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<p> editorial The perception that Linux is still too difficult for the average computer user is the biggest challenge that Linux evangelists need to tackle. Linux gained prominence at a time when it wasn't ready for mass con- sumption. A lot of people tried it during the late 1990s and were turned off by its quirkiness. It was simply discounted as a play-tool for geeks. And this image still persists. But instead of confronting this, Linux sup- porters continue to tout every other aspect in order to gain converts: it's free, it's stable and it's secure. Does it really matter? All software is free in India. Okay, it costs 150 bucks. Given the current state of affairs, how exactly is this whole free angle going to make anybody bite? We're used to 'buying' the latest version of Photoshop for resizing our digital photos even when there are umpteen free tools available on the Net for this sim- ple task. Yes, things might be different if we actually had to pay Rs 4,000 for a copy of Windows. But they aren't. Also, with the release of Windows 2000 and then XP, Microsoft has made bold steps in rectifying the bad poster boy image of Windows. What's important is that Linux has come a long way from its humble begin- nings. Most of its kinks have been ironed out and the rough edges smoothened. Sure it still needs to improve on driver support for new hardware, sort out cer- tain compatibility issues with Microsoft Office and add a few features to its top applications such as Star Office and GIMP. But on the whole it's a viable desk- top alternative to Windows. What's needed now is to get users to try it once again. But without a cen- tralised marketing push, it's naive to hope that everyone will see the light. The best bet then is to get top-tier system resellers to adopt and propagate Linux. This has been made easier with the recent US Department of Justice ruling against Microsoft. The Redmond bully can no longer offer special incentives to its cronies or force any system vendor from adding non-Microsoft software to their PCs. Right now there's nothing stopping PC makers from bundling a free Linux CD or offering dual boot functionality. At the very least they can place a desktop icon for ordering a free trial copy of Linux. This effortless seeding activity might be just the thing that's needed to pop- ularise Linux and loosen Microsoft's stranglehold on us all. Plus it pays to sup- port the underdog. If anything, it's the only way to fight complacency and drive innovation. vinit_aggarwal@jasubhai.com "What's needed now is to get users to try Linux once again" Selling Linux: Pull or Push? Vinit Aggarwal Assistant Editor 4 JANUARY 2003 index magazine 46 High printing speeds, crisp outputs and large print volumes now fit in your budget 97 Tank up and floor it: your Windows needs just one more servicing and tune-up to reach top speeds FEATURES The Power of Kaii ...............30 Devesh R. Agarwal, Managing Director, Infomart (India) Pvt Ltd unveils the Kaii initiative to change the PDA scene in India Hot Technologies for 2003 32 Technologies of tomorrow that make a difference now! Me, Myself and Workin'.....40 Get paid for putting your feet up, drinking lemonade, playing loud music and working a little TEST DRIVE Laser Blazers ........................46 Tested: 10 laser printers under Rs 30,000 Input Devices .......................57 Mice, keyboards and combos to suit your ergonomic needs INSIGHT Intense graFX! .....................74 Faster memory, blazing processing speeds and pathbreaking technolo- gies bring cinema-quality gaming to your desktop A Picture Speaks a Thousand Words .............78 No locks, no seals, no multi-stapled envelopesit takes just an image to hide your secrets Revealing Windows ............82 Windows 98 may be the most inse- cure OS you have come across yet, but there are ways you can lock access to your desktop and data Softbots at Your Service ...86 Find yourself scrounging the Net quite often? Add toolbars to your browser and make your hunt easier Self-extracting Archives....90 Start using an intuitive way to send e-mail attachments Power Windows ..................97 A collection of tips that guarantee to speed up your Windows, no matter which version of the OS you use ARCADE 13 Scariest Games Ever! .112 Steel your nerves through this jour- ney of the 13 spookiest games ever 74 Crystal clear water droplets, striking wrin- kles, blinding fog effects and a shining glint in the eyes the GeForce FX brings it to your desktop JANUARY 2003Think like a spy and hide your important data within your wedding photographs 78 82 Keep prying eyes and inquisitive pranksters away from your PC 6 index magazine 86 Browser compan- ions make search- ing the Web much smoother 78 Conceal mes- sages in images and videos 74 Check out the promise of the GeForce FX 112 In the spotlight: 13 of the scariest games ever. You must be 18 or above to read this 97 Tips to speed up Windows 9x, 2000 and XP 40 Got lots of free time? Could do with some extra money? Quit job-hunting and work from home To subscribe to Digit, fill out the subscription form available online at www.thinkdigit.com/subscribe NEWS FEED . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18 LETTERS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28 DROOLMAAL . . . . . . . . . . . . .38 START UP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44 BAZAAR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64 UNDERCOVER . . . . . . . . . . . .72 Q & A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .92 OFF THE SHELF . . . . . . . . . . .119 DIGIT DIARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121 BACKBYTE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .122 REGULARS46 Find out which is the best sub-30,000 laser printer avail- able in the market 82 Windows 98 can be as secure as Windows 2000 or XP, if you use the right tools HARDWARE Bazaar . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Canon Canoscan LiDE 20 Creative NOMAD MuVo DFI NT72-SA Motherboard Fuji S602 Zoom Digital Camera HP 5550 Desk-Jet Printer Iomega CD-RW 48x24x48x USB 2.0 Drive Kodak CX4200 Digital Camera Liteon LTR55246S Mercury HT 5800R Home Theatre 5.1 Channel System Pentium 4 3.06 GHz Philips A5.600 Seagate ST3120023A (120 GB Barracuda) Laser Printers 46 Canon LBP 1120 Canon LBP 1210 EPSON EPL-5900L HP Laserjet 1000 HP Laserjet 1200 Lexmark E210 Lexmark E322 Samsung ML-1210 Samsung ML-1450 Wipro Laser 1540 Mice . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Frontech JIL-7001 Frontech JU-830 iball THE KING Logitech Cordless MouseMan Optical Logitech MouseMan Dual Optical Mercury Optical Scroll Mouse Microsoft Trackball Optical Microsoft Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer Odyssey Web Scroll Mouse Samsung SMP 2100WX Keyboards . . . . . . . . 60 Logitech NewTouch Multimedia Keyboard Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard Odyssey OD2001 IR Odyssey OD2001 M1 Samsung Multimedia Keyboard SEM-M2A Samsung PC Keyboard Mouse-Keyboard Combinations . . . . . 62 Logitech Cordless Freedom Optical Mercury Cordless Keyboard and Mouse KOB 30210 Microsoft Wireless Desktop Typhoon Itek RF@Mouse and Keyboard SOFTWARE Bazaar . . . . . . . . . . . 64 Norton Ghost 2003 VariCAD 8.2-0.4 WinTally-Acc Reviewed this month JANUARY 2003 index digit interactive Macromedia Contribute Size: 17.90 MB, Type: Trial Mindware\Software\Developer Tools Holiday Lights 5.3 Size: 1 MB, Type: Trial Mindware\Software\Home Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 Size: 111 MB, Type: Trial Mindware\Software\Multimedia Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2003 Size: 63 MB, Type: Trial Playware\Arena\Games Jewel Cad 5 Size: 2.69 MB, Type: Trial Mindware\Software\Multimedia Cute FTP Pro 3.0 Size: 4.68 MB, Type: Trial Mindware\Software\Internet India Accounts for Windows 95/98 Size: 6.05 MB, Type: Trial Mindware\Software\Office Brave Dwarves 2 v1.03 Size: 4.9 MB, Type: Trial Playware\Arena\Funzone Registry Analyst 1.0 Size: 0.44 MB, Type: Trial Mindware\Software\System PFS Manager 2.03 Size: 6.75 MB, Type: Trial Mindware\Software\Multimedia Acronis True Image 6.0 Size: 8.90 MB, Type: Trial Mindware\Software\System Need For Speed: Hot Pursuit 2 Size: 92.4 MB, Type: Trial Playware\Arena\Games ICUII 5.6 Size: 2.40 MB, Type: Trial Mindware\Software\Internet HIGHLIGHTS 1Click & Lock 1Click & Lock is a system tray security utility you can use to secure your desktop when you are away from your PC. It's secure and very easy to use. Just define a pass- word and select Lock to hide and deny access to your desktop to anyone who doesn't have the password. You can set the program to launch automati- cally with Windows, lock your desktop from the system tray, log access attempts, and apply a custom background image. When enabled, 1Click & Lock even allows visitors to your PC to leave messages for you. The cold-boot and boot key protec- tion give maximum protection that's dif- ficult to get around. Size: 1.3 MB, Type: Trial Mindware\Software\System Effect 3D Studio 1.0 E f f e c t 3 D Studio lets anyone create professional 3D animated graphics with hundreds of rendering effects, lighting effects, back- grounds, material settings, and motions. This truly is 3D animation made simple. Size: 23.75 MB, Type: Trial Mindware\Software\Multimedia Battlefield 1942 Join the Battlefield in the year 1942 and experience the heat of the battle as you heroically storm the beaches of Normandy, drive a tank across the deserts of northern Africa, pilot a fighter plane during the Bat- tle of Midway, or command a battleship at Guadalcanal or prowl the sea lanes for enemy subs! This is a unique first person team-based action game that places you right in the midst of a raging battlefield. You'll get to be an Allied or an Axis serviceman, and join in as a member of an assault team, or a medic or an engineer, or it will be your job to knock out tanks. With a wide choice of historic WWII era weapons within your armoury, enlist and fight in some of the most famous and pivotal battles of World War II. Size: 133 MB, Type: Trial Playware\Arena\ Games ON THE CD 8 The Connect section on your Digit CD this month brings you Bookmarks on sites which will give a glimpse into how people have celebrated the New Year. You never know, you might come across some real great experiences. Also, in Connect find the Newsletter section which brings sample newsletters related to travel. The newsletters provide information ranging from travel news to people's travel experiences. So, the next time you want to plan a trip, you know where to get the dope. KNOW YOUR CD MUST-TRY SOFTWARE JANUARY 2003 MINDWARE\CONNECT India's Premier Software Provider index online 10 If you are wondering whether you want to buy the current issue or not, check out the highlights of the magazine. Also, click on Mindware or Playware to check out the software on the CD Burning issues Are buffer underruns the bane of your life? Get over them and optimise your CD-writing process WEB SPECIAL HIGHLIGHTS WEB SPECIAL taste technology at http://www.thinkdigit.com BY DEMAND You get to choose what goes on Digit Interactive. This month, you have chosen: Ringtone Converter 3.7.8 (4.3 MB) for Mindware James Bond 007: NightFire (147 MB) for Playware Expect these on the February 2003 CDs Virusproof forever No virus, no Trojan, no worm, no matter how powerful, can get to you if you know how they work and squish them right at the entry point. Or even better, never let the entry point be insecure JANUARY 2003 index colophon 14 JANUARY 2003 Chairman Jasu Shah Printer, Publisher and Editor Maulik Jasubhai Head - Publications & Web sites Louis D'Mello Assistant Editor Vinit Aggarwal Editorial Head - Writer Marco D'Souza Writers Veer Kothari, Ahmed Shaikh, Rachana Sanghani, Srinivasan Ramakrishnan Features Editor Sveta Basraon Copy Editor Mitali Parekh Design Art Director Marshall Mascarenhas Manager - Design Swaroop Biswas Designers Shivasankaran C. Pillai, Ashwin Boricha, Sachin Dalvi, Mahesh Benkar, Atul Deshmukh, Solomon Lewis Photographers Mexy Xavier, Jiten Gandhi Test Centre Head Hakimuddin K. Badshah Reviewers Aliasgar Pardawala, Yatish Suvarna, Mitul Mehta, Ashu Mehrotra Co-ordinator Gautami V. Chalke Multimedia Co-ordinator V. Ravi Shankar Design Kabir Malkani, Jo-Ann Rodricks, Hemant Charya, Priyamvada K.K., Liu Ai Chin Media Studio Bimal Unnikrishnan, Priya Ramanathan, Afzal Mazgaonkar, Prasanth Uyyul Production GM Shivshankar Hiremath Circulation & Logistics Adarsh Kaul Customer Service Namita Shetty Marketing & Sales Deputy Head - Sales Vijay Adhikari Marketing Manager Bhavesh Thakor Manager - Consumer Mktg Nabjeet Ganguli VOLUME 3, ISSUE 1 Head Office: Editorial, Marketing & Customer Service Plot No D-222/2, TTC Industrial Area, MIDC, Shirvane, Nerul, Navi Mumbai 400 706 Phone: +91 022-27629191/9200 Fax: +91 022-27629164 Printed and published by Maulik Jasubhai on behalf of Jasubhai Digital Media Pvt Ltd, 26 Maker Chambers VI, 2nd Floor, Nariman Point, Mumbai 400 021, India. Editor: Maulik Jasubhai Printed at Tata Infomedia Limited, Prabhadevi, Mumbai 400 025 ADVERTISERS' INDEX CLIENT PAGE CeBit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .IBC Compass 2003 . . . . . . . . . .41 Corel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63 Creative . . . . . . . . . . . . .51,53 Dell . . . . . . . . . . .12,13,16,17 IIT Techfest 2003 . . . . . . . .81 Invensys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .BC Kobian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19 LG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5,7,9 Logitech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 Penram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85 Priya . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .117 Samsung . . . . . . . . . . . . . .IFC Stardotstar . . . . . . . . . . .36,37 Symantec . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Verbatim . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49 Zenith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 Write Back Got feedback on Digit or www.thinkdigit.com? Have something to say about an article we published? We'd love to hear from you. Send us your rants and raves at readersletters@jasubhai.com Product Testing Want your product reviewed by Digit? Contact our Test Centre at testcentre@jasubhai.com Software on CD To submit software for inclusion in the Digit Interactive CDs, contact us at cdcontent@jasubhai.com Help! Complain about your missing copy? Cover CD not working properly? Renew your subscription Report a change in mailing address Order a back issue Need assistance on any of these? Contact Customer Service at 022-27629200 Extn: 1013-1016 help@jasubhai.com Endorsements/Reprints The Best Performance and Best Value Awards are the undisputed stamp of excellence for technology products in India. If you are a winner and are interested in ordering article reprints or using our logos, contact vinith_shetty@jasubhai.com While every effort is made to ensure that the information and prices provided are correct, there may be some variation due to differences in local taxes across states. Please keep this in mind before affecting any product purchase. Promise to our readers BANGALORE S. Saikumar Phone: 5325670/88, 2899287 E-mail: s_saikumar@jasubhai.com CHENNAI Jayesh George Phone: 8235186-89 E-mail: jayesh_george @jasubhai.com KOLKATA Jayanta Bhattacharya Phone: 2345100/5200 E-mail: jayanta_bhattacharya @jasubhai.com MUMBAI Rupesh Sreedharan Phone: 222874758, 222874759 E-mail: rupesh_sreedharan @jasubhai.com NEW DELHI Rajesh Arora Phone: 6483993-4 E-mail: rajesh_arora @jasubhai.com PUNE Vinayak Inamdar Phone: 4482059, 4494572 E-mail: vinayak_inamdar @jasubhai.com SECUNDERABAD Phone: 6329190, 6329181 E-mail: s_venu@jasubhai.com CONTACT OUR BRANCH OFFICES To Advertise Cover Photograph Umesh Aher Cover Design Ashwin Boricha Model Trivendra Singh Windows Refund Day If you want a refund for any Microsoft operating system, your day has arrived. Come January 23, 2003 you can start litigation to get back your money from Microsoft, or from the manufacturer who sold you the OS with your computer. So, who qualifies for a refund? If you bought a com- puter that came bundled with a Microsoft OS or if despite having an existing licence, you were forced to obtain another licence for a replacement com- puter, you can get your money back. But before you head off to a local courthouse, take a look at the licence agreement. You stand to get a replacement only if you can present the proof of ownership and all copies of the software, unopened! The idea is to hold computer manufacturers accountable for refusing to provide a refund for unused copies of any Microsoft OS. Needless to say, the movement has been spearheaded by Linux enthusiasts. Incidentally, this movement comes around in the same week as the Linux- World Expo at New York. 18 JANUARY 2003 pulse news CD Mount Rainer ReWrite format What is it? A packet writing technology that will allow optical disks to be written to and read from with the ease of floppy disks. What does it do? This standard allows CD- MRW disks to be formatted even while data is being writ- ten on the disk, thus saving time. The media can be ejected at any time during the format processthe drive simply picks up where it left off after the media is reinserted. Fault management will be integrated into the drive hardware itself, instead of through the software as with existing standards such as UDF 1.50. These disks are proposed to have a 2 K addressing system (as opposed to the 64 K address- ing system of floppy disks), resulting in a more efficient use of space. What does it imply? The CD Mount Rainer ReWrite format will facilitate easy reading and writing to optical media using packet writing technologies. Since it will be a standards-based technology, there will be uni- versal compatibility between media and drives. With greater data capacity and reliability, this technology spells the death of the already obsolete floppy disk. hypethesis AskJeeves gets real people to help you search the Web UK lampposts may hold hundreds of cell phone transmitters LG Philips LCD unveils 52-inch LCD TV Perfect DVD copies After spam and popup advertisements, the Internet now aids a new malignance. Your e-mail could invite burglars to come and clean your home while you are out of town. Crooks are now buy- ing up huge e-mail lists over the Internet and send- ing mass mail in the hope of getting autoreply messages that scream out 'We are not at home'. Smart thieves in the UK are using information within 'Out of Office' autore- ply e-mail and are cross ref- erencing this information against publicly available databases such as 192.com and bt.com that contain names, addresses and telephone num- bers. This makes leaving auto- replying mes- sages equivalent to putting up a note on your front door, informing all and sundry about your absence. The solution is clear keep your messages bland, redirect enquiries to others or to alternate addresses and do not put personal contact information in your e-mail. E-mail invites burglars An American firm called 321 Studios has released a software program that can cre- ate mirror images of an entire DVD on a blank DVD. Called DVDX- Copy, this pro- gram can dupli- cate the menus, special features and enhanced audio. Hollywood's lobby group, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has stated that such products violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which outlaws tools to circumvent copy-control technology, including the Contents Scramble System (CSS) used on DVD media. Facing possible criminal pros- ecution, 321 Studios respond- ed by saying that con- sumers have a legiti- mate right to make backup copies of DVDs they own. To appease Holly- wood, DVDXCopy intends to introduce a unique digital water- mark to enable tracing the DVD source, a dis- claimer that the backup is for personal use only and, most importantly, electronic controls embedded into the DVD that prevent the copied DVD from being duplicated further. Total cost of owner- ship of Linux could be as much as 22% higher than Windows 2000 Source: IDC snapshot Illustrations: Farzana Cooper 20 JANUARY 2003 pulse news Drive eraser W32.Galil@mm is a mass- mailing worm that has the potential to overwrite all files on all drives that it can write to with 215 bytes of text. It is written in Visual Basic and its uncompressed size is 80,626 bytes. The worm uses its own SMTP engine or Microsoft Outlook to send itself to all addresses that it finds on the infected computer. Multiple copies of the worm can be attached to the outgoing message. The message seems to have been for- warded from a Yahoo! account and talks about sex being illegal in the United States. The latest virus definitions of most anti-virus software should take care of the worm. P2P Worm This is a memory-resident worm called AGOBOT.C and it propagates itself through the KaZaa, Grokster and Bearshare file-sharing peer- to-peer networks and net- work shared drives. It regu- larly attempts to connect to an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) server as a bot. When con- nected, it may launch Denial of Service (DoS) attacks against other users. It also has backdoor capabil- ities and allows malicious users to take control of infected PCs. This worm infects all computers running on Win- dows and creates entries in the registry so that it runs automatically every time Windows starts. It can be identified and removed with the latest updates of most anti-virus software such as AVG or Norton AntiVirus. redalert Video game Jen saves Ben features Jennifer Lopez saving kidnapped Ben Affleck Columbia Records Japan offers albums on demand burnt on CD-R Saying it with a nice com- forting vibration could well be the next way to commu- nicate. MIT Media Lab is working on letting people communicate by passing along the 'touch' ele- ment. The Tangi- ble Media Group, the research team at the Media Lab, says that the exist- ing vibrator mode is too crude to actu- ally convey subtle feelings. Hence they have come up with a proto- type design that features five tiny speakers that vibrate against the skin on the fin- gers and thumbs some 250 times per second. Pressure sen- sors tucked behind the speakers let you vibrate the person right back. The intensity of the vibration depends upon how hard you squeeze. When test- ing this on a group of stu- dents, they immediately used the technique to emphasise what they were saying, or to interrupt the other person. Over time, they managed to develop a distinct 'vibralan- guage' that added to the effect of talking on the cell phone. All the users found it extreme- ly easy to work with and to get used to this. The idea is to let people transmit thoughts and feelings more effectively and also help people with disabili- ties communicate using cell phones. OS/2, one of the most robust OSes and the world's first fully 32-bit graphical desktop will be declared officially dead by IBM on March 12, 2003, with support continued till December 31, 2004. IBM's support is con- sidered an industry standard and their com- mitment to older technology is legendary. Still, the move comes as no surprisewith IBM's inability to attract the hardware commu- nity to write drivers for newer devices, Microsoft stole a march right under Big Blue's nose by getting harware support for Win- dows 95 right from its launch. Squeeze the cell phone statattack Who killed OS/2? Block viruses With computer viruses spreading through networks faster than the eye can blink, a researcher at the Hewlett-Packard laboratories in England just came up with a radical new theoryput the brakes on the infected computer to limit infection. Computers that are infected tend to behave differently than uninfected ones, says Matthew Williamson, the HP researcher. The infected computer quickly tries to make as many connections as possi- ble with neighbouring com- puters, through all possible network services, including e-mail. Throttling back the infected computer results in it taking a far longer time to start infecting other machines, giving enough time to alert system admin- istrators to take necessary actions. The idea worked amaz- ingly well at HP's lab, during tests to try out this new the- ory. Incidentally, the limits imposed by throttling appeared to have no notice- able impact to the user of the infected computers. Source: IDCINFOGRAPHICS:Sachin Dalvi 22 JANUARY 2003 pulse news heroes Low-price PCs Wal-Mart Stores Inc is offer- ing a computer at $199 (approx Rs 10,000) with neither Microsoft software nor Intel hardware. The Wal-Mart machines are full- fledged computers without Windows. Its sales, largely from technology enthusi- asts, businesses and schools, are already exceeding expectations. Robotics Leif Askeland, an icon in the toy industry, has created a robotic lap cat named FurRe- al Friends that will appeal to retailers, parents and chil- dren. The furry robot purrs when petted and presses its face into your hand if its cheeks are rubbed. Microsoft applications Sun Microsystems announced a deal on December 4, 2002, to install StarOffice on some European Sony PCs, mark- ing another defection from dominant Microsoft prod- ucts. Corel had earlier announced deals to put its WordPerfect software on PCs from HP and the North American wing of Sony. eBay Fraudsters are tricking legitimate users of eBay into handing over their identities to set up bogus auction accounts. The scammers rely on good rat- ings earned by the legiti- mate users to make their own bogus auctions look respectable. zeroes Artificial Intelligence will soon be everybody's cup of tea and you can be a part of the research for implementing AI. Researchers have finally conceded that the quest for AI is too daunt- ing for a single group, and are looking at the formi- dable resources of the Internet for help. World Wide Mind, a research team run by Mark Humphrys at Dublin City Uni- versity, says that for AI to advance, the entire field needs to be democratised. To harness the power of developers and novices worldwide, Humphry's team has devel- oped an inter- active pro- gram that lets them post their research on the Net for others to use. Previously, AI research focussed on creating entire robotic systems that could 'sense' the world. But the new shift is in creating logical subsystems or mod- ules, that are used in vision, navigation, locomotion, and problem solving among others. AI on the Internet followup Google has now yet anoth- er distinctionit provides many Web-based businesses with a steady supply of cus- tomers. Numerous small Web- based service providers and entrepreneurs are now dependent on Google for their customer base. For example, if you were looking for yacht charters at the British Virgin Islands, you could possibly end up looking up Bareboats- BVI, a site that gets most of its customers over from Google. The yacht broker does not end up paying anything to Google, but still relies on it for income. Google uses many vari- ables in its automated ranking process but the popular one bases its ranking on the num- ber of sites that link to it. These links spell the number of endorse- ments. Google regularly shuffles its rankings to reflect changes in its own methods or in the Web's link structure and con- tent. This way, many small time independent businesses that would get lost in the World Wide Web, get fair expo- sure. But, Google can be very aggressive when it comes to customers using unfair means. Sometimes a site's ranking low- ers dramatically or even disap- pears altogether if Google detects some evidence that the site's owner was using decep- tive tactics such as building a network of linked sites to cre- ate the illusion of popularity and thereby receiving a higher ranking. But the free lunch may soon come to an endbig businesses are spending more money into making sure that their site listings are optimised. Google doesn't make any money out of thisalthough sponsored site links are posted, these are not ranked, they appear as separate links. Google for pinstripes Super Gateway The world's second fastest supercomputer has just arrived, and it does not stay in a lab. Gateway, the PC maker, has just announced that its 8,000 computers located at Gateway stores all over the US will now work, instead of hibernating. After joining forces with United Devices, using their Alliance MetaProcessor plat- form, the 8,000 PC-grid based supercomputer is capable of an incredible 14 TFLOPs. Compare this with the world's fastest supercomputer yet, the Earth Simulator that clocks in at 35.61 TFLOPs. The next nearest number cruncher clocks in at a comparatively smaller 7.23 TFLOPs. This means that the Gateway/ United Devices supercomput- ing grid, called the Platform On Demand (POD), is now the Number Two supercom- puter on the Top 500 Super- computer list. The Alliance MetaProcessor platform protects the network with data encryption, firewalls and intrusion prevention methods and secure grid implementation. This secure supercomputer is available immediately for use to a vari- ety of industries, including life sciences, geosciences, nanosciences, entertainment, financial services and more. Source: Aberdeen Group Out of 29 advi- sories published by CERT during the first 10 months of 2002, Linux soft- ware accounted for 16 and Microsoft for only 7 snapshot ATi coming with R400, possibly with GDER 3 memory, by summer Gateway ties with pressplay to offer 2,000 songs pre-loaded on new PCs 24 JANUARY 2003 pulse news Researchers at the Universi- ty of Boulder, located at Colorado in the USA, used video games to find out whether a cultural or racial stereotype could be linked to armed and unarmed males. The subjects in the study were asked to shoot only when the human targets in the game were armed; however, they typically shot at unarmed black men compared to unarmed white men. The video game showed photographs of males against a vari- ety of back- grounds and asked the subjects to imme- diately conclude whether the image showed an armed or unarmed man. The unarmed males had aluminium cans, cell phones, cameras and wal- lets. When asked to make a spilt-second decision, all the subjects concluded, mis- takenly, that black men were armed. The research helped estab- lish that hidden cultural stereotypes exist in situations wherein the subject has to react very quickly and on instincts. Thought-provoking games Moore's law states that the amount of infor- mation storable on a given amount of silicon has rough- ly doubled every year since the microprocessor technolo- gy was invented. Andrew S. Grove, the Chairman of Intel, recently sug- gested that Moore's Law might be redun- dant by the end of the decade. The inactive Intel proces- sors are leaking current, threatening the future valid- ity of Moore's Law. As chips become more powerful and draw more power, leakage tends to increase. Going by statistics, the industry is used to power leakage rates of up to 15 per cent, but chips constructed of increasing num- bers of transistors can suffer power leakage of up to 40 per cent. Chips made up of a billion transistors may leak between 60 and 70 watts of power. The power is largely dissipated as heat, which causes cooling prob- lems for powerful chips. Currently, Intel is seeking ways to design chips with multiple cores with improved design and better insulators. The microproces- sor giant intends to make more efficient use of the humble transistor in order to deliver ever increasing per- formance. In short, Moore's law is going to be upstaged by electricity! Moore's Law outlawed Calling it the 'most defini- tive sound experience yet', Creative's Audigy 2 is a PC audiophile's delight. The Audi- gy 2's jaw-dropping specifica- tions include 24 bit music fidelity with 96 KHz in seven chan- nel surround sound. It also incorporates the EAX Advanced HD technology for truly immersive PC gaming experience and Dolby Digital EX compatibility, among oth- ers. Be it gaming or listening to music, you can enjoy rich and realistic 6.1 surround sound. It utilises the breakthrough sur- round sound technology of Windows Media Audio 9, bringing in the next wave of home theatre-like experience to the PC. It has an incredi- ble 106 dB Sound to Noise Ratio and the unique reputation of being the first and only THX certified add-in soundcard. Drown in the music Amazon's online store lets shoppers host recom- mendations for other buyers shopping for the same mer- chandise. Now, this technol- ogy, that tracks and links consumer perusal and pur- chases, has left Amazon red in the face due to its latest faux paus. In early December 2002, Amazon users who were look- ing at a spiritual guide by well known Christian evangelist Pat Robertson were shocked to find a manual on sex rec- ommended alongside. The incident clearly illustrates the pitfalls of online recommen- dations, which were hailed as excellent marketing tools. After receiving a complaint, Amazon promptly withdrew the recommendation. Unfor- tunately, this technology is easily manipulated by people who repeatedly shop, or just click through the links online. Analysts claim that this sort of incident will drive away existing and potential customers. Amazon red-faced A50-year-old computer called CSIRAC is still oper- ational in Australia. This one- time state-of-the-art machine runs at a blistering 300 KHz, has 2 KB of RAM and 2.5 KB of storage. While the more ration- al among us may scoff at its utility, in it's hey day this 7 tonne machine packed quite a wallop. Between 1951 and 1964, it worked with Australian universities on projects as diverse as calculating the design of water storage systems, weather prediction, Fourier analysis research and sky- scraper design. CSIRAC also worked with Australian indus- try on studies for BP's Kwinana refinery, the Commonwealth Aeronautic Research Laborato- ry and was used by undergrad- uate and graduate students for research into programming. Over the hill Apple to open a store less than 2 miles from Gates' house The Sims Online released December 17 nVidia NV30 release delayed to summer of 2003 Source: ComScore Online sales world- wide for Nov 1 to Dec 6, 2002, reached $8.2 billion, up 29% from a year snapshot 26 JANUARY 2003 pulse news Researchers at the Okla- homa University in the US have invented a method to store digital information on hydrogen atoms. The inven- tors of this technology, Bing Fung and his colleagues, found that the 19 hydrogen atoms in a single liquid crystal molecule can be used to store 1,024 bits of digital informa- tion. The information is stored in the interaction of the mag- netic moments of the protons within the atoms and is related to the spins of the subatomic particles of the atoms. In ini- tial experiments, they succeed- ed in encoding a 32 pixel square monochrome image in a molecule where the informa- tion was stored in a binary for- mat. This was done by firing a set of 1,024 different radio fre- quencies at the molecule. Each of the frequencies either had an amplitude (representing a binary 1) or did not (repre- senting a 0). The information thus stored was read by firing a second pulse at the molecule having a slightly different fre- quency. Consequently, the information was read by meas- uring the changes in the inter- ference patterns using a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) instrument. While this technology is still a while away from com- mercial viability, it promises big things for storage. "Companies throughout the country have net- works that are wide open because of wireless LANs millions of houses are getting con- nected, which means that more and more are get- ting vulnerable" Richard Clarke, special advi- sor to the US President for cyber security "Everyone can hear what you're talking about on the phone. When you're IM-ing, everyone can hear you typing, but it sounds like you're working." Melanie Miller, staff assis- tant at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on Pinging a data packet to a remote computer and cal- culating the time taken to receive its echo is used to ascertain the reliability of the Internet connection. Howev- er, Chis Chafe, cellist and researcher at Stanford Univer- sity, has modelled the Internet connection as guitar strings, twanging them to reveal those subtle characteristics that are missed by pinging. The time taken by the pulse to bounce back depends on the state of the network. The longer the connection time, the lower was the fre- quency range reproduced. This works such that any sud- den loss of sound indicates a broken link somewhere or missing packets of data, thus revealing the jitter. In a curious twist of comput- ing, Microsoft is creating a digital archive project where you can build a giant database of your life using the modern PC. Called MyLifeBits, the project aims to build archives that chronicle the events in people's lives. Add in all the pho- tographs, home videos, audio recordings of con- versations, letters and other official and unofficial documentation, and pretty soon, you should be able to run the equivalent of a Google search for any event in your life. With data storage costs expected to come down mas- sively, this could be feasible calculate some 1,000 GB for 4 hours of videotape recording for everyday of your life. This digital archive could be a boon for the archaeologists of a future genera- tion trying to uncover our civilisation. While the secu- rity risks are pretty clear, an accurate, searchable store of events could help us preserve our experiences more vividly for posterity. Archive your life! Molecular photography tomorrow'stechnology Internet buzz quoteworthy Wireless network- ing industry expect- ed to bring in $2 bil- lion revenue this year, and estimated to grow by 30% snapshot Source: 802.11 Planet Conference Anew technology called FACES (Free flight Autonomous and Coordinated Embarked Solver) allows planes to swarm the air and can pre- vent mid air collisions, regard- less of the traffic. FACES is being developed by the Centre For Aerial Navigation Studies, France and lets pilots choose their own routes immediately after take off, instead of forc- ing them to fly a prede- t e r m i n e d path. The software advis- es pilots to make manoeuvres only when absolutely necessary and maps out the best routes, sav- ing on travel time. The theory of distributed software is applied so no par- ticular plane is ever in control, and they make their avoidance manoeuvres together. FACES has already been tested on a simulator using archived data on real air traffic and it success- fully prevented a pile-up with 35 planes sharing airspace. The software sets the plan, keeping in account the flight plans of other planes that have already set it into sequence. Once the routes have been set, the pilots carry out the choreographed manoeuvres. This will result in the non-colliding routes. Controlling air traffic Pirated DVDs of The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers already all over South Asia Yahoo! launches Web hosting plans for small businesses 28 pulse letters Game interru pted Dear Vinit, I've noticed a disturbin g trend wh ere every n ew game demands ev en more sy stem resour ces in orde r to run smoothly. In my opinion , if you are a true gam er then rather than constantly u pgrading yo ur computer system, you should b uy a PlayStat ion 2 or an X box gaming console. All games fo r these platfo rms run smo othly and yo u don't need to spen d money on 'upgrading' these consol es to play any new gam e. Also, mos t games rele ased today h ave ver- sions for the Xbox and P S2. Sushant Via e-mail Dear Sushant, Immersive graphics and multiplayer gaming are no longer the forte of the PC, with the current-generation game consoles having caught up in these departments. Therefore as you've rightly point- ed out, if gaming is all you need to do, then buying a console makes more sense, especially considering that most games are now cross- platform. But you need not fall for the six-month upgrade cycle as no game developer is foolish enough to create and release a game that doesn't run on the majority of PCs sold in the last couple of years. Thus DOOM III when released, will run on a GeForce2-class graphics card, albeit without all the bells and whistles. Eager to not serve Dear Vinit, Your December editorial hit the nail on the headmost of the com- panies in India, even multi-nationals, have taken the law in their hands and are only interested in selling their products: once an item is sold, the customer no longer exists for them. Cheers to you for raising this issue. I hope it will make companies get up and take a long hard look at their service policies. Trevor Via e-mail Hi Trevor, Yes, companies still take their customers for granted. And what bothers me most is that their frontline support personnel, who interface directly with their customers, are often the weakest links in the organisational chain. Also things get trickier in a country like ours where we don't have a 'working' mechanism of seeking com- pensation. Hopefully more and more companies will awaken to the fact that providing value to their customers is the only thing that Q. Would you replace Backbyte with a monthly technology quiz? Your vote counts Thankfully, Backbyte still finds a place in the magazine (and our readers' hearts) 38% Yes 54% No 8% What's Back- This month's question: JANUARY 2003 What more would you like featured in the 'Off the Shelf' section? Log on to www.thinkdigit.com and vote on it Credit overdue Dear Vinit, In the news article titled 'What's in a Name?' in the November 2002 issue, Linux was addressed a s "Linus Torvalds' operating sys- tem" and you mentioned that Richard Stallman wants it to be 'renamed' as GNU/Linux. The OS we know today as Linux was born out of the GNU project, conceived by Stallman in 1984. It is very stran ge how Torvalds, who only contributed in creating the kernel, is today considered to be the creator of the entire Linux system. T he whole ideology behind the Linux OS remains concealed from the usersthat of software created free, by and for the masses. In that context, I think there is complete justification in calling the system GNU/Linux to give credit where it is due. Baishampayan Ghose, Free Software Fo undation, India Via e-mail Dear Baishampayan, While the collective work of GNU programmers was of paramount importance in conceiving Linux, the fact remains that singular per- sonalities will often take the credit for a collective's blood, sweat and tears. Take the case of Microsofthow many of us remember that Paul Allen was the co-founder of that company? Both Windows and the Redmond giant are synonymous with Bill Gates; piling credit on one individual may not be fair to others but it is a fact of life. Categorise this! Dear Vinit, 'Brilliant' is the only word that came to my mind when I got the December issue in my hand. I reside in Colombo, Sri Lanka, and every month relatives coming from Chen- nai get the magazine for me. Digit is an extremely useful and informative magazine and I have gained a lot from it. I base my buying decisions on your test results and as such I was hoping you would test products from categories such as DVD-RWs, FDDs, LAN cards, projectors and dish anten- nae, among others. Mohammed Ameer Sahib Via e-mail Dear Mohammed, Whoa! Some of the categories that you have mentioned, such as DVD-RWs, are based on very nascent technologies and there aren't enough products available in the market to do a full blown comparison test. Others like LAN cards perform sim- ilarly, irrespective of brands; while floppy drives are simply dead. Even though we constantly try to add new product cat- egories, I'm sure Digit will not be doing comparison tests on dish antennae in the near future. 