that is some kind of inferiority complex, but it sure is tiresome and repetitive.

Solar Powered Computing article

Assimilator1 — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:10:40 GMT

I've no idea how old the article is, only just read it on the website, interesting article :) , but the author failed to mention whether it was able to keep his setup powered indefinitely. Which surely is a major point of the exercise!

Any updates on this?

TIA :)

What have you guys got against Eve-Online?

Rev667 — Fri, 16 May 2008 15:04:53 GMT

I buy and read Micromart every week, a great read and source of pricing info for that 'dream' PC I one day will build.

Each week I look forward to the gaming section, which keeps me up-to-date and sometimes a source of amusement.

This month there's a big 'feature' about MMORPG games, obviously World of Warcraft is heavily mentioned, and a bunch of other games (some of which I've never heard of tbh) and a small mention of Eve-Online, referred to as a space trading/combat sim.

In the same spirit, can I describe WoW as the beat up gnomes and talk to fairies sim?

I'm sorry, it appears you are going out of your way to avoid mentioning Eve in you magazine? Why is this? Perhaps you were killed off when you attempted to play and so have a bad opinion of the game?

Eve-online is the largest MMORPG out there, considering that WoW (and the rest) use a sharded server network, WoW may have more players overall, but spread over hundreds of servers. Eve is a single server persistent universe, all players play on the same server, peaking at about 30,000+ on a Sunday evening. Every player can interact with any other player, no need to swap servers or agree on which servers to meet up with friends.

Describing it as a space trading/combat sim is rather understating the case. Eve does have trading, indeed CCP the developers employ a full time economist to study the eve economy as it's almost entirely player driven, no other MMORPG has such a rich economy. Combat, oh my, where do I start. Eve has combat, from the newer player in his small ship shooting computer controlled drones, right up to fleet battles involving hundreds of players in all sizes of ships fighting to control vast expanses of the huge universe (some 5500 solar systems). The scale of these wars cannot compare to a raid on WoW lasting a number of hours, one of the largest wars in Eve (BoB vs Goons) has been ongoing for years! with systems swapping ownership on a daily basis, the number of players involved numbers in the thousands.

If Eve is 'just' a space trading/combat game, then WoW is just a very pretty middle-earth sim.

One big problem with Eve-Online is the learning curve, it's more of a cliff. CCP are trying to improve the new player experience.

Prove me wrong and mention Eve-Online occasionally in your gaming columns.

Rev667

Crossword

mfraser — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 21:17:05 GMT

Just tried to do the Micro Mart crossword, but found that someone has messed up big this time - there are clues that don't exist in the box and the character count is wrong on most questions. Or are you trying to make it even harder than it normally is to finish?!

back copy

dixondoc — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:26:32 GMT

how do i go about getting back copy of micro mart, that was out a couple of months ago, regarding laptop rebuilds, be great if i could ge my hands on one, of recommend a good book, that shows you step by step build of laptops. cheers

back copy

dixondoc — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:26:23 GMT

Issue 1008

conrad101 — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:02:21 GMT

Interesting comparative piece reviewing Linux distros although looking at just 5 was insufficient, and of these, openGEU is somewhat obscure at 34th place at distrowatch. Perhaps another 3 or 4 more distros would have been ideal. If space were the issue I wouldn't have been too upset if the article on Apple Macs which was a bit too much towards the soft-soap piece end of the spectrum, had lost a page or two.

Laptop under £500 artical

marc.knuckle — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:55:15 GMT

i just read the above artical and thought i'd mention something.

i don't know when it was researched but i bought the Samsung r60 plus from currys 2 and a half weeks ago and it came with a core 2 duo T5550 cpu, 160GB HDD and 2GB Ram. all this for £399. it wasn't a one off offer as far as i am aware but had recently been reduced from £499, which even at that old price would have been in the sub-£500 catagory.

the artical is basing it with lower processor, smaller HDD and less RAM.

Subscribing to Micromart

bart — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 01:04:24 GMT

In the last three months, three issues of the magazine have not been delivered.

I can put up with the uncertainty of not knowing whether the magazine will arrive on a Wed/Thur/Fri/Sat, but when it doesn't arrive at all, I am starting to lose patience.

