Editorial

It’s The Medium, Stupid!

A
AN INDIAN BLOG died last month, and its readers
wept copious tears. It died not because of the blogger’s
ennui, but because he was served a legal notice by one
of India’s largest media entities asking him to shut up.
In the larger scheme of things, mediaah.com, an
Indian media watchdog blog maintained by Pune-
based journalist Pradyuman Maheshwari, was just
a blip on the media radar. With a claimed reader-
ship of just 8,000 readers, it could have hardly
changed the world. Yet, the media conglomerate’s
bosses decided that they had had enough of Mahesh-
wari’s “jibes” at them and their organisation. In
March, they sent him a legal notice asking him to
delete entries they felt were defamatory.
Maheshwari, on his part, decided to stop pub-
lishing the blog, saying he neither has the time nor
the money to fight the giant. Sachin Kalbag Executive Editor
He also chose not to apologise.
The media had successfully gagged its toddler
cousin, the Web log. Sadly, yet predictably, no news- “When a Rs 1500-crore
paper or television channel followed up this story.
Compare this with the case of a slew of bloggers media giant takes on a
in the US who recently wrote so much about Eason
Jordan—a senior CNN executive who allegedly said at one-man blog, it is
the World Economic Forum in Switzerland that the
US military had killed 12 journalists by taking delib- good news”
erate aim—that he had to resign from his post.
No one knows for sure whether he made the ate’s rolls), there is a community of readers hungry
statement at all; and no one would say the bloggers to know the truth—the reality on the other side.
themselves were completely ethical in their uproar- It is in this community that I have the most faith;
ious response to the statement. Yet, to its credit, CNN the group of people who will effect that much-
never tried to shut these bedroom bloggers up. needed change in our perceptions about the media.
Honestly, though, I was delighted at the legal And all because of a phenomenon called the
notice sent by India’s largest media house to Internet. As common citizens with apolitical agen-
Maheshwari. For one, it bared once and for all the das, it is technology that will bring us closer to real-
Indian media’s hypocritical “Speech-is-free-and-the- ity. It is a prospect we should all be happy about.
media-will-ensure-it-remains-that-way” stand; but
more importantly, it proved that Web publishing is
here to stay, and that the blog is already an alternate
publishing medium in India just as it is in several
mature democracies across the world.
When a Rs 1500-crore media giant takes on a one-
man blog (Maheshwari’s silent capitulation notwith-
standing), it is good news. Judging by the response of
the blog’s readers (many of them on the conglomer- [email protected]
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6 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Enter Digital Passion 38 The Smart Life
Technology is everywhere... Here’s a
glimpse of what it will be like when we
move around with tech literally
surrounding us—at home, in the car, on
the road...
18
Acclaimed
thinker and
44 30 Hours With...
author The Apple Mac mini. One of our
Dr Edward reviewers—a Wintel faithful—spent time
deBono doesn’t with this little box to see whether it
use much tech could make a convert of him. It might
18 have, if not for the price
Netscape Rises
From The Ashes 29 Security Superheroes 46 Take A Crack
19 iViz Techno Solutions, a part of IIT Just remove a couple of tabs from
A worm that Kharagpur’s incubation programme, has ‘Internet Options’ and win! Think you
spreads via the grand vision of “making computing can do it?
P2P networks free from all security threats”
such as KaZaA
34 Behind The Lens 47 Geek Dreams
28
What 3G is, and Digital cameras, simple though they may be The Sony Ericsson V800 is a camera
how 3G-enabled to operate, are complex assemblies of phone. Or is it a phone camera? Check
devices work several technologies out this sleek beauty

Contents Magazine
Digital Tools 70 New & Notable
Presenting a nifty little securicam; the
49 Pixel Palette Motorola MPx—a nice but expensive smart-
Digital art has evolved beyond being a mere novelty. phone; a 23-inch BenQ LCD; and more
Here’s a look at how the Web can help digital artists

66 Exporting India 76 Just Push Print

We take a look at how one Web enterpreneur
Standalone printers or MFDs? Regardless,
returned to India from France—and switched from
we test some of the best of both
importing to exporting Indian goods worldwide
42 Tube It Up
68 Tech Nightmares CRT monitors will remain with us quite some
Microsoft Word has its share of niggles. time, the LCD invasion notwithstanding. We test
Here’s what to do about five of them the good and the not so good of the tube kind

8 APRIL 2005 DIGIT

Digital Business 90 Why-Fi?
Alongside our face-off on whether it’s worth
upgrading to a WLAN, we give you the facts on what
it involves

106 How Videoconferencing Works

What do you need to conduct a succesful videocon-
ference? What are the options available? A visual
tour of the technology that could well be the norm
tomorrow

85 Dude! Where’s My Truck?

Here’s a look at how one company uses various
technologies, including GPS, DGPS, and GPRS, to
provide a comprehensive tracking system for vehi-
cles and more

108 Wired LANs Or Wi-Fi-based WLANs?

This is a pressing question faced by upcoming
as well as existing businesses. So is upgrading
to a WLAN worth it?

April 2005
Digital Leisure Escape
111 Creating A Million Smiles 120
Dennis Hayes
HP Digital Studio’s ‘Project Muskaan’ invented the PC
aims to take technology to the rural modem—and
and urban masses, by converting changed the
conventional photo labs into digital Internet forever
photo studios

123
116 ...And There Was Order! Nanotechnology
Organising, tagging, and enhancing your may soon find its
way into your
digital pics is easy with the right
food—no sweat,
software. We introduce you to two such it’s not about
software that will help you find your little robots in
photos even a few years later your tummy

Incredibly Useful Sites ....................18 Q&A ................................................78 Bluff Your Way Through..................122
REGULARS

The Digital World ............................18 Net Gain: Kuro5hin.com ..................73 Blogwatch ......................................123
Beat That ........................................20 Tech Quiz ........................................117 Digit Forum ....................................134
Gender Benders ..............................22 Mediawise/Adwise ..........................118 Inbox..............................................134
Tips & Tricks ....................................48 Agent001..........................................71 Tabloid Tech ..................................136

APRIL 2005 DIGIT 11

 Note 1: Grey areas show the content also available on the CD. The DVD contains all that is on the CD
Note 2: If you do not want to boot from the CD, remove it from the drive at startup

Contents Interactive
DVD

DIGITAL PASSION DIGITAL TOOLS DIGITAL BUSINESS DIGITAL LEISURE

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory OpenOffice.org 2.0 Beta MOVIE AND GAME TRAILERS
OpenOffice.org is a free productivity ■ Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
suite compatible with all major office ■ Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater
suites. This beta version comes with 18 ■ Batman: Dead End
new and major features ■ Sin City

Adobe multimedia suite

Sam Fisher is back, and in the middle of The latest versions of Adobe Premiere,
a massive war in the Pacific Adobe Audition and Adobe AfterEffects DESKTOP THEMES
EasyOffice ■ Gant 2 Ocean SP2
Freedom Force vs Third Reich VMware Workstation 4.5.2 An office suite compatible with ■ WindowBlinds 4.51
Run multiple operating systems simul- Microsoft Word and Excel and Adobe ■ 6 WindowBlinds Themes
taneously on a single computer without PDF files. Also includes EasyAntiVirus,
the need to partition. You can switch which you can install if you don’t have
between them instantly without the an antivirus program
need to reboot your system

MULTIMEDIA
■ Zmatrix 1.5.2
■ TuxType2 1.5.3
■ Anvil Studio 2004.09.05
■ FL Studio 5.0.2
■ AudioEdit Deluxe 4.05
Dynamic storytelling, fast-paced ■ Ashampoo Media Player+ 2.03 WALLPAPERS
tactical role-play and larger-than-life ■ BOOMBox Internet Radio Player 1.0 ■ 80+ MB of wallpapers — games,
characters from the comic book pages ■ Media Catalog Studio Lite 1.9 bikes, celebrities — we have 'em all
to the computer screen ■ MP3 Organizer 1.6.55
■ MediaJoin 2.0
PLUS ■ MP3 Splitter and Joiner 2.86
■ LEGO Star Wars ■ CD Rider 2.1 WHITE PAPERS
■ Empire Earth 2 ■ dBpowerAMP Music Converter R6 ■ The Impact of Web Performance on
■ Total Recorder Standard Edition 4.3 Retail Success
DEVELOPER’S KHAZANA ■ Power Mixer 1.2 ■ Phishing and the threat to corporate
■ NetBeans IDE 4.0 ■ CyberLink PowerDVD 5.0 networks
■ JBuilder 2005 ■ DestroY MediaPlay 1.1.0 ■ The spam economy: the convergent
■ JBoss 4.0.1 ■ SplitCAM 3.0 spam and virus threats
■ J2EE 1.4 SDK ■ Beyond TV 3.5
■ SnagIt 7.2.1 PRODUCTIVITY TOOLS SMALL GAMES
DEV TOOLS ■ MWSnap 3.0.0.74 ■ Inventory & stock control ■ Microsoft Urban Assault
■ jEdit 4.2 ■ ScreenShot Wizard 1.01 management ■ Worminator 3 (FULL GAME)
■ PHP Designer 2005 ■ Advanced GIF Animator 2.21 ■ Cue Club
■ Mozilla Suite
■ HTMLGate FREE SYSTEM
■ Macromedia HomeSite 5.5 ■ Latest ATI Catalyst Drivers
■ NetBeans mobility ■ MSN Messenger 7 build 604
■ Bugzilla 2.18 ■ BitDefender 7.2
■ Apache 2.0.53 ■ H-Menu 5.0
■ Debuggy Version 1.02 ■ BackupX 1.1
■ Hexplorer ■ DFIncBackup 1.20
■ Hackman Hex Editor 8.02 ■ AES Free 2.7
■ HelpMaker 7.1.385 ■ DeepBurner 1.1.2.137 ■ Cafe Cop Desktop Edition 1.0
■ Shalom Help Maker 0.5.2 Beta ■ Folder Style 1.3 ■ Customer Database Pro 6.0 E-BOOKS
■ Notepad2 ■ Fresh UI 6.60 ■ Art-Copy Business Edition 7.5.4 ■ Linux From Scratch
■ #develop ■ Xteq X-Setup 6.3 ■ eBookGuard 3.0 ■ Books by Bruce Eckel:
■ Doxygen ■ Fresh Diagnose 6.40 ■ FormDocs 7.0.12 Thinking in Java
■ Scilab 3.0 ■ SpeedFan 4.20 ■ Find Desktop 1.29 Thinking in C++
■ Vilma Registry Explorer 1.6.0 ■ Cornolius Database Application 1.3
LINUX ■ EasyCleaner 2.0.6.369 ■ Projetex 2005 build 120
■ Muine ■ SmartBuster 0.97
CD

■ Splint 3.1.1 ■ McAfee.com SecurityCenter 4.0

■ Splint manual ■ VMware Workstation 4.5.2
■ Doxygen
■ Scilab 3.0 INTERNET
■ QuickDownloader 5.0 ■ Advanced Call Center 5.1
■ Downloader for X 2.5 Beta 2 ■ CallStation 4.0 Thinking in Enterprise Java
■ GAIM 1.1.0 ■ Snappy Fax 2000 3.48.3.1 Thinking in Patterns
■ Yahoo! Messenger 1.0.4-1 ■ Fax4Outlook 2.19
■ Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0 ■ ASB AntiSpam 1.54
■ LimeWire 3.6.15 ■ Email Remover 3.0
■ FreeProxy 3.6
Note:: Dear Reader, Due to replication errors, some DVDs and CDs
■ BitDefender 7.0.1.3
■ Getleft 1.1.2 ■ DC++ may require you to launch them by double-clicking the “start.hta”
file from your optical media drive, instead of the regular Auto-run
feature. Team Digit regrets the incovenience.
12 DIGIT APRIL 2005
 Online Digit Patrons
By Demand It really does
April 2005

You get to choose what goes in Digit pay to be loyal!

Interactive. This month, you chose: Find out more
Mozilla Suite on www.
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory thinkdigit.com

Digit Reader Poll Last Month’s Question:

What is the maximum you are willing to
This Month’s Question spend per month on a broadband or
always-on Internet connection?
What do you use the
Internet the most for?
E-mail
Downloading Software
Downloading Movies &
Music
Adult Content
Idle Surfing
Research and Education
Log on to www.thinkdigit.com Less Rs 500 Rs 1,000 Rs 2,000 Anything, Just
and vote than to to to give me fast
Rs 500 Rs 1,000 Rs 2,000 Rs 5,000 Internet

taste technology at
www.thinkdigit.com
There’s something for everyone on the Digit Forum www.thinkdigit.com/forum

12
 Samsung Unveils 3GB HDD Smartphone Apple To Join Blu-ray Forum
On March 11, at the CeBIT 2005 show in Hanover, Apple will join the Blu-ray forum to offer support for
Germany, Samsung announced the world’s first phone Sony’s next-gen DVDs and to enable its own cust-
with a 7-megapixel digital camera. The SCH-V770 has omers to develop higher-quality videos. The addition
3x optical zoom, a flash, full manual mode, 1/2000 of Apple on the board of the Blu-ray Association could
shutter speed, and the scope to add additional lenses. help decide the format to replace standard DVDs.

Enter
CHAINING MELODY
Dr Edward deBono
Thinker and Author
r Edward deBono,
Music Download Prices Set
D Rhodes scholar to
Oxford, PhD from
Cambridge and MD
To Rise
(University of Malta) is one
of the world’s foremost
‘thinkers’, and has
authored over sixty books—
T he market for
downloaded music is
strong enough to take a
observers are concerned
that increasing prices
would push people back to
the European Commission
is investigating allegations
that British consumers are
translated into 34 price rise, according to most peer-to-peer networks and being ripped off by Apple’s
languages—on major music labels in dodgy copies of songs. iTunes service because
‘lateral thinking’ Europe and the US. The music industry is it charges more for
methods. He has Several big labels are in apparently unhappy with downloads from the UK site
also worked with talks with online music Apple’s increasing and does not allow
such corporations customers to buy tracks
as IBM, Du Pont, from other iTunes sites.
AT&T, NTT (Japan),
Ericsson (Sweden), PIZZA ON YOUR PHONE
Siemens, and Microsoft.
Two
Illustrations: Harsho Chattoraj

What does technology

mean to you?
Technological advancements
Companies,
have made it possible for us
to get to places much faster,
A Talking
use PCs to write, and e-mail
to communicate with people
Browser And
more efficiently.
What kind of gadgets do
A Pizza Place
you normally use?
I use the PC to write my
books, and to compose and
send e-mails. The only other
I f phone makers get their
way, pretty soon, we’ll all
tote little Web browsers in
gadget I use is a shaver! our pockets, whipping them
How do you interact with out 10 times a day instead
technology on a day-to- of running back to a
day basis? desktop screen. Sounds
I don’t browse the Web too great, until you try to
much but I listen to the radio retailers to get them to share of the market—the navigate Mr Pizza Man’s
and watch the news on TV. increase prices, according to firm sells about 65 per cent online menu on your cell
Do you feel the surfeit of a story in London’s Financial of songs sold online. The phone’s tiny screen. By the
information on the Web is Times (FT). Labels are looking arrival of cheaper iPods is time you’ve thumb-typed or
hampering normal thought to increase the wholesale likely to give the firm an stylus-tapped your way
processes? Are people prices shops pay for tracks. even larger share of the through the dozens of
thinking enough? Sites in the US typically sell market. Apple refused to yummy options, you could
The Net has made it possible tracks for 99 cents each (Rs comment on the story but have ordered a hundred
for people to obtain vast 43). The wholesale price is Steve Jobs is reportedly pizzas the old-fashioned
amounts of information. currently 65 cents (Rs 28) per deeply unhappy with the way. Wouldn’t this all be
Children find answers easily track, according to FT. attempted price hike. easier if you could talk to
to several questions. But they Universal and Sony BMG One suggestion is that your browser like it was the
need to be taught and enco- are less keen to push prices labels want to introduce pizza guy?
uraged to think for thems- up. EMI and Time Warner, variable pricing—so they It certainly would, based
elves and use the information in fact, refused to comment can charge more for top- on a test drive of the Opera
in a productive manner. on the FT story. Some selling tracks. Meanwhile, browser for Windows,

16 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Security Watch
WORM_ELIPTER.D which comes with built-in Opera. The language makes
The problem
voice support. At least in it easy for Web designers to The TRAI
March 13th,
the beta version, Opera’s hide special tags on their The TRAI
Trend Micro
most useful voice-activated sites that voice-enabled slashed
features are the commands browsers can both speak broadband and
reported the international
emergence of a
that control the browser and listen for.
itself. All you have to do is call rates by 71
worm called WORM_ELIPTER.D, per cent. Now, broadband
which is a cause of concern for
plug in the USB headset—if GRAPHICS POWER will be more affordable, and
you have a laptop, you can
users of peer-to-peer networks
such as KaZaA. The worm is in
just use the inbuilt speaker
and microphone—and turn
ATI Paves calling your relatives abroad
will be cheaper. Three cheers
for the TRAI!
the wild, and affects all
Windows platforms. It may
on the voice feature in the
preferences panel.
Way For Sub-
arrive via any of the following
P2P applications: BearShare,
Instantly, the browser
obeys commands.
$50 Graphics The IT Act
India’s outdated
Edonkey2000, Grokster, KaZaA,
KaZaA Lite, KMD, and
“Opera, back!” and the
back button clicks. “Opera,
Cards Information
Technology (IT)
Morpheus. It drops a copy of Act leads to
itself as the file ‘WWE Torrie And
next link! Opera, open link!” scripted ‘sting’
operations by television
Sable Screan Saver.exe’ in the
default shared folders of these
It all seems like a cute
gimmick at first, but as you
continue to use it, you will
A Ti has introduced a low-
end Radeon X-class
graphics card that utilises
channels, harassment of
people using cyber cafés, silly
programs. The damage arrests of CEOs of public Web
potential of ELIPTER.D is
surely find it easier to shout the company’s AGP-like sites, and much more.
‘medium’.
at Opera to scroll up and HyperMemory technology
scroll down than to reach to save money by limiting
Damages
over a whole two inches to the on-board memory. of ATi and nVidia even
This worm terminates processes
grab your mouse! The Radeon X300 SE is though it doesn’t make
and modifies the HOSTS file to
The browser itself is fast expected to ship in 128 MB standalone desktop or
prevent access to anti-virus and
and consistently crash-free. and 256 MB versions, of notebook graphics cores.
security-related Web sites. It
The speech-recognition which just 32 MB and 128 If it’s to win back share,
also changes the Windows
software, which comes from MB, respectively, consists of ATi has to offer a product
registry to prevent users from
IBM, performed well even on-card video memory. The that’s significantly more
doing the following tasks:
with the stereo cranking a rest is taken from the host powerful yet not much
Running programs through
couple of feet away, but system’s main memory more expensive than the
Start>Run
there are a few missing bank, accessed across the ‘free’ graphics sub-systems
Running Registry Editor
features. You can’t speak PCI-Express bus. in integrated chipsets.
Running Task Manager
URLs into the browser yet. It Clearly, anyone who’s Hence the X300 SE cards,
In addition, the worm prevents
would also be nice if Opera chosen a PCI-Express which ATi reckons will cost
the execution of certain
had a ‘search’ command— machine is likely to have a consumers less than $59
applications. It also disables the
shouting “Opera, search more powerful graphics (Rs 2560) a pop yet offers
following:
Digit Magazine!” would look card in any case, so ATi is around 60 per cent more
Closing IE windows
for the phrase “Digit pitching the part primarily performance, when
File opening, saving, and
Magazine” using your against PCIe machines built measured using 3DMark 03
printing functionalities of IE
default search engine. from integrated chipsets, in at 1024 x 768.
Notifications for new
Speech-driven computer particular Intel’s. ATi also claimed its
Windows update components
interfaces are nothing new, Integrated graphics core product offered better
and firewall- and antivirus-
but the Opera browser is are not only offering ever- performance and a lower
related events
significant because it adds better performance, but price than arch-rival
support for a new mark-up crucially, they’re grabbing a nVidia’s competing
Precautions language called X+V. Short bigger and bigger share of product, the GeForce 6200
There are several steps needed for XHTML plus Voice, X+V the graphics chip market. with TurboCache.
to get rid of an infection. Refer has been jointly developed That’s why Intel’s graphics Radeon X300 SE-derived
http://snipurl.com/deot. by IBM, Motorola, and market share dwarfs those graphics cards will be

One Silly Question Life without a computer would be... ?

“Like a body
without a he n the true.”
art.” ended o tmare
come
“What I have been living for quite kness has desc “Like Mumbai withou
t local ty nigh
a r “A nas
Sushant Shet
ty, Mumbai some time now…” “As if d net.” il Nadu
trains.”
entire p
la n, Tam Sachin Sakpal, Mu umbai
dharaja mbai Navi M
Kushal Sharma, Rajasthan a Vara Patki,
Nivedit Sagar

DIGIT APRIL 2005 17

 Pulse
The Digital World A Round-up Of Technology News From Across The Globe

RUSSIA
CHINA
In the first week of March, Chinese authorities Russia’s Communists are now considering a
UNITED STATES propaganda device Lenin and Stalin never dreamed
summoned managers of the mainland’s main
Groundbreaking technology in GPS Internet of: SMS, known as ‘esemeski’ in Russia. At a party
Internet providers, major portals and Internet café
vehicle tracking is now being sold to the public. plenary meeting outside Moscow that focused on
chains, warning them against allowing “subversive
The Millennium Plus Mobile Locating Unit (MLU) propaganda, first deputy chairman Ivan Melnikov said
content” to appear online. This stern instruction is in
uses cellular airwaves and GPS. Users can now the Communists should turn to methods such as
keeping with a trend toward assigning greater
track and contact vehicles at any time via a Web graffiti and mobile phone messaging.
responsibility to Internet providers to assist the
browser. If a car is stolen, an e-mail and/or a cell
government and its army of as many as 50,000
phone call is issued immediately, and the owner
Internet police.
can disable the vehicle starter and lock the doors.

SINGAPORE
According to a recent survey by the World Economic
Forum, Singapore made the most of technological
progress over the past year, while the US fell to No. 5
on the list. The survey evaluates such factors as the
quality of maths and science education, affordability
of phone connection charges and government
procurement of Information Technology.

BRAZIL
SOUTH AFRICA
In a recent report by the Inter Press News Agency
(IPS), it was reported that Brazil just might be the According to Africa’s cell phone operators, the life of
cyber-crime capital of the world. A surprisingly people who have never surfed the Internet could
large number of hackers are based in Brazil. change with the launch of third generation technology
South Korea recently informed the Brazilian they say will bring Internet access via mobile phones
authorities that over 5,000 Web sites in the to millions of the world’s poorest people. Sceptics,
nation had been invaded by individuals though, say it will take years before villagers in places
operating out of Brazil. such as Malawi surf the Web, due to the high prices of
handsets and poor infrastructure.

available ‘soon’ from ATi large scale production

itself and third-parties, within two years. The Three Incredibly Useful Sites
including ABIT, Asus, MSI, newest five-inch PV-QML5
Sapphire, Tul, Gigabyte rollable display already has Old versions, searching, and a directory
and VisionTek. a decreased radius of
curvature, improved www.oldversion.com OldVersion.com
PAPER ON THE SCREEN operational and “Because newer is not always better” is
mechanical lifetime and the tagline of this site. Here, you can
Philips paper-like viewing contrast,
all improvements on the
find old versions of several programs-
Acrobat Reader, for example; you
Unrolls world’s first rollable
display prototype
might definitely prefer an older version
over the bloated new Adobe Reader 7.
‘Paper’ introduced by Philips’
Polymer Vision just over a
The site has the old versions of several
programs—506 versions of 51
Display year ago.
A couple of specs for
programs, to be precise. Sometimes
useful, sometimes for nostalgia’s sake.
display buffs: The Polymer
www.squirrelnet.com SquirrelNet.com
P hilips has announced
that it will start
developing rollable displays
Vision PV-QML5 is an ultra-
thin (100µm) featherweight
QVGA (320 x 240 pixels)
Here is a site you’d do well to visit
before you begin researching a topic.
“Gather your Internet information
in earnest. Until now, the active-matrix display with a
here,” as the site says. The site has
Dutch company only had a diagonal of five inches.
such topics as “SquirrelNet Users
working prototype. When not actively used, the
Prefer Google Over Yahoo,” “Top 20
Such displays are display can be rolled up into
Search Engines,” and a “Simple and
projected to be the primary a small housing with a
concise guide to searching”.
solution to demand for radius of curvature of less
larger displays in mobile than 7.5 mm.
devices: just pull the screen With four grey levels, www.encyberpedia.com Encyberpedia
out of a smart phone or the monochrome display This is a listing of useful sites across the
PDA and enjoy a movie. Or provides paper-like viewing Internet. Very much like the Yahoo!
read an electronic comfort with a high (10:1) directory or other directories available
newspaper that you can contrast ratio for reading- out there—but with a greater range and
roll up and put in your intensive applications. Even elaboration of topics. For example, in the
pocket. in bright daylight, the Encyberpedia index, you have such
The Polymer Vision PV- display is easy to read. The abstruse listings as ‘arbitration’,
QML5Philips says that display, Philips claims, ‘cyberticket’, ‘deafness’, and so on-along
current process and yield consumes an exceptionally with regular, useful categories such as
improvements will enable low amount of power. ‘English’ or ‘Dinosaurs’.

18 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Pulse

Digit Caption
Can you hold? People want
to go home and make their
morning tea!
Last Month’s Winner!
No one was able to beat Digit’s
caption last month.

Send your captions to

[email protected]
and win the
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full version
game worth
Rs 999 from
r, Gayatri Impex
h something funnie
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Photograph Mexy Xavier m at their own gam
and beat the Digit tea

RISING FROM THE ASHES different passwords can be in only IE (or aren’t tested affecting nearby phones. An
stored one time, managed to see how they look in MMS virus could potentially
Retooled or changed easily, and
secured from others who
other browsers), this gives
users the option of viewing
spread as quickly as an email
worm. Finnish anti-virus
Netscape might use your computer.
The new Netscape is
a site with the predominant
browser if it looks bad or
firm F-Secure thinks the
virus may be from Russia
Back In The based largely on the open-
source code for the
hangs up with Netscape.
Speaking of hanging up,
because it contains text that
says “OTMOP03KAM HET!”.
Browser increasingly popular Firefox
browser, though Netscape
Netscape’s new browser
crashed twice during a
Which roughly translates to
“No to braindeads”!
Game has a different design and
several functions that Firefox
recent four-hour test.
Worse, it was painfully slow, CRIPPLEWARE OVERDUE
doesn’t. Like Firefox, taking much longer than
Windows XP
N etscape, the Web
browser out-muscled a
decade ago by Microsoft’s
Netscape 8.0 supports tabbed
browsing; unlike Firefox,
Netscape has an elaborate
Internet Explorer or Firefox
to render streamlined sites
such as Google News. Starter
Internet Explorer, has new system for adjusting
undergone an extreme
makeover in an attempt to
security settings. It stores a
‘blacklist’ of Web sites
MMS ATTACK Edition In
regain its former relevance.
America Online, its
known to be dangerous on
the user’s computer and a
MMS Virus June
current owner, released a list of sites thought to be Discovered
trial version of Netscape 8.0
recently (browser.
trustworthy and updates
those lists regularly. The A Microsoft India official
said that the company
netscape.com), which packs
some powerful security
features, but falls short on
browser displays a small red
check mark—and a large
security warning—when a
T he first mobile phone
virus capable of
replicating via MMS
would launch Windows XP
Starter Edition, the
stripped-down version of
speed and ease of use. user visits a site on the messages has been XP, with local language
Among the useful blacklist or if it detects discovered. Commwarrior-A, capabilities in India by
aspects of this test release of other security issues at a which targets Symbian June. It was initially slated
Netscape 8.0 are tools for site a user tries to call up. Series 60 phones, is not to be released in March. “It
assessing the trustworthi- Another difference is spreading, but its ability to is a little delayed and the
ness of Web sites and that Netscape has added propagate via Multimedia engineers are still sorting
managing passwords. You Internet Explorer’s page- Messaging Service messages out local language
can, for example, set a rendering software under (MMS) worries some experts. features,” Microsoft India
‘super’ password granting the hood, as an alternative To date, phone viruses director (business and
one-word access to various viewing option. Since some have spread over Bluetooth— marketing operations)
Web sites; your many sites are written to display so they were only capable of Ranjivit Singh told

20 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Pulse
BEAM, DON’T SWIPE lose your phone than your
Rita Aiyar vs Yash Mody credit card. Second, if your
GENDER Changing The Default Language Mobile phone does get stolen, it
cannot be used for
On The Computer Phones As payments unless your PIN
is keyed in. Another
Credit Cards advantage is that the
receipt gets stored on your
mobile, so you don’t have
BENDERS
N ow, a software/hardware
combination can let
consumers in India use their
to worry about lost bills.
The problem, of course,
is that not too many
cell phones as credit cards. retailers have IR-enabled
Customers simply aim their payment counters.
cell phone at the payment
1 min counter, and their purchase PIRATES TO BE ‘TOLD OFF’
55 sec
is charged to their account.
Uneasy at the beginning, Rita’s confidence increases with each
successive click. She accesses the Control Panel from the Start
The move has excited
interest in cell phone circles
Invention To
Menu and soon enough, clicks on the ‘Regional and Language
Options’ icon. The dialog box pops open and displays ‘Regional
Options’, ‘Languages’ and ‘Advanced’. Rita clicks ‘Languages’
because it is perceived as
‘high-tech’ and innovative,
Turn Off
and then ‘Advanced’, but to no avail. She comes back to
‘Regional Options’ and spots the drop-down box that lists
and also has considerable
utilitarian appeal.
Music
100-odd languages. Just in time to be first!
Standard Chartered and
Visa have launched the
Pirates
service, called m-Wallet, in
Mumbai and Bangalore.
Murali M Natrajan, head
of consumer banking, India
U p until now, we have
seen copy protected
music CDs and Digital
and Nepal, Standard Rights Management attempt
Chartered, said, “The launch to stop unauthorised
of the m-Wallet makes us copying of music files (or
2 min pioneers in ushering mobile CD ripping). Now, a pair of
05 sec commerce in India.” New York inventors believe
How it works is, your they can thwart music
Yash maintains his composure. He clicks ‘My Computer’ and
opens the Control Panel. Hesitantly, he clicks the ‘Fonts’ credit card information is pirates by secretly burying
option, and spends almost a minute in a fruitless search. He downloaded to your an anti-piracy warning in a
returns to Control Panel, and finally spots the ‘Regional and Infrared-capable mobile track, which is disinterred if
Language Options’ icon. By the powers that be, he follows the phone. When you are done the copyright has been
same path as Rita—wastes time on ‘Languages’ and ‘Advanced’
before he spots the drop-down box and heaves a sigh of relief! purchasing, you need to abused, New Scientist reports.
stand near the payment With help from the US
terminal—a standard Air Force Research
reporters in Bangalore at priced far cheaper than XP terminal, with added IR Laboratory, the inventors,
the launch of its Web Home and Professional, capability—and your credit Mark Bocko and Zeljko
conferencing and will be rolled out first in card information gets Ignjatovic, professors of
enterprise IM service in Hindi and “will be quickly beamed across. electrical engineering,
India. “We can’t introduced in 10 other Users need to first found they could bury
underestimate the huge Indian languages,” Singh download a Java midlet onto around 20 Kb of speech
development effort said. He said Microsoft had their phones, which does the data in a song without
involved in providing already worked out details work of handling security affecting how it sounds.
language functions. OEMs with computer and communication with The speech data, which is
should start offering it in manufacturers such as HP the terminal. the warning—for instance,
June,” he said. Microsoft and IBM on the price of the Paying this way is a a voice from a record
has already launched software, which will be good thing. First off, you company boss, berating the
Windows starter in bundled with PCs. don’t need to carry your user for piracy—exploits
Malaysia, Thailand and Microsoft eventually plans credit cards around and the fact that the tones of a
Indonesia. to work with local worry about them getting musical instrument
XP Starter Edition, to be assemblers. lost—it’s a lot harder to consist of a complex

Internet Explorer 7.0

here’s a lot of buzz going on about IE7, the
Some details about IE7 have emerged, and if the
Ta beta
latest version of Internet Explorer, slated for
release this summer. As it says on the
rumours are true, it will have tabbed browsing, an
inbuilt news aggregator, and will be integrated
Microsoft Internet Explorer Weblog, developers with Microsoft’s anti-spyware product. Other fea-
have gotten a clear message from users that tures include no cross-domain scripting and/or
SP2 is a good thing, and that they want more scripting access, an improved SSL user interface,
security—in the browser. and simpler printing from within the browser.

22 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Pulse
pattern of randomly- GIMME THE MEGAPIXELS! home printing and DVR
phased harmonics. Bocko technology.
and Ignjatovic tweaked a
few harmonics to shift out
Digicams A Asked what technology
they most frequently
of the pattern and then
used those shifts to convey
Must-buy upgrade, 63 per cent cited
mobile phones. The
a 20-kilobit speech message.
Their patented idea is to
For 2005 readiness to upgrade one’s
mobile phone seems
What is a 3G phone? incorporate a software strongest in Asia and South
A 3G phone is one that can
use 3G networks. 3G is an
abbreviation for ‘third
decoder in file-sharing
applications which
encourage mass copying
A recent poll by GMI
(Global Market Insite,
Inc, headquartered in
America. Almost 75 per cent
of consumers in India and
China said they upgraded
generation cellular and are the bane of the Washington state, USA) their phone more often
technology’, the ‘first music industry. focusing on new personal than any other technology.
generation’ having been The decoder would technology purchasing The survey suggests that
analogue cellular, and the detect the telltale phase patterns revealed that new in the West, word of mouth
‘second generation’ being shifts and convert them technology’s appeal is is the biggest influence on
today’s digital cellular into the warning message, strong worldwide. The customers’ purchasing
networks. 3G supports very causing them to boom out GMIPoll choices. But in the fastest-
high-speed data services over through loudspeakers or (www.gmipoll.com), which growing economies of Asia,
a cellular network. In fact, headphones, New Scientist surveyed 20,000 consumers such as India and China,
multimedia 3G networks reports. in 20 countries, found that advertising came in as the
transmit wireless data up to 2 For legitimate listeners, 59 per cent have a need for number one influencer,
Mbps. 3G mobile phones offer the digital shifts are so more technology. with 70 per cent citing it.
high-speed Internet small that there is no In all countries except
connectivity using Universal difference in the for the US, the PC has BLOGGING CUM SOCIAL
Mobile Telecommunications perception of the music. overtaken TV as the one NETWORKING
System—the technology of This may not always be the technology that people
choice for third-generation case, though—there is
speculation that tracks
cannot live without. The
GMIPoll found that 75 per
Yahoo!
wireless service delivery.
Why do we need 3G phones? might skip at the point of
insertion of the message.
cent of consumers ranked Launches
3G will support bandwidth-
hungry applications such as Earlier attempts by New Service
full-motion video, video-
conferencing and full Internet
access.
Where has 3G been
deployed?
Y ahoo! has introduced a
new service that blends
several of its site’s popular
3G has been deployed in all the features with two of the
developed nations, as well as Internet’s fastest growing
in Pakistan, Vietnam, Thailand, activities—blogging and
and several other countries. social networking. The
Illustrations: Harsho Chattoraj

India is still awaiting the TRAI’s hybrid service, called

recommendations on 3G. ‘Yahoo 360’, was launched
Who was responsible for the March 29. Yahoo! has been
development of 3G? Yahoo is testing the service
3G is an initiative of the with a small group of
International employees, some of whom
Telecommunications Union have been working on the
(ITU). The World project since last year.
Administrative Conference The service is designed
(WAC) assigned 230 MHz of to enable Yahoo’s users to
spectrum at 2 GHz for pull content from the Web
multimedia 3G networks. site’s discussion groups,
When did 3G first appear on online photo albums and
the scene? review sections, and plug
3G network trials started in their PC as their must-have them into their own blogs.
Japan in 2001. researchers to bury anti- technology, compared to 67 Yahoo! will also make it
How do 3G-enabled devices piracy signals in per cent for TV, and the easy for the service’s users
operate? copyrighted music and mobile phone came in a to connect with others who
3G-enabled devices send and films have run into close third with 54 per cent. share common interests and
receive radio signals to and countermeasures by Looking at what new friends—the practice known
from base stations. The base hackers, who filter out the technology consumers are as social networking.
stations are low-power radio message. Earlier attempts most likely to purchase in Compiled by Aditya Kuber,
transmitters—each providing also almost always resulted 2005, overall the GMIPoll Ahmed Shaikh,
coverage to a cell. Cells need in compatibility problems found that digital cameras Meera Vankipuram,
to overlap to enable with players—the track came out tops, with nearly Preethi Chamikutty,
seamless coverage. would either skip, or not 40 per cent choosing digital Ram Mohan Rao
play at all. cameras over wireless, and Renuka Rane

24 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Passion l Tomorrow

Digital

31 Behind
Lens
The
34 Dial V for Video 37 Security
Superheroes
Passion
Fuelling the pursuit of technology knowledge

Tomorrow

The Smart Life

Technology is pervasive, but has not integrated with our lives—yet. What would it be like
when every aspect of daily life is technology-driven? We give you a glimpse...

In Your Car
On your way home from work, you receive
an MMS from your significant other.
There’s grocery shopping to be done!
“Don’t forget to buy sugar, milk and
that stationery I mentioned earlier,” says
M the message.
Your car’s LCD display plays back the
video message, uses primitive AI to under-
stand keywords such as ‘buy’, ‘sugar’,
‘milk’, and ‘stationery’. It then automati-
cally charts the ideal route to the nearest
and cheapest supermarket where all the
items on the list are available.

Illustrations Shyam Sriram

Payment
Once you have picked up all the necessary
items, you head to an automated, tag-reading
checkout counter.
The total is beamed to your
WiMAX-enabled watch, which con-
nects to your bank account, veri-
fies that you have sufficient
funds, and then makes a secure
wireless payment.

APRIL 2005 DIGIT 25

 Digital Passion l Tomorrow

Communications
Just as you are exiting the supermarket, your wrist begins
to tingle—your watch shows you that your spouse is calling.
You say “accept call”, and the call is patched to your WiFi-
enabled spectacles. You assure her that you have not for-
gotten anything, only because technology wouldn’t let
you—the stupid watch kept sending reminders in that silly
robotic voice to your spectacles’ earpiece, informing you
that the stationery department was the nearest to your cur-
rent location, and was a priority.
Once you are
done with the
call, you tap your
wristwatch face
to end the call.

Photography And Imaging

On your way home, you see an interesting adver-
tisement. With a click of a button on your spec-
tacles, you capture an image of exactly what you
are seeing. The image is sent to your watch, which
OCRs the image, extracts the contact details and
saves it in your address book.

Global Positioning
Using WiMAX, your car contacts your home and
informs it that you are just 10 minutes away.
Your house sends a notification (like an
MSN Messenger popup) to your spouse who is
watching a cooking show, and your kids, who
are playing a game on their portable 60-inch
wireless LCD.
The kids inform the robot helpers to start
clearing their room, while
your spouse decides to start
preparing dinner.

26 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Passion l Tomorrow

Intelligent Devices
Your wife clicks a button on the TV to save a few
recipes that were shown on the cooking show. The
TV communicates with the fridge to tell it the ingre-
dients of the recipes. The fridge informs you, via its
LCD display, that you only have the requisite ingre-
dients for three of the recipes.
The fridge also offers useful information, such
as how many times in the past year the three recipes
have been prepared, and how much each was liked
by the individual members of the family—by
requesting the dishwasher to provide data on how
much each family member
wasted, etc.
Your spouse
chooses the dish
that hasn’t been
prepared for the
longest period, so as
to keep the menu
fresh, and starts to
make dinner.
Gaming
The family sits down to have dinner, but kids
will be kids. They have wirelessly transferred
all their game data from their console to hand-
held gaming devices. No longer are games plat-
form- dependent, and all game data can be
transferred from any gaming device to another.
Needless to say, this is one technology
enhancement that your spouse is not pleased
with! A few yells and some threatening remarks
involving a ban on gaming devices and a year’s
pocket money later, dinner is a little more
orderly and peaceful.

RFID
Once dinner is done, you decide to request a classic
movie from your favourite digital movie-on-demand
channel provider—the family’s favourite pastime. How-
ever, it’s very hard to do so without the remote. Sigh!
The kids again. Funny how they can remember how you
promised to take them on a camping trip a few years
ago, but can’t remember what they did with a remote
that they were using less than an hour ago.
Time to ask good old house find it. You log into the
house’s control panel, it authenticates you using a
retina scan and voice recognition, and then promptly
answers your ques-
tion. It shows you a
graphical representa-
tion of where the
remote is—dropped
and then perhaps
kicked under the sofa.
How do the kids
manage such feats?

MARCH 2005 DIGIT 27

 Digital Passion l Tomorrow
Smart Homes
While your family is enjoying the movie, your house
automatically switches into your predefined ‘Movie
Mode’. It automatically lowers the ambient lighting by
70 per cent, rejects all phone calls from numbers of less
than ‘Level Three’ importance, and turns off all com-
munication notifications to your family.
This level also has increased security, as all mem-
bers of the family are engrossed. Doors and windows
are locked automatically,
and the security alarm is
activated to prevent unau-
thorised entry to the house
or garage.

