October 2006

CHIP New logo October 2006

Volume 3

Issue 11

Rs 100

Technology in

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Computers are playing 0 a larger 95 100 role in design than ever. From car modeling to architecture to fashion, find out how tech tools make a difference

On the cover disk: Webaroo packs of our website’s Know-How

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Win ten 1 GB thumb drives from Buffalo!

FEATURE

 88 Damn Small Linux A distro tiny enough to fit on a USB drive FEATURE

 90 Cellphone tools Spruce up your mobile with cools apps Also available in Bangladesh Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, U A E

24 TFTs reviewed 

56 Your next monitor has got to be a TFT. Find out why

Compared: Disk tools  From partitioning to imaging, check out the best

Build a Media PC 

112 Watch movies, record programs, play games & more

Blu-ray: Two exclusive reviews!

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EDITORIAL

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Time Compression

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Consumers today have lesser time to get used to technology waves

ut of all the queries we receive each month, the classic favorite is: “Is this the right time to go in for…?”Be it dual core computers, DVD drives, TFT monitors, next-gen game consoles or broadband Internet connections, consumers are relentlessly bamboozled by the gnawing guilt associated with getting onto a technology bandwagon either too early or too late. Such are the questions that first movers disregard and general consumers dread. Let’s take a little journey back in time and recount some of the most famous technological trends and more importantly, how they’ve been adopted. Guglielmo Marconi’s invention of the radio in 1895 (later credited to Nikola Tesla after the Supreme Court overturned Marconi’s patent in 1943) didn’t see public acceptance until the 1920s. It was the invention and use of vacuum tube that sparked the radio ga-ga back then—before that, radios were too bulky and expensive to be commercially viable. The radio phenomenon brought together entire communities, cities and nations and it changed the way people communicated and received information. Then came the moving pictures. Though the television was invented in 1926 by John Logie Baird, records showed that even by 1939 there were hardly 200 television sets across the world. It took a solid two decades for the television to become a widespread appliance. Of course, contributing to the sales of the television were the parallel strides in broadcasting—in 1954, NBC was the first broadcasting company to introduce coast-to-coast color broadcasts across 21 stations in the US. Up until then, consumers were still getting used to the idea of television programs in their very own home. There was no concept of choosing the video you wanted to see. Not until the invention of the VHS (Vertical Helix Scan) video standard was introduced by JVC much later in 1976. Video cassettes became all the rage—some of the fondest memories I have are that of watching recordings of TV shows and movies on our National VCR back in the 80s. The VCR flourished between the 80s and 90s. That was around the time an interesting gadget appeared—the personal computer. The VideoCD standard was born in the early 1990s, allowing 74 minutes of MPEG-1 encoded video to be stored on an affordable CD. Shortly afterward, the DVD disk (and along with it, the DVD video standard) was introduced in 1997. The step up from 700 MB to 4.7 GB on a 12 cm disk was a big step indeed. But wait—HDTV is here as well. This is happening just when we were getting used to the idea of DVDs on our computers or home theaters. And I’ll bet the next-generation standard will be upon as much sooner than we can anticipate. So let’s see—it took over 30 years to transition from radio to television, from television to video cassettes it was 20 years. Video cassettes to VCD took 15 years and VCD to DVD a mere six years. Clearly, new technologies are approaching fast and frequently. Virtually every piece of information around us—audio, video, pictures or text—has transitioned from the analog world to the realm of the ones and zeroes. This much is clear—whether you are wondering if now is the right time to buy a DVD player or jump onto the Blu-ray bandwagon, questions will get increasingly difficult to answer. And that’s because consumers today have lesser amounts of time to get used to technology waves. We will have to collectively brace ourselves for the impending torrent. Bring it on, I say!

| Marco Angelo D’Souza [email protected] OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

Contents OCTOBER 2006 56

22

Watch what you Want! NEWSWIRE

22 Watch What you Want!

68

68 Blue-eyed Babies This month we were part of another breakthrough in optical storage technology—Blu-ray. Check out our comprehensive reviews on products based on this technology.

