OVER 2 YOU, 091 (30/07/02)

DISC IDEAS

I’ve made bird scarers with them, ‘papered’ the kids bedroom ceiling and even used a few for airgun practice (satisfying but messy…) but I’m still left with scores of freebie Internet signup CDs. Has anyone come up with a sensible use for the cursed things yet?

Geoff Belling, via email

How about a very attractive 'silent' disco for his garden? *  I am an artist and I created an ornamental screen using spare discs, rustic poles and strong fishing line. The discs were fastened through drilled holes at the top and bottom and on both sides so that they just tremble in the wind, others were fastened top and bottom only so that they spin. This free-standing screen needs to be sited so that the discs face east/west.  It works best in the early morning shadow of a high hedge.  As the sun rises, the rays hit the discs and the reflections are cast upon the ground, as the sun sets then the sun's rays hit the other side of the discs.  Of course, at the same time shadows are cast upon the ground.  On a sunny day the shadows move round in a circle. The windier the weather the better the show! The reflected lights also flash around the garden.  They also look great after they have suffered a little bit of frost!

Irene Measures

CDs are manufactured from polycarbonate, which is a high-quality plastic. It's a criminal waste to burn them or dump them in a landfill. I have two suggestions for Geoff Belling’s common problem with "free" CDs.(Actually we all pay through the nose for excessive unwanted and untargeted
advertising!) Get your council to set up a plastics recycling scheme;

Get together with friends and colleagues and collect a really large bundle of this unwanted snail Spam. Deliver it to the head office of the companies concerned as a protest at the waste involved.
Brian Beesley

Treat them as giant sequins and sew them to your next fancy dress costume.  Why not enter as "Homo Sapiens Discovered"?
Len Skilton

May I suggest they be used as coffee mats?  They also make safe, washable and disposable toys for babies who love the mirrored surface.

Julian Moore, Abingdon

Mr Belling might try making inlaid coffee table tops. Half a dozen disks, a length of dowel, some coloured cord and a curtain finial makes a passable "Roman" standard for the local infant school Nativity play.

Gary Hughs

I made a fairly pretty silver Christmas wreath for the door with some of mine.

Kathryn Jordan, Tonbridge, Kent

Here are a couple of uses for superfluous CD's:

1.  My wife had a habit of losing shed and other keys in the garden.  I solved the problem by tying a CD to each vulnerable key with a loop of string.  We haven't lost any since!

2. For those with an artistic bent, CD's can be used with wire coat hangers and coloured thread to make mobiles.

All I need now is something to do with the remaining 500 CD's…

George Preston

PC MICROSCOPE

Having taken up geology in my retirement, I want to branch out into petrology, which involves using a polarizing microscope to examine thin sections of rock. However, failing eyesight (AMD) is an increasing handicap, albeit a slowly growing one.  Has anyone experience of using an optical microscope with a PC? I have Windows 95 PC with a 21-inch monitor, what other hardware would I need, apart from the microscope?  Being able to show the angular direction of the polarizer on screen with the magnified section is the dream, but not the expectation! If the idea is technically/financially beyond reach of anyone outside a well-endowed laboratory, is there a program simulating a range of rock sections?

Douglas Hague, via email

I doubt if this is what Mr Hague is actually looking for but it may interest others to know that until recently Intel and Mattel were producing a simple microscope that could be used with any Windows PC. The QX3 had a magnification of up to 200x and on the demonstration that I witnessed the image quality seem to be very good indeed. More details can be found at

http://www.intel.com/intelplay/. Although they are not being made any longer they are still readily available from computer dealers and there are plenty for sale on the online auction site ebay, (www.ebay.co.uk) usually new and often going for a fraction of the original shop price.

Sarah Hill, via email

There’s some information on a computer-controlled microscope, called aptly enough the PC Scope at: http://www.tritekcorp.com/

default.asp?page=product&type=compound. It specifically mentioned Petrology. I fear it is horrendously expensive but there seems to be plenty of useful information on the site.

