With Andrew Hardy, director of Brighton based Rivendell Software
Q: I have heard a lot about a programme called Napster. What is it and what does it do?
A: Napster allows users to find and download their favourite MP3 music files. It works by using the internet to link up users all over the world, providing a network which can be used to download music. It also allows individuals to put their record collection online for others to download. It is this which has the record companies very worried as all the latest releases are being downloaded for free. There is a fear people may stop paying £14 for a CD. To find out more, take a look at www.napster.com Q: What are the advantages of buying an external rather than an internal modem?
A: The simple answer is sanity! I must admit to having a bit of a pet hate where internal modems are concerned. When they work, they work well, but I only ever see them when they are causing problems. Potentially, they can be a real pain. Setting up an external modem should be a matter of a few minutes' work. Internal modems, however, can take hours as they can 'clash' with the cards already in your machine. For the sake of a difference of £15, I would always advise people to buy an external rather than an internal modem.
Q: I have an older machine with an eight-speed CD-Rom but many of the newer machines seem to have much faster drives (I have seen a 48-speed drive). Should I buy a new drive for my machine?
A: The odd thing about CD-Rom drives is although there are 40-plus speed drives, in practice there seems very little actual difference in performance. In fact, I actually swapped a 48-speed drive for a 24-speed because I got so sick of having what sounded like a hovercraft attached to my computer. Not only was it noisy but it was actually slower than my old drive because it was constantly speeding up and down, even when I was not using the drive! In my experience, the real speed differences after eight speed are marginal, at best.
Q: I have heard it is possible to find people using the internet. Can you tell me how to do this?
A: There are a number of services to help you locate people. I have to admit to not having much success in the past with these services but they are improving all the time. Many of the services are for locating people in America but there are some UK-based search facilities, notably Scoot (people.scoot.co.uk). But you could simply try searching for someone using a simple search engine (try www.metacrawler.com). You can find a good online article discussing different methods of locating people using the net at www.tanagra.demon.co.uk/192.html
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