This page is made up with anything related to technology which may affect us in our area, "hence the reason for this webpage".
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Sat-Nav to Aid Disabled Motorists. 23rd Feb 2009.
Security warning over wireless networks. 16th Oct 2009.
28th July 2009.
The timetable for switching off the analogue TV signal to more than half a million homes in the STV North/ (Ex Grampian TV) region has been announced.
The timetable for switching off the
analogue TV signal to more than half a million homes in the STV North/ (Ex Grampian
TV) region has been announced.
The Shetland Isles will start the switch to digital TV in May 2010, closely followed
by Orkney and Caithness and north Sutherland.
Ten transmitter groups covering an area from Perth to the Western Isles will switch
by the end of October next year.
Digital UK, overseeing the switchover, said it was a "huge step forward".
Viewers served by 'relay' transmitters will get digital through an aerial for the
first time, seeing the number of channels available rising from as few as four to
as many as 20.
John MacNeil, of Digital UK, said: "In less than 10 months, the process will start
in the north.
"After switchover, virtually all viewers will have the opportunity to enjoy digital
TV through an aerial, offering many homes more choice than ever before."
Information campaign
The Bressay transmitter, which serves Shetland, will begin the switchover on 5 May.
The Keelyland Hill transmitter on Orkney will make the switch a week later.
Lewis, Wester Ross, North West Sutherland, Skye, Harris, North Uist, Benbecula,
South Uist and Barra follow in July.
Angus, Dundee, Perth and some areas of Fife will switchover in August, before Aberdeen
and Aberdeenshire, Moray, Strathspey and parts of Easter Ross, in September.
Viewers in Inverness and the Great Glen area will see the switch to digital during
October, as well as the south west Highlands.
Digital UK has embarked on an information campaign to explain the switchover process
to all householders.
Viewers can also find out more detailed information by entering their postcode on
the Digital UK website.
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17th June 2009.
Ok this bit is for all you techies out there, would you be happy at paying a tax of 50p on your broadband per month?
One of the biggest surprises in the
Digital Britain report was the news that everyone with a fixed line telephone would
pay a broadband tax.
At 50p a month the amount is unlikely to break the bank but experts are already
questioning what it will buy.
Some believe it will mean the majority of homes can benefit from fast networks within
a decade.
Others question whether Gordon Brown's vision of "access for all" is achievable.
Antony Walker, chief executive of the Broadband Stakeholder Group, thinks that the
money needs to be targeted at rural areas.
He believes that, spent wisely, the money should ensure that the 30% of the country
estimated to be bypassed by commercial fast broadband plans can enjoy speeds of
up to 50Mbps (megabits per second) by 2017.
BT already plans to upgrade 40% of UK homes to so-called Fibre to the Cabinet technology
(FTTC) by 2012, although it will be targeting the easy-to-reach urban and suburban
areas.
Virgin Media is also upgrading its network so it can deliver speeds of up to 50Mbps.
Its network is available to 50% of homes in the UK, again mainly in urban and suburban
areas.
Broadband maths
For Ian Fogg, analyst with Forrester research, the sums don't stack up.
"There are around 34 million fixed lines in the UK and at £6 a year this is going
to raise in the low hundreds of millions each year. This is some way off BT's budget
of £1.5bn to put fibre in 40% of homes by 2012," he said.
What will deliver next-generation broadband?
"There is going to be a two-tiered internet for a long time, whether the government
likes it or not," he said.
Andrew Ferguson, editor of broadband website ThinkBroadband, estimated that the
government would raise around £170m a year from the broadband tax.
"It will depend on how many people give up their fixed line because of the 50p a
month tax but over the years will raise around the same amount of money as BT is
investing," he said.
But because the money is earmarked for the final third of the country, with many
homes lying miles away from existing networks, it is going to cost a lot more to
supply them with fast net services.
BT has estimated that to provide FTTC to every UK home would cost around £5bn.
Mr Walker said it was important to remember that the tax was a top-up fund.
"It may not sound like a lot of money but it is a subsidy to support commercial
investments," he said.
If BT or other operators are prepared to share half the cost of rollout the plan
to fibre-enable 90% of the country by 2017 might work, thinks Mr Ferguson.
The process of collecting and putting the money out to tender will take two to three
years to set in motion, he predicted, suggesting that it may have been easier just
to give the money to BT.
"BT would have had to give access to other providers. It might have been easier
but would have been more politically charged," he said.
World leader
The government has also set aside around £200m to roll out slower broadband (of
speeds of no less than 2Mbps) to so-called not spots, estimated to account for around
2.5m homes.
Some think that this figure is not going to be enough and worry that the money raised
from the broadband tax could be used to fulfil this more pressing goal.