With Satellite TV services picking up, your TV viewing experience will change, offering you with lot more choice, comfort and convenience.

30 One Solution, No Confusion McAfee works on its own philosophy of providing a single, proactive solution to a customer to safeguard from intrusions and vulnerabilities.

COVER STORY

72 PC Configs A new list of best configurations this month for your home, office, productivity and gaming needs.

75 The Physics of PhysX The new physics engine from Ageia has been unleashed. Get more firepower in your games and experience the fun of improved in-game effects.

32 Technology in Design A look at how technology has enabled exploring new areas in design—in the automotive, architecture and fashion industries

78 Gorgeous Graphics In our Technology Landscape section this month, we present a guide to

HARDWARE 42 Top Gear

Blue-eyed Babies graphics cards across all categories starting from the affordable to the expensive.

80 Satellite TV In Infographics, we elucidate how you can watch DVD quality movies, bypass the cable operator, get all your favorite channels and pay almost the same as you do now.

APPLICATIONS 82 Software Center A mix of some splendid applications and tools reviewed to cater to your different computing needs.

88 Damn Right Distribution! A review of DSL-N—a lightweight and fast distribution based on Damn Small Linux that runs off a USB thumb drive.

90 Symbian Gear

An interesting mélange of hardware and gadgets—from the sleek Lenovo 3000Q media center PC to the Altec Lansing inMotion 9 to keep you entertained on the move, and lots more...

A plethora of Symbian applications are available to transform your Series 60 phone into an instant messenger, remote or a music player. We look at the noteworthy ones.

56 Picture-perfect Pixels Time you adorned your desk with a TFT monitor! Take your pick from the best we have brought you.

Picture-perfect Pixels

92 Alternative Backup 32

Check out our two different sets of tools that help you partition your hard disk and save its image for an INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

108 The

90

Third Eye

Symbian Gear exact restoration in case of a hard disk failure.

98 Chat Security With hackers turning their attention to IMs, threats like viruses, spyware and phishing abound. Find out how chatting can be harmful to your PC.

HANDS ON 108 The Third Eye If you like to keep an eye on things in and around your house while you’re away, find out how you can monitor your home with the help of an IP camera from this step-by-step workshop.

110 Image Makeover You don’t have to make do with bad, unclear photographs anymore. Photoshop allows you to change any annoying details and it’s really simple.

126 Down to the

112 One-Stop Recreational Zone Turn your computer into a living room entertainment spot. Instead of opting to buy a media center off the shelf, learn how to build one all by yourself from this workshop.

UNWIND Ever wondered what it takes to create those visually stunning games? Check out our listing of the best ever game engines out there and how they have helped create some of the superb games.

130 Pirates of the Caribbean You can sail the high seas and pretend you’re a pirate with this remarkably senseless hacking and slashing game which will take you deep into the world of the legendary pirate Jack Sparrow.

Regulars

Lenovo 3000Q …43 OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

16

Letters

17

Technology Landscape

78

Dr. CHIP

131 Reservoir Dogs If you’ve got what it takes to be a part of the Mob, here’s where you get to prove it. In this remake of the classic movie, Reservoir Dogs has plenty of language, plenty of mayhem and loads of attitude.

132 Trainz

126 Down to the Core

Town Square

Core

104

Tips and Tricks

116

Game Reviews

130

Last Word

148

For railroad buffs, here’s a chance to step into a locomotive and take full control, model your dream railroad or simply take a ride by the countryside.

| Products Tested Hardware Standalones 42

Lenovo 3000Q, Nokia 6130, Kingston K-PEX 100, Altec Lansing inMotion 9, Gigabyte 945G-S2, Canon Pixma MP550, CoolerMaster Elite 330, Level One WCS2030, Pinnacle To Go, Vantec NexStar 3 NST-360SU, Samsung Super-Write Master SH-S182D