Data Syncing
As you head off to sleep, you place your watch in its
cradle, where it is charged and transfers all newly
recorded data, such as contact information and updated
schedules, to the house computer. This will help the house
decide what time to wake you tomorrow and also what
you might need for work.
The kids, meanwhile, have carried the wireless LCD
into their room, and are continuing their game from
where they left off. You tell the house to cut off power
supply and connectivity to the LCD in half an hour and go
off to sleep; your kids mutter their disapproval, but value
their allowances too much to actually complain.

Security
While the neighbourhood sleeps, your house is on full
alert. A passing police car broadcasts its encrypted ID,
which your house recognises as the trusted neighbour-
hood watch, and sends the patrol car the all-clear
signal. The neighbouring houses do the same.
Life is just too hard for burglars, espe-
cially after physical money was
stopped—everything’s electronic now.

The Technologies
Wireless: Everything uses WiFi or WiMAX
to communicate—with high security
and encryption.
Tracking: Everything has an ID and can be
tracked or traced easily.
Storage: No gadget needs a sizeable hard
disk anymore. All devices can share each
others’ storage as well as centralised storage.
Bandwidth: With advancements in wireless
technologies, there is no more bandwidth
crunch and no more messy cable laying; band-
width is cheap.
AI: Artificial Intelligence is limited, but capable of han-
dling mundane tasks, and is self-learning.
Networks: Networks are global and ad hoc, but secured
with high encryption.

[email protected]
[email protected]

28 DIGIT APRIL2005
 THIS MONTH’S CHALLENGE

Remember, using
Remove the
third-party utilities is
not allowed. If you
still think you can
Internet Options
remove the Security,
Connections and
Advanced tabs from
tabs for Security,
the Internet Options
dialog box, write in to
us at takeacrack@
Connections and
thinkdigit.com with
your solution Advanced
LAST MONTH’S CHALLENGE
Displaying Your Company Logo Before The Windows XP Login Screen

Three-step Process and Settings\All

Users\
Win! First, design an appropriate
bitmap and save it in the
Application Data
\LogoName. BMP”.
“C:\Documents and Now double-
Settings\All click on the string
Users\Application Data” called
directory as LogoName.BMP. “TileWallpaper”,
Use the 8.3 naming and change the
convention. value according to
Since the Application your preference—
Data directory is a hidden the value ‘0’ will
directory, you may need to not tile the
unhide it by opening image, while the The logo is displayed before the logon screen
Take a Crack Windows Explorer and value ‘1’ will tile
and Win going to Tools > Folder it. Next, double-
Webster’s New World Options, click on the View click on the
Computer Dictionary tab and check the 'Show string called
By Bryan Pfaffenberger hidden files and folders' “Wallpaper Style”
Published by option. Click on Apply and and change the
IDG Books India (P) Ltd then on OK. value according
Next, open the registry to your choice;
WINNER editor by going to Start > here the value ‘0’
Debangshu Sen. Run, typing “regedit” and is normal, while
Radhanagar Road, West Bengal pressing [Enter]. Navigate to the value ‘2’ will
the key “HKEY_USERS stretch the image
\.DEFAULT\Control to fit the screen.
Rules and Regulations Panel\Desktop”. In the If you don't
Readers are requested to send
in their answers by the 15th of the
right pane, double-click on want to tile or
month of publication. the string called stretch your
“Wallpaper”. Under ‘Value wallpaper, and would > String Value. Name the
Employees of Jasubhai Data’ enter the full path to rather choose its position string “WallpaperOriginX”
Digital Media and their relatives
are not permitted to participate
your bitmap image—for on the screen, you will and set the value to the
in this contest. example, “C:\Documents need to create two new data number of pixels from the
strings in this left edge of the screen that
Readers are encouraged to same registry you want the picture to be
send their replies by e-mail.
Jasubhai Digital Media will not
directory. located. Now, create
entertain any unsolicited When at “HKEY another String Value, call it
communication. _USERS “WallpaperOriginY” and set
\.DEFAULT its value to the number of
Jasubhai Digital Media is
not responsible for any damage
\Control pixels from the top of the
to your system that may be Panel\ screen.
caused while you are solving Desktop”, Close the Registry
the problem. right-click on Editor, and reboot your
the right pane machine to see your
Set your logo using Regedit and select New handiwork.

30 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Imaging Atul Deshmukh
Behind The Lens
The Lens
Your guide to Aliasgar Pardawala The lens is the eye of any camera. It is what
what makes focuses the image and projects it onto the sen-

D
igital cameras are fast replacing their sor, which in turn captures it. Image quality,
those digicams film-based cousins. Digicams have quick- therefore, depends on the quality of the lens.
click—literally! ened the process of clicking and viewing Digital cameras come with either a fixed
images, and their costs have also come down focus lens or a zoom lens. A fixed focus lens
substantially. This southward trend continues doesn’t give you the option to zoom in on
as newer and better cameras flood the market. distant objects. A zoom lens, on the other hand,
All this has made the digital camera the instru- can zoom in on objects depending on the opti-
ment of choice for amateur photographers. cal zoom capacity of the lens. Therefore, if you
are planning to buy a camera for outdoor shots,
What Goes Into The Making? especially landscape photography, it is advis-
Though it’s physically smaller than many able to opt for a model that has at least 5x
other computer peripherals, the digital cam- optical zoom.
era is not a simple piece of technology. From Nature photography enthusiasts need to pay
the lens and sensor processor, to the memory, attention to the macro focus range of the
and finally the storage device, everything camera. A smaller macro distance will enable
works in sync. The final result is there for you you to move closer to the object. Digital
to see on the LCD screen within a matter of cameras also have a digital zoom option, which
seconds. Here, we go a little deeper into each is nothing but software interpolation of an
of these components to see how their func- image. They do this by cropping the central part
tions affect the overall quality of the camera— of the image and reducing its resolution, thus
and that of your pictures. making it appear as if it’s been zoomed into.

DIGIT APRIL 2005 31

 Digital Passion l In Sight
However, the quality of the image suffers heav- Cameras with a after clicking one pic to click the next. The
ily because of this reduced resolution. low cycle time Canon IXUS400, with its DIGIC processor, is
another camera with a low cycle time.
Sensor are easy to use Cameras with a low cycle time are easy to use
The sensor’s function is to capture the light when images when images have to be captured in quick suc-
coming in through the lens. This information, have to be cession, for instance, in wildlife photography.
which is in the form of light, is converted into captured in quick
a digital signal and forwarded to the processor succession, for Memory
for reconstruction. A high-quality sensor will The small pieces of plastic that store captured
reproduce a crisp image. instance, in images are called memory cards. The speed at
Sensors are of two types: CMOS (Compli- wildlife which an image is stored depends on the
mentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) and CCD photography card’s read-write speed. Thus, a card with a
(Charge Coupled Device). Low-cost CMOS fast write speed reduces the time interval
sensors are found in low-end cameras. CCDs, on required between two shots, and a lower read
the other hand, are found in most mid-level to time means faster image transfer to a PC.
prosumer-class cameras. CCDs offer better MultiMedia Card (MMC), SecureDigital (SD),
image quality, but at the same time, are expen- Compact Flash (CF), xD-Picture card and
sive to manufacture. CMOS is cheaper to MemoryStick Pro are some of the widely-used
produce, consumes lesser power, and current memory card formats. SD cards have one
improvements in quality have helped it find a advantage over the others: they are compatible
place in high-end digital SLR cameras such as with MMC. Many models, such as the HP
the Canon 350D. Photosmart R707 and the Samsung V5,
support both formats.
The Processing Engine An important point to note, however, is that
The camera’s processor gets its information the camera writes the data onto the memory
from the sensor and starts reconstructing the card at a certain speed, say 12x. Thus a faster
image. Here, speed is of prime importance, you card, with a faster write speed—say 40x—need
wouldn’t like to sit idle for a full minute while not mean improved performance if the camera
your processor crunches numbers. The start-up cannot handle it.
time and time interval (cycle time) between
two shots depends on the processing engine. The Interface
Cameras such as the Sony DSC-P100 boot up USB is the interface of choice for digital cam-
very quickly, and you don’t have to wait long eras. The newer generation cameras come with

1/2 PG AD

32 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Passion l In Sight
the faster USB2.0 interface, which can transfer
data at a maximum speed of 480 Mbps. Of Memory Capacity
course, to take advantage of this, you need a Digital Camera Type 16 MB 32 MB 64 MB 128 MB 256 MB 512 MB 1 GB
USB2.0-compatible PC. Digital cameras also 13 26 53 106 213 426 853
3-megapixel
come with the A/V port, using which one can
4-megapixel 8 16 32 64 128 256 512
view images on a television set.
5-megapixel 6 12 25 51 102 204 409
Usability Does Matter 6-megapixel 5 10 20 40 80 160 320
Since most low-end digital cameras come with Table explaining number of images that can be stored by different size media when used with different
some level of manual override, getting to any megapixel cameras
feature using the menu needs to be easy. As you
move towards better cameras, the complexities storage capacity and battery life. Most cameras
increase. High-end cameras have more features come with very little memory—usually 8 to 16
and manual overrides. This in turn means a MB. This makes it difficult for shutterbugs, as
deeper and more complex menu structure. a 16 MB card cannot hold more than 20 images
Navigating through such a menu can be a prob- taken at a 3-megapixel resolution. So, if you are
lem if it is not well laid out. The problem gets planning on an extensive outdoor shoot, it is
compounded if the buttons aren’t placed intu- advisable to spend some extra money and get
itively. Therefore, while checking the other a 512 MB memory card.
aspects of a camera such as the megapixel Battery life is another major area of
count, number of flash modes etc, make sure concern: if the camera has a regular Li-Ion
that the menu is easy to navigate and buttons battery, you need to purchase at least one extra
are easily accessible. battery pack. But this is not going to help you
Kodak cameras have menus with the easiest much if you are on vacation and do not have a
navigation. Every feature is neatly arranged and power source to recharge your batteries. If your
the sub-menus are just a few clicks away. Also, the camera runs on regular batteries, you can carry
menu is standardised for all their cam- as many extra batteries as possible. This,
eras, so an upgrade from a low-end however, will prove expensive in the long run.
camera to a higher-end one is easy.
Sony, on the other hand, has a The Current Market
cumbersome menu with tiny The grey market is still the market of choice
captions, which takes a while for most digital camera buyers in India. The
getting used to. One needs to obvious reason for this is price.
remember that a compact The Nikon Coolpix 5100 is the best example
camera will have tiny of the price difference. The camera, if
buttons, and menu navi- purchased from an authorised dealer, would
gation will therefore set you back by Rs 20,800—but is available for
get a little tedious. just Rs 11,750 in the grey market. On one lead-
ing online site, the same model is priced even
What Size And lower—at Rs 10,500. The HP Photosmart, which
Shape Suits we tested in October 2004, had an official
You? price tag of Rs 29,990, and the grey market
With the reduction price is Rs 14,000.
in size, the form fac- Companies such as Kodak, however,
tor of a digital cam- sell their cameras at competitive prices,
era has also changed. making it difficult to find their models in the
If you take a look at grey market.
the current genera- With big brands such as Sony, Canon and
tion of digital cam- HP having already set up shop in the country,
eras, you will notice An inside view of a standard digital camera and with duties on electronic goods decreasing
that they are not after every Budget, it makes sense to buy a
plain boxes with a flash and a shutter button. genuine product from an authorised distribu-
Nowadays, you have ergonomically-designed tor. This gets you a warranty, which takes care
cameras such as the Sony DSC-P100, and the of any damage to your camera within the
Exilim from Casio, which is thin and fits snug- warranty period, and even a replacement if
ly in your pocket. Even heavy-duty, perform- there is any serious flaw in your camera.
ance-oriented cameras such as the Kodak 6490 Companies have also come up with innova-
with 10X optical zoom have extremely com- tive ways to wean the consumer off the grey
pact bodies, and are not very heavy. market. For instance, Sony sends a representative
The digital camera, however, is not devoid to your house to walk you through the various
of its share of problems—first and foremost, features of the camera. This service is, however,
limited to only a few cities. Then there’s also
Vendors’ Contact Numbers Kodak, which has a toll free number to help you
arrange for a professional photographer.
Sony India Ltd: 1600 1111 88 The price factor is still very important in
Kodak: 1600 2249 49 India, than in some other countries—so how the
Canon: 39010101 ‘white’ market fares vis-a-vis the grey market
HP: 1600 447 737 remains to be seen.
[email protected]

DIGIT APRIL 2005 33

Digital Passion | Geek Dreams
Dial V for Video—with
a 1.3 MP camera, the C amera phones are so been there, done that:
remove phone, aim, click, show. Yawn… But
hey, what’s this? A video phone, eh? With a
fulfilled by the Memory Stick Duo support that
the V800 lends—as much as 1 GB.
You can also play 3D Java games on this
Sony Ericsson V800
shoots to thrill video camcorder, an MPEG4 video player, and phone, complete with force feedback and
what’s that, video telephony!? You mean I multiplayer support via Bluetooth. The
could video conference with another V800 user multitasking feature lets you upload images
with just a press of this button? while telling your friends about it.
The camera, the shiny heart of this beast, We could point out its other features—tri-
nestles on the hinge; it can do much—twist band, GSM/GPRS, inbuilt modem, Web browser
around for one. So taking those vanity shots is etc, but that would be so been there, done that…
oh-so-easy! While the 4X digital zoom is nothing
novel, the panorama mode will let you combine
three overlapping pictures into one larger
picture. Being MMS-enabled, it allows you to
share your video-pictures-sounds-fancy-text
creation with others.
Playing video and audio is passé; this baby
gets you live audio and video streams.
Additional memory is a must for any phone that
can record and play MP3 files, a need that is

Sony Ericsson V800

Imaging Sivalal S

APRIL 2005 DIGIT 34

Digital Passion l 30 hours with...

The Mac mini

Ahmed Shaikh

W hen I first heard ab

wooden horse, the
think it was filled wi
out the Trojan War,
siz
I could not believe
e of a building, and the stu
created by their enem pidity of a people who would drag a
th chocolate? y, inside their erstw
Much later, I read Ste hile safe haven. Did
ve Jobs proclaim the superio they
experience is nine-t rity of software to ha
enths software, I sag rd wa re.
Finally, a seldom-us ely nodded. It was a good sermo
ed part of my brain n: user
sleek package, ador conn ected tw o dis
ned it with a blinking parate dots—what if
injecting OSX inside LE you wrapped your OS
my safe, Windows ha D and christened it the “mini”? Would in a tiny,
ven? And all that in this Trojan succeed
Day 1, just 30 hours? in
10:00 am; Hello, He
It’s so small! I have us llo
ed bigger modems! I “Applications” folder;
connected then, with a simple cli
the mini to a 23-inch it to the dock. I now ha ck, I added
BenQ LCD. Connect th d Opera, six MSN Messe
port, a mouse, and an e network windows, and three Sa nger
Apple keyboard, press fari windows open. OS
power button and we the to keep up. X panted
are in OSX land. Tim
reboot—60 seconds. Ah e taken to
, look, a blinking LED!
3:00 pm; Pushing It
10:15 am; The OS As I type this, I am im
I wanted to push this porting 53 high-resolut
little box to its 256 MB images from a camera ion
the first thing I did wa limits, so have two while updating OSX;
s turn on all the eye-ca Safari windows, 13 MSN I also
was pleased by how OS ndy. I wi ndow Messenger
X would instantly ref s, fou r Opera tabs, iCal, iPh
change to its settings lect any system profiler, and a oto, iMovie, a
—no need to click on text editor open. OSX
twiddle your fingers. Apply and hectically caching to is
Also noteworthy was the mini’s tiny hard dis
animation to grab att the use of the little bugger is ac k, and
ention: icons on the do tually keeping up.
jump up and down ea ck would
gerly, demanding to be
Getting on the local ne clicked. 4:15 pm; Integratio
twork was easy, as wa n
sharing files with Wind s Ev erything is well integ
ows and Linux. Getti rated, with a uniform
Internet was similarly ng on the and minim interface
painless. al surprises. iPhoto an
very good at what the d iMovie are both
2:00 pm; Installing y do—and what they
than sufficient for a ge do is more
Applications neral user like myself.
I installed Opera just
by dragging the file to
the 6:00 pm; Bugs
Add third-party softw
are and things begin
apart. Opera, for exam to break
ple, did not inherit the
wide “spell check” um system-
brella; the quality of fon
ing, drag-and-drop of t smooth-
text and a consistent loo
were other casualties. k and feel
Oh well, tomorrow is an
other day!
Day Two, 10:30 am
; Irritants
No tool tips on icons
and files, the [End] ke
missing, [Delete] does y is
a backspace, pressing
renames a file, and Ap [Enter]
pleWorks needs a lot
of work.
5:00 pm; A Sad Fare
well
The mini is returned to
its rightful owners. OS
beautiful—both to beho X is
ld and to work with. Th
bolsters the software wi e mini
th able hardware. Add
‘05 suite and the mini the iLife
turns into a very tempti
investment. If only the ng
Geeks at Apple would
Rs 10,000 off the mini’ sacrifice
s price, I would gladly
Trojan in, blinking LE drag this
D and all.
ahmed_shaikh@thinkdi
git.com
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Special Advertising Section

THE BUSINESSVALUE OF
COLOR
Today’s color imaging and printing devices are easier to use and more cost effective than you
may realize. They’re helping IT professionals and business executives around the world to
make a bigger impact and become more successful.
Many of the technology tools used by small and midsized businesses
today are solutions that companies wouldn’t consider conducting busi-
ness without. From PCs and e-mail to imaging and printing devices, all are
integral parts of the daily workflow that IT professionals rely on to help
employees be more productive, and businesses in general need to be
more efficient.
What about color? Color imaging and printing, to be precise. You’ve
probably heard a lot about color, and all of the benefits that it can bring
to a business. Like some, however, you may be thinking that color is dif-
ficult to manage and maintain, as well as costly and slow—even a non-
essential luxury that, in times of tight tech budgets, is tough to justify.

H T T P : / / S M A R T B U S I N E S S . Z D N E T I N D I A . C O M
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For Milestone Architectural large-format printer for line drawings, pre- on any continent or in any country. So by
Ornamentation, color means cost-effective, sentations and signs. using color in customer-facing materials,
customized, highly professional marketing Printers are not the only HP products in sales and marketing employees, for exam-
collateral that’s helped the company build use at Milestone. The company also uses ple, may increase their chances for suc-
its reputation worldwide and increase HP supplies—including ink, paper and spe- cess with potential customers. Color is the
sales. Based in Amarillo, Texas, Milestone cial media—because the printers and the great equalizer, and color technology—par-
is an expert manufacturer of reproductions supplies work together as a system to pro- ticularly color imaging and printing—is the
of ancient antiquities. The company has duce exceptional results. vehicle for that equality.
mastered its market, and it has done so by
concentrating on the needs of its cus-
tomers. COLOR SUCCESS STORY
Early on, however, Milestone found it ■ Company: Milestone Architectural Ornamentation, Amarillo, Texas
needed to stand out in the crowd. Like ■ Challenges: Create professional marketing collateral and proposals cost-effec-
many companies, Milestone had a great tively, customize proposals, print top-quality color and monochrome photos.
product, but was faced with several daunt- ■ Solution: HP Business Inkjet 1100 printers, HP Photosmart printers, HP media.
ing business challenges that are common ■ Results: Individualized proposals create client trust in company’s work. Eighty-
to companies around the world. To suc- five percent success rate winning business with customized packages.
ceed, it needed to make a big impact with
current and future customers. “We’re a very small company, but with Given the increasing business value of
In the words of Milestone CEO Melody the professional look of our proposals and color, it’s not surprising that the market for
Brenna, “We were a little company with a posters that we print in-house, we look color laser printers is taking off. And the
totally new product, and we didn’t have the huge, and HP has given us that capability,” good news for buyers is that growing popu-
sales volume or funding to hire an adver- says Milestone CEO Brenna. “The consis- larity is driving affordability and features.
tising agency. In our business, everything is tent quality and flexibility of our HP printers According to analysts at Lyra Research,
ultimately visual. We have to be able to por- not only makes it possible for us to com- color laser printers priced under $1,000
tray to a client exactly what the end project pete against much larger companies, it will account for 56 percent of total color
will look like to pique their interest and win enables us to succeed.” laser printer shipments worldwide by 2008
the business.” (“Color Laser Printers: Worldwide Market
The means to that end was color. And CONNECTING Forecast and Analysis,” August 2004). Lyra
today, it’s easier to use, more readily avail- WITH COLOR further predicts that by 2008, 10-23 ppm
able and more cost effective than you may The natural connection that Milestone (page per minute) color laser printers will
realize. made between “visual” and “color” is replace 1-9 ppm units as the dominant
increasingly being made by organizations devices shipped.
ENABLING SUCCESS around the world that are seeking to opti-
WITH COLOR mize sometimes limited exposure to mar- DEBUNKING
Using color came naturally to Milestone, ketplace opportunities. COLOR MYTHS
which relies so heavily on the visual appeal Usage of color in business documents Despite numerous advantages, color imag-
of its products. Like many businesses, it such as presentations, sales collateral ing and printing devices may still be below
started producing its own marketing mate- and marketing brochures, for example, the cut line on some companies’ IT-budget-
rials in-house as a way to reduce costs, bridges the gap between concept and com- expenditure priority lists. Given the history,
increase contract closure percentages and prehension. It connects and persuades its this view is a bit more understandable. At
boost quality control. audience. Black and white, by comparison, the high end, the output was good, but the
To make the most of these internal is valuable in a different way—it conveys devices were expensive and complex, and
capabilities, it enlisted the help of HP print- content accurately, and it provides the therefore out of reach for the average
ing solutions. Milestone started using HP informational infrastructure. Color creates small business. At the other end of the
printers for two basic reasons: ease of lasting impressions and appeals to the spectrum, personal color devices also pro-
access to the hardware and supplies, and powerful sense of vision. duced good output, but weren’t designed
low price combined with high-quality “Color is the easiest and most effective for office use.
results. way to increase the clarity of a document,” Indeed, why should an IT professional
In addition to four HP Business Inkjet points out Robert McCullough, president of keeping a watchful eye on the budget make
1100 series printers, the firm’s principal McCullough Research, in “The Definitive the commitment to color under those cir-
graphic designer Jay Ferranti uses an HP Guide to Office Color Printing” (real- cumstances? The truth is that those cir-
Photosmart printer for professional-quality timepublishers.com, 2004). cumstances have changed significantly.
photos in eight-color or black and white. The guide further claims that color com- Color has become fast, affordable and
The Photosmart printer that Ferranti uses munications can improve comprehension practical—as well as easy to use and more
allows direct photo printing from a digital by 75 percent over black-and-white com- reliable.
camera, which Ferranti describes as highly munications. That’s a powerful, enabling
useful in the brochure design process. message to small and midsize businesses SPEED
Milestone also relies on an HP Designjet that are trying to carve out market share— In the past, all color laser printers

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employed four-pass printing, which meant estimates that the business marketing spend less time troubleshooting and field-
that colors were applied to the paper indi- packet her company created using ing calls for help, and more time on strate-
vidually, one after the other. As a result, Microsoft® Publisher 2003 and printed in- gic initiatives.
printers were faster when printing black house on HP printers costs less than $5 Reliability, as well as ease of use and
and white because with black and white per unit, but will generate eight new cus- interoperability of HP digital imaging solu-
printing, it is only necessary to apply the tomers per month worth $5,000 each. She tions is helping the UK’s BMW WilliamsF1
black. Thanks to technology advances, further predicts that the annual revenues Team, a Formula One racing team, make a
four-pass color laser printing is being sup- from this new source of income could big impression with its Paddock Club
planted by single-pass technology, in which
all four colors are laid down simultane-
ously. COLOR SUCCESS STORY
Now, it’s possible to purchase color ■ Company: BMW WilliamsF1 Team, Oxfordshire, UK
laser printers from HP that print up to 24 ■ Challenges: Enhance guests’ experiences of Formula One race weekends, pro-
pages per minute in color. Inkjet printers vide a fast, easy-to-use solution for printing photographs for guests on race days.
have also benefited from advances in tech- ■ Solution: HP Photosmart digital cameras and printers.
nology—models from HP now reach color ■ Results: Better customer relations, ease of use helps staff be more productive.
printing speeds of 24 ppm as well. And
some HP color multifunction devices reach reach $500,000 per year. guests on race weekends. Using HP
color print speeds up to 22 ppm. The bottom line is that professional- Photosmart digital cameras and printers,
quality digital color is becoming more and the team’s hospitality staff can take photos
AFFORDABILITY more affordable. In fact, total cost of of the guests with their favorite drivers dur-
The best way to appreciate the financial printer ownership (TCO) and cost per page ing tours of the pit lane, and then print
value of color printing is to understand the have declined dramatically from the early those photos immediately, so guests may
value in terms of time to market, impact days of color printing in the office. take autographed pictures home with
with customers, and total cost of owner- them.
ship. RELIABILITY AND EASE OF USE “This kind of initiative could not suc-
Eager to better manage their publishing To their credit, monochrome laser printers ceed without products that are extremely
expenses, Bellevue, Washington-based from HP have developed stellar reputations easy to use,” said Jonathan Odell, spon-
ArtSource, a digital media staffing and for reliability and ease of use. The down- sorship account manager for the BMW
design agency, purchased multiple HP side is that, in the past, this created unre- WilliamsF1 Team. “Hospitality is very
printers—including HP Color LaserJet alistic expectations for color laser printer important to the BMW WilliamsF1 Team. In
5500s, Color Inkjet cp1700s and Business performance. And unfortunately, many order for guests to capture the moment, we
Inkjet 1100s—that work together seam- early color models failed to live up to those use the innovative HP Photosmart solution.
lessly to help increase productivity and expectations. It is a great way of enhancing people’s
customer satisfaction. According to Gartner, reliability has a experience of Formula One racing as
ArtSource founder Melody Christensen large impact on printing costs, which is why guests of the Paddock Club.”
it’s so crucial in a business
environment. The firm MAKING A DIFFERENCE
stated, “Reliability, quality WITH MEDIA
and ease of use are key driv- The enhanced quality of ink and media has
ers of printing cost because also bolstered the image of color printers.
they drive labor—the single Consider the opinion of David Axelbank,
biggest cost of printing.”1 production manager at Magnum Photos,
User-required maintenance, one of the world’s largest global coopera-
end-user downtime and tech- tives of professional photographers, with
nical service were cited by offices in New York, London, Paris and
Gartner as primary cost cul- Tokyo.
prits. “As for the quality of ink on paper, in my
Those culprits have opinion, the HP Designjet [printer] pro-
become less culpable as duces prints that very closely resemble tra-
color printer reliability has ditional C-type prints. The colors were
improved. Vendors such as beautifully saturated and highly accurate.”
HP have dedicated them- Magnum used HP Designjet six-color
selves to increasing reliabil- printers to reproduce images for a recent
ity, which has led to series of international exhibitions. All
significant improvements in prints were created using HP satin-finish
the areas of design, manu- photo paper and HP state-of-the-art inks
facturing and testing. And designed for rich color depth, gloss unifor-
more reliable devices help IT mity, color stability and consistency.

H T T P : / / S M A R T B U S I N E S S . Z D N E T I N D I A .
1Source:
C O M
Gartner, November 2003.
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Axelbank was also impressed with the This led to a proliferation of unauthorized tional capital outlay and no internal skills
HP Designjet’s ease of use in terms of cal- color print jobs and an increase in printing required from our staff to enjoy the latest
ibration. “Essentially there is nothing for expenses, for which the source could not HP imaging and printing technology,”
the user to think about beyond the initial be traced. To resolve the dilemma, Yuen reports IndoChine CIO Ian Aniszewski.
command and the result was highly accu- Foong Paper, which is one of the largest “The proactive monitoring by the HP
rate color rendition from our files.” commercial printing enterprises in Taiwan, service center directly eliminates workload
Results like these make it clear that sought help from its local HP office. and taxi expenses for our stretched IT
color printing products have improved to HP responded with a solution that department, allowing our staff to be pro-
the point where companies of all sizes can
use them with confidence.
COLOR SUCCESS STORY
THE HP ADVANTAGE ■ Company: Yuen Foong Paper Co., Taipei, Taiwan
HP’s worldwide presence allows the com- ■ Challenges: Control escalating print costs, restrict staff usage of color laser
pany to consistently provide an unparal- printers for printing internal documents.
leled depth of products, services and ■ Solution: HP JetCAPS solution for Yuen Foong’s HP Color LaserJet 5500 print-
support, while offering local advice based ers restricts usage to authorized personnel only and helps track usage.
on an intimate knowledge of indigenous ■ Results: Imaging and printing costs lowered by 30 percent.
business environments. It’s the best of all
worlds for imaging and printing customers enabled the company to allow only author- ductive in other areas. With HP managing
such as Netopia (Phillipines), Yuen Foong ized personnel to use the printers, and to our fleet, we have the assurance of relia-
Paper (Taiwan) and IndoChine (Singapore). determine where all print jobs originated— bility, efficiency and availability always.”
For Netopia Internet Café, the luster a cost-management tool for color. As a The bottom line: IndoChine estimates a
wore off its inexpensive, non-HP inkjet result of the improved procedural controls, 75 percent savings in printing costs and a
printers when it came time to purchase Yuen Foong has reduced costs by 30 per- threefold improvement in productivity in the
supplies. The printers’ high cost per page cent. graphics department alone.
drove up the company’s expenses on sup- “It is a cost-saving solution,” explains
plies, while the service and support Yuen Foong President Y.C. Huang. “We find COLOR FOR ALL
needed to address frequent printer break- it a unique way to continue enjoying the The benefits of color imaging and printing
downs was inadequate. high quality of color printing while keeping can be experienced by all business func-
“If you look at the total cost of owner- our costs of consumables low.” tions. Color enables IT professionals to
ship, we were not saving at all,” said “But what we appreciate most has been serve their customers better while manag-
Raymond Ricafort, president of Digital HP’s desire and commitment to make is ing costs. It allows sales and marketing to
Paradise, Inc., owner and operator of solutions work better for us. With HP, we make a professional impact with potential
Netopia. “We had to discard the [non-HP] can really derive the maximum benefit from clients. And color may help the business
inkjet printers altogether if we wanted to our investments.” overall to become more successful by
provide the best professional printing serv- effectively distinguishing its products and
ice to our customers in the long run.” DRIVING PRODUCTIVITY services from those of its competitors.
So the company turned to its local HP With restaurants, bars, cafes and galleries There are as many ways to optimize
office for help. The recommended solution located throughout 20 outlets in three business opportunities with color as there
included color laser and business inkjet countries, The IndoChine group determined are imaginative, innovative companies.
printers. that it needed a more advanced imaging And many of those companies, recognizing
“The level of customer support and and printing solution that included a serv- the value of color, are already using it to
technical expertise we have been getting ice package to eliminate in-house device drive a competitive advantage.
from HP has just been amazing,” Ricafort maintenance. IndoChine also wanted reli- HP has been helping businesses expe-
said. “Your partners must understand what able all-in-one devices to handle high-vol- rience the value of color for a long time,
your business needs and where you want ume color printing needs in the office and providing expert, up-front advice based on
to bring it. By partnering with HP, we’ve at its food and beverage outlets. local knowledge and experience, leading-
achieved entirely new levels of productivity, Enter HP. Based on its local knowledge edge products and solutions, and industry-
efficiency and cost savings to give us that of IndoChine’s needs, the company brought recognized service and support. So no
winning edge.” in the right mix of printers, network capa- matter what your business objectives, or
bilities, all-in-one products and pay-per-use where your business is located, HP is there
CONTROLLING COSTS services to optimize the company’s pro- to help you get better business results
Yuen Foong Paper Co., a subsidiary of the ductivity. through the value of color
Yuen Foong Yu Group, found itself in a “The commercial deal To download a imaging and printing. ❚❚❚
stalemate when the five HP Color LaserJet with HP’s imaging and print- white paper on this
5500 printers it purchased for external pre- ing division has allowed us to topic, visit
sentations became increasingly popular deploy laser printers into http://smartbusiness.
zdnetindia.com/whitepaper Copyright © 2004
for the production of internal documents every office and outlet cost Hewlett-Packard
due to the printers’ superior image quality. effectively without the tradi- Development Company, L.P.

H T T P : / / S M A R T B U S I N E S S . Z D N E T I N D I A . C O M
Microsoft is a U.S. registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
 Digital Passion l First Hand

Security

Imaging Atul Deshmukh

Superheroes Renuka Rane Barai, head of business development at iViz,
has always been deeply interested in anti-spam
Two tech-whiz
IITians develop W hen an educational institute claimed that
its physically segregated virtual network
for students, employees and administra-
technology, network and wireless security,
cognitive hacking and social engineering. He
jointly holds several patents on anti-spam tech-
ground- tors could not be penetrated, a handful of IIT grad- nologies. And so does De, now CTO of iViz. An
breaking uates proved it wrong. Having only the privilege electronics and electrical communication engi-
and rights a student is entitled to, the team neer from IIT-K, De is by now a known name in
solutions to accessed a guest account, entered the administra- network security.
ward off tors’ network, then the students’ and finally the
security threats employees’ network. The IIT Aura
The team is from iViz Techno Solutions Barai expalins, “iViz stands for ‘intelligent vision’.
(www.iviztechnosolutions.com), a technology- We conceptualised this company in late 2003
driven products and solutions company conceived when I was in my third year B.Tech. in computer
and based in IIT Kharagpur (IIT-K), West Bengal. engineering and De was a GRA (Graduate
iViz is a part of IIT-K’s incubation programme, Research Assistant) at IIT-K. We had a grand vision
wherein graduates who would like to start a of making computing free from all security
venture of their own are provided infrastructure threats. We got our company incorporated as ‘iViz
support. The company provides managed security Techno Solutions’ in February 2004.”
services, anti-spam consultancy, Web and database iViz has a full-fledged office on campus. Apart
security assessment, forensics and data recovery. from Barai and De, the core technical team
includes current IIT students Rudra Sinha Roy, an
The Pioneers expert in penetration testing (see box on facing page),
The duo behind iViz are just in their twenties— and Abhishek Dutta, a specialist in exploitation
and they have their quirks. Bikash Barai, 23, has a techniques. As of now, iViz has five full-time and
penchant for unconventional magic tricks, and 15 part-time employees and six consultants—all IIT-
enjoys the works of Swami Vivekanand and Netaji K alumni. Also, iViz’ board of advisors has some of
Subashchandra Bose. Nilanjan De, 25, enjoys the most eminent educationists, professors and
science-fiction and is a confirmed night person. executives in India.

APRIL 2005 DIGIT 37

 Network Security Jargon
Penetration Testing: Also called ethical hacking, it entails breaking into the penetration testing can be conducted remotely
security network of a system to assess its flaws over the Internet and does not require physical
Vulnerability Analysis: Assess vulnerabilities of a system to security threats access to the premises or any privileged informa-
Security Audit: Appraisal of the existing security framework of a company tion such as usernames or passwords. It involves
Exploit Development: Exploiting existing vulnerabilities in a system in order detection of vulnerabilities, their removal, and
to know all existing flaws in security then, continuous maintenance of the system,”
says De. For a network with three to four servers
and 100-odd users, the iViz team can complete
Teamwork At iViz penetration testing in three days.
Team members keep up-to-date with the most
recent exploits and vulnerabilities. They keep Bramhastra To The Rescue
track of trends in intruder activities, analyse iViz has built a penetration testing tool called
product vulnerabilities and malicious codes and Bramhastra. “Bramhastra simulates an attack that
record their research. De explains, “We develop can be launched by the worst possible malicious
customised security solutions based on our user. It tests the security of an organisation by
clients’ needs. Our strength lies in penetration actually breaking into the system, gives a report
testing and security audit, and more so in and suggests measures to correct the flaws and
exploitation development, vulnerability analysis finally, it clears up all the traces of the test,”
and discovery.” At the same time, De admits to We look beyond reveals Barai and claims that Bramhastra can
having undertaken preliminary and at times not firewalls and IDSes break into the toughest of networks.
very challenging network security projects in to find Bramhastra is supposed to be able to break
order to sustain the company. vulnerabalities in into the toughest of networks. New exploits are
the human and constantly added to keep the Bramhastra
Managed Security Services computer updated. iViz claims to be the sole Indian
As the cornerstone of iViz’ security solutions are interface—one of company to have developed such a tool.
Managed Security Services (MSS), which enable the weakest links
24 x 7 monitoring and management of network in the chain, which Blocking With Spam Walls
security infrastructures. MSS comprise security determines the iViz also has a patented algorithm to detect spam
audit, penetration testing, vulnerability analysis, effectiveness of that passes through conventional filters and is
security implementation and policy design. security provably more efficient than other solutions such
Through iViz’ security information management as ‘Bright mail Anti Spam Enterprise Edition’,
architecture, critical security issues can be iden- Nilanjan De ‘MacAfee Spam Killer’ and ‘Postini Perimeter
tified; clients can be alerted of impending Chief Technology Manager’. ‘Spam Wall’ is a unique anti-spam solu-
danger; and appropriate and effective response Officer, tion from iViz that can be used for individual and
measures can be prepared. iViz Techno Solutions server installations. It is a hardware-based filter
“MSS is a set of services that start with the that sits between the mail server and the Inter-
detection of vulnerabilities, followed by their net. Spam Wall is platform-independent, and one
elimination and then continuous maintenance just has to plug-and-play. Once installed, it takes
of the system. Although most firms spend huge a week to resolve the spamming problem.
amounts on security, they end up building a A major issue with existing anti-spam solu-
house with strong iron doors and walls made of tions is the large number of false positives
straw. MSS can equip them with robust security returned (valid e-mails being stopped as spam).
at a lesser cost,” says Barai. “With ‘Spam Wall’ we already ensure extremely
low false positives. Hopefully, we will be able to
Looking Beyond Firewalls guarantee zero false positives in a few months,”
Popular belief says that a firewall and an Intru- assures Barai.
sion Detection System (IDS) can keep an organi-
sation safe. Not so, claims Barai. “In all the The Road Ahead
sensational hacking cases we have seen, the iViz conducts its core research work and product
affected parties had firewalls and IDSes. We look development at IIT-K, and has a marketing and
beyond firewalls and IDSes to find vulnerabilities corporate presence in Kolkata and Texas, USA.
in the human and computer interface—one of the Currently, iViz is looking for venture funding for
weakest links in the chain, which determines the further expansion. It has job openings for profes-
effectiveness of security. We help organisations sionals with a deep knowledge of security fields
become secure from all known vulnerabilities.” and a zest for innovation.
iViz wants to make computing secure at an
Penetration Testing affordable price. Barai says, “We plan to market
A part of MSS, penetration testing is popularly our products shortly. In fact, the beta versions are
known as ethical hacking. An established tech- ready. However, we are not sure about marketing
nique for the live testing of network security, the Bramhastra, as it could be very dangerous if it
penetration testing attempts to compromise a falls into the wrong hands.” The team will soon
system, as a potential attacker would, to see what Write In provide training on computer security.
kind of information is actually divulged, thus “This is just the beginning and the best is yet
determining the vulnerability of a system. It Done something just to come,” reflects De. With its grand vision of
enables companies to receive a real-life vulnera- as geeky? cordoning off the increasingly susceptible virtual
bility test of their security status. Tell us about it. space from anti-social elements, the student-
The iViz team has exposed several vulnera- Write to editor@ turned-entrepreneurs of iViz Techno Solutions
bilities and exploits that were hitherto unknown. thinkdigit.com will have to keep up the good work.
“A valuable testing, auditing and evaluation tool, E-mail: [email protected]

38 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital

42 Tube It Up 60 Pixel Palette

74 Just Push Print
Tools
Technology For Personal And SoHo Productivity

Jumpstart

Exporting India
For Haryana based ShalinCraft, the Internet was the gateway to getting Indian art—and other
products—to a worldwide market
Preethi Chamikutty In The Beginning that were interested in the art
Verma’s company was first for their décor.
here is currently a large named Shalin Fine Arts. (‘Shalin’ In 1998, when the rupee was
T worldwide market for
Indian art. And the Inter-
means ‘grace’ in Hindi.) In 1996,
Verma established ShalinCraft,
devalued, the company faced
problems in importing artwork. It
net is, naturally, facilitating this because she was “not enjoying was then that Verma decided to
exchange. Indians settled abroad sitting idle at home.” Shalin- use the Internet as a medium of
as well as those in India have Craft earlier sold Western art conducting business—and rather
started exporting Indian art reprints in India, called Euro- than importing, to get into
overseas. As a case in point, we pean trend prints. These were exports. Verma chose to export
take a look at Shalini Verma, imported from France. Archi- hand crafted Indian products,
founder and director of Shalin- tects and interior designers were since after having dealt in art
Craft India, who returned to the channels of distribution. products for over two years, she
India from France to set up her The clientele mostly- had developed “an eye for beauti-
Imaging Atul Deshmukh

own business. comprised offices and hotels ful products.”

 Digital Tools l Jumpstart

Marketing Methods

Search Engine Optimisation Affiliate Programs managing the program interface.

