OVER 2 YOU, 071 (12/03/02)

IMMIGRATION DATABASE

I have read that there is a site that lists the 20 million emigrants into the United States of America. Please can anybody come up with the address that my web search has failed to find?

Barry Hill , via email

The site Barry Hill is looking for is: http://www.ellisislandrecords.org This site lists over 22 million passengers and members of ships' crews that came through Ellis Island and the Port of New York between 1892 and 1924. You can research passenger records from ships that brought the Immigrants and even see the original manifests with passengers' names.  To see and use the passenger record, you need to register, but there is no charge.  If you wish you can also buy prints of ship images and original ship manifests.

The Ellis Island site received 27,000 hits per second at one point and 10 million hits on their first day.  Like the UK 1901 census they had teething problems, but they managed to sort their problems out...

Bill Pearson, Nantwich

One site Barry Hill may find interesting is The Immigrant Ships Transcribers Guild at http://istg.rootsweb.com/. Best wishes from a fellow researcher.

Laurie Donovan,

SAILING LAPTOP

Later this year I will be off on a sailing adventure lasting approximately five months. The accommodation on board will be fairly rough and ready, with a damp salty atmosphere. Can anyone recommend a laptop or portable PC that will be able to endure this kind of hostile environment?

Janet Leslie, via email

There are sea-going laptops that have a certain amount of water, and shock proofing, but are very expensive. A more robust solution may be a good notebook PC, as they have no moving parts. Also if you are on a sailing boat your power supply is likely to be 24 or 12 volts only. Try Cactus Navigation in Curzon Street London, http://www.cactusnav.com/index2.html

Tim Pea.

What you need is an abacus. Try to get one made with stainless steel wires…

Cecil Axis,

LANGUAGEWARE

My wife and I are looking for help in learning western European languages, using PC software and the net. We want a reasonably high standard with lots of interactive help and as much contact with native language speakers as possible.

Gerald Griffiths, Newnham Bridle, Worcs.

I can thoroughly recommend the Tell me More series by Auralog. The programs cover French, Italian, German and Spanish at beginner, intermediate and advanced levels. You may follow the course religiously or study the different sections in your own desired order. The courses cover both written and oral - a set of earphones and microphone are included.  Access is available to a personal on-line tutor who is a native speaker of the language being studied. This service is free for one month and can then be subscribed to. Auralog can be contacted at www.auralog.com or at Suite 401, 302 Regent Street, London W1R 6HH phone 0207 9296266.  The software is (or was) available from PC World at £39.99.
Peter Catherall,

I am fluent and able to converse, write and negotiate complex contracts into and from English, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. I also have a good knowledge of French and German; however, I am not convinced that you can learn a language from a computer as yet. Bear in mind that a simple spell checker in Word cannot cope with the different meanings of its or it's. There are some translation resources that will let you "get by" (such as Babel) but I've yet to find anybody who has learnt a language properly (i.e. become really fluent) through a computer. The best thing to do is to go to a residential course in the country of choice for a couple of weeks and then read and listen to foreign newspapers and broadcasts on the internet. Windows Media Radio Tuner will give access to many radio stations in all languages and it can be downloaded for free. Patience is required and do not be embarrassed by your accents.

Ralph Torretta,

FIRST AND LAST PAGES

What was the first page on the Internet, and is it still there?

Des Peters, via email

The first page on the web would have created in 1990 by its inventor Tim Berners-Lee, an Englishman from London, who is now running the World Wide Web consortium in Boston. You can read about him and the invention of the components of the web, http and html, at www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/ He includes some web pages from 1992, but the very first web page has
apparently been lost.
William Bridge,

RECIPE DATABASE

I am looking to transfer all my recipes to my PC can anyone recommend any suitable software?

Ken Hewitt, via email

Here are three recipe databases available for download (each with around 1,000 recipes):

Inaka Software's Computer Cuisine Deluxe (Mac OS, OS X and Windows, $20 shareware): http://home.pacbell.net/inaka/cuisine/

Digital.Fried.Chicken's CookWare (Mac OS, OS X and Windows, $20 shareware): http://www.DigitalFriedChicken.com/

CookWare.html

C D Rhodes' The Computer Cookbook (Mac OS, OS X and Windows, $18 shareware): http://members.aol.com/cdrhodes/
Jeff Ross, Stockport, UK.

HANDY ACCOUNTS

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

There is a very simple-to-use accounts system that works with Excel. It is designed for the small to medium retailer, but can be used by any business. Details can be found at www.clearneasy.co.uk where a useful desktop calendar can also be downloaded.

Peter Levene,

PICTURE PERFECT?

I’m very pleased with the results from my new digital still camera but can anyone tell me how long pictures printed on my Canon printer are likely to last, before they fade, and is there anyway to preserve the original data indefinitely that will save it from the inevitable obsolescence of current recording media?

S. Richardson, via email

No mention has been made of what medium the digital images were printed out on. This has great significance. If the images are printed onto conventional photographic paper then a period of years can be expected. The exact number dependent on the normal factors that relate to all photographic papers - atmospheric contaminants, exposure to UV light
(bright direct sunlight), high temperature and high humidity all contribute to a shortening of life.

If the images are printed onto coated paper stock using inkjet techniques,the prints will definitely have a shorter life, but there are premium grades of archival inks and paper available.
The longevity of the data depends not only upon the storage media, but also on whether the technology remains available to translate it. Currently gold-coated CDs offer the best long-term solution, but supposing the media survives another twenty years, will the file format and the CD technology is
around to handle it? My crystal ball is fading...
Rod Wynne-Powell,

EXCEL IMPORT

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

This job is best approached the other way round. Think of importing in Outlook instead. The File menu contains the item Import/Export. . . and clicking this opens a small window in which the type of Import can be selected. Certainly if you start in the Inbox section of Outlook the options will be virtually self-explanatory. It may be a good idea before starting, however, to look at the Field Names (headings) that Outlook uses.

A superb place for guidance, although it can get a bit technical in places, is Woody's World of Windows, accessible at www.woodyswatch.com. I have a few excellent sheets on working with Outlook, including transferring data, mail merge etc., which I would be pleased to share with Mr Austin if he cares to contact me.
Andrew Hill,

Have a look art: http://www.erlandsendata.no/english/

downloads/tools.htm

This web site includes a file to transfer an e-mail address list from Excel to an Outlook folder. This workbook lets you update any contact folder in Outlook with names and e-mail addresses from an Excel worksheet. Useful for people that need to update a portable PC or the home office PC with e-mail addresses from work.

Neil Mathers,

CAN YOU HELP?

Can anyone recommend a computer program, which would assist my 23-year-old son who has dyslexia, to learn or improve his spelling?

Alan Locke, Lower Earley, Berkshire

We use a relational database (MS Access) containing approx. 120 names, to find which ones are available for specific dates, for specific subjects.  It would be useful to be able to add to that a distance finder for the names that come up in the search, by inputting the conference centre postcode for
example.  Does anybody have any ideas for a package that can be bolted on or merged?
L. Cook via e-mail

My seven-month old son loves watching my screensaver. Is it possible to get one that would be educational, like a set of flash cards etc?

Rob Kent, via email