J. Tiller, Derby

You should certainly pay a visit to the Inventeering web site at http://www.inventeering.com/, which carries a most impressive range of PC microscopes.

Ken Willis

KEY QUESTION

I teach part-time at an Adult Education College and need a diagram (not a photo) of a Windows Keyboard that I can distribute to my students. It needs to either have descriptions of key functions - or space where I can add my own.  The drawing or diagram must show the Windows keys, Application key, Function keys, number pad, etc in addition to the alphabet keys. I've spent hours trawling the net - with no result.

Christina Williams, via email

Christina may be interested in a small computer-based program I have designed which replicates the keyboard layout, describes the function of the keys, and allows a printout of the entire keyboard layout. A demonstration is available by sending an email request to the address below quoting Keyboard in the subject field.

Clive Read clive_read@hotmail.com

Specialised 'keycap' fonts are available from various sources, which can be used to create keyboard diagrams. For the Mac try: 

http://www.highway57.co.uk/mkc.html and for Windows go to: http://www.byte-sized.com/

I have several and would be happy to donate them but they are quite old so don't show the Windows key.
Stephen Elston

NUMBERS ANNOY

I am irritated by the ever-increasing number of companies using 0870 numbers (which give them a share of the call revenue). Services like OneTel do not save money on these "non-geographic" numbers. According to Oftel, all these numbers sit on top of a normal number. Does anyone know of a site listing these normal equivalents, or any way of discovering what they are in any particular case?

Peter Brown, via email

I'm unaware of a website converting 0870 numbers to standard ones but promotional literature for companies sometimes lists a +44 1XXX XXX XXXX number for customers calling from overseas. Drop the +44, add a '0' in front of the one and you're dialling the same call centre as the 0870 number. Alternatively, use Yell or BT white pages for the company's main number and insist you be put through to the 0870 number call centre; refuse to do business with them otherwise. Or simply boycott companies offering only a 0870 number as the main contact. There is always an alternative with a conventional, non rip-off phone number somewhere.

Graeme Roberts

HOLIDAY CONNECTION

I am shortly going on holiday to Florida (Orlando area) and my rented villa has a telephone. I’m taking my laptop and would like to be able to access the web and pick up my emails. Can any suggest a local ISP? I know AOL and CompuServe have local dial-up numbers in the US but these are subscriptions services, I’m looking for something cheaper, preferably free, that would be available to a non-resident!

Mike Brenner, via email

I travel regularly in the States and have noticed that there are pre-paid CDs offering Internet access in many convenience stores and also CompUSA and Staples. You may have to configure OE to use different mailboxes. Adaptors are no problem, just unplug the lead from the phone in your rental house and use that, all laptop power bricks are multi voltage. The Web is very useful on holiday, sites like www.Mapsonus.com can be used for driving directions, and many attractions can be booked on line as well.

Malcolm Frost, Hindhead (currently in Phoenix)

CAN YOU HELP

Does any know of a web site devoted to reconnecting long lost friends and relatives in the Commonwealth?

Dick Harrison, via email

I can store the National Grid References of up to 250 waypoints (positions) in my GPS, but manual entry is very time-consuming.  Alternatively, I can download a table of waypoints from MS Excel into the GPS, which is much quicker, but they have to be entered in columns of latitude and longitude.  Is there a program that will convert a batch of Grid References into separate columns of latitude and longitude?
Geoffrey Adams, via email

Does anyone know of a reasonably priced program, which will do the necessary imposition for printing say a 12 page x A5 newsletter or a 40 page x A5 booklet from a PDF file? These are printed on A4 paper and saddle-stitched. The commercial printers have their expensive software for this, which will also do all sorts of clever tricks, but it would be useful to be able to run off a few copies as mock-ups and/or drafts for the sorts of documents we put together for our local U3A.

Don Perham, via email