When you have a Web site—especially if Suppose you have a Web site, say, Affiliate marketing and management is
it’s a store—you need to tell a search xyz.com and I have a site, abc.com. We done wholly by them. They invite other
engine that it exists. Most search form an affiliate partnership. You place sites to join their program, give them
engines use automated programs— a link (banner, product image or text incentives for joining, and based on the
known as spiders—to gather data. link) to abc.com on your site. A visitor numbers of sales/visitors they have
Spiders look for certain indicators to to your site clicks on that sent, motivate them to drive further
guide them to a site’s relevancy. The advertisement and reaches my site and traffic to the site.
more easily these indicators can be makes a purchase. In that case you
found and understood, the more stand to earn a certain percentage of Link Exchanges
accurately the spider can assess the commission for that sale. This is similar to an affiliate program,
relevance of the page. There are different types of but there is no tracking involved. Two
Though spiders have limited programs with different structures. sites exchange links (text, banners)
intelligence, they are able to recognise The order tracking is done by cookie- with each other and send each other
some of the more obvious tricks, and based software, either developed in- traffic. This helps in getting higher
can thus de-list ‘tricky’ sites. house or by third party service rankings in search engines—
When a page has been optimised, it providers. particularly Google.
is submitted to the search engines for In the case of ShalinCraft, it is a
evaluation and—hopefully—a high-level third part service provider, Kowabunga Blogging
listing. This last part of the process is a Technologies, which tracks sales, leads, Search engines have started indexing
question of finely judged timing— and calculated commissions. content published in blogs and showing
multiple submissions are necessary. ShalinCraft does all this by integrating them with other search results. Blogs
But avoid overdoing as this could lead the affiliate tracking system with their are vital online marketing tools, more
to your site being delisted. online ordering mechanism and so for new ventures.

Enter The Internet 24 hours, and delivered within shipped. That may explain why
In October 1998, ShalinCraft three to five days. less than two per cent of shipped
started with a five-page Web site ShalinCraft does not have any items are returned.
called www.shalinart-india.com. brick-and-mortar presence or What about standards? “We
There was little infrastructure branches anywhere in the world, are dealing mainly with the
at that time for online shop- except in India. Headquartered in unorganised sector. Our suppli-
ping; yet, their first sale—a Gurgaon, Haryana, ShalinCraft ers are artists from remote
Madhubani-style painting—was has country representatives villages all over the country. It
sold for $1,000 (Rs 43,500 today) across different regions including will be extremely difficult at this
over the Internet. And this Our Internet the US, the UK, Europe, South- stage if we were to ask them to
cemented Verma’s faith that presence has East Asia and Japan. manufacture products as per any
business could indeed be quickened our As a matter of fact, the US quality standards. But we are
conducted over the Web. response time alone accounts for almost 80 to 90 certainly planning to apply for
Today, ShalinCraft deals in a to customer per cent of ShalinCraft’s business. quality standards in the future,”
wide variety of products such as grievances and says Verma.
apparel, furnishing, books, folk queries. Our Capturing The Market ShalinCraft ensures that the
art, jewellery, sculptures, and sales have also ShalinCraft reaches out to customer is at ease at all time.
gift items. One new addition to increased by the right audience? Using of The various return policies with
this list has been various almost 5 times” various marketing tools such as no strings attached help cement
flavours of tea such as ‘Darjeel- Shalini Verma e-mail marketing, online adver- the customer’s faith in the
ing’, ‘Assam’, and ‘Spice’. “We Founder and tising, search engine optimisa- company. ShalinCraft also has a
received various requests from Director, tion, affiliate programs and link 24 x 7 call centre that answers
our customers for genuine ShalinCraft partnerships, newsletters and calls from the USA.
Indian tea and we thought, ‘why press releases, customer profil- Using the Internet as an effec-
not’,” says Verma. ing, targeting user databases tive marketing tool, ShalinCraft
Customers have the option to and blogging. has made the transition from an
select from a variety of products ShalinCraft boasts of a import house selling European
available on the site, and can customer base of more than 4,000 and Western art to Indian buyers
even place custom orders for customers across the globe. to a portal selling Indian handi-
products such as salwar kurtas crafts in the global market.
and sarees. The Customer Is King However, will an Internet art-
The products at ShalinCraft pass shop, catering to a niche clientele,
Business Over The Net through three levels of quality survive in the cut-throat world of
Most of ShalinCraft’s business check to ensure that the Internet shopping?
happens over the Net. A brief customer gets his money’s worth. With Indian art becoming a
description of every product on First, when the product is craze overseas, ShalinCraft may
the site helps customers under- purchased from the artist; next, just be able to outdo the competi-
stand what they are ordering. when it is entered into the inven- tion if it makes the right moves.
Products are shipped within tory; and finally, before it is [email protected]

DIGIT APRIL 2005 DIGIT APRIL 2005 41

 Tube It Up
Photograph Mexy Xavier

As the battle over which is better—LCD or CRT—continues, we take a close look at some of the
options in the CRT category
Although your graphics card Since we can’t go about switch-
Aliasgar Pardawala and Jayesh plays a key role in what the image ing monitors for each task we
Limaye on your screen looks like, your perform, monitors need to be all-
monitor is equally important. rounders, and should be capable of

A
monitor is your window to Sharpness, colour reproduction, offering you the best possible
an exciting virtual world refresh rate and resolution define experience while gaming, working
that your hardware and a monitor’s capabilities. And this on text documents, watching
peripherals work quietly chain of features is only as strong movies or surfing the Net.
to produce. Whether it’s a movie, as its weakest link—if the monitor
game or Web page, your viewing underperforms in any of these Flat And Flatter
experience depends heavily on your areas, you end up dissatisfied. If you thought monitors were
monitor’s size and performance. We tested 27 monitors; 18 were either normal or flat, think again.
An good example is the feeling 17-inch, and nine were 19-inch Now you have even flatter screens,
of euphoria you get when you monitors. The products came to us also known as ‘true-flat’ screens.
upgrade from a 15-inch screen to a from nine vendors, and came in This difference is justified when
17-inch or a 19-inch monitor; an beige, black and dual-tone. Some you see the differences between
even better example is the dismal were both beige and black. As each vendors ‘flat’ model and their
experience of having to make do black cabinets are popular nowa- ‘true-flat’ model. The regular flat
with a 15-inch monitor after being days, black monitors are a must to models display irregularities at the
used to the 17-inch or the 19-inch maintain uniformity—and cost, on corners, and though the screen
one for quite some time. average, Rs 500 extra. appears flat, the same does not

42 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Tools l Test Centre
hold true for the display. On the 1,200 at 75 Hz, which is an accept- more. This requirement can stress
other hand, ‘True-flat’ screens do able figure, even for the most a PC’s power supply, which can
not have this problem. discerning amongst us. However, lead to an unstable system.
A flat tube is preferred over a no other 17-inch monitor came Amongst the 17-inchers, the
regular curved monitor because even remotely close to this figure. BenqV773 needed 70 W of power,
of the better geometry offered by In the 19-inch category, the whereas the Acer AF715 demanded
the former. True-flat monitors, NEC, Philips and Samsung models a massive 120 W. If an office buys
such as the NEC MultiSync offered 1,920 x 1,440 resolutions. the Acer for its employees, it
FE791SB and Viewsonic E71f, The NEC offered a refresh rate of 73 should be prepared to foot large
show no skewed corners when Hz, but the others could not offer a electricity bills.
displaying straight lines or grids. flicker-free viewing experience. In the 19-inch category, the
In the 19-inch category, the The NEC could pull this off because Philips 109 E5 was the most power-
scene is no different. However, of its high video bandwidth of 290 efficient. It needed just 65 W of
models such as the LG MHz, whereas the rest maxed out power, which was lower than even
Studioworks 910E don’t claim to at 250 MHz. The Viewsonic E90f+ the best 17-inch monitor in this
be flat, and neither is there an could only generate 202 MHz test. Even the 109 B6 from Philips
additional glass over the picture of video bandwidth. needed just 75 W.
tube to fool you into thinking it is These are very impressive
flat. The NEC MultiSync FP912SB, Dimensions figures as far as power consump-
on the other hand, is an aperture- By and large, a CRT tion is concerned. The biggest
grille tube-based monitor, and is monitor is the power hog in the 19-inch category
therefore, a true-flat. bulkiest device was—you guessed it—the Acer
attached to a AC915-130 W.
Dot Pitch computer. This is
Dot pitch plays a significant role in one of the main Extras
the sharpness of an image. This is reasons why LCD All monitors came with a quick
the distance between the individ- monitors have start guide, a power cord, and a CD
ual pixels on the monitor screen. gained such a big with a manual and a colour
A finer dot pitch results in a sharp foothold in the display Samsung SyncMAster 793MB profile. The LG Studioworks 700S
image, and inclined lines will market. Vendors have came with a blue card with a spec-
appear less crooked. tried to slim down CRTs, but this tral code. This works in conjunc-
However, aperture-grille tube- can only be achieved to a certain tion with the Colorific
based monitors with a tighter dot extent. display-tuning utility bundled
pitch or line pitch cost a lot more. In the 17-inch category, moni- with the monitor. You can adjust
As of right now, most monitors tor widths ranged from 396 mm to the brightness and contrast
have diagonal dot pitches ranging 410 mm, and the depths ranged perfectly by comparing the colour
from 0.27 to 0.24 mm. If you read from 410 mm to 430 mm. A differ- of the card to the colour on the
that a monitor has a dot pitch ence of 20 mm is hardly notice- screen—when they match, your
smaller than this, make sure it is able, so no matter what monitor monitor is set perfectly.
the diagonal dot pitch, and not the you choose, be ready to make space Samsung’s MagicTune soft-
horizontal dot pitch. for it on your desk. Also, the 19- ware and Viewsonic’s Wizard
Samsung advertises its moni- inch category saw no noticeable allow you to tune your monitor’s
tors as having a dot pitch of 0.20 variations in dimensions. settings to specific applications
mm, however, this is the horizon- with minimum hassles.
tal dot pitch, which is naturally Weight Problem
smaller than the monitor’s diago- CRTs are heavy, and we are used How They Performed
nal dot pitch value. to this fact. The heaviest part is Both the 17-inch and 19-inch moni-
The 19-inch NEC MultiSync the picture tube. Unless the tech- tors were tested by running 32
FP912SB has a fine dot pitch of nology changes drastically, CRTs selected slides from DisplayMate
0.24 mm, which was the best will remain heavy. The lightest Video Edition, which pushes the
amongst all the monitors we 17-inch CRT monitor in our test CRTs to the limit. These tests
tested. The Microtek 43F1, a 17- was the Philips 107 E5, weighing included checking of the geomet-
inch monitor, had the coarsest in at 13.4 kg. The Viewsonic rical display, sharpness of lines,
dot pitch: 0.28 mm. EF72+SB weighed in at 18.1 kg, curves and text, uniformity of the
and was actually heavier than screen, and other problems related
Video Bandwidth some of the 19-inch models. to CRT technology—defocusing
Most of us would love to own moni- In the 19-inch category, the level shift and ghosting.
tors that can display 1,280 x 1,024 lightest monitor was LG
at 85 Hz, which means more view- Studioworks 910E at 17.3 kg. NEC What is moiré?
ing area without headaches due to MultiSync FP912SB was the heav-
flicker. This translates to the need iest, at 23.8 kg. A moiré pattern is a wavy pattern formed on the
for higher video bandwidth, which monitor when very a fine pattern is displayed. These
in turn increases the cost of the Power Consumption patterns can be due to the graphics board or shadow
monitor. None of the 17-inch moni- CRT monitors are power-hungry mask in a CRT monitor when there is cross-talk or
tors we tested, except for the Acer beasts, and therefore, it’s a good noise induced in a signal, or when the electron beam
AF715, had such specifications. It idea to power them separately spot size is small. If the spot size is small, it does not
offered 200 MHz of video band- instead of using the cabinet’s adequately fill the hole in the shadow mask—and
width, which enables it to reach a power supply. A CRT monitor hence makes the moiré visible.
maximum resolution of 1,600 x typically needs 70 W of power or

APRIL 2005 DIGIT 43

 Digital Tools l Test Centre
Pincushion And Barrel disturbing its natural spherical where only graphics professionals
Distortion shape. With this in mind, moni- could make out flaws. Users work-
This is a problem with almost tors come with special circuitry ing with office applications and
every CRT monitor. If you thought that corrects pincushion and surfing the Net would find the
the factory default settings get you barrel distortion. However, not all results impressive.
straight lines, you will be disap- the monitors displayed straight The HCL785RFM and the
pointed to find that these settings lines even after trying every trick Philips 107 E5 failed to display
are hardly optimised. in the book to calibrate them. horizontal lines straight. The HCL
Pincushion is a form of distor- In the 17-inch category, the and the Philips monitors failed to
tion where lines bend inwards. NEC MultiSync FE791SB, Samsung provide the necessary tools for
The opposite of this is barrel 793S and LG Flatron E700SH were perfect adjustment, and scored
distortion. There are multiple the ones that returned the best lower on this test. If your work
reasons why these effects happen, results. The results, after all the involves working with graphics or
the primary one being that the adjustments, were not perfect, but industrial design, we recommend
screen is constructed almost flat, they were acceptable to the point the NEC MultiSync FE791SB.

How We Tested
Sharpness And Resolution Tests
O ur test bed consisted of a Pentium 4 2.8 GHz equipped with an
nVidia GeForceFX 5950 Ultra graphics card. The system ran
Windows XP SP2. The CRT monitors were tested at their native
Midrange Streaking: As the title suggests, this screen allows us to
check the display’s propensity for streaking and ghosting, light or
resolutions (1024 x 768 at 75 Hz for 17-inch, and 1280 x 1024 at 75 dark shadows that trail an image in areas where large changes in
Hz for 19-inch monitors). intensity are present. You may detect this on your own monitor
We adjusted each display to perform optimally in the viewing when it renders large, chunky graphics elements such as bar graphs
conditions, using manufacturer-recommended or Windows’ default or tiled arrangements of open windows.
settings when possible. We also had a reference monitor, which was Fine Focus And Resolution Matrix: Moiré looks like a tiger’s
evaluated first, and then the rest of the monitors were compared to stripes, or like ripples, superimposed on a CRT monitor’s screen.
the image displayed by the reference monitor. Though it’s found on virtually all CRTs, it’s actually less common in
consumer CRTs because they are generally not as sharp as higher-
DisplayMate Tests end displays. Some monitors include moiré-reduction features.
With help from DisplayMate Technologies, we ran through our own
scripted selection of test screens in DisplayMate Multimedia Edition. Geometry Tests
These screens help us isolate common phenomena such as flicker, Pincushion And Barrel Distortion: This screen is used to measure
moiré, bounce, ghosting, and convergence errors. We broke down the geometric distortion displayed by the CRT monitor after
our own analysis into five categories: focus, regulation, geometry, calibrating it using its OSD menu.
colour quality and uniformity, reverse text, moiré and interference. Screen Regulation: This screen helps detect image contraction and
A product’s scores in each category was compiled and averaged to expansion with strong changes in brightness. It displays a large,
produce a single performance rating. The ratings you see in our flashing square against a black background. The square can be
reviews are a composite of the battery of individual screen analyses assigned various colours, but white is generally the most useful. On
we ran for each monitor. a poor-quality CRT, the square appears to grow slightly as it flashes.
Our test script, described below, represents only our base-
testing. Many of the screens in this test suite can be configured in a Colour And Greyscale Tests
variety of ways, including with different background and foreground Streaking And Ghosting: In this test, various screens comprising
colours. Depending on the characteristics of an individual display, grey and colour bars are displayed against a grey background.
we used several variations of the screens listed below, along with Streaking and ghosting usually occur when there is a change in the
other DisplayMate screens. intensity between adjacent areas. We looked for shadows trailing
the edges of bars and blocks.
Resolution Tests Level Shift: This, again, occurs at the edge of areas with varying
Horizontal Line Resolution: This screen contains five horizontal brightness. In white and black level shift, the area adjacent to the
bars composed of vertical white lines in varying frequencies of lines dominant white or black area will have a blurry edge—displaying a
per inch. The higher line frequencies demand more from the red, green or blue edge.
display’s horizontal resolution capabilities. We used this screen to
adjust the sharpness of the monitor and evaluate its horizontal Miscellaneous Tests
resolution capabilities. Background Noise And Interference (Screen 10:3): We examined
Vertical Line Resolution: This screen is similar to the previous test, this screen for a list of things that should not be seen. These may
and contains five horizontal bars composed of horizontal white lines include irregularities relating to noise aggravated by poor-quality
in varying frequencies of lines per inch. The higher number of lines cables or other problems as are normally associated with the
per inch areas stressed the display’s vertical resolution capabilities. electronics of the display.
Focus Matrix: The graphic pattern on this screen reveals variations Defocusing Blooming And Halos: This slide displays lines and rings
in focus across the display. This screen was used to adjust and to of varying brightness. The monitor should be able to satisfactorily
test image focus. It is also handy for checking geometric linearity, produce the image, and the bright part should not look washed
especially in the corners. out or appear thick.
Page Of Text: This screen allows us to examine the display’s ability Features Test: In the features test, we looked for the set of
to render text under a variety of conditions. With it, you can cycle features the monitor provided—such as a flat screen, video
through various text and background colours, view split screens bandwidth, the maximum horizontal and vertical frequency
with inverse text and background colours, and alter the type and supported by the particular monitor, dimensions, weight, and other
size of a font. We found it especially useful in evaluating a display’s relevant aspects. The monitors were awarded points according to
ability to render anti-aliasing enhancements. the extra features they offered.

44 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Tools l Test Centre
of the screen, and the moiré prob- The Acer AF715 and the View-
Colour Profiles lem. Sharpness suffers because sonic E71f were the only monitors
monitors are not able to draw that provided a moiré-free display.
A colour profile is a file that holds every detail correctly at the reso- There was absolutely no trace of
information about the colour lutions and refresh rates we line moiré, and the visible dot
reproduction capabilities of an usually work at. This results in moiré was almost negligible. The
imaging device such as a monitor serrated edges in bars and lines, LG Flatron E700SH and Samsung
or scanner. It is provided by the both horizontal and vertical. Since 793S returned images filled with
vendor, and is installed on the the screen is drawn at very high moiré in both the line and dot
computer to enable the monitor to speeds—typically 75 to 80 times a tests. All attempts to correct this
display colours correctly. second—misconvergence occurs, using the OSD were in vain.
which in turn results in a pattern In the 19-inch category, the
appearing blurred at the corners. HCL HCM985RFM returned the
Among the 19-inch monitors, The other reason for imper- best results, with very little
the Philips 109 B6 and the fectly crisp images at the corners moiré in both the line and dot
Samsung SyncMaster 957MB got is the deflection of the electron tests. The Philips 109 B6, too,
the lines correct. The Samsung beam from its path. The beam, returned commendable results,
957MB returned results as good as which hits the middle of the but the Philips 109 E5, on the
Philips. Both these 19-inch moni- screen, is not deflected much, and other hand, had moiré smattered
tors will make good companions therefore doesn’t lose its circular all over the screen. Even the NEC
for those with eyes sensitive to shape. However, when it hits the MultiSync FP912SB suffered in
correct geometry, as well as for corners, the circular shape turns the dot moiré test.
CAD/CAM professionals. into an elliptical one, and as a
result of this, neigh- Screen Pixel
The Pump Effect bouring pixels This is a test that uses a curved and
When there is a sudden change get highlighted an inclined line. Since the dots in
in brightness, the screen expands at the same time. a CRT screen are arranged in
or gets displaced. This is called In this set of triads, it is not possible to display
the pump effect, and is a tests, the LG an inclined line or curve smoothly.
common problem with CRT tech- Studiowork s However, a monitor with a tighter
nology. Vendors are yet to provide 700S displayed dot pitch will serve up a less
a solution for it. crisp images at crooked line as compared to one
You can see this effect by using our test resolu- with a coarse dot pitch.
a wallpaper with a dark back- tion of 1,024 x There was hardly any differ-
ground and running an office 768 at 75 Hz. It ence among monitors which were
application with a light or white displayed sharp hori- tested in both the 17-inch and 19-
background—if you switch from zontal and vertical inch categories.
HCL HCM985RFM
the application to the wallpaper, lines, and even single
you will see the screen contract. dots didn’t bleed too much into Colour And Greyscale
Switching back to the application neighbouring pixels. It also Here, we looked for the purity of
will result in the screen expand- managed to display fine patterns primary and secondary colours,
ing. This adversely affects your generated by DisplayMate crisply reverse text, the ghosting effect,
experience, especially while in the middle and with very little and level shift. Ghosting and
watching a movie. fuzziness in the corners. streaking is an effect visible at the
In the 17-inch segment, the The Samsung 793S, an entry- edges of the display area where
NEC MultiSync FE791SB returned level monitor, was not up to the the intensity of the brightness
solid results. There was very little mark. Horizontal lines appeared suddenly drops. This effect is
pump effect visible. Some moni- serrated, and the dots were lower when a CRT is new, but
tors such as the Samsung Sync- nowhere near round. Even the increases as it gets older.
Master 793DF returned very poor patterns appeared rather hazy in This can be very irritating for
results; the screen not only got the corners. those working on MS Word or a
bigger in size, but also got The moiré effect, which is programme with a similar layout,
displaced by more than a millime- another problem with CRT moni- where a bright area is adjacent to
tre. Therefore, if you are a movie tors—whether shadow mask-based a dark area. Tweaking the
buff, spend that extra money and or aperture-grille-based—happens contrast, in many cases, can take
get the NEC MultiSync FE791SB. not because the monitor is faulty, care of this problem to some
Amongst the 19-inch monitors, but because of the limitations extent, but it can cause strain
NEC MultiSync F912SB returned imposed by the technology. A dot while reading text.
impressive results, followed by pitch as fine as 0.24 mm is not
both the Samsung models. The sufficient to eliminate moiré What Is Colour Temperature?
Viewsonic UltraBright E90f+SB completely. Any finer dot or stripe
returned unacceptable results. pitch will increase the price of the A certain colour temperature is defined as the colour
monitor drastically, making it emitted by a black body at that particular
Resolution And unfeasible for the mass market. temperature. Colour temperature, also known as
Sharpness There is a moiré-correcting White Point, is a setting in almost all monitors. It is
Here, we were looking for sharp- function on the On-Screen Display adjusted so that the monitor displays a natural-
ness in horizontal and vertical (OSD) controls of all monitors. But looking colour. 9300 K is termed Cool White, and
lines and bars, crispness of in most cases it doesn’t help to 6700 K is seen as a warmer white.
patterns in the middle and corners eliminate moiré completely.

APRIL 2005 DIGIT 45

 Digital Tools l Test Centre
In the 17-inch The White and Black Level is appear thin. This happens because
segment, Samsung another problem visible at the the brighter colours bleed into
SyncMaster 793S was edges’ areas of various intensities. darker colours.
free of any ghosting Again, office applications Among the 17-inch monitors,
and streaking when such as Word, Excel and Power- the Philips 107 C6 gave good
005 Point are good examples where results, making it a good choice
IL 2
APR this ‘level shift’ is visible. In Word, for Web designers and surfers. The
the white area where words are Microtek Flatvision 43F1 suffered
typed, and the adjacent grey back- in this test. The cyan text on a red
ground makes for a white-level background was full of blue
shift in the form of a visible tinge tinges, and red text appeared very
of colour. This makes the edges thin on a yellow background.
blurry. Of course, this is just an In the 19-inch category, the
example, and is a minor NEC MultiSync FP912SB returned
problem with office acceptable results. The colours
applications, but for graph- weren’t perfect, of course, but they
ics professionals it means were definitely acceptable.
5
inaccuracy. They need displays 200 The Acer AC915 returned
Acer AF715 (17-inch) A P RIL
that show crisp images that below-par results, and
tested with the four slides we ran match the printouts perfectly. left a lot to be desired.
the monitor through. The In both the 17-inch and the 19-
Samsung SyncMaster 793MB was inch categories, there was very Miscellaneous
equally impressive, but there was little level shift visible in the moni- Tests
slight ghosting trailing of a bright tors. We could see some red and We looked for
bar on a dark background. The blue tinges, which were not very common problems
NEC MultiSync FE791SB, however, prominent. The tinges were visible such as the unifor-
did not manage the impressive only if scrutinised. mity of the screen,
score it did in the other tests. flicker, the reflec-
Ghosting was prominent at differ- Text Colour tion problem and the
ent intensities, especially with You often come across coloured shadow mask problem. CRT
white and yellow over a text on a coloured background— Viewsonic E71f monitors usually do not display
grey background. especially in Web pages. The crisp- (17-inch) the screen uniformly. Most of
In the 19-inch category, the ness of coloured text suffers on the CRT monitors appear brighter
HCL HCM985RFM and the colour backgrounds. In some at the centre, and get dimmer
Samsung 957MB were relatively cases, the edges will be blurred, or towards the corners. Flicker is
free from the ghosting effect. Here the text appears thick or thin. Red another problem with CRT moni-
again, the NEC MultiSync FP912SB text on blue will appear thick, tors, and it will persist unless the
returned poor results. whereas red text on yellow will refresh rate is well above 72 Hz.

Score Board
Brand Model Basic Specifications Score (Out of 100) Price (Rs)

Acer CRT Monitors

17-inch AF713 0.27mm, 30 - 72Khz, 1280x1024@60Hz, 110MHz, Shadow Mask, 15.5Kg, 75W 61.88 5495
Acer AC715 0.25mm, 30 - 98Khz, 1600x1200@75Hz, 200MHz, Shadow Mask, 17Kg, 120W 64.80 6995
BenQ G776 0.25mm, 30 - 72Khz, 1280x1024@67Hz, 110MHz, Shadow Mask, 16.4Kg, 75W 55.19 8500
BenQ P776 0.27mm, 30 - 72Khz, 1280x1024@67Hz, 110MHz, Shadow Mask, 15.4Kg, 75W 55.85 9600
BenQ V773 0.27mm, 30 - 72Khz, 1280x1024@67Hz, 110MHz, Shadow Mask, 15.4Kg, 70W 61.99 6900
HCL HCM780M 0.27mm, 30 - 70Khz, 1280x1024@60Hz, 110MHz, Shadow Mask, 15.5Kg, 75W 59.85 6300
HCL HCM785RFM 0.25mm, 30 - 54Khz, 1280x1024@60Hz, 110MHz, Shadow Mask, 16Kg, 90W 54.91 7900
LG StudioWork 700S 0.27mm, 30 - 70Khz, 1280x1024@60Hz, NA, Shadow Mask, 14.4Kg, 74W 58.97 8000
LG Flatron E700SH 0.25mm, 30 - 70Khz, 1280x1024@60Hz, 110MHz, Shadow Mask, 16Kg, 74W 51.93 13500
Microtek FlatVision 43F1 0.28mm, 30 - 70Khz, 1280x1024@60Hz, 110MHz, Shadow Mask, 15.5Kg, 95W 58.67 5700
NEC MultiSync FE791SB 0.25mm, 30 - 96Khz, 1600x1200@70Hz, NA, Aperture grille, 17Kg, 68W 55.33 17000
Philips 107 C6 0.25mm, 30 - 71Khz, 1280x1024@60Hz, 120MHz, Shadow Mask, 15.8Kg, 68W 55.28 10000
Philips 107 E5 0.27mm, 30 - 71Khz, 1280x1024@60Hz, 120MHz, Shadow Mask, 13.4Kg, 64W 54.34 8500
Samsung SynchMaster 793MB 0.20(H)mm, 30 - 70Khz, 1280x1024@65Hz, 110MHz, Shadow Mask, 14.2Kg, 80W 59.12 8100
Samsung SynchMaster 793S 0.23(H)mm, 30 - 70Khz, 1280x1024@65Hz, 110MHz, Shadow Mask, 13.8Kg, 80W 60.69 6400
Samsung SynchMaster 793DF 0.20(H)mm, 30 - 70Khz, 1280x1024@65Hz, 110MHz, Shadow Mask, 14.3Kg, 80W 59.46 7900
ViewSonic E71f 0.25mm, 30 - 71Khz, 1280x1024@66Hz, 110MHz, Shadow Mask, 16Kg, 75W 62.39 7500
ViewSonic E72f+SB 0.25mm, 30 - 72Khz, 1280x1024@60Hz, 110MHz, Shadow Mask, 18.1Kg, 75W 59.89 7600
19-inch CRT Monitors
Acer AC915 0.26mm, 30 - 98Khz, 1600x1200@75Hz, 202MHz, Shadow Mask, 18.2Kg, 130W 61.31 13495
HCL HCM985RFM 0.26mm, 30 - 98Khz, 1600x1200@75Hz, 200MHz, Shadow Mask, 20Kg, 130W 64.17 13100
LG StudioWork 910 0.26mm, 30 - 85Khz, 1600x1200@65Hz, NA, Shadow Mask, 17.3Kg, 70W 58.32 17000
NEC MultiSync FP912SB 0.24mm, 30 - 110Khz, 1920x1440@73Hz, 290MHz, Aperture grille, 23.8Kg, 102W 63.83 19000
Philips 109 B6 0.25mm, 30 - 97Khz, 1920x1440, 250MHz, NA, Shadow Mask, 20Kg, 75W 59.14 20000
Philips 109 E5 0.26mm, 30 - 92Khz, 1920x1440@60Hz, 240MHz, Shadow Mask, 17.8Kg, 65W 61.48 17500
Samsung SynchMaster 957MB 0.20(H)mm, 30 - 96Khz, 1920x1440@64Hz, 250MHz, Shadow Mask, 18.2Kg, 100W 65.53 16500
Samsung SynchMaster 997DF 0.20(H)mm, 30 - 96Khz, 1920x1440@64Hz, 250MHz, Shadow Mask, 18.2Kg, 100W 66.97 14900
ViewSonic UltraBrite E90f+ 0.25mm, 30 - 86Khz, 1792x1344, 202MHz, Shadow Mask, 22Kg, 100W 62.54 14250
For the complete scoreboard, log on to www.thinkdigit.com

46 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Tools l Test Centre
none of the monitors had traces of The Acer AF715 wins the Best
ghost images. Buy Gold, thanks to its fine dot
This test was a lot more useful pitch of 0.25 mm and a terrific
005 a decade ago, when the phos- video bandwidth of 200 MHz. This
IL 2
APR phors, if kept glowing for monitor made its mark felt in
extended periods of time, would many tests. This was the only
keep a bright spot for some time monitor which could do 1,600 x
afterward. This is the reason 1,200 at 75 Hz—a resolution and
screensavers were developed and refresh rate usually found only on
used. These days, new monitor 19-inch models. It also had easy
technology has done away with OSD functions, returned good
the need for screensavers, though results in the pincushion and
we still use them for ornamental barrel distortion tests, and showed
and aesthetic purposes. no line moiré.
The ViewSonic E71f is our
Cost Of Ownership Silver winner. In fact, we also used
Prices of everything except it as our reference monitor. The
Samsung SyncMAster 997DF (19-inch) CRT monitors seem to be ViewSonic E71f performed well
falling. For example, the and has a good feature set. The
The flicker is more prominent Microtek 43f1 cost Rs 5,700 last 005 monitor came in a dual-tone black
when the screen is bright, because year, and costs the same even now. P R IL 2 and silver grey finish, making it an
A
bright pixels do not hold their In fact, certain repeat attractive companion for those
brightness levels for long; if the models have gotten with black cabinets. The price of
next refresh is going to take more expensive— the monitor, however, is a little
longer, it will result in flicker. It the NEC MultiSync steep, and this was compounded
is therefore recommended to keep FE791SB cost Rs by lower features scores—and it
the refresh rate at 75 Hz or above, 16,500 last year, lost the top spot.
if your monitor and resolution whereas it is In the 19-inch category, the
can support it. currently priced NEC FP912SB returned a
Reflection when the screen is at Rs 17,000. The commendable overall perform-
dark is another problem. This can cheapest 17-inch ance and the highest features
hamper clear vision of what is on monitor avail- scores, but because of its high
the screen. Most vendors claim to able right now is price, it couldn’t make it to the
have anti-glare coating on the the Acer AC713, top. The HCL HCM985RFM is the
glass, but this only works when at Rs 5,495. cheapest 19-inch monitor avail-
your screen is not dark. In the 19-inch able, and also performed impres-
In both the 17-inch and 19- category, the Samsung SyncMAster 957MB (19-inch) sively—making it desirable for
inch categories, the monitors all Philips 109 B6 budget buyers.
offered good screen uniformity was the costliest model at Rs In the end, the day belonged
and flicker-free viewing at 75 Hz, 20,000, followed by the NEC Multi- to the Samsung siblings: the Sync-
the only exception being the Sync, an aperture-grille-based Master 997DF claimed Best Buy
Samsung 793DF, which had a monitor available for Rs 19,000. Gold because of its stable all-
darker shade in the lower left The cheapest was the HCL round performance. It managed
corner. Overall, the dark screen HCM985RFM, at Rs 13,100. decent results in difficult tests
test returned results similar to such as the screen regulation and
those in the screen regulation Summing It Up the pincushion and barrel distor-
test, with all monitors in both The notable monitors in this test tion test. The monitor did not
categories suffering. There was were Benq V773 and NEC Multi- display any ghosting or streaking,
not even a single monitor that Sync FE791SB, which gave the making it a good choice for graph-
could return a pure dark screen highest pure performance scores, ics professionals, gamers, and
with no reflection. but couldn’t make it to the top due those who want to migrate to a
In the CRT Shadow Mask test, to low features scores or a higher bigger screen.
four bright blocks are at the price tag. The NEC merits special The Samsung 957MB is our
corners of the screen, and stay mention as it was the only aper- Best Buy Silver winner, as it had
bright for 30 seconds. They then ture-grille-based monitor capable all the qualities of its sibling in
disappear. We looked for any of a high resolution of 1,600 x terms of features and perform-
remnants, or ghost images, of the 1,200 at 70 Hz, which makes it the ance. The higher price tag of Rs
bright blocks. As it turned out, best buy for graphics professionals. 16,500, against Rs 14,900 for
the SyncMaster 997DF, was the
sole reason it won silver and
Contact Sheet CRT Monitors not gold. The 957MB also
Brand Company Telephone E-mail Web site deserves special mention, as it
Acer Acer India Pvt Ltd 080-5219520-23 [email protected] www.acer.co.in comes with the Magic Bright
Benq Benq India Pvt Ltd 022-25705230 [email protected] www.benq.co.in button, which is a factory-set
HCL HCL Peripherals 044-5200 6570 [email protected] www.hclperipherals.com
LG LG Electronics India Pvt Ltd 012-2560900-40 [email protected] www.lgezbuy.com
brightness and contrast settings
Microtek Microtek International Ltd 022-28362407 [email protected] www.microtek.com.sg button optimised for different
NEC Shiba Comp Pvt Ltd 011-26413437 [email protected] www.nec-mitsubishi.com viewing conditions.
Philips Philips India Ltd 022-56912324 [email protected] www.india.philips.com [email protected]
Samsung Samsung Electronics India 011-51511234 [email protected] www.samsungindia.com [email protected]
Viewsonic Roop Technology Pvt Ltd 022-26680022 [email protected] www.viewsonic.com

APRIL 2005 DIGIT 47

 Tools > Macro. Choose
MICROSOFT WORD ‘Macros’. Select ‘Word
commands’ from the list in
Change The Default Open the ‘Macros in’ box. Now from
And Save Folders the list in the ‘Macro name’
When you choose to box, choose ‘ListCommands’.
open a new document in Click Run. In the ‘List
Word, it usually begins Commands’ dialog box, click
browsing in a specific ‘Current menu and keyboard
directory, such as My settings’. Click OK. The macro
Documents. Similarly, when will run, generating a
you choose to save, there is a document in table form that
default directory. You can you can print.
change these defaults: go to
Tools > Options. Click on the Using Styles
‘File Locations’ tab. Click on A style is a set of
‘Documents’ under ‘File formatting
Types’, and then on ‘Modify’. characteristics that you can
Use the ‘Look in’ list to locate SECRETS THAT KEEP YOU AHEAD IN THE RACE
quickly apply to text in your
the folder you want to use document. The Style list is the
from now on. Click on the GENERAL TIPS Laptop Security 54 pull-down list on the
folder name, then click ‘OK’ to Microsoft Word 48 Power-saving Tips 54 ‘Formatting’ toolbar, where it
select that location. Finally, Microsoft Excel 49 Accessories 65 usually says ‘Normal’ in a
click ‘OK’. Microsoft PowerPoint 51 30 MINUTES EXPERT white box. You can apply
Buying A Laptop 52 You’ve Got A Meeting 50 styles by selecting text, then
Multiple Clipboards Using A Laptop 54 Stain-free Printing 53 choosing a style from the list.
In Word There will be a few there by
You’ll often need to copy default. To create your own
more than one block of toolbar in Word 2000, or the example, if you often change styles, select the text that
text to the Clipboard, but you task pane on the right side of the font of selected text to contains the formatting you
probably didn’t know you the screen in Word XP. Now, Verdana, you can place a want to use for your style. On
could do this and then paste you can paste everything at convenient button on the the Formatting toolbar, click
everything into a document! once, or individual items in toolbar to make the change inside the ‘Style’ box. Type
To get to the clipboard in different locations. Hover the with one click. To make a over the existing style name
the task pane in Word XP, mouse over the icons on the new button, go to View > to create the name for the
first make the task pane Clipboard toolbar or on the Toolbars. Select ‘Customize’. new style, then press Enter.
appear using View > Task task pane to get a preview of Click on the ‘Commands’ tab, You can set additional
Pane. Then, on the little the content. and select an item under formatting characteristics for
‘down’ arrow, select ‘Categories’. Then select an paragraph styles, such as the
‘Clipboard’. Click ‘Options’, Add A Button To A Toolbar item from the list of style for the next paragraph.
then check ‘Collect Without You’ve probably never ‘Commands’. Drag the To do this, go to Format >
Showing Office Clipboard’. bothered to do this, but command to a toolbar. A Style. Click the style that has
Now copy up to 12 blocks it’s very easy to add your own beam that looks like an ‘I’ the settings you want to
of text (24 blocks in Word XP), buttons to the toolbars. You will appear to help you install change. Click ‘Modify’, and
then, when you’re ready to can add a button for any of a the button. By default, the then select the options you
paste, use the ‘Clipboard’ variety of commands. For new button has only a text want.
label. Right-click on the new
toolbar item, and select Create Your Own AutoText
Default Style—the button will AutoText is a way to
become a plain square. Right store and quickly insert
click on the new toolbar item text, graphics, fields, tables,
again. Choose ‘Change Button bookmarks, and other items
Image’, then select a button that you use frequently. Word
image. Finally, close the comes with a library of
‘Customize’ dialog box. AutoText entries. To see there,
To remove a button from look at the items listed under
a toolbar, go to View > AutoText in the ‘Insert’
Toolbars, select ‘Customize’, menu, or turn on the
and drag the button you want AutoText toolbar, and then
to remove off the toolbar. click on ‘All Entries’. You can
create your own AutoText
Print Out All Of Word’s entries with either of the
Shortcut Keys following methods.
Word has an inbuilt Choose AutoCorrect or
macro that generates a AutoCorrect Options from the
list of all the keyboard Tools menu, then click on the
shortcuts available. To AutoText tab. Type in the text
In Word XP, you can copy and paste up to 24 blocks of text at once, at generate the document, go to of your new AutoText entry in
different points in your document—using the ‘Clipboard’ task pane
the ‘Enter AutoText entries

48 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Tools l Tips & Tricks
here’ box, then click Add. ‘OK’. Then, you can protect a If your times are in
Make sure the ‘Show certain number of cells. For column A, you would enter a Bet You Didn’t Know
AutoComplete tip’ checkbox is example, let’s protect A4:B10: formula like this in column B. Printing Out Headings
checked. Click OK. Word will select cells A4:B10. Go to You will have to use Format> Say you have a row of headings
show a tip on the screen after Format > Cells. Click the Cells and then format the at the top of your spreadsheet.
you type the first four or five Protection tab. Check the cells in column B with a To make this row appear at the
letters that match the ‘Locked’ checkbox. Click OK. time format. top of each page when you
AutoText entry. Press [Enter] Now go to Tools > Protection print out the spreadsheet, go
to accept the entry, or keep > Protect Sheet. Enter a Easily Convert Numbers to File>Page Setup. In the ‘Page
typing to ignore it. If password if you want to. Now, To Text Setup’ dialog, there are four
‘AutoComplete’ is turned off, only the cells in A4:B10 will If you have a column of tabs across the top. Select the
you can insert AutoText be protected. numbers and you need ‘Sheet’ tab. In the field for
entries with the AutoText to convert them all to text, ‘Rows to repeat at top:’, enter
toolbar (see the next method). Disabling Specific you would select the column, 1:1. This will cause Row 1 to
Turn on the AutoText AutoCorrect Features then go to Format > Cells, appear at the top of each
toolbar by choosing Toolbars In Excel 2000, it may and on the ‘Number’ tab, printed page.
from the View menu, then seem impossible to put change the formatting to
selecting AutoText. Select the “ehr” in a cell because Excel ‘Text’. That doesn’t quite do it
text you want for an AutoText changes it to “her”. You can though—the formatted cells you’ve set Windows to use the
entry, then click on the ‘New’ fool it by concatenating will still work as numbers, Indian system for dates, if you
button on the AutoText individual letters, but an which you can verify by using have ‘10/05/2005’ in cell A2,
toolbar. Make up a shortcut easier way is to disable the them in formulas. To convert then using
name for this entry. To use relevant AutoCorrect feature. them to real text, you need to =TEXT(A2,”d mmmm,
the shortcut, type the To stop Excel from doing press [F2] and then hit yyyy”)
shortcut, then immediately this or any other similar [Enter], for each and every will give you ‘10 May 2005’.
press [F3]. change, follow these steps: go cell. Here’s a simpler way to
to Tools > AutoCorrect convert a whole bunch of Add A Number To
Options. On the first tab numbers to text. Let’s assume Every Cell
MICROSOFT EXCEL (‘AutoCorrect’), in the ‘Replace you have numbers in cells Say you have a
text as you type’ section, there A2:A1000. Insert a temporary spreadsheet full of
Locking A Range Of Cells is a long list with a scrollbar. blank column B. In cell B2, values, and you need to add
If you want to lock only Use the scrollbar to go down enter this formula: 0.2 to every cell. To do this,
a particular range of to through the alphabetical =TEXT(A2,”0”) find a blank cell in your
cells along with the formula list to ‘e’. Find the entry for Copy the formula in B2 down spreadsheet. Enter 0.2 in that
instead of locking the entire ‘ehr’. Click that entry to select to B3:B1000. We need to cell. Select that cell and go to
sheet, use the following steps. it. Now click ‘Delete’. change these formula to Edit > Copy. Now, select every
First, unlock all the other values in order to have them cell that the operation needs
cells. This is necessary Round Off Times become text. Highlight cells to be applied to. From the
because all the cells start Here’s a formula that B2:B1000. Use [Ctrl]+[C] to menu, go to Edit > Paste
with their ‘Locked’ property can round off a time to Copy, then Edit > Paste Special. In the Paste Special
set to ‘True’. Select the entire the nearest quarter hour: if Special > Values > OK. The dialog box, select ‘Values’ in
sheet by clicking on the grey someone clocks in at 7:07, it entries in column B will now the top section, and ‘Add’ in
square to the left of the grey counts as 7 AM. If he clocks in be text versions of the the ‘Operation’ section. Click
letter A at the top of column at 7:08, then it should be 7:15 numbers in column A. Now, ‘OK’. This will add the contents
A. Go to Format > Cells. Click AM. To do this, use this copy column B back to of the clipboard (0.2) to every
the ‘Protection’ tab. Uncheck formula: Column A. Delete the number in the selected range.
the ‘Locked’ checkbox. Click =ROUND(A1*96,0)/96 temporary Column A.
The key to this technique Correcting The Placement
is the =TEXT() function. The Of The Minus Sign
second parameter describes When you import from
how the number should be a text document into
formatted before being Excel, the minus sign may
converted to text. You may appear to the right of the
need to adjust this based on numbers. To correct this in
your numbers. The result of Excel 2000, use this function:
=TEXT(123.25,”0”) =VALUE(IF(RIGHT(A1,1)=”-
will be 123. ”,RIGHT(A1,1)&LEFT(A1,LEN(A
The result of 1)-1),A1))
=TEXT(123.25,”0.0”) In Excel 2002 and 2003,
will be 123.3. here’s how to do it: in Step 3
The result of of the Text Import Wizard, or
=TEXT(123.25,”0.00”) in Step 3 of ‘Text to Columns
will be 123.25. (select from Data)’, click
To always keep only the Advanced. Now, in the
decimals as entered, use ‘Advanced Text Import
=TEXT(A2,”General”). Settings’ dialog box,
This function is also useful select the ‘Trailing minus
You can use the ‘ROUND’ formula in Excel to round off times. In this for converting dates to for negative numbers’
example, we have rounded off times to the nearest quarter-hour formatted dates. Assuming checkbox.