29 A bundle of joy Dear Editor, Every specia l issue of D igit brings with it some truly explos ive packag- ing that simp ly blasts away any other national or in ternational t echnology magazine. T he packagin g of the December 2002 issue reveals a unique blend of artistry an d innova- tiveness craf ted with intr icate preci- sion. Plus the concept of d istributing the Six Essen tial Handboo ks in a sep- arate, specia lly designed pouch is especially pr aiseworthy. Arindam Sark ar Via e-mail Dear Arindam, We did plan on doing something extra special for the December 2002 issue. But it took more than just plain hard work; a few 'unplanned' mistakes and serendipity were big contributing factors in the final design of the packag- ing as well. In the end we're glad you We also need to swallow a bitter pill with all the bou- quets we've received for the December 2002 issue. We messed up the contact details for quite a few prod- ucts: On Page 76, the Logitech Cordless Freedom Optical has been incorrectly priced at Rs 3,380. Its correct MRP is Rs 6,950 On Page 135, the price of Age of Mythology has been incorrectly listed as Rs 1,299. It is actually priced at Rs 2,535. Also the game was developed by Ensemble Stu- dios, is published by Microsoft and the Web site is www.age- ofmythology.com On Page 135, the book reviewed is not Foundation Illustrator 10 but Director 8.5 Studio On Page 66, the contact details of Macromedia Dreamweaver MX have been incorrectly stated as Wipro Infotech Enterprise Software Group, when they should have been Macromedia On Page 48, the contact details for the Gainward GeForce4 card are incorrect. Contact Mediatech India at 2936696, 2014083 or Goof Ups Saving data, one PC at a time Hello Digit, After reading the 'Data W atch' arti- cle in the No vember 2002 issue, I have succes sfully config ured a backup solu tion on bot h my home and office PCs. Please pass on my good wish es to Mahesh Ben kar for the won- derful illustr ations that g raced the article. Jayanth Vasis ht Via e-mail Dear Vinit, Thanks to y our 'Data W atch' article I was succes sful in recovering im portant data files, which I had mista kenly deleted. Also the graphic s and illustra tions in the article were simply superb. Keep it up! Rasna Mehro tra Via e-mail Send your letters marked 'Readers Letters' to the Digit office: D-222/2, MIDC, TTC Industrial Estate, Om Sagar Building, Nerul, Navi Mumbai 400 706, Phone: 022-7629191/9200 Fax: 022-7629224 E-mail: readersletters@jasubhai.com Short Bytes Great issue! Dear sir, Your December 2002 issue was simply irresistible. The 100+ Tips & Tricks CBT was especially mind-blowing. Three cheers to the Digit team! Krishna Kumar Khatri Via e-mail Price not justified Dear Vinit, I am a regular reader of your magazine, but your December 2002 issue disap- pointed me in terms of the priceRs 150! The price tag is not justified at all. Souvik Sinha Via e-mail No representation without taxation Dear Sir, I would like to add to your reply for the 'Strange Cus- toms' letter on Page 29 of your December issue. I was recently checking up on the price of the Asus GeForce4 Ti 4200 Deluxe graphics card and found that it sells for $150 (Approx Rs 7,500) on the Net, but is priced at an exorbitant Rs 18,000 in India! The local importer has a simple reason: "The product sells slowly and in low quantities. Thus if I don't charge a premium, I cannot make money." Ajay Puri Via e-mail Dear Ajay, Unfortunately, we live in a commercial world where businesses follow either the 'high volumes, low mar- gins' or 'low volumes, high margins' model. Factor in some ridiculous custom duties and you're left believ- ing that nobody cares for the sentiments of Indian con- sumers who simply want to get their hands on the l a t e s t hardware and are willing to pay the same price as their American brethren, purchasing power parity between Messiah of gaming Hi, I've been reading Digit for a long time and you guys are doing a tremendous job. Now I have another reason to cele- brate: Skoar! I read an ad in the December issue and I'm really excited about it. Can you give me some more details? Vinodh Via e-mail Hi Vinodh, Well, if you like playing games then there's plenty to celebrate about. Skoar! will be hitting news stands in January 2003 and will be the fountain- head of the latest and greatest game reviews, breaking news on the hottest upcoming games along with loads of cutting edge digital paraphernalia. Not to mention the fact that there will be three, yes THREE, CDs full of the coolest game demos and addons you can get Dear Rasna and Jayanth, Accurate, efficient backing up and restoration of data is a very important issue that we hopefully did justice to within the story. And yes, we cannot discount Mahesh Benkar's design wizardry which was instrumental in bringing it to life; he consistently and pleasantly surprises us with his repertoire of design skills. JANUARY 2003 Illustrat ions: Fe rzana C ooper features spotlight 30 JANUARY 2003 The Power of Kaii With miniaturisation emerging across every form of technology, it comes as no surprise that there has been tremendous advancement in the field of portable computing over the past year. Ultra portable Tablet PCs and powerful handhelds are getting closer to the end user with enhance- ments in fabrication technology and faster, more power-wise processors. This trend is exemplified in India by the announcement of the Simputer, bring- ing portable computing closer to the masses. The newest device to hit the Indian handheld computing scene is the Kaii, an indigenously developed handheld that boasts robust process- ing power, affordability and a high level of con- figurability, making it suitable across a varied cross-section of application areas. We spoke to the developers of the Kaii. Following are excerpts from an e-mail interview: What was the inspiration for Kaii? The idea originated in August 2001. We wanted to develop an intelligent, low-cost and flexi- ble handheld computing platform that would serve as an engine for a variety of vertical appli- cations. These include a PDA, inventory, e-gov- ernance, ticketing, GPS, etc. What is your vision for Kaii? The Kaii is a multi-purpose handheld computing platform, which can serve a variety of market needs and applications. It has always been our vision to make the platform available to both hardware and software developers and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) who can take it to new markets by applying their own unique ideas and skills. What are the advantages offered by Kaii apart from the obvious advantage of cost? Kaii is not merely a PDA. Its biggest advantage is its flexibility, USB Host control and state-of-art power management. Another unique feature tar- geted at larger OEMs is the concept of mass cus- tomisation, where the OEM can choose the hard- ware and software components. No handheld man- ufacturer has offered this concept before. The exist- ing Palm and Pocket PC devices offer only a USB client, while Kaii has both, host and client. Through the USB Host, external USB devices such as the mouse, keyboard, hard disk and printer can be con- nected. For instance, when the Kaii is coupled with an 802.11b Wi-Fi card, an OEM can offer a special purpose corporate workstation for under Rs 15,000. This workstation can be complete with all office automation software, an e-mail client, a world standard Web-browser and a Sun certified Java Virtual Machine. Companies such as Insur- ance and FMCGs can equip large sales forces with a Kaii, loaded with their custom applications. This can be carried to client locations, the orders taken on the spot and the person can upload the orders to the corporate ERP using Wi-Fi when he or she returns. The Kaii can also be included in the hand- held GPS receiver, e-books and information kiosk markets. How does it compete with other PDAs in functionality and power? In the PDA avatar, the Kaii offers all the power and multimedia features of a Pocket PC. Like Palm OS and Microsoft Pocket PC, the standard soft- ware includes MS Office compatible software for word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, a Web browser, an e-mail client and a Sun certified Java Virtual Machine. Feature wise, KAII is highly competitive as against a Palm or any model of Microsoft Pocket PC. It also has many games such as Asteroids, Tetris, etc., and software to sync with MS Outlook. It has a CF card slot, a Multi-Media Card (MMC) slot and infrared. Additionally, the Kaii is 'world ready' due to its double-bit ability and has language packs for most languages avail- able either for free or for a charge from the vast Linux community. In addition, the USB Host expands and extends the Kaii PDA's functionality. Most companies sell their PDAs at low price initially and then cash in on the proprietary accessories. A Kaii owner is given many non-pro- prietary and hence, inexpensive choices. What kind of response has it received? Do you plan to take it to foreign markets as well? We are overwhelmed by the kind of interest gen- erated. It was designed for the global community of which India is a part. We took a lot of inspira- tion from India in the diversity of applications required, as well as the cost competitiveness required. Kaii is a platform for people to bring their ideas to fruition. Its concept has generated interest from all corners of the world. Who is your target audience? In the PDA avatar, the audience is those who seek value for money. As a platform, it is for all the hardware and software developers, and OEMs who have a unique idea and need a plat- form to help bring it to fruition. As communicated to Marco D'Souza We wanted to develop an intelligent, low- cost and flexible handheld computing platform that would serve as an engine for a variety of vertical applications " " Devesh R. Agarwal, Managing Director, Infomart (India) Pvt Ltd 32 JANUARY 2003 features technology next Three years into the millenni- um, and we stand on the verge of yet another persuasive wave of technology as it entwines itself into the very fabric of our lives. What was once considered high technology is now accessible to a vast cross-section of users, rang- ing from teenagers to grandpar- ents, as much as it is to technolo- gists and scientists. We are used to an infusion of gadgets that have made themselves indispen- sablebe it cellular phones, ATM cards or ready access to the Inter- net. Let's take a look at some of the technologies that are going to be instrumental in furthering this acceptance of technology in our day-to-day lives. While high-speed networks draw on all the advantages of your office Eth- ernet, high-bandwidth wireless networks spell untold levels of conven- ience and portability. With 802.11b (WiFi) networks already in place in many parts of the world, and present in numerous home and office networking equipment, there's no looking back. The 54 Mbps bandwidth of such net- works provides adequate room for data-hungry applications such as stream- ing audio and video and high-volume file downloads. Also, the capability of providing up to eight discrete channels in the specification lets the network handle different types of data streams. While there were speed breakers in the shape of slow acceptance for the 802.11a standard and compatibility with other wireless standards, today, both the 802.11a and 802.11b standards can be merged into a single device. Another hybrid variant of the 802.11x stan- dard is the 802.11g, which boasts of bridging the gap between the 802.11a and 802.11b standard, enabling them to talk to each other. On the horizon are other exciting wireless standards such as Ultra Wide Band (UWB) wireless communication. With its significantly higher levels of security, UWB is likely to gain wider recognition and acceptance in the forthcoming year. The wire-free network MARCO D'SOUZA 33 Cellular technology already has a strong foothold in our daily lives. While speech is still the main medium for cellular networks, many upcoming technologies are built to open the doors to newer forms of media such as audio and video broadcasts, videoconferencing and advanced messaging sys- tems. While devices that support these technologies are still beyond the reach of most users, it is just a matter of time before this technology becomes widely accessible. GPRS is among the most significant cellular technologies this year. It is gaining acceptance among service providers as well as end users. With the ability to handle data transmission at a maximum of 144 Kbps, this technology is a taste of the potential of a handled device to deliver more than just voice communication. This year, expect to see the proliferation of GPRS-based networks along with the advent of newer standards such as EDGE, which marks an entry into the 3G realm of 2 Mbps cellular bandwidth. While these standards will take time to stabilise and reach the user, there will be a consolidation in technologies where standards such as Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) will unify cellular communication standards, making data, voice, videoconferencing and multimedia messaging a part of everyday life. Pulsing at the very core of our systems, processors have grown in strength to become massive number-crunching devices. Not too long ago, the prospect of having a computer that could allow you to create and edit your own video on your home com- puter was unheard of. But today's processors are more than able to handle power-hun- gry applications such as real-time audio and video processing, and bleeding-edge games with smoother levels of multitasking. The year 2003 will see a slew of processors armed with higher clock speeds, advanced fabrication processes and newer technologies to tackle new-age applica- tions with greater ease. AMD and Intel are going to herald 64-bit computing with their new processors aimed at the desktop and server segments. Aided by technologies such as Banias and better fabrication processes such as 0.09-micron technology, manufac- turers will be able to pack in more transistors into processors, resulting in greater fea- tures and capability and higher integration of components. Besides the desktop com- puters, advances in processor fabrication will be reflected in handheld devices too with clock speeds of up to 400 MHz, handheld processors will break new ground in portable power without sacrificing on battery life. Processing powerhouses Communication unlimited The storage field has seen a lot of excitement in the past year. Hard disks already offer as much as 300 GB capacity and the bar for even entry-level drive capacities has been raisedthe end of 2002 saw 40 GB drives paving the way for 60 GB ones. In 2003, advancements in fabrication technology will allow for even larger capacities to be integrated into the same form factor and price range. New technologies such as IBM's Pixie Dust allow the fabrication of devices where smaller magnetic domains can be reliably created and retained on the hard disk platters. This allows the disks to have storage densities of up to 100 billion bits per inchthat's four times the present capacities! You can look forward to hard disk drives with capacities beginning at 400 GB and notebook drives with up to 200 GB capacity! On the optical drive front, Blue Ray is all set to redefine optical storage where standard 8 cm optical disks will boast of a 27 GB capacity. With many manufacturers already equipped to produce these drives, the only await is for the standards to support these technologies to be finalised. Another promising technology that is making its present felt is Recordable DVD drives. Given its supe- rior storage capability and falling prices of hardware and media, this will become very popular. Storage unbound JANUARY 2003 features technology next 34 JANUARY 2003 The code that runs our desktops, servers and operating sys- tems has seen a visual metamorphosis over the past year, with increasin stress on better looking and more intuitive inter- faces. Things have changed under the skin too, with stronger protection against external threats, faster networking and sup- port for new hardware. Through it all, the familiar 'desktop' metaphor has remained with the folders, recycle bin and wallpaper. While there is no sign of breaking away from this metaphor, upcoming OSes will offer greater levels of stability and interfaces. They will also serve as a platform for unifying new-age applica- tions such audio and video editing, better media file management and a better broadband experience. OSes will also move into the 64-bit realm to complement the arrival of 64-bit processors and applications. On the desktop front, Microsoft's new OS, codenamed Longhorn, boasts of a brand new interface, a powerful new data- base-like file system, support for Palladium technology, as well as provision for 3D hardware for a more realistic and visually rich interface. On the Linux front, the launch of United Linux assures compatibility and higher ease of use. Other distributions of Linux will also focus on the end user where user-friendliness will be enhanced. The OSes for mobile devices will also change to offer stronger multimedia sup- portthe upcoming versions of Microsoft Pocket PC 2002 and Palm OS 5 support faster processors, full audio and video. Apart from the processor and the motherboard, peripherals and other system compo- nents are also getting faster and are demanding greater levels of bandwidth from inter- facesboth internal and external. While the year gone by has seen advancements in the speed of interfaces such as ATA and USB, this trend will continue with greater performance through innovations in the design itself. Serial ATA is one such standard that will make a big appearance this yearwith a 150 MBps bandwidth, this interface is faster than any existing IDE interface we have today. To corroborate this fact, there is no future roadmap charted out for the parallel ATA standard. Since Serial ATA uses thinner connecting cables, there will be far less clutter in your system with greater cooling and therefore, more stable performance. Several hard disk manufactures have already launched hard disk drives based upon this standard. On the external front, USB 2.0 took time to gain acceptance during the beginning of 2002. Compared to USB 1.1's paltry 12 Mbps bandwidth, USB 2.0 features a bandwidth of 480 Mbps allowing for fluid operation of devices such as DV cameras, external storage devices, scanners, etc. With strong support from manufacturers of moth- erboards as well as peripheral devices, you can look forward to the USB 2.0 interface peripheral devices. Operating systems Connectivity Advancements in graphics processing hardware have made cartoon-like game characters a thing of the past. The buzzword today is visual computing and this is apparent from the current generation of games, conventional application software and operating systems. With today's OSes drawing on the capabilities of the graphics processor for even rendering a shaded and bevelled scroll bar, our entire experience with computers is moving closer towards a visual realm. In the race for launching the fastest graphics card, the two bigwigs in graphics processors, ATi and nVidia, are going all out on the promotions and enhancements. This is supplemented by the fact that even upcoming graphics APIs such as DirectX 9 and OpenGL 2.0 boast of capabilities that will bring cin- ema-quality graphics to your computer. The year 2002 has already given us a taste of things to come with ATi's Radeon 9700. This year, we will witness some more powerful graphics solutions with products such as the GeForce FX and ATI's upcoming R10000 graphics processor. The visual realm 35 JANUARY 2003 After the processors, probably the single most important component that spells computing performance is the memory. The past year has seen rapid advancements in the memory scenethe RDRAM and the DDR camps have been churning out faster mod- ules with denser capacities. While both have gained acceptance, the future clearly stands in favour of DDR memory. It has been very visible in the AMD and Intel plat- forms and its newest iteration, DDR2, is poised to be the memory plat- form of choice for both Intel and AMD. Making its way to this market is the DDR-III, which yet again promises to provide a worthy complement to the forthcoming processor platforms with bandwidths ranging from 6.4 GBps all the way to a blistering 25.6 GBpsfaster than the PC4300 DDR2 memory bandwidth of 4.3 GBps. This year will see DDR-III appearing on motherboards across the Intel and AMD platforms. On the topic of density, these RAM modules have already touched the 512 MB mark, spelling good things for the server and enterprise segments. However, with future operating systems and application programs demanding greater amounts of memory, greater densities will also mean lower costs per module. No longer is the desktop the only place to get work done. The newest slew of handheld devicescellular phones, Tablet PCs, handheld devices and new-age notebook comput- ershave seen advancements in processing power, battery life and storage capacities, result- ing in an array of fairly advanced capabilities. Cellular phones such as the Sony Ericsson T68i and Nokia's Communicator are prime examples of this yet unrealised potential. This year will see an explosion in devices that let you take your communication, documents and even Internet on the road with you. Devices that incorporate imaging capabilities such as the Sony Ericsson P800 will be widespread in this year. Handheld devices based on the Windows Pocket PC and Palm platform have already demon- strated support for seriously powerful processors with full imaging, audio and video capabilities. In 2003, also watch out for the emergence of Tablet PCsthe next mobile com- puting device. Delivering high levels of user-friendliness and functionality, Tablet PCs, along with forthcoming cellular and handheld devices will revolutionise mobile computing. They've been around for the longest timeCRT monitors are trusty devices that have lasted all through the years, with very little of the underlying technology changing. However, LCD dis- plays, once the devices of the privileged, are now within our budg- ets due to enhancements in fabrication processes and yields. With all the advantages of smaller footprints and greater brightness and contrast levels, LCD technology is fast catching up on the price and resolution front as well. The year will see the arrival of LCD displays that are affordable, with screen sizes in the 14 and 15-inch range. One of the display technologies to look out for is Organic LED. Displays based on this technology eliminate the need for a power source for backlighting, spelling significantly lower manu- facturing costs along with higher contrast and brightness levels. Its response time will be about 1000 times that of present-day LCDs no more blurring even when viewing fast-moving images or large displays! The memory angle Computing to go Display advancements features droolmaal 38 JANUARY 2003 Xentex FLIP-PAD Voyager Your complete companion The portability of a laptop with the power and workspace of a desktopthe Xentex FLIP-PAD Voyager is a device that offers just this. This unique device with its foldable design provides an unprecedented viewing area with a dual screen work environment. Woven around an 1.2 GHz (also available in 1.6 GHz) AMD Mobile Athlon processor, 512 MB of RAM, a 40 GB internal hard disk with an 80 GB swappable hard disk, dual 13.3-inch TFT screens that offer a total resolution of up to 1536x1024, this mobile device offers workstation-class and touchscreen functionality. It has four USB ports and FireWire, along with integrated Ethernet and modem. If you miss your graphics workstation while in transit, this laptop will keep your productivity levels up. Web site: http://www.xentex.com/voyager/ Ellula Inflatable Speakers Not just hot air These inflatable speakers from Ellula radiate sound from their surface, which makes them omni- directional. They come in three funky shapes, one of which is even shaped like a Budweiser beer can! Since size is not a factor, these speakers make the perfect accessories for your mobile presentations and portable audio player. They bring along a battery pack, an adapter and an amplifier. If you want all ears, these are the speakers to pack. Web site: www.inflatable-speakers.com Gadgets that complement your style. Go ahead, Show off! 39 Sony PEG-NX70V Cli Power palm Sony's new handheld stuffs fistfuls of functionality into an intelligent clamshell case. Sporting a 200 MHz StrongARM processor, this Palm OS 5-based device supports digital video (MPEG-4) and audio playback, a voice recorder and an expansion slot for wireless network connectivity. It incorporates expandable 16 MB of RAM and the integrated camera can capture 640x480 resolution images with its 3,10,000-pixel sensor. Say bye-bye to tinny sounds, as this handheld features a speaker that can produce polyphonic alarms and reminders that can be user-recorded. With its 320x240 colour screen and full multimedia support, the Sony PEG-NX70V is the handheld to trust your data with style. Web site: www.sonystyle.com/micros/clie/ JANUARY 2003 Nokia 3650 Keeping us connected Nokia departs from the norm once more, incorporating a completely new design while infusing technology and functionality into the 3650. At its heart beats a GPRS cellular phone that supports data transfer speeds of up to 40.2 Kbps and runs the Symbian OS, which can run Java-based applications and games. It sports a crisp 176x208 pixel colour display that can play MPEG-4, Real Audio, Real Video, WAV and MIDI formats. It also features SMTP and POP3 e-mail access. Additionally, it has a built-in camera that can capture 640x480 colour images that can be sent to other users if the network service allows it. The 3650 contains 4 MB of internal memory and is also Bluetooth and infrared capable. Web site: www.nokia.com Creative Nomad Jukebox Zen Nirvana on the move If you thought hard disk-based MP3 players were bulky and awkward, think againCreative's new Nomad Jukebox Zen incorporates a whopping 20 GB hard disk drive in a device small enough to fit into your pocketaround 5,000 MP3s can be stored at 128 Kbps! This sleek player integrates a FireWire port and a USB port. The device can store songs in categorised playlists that can be easily and speedily accessed through the scrolling button and intuitive icon-driven interface. Web site: www.nomadworld.com/products/jukebox_zen/ Do you want to break free of the corporate world, skip the coffee machine and step off the rumour mill to contribute to the economy on your own? The latest trend of freelancing is more conducive to an independent work- er. With cities growing in every direction, much of one's time is spent in commut- ing. Strict work routines, tyrannical man- agement and the temptation of better opportunities around the corner have many of us thinking of a life of work at home. The idea of working for yourself sounds sweet, but there are a lot of things to consider before you set out on your own. The primary one is whether your work gives you that kind of freedom. Cer- tain jobs, by their very nature require you to coordinate with a team. While the Internet has made communication easi- er, it does not do away with all the barri- ers. The IT and media industry, however, offers great scope of working from the confines of your homecopywriters, writers, network consultants and Web designers thrive professionally in their own habitat. Players on the field Amith Ellur, a certified Microsoft con- sultant, has been freelancing for various companies for the past six years. His work ranges from setting up a smooth work- flow process to simple database opera- tions. His work hours and fees depend upon the nature of work. The reason he chose to freelance, Ellur says is, "If you are an employee, people recognise the company you belong to and not the indi- vidual; if you are a freelancer, people recognise you and your work." Chandan Naik, a layout artist, has another reason to be in the freelancing game. He lives in Borivili, a far-flung sub- urb of Mumbai, which makes his travel- ling time go up to anywhere between 2 and 3 hours in any direction to get to work. This is a large chunk of his waking hours, considering that his job would involve late nights. Moreover, his work- load would usually avalanche during a certain time period, instead of being ILLUSTRATION:Mahesh Benkar features firsthand Freelancers are entrepreneurs by themselves, so they have to keep learning and updating their knowledge to provide quality solutions on time, everytime Amith Ellur, Microsoft Consultant " Long, hot hours of travelling, difficult work environments and slave drivers are all pass. Be your own boss, work in the comfort of your air-conditioned, music-filled room and make big bucks! Me, Myself and Workin' 40 JANUARY 2003 " 42 JANUARY 2003 features firsthand spread evenly over a month. Sailesh Peringatt, a programmer, prefers to freelance for the interest quotient. It allows him to pick and choose inter- esting jobs. "This way, you tend to learn and grow very fast in terms of knowledge as you are not limiting yourself," says Peringatt. Such a work scenario may mean professional schizophreniawhere you are a copywriter in the morning, a technical writer in the afternoon and editor in the eveningbut it assures intellectual stimulation. For Naik, it means working on a large spec- trum of magazines. Diwali usually means working on special editions of Marathi magazines, while year-ends see him working on IT publications. Each maga- zine has its own style and focus and this diversity is what keeps Naik intrigued. Since working on your own takes away one very big advantage that a cor- porate house offersthat of frequent training sessions that keep one abreast of the latest trends, freelancers have to rely upon themselves to update their skills and knowledge. "Most of my free time is spent learning new languages and processes so as to handle any kind of project," says Peringatt. Ellur agrees: "Freelancers are entrepreneurs by them- selves, so they have to keep learning and updating their knowledge to provide quality solutions on time, every time." Another thing an independent worker can't fall back on is a support system. Cor- porate clients have well-drawn legal con- tracts that can be quite daunting to a newbie. While such paperwork assures that the freelancer isn't exploited, it can also be used against the individual worker in case the work is not deliv- ered on time or isn't up to a certain quality. "Corporates are well-equipped to handle freelancers who don't deliv- er quality. A freelancer is most of the times a one-man show with no legal assistance, whereas corporates have access to virtually everything. So if a freelancer doesn't deliver quality, the client can stop payments and also get legal clauses in the way. Not to mention, that they can give you a poor recommen- dation, which will hinder your future proj- ects," explains Ellur. Independent working doesn't neces- sarily translate to working from home. Just like in a 9-5 job, the client is the king and your work habits rotate around him. The type of project you are working on decides your location of work. "Most of the times clients don't want the project details to go out of the office boundary, The advantage for me over an employed individual is that I can play different roles at all possible levels Amith Ellur MICROSOFT CONSULTANT " " The Internet is brim full of Web sites that claim to offer big money with minimum work hours. But like everything else on the Net, many of them are just database mining sites that require you to sign up for a fee or pay for the training pack. The exact nature of the work is ambiguous. But some offer gen- uine solutions for those sitting at home. Some Web sites offer data processing jobs such as converting books or PDF for- mats into online documents and other text conversion jobs. Other jobs include medical transcription, which involves receiving dictations of medical notes and then transcribing that data into a digital format and rerouting it to the respective doctor. These jobs require you to have some kind of scientific or medical back- ground to aid your understanding of the scientific terms. Other work opportuni- ties include basic data entry, replying to e-mail, receiving mail responses, pursu- ing helpdesk on mail and chat. This is quite on the lines of a Call Centre. Some sites offer to pay for just click- ing on advertisements to assure advertis- ers of user response. Given below are- some sites that let you work from home: Elance.com (www.elance.com) is a work- from-home site. As cited by one end user, for a particular project you might have to pay Rs 6,000 towards registration, but at the end of it you could earn up to Rs 15,000. Even though you have to pay a certain sum at the commencement of a project, this amount is usually recovered by the end of the project. Guru.com (www.guru.com) guages your potential and directs you to the right job. The mode of payment can be chosen between a monthly salary and an hourly rate. They have a 'Workstyle at a glance' section, which is designed to help the user and the staff learn more about the pre- ferred work environment. Once your skills are assessed and you've entered the cycle, it is fairly easy to find the right kind of work. Make sure to read the clauses asso- ciated with each type of job. Datamatics.com (www.datamatics.com) is one of the pioneering work-at-home sites in India. However, a previous user The Website Story 'Now you can work on your own terms'... or so they say Elance.com is one of the popular choices of freelancers Guru.com has a team of experts that evalu- ates your potential hence you have to make use of their resources," explains Ellur. Naik, on the same note, needs to coordinate with the editorial team of the magazine he works on and hence is required to be at the client's workstation. But Peringatt, being a programmer, can work from his home. His typical hours are from 11 am to 6 pm and then again from 11 pm to 3 am. "The most productive hours are during the night with absolutely no disturbance. Also, the Net is quite fast then," he explains. But he generally prefers to "work till I drop, as I'm working for myself. It is very important that I finish work as soon as possible, so that I can move on to other interesting stuff". Naik has a better work discipline. His work rotates around the other people in a given team and hence it isn't completely at his convenience, though he can choose a particular project depending on his personal ability to handle it. Show me the money The crucial concern any individual set- ting out on his own faces is that of money. After all, money is the reason most of us are in it. A regular job ensures a salary deposit in the bank at the end of the month. With freelancing, the work-to- pay ratio is always negotiable and never assured. How one discusses the pay packet again depends upon the nature of the work: Naik prefers to be paid by the day as it works very well with his work scenario since he is required to work from the client's site for unpre- dictable hours, with focus more on the quantity of work rather than the quality. For Ellur, charging depends upon the project specifications and the customer comfort. "In cases where the customer himself is not clear about his require- ments, it is advisable to charge by the hour where the specifications are frozen on a daily basis. When the customer is clear about the output, you can charge a lump sum," says Ellur. Peringatt, on the other hand, charges for the work put in and not the hours spent working, "so I don't have to keep reporting to the client on how much work was done in a day, as I may be work- ing on other parallel projects." He con- tinues, "Sometimes, charging by the hour is not justified. If the developer is skilled and has experience, it will take him much less time to finish the project com- pared to an inexperienced developer who would take months to research. An umbrella amount takes care of all these factors. The client is informed of a date when I will be able to present the demo or the deliverables and that date is adhered to." So how much can you hope to make on your own? And is this payment assured? Peringatt has had many dis- tasteful