OVER 2 YOU, 039 (12/07/01)

SPIROGRAPH

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

Ian Thomas should try Epicycles, at http://www.epicycles.com.  As for fractal generation, Fractint (from www.fractint.org) is a very complete program, but some may find it difficult to use due to the bewildering number of options one can change.  Both these programs are freeware. 

Adam Thorn,

Ian could try downloading a trial copy of Xara X from www.xara.com. My older version has a facility called Quickshape, which allows you to draw and reshape polygons to make some quite fascinating shapes; I think the present incarnation of Xara (i.e. Xara X) still retains this feature.

Mike Clifton

Spirograph -- there was a program published for the BBC B micro in BEEBUG Feb 1983. It's only 16 lines of BBC BASIC, too.
Paul S. Ganney

NEGATIVES

Does anyone know if I can buy in slim light box to fit under the lid of my Artec scanner so that I can scan some black and white postcard size negatives left to me by my father, taken in the twenties?

John Elstone, via email

A couple of years ago, Hewlett Packard bundled a negative adaptor with some of their scanners, which consisted of a simple, mirrored, triangular shaped box. This enabled you to scan transparencies on a standard flat bed scanner without any additional lighting requirements. There are details on how to produce a homemade version at: http://www.abstractconcreteworks.com/ essays/scanning/Backlighter.html

Furthermore, there is an excellent informative site about scanners and scanning at: http://www.scantips.com/, which includes tips and links on scanning transparencies and negatives.

H.Edwards,

All you need to do is place a sheet of white paper over the negative and scan it as you would any picture. Use invert to turn it into a positive and if required make any adjustments to contrast etc with any photo manipulation software. I have used this technique with half plate glass plates and it worked a treat.

Alistair Parker, parker.mail@lineone.net

BOILERWARE

I am on the brink of installing a gas-fired central heating system in my house, does anyone know of any software, or a web site, that can assist in the layout and specification, such as working out the size of the boiler, radiators etc.?

Mike Kenny, via email

You can download a free programme for personal use called Heatloss Manager from http://www.myson.co.uk/Request.html 

Jane Mack (via email)

Five years ago Potterton Boilers supplied me with a program on a 3.5" floppy, which calculated heat losses room-by-room and suggested suitable radiators and boilers to balance the system. If Mr Kenny cannot obtain this disk from Potterton I will be happy to let him have mine if he contacts me.

Barry Cross barry.cross@wanadoo.fr

The City Plumbing web site has an easy to use heat loss calculator.  The web
address is www.cityplumbing.co.uk/heatloss.htm

Ed Taylor, Sherington

MAPPING THE CHURCH

As part of a research project into medieval churches, I want to plot the geographical location of various architectural features in the UK. I need a package, which will accept grid references and plot them on a simple outline map using different symbols for each feature. The map may be of the whole country, or of individual counties or regions. I dare say that expensive GIS systems will do this - is there any shareware or cheapware that does the job?

Trevor Cooper, via email

I would recommend you try Data-on-the-Map available from: http://www.chartwrite.com/index2.html for £ 70. It enables you to create layered maps from .bmp files and to relate data to information in Excel spreadsheets. It's a super program, which has all the functionality most of us amateurs need. You can download a working demo but you cannot save files without the full version.
J S, exterten@yahoo.com

BACKGAMMON CHALLENGE

I was wondering if anyone could 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

Why not play other people worldwide instead of a computer program? Log onto www.funcom.com the graphics are excellent and there are many serious players in there.

Tina Baker, tina_baker@yahoo.co.uk

CIRCUIT DIAGRAMS

I have just started to produce a newsletter for the model boat club that I am the chairman of. One of the regular features I would like to include in future issues is to print both the circuit and schematic diagrams for small and simple electronic projects that would help all the members with this area of the hobby. I have tried to produce them using both the Autoshapes and Draw facility in Microsoft Word, but without too much success. The main problem relates to the symbols for the components such as resistors, capacitors, transistors, etc. Is there any alternative within Microsoft Works suite that I can use? Alternatively does anyone know of a simple and straightforward software package that will help me with the production of circuit diagrams for printing?
Ian Alcock, via email

