The new years honours list as been released and one person who is honoured is Steve Furber. Steve is one of the original inventors of the BBC Micro Computer. Of course the BBC Micro is not actually where computing started, but from the point of view of the UK home user it might as well be. The BBC Micro along with the ZX Spectrum were really the first computing devices available on the market that could truly be called home computers. I remember using a BBC Micro at university, and indeed it was often found in educational settings. Both of these devices will be fondly remembered by aging technophiles such as myself.

Interestingly Steve Furber was also involved in designing the ARM processor, which over the years has become increasingly successful. ARM processors helped by their low power capability now power a huge number of the electronic gadgets that require a computing capability. Such gadgets include MP3 players such as the Apple iPod Classic, portable games consoles such as the Nintendo DS Lite and mobile phones such as the Apple iPhone or the Motorola RIZR V3

So I think we can say a worthy honour winner indeed!

In a previous post we looked at some of the productivity application suites that are currently available. Most people will need to perform the tasks that these productivity apps are designed for, writing letters, sending email, doing homework, that sort of thing. Unless you are some sort of hard core gamer that is essentially the main reason we will have purchased a computer for in the first place. Although these days they are becoming more and more important also as an essential tool for helping to manage all the digital photographs you are now taking with your digital camera and phone, but I digress.

The majority of people will purchase a copy of Microsoft Office to do these tasks and once over the initial learning curve will be more than happy with it. In the last post we looked at Microsoft Office and a number of alternatives. But is there anything else out there? Well yes, and they essentially fall into two categories. The first is free or open source applications that provide similar functionality as the applications we have already looked at. There are a number of these available of which OpenOffice is probably the best known example. Do a web search on “OpenOffice” and see what you can find

The second category is the most interesting and what I wanted to talk more about. In this category we have what is becoming known as the “Web Office” applications. These are web applications that exist on and are used via the Internet to perform similar tasks to that delivered by the big suites such as Office. Generally speaking they don’t have the same breadth and depth of functionality that see in our off line suites, but as the vast majority of people only use a fraction of the functionality of those applications, they will have all that is needed. There are now lots of these web based applications offering office type functionality, all you have to do is go find something that appeals to you and give it a go.

So what are some of the benefits of this web based approach to providing software? Well first of all you can access your data and application from any computer anywhere in the world as long as you have access to the internet, this is a big plus if you travel a lot. Secondly you don’t have to buy an expensive license for software that you only partly use, and thirdly you documents are backed up online so that you don’t have to worry about losing your data. The drawbacks are you can only work while connected to the internet, and you have to “trust” someone else with your data. Generally speaking in my view the pros outweigh the cons.

Of course you need to get a yourself a computer, something like the very popular HP Compaq nx7300 Notebook, then fire up the web browser, find your web application and off you go.

Are you thinking of buying a new desktop computer system? If you are, you might find this series of posts on desktop computers useful. In the series I plan to cover a number of the aspects of desktop computers that you need to think about when trying to select the right desktop computer for you.

Essentially a desktop computer is made up of the following components;

• A processor (Often referred to as the CPU)
• Some memory (Often referred to as RAM)
• A hard drive (Maybe referred to as disk drives)
• An optical drive (Usually referred to as the CD or DVD drive)
• A graphics card (Sometimes called a Video card
• A monitor or screen
• Some connectors

What you look for in any of the above components will largely be related to what you want to do with your desktop system. There might also be some external factors, such as only having a small area in which to actually put your computer for instance. Of course the amount of dosh that you have available might also have a small bearing on your ultimate decision! If we look at it from a cost point of view, we can probably create a number of groups such as;

• Budget Desktops
• Standard Desktops
• Performance Desktops

If we look at it from a more functional perspective we can come up with some different groups such as:

• Gaming Desktops
• Media centre Desktops
• Multimedia Desktops
• Small footprint desktops

We will take a look at all these groups individually in upcoming posts. One of the benefits of a desktop computer as opposed to a laptop for instance is the ease of upgrading the individual components such as the graphics card. So we will also take a look in more detail at some of the individual components we initially identified above. In the mean time, just to wet your appetite, have a look at the popular Acer Aspire T660 Desktop which sits firmly in the budget desktop group and provides excellent value for money.