DIGIT APRIL 2005 49

 Digital Tools l Tips & Tricks

You’ve Got A Meeting

Make Microsoft Outlook do more than just Send/Receive

Aliasgar Pardawala Where And Why? Hit The Send

Write the ‘Subject’ Button

T o schedule a meeting at
work is not very
difficult, provided it’s at
and ‘Location’ in
their respective fields. This
gives the recipients the
When you mail
this schedule to the
recipients, the task will get
your workplace. All you purpose of the meeting
have to do is pick up the and the location of the
phone and pass on the meeting at a glance.
message, right? You could
also send an internal mail What Time?
or message and walk up to To assign the ‘Start’
the people for a and ‘End’ times for
confirmation. the meeting, click on the
But what if you have to drop- down menu, or click
schedule a meeting where Right-click on Date in the Calendar on the ‘Schedule’ tab, and
associates from all over the to select a new appointment then set the time. This will Select recurrence if the meeting
country are required to reflect in the Start/End is going to be held at regular
meet at a particular date? Meeting Request’, etc. Time drop-down menu. time intervals
The task gets daunting, Click on ‘New
doesn’t it? People might Appointment’ and a new added to their
not be available when you window will open. In this calendar.
call them up, your window, you will be They, however,
message might end up in a presented with options must accept
voice-mail box, and even if such as Appointment, the schedule.
you do get them, verbal Schedule, Reminder, etc. If any of the
communication is not recipients
considered the most Enter Names declines the
effective medium. Now let’s get the request,
So you fall back on names of people he/she will be
your trusted e-mail client from the Address Book. out of the
to push the message Click on ‘Address Book’; loop.
across. But then, there is this will open it up. The green line indicates the ‘Start’ time, and the You can
more to Microsoft Outlook Double-click on each red line indicates the ‘End’ time also make this
than just Send/Receive. of the contacts to add a recurring
There are tons of features them to the recipient
built into this nifty utility, list. Click ‘OK’ once you
which can help you manage are done. Selected contacts
your work-related tasks. will be displayed beside
Thankfully, there’s a the ‘To…’ tab. Clicking
way to reach out to the ‘To’ tab also brings
multiple recipients and up the Address Book.
schedule meetings. You
can also keep a tab on the
run-up to the meeting, and
make changes, either in Appropriate labels will help your
the agenda or the timing. recipients understand the
purpose of the meeting
How To Get There Select ‘New time proposal’ from
To schedule a The agenda for the the ‘Action’ menu to let others
meeting using meeting can be described specify what time suits them
Microsoft Outlook, click on in detail later, while you
the Calendar tab. Select are drafting the mail, task, if the meeting takes
the date when you want which will get sent to place at regular intervals.
the meeting scheduled. everyone. But once you When this is enabled,
Right-click on the date to are through with the the recipient will be
open up the dialog box above settings, you don’t reminded in advance every
with options such as ‘New You can select multiples names have to worry about the time the meeting is due.
Appointment’, ‘New from the address book just by scheduled time, place, aliasgar_pardawala@
Recurring Meeting’, ‘New clicking on their names and recipients. thinkdigit.com

50 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Tools l Tips & Tricks
your presentation is located, your presentation, choose
MS POWERPOINT and select the template you ‘Slide Design’ from the Bet You Didn’t Know
want. A small thumbnail Format menu. Click ‘Color
Hide Slides In PowerPoint
Print Without Opening image of the design becomes Schemes’ in the ‘Slide Design’
When producing a
PowerPoint visible in the navigation window. ‘Apply a color presentation for different
To print your palette. Choose Apply. scheme:’ appears beside the audiences, often, you may not
presentation without thumbnail images at the top want to show all the slides to
even opening PowerPoint, go Loop Music Across A of the window. Click ‘Edit all the audiences. To hide a
to Start Menu > Run. Type in Certain Number Of Slides Color Schemes’ at the bottom slide, select ‘Slide Sorter’
“powerpnt.exe /p To play a background of the window, and the ‘Edit from the ‘View’ menu. Click
filetoprint.ppt” into the text music loop or music file Color Scheme’ dialog box on the slide that you want to
field, replacing across a number of slides in appears. Click the Custom hide. Select ‘Slide Show’ from
“filetoprint.ppt” with the PowerPoint 20002/XP 2003, tab. Eight coloured squares the main menu toolbar. Click
name of the presentation you and 2004, first choose ‘Movies will now be visible. The on ‘Hide Slide’, and that slide
wish to print. and Sounds’ from the ‘Insert’ bottom two squares, ‘Accent will now be hidden.
menu. Depending on what and hyperlink’ and ‘Accent
Using Your Toolbar On you want, select ‘Sound From and followed hyperlink’ are presentation on one screen,
Other Machines Clip Organizer’, ‘Sound From the colours used in your or projector, to an audience,
When you customise File’, ‘Play CD Audio Track’, or presentation for your text while you read notes, and
your toolbar ‘Record Sound’. Locate the hyperlinks, and visited text control your presentation,
configuration, its layout, sound file you wish to play hyperlinks. Double-click the from another screen without
icons, visible options, and across any number of your ‘Accent and hyperlink’ colour your audience seeing what
positions are all recorded in a slides. Insert the sound. At square; this sets the colour of you are reading. In order to
file called ppt.pcb. The this point, if you don’t want your hyperlinked text. Choose achieve this, your system
ppt.pcb file is typically the sound icon to appear in a new ‘Standard’ or ‘Custom’ hardware must support
found at c:\windows\ the presentation, drag it off colour in the colour selection dual monitors.
application data\microsoft\ the slide. If you are asked “Do dialog box that appears, and Open the presentation you
powerpoint\ppt.pcb, and by you want the sound to play click ‘OK’. Now double-click wish to show on one of your
copying this file, you can port automatically?”, select “Yes”. the ‘Accent and followed monitors, screens, or
your toolbar customisation to Right click the sound’s icon, hyperlink’ colour square; this projectors. Select ‘Set Up
other machines. and select ‘Custom sets the colour of your visited Show...’ from the Slide Show
Animation’ from the hyperlinked text. Choose a main menu option. The ‘Set
Resizing All Images And popup menu. new ‘Standard’ or ‘Custom’ Up Show’ dialog box appears.
Pictures In Proportion The ‘Custom Animation’ colour in the colour selection If you wish to use a projector,
When resizing any dialog box will open and your dialog box that appears, click the ‘Projector Wizard’
image, picture, or sound file should be listed. and click OK. button. In the pull-down menu
element in PowerPoint, you Click the arrow directly to Click ‘Apply’ if you wish option under ‘Show on:’,
may want to resize all the the right of the sound icon to to apply these colours to the choose which monitor, screen,
images and graphical pull down various options. current slide only, or click or projector you wish to
elements in your PowerPoint Select ‘Effect Options’, and on ‘Apply to All’ to apply the display your presentation on.
presentation at the same the ‘Effects’ tab, select the change to all text Now go to View > Notes
time. For example, if you have radio button beside Stop hyperlinks throughout Master. Select ‘Set Up Show...’
three images and two graphic Playing > After, and select your entire presentation. again from the Slide Show
elements that you have to the number of slides that you main menu. This time, select
resize, but must stay the would like the music to Dual Displays which monitor, screen, or
same size in relation to each continue to play through. You can use PowerPoint projector you wish to display
other, select the first image If you want the sound to to display your your presentation notes on.
you wish to resize. Hold down continue through the end of
[Shift]. Click on the other two the presentation, enter a very
images. Still holding the large number, such as 999.
[Shift] key, also click on the Now select the ‘Timing’ tab.
two graphical elements. Drag To play automatically, the
your mouse in the direction timing should be set to ‘After
you wish to increase or Previous’ with a 0-second
decrease the size of the delay. Click OK to close the
image, and the other selected dialog box. Your music track
items will scale accordingly. will now continue after you
leave the slide on which you
Apply A Template To An placed it, and play until it
Existing Presentation reaches the slide number
Open your presentation. which you entered to
While your presentation ‘Stop Playing’.
is open, choose ‘Apply Design
Template’ from the ‘Format’ Change The Colour Of
menu. Navigate to the Your Hyperlinks
location of the PowerPoint To change the colour of
Templates, or where the your hyperlinks in
PowerPoint Template (.POT) PowerPoint 2002 and 2003 to This is where you change the colours of your hyperlinks in PowerPoint.
file that you wish to apply to match the colour scheme of You might want to do it so they go with the rest of your colour scheme

DIGIT APRIL 2005 51

 Digital Tools l Tips & Tricks
Go Wirefree Wider Is Better Laptop Drivers
BUYING A LAPTOP Most notebooks today Notebooks that come Check and make sure
offer Wi-Fi capabilities. with wide screens offer you get all the required
Size Matters Check the Wi-Fi standard a better movie-viewing drivers on a disk along with
Size and weight are supported by the model you experience. They are also the laptop. A recovery disk is
important are considering for purchase. useful while working with also preferable, and will
considerations when buying An 802.11 b/g device will come in handy in case of a
a laptop. If you travel a lot, give you higher data system crash.
throughput as compared
to 802.11b. Connectivity Options
The available ports on a
Upgrade notebook will define the
Check if the notebook is types and number of
upgradeable at a later peripheral devices you can
stage. Some options to look connect. Most notebooks
for when upgrading your come with 56K modems and
laptop are the RAM, the CPU, at least 10/100 Ethernet
and the hard drive. Are the integrated, so the notebook
upgrades something large spreadsheets. Also, look will have RJ11 and RJ45 ports
you can do yourself, or do for decent quality integrated for connecting a telephone
they require visits to a speakers if you want to cord and a network cord
opt for a laptop that is light service centre? enjoy movies and music respectively.
in weight. Weights of on the move. Typically, you should look
laptops range from one to Build Quality Is Important for at least two USB ports, a
four kg. While checking the Since laptops are meant Hot Laps parallel port to connect a
weight, include everything to be carried around, Make sure the notebook printer, a VGA port for
you will carry along with good build quality is you plan to buy does not connecting a projector or an
the notebook, such as the essential. Opt for a notebook get too hot after a while. A external monitor, and Audio
power adaptor or any that has a rugged build hot laptop on your lap may Out and Mic In ports to
external drives. quality that can withstand pose a serious health risk! connect speakers and a
jerks and shocks. The optical microphone respectively.
See Your Screen drive tray, the screen hinges Storage PC card slots are also
The size of the display and latch, the panel on top of Most notebooks come essential, and you should
screen directly affects the keyboard, and the overall with 40 GB hard drives. check the types of PC cards
the size, and in most cases, casing are good indicators If this does not seem that are supported. An
the weight, of the notebook. of build quality. enough, see if you can get an infrared port, if available, will
The larger the screen, the upgrade to a larger capacity let you connect compatible
bulkier the notebook. A Warranty Issues hard drive. The drive’s devices such as cell phones to
bulky notebook will be a Warranty is also an your notebook, while a
problem to use in important FireWire port lets you
cramped locations such consideration. Make sure you connect digital such devices
as in an airplane. get a global warranty if you as video cameras. Look for
travel abroad frequently. Even these ports if you feel you
Power Struggle if you don’t, make sure the will require them even at a
Though performance is service centre is easily later stage. Additional ports
not the most important accessible in terms of such as S-video out are also
criterion while purchasing a location and distance so you welcome!
notebook, make sure you get can get any problems
enough horsepower for the rectified quickly. One-handed Operation
applications you use or plan Some notebook models,
to use. While 256 MB of RAM Optical Drives rotational speed also especially those with
should suffice for most, Most notebooks these impacts performance. While larger screens, come with two
power users should opt for at days come with a 4200 rpm drives are the latches that will require you
least 512 MB. DVD/CD-RW combo drive by most common, look for to use both your hands to
default. Make sure the higher rpm hard drives for open the device. This may be
All Work And No Play? notebook you plan to buy has better performance. inconvenient in some
If you want to play 3D a combo drive if not a DVD- situations, for instance, when
games, or plan to use Writer. A combo drive will Go Legal you are speaking on the
your laptop for some enable you to read DVDs as When purchasing a phone. Look for a laptop that
graphics-intensive well as write CDs. laptop, make sure it has a single latch.
applications, opt for a model comes with legal software.
that features good-quality Optical Drive Location Some vendors may not Touch The Pad
graphics. Options available Check for the location provide you with legal copies Most notebooks these
include Mobility Radeon of the optical drive. An of the software. Verify that days feature touchpads.
7500, 9700 and GeForce FX optical drive placed in the the software that comes with Make sure the laptop you
Go5200. front may be a hindrance your laptop is on an original plan to buy has one that is
These will give you better while working in cramped CD, and has a software large and offers smooth and
graphics as compared to spaces, or when the notebook license or registration jerk-free control of the
commonly-used platforms. is placed on your lap. number. pointer. Some notebooks

52 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Tools l Tips & Tricks

Stain-free Printing
Maintaining your inkjet printer makes your printouts crisp and spiffy

Clean All Surfaces you, and it will pop out of the cradle.
Jayesh Limaye You must be very careful Repeat the above steps for the other
while doing this; handle the cartridge(s) as well.

T
he printer has become an printer gently to avoid any damage.
indispensable tool for the home Disconnect the printer from the Clean The Stubs
and SoHo segment these days. power supply, moisten a clean piece You will now be able to see
Almost every inkjet printer is capable of cloth in mild soap solution, and two small pieces or stubs
of printing at a quality that was wipe the surface of the printer. attached to the bottom of the cradle
available only in high-end printing Open the front flap and gently wipe on the left and right. This is where
solutions a few years ago.
More often than not, though,
you’re stuck in a situation where
your inkjet printer starts acting up,
smearing your printouts with ink or
showing banding. And what happens
if this occurs when you need an
urgent print? You’d start running
helter-skelter: call the technician,
who, in turn, might take a long time
to get your printer fixed. This
situation can be avoided entirely;
all your inkjet printer needs is
periodic maintenance and The cartridge cradle moves towards the centre The stub to be cleaned—this is where all the
cleaning. Here’s how... when you power it on with the flap lifted up gunk accumulates

Clean The Print Cartridge all plastic surfaces, particularly

To start with, always use the those stained by spilled ink, and the
cleaning utility provided with rollers. Avoid
the printer driver interface. To access touching any lubricated surface
this utility, click on ‘Start’, then on such as the slide bar.
‘Printers and Faxes’. Right-click on
the printer listed, and click on Remove The Cartridges
This step is only for thermal
inkjet printers and should not
be performed on printers based on
piezoelectric technology, also known
as ‘On-Demand’ inkjets. After the
printer has dried, keeping the front
flap open, connect the power cable
and switch on the printer. The print
cartridge cradle will now move Use a lint-free cloth to clean the print heads
towards the centre of the slide bar.
Gently pull the ink cartridge towards the gunk and ink accumulates,
smearing your printouts.
Cleaning using the printer driver utility Use the moist cloth to clean these
stubs. Similarly, clean the ink
‘Printing Preferences’. Now click on cartridge print head using a lint-free
the ‘Services’ tab, and click on cloth, soaked in denatured alcohol. A
‘Service this Device’. lint-free cloth (and not a cotton
Place a blank paper in the paper swab) must be used, so that the print
tray and click on ‘Clean the Print head does not get clogged with
Cartridge’, and then on ‘Clean’. A test cloth fibres.
page will be printed and you have to Your printer should now be
gauge whether the printout is clean printing as good as new. But that’s
or not. You might have to repeat this not the end of it—it requires periodic
step several times; if this does not cleaning in order to be able to
help, proceed to manually clean function at the peak of its efficiency.
the print head. Remove the cartridge [email protected]

DIGIT APRIL 2005 53

 Digital Tools l Tips & Tricks
also provide pointing sticks Prevention still have your precious data
as the pointing device. Go Is Better Than even in case your notebook
for one with which you are Cure is stolen.
most comfortable. Since a
notebook Power Surges
Memory Card Reader may be Use a surge protector
If you own a digital connected to with your laptop to
camera or any other different protect it from power surges.
device that uses a memory networks, such as
card (such as SD, MMC, CF or at a client’s
Memory Stick), it makes office, for POWER-SAVING TIPS
sense to purchase a notebook example, it is
that has an inbuilt memory essential you use Condition Your Battery
card reader. This way, you Toolbars in Windows XP a good anti-virus A new battery needs to
can transfer data to and and firewall be conditioned—it must
from the card without the ‘Toolbars’, and uncheck the software. Update your virus be fully charged and
need to buy a separate toolbar. This is useful for definitions frequently. An discharged a few times
memory card reader. Check sales executives who want anti-spyware program is before it can use its
whether the card reader in easy access to presentations, recommended. full capacity.
the notebook is compatible proposals and other
with the type of memory information on a day-to- Leave Power Management
card you use. day basis. LAPTOP SECURITY To The Pros
Use the notebook’s
Ease Of Use Boot Faster Don’t Be A Jerk power management
Some notebooks feature To make your notebook Be careful while features to improve battery
scroll keys along with boot faster, remove carrying the notebook. life. You can set the device to
the touchpad keys to enable unwanted programs from Do not subject it to any jerks switch off the LCD screen
vertical and/or horizontal and shocks. This will avoid and hard drive after set
scrolling in large documents. damage to your hard drive intervals of time.
Some also feature hotkeys and the precious data on it.
for launching your Preferably, power the
favourite applications. notebook off before moving it
from one place to another.
Additional Features
Additional features, Dusty Notebooks
including integrated Don’t Impress
Bluetooth, biometric security, Protect your laptop
keyboard light and integrated Programs that run at startup from dust. Clean your
Web cams, are offered in laptop regularly to prevent
some models. Since these startup. To do this, go to Start dust accumulation. Do not
extra features also affect the > Run, type “msconfig” and leave your notebook on the
pricing of the laptop, opt press [Enter]. Go to the floor and make sure all vents
for one that has the Startup tab and uncheck any are clean to enable good
features you need. programs you do not need. air flow. Power options in Windows XP
Click on ‘OK’ and then click
on ‘Exit’ without restarting. Drinks And Laptops Screen Scream
USING A LAPTOP The unchecked programs Don’t Mix The screen hogs a lot of
will not run the next time Avoid having beverages battery power. To
Shortcuts To Success you boot. while working on your prolong battery life, dim the
Create shortcuts to your laptop. Do not place any screen brightness when you
most commonly used Clean Up The Junk containers filled with hot or are not connected to a
applications, folders and files Uninstall any cold beverages near your power source.
on the desktop. This way, you applications you do not notebook, to minimise
can access them quickly. If use. Apart from saving on chances of a spill. Close Applications
you like your desktop clutter- disk space, you will also Close any applications
free, you can also create prevent your notebook from Protect Your Laptop you are not using when
custom toolbars in slowing down. Do not leave your on battery power. Running
Windows XP. notebook unattended in applications increase CPU
To do this, right click on Be Resourceful a car or in a client’s office. Be utilisation, thus reducing
the Windows taskbar, go to Keep backups of the careful when going to a battery life.
‘Toolbars’ and click on ‘New operating system, restaurant or when using
Toolbar’. Next, choose the drivers and commonly used public transport. Disconnect
drive or folder you want to applications on a secondary External peripherals and
access using the toolbar. You partition so that you can do Backup, Backup, Backup! accessories such as
can create different toolbars some re-installing on your Keep backups of all your external optical drives, PC
for different drives and own if you face some issues important files and e- cards and USB keyboard
folders. To remove a toolbar while travelling. Carry driver mails in a safe location such lights draw power from the
you added, right click on the CDs and recovery disks as your desktop PC or an notebook. Disconnect any
Windows taskbar, go to with you. external drive. This way you such devices when not in use.

54 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Tools l Tips & Tricks
Suspend Your Notebook sure you have a free USB port so as not to disturb your
Booting the notebook on your notebook. fellow travellers.
when it is not connected
to a power source draws a lot Go The Desktop Route Store More
of power from the battery. Those who use their An external hard drive
Instead of shutting down notebooks as their is a good option if you
your laptop in the middle primary computer may want different plug types allowing want to carry large files
of a meeting, choose the to invest in an external you to connect your notebook without stuffing your
suspend mode if you wish to keyboard, mouse and even a power adaptor to power notebook’s hard drive.
use it again after a short larger monitor. This will be sockets almost anywhere in
period of time. the closest to the feel of a the world. Charge Your Cell Phone
standard desktop. From The Laptop
Entertainment Is Bad For Stop Thief! If you are a cell phone
Your Battery Additional Connectivity Invest in a Kensington junkie and find that
Playing graphics Some notebook models lock to prevent your your cell phone battery is not
intensive games, videos can be hooked up to notebook from being stolen. able to give you enough juice,
or music drains the battery compatible port replicators A Kensington lock features a buy a USB charger for your
quickly. Close any such and docking stations. These strong cord that can be phone. These are useful for
applications when on battery devices allow for added looped around the leg of a people who stay on the road
to prolong battery life. functionality by providing table or chair and then locks for the better part of the day
additional ports and onto a slot in the notebook, and are not able to access a
external drives. thus preventing anyone from power socket to charge their
ACCESSORIES walking away with the device. cell phones.
Must-Have USB chargers are
Carry Safe A USB thumb drive is a available for most commonly
A good carry case is useful little piece of available cell phone brands
essential for your hardware for and draw power from your
notebook. There are a variety transferring small notebook’s USB port to
of options available. Choose amounts of data charge the cell phone.
one that fits your between However, this will also
requirements and budget. computers. These shorten your notebook battery
Apart from being sturdy, come in handy in life, so make sure your
you should opt for one that situations where, notebook battery is charged
has a padded shoulder strap for instance, you Some of the higher-end enough to see you through till
and has enough space to would like to lock models also boast of the time you can connect it to
hold additional stuff such transfer a motion sensors and emit a power socket again.
as the power adaptor, CDs, presentation or a high-pitched beeps if any
papers, external drives, sales proposal to motion is detected. Increase The Number
mouse and cell phone. Some your client’s PC at Of USB Ports
notebook bags also double-up his office. Some USB Enjoy The Trip If you do not have
as overnighters. drives come with password If you enjoy movies enough USB ports on
protection option and provide and music on the your laptop to connect all your
Get A Mouse a safe place to store notebook and find the devices, opt for a USB hub.
Users who do not find confidential files. Instead of integrated speakers to be
the notebook touchpad storing these files on the good enough, you may Light It Up
easy to use should opt for an notebook hard drive, just purchase external speakers A keyboard light is a
external mouse. Though you carry them with you in the specially designed for good buy for those who
can use a standard desktop USB drive. You can work on notebook users. These are want to work on their
mouse with your laptop, them directly once the drive extremely compact and easy notebooks without disturbing
is connected. This way, your to carry. Most draw power their neighbours in a long-
confidential files do not find from the notebook or from haul flight or their spouses in
their way into the hands of their own set of batteries. the bedroom. The light clips
crooks even if your notebook on to the top of the notebook
gets stolen. screen, draws power from the
USB port, and illuminates the
More Power keyboard so that you can work
An extra battery pack is in the dark.
a good investment if
you plan to stay away from a These speakers may not Additional Stuff
specially-designed notebook power socket for long. offer the surround sound A range of accessories
mice are available. These are experience, but will including battery packs,
smaller in size and easy to When In Rome… definitely sound better than Wi-Fi PC cards, USB to Wi-Fi
carry around. Some even Different countries have most integrated laptop adaptors, USB to Bluetooth
come with retractable cords different types of power speakers. However, if you adaptors, external optical
to reduce the jumble of wires sockets. Accordingly, check like to watch a movie or drives and notebook coolers
you need to carry. You can and carry the appropriate listen to music while are available. Explore local
also opt for a wireless mouse. type. If you are a global travelling in an airplane or a dealers and online stores, and
Most of the newer ones use traveller, opt for a universal train, it makes sense to buy you are sure to find what you
the USB interface, so make adaptor. It offers a variety of a decent set of headphones are looking for.

DIGIT APRIL 2005 55

 Travel PAC FM Radio Handsfree D-Link DCS-5300W
E ver wanted to hear a caller’s voice on the
surround speakers of your car or better still, Private Eye
on your fantastic home sound
system? Well, now you can! T he D-Link DCS-5300W securicam is a versatile
IP-based camera with motorised tilt and pan
to cover almost an entire room.
This latest hands-free
from Travel PAC clips on to To monitor a remote location, you need a
the earpiece of your cell high-speed Internet connection and a PC. If
phone and beams the your office already has an ADSL connection
caller’s voice at the 88.6 or with a cable modem and ADSL router in place,
106.1 FM frequencies. You can you can directly connect the camera to the
tune your FM receiver to either of modem, bypassing the PC.
these frequencies, and listen to him or Once the camera is plugged to the system,
her in Dolby Digital Surround! Only the caller’s you type in the IP address as mentioned in
voice is transmitted; to reply, you still need to the manual, or retrieve it through the IP
use the phone the usual way. The device is really installer utility to access the inbuilt Web server. This launches the camera
tiny, but comes only with a car cigarette-lighter user interface. You can control the movement of the camera from the
charger—which means you can only charge it in interface or through the provided IR remote. There is a motion detection
your car, and not at home. It’s mightily priced at and trigger recording (both audio and video) facility that helps you view,
Rs 995, but is, even then, a device you should at your leisure, activity in the area under surveillance.
look at for the sheer ingenuity of it!
Company D-Link India ltd
Price Rs 15,000
Company Camac Holdings Pvt Ltd Phone 022-26526696
Price Rs 995 E-mail [email protected]
Phone 033-22207961 Web site www.dlink.com
Web site www.pac.com.sg
Rating
Rating 1 2 3 4 5
1 2 3 4 5

Motorola MPx

A Smarter Communicator 320 x 240 trans-reflective TFT capable of 65K colour depth.

T he MPx is the latest in the series of

Pocket PC-based mobile phones from
Motorola. It takes the
Compared to other Pocket PCs, the screen on the
MPx is diagonally smaller by around 0.7-inch,
and this is instantly noticeable. That apart, the
Smartphone/Communicator concept display quality is reasonably good.
ahead with its radically new design, Like a true communicator, the MPx 300
based around a dual hinge that allows offers abundant connectivity options such as
the phone to be flipped open in infrared, GPRS, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. When
portrait as well as landscape mode. switching to a Wi-Fi connection, you need to switch
The portrait mode is ideal for using off the GPRS connection. A neat tool makes Wi-Fi
it as a phone, and the landscape configuration a simple task. Bluetooth, too, works
mode is more conducive for data perfectly without any problems.
communication. On the media side, a camera capable of a
Though bulky in design, it is maximum resolution of 1280 x 960 is integrated,
pretty much in line with other with a short-range flash that fails to impress. No video
Communicator models such as the Nokia recording is possible, but photo image quality is fairly
9500, and the Treo 600. The body is made of plastic and good. Memory is, however, limited, and one gets just 15
sports a combination of dark metallic blue and silver hues, MB for use. You can, however, increase the memory by
lending the phone executive looks. Fit and finish is top-notch. way of an SD card.
Ergonomically speaking, the keypad is usable, but leaves a On the software side, you get most what MS Pocket PCs
lot to be desired—especially when compared to the Nokia have to offer. The speech recognition takes a while to get used
9500. The blue backlight hampers legibility and does not help to, but it works. The box comes with a Bluetooth headset, a
much. The stylus is placed in an awkward position with sync cable, the power adapter and software CDs.
respect to the portrait mode.
There are two displays on the phone—the small external Company Esource Global
colour display is helpful but susceptible to blackouts in direct Price Rs 62,000
sunlight. There are three quick access buttons beneath the Phone 0-9820522208
external screen, and these come in handy in putting the E-mail [email protected]
phone into silent mode, or to control MP3 playback—or to Web site www.motorola.com
switch on the voice recorder. The internal screen is a regular Rating 1 2 3 4 5

56 DIGIT APRIL 2005

Mitashi DIVX-555
Just Bring It On and DVDs, as expected, had no problem playing. The image

I n addition to VCDs, DVDs and MP3 CDs, the Mitashi DIVX-

555 multimedia player can play MPEG4, JPEG, HDCD, and
many other media formats. A two-channel audio and com-
quality in all these tests was crisp, and the colours vibrant.
Sound reproduction, both in 2-speaker and 5.1-speaker
modes, was also very good.
posite video cable to connect to a TV is also provided. Some One thing to note is that the DivX-
more supported features are wide-screen TV support, an S- 555 has a 3D sound
Video as well as Composite-out, a D-Sub connector to con- processor that can
nect to a PC monitor, SP-DIF coaxial and optical output, recreate
Dolby Digital 5.1, Pro Logic II and DTS, to name a few.
We put it to test by playing DivX-encoded movies on
it, and it performed without any glitches. When a non-
standard compliant media is inserted in the player, an
easy, Explorer-like interface pops up so you can navigate
the folders on the media.
We then went one step further and tried to play a sounds according to
movie encoded with the newer and now very popular seven different preset environments, and
XVID (also an implementation of MPEG4) video compres- this feature actually worked.
sion and with Dolby 5.1 sound. We were pleasantly surprised Overall, this is a great player. Add a 29-inch TV and a 5.1-
to see that it not only played the movie flawlessly, it also speaker set, and what you have is a full-fledged home theatre.
correctly detected and played the Dolby 5.1 sound format.
We then popped in the February 2005 Digit DVD, which Company Mitashi Edutainment Pvt Ltd
Price Rs 4,990
had lots of wallpapers, to see if we could view them. We Phone 022-25006661
found that we could view all the images—even as a slide E-mail [email protected]
show. Previews were available in the Explorer view. VCDs Web site www.mitashi.com Rating
1 2 3 4 5

Benq FP231W Ozaki NB001

A Lovely Spread
T hese two-channel speakers are specially
designed for notebook users. Encased in a
T his 23-inch LCD from Benq overwhelms you with its size, and is a
pleasure to work with. It provides a range of connectivity options,
including DVI-D, S-Video, Composite, and D-sub—which means that other
slim silver panel and weighing just 150 gm, the
device can be clipped onto the top of a note-
book, and it connects through the USB port. It
than your PC, you can connect it to your DVD player, camcorder, game draws power directly from the USB port, so
box and so on. there is no additional power adapter required.
The OSD menu is very easy to use, but the buttons are on the left face What’s more, the bundled cable is detachable
of the panel, making it difficult to access. This model also has a picture- and retractable, reducing the tangle of wires
in-picture feature. It offers a cool 155-degree viewing angle in the Movie you need to carry around.
mode and 165 degrees in the Text mode, The speaker configuration allows you to sim-
making it a perfect choice for viewing with ulate a 5.1-channel surround effect, and you
friends around. can also adjust the sound to recreate
When we tested this model for different environments such as a
performance using DisplayMate, it returned living room, a hall, and sev-
impressive results in the ‘Point Shape’ and eral others. Apart from
‘Visibility’ tests, where reproduction of a the manual
fine dot, as well as text on a coloured equaliser set-
background, was crisp. The 16 ms response tings, you can
time claim, however, was shattered in the also choose from a
Passmark Monitor test, where tearing was range of presets.
visible in a white block moving at 100 pixels With 1W RMS
per second. output, the Ozaki NB001 speakers are not a
Graphics and CAD/CAM professionals who match for the 5.1 speaker system you have at
need accurate colour reproduction and home, but are definitely better than most
accurate geometry must check out this panel. It is also speakers integrated into notebooks today. The
highly recommended for movie buffs who can afford it—it’s a product is a worthy buy for executives who
lovely 23-inch spread, apart from being an LCD! would, for example, like to enjoy their own
music and movies in their hotel rooms
Company BenQ India Pvt Ltd.
Price Rs 1,25,000
while travelling.
Phone 022-25705230
Web site www.benq.com Company Rashi Peripherals
Price Rs 1,200
Rating Phone 022-28221013
1 2 3 4 5 E-mail [email protected]
Looking for more information on any of the products featured here? Web site www.ozaki.us
Please write to [email protected]. The Digit Test Centre will be delighted to Rating
respond to your queries. 1 2 3 4 5

1 Poor: Has serious drawbacks and needs improvement before it can be used for its target application. 2 Mediocre: Does not live up to expectations, needs improvment
in many areas. 3 Average: Reasonably competent but nothing spectacular about the product. 4 Good: A good buy, better than most products in its category.
5 Excellent: A brilliant combination of price, performance and features - far beyond expectations.

APRIL 2005 DIGIT 57

 Digital Tools l A-List
Intel Motherboards Portable Hard Drives Projectors CRT Monitors (17-inch)
Gigabyte GA-8I915G Duo WD-Media Centre 250GB Acer PD11 Acer AC715
Excellent Performance at an Very low cost per MB High 1600 lumens bright- high resolution of
affordable price Memory card reader slots ness support 1600x1200@75Hz
Contact Digi Giga System Ltd. Big 330-Inch diagonal good finer details
Contact Western Digital
Phone 022-26526696 image size capability reproduction
Phone 022-25851085 Picture in Picture mode
E-mail [email protected] Contact Acer India Pvt.Ltd.
E-mail [email protected]
Price Rs 5,500 Contact Acer India Pvt Ltd Phone 080-5219520
Price Rs 15,999
Phone 080 25219520 E-mail [email protected]
E-mail [email protected] Price Rs 6,995
Freecom FDH-2 Pro 80 GB Price Rs 62,999
Viewsonic E71f
Extremely compact and bun-
Aesthetically good looking
dled carry case
good geometry reproduction
Contact J S Equipments Contact Roop Technology Pvt. Ltd.
Phone 022-23810713 Phone 022-26680022
E-mail [email protected] E-mail [email protected]
Price Rs 15,500 Price Rs 7500
Gigabyte GA-8I915G-MF
Very affordable
Average performer
Contact Digi Giga System Ltd
Phone 022-26526696
E-mail [email protected] Sony VPL-ES2
Price Rs 5,100 Easy to set up
Low running cost of lamp
Good performance
Contact Sony India Ltd
Phone 022-28313333
E-mail [email protected].
com.sg
Price Rs 75,990

The best products tested so far in different

Marc
h 200
5 The A-List hardware and software categories

AMD Motherboards PDA Phones Cell Phones CRT Monitors (19-inch)

ASUS K8N-E Deluxe Nokia 9500 Communicator Sony-Ericsson K700i Samsung SyncMaster 997DF
Excellent performance and Full QWERTY keyboard Extensive feature set, Good colour reproduction
great features Slightly bulky includes camera, MP3, FM Compact in size
Lacks PCI-Express Contact Company: Nokia India Ltd radio etc. Contact Samsung Electronics India
Contact ASUSTeK Computer Inc Phone 011-22677900 Fast processor Phone 011-51511234
Phone 022-56290785 E-mail [email protected] Contact Sony Ericsson E-mail marketing@
E-mail [email protected] Price 39,359 Phone 0124-2560808 samsungindia.com
Price Rs 8,500 E-mail dhiraj.soni@ Price Rs 14900
sonyericsson.com
Price Rs 17,500

Nokia 6600
Brilliant display screen,
Bluetooth
No FM radio, slow processor
MSI K8N Neo Platinum (Gold) Contact Nokia India
Excellent performance and Phone 011-26779000
E-mail [email protected]
good features O2 XDA II Mini Price Rs 14,999
Lacks PCI-Express Small, thin and pocketable
Contact Cyberstar One-handed operation not
Phone 0-9323809599 possible
E-mail [email protected] Contact Creative e-biz
Price Rs 7,500 Samsung SyncMaster 957MB
Phone 022-23828100 brightness modes for different
E-mail [email protected]
viewing environment
Price Rs 32,888
good colour reproduction
Contact Samsung Electronics India
Phone 011-51511234
E-mail marketing@
samsungindia.com
Price Rs 16500

58 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Tools l A-List
LCD Monitors (15-inch) Home Inkjet Printers Office Inkjet MFDs Laptops
CMV CT-522A Pixma iP1000 Lexmark X7170 ACI Emerald C2
High contrast ratio—500:1 Economical, decent photo Full featured MFD, fast built in web camera
Average quality inbuilt printing. printing,copying speeds. Decent Affordable price
speakers No output tray, No pictbridge quality photo prints Contact Allied Computer
Contact Cee Vision Technologies Contact Canon India Ltd No memory card reader, B&W International
Phone 022-26733353 Phone 0124-5160000 LCD screen Phone 022-56943260
E-mail www.canon.co.in Contact Lexmark India Ltd. E-mail [email protected]
E-mail [email protected]
Phone 022-2605 7755 Price Rs 44,999
Price Rs 12,000
Website www.lexmark.com Website www.aci-asia.com
Price Rs 14999

MSI MegaBook M510C

LCD Monitors (17-inch) HP Deskjet 3745 HP PSC 2310 Terrific performance, typical
Samsung SyncMaster 173P Fast print outs, excellent price Excellent text printing, fast feature set
Great design, superb contrast Below par photo printing photo printing High screen resolution
Quite Expensive slow text printing, average Average wireless LAN
Contact Hewlett Packard India Ltd. photo quality
Contact Samsung India Phone 0124 2566 111 performance
Phone 011-51511234 E-mail www.hp.com Contact Hewlett Packard India Ltd. Contact Maxtone Electronics
E-mail marketing@ Price Rs 2999 Phone 0124-2566 111 Phone 022-23011434
samsungindia.com Website www.hp.com E-mail [email protected]
Price Rs 30,000 Price Rs 11499 Price Rs 63,000

Office/ Photo Inkjet Photo Inkjet MFDs Fujitsu S2020

Printers HP PSC 2608 Hot swappable combo drive
Canon Pixma iP 3000 Inexpensive, excellent and Good graphic performance
Fast, Excellent photo and fast text and photo printing Average screen readability in
text printing None sunlight
No LCD Contact Hewlett Packard India Ltd. Contact Fujisan Technologies Pvt Ltd
Phone 0124-2566 111 Phone 022-56368718
Contact Canon India Ltd.
Website www.hp.com E-mail gathani.paresh@
Phone 0124-5160000
Price Rs fujisan.co.in
CMV-CT-722A Web site www.canon.co.in
Price Rs 78,000
Inexpensive Price Rs 8495
Good pixel response time of
16 ms
Contact Cee Vision Technologies
Phone 022-26733353
E-mail chemoplastmumbai@
vsnl.net
Price Rs 17,000

Zenith Presidio Vu
Canon Pixma iP 4000 Good battery life
Fast, Excellent photo and Built in web cam and SD/MMC
text printing card reader support
No LCD No recovery CD provided
Contact Canon India Ltd.
Phone 0124-5160000 Contact Zenith Computers Ltd
Web site www.canon.co.in Phone 022-28377300
Price Rs 10995 E-mail kalpak_bhatt@
zenith-india.com
Price Rs 70,000

APRIL 2005 DIGIT 59

 Illustration Shyam Shriram

Pixel Palette
The Web offers digital artists myriad resources to innovate and to enhance their skills

image manipulation (synoymously Many traditional artists view

Meera Vankipuram used with terms such as ‘retouch- digital art as a poor substitute for
ing’ or ‘morphing’) of images or ‘real’ art. But, as artist and assistant
uring the Renaissance scanned photographs created on professor G V Sreekumar of the
D period, artists such as
Leonardo da Vinci
vector-based programmes. Industrial Design Centre
(http://www.idc.iitb.ac.in/) at IIT-
attempted to observe, study, and The Medium Is The Bombay says, “The visual grammar
recreate objects with a greater Message of digital art is entirely different
degree of realism than previously As a medium, computer-generated from traditional art forms. Artists
existed. Renaissance artists art has, and continues to evolve shouldn’t try and recreate the
created lifelike images of people with technological advances.
and animals, set against back- While traditional art was Web Resources
drops that presented the illusion confined to the canvas or paper,
of depth and distance—like in the computer art can exist in differ- GFX Artists: www.gfxartist.com
famed Mona Lisa—by using ent forms, such as images, an CG Talk: www.cgtalk.com
certain stylised techniques. animated sequence, video, Sijun: www.sijun.com
Today, 21st century offerings website, installation or ‘kitsch’ art Surf Union: www.surfunion.com
such as Adobe PhotoShop, Corel forms. Photo manipulation is CG Tantra (Indian CG Community):
Painter, Adobe Illustrator, 3D another emerging area of expres- www.cgtantra.com
Studio Max, Macromedia Free- sion for digital artists. Furiae: www.furiae.com
hand and SketchPro are helping Today, most advertisement Deviant Art: www.deviantart.com
artists go where the palette and banners (vinyl), animated films, Digital Art Museum: www.dam.org
brush weren’t able to—achieve a and SFX sequences also employ ARS Electronica:
greater degree of realism as well variants of the digital art form. www.aec.at/en/index.asp
as manipulate the ‘real’—through Digital art is an integral part of Rhizome: www.rhizome.org
the medium of digital art. desktop publishing—consider Leonardo Electronic Almanac:
The term ‘digital art’ is expan- jacket-design for books and cover http://mitpress2.mit.edu/e-
sive—it can refer to purely design and/or layout for maga- journals/LEA/
computer-generated art or digital zines and other periodicals.

