OVER 2 YOU, 096 (03/09/02)

LAYING THE FLAG

The restoration of my listed home involves laying a flagstone floor using reclaimed flags. These are squares and rectangles whose sides vary in length from 1 foot to 3 feet. Does anyone know of a program that will create a layout to fit the available stones into the room so as to minimise the number of flags that need to be cut?

Ian Middleton, via email

I have no doubt whatsoever someone somewhere has written Flagstones for Windows or some such program but I contend that this kind of work is best made by eye, judgement and experience, which will give a more pleasing and aesthetic results avoiding the kind of bland, uniform geometric arrangement that a computer is bound to come up with.

Ian Cummings, Walthamstow, London

There’s an excellent article on how to lay so-called ‘random’ flagstone patterns on the A. J Mccormack web site, they sell flags, and I have no connection with them, in case you’re wondering. Have a look at: http://www.tmac.clara.co.uk/

paving/random01.htm

M. Stanley, via email

I don’t know about computer programs but there are a lot of patterns for laying irregularly sized flag stones at the following web site: http://www.minster.clara.co.uk/paving

/ompatt01.htm

Jane Weston, via email

PHONE DIALLER

Can anyone recommend a good phone dialler program for Windows 98? I simply want to store phone numbers, look them up alphabetically and dial out from my computer. The Phone Dialler in Windows would be ideal if it could store 100+ numbers rather than just 8.

Michael Glover, Gerrards Cross

The DBtoGO website www.dbtogo.co.uk has an Address Book with a phone
dialler. Also email and mail merge facilities. This is available as a free download to allow testing to be carried out.
David Hodge

Before loading extra software, investigate the address book where you may be keeping email or postal addresses. Even Outlook Express allows you to store phone numbers and dial out (click on the Action icon and then Dial).   If this works for you, you will be able to keep your data together without
retyping and you will not have the problems that can occur when loading new software.

David Hutchence

Lotus Organizer can store thousands of contacts and allows you to dial out from the address book. You hook up your handset in parallel to the data line i.e. connect both to the wall outlet via double adapter and you can then click on a contact and Organizer will dial them and tell you to lift the handset. It will also optionally log the calls so you can see when you
last phoned each contact.

Michael Coyle

I can highly recommend the Telephone Dialler option in Time & Chaos from

http://www.isbister.com/chaos32.html

John S McCubbing, john@jmccub.co.uk

When using your PC to handle voice calls, you have to go one of two ways. Either, you use your PC to dial the pick up the telephone handset to hold the conversation or use a headset plugged into your PC with a microphone and earphones. In both cases, I have found that both Microsoft Outlook 2002 does the job nicely. It can both hold an almost unlimited number of names, addresses and phone numbers and you can also create a journal entry allowing you to record the date and time as well as the details of what was discussed in the conversation.
John Haithwaite

BROADBAND FAX

Is there an application for computer-based fax for Broadband Internet?I used to have a good one but it only works on a dial-up connection.

Steve Jones, Yarm

You are unlikely to find an application for fax over broadband.  The reason is that a fax is usually sent point-to-point using a simple protocol such as V29. Your modem is designed to connect directly to a broadband ISP and is unlikely to support this and even if it does would only operate at normal fax speeds.

The only way to send Faxes is to find a web site that offers an e-mail to fax conversion and forwarding service. For receiving Faxes try www.yac.com they offer a free account with a personal number that will forward incoming Faxes to your e-mail account.  It works well but be warned the sender pays a whopping great 30p per minute for the service.

Barry Morcom

PAPER AEROPLANES

I seem to remember a few years ago seeing programs for designing paper aeroplanes, which were apparently superior to the traditional paper ‘dart’ type design. Does anyone know if they’re still available and if so, have any improvements been made?

Ian Douglas, via email

Another very good site for designing paper aeroplanes is:
http://www.fiddlersgreen.net/

J. Ward

COUNTDOWN CONUNDRUM

How can I get Excel 2000 to do a countdown specified in days, hours and minutes from the current date and time to a future specified date and time? I have been able to get either days with a decimal for hours or hours and minutes but not as I would like.
I. C. Blaik, vie email

The trouble with spreadsheets is that they can often lead to very complicated formulae, which masks just what it is that is being done, and lead to errors. The two answers to the Excel question (Over 2 You August 27th) exhibit some of these problems. What we are after here is a simple difference - take one date away from another and display the answer in days, hours, minutes and seconds. It is a formatting, not a formula, problem.

The formula that is needed is =A1-NOW(), assuming that the date to be counted down to is in A1.Now format the cell. Select Format | Cell (or press CTRL-1), select the Number tab and choose "Custom" from the bottom of the list on the left. The complicated stuff on the right is a textual description of the format, what Microsoft calls the Format Picture. All you need to know is that d is for day, h for hours, m for minutes and s for seconds, and that you can enter text in quotes. So, to display the time remaining, enter the format as
d "days" h "hours" m "minutes" or d "days" h:m:ss [doubling the letter gives a leading zero if required] or whatever suits your needs best

Your cell will now show the time remaining exactly as you would expect it to, and your formula now reflects what the cell does, making it much easier to audit, rather than being a cumbersome construction mainly for formatting
purposes.
Stuart Reynolds

TALKING NEWSPAPERS

We produce a talking newspaper for the blind and currently record these on cassettes. However this technology is rapidly being phased out and we need to establish a viable alternative as we are led to believe that tapes will cease being available in 2004.

Does anyone know have any experience of using CDs for newsletters or similar? Any help would be appreciated including the best way of getting the recordings onto the PC for editing and subsequent distribution.
Geoffrey Thomas, via email

I believe Geoffrey Thomas is panicking prematurely about the phasing out of audio cassettes and this effect on the country's 400plus talking newspapers (TNs) for visually impaired people. Whilst it is true that audio cassettes are being phased out, their use and availabilty for TNs can be expected to go on for at least 10 years. Digital recording is the obvious alternative as the ultimate cassette replacement, but until CD/minidisk players are as common, and cheap, this is not a viable option, particularly as the great majority of TN listeners are past retirement age and loath to replace familiar equipment. Another factor currently mitigating against digital recording is that discs can not be cheaply wiped clean and used repeatedly as is the case with magnetic tape. Never fear, however, because the 'industry' is fully aware of the problem and the Talking Newspaper Association of the United Kingdom (TNAUK) is currently developing, and involving interested TNs, CD/minidisk-based services. Geoffrey Thomas can contact TNAUK via info@tnauk.org.uk or visit their website at http://www.tnauk.org.uk,

 Heinz Vogel, heinz@vogel.org.uk, Editor, Elmbridge and Runnymede Talking News

CAN YOU HELP?

I have a Hotmail address, which receives between 30 and 40 vulgar spam messages every day. I have no PC and can only use cybercafes, can anyone suggest how I could reduce the spam? Are the other web email companies any better?  I can’t seem to find any anti spam programs that I can load on to a computer that I do not own.

M.K, via email

I have been bequeathed thousands of family photographic slides to be catalogued, which I would like to transfer to an electronic medium.  The majority of the slides are mounted in the traditional Kodak card mounts.  What would be the best mechanism or hardware/software/storage medium to catalogue and access these images?

 Jef Barrett, via email

Before I retired in 1992 every day I used a software package called Open Access IV from Software Products International. When I created a report in their database I could create group headers by inputting the following type of instruction:

matches<2|'Members who cannot qualify'    

matches=2|'Members who have qualified'   

These instructions could be superimposed over one another so that the text was printed in the same position before each group. How do I do the same thing in Microsoft 2000 Access database? I have tried all ways but nothing seems to work!

Robert Morris