Monday, June 26, 2006

GPS - an Alternative to the Roadmap

In my earlier post I gave you details of two websites that can assist you in planning your route when undertaking a journey. A more high-tech solution is provided by GPS (Global Positioning System) satellite navigation (or SatNav, for short) devices, which have been falling in price dramatically over the past couple of years. These devices are designed to be mounted in your car and they provide a real-time map of your position, together with verbal instructions preparing you for junctions and turns in advance.

The majority of these devices come with software that you install on your PC and a set of maps covering certain global regions. Depending on the model you purchase you may receive either UK and Ireland maps with your device or maps for all of Europe (including UK and Ireland). You can generally purchase maps for other regions, such as the US and Australia.

PC Medic has been using a Navman GPS unit for about two years now and the experience has been very positive overall. The unit that we use is essentially a PDA, running Pocket PC Windows, with a built-in GPS receiver. The software that came with this unit is Navman SmartST and maps of all European countries are included. It has to be said that mapping support for Ireland, outside of the principal cities, is very poor. So, while you get excellent coverage of Dublin, and its environs, you cannot plot a route from, say, Ashbourne to Trim.

You will generally use the device to help you find the route between your current location and a destination. As the unit always knows your current location, from the satellites it uses for positioning, it is simply a matter of inputting your destination (town and street) in the appropriate data entry window and selecting Go. The unit will then calculate the most appropriate route (giving consideration for one-way streets, etc). The route is displayed as a moving map on the device's screen and the road you should be following is highlighted in red. As you come to turns and junctions that you must negotiate, these are displayed as light green arrows, clearly showing the direction you must follow.

At the bottom of the screen the current street or road name is displayed. At the bottom right of the screen the remaining distance that you must travel until the next action you must take is displayed. At the top of the screen the next action that you must take and the name of the road or street that you will turn onto is displayed. The top left corner of the map displays a graphical image of the next turn you will have to take (a left turn in the screenshot opposite).

In addition to the map and on-screen directions, you can choose to have all the directions clearly spoken to you by either a male or female voice. These directions take the form of "In 200 metres, at the roundabout, take the third exit". When you are actually on the roundabout, it will announce "Exit now" as you approach the third exit. This is a particularly useful feature and we have found that you can, in most cases, navigate complex routes by following the spoken directions and not looking at the display at all.

Perhaps one of the best features is that if you miss a turn, the system will recalculate a new route for you in 10-15 seconds to get you back on track - so it is practically impossible to get lost. We use the system almost daily for navigating the Dublin suburbs and have used it in France, Spain and the southwest US and it has not let us down yet.

However, there are some limitations. First off, the maps are out of date as soon as you buy the unit and they are not updated regularly. For example, the maps on our unit have the M50 ending at Ballinteer and all the new housing estates that have been built in the past two years are not included. This may or may not be a problem for you - it has rarely been an issue in our own experience.

As I mentioned earlier, Ireland is poorly mapped outside of the main population centres, so it is of limited use in Ireland outside of the main cities. Note, however, that rural areas in other European countries seem to be well mapped.

You should not follow the directions on the unit blindly as there may be traffic restrictions introduced since the mapping software was issued. For example, travelling from Stillorgan to Rathfarnham the unit will instruct me to take a right turn at the bottom of Upper Kilmacud Road onto Main St., Dundrum. There is, however, no right turn permitted at this junction!

Finally, as the GPS system requires line-of-sight to the satellites for it to get a fix, it doesn't work well in cities with high-rise buildings all around, such as Manhattan. Also, when you enter long tunnels, it may take the unit a minute or two to re-establish a satellite fix when you emerge from the tunnel.

Notwithstanding these limitations, a SatNav system certainly does contribute to stress-free travel when on unfamilar roads. I notice that there are more and more taxis in Dublin using SatNav these days and it can only be a few years from the day that SatNav will be included as standard on all new cars (it is available as an option on a number of prestige brands). In the meantime, you can fit a SatNav system for under €300 from one of the main manufacturers such as Navman, TomTom or Garmin, or visit a Halfords branch or Global Positioning Systems for a selection.

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

On the right Road?

