OVER 2 YOU, 163 (13/01/04)

AIRWAYS MAPS

A 90-year old ex RAF pilot who I meet on my morning walks often asks me where the all aircraft are going when we see the con-trails on cold days. Assuming that details of air corridors are not secret, is it possible to download this type of information from the Internet?

James Hartley, via email

There are many excellent aviation resources on the Internet though not, as far as I am aware any current aeronautical charts. I suspect this is due to copyright reasons, and to prevent tight-fisted pilots using potentially out of date maps for navigational purposes.

One of my favourite sites is http://www.futurastudios.com/atc.html. Here you will find links to live air traffic control (ATC), web cams and even radar displays around the world. My particular favourite is the radar map for New York JFK. You can follow incoming, outbound and transiting aircraft, in real time, and by clicking on the moving symbols, see details of aircraft type and altitude etc. You can control the pan, tilt and zoom functions of the webcams at many airports; Zurich is particularly good as you can see close-ups of the runways and airport terminals

James Dodd, via email 

I am fairly sure that UK aeronautical charts are not available to view online but you can buy them. You will find a list of stockists on the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) web site at http://www.caa.co.uk/, click on the Airspace button then select Charts, the link for Stockists appears on the left side of the page.

Douglas Chimes, via email

I haven’t been able to find any actual charts online but I have found a very informative website with details of air chart ‘symbology’. This explains all of the legends and symbols on airways maps, which should be helpful if you do manage to find any maps on the Internet. The website address, which is rather long-winded, is: http://staff.dc.lincoln.ac.uk/~preeve/

Teaching/CPG083/RESOURCES/

Handouts/Week02/10203.pdf

M. Lea, via email

FREE HIT COUNTER

Can anyone recommend a free web page 'hit' counter that does not involve banners, pop-up boxes or other advertising matter. If it is resettable then so much the better.
Dudley Wheeler, via email

Microsoft has a free counter at: http://www.bcentral.com/products/fc/. I think all they ask for is a reciprocal link back to their site. There's also fancier version to pay for.
John Allister, via email

I use a web counter from Webstat.com. Apart from a small unobtrusive button on your home page, no other banner or pop-ups have to be endured. Basic visitor stats are obtained from logging onto your user account. Much more detailed stats are available at cost.

David Sleath, via email

GOLF COMPETITION

I am involved in a golf society that runs a knockout competition involving upwards of 180 participants. I am looking for a database application that can handle the random draw for the competition as well as participants’ historical performances and statistics, so I can build league tables based on different criteria, e.g. number of entries, matches played, number of wins, biggest wins, etc.

Andrew Stracey

Your correspondent should have a look at The Social Gold Manager web site. The software can be used to track member details, course, manage handicaps, competitions, championships, time sheets and so on. I hasten to add that I have nothing to do with the company but judging by the information on the web site (http://www.users.bigpond.com/csiannis/golf.htm) it would seem to fit the bill.

Chas Gifford, via email

BLOOD PRESSURE

Having slightly high blood pressure I regularly check my own blood pressure using an Omron monitor. To minimise "White Coat Syndrome" I take five readings, getting a Systolic and Diastolic reading each time. I then enter these readings on an Excel spreadsheet. I disregard the highest and lowest readings, average the other three and enter this value in the last two columns of the spreadsheet. This is all done manually and I am hoping that someone could provide me with a formula so that the final figures are generated automatically.

Mostyn Wheeler, via email

If systolic and diastolic readings are placed, in row 2, in columns C to G and H to L respectively then the required computations are in columns A and B where

A is "=(LARGE(C2:G2,2)+LARGE(C2:G2,3)+LARGE

(C2:G2,4))/3"

and B is "=(LARGE(H2:L2,2)+LARGE(H2:L2,3)+LARGE

(H2:L2,4))/3"

Dennis Miles, Fleet, Hants  

 Assuming you put your five systolic readings in cells A1 to A5

=AVERAGE(LARGE(A1:A5,2),LARGE

(A1:A5,3),LARGE(A1:A5,4))

will take the average of the 2nd 3rd and 4th largest readings from the list of five.

Copy the cells to column B for the diastolic readings.

Ian Maddocks, via email

Your doctor may well prefer to see the results as a chart, with the systolic plotted above the corresponding diastolic, because that is the way they usually see sequences of blood pressure readings. It is not difficult to do a chart, but it takes a fair amount of explaining if you are new to Excel charts (and I usually have to have several attempts to get what I want, even though I have been doing it for years).
Tony Etheridge, via email

SIDEWAYS PRINTING

Back in the 1980's the SuperCalc spreadsheet program had a facility called 'Sideways Printing'.  This enabled large spreadsheets to be printed out on dot matrix printers at right angles to the normal direction of printing, i.e. it printed 'by columns' rather than in the conventional way of 'by rows or lines'. Does any know if there is a similar facility, or an add-on that will enable me to print large MS Excel spreadsheets in the same manner?

Simon Taylor, via email

Here is an even simpler method than those shown n Over 2 You recently. There are no temporary files, no special software and it is all contained within Excel.

Highlight the area to be printed (usually you can get 18cols by 48 rows
on A4 using Ariel 10pt) Click 'File', click 'Print Area', then click 'Set Print Area'. Next click 'File' again, then 'Page Setup'. Select 'Landscape' and 'Print To Fit' 1 page. Check using 'Print Preview' on the same window to check coverage and print in the usual way
Alan Howland, via email

CAN YOU HELP

I attend night school to study jazz theory and practice.  My handwritten notes are untidy and cover a lot of paper so I am compiling them on my PC to make future reference easier. I prepare the text in Word 6 (I also have Word 2000), and format the manuscript in Musicworks 3 then combine the two by double printing.  Needless to say this is a bit hit and miss. I realise that Musicworks has a text facility but it is very basic. Can anyone recommend a better method or a reasonably priced software package?

R Ball, via email

I am looking for software, which will allow me to print a world map in outline. I would like to be able to select countries from a list, and mark them for colouring.

Jeremy Burton, via email