Productivity software applications! What on earth are you talking about you say. Well productivity software refers to that group of software that includes word processors, spreadsheets, calendar and email applications etc. In other words all the computer programs that are supposed to make you and perhaps your business more productive. Often of course these programs, especially to start with when you are a new user, are anything but productivity enhancers as you struggle with new concepts and a seemingly infinite number of options and features. Of course if you use these applications regularly, and many people do at work, you will eventually reach a certain level of proficiency and the application will begin to help rather than hinder your work. This learning experience unfortunately can often be a frustrating experience, and in future posts we will look how some of these productivity applications are evolving as a result of the Internet.

The godfather of productivity applications is of course Microsoft Office, which has become the de facto standard for creating documents. Office will in fact provide all that most individuals and business will ever need to write letters and do the budget, and as such is a good choice. In fact most people will assume you have Microsoft Office and will often send you documents in the formats the application creates, without checking with you first.

But are there any alternatives? Well yes, Corel WordPerfect Office provides a nice alternative. Although it is now an also ran against Office, it is just as capable and does have one nice feature which is the ability to look at the style codes in the word processor which makes it easy to troubleshoot any problems with your document. Anyone who has struggled with Microsoft Word happily changing fonts, text size and styles seemingly at random will appreciate this. A second alternative if you are a Mac home user is the Apple iWork 08, which is Apple’s equivalent to Office, and although the functionality is not on a par with Office would be more than adequate for most Mac users.

Happy productivity! If you are a student always make sure you purchase the academic or student version to save money.

I had a friend ask me the other day for advice on printers. So I give the standard line when asked for free IT support from family and friends. “What are you planning to do with whatever the device is that you are thinking of buying”. The answer I got back was just the sort of answer I look for when trying to provide help and guidance that is not likely to come back and bite me later. You know the “You said that I should buy this and it is a pile of junk”, or words to that effect, sort of comment.

The answer was. “Well what we are really looking for is just a basic printer for printing a few documents a week. Colour is not important. We don’t need a scanner. We have an PC running Windows XP.”

This is nice because it means I have a much better chance of making a recommendation that matches their requirements, than if I had just been asked to recommend a printer. So what did I recommend? Well basically, any of the low end printers like the Canon PIXMA iP1800 Inkjet Photo Printer or the Epson Stylus Photo D78 Inkjet Printer would meet the requirements. Both of these choices will actually print colour and photos quite reasonably as well if that becomes a requirement in the future.

If I had just been asked generally to suggest a good printer it would probably have been the HP Photosmart C7180 All-in-One Inkjet Printer like we discussed in a previous post.

If you remember we had a look at wireless adapters in Wireless Networking Part 1: Wireless adapters. In that post we looked at buying a wireless capable computer and what you might need to make an older device wireless capable. Now that you have your wireless capable device we need to create or find a wireless network to connect to. You can find wireless access at many hot spots around the country, although often you may have to pay for the privilege. However more and more restaurants, cafes and pubs are starting to provide free access to their customers so it is worthwhile getting to know the places near you.

Wireless Network

The true power of wireless though is best appreciated when you create a wireless network at home. This will allow you to share your internet connection with everyone else in the house and to provide access from anywhere within range of your access point. This means you should be able to connect to the internet, from in front of the telly, at the kitchen table or even out in the garden.

Wireless Access Point

To create your wireless network you need to have a wireless access point. The access point will connect to your broadband modem. In some cases the access point can also act as a firewall providing increased security. All access points will allow you to restrict access to your wireless network and provide encryption of traffic. More about security in a future post.

Access points are available in a range of prices, but for home use something like the NetGear WG602 should provide perfectly good coverage in the average UK home. An alternative for someone who is looking for more functionality such as the firewall capability mentioned above might something like the D-Link DIR-655 Wireless Router.