It's that time of the year again when your thoughts turn to packing up the car and heading off on holiday for a week or so for a bit of a break and, hopefully, some sunshine. Before you head off, it's normally a good idea to get out the maps and plan your route in advance, particularly if you are heading to a country whose roads are not known to you. This is where route planning software can really help out. There are a number of commercial offerings out there to help you on your way, but I want to point you to a couple of free ones.

The first is provided courtesy of the AA's website and allows you to get detailed directions of a journey between any two points in Ireland, the UK or Europe. It also allows you to route via a particular waypoint that you want to visit and to avoid motorways and toll routes if you so choose. What it doesn't provide you with is a detailed map for your journey.

This is where Microsoft's Live Local website steals a march on the AA. As well as detailed instructions of the turns and twists that you need to take on the way, the Live Local site shows you zoomable maps with each turning point indicated and these maps can be printed out along with your route instructions. Live Local is not just limited to Europe, but provides more or less global coverage and, with a nod to Google Earth, allows you to overlay satellite images on your chosen route.

Between these two free websites you should be able to get your holiday off to a good start knowing you're on the right road.

Monday, June 19, 2006

DRM Blues

Nearly two years ago I signed up to the Eircom.net Music Club, which allows you to purchase music online - either complete albums or individual tracks. While their prices are not especially good if you buy individual tracks at €1.29 each, whole albums are better priced at €12.49, particularly if you buy a double album with up to 40 tracks on it.

So I happily bought quite a few albums over the months without paying too much attention to the small print of their licence agreement. Since then I have learned a bit about DRM, or Digital Rights Management, and why you should try to avoid it if at all possible. Basically DRM, in the context of purchased music downloads, is software that is intertwined with the music track you download. This software ensures that you can only play the music download, which you have paid for, within the terms of the licence issued with that download.

As it turns out, the music I purchased from Eircom.net's Music Club allows me to play the music on the PC that I originally downloaded it to. If I transfer that music to my laptop to bring with me when I travel, I have to download a new licence. Once I activate that licence the other licence becomes inactive. In total I can only re-activate the licence 3 times, thereafter the music will not play. If this wasn't enough of a restriction, the licence for this DRM-enabled (or should that be crippled?) music does not permit streaming of music via a streaming device, such as the Squeezeboxes we use at home. So, instead of getting a bargain I've got headaches and now go out of my way to avoid the purchase of any music with DRM attached to it, including all music on the Apple iTunes store. At least if you buy a CD you can (legitimately) rip the CD and use the ripped music in MP3 format on any machine you personally own, any MP3 player or any streaming device. I am fully against the illegal copying of music for distribution to others via P2P systems or other means. However, if I buy busic for my own personal use I do not want to be limited to how, where and when I can listen to that music. Avoid DRM and vote with your feet.

Saturday, June 17, 2006

End is nigh for Windows 98 and Me

If you are running Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition or Windows Me as the operating system on your PC you should be aware that all Microsoft support for these products, including updated security patches, ends on July 11th.

Without new security patches, these systems are exposed to new security threats, and will remain vulnerable to attacks. Possibly a good time to consider upgrading your PC, or at least the operating system.

Friday, June 16, 2006

Bring out your Dead!

You have an old computer and you want to get rid of it - what do you do? I've been offered a number of old PCs recently by their owners with the expectant question "What will you give me for it?". Unfortunately, what their owners fail to realize is that a PC that is more than 4-5 years old has practically zero resale value. This is partly due to how quickly PCs become obsolete as a result of the introduction of new technologies with higher specifications and also to the fall in the price of new PCs.

Why would anyone pay you for a 7-year old PC with a 400MHz single core processor, 64MB of RAM and a 20GB hard disc drive when they can buy a 2.8GHz Dual processor, 1024MB of RAM and a 160GB hard disc drive for just under €700 (including a 17" flat screen monitor!)?

If you have an old PC that you want to get rid of you could try one of your local schools and see if they will take it. Provided it is in full working order they may. More likely they will find it too old and difficult to maintain, particularly if it is running an older OS, like Windows 98.

Your other option is to bring it along to your local recycling unit, a list for Dublin can be found here. You'll be glad to hear that these centres do not have any charge for the disposal of computers or other waste electrical items.

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Keep Those Discs Safe

On a number of occasions over the past few months we have come across PCs that required a full reinstall of the operating system but the customer could not locate the discs that came with the PC. Depending on the brand of PC that you have, the absence of the manufacturers discs can be a problem. If your operating system becomes corrupt there are basically three ways that a manufacturer can allow you to restore it to normal.

