OVER 2 YOU 239 (12/07/05)

SHEEP BELLS

I would like to add the sound of sheep bells to my website and I understand that this has to be in 'wav' format. Does anyone know where such a sound, or something similar, could be downloaded?

Frederick Pearson, via email

Your correspondent can find the sound of sheep bells, along with a myriad of other bell sounds from LC Supply (www.lcsupply.com/store/catalog/bells.htm). They sell the bells but would probably allow the use of the sounds in exchange for a link.

Eddy Maddix, Templecombe, Somerset

The website www.freeaudioclips.com may provide the sound you are looking for, or at least a similar one.  Try typing “dinner bell” into Search.  Then save as an “au” file rather than “wav.”  This saves on downloading time on your site.

Kathleen Birchall

I am not sure if this is exactly what Mr Pearson is looking for but there’s a very wide selection of bell sounds, including a cow bell (which I suspect isn’t too dissimilar to a Sheep’s bell) on the Audiosparx web site at: www.audiosparx.com/sa/display/sounds.cfm/ sound_group_iid.49/requesttimeout.480

On this site you will find 94 different bell sounds, from gongs and trolley cars to lift and oven timers, which you can hear though your PC simply by clicking on the Play symbol. If you want to download the sound you have to pay a small subscription fee.

Steve Childs, via email

Samples of a very wide selection of bell sounds can be found at: http://caeaudio.com/gamebells.html, although sheep bells are not listed I am sure they are in there somewhere.

Gordon Ashley, via email

You should visit Sound Effects Library.com (www.sound-effects-library.com/), which has downloadable sound files of dozens of different types of bells, though you will need to install a small utility in order to search the database and hear them.

Jennie Mitchell, via email

I wasn’t able to locate the bell sound but I did manage to find the sheep it belongs to, listed under Animal Sounds at: www.media-tracks.com/default.asp?ID=5

William Foster, 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

The easiest and cheapest way of using renewable energy in your home is to buy electricity from a green supplier (such as Good Energy or Ecotricity). They usually offer either a ‘green tariff’, in which they match the electricity you use by buying the same amount from renewable sources such as wind farms, or a ‘green fund’ – they invest money into research or setting up renewable energy projects. This both supports the renewables industry and sends a message to the government that we want to support non-polluting forms of energy. It's also possible to install a small-scale renewable energy system, e.g. solar photovoltaic panels, on your house and connect it to the national grid. Costs will depend on size, but an ’average’ system could be between £12,000 and £15,000. There are often government grants available to help towards the cost.

Sally Oakes, Centre for Alternative Technology (CAT), Machynlleth, Powys, www.cat.org.uk

CORONA CONVERSION

I have a Smith Corona 3900 PWP - it has been a loyal friend and still works well. But I have to move on and purchase a proper computer. My problem is I have lots of vintage steam engine stories saved to my floppies in PWP and ASC11 format. Does anyone know of a program, which I can use to transfer them over to Microsoft Word without loosing any of the data?

Tim Keenan, via email

Mr Keenan should contact Commercial and General Systems in Dunstable (www.comgen.co.uk) who claim to be able to copy anything to anything. In my limited experience their claim is justified.

Dr Digby L. James, Oswestry

TIME FLIES

My company’s aviation briefing always starts with an accurate time check. Can anyone suggest a website that displays a continuous time readout, in hours-minutes-seconds, from an accurate source, in other words not the computers own clock?

John Tybjerg, via email

Have a look at: http://nist.time.gov/timezone.cgi?UTC/s/0/java, this shows UTC (Coordinated Universal Time) in real-time. This is the international time standard which

is the same as Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) so for BST add one hour. Java has to be installed and enabled to show real-time display, on a few computers I have setup in the past couple of years Java is not included with IE6, it can be downloaded from: www.java.com

Alan Clarke, via email

CAN YOU HELP?

I am a keen writer and spend several hours each day at my PC. For various reasons this has to be in the living room and my husband says the noise of the clattering keys is really getting on his nerves. Can anyone recommend a quiet keyboard, suitable for a reasonably fast typist, with well-cushioned keys, so I don’t end up with aching fingers?

Margaret Keene, via email

I want to set up a Spreadsheet/Database so that I can call up the rows presented in random fashion. Excel would be my preference but it appears that one can only call up cells in a column in random fashion: this apparently cannot be done for rows. I prefer to set up the database in Excel but would consider setting up in a database package if random selection of fields in a row were possible.

Jim Nolan, via email