OVER 2 YOU, 035 (21/06/01)

JUNK FAX REVENGE

I am being constantly plagued by junk fax calls late at night. I have tried getting through to the companies concerned but they are invariably on high-cost premium rate lines. I want revenge! I'm looking for a PC fax program (or a fax machine) that I can configure to work very slowly – preferably taking an hour or so to receive a fax -- so that it will cost the company sending it a small fortune.

John Russell, via email

Whilst I sympathise with John Russell's desire for revenge against the fax spammers, a simpler solution is to register with the Fax Preference Service. Under the terms of the Telecommunications (Data Protection and Privacy) Regulations 1999, it is unlawful to fax to an individual unless you have their prior consent.  The Fax Preference Service enables you to register your objection to receiving direct marketing faxes.  You can register with the FPS online at http://www.dma.org.uk/, and I can confirm that it is effective, although it might take a little while for the volume of junk faxes to decrease.
Richard Russell,

Instead of printing faxes, why not subscribe to an email fax service such as Demon's D-Fax. You have a dedicated number and faxes arrive as email attachments. You can decide whether or not to open them. Best of all you're not wasting fax paper. Obvious rubbish you can delete without opening. Demon's D-fax service is, I believe, free to subscribers, after a £20 set-up charge.

Mike O'Sullivan,

John Russell should use a PC to receive his faxes. The junk faxes can then be quickly viewed on screen and deleted without waste of paper or ink. He might slow them down by setting his modem to a slow bit rate overnight but he probably has better use for his time.
Brian Gilbert, Hampton, Middx
 

To slow down the Fax receipt/send rate on a Windows PC go to Start -> Control Panel -> Modems -> Properties. If he looks at the Maximum connection speed setting, he should be able to reduce it to about 110 and then make sure the "Only connect at this speed" option is set.
Roy Venkatesh, Basingstoke

COLOUR CONVERSION

Does anyone know of a procedure or piece of software for producing positive prints from scanned Kodacolor negatives? The 'invert' command does not work as the negatives have a strong orange-coloured caste, which is difficult to counter.   

Fred Holmes, via email

Firstly Fred needs to be able to convert his scanned Kodacolor negatives into a positive image - many packages will allow this, Paintshop Pro for instance. Once he has his positive image then he can use a program such as Color Pilot (US spelling) to fix the colour balance and lightness. Color Pilot is a Shareware package that can be downloaded and tested out before purchase. It can be downloaded from:

http://graphicssoft.about.com/

compute/graphicssoft/

library/daily/bldd020100.htm. If he is quick there is a free version on the cover CD-ROM on the June issue of the .net magazine.

Phil Andrews,

There was an article with detailed instructions in the October 2000 issue of PC Plus magazine, with a program on the accompanying CD-ROM. The article can be found at: http://www.pcplus.co.uk/article.asp?id=24388

Derek Burgoyne,

ELECTRONIC DIARY

Does anyone know of an electronic diary program with a search by keyword facility?

Ken Bridges, via email

Daytimer produces an electronic diary (for Windows) that can be searched by keyword, or beginning of words, as well as by various other criteria (priority, category, items assigned to particular individuals etc.).  It also provides for linking two or more entries, whether schedules, "to do" items, telephone calls, addresses, notes or expenses. The diary can be printed in several customised formats, including Filofax. Daytimer has produced paper diaries in several formats for many years, and still does. My version dates from 1997 and W95 (but runs quite happily under Windows 2000) so it's no doubt even more versatile now. www.daytimer.com
Chris Ward,
 

Lotus Organiser has a very simple to use (Edit, Find) but nonetheless powerful facility. It can also be used for finding any reference in the other sections within Organiser (To Do, Address, etc.). I don't know whether it is available separately from Lotus Suite as this is what I have always used and  judging by the amount correspondence Microdaft Office generates, will continue to do so.
Peter Bird,

WEB BANK

Does anyone know a bank that could collect moneys from email customers?

There must be many people who have small cost items for sale yet cannot sell on their web sites without involving fees for implementing secure credit accounts that are beyond most small businesses. At one time I could sell a painting at Uncle Tom's Shop down the road and he would give me my money, less his percentage. Why can't banks run a similar system?

Anne Dyson, via email

I have recently been selling some things on Ebay the Internet auction site and several people from overseas (USA, Japan and Switzerland) have purchased items. The problem comes when paying for small items, the bank charges are just too high and the service is confusing which puts lots of people off. But Help was at hand! someone told me about "PayPal" which does exactly what you are asking, I opened an account with them last week and it has been great! Anyone with an email address can send you money and vice-versa, and the costs are far less than any of the banks. The only slight problem is that it is in US dollars, (it obviously is changed to sterling when transferred into you bank account).

