OVER 2 YOU 233 (24/05/05)

POLISH PASS

My father-in-law (a soldier) died recently and in his papers we found a "Wehrpass" a sort of passport belonging to a WW2 German soldier, all in perfect condition. It would be nice if we could restore this booklet to the present generation of this man's family. It's written in German, some of it in the old "Gothic" script. Although a German soldier it looks as if he could have been from a Polish family. We do not have any knowledge of either the Polish or German languages. Could any reader, help us in our research by directing us to appropriate web sites etc. either here, Germany or Poland.

Eric Blackburn, Stockton on Tees

Your correspondent could try the Anglo-German Family History Society at: www.art-science.com/agfhs/, or the Society's German Liaison Officer Mrs Amanda Price, Rhif Dau, Bwthyn Ifor, Heol Trimsaran, Llanelli, Sir Gar SA15 4RE.

Eric Hayman, via email

For help with Polish documents from the Second World War you can try the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum, 20 Princes Gate, London SW7; the web address is: http://dikjimgin.tripod.com/id5.html

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Beata Perkins, via email

I suggest www.feldgrau.com. The writing is likely to be normal German cursive writing for the period or "Sütterlin", which is also available online. Your local University's Modern Language department should be able to help you to understand the document. German or Polish? Remember the borders have moved many times in the 20th. Century.

Alastair Garrow, via email

ECO PC

I would like to do my bit to help the environment and make a modest contribution by powering my well-used home desktop PC, peripherals and broadband connection using a renewable, non-polluting energy source. Can anyone recommend a suitable technology and give an indication of the likely costs involved 

Keith Cameron, via email

Mr Cameron will first have to ensure that all his equipment can run off a 12/24 volts DC supply, with a battery in the circuit, as most renewable energy equipment does not give a continuous supply. It is not worth all the hassle of generating mains voltage, and then coming back down to what a computer actually uses. As for Renewable Energy devices, see our web site: www.grunweb.org.uk. Dye Solar Cells can theoretically be made at home, we can supply more information on this to anyone who is interested.

Andrew Stobart, Secretary, The Grünhaus Project

JOIN THE DOTS

I am a teaching assistant working one-to-one with a special needs child in a Primary school. I have been looking everywhere for a font (preferably Comic Sans) that writes the letters in dots that can be joined by the child to help with their writing/pencil control. So far without success. Can anyone help? I am sure this would be of use to other teachers and their assistants.

L. Sims, via email

I suggest Googling "print clearly dashed"; this font is very similar to Verdana (the letter a is Comic Sans style though, which I assume would be preferable). Also, she might like to take a look at: www.learningpage.com/free_pages/ menu_basics/alpha_zaner.html, which has a complete alphabet of ready-made; A is for Apple, B is for... etc. letter tracing worksheets in PDF format, one letter per page and they're free.

Greg M., via email

The Comic Sans font (and other handwriting fonts) is available at www.AscenderFonts.com.

Steve Kuhlman, via email

SPANISH BROADBAND

My wife and I, fairy competent silver-surfers, are contemplating moving to rural Spain before the arthritis gets us! The location has no mains power or reliable terrestrial telephone services and we really would like a high-speed broadband service. Solar panels and a back up generator are no problem but does anyone know of a fairly priced satellite service or some other system available on the Mediterranean coast northwest of Almeria?

Ray Martin, via email

A satellite system for Internet access costs around 2000 Euros for the equipment and installation plus IVA (Spanish VAT). The minimum package for home use is 512kb download, 256kb upload speeds and that costs 174 Euros a month (including VAT). The reason it's expensive is because it's two-way Internet. The monthly charges for a one-way Internet system (using a phone dial-up connection for the return channel) costs around a third as much. The other problem in rural areas is a reliable mains power. I have a state of the art solar system that is far superior to Spanish mains. This cost 40,000 Euros and the government paid for half of it with a grant. Electricity prices in Spain are amongst the highest in the world so it only takes 4 to 5 years for the system to pay for itself. There's only one proviso, don't cook with electric, gas is dirt-cheap here.

Chris Holleworth, via email

CAN YOU HELP?

Can anyone suggest a solution for creating a polo Club Chukka list? A chukka is the 7-minute playing period after which ponies are changed. Club chukkas are for practice, where there are no set teams, but anyone who wants to play is included, and teams (of four) are made up generally at random.

Factors which have to be considered are: number of chukkas required (maximum 2 per pony); any pony must have at least a one chukka gap between chukkas, to rest - preferably longer, and early or late chukkas, to suit players that need to leave early, or arrive late). It has to accommodate awkward requests, such as players wanting to play in the same side. The list has to identify the player's side and colour of shirt, (or bib), which may be different for every chukka. The list needs to define the player's names and shirt colour, chukka number and horse's name. There are normally 4 players to a team, sometimes three, very occasionally five.

Howard Richardson, Attridges Polo Club, Felsted, Essex

Whilst gardening I like to listen to music but I also need to be able to listen out for the phone and doorbell, and I cannot find a neighbour-friendly way to do this. Ideally I would like to have a portable MP3 player, with the facility to interrupt the music when someone phones or rings the doorbell. Does anyone know of a device, or can suggest a combination of components that could achieve this?

Chris Crockett, via email