OVER 2 YOU, 113 (14/01/03)

ONLINE MUSIC MANUSCRIPTS

Does anyone know of a web site where you can 

compose music online, on manuscript paper? 

I have been looking for ages.  

P. H. Evans, via email

There is an extremely useful freeware version of FinaleNotepad available for download from www.codamusic.com, which will enable him to compose on manuscript and listen to the result. The finished version could then be posted on the web.

A. R. Grieve

Try www.etcetera.co.uk for a whole range of music writing tools.

Bill Rhys

Why, Mr Evans, do you want to produce music scores on the web when you can do so more conveniently at home? I have tried at least four music notation packages and the easiest to use and also the best for amateur use is 'Personal Composer 2', which can be evaluated at www.pcomposer.com.

This package provides 44 stave score capability, allows transposition and part separation, and has a MIDI (music instrument digital interface), which allows you to hear your work as you compose/arrange. The printed parts are as good as those from any major publisher and a good deal better than some I have purchased.
Leonard Rosten

On a friends behalf I looked at several music writing programs. By far the best value is Noteworthy Composer, which is easy to use and has a great variety of features. A trial version can be downloaded from NTworthy. com and used for 30 days, with almost all of the features of the full program. The cost of the full program is $39.00 and it can be ordered on-line.
H.A.Smedley

HEARING DIFFICULTIES

I wear two behind the ear Widex analogue hearing aids.  I have been denied the use of a mobile phone because every one I try to use results in a high pitched noise rendering reception to be totally inaudible.  Has anyone else
experienced this problem and how have they solved it?
Geoff Jackson, via email

As someone who has spent well over £6000 of his own money on hearing aids over the past two years, I speak with some authority on the subject. The inability to comfortably use the telephone is an absolute curse and, after trying NHS, several other commercial makes of analogue hearing aids and one digital moulded type, not to mention carrying out a test series with the Widex digital behind-the ear types, I have opted for 'in-canal' digital aids made under the name of Adapto. These are, by far, the best that I have had, and do allow normal usage of the 'phone.Additionally, as a keen league table tennis player, I find that the aids do not move, slip out or whistle -- the latter being one of the more irritating habits of the usual types -- whilst I am playing. The main snag is the exceedingly high cost of such instruments, since they are not available (as far as I know) on the NHS.
Tony Shapps

I wear two powerful hearing aids (not Widex) and had the same problem with mobile phones. I have solved it by using mobile phone with a loudspeaker button. When this is activated I can hold the phone in my lap to use. The phone is far enough away from the hearing aids so I do not get the nasty noise. You can also increase the volume, which is the helpful. The phone I have is a Sagem 916 the newer SagemMC-300 looks the same.
Gill Rock

Like Geoff, I have two hearing aids and suffered the same problem. Then I bought a Nokia 8310 with a hearing loop. Absolutely perfect sound. Switching to 'T' on the aids, the call is switched to a small hands free pendant worn round the neck that is in fact the loop, which transmits to the aids. You can leave your mobile safely hidden in your pocket and incoming calls are answered by pressing the button on the pendant or disconnected by pressing it again. The 8310 also has a bonus of a built in FM radio which also works perfectly through the loop. An interesting extra if you are as lucky as us is to switch one aid to loop to listen to the match while the other one listens to the meeting. By setting the mobile to receive silent calls, it will also vibrate to tell you. An indispensable set up of a total cost to me around £50 (plus contract). The loop will not work on most other mobiles.
Roy Sedgwick

I think the solution might be for Mr Jackson to go digital. I could use a mobile phone (GSM) with both the Philips completely in canal (CIC), which I tried out before purchasing my current Siemens in the ear (ITE) hearing aids. I'm not sure if it would work with behind the ear hearing aids as the interference increases the closer the phone is to the hearing aid. One drawback is the cost of the aids, approximately £2000 each.
Gerry Valins

You may be interested in our own mobile phone loop-set, comprising a very neat personal induction loop and integral microphone, hand-sew in black fabric.  It simply plugs into the phone like any other hands free kit, and the users switch their hearing aid(s) to "T" - keeping the phone well clear of their hearing aids. It retails at £44.95 (zero-rated for VAT) and has now been on the market for over 3 years - the first mobile phone "T" device that required no batteries, since it is powered from the mobile phone (as are standard hands free kits for normally hearing people).

Ferrosound is a small business set up 12 years ago to design and manufacture new products for hearing impaired people.  I am myself severely hearing impaired and design all the products.

Mike Holdsworth

ACCESS THUMBNAILS

I am trying to create an Access database of the major events within my family history showing date, title, major players etc. with a brief description of the event and the option of viewing a group of relevant photographs. Can anyone suggest an easy way of displaying photographs as a page of thumbnails and/or a slide show from within an Access application?

R. Kilvo, via email

This is a complex subject. In short, Access provides a system of using bound objects, which is very expensive in storage space (it can use over 1 MB for each 50K jpeg file).  There is an excellent news group at comp.databases.ms-access where questions are freely asked and answered.  I have just looked there and found a web site http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm.  If you look in there you will find an article "Image Handling" and this will lead you to a host of other articles telling you how to deal with this.

Peter  Billinghurst

The DBtoGO website www.dbtogo.co.uk has a database called DigiPics.This is an Access database that contains a thumbnail feature. After the thumbnails have been created they can be displayed 42 at a time and sorted on screen. Sound and other info can be added to each picture. This is available as a free download to allow testing to be carried out.
David Hodge

STATISTICAL DISTRIBUTION

Does anyone know of a piece of mathematical software or a website, preferably free, that will show if a data set fits a statistical distribution, such as normal or Poisson distribution?

Roger Thornhill, via email

Whilst not actually "free", the ubiquitous Excel contains all of the functions to do this and much more besides.

Using the FREQUENCY function, reveal the source data's distribution (remembering to press <CTL><SHIFT><ENTER> rather than the OK button to tell EXCEL that the result is an array). Generate a predicted
distribution (BETA, POISSON, NORMAL, GAMMA, WEIBULL etc) with appropriate parameters calculated from the raw data (AVERAGE, SDEV, MAX, COUNT, MODE etc). The sum of the squares of the difference between the predicted and observed frequencies, which should be minimized, has a CHI-SQUARED distribution and so the likelihood of fit can be calculated using the function's inverse. Both the source and trial distributions can be plotted to give a visual indication of fit using the XY option to accommodate potentially different bar widths.
Peter Worrall

CAN YOU HELP

I have a hobby business with a low number of financial transactions. Can anyone suggest an online system of accepting payments that does not cost an arm and a leg?

John Osborne, via email

I was given an expensive Electronic Keyboard for my birthday and, as an absolute beginner, I am experiencing great difficulty in finding software tuition. I could not face the embarrassment of having a "live" tutor. Can anyone help?

Frederick Parsons, via email

Does anyone know of a system that could be used to track and monitor students attendance with the aid of bar codes or swipe cards.
Meenesh Patel, via email