TFT Monitors

56

LG Flatron L1515S, LG Flatron L1520B, BenQ FP51G, Samsung SyncMaster 540N, TCL H582B, AOC LM525, ViewSonic VP720B, Samsung SyncMaster 740N, AOC LM725, Zenith Z17, BenQ FP71G +S, Asus PM17TU, TCL 7005L12, Asus PW201, ViewSonic VX2235WM, ViewSonic VP920B, ViewSonic VA 1912WB, TCL 983A, AOC LM925, LG Flatron L1950SQ, ViewSonic VG2021M, Samsung SyncMaster 940BW, HP L1906, VU 19W1

Disk Contents OCTOBER 2006 | VOLUME 3 | ISSUE 11

Multimedia

Game Demos

AHEAD DVD RIPPER GVIDEOFIX KARAFUN KARAOKE

Productivity

WARHAMMER 40,000: DAWN OF WAR –

Game Demos CAESAR IV COMPANY OF HEROES JUST CAUSE

FONTS SMARTDRAW WORDTOYS

Internet GOOGLE TALK µTORRENT

Mobile

DARK CRUSADE MYSTERY CASE FILES-PRIME SUSPECTS

Game Trailers CALL OF DUTY 3

Linux FEDORA CORE 5 - CD2 DAMN SMALL LINUX

TEST DRIVE UNLIMITED TRAILER

Game Add-ons HALF LIFE 2 COASTLINE TO

Must Haves ATI CATALYST DRIVERS NVIDIA FORCEWARE DRIVERS

ATMOSPHERE MOD

Movie Trailers

ADOBE AUDITION

DISTRICT B13

IM+ BLUETOOTH

AUTOPATCHER XP AUGUST (FULL)

RED EYE

OXYGEN PHONE MANAGER

AUTOPATCHER XP SEPTEMBER UPDATE

FEXPLORER

MEDIA PORTAL

PSILOC TOTAL IR REMOTE

Developer INSTALL CREATOR PHPMAKER

Security TREND MICRO OFFICESCAN KASPERSKY INTERNET SECURITY CALLINGID

Quick Quote OCTOBER 2006 | VOLUME 3 | ISSUE 11 GENERAL MANAGER - PUBLISHING

Krishna Tewari

CHIP is consumerfocussed and friendly. By addressing the end-user, they bridge the gap between manufacturing and consumers Robert Dung Managing Director, BenQ India

EDITOR

Marco Angelo D’Souza SENIOR COPY EDITOR

Sharmistha Dey COPY EDITOR

Rosanne Rodricks WRITERS

Ashutosh Desai, Pradosh Mitra, Sharon Lobo

Kolkata A K Roy [email protected] Phone: (033) 2468637, 2468638 Fax: (033) 2462964 New Delhi Pranav Saran [email protected] Phone: (011) 55303278,79,80,82 Fax: (011) 23327884

TEST CENTER

Anand Tuliani, Faheem Sayed, Kunal Rupera

Jitendra Gupta [email protected]

DESIGN

CIRCULATION

Jagdish Limbachiya, Pramod Jadhav, Hemali Gandhi, Manoj Tandel, Umesh Dahiwalkar, Ravi Parmar PHOTO EDITOR

Shirish Karale

MULTIMEDIA & WEB

Hemant Charya

SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR-PROJECTS

Brian Pereira SUB-EDITOR

Charmaine Fernandes WRITERS

Vijay George, Saroni Roy HEAD BUSINESS

Ganesh Lakshmanan HEAD OFFICE

Intelligent Computing Chip, TBW Publishing & Media Pvt. Ltd. `A’ Wing, Ruby House, 2nd Floor, J.K. Sawant Marg, Dadar(W). Mumbai - 400 028. INDIA Phone: (91 22) 24232323, Fax: (91 22) 2430 2707 E-mail: [email protected] Martin Wilson [email protected] Sagar Salunkhe [email protected] Mrugesh Patel [email protected] Hafeez Shaikh [email protected] BRANCH OFFICES