60 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Tools l Enhance
Cyber-Communities For
The Digital Artist
While most artists assert that
there is absolutely no substitute
in its to self-learning, meaning fooling
various around with software and discov-
guises—such as ering new shortcuts and effects,
interactivity, artifi- cyber-communities are also a
cial intelligence, surveil- Aspiring useful resource for the cubicle-
lance systems, and so on, I digital artists bound design professional.
use the term digital art as a should not be Digital art forums are akin to
reference to art created on a afraid of the Guru-Sishya tradition where
computer and then printed trying out commercial artists exhibit their
out as hard copy.” new software paintings, critique others’ works
According to Parthan, aspir- and and offer useful tips. Online
ing digital artists ought to techniques communities are a treasure-trove
same styles or effects, but should “browse the Web regularly, to stay Baiju Parthan of data, software tips and tricks.
treat the two media differently.” abreast of recent developments. Painter and Designers, students of Fine
Artists like Sreekumar who They should not be afraid of Digital Artist Art, and commercial artists use
first experimented with the digi- trying out new software and tech- the forums to interact with other
tal medium several years ago still niques, and should also have a fair artistes, enhance their skills,
remember the Apple Macintosh understanding of the way infor- source projects, and offer invalu-
fondly. “Back then we didn’t have mation technology is reshaping able guidance to their peers
the WWW and relied on our own our perception of the world.” and newbies.
experiments with Mac.” Sreeku- Apart from a digital camera Photographers like Atul
mar currently uses Photoshop CS, and a scanner, Parthan uses 3D Sharma (http://www.atulsharma.
QuarkXPress, Macromedia Free- graphics and image processing com/), based in New Delhi, who
hand and Fontographer. software to composite his digital use image-editing software for
IDC, which believes in intu- prints. “When I work with media- digital manipulation and
ition-based learning, conducts based art such as interactive video enhancement, recommend
workshops on design software installations, I depend a lot on Adobe’s online tutorials. Read the
such as 3D Studio Max and Maya. Flash movies and action-script manuals carefully; but after a
Sreekumar himself uses “forums coding,” he says. certain stage, the artist has to
and the IDC Yahoo! Group” to Shankar, a freelance designer experiment with the software.
keep himself up-to-date on the based in Hyderabad nods in The more styles you try out,
latest trends. Magazines such as unison. He is quick to point out, the better your portfolio is
Folio, Computer Arts, and Publish “Digital art provides designers going to look.
also offer valuable tips. like me the opportunity to create International Web communi-
Today, digital artists have paintings as authentic as those ties such as Deviant Art offer
access to tools that offer a wide created by using a real brush. In newbies a platform to exhibit
range of options—from colours to addition, design software their work. Art forums such as
styles to layers, perhaps imbuing provides different textures, back- CGTalk (www.gctalk.com), Sijun’s
in them a greater urge to inno- ground lighting options, and Forums (http://forums.sijun.com),
vate. Artists such as Baiju Parthan many other useful features.” a n d S u r f U n i o n
(http://snipurl.com/dhio) for For instance, software such as (www.surfunion.com) are also
instance, work extensively on the Corel Painter offers options such popular haunts for digital artists.
digital medium. as Pencil, Charcoal, Acrylic, Oil Freelance designers like
Says Parthan, “Since there are Paint, and Pastel to name a few Shankar rely heavily on forums
several forms of media art that which help recreate the brush- for work-related inputs, ideas as
employ information technology and-palette effect. well as constructive criticism.
“Not only do we obtain valuable
Guruspeak feedback on our work, we also
make a few good friends on the

S anjeev Kothari (www.sanjeevkothari.com) Q: How does one evolve as a digital artist?

is a name to reckon with in the world of
digital photography and imaging. Hailed by
A: Well, I started off with Photoshop, then
moved to Illustrator and other 3D programs. I
forum… sometimes, people who
I’ve never met. Forums help us
share our thoughts, ideas, and
photographers and artists across the globe think in an evolving medium, a combination of software tips with like-minded
as one of the most talented photographers skills and inclination to innovate is imperative. artists,” he says.
in the media today, Kothari has offered his Perhaps the most interesting
expertise to Adobe in the development of Q: Design software you work with? facet of online communities is
Photoshop 3 and 4. Currently based in New A: I primarily use Adobe's PhotoShop CS for the absence of the language
York, Kothari’s work has been featured in photo design. barrier. This reinforces the ‘art
Entertainment Weekly, GQ, Wired, has no boundaries’ dictum. By
Newsweek, Time and Fortune. His Q: Do you use any Web-based resources to facilitating knowledge sharing,
philosophy regarding photography is upgrade your skills? these cyber communities play a
“to embrace every possibility, digital or A: I frequent Shift (shift.jp.org), a Japanese e- greater role—nurturing, perhaps,
analogue, in the process of creating a zine that features new and innovative design the Ravi Varmas and Van Goghs of
more meaningful picture.” and photography. the digital world.
[email protected]

APRIL 2005 DIGIT 61

 Digital Tools l Smart SoHo

Illustration Shyam Shriram

Your Ten-Step Guide
To Home Employment
Home employment is not merely about registering on a website. It requires a lot of effort,
active networking and acquiring requisite skill sets

With a fair bit of technology preferred areas of employment,

Meera Vankipuram skills (typing and word processing and your comfort-level in each
skills, being PC literate), entrepre- area. For instance, if you are a
here is no such thing as a neurs can use the worldwide web programmer, weigh the benefits
T free lunch. Neither is
there an easy way to earn
to start companies and work from
the convenience of their homes. A
of home employment versus
working in a corporate environ-
money, especially from home. To network security firm in Mumbai, ment. If you are a student, chart
make yourself employable, you for instance, sourced almost all its out your daily schedule and
need to ensure that you have the initial jobs from the Internet— figure out how much time you
required skill sets as well as good crawling through Google, adver- can spare for a ‘part-time’ job,
marketing and interpersonal tising the website, and improving even if it doesn’t involve stepping
skills. A sound portfolio (for aspir- its page ranking on search engines out of home.
ing writers, editors, photogra- so that users looking for a certain Remember, you may or may
phers, designers, et al) is a must. security solution, would hit their not earn as much as you would in
Today, several private compa- site as soon as they entered the a full-time job, and freelance proj-
nies and MNCs are employing particular keyword. ects take time to source and
people who prefer working out Before you get into the home payments are delayed, in some
of their homes. A host of oppor- employment groove, make sure cases. Zeroing in on the right kind
tunities exist for home employ- you have the requisite qualifica-
ment in areas as diverse as tions, hardware, and time-
telemarketing, selling insurance, management skills to convince The story titled ‘Home Is Where The
data entry, accounting, writing potential employers that you are Money Is’ featured in the February
(academic and journalistic writ- the right person for the job. 2005 issue received nearly 700
ing), editing and proof reading, e-mails, from readers across the
web design, content develop- The Checklist country. While we cannot source jobs
ment, Internet-based research Make The Right Choices for our readers, we can recommend
for companies, graphic design Before you consider quit- methods using which you can make
and desktop publishing, ting your day-job or begin yourself employable, without enter-
programming, audio and video working from home, take a piece ing the ‘corporate rat-race’.
editing, and translation. of paper and list out your skills,

62 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Tools l Smart SoHo
of job is important. Don’t get people (www.it-people.com), and
stuck with a job you don’t like. Times Jobs (www.timesjobs.com) to
A caveat— get a basic understanding of the
Set Up Your online job profile. Use Resume Builder on
Workstation communities these sites (needs registration) and
Once you have narrowed have their on MS Word.
down your choice of employment, own set of
you can set up your workstation. protocols and Set Up A Web Site Or Blog
You need to make sure that your etiquette. Create a good web site
future work area is very comfort- Remember to (one that’s not too garish,
able—use ergonomic furniture, follow the text or image heavy). Use services
wherever possible. rules; don’t such as Godaddy.com or
For Writers/Editors: A fast forward your Net4India.com or free services
PC is a pre-requisite, you may also resume to such as, Geocities to purchase
have to install software such as everyone you domain space. If you are a free-
MS Office/Open Office, QuarkXP- meet. lance photographer or graphic
press or Adobe InDesign. designer, put up thumbnails of
For Designers: Although it’s your work on the site. You could
not important to invest in a Mac also set up a web log (blog) on sites
(Apple Macintosh), make sure such as Blogger.com and LiveJour-
your PC has enough RAM (at least nal.com. Don’t forget to provide
1GB), hard disk space, and install your e-mail address, resume, and
a good graphics card. You also contact details at a prominent
need to install a design software location on the site.
such as Adobe Photoshop, 3D
Studio Max, Quark, Corel Painter, Browse the Web
or Adobe InDesign. Use the best search
For Data Entry/Typing Assign- engines in the business
ments: A computer, MS (Google, Yahoo!, MSN Search, and
Office/Open Office, or other data- the right keywords (‘freelance
entry software. programming’, ‘freelance transla-
For Medical Transcription: tion’) to find the jobs you want.
Don’t provide personal details
while registering on a website
unless its absolutely essential.
Rent-a-coder (www.rentacod-
1 col AD
er.com), a freelance-sourcing site
has a ranking system to rate the
work of freelancer programmers,
and help companies choose
people best suited for a particular
project. Guru.com (www.guru.co-
m) and I Hire Programmers
(www.ihireprogrammers.com) are
other popular freelance sites.

Network
It’s very, very important
Use the Resume Builder feature on job-sites to to ‘connect’ with the
prepare a top-notch resume
outside world. Join networking
Medical transcription involves groups such as Friendster
transcribing medical records (www.friendster.com) and Ryze
dictated by doctors (patient (www.ryze.com), have your blog
history, records, notes, lab reports), linked to blog rings, and enroll in
usually located in clinics abroad. forums, user groups and other
Basic requirements include a PC specific online communities. A
with about 20 GB hard disk space, caveat—online communities have
256 MB RAM (minimum), sound their own set of protocols and
card and Internet access. You etiquette. Remember to follow the
would also require headphones, rules; don’t forward your resume
word processing software, and a to everyone you meet.
good dictionary.
Prepare Your Portfolio Create A Work
Prepare a good resume, Schedule And Meet
entering the right key Deadlines
words under ‘Objective’. Use sites Create a ‘work culture’ for your-
like Monster (www.monster.com), self. Just because there is no ‘boss’
JobsAhead (www.jobsahead.com), breathing down your neck, you
Naukri (www.naukri.com), IT- can’t afford to slacken or miss

APRIL 2005 DIGIT 63

 Digital Tools l Smart SoHo
deadlines. In fact, you have to work Upgrade Your Skill-sets Choose Your Weapon
twice as hard to ensure that the When you have time, Browse through the classifieds of
companies/clients hiring you have enrol in training sessions, your local newspaper. There are
absolutely no reason to regret part-time diploma courses or plenty of opportunities to ‘earn
employing a freelancer. distance education programmes from home’, from growing mush-
to upgrade your existing skill sets. rooms, to clicking on advertise-
Sell Yourself With technological advance- ments. Web Sites such as,
Be your own boss, and ments, there will be rapid click2freemoney.com, for example,
brand manager. While it’s changes in the employment employ people to click on websites
important to have an online pres- scenario as well. and ad banners, in return for cash
ence in the form of a website or The IT industry, for instance, payment made through PayPal.
blog, it’s equally important to be is continuously evolving. You may The site currently pays 40 paise to
aware of competitive pricing and have to invest in software courses, Rs 2 (or 40 points to 200 points) per
different payment strategies. at least once every year, to learn click, depending on the advertis-
Do not charge your clients less new programming languages, ing revenue. You might have to
because you are working from improve your design and editing ‘share’ some of the moolah with
home. Make enquires pertaining skills, and so on. Not upgrading middlemen who charge a ‘commis-
to the market rates for a particu- your skills periodically would sion’ on daily earnings.
lar project (say, web-design or reduce your chances of employ- But what makes the difference
coding), and charge them accord- ment, in any field. between a sustainable source of
ingly. Also, do not under-rate or income and a flash-in-the-pan job
over-rate your skills; and do not Exercise Regularly opportunity is how you go about
undersell or oversell yourself. Be As the maxim goes, preparing yourself for a sustained,
as honest as far as possible. health is wealth. Working long-term effort.
Tip: To ascertain that Google from home may reduce your As Confucius says, “The
throws up your site when users travel time but it might also bring mechanic that would perfect his
enter a certain keyword, make the to a halt the little exercise you work must first sharpen his tools.”
title of your web page very specific were getting earlier by walking to So are you ready to hit the home-
(‘Fashion Photographer’ or ‘Free- and from the train or the bus employment road?
lance Writer’ as the case may be). station. To ensure that you give [email protected]
Ensure that your site is linked your best to the projects you
to other prominent ones, by source, some physical exercise, Disclaimer: DIGIT does not claim
publishing research papers online, yoga, and meditation sessions responsibility for a) the accuracy of infor-
being part of active online commu- coupled with a balanced diet will mation on the websites we recommend,
nities or regularly updating your help you stay mentally and physi- and b) any damage arising from the use
web log with quality content. cally in good shape. of such services.

1/2 pg. H AD

64 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Microsoft Word
Word giving you trouble? Here are five common niggles,
and what you can do about them

you want. Remember, doing this will than one instance of normal.dot, rename
Ram Mohan Rao change the setting in the ‘Borders and or delete all of them. When you launch
Shading’ menu, so you will need to Word again, it will look for ‘normal.dot’,
1. When you paste text from a readjust that if you would like to remove and if it cannot find it, Word will create
Web page, you get all the lines again. a new one.
unwanted formatting too The usual location for ‘normal.dot’ is
Reason: Word XP was designed so you 3. Word keeps trying to help you <Drive Letter>:\Documents and
could choose to either paste content as it is, Reason: This, of course, is an inbuilt Settings\<Your Username>\Application
or modify it to match the destination feature—Word was designed to help you Data\Microsoft\Templates
formatting, or keep only the text. as often as you might require it.
Unfortunately, as it oftern happens, Word 5. Inserting foreign characters
takes a long time to convert the Web page Solution: Go to Tools > AutoCorrect is a pain
formatting to either plain text or to the Options, and make changes under all five Reason: In order to insert a special or
destination formatting. tabs. For instance, under ‘AutoFormat’, foreign character, you can either use the
you can remove the automatic Insert menu or the Character Map. In
Solution: Use Paste Special. Go to the hyperlinking of Web addresses; under case you feel wary of the thousands of
menu Edit > Paste Special > As Unformatted ‘AutoFormat As You Type’, you can signs that appear, there is an easier way
Text, and click OK. You can also use the remove the automatic generation of to do it—using keyboard shortcuts.

When copying and pasting text from Web Go to all five tabs in the AutoCorrect options to For foreign characters you can either use
pages, you often don’t want the formatting customise the way Word helps you ‘insert symbol’—or keyboard shortcuts

keyboard shortcut sequence, which is [Alt] bulleted lists. Set everything the way Solution: Here are the keyboard
+ [E] > [S] > [U] > [U] > [Enter]. you want it, so Word will help you as shortcuts for various symbols:
little or as much as you would like it to. à, è, ì, ò, ù, À, È, Ì, Ò, Ù: [Ctrl]+[`]
2. Horizontal lines that you draw followed by the letter
don’t get deleted 4. Word crashes or freezes as á, é, í, ó, ú, ý, Á, É, Í, Ó, Ú, Ý: [Ctrl]+[‘]
Reason: When you draw a horizontal line soon as it opens, or doesn’t followed by the letter
using underscores, some of the lines get open at all â, ê, î, ô, û, Â, Ê, Î, Ô, Û: [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[^]
converted to double lines, and you find Reason: The odds are that your global followed by the letter
that deleting the lines and pressing [Enter] template is corrupt, or something is ã, ñ, õ, Ã, Ñ, Õ: [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[~] followed
only results in more lines coming up. This loading automatically in your Word by the letter
happens because of the AutoFormat and Startup folder that is wrongly configured. ä, ë, ï, ö, ü, ÿ, Ä, Ë, Ï, Ö, Ü, Ÿ: [Ctrl] +
Borders defaults in Word. [Shift]+[:] followed by the letter
Solution: To check if it’s a corrupt global å, Å: [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[2] followed by a or A
Solution: Once you have a document template or some add-in that is loading æ, Æ: [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[7] followed by a or A
with some lines that you would like to on startup, go to Start > Run and key in œ, Œ: [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[7] followed by o or O
remove, go to Format > Borders and “winword.exe /a” without the quotes. If ç, Ç: [Ctrl]+[,] followed by c or C
Shading > Borders and click ‘None’. Also Word launches fine, then it is mostly a ø, Ø: [Ctrl]+[/] followed by o or O
go to Tools > AutoCorrect Options > bad normal.dot file or a corrupt add-in. ¿: [Alt]+[Ctrl]+[Shift]+[?]
AutoFormat As You Type, and under ‘Apply To get yourself a new, uncorrupt ¡: [Alt]+[Ctrl]+[Shift]+[!]
as you type’, uncheck ‘Border lines’. At a template, simply close Word and search ß: [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[&] followed by s
later stage, you can enable the ‘Border your computer for the ‘normal.dot’ file,
lines’ and draw horizontal lines the way and rename or delete it. If you find more [email protected]

65 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 System Restore on all drives’ box. Click ‘Apply’
and then click ‘OK’.
Start Norton AntiVirus, scan all drives and
let it delete infected files. Reboot the
computer after the scanning is done and
then, if you want, re-enable System Restore.

Overheating Blues—Again
I have an original Intel 865 GBX mother-
board with an Intel Pentium 3.0 GHz proces-
sor, 256MB of DDR RAM and an 80 GB HDD. I use
Your Questions, Our Answers an I-Box compatible cabinet. The problem is, my
system heats up very quickly. I check the
Auto-starting Viruses temperature using active monitor; immediately
after being switched on, the system temperature
I have a Pentium III 500 MHz CPU, 128 MB of rises in no time. I have installed an additional fan
RAM, and an 80 GB hard disk running and also got the internal cables neatly fixed to a
Windows XP Pro. My computer was side, but the problem persists. Please
infected by the W32.Passma virus, so I suggest what I should do.
loaded Norton AntiVirus 2004 Kamesh
Professional and even updated it, but to
no avail. Norton detects the virus and It is extremely likely that your CPU
deletes files but does not clean the virus fan is not mounted properly, and
out. Help me get rid of this infection! that the thermal paste has not been
Girish applied correctly. If that is not that case,
then you have to check and make sure
Removing autostart entries from that your cabinet is properly ventilated.
the registry prevents the malware Simply adding extra fans won’t neces-
from executing during startup. Here’s sarily solve the problem—the ventilation
what you need to do: may not be adequate, and it is possible
Log on as Administrator and open that your fans are circulating the same
the ‘Registry Editor’ by going to Start> hot air inside.
Run , typing ‘regedit’, and pressing An ideal setup would be where a
[Enter]. In the left panel, navigate to front fan sucks in fresh cool air from the
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ outside, and a rear fan sucks the air out from
Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run and the rear of the cabinet, thereby ensuring
locate and delete the entry ‘Service Manager = there is cross ventilation in the cabinet. This
“%System%\SERVICEMGR.EXE”’. Close the is gauranteed to keep the temperature at
Registry Editor. acceptable levels.
The next thing you need to do is turn off
system restore by pressing [Windows]+[Pause/ Mismatched Modules
Break] to go to system properties, click on the
System Updates tab and check the ‘Turn off I have a Pentium 4 2.26 GHz and a Mercury
motherboard with two memory slots. Each
slot can hold a 1 GB RAM stick. There’s 128 MB
DDR RAM installed in one slot. I would like to
install a 256 MB stick in the vacant slot. Would
there be a problem if I have two memory slots
with memory modules of different capacities?
Goutam Ghosh

There should be no problem with putting

in RAM modules of different capacities.
However, you might encounter problems if
the RAM frequencies are different.
If you would like to check your RAM
frequencies, download a software called
Everest from www.lavalys.com. Insert one
module at a time and check for the core
frequencies. If they match, you will most
probably not face a problem.
However, it is not a sure-shot testing
method, as different CAS (Column Access
Strobe) latency timings might conflict. If the
core frequencies match, you can put in the
chips and test your system for stability. If the
Open the System Properties dialog box and check the system is stable, keep them inserted, else
‘Turn off System Restore on all drives’ option discard the 128 MB module.

78 DIGIT APRIL 2005

CD vs VCD vs DVD Rolling Back DirectX
I recorded and saved a TV programme using I am using Windows XP with SP1. I recently
Pinnacle PCTV, and did a bit of editing using installed DirectX 9.0c from the Digit DVD.
Virtualdub. I saved the file as a .avi file, and then Can I uninstall it? Or can I simply install an older
compressed it to Windows MPEG. After that I version over the newer version? Will this affect
burnt it onto a CD. Unfortunately, the CD does my system in any way?
not play on my Philips DVD player, but it does Raj Pratap
play on my PC. Why?
K N Prasad It is not recommended that you roll back
or uninstall DirectX, as it is closely inte-
Your DVD player probably does not grated with your video drivers. Also, you will
support MPEG videos. To view it using not be able to roll back to a previous version
your DVD player, burn a VCD rather than a at one go. You will need to download a utility
regular CD. Your CD-burning software will called DirectX Uninstaller, located at
then convert the file to a VCD-compatible http://snipurl.com/dd6y. This lets you uninstall
format. You should be able to play the VCD on your DirectX version 9.0c, and if you want,
any regular VCD or DVD player. you may then install an earlier version.
However, keep in mind that depend-
ing on your specifications of your Spyware Blues
computer, the encoding process can
take quite some time. I run Windows 98 SE, and every time
I open Internet Explorer, I am taken to
I Changed My Mind… a site called www.cursormania.com. Even
while browsing, I am often taken to this
I recently downloaded a BIOS update page. What do I do?
from Intel’s Web site. But now, I Via E-mail
would like to roll it back. I want to know if
there is a way to uninstall or remove the Your computer has been infected
update? I have a P4 1.7 GHz computer, and with spyware from companies such
the board is an Intel D845GLLY. as Smiley Central. For some reason, the
Bishesh Bhatta makers of Spybot Search and Destroy
have deemed this particular piece of
It is possible to roll back your BIOS spyware a safe application, which
by re-flashing it with an older means you cannot use that software to
version. If you have saved your previous BIOS, uninstall this application. You will have to
you can simply flash it from that particular remove it manually.
file. If you didn’t save your previous BIOS, you Go to Start>Run and type in “appwiz.cpl”,
will need to download that version of the BIOS which opens Add/Remove Programs. Find the
from the manufacturer’s Web site. application called “My Web Search (Cursor
Please be very careful while flashing your Mania)”—it should be there in the list—and
BIOS as it can render your motherboard unus- then uninstall it.
able if done incorrectly. Also look through the application list for
programs from FunWebProducts, such as “My
Old Is Gold Web Search”, “My Way Speedbar”, “Search
Assistant”, and possibly others.
I own a P4 3 GHz CPU on an Intel mother- You can download HijackThis from
board. There are two 40 GB partitions on my http://snipurl.com/dd6z—download and run it.
HDD. I use Windows XP on the C drive, and Win Also go to C:\Program Files, and delete all the
98 SE on the D drive. My current default OS is folders that FunWebProducts, MyWebSearch
Windows XP, but I would like to set Windows 98 and other similar Web sites created. This
as my default boot OS. should rid you of your problem.
I would also like to modify the default time
for which the boot menu is displayed.
Sanjay Kapoor

As it happens, you don’t need to go into

the BIOS for this. You can do this right
through Windows XP, by keeping XP in
control of what happens during the boot
process. Boot into XP, and under My
Computer>Properties, go to ‘Advanced’, and
click on the settings button in ‘Startup And
Recovery’. Under the default operating
system drop-down menu, you can choose the
operating system you would like to boot into
by default.
In the same window, you can also set the Programs such as MyWebSearch can get installed auto-
time limit for displaying the boot menu. matically—you can uninstall them manually

DIGIT APRIL 2005 79

 Increase Your Browsing Speeds
Have you given up over your sluggish Net connection? Check out Onspeed—a paid service
that claims to increase your browsing speeds and block irritating pop-ups

S
low connection speeds have always been change your ISP or get any additional hardware. Onspeed has
the bane of Internet users in India. Even added an extra tab
‘broadband’ connections aren’t exactly Let’s Get Started called as ‘Show
lightning fast. India has more than one million Since this a software solution, all it asks for is, a Original Image’.
Internet connections, out of which most users modest 200 MHz processor, 128 MB of RAM, and This feature loads
are on a dial-up or pseudo-broadband connec- 10 MB of hard disk space. The download size of the original image
tions provided by the local cablewallah. For a this utility is a mere 1 MB. So even your dial-up from the site,
dial-up user, waiting for ages for a page to load connection can download this neat piece of code. giving you the
is the norm. Go to www.onspeed.com and sign up for freedom to view
So, is there any light at the end of the an account. Once you pay for the service using select images at
tunnel? Well, there just might be. A British your credit card, the download will commence. Move the slider to the their true
company, Onspeed, has launched a paid service Double click on the .exe file when download left for speed and to the resolutions.
that claims to increase your Internet speed by completes to start the installation, and that’s it. right for image quality
as much as 5X on a dial-up, 3X on a broadband You do not need to change any of your dial-up What Else?
and 8X on a GPRS connection. The utility works network settings or any settings from your Apart from increasing the browsing speed
on Windows and Mac platforms. However, Linux Network Connection dialog box if you are on a Onspeed also has pop-up blocker and in-page
users will have to wait a while for their version. broadband connection. advertisement blocking. However, every time
A green Onspeed icon will appear in the a pop-up was blocked an irritating beep was
Modus Operandi system tray at the end of the installation. Click on emitted. However, this can be turned off.
Onspeed has developed an algorithm that this to start the service. It will ask for a login Onspeed also worked with the Windows XP
performs a ‘content-sensitive compression name and password. You must make sure that SP2 default firewall, without any problems.
(CSC)’. This means that it doesn’t blindly you are connected Currently the service does not support .exe,
compress anything and everything, but the to the Internet as it mp3 and Mpeg4 files. But the next version,
compression ratio is applied depending on the authorises your
content. At present, Onspeed compresses JPEG, login and password.
PNG, GIF, BMP, HTML objects, texts, office docu- Right click the
ments such as Microsoft Word, Excel, system tray icon
PowerPoint, and Flash files. It also works for e- and click ‘Settings’.
mails. According to Onspeed, the service was This will present
actually developed for the US military, and later you with four
released as a service in the public domain. options, namely,
Content-sensitive compression is the name Image Quality,
given by Onspeed to nine patented compression The dialog box displaying C o n n e c t i o n ,
technologies, which work in the background to an increase in speed Feature, and
compress the data. This novel idea takes the after starting Onspeed Update.
approach of compressing data flowing through From Image
whichever Internet pipe is available rather than Quality you can set the compression ratio for
going for the thicker, costlier Internet pipes. The the image, from high acceleration to best
compression is done on the fly by the Onspeed quality. When set to very high acceleration, Enable email compression and pop-up
server (http://helium.onspeed.com) and the the browsing speed will increase, but at the blocker from here
final data is sent to you. So, you do not have to cost of the image quality. We used a dial-up
connection to test this. At default settings expected by mid-2005 will offer supports for
when we downloaded a 400 KB image, it was these formats as well. An Update tab
compressed to 148 KB. We were getting provided within settings eliminates the need
around 2.1X to 2.5X acceleration and Onspeed to go to the Onspeed site.
was reporting a ‘Current Connection Speed’
of 37 Kbps. This speed is half of what The Cost Factor
Onspeed claims but the pages were loading This service is available for £24.99 per year
really fast. (Rs 2,100), or roughly Rs 175 per month. The
When the acceleration was set to a maxi- amount is negligible if we consider the
mum, a 168 KB image was compressed to a amount of time it saves by speeding up your
mere 34 KB. However, the pixilations were quite connection. A dial-up user rarely downloads
evident—something that might not appeal to programs, therefore it still makes sense to
everyone. If the slider is moved to ‘Good image opt for this service, even if it can’t handle
quality’, the original size of the image will be .exe and mp3 formats as of now. The good
retained. This will in turn decrease your brows- part is, it can be used in any part of the world
Type in your username and password as you ing speeds, defeating the whole purpose of and can be easily purchased online from
entered them during registration having the service. To work around this issue, www.onspeed.com.

80 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Windows Is Not Windows Now restart your PC
and try and install SP2.
I copied the Windows XP SP2 final file from the Digit If this still doesn’t
September 2004 DVD. When I tried to run it, the applica- work, press [Windows]
tion extracts all the files but then displays “The core system + [Pause/Break] and go
file (Kernel) used to start this computer is not a to the Advanced tab
Microsoft Windows file. The service pack will not be and click on the
tion installed.” Setup then aborts. How can I install SP2? I ‘Settings’ button
Quefsthe have a Pentium III 1.14 GHz and 256 MB of SDRAM under ‘Startup and
o nth
Mo running Windows 98 and XP Professional. Recovery’. Under
Ram Kishore ‘System Startup’, click
‘Edit’—this will open
This happens when your computer has a modified the ‘boot.ini’ file in
version of the Ntoskrnl.exe file that uses the /KERNEL Notepad. Locate and
switch in the Boot.ini file. This is due to a third-party delete the line
application, such as BootXP or LogonUI Boot Randomiser, containing “/KERNEL
which customises the graphics that are displayed when =”, and save and close
your computer starts up. the boot.ini file.
To solve this problem, go to Start>Run, type in Restart the computer,
“appwiz.cpl” and press [Enter]. Select the program name you and you should be
installed that customises startup graphics, and click ‘Remove’. able to install SP2. Here’s where you edit the startup options file

Modem Madness searched and asked all the technicians I know for
various solutions, but none seems to be working.
I own an AMD 2400+ based PC with an Asus Is there any way I can use my sound card with
motherboard and 256 MB of DDR RAM. Linux, or will I need to go in for a new one?
Recently, I installed XP and a modem (Motorola Sanjeev Prakash
SM65). I didn’t have the XP drivers for it, so I
installed the Windows 2000 drivers. My PC Red Hat Linux 9 by default does not come
restarted just as the installation was about to with bundled drivers for your particular
complete. It kept restarting during the POST make of sound card. But your Linux-specific
period. I thought it was a hardware problem, so I drivers are available at www.alsa-project.org.
removed the modem, and the PC started. Download the following from the main
I then downloaded the XP drivers, and page: library, utilities and tools. Now,
again put on the modem. This time the PC uncompress the files and recompile the
started—then, just as I was installing the Linux kernel with the new drivers. Your
drivers, the PC restarted yet again, and it sound card should work now.
kept restarting until I disconnected the
modem. Is this a hardware problem? If so, Partitioning Woes
why does it happen only after I try
installing the drivers? I have a Pentium 4 3.2 GHz processor
Via E-mail with 512 MB of DDR RAM and an 80
GB HDD. I have been using Windows 98,
Download your modem drivers from and now want to install windows XP Pro. I
the Motorola Web site at would also like to keep Windows 98.
http://snipurl.com/dd6v. Now, go to My However, my hard disk is not partitioned,
Computer>Properties . Under the and I do not want to format it. Is there a
‘Hardware’ tab, click on ‘Device way to partition a disk without formatting
Manager’; your modem should be listed. it? Or, can Windows XP and 98 SE be
Click and uninstall it completely. Reboot your installed on the same partition?
PC and re-install the modem. If the problem Nitesh Kumar
persists, try installing the modem on a differ-
ent computer; if it installs there, then you You can install Windows XP and 98 on
need to extract your modem driver files into a Get Help Now! the same partition by specifying differ-
folder, go to ‘Device Manager’, select your E-mail us your comput- ent installation folders. This, however, can
modem, and under the ‘Driver’ tab, click ing problems along with lead to various conflicts as the two OSes use
‘Update Driver’. Give the location as that of the your contact details to entirely different drivers and system file
folder into which you extracted your drivers. It [email protected], and versions. The best way to do it is to install the
should work now. we may answer them OSes on different partitions.
here! Since we get more One of the best softwares that will let you
mails per day than we
The Sound Of Linux can handle, it may take
accomplish this is Partition Magic 8.0. You can
download it from http://snipurl.com/cbdk.
some time for your
I have a Pentium III 800 MHz with 256 MB of Note that you will need to purchase the
query to be answered.
SDRAM. I also have an Xwave QS3000A PCI Rest assured, we are software, as the demo version only shows you
sound card. The problem is my sound card does listening! the partition creating process and will not
not work under Red Hat Linux 9.0. I have actually create any partitions.

82 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Tools l Agent 001
Agent 001

MemoCards Demystified
CF, MMC, RS-MMC, SD, xD-Picture... huh? Here’s the straight dope on memory cards

T
he other day I received a message from my The highest Stick, and this has three different formats—the
dearest friend Abhijeet—no, not the Indian original Memory Stick PRO, Memory Stick Duo
Idol guy—he had just bought a Sony
capacity of and Memory Stick PRO Duo, which vary in capac-
Ericsson P910. I was eager to meet him, not just to Compact Flash ity. The xD-Picture card, by Olympus and Fuji, is
tinker with his new toy, but also to show off my card that you extremely small and provides up to 1 GB of stor-
new Nikon digicam. We decided to meet up at his can buy is 8 GB age space.
house and then go out to grab a ‘byte’ to eat. We knew that the two best places to shop for
I arrived, promptly 30 minutes late, as is flash memory in Mumbai are Heera-Panna and
my trademark. Abhijeet answered the door, Alpha shopping centre. We visited Heera-Panna
earphones dangling from his ears. Did I men- shopping centre first, and straight up, spotted a
tion that he’s a music fanatic? Even at school, swanky-looking shop that had digicams and MP3
when we would bring tiffin-boxes, Abhijeet players on display. I walked in and asked for a CF
would bring his Walkman! memory card for my camera, as usual playing as
Twenty minutes later, we were sitting at our dumb as possible. “There are many brands of CF
favourite Punjabi restaurant. Between mouth- cards; SanDisk is well known for its performance
fuls of Chhole Bhature, Abhijeet complained about and reliability, and Lexar media is another well
the dearth of memory in his phone. He could known brand that you should look out for,” I was
never have enough memory for his MP3s. I told. Apparently, both these brands have special
realised that my Nikon’s 16 MB of internal mem- Compact Flash ranges for professionals that offer
ory was also far from sufficient for a higher speeds—especially good for those into
shutterbug like me. It was decided that soon, we sports photography. The highest capacity you
would embark on a search for good flash can buy is 8 GB, but the vendor told me that he
memory bargains. would have to call someone to enquire about the
The next day, driving to our destination, I price—and was only willing to do so if I was seri-
began explaining why people need to be ous about buying it. I wasn’t, and decided to
careful when buying flash memory. drop the subject.
Quite often, they end up buying the I asked for MMC and SD cards, and was
wrong type of card, because they shown Panasonic, SanDisk, Lexar and Kingston
don’t realise there are various cards. The highest capacity available for stan-
types of flash memory— dard MMC cards was 128 MB. Then I saw a
CompactFlash (CF), MultiMedia Kingston MMC Plus format that offered a
Card (MMC), SD (Secure Digital), whopping 1 GB of space. SD cards were avail-
xD-Picture card, Memory Stick able up to 1 GB as well.
Pro/Duo, and many more. When I asked for a Sony Memory Stick, I
For digital cameras, the most was shown original Sony Memory Sticks as well
commonly used format is as those manufactured by third-
CompactFlash. It’s a large card, and party vendors such as Lexar
is used in the medium to SLR range of and SanDisk. The price dif-
cameras. But that’s not all: you have ference was negligible,
CompactFlash I and II formats as well, and and I was told that the
your camera supports either of the two. maximum capacity sup-
MMC and SD cards are most commonly ported by the Memory
used in PDAs, cell phones, camcorders, and Stick format is 1GB.
the like. Newer phones, such as Nokia’s I also asked to see a
6600, 9500 and 7710, use an enhanced ver- card reader—it eases the task of transferring
sion of the MMC card, called Reduced Sized data to and from the PC to assorted cards of dif-
MMC (RS-MMC). ferent formats. I saw a 7-in-1 card reader for Rs
Most Sony digital cameras and cell phones 400 and a 19-in-1 card reader for Rs 550.
use Sony’s proprietary standard called Memory Eventually, we never made it out of Heera-
Panna, and I ended up buying a SanDisk 512
Memory Card Price List (Rs) MB CF card for Rs 2,400 and the 7-in-1 card
reader for Rs 350. We also got a good bargain
Capacities Compact Memory MMC SD xD for a 512 MB Sony Memory Stick for Abhijeet’s
Flash stick Pro P910—Rs 4,500.
128 MB NA 1,100 800 950 1,000
256 MB 1,500 3,000 1,300 1,500 1,700
512 MB 2,400 5,000 2,000 2,700 3,000 Want more of Agent 001? Turn over to read his
1 GB 4,000 7,000 4,200 4,300 NA answers to your buying questions
Illustration Shyam Shriram

DIGIT APRIL 2005 71

 Digital Tools l Agent 001 Ask Agent 001
Where, And How Much?
If you are an avid Product Vendor Price (Rs)
I want to purchase an AMD Athlon 64-bit 3000+ Aver TV Go 007 Access Pvt Ltd 2,950
gamer, you Compro Mediatech India 2,275
Processor and an MSI K8N Neo Motherboard,
but my retailer says it is not available. Where can I
should consider Videomate TV/PVR
find retailers dealing in these products, and what adding the 6600 Pinnacle PCTV Plus Pinnacle India 2,500
would the prices be like? graphics card to quality, just in case you are thinking of using
Manish your system—but such cards to convert your VHS tapes to CD.
remember, this The price for these cards will vary between
I cannot give you the address of a specif- Rs 2,250 and Rs 3,000.
ic retailer in your locality, but I can give
board supports
you the details of distributors who may be able PCI-Express and A Workstation And A Cabinet
to tell you where to purchase the items from. not AGP
The distributors for AMD processors are Tech I am currently in the process of building a
Pacific, and can be contacted at 022-55960101, workstation and need a full tower enclosure,
and for the MSI motherboard, you should con- but have been unsuccessful in locating a dealer. I
tact Cyberstar Infocom at 0-9323809599, or would appreciate your help in locating a dealer, and
Tirupati Enterprises at 0-98310022600. A sim- if possible, please mention the brand and the price
pler way of getting around the problem is to of the cabinet I should be looking at.
post your query on our forums at Kanav
www.thinkdigit.com/forum. Forum members
who stay in or around your area will help you You can opt for Antec tower cabinets—
find the right place to buy these components. they have some good models meant for
workstations. Their ‘Performance’ series has an
Upgrade Now Or Later? array of cabinets to choose from, I would per-
sonally recommend the Performance Plus
My system configuration is an Intel Pentium 4 660AMG. You should also check out the roomy
2.4 GHz processor with HT technology, an Intel P160, which Antec claims they have made from
865GBF original motherboard, and 256 MB of DDR recycled fighter jets.
400 RAM. I want to upgrade my graphics card so I Antec cabinets come with efficient and reli-
can play the latest games such as Half-life 2 and able power supplies and are hence more expen-
DOOM 3. The new series of cards from nVidia and ATi sive than other products, so be prepared to
are expensive, so does it make sense to buy a MX- spend a lot more. You can contact Cyber Space
4000-based card for now and then later opt for the Abacus on 044-24917667, or visit their Web site
new cards when they get cheaper? www.theitdepot.com.
Ajit Das
The Future-proofing Problem
If you really want to play Half-Life 2,
DOOM 3 and other upcoming games, This month, I got a lot of queries regard-
then settling for an MX-4000-based card is not ing a good CPU-motherboard combina-
going to help you. In the next two years, graphics tion, or a good PC configuration that is at least
card manufacturers will move to the newer PCI-e two years future-proof. I decided to list down
interface, and it will become difficult to find a the components that you should be looking for.
high-end AGP card. This will put you in a fix, and The motherboard mentioned below is based
you will have no option but to upgrade your on ATi’s new Express 200 chipset and has inte-
entire system, since your current motherboard grated graphics that will let you play most
does not support PCI-e. I suggest you invest in a games at playable frame rates. However, if you
good AGP card now, so that your system will are an avid gamer, you should consider adding
allow you to play most of the upcoming games. the 6600 graphics card, but remember, this
Remember, when it comes to IT, there’s always board supports PCI-Express and not AGP. I have
something better looming on the horizon, and if mentioned indicative prices for these compo-
you keep waiting, you are bound to end up nents; remember that they will differ from
spending a lot of money on components you location to location.
don’t really want.