The first is the way that Dell used to do it up until the last number of months. That is they supply you with a Windows XP installation disc and this can be used to reinstall the operating system. To do a full reinstall this way involves reformatting the hard disc drive, which wipes all your data and programs from the disc. So, once the operating system is reinstalled from the installation disc you then need to install device drivers for the hardware (chipset, graphics card, video card, modem, network adapter etc.). These drivers come on a second Dell CD usually labelled the Resource CD. If your PC is a Dell and it came with these discs then you should keep the discs in a safe place. However, if you cannot find them it isn't the end of the world. The operating system disc is generic so you can use the disc that came with another Dell PC, perhaps a friend has one. The Resource CD is not generic but is specific to your Dell model. However, even if you have lost this CD, you can download the drivers for your specific model from the Dell website by entering the service tag number for your PC on their Online Technical Support Page.

The second way that a manufacturer can allow you to recover your operating system is the way that current Dells, Packard Bells, IBMs and others do it. These PCs have a separate partition on the hard disc, which may be hidden, which contains an image of your system as it was supplied to you by the manufacturer. An image is like a digital snapshot of your system at a point in time and it will contain both the operating system, system drivers and any application software supplied by the manufacturer. To restore the PC to its as-new status a restore routine is invoked. This can be, depending on the manufacturer, by pressing a button such as F11 at startup or by using a System Restore disc that you boot the PC from. The advantage of this system of restoring your PC is that it restores not only the operating system, but also the drivers and supplied application software. The disadvantage is that if your hard disc becomes damaged, or you inadvertently deleted the recovery partition, you will have to go back to the manufacturer and see if they will supply a recovery DVD. If they will, they will charge you for it and it may take some time before you get it.

The third method of recovering your PC is using a recovery DVD. This is similar in principle to the second method, but the disk image is on one or more DVDs instead of a recovery partition on your hard disc. Compaq and Hewlett Packard PCs come with recovery DVDs and you do not want to lose these discs as they are specific to your machine and you cannot recover your machine without them. If you lose them, it is possible to get replacements but it may take you some time to get them and there will be a charge.

Thursday, June 08, 2006

PC For Sale - Sold


The PC described below has now been sold - thanks for all the interest in it.

It's not often that PC Medic has a PC for sale, but right now we have a real bargain on offer which would make the ideal upgrade unit. It's a rebuilt system box with a brand new PC Medic-installed Gigabyte motherboard and Intel 3.0 GHz processor. There is a 160Gb hard disk drive divided into two main partitions - one for the operating system and programs and one for data. Also included is a recovery partition that will restore your PC to "as-new" condition, should you run into problems down the line. The motherboard is fitted with 1Gb of DDR RAM and has integrated graphics and sound. There is a free AGP slot, if you want to fit a high-powered graphics card for game playing and three free PCI slots, so plenty of expansion options exist. The box has a single optical drive in the form of a DVD rewriter.

Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack 2 is installed and all Microsoft Windows Updates have also been installed.

Pre-installed software includes the full OpenOffice productivity suite (see the blog below on OpenOffice for details), Anti-Virus software, Anti-Spyware software, iTunes, Adobe Reader, PowerDVD (to play DVD movies) and DeepBurner (for burning CDs/DVDs).

This high-spec PC is being offered as a system box only, so you will need to add a mouse, keyboard and monitor to have a complete system. Price is only €480.00. (if you need a monitor mouse or keyboard let us know and we'll give you a price for a full system). This unit is backed-up with the unparalleled support of PC Medic.

Contact me at brendan@pcmedic.ie if you are interested or want more details.

Note that we can add extras such as a wireless network card (it already has a built-in ethernet network card) or high-performance graphics card if required - contact me for a quote.

Friday, June 02, 2006

Windows OneCare Rivals

Hot on the heels of Microsoft launching their OneCare internet security solution (see New Internet Security Option post on May 31st) both Symantec and McAfee have announced rival solutions. Symantec's product is to be called Norton 360 while McAfee's product is currently using the codename Falcon. Norton 360 will be available before March 2007, possibly later this year while McAfee will be launching a beta version of Falcon in the coming weeks.