experiences in this regard"Get- ting money out of the client is a big headache. The money invariably gets delayed for some reason or another." But Ellur begs to differhe maintains that clients pay, at even a premium, provided that you deliver quality on time. A novice freelancer can hope to earn between Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 in any field, depending on the kind of contacts he or she has and the quality of the work. A seasoned IT consultant, in the opinion of Ellur, can make anything from Rs 30,000 to Rs 1,00,000 a month. A layout artist can make around Rs 7,000 throughout the year and up to Rs 15,000 during the end of the year and festivals when mag- azines get out their special editions. Bag of tricks What you need to work on your own, besides a PC with all the peripherals of your trade, is a good database of con- tacts and people who will give you work. If you've already been working for a while, people are already familiar with your work and the trust hurdle is bypassed. Once the ball is set rolling, each project well delivered will ensure future work, as work relations with free- lancers are based on trust. In the words of Ellur, "Being a freelancer, if you have five satisfied customers, then you are assured five more job offers for the future." You can also tie up with a Web site online that trades services with companies that are on the lookout for them such as www.elance.com and www.freeagent.com. These sites are meeting points for those who are seeking specif- ic professional services and those who can provide them (see box, 'The Website Story'). The availability of projects, like in any other profession, depends on the overall economic scenario and your own skill sets. The key is to constantly rein- vent yourself and keep abreast of the skills and technologies in your field. Along with that, you need to cultivate a firm discipline and mark out your work hours. Always understand the nature of the project to its last detail so that there are no misunderstandings that could wash away hours of your work. With that, also calculate a rupee per work unit ratio that you can justify to your client you don't want to come across as exorbi- tantly priced, nor should you sell your- self short in anyway. Once you have these few things in place, all you need to do is work hard and the money will keep streaming in. RACHANA SANGHANI and MITALI PAREKH 43 JANUARY 2003 I am my own master; I only do things that interest or challenge me Sailesh Peringatt SOFTWARE PROGRAMMER " " complains that the site no longer offers the opportunities it initially did. Some unpleasant experiences by a few users prompted them to quit, but there are others who continue to be influenced by the concept. Many of these sites operate world- wide, but the vendors handle currency conversion and the user is paid in the local currency. Most of them require you to pay a registration fee as deposit, which is refunded once the job is done. This fee is a precautionary measure to assure delivery on the scheduled date. In case you do not submit work at the designat- ed time, the compensation would be reduced. This is where you need to be cautious as most of these services have a 'do so at your own risk' clause. Datamatics.com is a meeting ground for both clients and service providers test drive start up 44 JANUARY 2003 The Digital Media Test & Research Centre (DMTRC) conducts a series of elaborate tests to eval- uate the merit of each hardware and software product. To ensure that our readers have all the information they need to make an informed buy- ing decision, engineers at DMTRC evaluate and review the latest hard- ware, software and technology services in accor- dance with the most up-to-date evaluation processes and methodologies used around the world. Comparison Tests We use a dual rating system, the first of which is applied to the Comparison Tests in which we compare the performance of products within a particular category. Each product is evaluat- ed under different parame- ters such as performance, value for money, features, warranty and support, etc. Weightages are then applied to the various test parameters according to their importance for that particular category of products. These weightages are then used to arrive at an overall grade for each indi- vidual product. An overall grade of A+, therefore, indi- cates that the product is close to perfection. The Awards Digit awards out- standing products by selecting a Best Performance and Best Value winner in each comparison test. The winner of the Best Perfor- mance Award will be the product that scored the highest in the performance seg- ment of our tests. This award represents the best performing prod- uct in our tests and doesn't factor in any other parameter such as value for money, features, sup- port, etc. The winner of the Best Value Award will be the product that scores the highest in our value for money parameter which is derived taking into account the ratio of a product's performance and fea- tures to its price. The product winning this award offers good performance at a great price. In Bazaar The second part of the rating system is used to evaluate individual hardware and software prod- ucts in the Bazaar section. The evaluation covers parameters such as performance, ease of use, value for money and the build quality/features of the product in question and then arrives at an overall rating. Here each of these parameters is given a weightage of 25 per cent and is rated on a scale of 5, which is represented by arrows ( ). The greater the number of arrows, the better the product. This simple five-point rating system is designed to give you an easy-to-interpret assessment of a product. For example, a product that receives an overall score of five arrows sig- nifies an outstanding buy! How we Test A new year and a whole new set of technologies on the horizon! In this New Year's issue, we bring you some of the hottest technologies and products over a range of cat- egories. In our comparison tests, we have a shootout between 10 laser printers in the sub-Rs 30,000 category from six differ- ent brands. If you've always wanted to buy a laser printer but were under the impression that it would cost a lot, this is the shootout that will help you with your decision. We have also reviewed a cross section of some of the funkiest input devices com- prising of six keyboards, 10 mice and four keyboard- mouse combinations fea- turing some of the newest technologies like dual opti- cal sensors, wireless con- nectivity and even unifica- tions of the two! Be it gam- ing, image editing or even general use, find the key- board and mouse that suits you best. In the Bazaar section, we bring you reviews of the hottest products such as Intel's newest Pentium 4 3.06 GHz with HyperThread- ing technology. There are also a set of digital droolables here, with the funky and feature rich Fuji S602 Zoom digital camera and the lightweight and incredibly portable Creative MuVo portable MP3 player. Don't forget to check out peripherals such as the Canon Canoscan LiDE 20 scanner and Iomega's newest 48x24x48x external USB 2.0 CD-Writer. In Test this Month It looks good and the technology is glitzy, but does it do the job? Excellent: a brilliant combination of price, performance and featuresfar beyond expectations Good: a good buy, better than most products in its category Average: reasonably competent but nothing spectacular about the product Mediocre: does not live up to expectations, needs improvement in many areas Poor: has serious drawbacks and needs improvement before it can be used for its target application The 5-point Rating System used in Bazaar test drive laser printers 46 JANUARY 2003 47 Who needs a laser printer? The answer is quite simple: if your daily work routine involves printing a large number of sheets for office use and more importantly, you need the printouts real fast, then you need a laser printer. If you are not satisfied with your old inkjet printer and are thinking of upgrading to something better and faster, and something that still fits your budg- et, then you need a laser printer. To make the choice easier for you, we test 10 laser printers costing less than Rs 30,000. IMAGING: Solomon Lewis JANUARY 2003 blazers Laser 48 JANUARY 2003 W hen it comes to choosing a desktop-level laser printing solution, you must be ask- ing yourself some questions. Like, will it fit my budget? Will it be able to print fast enough? What will the image quali- ty be like? Well, these questions should not worry you much because laser printers have evolved from being bulky, unglamorous pieces of hardware lying in a remote corner in your office to aesthetically pleasing products that offer fast printing speeds and great image quality. Laser printers today are capable of crystal clear printouts at up to 100 pages per minuteideal for situations where you need bulk printing at a continuous flow. To make the choice easier for you, we test 10 laser printers costing less than Rs 30,000. Laser printers also have a number of advantages over other printing technologiesthey produce superior quality documents (both text and graphics, in monochrome as well as colour) and the cartridges are also longer lasting compared to their inkjet counterparts. Couple this with the fact that you can use a laser printer over a network, and you have a cost-effective printing solution for applications where many users use a shared resource to print from. Getting your hands on a printer of your choice should not be a big problem. Industry bigwigs such as HP, Samsung and Epson have kept the buyers interested with their impressive prod- uct line. What's more interesting is that together with overall quality, manufacturers have also started concentrating on small but nifty features such as the LCD display, the inclusion of the USB and the Parallel ports, the inclusion of a network port and paper tray holders with one-touch adjustments. If you are still not convinced about buying a laser printer, we test 10 such printers under the Rs 30,000 mark. Go ahead and make your choice. Digit Test Process We tested the laser printers on a test machine comprising of a Pentium 4 running at 2.8 GHz on an Intel D850EMV2 mother- board with 256 MB of RDRAM. We used a GeForce3 chipset-based graphics card and a Seagate ATA 4, 40 GB, 7,200-rpm hard disk which was installed on the primary IDE channel. The monitor used was the Samsung 75E and a generic CD-ROM was used for installing the drivers. The hard drive was clean formatted and Windows XP was installed. The printer drivers were loaded on to the OS after connecting the printer under test. Once the test on each printer was completed, its drivers were uninstalled. The onboard USB port was used for all printers that featured the USB interface. For the image quality test, the resolution was kept at a default 600 dpi. Test methodology The printers were tested on four primary parameters: features (20 per cent weightage), performance (40 per cent), value for money (20 per cent) and warranty and support (20 per cent). The weigh- tages allotted to each parameter was used to calculate the overall scores. Features: We looked for usability features such as the type and number of buttons/controls, LCD display provided and indica- tors if any. We also checked the build quality and noted the default paper capacity. Another important feature was the toner pricewe calculated the cost per page keeping in mind its esti- mated print life. Apart from this, we also considered the docu- mentation provided by the manufacturers such as quick start guides and the comprehensiveness of the manuals and other documentation. Performance: We evaluated the speed, quality and bulk print- ing efficiency. To test a printer's speed, we ran three tests. In the first test we print- ed an image file three times and noted the aver- age time taken. Next, to check the speed of text printouts, we recorded the time taken to print 50 pages of text in a Word document. Final- ly, we printed a Combi docu- ment in PDF for- mat and the time taken to print a single page was noted. We also performed a bulk-printing test where we printed 50 pages of text and checked if there were any paper jams or multiple sheet printouts. To test the quality of the printouts, we printed our test image file and a sectional analysis was done on the printout where we noted the level to which details were captured in pre-defined areas of the printout. This was done for both the image file as well as the Combi document. For checking the quality when printing text, we used a document containing text with varying font sizes. The sentence that we used contained all the alphabets from the English language in both upper and lower case. In this test we looked for any misaligned or blotchy text and awarded higher points to printouts that were accurate and readable. Warranty and support: Here we looked for the type of war- ranty provided, the number years for which it's valid, the num- ber of service centres present in the country and the number of cities in which they are present. We also checked if the warran- ty provided is comprehensive and whether a replacement is pro- vided during the warranty period. Looking for a workhorse of a printer capable of churning out pages fast, in bulk and cheaply? We test 10 laser printers that cost less than Rs 30,000Go ahead! Bring one home This greyscale image was used for testing the print quality of the laser printers. The image con- tains a good mix of fine details in different zones of the printable area. For instance, the area near the leaves gives a good indication of a printer's ablity to pick up details JANUARY 2003 49 How They Fared Laser printers are capable of churning out large volumes of print- outs with impressive quality. These workhorses have long been the mainstay of huge corporations because of their ability to deliver quality and speed, and now, with prices having gone down, they are a fairly viable option for use at home and in a small office. Features When it comes to features in laser printers, the equation is sim- ple: the greater the number of features it supports for easier paper handling and usage, the higher the points it gets. This includes a paper in and out tray, an LCD display, a USB port along with the mandatory parallel interface. It should also sup- port as high a resolution as possible within the price range and preferably, it should have visual indicators for paper empty, paper jam and so on, which would facilitate easier usage of the printer. Lets take a look at which of the printers did well in these areas. 1/2 page Ver. AD Bleed: The region of the page that is beyond the marked area within which printing usually occurs. Buffer: Memory within the printer that stores data from the com- puter until it can be printed. Buffers vary in size, with the average for laser printers being around 8 MB. Greater the buffer, the bet- ter the handling of large print jobs. CMYK: CMYK stands for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and blacK and is a shorter version of the industry standard term, 'four colour process printing'. By combining these colours, a printer is able to print all possible colours. Most full-colour prints that you see are created by this method (magazines, brochures, retail packaging, etc). Colour Balance: This term refers to the correct combination of Cyan, Magenta and Yellow required to exactly reproduce the colours of the original scene or object Dpi: Short for Dots Per Inch, this is a measure of the vertical reso- lution of the printer. Higher dpi values (1200 and above) produce sharper printouts, while lower dpi values (300 and below) pro- duce images that have noticeable dots in them. Duplexing: This refers to the ability of a printer to print on both sides of a paper. This is a very handy way of saving on paper. However, this option is neither cheap, nor common. An alterna- tive is to use manual duplexing. In this method, you print the odd or even-numbered pages first and once the job is complet- ed, you manually flip the pages over and the printer prints on the other side. Interface: This is the type of connection that the printer has with the computer. Older printers use the parallel interface, but this has become obsolete. The latest printers use either USB or FireWire connections as their interface. LASER: An acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emis- sion of Radiation, this is a process that produces a very intense light beam. In a laser printer, this beam is used to fuse the toner, or ink, onto the paper. PostScript: This is a computer language or protocol used for communication between the computer and the printer. The com- puter sends information about the pages to be printed by the printer in PostScript format. Jargon Buster test drive laser printers 50 JANUARY 2003 Resolution: While buying a printer you should first define your needs. If you need a device for printing documents at the maximum possible quality, you should go in for a printer that supports the maximum resolution (1200 dpi and above). A 1200 dpi printer will give you the capability to print high-quality monochrome images or complex documents that include many details. The only downside is that these high-resolu- tion printers are anywhere between 25 per cent and 60 per cent more expensive than their 600 dpi counterparts. You can opt for a printer with a lower resolution of say, 300 dpi, if you don't intend to print documents at extremely high quality and if you need a cost-effective solution. Out of the 10 printers that we received, six supported a res- olution of 1200 dpi, the remaining ones supported a resolution of 600 dpi. The six high- resolution printers were Canon LBP 1120, Epson EPL-5900L, HP Laserjet 1200, Lexmark E322, Samsung ML-1450 and Wipro Laser 1540. Interface: Most of the printers connect to the PC through the popular parallel interface. But now manufacturers have also start- ed to produce printers with the USB interface and some even pro- vide a USB and parallel interface in combination. If you own an older machine that does not feature a USB interface, a printer which has only a parallel interface will suffice, but if you own a newer computer that features a USB port as well as parallel ports, a USB printer is preferable. All the printers in the comparison sport- ed a USB port, but the HP Laser 1000 used a USB-to-parallel port interface and, integrating the old with the new, the HP Laserjet 1200 featured the USB 2.0 interface in addition to a parallel port. Paper capacity: One must also consider the paper capacity of the paper-in tray. The Samsung ML-1450 offered a mammoth paper capacity of 550 sheets. This printer does not support the option for manual feed, but that is hardly of any concern while buying laser printers. This one is a great option if your print jobs are large in quantity, where you would not want to be bothered with having to fill the paper tray too often. The next highest tray capacity in this comparison was of 250 sheets. The printers that offered this included the Canon LBP 1210, the HP Laserjet 1200, the Laserjet 1000, and the Wipro Laser 1540. The printer that supported the lowest tray capacity was the Canon LBP 1120 with support for 125 sheets however, this was also among the lowest priced printers in this roundup. Before a laser printer can start printing, it needs to have all the infor- mation about a page in its memory. Where information about the image to be printed is communicated to it via a page description language (PDL), the printer's internal processor first converts the instructions into a bitmap, which is stored in the printer's memory, to be later reproduced on paper. At the heart of the printer is a small rotating drumthe organic photo-conducting cartridge (OPC)with a coating that allows it to hold an electrostatic charge. First the drum is given a positive charge and then a laser beam scans across the surface of the drum, selectively imparting points of negative charge onto the drum's sur- face that represents the output imageevery point on the drum corresponds to a point on the sheet of paper. In the meantime, the paper is passed through an electrically charged wire that deposits a negative charge onto it. The laser beam is then turned on and off as it scans the rotating drum, using a complex arrangement of spin- ning mirrors and lenses. The mirror drum spins incredibly fast and is synchronised with this on/off switching of the laser. A typical laser printer will perform millions of switches every second. Inside the printer, the drum rotates to build one horizontal line at a timethe smaller the rotation, the higher the resolution down the page (the step rotation on a modern laser printer is typically 1/600th of an inch, giving a 600 dpi vertical resolution rating and in some of the latest printers, this resolution even goes up to 1440 dpi. Similarly, the faster the laser beam is switched on and off, the higher the reso- lution across the page. As the drum rotates to present the next area for laser treatment, the written on area moves into the laser toner. Toner used for printing mono is very fine black powder, positive- ly charged so that it is attracted to the points of negative charge on the drum surface. In colour printing, it could be either a CMYK or RGB used individually or in a combination. Thus, after a full rotation, the drum's surface contains the whole of the required black image for mono printing or any varied settings for colour. A sheet of paper now comes into contact with the drum, fed in by a set of rubber rollers. The charge on the paper is stronger than the negative charge of the electrostatic image, so the paper mag- netically attracts the toner powder. As it completes its rotation, it lifts the toner from the drum, thereby transferring the image to the paper. Positively charged areas of the drum don't attract toner and result in white areas on the paper. Toner is specially designed to melt very quickly and a fusing system now applies heat and pressure to the imaged paper in order to stick the toner permanently. The drum is then cleaned of any remnants of toner either by mechani- cally scraping the drum or by covering the drum with an even elec- trical charge so the laser can write on it again. For managing the printer for a longer run, the felt pad which cleans the drum and the corona wire, needs to be changed regularly. Under the Bonnet With its high resolution of 1200 dpi, the Samsung ML-1450 is a good choice for crisp and clear printouts JANUARY 2003 51 Toner price: Cost is always a primary consideration when buy- ing any product. A printer's cost effectiveness depends on the cost of the product plus the cost of printing a page. The lower the cost per page, the better. To check this, we calculated the price of the toner in relation with the specified life of the toner. Here the HP printers come out tops. Printing on any one of these printers, be it the HP Laserjet 1000 or the Laserjet 1200, will cost you just 88 paise per page. If running cost is of concern, these printers would keep your expenditure to a minimum. The Epson EPL- 5900L also provides good value for money, where printing a document will cost you 93 paise. This value is very close to that of the Wipro Laser 1540, which delivered printing costs of 95 paise per page. The printer that offered the lowest value as far as toner price is considered was the Lexmark E322. Here print- ing a document would cost you Rs 1.74. Accessories: An important feature that most manufacturers miss is the inclusion of an interface cable (either USB or parallel). Hunt- ing for an interface cable after purchasing the printer can be a very time consuming and unwelcoming task. Here the Canon LBP 1210, Epson EPL-5900L, the Lexmark E210 and E322 and the Wipro 1540 scored over the others by providing the respective interface cables. Documentation: It always helps if a manufacturer provides a detailed user manual that is lucid and simple to understand. This is especially applicable to the quick setup guideby referring to this quick start guide, a user can easily get the printer up and run- ning in the least possible time. The printers in the comparison that did not provide a quick start guide were the Canon LBP 1120, the HP Laserjet 1000 and 1200 and the Lexmark E322. All the other printers included a quick start guide. Build quality Here we noted the build quality of each printer in specific areas such as the sturdiness of the paper feed tray, paper-out tray and toner flapall three areas have moveable parts and are handled the most. All the printers featured good build quality in these areas. The only exception was the Wipro Laser 1540though it has a good build quality, we found the paper-in tray to be some- what flimsy. Performance In our performance tests we checked the printers for speed and quality. To judge the speed of the printers, we printed different file types such as image, text and combinational documents including text and graphics. Speed: In the speed tests, we first printed a TIFF image docu- ment and noted the time taken. In this test, the Sam- sung ML-1210 came out tops, logging just 26.73 1/2 page Ver. AD The Epson EPL-5900L provides good value for money due to low running costs 52 JANUARY 2003 Features LCD display (Y/N) Indicator lights Resolution (dpi) Interface Input buffer (MB) Physical dimensions (LxWxH) cm Paper feed tray Paper capacity Tray Manual Toner price (Rs) Weight (kg) Package contents Accessories Bundled software Documentation Manual Quick Start guide Build quality (scale of 5) Paper-in tray Paper-out tray Toner flap Performance Printing speed Image (seconds) Word (seconds) Combi document (seconds) Printing quality Image (scale of 5) Point size (scale of 5) Combi document (scale of 5) Bulk printing test Paper jam Multiple sheet pickups Warranty & Support Type of warranty Number of years Number of authorised service centres Number of cities covered Overall Score Features (20%) Performance (40%) Warranty and support (20%) Value for money (20%) Overall product rating Overall grade Vendor name Phone E-mail Price (in Rupees) Canon LBP 1120 N Power 1200 USB 512 kb 36.2x30.7x37.2 2 125 1 3,650 6 Power cord Driver CD 4 3.5 3.5 42 355 25.65 3.5 4 3 NA 2 80 51 9.2 25.53 9.00 15.85 59.58 B+ Canon India Ltd 011-680 6572 brijesh@canon.co.in 14,605 Canon LBP 1210 N Power 600 USB, Parallel 2 38.8x52.4x25.4 1 250 10 3,650 7.8 Power cord, interface cables Driver CD 4 3.5 3.5 38.15 206 16.97 3.5 4 3.5 NA 2 80 51 12.2 30.25 9.00 13.35 64.80 A Canon India Ltd 011-680 6572 brijesh@canon.co.in 21,192 EPSON EPL-5900L N Power 1200 USB, Parallel 2 39.9x26.3x25.6 1 150 1 5,600 7.9 Power cord, printer cord Driver CD 4 2.5 3.5 36.52 260.59 28.6 3 4 3 On site 1 144 60 12 26.09 8.00 13.37 59.46 B+ Epson India Pvt Ltd 080-5321266 achaiah@ eid.epson.co.in 19,000 HP Laserjet 1000 N Power, Paper jam 600 USB to Parallel 1 41.4x48.5x25.4 1 250 0 3,250 NA Power cord, USB to parallel cord Driver CD 3.5 4 3 29.93 301.5 20.95 2.5 3 3 NA 1 239 80 8.1 23.71 11.00 13.68 56.49 B+ Hewlett-Packard India Ltd 011- 6826000 tarunjeet_sarao@ hp.com 15,500 HP Laserjet 1200 N Power, Paper jam 1200 USB 2.0, Parallel 8 48.8x25.4x41.4 1 250 0 3,250 8.3 Power cord 2 Driver CD 4 3.5 3.5 46.77 220.33 28.57 3.5 4 3 NA 1 239 80 12.2 26.33 11.00 12.53 62.06 A- Hewlett-Packard India Ltd 011- 6826000 tarunjeet_sarao@ hp.com 20,500 Lexmark E210 N Paper out, Error, Ready 600 USB, Parallel 4 32.8x35.6x23.1 2 150 1 4,250 6.5 Power, USB, interface cable Driver CD 3.5 3.5 3 41.77 286 31.48 3.5 3.5 3.5 RTB 1 27 27 11 25.63 5.00 15.26 56.89 B+ Lexmark International (India) Pvt Ltd 044-824 2090 vmehta@lexmark.com 16,000 LASER PRINTERS CATEGORY Disclaimer: All prices are subject to variation NA = Not available RTB = Return to base 53 JANUARY 2003 1/2 page Ver. AD Lexmark E322 N Ready, Toner low, Load paper, Paper jam, Error, Press button 1200 USB 8 38.1x36x22 2 150 1 5,223 9 Power cord, USB cord Driver CD 3.5 4 3.5 148.41 182.72 300.67 3.5 4 3 RTB 1 27 27 11.2 22.76 5.00 7.34 46.30 C+ Lexmark International (India) Pvt Ltd 044-824 2090 vmehta@lexmark.com 30,831 Samsung ML-1210 N Error, Paper, Data 600 USB, Parallel 8 32.9x35.2x22.9 2 150 1 2,650 6.2 Power cord Driver CD 3.5 4 4 26.73 280 47.85 3 4 3 On site 1 138 103 11.3 26.48 10.00 17.37 65.15 A Samsung Electronics India Information & Telecommunication Ltd NA NA 14,500 Samsung ML-1450 N Error, Manual, Paper, Data 1200 USB, Parallel 12 36.2x40.9x29.5 2 550 0 6,200 12.4 Power cord Driver CD 3 4 3.5 45.61 248 33.14 3.5 3.5 3.5 On site 1 138 103 15.1 25.05 10.00 12.63 62.78 A- Samsung Electronics India Information & Telecommunication Ltd NA NA 21,200 Wipro Laser 1540 N Ready, Alarm, Data 1200 USB, Parallel 2 36.0x37.0x23.5 1 250 1 3,800 9.2 Power cord, interface cables Driver CD 2.5 3.5 3 140 202 29.58 3.5 3.5 3.5 Carry in 1 170 100 12.8 24.32 10.00 18.00 65.12 A Wipro Peripherals 022- 26397418 helpdesk.mumbai@ wepindia.com 13,750 test drive laser printers 54 JANUARY 2003 seconds to print the image file ideal for you if your daily work revolves around printing a large number of image-heavy d o c u m e n t s . Another worthy mention here is the HP Laserjet 1000, which logged an impressive time of 29.93 seconds. The Lex- mark E322 struggled in this test, posting a below-average score of 148.41 seconds (2 minutes, 28 seconds). The Wipro Laser 1540 was also sluggish, taking 140 seconds (2 minutes, 20 seconds) to complete the test. Our next speed test involved printing a text document with approximately 30 per cent text coverage. The Lexmark E322 did well here, firing out 50 pages in just a little above 3 min- utes (182.72 seconds). Following closely was the Wipro Laser 1540 which took approximately 20 seconds more to get the job done (202 seconds) and the Canon LBP 1210 (206 seconds). The slowest printer in this test was the Canon LBP 1120it clocked 355 seconds (5 min- utes, 55 seconds) to print the 50 pages. Look else- where if your daily work involves print- ing documents in huge numbers. Our next test was the Combi document test. Here we recorded the time taken to print one page of a PDF document consisting of text and graphics. The Lex- mark E322, the fastest in the previous test, was ironically the slowest performer here, taking 300.67 seconds (5 minutes) to print the document. The one printer that performed really well in this test was the Canon LBP 1210. This printer was able to print the Combi document in a speedy 16.97 secondsif your print jobs generally involve large quantities of text-heavy documents, this printer fits the bill very well. Quality: In this test we printed a TIFF image file at 600 dpi and checked the image for clar- ity in reproducing details in the photograph. The difference in image quality was not as stark as it would have been if they were colour printers. However, some printers still managed to stand out here with discernible variations in image quality. In terms of overall image quality and clarity, most of the printers did quite well. Printers like the Canon LBP 1210 and the HP Laserjet 1200 performed well in repro- ducing clarity in monochrome images as well as textthere was no smudging or loss of contrast in the printed page. The only Look for The models Price range Monochrome Imaging General-purpose document printing Performance Canon LBP 1210 Rs 21,000 to Rs 22,000 A printer that exhibits fast printing speed and has a large-capacity paper feed tray. A printer with a resolution of at least 600 dpi should be sufficient for these applications Decision Maker A printer that features sharp printing quality for images, preferably one with a resolution of 600 dpi or more and a large print buffer Price-conscious Wipro Laser 1540, HP Laser- jet 1000 Rs 13,000 to Rs 15,500 Performance HP Laserjet 1200, Samsung ML- 1450 Rs 20,500 to Rs 21,500 Price-conscious Wipro Laser 1540, Lexmark E210 Rs 13,000 to Rs 16,000 The Lexmark E322 is ideal for print- ing documents that contain text and images such as a Web page Select the proper location to place your laser printer. A properly ventilated area is recommended. Select a place where temperature and humidity do not change frequently. Try to avoid areas with heavy dust buildup. Position the printer on a sturdy and level surface. Allow sufficient space around the printer for air flow. While cleaning your printer, always use a lightly dampened cloth to clean the outside of the printer. To clean the inside use a dry, lint- free cloth. This will ensure that no liquid enters the inner parts of the printer. Most manufacturers provide useful cleaning information on their manualsalways refer to them. Use papers manufactured specifically for your printer and also select the correct paper type for your print job. Keep your printer up-to-date by downloading the latest drivers and patches from the manufacturer's Web site. This helps because most manufacturers provide driver updates for their units and these include patches that add fonts or rectify incompati- bilities. If debris is the primary cause of failures, toner is the primary cause of debris. All toner cartridges release a small amount of toner into the machine. This is why it's important to clean the machine when you change the cartridge. It is also important that the density con- trol of the machine be properly set to prevent the machine from pulling too much toner into itself. We all like dark prints, but if your print settings are too dark, it could be detrimental to the life of the cartridge in the long run. Don't pile documents or miscellaneous objects on top of your printer, as they could cause damage. Your printer could overheat and this could result in malfunctioning and even a reduction in the printer's life. 7 Ways to Care for your Printer 55 JANUARY 2003 one that performed under par in this test was the HP Laserjet 1000the image produced by this printer was of very low quality and looked washed out even when using the best quality mode. In our next test, that is, the point size test, we printed a doc- ument containing varying font sizes and checked for the quali- ty. All the printers performed well in this test. Bulk printing test: We performed this test to check the effi- ciency of the printers when printing in large numbers. We printed 50 pages of text and checked if there were any paper jams or multiple sheet printouts. Most of the printers passed this test without errors. These included the Canon LBP 1210, Epson EPL-5900L, HP Laserjet 1200, Lexmark E210 and E322, Samsung ML-1210 and Wipro Laser 1540. But there were some printers that didn't perform well in this test. These included the HP Laserjet 1000 and the Canon LBP 1120. We experienced paper jams with the HP printer and the Canon LBP 1120 gave trouble with its multiple sheet pickups even when the papers were shuffled to prevent them from sticking. Warranty and support Warranty and support becomes an important consideration when buying a peripheral device. Most manufacturers provide a one-year warranty and the autho- rised service centres are usu- ally spread across the country. The important thing is that the service centres should be spread across the coun- try and not be con- centrated in a single area. In this comparison, Wipro had the maximum reach with 170 service cen- tres across 100 cities. HP too has a wide reach with 239 service centres across 80 cities. Canon provides the maximum warranty period at two years. 