OVER 2 YOU, 076 (16/04/02)

POLAR CHARTS

I have an interest in long-term weather prediction (for personal holiday planning), and used to appreciate the occasional view of the polar pressure chart on the BBC weather forecast. I have searched high and low on the web
but can’t find a current polar chart. Does anyone know of a site where it is available?
Doug Elliot, via email

As someone who has a keen interest in outdoor matters I would recommend you try www.wetterzentrale.de It has a host of excellent weather information, including synoptic charts, rainfall, lightning strikes, all current and available free. The down side is that it appears to be only available in
German, but is well worth a visit.
Phil Unwin, via email

The weather maps and charts used in BBC forecasts are displayed on a BBC web site, see: http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/ukweather/pressure.shtml, however their currency is a bit variable and they can sometimes be 12 hours or more out of date but the same site includes long and short term forecasts which is of immense interest to purely amateur meteophiles, like myself.

S. Carrol, via email

Have you tried http://www.fnmoc.navy.mil/PUBLIC/ or even
http://www.meto.gov.uk/

Paul Lautman,

You can see pictures from weather satellite in polar orbit, often not more than a few hours old, at the Space Science and Engineering website, the address is: http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/data/, look under the Real Time satellite images section.

Jeffrey Daniels, via email

OFFLINE BROWSER

Can anyone recommend an offline browser for reading newspapers? I merely want one that will work in the background – so that as I tick each story I am interesting in reading from the index – it will automatically start downloading. At the moment Internet Explorer demands that I await the full downloading of each story before proceeding to the next. An American company provided an excellent piece of software called Spoton that did precisely this but sadly no longer provide this service.

John Murphy, Bouniagues, France

The Opera browser can do this, and many other things besides being appreciably faster than IE. You can get it at http://www.opera.com/

Lucas Sonnino,

I use a program called Bluebell to download all sorts of info off the net. It's all drag and drop, so it takes just seconds. It's available from
www.tymax.co.uk

Phil Carter,

You should definitely have a look at a program called WebWhacker. This has a sophisticated off-line browsing facility and you can easily configure it to download pages for later reading, simply by clicking on links. There’s a link to a shareware demo of the program at: http://www.bluesquirrel.com/ products/whacker/index.html

Richard Benson,

EROTIC BUT NICE

Recently I have been investigating some of the erotic sites on the net and they are unsatisfactory. As an elderly and housebound widower in need of entertainment I would like to find something gentler, in the way, perhaps, I might visit the Follies Bergere or similar if in Paris, but going to Google on such a search gives reams of crudity. Can anyone recommend anything, which has class and style?  The cost of entry is of little importance.

Richard W., via email

My own area of interest is American ‘pin-up’ art of the 1930s, 40s and 50s, incredibly tame by today’s standards but undeniably highly erotic and arguably an art form in its own right. There’s a useful introduction to the genre at www.greatamericanpinup.com. There you will find galleries of pictures from some of the best-known artists of the era, such as Harry Eckman and Joyce Ballentine as well as works from more contemporary painters, who remain faithful to the style.

T.S.J, via email

GETTING A BEARING

It should be possible to compute bearings and distances on Ordnance Survey maps by just entering the six figure map references of start and finish points.  Does anyone know how?  Do I need a program or just a formula?
Cliff Mallinson, North Somerset

Using basic trigonometry, the bearing and distance can be easily calculated on an OS map. Assuming the bearing from the start point is in a north easterly direction towards the destination, draw a right-angled triangle on a piece of paper. On the base write the difference in the eastings between the start point and destination, on the perpendicular side write the difference between the northings of the two points. The hypotenuse will represent the bearing and distance. The distance can be calculated by squaring the two values written down on the base and perpendicular sides of the triangle, adding them together, and taking the square root, giving the answer in kilometres. The bearing is the angle whose tangent is the base value divided by the perpendicular value. The resultant bearing is based on grid north and to be precise a correction (stated on the map) is required needs to be applied to give a true bearing and also magnetic variation if a magnetic bearing is
required.
Geoff Weyman, via mail

USING OLD PCS

I have a small collection of four PCs, from 386 to Pentium 1, all of them perfectly serviceable but woefully out of date by current standards. I have promised them to my son’s school and a local charity shop – not that either seemed terribly impressed -- but I was wondering if anyone could come up with a suggestion for using at least one of them in a practical way, doing something around the house, even if it’s only switching the pump in my fish pond on and off? I would like to get back just a little of my initial investment

Doug Steele, via email

I’ve got an old Pentium 233MHz set up as a web server for the two other PCs in my household. The PC is connected to the Internet using an ‘always-on’ dialup account and is linked to the other PCs using a pair of inexpensive Ethernet cards (they cost me £10 each) and some ready-made cables. Using a separate PC as a server provides my other PCs with a degree of protection against hackers and viruses. It involved a fair bit of tinkering with settings and so on but it was well worth the effort and the old PC is still earning its keep.

Mark Rhodes, Stratford, London

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

It depends what you want to use it for but if all you need are basic facilities, like word processing, email and web surfing then you should consider one of the lightweight Windows CE handheld PCs or, at a pinch, a Psion palmtop, though make sure you can get the email working first, before you set sail. The advantage of these devices is that they’re small, light and have a very modest appetite for batteries. You can easily protect it from moisture and saltwater splashes by keeping it sealed inside a clear plastic bag.

Jacqui Sellers, Brighton

CAN YOU HELP?

I'm a teacher, and later this term will be responsible for sorting Y6 (junior) pupils into Y7 (secondary) forms. The sorting process should take account of friendship preferences, and also prohibited combinations! The resulting forms need to be balanced in terms of gender and ability.  Does anyone have any suggestions as to a program that may help with the first
cut?
Jason Day, Sheffield

The noise coming from the fans and whirring motors in my PC is really getting on my nerves. Is there such a thing as a totally silent PC – I have very acute hearing – or is there any way of muffling the noise?

Jean Taylor, via email

Does anybody know how the real time air traffic control map for the Heathrow area can be accessed for display in an iMac?

Barry Hill, via email

Correction

The address for iANSYST Ltd in Over to you 26/03/2002 should have been  www.dyslexic.com