How these products will measure up to OneCare remains to be seen. What they all need to work on is simplifying the user experience. The current generation of internet security products still do not take into account that the average home user does not know how a firewall should be configured, what ports need to be open to use an attached webcam, or what IP address and subnet mask should be set to communicate with another PC on a home network and, I would argue, a home user should not need to know this. The ideal internet security product for home users should perform an analysis of the user's PC and then set the appropriate level of security based on the results of that analysis. Thereafter it should remain silent except to notify the user of important information. How many of us have experienced pop-up windows from internet security packages like Norton or McAfee that present cryptic message that are alsmost impossible for the average user to understand? Internet security software needs to get smarter and simpler at the same time. Let's hope that the products that will arrive in the next few months can achieve that.

Thursday, June 01, 2006

Microsoft Office Alternative

If you are in need of office productivity software (i.e a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation graphics or database) but don't currently have any installed on your PC then you have a few options that you can take. The current industry standard for office productivity software is Microsoft Office, which many of you will be familiar with from your working environment where you will have encountered Word, Excel or Powerpoint. Unfortunately, Microsoft Office doesn't come cheap - about €520 if you want to install the standard version of Microsoft Office 2003 on your PC. While most people would balk at the thought of paying so much money for software, it is in fact pretty good value for money, but it's still a lot of money.

An alternative that many people have yet to discover is the free, yes free, OpenOffice which can be downloaded from OpenOffice.org. This software is what is termed Open Source software and the following, taken from the OpenOffice.org website gives a bit of background to the software.


Historical background
StarDivision, the original author of the StarOffice suite of software, was founded in Germany in the mid-1980s. It was acquired by Sun Microsystems during the summer of 1999 and StarOffice 5.2 was released in June of 2000. Future versions of StarOffice software, beginning with 6.0, have been built using the OpenOffice.org source, APIs, file formats, and reference implementation. Sun continues to sponsor development on OpenOffice.org and is the primary contributor of code to OpenOffice.org. CollabNet hosts the website infrastructure for development of the product and helps manage the project.


Product Description
OpenOffice.org released the long-awaited version 2.0 of its free office suite for Windows, Mac and Linux on 20 October 2005 adding a new database module, support for the OpenDocument file format, a fresh user interface, and plenty of improvements and bug fixes.
OpenOffice.org 2.0 is the first open source office suite to offer thorough support for the Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) OASIS Standard. OpenDocument is an XML file format that was developed by OASIS, the international body for the development and ratification of e-Business standards. The OpenDocument format can be used by any office application without fear of vendor specific lock-in or onerous licensing terms and fees, with the confidence that documents can be viewed, edited and printed for generations to come.

The suite now also offers a database module, Base, to complement the word processor (Writer), spreadsheet manager (Calc), presentation manager (Impress) and drawing tool (Draw) modules. These give all users the tools they need to be productive in the modern world. Free for all, OpenOffice.org offers everyone the enduring freedoms to use, study, improve and share the software. Users can download it for free from the Project's Web page.

With a new user interface, OpenOffice.org 2.0 is easy to learn and use by the most inexperienced user, and is significantly more compatible with Microsoft Office files than prior versions. Supported by dozens of professional companies, OpenOffice.org 2.0 will be available in more than 60 languages. Able to run on Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, Sun Solaris and other platforms, OpenOffice.org is increasingly the choice of businesses and governments throughout the world, and earlier versions have been downloaded over 49 million times since the project's inception.


So OpenOffice is a non-commercial version of the Sun Microsystem's commercially available StarOffice. The key difference between OpenOffice and StarOffice is that the former is supplied free of charge and with no support from Sun Microsystems. However, although not supported by Sun Microsystems, there is a vast range of support for OpenOffice through online user sites, forums, and blogs.

From the perspective of an average home user, OpenOffice can do everything that you would want to do, or could do with Microsoft Office. It even feels like Microsoft Office in terms of menus and commands that you might be used to. And, probably most importantly of all, it is compatible with Microsoft Office. So, if you are sent an Excel spreadsheet you can open it in the OpenOffice equivalent program which is Calc. If you create a document in the OpenOffice word processor, Writer, you can save the document as a .doc file that can be opened by Microsoft's Word.

The Windows download is 91MB, a few minutes if you have broadband, and versions are available for Linux and Mac users. Try it and let PC Medic know what you think.

 Use OpenOffice.org