1/2 page Ver. AD With an unmatched 239 service centres, HP printers are very cus- tomer friendly Warranty type: A carry-in warranty is definitely a big pain as far as bulky items such as laser printers are concerned. The warranty should be comprehensive and on-site. Warranty period: The greater the warranty period, the better. It indicates that the manufacturer has greater faith in the product. Suitability: Faster and higher quality printers are a lot costlier than slower ones. If you're in no hurry to take your printouts, or don't need excellent quality, set your sights a little lower. You'll end up saving big bucks that way. After-sales service: With expensive items such as laser printers, it's a real bother to watch them crash or otherwise malfunction. Adding lousy customer service to that is like rubbing salt into a wound. Ask people who have already bought printers about their experiences with the customer-support staff. It might take some effort on your part, but is any day better than learning the hard way. Buying Smart test drive laser printers 56 JANUARY 2003 What it all Leads to Out of the 10 printers that we tested, some offered good features such as high resolution support, while others offered good docu- mentation. Most printers aimed at improving the printing expe- rience by offering good looks and sporting LED indicators. We also noted that nowadays manufacturers provide USB and paral- lel interfaces, which makes it convenient to connect the printer. The printers have also improved on build quality and ease of use. The printers have improved to a great extent in performance too. The Canon LBP 1210 bagged the Best Performance Awardit exhibited superior print quality and at good speeds. In fact, it performed better in the speed tests than even some print- ers that supported higher resolutions. The pure text and image prints were also impressive, where it logged a time of 38.15 sec- onds and 206 seconds (3 minutes, 26 seconds), respectively. This printer was also quite amazing when it came to paper handling, performing reliably in the bulk printing test. This printer also offers good features and sports good solid looks. The front panel has a simple interface design, while the back panel features the usual USB and parallel interface. One of the important criteria of any printer is the maximum paper capacity it can handle, and this printer is provided with a 250-sheet paper tray and there is also provision for manual paper loading. To save on space, the paper-in tray can be detached if not in use. The printer package included a power cord, interface cables, man- uals and the driver CD and also a quick start guide. The build quality was also very impressivethe trays don't feel tacky and sport a solid construction. Our Best Value Award goes to the Wipro Laser 1540. This printer is for those who want a decently fast printer at an afford- able price. The printer design is simple. There are visu- al indicators on the front for Ready, Alarm and Data Flow conditions. The printer supports a max- imum resolution of 1200 dpi and sports the USB and parallel interfaces. The paper-in tray can hold a maximum of 250 sheets of paper and also sup- ports a manual paper feed option. The printer gave some acceptable results in our print quality tests. When printing text, it was able to print even small-sized text quite accurately. All through our tests, there were no paper jams or multiple sheet pickups. All in all, this printer is a good buy for its price and this makes it our best value winner. YATISH SUVARNA and AHMED SHAIKH The 1200 dpi Wipro Laser 1540 offers a decent printing speed at an affordable price With an excellent printing speed, the Canon LBP 1210 is a definite buy if price is not a consideration 1/2 page Ver. Ad test drive input devices 57 JANUARY 2003 The Mouse Trap The two-button scroll mouse is still the best seller today. Optical mice from ven- dors such as Mercury and The Best can be bought for anywhere between Rs 700 and Rs 1,000. While they are more affordable, mass acceptance is still another price cut away, especially when a normal ball mouse can be had for less than Rs 400. The pro- fessional user would, of course, like the reduced hassle and the greater accuracy afford- ed by the optical devices. We test 10 mice that cover both the ball and the optical vari- ety, and come with and without cords. Digit Test Process We tested the mice on a system with a Pentium 4 2.2 GHz processor, an MSI MAX2BLR motherboard, 256 MB DDRRAM and a 40 GB Seagate Barracuda drive running Windows XP Professional. Four primary parameters were marked: features, ergonomics, build quali- ty and value for money. Each parameter was allotted a 25 per cent weightage. The weigh- tages allotted to each parameter was used to calculate the overall scores. Features: The primary feature tested was the accuracy a mouse provided in gaming and image editing. the devices were rated on a scale of five. Next, we noted the extra pro- grammable buttons that increase productivity. A mouse that supported the USB inter- face obviously scored more than one designed for the PS/2 port. Similarly, an optical mouse was rated higher than a ball mouse. As a final point of comparison, the length of the cable was also consideredthe longer the tail, the more the mouse scored. Ergonomics: A mouse was rated on a scale of five based on the degree of symmetry that it afforded to a userboth right and left handed. Next on the agenda was the grip, both on a surface and with the palm. A mouse that presented better traction and palm grip scored higher on a scale of five. To judge the ease of use, we rated each mouse on the placement of buttons and design aspects that allowed them to sit snugly within the palm. Build quality: To test the build quality we dropped the mouse from a height of 6 feet. We then noticed any physical damage, following which the mouse was re-attached to the PC to ensure a working condition. Also tested was the quality and stability of the buttons that form the pointing device. P R O D U C T S FRONTECH JIL-7001 FRONTECH JU-830 IBALL THE KING LOGITECH CORDLESS MOUSEMAN OPTICAL LOGITECH MOUSEMAN DUAL OPTICAL MERCURY OPTICAL SCROLL MOUSE MICROSOFT TRACKBALL OPTICAL MICROSOFT WIRELESS INTELLIMOUSE EXPLORER ODYSSEY WEB SCROLL MOUSE SAMSUNG SMP 2100WX Here are 10 entrants in the mice race. May the best mouse win! Frontech JIL-7001 Features: PS/2 interface, no extra buttons Price: Rs 200 Contact: Jupiter Infosys India Ltd Phone: 022-22001211 E-mail: frontech@bom5.vsnl.net.in Web site: www.frontech.com The JIL-7001 from Frontech combines a metallic dark blue with silver with stunning effects. This makes the device stand out from the crowd of the regular two-button scroll mice. This Plug and Play mouse does not require any drivers to get it up and run- ning. A PS/2 connectivity, however, takes away from hot plugging the device. Gamers used to the two-button mouse will find this mouse suitable to their need as there is no design differ- ence.This mouse is available for just Rs 200, hence making it the cheapest of the lot and given its performance in different applica- tions, this is a good buy. Frontech JIL-7001 Features Build quality Ergonomics Value for money OVERALL B+ The JU-830 is a two-button scroll mouse, with two extra buttons on the sides. Upon installation of the supplied drives, these buttons can be programmed to certain actions that include simu- lating mouse actions such as a double-click, zooming in on Web pages, or mapping keyboard keys like [F1], [Page Up], etc. The extra buttons take a little getting used to, especially if you've assigned them functions. Often, these buttons get pressed while moving the mouse around. The device uses a PS/2 interface to connect to the computer, and has a resolution of 400 dpi, both of which are very standard features. The mouse on the whole is very ordinary, and at Rs 350, it does not pretend otherwise. Features: USB interface, two extra buttons Price: Rs 350 Contact: Jupiter Infosys India Ltd Phone: 022-22001211 E-mail: frontech@bom5.vsnl.net.in Web site: www.frontech.com Frontech JU-830 Frontech JU-830 Features Build quality Ergonomics Value for money OVERALL A- test drive input devices 58 JANUARY 2003 The iball, is a functional combination of a trackball and a traditional three-button scroll mouse. The trackball is extremely convenient for scrolling, even for those used to the ubiquitous three-button mouse. There are four directions for horizontal and ver- tical scrolling and the mouse fits snuggly into your palm. The optical functionality increases its life- time by eliminating any internal moving parts. Clicking is very convenient and the cursor movement at default setting was smooth. The cable wire is short enough to prevent unnecessary loops, while long enough to reach the cabinet placed below the table. With a robust design and the advantages of the centre but- ton (there are some 30 programmable options), the iball is an excellent buy for the multi-tasking professional who can use this feature to cut down on the time taken to click the glut of menus that plague Windows. At Rs 950 it also offers a good upgrade path for those looking to move on from the traditional scroll mouse. iball The King Features Build quality Ergonomics Value for money OVERALL A- Those looking for the trinity of designer looks, the precision of an optical device and the freedom afforded by the absence of cords should look no further than the Logitech Cordless Mouse- Man Optical. The mouse fits the palm as if it were a part of it. A tri-colour body and a smooth finished contour imparts a cool look to the device. The only problem with this mouse is the right and left-click button: these buttons are small compared to normal mice and are not easily accessible. The additional key provided can be customised for any function using the Logitech Mouse- Ware utility provided on the CD. The mouse is available for Rs 4,990, keeping it out of the reach of most buyers. If you are a professional and are looking for accuracy in applications such as Photoshop and 3dsmax, this mouse is sure to impress you. Features: Optical mouse, PS/2 interface, no extra buttons Price: Rs 950 Contact: The Best Phone: 022-26935135 E-mail: lata@bestitworld.com Features: Optical cordless mouse, USB interface, no extra buttons, two AAA batteries Price: Rs 4,990 Contact: Rashi Peripherals Phone: 022-28260258 E-mail: ho@rptechindia.com Web site: www.logitech.com Logitech MouseMan Dual Optical iball The King Features : Dual-optical cordless mouse, USB interface, one extra button Price: Rs 4,000 Contact: Rashi Peripherals Phone: 022-28260258 E-mail: ho@rptechindia.com Web site: www.logitech.com Logitech Cordless MouseMan Optical MouseMan Optical Features Build quality Ergonomics Value for money OVERALL B+ The Dual Optical Mouse from Logitech uses optical sensing technology for defining the pointer movement on the screen. It features a top-notch finish with a two-tone colour combination that gives it an elegant look. The design of the device is, however, biased in favour of a right-handed user. The device fits snugly within the palm and is comfortable to use, thanks to its shape. A rubberised side grip near the thumb pro- vides excellent lateral hold to grasp the mouse. The buttons are well laid and comfortable to use, with a well-balanced scroll wheel that provides a good tactile feel. A fourth button placed near the thumb is a good programmable stand-in. What sets the device apart from others is the use of two 800-dpi optical sen- sors for better accuracy and handling. The mouse showed good directional stability and accurate pin point precision in applications such as Photo- shop and gaming. The Optical Scroll Mouse from Mercury is a low-end optical solution for those who wish to evolve from the ball- mouse. With a price tag of Rs 550, this offering puts optical solutions well within the reach of almost anyone. The mouse has a striking twin grey and dark blue colour combination making it stand out against the beige of your desktop PC. Another big advantage of the Optical Scroll is the USB connection which makes it easy to plug in the point- ing device and get it up and running. Since there are older sys- tems around which do not have the requisite port, a USB to PS/2 converter would have helped. As far as design is con- cerned, this device is pretty much your plain vanilla two-but- ton scroll mouse, the only addition being that the scroll button glows red when used. If you are looking for an inexpen- sive optical mouse then noth- ing can beat the Mercury Opti- cal Scroll Mouse. Features: Optical mouse, USB interface, two extra buttons Price: Rs 550 Contact: Kobian India Ltd Phone: 080-5566626 E-mail: rohit@kobian.com Web site: www.kobian.com Mercury Optical Scroll Mouse Mercury Optical Scroll Features Build quality Ergonomics Value for money OVERALL A- Logitech Dual Optical Features Build quality Ergonomics Value for money OVERALL B JANUARY 2003 Samsung is trying to break the price barrier in the mouse market with the introduction of the SMP 2100WX, a standard two-button scroll mouse, available for the PS/2 interface. It performs just as expected for a price of Rs 260. Being a Plug and Play device, all versions of Windows can immediately detect and con- figure the mouse as well as the associated scroll wheel. Since it has only two buttons, there's noth- ing programmable here. Everything sets up instantly. As far as the feel of the SMP2100WX is concerned, the wheel is slightly unbalanced and tends to jerk up and down. Discouragingly, the rest of the mouse feels just as unstable and at high speeds, it tends to move towards the left and the bot- tom. This unbalance makes it difficult to use the SMP2100WX for fast-paced games such as Quake III Arena. If you intend to use it for everyday office applications and play games once in a while, then this mouse just about suits your needsespecially if you're looking to shell out the mini- mum possible cash. The first thing that strikes you about the Odysey Web Scroll mouse is its transparent goblin green body, complete with a matching transparent green cable. The device is a standard three- button scroll mouse, designed for both right and left-handed users. Featuring a PS/2 interface, the Web Scroller is a little too large for comfort for those with small hands. Additionally, the pointed tip of the device digs into the bottom of the palm, mak- ing it uncomfortable during long hours. The buttons, though large, seem tacky and do not have a comfortingly snug feel about them. The scroll wheel also fails to deliver accuracy and tends to scroll a little more or less than is desired. Apart from this, the device is smooth and offers decent precision. The package includes IWare Plus for Windows 95/98/NT on a floppy disk. With a price tag of Rs 200, the device is suitable for basic, non-frequent home usage where cost is a consideration. Odyssey Web Scroll Mouse Features: PS/2 interface, no extra buttons Price: Rs 293 Contact: Compuage Infocom Ltd Phone: 022-23842200 E-mail: info@compuageindia.com Web site: www.compuageindia.com Samsung SMP2100WX Features Build quality Ergonomics Value for money OVERALL B+ Samsung SMP2100WX Features: PS/2 interface, no extra buttons Price: Rs 260 Contact: Samsung Asia Pte Ltd Phone: 022-22814886 Trackball devices have always generated a negative response from first time users, since they require patience and some getting used to. The trackball device is designed for comfort and to reduce the possibility of acquiring Repetitive Strain Injury (RSI). Unlike finger-driven trackballs, which require the thumb to click and hold the point- er device's buttons, the Optical's design allows you to use your forefinger and the middle finger to operate the buttons and the scroll-wheel, thus mimicking the way we use a mouse. Although the device looks daunting, it does not take up too much desk space. The installation is hassle-free and the software included, Intel- limouse 4.1, lets you configure the extra buttons. Its Optical nature offers a highly accurate, slip-free method of pointing, even when the ball is rolled rapidly. It is a USB device but comes with a PS2 adapter. Exclusively designed for right-handers, the Optical leaves lefties completely at a loss. Trackball Optical Features Build quality Ergonomics Value for money OVERALL B- Microsoft TrackBall Optical The Intellimouse fits perfectly within the palm, making long working hours easy on the hand. The black and metallic grey combination makes it an attractive piece. The buttons are easy to click with the two extra buttons just under the thumb for faster access. The mouse is good for both gaming as well as regular office sessions. The accuracy afforded by the optics ease both, railing opponents in Quake III Arena and making pixel-precise selections in Adobe Photoshop. The scroll button, which doubles as the middle button, is very smooth and noiseless. The pack came with two AA batteries, a receiver, a software CD and a man- ual. The mouse gets detected without a hassle or a need to pro- vide drivers. This optical mouse is a worthy upgrade from the previous corded opti- cal or the cordless infrared mouse. IntelliMouse Explorer Features Build quality Ergonomics Value for money OVERALL A- Features: Optical mouse, USB interface, two extra buttons, two AA batteries Price: Rs 3,380 Contact: Microsoft Corporation India Pvt Ltd Phone: 011-26292640 E-mail: connect@microsoft.com Web site: www.microsoft.com Microsoft Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer Odyssey Web Scroll Features Build quality Ergonomics Value for money OVERALL B Features: Optical track ball, USB interface, two extra buttons Price: Rs 1,690 Contact: Microsoft Corporation India Pvt Ltd Phone: 011-26292640 E-mail: connect@microsoft.com Web site: www.microsoft.com 59 test drive input devices 60 JANUARY 2003 All the Right Keys The days of the 101-key keyboard are long gone, with newer multimedia keyboards sporting as many as 22 hotkeys apart from aesthetic and ergonomic designs. The price of these keyboards is now less than Rs 600, whereas a regular keyboard can be purchased for as less as Rs 300. We tested six keyboards from Microsoft, Odyssey, Logitech and Samsung. Digit Test Process We tested the keyboard on a system with a Pentium 4 2.2 GHz processor, an MSI MAX2BLR motherboard, 256 MB DDRRAM and a 40 GB Seagate Barracuda drive. The OS used was Windows XP Professional. The keyboards were tested on four primary parameters: Features, Ergonomics, Build quality and Value for money. Each parameter was allotted a 25 per cent weightage. The weightages allotted to each parameter was used to calculate the overall scores. Features: The interface of the keyboard was the first criterion of testing. A USB keyboard scored higher than a PS/2 one. Next up was the number of hotkeys on the keyboard. The greater this number, the higher it scored. Finally, some keyboards come with inte- grated trackballs and other mouse controlssuch devices scored higher over those that did not feature these. Ergonomics: Comfort is paramount when judging a keyboard. The ergonomics that a keyboard offered was evaluated on the basis of several factorsthe comfort it provided while typing, the layout of the keys on the device, the tactile feedback while typing and the presence or absence of a palm rest were the factors considered. Build quality: A keyboard should be built to last, since the device is in constant touch with its user and use and abuse are part of its job description. Keyboards were thrown against each other on the basis of sturdiness and the stability of the buttons and of the unit as a whole. P R O D U C T S LOGITECH NEWTOUCH MULTIMEDIA KEYBOARD MICROSOFT MULTIMEDIA KEYBOARD ODYSSEY OD2001 IR ODYSSEY OD2001 M1 SAMSUNG MULTIMEDIA KEYBOARD SEM-M2A SAMSUNG PC KEYBOARD Keyboards are the most used components of your PC. We tested six of them to find which one deserves your touch The New iTouch Multimedia Keyboard from Logitech is easy on the eyes and offers a great typing experience. It has a total of 12 hotkeys that allow faster Web surfing and greater efficien- cy when working with applications. The keys are soft on the fin- gers and a delight to work with, complete with silent keystrokes and an excellent build quality. Accompanying the keyboard is a driver CD to configure the shortcut keys and a Quick Start Guide. The keyboard is priced at Rs 875, which brings it under the budg- et of most users and also makes it a very good option for both office and home users. Logitech NewTouch Multimedia Keyboard Features: 12 hotkeys, PS/2 interface, package includes a palm rest Price: Rs 875 Contact: Rashi Peripherals Phone: 022-28260258 E-mail: ho@rptechindia.com Web site: www.logitech.com Testing Microsoft's MultiMedia keyboard was a sheer delight. It has a very intelligent placement of the keys and features a new design with rounded contours and a two-tone finish with a blue body and white keys. The multimedia keys are locat- ed at the top, along with keys for accessing your e-mail, an instant messenger, the Media Play- er, the My Documents folder, etc. Apart from these, an F-lock key allows the user alternate uses for the function keys such as open a new Word document, send mail, etc. The keyboard pegs are well designed and sturdy enough to take the load of your palm. The provided software works seamlessly and hassle-free. With a price tag of Rs 1,606, this keyboard from Microsoft is one of the best around. Microsoft Multimedia Features Build quality Ergonomics Value for money OVERALL B+ Features: 16 hotkeys, PS/2 interface, package includes a palm rest Price: Rs 1,606 Contact: Microsoft Corporation India Pvt Ltd Phone: 011-26292640 E-mail: connect@microsoft.com Web site: www.microsoft.com Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard Logitech Newtouch Features Build quality Ergonomics Value for money OVERALL B+ 61 JANUARY 2003 Odyssey OD2001 IR The Odyssey OD2001 IR is a sleek, sophisticated keyboard with a black body and keys set in a tasteful dark grey. Mouse con- trol is emulated via a track pad, provided at the upper right cor- ner, with buttons simulating the left and right buttons. This infrared unit works at a distance of approximately 5 metres from the receiver (although the manual claims a safe distance of 2 metres). With a layout that emulates a laptop's keyboard (its width is less compared to normal keyboards), the Odyssey is a compact package that fits snugly on the lap of the typist. The key- board weighs less than a kilo, while the base unit weighs less than 250 grams, making it quite easy to lug around. There are 15 spe- cial function keysfour for Internet functions, three for volume control, five for audio control, one key for power, another for standby and the last one for the alarm. You just need to plug the PS/2 connectors for the mouse and keyboard in the sockets and its ready. No driver installation is required even for the 15 special keys. How- ever, the price tag of Rs 2,340 takes some thinking. Features: Infra-red communication, range of 2 meters, 15 hotkeys, on-board track pad, PS/2 interface, package includes a palm rest Price: Rs 2,340 Contact: Compuage Infocom Ltd Phone: 022-23842200 E-mail: info@compuageindia.com Web site: www.compuageindia.com The Odyssey OD 2001 M1 is an ideal solution for those looking to buy a keyboard for multimedia applications, without burning a hole in the pocket. This keyboard is easy on the eye with a white and grey colour combination. The multimedia keys are neatly arranged on top and it has all the usual features, viz, Play/Pause, Volume-Up, Vol- ume-Down and Mute for music lovers; and shortcut keys for Web browser, such as Search and Favorites and Power, Sleep & Wake. The Odyssey OD2001 M1 is heavier than other keyboards, giving it desk stability, while the palm rest bundled affords good ergonomics. Installation is simple plug the keyboard into a PS/2 connector and you are all setno driver hassles, no spe- cial software needed for the multimedia keys. With a price tag of Rs 585, it makes a decent purchase. Features: PS/2 interface, package includes a palm rest Price: Rs 585 Contact: Compuage Infocom Ltd Phone: 022-23842200 E-mail: info@compuageindia.com Web site: www.compuageindia.com Odyssey OD2001 M1 Odyssey OD2001 M1 Features Build quality Ergonomics Value for money OVERALL B Here is a keyboard that offers excellent build quality but is found lacking in the looks department. With around 20 additional programmable keys, the device offers both flexibil- ity and comfort, since the keys are soft, silent and very easy on the fingers. The keyboard is quite heavy, making it more sta- ble on the desk. A small form factor ensures that it occupies very little desktop space. It interfaces with the PC via the PS/2 port and a cable that is of sufficient length for most desk spaces. On the whole, this product from Samsung provides good value for money. Features: 20 hotkeys, PS/2 interface, palm rest not bundled Price: Rs 300 Contact: Samsung Asia Pte Ltd Phone: 022-22814886 Samsung Multimedia Keyboard SEM-M2A The first thing that strikes you about the SEM-DT35N is its sleek black colour. The feel of the keyboard is very easy on the fingers and it doesn't offer any multimedia buttons, bringing its cost down to an affordable Rs 300. Borrowing a leaf off the weird book, the keyboard provides support for the Korean Hangul script. While this might seem like a good thing for the miniscule Indian populace that interacts with that language, to the rest of us the feature only serves to add a lot of visual clutter. What's worse is the decision to obscure the all important backslash key [\]: it is still there, but marking its position is the normal 'pipe' symbol and a weird looking symbol that remotely resem- bles a 'W'. A new user would be quite dismayed to find the all- important backslash key missing. But its reasonable price makes it easy to overlook this faultit's extremely difficult to find economical keyboards that look good and perform well. All said and done, Sam- sung sure has a pretty decent product on its hands. Features: No hotkeys, PS/2 interface, palm rest not bundled Price: Rs 300 Contact: Samsung Asia Pte Ltd Phone: 022-22814886 Samsung PC Keyboard Samsung PC Keyboard Features Build quality Ergonomics Value for money OVERALL B+ Odyssey OD2001 IR Features Build quality Ergonomics Value for money OVERALL B+ Samsung SEM-M2A Features Build quality Ergonomics Value for money OVERALL B test drive input devices 62 JANUARY 2003 Two to Tango Akeyboard and mouse combination is meant as the one- stop solution for the discerning and wallet heavy user seg- ment. These bundles are ergonomic, good to look at and fall within the price bracket of Rs 3,500 to Rs 6,500. Some of these boards aim to offer a complete solutiona wireless, opti- cal keyborad and mose combination. We tested four such com- bination packages. Digit Test Process The keyboard and mouse combos were tested on four primary parameters: Features, Ergonomics, Build quality and Value for money. Each parameter was allotted a 25 per cent weightage. The weightage allotted to each parameter was used to calculate the overall scores. Features: The interface of the keyboard, the number of hotkeys, whether it was wireless or corded, the presence of integrated scrolling devices or trackballs were all taken into consideration. The accuracy of the mouse under Photoshop and gaming was the primary feature consideration. An optical mouse obviously scored higher; similarly cordless and USB pairings were put on a pedestal. Ergonomics: Comfort was given equal importance in both the mouse and the keyboard. While the keyboard also rated on the layout of the keys, the tactile feedback and a palm rest, the mouse was primarily awarded for being symmetrical, for providing a good grip to the palm and a good traction to the surface on which it was placed. Build Quality: Keyboards were tested on the basis of sturdiness and the stability of the buttons and of the unit as a whole, where- as the mice were dropped from a height of 6 feet and checked for physical damage. The quality and stability of buttons that come along with such a pointing device was also tested against each other on the basis of sturdiness and the stability of the buttons and of the unit as a whole. P R O D U C T S LOGITECH CORDLESS FREEDOM OPTICAL MERCURY CORDLESS KEYBOARD AND MOUSE KOB 30210 MICROSOFT WIRELESS DESKTOP TYPHOON ITEK RF@MOUSE AND KEYBOARD The right mouse and keyboard work together to take the stress off your fingers. We tested four lethal combinations to help you make the right choice Logitech Cordless Freedom Optical Features: 20 hotkeys, USB interface, package includes a palm rest and a cordless optical mouse Price: Rs 6,950 Contact: Rashi Peripherals Phone: 022-2826 0258 E-mail: ho@rptechindia.com Web site: www.logitech.com The Logitech Cordless Freedom is a wireless set that eliminates line-of-sight restrictions by working in the radio frequency band. The set packs in a cordless keyboard, a cordless optical mouse and a suitable receiver. The keyboard has an excellent layout and works perfectly with all applications. Although it remains respon- sive at a distance of 20 feet, the mouse (Log- itech Cordless MouseMan Optical) misses sig- nals and is generally not as responsive. The set is both good looking and feature packed the keyboard comes with 20 hotkeys for Internet and multimedia appli- cations and a handy on-board scroll button. The bundled mouse is a bit heavy but works very smooth- ly. Moreover, the Logitech MouseWare Control Centre lets the user define short- cut keys for both the extra button and the centre button. Logitech Freedom Features Build quality Ergonomics Value for money OVERALL A- Features: 19 hotkeys, PS/2 interface, package includes a palm rest and a cordless scroll mouse Price: Rs 2,000 Contact: Kobian India Ltd Phone: 080-5566626 E-mail: rohit@kobian.com Web site: www.kobian.com The KOB 30210 is a cordless bundle of mouse and keyboard that operates on radio frequency. The design of both the constituents has been kept very simple. The keys are placed in the standard layout while the shortcut keys are arranged in one line, giving the board a very plain look. Shockingly, the keyboard does not have on-board LEDs for [Caps Lock], [Num lock] and [Scroll Lock]an unfortunate omission. The keyboard offers decent build quality and the keys are quite enough while in use. It requires three AA batter- ies to work, which adds to the weight of the keyboard and increases its running cost. The mouse bundled is a cordless two- button scroll mouse which works fine with most applications and from a distance of over 6 feet. Mercury KOB 30210 Features Build quality Ergonomics Value for money OVERALL B+ Mercury Cordless Keyboard & Mouse KOB 30210 63 JANUARY 2003 Typhoon iTek RF@Mouse and Keyboard Features: 16 hotkeys, PS/2 interface, package includes a palm rest Price: Rs 1,950 Contact: Hitech Computers Phone: 022-24927323 E-mail: bom@hitechit.com Web site: www.hitechit.com The Typhoon iTek RF@mouse and keyboard combination works on the radio frequency band and is there- fore operable from a distance without needing a line of site. The complete pack comes with a multimedia keyboard, a cord- less mouse, a receiver and a palm rest for the key- board. The layout of the board is decent with 16 hotkeys spread across the top of the keyboard. The multimedia keys find them- selves grouped on the left side, while the Internet keys are located on the right. The keys are not too easy on the fingershard strokes are needed to do the typing and as such the unit is not ideal for long sessions. The two-button bundled mouse works well from a dis- tance of 15 to 18 feet, given that there is nothing blocking the device from the receiver; otherwise the pointer moves in a jerky fash- ion on the screen. In all, the Typhoon is a good bundle at an affordable price. Typhoon Itek RF Features Build quality Ergonomics Value for money OVERALL B+ Microsoft Wireless Desktop Features: 10 hotkeys, PS/2 interface, package includes a palm rest and a cordless optical mouse Price: Rs 3,634 Contact: Microsoft Corporation India Pvt Ltd Phone: 011-26292640 E-mail: connect@microsoft.com Web site: www.microsoft.com This simple looking wireless multimedia keyboard and mouse gives a complete desktop solution. The keyboard has a fairly easy-to-use layout with a detachable palm rest and 10 one-touch hot keys that allow you to browse the Internet, open your e-mail client and put your computer into a power saving mode. The wireless mouse provided has pro- grammable buttons which can be customised. Its unique design suits the right as well as left-handed user. A wireless receiver ensures your desk remains clutter free and its dual channel receiver ensures interference-free computing, even if the receiver is out of sight. There will be no difference in the performance of the devices even if they are 6 feet away from the receiver. 1/2 page H AD MS Wireless Desktop Features Build quality Ergonomics Value for money OVERALL A test drive reviews 64 JANUARY 2003 Intel's Pentium 4 3.06 GHz processor finally makes HyperThreading a reality for the desktop PC. With this technology, your processor will appear like two separate CPUs to your OS. The current version of HyperThreading technology allows a maximum of two threads to be dispatched to the CPU. Everything else has still stayed the same. So really how good is the processor? To answer this question, we tested the Pentium 4 3.06 GHz on a machine based on an Intel D845PEBT2 motherboard with 256 MB of DDR RAM, an ATi Radeon 9700 Pro graphics card and a Seagate Barracuda 7,200-rpm ATA IV 40 GB hard disk drive, running Windows XP Professional. The hard drive was clean formatted before installing the OS and all the necessary driver updates and patches were applied before running any benchmark. Our first tests included synthetic benchmarks. Here we ran SiSoft Sandra Profes- sional 2003 and noted the scores in different areas. In the CPU benchmark that indicates the theoretical performance potential of the CPU, the Pen- tium 4 3.06 GHz scored 9059 CPU Drystone marks and 5567 Whetstone marks. The CPU multimedia sub- test is a real-life benchmark rather than a synthetic one and is designed to show the improvements that instruction sets used in various processors (MMX/Enhanced, 3DNow! /Enhanced, and SSE (2)) bring to such an algorithm. We also ran the Memory bench- mark, which meas- ures sustained memory band- width. Here the P4 3.06 GHz easily outperformed the 2.8 GHz-based processor even with HyperThreading turned off. In the CPU multimedia subtest too, the HyperThread- ing -enabled CPU posted a higher score in the FPU SSE region though the integer scores don't offer much to talk about. To test the gaming per- formance of the processor, we ran a time demo on the retail version of Quake III Arena patched with version 1.30. The test was run in three different settings: normal, high and max (1024x786x32x32). In the normal mode there was no difference in the scores with HyperThreading switched on and off, but the difference was noticeable in the high and max quality modes. Our second gaming test involved running Comanche 4 in three different settings, nor- mal (640x480x16), high (800x600x16) and maximum (1024x786x32). Here too there wasn't much difference in the frame rates with HyperThread- ing turned on and off. Another area where a high amount of CPU power is required is video encoding. To measure the performance of a processor during video encod- ing, we encoded a standard MPEG-2 format video sequence using VirtualDub v1.4. The DivX codec used was v4.02 and the setting for audio and video processing in Virtu- alDub was turned to full pro- cessing mode. The video com- pression bit rate was set at 900 Kbps. Here the less time it takes to encode the file, the better it is. We recorded our lowest ever scorethe CPU took a mere 51 seconds to encode the video file. This makes the P4 3.06 a great option for those who work with video encoding applica- tions to a large extent. Just to put the CPU under a bit more stress, we ran a cou- ple of benchmarks simultane- ously. We ran the Povray benchmark, which is severely CPU intensive, while simulta- neously running Comanche 4 in the normal mode. We ran this test first with Hyper- Threading turned off and then with HyperThreading turned on just to see if it makes a dif- ferencewe achieved an aver- age 26.57 fps with the Hyper- Threading disabled and a boost of approximately 11 fps with it enabled. All in all, Intel's latest desk- top processor truly impresses with its performance and the HyperThreading feature makes it achieve higher performance scores under stress. Hyper- Threading in its future iterations could very well overcome its lit- tle drawbacks that still existfor instance, it could reduce performance if the OS dispatches multiple threads that are aimed at similar resources in the CPU. Until then this is as fast as you could get. Pentium 4 3.06 GHz Intel's newest, baddest and fastest desktop processor We test the latest and the best hardware and software products available in the market Pentium 4 3.06 GHZ Performance Build quality Value for money Features OVERALL B+ SPECIFICATIONS 0.13 micron fabrication, 478 pins, 533 MHz FSB bus, Hyper- Threading Price: Rs 41,500 Contact: Nebula Technologies Pvt Ltd Phone: 022-22670567 Fax: 022-26331074 E-mail: pratik@nebulatech.com Web site: www.intel.com JANUARY 2003 This silver coloured printer sports a futuristic design with matt grey paper flaps and a translucent black hood that covers the cartridge bay. This hood opens just like the hatch of a car and then slides along the body surface. How- ever, the printer has a rather large foot print. HP has revised the print- er design to include support for new types of standard car- tridges and photo-cartridge. The cartridge installation is simple and requires no force for getting them in place. The cartridges use a smaller drop size and the printer comes with PhotoRet IV which means it provides six basic colours instead of four. Also, PhotoRet IV has 1.2 million colours as opposed to the 3,500 in PhotoRet III mode. Depending on the car- tridge, the printer works in differ- ent modes. With stan- dard car- tridges the printer shifts to PhotoRet III (for text printing); with Photo Cartridge the printer works in PhotoRet IV (for printing images). The printer automatically adjusts the print resolution depending on the paper quality. To print at the maximum rated resolution (4800x1200) the paper type has to be selected manually. The printer has support for A4 sheets and up to 100 sheets can be loaded in one go. The paper output flap can handle 50 sheets, however, the locking mechanism is not strong enough to hold this weight. The printer has an 8 MB buffer and has an IEEE 1284-B parallel port and a USB port for connecting to a PC. In our tests, it printed text in black and white mode at a relatively good speed of 9 PPM. In the fast draft mode, it was exceptionally fast, scor- ing 13 PPM compared to the normal mode of operation. In the combination document test, it printed the test file under a minute in the greyscale mode, which is pretty fast. It surprised us by taking the same amount of time to print this file in colour mode! It took approx- imately 300 seconds (5 min- utes) to print the test image, which is fast enough for a printer in the mid-range cat- egory. It took around 180 seconds (3 minutes) to print the image in greyscale. The print quality was crisp and clear, with no smudging or jarring. The image quality test showed slight saturation in the colour reproduction. The HP 5550 delivers good printing speed, especially for text and combination documents. Though the image printing speed is a bit slow, it makes up for this with good image qualitya good choice if you want a printer for daily office printing work and to occa- sionally print photographs. 