OVER 2 YOU 186 (22/06/04)

ROUNDWARE

My newsagent would like to convert his management of newspaper and periodicals delivery to computer. Does anyone know software that would handle the task - preferably inexpensive?

Derek Tatam, Forest Hill

There is one called 'Papers' at www.dbtogo.co.uk. You can set up delivery rounds, enter papers available for delivery, which then creates the delivery sheets and adds a charge to the customer. Ordering and billing are also controlled. It is available as a free download for testing purposes.

David Hodge, via email

I haven't been brave enough to try it yet - I am a newsagent - but a while ago a fellow newsagent told me about a program called News Courier (http://hometown.aol.com/duckssoft/). It is American, paper rounds are called 'routes', but from what I can gather it sounds as though it could be modified to the needs of a small UK shop. The trouble is I'm up at 4.30am and the last thing I want to do at that time in the morning is muck around with a PC. I'm running the shop on my own for most of the rest of the day and I just don't have the time or energy to get to grips with computer software in the evenings, now if someone could come up with a cheap robotic shop assistant I would be very interested!

S. Charles, via email

There's a range of periodical delivery and subscription management software at: www.dennisoft.com/.

Pete Lawless, via email

My company can provide a full suite of software solutions for this problem. Visit our website www.newslave.co.uk or call us on 01332 830070.

Kim Laws, via email

CHEESY WEB SITES

My brother-in-law living in South Africa has asked me to help him to find information on cheese making - some new hobby I presume... Can anyone help with suggestions of sources of information, on the web, on video etc?

Dennis Archard, Fetcham, Surrey

I suggest that your correspondent looks at www.mousetrapcheese.co.uk who make several cheeses themselves, and sell most of those made in the UK. Mr Archard's brother in law will need to decide what sort of milk he proposes to use, buffalo, cow, ewe, or goat, whether the milk is pasteurised or not, and the type of cheese to be made, cream, soft, or hard, and plain, blue or flavoured. The Mousetrap should be able to put him in touch with the right folk.

Andrew Stobart, via email

I run cheese making courses, details of which can be found on www.abcheesemaking.co.uk.  Home cheese making kits, and books on the subject can be bought from Moorlands Cheesemakers, telephone 01749 850108, www.cheesemaking.co.uk

Christine Ashby, AB Cheesemaking, Bottesford, Nottingham

Dennis Archand asks about sources of information about cheese making.  I suggest he looks at the Code of Practice page of the Specialist Cheesemakers Association website, www.specialistcheesemakers.co.uk.  This gives an outline of the cheese making process, plant and raw material requirements and a resume of (UK) legal requirements.

Bryan Bowesman, via email

HEART RATE MONITOR

Is it possible to convert a PC to emulate an ECG machine?

C. Burgess, Hemel Hempstead

For some years I have been using a unit supplied by Vernier (www.vernier.com). It cost about £300 but this includes a very versatile data logger with USB interface. Vernier emphasises that it is for educational purposes only, not for medical practice. It is very easy to set up and to record an ECG trace.

It doesn't produce the standard 12-lead traces that the cardiologists all use - it only has three connections, two on the chest and one ankle - but it allows me to check for unusual electrical signals in the heart, something that has affected me in the past.

There was a hobby project to construct a similar ECG unit for a PC in 'Scientific American' a couple of years ago.

Mike M. via email

CD CATALOGUE

I would like to put my company's products onto a CD-ROM catalogue. I want to be able simply to put in the product data and pictures and then have a program turn it into an easily browsed catalogue that will auto-start when inserted into a CD player. I expect to have to do some layout and graphic design, but I would prefer to avoid having to create the structure, produce a search engine and work out how to auto-start the CD. Is there such an application or possibly a plug-in for a web-authoring program that would do the job?

Colin Bignell, via email

Our company specialises in producing CD ROM catalogues and learning materials on auto-start CDs in a unique book-style format. For more information go to: www.cdlogues.co.uk/

Frances Thomas, cdlogues Ltd., via email

CAN YOU HELP

My hobby is restoring old and antique dolls houses. In the course of restoration, fragments of original, beautiful wallpapers may be revealed. These are invariably incomplete or damaged.  I would like to be able to scan these wallpaper fragments, in-situ, on dolls house walls, so that I can use an application such as PhotoShop to be able to print copies for missing sections and repair. My difficulty is that I can't use my scanner due to working in a confined space.  A typical dolls house room might be only 8 - 9 inch high and 10 - 12 inch deep.  I've tried using a digital camera, but I can only focus the camera towards the back wall of the dolls house, which typically has a chimney breast and fireplace breaking up that wallpaper section.  I'd prefer to be able to take images from the flat walls at the sides.  I'm aware that there are some pen-type scanners available, but these seem to be geared up to inputting text rather than images. Any suggestions?

Jan Moring, via email

I wish to copy my parish records from dBaseIII to Excel 2003 but as usual with Excel date prior to 1900 come out reversed.  I have downloaded a couple of programs from the Internet which are supposed to rectify this but do not seem to work. I am probably doing something wrong. Can anyone help?

Harold Gregory, via email