OVER 2 YOU, 068 (19/02/02)

GREAT WAR RESEARCH

I am attempting to research my father's service in the Great War but am hitting brick walls. My father was a retired regular soldier who re-enlisted in 1914 and went to France in 1915 with the 7th (Service) Royal Scots Fusiliers.  The Records Office at Hayes in Middlesex was bombed during the Second World War and many records, including my father's, were badly damaged. The Royal Scots Fusiliers' museum was moved from Ayr to Glasgow but before the RSF memorabilia had been catalogued the museum was set on fire by vandals and damaged by the fire or and water. Where else can I seek information?  Is it possible to gain access to the Great War medical records?

T. S. Leonard, via email

My father was in this regiment during the Second World War and I have a book by John Buchan titled The History Of The Royal Scots Fusiliers (1678-1918). The contents are written in almost diary form and follows the 7th as well as the others. This book was published in 1925 but it may be available from larger libraries. I am willing to be of any further help, please pass my email address to Mr Leonard.
Jacqueline Exley, via email

There is a great deal of information on this regiment, along with many links to useful references at the Land Forces of Britain Empire and Commonwealth web site. The link to the Royal Scots Fusiliers section is as follows: http://www.regiments.org/milhist/uk/inf/021RSF.htm

Michael Taylor, via email

TRAINING AID

I am looking for a train driver simulation program; I know nothing about them and would appreciate any expert advice or recommendations.

Sophie Walker, Kenya

The best train driving simulator program I have come across is "Cab View Driver" by Ashley Greenup, (tel.  01228 590796,  traingames@compuserve.com), which has 13 different routes with real line video and a multitude of different traction types all of which exactly replicate the performance of their real equivalents on the said lines.  Each route is on a separate CD-ROM and contains dozens of real schedules and real train consists, plus the facility to create your own train consists. Unbeatable!
Peter Mugridge,

SLOW PITCH

Is anyone aware of software that will enable an Audio CD to be played at slower than original speeds whilst retaining the correct musical pitch? 
Brian Yabsley via E-mail

I play my alto sax along with tunes (old standards) that I have copied into Music Works Personal 2.5 from old sheet music.  I can transpose the music to any key and set the pitch of the electronic instrument (usually a tenor sax) to harmonise with my alto, I can also slow the tempo over a wide range whilst learning a piece. Music Works is a MIDI based package and the pitch (frequency) is set digitally and is not affected by altering the tempo.  Because it is digital the music sounds somewhat mechanical but it suits my purpose of playing along for practice in keeping good tempo.

Music Works' ability to easily transpose to any key may also provide the answer to K. T. Naughton's problem of transposing his song music (Over 2 You November 11^th, 2001).  The text mark up and print out features of Music Works means one is able to produce quite good quality manuscript.

I obtained my copy of Music Works from www.guildsoft.co.uk for about £65 including VAT after using the 30-day trial package.

Richard Ball, via email

There is a program called Transkriber (yes, spelt with a ‘k’) from Reed Kotler Systems. It plays back music at whatever speed you want 3/4, 2/3, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, etc., without changing the pitch. He should visit the AcuTab American Bluegrass music site – www.acutab.com -- where he can read a full description of the program and hear some recorded examples. He can also buy it from there for US $49.95. It’s also available a little cheaper from Jack Hatfield Music in Pigeon Forge – www.hatfieldmusic -- for $46. The supplier’s web site is also worth a visit at: www.reedkotler.com

David Norgate, South Woodford

ALL IN THE MIND

I sometimes hear in my head music that I have never heard, but I can't read and write music so my melodies go lost.  Is there any software that puts into written music, a tune I whistle or hum?