65 The S602 looks good with a dual-tone colour finish and rounded contours. The ergonomics of the camera is spot on with perfect weight balance. It is powered by four AA batteries that are placed such that they balance out the weight of the lens. The controls have been placed thoughtfullythe mode selection dial surrounds the shutter release button and the zoom controls are slightly angled to make it comfort- able to be operated by the thumb. The exposure mode selector has a rub- berised feel and provides good grip, and the command wheel is placed within thumb reach and offers a good tactile feel. It has a 3.1 megapixel CCD count and is provided with a zoom lens with 6x zoom. The camera features the third generation Super CCD technology, which helps in interpolating the image to 6 million pixels. You can also record a VGA video at 30 fps with the resolution set to 640x480. Its 1.8-inch TFT LCD monitor is easy to use indoors, but as with all LCD monitors, it's difficult to use in bright sunlight, however you can use the Electronic View Finder, which has a tiny 0.44-inch LCD, instead. This camera includes a 16 MB Smart Flash card and is compatible with both Com- pact Flash type I/II slot and IBM's micro-drive. It can be hooked on to a computer using the USB port, or the Video Out jack. It also has a DC-In jack and a tripod stand mount. There are several automatic modes to make it easy for the aim-and-shoot users. A very interesting fea- ture is the 'last five' continu- ous shooting mode, where the camera takes up to 25 frames but records only the last five framesparticularly useful when shooting at a sports event where you can predict the moment and start shooting just before the fin- ish so you don't miss the action. In our test the camera captured fairly good details, producing good tonal balance, except that the red colour had a slight orange tinge when seen using the Histogram feature of Photo- shop. Also, the edges of the picture showed a blue halo. In our resolution test, the cam- era reproduced a high-quality image at a native resolution of 2832x2128. All in all, this high-end digital camera has good fea- tures. Its 6x optical zoom and support for attaching lenses such as telephoto and wide fish eye lens, make it a good choice for professionals. The only real hindrance is the priceat Rs 66,000 it is too expensive for a casual shut- ter-bug. Fuji S602 Zoom Digital Camera Resolve to click HP 5550 Deskjet Printer Hey good lookin' Price: Rs 66,000 Contact: Jindal Photo films Phone: 022-28504949 Fax: 022-28504044 E-mail: k_mohan/jpl@jindals.com Web site: www.fuji.com Fuji S602 Performance Build quality Value for money Features OVERALL B+ SPECIFICATIONS 3.1 megapixel zoom lens, 6x optical zoom, 1.8-inch LCD monitor, 16 MB Smart Flash card, four AA batteries Price: Rs 9,990 Contact: Hewlett-Packard India Ltd Phone: 011-2682 6000 Fax: 011-2682 6053 E-mail: seema_dawar@hp.com Web site: www.hpindia.com HP 5550 Deskjet Performance Build Quality Value for money Features OVERALL B+ SPECIFICATIONS 4800x1200 dpi printing, one USB, one parallel port, 8 MB buffer, 100 sheet input tray test drive reviews 66 JANUARY 2003 The Iomega is an external USB 2.0 CD-Writer. The back panel has the USB, PS/2 look-alike power connector and Audio Out jacks. The power connector is unique to this model and could pose a problem if the cord gets damaged as you can only obtain it from Iomega. The device is USB 2.0 ready and is capable of 48x write and read speed and a 24x rewrite speed. The only bottleneck is the rare 48x media. The writer burned 700 MB of assorted data at 40x in just 3 minutes, 18 seconds. It took a little under 3 min- utes to burn a 610 MB ISO image and 7 minutes, 27 sec- onds to rewrite 700 MB at 12xpretty good for 12x and once 24x media is easily available, the results will be even better. In its CD-ROM drive incarnation, it copied the 700 MB of data on the ATA100 drive in just 2 minutes, 57 seconds. This product is a good buy for those who need a portable writer that does justice to its price of Rs 9,900. Price: Rs 9,900 Contact: Neoteric Informatique Phone: 022-2417 2600 Fax: 022-2418 5294 E-mail: sales@neoteric-info.com Web site: www.iomega.com Iomega CD-RW Performance Build quality Value for money Features OVERALL B+ The Kodak CX4200 is a 2 megapixel camera with a maximum resolution of 1632x 1232. Its rounded contours fit nicely into the palm and is light enough to be carried in the pocket. The buttons are slightly tacky to feel but are well-placed. The optical viewfinder is at the extreme left, just above the lens, so you have to place your fingers carefully. It has a 2x digital zoom that lets you shoot close- up photos despite the absence of optical zoom. It has a 1.6- colour TFT LCD, but it darkens in the sunlight. The camera has a Video Out jack and a USB port and includes a video con- nector RCA cable along with a USB cable. It has 16 MB inter- nal memory and can accom- modate 20 to 23 pictures at maximum resolution. You can increase the capacity by using a 64 MB Compact Flash card. The camera supports a wide range of power options with an in-camera charging option through the camera dock, two AA lithium or Ni-MH batteries or one CRV3 lithium battery. The camera comes with an optional docking stand that also serves as a charging dock. A file transfer button on the dock makes sharing files very simple. The only sore spot is that Kodak did not provide a cover for the camera. In our tests, the CX4200 was able to capture all the details but without the flash, the picture looked dark. In the resolution test, the image came out hazy. Though the camera has good colour reproduction, the overall image quality is poor. Overall, this camera pro- duces sharp and colourful images when used in well lit conditions, but if you want clarity and picture depth at high resolution, then this cam- era is surely not for you. Kodak CX4200 Digital Camera Click this Price: Rs 13,900 Contact: Neoteric Infomatique Phone: 022-24172600 Fax: 022-2418 5294 E-mail: sales@neoteric-info.com Web site: www.kodak.com Kodak CX4200 Performance Build quality Value for money Features OVERALL B The LiDE 20 is a sleek, intuitive and user- friendly scanner. The Installation is quite easy Windows XP recog- nised it without any hassles. You can scan in colour at a resolution of up to 600x1200 dpi and 48-bit depth with over 281 trillion possible colours. It can also be placed vertically while scan- ning, thus saving on desktop space. It has a USB 2.0 inter- face and hence requires no external power adapters. Its Multi scan mode scans all the pictures in a single pass and each image is saved in a separate file. It even adjusts any misaligned photographs to ensure precision in your scanning. Enhanced software allows scanned images to be written directly to a CD. As far as speed is con- cerned, it completed a full colour scan in a fast 47 sec- onds. The colour output was also quite bright and matched the original. Even contrast and colour blending, the toughest attributes to achieve, were quite remark- a b l e . Overall, its performance, combined with the price of just Rs 4,370 makes it quite an irresistable buy. SPECIFICATIONS 600x1200 dpi optical resolu- tion, 9600x9600 dpi interpolat- ed resolution, 8.5x11.7 inch scan area, 48-bit colour depth, USB 2.0 interface. Package includes USB cable, Scanner stand and Canon Documenta- tion Kit with CD containing ScanGear CS (Windows/Mac) CanoScan Toolbox (Win- dows/Mac) ArcSoft PhotoStu- dio, ArcSoft PhotoBase and ScanSoft OmniPage SE Canon Canoscan LiDE 20 Performance Build quality Value for money Features OVERALL B+ Canon Canoscan LiDE 20 Standing slim Iomega CD-RW 48x24x48x USB 2.0 Drive Write on target SPECIFICATIONS External USB 2.O interface, 48x write and read speed, 24x rewrite speed System Requirements: Pentium 166 MHz processor, Windows 98/Me/2000/XP, 75 MB hard drive space Price: Rs 4,370 Contact: Canon India Ltd Phone: 011-6806572 Fax: 011-680 7180 E-mail: brijesh.verma@canon.co.in Web site: www.canon.co.in SPECIFICATIONS 16 MB internal memory, MMC/SD slot, 2 megapixel res- olution, 2x digital zoom, 1.6- inch TFT colour LCD screen, 220 gm weight, JPEG/EXIF v2.2 compression JANUARY 2003 67 other features. The speakers were very responsive in the low, mid and high frequenciessomething that Indian music lovers will appreciate. It gave good results when VOB files were played using PowerDVDthe sound effects were quite thrilling when playing games such as Quake III Arena and Need for Speed: Porsche 2000. However, the real power of these speak- ers is evident while playing rock or heavy-metal music. The only thing missing from this speaker set are the stands for the satellites. The A5.600 is expensive at Rs 7,500, but you wouldn't mind the price if crystal clear, booming sound is what you crave. WinTally-Acc is an easy- to-install, versatile account- ing system. It pro- vides a standard graphical Windows interface and any- one with basic knowledge of Win- dows can start working with the software. The tree view inter- face makes it easy to locate a report from among the hun- dreds of files. Also, the use of graphical representation and icons makes the interface very interactive. The software has a lot of features that can be enabled or disabled depending on your requirements. It has special features such as the ability to lock the year field when final- ising the accounts for a partic- ular year. The Repair Compa- ny command creates an auto- matic backup on a user-speci- fied day and time. You can also choose to dis- play any statement as per the required data. With the capability to print, e-mail, save and publish any displayed screen, this is a very handy utility. Its one glaring flaw is that the data is not very safe as the database used is MS Access, which can be edit- ed very easily. However, the Auditing command records all actions, helping you keep a check on the editing changes done by other users. Overall, this is a feature- packed, easy-to-use software, but the price is a bit on the higher side. WinTally-Acc Tally ho! Price: Rs 7,500 (single user); Rs 11,500 (10 users) Contact: Lify Pvt Ltd Phone: (0) 98220 16457 Fax: 022-2237 5845 E-mail: lifycom@lify.com Web site: www.lify.com SPECIFICATIONS Pentium 233 MHz processor, 64 MB RAM, high colour settings, 20 MB hard disk space WinTally-Acc Performance Ease of use Value for money Features OVERALL B Norton Ghost 2003 facili- tates backup, restoration and cloning data for disaster recovery. With the new release, even NTFS partitions in Windows NT environment can be backed up and restored. It also sup- ports backing up, restoring and cloning EXT3 file systems in Linux. To perform all these tasks, Norton needs to copy all the required files in the virtual partition it creates. This is a space constraint on the Mas- ter Boot Record (MBR), which is the location of the partition. The disaster recovery facility lets you prepare a bootable disk, which you can use to start the computer. Unlike the previous ver- sion where you had to back up the entire drive, Norton Ghost 2003 lets you back up just the partitions. Another important addi- tion is the support for external USB drives. Norton Ghost also provides a unique feature of letting you explore the con- tents of an image file as if it were a folder on a local drive. You can even check the integri- ty of the image file as soon as it is backed up, before proceeding to restore. What the soft- ware lacks is an intu- itive interface and a scheduler for taking backups. Its interface is limited to the wiz- ards for setting up new tasks; after that it reverts to a DOS- based system, effectively bringing the system to a standstill as you cannot mul- titask. Though a good product, it is always better to buy the complete system suite rather than just an individual prod- uct. Besides, for first time users, there are other easier- to-use software available. Norton Ghost 2003 Your friendly neighbourhood ghost SPECIFICATIONS 486 processor, VGA monitor, 16 MB RAM, Windows 98/2000/Me/XP/NT4 SP6a, Internet Explorer 5 Price: Rs 2,633 Contact: Symantec Phone: 022-26570658 E-mail: adeshpande@ symantec.com Web site: www.symantec.com Norton Ghost 2003 Performance Ease of use Value for money Features OVERALL B Price: Rs 7,500 Contact: Philips Sound Solutions Phone: 020-7124196 Fax: 020-7123175 E-mail: pss.sales.marketing@ philips.com Web site: www.philips.com/sound Philips A5.600 Performance Build quality Value for money Features OVERALL B+ SPECIFICATIONS 50 watts RMS power output for subwoofer, 10 watts RMS for the satellites, 40 Hz-20 KHz frequency response, five satel- lelite, one subwoofer, unified 5-channel chord, audio cable, remote with batteries, manual The Philips A5.600 5.1- channel speaker offers good quality surround sound and does well in the looks department too. The cord of the satellites is long enough to be pulled to a distance of at least 15 feet from the PC. The set has digital volume control on the centre speaker and there's also a remote control for accessing the controls for volume, fade, bass and treble, and for accessing the Philips A5.600 The power of six test drive reviews 70 JANUARY 2003 DFI's NT72-SA mother- board aims to provide an RDRAM and RAID solution at a reasonable price, utilising the Intel 850E chipset. There are four RDRAM slots (RIMMs) that can support 2 GB of sys- tem memory. One convenient fea- ture is the inclusion of two Continuity RIMMS (CRIMMS). Another distin- guishing feature is the two- channel onboard Promise ATA RAID controller that supports RAID 0 (striping) or RAID 1 (mirroring) modes. In the benchmarking tests, the board performed well in data transfer tests. SiSoft San- dra 2003 Pro reported a disk index of 28,766, while PC Mark reported a disk index of 972. This is pretty good considering the system config- uration. If you use the RAID controllers, you can expect the indices to be better still. The bench- marks also reported a sequen- tial read time of 42 MBps, ran- DFI NT72-SA Motherboard All aboard the DFI express dom read time of 7 MBps, sequential write speed of 41 MBps, and random write speed of 10 MBps. HDTach confirmed this with a maxi- mum read speed of 44.6 MBps, utilitsing only 9.5 per cent of the CPU. The Quake III Arena test saw an fps of 285.8 in normal mode and 281.9 in high qual- ity mode, but dropped to 232 fps in maximum quality settings. The system took 97.54 seconds to convert a 52 MB MPEG file into the DivX format. The real attrac- tion of the DFI is its integra- tion of onboard RAID and an RDRAM solution, and the price tag of Rs 7,950 seems justified. SPECIFICATIONS Two-channel audio codec (but no onboard graphics); integrat- ed Ethernet controller; AGP 4x slot; five PCI slots; one CNR slot; two PS/2, two serial, one parallel port and two USB ports (expandable to 4), connector for optional IrDA interface; the RAID controller and driver CD; three IDE ATA/100 cables, flop- py disk cable, RAID driver flop- py diskette and I/O shield Price: Rs 7,950 Contact: Zeta Technologies Phone: 022-2410 2288 Fax: 022-24102277 E-mail: tejas@zetaindia.com Web site: www.zetaindia.com DFI NT72-SA Motherboard Performance Build quality Value for money Features OVERALL B- Price: Rs 11,299 Contact: Cyberstar Phone: 022-26556178 Fax: 022-2655 6181 E-mail: sushilb@cyberstarin.net Web site: asia.creative.com The MuVo portable MP3 player doubles up as a removable USB drive. It has a separate battery pack. Installation is simple and Windows 98 detects the player and configures it as a removable drive. Windows Me and later versions do not require you to run the installation program. The model that we tested had 64 MB of storage. This translates into slightly over an hour of playtime. It has a good power consumption and the battery held up even after 9 hours of use. Unfortunately though, it is not equipped to shuffle or program your playlist. Another sore point was the frequency response of the earphonesalthough high frequency reproduction was excellent, bass frequencies took a beating. Crank up the volume to the fullest and you get ear-splitting dis- tortion-free sound. The player doesn't have ID3 support or an LCD screen, something we've come to expect from an MP3 player. The Creative NOMAD MuVo can dish out some pret- ty high decibels. The 64 MB version of the MuVo costs a whopping Rs 11,299. SPECIFICATIONS 64 MB internal memory, neck strap, earphones, manual, driv- er CD, battery pack, USB inter- face Creative NOMAD MuVo Gypsy player VariCAD 8.2-0.4 is a fast, compact and economical mechanical CAD package fea- turing true 3D modelling, solids and spatial analysis, 2D to 3D and 3D to 2D projec- tion and extrusion, parametric symbol and mechanical part libraries and surface development utilities. It can be installed as a stand-alone applica- tion or on a server and net- worked in peer-to-peer and client-server configurations. Most functions are pre- sented as icons and also in the menu bars. When working in a networked environment, each user can customise the menus and icons according to their liking. The software imports and exports common CAD file types (DWB, DWG, DXF and IGES). The files can be con- verted individually or as whole directories. You can also use file name filters. Thus, you can transfer a whole drawing documenta- tion using one com- mand line. For a high price of Rs 19,950, it delivers a strong value, though the learning curve is rather steep. However, the software provides tool tips and well- crafted samples of program features to make the learning curve easier. The application is also demanding on your systemmake sure you have the requisite hardware to work smoothly with this application. VariCAD 8.2-0.4 Designs on you SPECIFICATIONS Pentium II processor, 128 MB RAM, 16 MB graphics card with hardware support for OpenGL graphics Price: Rs 19,950 Contact: G T Enterprises Phone: 080-660 6093 Fax: 080-633 1047 E-mail: gtcdrom@vsnl.com Creative NOMAD MuVo Performance Build quality Value for money Features OVERALL B- VariCAD 8.2-0.4 Performance Ease of use Value for money Features OVERALL B JANUARY 2003 71 Seagate's 120 GB Barracuda hard disk supporting ATA V with a spindle speed of 7,200 rpm, has two platters of 60 GB each and four read/write heads, result- ing in very quick retrieval of data. It sports a stan- dard 2 MB buffer and uses Giant Magne- toResistive (GMR) recording heads, resulting in greater areal density, which makes larger disk sizes achiev- able. The drive was tested on a Pentium 4-based test bench, with a 2.8 GHz CPU, Intel D850 EMV2 motherboard with 256 MB RDRAM, and a GeForce4 Ti 4600 graphics accelerator. This drive gave us excellent results in the per- formance tests. It transferred assorted data of 1 GB in a mere 57 seconds. The SiSoft Sandra 2002 Pro bench- mark reported an average access time of 13.1 milliseconds, sequential read/write rates of 41/40 MBps, and random read/write speeds of 8/9 MBps, which is indeed very good. Photoshop 7.0 took a mere 12 seconds to load and Seagate ST3120023A (120 GB Barracuda) Speedy Gonzales it opened a 190 MB image file in 14 seconds, which high- lights the file transfer speed of the drive. The disk took 14.2 seconds to load a saved game in Return to Castle Wolfenstein. This is especially good news for impatient gamers. There real- ly aren't any drawbacks to this drive, except for perhaps its price. If you do not need the maximum storage space that money can buy, but you do want all the speed you can get, then this is the drive for you. As far as storage goes, it sits smack in the middle of the gap between the low-end 40 to 80 GB dwarves and the top-end 160 to 200 GB giants. SPECIFICATIONS ATA V support, 7,200 rpm, 120 GB, 2 MB buffer Price: Rs 12,500 Contact: Seagate Technology Phone: 1600 331104 (toll free) Web site: www.seagate.com Seagate ST3120023A 120 GB Performance Build quality Value for money Features OVERALL B=+ Price: Rs 5,145 Contact: Mediatech India Phone: 022-239 6696 E-mail: sales@mediatechindia.com Web site: www.liteon.com.tw Liteon has introduced a new 52x Writer, the LTR55246S. It is surely one of the fastest writers/re-writers available today. In fact, in the Indian mar- ket, as of today, there are no CD- Rs that can sup- port a writing speed of 52x. The maximum writ- ing speed supported by media available today is 48x. Its build quality is pretty average. A design on sturdier lines would have been appre- ciated. It has a standard 2,048 KB buffer. The buffer underrun prevention technol- ogy used by Liteon is SMART- BURN, which is also used for the optimisation of the CD burning process, to ensure that data is written accurately on to the CD-R/CD-RW. The test was performed on a Pentium 4 2.2 GHz CPU, running on an MSI Max2 BLR motherboard, with 256 MB DDR RAM and a Radeon 8500 accelerator. In all of the tests, the Writer performed at the maximum speed that the CD-R medium would allow. Nero CD Speed reported mini- mum, average and maxi- mum speeds of 24.24x, 39.34x and 41.31x, respectively. There weren't any hitches at any stage of the other tests either, proving the quality and capability of the Writer. What's more, at Rs 5,145, it's a pretty good deal as well. Considering it is one of the world's fastest writers, that's not a bad price at all. If you happen to have a raging fast machine that can support the data speeds required by this CD-Writer, then by all means, go for it. SPECIFICATIONS Write/re-write/read speed: 52x/24x/52x, 2,048 KB buffer, SMART-BURN technology for optimum writing, includes Nero - Burning ROM v 5.5. Liteon LTR55246S Not to be taken lightly Though this 5.1 channel system has a 5,800 watts PMPO, it has only 25 watts RMS for the satel- lites and 50 watts RMS for the subwoofer. The RMS power gives you an idea about the actual sound output that the system can achieve without distortion, whereas the PMPO output indicates the maximum out- put achievable by the system, albeit with distortions. The wires are long enough, and speaker stands and wall mountings are provided as well. One shortcoming is the ridiculously short power sup- ply wire. The system provides good performance and at Rs 7,000, it offers good value for money. The subwoofer is quite powerful and you can crank up the volume with- out experiencing too much distortion. If you're looking to own a 5.1 speaker sys- tem, but are constrained by your budget, the Mercury HT 5800R offers a decent enough solution. How- ever, if you cannot settle for anything less than perfect sound, give this one a miss. Mercury HT 5800R Home Theatre 5.1 Channel System Drowning in sound SPECIFICATIONS Four satellites at 25 W RMS, one subwoofer at 50 W RMS, wall and stand mounts, remote control with batteries System Requirements: Sound- card with 5.1 channel output Price: Rs 7,000 Contact: Kobian India Ltd Phone: 080-5566626 Fax: 022-5566625 E-mail: rohit@kobian.com Web site: www.kobian.com Liteon LTR55246S Performance Ease of use Value for money Features OVERALL B Mercury HT 5800R Performance Build quality Value for money Features OVERALL B test drive undercover 72 JANUARY 2003 It was one of those mornings where you get up feeling something essential is missing. I checked to see if all my appendages were in place, they were. My trademark goatee then? No, that felt right too. Then suddenly I hit upon it, I didn't have a handheld! Oh the shame of it all, me being a techno-geek and all that. Of course, I did need it for the practicality of being con- nected to my data and information wherever I went, but that's second- ary. A handheld I want and a handheld I shall get. First stop, to the bank. Turns out I have just enough, so off I go. Before I indulge myself, I chalk out the list of functions I intend to use my new toy for. Hmm, I need it for reading my e-books and Web pages, and it must have good organisation capabilities to make sense of my chaos. A little ability to synchronise with other external applications wouldn't hurt eitherall this at the lowest possible price, of course. The most affordable device in the market right now is the Palm m100 priced at Rs 6,000. Though its specifications are showing signs of age2 MB of memory and a basic monochrome screen doesn't really allow much, but is suited to text- based applications. Placed a notch high- er is the Palm m105 with 8 MB of memo- ry, costing Rs 8,500. But there's a new kid on the block, the funky Palm Zire made for first time users. However, none of the dealers I spoke to in Andheri, Mumbai, would give away its price. Next up, I spotted the Palm m125 monochrome with expansion slots for MMC and Secure Digital cards. This one had 8 MB of memory and came with the mandatory set of organisation software and synchronisation via infrared and USB connectivity. The Palm m130 is also sim- ilar but it has a slightly bigger colour screen. The Palm m125 uses AAA batter- ies, while the Palm m130 uses recharge- able Lithium Ion batteries and has very good battery life. The m125 costs around Rs 11,000, while the m130 is priced at around Rs 13,500. The prices are about Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 more in the white market and you get the advantage of a solid warranty and a boxed package. Still higher are the popular 500-series Palm devices. The Palm m500 has a sharp monochrome screen with 8 MB of memory, a faster processor than the m1xx series and is one of the lightest devices available. The colour device in this range was the Palm m515, which has 16 MB of memory and uses a rechargeable Lithium Ion battery with Flash ROM upgrade capabilities. The m500 is priced at around Rs 18,000 while the colour m515 comes in at around Rs 23,000. On the higher end, the new Palm Tungsten T device has an ARM-based processor and a crisp colour display. It runs the latest Palm OS 5 software and is packed to the gills with features such as 16 MB of memory, Bluetooth, voice memo, headset jack and even cellular phone capabilities. All these features obviously mean a high price, but here too, none of the dealers had any information. I even checked out the Pocket PC arena, but most the dealers stocked only the Compaq iPAQ series of handhelds, with the iPAQ 3800 being the most pop- ular choice. It comes with 64 MB of memory and runs Microsoft Pocket PC 2002. With full multimedia capabilities (yes, it can play back MP3s as well as movie clips), a full colour screen and plenty of application and organisation software, it does full justice to its price tag of Rs 33,000. Similar in capabilities are Pocket PCs from other brands such as Toshiba, Casio, HP, etc. However, none of them came lower than Rs 25,000. Oh well Acknowledging that the world of Pocket PCs held nothing for me, I settled for the Palm m125. It suited my needs quite well and left me with enough money to get back home! Fistfuls of Power Agent 001 scouts the market for a handled device that fits his pocket Memory: Depending upon the types of applications you plan to use, a handheld's inte- grated memory could run out faster than you would imagine. You will need at least 4 MB of memory for text-based applications and 16 MB for storing media files. Compatibility: Your handheld should support your applications and be able to exchange information with your desk- top PC and other handheld devices. Expandability and upgradability: Choose handhelds that allow the OS to be upgraded. Look out for ones that allow the firmware to be upgraded through Flash programs. Screen size and resolution: Mono- chrome screens are suited to most applications; colour screens are for those who intend to work with graphics and video files. Look for a colour screen with good resolution, clarity and bright- ness, and one that is clearly legible in the dark as well as in bright light. Battery life: Rechargeable Lithium Ion batteries are preferable for longer on-road life. Even if it uses conventional alkaline batteries, make sure it has a run time of at least 10 hours. Integrated features: Opt for devices with additional features such as a cellu- lar phone or camera only if you are going to actually use them. These frills add significantly to the cost. ILLUSTRATION: Mahesh Benkar 74 JANUARY 2003 insight geforce fx Are we ready for a no-holds-barred cinema quality gaming experience? Or will the GeForce FX prove to be yet another video card with simply faster memory and processing speed? Movies such as Final Fantasy and Jurassic Park left us gap- ing with their colourful tap- estry of digital animation. The 'rendering farms' used to create these magic movies comprise new-age render- ing supercomputers that run on advanced processing capabilities. Enchanted by such movies, the aim of every game designer and graphics hard- ware manager has been to bring this real- ism to a gaming experience. And this is exactly what the new GeForce FX aims to deliver. While there has been no dearth of capability and programming skills to accomplish this, graphics cards were not capable of processing this vast amount of information at a pace faster than that of a slideshow. Over the years, every new card has tried to achieve realism with varying degrees of success. Hence the launch of a new graphics card usual- ly generates more excitement in the IT community than any other hardware. Often, the revelation of the card's specifications shows it to be merely an enhancement of the existing tech- nologymade faster by upping clock speeds and adding more rendering pipelines, or conversely, by chopping a couple of components to make the card accessible to different market segments. Enter the GeForce FX The GeForce FX is built using a 0.13-micron fabri- cation process unlike the 0.15-micron technology used by the reigning king of graphics hill, the ATi Radeon 9700. The smaller fabrication process makes it possible for this card to be laden with 125 million transistorscompare this with the 108 million tran- sistors used by the Xeon MP processor. While this fabri- cation process does offer greater density for packing in more transistors and lower heat emission levels, it is a difficult process to implement. This has been the primary reason for the cards delayit was supposed to be released by December 2002, but the date has now been pushed forward to mid 2003. Also, this card complies with and even exceeds the specifications of the upcoming DirectX 9 APIwhile DirectX 9 will allow for a far greater effects and capa- bilities for tomorrow's games and applications, the GeForce FX will be able to take advantage of future graphics APIs as well. Therefore, when tomorrow's games and applications support these new capabilities, only cards such as the GeForce FX will be able to take full advantage of their visual splendour. Let's take a look at some of the newer tech- Intense graFX! The pixel shader in the GeForce FX can process 51 billion floating point operations per second. This Can render over a hundred Jurassic Park dinosaurs at 100 frames per second Has more floating point power than a Cray SV-1 supercomputer Is 120 times the distance from the Earth to the Moon, if converted to metres ILLUSTRATION:Mahesh Benkar 76 insight geforce fx JANUARY 2003 nologies that help deliver this promise of cinema-quality gaming. Parallel vertex shader and pixel pipelines The vertex shader is the element that allows complex meshes and 3D objects to be created within games. In the GeForce FX, this component was created from scratchwhile the GeForce 4 had two sep- arate vertex shader units, the GeForce FX features just a single pipeline. This singular pipeline is equipped with parallel floating point units that work together to deliver a claimed triangle processing rate of 375 mil- lion triangles per second (compared to the Radeon 9700's 325 million triangles per second). When coupled with the DirectX 9 specification, the card can process vertex shader programs while using 65,536 instructions (the GeForce4 Ti class cards uses only 128 instructions), constants and loops (primitives that are used in the cre- ation of these programs). So what does all this translate into? While earlier cards allowed only for models with increasing polygon counts, the advanced vertex shad- ing techniques of the GeForce FX will make even facial expressions possible. While vertex shader warrants greater flexibility and innovation in modifying meshes and therefore greater realism, the pixel shader does wonders for the textures and special effects on the surfaces of these 3D models. Everything from the mouldy rusted iron girders to the clammy, cold texture of an alien's skin will be defined using these new innovations. The pixel shader unit of the processor in the GeForce FX has been considerably revamped to add functionality for the DirectX 9 API. Also, pixel shader programs can now use up to 1,024 instructions with up to 16 textures per pixel, allowing for very complex effects on the 3D model sur- faces. Some of the new pixel operations are soft shadows on 3D models and frame- buffer post processing effects such as blurs and halos (from streetlamps and car head- lights). Programmers can also assign func- tions to certain textures to call upon spe- cific effects and actions. Volumetric ren- dering can be implemented through algo- rithms for generating effects such as smoke, fire, fur, grass, etc. Complex light- ing effects can be achieved over a single pass as opposed to using up many clock cycles for rendering a given light effect. Finally, the pixel shader also features 64 temporary registers (compared to 12 for the Radeon 9700), which are used for stor- ing complex instructions that are sent to the graphics processor. DDR2 memory Another big advantage is the support for DDR2 memory. Operating at a blistering 500 MHz frequency on a 128-bit data bus, this interface offers a 16 GBps bandwidth. Even though the memory width is lower than that of the Radeon 9700, the effective bandwidth is higher for two reasons: the effective frequency is higher with the DDR2 memory and every bit of data that comes out of the rendering pipeline is compressed in the hardware before being sent to the mem- ory. On an average, nVidia states that there is a 4:1 com- pression ratio that occurs and therefore, the resultant mem- ory bandwidth of the card is effectively raised to 48 GBps that's the contents of an entire The GeForce FX can spell all the difference between a frown and a wry smile. The effect is apparent, as modelled by Dawn, the pixie mascot of the GeForce FX GPU Clock: 500 MHz Memory Clock: 250 MHz (1000 DDR2) Chip Technology: 256-bit Memory Bus: 128-bit DDR2 Pixel pipelines: 8 Vertex shader: Floating point array Process: 0.13 micron Transistors: 125 million GeForce FX GPU AGP 8X interface Video encoder VGA out DVI out S-Video out 128-bit DDR2 memory 77 JANUARY 2003 40 GB hard disk transferred in a little under a second! Intellisample technology While most of the pixel and vertex speci- fications are focused on DirecX 9, the pixie dust here is a technology called Intellisample that will make even games such as DOOM III run faster. Intellisample is a comprehensive set of technologies that includes a new colour compression engine, improved fast z-clear, dynamic gamma correction, adaptive trilinear and anisotropic filtering, and anti-aliasing. The GeForce FX maximises its memo- ry bandwidth by compressing all the data that comes out of the rendering pipeline before sending it to the memory con- troller (as described above). This results in a direct increase in effective memory bandwidth, allowing for larger and more complex textures. This is noticed espe- cially when anti-aliasing is enabled, where the demands placed on the memory bandwidth are greater. There is a newer algorithm for clearing the z-buffer (for get- ting rid of obstructed or invisible poly- gons), resulting in faster frame processing. Finally, the card uses various methods for implementing filtering options. The user can choose between a direct filtering option (trilinear or anisotropic), or a less accurate but a high performance option. This will result in a lower performance hit compared to running the card in any one of these filtering modes directly. Faster core and memory speeds When it debuts, the GeForce FX is expect- ed to have a core speed of 500 MHz and a memory speed of 250 MHz (effectively 1 GHz due to the 4x increase, being DDR2). This is significantly higher than the Radeon 9700's core speed of 325 MHz and 310 MHz DDR memory. In newer games such as Stalker or Ral- liSport, the realism in the models and envi- ronment is unprecedented due to the use of very high polygon-count. Also, the 128- bit colour support allows for hitherto unseen levels of accuracy in colours and specular highlights in the game. FX flow Given the high core and memory speeds, the card needs to breathe well. Hence, it uses an advanced cooling system involv- ing the use of heat pipes. In addition to a heat sink on the critical heat-generating components such as the GPU and memo- ry chips, there are tiny copper pipes that draw the heat away from these elements. This is implemented through a special air- flow duct in conjunction with the cool- ing fan, resulting in a large cooling assembly that takes up the space of two slots in your cabinet! The last word Every once in a graphics era comes a prod- uct that offers not only high clock speeds or more memory, but truly intelligent tech- nology with a specific goal and uses inno- vative methods to attain it. nVidia's GeForce FX is one such product that repre- sents a new species of graphics hardware built to redefine desktop graphics. While all this technology scientifical- ly translates into more pixels per second, greater colour depths and better filtering, the truth will be bared when we see shim- mers on water and winking characters on our desktops. Though this card will be out of our financial reach, in time, the tech- nology will trickle down to more afford- able solutions. So be prepared for the time when you can feel the knot in the pit of your stomach while you watch a gleaming Lamborghini Murcilago tear down your screenthe only difference being that instead of watching this with a bag of popcorn, you'll be holding a joystick in your hand! MARCO D'SOUZA The level of detail in the environment and skies is made realistic by the GeForce FX' ability to process a large number of polygons at high speeds The enormous air intake duct and heat pipe solution help keep the GeForce FX cool Specification Chip technology Process Transistors Memory bus Pure memory bandwidth Pixel fillrate Anti-aliased Fillrate Max FSAA mode Triangle transform rate AGP bus Memory GPU clock Memory clock Memory Vertex shader Pixel pipelines Texture units per pipe Textures per tex- ture unit DirectX generation memory Optmisations nVidia GeForce FX 256-bit 0.13 micron 125 million 128-bit DDR2 16 GBps 4 Gigapixel/s 16 billion AA samples/s 8x 350 milion triangles/s 1x/2x/4x/8x 128/256 MB 500 MHz 250 MHz (1000 DDR2) BGA 2.0 ns FP Array 8 1 16 9.0 (+) LMA II optimised colour compression ATi Radeon 9700 PRO 256-bit 0.15 micron 107 million 256-bit DDR 19.8 GBps 2.6 Gigapixel/s 15.6 billion AA samples/s 6x 325 M milion trian- gles/s 1x/2x/4x/8x 128/256 MB 325 MHz 310 MHz (620 DDR) BGA 2.9 ns 4 8 1 8 9 Hyper Z III nVidia GeForce4 Ti4600 256-bit 0.15 micron 63 million 128-bit DDR 10.4 GBps 1.24 Gigapixel/s 4.8 billion AA samples/s 4x 69 M milion triangles/s 1x/2x/4x 128 MB 300 MHz 325 MHz (650 DDR) BGA 2.8 ns 2 4 2 4 8 LMA II Old vs New 78 Fishing freshwater bends and saltwater coasts rewards anyone feeling stressed. Resourceful anglers usually find masterful leapers fun and admit swordfish rank overwhelming anyday. Still trying to figure out what this means? This is a crudely encrypted message for com- municating secretly with someone. By taking the third letter in each word, the message reads: "Send Lawyers, guns and money." To some degree or the other, we are all familiar with the art of stealthy communi- cation and passing secret messages. We've done it in school, devising 'secret' code like the one shown above to communicate with an exclusive band of friends. We've read about it in spy thrillersfrom fairly low-tech methods like hiding information about traitors to the French revolution in a piece of knitting (A Tale of Two Cities), invisible ink, ultrawide radio transmissions that hide messages within noise-like signals and what have you. We've tried to secure our own communications by hiding infor- mation through encryption. And now there's another subset to the art of keep- ing it secretsteganography. Steganowhat? The word Steganography literally means 'covered writing'. The tech- nique dates back to the ancient Greeks who sent information by scraping the wax off a tablet and writing a message on the underlying wood. The tablets were then covered with wax again, rendering them innocent when inspected by the sentries. In modern times, the technique works to camouflage information. You can hide data insight steganography A picture speaks a thousand words Steganos Security Suite 4, S-Tools 4 Find them on the Mindware CD Draw a picture and hide a book of thoughts within, using steganography JANUARY IMA GIN G: A tul Des hm ukh 79 JANUARY within still images, audio or even video. Steganography software store the classified information in the least significant bits of a digitised file, bits that can be changed in subtle ways that cannot be detected by the human eye or ear. The information is first encrypted as a data file. Once you have this, you need to select a carrier file on which the data file can be encoded. The carrier file can be any graphic or audio file eight times the size of the data file. For example, one could hide information in, say, the nose of a puppy on a pet-adoption Web site. The intended recipients can then extract the information. Message in a bottle There are different kinds of carriers, which can carry your message across mediums. The earliest form of steganography was hid- ing messages in text. With the evolution of multimedia applications, it became easier to hide messages in still images since these are larger files. Audio and video carrier files are less perceptible, hence providing high- er invisibility. The technique of steganog- raphy is more or less the same in each carrier file. Messages in text: Secret messages can be hidden in text format by reframing the text of the carrier file, while maintaining the context. One form of Steganography is a program called Spam Mimic. Based on a set of rules called a mimic engine by Peter Wayner, it encodes your message into what looks just like your typical, quickly deleted spam message. However, hiding a message in plain text is a thing of the past, as peo- ple are suspicious of irrelevant text. Messages in still images: This is the most popular method of steganography as minor changes in colour are unnoticeable to the human eye. Outguess, a universal steganography tool, comprises data-specif- ic handlers (code) that extract redundant bits in an image and write them back after modification. Outguess can use any kind of data file as a carrier, as long as a handler is provided. The amount of message that can be encrypted depends upon the size of the carrier. Messages in audio: Messages in audio are always sent along with ambient noise. The data is hidden in the heart of the Layer III encoding process of an MP3 file, namely, the inner loop during compression. The inner loop limits the input data and increases the step size until the data can be coded with the available number of bits. Dissecting Steganography Various tools are available for concealing and sending messages using steganography. Some of the commonly used tools are: Steganos Security Suite 4 uses powerful 128-bit encryption. It would take 1 billion pow- erful computers millions of years to try every com- bination to gain access to your personal informa- tion. This software uses steganography along with encryption to completely secure your data. Web site: www.steganos.com Datamark Technologies has a number of products lined up for steganography. They currently market four digital steganogra- phy products, namely, StegComm for con- fidential multimedia communication, StegMark for digital watermarking storage media, StegSafe for digital storage and linkage, and StegSign for e-commerce transactions. Web site: http://www.datamark-tech.com/data- mark.html Blindside is an application of steganogra- phy that allows you to conceal a single file or set of files within a standard computer image. The new image looks identical to the original, but can contain up to 50 k of data. The hidden files can also be password encrypted, to prevent unauthorised access. Web site: http://www.blindside.co.uk MP3Stego hides information in MP3 files during the compression process. The data is first compressed, encrypted and then hid- den in the MP3 bit stream. Although MP3Stego was written with steganographic applications in mind, it can also be used as a copyright marking system for MP3 files. Web site: http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~fapp2/ steganography/mp3stego Stegano Tools 80 insight steganography JANUARY 2003 The data is first compressed, encrypted and then hidden in the MP3 bit stream. An out- sider, however, can attack it by uncom- pressing and recompressing the bitstream, deleting the hidden information with severe loss to quality. Messages in video: Embedding informa- tion into multimedia data has gained increasing attention lately. The method of encryption is the same as in audio steganography. Video files are generally very good carrier files since they have a lot of irrelevant bits. Steganography and watermark- ing Steganography also enables an evolved form of watermarking. Usually, covert channels in the carrier file carry hidden data unrelated to the content in which it is embedded, but digital watermarking holds information about its carrier medium and is broadly defined as an imperceptible insertion of information such as a number or text into a multimedia file through slight data modification. This process has gained huge acclaim from the media for enabling copyright for their products. Video steganography is more suited to avoiding piracy and is mostly used for dig- ital watermarking. The owner's data is embedded either into the uncoded video or into the MPEG-2 bitstream and can be later retrieved from the decoded video. Although an existing MPEG-2 bitstream is partly altered, it does not visibly distort the original video information. Many commercial graphics programs allow artistes to embed their names as well as copyright notices within images. Some- times the concealed message may consist of a single bit that simply says 'That's done by me!' This is sufficient to accomplish the desired purposea recording or playback device can detect this watermark and refuse to function, disabling access to the data if the user doesn't have the authorisation. There are two types of digital water- marksrobust and fragile. A robust water- mark is embedded in the file in such a way that even if the file is later transformed, the watermark will not be removed. A robust digital watermark is a concealed message that identifies the source of the data. It is called robust because it is designed to sur- vive modifications to the data that result from resizing, cropping, or photographing an image to capture only the part of the image that doesn't have the watermark, or even from re-sampling or making an ana- log recording of an audio stream. Its appli- cation includes copyright protection, labelling, monitoring, tamper proofing and conditional access. On the other hand, fragile digital watermarks are similar to fragile analog watermarksif the data is altered or copied inexactly, the watermark is corrupted. If changes are made to a file containing a fragile digital watermark, the originator of the watermark will be able to detect and identify the areas where the alterations have been made and maybe even deter- mine what the data was before modifica- tion. This scheme serves at proving the authenticity of the data. For ensuring the integrity of data, dig- ital signatures are preferred but fragile digital watermarking can detect data tampering without alerting the culprit. Compatible players refuse to play content that does not bear a valid watermark. All part of one family So how is steganography different from encryption? While cryptography protects the content of messages (their meaning), steganography conceals their very exis- tence. In encryption, the reader can see The World Intellectual Property Organiza- tion (WIPO) has drafted a treaty, which requires countries to penalise those who remove digital watermarks. