FAQS! FACTS! FAX! 022 (10/09/96)

SITES FOR SORE EYES

I have poor eyesight but I manage okay with my Amstrad PCW, which has good screen contrast. I want to upgrade, to a more powerful machine, but I‘ve found the screens on PCs and Apple Macs do not afford sufficient contrast. Is there such a thing as a special PC monitor for people with impaired vision?

N.A.B., Dawlish.

A

Not as such, but there are plenty of things you can to improve the legibility of an ordinary PC or Mac screen. To begin with you should consider buying a bigger monitor, most PCs come with 14-inch models as standard, but a 15 or 17-inch screen might be better suited to your needs; typically they add between £100 to £250 to the price of a system. Monochrome monitors (black and white or green screens) are also worth thinking about -- they tend to have better contrast than colour displays. You might also have to use a specialised video card. There’s quite a few software adjustmnents and specially written packages, that increase the size of displayed text and graphics, for DOS and Windows PCs, and Apple Macs as well. The RNIB produce a very useful factsheet, available from their Employment Development and Technology Unit (EDTU), called Screen Magnification Systems. They can be contacted on 0171-388 1266. If you can get to a net-connected PC it’s worth looking at their web site on: http:www.rnib.org.uk. (By the way, this is RNIB week). You might also be interested in the FAQ section on: http://www.infowest.com/medical/optometry/basic.html; this covers all aspects of vision impairment in considerable detail, with links to other related sites.   

HOLES IN THE NET

I have a Motorola 7500 GSM mobile phone on Cellnet’s digital network. I’m very disappointed with the results. I find that I’m only getting service for around half of the day. The phone seems to spend so much time ‘roaming’ around for a signal that the batteries only last around six hours. The dealer has replaced the batteries, the charger and even the phone itself, but to no avail. Is this a problem with the phone, or the network?

J.R.B., Northampton

A

It’s almost certainly the network, since you’ve changed everything else; the Motorola 7500 has a reasonably good performance record. The phone’s power consumption will increase if it’s constantly searching for a signal to lock on to. Cellnet claim coverage in and around Northampton is generally good, though they admit there are a couple of fringe areas, and the depth of coverage inside buildings could be better. They’re currently installing two new cell-sites in the locality, one in the South West, in Kislingbury, the other is North East of the city, in Kingly Park; they should be operational within the next few months. Using the phone inside a car, without an external aerial, and inside metal framed buildings will also have an big effect on coverage -- and consequently battery life.

FACE THE FAX

I’m about to start working from home and I’m equipping a small office in a spare bedroom. I have seen fax machines with telephone answering facilities, that operate on a single line. How do they work?

L.T.D., Manchester

A

Combined fax/answering machine have been around for a while but some early models were devilishly difficult to use, or they greeted callers with a blast of fax tones. They’re a lot better nowadays. Callers hear your voice message, asking them to press their send button, if they want to transmit a fax, or wait for the beep, if they wish to leave a message. If the call is from another fax machine, it will automatically switch to fax receive mode as soon as it hears the tones. Some models also have an automatic fax answer mode; as soon as the phone rings, the machine silently picks up the line, and listens for fax tones, if it doesn’t detect any in the first couple of seconds, or there’s a voice on the line, it rings as normal. The caller at the other end simply hears a ringing tone. Whilst this is an effective way of using a single line, it does mean it could be tied up a lot of the time if you expect to be sending or receiving a lot of faxes, in which case it might be wise to consider a second dedicated line.