Prime minister Gordon Brown has said
that broadband is as essential as water, electricity and gas and pledged that the
recommendations of the Digital Britain report will offer access to all families.
He said the report would make the UK the broadband world leader.
But not everyone is convinced.
"It doesn't guarantee global leadership but the UK is in a better position today
than it was before the report," said Mr Walker.
Few of the recommendations are likely to hit the statute book before the next general
election and could be abandoned by any new government.
more on this click here.
Digital Britain Final Report click here.
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23rd February 2009.
A satellite navigation system made specifically
to assist disabled drivers has been made by a UK company.
Gowrings Mobility - a specialist in adapted vehicles - is marketing the BB Nav,
developed by Navevo.
The system contains a database of Blue Badge parking bays, accessible toilets, disabled-friendly
petrol stations and accessible accommodation.
It covers 150 major towns and cities around the UK including all of the London boroughs.
"Many disabled travellers worry about the uncertainty of not knowing where to park...
and consequently do not venture further afield than their own local area," said
Janet Seward, sales and marketing director at Gowrings.
"We want to make disabled travellers' lives and journeys much smoother, easier and
more spontaneous."
The BB Nav grades car parks according to their level of accessibility and also has
the location of more than 10,000 on-street parking bays.
The device is also programmed with the varying parking regulations for Blue Badge
holders as they move from one local authority area to another.
Other "points of interest" (POIs) include accessible beaches, shopping facilities,
toilets and hotels.
Road test
In practice, the BB Nav delivers a lot less than it appears to promise.
The unit is small and slim - much like other in-car GPS systems.
But unlike other satnavs that rely on finger operation, the BB Nav has a telescopic
stylus that is housed in the body of the device.
Something so small and fiddly can and probably would be easily lost in a car.
The on-screen keyboard is too small to allow it to be programmed by all but the
most slender of fingers.
And the display fonts are so small that older motorists will be reaching for their
reading glasses.
On the plus side, the display is large, the map easy to read and all side roads
are helpfully named.
The default female voice is clear and crisp but does have a tendency to repeat itself
too often.
When tested in the outer suburbs of North-West London, the BB Nav was disappointing
and - at times - mystifying.
It failed to locate on-street parking bays on Bridge Street in Pinner.
When asked to find an accessible toilet in Ruislip, it found its way to a residential
street of pre-war, detached houses with not a public convenience in sight - accessible
or otherwise.
And when accessible accommodation in Harrow was requested, it located a Hilton hotel
in Wembley but directed the car to industrial units close to the football stadium.
When Navevo - the makers of the BB Nav - were approached to comment upon the problems
encountered, they referred the issue to The Pie Guide, the company that provides
the data for the device.
Mike Hudson, data manager for Pie Guide, explained that the data on parking bays
came from local authorities in a variety of formats, the quality of which was variable
too.
Referring to the absence of the parking bay in Pinner, Mr Hudson said: "I suspect
that the council has not provided the data to us - hopefully it will be picked up
in a forthcoming update."
He said that the hard-to-locate accessible toilet in Ruislip was "troubling" and
that it would require further investigation.
Data on accessible hotels was, he admitted, "not great".
The information comes from a variety of sources depending on the part of the UK
being searched.
And not all hotel chains submit to the verification process which they would have
to pay for.
"There is no one, single data source to which we can go and extract this information,"
said Mr Hudson.
Data updates are planned for the future but are still the subject of commercial
negotiations between Navevo and Pie.
For a product costing just under £200, it seems a little rough around the edges
to justify the price tag.
Given its shortcomings in terms of usability and accuracy, disabled motorists might
be better off waiting for other satnav suppliers to install a set of disabled-friendly
POIs.
Of those contacted, Garmin said providing useful information for disabled drivers
was already being considered.
By Geoff Adams-Spink
Age & disability correspondent, BBC News website.
Source.
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16th Oct 2009.
UK ISP TalkTalk has staged a wireless
stunt, aimed to illustrate why it thinks Lord Mandelson's plans to disconnect file-sharers
is "naive".
The hack demonstrates how innocent people could be disconnected from the internet
if the plans become law.
A security expert from TalkTalk visited an ordinary street in Stanmore, Middlesex
and within a couple of hours had identified 23 unsecured wireless connections on
one residential street.
To demonstrate how widespread the problem is, Rory Cellan-Jones visited a street
in north London.
source. (streaming video.)
Similar? Can you be completely safe online? 18th Aug 2009. Click here.
Similar? Millions tricked by scareware. 19th Oct 2009. Click here.
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Millions of PC users across the globe
are rushing to upgrade their computers to run the new Windows 7 software suite –
and the latest version of Microsoft's operating system is expected to smash sales
records following its launch last Friday (October 23).