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) seeks to prevent any individual from forging or removing a watermark, or from creating or publishing about hardware or soft- ware that is capable of doing so. New legislation now pending in the US Con- gress will, if it is passed, specifically penalise those who alter watermarks. Thus, you could not legally create a home recording on a player restricted to playing for example, only Disney titles or only titles for which a fee had been paid to the player's manufacturer or a consor- tium of recording companies. The Law Effect Plenty of free and shareware steganogra- phy software can be found on the Net. A list of such software can be obtained at http://www.cotse.com/tools/stega.htm or http://www.cl.cam. ac.uk/~fapp2/steganogra- phy/stego_soft.html. We are using a software called S-Tools 4 to hide one image within another. The receiver would need the same software to decode it and would also need to know the passphrase and the encryp- tion algorithm. Start S-Tools and Windows Explor- er, using the latter as a drag-and- drop interface for the software. Drag and drop the image to be used as the carrier file from the Explorer onto the Actions window in S-Tools. Drag and drop the data file on the carrier file. You will be prompted to secure the process using a passphrase and an encryption algorithm. Convey these to the receiver too. The hidden data file is ready. Once the recipient receives it, he or she can just right-click on the file and choose Reveal. To extract it, right- click on the image and save it in the des- tination folder. 1 STEP 2 STEP 3 STEP 4 STEP 5 STEP It's a Secret! The data file to be hidden within the carrier file The carrier file Securing the data file through encryption Extracting the hidden file A digital watermark embedded in an image 81 the data but cannot decode it if he does not know how to do so; if the reader knows how to decode the data, it isn't secure. In steganography, the reader isn't even aware that the data is being sent! It is often accepted that communications can be secured by encrypting the data, but this is not very reliable in practice. To ensure a high level of security, the ideal combination would be of encrypting the data and then sending it across using steganography. Watermarking, as opposed to steganog- raphy, needs the additional protection against attempts by pirates at distorting/removing the watermark. In this context, the robustness depends on the application. Copyright being the main area of water- marking, the data need not always be hid- den, as some sys- tems use visible digital water- marks. However, the media has mostly focused on imperceptivity invisible, inaudible digital watermarks that have wider appli- cations. Modern visible watermarks may be visual patterns such as a company logo or copyright sign overlaid on digital images. In most cases the information hidden using steganographic techniques is not related at all to the carrier file. These dif- ferences in goal lead to very different hid- ing techniques. The final truth Technology is a double-edged sword, which can be used and misused depending on the user. Steganography is an exam- ple of this sword. It can be used for safe- guarding data, such as in the field of media where copywriting ensures authenticity. On the flip side, many a terrorist and anti-humanist activities have been carried out cloaked under this technique. While we may be able to put our trust in good faith and sense, predecessors of steganography, encryption and ciphering have proved that there is more harm than good to be done by it. JANUARY 2003 The art of detecting, decoding, erasing and altering messages hidden via steganography is called steganalysis. It is easiest when the before as well as the after steganography copies of the file are present. Steganalysis, can make the hidden data work against the creator. Any malicious interceptor could alter a carrier file without the knowledge of either the sender or the intended receiver. Hence, inaccurate or wrong data could be passed under the identity of the original sender. Steganalysis tools are found aplenty on the Net. One only needs to be aware of the carrier files; what follows is a three-step processacquire, extract and destroy or modify. Stegdetect, for instance, is an auto- mated tool for detecting steganographic content in images. It is capable of detecting several different steganographic methods that embed information in JPEG images. Currently, the detectable schemes are jsteg, jphide (Unix and Windows), Invisible Secrets, Outguess 1.3b, F5, AppendX and Camouflage. Steganalysis 1/2 page Ad 82 JANUARY insight workshop REVEALING Windows Every Windows user unwittingly leaves his or her PC naked to pry- ing eyes. It doesn't take a pro- grammer or cracker to get to your computer. Keys are left in every door and windows (no pun intended) are well oiled to make it simpler. Microsoft quietly assumed that 'desktop users' would never have the need for security and unabashed- ly discarded all such features from its 'home user operating systems', as against the server OSes. This does not mean that we have to continue to pay for the oversight of the software giant. We can take our own steps to safeguard our PCs and data. Here are some of the most blatant security lapses and workarounds for the weaknesses. Windows logon The Windows logon is the worst pseudo security measureby itself, it simply cannot prevent unauthorised access to your computer. Microsoft designed the operating system for just desktop PCs, and assumed that security was required only for servers. Thus, the Windows logon only loads the correct desktop settings and can be bypassed by simply pressing [Esc]. There are some ways to make it more secure, though these are not the most elegant solu- tions. Still, it will take more than just a lit- tle effort to bypass these. First, configure your Windows for mul- tiple users from Control Panel > Users. Create a new user by typing a new name at the Windows logon box, then restart Windows and login as the new user. Open the reg- istry by running regedit from Start > Run and navigate to HKEY_Users\.Default\Soft- ware\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVer- sion\Run. If the Run key does not exist, create it. Create a new string value named LockEscape, and set its value to rundll32 shell32,SHExitWindowsEx 0. Now when you log off or restart the machine, you can login as the new user created, but if the Cancel button or the [Esc] key is pressed, the desktop will partially load and then return to the login screen. Optionally, you could set the PC to shut down upon unau- thorised access, but this can get very irri- tating. To do this, use the command rundll.exe user.exe,ExitWindows as the value for the registry key. This method basically takes advantage of the Windows architecture. When log- ging in as a particular user, Windows loads the user's profile with Desktop settings, Set up multiple users on Windows If you have wished for more control over who can access your PC or your data, the first solution would have been to switch over to Windows 2000 or XP. But you can have security in Windows 98 too ILLUSTRATION:Mahesh Benkar JANUARY 83 programs running at startup, etc. If no user logs in, it loads a default profile. To this default profile, we have added a command to log off at startup. Note that to create additional users, you will first need to delete this key from the registry. This is sufficient to keep most people away from your computer, but if you want higher security, there are several third-party tools that provide excellent features. Boot- Locker (www.bootlocker.com) is one such util- ity that restricts access at various levels. You can use this as a login screen to Windows, or even when you leave your PC unat- tended for a while. It can even bring up a login screen for DOS. Access Denied (www.johnru.com) is a similar software that requests a username and password while booting. One great feature in this program is its ability to save short messages while the Desktop is locked. Thus, someone who wants to use your PC for a genuine purpose could leave a message for you to call him or her when you get to your PC. Screensavers Screensaver passwords are not as flawed as the Windows logonthey are meant to protect an unattended Desktop from unau- thorised access. However, these too are insecure because of their nature. Screen- savers are simply executable programs. In fact, you can change the extension of any EXE file to SCR and load it as a screensaver! Thus, badly programmed or processor and RAM-intensive screensavers can often crash and give access to the Desktop. Ama- teur programmers can leave code that will allow simple key combinations such as [Alt] + [Tab], [Ctrl] + [Esc] and [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Delete]. These problems plagued even the built-in screensavers on Windows 95 systems. The easiest way to bypass the screensaver is to simply restart the system! Being executables, they are also vulnerable to viruses. Workarounds for such vulnerabilities are simpleuse more secure screensavers, after testing them thoroughly for all possi- ble ways to kill it. Of course, you must also make a shortcut for it in the Startup folder otherwise someone can simply reboot your machine and disable the password. Couple this with a BIOS password and you have a fairly secure system. For those who desperately want to get to your Windows, programs such as SSBy- pass (www.amecisco.com/ssbypass.htm) are read- ily available. It takes advantage of the Autorun facility for CDs, and kills the screensaver without having to provide the password. Unless you happen to interrupt the predator, you will never know that your system has been compromised. Thus, for higher security, you will again have to fall back on third-party utilities such as Access Denied or Security Storm Desktop Lock 2002 (www.securitystorm.net). 1Click & Lock (www.softstack.com) is an interesting utility that combines all the functionality required from a secure screensaver and Desktop lock. It can be launched at startup and runs in the system tray so that you can enable it when leaving your PC. It logs access and allows others to leave messages for you. Boot keys are disabled so that no one can access the PC from DOS or Safe Mode either. Also, the screensaver is optionalyou may want to secure your desktop from access, but still view the programs running. Network shares Early users may remember that Windows was not originally intended to be used as a Passwords on Windows systems are not safe. Any password you save within an application or anywhere within the system can be easily retrieved, or at least used on another PC. Some part of this will require good knowledge of Win- dows, for the rest, tools and utilities are readily available. If you have the Auto- Complete feature for forms and passwords turned on in Internet Explorer, all this data is stored in the Windows Registry, under a single key. Anyone can simply export this key, transfer it to another machine and get access to your secure accounts on the Web. The data is not stored as plain text, but advanced users would even be able to deci- pher the passwords. You can turn off Auto- Complete from Control Panel > Internet Options > Content > AutoComplete. For applications such as e-mail and mes- senger clients, if you have saved the account passwords in the application, they can be retrieved using software such as Revelation (www.snadboy.com). All one needs to do is point the cursor over the pass- word field that displays asterisks to get the actual password. Such software can be very useful when genuine users have forgotten their passwords, but the software does not distinguish between usersit will display the password to any user. For highest secu- rity, all passwords should be stored only in your head and nowhere else. Retrievable Passwords 1Click & Lock is a good substitute for screensaver security We have always been quite clear that Win95 and Win98 are not the systems to use if you are in a hostile security environment. We recommend Windows NT for those environments " " Paul Leach, a Microsoft representative, commenting on the security flaws of File and Print Sharing on Windows 9x Access Denied 3.30, BootLocker 7.65, 1Click & Lock 2.4, Securi- ty Storm Desktop Lock 2002 for Windows 9x/Me, Cyber Patrol 5.0, Snitch 1.2 Find them on the Mindware CD 84 insight workshop networked workstation. The first traces of network protocols, clients and services were thrown into Windows for Work- groups 3.11. Windows 95 had a much bet- ter network implementation, but the protocols used have gone through quite a few changes. Primitive protocols have been dropped and a handful of protocols such as TCP/IP and IPX/SPX have come up as win- ners by natural selection. NetBIOS (Network Basic Input/Output System) has been adopted as an industry standard to access LAN resources. Windows 98 uses a very primitive protocol, LAN Manager, which is quite weak on secu- rity. Microsoft implements NetBIOS over TCP/IP to share resources. The File and Print Sharing service primarily runs on port 139 and can easily give access to anyone on the networkLAN, or even the Internet. This is usually the first port hackers try to access password-protecting your shares only make it slightly more difficult to get to your files. There are ample tools on the Net such as GFI LANguard Network Security Scanner (www.gfisoftware.com) that can discover pass- words in a matter of seconds. Your computer is vulnerable even if you are not on a LAN and don't have any shared folders or printers, as long as the service is installed. The best solution would be to remove the File and Print Sharing service, if you are not going to be using these services. To do this, open Control Panel > Network, click File and Print Sharing and disable both the checkboxes. If Client for Microsoft Networks is installed, you will have to remove that too. You can then select TCP/IP and click Properties and check the NetBIOS tab to ensure that it has been disabled. Check the same for other protocols such as IPX/SPX and remove the NetBEUI protocol, which is just an exten- sion of NetBIOS. However, you cannot do this if you are on a LAN and need to share resources. There is no real solution to pre- vent discovery of passwords on a LAN. User-level access is slightly stronger than share-level access, especially when logging in to a Windows NT or 2000 domain. Using long and complicated passwords also makes them difficult to figure out. Howev- er, if you want reliable security for your files, you should use some file encryption tools such as PGP (www.pgpi.org). (For more on encryption, data security and PGP, refer to Datawatch in the November 2002 Digit issue). Content Advisor The parental control features added to Internet Explorer are a boon in many households and organisations. Access to Web sites using Internet Explorer can be restricted to a great extent, based on vari- ous settings. In Internet Explorer 4 howev- er, there were several bugs in this system that caused problems with the Content Advisor settings. The feature would enable or disable itself, forget the password and manifest other problems. With each new problem that surfaced, Microsoft had to put up documentation on how to solve it. Most of the solutions gave detailed step-by-step instructions on how to disable the Content Advisor and reset its password, without requiring the current password. One such document at http://sup- port.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb; en-us;242037 lists virtually every version of Internet Explorer to be affected by the bug. These solutions also found their way to var- ious support sites and message boards. Thus, it became quite simple to bypass this security. In this case, the security feature is not inherently flawed, but ways to circumvent it are well documented. Thus, there is no workaround within Internet Explorer that will strengthen the security. If you want to restrict access to certain Web sites, you will have to use a third-party parental control software. Cyber Patrol (www.surfcontrol.com) filters out indecent or otherwise unwanted material on the Internet by controlling the user's Internet access and can also restrict the amount of time spent online. It updates the list of inappropriate sites daily and provides some powerful filtering options, giving you adequate control over each Internet session. Snitch (www.hyperdy- nesoftware.com), another Web-control soft- ware, works on a very interesting concept. It filters out content in real-time, by using several algorithms to detect adult content. It looks for words of a certain kind and analyses images to determine what per cent of them is showing skin, etc. It can even JANUARY For several common file formats, there are tools available to extract forgotten pass- words. Elcomsoft (www.elcomsoft.com) prob- ably has the longest portfolio of such soft- ware, and their tools have proven to work in most cases. They have tools to recover passwords from Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Outlook, Zip, RAR and many more file formats. All one needs to do is run the software, set a few password criteria, choose the file and let the software run. Using long and complicated passwords would make it quite difficult for the soft- ware to crack the password. Archives such as Zip and RAR files have a very weird behaviour. If you set a pass- word when creating the archive, the password is assigned to each file in the archive and not the archive itself. Thus, the file can be opened and the entire list of files can be seen. The files cannot be extracted without the password, but in many cases, viewing the file listing itself could be detri- mental. One way to make them more secure is to compress files into an archive with a password, and then compress that archive into another one, again with a password. Thus, the only file that can be seen will be the original archive. Its con- tents will not be visible until a password is provided to extract it. File Passwords Snitch monitors Web activity for adult content in real time Configure network services and protocols 85 bring up a list of suspicious files from your hard disk. Not surpris- ingly, there are also software such as PeaceFire (www.peacefire.org) avail- able for free, that block out many popular parental control software. Outlook Express identities Outlook Express has grown to be one of the most popular e-mail clients because of its integration with Internet Explorer, ease of use and features such as support for multiple identities. It is quite com- plete as a basic e-mail client, but security of e-mail is quite flawed. On the face of it, you can assign passwords to each identity so that each user can maintain his or her accounts, settings and e-mail. This feature has multiple flaws and working around it to access another person's e-mail is quite simple. First of all, after a user logs in to an identity, it is necessary to log off, otherwise the client promptly opens up with the same identity. Simply closing the application is of no use. Secondly, if a person wants to access your e-mail, he or she can simply create a new iden- tity and point his store folder to the existing mailbox folder from Tools > Options > Mainte- nance. Another way to get to the mail is to copy off the mailbox files to another PC. Account settings are easily acces- sible for pranksters with a little knowledge of Windows, from the Windows Registry. The identity feature works just like the Win- dows logonit acts as a profile login to load your settings and that's it. For e-mail security, you should switch to Outlook, which is bundled with MS Office. Here, the mailbox file itself is password-protected, so there is no easy way of accessing your messages. One would have to actually crack the code. Outlook will ask for a password every time it is opened, and the same password will be applicable even if the file is copied to another machine and loaded in a different Outlook. The password will be required even when importing messages from the mailbox. You can set the pass- word from Tools > Options > Mail Setup > Data Flies > Settings. It is possible to overcome most security flaws in Windows sys- tems. Though some of them are not the most elegant solutions, they will definitely keep most prying eyes away. Plus, they do save you big bucks in upgrading the operating system and the hardware to match it. Now you can sleep peacefully. VEER KOTHARI Key loggers are programs that run transparently on your computer and keep track of every single keystroke from your keyboard. These tools are freely available and can reveal everything you type, including pass- words, to anyone who knows that such a program is running on your machine. Usually, these software also regularly send out the logs to the e-mail address of the person who installed it. Most anti- virus software are geared to trap and prevent key loggers. Key Loggers Set a password for the mailbox file in Outlook 1/4 page H AD 1/4 page H AD JANUARY JANUARY 2003 In this age of technology, information is the key and time is always a con- straint. Searching smart on the Inter- net isn't just a conceptit's an absolute necessity. The World Wide Web is a vast ocean of knowledge and a Net search is much like looking for the proverbial nee- dle in a haystack. While most of us man- age to just scratch the surface of the Inter- net, others maximise their precious online time with the help of power tools. These tools are freely available on the Net and operate from within the browser. They scrounge the Net using intelligent search- es for what is relevant to your search and discard what is not, helping you work smarter and more efficiently. The tools listed here are must-haves, especially if you begin your online voyage by jumping into a search engine. Most of them are lit- tle browser add-ons that exist as toolbars within the browser. Some others are site- based tools that help you look for more specialised information. The browser add- ons have been categorised into three typesthose used for searching, those used for knowledge and reference search- es, and those used for shopping. Of course, quite a few of these toolbars come close to doing all three, thereby saving you desktop real estate. Seek and ye shall find Fast and accuratethat's how we like our online searches. While you can log on to a search engine and have it locate what you want, few know that most of the popular search engines can be directly started from your browser. Seamlessly integrating into your existing browser, the search engines sit as tiny toolbars within your browser. They offer you the convenience of search- ing straight from your browser without first having to locate the search engine on the Webjust enter the search criteria within the toolbar search box and start the search. There are several such tools available, with each famous search engine coming out with its own version. The Google Toolbar Web site: http://toolbar.google.com Utter 'search' and most people will asso- ciate it with Google. The Google toolbar is free, accurate and has some slick features. Type in a query and access the results from Google's Web search or Image search, check out news groups from Google's Groups button or access the Directory search. This toolbar lets you open results in a separate page, so you can start search- ing, no matter what you are viewing cur- 1 2 3 4 86 insight netreturns Fast, accurate and straight from within your browseraddons that will speed up your journey as you navigate through the vast and chaotic Net Softbots AI RoboForm v5.0.2 Find it on the Mindware CD 1 2 3 4 at your service ILLUSTRATIONS: Mahesh Benkar Google the world: Configure the toolbar by clicking on Google. Use Search Site to search within the current Web page. Access news from the News button. Page Rank (if enabled) shows you the popularity of the page. The Page Info drop down list gives you a number of options such as to view cached snapshot of the page, view other similar pages, check out the backward links, and even have the page translated into English rently. Click on Page Info and access links to related pages, along with pages linking to the current site and translations into English from a variety of European lan- guages. The Highlight highlights the search criteria across the current page. It also has an enhanced version that has a feature called PageRank. This feature rates the popularity of your pages. Google warns you that if you use PageRank, it will collect information on your surfing habits. If you don't like this, take the non-enhanced ver- sion that has all the bells and whistles, except the aforementioned feature. Ask Jeeves Toolbar Web site: www.ask.com Get the power of Jeeves, the Butler, on your browser toolbar. The Ask Jeeves Web site has been popular for being a child- friendly site and the toolbar continues that trend. It lets you pose search terms in simple natural language queries and comes with a whole host of options. You can also access Ask Jeeves for Kids for safe surfing for children, and check dictionary definitions and weather forecasts. The toolbar highlights every instance of the search term entered in the current page. The search results also include references to encyclopaedic sources. The Yahoo! Companion Web site: http://companion.yahoo.com The Yahoo! Companion lets you access Yahoo!'s services quickly. Use the toolbar to sign into Yahoo! and check out person- alised news feeds and pages. You can also add oft-referred services such as news, finance, address books, jobs, directory list- ings and games. The buttons reveal the options within each section. E-mail alerts are linked to the toolbar and remind you to check your mail and provide a link to your account. The Ultrabar IE Toolbar Web site: http://ultrabar.com The Ultrabar IE toolbar comes with built- in support for many search engines such as Google, Alta Vista, Yahoo!, etc. The toolbar also supports searches within Google's groups, Yahoo's News and Stocks, News.com, the CGI Resource Index and the CPAN modules. It even lets you search across Tucows. The search is not restricted to these sites alone and can be customised to work with the search engines of your choice. You can appoint the order of the search engines and highlight all occurrences of the search terms within the page and go directly to the search terms or phrases. Unfortunately, metabrowsing across all of the listed engines, at the same time, is not possible. Teoma Search Bar Web site: http://sp.ask.com/docs/teoma/toolbar Teoma's Search Bar runs the new Teoma search engine that refines your searches to provide more accurate hits. It has two very useful featuresRefine which offers sug- gestions to narrow down the search, and Resources which offers link collections to explore. Teoma also offers you a diction- ary and definition feature that links up with Merriam-Webster OnLine. The high- lighting button can be used to mark all the occurrences of the search term within the current page. If reference be thy game If you are a student who uses the Net for intensively researching specific topics, there are some excellent tools that let you 1 2 3 4 5 87 We are drowning in information but starved of knowledge John Naisbitt,author, talking about the future in his book Megatrends, 1982" " 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 Access the Yahoo! homepage by clicking on Y!. Edit and customise the toolbar by clicking here. The buttons reveal further links that let you jump straightaway onto your destination. For accessing the extra search options, click here and choose between dictionary and Thesaurus services, stock tickers, the address book, yellow pages, shopping facilities, news stories and picture galleries. Sign into Yahoo! from here Ask Jeeves: Configure the Butler on your toolbar by clicking on Ask Jeeves. The surf option for children is accessed here. You can access the news and the dictionary and definitions from here. You can even choose to mail the current page to a friend 2 1 3 5 4 IDs, Online Most Web-based services such as message boards and speciality sites require you to log on to access their services, slowly defining us by our online identities. This means we need to juggle our multiple online identities. So how do you remem- ber the identities and passwords for each? Trust your online identities to a software designed for holding them. AI RoboForm 5.0 Web site: www.roboform.com This identity and password management addon holds all sorts of personal informa- tionfrom names and addresses, to pass- words and credit card information. Look- ing below the hood and tuning this soft- ware can be somewhat intimidating, but it becomes easy once you use it. It uses some pretty slick artificial intelligence routines to fill up any form you come across online. RoboForm Pro uses 3DES for security; how- ever, the free 30-day trial version uses the less secure 1DES algorithm. The encrypted data is stored locally on the hard disk and not on any remote third party server. AI RoboForm: Identities gives you access to the identities that you have created. Forms can be filled by a click of a button. Personalise the toolbar under More. This hides the toolbar, although it is still active. Manage your passcards from here. Click on Ultrabar and access the configur- ation options. Click here to change search engines. This displays the list of search engines. Set a customised search engine here. You can even highlight the search term across the results 2 1 1 2 5 3 4 JANUARY 2003 do it efficiently. News services, ency- clopaedias and other authoritative refer- ence works are available aplenty on the Net and you can also have them on your browser for immediate access. Merriam-Webster Toolbar Web site: www.m-w.com Whether you are a writer or a reader, this toolbar is made for you. Just type in your subject and hit search, or highlight a term on a Web page and right-click to locate its meaning across the venerable Merriam- Webster OnLine. A pop-up window answers your question and gives you a link to an audio pronunciation of the word. This win- dow also gives you relevant links and some historical information. You can use the dic- tionary as well as the associated Webster Thesaurus. While you could access quite a lot from the Webster portal online, you do not have access to the unabridged Webster online dictionarythis is a premium serv- ice. Incidentally, many search toolbars link up their dictionary and definition sections to Merriam-Webster. MSNBC's News Alert Web site: www.msnbc.com/tools/newstools/d/ news_alert.asp If you want to be up to date with the lat- est news, get hold of MSNBC's free news alert. This program adds an icon to your system tray and gives news alerts by flash- ing the icon. Clicking the icon opens up a popup window that gives you the head- line and link to the complete story. Play with the settings to get it working to your liking and to set up personalised alerts for stories of your interest. BBC News Ticker Web site: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/stat- ic/services/ticker/default.stm This one runs as a ticker on the top of your screen. You can configure the ticker to deliver the kind of news you would like to see. It continuously provides updated news headlines with a link to the com- plete stories at the BBC Web site. Bargains on the Web Using some pretty sophisticated tech- niques, these little browser add-ons will rummage the Internet and get you just what you ordered for. But beware. When it comes to bargains that look too good to be true, they probably are. Use these tools and some common sense to bag some great bargains. The Side Step Travel Search Engine Web site: www.sidestep.com Use this travel search engine to locate the lowest airline fares, hotel bookings and the lowest car rental costs all around the world. This metasearch travel engine combs all the low-cost travel sites to locate the best deals for you. It saves much of your planning time by searching and then comparing some 90 odd supplier sites such as Travelocity.com (www.travelocity. com), Expedia (www.expedia.com), Cheap Tickets (www.cheaptickets.com) and Lowest- fare.com (www.lowestfare. com). It occupies a sidebar that sits on the left side of your page, so you can use it while you work. However, it is not the fastest search engine and restricts its search to starred hotels within India. This renders it useless to low-budget travellers. The interface lets you choose between airlines, hotels and cars. You can flip through tabs and search for low airfares, cheaper hotel rates and car rentals. 88 insight netreturns These are sites that have search services to locate information. Some of these sites offer specialised services, such as powerful metasearch tools. A 'metasearch' is similar to an ordinary search, with one major differ- encemetasearches query and scan across many search engines at the same time to locate information. These search engines are programmed to avoid duplicate listings. In some of them, you can use simple, natural language in the same way you communicate while speaking. Generalised metasearch If you are looking for vast metasearch engines that harness the power of several search technologies, check out MetaCrawler (www.metacrawler.com) and Mamma (www.mamma.com). Both organise the results into clusters by word, category or level of popularity, without duplicating list- ings. Dogpile (www.dogpile.com) presents the results sequentially. Also notable is Invisible Web (www.invisibleweb.com), a search engine that can ferret out information located within specific databasesother search engines find information on Web pages but fall short while searching for information embedded within databases. Science-related research If you are looking for reliable papers in any branch of study, you'll find them all using the Scirus search engine (www.scirus.com). Scirus scans across universi- ty Web sites and online paper repositories for your academic needs. Also check out Find Articles (www.findarticles.com), to locate magazine and journal articles. Online, but not within your Browser BBC: Tune in for news, anytime 1 3 2 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 1 2 3 4 5 3 Teoma: Click here to fine tune the limited configuration options; choose which buttons you want displayed and set the other options. While you can't configure the Search options, it does yield some pretty useful resource sites. Highlighting is enabled from here. To e-mail a copy of the page, click here Merriam-Webster: Click here to configure the toolbar. Enter the search term within the text window and to obtain a dictionary definition, click on the Dictionary button. Use the Thesaurus button for more information on the word. Both open up in a separate popup window, so your current page view remains intact. The Word of the Day button opens a popup that gives you a word accompanied by some history JANUARY 2003 The eBay Toolbar Web site: http://pages.ebay.com/ebay_toolbar This nifty toolbar keeps you updated about the auctions at eBay.com (www.ebay.com). The toolbar has a wide range of subcategories in each drop down box, allowing you to make your search very specific. To bid, log into your eBay account and jump into the market. The toolbar lets you keep tabs on your selected auctions and keeps you updated by popup boxes with links to the auction when your selected auction is about to close. Similarly, your bids can also be monitored with the toolbar. It's a big, bad Net out there but these high-quality, speed-enhancing tools get you around in a jiffy. You will find more such tools on the Net, but handle them with cautionthey may be spy- ware. Always read the fine print before you sign up for any service to ensure that you don't trade your privacy for speed and ease. Steer away from tools that promote only specific third-party services, which will give you skewed results. So experiment and find the ones that suit you the best; use these quality browser addons to mine the Net efficiently and draw away from the tedium of researching for information. SRINIVASAN RAMAKRISHNAN 89 1 1 2 3 2 3 4 5 SideStep: Search great bargains online! Click here to get great airfare bargains. Get affordable hotels here. Click here for low-cost car rentals The eBay button leads you to a whole lot of optionschoose between signing in, checking out the community, browsing eBay Motors and Stores, Half.com (an eBay associate), Sotheby's and others. Click on the Search button and you will find a huge, well-sorted list. Click on any one category to open up a wide range of subcategories to further narrow down your search. Everything Else is for things you can't really classify. Use the My eBay button to access personalised features. The Bid Alert lets you set alerts for your bids, while the Watch alert keeps track of an auction of your choice. 