Recording Via TV-Tuner Future-proofing Your PC

I want to purchase a TV-tuner card, mainly to CPU AMD 939 pin Athlon64 3000+ Rs 7,500
record content from my VCR and TV pro- or 3200+
Motherboard MSI RS480M2 Rs 6,500
grammes. I want you to help me choose a good card RAM 512 MB DDR 400 Hynix Rs 3,500
with capturing capability. My budget is Rs 3,000. Ask Away HDD 80 GB SATA Samsung/Seagate Rs 2,650
G V V Rao Monitor 17-inch Acer 715 Rs 6,500
Want a tech product, but Keyboard Logitech Rs 300
For Rs 3,000, there are many good TV- don’t know how to go Mouse Logitech Optical Rs 300
tuner cards that you can buy. Aver TV about buying it? Send an Cabinet Any cabinet you like Rs 500
GO 007, Pinnacle PCT V Pro and Compro e-mail to Power supply Antec/VIP 350 W power supply Rs 2,000
[email protected] Optical drive Lite-On/Sony Combo drive Rs 2,750
Videomate are the cards you should be look- to get your queries
ing at. Though these cards support video cap- TOTAL Rs 32,500
answered Graphics card XFX Geforce 6600 card Rs 12,000
ture, the output isn’t exactly of a professional

72 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Tools l Net Gain

Kuro5hin.org
Technology and culture from the trenches

Robert Sovereign-Smith

A
t first sight, this Web site looks
like just another news portal.
However, once you read a couple
of articles, you will realise that this is
anything but. Kuro5hin, or K5, is what
can only be described as news from the
community, by the community.
K5 has no reporters, and no
editor either. Sure, there are trusted
members that look after the site in
terms of policing the content, but the
rules are pretty relaxed—only pornog-
raphy and extremely offensive mate-
rial are not allowed.

Where Does The News

Come From?
From the K5 community, of course! The Kuro5hin homepage is well designed. Everything you might need in order
And all you have to do to join the to navigate the site is right there on the homepage
community is register on the site,
wait for a confirmation e-mail, and After the predetermined voting The topics are neatly and conve-
start posting. Of course, you don’t time is over, the article is posted on niently arranged along the top of
need to do any of that if all you want the site, or not posted at all, the page, and offer a wide range of
to do is read the news. depending on how much the interesting reading material—from
community likes the story. This ‘Technology’ and ‘Science’ to ‘Politics’
What’s So Great About It? ensures that K5’s content is always and ‘Fiction’.
Every registered user is something of in tune with the interests of the Everything—from articles that
an editor. A registered user can post a masses, and everyone always gets teach you a thing or two, to features
story, comment on stories, and even to read things they find interesting. that tickle your funny bone—can be
vote for stories that have been recently found under each section. For exam-
submitted. You can do this by looking Another Slashdot? ple, the ‘Technology’ section
for the ‘Moderate Submissions’ link on Well, yes—sort of. The difference lies currently has articles about one
the right after signing in. From here, in the fact that K5 looks a lot better, person’s experience with laser eye
you read stories that have recently and is less of a nightmare to navigate. surgery; another write-up explains
been posted, and then rate them. Moreover, K5 is a lot more than just how a Scottish Mathematician used a
technology, though chessboard to calculate in binary
that is its focus. At code; and a story about old, useful
K5, the community technologies that shouldn’t have died
is expected to be out and so on.
witty and intelli- The site also has ‘Diaries’, which
gent at the same could be called member blogs. This is
time, and readers your personal section, and you can
are encouraged to post whatever you want to. No other
think, think again, member can post articles in your
and think once diary, but they can comment. All the
more, before they members here have teeth, and can
post. As the site bite really hard—so make sure even
clearly says, “What your diary entries are well thought
we need is more out and factually correct.
‘Freedom’ and Kuro5hin has the potential of
less ‘FreeDumb’.” becoming a regularly visited book-
At the same mark. Add it to your Favourites folder,
time, K5’s more and it can provide you with knowledge
aesthetic and easily that you never knew you might need,
navigable site act as an outlet for your thoughts, and
layout makes it provide you all the reading entertain-
more pleasureable ment in the course of a regular day.
Kuro5hin is a democracy, and every article needs to to surf as compared From laughs to learning, it’s all here!
be voted for before it is posted on the site to Slashdot. robert_smith@ thinkdigit.com

DIGIT APRIL 2005 DIGIT APRIL 2005 73

 Just Push Print Print, copy, scan or fax... what would you like to do today?
Photograph Jiten Gandhi
Imaging Binesh sreedharan The sheer convenience offered The dipping costs of good
Jayesh Limaye and Varun Dubey by inkjet MFDs in this regard quality entry-level printers have
makes them ideal for your SoHo prompted widespread accept-

D
espite all the talk setup. They are a lot cheaper as ance. The cost of these printers
about the ability of compared to a colour laser may be low, but they are pretty
technology to enable printer/copier, and give you high on performance thus
us to be more efficient, outstanding quality for all your making them ideal for a home
there is one aspect presentations, brochures, company user. Whether you would like to
of work that has not really reports, and official documents. print text or pictures, they do a
changed—and the corresponding For graphics professionals, the terrific job. In fact, they do a
paradigm shift has not actually advantages are unparalleled, as you commendable job of handling
materialised. We are talking about can scan pictures, edit them using almost all types of home printing
the paperless office. your image editing software, and you can think of.
The IT boom has subsided, but then print the same image, all Mid-range printers come with
paper has stayed put in the office— from a single unit—giving you tons PictBridge functionality, CD/DVD
in fact, we use more paper than of space to do whatever you printing, memory card readers
ever. Every year, India churns out choose! Moreover, some of them and such life-like photo printing
reams of papers in terms of filing even come standard with memory capabilities that you will never
everything in triplicate—thanks to card readers and PictBridge func- feel the need to go to the nukkad
our governance system. This brings tionality, so if you are Mr/Ms Sure- photo studio. Shoot with your
to companies the question of how Shot, you can print your images digital camera and print images
to print, where to print and what straight off the camera with no with your photo printer—now
would be the cost of printing? intervening PC. that’s convenience!

74 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Tools l Test Centre

Photograph Mexy Xavier

Features The cost of discern a few cracks in the letters.
In terms of features, the iP1000 We assumed that at home, you
surprised us: it does not even ship home would want to print school proj-
with an output tray! This seems to printers ects or even presentations. So, we
be a trend now, since the 1500 today may created a document, affectionately
didn’t ship with one either. Thank- be low, but called ‘combi-doc’, consisting of
fully, the other manufacturers text, a pie-chart and various graph-
were more considerate, and
they are ics and photos, and tested the print-
squeezed in an output tray. pretty high ers for speed and quality. The
All the printers came with a on Canon iP1000 again boomed
black and a colour cartridge. None performance ahead, printing the combi-doc in
of them came with PictBridge or 50 seconds; the HP 3845 came a
automatic double-sided printing distant second with 66 seconds,
or the ability to print CD or DVDs, while the 3745 took 76 seconds. The
but hey, there’s only so much you Epson C45 brought up the rear
can get for Rs 4000! And if you with a ridiculous 127.7 seconds!
really look at it, who doesn’t mind In terms of quality of the print-
saving a few thousand rupees and out, HP 3745 was snapping at the
spending some extra time to print Canon iP1000’s heels. The Epson
pictures through your PC rather C45 was a let-down again—it took
than straight from your PictBridge forever to print the document, and
printers (read costly printers)? did a really bad job of it.
Plus, you get the added ability to As Canon claims—Pixma is all
tweak them via Photoshop! about fast image printing, we veri-
The Epson Stylus C45 and HP fied the marketing mumbo jumbo.
DeskJet 3845 looked really sturdy We printed the image at the high-
and sleek and rated high on build est quality settings.
quality. The iP1000 was the worst Well, this time, it wasn’t just
looker with a pale grey finish, and mumbo jumbo. The Canon iP1000
none of the class exuded by its truly outclassed the other printers,
bigger brothers, or indeed, any of printing the A4-sized document in
its peers in this segment. 185 seconds, while the count was
592 seconds for the HP 3845 and
Performance 625 seconds for the HP 3745. And
After our initial tryst with it, our yes, we also tested the Epson C45,
expectations had lowered consid- but we took a lunch break this
erably as far as the iP1000 was time—it took 1179 seconds! That’s
concerned. But we soon realised almost 20 minutes!
that it was a mistake to judge the In terms of quality of the photo,
book by its cover—in the case of the the iP1000 really made an impres-
iP 1000, by the lack of a tray! sion—not only did it hammer its
The test results surprised us so rivals, it even managed to keep up
much, we conducted them twice! with our more expensive photo
Twenty-two pages of our drain test printers! So, if you want cheap high
document utilised a mere 10 per quality printing, get this before it
We explored the overflooded cent of its ink. We tested it for goes out of stock! The HP 3745 had
market of inkjet printers and printing speed, and it left the better quality, but was a touch
MFDs to bring you a blow-by-blow others behind, printing our test slower; the HP 3845 was
account of how they fared, and document in 10 seconds flat. the exact opposite—it
what you should use until that The second-fastest printer was was faster than the
dream of a paperless office the HP 3745 at 16 seconds; 17 for HP 3745 but was
becomes a reality—if it ever does! the HP 3845. We then took an wanting in terms of
enforced break; we figured it was quality. The Epson
a better idea to have a cuppa tea as C45 matched the HP
INKJET PRINTERS the Epson C45 printed the page, 3845 in terms of quality, but
Home Printers taking 35 seconds! The HP 3845 it also took twice the time.
The printers that featured in the printed just two pages with 10 per Epson Stylus C45 So, if you want good quality
tests were in two categories: Home cent of its ink. The figures for the photos in a reasonable amount of
and Office/Photo printers, based HP 3845 and Epson C45 were seven time, opt for Canon iP1000. If you
on price. Initial price and running and 10 pages respectively. want to print anything with good
costs are a more telling factor than For our quality tests, we took quality and great speed, the iP1000
raw speed and performance, so pure text documents printed in is the way to go.
they were accorded a higher B&W mode with the print quality
weightage. Home printers were set to Normal. The quality of the Conclusion
identified as devices available for text printouts was largely the There’s no doubt about the
Rs 4,000 or less. Printers falling same, with the iP1000 giving us the winner here. The Canon Pixma
into this category are the Canon crispest and cleanest results iP1000 was the fastest, and the
iP1000, the Epson Stylus C45, and followed by the HP 3745. The Epson best printer in every aspect of our
the HP DeskJet 3745 and 3845. C45 had some trouble—we could tests in the sub-Rs 4000 category.

MARCH 2005 DIGIT 75

 Digital Tools l Test Centre
The features we got to see on
some printers really brought
smiles to our faces. Soon enough,
APRI it became clear that it would be
L 20
05 the Lexmark that would set the
2 005 benchmark in terms of its sheer
AP RIL
feature list, ease of use and looks.
When we unpacked the P915,
we heard ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’, with
people flocking the desk all the
HP Deskjet 3745
time trying to play with its colour
screen. The Lexmark probably kept
Office And Photo Printers ease of use as the No. 1 priority
In this category, we had eight while designing this printer.
printers: the Canon Pixma iP1500, The setting up was hassle-
Canon Pixma iP 1000 iP2000, iP3000, and iP4000; Epson free, and there was even an
Photo R210 and R310; the HP animated display showing us
DeskJet 5748; and Lexmark P915, how to replace the cartridges.
The HP 3845 lost out to HP all priced over Rs 4,000. The ink status display had a
3745 mainly due to its high price- ‘skinnable’ interface and showed
per-page cost. The Best Buy Gold Features the display in real time. It
award goes to Canon Pixma Features carried weightage, as did supports PictBridge, and has slots
iP1000 and the Best Buy Silver performance while, price was for various memory cards. It even
goes to HP DeskJet 3745. given slightly lower weightage. lets you do simple photo editing:

How We Tested
Economy Test
O ur test bed comprised a Pentium 4 3.2
GHz processor plugged onto an MSI 875P
Neo FISR2 motherboard with 512 MB of
We conducted the economy test first to avoid
miscalculations later, with half-full cartridges.
out of the box to incorporate the warm-up
time. Scanners with a higher warm-up time
didn’t fare as well as the others.
Corsair 400 MHz DDR RAM, a Gainward We created a document that had eight per We tested the warmed up scanners to
nVidia GeForce FX 5950 graphics card, and cent of text and 60 per cent of images and negate any possibility that a scanner might
an 80 GB 7200 rpm ATA IV Seagate graphs. We then printed multiple copies of scan faster than the others once warmed up.
Barracuda hard disk. the same drain test document on regular We imported the same A4 size image at 150
We used Windows XP with SP1 as the OS. paper. We noted an average ten per cent dpi and 600 dpi, in Adobe Photoshop, and
The system was loaded with all the latest drop in ink and extrapolated it to get an scanned a full text document in B&W mode
chipset and graphics drivers. We also estimate of the printer’s ink usage. at 200 dpi. The scanner then underwent a
installed the USB patch for XP and test to determine its colour differentiating
connected the devices on the USB 2.0 port Speed And Quality Test abilities using a Kodak IT8 card with
for optimum performance. Across the tests, We used a text document to test the raw different shades of colour—each with a little
we used the following media: print speeds of the printer. The quality difference from the preceding one.
Text/combi-document printouts: settings used were Normal and Best. Next, we tested the resolution card to
100 g/sm paper from Berga (A4 size) To test the ability of printers to handle figure actual scanning capabilities by
Photo Printouts: 270 g/sm glossy photo various aspects of a regular document, we checking for its native resolutions. We
paper from Kodak (A4 size) created a combi-document with black text, scanned the card at 300 dpi to see how many
interspersed with graphs and images. We boxes it could differentiate in between the
Inkjet Printers clocked the time it took them to print this lines. Most MFDs passed this test easily.
We divided printers into two categories: document in normal and best quality modes, Finally, we did an OCR test to check the
Home printers (sub-Rs 4,000) and and accordingly analysed the print quality. scanner’s ability to differentiate light and
Office/Photo printers (Rs 4,000 and above). The final test for printers was the photo dark areas. A print article was scanned into
The test process remained same for both test, where we used 270 g/sm Kodak Glossy the trial version of Abbyy Fine Reader Pro
groups; the only change was in the Photo Paper to print an A4 image. We timed 7.0, and scanned for wrongly-interpreted
parameters to determine the winner. the process and examined it for quality of letters in the software. We then gave a
print. The settings used here were the percentile value to the devices.
Features highest quality available.
Printers were rated on various features: Copier
PictBridge, memory card readers, duplex Inkjet MFDs We copied a text document in B&W and the
printing, CD/DVD printing support, MFDs have a scanner, printer and copier. combi-document in colour, and rated the
input/output tray capacity, input buffer and MFDs with fax facility earned more points. MFDs on their speed and quality of printouts.
maximum resolution supported by the
printers’ LCD screens. They were rated on Printer Test How The Awards Are Given
the basis of features they supported. The test process here was exactly the same The scores from features, performance and
Obviously, most of these features were as that for the inkjet printers. price are given category-relevant weightage.
standard on the higher-end printers. An overall score out of 100 is calculated. The
Scanner Test product that scores the highest here is
Performance We tested the scanners for speed using an adjudged the winner of the Best Buy Gold
We tested the performance on three average of five previews of an A4 size image. award for this category. The second highest
parameters; speed, quality, and efficiency. This was done when the scanner was fresh score gets the Digit Best Buy Silver award.

76 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Tools l Test Centre
cropping, rotating and resizing, iP1500 at nine seconds, while
without the need for a PC! None iP4000 and 3000 took 12 and 13.5
of the other printers had this. It seconds each. The fastest non-
also featured an automatic print Canon printer was HP 5748 at 16
head alignment function, where seconds. The Epson R210 and
you just click ‘align print head’, R310 clocked 49.7 and 46 seconds
and it does it for you. each. The feature-rich Lexmark
The Canon printers had the P915 turned was slowest with
worst ink status display as we had 45.1 seconds.
to restart our PCs to get an In the quality of text prints, it
updated report. In most of the was all Canon again, with the
other cases, simply restarting the Pixma 3000 and 4000 giving us
ink monitor did the trick. The some of the crispest printouts we
point to note is that except for the have seen.
Lexmark, none of them showed it Since this is the office/photo
in real time. printing category, we assumed
The only other printer with an that the combi-doc would have a
LCD (B&W) was the Epson Photo significant role to play, and
R310, and you could neither see promptly put the printers
nor edit photos on it. Although it through their paces. It was all
did not feature automatic print Canon yet again, with the top
head aligning, it did have two being the iP4000 with 27
memory card slots. The Canon seconds and the iP3000 with 31.1
Pixma iP4000 did indeed have seconds. The third-fastest was the
automatic alignment, but it HP 5748 with 47.4 seconds—a full
lacked the colour screen and a 16 seconds slower.
memory card reader, which is In terms of quality of the
strange considering this printer combi-doc, the iP4000 and
costs Rs 11,000, and is being iP3000 tied for the top spot, with
touted as a photo printer! the iP2000 coming in a very
One really innovative and close third.
unique feature of the Canon The Lexmark was close to the
printers in this segment was Canons in terms of quality, and
dual paper feed; they can take was closely followed by the HP
papers from the
top or from the
5748. Epson turned out some
decent printouts, but those we
1 col AD
bottom. This got from the others were better.
effectively If you print lots of
doubles print official reports,
capacity to 300 trend charts,
sheets. This lets graphs and the like,
you segregate the iP3000 and
different types of 4000 will do a
paper: you can smashing job.
put your photo Since this
papers at the bottom Lexmark P915 section is for photo
and regular papers at the printers as well, we
top. Then, depending on your gave significant weightage to
printing needs, you can use the printing photos, both in terms of
dedicated button to select the quality and speed. No surprises
paper source. This feature is very again: the Pixmas shone, and the
useful if you want to print in fastest photo printout was shot
large quantities, as you can load out by the Canon iP3000 in 177
up both trays and when one seconds. This was followed
finishes you switch to printing closely by the iP4000 with 210
from the other tray while the seconds. The third-fastest was the
first one gets refilled! Lexmark P915 with 314 seconds.
The Canon iP3000, iP4000 The HP 5748 took 463 seconds,
and the Epson Photo R310 all with the Epsons bringing up the
supported CD/DVD printing. rear yet again with the R210 and
R310 printing the photo in 488
Performance and 523 seconds respectively.
The printers underwent the In terms of quality, the Canon
same test process as home print- iP3000 won by a hairsbreadth,
ers. In pure text printing speed, with the Lexmark P915 and
the Canons were miles ahead of Canon iP4000 tying for second
all others, with iP2000 printing position. The iP2000 came in
the document in just seven third, beaten by the iP4000 by
seconds. The second-fastest was just a fraction.

APRIL 2005 DIGIT 77

 Digital Tools l Test Centre
In fact, amateur photogra-
phers who would like to see hard
MULTI-FUNCTION
copies of their photographs, the
DEVICES
Canon iP3000 and 4000 will be Installation 05
the best and fastest bets. Although this department does L 20
RI
For office users who prima- not sway the overall scores much, AP
rily print sales brochures and we thought it worthwhile to
other similar documents, these mention it given our experiences
printers will do an extremely at the Test Centre.
professional-looking job, and you In today’s plug-and-play era,
will not have to keep negotiating one would expect much easier
with an outsourced printing installation processes: the worst Canon Pixma iP 4000
firm for every brochure you installers in this segment were
would like to print. HP’s MFDs. Strangely, their
printer installation was really Office MFDs
Conclusion smooth, but the MFD installer This category consisted of eight
After going through the various told us to wait as this could take MFDs, and the usage pattern
tests, Canon had done it again. 15-35 minutes depending on the assumed during testing was that
This time, the iP3000 won, beat- system. On our test bed, it of a regular SoHo, with emphasis
ing the iP4000 by an extremely took us 20 minutes to install on performance, features and
small margin, primarily on one MFD! running cost and not so much on
account of its lower cost and A close competitor for the HP the initial cost.
lower running costs. on this front was Brother. The
Special mention must be installation of their MFDs was Features And Build
made of the Lexmark P915, as it cumbersome in terms of when to Quality
came quite close to beating the connect and when to disconnect, All the MFDs we received came
Canon, but lost out mainly and then there was the waiting with LCD panels except for the
because of slow printing speeds and the praying for it to get Epson CX 1500. Some of the LCDs
and higher running cost. It is detected by the installer. More were decidedly better than the
aimed at the home photo print- like plug-and-pray! On the other others. The Brother LCDs were the
ing segment, and in that respect, hand, the Epson and Lexmark single line, B&W variety, and the
it performs well enough and is installers were smooth. contrast was so abysmal that we
competitively priced. If, for some For the rest of the testing, had to literally move around to
reason, you would like to use this we divided the MFDs into get a reasonable viewing angle
in an office setup, you can two categories—office use and and read what the screen said.
replace the photo cartridge with Photo MFDs. The Lexmark P6250 was the sleek-
a black cartridge, which would est-looking device, and looked
reduce the running costs to a identical to the P915 printer.
great extent. Other devices, such as the HP
Canon made a clean sweep 5510 and the Lexmark X7170,
this time round in both the came with ADF. None of the
home and office/photo segment, A P R IL Epsons were equipped with dial
2005
with their brand new Pixma pads for faxing, and this was also
range. Although the Lexmark missing on the HP 1608.
came close in the office/photo All the MFDs supporting fax
segment, the iP1000 is far ahead came bundled with telephone
of the competition with the HP wires. Some MFDs, such as the HP
3745 scoring nearly 15 marks 4255, even had standard RJ45
less. Canon has come and sockets to connect them to a
outdone them all—it’s now time network—an extremely useful
for the others to catch up! Canon Pixma iP 3000 feature for a SoHo setup.

Score Board for Inkjet Printers

Interpolated Type of PictBridge/Mem. Tray Capacity LCD Screen/ Overall Score
Device Price (Rs)
Resolution cartridges Card Reader (In/out) Type (Out of 100)
Home Printers
Canon Pixma iP1000 4800x1200 B/W and Color No/No 150/No Out Tray No/NA 56.37 3195
HP Deskjet 3745 1200x1200 B/W and Color No/No 80/50 No/NA 41.56 2999
HP Deskjet 3845 1200x1200 B/W and Color No/No 100/50 No/NA 37.94 3999
Epson Stylus C45 2880x720 B/W and Color No/No 100/50 No/NA 40.24 3295
Office/Photo Printers
Canon iP1500 4800x1200 B/W and Color No/No 150/No Out Tray No/NA 42.84 4495
Canon iP2000 4800x1200 B/W and Color Yes/No 300/NA No/NA 53.17 6495
Canon iP3000 4800x1200 CMYK (4) Yes/No 300/NA No/NA 60.39 8495
Canon iP4000 4800x1200 CMYK (6) Yes/No 300/NA No/NA 59.1 10995
Epson Photo R210 5760x1440 CMYK (6) Yes/No 120/80 No/NA 38.77 9895
Epson Photo R310 5760x1440 CMYK (6) Yes/Yes 120/80 Yes/B/W 51.94 13495
HP Deskjet 5748 4800x1200 B/W and Color No/No 100/50 No/NA 39.07 5999
Lexmark P915 4800x1200 Photo/Color(2) Yes/Yes 100/70 Yes/Color 55.81 8999
For the complete scoreboard, log on to www.thinkdigit.com

78 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Tools l Test Centre

Jargon Buster
ADF (for MFDs): An Automatic Document photo printers come with six cartridges. natively in Microsoft Windows XP and ME
Feeder (ADF) lets you automatically load Besides the CMYK cartridges, they also enabling interaction with devices such as
multiple-page documents into the scanner: have light cyan and light magenta. scanners and digital cameras.
you do not need to keep feeding individual
pages to the scanner. Ink Drop Size: This is usually measured in Print Media: The contribution of printing
picolitres—a trillionth of a litre. The smaller paper towards the resulting printout is
Optical Resolution: The optical resolution the drop size, the better the print. grossly underestimated. If you want to
of a printer or scanner refers to the real Manufacturers offer printers that can print optimise your printing results, you must
hardware capabilities of the device. drops as small as one picolitre. use suitable media. Today, in the market,
Nowadays, the resolution of a device can you probably have more of a choice with
be increased by up to 8 to 9 times based PPM: This is the abbreviation for pages print media than printers!
on the software assisting it. per minute, used to state the number of Paper sizes that are available will
pages a printer prints in a minute. cater to every need you could think of.
Interpolated Resolution: This is the There is a multitude of brands to choose
software-enhanced resolution of the TWAIN: TWAIN was designed to provide a from. The more popular ones are Kodak,
device. universal public standard that links Novajet, and Berga. The quality of the
applications and image acquisition devices paper is dependant on its density, which
Input Buffer: This is the onboard memory such as cameras, scanners and the like. A is measured in g/sm (grams per square
that a printer has, to keep a document in. common misconception is that TWAIN metre). As a thumb rule, the higher the
It assists in speeding up the printing stands for ‘Technology Without An g/sm, the better the paper quality.
process when printing multiple pages. Interesting Name’. This is incorrect. It is in Photo papers are classified into photo
fact from Kipling’s “The ballad of East and paper, glossy photo paper and matte
PictBridge: This technology allows you to West”—“... and never the twain shall photo paper, depending on the kind of
directly print photos from your camera meet...” to show the difficulty faced, at finish you are looking for. You can get an
onto your printer. You just connect the that time, in connecting scanners and A4-size 15-sheet pack of 275 g/sm Kodak
camera to the printer, and select the photo personal computers. It was capitalised to photo paper for approximately Rs 200.
to be printed. TWAIN to make it stand out. This led to the
popular belief that it was an acronym. CD Printing
Number Of cartridges: As a thumb rule, A lot of the mid to high-end printers today
the higher the number of cartridges, the WIA: Abbreviation for Windows Imaging support CD/DVD printing. They come with
more accurate the printout. Most high-end Architecture, this is an interface provided a special attachment tray where you can
print any image you choose on the
Print Requirement Print Media Approximate Cost CD/DVD. This feature makes your
Regular everyday printing Rs 125 for 500 sheets compilations look professional. To do this,
70-80 g/sm paper
you need to have a printer that supports
High Quality text prints 100-120 g/sm paper this, and a CD/DVD with a printable
(résumés, applications etc) coating. If your CD/DVD media does not
Normal photo prints 170-210 g/sm photo paper Rs 200 for 20 sheets have that coating, you can print the image
High quality photo prints 270+ g/sm photo paper Rs 200 for 15 sheets on paper and literally cut and paste it
onto your CD!

In terms of scanning features, by any standards—the Canon Epson CX1500 in the bottom spot
not all MFDs had flatbed scanners, Pixma iP 1000 did the same docu- again with 253 seconds.
and some, like the Brother 3240c ment in seven seconds—still Although we are not really
and the HP OfficeJet 4255, had a pretty respectable. The fastest looking at the photo printing
sheet-fed scanner that made multi- non-HP device was the Brother capabilities of the devices in this
ple-document scanning an incon- 3240C at 23 seconds with its section, it never hurts to print the
venient task. But the HP 4255 had sibling, the 210C, clocking 25.5 occasional office picnic photo,
the advantage of being extremely seconds. As in the printer tests, right? In our photo printing tests,
compact in design. The Brother the Epson stylus CX 1500 brought the fastest printer was the HP PSC
MFD, thanks to the sheet-fed scan- up the rear with 37 seconds! 2310 which printed the A4-sized
ner, was also bulky as such devices So if you believe the bulk of image in a respectable 289
normally are. your printing requirements would seconds. The Lexmark X7170 did
On the other hand, the Brother be text documents, the HP PSC the same job in about 375
MFDs sorely lacked build quality. 1608 is the fastest, and is nearly seconds, while Epson (yes, again)
The cheap plastic was quite obvi- the most economical—second only with 1,159 (you read that right!)
ous even without opening the box! to the Lexmark X7170. seconds was last.
In the next stage, we put the It must be
Performance printers through our combi-doc mentioned here
Printing test. Surprisingly, the Brother that the Brother
The HP MFDs really shone in our MFC 3240C outshone others, MFDs did not fare
text document speed test. The printing the document in merely too well, with the
fastest time was clocked by the HP 46 seconds. It was followed closely MFC 3240 and 210
PSC 1608 at 16.68 seconds. The by the HP PSC 2310 at 48 seconds. clocking above 1,000
runner-up was another HP, the HP The Lexmark X7170 took a seconds each! If you
PSC 2310 at 17 seconds. Not quick leisurely 78 seconds, with the Epson Stylus PHOTO CX1500 want to print a picture

80 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Tools l Test Centre
or a brochure, you should defi- The first thing we tested was rear was brought up by HP 5510
nitely go in for the HP. But if you the warm-up time of the scanner.
When and the other Brother device.
want an economical MFD, noth- For this, we took a cold scanner buying an One thing is for sure: if you do
ing even comes close to the and scanned an A4-size image MFD or a a lot of scanning and are particu-
Lexmark X7170, which printed a five times over, and averaged the printer for lar about accuracy, you should give
whopping 22 pages in the 10 per recorded times. The fastest your home the Epson Stylus CX1500 a look.
cent ink usage test. The closest device here was the Lexmark Although it is ink-hungry when it
anyone got to it was the Brother X7170 with nine seconds,
or office, comes to printing and is slow in
MFC 3240C, which printed a followed closely by the HP 1608 always find terms of scanning, it does not
decent 17 pages. The HP 2310 at 11.1 seconds and the HP PSC out the cost compromise on clarity.
came fourth, with 15 pages, after 2310 with 14 seconds. of printing
the HP 1608, which printed 16. The Brother MFC 3240 failed one page Copying
The Epson proved to be an ink- this test, and we could not get Now, by virtue of having a scanner
hungry beast, printing just two preview values. The other sheet- and a printer in the same pack-
pages—and there wasn’t any fed scanner, the HP 4255, did let us age, the device can also double up
difference in terms of quality! do a preview job, although it was as a copier. To test the copying
not pretty—it took 42 seconds! functionality of the MFDs we used
This time, Epson took a break the copier as a stand alone func-
from bringing up the rear by tion without the device being
finishing second-last; the rear connected to the PC. We tested
was brought up by the HP 5510 the speed of copying (both black
at 16 seconds. and colour) as well as the quality
While testing for the resolu- of the copies produced.
tions with a resolution card, In terms of sheer speed, the
almost all scanners were able to Lexmark X7170 outpaced every-
Brother MFC-210C scan 3/5 boxes at 600 dpi, except one else by copying the B&W
for the two Brothers and the HP document in 20 seconds and the
When buying an MFD or a OfficeJet 5510. They could colour document in 39 seconds.
printer for your home or office, manage only 2/5 boxes. The It was followed closely in B&W
always find out the cost of print- reason we did not expect any of copying by the HP PSC 2310 at 22
ing a single page. Naturally, lower the scanners to scan the remain- seconds, although it did stutter
is better. This applies especially to ing two boxes was that they were in colour copying, giving a time
offices where the printing load created at a much higher resolu- of 54 seconds!
is greater. tion of 1200-2400 dpi, and are not
really needed for an office scan-
Scanning ning environment—so we
Remember never to go by the restricted our scanning tests to a
marketing jargon of maximum resolution of 600 dpi.
dpi and interpolated dpi. These We then got out the iT8 card to
are software-enhanced resolu- test the scanners’ ability to distin-
tions and are not the real hard- guish different shades of colours.
ware capabilities of the device. This test was given the highest
Always insist on finding the real weightage. Here, surprisingly, the
optical dpi of the scanner. The HP 4255 and the HP 1608 outshone HP officejet 5510 all-in-one
concept is similar to the rest by reading all 22 shades of
digital zoom and optical zoom on black. They were closely followed The second-fastest in colour
digital cameras. While you may by the Lexmark X7170, which copying was the Brother MFD
have digital zoom in excess of 40x, detected 21 of the 22 shades. 210C at 41.9 seconds. It was also
it will never give you the clarity as The Brother MFC 3240C came the best quality copier in this
that of a 24x optical zoom. a consistent third here. Here, the test, although the Lexmark X7170

82 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Tools l Test Centre
did come close. The Brother, the others when taken as a pack- MFD, the HP PhotoSmart 2608 is
though, edged ahead to claim age. So, let’s hear it for the the one to go for—it will save you
victory by virtue of better quality. Lexmark X7170, the Best Buy tons of time to get on with your
In terms of the B&W copying Gold winner! business or whatever else you want
quality, the Lexmark 7710 and the The Best Buy Silver award goes to have time for!
HP 5510 tied for the top spot, with to HP PSC 2310. Though cheaper The same story was repeated in
the HP PSC 2310 and the Brother than Lexmark X7170, it lost due our combi-doc and photo printing
3240 tying for second place. to its running costs. Cartridges tests. The HP PhotoSmart 2608
In case, you are required to do are costlier by almost Rs 500 than took 31.3 and 263.8 seconds respec-
a lot of copying—whether text or 5 the Lexmark ones and print tively, as compared to 39 and
L 200
colour—a smart choice would be to APRI around seven 473.81 seconds for the Epson RX
go in for the Lexmark X7170. pages less with 630 printer and 145 and 312
Although you may have to do a 10 per cent ink. seconds for Lexmark P6250.
minor compromise in terms of The great thing about this HP
speed, the X7170 provides you Photo MFDS printer is that it’s not only devas-
with really good printouts, which Only three MFDs tatingly fast, but also does a stellar
are sure to come in handy during qualified for this job of printing in terms of quality.
presentations or meetings. segment— the The text printouts were crisp and
Lexmark P6250, sharp. Eventually, though, in
OCR the Epson RX630 terms of pure quality of the
The last test we conducted was the Lexmark X7170 and the HP PhotoS- picture, the HP was pipped to the
OCR (Optical Character Recogni- mart 2608. post—by a marginal difference—by
tion) test. We scanned a newspa- the Epson.
per article using ABbyy Reader 7 Features Since these are classified as
Professional, and let the software All the above mentioned MFDs photo MFDs, the bulk of the
read the characters without any came with MMC Readers and were emphasis is on photo printouts,
tweaks and at all the default PictBridge compliant. They also with speed and quality both being
settings. We were checking for had some of the sleekest LCD important. As always, though,
errors given by the software. The screens we have seen, some of the quality is preferred over speed.
HP 2310 and the Epson CX1500 top cell phone screens included! In terms of printing speed,
gave us zero errors! They even read The build quality of all of the HP PhotoSmart 2608 was
the characters embedded in an these printers was excellent and blazing fast, with a text docu-
image (a logo). The worst was the really sturdy; the Epson RX630 ment printing time of
Brother MFC210c, with 10 errors! even came with a transportation 11 seconds, as
The only problem Lexmark lock for the scanner element. compared to 31
X7170 gave us was that it did not None of the other systems had and 56 for the Epson
read the image file too clearly but, this feature. and Lexmark.
the text part of the document was
Performance 5
completely error-free. A P R IL 20 0
All said and done, and as the Printing
smell of ink and the reams of In our Printer tests, the test
papers were cleared up, the process was the same as that for
Lexmark X7170 came out the Inkjet Printers. The fastest one
clear winner on account of its here was the HP PhotoSmart 2608,
competitive pricing, extensive which printed our test document
feature set and miserly usage of in 11 seconds, while the Epson RX
ink during printing. Yes, it was 630 and Lexmark P6250 were
not the top in all segments but if distant runners-up with 31 and 56
you look at the whole picture, it seconds respectively. So, if you
HP PSC 2310 all-in-one
fared consistently better than want fast printouts from your

APRIL 2005 DIGIT 83

 Digital Tools l Test Centre

Score Board for MFDs

Scanner Optical Type of PictBridge/Mem. Tray Capacity LCD Screen/ Overall Score Price
MFDs Fax
Resolution cartridges Card Reader (In/out) Type (Out of 100) (Rs)
Office MFDs
Brother MFC-210C 1200x1200 CMYK(4) Yes No/Yes 100/25 Yes/B/W 50.16 9900
Brother MFC-3240C 1200x6000 CMYK(4) Yes No/No 20/50 Yes/B/W 50.83 9900
Epson Stylus CX1500 600x1200 B/W and Color No No/No 100/50 No 33.14 5695
HP PSC 1608 1200x4800 B/W and Color No No/Yes 100/50 Yes/B/W 53.26 11700
HP Officejet 4255 600x1200 B/W and Color Yes No/No 100/20 Yes/B/W 48.01 7999
HP Officejet 5510 600x1200 B/W and Color Yes No/No 100/50 Yes/B/W 43.81 12499
HP PSC 2310 1200x2400 B/W and Color Yes No/Yes 150/50 Yes/B/W 53.58 11499
Lexmark X7170 1200x4800 B/W and Color Yes Yes/No 100/25 Yes/B/W 63.33 14999
Photo MFDs
Epson Photo RX630 2400x4800 CMYK (6) No Yes/Yes 120/20 Yes/Color 43.96 24295
HP Photosmart 2608 2400x4800 B/W and Color Yes Yes/Yes 150/50 Yes/Color 55.33 14999
Lexmark P6250 1200x2400 CMYK (6) No Yes/Yes 100/25 Yes/Color 49.7 12999
For the complete scoreboard, log on to www.thinkdigit.com

The same is true for the lution card. Epson and Lexmark run for its money. It has super
combi-doc, where the HP 2608 detected only two boxes. This copying abilities, extremely fine
printer took a mere 31 seconds as proved their native scanning capa- scanning abilities and its print-
compared to 39 for the Epson bilities were not as good as those ing prowess is excellent. Though
RX630 and 70 for the Lexmark of the HP 2608. So, if you want to a bit of an ink guzzler—it printed
P6250. Again, in the photo test, scan fast and accurately, go for HP. 12 pages using 10 per cent of its
the HP printer did the job in 263 ink as compared to 16 pages by
seconds, while the Epson RX630 Copying the others—the category it is
took a whopping 473.81 seconds For these photo MFDs, the copier placed in is one where a few
and the Lexmark P 6250 took 312 test was the same as before, and pages less don’t really matter.
seconds, nearly 50 per cent more here as well, the HP PhotoSmart
time! In this section, the focus is 2608 came out tops with the 5
more on quality than speed. most vivid colour and print qual- L 200
APRI
In terms of text quality, the HP ity of the copied document.
2608 and Lexmark P6250 tied, The speed of the HP PhotoS-
leaving us with more tests to do. mart 2608 in copying documents,
In the image and combi-doc especially B&W ones, was sensa-
quality, HP PhotoSmart 2608 was tional. It took 17 seconds to copy a
significantly better than the B&W document, as compared to
others, though Lexmark P6250 the 37 and 41 seconds taken by the
did give HP 2608 a pretty tough Lexmark P6250 and the Epson
run for its money. RX630 respectively.
In colour copying, the HP HP Photosmart 2608 All-in-one
Scanning PhotoSmart 2608 and the
In the scanner tests, the proce- Lexmark P6250 tied in terms of
dure was no different, and HP speed, with both taking 39 Overall Conclusion
PhotoSmart 2608 simply seconds, while the Epson In the printer section, Canon
outclassed the rest by detecting RX630took a leisurely 49 seconds blew the competition away with
all 22 shades of black with amaz- to copy our coloured document. It their latest range of Pixma print-
ing clarity. The Epson could got beaten by a small margin in ers. If you primarily need to print
detect only 20 while the Lexmark the quality of the colour copy by photographs, it would make more
P6250 detected 19. the Epson RX630. The margin, sense to go for one of the higher-
In the resolution tests, the however, was extremely small. end Pixmas than a mid-range
HP PhotoSmart 2608 again MFD, although they have the
detected all three boxes whereas Conclusion disadvantage of not having a
the Lexmark detected only two. This was a no-brainer! The clear scanner. You could always click
The Epson could detect all three, winner is the HP PhotoSmart pictures of your document and
but only when scanned at full 2608, given its reasonable pricing print them!
colour resolution at the highest of Rs 15,000, and its performance In the MFD section, it was HP
possible bit depth. as well—which is far superior to all the way. It was head and shoul-
The HP was also the fastest the other printers in this cate- ders above the rest and stamped
scanner and the only one that gory. In fact, this device could its authority across the category.
could read 3/5 squares in the reso- have given the Lexmark X7170 a In the coming months, with
manufacturers sure to launch
Contact Sheet Printers and MFDs new products to match and beat
Company Telephone E-mail Web site the Canons and the HPs, it’s
Brand
Brother Brother International 022-25797470 [email protected] www.brother.com.sg
going to be an interesting battle.
Canon Canon India Ltd. 0124-5160000 [email protected] www.canon.co.in We will be in the thick of it… for
Epson Epson India Ltd. 080-30515000 [email protected] www.epson.co.in you. Watch this space.
HP Hewlett Packard India Ltd. 0124-2566111 [email protected] www.hp.com [email protected]
Lexmark Lexmark International (India) Pvt.Ltd. 022-2605 7755,45,44 [email protected] www.lexmark.com
[email protected]

84 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Business l Case Study

Digital

90 How videoconfe-
rencing works 92 Why-Fi? 96 Wired LAN
v/s Wi-Fi
Business
How Technology Can Help Your Organisation

Case Study

Dude!
Where’s My Truck? implementation have been hindered due to
Need a system Preethi Chamikutty steep prices.
that keeps a tab Companies are looking forward to technolo-
racking your cargo has always been a gies to support their needs, such as Global Posi-
on your mobile
assets? MobiApps T logistical nightmare. With a large number
of variables affecting the safetyand arrival
tioning System (GPS) and DIfferential Global
Positioning System (DGPS). Terrestrial networks
seems to have a time of your cargo, this has been a major area of that provide more coverage, SMS, and GPRS as a
Setup, Visual Execution and Imaging Binesh Sreedharan,

concern for many transporters. medium for data transfer have enabled compa-
Jayan K Narayanan, Atul Deshmukh, Shyam Shriram

logistical tool Logistics and transportation applications nies to keep their productivity high, lower oper-
ready for you have long been touted, but have been slow to ational cost, improve efficiency,
reach wide market acceptance. Though the ben- reduce turnaround
efits of accessing asset information are
clear to logistics companies,
Photographs Mexy Xavier

its practical

85
 their vehicles, provide infor-
mation about over-speeding
vehicles, unscheduled stops
and a host of other in-
vehicle conditions.
It streamlines the
management of fleets
by providing reports
and analyses of vehicle
journeys, and provides com-
plete journey records for
all vehicles. This helps
in planning, tracking,
and scheduling.
It also assists fleet
managers to have
better control over
operations while
enhancing value-
added services to
their customers.