Microsoft has an Office-compatible product called Visio. This comes with a range of standard business and technical templates. We have successfully used this in the chemical engineering field. I notice from the web site  (http://www.microsoft.com/office/visio/

evaluation/techtour/page3.htm) that they have an electronics template.
Dave Parker, Great Ayton, Middlesbrough

A couple of years ago I needed an electronic circuit and found it no great problem making my own symbols. Any good drawing programme should cope; I used GSP's Designworks. Straight lines of varying thickness make capacitors, tiny boxes for the positive of electrolytics capacitors. For resistors you do short straight lines. Start with one at 45º, copy and paste, rotate 90º. Line the two up together, group, copy and paste that one and line those two up together, go on grouping in this way and build up a zigzag line. A half-length line at each end completes the resistor symbol. Copy, paste and rotate and you have one horizontal and one vertical. You can do everything with lines, circles, arrowheads etc.

Inductors are the difficult ones but you only need to draw one loop freehand and the rest is copying, pasting and grouping. Make up a page of symbols and save them. When you need to use them, import the page into your drawing
and start selecting, copying and pasting.

Always keep a backup in case you accidentally forget to copy and use up one of the master symbols in your circuit. Doing it this way is much more fun and more satisfying than being constrained by somebody else's ideas.

A circuit diagram drawn using this method can be seen on the Internet and downloaded from: www.beesource.com. Click on 'Plans...build it' and scroll down to the bottom item 'Apidictor'.
Rex Boys, Westmancote, Tewkesbury

CYCLE RACE

I take part in cycle racing where we do 8 laps of a short circuit. As a result we do eventually get mixed up with some riders getting lapped several times. The start of each lap is signified by who is determined to be the lead rider just like a Formula 1 car race. I would like to be able to record each persons lap position and then their final position and time. Can you tell me if there is a program available to do this or can it be done in Excel?
Richard Abbott, via email

Have a look at the race organising software on the following sites, there's bound to be something to suit your needs!

http://members.aol.com/racedirect/

http://www.coolrunning.com/racemgmt/

http://www.wolfpup.org/timetrial/

http://www.truesport.com/Bike/action.htm

Jenny Delaney, Hastings, East Sussex

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

In response to the request by Trevor Muston (Thurs June 28) to convert Olitext (not Olytext) files - this was the first Word Processing package I used (over 13 years ago now) and much to my own amazement, have re-discovered it sitting comfortably in one of my back-up folders (a full blown piece of software at an amazing 26kb!!)

The good people of Olivetti also included a conversion facility, which does a nice job of converting the otx files into Word (2000 or any other variation) that recognises ASCII.

The problem with swapping the floppy disks over is in "Olitext day" the standard PC requirements included a floppy drive that could only read single density disks (probably 360kb) instead of today's 1.44mb (and 720 backward compatible).  Today's drives do not recognise this early format.  Again, however, I may have hardware that can read this disk format - hard to say as it has been too many years since the disks were last used!
Joe Clarke, joe@garnett-keeler.com

CAN YOU HELP?

I would like to do my bit for the environment and would be interested in learning more about the ins and outs of environmental motoring. Does anyone know of a web site or resource that can point me towards the most efficient/least destructive means of personal transport (apart from bicycles) for my family and me?

Jane McNally, via e-mail

I want to learn a foreign language (Spanish) quickly and with the least amount of effort. I don't aspire to talk like a native but I would like to know enough to get by on holiday without sounding like an idiot. Can anyone recommend a package or web site that isn't patronising or aimed at 12-year olds?

R. Taylor, via e-mail  

Does anyone know of a solo Scrabble game, I need this for training purposes?

Leslie Sutton, via e-mail

I recall as a child seeing plans in one of those 'Boys Book of Knowledge' type books for a 'Crystal Radio' set that didn't need any batteries and used a piece of coal for the crystal. Does anyone know where I could find that book, or the plans, perhaps via a specialist Internet bookshop or web site? Would a crystal radio work on today's radio transmissions?

Chris Sutton, via email

I need to convert into Word a text document with footnotes typed as a separate file. Is there any way of getting the footnotes linked to the text in other than cutting and pasting them into a Word footnote file?  As there are hundreds of them this takes ages!
Ann Hudson, Chichester