1/2 page H Ad 1 2 3 1 3 4 5 2 insight quick start 90 JANUARY 2003 The wide reach of computers to peo- ple of all ages and backgrounds has largely been affected by the user- friendliness of software. Yet, this factor is very subjectiveit increases with expo- sure to the software and with tips from other users. In today's connected world, e-mail is the the de-facto way of transfer- ring files. Network administrators and long-time PC users still try and evangelise the use of FTP (File Transfer Protocol), but the apparent ease of e-mail is too good to let go. Most people have stopped urging others to use FTP, but they are still trying to share practices that will reduce the load on e-mail. One such advice is to compress the files you want to send by e-mail. New users might be perplexed by the Winzip or PKZip interfacesone can't extract a file by just right-clicking on it in an e-mail. WinRAR archives score over the Zip format by allowing you to add instruc- tional guides, and the archives are also smaller. Also, this is a much more efficient way to distribute small programs instead of using commercial installers that make the installation unnecessarily large. Compression As with Winzip, you can right-click files in Windows Explorer to add them to RAR archives, but this will not give you access to options that optimise compres- sion. If you are compressing very large or a sizeable number of files, you could gain a lot by changing the compression options. Select the files or folders you want to compress and click Add. Set the compression method to Best and enable the Solid archive option. If you are compressing multime- dia files such as uncompressed wave files (files compressed with multimedia codecs will not afford noticeable com- pression ratios) or images, enable Multi- media Compression. On the Advanced tab, choose the dictionary size. General- ly, the higher the dictionary size, the greater the compression. Self-extracting options Creating a self-extracting archive when compressing with WinRAR is as sim- ple as enabling the 'Create SFX archive' option on the General tab. However, this will create simple SFXs, that will be no bet- ter than those created over the Zip format. For added functionality, add script to the archive by writing commands in the Com- ments box. Type each command on a sep- arate line. You can use any combinations of the commands, depending on your purpose for the archive. Title=<title> sets the title of the extrac- tion window. For example, Title=Vacation Photos. Text=<message> displays a message in the extraction window when the EXE is double-clicked. You can repeat the com- mand several times to display multiple lines of text. Use this to give a detailed description of the archive and instruc- tions to the user. Path=<path> sets the default path where the files will be extracted. You can enter the entire path including the drive letter, or specify a relative path. Relative paths are always extracted to the Program Files folder. For example, Path=C:\My Documents\Vacation Photos. Silent extracts all files to the default path without providing any options and notifications to the user. If the Path com- mand is not used, it will extract all files to the current folder. Using this is not advised without the Setup command, as it makes usage less intuitive. If Overwrite=[0, 1, 2] is set to 0, the user will be asked before overwriting the exist- ing files. If it is set to 1 or no number is specified, all files will be overwritten with- out confirmation; if it is set to 2, all the existing files will not be overwritten. Delete=<filename> deletes the speci- fied file from the destination before extracting any files. You can use as many Delete commands as you want. Setup=<program> is a powerful option that can credit usability to your archives. The specified program will launch auto- matically after extraction is complete. Again, you can specify an absolute path or simply give the program name. With TempMode=[Question][@Title], the SFX will create a temporary folder, extract all files to it, start the program specified in the Setup command and remove the temporary folder with all its contents after completing the Setup pro- gram. This option is generally used to dis- tribute programs. The optional Question and Title parameters can be used for the user to confirm installation. VEER KOTHARI WinRAR 3.00 Find it on the Mindware CD Self-extracting archives Compression options in WinRAR A sample script for sending your vacation snaps to your friends 92 insight troubleshooting JANUARY 2003 Internet telephony I have a 1 GHz Celeron processor, a motherboard with integrated sound and graphics and Windows 98, with a modem. I use this system primarily for voice chat- ting with my husband. The problem is that he can hear what I'm saying but I can't hear him. Is this problem related to the soundcard or the telephone line? Shamina Via e-mail This problem could occur due to vari- ous reasons. Check if the headset is plugged into the correct port on your soundcardit should be in the head- phone-out port. Use the audio-tuning wiz- ards that come bundled with the voice chatting software to adjust the volume lev- els. For instance, in MSN and Yahoo! Mes- senger, these options are under the Tools and Help menus, respectively. An error in these wizards will let you know the cause of your problem. Finally, go to Start > Set- tings > Control Panel > Multimedia. Make sure that the name of the soundcard under the Playback and Recording sections is the right one. Also, check the box titled 'Use only preferred devices' and turn up the Master and Wave volumes in Volume Con- trol by going to Start > Programs > Accessories > Entertainment > Volume Control. If you have amplified speakers, increase their volume as well. Viral attack I have Windows 98 SE installed on my PC. A few days back, I noticed two files, Folder.htt and Desktop.ini, recreated in every folder. I formatted the hard drive and recreated the partitions, but the prob- lem persists. It causes an adverse effect on the system speed too. Apparently, the files are also infected with the VBS/Redlof@M virus. Which virus scanner can I use to remove it? Vijay Tripathi Via e-mail This is a polymorphic, encrypted, VBScript virus that infects HTML-based and VBScript files on all drives. The virus also copies itself to either the Kernel.dll or Kernel32.dll files and changes the default association for DLL files. It will then embed itself into every HTML e-mail you send. You can use any good virus scanner such as Norton AntiVirus to look for infected files. Before this, you should modify the registry. Open the Registry Editor by running regedit from Start > Run and go to HKEY_Local_Machine\Soft- ware\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVer- sion\Run. Delete the value Kernel32 under this. Next, browse to HKEY_Cur- rent_User\Identities\[User ID]\Software\ Microsoft\Outlook Express\[Version] \Mail and delete the values Compose Use Stationery, Stationery Name and Wide Stationery Name. Under HKEY_Cur- rent_User\Software\Microsoft\Office\ 9.0\Outlook\Options\Mail, delete the EditorPreference value and finally, under HKEY_Classes_Root\dllFile, delete the keys Shell, ShellEx, ScriptEngine and ScriptHostEncode. Next, open Start > Set- tings > Folder Options and switch the view to Classic style instead of Web style. Restart the machine for the changes to take effect and run the virus scanner. USB camera I have a Pentium III system running Windows 98 SE. I have been using a Canon IXUS 300 digital camera for the past one year without any problems. However, now whenever I connect my camera to the computer using a USB cable, an error, 'STIMON caused an invalid page fault' is displayed. I have uninstalled and reinstalled all the software bundled with the camera. When I access Scanners from the Control Panel and select the camera in the window, an error Video errors, installation and upgrade problems, using Hindi fonts and much morefind your answers here Select your soundcard as the preferred device JANUARY 2003 93 with Sticpl.cpl is displayed. Recently I had downloaded and installed the Windows 98 Q323255 Update. Could this have caused the problem? Nitesh Kumar Jain Via e-mail It seems that the Stimon.exe file on your PC is damaged. Press [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Del] and check if Stimon is running. If it is, end the task. Delete the file from \Win- dows\System. Run the Registry Editor and navigate to HKEY_Local_Machine\Soft- ware\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVer- sion. Look for a value named StillImageMonitor under either the Run or RunServices keys. Delete the value and restart the PC. Now reinstall the drivers for the USB camera. If you still get an error, replace the Stic- pl.cpl file, too. To do this, run sfc from Start > Run and insert the Windows 98 installa- tion disk. Select the option 'Extract one file from installation disk' and click Browse. Locate Sticpl.cpl in the \Windows\System folder and click Start. Restart the machine after restoring the file. Bootable floppy I made a bootable disk several times, using different floppies, but my PC does- n't boot from it. I can see the file list on the disk from DOS and Windows. What could be the problem? Ashish Via e-mail Your PC is probably not set to boot from the floppy drive. This is a setting in the BIOS, where you can choose what device chain it should look through for booting. While the PC is booting, press the [Delete] key ([F2] on some BIOSes) to enter the BIOS setup. The way to access this option varies across different BIOSes, but just look for an option such as Boot Order or First Boot Device. Ensure that A or Floppy is set as the first boot device, save the changes and exit the BIOS. Henceforth, it should boot from the floppy. If it still doesn't, the problem could be with the floppy drive itself, in which case you will have to get it replaced. Running old programs I need to run a DOS accounting soft- ware under Windows Me, but I have to change the Files variable to 100, which by default is 10. In Windows 98, I used to set it from the config.sys file, but in Windows Me I cannot edit it. How can this be done? Rahil Mehta Via e-mail You can set the environment variable from the autoexec.bat file instead of the config.sys file. Use the DOS command SET to assign a value to a variable. Thus, you can enter the following line in the autoexec.bat file, or type it directly at the Command Prompt: SET FILES=100 To remove an environment variable, type the SET command without any value (SET FILES=) and simply type SET to view a list of current variables. Receipt confirmation I have a Pentium II 433 MHz system with 128 MB RAM running Windows 98 SE. I have Outlook Express 6 installed as my e-mail client. How can I confirm that the person to whom the mail has been sent has seen the message? Sukhbir Via e-mail You can request a notification when the recipient reads the message using the Request Read Receipt option in Outlook Express. When creating a message, click Tools > Request Read Receipt to enable this for the message. A better option would be to enable this permanently, so that the request goes with every message you send. To do this, open Tools > Options > Receipts and enable 'Request a read receipt for all sent messages'. Here, you will also notice how Outlook Express should respond to receipt requests it gets from other senders. When the recipient first opens your mes- sage or views it in the Preview Pane, Installing Solaris I have a Compaq Presario PC with Windows XP pre-installed on it. The partitions of my 40 GB hard disk are 37 GB (NTFS) and 2.7 GB (FAT32). I want to install Solaris 8 on my machine. When I boot the Solaris ker- nel, it gets terminat- ed and the system gets restarted. Is there a problem with my BIOS, which is not allowing the kernel to run on it? Gaurav Via e-mail The installer is probably having some problems with the 40 GB hard disk. The OS does not support disks beyond 32 GB, as documented on the Sun Web site. Your BIOS probably does support the drive, as Windows XP is installed and running on it. One workaround to this is to get another smaller hard disk and install Solaris on it, install the patches for Solaris that enable support for large disks, then reconnect the 40 GB drive. Another possible workaround is to install Solaris 8 on a smaller hard disk and then connect the 40 GB drive, but disable it in the BIOS. You could also try setting the drive to 32 GB in the BIOS and installing the operat- ing system. Restoring a file using System File Checker Enable Read Receipt requests in Outlook Express ILLUSTRATIONS: Mahesh Benkar 94 insight troubleshooting JANUARY 2003 Outlook Express will either send back a message saying that the e-mail has been read, or ask the user for confirmation to do so, depending on the settings. It may also be set to never send such notifications. Thus, it is possible for the recipient to not send you the receipt notification. Autorun How can I create an Autorun CD? Prabhat Via e-mail To create an Autorun CD, simply place a text file named autorun.inf in the root. The contents of this text file can have a lot of property and behaviour-defining parameters, but the ones you will use most are the following: open=<program path and name> icon=<icon path and name> Each parameter must appear on a sep- arate line. Also, ideally the path should be relative, since the CD-ROM drive letter would differ from PC to PC. Thus, if you want to launch a program named runcd.exe from the Autorun folder on a CD, the text would be open=autorun\ runcd.exe. Cross cabling I have an IBM NetVista with a D-Link Lan card installed. Recently I purchased a Pentium 4 system with a Compex RE100ATX/WOL Lan card. I connected them with a cross-crimped cable and after logging on, the IBM node was avail- able in Network Neighborhood of the Pentium 4 system. When I tried accessing it, it displayed a message that the node was not accessible and the IBM system does not show Pentium 4 at all. On con- necting the two via a hub on an existing network, both machines can access other systems on the network, but not each other. Please help. Pathanjali Nadiminty Via e-mail You have not mentioned what operat- ing systems each machine is running. The problem can occur due to incompatibili- ty of network protocols across the machines, or simply some network set- tings. Ensure that the same set of proto- cols and services are installed on both systems and they should be able to com- municate with each other. Also, if you are using only TCP/IP on both machines, make sure they both have valid IP addresses in the same subnet. You can configure all network settings by right- clicking Network Neighborhood and clicking Properties. Most importantly, ensure that File and Print Sharing is enabled on both computers. Hindi on the Web I would like to put a Word document containing Hindi script on the Internet. The document has been created on Windows 98 using Word 97, using Akruti fonts. The fonts have been embedded into the docu- ment and I tested it on several computers where Hindi fonts are not installed. The document opened properly, so I sent it to London, where the Web site is being main- tained. The feedback from there is that they cannot see Hindi script as the font is not available. What could be the reason for this? Are there any limitations in embed- ding true type fonts in Word? Prasad DVR Via e-mail It is possible that the document is being viewed within Internet Explorer at the other end. Thus, the embedded fonts may not show. Also, it is possible that the document is being viewed on a different version of Microsoft Word, which may be handling the file differently. Create dif- ferent versions of the document on dif- ferent versions of Word and see if they open properly. Word 2000 and higher have stricter licensing policies when embedding fonts than Word 97, so this could cause the problem. Startup screen I'm facing a curious problem. Normally when Windows boots, it shows the graphi- cal bootup screen of the Windows version. I have Windows 98 SE on my machine. For the last three months, my bootup screen has changed to that of Windows Memphis. I don't know how it got changed. I looked for the logos.sys and logow.sys files, but these are intact. The screen had changed after I installed some software. I have XP Service Pack I have a Pentium III 1.14 GHz proces- sor and 128 MB SDRAM. I tried installing Windows XP Service Pack 1 from the November Mindware CD. After it copied all the files, it gave a message that the CD key is not valid. If the key was not valid then Windows XP would not have installed in the first place. Why am I getting this error? Meetesh Jain Via e-mail Since the release of Windows XP, Microsoft noticed that the vast majority of illegitimate copies are using a small handful of leaked CD keys. In an effort to thwart these illegitimate users, Win- dows XP Service Pack 1 will not install on systems using these keys. Microsoft claims that legitimate licensed users of XP Professional should be unaffected. During the installation of Windows XP Professional, you are prompted to enter a 25 digit Windows XP Product Key, which XP uses to generate the sys- tem's product ID. Because of security concerns about piracy, Microsoft does not provide a tool that allows you to view the Product Key that was used to install the operating sys- tem. The Product ID can be found by right- clicking My Com- puter and choosing Properties. To deter- mine eligibility for the update, Service Pack 1 compares the Product ID on the sys- tem against the list. Ser- vice Pack 1 for Windows XP will fail to install if either the XXXXX-640-0000356-23XXX or the XXXXX-640-2001765-23XXX range of Product IDs is found on your system. Add, remove and configure protocols and services on Windows 9x JANUARY 2003 95 uninstalled it, but the screen has not changed back. Is there a way to solve this problem other than reinstalling Windows? Abhradeep Biswas Via e-mail The startup screen is not loaded from the logo.sys or logow.sys files. If the logo.sys file exists, it is used for the start- up screen, otherwise the default system screen is used. Thus, to revert back to the original display, simply locate and delete the logo.sys file. This could be in the root of drive C or in the Windows folder. Noisy drives When I start my PC, the floppy drive makes some noise and after entering the BIOS password, it again makes some noise. After the operating system is loaded, when I start any application, my hard disk also starts making some noise. Please help me reduce these noises. I scan and defragment the hard disk regularly. Kamalshil Lokhande Via e-mail On starting the PC, after POST and after entering the BIOS password, the BIOS may be looking up the floppy drive to check if a bootable disk is inserted, causing the noise. You can disable this option from the BIOS and have it boot directly from the hard disk instead (see question, Bootable floppy). Also disable 'Boot Up Floppy Seek' from the BIOS. When you start applica- tions, Windows would be transferring a lot of data to the hard disk to use the sswap file. There is not much you can do about this. The hard disk will make noise every time there is heavy disk activity. Setting a permanent swap file after defragmenting the hard disk once may help, but will not reduce the noise much. If you have Win- dows 9x, to set a permanent swap file open Control Panel > System > Performance > Virtual Memory. Enable 'Let me specify my own virtual memory settings' and set the same value for the minimum and maximum swap file size. Ideally, this value should be two-and-a-half times the amount of RAM you have on the PC. Thus, if you have 64 MB of RAM, set this value to 160. TV tuner problems I have a Mercury TV tuner card. TV programs are captured with quite poor quality while recording in VCD mode. Changing the resolution has not helped. Can I directly save the video capture in DivX/MPEG4 format? I can't afford to record raw video as I have only 7 GB of free space. Anoop Via e-mail The quality at which you can capture video is largely dependent on the TV tuner cardcheap, low-end cards can never match the quality of a dedicated video capture card. The quality that you get is probably a limitation of your hard- ware. Try checking the driver configu- ration of your card to see if it offers a high-quality mode. You can do this by referring to the manual or the manu- facturer's Web site (www.kobian.com). Cap- turing to DivX formats is very processor-intensive and requires a high- end CPU. You can download the latest DivX bundle from http://www.divx.com/ divx/. After doing so, you can choose to encode into DivX from your TV tuner card's video capture settingsif your processor has the necessary power, you will be able to get good video encoding. If your processor is not up to it, try using other codecs such as Intel Indeo 5.x or Radius Cinepak. These are not very heavy on the system and do not cut away too much visible clarity. Do note that encoding has very little to do with the video quality of live feeds. The codec only compresses the incoming video feed and further quality loss due to encoding is usually marginal (depending on the codec settings). The only other way encoding affects quality is if frame-drops occur due to slow processors. Thus, if you notice that the video feed itself is good quality and only the recording is poor, check the codec settingschanges such as using a dif- ferent codec (keep away from the CPU- intensive ones), reducing the amount of compression and using more keyframes can tremendously improve quality. For better video quality, the best option would be to record video at higher res- olutions, but you may have to upgrade the TV tuner card for that. No picture I have a Compaq Presario 7500 run- ning Windows XP Professional. It has 192 MB of RAM and a Compaq DVD/CD- ROM SD-612B. I use Windows Media Player version 9, but am not able to see movies on itI can hear the sound, but there is no picture. Please help. Ankush Via e-mail The problem is with either the player itself, or the video codecs. This problem has been documented in earlier versions of Windows Media Player. Version 6.4 has been the most stable player till date, but most bugs seem to have been fixed in version 9. Also, until now only Release Candidates for the new version have been made available, which means it tends to have bugs. The final release will have at least the most apparent bugs fixed. You can download and install the earlier version from www.microsoft.com/ windows/windowsmedia/download/default.asp and try watching the movies. It would be difficult to determine whether it's a codec problem, since you have not mentioned what kind of movies you are trying to viewwhether they are MPEG or AVI files, VCDs, or other formats. DivX videos that you download off the Internet could pose problems. There are several flavours of the codec such as SMR, FlaskMPEG, Microcrap, etc and if the videos are encoded with any of these, you would need to have the relevant codec installed. Since these codecs are very similar at the core, the player may open the file any- way and not display any picture. If the codecs seem to be the problem, try downloading and installing the Codec Pack of ELISOFT from http://codecpack. elisoft.net/. Another problem, though unlikely, could be with the video files them- selves if they are DivX files. Some video files get corrupted during trans- fers or encoding software add unnec- essary headers. Open the file using VirtualDub (www.virtualdub.org) and save it as a different file using the Direct Stream Copy option for video and audio. This will cut out unnecessary bytes from the file that the player may not understand. FAQs Send your computing problems to sos@jasubhai.com or write to Digit, D-222/2, Om Sagar, MIDC, Nerul-400 706, and we may answer it here! 97 JANUARY 2003 1 insight tips and tricks Power Windows Secrets to attaining peace of mind when working with Windowshere's everything you need to know to run a lean, mean, killer machine contents 1 Windows 98 5 Windows 2000 Professional 7 Windows XP Professional Tweak UI for Windows 98 and 2000, Tweak UI for XP Tips on becoming a Photoshop Guru Find it on the Mindware CD insight tips and tricks 98 JANUARY 2003 2 Turn off Task Scheduler First of all, turn off the Task Scheduler, unless it really is scheduling something important. Most users have no critical programs sched- uled, especially after freshly installing Windows. The scheduling utility keeps run- ning in the background, unnecessarily hogging mem- ory. To disable it, double- click the Task Scheduler icon in the system tray and click Advanced > Stop Using Task Scheduler. When you create a scheduled task, the feature will be enabled. Nix the Active Desktop For a healthy Windows, you have to get rid of the Active Desktop. Microsoft had added this feature with Internet Explorer 4 and later into Windows when it integrated the browser and the operating system. It allows you to display Web content on the desktop itself. The Active Desktop hogs a ridiculous amount of memory and often causes the system to be unstable. Simply right-click on an empty area of the desktop and disable View as Web Page to turn this off. If you set JPEG or GIF files as your wallpaper, this feature needs to be turned on. It is better to convert them to BMPs before setting them as the wallpaper. Enable DMA Direct Memory Access (DMA) is a technique that hard disks and CD-ROM drives can use to transfer data directly to and from memory, without passing through the processor. DMA reduces the load on the sys- tem processor since data transfers do not require monitoring by the CPU. With DMA, a write or read operation can be executed in two to four clock cycles. Without DMA it will cost the CPU a minimum of 16 clock cycles per operation. Not only do disk read/write oper- ations gain a significant boost in speed, but Windows also works faster, since it can load system files much faster and also accesses the swap file at higher speeds. Older hard disks and CD- ROM drives do not support DMA, but almost all com- puters today use DMA-com- pliant devices. In case you face a problem after enabling DMA, reboot Windows to Safe Mode and disable the option. Also, DMA needs to be enabled from the BIOS, but again, on most comput- ers, this is on by default. DMA is supported only in Windows 95 OSR 2 and later. To enable DMA, open Control Panel > System > Device Manager. Expand the Disk drives tree, select the hard disk and click Properties. Under the Settings tab, check the DMA option. Repeat this for all other hard disks and the CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drives. File system properties Changing the File System settings can also provide bet- ter performance. First, change your computer's role to a Network Server, even if it is not one. Open Control Panel > System > Performance and click File System. Under the Hard Disk tab, change the typical role of the com- puter to Network server instead of Desktop comput- er. The setting controls the size of various internal data structures used by the 32-bit file access driver (VFAT). When you use the Desktop computer setting, VFAT allo- cates memory to record the 32 most recently accessed folders and 677 most recent- ly accessed files, consuming approximately 10 KB of memory. With the Mobile or docking system setting, VFAT allocates memory to record 16 folders and 337 files, taking up around 5 KB of memory. As a Network server, VFAT allocates around 40 KB of memory to record 64 folders and 2,729 files. With the kind of memory available on sys- tems today, this slight over- head hardly makes any difference, especially consid- ering the performance gain it provides. Optimise virtual memory The way virtual memory is configured tremendously affects Windows perform- ance. This is true for all versions of Windows, including the now-obsolete Windows 3.1. The swap file is what Windows uses to store temporary data when it runs out of RAM. Thus, your working is not limited by the amount of RAM on your machine. However, for a program to be able to use this data, it must be trans- ferred back to the RAM. The data that is not immediately required is moved to a part of the hard disk and recalled when required. However, since hard disks are nowhere as fast as RAM, swapping data back and forth drasti- cally reduces speed. No mat- ter how much RAM you have, Windows will always use the swap file for some infrequently used parts of the OS (read the next tip to see how to avoid this). By default, Windows Enabling DMA significantly improves speed Optimise the Windows swap file for better performance WINDOWS 98 This most widely used OS is more tolerant than later versions and allows many power JANUARY 2003 99 3 uses a variable swap file that is created on bootup and where the size is dynamically modi- fied when required. Though this works just fine, it is not the most optimal. You can never get the speed of RAM from the hard disk, but you can make it slightly faster. The best way to configure the swap file is to have a perma- nent swap file, preferably on a dedicated partition. This min- imises the effect of disk frag- mentation and increases seek time. Another practice that a few power users have adopt- ed is to place the swap file on the first partition and the operating system on the fol- lowing partition. Data closer to the centre of the drive is read slightly faster than data at the periphery. This is espe- cially useful for PCs with only 64 or 128 MB of RAM where data would frequently be swapped to the hard disk and can be easily done with BIOS- es that allow booting from the D drive. To change the swap file settings, open Control Panel > System > Performance and click Virtual Memory. Choose 'Let me specify my own virtual memory settings' and select the drive for the swap file. Note that no matter what partition you boot from, it will always appear as the C drive from DOS and Win- dows 98, and the first parti- tion that is recognised as C by the BIOS will be assigned a higher drive letter. Set the minimum and maximum size for the swap file. Both these numbers should be identical to set a permanent (non-variable) swap file. Ide- ally, it should be two-and-a- half times the amount of RAM on your system, but if you have a separate partition for it, you may not want it to be less than 512 MBif it is lower, it will have to be a FAT16 partition, not FAT32. Avoid the swap file When Windows loads, it moves certain parts of the operating system to the swap file anyway, regardless of whether it has run out of RAM or not. This is very good for systems with less memo- ry, since it leaves some free RAM and applications will start much faster. Otherwise, when you start an applica- tion and memory is required, Windows will have to first move all this data to the swap file to free up RAM. This functionality is usually not required on systems with 256 MB or more RAM, especially if they only run common productivity tools such as Office and Internet applica- tions. You can prevent Win- dows from using the swap file until absolutely required by adding the line below to the [386Enh] section of the \Windows\ system.ini file. Conser vativeSwapfile Usage=1 You can edit this file in Notepad. In case you face any problems such as programs crashing frequently, remove this line and reboot. Display settings The display settings affect the speed of Windows too. The more animations and transi- tions the OS has to show, the higher is the processor and RAM usage. Typically, turning off all such features instanta- neously shows the difference in speed. Right-click an empty area of the desktop and click Properties. Under the Effects tab, uncheck the boxes for 'Animate windows, menus and lists', 'Smooth edges of screen fonts' and 'Show window contents while dragging'. Temporary cleaner Regularly removing files that accumulate in the Temp fold- er can also show better per- formancethese files are usually very small and unnecessarily fill up the hard disk. This also causes high disk fragmentation and pushes important data towards the periphery of the disk, where read/write opera- tions are slower. Ideally, cre- ate a batch file that empties this folder and place it in the Startup, so that it runs every time you boot to Windows. You could do this from the autoexec.bat too, but this file runs while still in DOS mode, so disk access will be much Regularly defragmenting the hard disk maintains optimum performance for read/write operations. Hard disks store data in sectors and clusters, the latter being the smallest addressable unit. Clusters are of a fixed size, depending on the file system (FAT, FAT32, NTFS, etc). A cluster can hold only one file, but a file may span over several clusters. For FAT32 partitions, the cluster size is 4 KB. Thus, any file between 0 bytes to 4 KB will occupy one cluster. Should its size increase beyond 4 KB, it will look for the next free cluster to fill up. With frequently changing files such as documents, spreadsheets, images, etc, the fragments of the file may not be on contiguous clus- ters. Reading and writing to such files spread all over the partition is obviously slow. Defragmenting brings pieces of the file together, so that they are accessed faster. All versions of Windows are bundled with defragment- ing tools. In Windows 98, you can run it from Start > Pro- grams > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter. In Windows 2000 and XP, right- click My Computer and click Manage. Look for Disk Defragmenter under Storage. Defragmenting Turn off unnecessary graphic effects insight tips and tricks 100 JANUARY 2003 4 slower than when in Win- dows. You should strip all file attributes before running the delete command, since hid- den and system files will not be deleted from the Com- mand Prompt. Also, using the deltree command instead of del will ensure that even fold- ers are deleted. Thus, your batch file should contain the following commands: attrib -a -s -r -h c:\Windows\ Temp\*.