I've never had a problem subscribing to either Computer Shopper or Custom PC, they both arrive like clockwork.

Subscribing to MM is supposed to save me money - or, at least that's what the advert said. At this rate, subscribing is costing me 20% more than if I bought it in a shop.

I have repeatedly searched the site for a way of reporting this problem, but your 'contact us' section only appears to be interested in hearing from people who want to advertise in the magazine.

I don't want to cancel my subscription, but at this rate, you are leaving me with no other option.

Dreamweaver

capt — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 19:12:20 GMT

Could we have a series about dreamweaver, I have just completed a basic course about it but would like to learn more.

For example I'm looking to start my own web business is there a way to link it to a database so when I update the database, it will update my product on the website ????

no delivery this week.

cos — Fri, 30 May 2008 20:04:06 GMT

as there been a delay with this weeks delivery due to bank holiday, or just me cheers.

Review suggestion

Fixer109 — Fri, 30 May 2008 15:24:10 GMT

Hi!

I've been a Micro Mart reader for a number of years and I'm particularly
interested in video creation/editing but have yet to see
computer/peripheral reviews stating as the suitability for these
purposes. You are too specialised in reviewing for general purpose or gaming.

Any chance in getting video suitability in your reviews.

Otherwise I'm very satisfied with the mag. keep up the good work and I
always look forward to the next issue hitting the mat.

Kind Regards
Robert

Free disc!

-Wiz!- — Sun, 18 May 2008 11:24:39 GMT

Nice disc. The Firefox version is a little old though. Other wise very nice collection. :)

Great article by Gayr Birch issue 1003

Phitore — Sun, 11 May 2008 18:30:25 GMT

Re. The " He searched, She searched" article.

Thanks to Gaye for one of the best and funniest articles i've read in a long time.
Brilliant cheers :)

subscription delivery

alex3410 — Thu, 08 May 2008 10:14:59 GMT

hey all just a quick Q but is it just me that seems to be getting the mag on Thursday more often then wed? it does not matter this week as i am not at uni today but i like to read it on the train on the way in to put me in a better mood after getting up at 6:P lol

its not here yet but post man does not seem to get up till about 12 lol

what has happened to the disc we was supposed to get with 1001 issue

sparkeyflex — Mon, 05 May 2008 19:01:22 GMT

when i read the issue before the anniversary,
it said we was getting a disc with the issue after the anniversary .
well chaps were is this disc

Jason's Column #1000

Dangerous Dave — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 11:00:34 GMT

Hi all,

I've just read issue 1000, and found it to be great from cover to cover. Well, except for a bit of a blunder from Jason D'Allison in his column.

The first question referred to software firewalls, and the merits (not) of the Microsoft Firewall in XP. I agree with Jason that the XP Firewall is . . . erm . . . "poor" to put it politely, and the fact that it doesn't Filter outgoing network traffic is indeed the main reason.

But on the next paragraph Jason admits to only using a hardware firewall on his Router! Does he not realise that these, too, do not block outgoing IP/UDP traffic from the local network? So, he decries the XP firewall for one reason, but advocates a hardware solution, which has exactly the same fault! Sorry Jason, "classic schoolboy error" there, old son!

In fact, the reason (as I'm sure many here know), that hardware routers don't block outgoing traffic is that only the originating computer (or more likely the computer operator) can intelligently filter outgoing requests by software - the hardware firewall *has* to assume that any requests from other devices on the network are valid (it could ask them I suppose, but I'm not aware of any manufacturer that actually implements such a scheme).

This is why all PC's on a LAN should have a good, up to date software firewall, to prevent them from sending *out* unwanted packets from software on the PC.

I wouldn't mind so much, but MicroMart itself has discussed the merits of hardware and software firewalls in the "What's the Worst That Could Happen . . ." series, iirc.

Tut, tut Mr D'Allison - hang your head in shame! :P

Terrific feature from Mark today (issue 1,000)

Jason — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 19:00:33 GMT

Must say how much I enjoyed Mark's look back over his career in IT (issue 1,000). Fascinating, absolutely fascinating. I've not read all the mag yet (I try to make it last until at least the weekend), but so far this is my favourite bit. Once again, it's the sort of article that would never get printed in other computing mags. A real treat, especially for regular readers.