What Does It Do?

The m-Trak system is a
real-time vehicle tracking system
with a tamper-proof unit having a built-
cycles, and enable timely delivery, resulting in in keyboard and a LCD panel. It can show the
delivering better service. real-time position of the vehicle or play back the
Taking advantage of this, MobiApps, a Ban- vehicle’s travel path on a digital map. The infor-
galore-based provider of hybrid terrestrial and mation will include the current location of the
satellite technologies for commercial communi- vehicle, distance travelled, vehicle speed,
cations has developed a mobile vehicle tracking number of stops made, and the location and
system, which helps track, manage, access, and duration of the stops.
monitor all your trucks or other mobile assets Its user interface enables two-way voice and
developed m-Trak, an online asset-tracking solu- text communication. It also has an external
tion that has been designed to support logistics handset attachment for voice communication,
and transportation. an inbuilt address book, call-log facility, one-
m-Trak provides real-time information on key predefined messages, built in GSM/SMS
fixed and mobile assets. It helps address issues communications, optional RF wireless commu-
such as tracking, monitoring, managing, and nication, and an optional SOS switch. It can be
communicating with all mobile assets in real- configured using a remote, can be customised
time. m-Trak integrates GPS technology, mobile to meet client-specific requirements, and is also
telephony (GSM), and the Internet, to provide a capable of monitoring events occurring inside
solution that addresses these key challenges the vehicle.
with real-time, location-relevant, and time-sen- m-Trak’s functionality integrates a host of
sitive information. The m-Trak system helps technologies. The GPS receiver determines the
receive alerts from the assets, track assets on vehicle’s location; after identifying the loca-
map, generate reports, replay routes, and com- tion, the information is sent via SMS to the fleet
municate with the asset drivers. manager’s control station. The m-Trak control
m-Trak is available in three variants: m- station software then plots the vehicle’s loca-
Trak 50, m-Trak 75, and m-Trak 100. m-Trak 100 tion on a display map, which can be viewed by
helps fleet managers pinpoint the location of the fleet manager. (See infographic)

How It Works The Technology Behind It

MobiApps has designed the m-Trak solution
mainly around the Global Positioning
System (GPS).
The GPS technology offers accurate infor-
mation such as latitude, longitude, altitude,
date and time, speed, moving direction, and dis-
tance (derived). In tangent with GPS, MobiApps
also uses terrestrial wireless communication
systems such as GSM and the Internet as the
medium for user interaction.
MobiApps adopted GPS, as it is a worldwide
radio navigation system based on a network of
24 satellites. These satellites determine the posi-
tion of any object on earth, provided these
objects have a GPS receiver. These GPS receivers

86 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Business l Case Study
tune to a particular frequency and listen to the Dell, Ford Motor Company, General Motors
signals coming from the GPS satellites. Corporation, Hyundai Motor India Limited,
The number of satellites transmitting signals Praxair Inc., Transport Corporation of
to the receiver determines the accuracy of India, Ltd. (TCIL), Life Fitness, Mercury and
the reading. Wipro, amongst others.
However, GPS receivers do not have the To understand what customers think, we
ability to relay this information. This is where spoke to Ankit Kumar, manager, Network
the need for a wireless network arises, which HICON, Safexpress Pvt Ltd, a bangalore based
could be terrestrial networks such as GSM, provider of a range of logistics and supply
CDMA, CDPD, VHF, etc. It could also be a chain solutions including door-to-door distri-
non-terrestrial network such as a satellite net- bution, single source invoicing, reverse logis-
work, which is capable of transmitting data tics, packaging solutions, etc. Their network
from the object to the asset manager’s comprises over 513 locations of more than
control room. 2,400 vehicles, operating over 750 routes, 365
Next, the ‘short messages’ pro- days a year. MobiApps is providing fleet man-
vided by the GSM network can be used agement solution to track and manage their
to relay the data from the m-Trak logistics operations.
device to the asset manager’s “We have about 3,000 vehicles in all on our
office/control room. The GSM modem fleet, for which we have started planning imple-
periodically receives these messages in mentation of the tracking system. We started
near real-time. The GSM modem then using the m-Trak system about eight months ago
transmits these to the m-Trak soft-
ware, which processes them and plots
them on a visual map.
The m-Trak device provides sup-
port for off-line storage of location
data in the device as well. This is
useful when the asset is in a remote
area where the terrestrial network
coverage is absent. So, there will be a
brief period when the asset manager
would not be able to track the asset in
real-time. In such a scenario, in order
to prevent loss of tracking data, the
software allows for storage of loca-
tion data locally in the device. Once
the asset comes back into a coverage
area, the stored data is transmitted
back to the control room. The asset
manager would now be able to view
the path taken by the asset in
the off-coverage area.

Customers Galore! and have been very satisfied. We have noticed a

Asset tracking can be cost-effective huge difference in the stoppages, time taken,
for the following customers: departures, etc. and are quite satisfied with the
Industries where a production assembly system,” says Kumar.
line depends on raw materials arriving ‘just
in time’ Looking Forward
Hazardous chemicals and gas After a tie-up with the Tata Group Mobi-Apps is
manufacturers who require safe very bullish about it's future. "There is a large cus-
transportation of their goods tomer base that we are yet to tap into," says
Companies manufacturing high value Amitabh Satyam, Country Head, MobiApps. Like
goods that require safety against pilferage any other Indian IT-services provider, MobiApps
Transporters of frozen/perishable goods too to expand its business beyond India shores.
Courier and express cargo companies who Southeast Asia and the Middle -East are the areas
require tracking of consignments of focus for this logistics application provider.
Taxi operators, who require optimal usage But is the Indian market ready for a high-tech
of their fleet by despatching the nearest cab to tool such as m-Trak? MobiApps says that it has a
a customer point survey to back-up its claims about the large cus-
Public transportation systems that require tomer base. However, convincing the smaller
tracking of buses to provide real-time updates transporters about the long-term benefits that
on arrival and departure to passengers can be derived from using the software is not
Companies that require a billing of mileage going to be easy. And considering that the Indian
Police force for patrolling, etc. transport sector is largely unorganised and sur-
Currently, MobiApps’ list of clients includes vives on very small margins, only time will tell
the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport whether MobiApps, with its fancy logistical tool,
Corporation (BMTC), Karnataka State Road will be able to crack the market.
Transport Corporation (KSRTC), Safexpress, [email protected]

DIGIT APRIL 2005 87

 Let’s Meet Online
How real-time video sessions take place over an ISDN line or
broadband connection

What You Need:

Cameras
One or more webcams or small video cameras,
with video input connections

Speakers
To receive audio input from the client’s end

A Microphone
To enable audio input

A LAN Card
A Network Interface Card connects your PC to a LAN,
which provides access to a broadband connection.
Else, connect directly to a dedicated ISDN line.

1
Videoconferencing Sessions
Can take place between clients in different rooms within the same
premises, different offices within a city, as well as in different
countries. In a multi-party session, a multipoint control unit (MCU)
is used to mix the audio and send the video of the predominant
speaker to every screen. Like a telephony PBX, a video PBX is used
to switch calls and provide call forwarding and call transfer.

50 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Business l Visual Explanation

Codecs First Steps

You will also need to install a codec— Set up the PC with the requisite
hardware or software that compresses components to facilitate an audio-
and decompresses audio and video data visual session. Connect the PC to a
streams. Codecs reduce the size of audio dedicated ISDN line or broadband
and video samples so as to speed up connection. Install the
transmission. videoconferencing software;
ensure that the software on
the client’s end is
compatible with yours. Dial
the client’s number. Once
the two sides are
connected, you will be able
to share audio-visual data.

Imaging Jayan K Narayanan, Atul Deshmukh Text Meera Vankipuram

2 3
Web-based Videoconferencing Videoconferencing Over Virtual
Can take place using chat software such as Private Networks (VPNs)
Yahoo! Messenger, or videoconferencing Some companies set up private Wide Area
software such as Microsoft’s LiveMeeting Networks spanning large geographic areas to
or the WebEx client. WebEx requires just a connect branch offices. A VPN uses
Web browser and a phone. encryption, and provides a secure tunnel over
the network with a guaranteed bandwidth.

APRIL 2005 DIGIT 51

 Digital Business l Smart Business
Illustration Binesh Sreedharan

Vying With Wi-Fi

If this were the company awards ceremony, we
would have numerous distinguished speakers

Why-Fi?
gushing superlatives, introducing the persona
that single-handedly revolutionised mobile
computing. Yes, that’s perhaps the most apt intro-
duction to Wi-Fi. Without it, every mobile device,
from laptops to PDAs, would be nothing more
than external hard drives—absolutely useless on
their own, but great for transporting data from
one network to another.
Robert Sovereign-Smith But should all businesses set up a Wi-Fi
That’s the
network? If only it were that simple! New compa-
question most omputers invaded us, and won. The very nies have no problem deciding: Wi-Fi is the way to
medium-sized
businesses are
C nature of businesses today demands
mobility and instant, anywhere access to
go—the setup is quick, easy and affordable, and
shifting offices is as easy as packing and unpack-
critical information. While the Internet has ing the equipment. However, existing businesses
asking given us this much-required data mobility on really have to weigh the mobility offered against
themselves… a global scale, the same does not hold true the costs. If you have a huge inventory manage-
within our own offices. Unfortunately, the ment setup, and lots of employees using equip-
desktop has been the ruling party so far, and ment such as laptops and barcode scanners, you
mobile devices are only just gaining should seriously consider Wi-Fi as an option.
popularity.
We tend not to realise how chained we are I’m Sold. What Now?
to our seats at work. Executives jet across the You need to do a site survey, and then decide
world, access their e-mails in airports world- upon the number of access points you need in
wide, meet with clients in hotels and restau- order to be able to provide seamless network
rants, and download presentations; yet, within coverage. You also need to keep in mind that
their own offices, they are confined to a 4 x 6 there’s no such thing as a true wireless LAN
foot space called a cubicle—and all because of (WLAN) with no trace of wires. Your servers and
a short wire with an RJ45 connector on one access points need to be connected via a regu-
end. Networking, the bane of mobility! lar wired LAN to give them the connection

92 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Business l Smart Business
stability they need. You also need to make sure that you
overlap the access point coverage areas sufficiently to offer
the maximum possible network speeds to your users.
You will obviously need a lot of Wi-Fi-enabled equip-
ment to make use of your WLAN setup, and if this equip-
ment isn’t already deployed, this cost needs to be factored
in as well.

The Site Survey

A proper Radio Frequency (RF) site survey is a requisite, and
it can be done in two ways—as a task left to the firm you
hire to deploy WLAN, or done by your in-house IT deploy-
ment team. Of course, smaller businesses could have a
systems engineer using one access point and a laptop to
set up and walk around the site checking signal strengths.
Whatever the case, your WLAN deployment needs plan-
ning, as anything, from a wall to machinery can disrupt
the wireless signals.
You must also consider actual working conditions
when planning your WLAN setup. For instance, a ware-
house where a site survey is done when there is less activ-
ity and no goods are stored; after deployment, however,
you may find that running machinery, or even piled up
goods, can interfere with the wireless signals.
You should recognise the dynamics of your environment.
As explained above, a warehouse may require different deploy-
ment tactics than a regular office. In an office, users will be
at their desks most of the time. However, a regular office will
also have cubicles, walls and other obstructions that will
1/2 pg V. AD
adversely affect the signal.

A Seamless WLAN
A seamless WLAN setup is one where users can stroll across
the covered area, and at the same time have constant
access to the network. This is easier said than done, and is
a lot more complicated than just setting up access points
to cover the desired area. The 802.11 specification offers
14 different channels, or frequencies, at which access
points can be set. The problem is, these frequencies are too
close together—a difference of just five MHz between chan-
nels—and interference is caused. To overcome this inter-

Access Point Antennas

erhaps the most ignored feature when choosing an access
P point, antennas should be given considerable thought. Most
access points come with omni-directional antennas, which
means that the access point sends out a signal in the form of a
sphere all around itself. This is especially useful when placing an
access point in the centre of a smaller office, as it can cover the
entire office area easily. However, it is when we reach larger
offices—where numerous access points are needed—that
directional access point antennas may offer you some relief.
Directional antennas also offer some relief for those
obsessed with security, as you can ensure that all your access
points offer a known and fixed coverage area. Directional
antenna-based access points could be set to ensure that no one
ever gets a signal outside the office walls, and thus cannot hack
into the network. Directional antennas also help you plan and
position your access points better, so as to offer maximum
coverage. Their biggest advantage, however, is the fact that
they offer greater bandwidth and range, as a result of being
focussed in a single direction.
When deploying a WLAN in a large multi-storeyed office,
uni-directional antennas will be needed to ensure that there is
no overlap of signals of access points running on the same
channel, thus breaking the seamless network.

APRIL 2005 DIGIT 93

 Digital Business l Smart Business
Bandwidth
Planning Access Point Placements Every network needs to provide its users with
the bandwidth they require, and this is where
wired LANs definitely have an edge. A standard
wired LAN will offer your users a theoretical
bandwidth of 100 Mbps, almost double the
theoretical bandwidth of 54 Mbps for a WLAN.
However, just as you do not expect the full 100
Mbps bandwidth from wired LANs, you cannot
expect anywhere close to 54 Mbps for WLANs.
Channel 6
The most logical calculation is to halve this
bandwidth and divide it by the number of
users you plan to provide access to in a given
area. For instance, if there are 10 users on a
WLAN per access point, each user will get
Floor 27/10 = 2.7 Mbps of maximum bandwidth,
which will suffice for most. Only users who
constantly transfer large files to and from a
Channel 1 server will need more bandwidth. Take into
Channel 11
account this user-density factor when deploy-
Infographic Jayan Narayanan

ing your WLAN.

Figure 1: For an office with multiple floors, you need to make sure that no access Security
point’s signal overlaps with any other’s, whether on the same floor or on the floor Now that you have your WLAN plans in place,
above or below. In this figure, the shapes shown are each access point’s coverage area; your biggest concern will be security. No one
the colours green, brown and blue denote the channels 1, 6 and 11 wants to have their private office LAN visible
to the outside world. Apart from people snoop-
ference, the three standard channels used are ing around your LAN, you will also be put at
1, 6 and 11. To offer seamless roaming around risk by worms and viruses from neighbouring
the coverage area, you will need to ensure that WLAN setups or wireless devices. What you
any three neighbouring access points are need to do is ensure that your WLAN is as
configured to run on these three different secure as it can be.
channels. First of all, get a WLAN monitoring tool. In
This is easy when setting up a two-dimen- case your system administrators largely use
sional coverage area, say, on a single floor. Linux, then ‘kismet’, the default WLAN moni-
However, when you have to do this for a build- toring tool for Linux, will do the job. Windows
ing, with access required on multiple floors, users can choose from a huge list of commer-
sketch a 3D view of your coverage area and make cial as well as free tools.
sure that all access points—on all the floors—are A seamless WLAN will need all access
set to operate on different channels. A good points to have the same Service Set Identifier
blueprint of your office building will come in (SSID). The primary thing systems administra-
handy. You will also need a wireless network tors should do is change the SSID so as to leave
monitoring tool to test the actual setup. others guessing. Default SSIDs for various

The Interference Dilemma

T he biggest thing that afflicts a WLAN is

interference. A WLAN signal is fragile and
can easily be disrupted by something as
Cordless phones running at 2.4 GHZ
These are the latest cordless phones that
offer a longer range from their base
devices and Wi-Fi, will soon put an end
to this menace.
Microwave ovens
simple as a wall, so the last thing you need station. However, the problem lies in the Every time employees heat their food, you
are pesky devices sending your WLAN fact that these cordless phones use the might find users in the immediate
crashing. The 802.11 protocol runs at about same frequency as WLANs, and thus turn surroundings yanking out clumps of hair.
2.4 GHz, and this frequency is prone to out to be the biggest source for Placing an access point next to a microwave
interference from numerous sources. The interference. If you have any of these oven is a definite no-no, as these ovens
problem with interference is the additional phones installed in your office, you will emit signals that clash with Wi-Fi.
load that is put on your networks. If one need to get rid of them whenever you Power Cables
wireless device is sending data packets to install your WLAN or be ready to face Improperly shielded power cables can
another, and interference occurs, the pathetic speeds. interfere with wireless signals, and it is best
receiver gets a packet with errors. Bluetooth-enabled devices to keep access points positioned away from
Most often, receivers are programmed Many mobile phones and PDAs today are power cables or power junction boxes.
to not respond to the sender when this Bluetooth-enabled, and this can cause Other WLANs
happens, and this results in the sender interference if a user uses such a device Most companies in India share buildings,
transmitting the packet once again. The where the signal strength of an access floors or even offices with other companies.
problem here is that all these packets being point is already low—far away from the In such a scenario, a neighbouring office’s
re-sent can use as much as half your access point and close to a device WLAN could cause interference with your
bandwidth, which will hurt the overall WLAN connected to the WLAN. Thankfully, own deployment. This is something you
performance. Some devices that can cause current research, driven by the increase should inspect and test thoroughly when
interference with WLANs are: in popularity of both Bluetooth-enabled doing your RF site survey.

94 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Business l Smart Business

Software Saviours

P ossibly the best way to check your security is to use the very tools someone
would use to gain unauthorised access to your WLAN. Here’s a short list of
tools that are built either to attack or defend:
AirSnort: A WLAN sniffer tool that recovers encryption keys by passively monitor-
ing transmissions. It calculates the encryption key after it has received enough
packets. It can be downloaded from http://snipurl.com/dgif
WEPCrack: This uses the latest RC4 key scheduling to crack a WLAN’s WEP code.
Get it from http://snipurl.com/dgih
NetStumbler: This tool lets you ‘discover’ any WLANs or access points in your
vicinity. This tool can also be used for your site survey, as it will inform you of
any existing WLANs that may cause interference or help you know your signal
strength at different points. It can be downloaded from http://snipurl.com/dgij
Internet Scanner: The Internet Scanner provides an automated network
vulnerability assessment. It performs distributed or event-driven probes of
network services, operating systems, routers/switches, servers, firewalls, and
application routers to identify potential risks. Try an evaluation version at
http://snipurl.com/dgil
Wireless Scanner: This detects and analyses your WLAN access points and
clients. It identifies and reports unauthorised and misconfigured devices. Try it
by going to http://snipurl.com/dgim.
BlackIce PC Protection: This is a personal firewall for laptops and Wi-Fi-enabled
desktops with the ability to protect you from intrusions and client-to-client
attacks. Download a trial from http://snipurl.com/dgio
You should also visit www.iss.net, the homepage of Internet Security Systems,
a leading security consultant to companies and governments world-wide. Here, you
will find some of the tools mentioned above, and also many security solutions for
enterprises, educational institutions and even governments.

If you are access point manufacturers are well known,

paranoid about
security,
and hence these should be changed immedi-
ately. Make sure you don’t use your company
name or initials as the SSID.
1 Col Ad
program each Also, you must enable encryption of signals so
access point to that unauthorised users cannot use wireless
filter requests by Ethernet sniffers to spy on the network. Even the
MAC addresses 128-bit WEP encryption is fallible. For details on
problems that WEP faces, visit http://snipurl.com/
dggs. The latest 802.11i standard addresses these
problems and is recommended for its use of
AES encryption.
Turn off broadcast pings to make access
points invisible to sniffers and simple network
analysis tools. If you are paranoid about secu-
rity, program each access point to filter
requests by MAC addresses, though you will
need to add every single wireless device’s MAC
address to every access point in the network.
Or simply secure your network by information
overload. Once you set up WLAN, go to
http://snipurl.com/dgh4 and download FakeAP.
When you run this, any intruder will see thou-
sands of access points—so your actual access
points are hidden by vast numbers.

In Sum
Though there are costs involved, and security at
stake, the fact is that as wireless technologies get
faster, better and more secure, Wi-Fi could give
your business a welcome boost of steroids. In fact,
in certain cases, you might find that Wi-Fi is the
only option.
Look out for the Fast Track book on Wire-
less Networking, free with the May 2005 issue
of Digit!
[email protected]

APRIL 2005 DIGIT 95

 Wired LAN v/s Wi-Fi
Is it time to replace the conventional wired LAN with a Wi-Fi network? Find out…

Transition to Wi-Fi with the In terms of expeniture, Wi-Fi will

added burden of logistics and prove to be more reasonable and
management is not feasible effective than wired LAN

I A
CICI bank has a network of 505 branches and more five star hotel in Mumbai, Hotel Marine Plaza has a
than a 1000 ATMs in the country. It also has its pres- lodging capacity of 68 rooms. Though the rooms
ence in UK, Canada, Singapore, and other countries. are yet to be Wi-Fi (Wireless Fidelity) enabled, all
ICICI chiefly uses wired Local Area Network (LAN) for its the restaurants, business rooms and terraces at Marine
scale of operations. Plaza are Wi-Fi hotspots.
“Almost all the ICICI offices work on wired LAN. As a “We are living in an era where there is a constant
bank we do not need to have a complete Wi-Fi setup need to stay connected, not only to our workplaces but
because the staff would prefer to work on desktop com- also various other setups worldwide. Wi-Fi comes to your
puters rather than laptops. Besides, Wi-Fi definitely works rescue in such cases. At Marine Plaza, we access the
better with laptops and just for the sake of having a Wi-Fi wireless Internet service through Wi-Fi technology.
connection we cannot afford to replace our existing desk- Guests staying at the hotel have access to a high-speed
tops with new laptops. wireless Internet connection.
Photograph Mexy Xavier

Photograph Jiten Gandhi

Banks function on closed
networks, where it is not Our business needs to be
advisable to have completely Wi-Fi enabled in
Wi-Fi connectivity order to function better

Pravir Vohra Anurag Bajaj

Chief Technology Officer, General Manager,
ICICI Bank Hotel Marine Plaza

“However, a few of our branches do use Wi-Fi in areas “Along with EZ-COMM, our provider for Wi-Fi access,
such as conference rooms and training centres to name a we have adopted a model, which eliminates most of the
few. Since we are using wired LAN at the moment, the disturbances that occur in a typical LAN network and we
transition to Wi-Fi and the added burden of logistics and are able to have an uninterrupted Internet connection.
management is not be feasible. We can offer our guests a broadband connection of 512
“Another major concern for us is security. If an out- Kbps. Moreover, they have the facility to buy prepaid
sider gains access to our customers’ account or to insider cards that can be used at any of the EZ-COMM wireless
information, the damage could be colossal. Banks func- locations across India.
tion on closed networks, where it is not advisable to have “An organisation may function in different time
Wi-Fi connectivity. zones, and at times it becomes unavoidable to do official
“Nevertheless, we are using Wi-Fi as a pilot run in work from home or even during vacation. Some guests
some branches. For instance, at these branches, we pro- may be on a business trip. We also have international
vide our hostesses with a tablet PC and they assist cus- guests staying at the Marine Plaza. It is true that many
tomers who are waiting in queues by solving their queries customers prefer to stay with us as they consider the
and doubts. Through Wi-Fi, they can tell account holders availability of Wi-Fi connectivity an added advantage to
whether their cheque has been cleared or not, prepare their package.
drafts and provide other similar services. This method “Altogether, we have six floors including the
prevents queuing as customers are not required to go to ground floor of our building on wired LAN network. That
the counter any more. apart, most of our guest area is equipped with Wi-Fi for
“Such experiments are being conducted using Wi-Fi. Internet access. I believe that our business needs to be
Further deployment of Wi-Fi in our branches will depend completely Wi-Fi enabled to function better. Wi-Fi will
on various parameters, an important one being customer definitely help us serve our customers better. In terms of
feedback. Having said that, I still feel Wi-Fi will not expenditure, Wi-Fi will work out be more reasonable and
replace our wired LAN office environment.” effective than wired LAN.”

As told to Preethi Chamikutty ([email protected])

96 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Leisure l Touched by Tech

Digital

100 …And There

Was Order! 106 Modem
Man 120 Hackers Did It!
Leisure
Technology Beyond Work

Touched By Tech

Creating A Million Smiles

Mobility, technology and digital photography combine to offer livelihood, and a smile
each day, and has been doing digital photography into the
Renuka Rane this for a year and a half now, Indian mainstream photography
ever since he became part segment. We wanted to explore

B
abulal Mishra, of Jamuna of HP Digital Photo Studio’s— how technology could be used in
Park, Delhi drives a unique Project Muskaan. emerging markets and be fitted
auto rickshaw to his work- into new products, which would
place—the courts, at Delhi. He is The Genesis specifically address the needs of
a digital photographer tending HP Digital Studio, a chain of emerging markets in India.”
to the passport photo require- instant, digital, photo print serv- Existing photo studios and
ments of applicants, or litigants ice has integrated digital print- new entrepreneurs have setup
near the courts. His auto is a ing. ‘Project Muskaan’, or the shop through Project Muskaan
converted, mobile digital stu- ‘HP Digital Photo Studio’ proj- by using the HP Digital Studio
dio, and attracts a lot of atten- ect, was launched by HP India in package provided. The project
tion from onlookers. Mishra May 2002 as a platform to gener- has an ever increasing 5,000-
simply clicks a picture with his ate sustainable self-employment, member franchise network serv-
digital camera, and takes a and enable revenue generation icing over two million customers
printout from a photo-printer, for people from urban and a month, and is spread across 75
all within a matter of minutes! rural India. cities and 1,000 villages in India.
He gets anywhere between Explaining the objectives
20 to 60 customers behind the venture, HP India’s Products And Prices
digital photography products, An individual photographer, or

Imaging Bineah Sreedharan

consumer segment manager, an existing photo studio can
Ashwini Aggarwal says, “Project avail of the HP Digital Studio
Muskaan was launched in May package, which includes a
2002 to drive the concept of multi-media personal computer,

DIGIT APRIL 2005 97

 Digital Leisure l Touched By Tech
What Is Available
Creating Entrepreneurs
photo printer, scanner, digital The company also targeted The HP Digital Studio package
camera, and the HP Digital commercial photographers, includes an HP personal
Studio software. All of it comes analogue photo studios, street computer, HP photo printer, HP
at a cost of Rs 50,000, as opposed photographers, and tour opera- scanner, HP digital camera, and
to a year ago, when the price was tors whose services include pass- the HP Digital Studio software
around Rs 1.5 lakh. However, in port size photos, photo identity for Rs 50,000.
villages, where affordability is a cards, posters, and visiting cards. In villages, HP offers an HP
prime area of concern, the Our visits to Consider Suniti, a young photo printer along with an HP
company offers a photo printer villages village girl from Kuppam camera for as low as Rs 15,000.
along with a camera for as low as received a district. When she shuts shop for
Rs 15,000. Moreover, one can tremendous the day, she has earned a
take advantage of easy bank response and respectable Rs 200 per day from Harish Mendiratta, owner of
financing options, thus making people her profession as a digital Sanjay Photo studio in
the package more affordable. showed great photographer to double her Pahadganj, New Delhi says,
Most of the photographers enthusiasm family household income. “When we were using Polaroid
did not want the computer inter- towards using “A significant revenue earn- print, it cost us Rs 35 to prepare
face—all they wanted was a digi- digital ing stream, Project Muskaan is a set of four passport sized
tal camera and an appliance for photography proof that such an endeavour photographs. We went digital a
printing. So, the company intro- can be made financially sustain- year ago and now it costs us Rs
duced a lightweight Photosmart Ashwini able, and even profitable. In 12 for the same. We also have a
printer, where one can simply Aggarwal rural India, photo prints are quick return on investment,
insert the memory card of the Consumer now available on the spot, at ease of printing and richer
camera into one of the card- Segments Manager, affordable prices and people colours. We can now develop all
reader slots on the printer, see Digital Photography don’t have to face the delay of sizes of digital photographs—
and select the images, set print Products, HP India getting the prints developed and from passport-sized ones to
size, quality and print crisp delivered from a nearby town,” large posters.”
pictures. This made the job says Aggarwal. “Earlier, we had to click
easier for photographers, who In rural areas, Project pictures, then develop them in a
didn’t have to resort to the Muskaan serves to create dark room. Thanks to digital
computer for either manipulat- employment, encourages entre- photography we have bid good-
ing the images, or for printing. preneurship, and also aids bye to this lengthy and cumber-
economic and social develop- some process. We also perform
Bridging The Digital ment. The Digital Studio project colour correction such as
Divide has gained prominence in north increasing or decreasing the
Project Muskaan aims to take tech- India in the Sirsa district in contrast and so on. So there are
nology to the rural and urban Haryana, Manas village, many options available to
masses, by converting conven- Rishikesh, Uttaranchal, and also us at an affordable price,”
tional photo labs into digital in southern India by giving Mendiratta adds.
photo studios. “We wanted to villagers—men and women,
narrow the digital divide between young and old alike, an oppor- Evangelising Digital
urban and rural Indians. To target tunity to turn entrepreneurs. Photography
emerging markets, we opened our D P Chauhan’s Chayya Photo
first lab in the Kuppam From Polaroid To Digital Studio in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, is
constituency, of district Chitoor in So, is the transition from the nearly 12 years old. Chauhan
Andhra Pradesh. Our visits to conventional forms to digital became part of Project Muskaan in
villages received a tremendous photography advisable? It’s a win- 2003. He explains, “Representa-
response and people showed win situation for both the tives from HP provided me with
enthusiasm towards using digital customers as well as the photog- the basic training. Through
photography,” explains Aggarwal. raphers as Mishra is quick to brochures and practical demon-
point out, “Customers get instant strations they explained what digi-
pictures and we get instant tal photography is all about. They
payment. So both of us are happy! helped me with the installation of
Moreover, foreign tourists insist the equipment and frequented my
on instant digital photographs.” studio for three to four days until
The instant turnaround I was comfortably settled.”
time, coupled with fade resist- The company provides retail
ant images and high print qual- franchisees and members of
ity has helped users to increase Project Muskaan with marketing
their daily margins leading to support initiatives such as train-
higher profits. ing, branding, promotional mate-
Ease of use, low cost, and rials such as user account
mass appeal of instant solutions management, loyalty programs,
has tipped the scales in HP’s and special pricing.
favour. This strategy helped HP HP India’s initiative to bring
gain a wider presence, and photo printing to the masses has
remove misconceptions about sparked off a digital imaging revo-
A digital photgrapher, this village belle in Andhra Pradesh is digital photography being costly lution in India.
now an independent and confident young woman and difficult to handle. [email protected]

98 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Of Hacked Sidekicks
1 Name the innovative 5 The contents of this A-list 9 Name the recently-unveiled
lighting product, a celebrity’s T-Mobile Sidekick ‘alternate-reality game’, an
desktop-sized device, which were recently published online, extremely complicated series of
splits three electronic after being allegedly hacked into. puzzles involving coded Web sites,
lasers, high-intensity blue It contained phone numbers of real-world clues (such as
and ultraviolet LEDs, and Eminem, Vin Diesel, Christina newspaper ads or midnight phone
throws them into a hand- Aguilera, Andy Roddick and Anna calls from game characters), set to
cut faceted crystal to create Kournikova. Name her. unfold on a global scale.
impressive mood lighting. a. Britney Spears b. Paris Hilton a. Night Rider b. Complex City
a. Laserbulb b. MoodPod c. Jennifer Lopez d. Cameron Diaz c. Perplex City d. VR World
c. MoodLight d. Laserpod
6 EduVision’s pilot project at 10 What does the Windows
2 An interactive programming Mbita Point primary school in desktop shortcut ‘Windows-
language developed in 1990, western Kenya involves students SHIFT-M’ do?
by Guido van Rossum, originally as using a handheld computer with a a. Empty Recycle Bin
a scripting language for Amoeba stylus to work on exercises in their b. Restart the PC
OS, is now an open source project, digitalised school textbooks. What c. Minimize all open windows
managed by a non-profit is the device called? d. Undo minimize all windows
foundation. Name it. a. E-vision b. E-slates
a. Ruby b. Java c. E-text d. E-pod Answers
c. Python d. Visual Basic 1. Laserpod 7. WinZip Companion
7 Name the Microsoft Outlook 2. Python
3. Wikimedia
for Outlook
8. Macintosh
3 Name the company which companion released recently
Foundation Computer
offers the popular blogging by WinZip, which allows users to zip 4. Chicken feathers 9. Perplex City
service LiveJournal, and open ency- files (automatically or manually) 5. Paris Hilton 10. Undo minimise all
clopaedia Wikipedia. when attaching them to messages. 6. E-slates windows
a. Wikimedia Foundation Users can also encrypt them using
b. Wmedia Foundation Advanced Encryption Standard
c. Wiki Foundation (AES) encryption.
d. World Media Foundation a. Ziplock
b. ZipOutlook
W orldwide, companies with
100 e-mail addresses or
less have received up to 10
4 Intel is technically aiding a c. WinZip Companion for Outlook times more spam than those Did you
project by Richard Wool d. WinZip Outlook Add-On with 10,000 addresses or know?
Got an (University of Delaware), who more (according to research
interesting wishes to recycle discarded ________ 8 Jef Raskin, who conceived firm Postini).
question? to make circuit boards, replacing Apple Computer Inc’s __________,
Send it in with petroleum-based components with died on February 26 this year, at
the answer to keratin-based composites. the age of 61.
editor@thinkdigit. a. Chicken feathers b. Eider feathers a. Mac OS X b. Macintosh Computer Send in
your
Win!
com c. Chicken wings d. Frog’s legs c. iPod d. iPod photo
answers
Crossword to the crossword to
[email protected].
Across Down
7. Convert into data or 1. Contraction of
One lucky participant will
image form processed by Windows and win a Professional Java
a computer (8) Intel (6) Programming
8. Application-specific 2. Software theft by Brett Spell, published by Shroff Publishers
Integrated Circuit rearranges a pit Winner of March 2005 Crossword is
(abbr) (4) ring (8) Neelima Premsankar, Calicut.
9. Bombard attempt to 3. ‘Ni’ in Ni-Mh
violate computer security (6) batteries (6)
10. Accounting journal upsets 4. Temporary loss Last Month’s Solution
red gel (6) of contact by a
11. Ultra Large Scale server (6)
Integration (abbr)(4) 5. Range of
12. Expert in circuit design (8) frequencies used
15. Professional beans as for transmitting a
software (8) signal (4)
19. Short for computer 6. Anemic burns
advertisement (4) theatre (6)
21. Application software for 13. Unit of electrical
Macintosh computer (3,3) resistance is a from host (6)
23. Wear off unit of instruction (6) mystic syllable, it’s heard (3) 18. Pick out highlighted text with
24. ______Code, final 14. Restrict information in a cursor (6)
ready-to-manufacture categoric arrangement (8) 20. Purplish-blue colour of mouse (6)
software (4) 16. Start off treachery for rational 22. Esau reversed the
25. Teething ring is a motive (6) operational state
conciliator (8) 17. To receive connection request of a computer (4)

DIGIT APRIL 2005 99

 Imaging Jayan K Narayanan

…And There Was Order!