The new version of Windows is Amazon's biggest-selling pre-order product of all
time and follows widespread disappointment with its unwieldy and temperamental predecessor
Windows Vista.
Yet loading your PC with the latest software doesn't come cheap – the home edition
of Windows 7 currently has a retail price of £79.99, until January 1. After that
it will cost £99.99. The 'Ultimate' edition for business users, meanwhile, comes
in at an eye-watering £199.99.
Throw in the cost of security and standard office software and you can spend several
hundred pounds merely equipping your computer with the basics – yet simple, reliable
and safe software is available online and for free.
Why can I get free software? And, is it safe?
Microsoft packages still power 90% of the world's computers but you can find programs
just as powerful and reliable for nothing, thanks to the rise in free and open-source
software, pioneered by developers anxious not to be tied to big software houses.
Free software can be used, modified, copied and redistributed without restriction.
Open-source software is available for free under licence agreements that allow other
developers to improve, modify or alter the software package. This licence system
offers a guarantee of safety and reliability is further backed up by the thousands
of independent programmers testing and fixing bugs of the software.
What's more, some software giants are getting in on the act, and even Microsoft
is offering its Security Essentials anti-virus software for free. So, credibility
and safety shouldn't be an issue.
Free office software
We'll come to Operating Systems later on, but if your computer (like most from the
high street) already has a basic Windows or Linux system pre-installed, you don't
have to splash out a further £119.99 for the basic Microsoft Office 2007 Home and
Student edition – or even £449.99 for the professional edition.
Indeed, many computer specialists claim
the free OpenOffice software suite is far superior.
OpenOffice is a free office application suite available for a number of different
computer operating systems.
The package is designed as a single piece of software comprising five powerful applications:
Writer, its word processing software:
Calc, its spreadsheet creator:
Impress for creating multi-media presentations:
Draw for creating simple graphics:
Base which allows you to create and
maintain databases.
The best download for most users will be the OpenOffice.org 3.1.1 suite, which is
compatible with all versions of Windows up to and including Vista, (as well as most
Apple Mac operating systems, including the new Snow Leopard v 10.6.)
Better still, it's also compatible with previous versions of Microsoft Office, including
version 7 – so you can amend and open your existing files.
If all that seems daunting, there are
solid alternatives available online which you don't have to install but are only
operable when you're logged on to the internet.
An alternative online office suite worth considering is
ThinkFree Office.
This is a web-based word processor, spreadsheet and presentation package that boasts 100% compatibility with all versions of Microsoft Office and is very easy to use.
It's also intuitive, allowing users
to use existing Office keyboard shortcuts.
Free security software.
Regularly updating your PC with the latest anti-virus software and Firewall packages
isn't just time-consuming – buying annual versions of the leading internet security
suites can also set you back at least £40 every year.
Yet there are solid, reliable alternatives available online to download for free.
If you're worried about credibility, you'll be reassured to know that even Microsoft
offers protection for free. Its Security Essentials suite promises “high-quality,
hassle-free antivirus protection for your home PC” and boasts automatic updates,
full compatibility with all versions of Windows and malware detection and removal.
The only requirement is that you own a legitimate copy of Windows XP, Windows Vista
or Windows 7.
Another powerful free alternative is the
Avast anti-virus package – unlike with the Microsoft package, anti-spyware software
to help detect dormant malicious code is built-in and it too offers automatic regular
updates. The software boasts more than 80 million users worldwide, which suggests
it's safe.
Finally, it's worth supplementing security software with additional malware protection
to monitor the safety of websites you visit –
Ad Aware is a free program that that detects and removes malware, spyware and
adware on your computer.
Free operating systems and browsers
You don't even have to pay for Windows – although you'll have to be very technically
competent if you want to do away with the industry standard. Fast, reliable
operating systems are available to power your computer for free, thanks to open-source
developers.
These are typically Linux-based and the most popular is provided by
Ubuntu. It contains all the applications that come with Windows and is
free to install – so if you really hate Windows Vista, you may not need to upgrade
after all.
One distinct advantage offered by Linux operating systems is better internet surfing.
The
Mozilla Firefox web browser is a faster, more reliable alternative than the
temperamental Windows Explorer.
And the free stuff doesn't end there...
It's worth closing by pointing out that, whatever your computing need, there's a
reliable free package that will satisfy it.
Open-source video player VideoLAN offers a superior experience to the clunky Windows Media Player 11, while if you want to chop, stretch and edit your photos Irfanview will allow you to do most things Photoshop does for free.
source. (External Link)
Please note! All the External Links from our website linking to other websites, we cannot be held responsible for the contents of these links as they are out with our control however I have used most of the software shown on this webpage but we cannot be held responsible for their products or websites.
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This page was last updated on 27/11/2009 14:42:27