* /s Deltree/y C:\Windows\ Temp\* Managing power Power Management is a very useful feature for notebooks, but not as critical on a desk- top PC. With default power management settings, the computer will automatically reduce the spinning rate of the hard disks and blank off the monitor after a few min- utes of idle time. In older sys- tems, this sometimes causes Windows to lock up. Depend- ing on the settings, every time you need to use the PC, the hard disk will have to spin up again before data can be accessed on it. Turning off power management completely will not harm the system in any way. At most, set only the monitor to be turned off. Open Control Panel > Power Management and choose Always On under Power schemes to disable all power saving features. Optionally, you can set only the system standby and hard disk settings to Never. Disable Autorun Autorun was an innovative feature to automatically launch programs from CD- ROM and DVD drives. How- ever, the way it works, it affects system performance, apart from being irritating at times. While this feature is on, Windows polls the drive every 5 seconds to check if some media has been insert- ed. If it finds a new disc, it will check it for the autorun.inf file and execute the commands within this. This is quite an overhead, especially when you need the feature only sometimes. This is true for all versions of Win- dows. To turn it off, open Control Panel > System > Device Manager. Expand the CDROM tree, select the drive and click Properties. Under the Settings tab, disable 'Auto insert notification'. Boot faster Before Windows loads, it processes certain files to set the correct environment and load initial drivers and Win- dows settings. The config.sys typically loads drivers and the autoexec.bat sets the environment and runs pro- grams before Windows loads. If these files are loading any unnecessary items, you should remove them. Both files can be edited in Notepad. A third file, the msdos. sys, sets several parameters for Windows. It specifies the Windows folder, the location of the startup files, behaviour of the boot menu, etc. Changing a few parameters can ensure faster booting of the operating system. If any parameters exist, you can change its value, or simply add a line with the parame- ter. Before you can edit this file, however, you must strip its read-only and hidden attributes. To do this, open a Command Prompt window and type this command: attrib h r msdos.sys When Windows is not shut down properly, it auto- matically runs Scandisk when it boots again. You can disable this by using AutoScan=0. Setting its value to 1 will bring up a prompt asking if you want to run Scandisk and setting it to 2 will run Scandisk automati- cally. BootDelay=x sets the amount of time you have to press [F8] to bring up the boot menu. The default value for this is 2 seconds. If Boot- Menu is set to 1, it will always bring up the boot menu, BootMenuDelay sets the number of seconds this menu is displayed for, before booting with the default selection. When BootWarn is set to 0, Windows will boot to Safe Mode without warn- ing, whenever it does not start properly. By now, you probably have FAT32 on all drives, so disk compression utilities will not work. You should disable the driver for this by setting DblSpace and Drv- Space to 0. Also, if you do not have a SCSI controller, set Changing certain BIOS settings can reduce the amount of time it takes to hand over control to the operating system, thereby reducing the time taken to boot. Although there are sev- eral different BIOSes with vary- ing options, there are some settings common to all. Look around your BIOS to find these options. Usually, to enter the BIOS setup, you have to press the [Delete] key while it is loading. Configure your hard drives in the BIOS, instead of setting it to automatically detect them every time it boots. For most BIOSes, you can simply select the Auto Detect Hard Disks option. Disable Boot Up Flop- py Seek. This option checks if there is a floppy in the drive. You also don't need the Virus Protection feature. Enabling this from the BIOS often caus- es problems with system updates and also slows down the booting time. Change the boot order so that it loads the operating system from the hard drive first. You would hardly ever boot from a floppy or CD-ROM and when you need to, you can switch to this configuration in the BIOS. BIOS Tweaks Turn off power saving features DoubleBuffer to 0. You can disable logging of the boot process by setting the value of DisableLog to 1. Setting SystemReg to 0 will disable scanning of the Registry at startup, but it is better to leave this on. Defragmenting to rearrange programs Windows 98 has a pretty use- ful feature to help load appli- cations fasterover time, it tracks your usage patterns and logs the frequency with which you use each applica- tion. It can then rearrange the files of the application on your hard drive so that they will load faster. After you have used your computer for a few weeks, run the Disk Defragmenter and select the drive you want to defrag- ment (usually C). Click Set- tings and check the box to 'Rearrange program files so my programs start faster'. Plus, you also have the added advantage of the disk getting defragmented. Windows logon If you are not on a network and Windows is not config- ured for multiple users, or network users are not authenticated by an NT domain, you should turn off the Windows logon dialog box. Open Control Panel > Net- work to configure the net- work properties. You don't require the Microsoft Family Logon, so select it and click Remove. Ensure that the Pri- mary Network Logon is Win- dows Logon and click OK. If you don't have any password for the user, Windows will automatically log on without the prompt. If you did set a password, you can locate and delete the PWL file from the Windows folder, restart Win- dows and this time enter a blank password. Using Tweak UI Tweak UI is a very powerful software that lets you change various system settings with- out having to edit system files or fiddle with the Registry. It is free and can be downloaded from www. microsoft.com/ntworkstation/dow nloads/PowerToys/Networking/N TTweakUI.asp. Version 1.33 is a consolidated version that will work on Windows 9x as well as NT systemsit will give you different options on dif- ferent OSes. After it is installed, it will be available from the Control Panel. Using Tweak UI is pretty straightforward, but here are a few changes you must make to get better performance. Under the General tab, disable Window animation, Smooth scrolling, Menu ani- mation, Combo box anima- tion and List box animation. On the Explorer tab, disable 'Animated Click here to begin'. Next, switch to the IE4 tab and disable 'Active Desktop enabled'. On the Boot tab, you can control boot settings such as the behaviour of the boot menu, Scandisk, etc. Autorun for C D s c a n be disabled under the Para- noia tab. 101 JANUARY 2003 5 Defragment the hard disk to rearrange programs Log on to Windows automatically Use Tweak UI to speed up Windows 98 Get rid of services Services are background appli- cations that run on Windows. They may be system-related programs without which Win- dows cannot run, or helper applications, providing cer- tain functionality to other programs. For example, the Security Accounts Manager service stores security infor- mation for user accounts to be used by all applications for authentication. Windows 2000 starts several services by default, many of which you may not require. You can either permanently disable a service, or set it to be manual- ly started. If you are unsure, choose the Manual mode the service will be started only when required, but will not cause any errors. If perma- nently disabled, dependent programs will throw up errors when they need the service. Right-click My Computer and click Manage. On the left pane, expand Services and Applications and click Ser- vices. Sort the services in descending order by the Sta- tus column to bring the serv- ices that are currently run- ning on top. You can select each service and double-click it to read its description, change the Startup type to Manual or Disabled and to stop it. As you go through the list, you may realise that you don't require more than half the services, such as Distrib- uted File System, Task Sched- uler, Remote Registry Service, Stop services you don't require WINDOWS 2000 PROFESSIONAL Windows 2000 lacks little in terms of performance and stability, but can be squeezed for even more juice 6 insight tips and tricks 102 JANUARY 2003 RunAs Service, etc. If you don't have any NTFS parti- tions, Distributed Link Track- ing will not help in any way. Similarly, if you don't have any printers installed, you can turn off Print Spooler. Personalised menus Windows 2000 introduced personalised menus, tracking usage of menu items across all local users. Items that have not been used recently are hidden away, providing faster access to frequently used shortcuts. This is a very resourceful addition to the user interface, but comes at a price. Every time you open a menu, Windows checks up which items are to be dis- played and which ones are to be hidden. This is quite unnecessary and one can actually feel the delay on slow systems. Turn off personalised menus from Start > Settings > Taskbar & Start Menu. Active Desktop Though there haven't been any known issues with Active Desktop on Windows 2000 as against 98, it can slow down the OS. You should avoid using GIFs and JPEG images as your wallpaper. To disable Web content on the desktop, right-click on the desktop, click Properties and switch to the Web tab. Uncheck the box to 'Show Web content on my Active Desktop' and click OK. Away with display effects Windows 2000 brought with it a new set of display effects for menus, lists and windows. Turning these off will save up some resources. The perform- ance gain will be more appar- ent on low-end computers, but you will definitely notice it when minimising or maximis- ing windows. Right-click on the desktop, click Properties and switch to the Effects tab. Disable 'Use transition effects for menus and tooltips', 'Smooth edges of screen fonts' and 'Show window contents while dragging'. Performance options Built over the NT architec- ture, Windows 2000 provides performance options similar to Windows NT 4. Open Con- trol Panel > System > Advanced and click Performance Options. Here, you can set Windows to optimise proces- sor and memory usage for applications or background services. For desktop PCs, you don't need to change this set- ting. If it were a server, you would choose to optimise for background services. You can also change the virtual mem- ory settings. You can have one swap file per drive, each with different sizes (Check the tip Optimise virtual memory in the Windows 98 section for more on swap files). You will notice that here you can also set the maximum registry size. You should not set this to a very low value, or you will start facing problems as you install more programs. Setting a small size does make a difference thoughWindows loads the registry into memo- ry, so the smaller the registry, lesser is the memory used. Maintaining temporary files By default, Windows 2000 sets up different Temp folders for each user along with the \Winnt\Temp folder. Thus, when clearing out temporary files, you have to check this folder, as well as the Temp folder under each user's account profile, under \Docu- ments and Settings\<User> \Local Settings\Temp. This is as unmanageable as it is irri- tating. Fortunately, you can change this behaviour. Open Control Panel > System > Advanced and click Environ- ment Variables. You will see two boxes for User variables and System variables. Delete the TEMP and TMP variables for the user, or set their paths to %SystemRoot%\TEMP. You will have to repeat this for every local user. Power boot On the System Properties dia- log, under the Advanced tab, click Startup and Recovery to change the boot options for the NT Flex boot loader. If you have only Windows 2000 installed, disable 'Display a Setting the swap file sizes and the maximum registry size Change environment variables Web content on the desktop hogs resources Disable personalised menus in Windows 2000 Squeeze out even the last drop of power by turning off display effects list of operating systems'. If you dual boot with another OS, reduce the amount of time for which the boot options are displayed. Thus, when you switch on your PC, you will not have to hang around to press [Enter] to load Windows. Automatic Logon If yours is a single-user PC, or a particular user logs on to Windows 2000 most often, you can have the operating system logon automatically with that user's credentials. You should not use this if security is a concern. If the computer is part of a work- group and not logging on to a domain, open Control Panel > Users and Passwords and uncheck 'Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer'. On the Advanced tab, uncheck 'Require users to press Ctrl- Alt-Del before logging on'. If Windows is set to log on to a domain, you can enable this functionality by editing the registry. Start regedt32 from Start > Run and navigate to HKEY_Local_ Machine\ Software\Microsoft\Win- dowsNT\CurrentVersion\ Winlogon. Create the keys DefaultDomainName, Defaul- tUserName, and DefaultPass- word and enter the domain, user name and password to automatically log on to. Using Tweak UI for Windows 2000 Tweak UI for Windows 2000 is a very powerful tool to modify system settings. Though the installer is the same one as for Windows 98, the options available and its behaviour are different in sev- eral respects. On installing Tweak UI, you can launch it from the Control Panel. On the General tab, turn off Combo box animation, Cursor shadow, List box ani- mation, Menu animation, Menu fading, Menu selection fading, Smooth scrolling, Tooltip animation, Tooltip fade and Window animation. Switch to the IE tab and uncheck the box to 'Allow Active Desktop to be turned on/off'. On the Paranoia tab you can disable Autorun for audio and data CDs. Options on the Cmd tab let you configure keys to auto- matically complete file and directory names at the Com- mand Prompt. For example, you can type in the first char- acter of the file or directory name and press Tab to have Windows fill in the rest for you. This is extremely useful even if you work only occa- sionally with the Command Prompt. On the Logon tab, you can set an account to automatically log on after booting Windows. This is useful for single-user PCs, or where security is not critical. 103 JANUARY 2003 7 Change the theme The default Windows XP theme looks very pretty, but hogs a lot of system resources for the eye-candy effects such as bevelled objects and transi- tions. If looks are not impor- tant to you, switch over to the classic Windows look. To do this, right-click an empty area of the desktop and click Prop- erties. Under the Themes tab, set Windows Classic as the current theme and click OK. Turn off display effects Switching off transition and animation effects can save a lot of system resources. These effects are not required to run programs and cause an unnecessary load on the processor and RAM. Right- click on an empty area of the desktop, click Properties and switch to the Appearance tab. Click Effects and clear all the checkboxes. Choose performance Windows XP has some very good features to maximise performance. Unfortunately, the default settings are no good. You can choose to have it optimise itself for faster computing. To change these settings, click Start, right- click My Computer and click Properties. Switch to the Advanced tab and click the Settings button under Perfor- mance. By default, 'Let Win- dows choose what's best for my computer' is selected. Choose 'Adjust for best per- formance' instead, and you will almost immediately notice a boost in speed. This is because all graphic effects are turned off. You can Tweak UI for Windows 2000 Log on automatically to Windows 2000 Switch to the classic Windows theme Disable all display effects on XP XP lets you optimise the OS for performance WINDOWS XP PROFESSIONAL XP is quite user-friendly with an impressive interface, but is sluggish on low-end systems optionally choose each type of effect that should be enabled from here, but if it's power you are looking for, leave them all off. Note that the behaviour and appear- ance of a lot of Windows such as the Control Panel, will become quite different. If you prefer the helpful wizard-like interfaces, you may want to sacrifice a bit on performance and enable the option to 'Use common tasks in folders'. Paging options On the Performance Options dialog (right-click My Com- puter and click Properties > Advanced > Settings), click on the Advanced tab to access even more performance fea- tures. You can adjust the processor and memory options, but for desktop PCs you should leave the default options (optimise for Pro- grams). What you should change are the virtual memo- ry settings. You can have one swap file per drive (Check the tip 'Optimise virtual memory' in the Windows 98 section for more on swap files). Set the optimum size and click OK. Boot options If you are not booting multi- ple operating systems, you can turn off the option perma- nently, until it is required. If there is another OS on your system, say Windows 98, you can reduce the amount of time the option to choose which OS to load is displayed. Right- click My Computer, click Prop- erties > Advanced and click the Settings button under Startup and Recovery. Here, you can choose which operating sys- tem to boot by default. You can uncheck the boxes to show the boot options, or select the number of seconds for which the choices are dis- played. Five seconds is usually more than enough. You will notice recovery settings in case of a system fail- ure. Alerts and debugging information will not be very helpful for most users, so you can turn these options off too. Turn off services Depending on your comput- er's configuration and options chosen when installing Win- dows XP, it will have certain services enabled. Many of these you may never require and can safely switch off. You can disable a service so that it never runs, or set it to be manually started. Right-click My Computer and click Manage to bring up the Computer Management console. On the left pane, select Services under Services and Applications to control all installed services. The easiest way to filter through the list is to sort it by the Status column. Services that are 'Started' are the ones you need to look at. (Read more on services in the tip 'Get rid of services' under Win- dows 2000 Professional'.) Quit indexing The Indexing Service stores information from documents and organises it for faster searches. This is not useful to many users, especially if the documents are well organised. Not only does this service take up system resources, it also involves frequent read/write operations to the hard disk, which are particularly slow. From the Computer Manage- ment console (right-click My Computer and click Manage), select Indexing Service from the left pane under Services and Applications. You will see the list of catalogues on the right pane. If any of them are started, you can stop them from here, and even delete the catalogue. Optionally, you can expand the tree on the left pane for each indexed item and restrict the folders it scans. Tweak UI for XP Tweak UI is available for Win- dows XP too. It gives you access to quite a few system settings that are otherwise not readily available, and can help gain that extra inch of power from XP. You can download this version from www. microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/ downloads/powertoys.asp. Under General, you can turn off display effects such as fading and animations. Under Explorer, uncheck the boxes for 'Allow Web content to be added to the desktop' and 'Enable smooth scroll- ing'. Expand the Explorer tree, select Thumbnails and move the Image Quality slid- er to around the centre. Next, expand the My Computer > AutoPlay branch. Under Dri- ves, you can disable AutoPlay for all drives, thus reducing this overhead. Under the Types branch, you can choose to disable AutoPlay for CD, DVD and removable drives. Under the Command Prompt branch, you can con- figure special keys to auto- matically complete file and directory names, as on a Unix system. If you have a single- user system, you can have XP logon automatically from Logon > Autologon. Under Logon > Unread Mail, you can disable the notification of new e-mail messages for each user. Not only is this more secure, but it also reduces the overhead of polling for new messages for every user. 8 insight tips and tricks 104 JANUARY 2003 Changing swap file settings in XP Power up with Tweak UI for XP Reduce load on CPU and RAM by turning off services 112 arcade JANUARY 2003 games IMAGING: Ashwin Boricha AHMED SHAIKH JANUARY 2003 113 The grandfather of all action-adventure games, Alone in the Dark is based loosely on the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Like the source of inspiration, the game's plot can leave you senseless at times and perpetu- ally hanging in mystery. It was the first game to involve the player in an immer- sive and cinematic gaming experience. Stark camera angles and 3D graphics (a rarity then) heightened moments of sus- pense within the cursed 'roach-motel' like mansion of Decertoyou can check out anytime you like, but you can never leave! ALONE IN THE DARK Released: 1992 Developer: Infogrames Publisher: Interplay Productions The Beast Within is a gala of ghoulish adventure that mesmerises and thrills through visceral explosions that span six CDs. The game sets off with an investiga- tion into a possible werewolf sighting and uses live action sequences against back- drops shot in Germanyfilmed against a blue screen and then seamlessly com- bined with over 1,300 photographed set- tings. An interestingly executed story threads historical facts with fictional mus- ings to form a weave rich in intrigue, horror and mystery. GABRIEL KNIGHT II: THE BEAST WITHIN Released: 1995 Publisher: Interplay Productions, Developer: Infogrames So, you are wrongly accused of mur- dering your daughter. To make things worse, you are promptly hanged, undoubtedly a very gentlemanly thing to do. End of a bad day's living you think? Not if you happen to be buried in the vicinity of a spade-happy doctor. Through the Eyes of the Monster resur- rects you, the player, as the beastly cre- ation of one Dr Frankenstein, a part played quite hauntingly by the peerless Tim Curry. Browsing through his labo- ratory and the accompanied collection of oddities is twice as fun with Tim growling threateningly at you, com- plete with an eerie soundtrack. FRANKENSTEIN: THROUGH THE EYES OF THE MONSTER Released: 1995 Developer: Amazing Media Publisher: Interplay Productions If a reported budget of $4,000,000 does not put fear into your soul, then maybe a morbid and ghastly storyline will. Created by the mother of adventure games, Roberta Williams (of King's Quest fame), Phantasmagoria is an achievement in that it comes the closest to delivering a cinematic experience. Victoria Morsell stars as Adrienne Delaney, the protago- nist of the game and David Homb as Don Gordon, her loving, albeit homicidal husband. They were blue-screened and digital background footage was later added. Created when an in-game cut- scene was all the rage, this game effec- tively uses the said tool to bump an ordi- nary story into the twilight zone of a B-grade movie. Released: 1995 Developer: Sierra Games Publisher: Sierra Games PHANTASMAGORIA With the works of Edgar Allen Poe forming a firm inspirational platform, The Dark Eye descends into the madness of one man's twisted world. The game presents an exploratory experience into the minds of the insane, murderers and their victims. Rendering the Floyd line of "all you touch and all you see, is all your life will ever be", the game draws upon animate and inanimate objects to throw you ever deeper into the realms of sinister designs and the resulting dismay. A troubling saga triggered by a sniff of paint thinner. The game uses stop-motion character animations, populates a multiple-story path with strong personalities and adds another layer of richness via the voice of legendary author William S. Burroughs. THE DARK EYE Released: 1995 Developer: The Dreamer's Guild Publisher: Expert Software arcade games 114 JANUARY 2003 Sanitarium is a journey of metaphors that begins with the age-old question of Who am I? The horrors flow from the id that forms the landscape of humanity. Self-dis- covery is a scary concept and Sanitarium proves just that. The 'How did I get here?' throws you into a world of grotesque denizensthe strange that are familiar and the familiar that are strange. Reconstruct your past and unravel the horror of self. SANITARIUM Released: 1998 Developer: DreamForge Intertainment Inc Publisher: ASC Games Welcome Gorrister, the suicidal loner, Ellen a hysterical engineer (a phobia of the colour yellow stalks him), Benny the soldier (now evolved into a simian), Nimdok, an ancient (hence mean-spirit- ed?) man and Ted, a cynic and paranoid to boot. These fine specimens of human- ity are Earth's only respite against AM an insane computer that has logically deduced that mankind's only hope is an annihilation of the species. Based on Harlan Ellison's short story, 'I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream', the game complements the text very well, extending the Hugo award-winning tale further into the world of tortured souls and hidden pasts. Provocatively sprinkled with psychological musings, I Have No Mouth succeeds in offering a very mature premise: there is no victory greater than defeat. An intellectually terrifying experience. Released: 1995 Developer: Inscape Publisher: Expert Software Although the game pits three species against each otherAliens, Predators and Humansthe scare factor is multiplied manifold within the human campaign. No opportunity is spared here to thrill and shock you: with a motion detector as the only source of salvation against the other species, playing as a Human will have you at the edge of your seat every time you spot a blip on the sen- sorcould it be an Alien face-hugger, a Predator? You clench your flamethrow- er and turn the corner only to relax at the sight of a swinging hook. As you lower your guard and switch off the flashlight, a Praetorian lunges from the rooftop and goes for your head. Tag! You are prey. ALIENS V/S PREDATOR 2 Released: 2001 Developer: Monolith Productions, Inc Publisher: Fox Interactive, Sierra Games Frighteningly fashioned by the husband and wife team of Frank and Susan Wimmer, Amber is a game that begs to be experi- enced. Journeys Beyond takes you on a dis- turbing walk beyond the grave. It teasingly flashes glimpses of past mysteries and tempts you to discover the secrets of life after death by possessing the souls of the dead still searching for peace. Inhabit, for example, the soul of a dead child tethered to the realm of the living by the loss of his beloved teddy bear. Drink of the game with lights off and snippets from this gem are sure to haunt your waking dreams. Released: 1996 Developer: Hue Forest Entertainment Publisher: Hue Forest Entertainment Resident Evil took the mantle of scaring gamers from the veteran Alone in the Dark series. The roller coaster begins the moment you see a rather famished zombie feasting upon the remains of one of your friends; the horror then pours on relentless as the shocks and the gore never cease, always in your face and sudden. The ride is hampered by bad voice acting, but the cin- ematic flair of the game sends shivers of horror down the spine. Released: 1995 Developer: Capcom Entertainment Publisher: Virgin Interactive Entertainment AMBER: JOURNEYS BEYOND RESIDENT EVIL I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST SCREAM 115 JANUARY 2003 If the ghosts of the past do not twist your innards in fear, then this stream of fresh blood is sure to blind your senses with terror and apprehension. DOOM III id Software takes a stroll down memory lane and invites us back to the future with the hotly anticipat- ed DOOM III. Mindless zombie-killing, shotgun- pumping, slap-me-silly-and-point-me-to-the-ammu- nition action awaits us at the end of the rainbow the same great taste now with super-duper graphics and 5.1-channel Dolby sound. Buy your copy today! Or when it's out, which ought to be sometime this year. Silent Hill 2 In my restless dreams I see that town, Silent Hill... You promised you'd take me there again someday, but you never did. Well, I'm alone there now in our special place, waiting for you A 'Dear James' letter addressed to one Mr Sunderland that is twice as scary since the author is his wife and three years dead. Silent Hill 2 is a port of the PlayStation 2 survival-horror game that has mesmerised console gamers with terror. It promises to treat us PC gamers with the same mental derision. Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth How's this for a setup? You are cast as Private Investigator Jack Wal- ters, an ex-cop trying to locate a missing person in the mysterious fish- ing village of Innsmouth. Hmmmscope for a horror action/adventure game, you think? Based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft, Dark Corners is expected to cast shadows of self-doubt onto the reptilian mind within us, late this year. Scared Yet? You walk down a nursery and sounds of children playing and laughing fill the chilly airyou see nothing, no one breathes but you, no footfalls but yours. The laughter grad- ually fades into whimpers of tribulations, which then cas- cade into a horde of blood curdling screams of pure pain. The fear rising within you forces a stronger grip on your trusty scythe. As you take the corner, silence greets you, then a scream followed by its source: a floating brain that would like nothing better than your blood. The Undying has begun. Released: 2001 Developer: Dreamworks Interactive Publisher: Electronic Arts DOOM is raw, naked dread. So unabashed in the primal impulses that it sends coursing through your senses, the game claws away at your brain and feeds your psyche with enough frenzy to keep you going longer than that bunny hotwired into unlife via an alka- line battery. A maddening struggle within a web of survival, it has spawned an industry, spanned a decade of com- puter life that's like a millennium in human years. DOOM's legacy of pain promises to continue with a third chap- ter due next year. DOOM Released: 1993 Developer: id Software Publisher: id Software Bodies sway from the ceiling; apparitions reconstruct their deaths, filling your senses with fear and dread. As you cling on to dear life, clawing your way through a labyrinthine space- ship that could turn into your coffin, you are taunted to the verge of insanity by SHODAN, a computer with a God com- plex and your nemesis. You are trapped billions of miles from Earth with a mass murderer on the loosebest enjoyed alone in the dark with a good pair of headphones. SYSTEM SHOCK2 Released: 1999 Developer: Irrational Games, Looking Glass Studios Publisher: Electronic Arts UNDYING arcade tactics JANUARY 2003 116 No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way, stole our hearts away. We present a briefing on being the best darn spy the digital world has ever seen Die Another Day guns gives you all weapons skillz gives you skill points ammo gives you ammunition armor gives you full armour health gives you full health god makes you invulnerable poltergeist makes you invisible maphole lets you skip levels pos indicates your position To cheat in the game, hit Talk [T] while playing and type the following codes: Coin Short to Mid-range Throwing money away hurts sensibilities Use this to distract guards. Vending machines will often have coins in front of themcrouch to get a better look Hairspray Welder Close range Very low Useful for burning through locks and door hinges. The welder can also be used to kill sleeping or unconscious enemies Mascara Stun Gun Close range Instant knockout The stun gun is useful for knocking out enemies with minimal noise. Note that your foes will wake up after a while Angry Kitty Proximity device Very high The Kitty explodes when an enemy ventures within its detection radiusits detonation can attract unwanted attention Lipstick Spy Camera Short range Only to reputations The miniature Lipstick Spy Camera: don't leave home without it! Body Remover Perfume Close range Liquidate unwanted assets To prevent enemies from spotting fallen comrades and hence raising a ruckus, use this perfume and completely disintegrate a body Search is life: Always search bodies when it's safe to do so. You'll find notes, weapons, health and armour items this way, especially if you have invested well in the Search skill. Quick searching a body (briefly right-click it), will pick the ammu- nition and weapons off ityou can then move the body out of sight and search it more thoroughly with time and safety. Eye can't see: While inside buildings or enclosed areas, look around for light switches and turn them off. Exposed light bulbs can be unscrewed to create a dark area in which you can hide. Listen to the whir of close circuit cameras and use the Camera Disruptor off the Utility Launcher to safely disable the same and clear your path. Ask for directions: Your handy compass also doubles as a tool to indicate the status of your current mission. A red 'X' mark on your compass indicates an intermediary objective you need to tackle. A red 'i' marks the location of a major task. Finally, red dots indicate locations of people you have tagged with tracking beacons. For Your Eyes Only Live and Let Die 118 JANUARY 2003 arcade tactics 119 JANUARY 2003 Stuck as the lone gunman taking a dying stance on a beach under assault? That's what you get for getting frisky with the General's daughter! BEACH HEAD 2002 calls for one good man, you, to defend a solitary strip of beach armed with a 30 mm gun, your antitank gun, some missiles and for those ammo-starved days, a handgun. The available weapons vary between levels, thus avoiding tedium that would have otherwise have crept in. The game also features friendly bombers that drop crates of ammunition and armour. The catch being that you need to shoot the boxes out of the air in order to replenish the same attributes. Every few missions, the game plunges you into a night time mission. A workday is never dull with companies of soldiers, tanks, attack heli- copters, bombers, fighter planes and troop carrying vehicles making regular pit stops at your local haunt. The num- ber, frequency and the pattern of visita- tions, of course, change as you climb the ladder of levels. The game has acceptable graphics, considering its system require- ments. The soldiers are sprites with min- imum frames of animation, making them look jittery. There are also problems with collision detection within the game: a plane will sometimes fly right through a hill without a scratch. BEACH HEAD 2002 calls for some insane reflexes, and shows both the addictive and the one- more-level syndrome that is the hallmark of good games. With an affordable price tag, this may be just the dose of fun that you were looking for. PRETTY MEN ALL IN A ROW: You shoot one down, he falls to the ground, 99 more to go Tom and Jerry in Fists of Furry is a 3D fighting game starring characters from the cartoon. The game is pretty a much direct PC conversion of the same-named hit Nintendo N64 game. It successful- ly brings along the same fun and zest that the series introduced. The game features one-on-one fight- ing in venues modelled after classic episodes of the cartoon series such as an alley, a kitchen, a farm, etc. There are 10 levels in all, some of which you must unlock by making your way through the single player game. Characters like Tom, Jerry, Tyke, Spike and Duckling will punch, kick and assail each other with weapons that include shovels, bombs, red-hot pokers, tennis rackets, furniture, an assortment of fruits and a kitchen sink! Combat essentially involves punch- ing, kicking, ducking, catching and throwing household items. You can also kick an item across the floor, and envi- ronmental hazards such as fire and falling pots can put the hurt on you. Power-ups take the form of yellow question marks and offer boosts such as invisibility and energy sapping, contagious measles. The game is quite challenging and for the most part, the challenge is well-balanced. Bouts can get frustrating, but the cartoon elements that decorate the game keep you going long enough to enjoy the ride. Fists of Furry is an experience that is at times enjoyable, at times frustrating, but always interesting. It's the kind of game that you occasionally get into for 15-minute ses- sions of action at a time. It is not likely to involve you to an extent where you would find yourself whiling away the hours until you've beaten the last level. Tom and Jerry in Fists of Furry A cat and mouse game, no kidding! PUNCH DRUNK: Jerry experiences one of the finer things in life, courtesy Tom, of course! Developer: NewKidCo Distributor: Milestone Interactive Software Ltd Phone: 022-28381614 Web site: www.fusiongames.com Price: Rs 499 System requirements: Pentium 233 MHz processor or equivalent, 64 MB RAM, 16 MB DirectX 8 compatible video card Rating: BEACH HEAD 2002 Being Private Ryan Developer: Digital Fusion Distributor: Milestone Interactive Software Ltd Phone: 022-28381614 Web site: www.fusiongames.com Price: Rs 499 System requirements: Pentium 350 MHz processor or equivalent, 64 MB RAM, 4 MB AGP/PCI video card Rating: arcade reviews 120 JANUARY 2003 arcade reviews 3ds max 4: Ground Rules is a tailor- made book for beginners starting out with 3D Studio Max R4every aspect of the software, from the basics of the user interface, to modelling, rendering, ani- mation and special effects, is covered in a lucid and clear language. The book does not limit itself to the basicsrelatively advanced topics such as network rendering and inverse kinemat- ics have also been covered. Complex spe- cial effects are also touched upon briefly, without going into the deep details that might baffle a new learner. The emphasis is on basic techniques, interface layout and usage, making it easier for new users overwhelmed by 3ds max's interface to get their work done. The accompanying CD has actual screen captures of all the oper- ations described in the book. Organised by way of chapters, the CD has visual representa- tions for everything the book describes. Along with the final rendered animations, these videos leave little to the imagina- tion. On the whole, Ground Rules is a very wholesome book, cov- ering all the features present in 3ds max4. However, none of the topics are covered in depth, which makes this more of an intro- ductory book. Recom- mended reading for absolute beginners ven- turing into the realm of 3d animation and who want to learn 3ds max in its entirety. Publisher: Autodesk Press Contact: Computer Bookshop Phone:022-22070989/22076356 Fax: 022-2623551 E-mail: cbsbom@giasbm01.vsnl.net.in Price: Rs 1,100 Rating: 3DS MAX 4: GROUND RULES The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring A saga of hits and misses Riding on the gravy train of Tolkein's work, Vivendi's Fellowship of the Ring is based more on the books than on the recently released Peter Jackson movie. You will find yourself in a visually rich Middle Earth, with control over one of three playable characters at various points in time. Aragorn, Frodo and Gandalf fight their way through hordes of wargs, wraiths and trolls, each armed with a unique style of play. Entertaining and challenging, the combat serves as the central element of the game. It's great fun playing as Aragorn, with his stylish moves and a cool, quick-draw, bow-action. Gandalf is just as engaging; his repertoire of spells makes short change of any foeorc or Balrog. While both Gandalf and Aragon can dish it out, you will find yourself avoiding confrontations (running for the exit is a frequent occurrence) while play- ing as Frodo. He carries weapons that force a dodge-and-counter style of combat. The hobbit can use the One Ring to render himself invisible, but this property of the Ring is almost never needed. The levels are generally well designed, but some come across as just plain needless: they seem to have been added to either give each character enough of a role within the game, or for the sake of contributing a little more than the movie. Puzzles found within are at times easily solved while at others are a source of frustration. The in-game cin- ematics are badly choreographed: the characters seem to be in a hurry to finish their dialogues and transitions from one scene to another are a bumpy ride. Somewhat related to the movie, the game boldly sets out on a new path, attempting to present an experience that is different from, but complimentary to the film. The offering does waver from its set road: some aspects of the game have been well executed while others fall short of expectations. Genre: Third person, action-adventure Developer: Black Label Games Distributor: World Wide CD Roms Phone: 022-26973894 Web site: www.lordoftherings.com Price: Rs 1,299 System requirements: 600 MHz processor, 128 MB RAM, 32 MB DirectX 8 compliant video card Rating: SHOWDOWN DURING SUNDOWN: Aragorn gets down and boogies with some orcs RINGS AROUND THE WRAITH: Aragorn and Gandalf can slay the beasties To begin, click here arcade digit diary 121 JANUARY 2003 Learning is Fun Ever since the start of India's first technology media institute, Media One, in September 2002, the offices of Jasubhai Digital Media have been abuzz with excitement. Media One offers hands-on training in Media Man- agement, which includes components relating to technology as well as allied areas such as design, research and production. The students at Media One are exposed to every aspect of digital media and technology in a practical way. Besides daily assignments, frequent field visits to media and technology companies and lectures from industry professionals, the students put in practical work hours as part of an editorial group, at the Test Cen- tre or Media Studio amongst other things. Abhiram Iyengar, a Bachelor of Elec- tronics from Karnataka, is from the first batch of Media One students. He recent- ly got his feet wet in the Digit Test Cen- tre. Here's what he had to say: "From the time I joined Media One and was intro- duced to different departments within Jasubhai Digital Media, the Test Centre was what attracted me the most. The place is full of the latest computer periph- erals and is heaven for anybody remotely interested in technology. On my first day itself I was assigned a bunch of games to review. Within a matter of hours I'd played every type of game conceiv- able, from Adventure, Arcade, RPG to FPS and RTS games. And that was not all. I was supposed to write mock reviews on each game I played, taking into account its graphics and sound qual- ity, ease of use of the interface and the overall gameplay experience. Boy was it fun! Over the next few weeks, I tested and wrote a number of articles on processors, motherboards, chipsets, and graphics cards. This improved my knowledge on how each component works and the relationship between the various subsys- tems of a PC. It also gave me an insight on some new technologies on the horizon and a look at how the PC market operates. I also had the opportunity to attend presentations by various technology com- panies and attend some press confer- ences. Currently I'm engaged full time in testing motherboards and learning the nitty gritties of using various bench- marking software. Other than all this, I also learnt what it is to work under con- stant pressures of deadlines and the importance of working smarter by plan- ning ahead in today's fast paced work- place. All in all, it's been a truly wonder- ful experience." The beginning of the New Year is always a good time to undertake new endeavours and head to explore new frontiers. And two of our oldest hands, Veer Kothari and Marco D'Souza, have decided to explore the world beyond the friendly familiar walls of JDM. While they may be just a few names at the bottom of the article for most of you, Sweet Marco, as we like to call our Head of Writers, is infamous around the Navi Mumbai locale for his Indica by day and Quakemobile by night, just as Veer is for his white Astromobileboth being our chariots of choice during late nights at work and other escapades. Marco leaves behind fond memories of his days as the head of Test Centre, his trusty, well greased keyboard and a screen- shot showing the word count of his last cover story for Digit: a staggering 16,315 words. Veer, on the other hand, leaves behind a hard-to-fill space as a permanent resident of the JDM premises, the sensibili- ties of a first aid box and a huge, happy sunflower. Saying that they will be missed is a gross understatement. We'll probably never come across anyone with the same unerring precision in matters of technolo- gy, astronomy and pretty much everything else under the sun as Veer. Or for that mat- ter, we're sure nobody will match up to Marco's charming ways of dissuading us all from working on a weekend. All the best for the future to these comrades! Gone with the Wind! Going back to school, but with a difference Hard at work in the Test Centre (left): A rigorous schedule, unrelenting assignments and lots of fun Learning the trade from the best in the field (below): Bimal Biswas, a cinematographer with MTV, reveals his bag of tricks arcade backbyte 138 Highlight the lighter side of computing. Mail your contri- butions to: Backbyte Digit, Plot D-222/2, TTC Industrial Area, MIDC, Shirvane, Nerul, Navi Mumbai 400 706 or e-mail us at backbyte@jasubhai.com DECEMBER 2002 Your chance to bite back! Submitted by: NareshSubmitted by: Gaurav Mishra </p>