A look at two Image Managers that bring order to your photo collection
allowed tagging, simplifying the those shot using your digital
Sanket Naik whole process. camera, a scanned photograph,
Similarly, today, we have photos taken by your mobile

A
digital camera has its managers that take impeccable phone or even wallpapers down-
advantages, such as low care of your digital photographs. loaded from the Internet. So, an
running costs, instant They allow you to take complete image manager should have the
access to results, and so control of your digital assets, be option of capturing images from
on. However, managing the they photographs or videos. They all possible sources. The process
images after transferring them let you capture your photographs, of acquiring images is often
onto your computer is a gargan- tag them, fix minor problems such termed ‘importing’.
tuan task. With a film camera, all as red eye, apply basic effects such As you will see, Photoshop
you had to do was click and send as blur, and share them in the Album 2.0 has a neat, simple
them to the studio for develop- form of slideshows, calendars, interface for importing photo-
ing, and they even would give you VCDs and much more. graphs. It has options for import-
an album to store your photos! To take you through some ing from cameras, scanners,
With digital cameras, though, practices that you should help mobile phones and folders on
your photos are now stored as you take care of your digital your hard disk.
files on your computer. Searching photographs, we have chosen two Picasa 2, too, has a similar,
through a number of un-indexed of the best available managers; simple-to-use interface, but lacks
files on your computer can be a Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0, and the structured segregation
veritable nightmare. Picasa 2 from Google. offered by the Adobe product.
The problem is akin to when As we proceed, we will look Once the photographs are
MP3s were the rage. You would into their utility value in terms imported from the respective
have thousands of these files on simplifying the image manage- devices, they are stored on your
your hard drive with none tagged ment process. hard drive. In Windows XP, ‘My
properly, and searching for a Pictures’ is the default folder for
particular song was tedious. Taking Those Images In storing images. However, as far as
Then, someone came up with a Typically, images on a PC have possible, avoid storing your
multi-feature MP3 manager that multiple sources; they could be photos in this folder. There are

100 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Leisure l Test Centre
need to be arranged; this is done
by cataloguing or categorising.
Cataloguing is the most
important step in image
management. It decides how fast
a particular photograph can be
searched from your collection.
There are many ways of cate-
gorisation; the simplest is similar
to the directory and file structure
we have on our computers.
A parent-child relationship
exists between the directory and
files. The disadvantage of such
classification is that a single file
cannot be linked to two separate Importing photos is a one-step job in Picasa 2
instances unless two copies of the
same files are put into two sepa- same image. This is achieved by
rate folders. This is especially true means of ‘Tags’.
in the case of photographs, as Tags allow you to append
they are connected to a person on extra information to the same
multiple levels such as, the event, photograph so it can be linked to
the involved people, the place or multiple occasions or people.
a variety of factors. Picasa 2 allows you to add the
So, if you want to segregate folder name, captions for the
your photographs, you have folder, information about the
place you shot the photos, and
the date at the end of the import-
ing process. This is the first level
of categorisation.
Once the photos are arranged
in a folder, you can add captions
to individual photos too. So,
two main reasons for this. while searching, a filter can be
First, in case of a virus, applied for these captions.
where your OS fails to boot, For adding tags to a particu-
a backup of this folder would lar photograph in Picasa 2, you
be required before you can rein- need to select it and then click on
stall the OS. the ‘Label’ button in the bottom
Second, as the ‘My Pictures’ pane. Every label entry is
folder is in the root drive, C:\, the displayed on the top left hand
eventual increase in the folder corner. So for searching, you can
size will slow down your system. Categorising images in Picasa 2—you can add captions too! go through the label entries, or
The best option is to create a type in the label or caption.
dedicated folder on a partition of In Photoshop Album 2.0, once
your hard drive, and then set the multiple options to consider; the ‘Import’ function is
appropriate path in the image should they be categorised under completed, images are placed in a
manager. You could even move an event, people or place? temporary folder—Photowell. The
the entire ‘My Documents’ folder To get past this hurdle, you next stage is to organise them.
to a different partition for safety. need another method for classifi- Images can be tagged either
cation, which runs parallel to the by applying pre-defined tags or by
Cataloguing simple directory and file struc- creating new ones. You can even
Once you import the images, they ture and eliminates the need for create sub-tags under a main cate-
having multiple copies of the
From The Word Go
When you take a photograph with a digital camera, the camera
automatically attaches some information related to the photograph to
the file. This information is known as meta-data, which includes the date,
time, resolution, exposure settings and other technical information.
Image management applications often use this information to organise
photographs,; especially if the manager has a ‘Timeline’ feature. It is
therefore advisable to set the date and time of your camera before you
start shooting. All digital cameras allow appending names to the
photographs. Clever use of this feature reduces your post-shooting work
and also takes care of basic organisation of photos. For example, append
‘party’ to photos taken at a party, so when you download them, they will
automatically be named as party001, party002, and so on.
Adding tags in Photoshop Album 2.0 is a drag-and-drop process

APRIL 2005 DIGIT 101

 Digital Leisure l Test Centre
gory, for example, under the apply digital effects by using
main tag ‘people’, you can add filters. In all, there are 12 effects
‘family’, ‘friends’ etc. It also that can be applied on the fly, at
allows you to collect random the click of a mouse. In case you
photographs and group them as don’t like the final output,
a collection (album). This comes there’s always ‘Undo’!
in handy when you want to Compared to Picasa 2, the
collect, say, all the photographs touchup options in Photoshop
of cars that are on your hard disk, Album 2.0 are limited, though it
into one collection called ‘Cars’. does offer the necessary tools
Now, when you need to search cutting out the fancy bells
for any particular file, you can do and whistles.
so using a tag. A point to note is For fixing your photographs,
that Photoshop Album 2.0 does you need to click on the ‘Fix’
not allow you to search by typing; button in the main menu, which
it has checkboxes against the opens a window. The fixes are
name of the tag. When you classified into General, Red-eye,
search by applying a particular Fixes to the most common problems such as Red-eye are just a Crop and Filters.
tag, you select the check box click away in Picasa 2 The fixing window has
against that tag. You can also ‘Before’, ‘After’, and ‘Before &
check multiple boxes so that it Colour, and Fill Light. It also After’ panes that let you view the
does an ‘or’, ‘and’ and ‘not’ consists of a ‘Cropping’ and a red- photo to be touched up in three
search. This search methodology eye removal tool. One feature in versions as the names suggest.
is not available with Picasa 2. particular that we found quite We found the ‘Before & After’
unique and interesting was the pane useful since the resultant
Straightening Out Those ‘Straighten’ tool. It allows you to effects after applying a fix are
Rough Edges straighten a tilted photograph easy to notice.
No matter how diligently you i.e., it aligns the subject along For applying any fix in Photo-
the vertical axis. shop Album 2.0, you need to click
‘Tuning’ provides that extra on the check box that automati-
control over lighting conditions cally applies the fix. Clicking on
and shadows. Here, too, you have the adjoining ‘Expand’ button
a one-touch correct option, reveals options for finer control
which that does the magic, in over the fix.
case you fall short of the requi-
site creative ability. Spreading The Warmth
Finally, ‘Effects’ allows you to The best part about digital
photography is that you can
make as many copies as you want
at a click of a button and share
them with friends and family.
The ‘Straighten’ tool in Picasa 2 lets you You can also put them up on your
correct wrongly-framed photos by simply Web site, make an e-card, a
moving the slider photo-VCD, or a slideshow.
When it comes to sharing
take those pictures, they lack photographs, Picasa and Photo-
that extra bit, you think, would shop Album have some unique
make them outstanding. In digi- features. Photoshop Album 2.0,
tal photography, the trick lies in though, scores over Picasa, as it
post-shooting touch ups that can offers significant, yet unique and
transform mediocre photographs simple ways to share photos.
into breathtaking shots. Red-eye, Photoshop Album 2.0 allows
blur due to shaky hands, and Your images can be enhanced by Effects such as ‘Soft Blur’ and creation of your own albums,
dark photographs due to Sepia tone in Picasa 2 slideshows, VCDs, eCards, calen-
improper lighting are some dar, and photo book. It provides
common ailments in digital you with more templates than
photography, and any image you would need for creating that
manager worth its salt should be special album or calendar.
able to correct these aberrations. In fact it requires just six
Picasa 2 comes with some steps to make any of the above
neat, handy tools that let you (Refer explanation below). While
play around with your photo- slideshows are common, albums,
graphs and bring in that profes- calendars, and VCDs require
sional touch. These tricks are some optimisation for proper
divided into three categories— printing and running. Photoshop
Basic Fixes, Tuning and Effects. Album 2.0 does all necessary
Basic Fixes offer a one-click optimisations for printing an
solution for some common prob- Photoshop Album 2.0 lets you preview effects before album on your desktop printer.
lems, such as Auto Contrast, Auto you apply them Picasa 2 has options that help

102 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 Digital Leisure l Test Centre
create posters, collages, screen- should provide you the option of shop Album 2.0 comes across as
savers, and even a movie, straight backing up your photos onto a full-fledged professional appli-
from the selected photographs. CD/DVD or to some other cation. Picasa 2, though, is excel-
Once created, you can print machine on your network. lent considering it’s free.
them, e-mail them or send them Both Picasa 2 and Photoshop We recommend Photoshop
directly to blogger.com for shar- Album 2.0 have backup options Album 2.0, though, to those who
ing using hello.com. built into them, which work have to deal with a lot of photo-
flawlessly. Moreover, both appli- graphs on a daily basis. For
Backup cations allow incremental an amateur, Picasa 2 is more
Like all other digital assets that backup, thereby saving precious than enough.
can vanish off your hard drive in space on your hard drive. It’s important to remember,
the event of a crash or any other though, that digital photographs
outage, digital photographs are The Verdict can add up in numbers rapidly,
prone to the same fate; a backup To conclude, Picasa 2 and Photo- and maintaining an easy-to-
is therefore a must. shop Album 2.0 are excellent in remember system of tagging and
A good image manager what they do, although Photo- nomenclature is a must.
[email protected]

Creating A Calendar Using Adobe Photoshop Album 2.0

1. Click on ‘Create’ and select ‘Calendar’ to begin 4. You can add photos for each month of the year

2. The next stage is to choose a template 5. A preview of what the calendar will look like

3. Name the calendar and decide the year you want it for 6. You could e-mail, print or make a PDF of the calendar

A copy of this calendar is available on the April 2005 Digit DVD

APRIL 2005 DIGIT 103

 MediaWise
Newsweek, March 14 Wired, March 2005

History Is Going, Going, Gone The Fox Is Lurking

STEVEN LEVY, NEWSWEEK’S Senior Editor, has always WIRED REPORTER REGINA Lynn writes how the Internet
been writing technology articles with a twist. His has changed our concepts of dating, love, and even
expertise lies in tying in technology and culture, and sexuality. And that, she says, may not necessarily be a
how it impacts the common man. Here, once again, bad thing.
he is at his usual best...
REMEMBER the days when hooking up with romantic
ALMOST 30 years ago I came to possess a little piece of partners online was considered weird? Something only geeks
computer history. At the time, it seemed to me a fairly or losers did?
straightforward handwritten letter acknowledging my Even three years ago when I had an online dating profile,
request to terminate an apartment lease, with instructions people thought it was strange that anyone would try falling in
on how I could recover my security deposit. What I did not love “with a computer”. Three years before that, when I flew
know then was that my landlord, a fellow with the across the country to meet a chat buddy in person, all the
unforgettable name of J. Presper Eckert, was a pioneer of media could talk about was how dangerous it was to get
the digital era, a co-inventor of one of the first operational involved romantically (or sexually) online.
electronic computers. Meet in a public place! the magazines screamed. Don’t
The idea that this trust anything! Your intuition could get you killed!
note might qualify as a Meanwhile, thousands of people less wired than I were
historical artifact dawned quietly finding
on me a couple of weeks companionship and sex
ago as I examined the through the connections they
254 lots in the “History made online. It wasn’t just
of Cyberspace” collection the nerds. It was people fed
auctioned at Christie’s on up with the singles scene,
February 23. The earliest people unhappy with their
items were from the current relationships, people
brilliant minds of the pre- seeking escape into the
computer age such as drama of a romance novel or
Charles Babbage, the a porn film come to life.
19th-century visionary And it was people finding
who designed a the loves of their lives.
programmable machine These days, if you’re
known as the “the single and have Internet
Difference Engine.” But the meat of the collection access, you’re about as likely
consisted of documents from the vacuum-tube cowboys to have an online personal as
who made the early giant computers, especially my not. I even know a woman who checked her Yahoo! matches
landlord Pres Eckert. His key papers were up for grabs, from a computer at the library for months. She saw no reason
including the first business plan ever written for a that the theft of her laptop should dampen her chances of
computer company. Other items included his badge for meeting Mr. Right, or at least Mr. Friday Night.
that company (which became Sperry Rand UNIVAC), and Not long ago I read a series of articles about how
his letters, though none concerning an apartment building membership in online dating sites was leveling off. Of course
on the Wayne Avenue in Philadelphia. it is! If a matchmaking site is any good, it stands to reason
Jeremy Norman, the California bookseller who built that people would pair off and cancel their memberships. If
the collection, was thrilled that the auction garnered the site isn’t good, members will move on to places where
unprecedented advance publicity. But on the morning of they have more luck.
the auction, he seemed nervous that the big money might Besides, even if you count the marrieds pretending to be
not show up. Indeed, a disappointed Norman afterward single, there are only so many daters in the world.
conceded that the results were “mixed.” Though some of And dating sites are hardly the only place to find partners
the most desirable items, such as a letter from Lady Ada online. It seems that despite the mass adoption of database
Lovelace, who wrote the first programmes for Babbage’s dating, the more traditional ways of falling in love online are
never-built machine (she was also Lord Byron’s daughter), just as popular as ever. Community and common interests are
went for prices in the high five figures, barely half the just as important as a catalog.
lots were actually sold. Last year, Janet Lever, a sociologist at California State
Specifically, the auction lacked spirited bidding wars University at Los Angeles, conducted a survey on cybersex
between moguls who made billions in computers and and romance. “(We found that) a lot of people used the
cyberspace. The only PC legend in attendance seemed to dating sites who never wanted to meet anyone,” she says.
be Lotus founder and venture capitalist Mitch Kapor. If Bill “Women especially had to learn how to distinguish between
Gates (who once paid $30 million (Rs. 1,305,750,000) for a guys looking for flirty and dirty talk from the men who
Leonardo da Vinci codex) or Larry Ellison had been taking wanted to meet. And it turns out that an almost equal
him on, we might have seen some fireworks. number of people met someone through erotic chat rooms.”

Want to read more? Visit http://snipurl.com/digit_history Visit http://snipurl.com/digit_date for the complete picture

104 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 AdWise
The New York times, March 8

A New Direction at Google

GOOGLE NEVER FAILS to make news; if not for products, it
manages to hit headlines with developments in the
technology market. Bob Tedeschi of the New York Times asks
why Google is now interested in domain names.

AFTER Google disclosed last week that it had been granted the
right to sell domain names, the question in many minds was,
“Why?” Why would the company, which just reported click-
advertising sales of more than $1 billion (Rs. 43,525,000,000)
in the most recent quarter, compete in a relatively low-margin
business with Network Solutions, Yahoo!, GoDaddy and others?
Would it use its new registrar status to snap up expired
domains and show ads to wayward surfers? Is this a move
toward Google world domination?
“In a few years, you’ll be driving your Google to the Google to
buy some Google for your Google,” read one posting on Slashdot,
an online technology forum.
Eileen Rodriguez, a Google spokeswoman, hardly quelled
the speculation by explaining that the whole thing was really a
learning opportunity for the company. Google “has become a
domain name registrar to learn more about the Internet’s domain
name system,” she said recently in an e-mail. “While we have no
plans to register domains at this time, we believe this information
can help us increase the quality of our search results.”
Ms. Rodriguez would not say how having registrar status
might help Google improve search results. But Bret Fausett, who
publishes Lextext.com, a Web log following the domain name License to steal?
industry, and who first disclosed the news that Google had The focus here is on how easy it is to steal digital
become a registrar, said Google could improve the quality of information, and the big button in green gets the point
search results by getting across very effectively.
better access to the list of
expiring domain names—a list
available only to registrars.
When a domain expires
and changes hands, Mr.
Fausett explained, Google
can now more easily find,
scan and index the new site,
so it does not mistakenly
point searchers to a site with
irrelevant content, or place
advertisers on sites with
content that does not match
their products or services.
That alone could
profoundly affect the
domain name market, which
has rebounded partly
because of another Google
service, AdSense. Through AdSense, Google pays publishers to
display text ads related to a site’s content. Speculators often
buy the expiring domains of even marginally popular Web sites
and replace the site’s content. But because the practice
diminishes the usefulness of Google’s search engine, the
company has long sought ways to curb it.
Google’s continuing refinement of its search technology
underscores the intensifying competition in that market, which
has carried Internet advertising back to life in recent years.
MSN, Yahoo! and others have seen Google parlay popular
search technology into a dominant business by selling text
advertisements to marketers whenever consumers search for The Spaminator
words related to a business. Playing upon the movie title ‘Elvis has left the building’, this
one uses an Elvis look-alike to create an unusual ad setting.
No boring computers here. And the words “left the building”
Read the full report at http://snipurl.com/digit_google drill it into you that your entire office will be protected.
DIGIT APRIL 2005 105
 Teen Convicted Under Internet Piracy Law A Robot In Every Japanese Home
Parvin Dhaliwal, 18, is the first person in the US to be Officials have compiled a report predicting that every hous-
convicted, under state laws, for illegally downloading music ehold in Japan will own at least one robot by 2015. Robots
and movies off the Net. He was sentenced to a three-month are already used as receptionists, night watchmen, hospital
deferred jail sentence, three years of probation, 200 hours of workers, guides, pets and more. This trend may, scientists
community service, and a $5,400 (approx. Rs 2,35,500) fine. say, change lifestyles more radically than computers did.

First
Escape
KEEP GAMING CELL USE WHILE DRIVING UP

Virtual Pizza—For Real Driving

Under The www.nellikkal.com
H ow’d you like to
order a pizza by
visiting a pizza store in
Influence
a game? Sony has
recently made it
possible to do just that: I n an earlier issue of Digit,
we reported that people
one can now order pizza
while playing the online
multiplayer game
Everquest II. The idea is to
talking on cell phones,
while driving have their
mental age reduced to
approximately that of a 10-
T his site, called ‘Nellikkal
Computers’, is the Web
site of a computer com-
pany based in Nagercoil,
not leave the game year old, in terms of Tamil Nadu. For some
while you are ordering response times. And now, as strange reason, the site’s
the pizza; one simply per a survey released by the builders seem to think that
needs to type in ‘/pizza’ Illustrations: Harsho Mohan Chattoraj
United States National tantalising you with pictures
within the game. This Highway Traffic Safety and terms is better than
leads one to the online certainly mean more pizza Administration, more actually offering clickable
ordering section of Pizza orders, what with the people than ever are using products. For instance, click-
Hut to place an order. Soon, number of Everquest their cell phones while ing ‘Networking’ leads you
players will be able to pay subscribers. Schemes such driving. The survey was to a page that helpfully lists
for such orders via their as free games, as long as conducted at 1,200 road a few networking terms.
monthly gaming bill. one spends more than, say, sites across the country and, ‘Laptop’ takes you to a page
Although it’s not a big $30 a month on purchases, in some cases, where there are, umm, pic-
deal quitting the game and seem almost sure to come. supplemented by telephone tures of a few laptops. No
ordering a pizza the regular Sony Online surveys. It showed that 8 per prices, though—and nothing
way, it is certainly a novelty Entertainment said that it cent of the drivers were like “available here” or any-
to be able to order within thinks this is the first time a using hand-held or hands- thing. Ostensibly, we are to
the game itself. The concept game has been able to accept free cell phones during assume that these laptops
adds to the virtual gaming orders for real-world items. daylight hours last year, a are available at the store.
experience—and it could It certainly won’t be the last. 50 per cent increase since Clicking ‘Computers’
takes you to a page where
three computer configura-
My Desktop tions are given. It’s not even
clear whether these configu-
rations are available at
T hink you have the most
beautiful, most innovative
desktop around? Send it to
Nellikkal Computers. But at
least that’s better than just
[email protected], and pictures, isn’t it?
Digit will publish the most An ‘under construction’
eye-catching of them each month. sign would have helped us
make some sense of this,
but there’s none.
The winner
receives a copy
The rest of the links
of professional don’t work—and they don’t
SLQ Server give errors, to the site’s
2000 DTS credit: they are conveniently
By Mark Chaffin, Brian not clickable.
Knight and Todd The only link that’s of
Robinson, published by any use is ‘Contact us’—but
Shroff Publishers & Distributors P. Ltd. we wonder who’d want to
This month’s winner is contact them after a look at
Rajneesh’s desktop has an Apple-style dock.
Rajneesh Raghu, Fareedabad the site!
Sent in by Rajneesh Raghu, Fareedabad

106 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 People Who
Who was it that said “And never the
Changed
twain shall meet”?
Computing

This month’s winner is

Dhawal Damle from Delhi. He wins
Modem
NBA LIVE 2004
Man
worth Rs 1,299
from Gayatri Impex
Pvt Ltd W e take the humble
modem for granted,
but the fact is that the
Express your game
with new freesyle Internet could not have
shooting, signature become what it is without
moves, mid-air shot the invention of the PC
adjustments, and more. modem. It was Dennis
Hayes who set the stage for
massive computer-to-
WIN! computer communication
A Mini Keypad by Travel Pac just by sharing an by inventing the PC modem
amusing picture with a tech angle to it. The in 1977. This established the
picture should be shot by you, and should not technology
have been published earlier. that would
Send your picture to allow the
[email protected].
The prize-winning picture will be published
then online
each month. and
Internet
industries
driving. So far, however, robots. The idea is to create Dennis Hayes to emerge
only two such states have a virtual being that can visit and grow.
passed such a law. the neighbouring cubicle Hayes had been working
for a live telephone chat at a computer services firm
MICROSOFT TECHFEST while the owner is that used leased-line
travelling thousands of modems for point-to-point
Baby-sitting miles away, for example.
The ‘Teddy’ project was
connectivity between
microcomputers. He wanted
Bots! one of about 150 projects
on display at Microsoft’s
to open those lines of
communication so any one
Cell use while driving is on the rise TechFest, a two-day event system could talk to

2002 and a 100 per cent rise

in four years. Drivers aged
T hink about a teddy bear
sitting in the corner of a
child’s room, his head
that gives Microsoft’s
worldwide team of
researchers the chance to
another, and created the
standard AT command set, a
software string that let any
between 16 and 24 following the kid around show product developers computer with a serial port
increased their talking on using a face recognition their creations. TechFest activate features on an
cell phones by 60 per cent program, also allowing a opened on March 2, mainly intelligent modem.
between 2002 and 2004. parent talk to the child to full-time Microsoft In January 1978, he
“While we don’t have through a special phone—or employees. The company founded D C Hayes &
hard evidence that there’s monitor the child via a expected about 6,000 to Associates, Inc, the company
been an increase in the camera and wireless attend, including known today as Hayes Corp.
number of crashes, we Internet connection. The Chairman Bill Gates and Innovations at Hayes’
know that talking on the prototype, on display at other executives. company resulted in
phone can degrade driver Microsoft’s annual gadget Another idea at TechFest performance enhancements
performance,” NHTSA showcase, is one of several came from Raman Sarin, a and cost reductions that led
spokesman Rae Tyson said. ideas researchers have for Microsoft development the industry in the
Washington DC and the engineer. Sarin’s conversion from leased-line
State of New Hampshire no invention is modems to the intelligent-
longer allow talking on SmartPhlow, a dial modem, or PC modem.
hand-held cell phones program that not The PC modem was initially
while driving. Some only monitors sold to hobbyists. Soon, D C
communities require current traffic Hayes & Associates became a
hands-free cell phones. patterns but also 1,500-employee company,
The National uses real-time and operating in 44 countries.
Transportation Safety Board archived data to Hayes’ eyesight began
said it wants all the 50 predict when the deteriorating in the ’70s,
states of the US to ban those next traffic jam and he today champions Net
with learner’s permits from might occur. accessibility for the visually
using cell phones, or other SmartPhlow, and hearing impaired.
wireless devices while which can work on

DIGIT APRIL 2005 107

 Escape
Digitisers In Distress
T he bosses at Digit think they are god’s
gift to workaholism. So, on a balmy
March afternoon, they lug us all the way
would live on two litres of diesel and will
power until Khandala.
Sadly for him, and tragically for us, it
to Khandala, to talk about various did not. And we were stranded right in the
official things. It is called mixing middle of nowhere on the Mumbai-Pune
IT Law business with pleasure, but we privately Expressway. So there we were, nine people
You already know that lawyers call it torture. Khandala is this cool, trying to get to the destination desperately,
use such terms as ‘hereinunder’ little hill station some 100 km north of but helpless like a maiden in a Hindi film.
‘wheretofore’ and so on. But Mumbai. And trust our guys to put us all Our man wanted fuel, and there was no
what kinds of terms do IT in some claustrophobic conference room fuel. The closest fuel station was 12 km
lawyers use, under the for three hours with biscuits for away. The next 20 minutes looked and
Information Technology Act of
2000? Here’s a sampler. company. Credit to them, when they said sounded like the Indian Parliament. There
three hours, they actually meant two, so was much consternation, shouting, buck-
Computer: According to IT
we were out in two hours. passing, and ultimately one person even
lawyers, this does not refer to
the box you’re so familiar with. Anyway, the point of this story is not wanted to stage a walkout, only to be
It manipulates electronic, to grumble about the bosses—we can fill prevented by vehicles zipping at 120 Kmph
magnetic, or optical impulses, a whole new section on that someday— along the expressway.
and for good measure, includes but to talk about the ineptness of some Ultimately, another driver, who
all input, output, processing, drivers. The worthy chap who was dropped off the previous nine people,
storage, and blah blah, that are cabbing us to Khandala thought that just came back and picked us up, and took us
connected—or even related—to like a newly- to our destination,
the computer. married couple where we spent the
Access: No, this is not about
that lives on love aforementioned two
usernames and passwords.
Access is, as it turns out, “with and fresh air, his hours inside the
its grammatical variations and Toyota Qualis too claustrophobic room.
cognate expressions,” gaining
entry into, instructing or
communicating with the an advanced smartphone In one of the robberies, EDIBLE NANOTECH
logical, arithmetical, or or on a desktop computer, which occurred in
memory resources of a
computer. Phew! Actually,
takes into account
everything from weather,
December, a father and son
were forced, at gunpoint, to
Eat Your
there’s more to it than that,
but we didn’t understand it.
Time and place of despatch
to sporting events, to
accidents, in making its
lie down. Horne and his
partners then took more
Silicon
and receipt of electronic predictions. It also looks at than $9,000 (Rs 4 lakh) in
record: We doubt that even traffic relationships—if, for cash and equipment from
anotech may soon find
the lawyers understand this
section of the Act. It says in
the Act that the despatch of
example, a northbound
freeway is jammed, it
may be able to gauge the
their truck before leaving in
Horne’s car.
Horne is charged with
N its way into your
stomach. It’s not about
an electronic record occurs ease or difficulty of a robbery and conspiracy nanobots—tiny
when it enters a computer westbound commute. under the Hobbs Act, which programmable robots;
resource “outside the control rather, it’s about particles
Sarin said at least 2,000 prohibits interference with
of the originator.” This is that could enhance the
something related to AI and Microsoft employees are now interstate commerce by
using a prototype of the threats or violence, and for absorption of food and
robotics: computers
communicating all by product in the Seattle area. his partners’ alleged use of medicine—meaning
themselves, without human firearms during the crimes. programmable drinks and
intervention... DEADBEATS AS CRIMINALS He could face prison time more effective drugs.
Penalty for damages:It turns and a fine, if convicted, “We’re creating
out that whatever damage you
inflict upon a computer, you
Buyers prosecutors said.
On eBay, though, Horne
nanoparticles that can
assemble themselves and
don’t need to pay the owner
more than Rs 1 crore. If you
Beware probably got away with just
two negative ratings. If the
that are made of materials
already found in food,” said
download a virus onto
people who were robbed, physicist Anthony Dinsmore
someone’s computer, expect a
at the University of
lawyer to refer to it as
“introducing, or causing to be
introduced, any computer
e Bay, with its massive
reach and member
base, can be the starting
bothered to rate him, that is.
Massachusetts in Amherst.
Edible nanoparticles
contaminant or virus into a point for violent crimes can be made in a wide
computer.” ‘Contaminant’? as well. Dewan Horne, range of shapes, from
Wonder what that means... 24, was indicted early spheres to pipes, and are
Residuary Penalty: Whoever composed of materials
March by a US federal
contravenes any rules or either relatively inert in
regulations under the IT Act is grand jury: he first
auctioned vintage cars the body, such as silicon
liable to pay Rs 25K to
someone hurt by your on eBay, cars he did or ceramics, or materials
activities! So next time not own, and then had that react with the body’s
someone makes your two partners rob the heat or chemistry, such
WIndows crash, remember to would-be buyers at as polymers.
ask him to shell out. gunpoint. The partners A key advantage edible
are still at large. nanoparticles have over

108 DIGIT APRIL 2005

 E sc ape
whatweretheythinking.com larger particles “is how
nanotechnology can take
Another concept under
development involves
www.belch.com something that is nanoparticles that can
extremely insoluble in stick to specific parts of

Y ou wouldn’t believe it, but this site is exactly what the

name says—a collection of belches. Don’t get it? OK, we
will spell it out for you. The site contains a whole bunch—and
nature, like some drugs,
and by breaking them up
to the nano-level help
the intestine. To enhance
the absorption of
medicines, researchers are
we mean a whole bunch—of downloadable audio files con- release them in the body,” creating nanoparticles that
taining recorded belches submitted by different people. said Roger Aston, strategy can hook onto the gut and
To be honest, the titles given to all belches are hilarious. director of pSivida in thus stay longer,
Consider, “Who says French Canadians can’t do anything Perth, Australia. increasing drug uptake.
right?” or “Here is Michelle and her ‘popcorn’ belch”, “This In terms of enhancing The future of edible
long grumbling belch is courtesy of ‘Zode’”, “Trisha is sweet the nutritional quality of nanotechnology could be
sixteen, and she has an equally sweet burp”, and so on. Do food, “You can imagine silicon, Aston suggested.
you really want to download those belches and listen to there are some things that Unlike nanoparticles
them? In fact, has anyone ever downloaded those belches you would want to deliver made of polymers, he
and listened to them? to, say, the intestine and noted, silicon does not
There are extras such as celebrity belches, a guide to not the mouth,” Dinsmore need exotic chemical
‘Things that make you go Buurrp’, a brief section called said. “For administering bonds to hold each
‘What is a belch’, and so on. Titles such as “Sangria, a girl, drugs to a patient, you can nanoparticle’s contents in
pushes out this 36 second belch” may perhaps tempt the imagine delivering a place, bonds that
weirdo in you to actually listen—but nah, a burp is too gross medicine to the part of the conceivably could alter
to actually go all the way. body where it’s needed the content’s properties.
As with our previous selec- most and not have to go Aston explained, “The
tions in this space, someone everywhere else, so the edible silicon made by
who actually spends more overall dose you use is pSivida has the capability
than a minute on this site lower but the drug is used of holding processors,
needs psychiatric help. To its more effectively.” so you could program
credit, the site does make fun Aside from carrying chips in foodstuffs like
of itself—it says it’s the ‘dumb- drugs with precision, you would computers or
est site on the Net’. We’ll con- nanoparticles have the air conditioners.”
cede this much: the site makes capability to break open
for a funny two-minute read— upon command, Compiled by Aditya Kuber,
www.belch.com but no belches, please! something that could lead Meera Vankipuram,
to smart, programmable Ram Mohan Rao and
foods and drinks. Renuka Rane

Carl Salminen lights on 25 per cent, as I don’t want to be fully

http://snipurl.com/digitblog1 awakened. A video server will play a major part...

Dope My Games Heath Dixon

With all the hullabaloo surrounding steroid use by http://snipurl.com/digitblog3
Major League Baseball players I think it’s time that
From the fascinating Electronic Arts pick up on the trend. After all, the Speaking Of Which, Another University Gets
motto for EA Sports is something like “If it’s in the Hacked
world of blogs this game, it’s in the game”. With that in mind, I demand California State University, Chico, announced that
month: what a really that next year’s baseball game include an option to it has informed more than 59,000 people that their
smart home should inject steroids in my players and mutate them into personal information may have been compromised in
be, according to Hulk-like monsters who knock out 100 home runs an attack on the school’s servers earlier this week.
‘Mavromatic’; Carl every year. The school reports that computer hackers gained
Salminen’s demand access to a University Housing and Food Service
Mavromatic system. The system contained personal information—
for baseball players http://snipurl.com/digitblog2 including names and Social Security numbers—of
in games to have the people with different ties to the university.
option of using Two Years, Plus Two More
steroids; yet another So I’m almost done with the construction of my new Roland Piquepaille
university computer home, it has been two years of actual construction http://snipurl.com/digitblog4
system that got and two years of planning. High on my list was to
design and install a complete home automation Elephants Send SMS to Tell Where They Are
hacked into; and
system in the house. My goal is really simple. There is Two months ago, I told you that the Wildlife
something about no need to automate a toaster or have a TV screen Conservation Society was planning to count
being alerted about built into my refrigerator. I believe a ‘smart home’ elephants from space. So I was very intrigued by a
elephants via SMS. should be just that. Smart. It should be bright enough very short article from the Inquirer, “Elephants text
to know when I’m in proximity. Lets say I pull into my their location.”
driveway and open the garage door at 10 pm. The This teasing story said that when elephants start
house should turn on the lights leading to my to approach their fields, the farmers are alerted by
bedroom at 45 per cent brightness. If I turn lights on SMS in time to politely ask the elephants to move
after midnight, to get a drink of water or go to the over and save their crops. The whole story is told on
bathroom, the switches should know to only turn the the Save the Elephants (STE) site.

DIGIT APRIL 2005 109

 Digit Forum
Anti-piracy. What’s up with that?
sunnydiv
Digitized!
When I look around, I see all the companies
using and looking for better anti-piracy
techniques; I want to put forward a question.
Do they really work? As far as I know they
don’t, all they do is cause more and more pain
to those who purchase the original copies,
pirates always find a way to pirate!
Example: Microsoft XP! Now they are Putting A Spim On It The March editorial couldn’t have come
asking real buyers to call Microsoft to Sachin Kalbag’s editorial on the issue of at a better time. Given current trends,
activate Windows. And you have to do this on mobile spam or spim (‘Don’t piss me off’, mobiles seem to be the ideal gateway for
every reinstall!!! For Pirates, a simple and March 2005) had just the right tone. I am the Indian masses into the digital world,
easy keygen; no call, no nothing, put in key not a regular victim of spim, but I as these gadgets provide cheap
and its done completely agree with the need for iron- computing and connectivity to a number
Games: Real buyers have to insert the cast laws on spimming. We have already far greater than those with access to a
CD every time they play, lose the CD and entered the era of low cost text messaging, PC. Therefore, the problem of spim will
that’s about it for them. Pirated games are and it is high time authorities took notice increase only exponentially as the
copy protection free, you can make an ISO of the inherent dangers of spim-and take market expands.
image, you can even find a crack where the action to protect our privacy and rights. It will be compounded when mobile
CD isn’t required. The problem is, in a technologically phones become the preferred Internet
Now they are working on inbuilt hardware illiterate nation-headed mostly by gateway, which is inevitable. It needs to
piracy protection; that’s going to give the real equally illiterate ministers-how do we be nipped in the bud. Now!
buyer more problems. make our leaders sit up and take notice You suggest that we all call them
Software companies need to remember: of this gradually-spreading evil? back and give them a piece of our minds.
They are only causing pain to the people who I believe spimming is illegal in the But I don’t think they (the spimmers)
actually pay. And Pirates, always find a way US, or at least, some sort of legal will be bothered one bit—they are thick-
recourse can be taken against it by skinned enough to simply ignore the few
**************************************** victims. But can this be happen in India? angry calls they get.
rajkumar_personal
Resident Techie
A POST THAT NEEDS EVERY1's attention! Well
said mate! Hope that many ppl take notice and
do something about it!
****************************************
gamefreak14
Digitized!
Sunnydiv, Your colourful explanation of
pirates being the happiest really opened my
eyes. I never knew such a free, free world ever
existed. And all this while, I was being
tortured. Why discuss the obvious? There are
people who'll even “pirate” Linux. Anti-piracy
The ThinkDigit blog: By the readers and for the readers
measures are intended to stop casual piracy—
of the harmless kind.
I lost Rs 500 when I lost my wallet I find it hard to visualise technocrats The law isn’t a solution either: on
yesterday. Since I couldn't make an ISO of my putting up a ‘dharna’ to ban spim! Nor what grounds do we punish them?
cash, I expect you to reimburse it. Got it? would politicians understand the Doing business via SMS? Sending
importance of such a law. unsolicited SMSes? If there were such a
**************************************** Whatever the case may be, the law, it would be the most misused law in
goobimama
Resident Techie situation is definitely going to get worse the country, and could be used by
Location: Goa in the coming years. anyone against anybody.
TOTALLY SUPPORT SUNNYDIV Arjun R The solution, I think, must be
I’ll tell you an incident with an original Via e-mail implemented at the service provider’s
Windows Installations. My friend, who had end as in the case of spam. Somebody
opted for the government scheme “The (Digit, perhaps?) is bound to figure out a
Cyberage Scheme” got a computer with way to do so, before the problem gets
Windows XP Home Edition installed. Now, out of hand.
somewhere down the line something got Ojas Amalnerkar
screwed up (as it always does). So, he asked Via e-mail
me how to reinstall. After reinstalling, he had
to activate it. No modem. So, he tries dialling Dear Arjun and Ojas,
those numbers that were given. Always Digit’s editorials usually reflect what most
engaged. Gets really frustrated and asks me technology users are thinking about at any given
what to do. I go and install my pirated copy of point in time. Spimming is indeed a menace that
Windows XP Professional with SP2 (Microsoft deserves the axe; and the earlier the better. The
claims “only original Windows has SP2”!). He's trouble with taking a legal recourse in India is
happy now. Pirates and crackers will always also that it is a long-drawn process. Besides, it
find a way, they are smarter than those who may be in the media’s spotlight for a day or two,
created the software. Also, as the saying goes and then everybody gets back to their respective
“everything that is made can be broken” jobs. For instance, has a single print publication

118 To post your comments on Digit Forum,

visit www.thinkdigit.com/forum
 Write to the Editor Digit will publish the best letters on these pages.
Letters may be edited for clarity
E-mail: [email protected]
For subscription queries, call the Help Desk at
Snail Mail: The Editor, Digit, D-222/2, Om Sagar
022-27629191/9200 Fax 022-27629224, or
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send an e-mail to [email protected]
Navi Mumbai 400 706

Inbox
or a television channel followed up on the Appearances Are Deceptive
‘Marketing calls on Mobile’ case? The spim and
Just What I Needed
The March 2005 issue was like a God-
spam cases, as and when they happen, require as
send. I had been searching for Grand The March 2005 issue of Digit held
much media attention as an individual’s.
Theft Auto-2 in all the showrooms, and I out a big promise, only to deceive. As
As Arjun rightly points out, it is hard to
just couldn’t find it. Imagine my joy soon as I opened the package, I was
imagine technocrats sitting on a dharna to
when I found that the DVD with the thrilled to see the book Fast Track to
protest against spam and spim. Even if they do,
March issue came with the full version Digital Photography included with
will the law makers understand what the
of GTA-2! Thanks a million. the magazine.
hullabaloo is all about? Yet, we must not lose
However, my heart sank as I turned
hope. With technologies such as DomainKeys, and Pulkit Sharma the cover page. A book on digital
progressive service providers instituting a Do Not Via e-mail
photography, that too from the
Disturb regime (Hutch, for instance), there may
publishers of India’s top IT
still be a way to fight people like Vipin Saxena.
—Executive Editor
Fast Track To Technology! magazine, amply illustrated Letter
I read Digit regularly. I was pleased to with photos and screenshots— of the
see the Fast Track book with the March all in Black and White! Month
The Digit Blog issue—it was an amazing, marvellous This book, otherwise
I started a blog called Thinkdigit at and a wonderful book. I’m looking superbly written and designed for
http://thinkdigit.blogspt.com. I would forward to the books with the its size and scope, is totally ruined
love this blog to grow into one of the most forthcoming issues. because of the monochrome
popular technology blogs in India. Some When I purchased a illustrations of colour images. I often
of the forum members have supported DVD drive, I didn’t read reviews of commercial books on
me, and they have joined the blog. have any DVDs; image processing, even when mostly
Our problem is we don’t have any Digit, at the same complimenting, ending with a sigh:
active team members to regularly post time, started giving “Alas, illustrations are, once again,
new stuff on the bog. I would like to out DVDs. And only in B & W”! Explaining colour
request you to publish this letter so that when I purchased a image processing with illustrations in
some members get to know about the digicam, Digit came B & W? How silly can one get!
blog. They can mail me at up with a book on Nevertheless, I did not expect a
[email protected] if they want to digital publication ostensibly written and
work as blog team members. photography! designed by the much revered
We need at least 10 talented users Whatever technical staff of the Digit magazine to
from different fields—such as technology I upgrade to, Digit always deliver this disappointing feature.
programming, graphics, animation, and seems to be by my side to guide me. Now, this book, which includes the
so on. Also, the ‘thinkdigit’ wiki at screenshots of the colourful cover page
http://en.wikipedia.org, which I started, Ramji V K (in B & W, pages 44-47), couldn’t
has gotten a good response, and is Via e-mail possibly have been created, on the
growing every day Dear Ramji, PC, in B & W.
Lovedeep Wadhwa Your words do put a smile on our faces, and Therefore, this book can be useful
Via e-mail make us more responsible to our readers. as a quick reference, but can be easily
It is real hard work for every single Digit team complemented by a digital copy in full
Dear Lovedeep, member who work non-stop to bring the Fast colour in the CD/DVD accompanying
That is a fantastic gesture on your part. We Track book. Yet, it is also an enjoyable project. the May 2005 issue. That will also be
sure do love it at Digit! We love bringing it to you, as much as you love the best way to fully justify, and truly
—Executive Editor reading it. acknowledge, the painstaking effort of
—Executive Editor your staff responsible for the
Zero To Hero production of this book.
I have been a subscriber for the past two Corrigendum I am sure this is not too much to
years—two great years. From ‘dumb’, you With reference to our article titled “Anywhere expect from the Digit magazine which
turned me into a geek. I got so geeky that You Roam” published in the March issue, we routinely feeds us with about 4.3 GB
my girlfriend left me. But I let her go. Why? wish to clarify that the price of Acer TravelMate (not counting the CD) of games, other
Because I can find another girl like her, 4002WNLCi was incorrectly mentioned as software and useful digital data such
but another magazine like Digit? No way! I Rs 51,999 on Page 94. The correct price of this as eBooks, wallpapers and even movie
used to get a shock every two or three notebook at the time of publishing that article trailers—all on a single DVD!
months because of your surprises. Not any was Rs 69,999. In this context, the eBook on
more. But not because you don’t spring Since price is a critical parameter in Physics is an example par excellence,
surprises anymore—I’ve become immune to deciding our winners, the Acer TravelMate and I am sure most readers of Digit
them! Your latest addition—the Fast Track 4002WNLCi is no longer the Best Buy Gold like me highly appreciated it. So, come
book—just proved it. It was awesome! Winner. The new title holder is MSI Megabook on Digit, show us your true colours.
Excellent work, guys. M510C, while the Best Buy Silver award goes to Yes, the pun is intended!
ACI Emerald C2. Subhendu Joardar
Snehasis Ghosh - Executive Editor Via e-mail
Via E-mail

DIGIT APRIL 2005 119