There is also a similar UK system called "Nochex" that I have also just opened an account with where all transactions are in sterling. There is a strong emphasis on security with both systems, you don't see the other persons financial details and they don't see yours. You are notified instantly via email as soon as you have been paid so the goods can be sent straight out. Plus you can manage your account online 24hrs a day, frankly its an excellent way to do business and means that I can take credit card payments from anyone in the world (who has email of course) It is excellent! The links are www.paypal.com (make sure you open an international account) and www.nochex.com
Tom Noonan,

OBSOLETE COMPUTERS

I am trying to help a colleague, who over many years has collated the day-to-day actions of hundreds of RN Ships. The problem is that the initial files were created on an Olytext machine (I presume a very early word processor). I have been told that by saving the files on the Olytext machine as ASCII files, we should be able to transfer them easily to a PC, but the PC doesn't recognise the disk. Does anyone have any suggestions on how we can overcome this? I have heard of a company that can transfer the files, but they are asking for around £25 per page and these files could run into 2000+ pages.
Trevor Muston, via email

If the Olytext machine can be connected to a printer then you can connect the Olytext machine to the PC with a suitable serial or parallel cable. You can then 'print' from the Olytext machine and capture the ASCII data on the PC by using a
basic terminal program such as HyperTerminal.
Alan Armstrong,

Some years ago now I was asked to assist in transferring text files from an Amstrad CPM system to an IBM compatible PC. The technique I used was to print the files, as plain text, into an external buffer memory box. This particular device had a capacity of 64K - various memory sizes were available - and it had both serial and parallel input and output ports.  Its original purpose was to allow the rapid output of documents or files to external devices like printers and plotters, and to free up the PC for other tasks, and was invaluable before the days  of Windows. It allowed our project planning users to send large plotfiles to serial connected plotters without having to wait an age for the pen device to make the drawing.

The device - I think made by ACULAB - worked on the first in first out principle. When the output serial port was connected to the serial port of a PC, I was able to use the Terminal program in Windows  3.1 to 'receive' the text file.  Specific formatting, e.g. bold underlining  etc, was lost but the technique worked for me. Nevill Mason, Duxbury, Chorley

WOODCUT SOFTWARE

I am a member of a society that deals with the English Civil War period. I have an excellent 17th Century typeface from Crazy Diamond, which allows me to write in the style of the time, but the pictures are causing me a problem. I want to take a photograph and convert it into something approaching a woodcut or engraving. I am not trying to satisfy academic purists, but merely trying to provide a compatible illustration to go with the words. I could do a drawing to be scanned in, but my hand is not good enough. Can anyone help?
Charles White, via email

I have used a Serif applet called PhotoPlus for some years now. I am not sure whether this or a later version is still available, but in addition to some basic editing tools it will apply the following effects to a photo: Charcoal drawing, Mosaic, Emboss, Posterise, Randomise colours (why I don't know), Negative, Grey scale, Sepia, Highlight/shadow, Solarise, Pixellise, Sharpen, Smooth, Remove noise, and Monochrome.

Les Hooper,

STOCKS AND SHARES

I need, ideally, to run a spreadsheet (Excel) with all my stocks and shares listed on it, and be able to download (off the net) daily or more often prices so it can update automatically. Can this be done without getting tied up with a portfolio with an on-line company, and having to be registered with a supplier of said prices?
Chris J Catton, via email

An easier way would be to purchase a copy of the many financial applications, the majority of which have this facility already set-up.  I would recommend MS Money 2000/2001 (2002 out soon??), you just need the "code" for the respective company, fill in all the necessary details, and you track the share price to your hearts content.  It can be setup to check periodically and automatically via a financial website (quotes supplied by Standard & Poor's Comstock and delayed about 20 minutes).
Aaron Brigatti,

 

CAN YOU HELP?

On a recent trip to South Africa I visited a delightful seaside village called Pater Noster, which I knew to be the opening words of the Latin version of the Lord's Prayer. A trinket shop in the village had on view a poster divided into about 24 panels, each depicting the Lord's Prayer in a different language. Unfortunately the poster was not for sale. Having arrived home I decided to produce, as a computer exercise, a booklet containing as many different versions of the panels on the poster as possible. Being a complete novice, can anyone direct me to a source, or sources of the Lord's Prayer on the Internet in as many different foreign languages as possible?

W. Quinlan, Verwood Dorset

I was wondering if anyone can suggest a site to download a program to play Backgammon solo. The ones I have tried do not adhere to the basic rules or blatantly bend the laws of dice probability, i.e. throwing six doubles back to back when the computer is in a loosing position. This is driving me crazy.

C. I. Cox, via email

I would like to produce static geometric images similar to those one could generate with Spirograph, or even the intriguing patterns of fractal geometry. Does anyone know of such a program?

Ian Thomas, Gwynedd

I have recently taken out a Flexible Mortgage with a Building Society. Does anyone know of a program that can track the progress of the mortgage? It would have to be able to cope with overpayments, underpayments, payment holidays, lump sump payments, changes in interest rates etc.

Ray Hassell, via email

Does anybody know of a site that will enable me to keep track of the value of my ISAs?  The site would need to be able to factor in the fact that I make monthly payments into each of my ISAs.
James Watson, via email