Franco Cavallini, via email                          

Yamaha’s Xgworks (version 3.0) has a facility called Voice to Score, that allows you to input music, using a microphone. This program costs around £70, for more information see: http://www.yamaha.co.uk/xg/html/

midplug/m_mid10.htm

J. Scriven, Norwich

WIND UP PC

Is there such a thing as a ‘wind-up’ computer or can anyone suggest a reliable portable power source, as I’ll be off trekking in various out of the way places later this year. Solar cells seem like a possibility but are they small or efficient enough to drive a laptop and mobile phone?

Linda King, via email

Your correspondent may be interested in a lightweight foldaway photovoltaic solar panel called Uni-Pac, to power her laptop in far-flung places.  See:
http://shop.solarcentury.co.uk/acatalog/shop.html

Kat Johnston, via email

EDUCATING EXCEL

I am compiling a database of names with dates of birth and death etc. I am using Excel for compiling my family tree; it being much better suited to the task than any commercial software I've found. Unfortunately, Excel will not allow dates to be shown pre-1900 in the database, so I am unable to calculate longevity automatically. Is there any way to sidestep this to allow pre-1900 dates? If not (and I suspect that will be the case) can anyone suggest another way?
Dave Reid, via email

If birth and death-dates are entered in the form in years.months i.e. 1865.09, where 1865 is the year and the figure behind the decimal point, .09 is the month (.09 is September), a formula can be used to calculate the difference:

=IF((INT(DD)-INT(BD)+BD-DD)

<0.01,DD-BD,DD-BD-0.88) 'INT' converts the figures to integers or whole numbers.

Where DD is a reference to an Excel cell containing the death-date and BD a reference to the birth-date. The IF(INT(......... statement works out if the months part of the birth date is greater than that of the death date. If this is the case, 1 year needs to be 'borrowed' from the death-date years as one would do in a decimal calculation, and '.12' (1 year expressed in months) added to the months part of the calculation after the decimal point. Otherwise, straightforward decimal subtraction will yield the correct value.

If the user ensures that the Birth, Death and Lifetime figures always have the same relative cell positions, the same formula can be used throughout using relative cell references.
Alan Glenny,

BLIND MICE

Can anyone suggest the cheapest scanner and software that will get text from magazines and newspapers, put it into a Word document and then read it out without any proof reading? It is vital that all this be done without any use of the mouse, as our clients are blind. Obviously, it is also impossible to use the mouse even to select text. RNIB computer volunteers have been trying to crack this for months. We have ReadBack, Readplease and we have used Omnipage and Textbridge as well as various macros, but always, we get to the dreaded point where the mouse has to be used.
Brian Rhodes, via email

Volunteers with IT-Can-Help (ITCH, a BCS Disability Group project) frequently come across scanners that need mice to operate them and this causes problems with clients with mobility difficulties as well as blind people. The software interface that is supplied with cheap scanners tends not to be of the standard Windows variety, which can be navigated via the keyboard. To get around this for text reading, there are products, such as "Scan and Read" or "Text Cloner" from Modern World Data Ltd (01341 422 044), which bypass the scanner software and are easily operated by single keystrokes. However, for other scanning purposes the only answer may be to buy a different scanner, such as Hewlett Packard that uses standard Windows.

John Steadman, Volunteer Area Organiser for ITCH East UK
ITCH East UK website:

CAN YOU HELP?

Dear Sir,

Please could you tell me whether there is an accepted protocol for starting and finishing e-mails in the ‘Dear Sir’ and ‘Yours faithfully’ letter format, according to the status of the person being addressed?

Yours faithfully

Fred Sommers, Wokingham

I am a self-employed handyman and I have been looking for a simple accounts package. Most of the popular accounts programs are too complicated as they include stock control and VAT which I do not need. All I want is something to keep a record of my customers, purchases, sales, print invoices, and do a simple balance sheet so I now how my business is doing week to week. Can anyone recommend a simple and inexpensive software package?

I. Palfrey, via email

I maintain an Excel spreadsheet, which includes columns containing names of people and their associated email addresses. Is there a way of exporting these columns to be used as an email distribution list in Microsoft Outlook?
Bob Austin, via email