Bangalore Harish Kamat [email protected] Phone: (080)559 7282,83,84 Fax: (080)559 7285 Chennai O K Gurumurthy [email protected] Phone: (044) 28295050-54 Fax: (044) 28295060 Cochin Sawmya Kumar [email protected] Phone: (0484)4054380/90

www.chip-india.com

Hyderabad Vasudevan Iyer [email protected] Phone: (040) 55622211 Fax: (040) 23393488

National Circulation Manager Kumar Mohanani [email protected] SUBSCRIPTIONS

Surekha Pendse, Sarita Quadros E-mail: [email protected] Tel: +91 22 2423 2804 / 05 Fax: +91 22 2430 2707 SUBSCRIBE ONLINE at eshop.infomediaindia.com CHIP INTERNATIONAL

Editorial Consultant International Wolfgang Su, Poccistrabe 11, 80336 Munchen CHIP is also published in the following countries China Czech Republic Germany Greece Hungary Indonesia Italy Malaysia Netherlands Poland Romania Russia Singapore Thailand Turkey Ukraine TBW Publishing & Media Pvt. Ltd. does not take the responsibility for returning unsolicited material sent without due postal stamps for return postage. No part of this magazine can be reproduced without the prior written permission of the publisher. TBW Publishing & Media Pvt. Ltd. reserves the right to use the information published herein in any manner whatsoever. Copyright 2004 INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP For all international subscription enquiries, contact the subscription department, Intelligent Computing CHIP ([email protected]). Intelligent Computing CHIP is printed by A. S. Vadiwala and published by K. V. Rao on behalf of TBW Publishing and Media Pvt. Ltd. and printed at Infomedia India Ltd, Plot No.3, Sector 7, Off Sion-Panvel Road, Nerul, Navi Mumbai – 400 706 and published at TBW Publishing and Media Pvt. Ltd., `A’ Wing, Ruby House, 2nd Floor, J.K. Sawant Marg, Dadar(W). Mumbai - 400 028. INDIA is an internationally protected trademark owned by Vogel Burda Communication GmbH Cover Design: Jagdish Limbachiya Photography: Shirish Karale

INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

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TOWN SQUARE

THIS MONTH ON chip-india.com

Town Square Greetings dear Websters, Over the years, we have seen several users come to our website and contribute in their own little (or large) way. Chief among the segments that power out website are the Know-How and the Town Square sections. As it is so evident from the quality of the feedback and the depth of knowledge and understanding seen in the majority of the questions, our forums have always been a place where like-minded techies can meet and exchange ideas. To further enhance the functionality and access of the information on our website, we are glad to announce some exciting enhancements that is born our of an association with an interesting company called Webaroo. Founded in 2004, Webaroo pioneered an innovation that facilitates offline web searching on laptops and mobile devices. That’s right—with it you can search and browse web content anywhere, anytime even without an Internet connection! After downloading the Webaroo client, you can access real Web pages with real search results on a variety of topics like travel, technology, lifestyle etc. Webaroo’s innovative algorithms analyze web pages, selecting pages that are relevant, of high quality and with broad coverage, providing abundant information in small downloadable ‘Web packs’. You can either download the Webaroo application and save the Web packs onto your laptop or mobile device (PDA/smart phone) for free, or purchase a range of devices with Webaroo bundled on it. Best of all, this content isn’t static—it is updated on your device each time you are connected to the Internet. In association with Webaroo, we at CHIP are pleased to bring you a series of Web packs of all the archived content from the Know-How section of our Forums, all the way from January 2006 to October 2006! By installing the Webaroo application, you will be able to browse and search through any one of these Web packs that contain

information ranging from operating systems, application software, security, games, hardware components—everything that you would find on our website’s forums. Best of all, you can search through all of our forum’s contents over the last six months—all offline! And this is just the beginning—along with Webaroo, we plan to bring you regular updated versions of these Web packs. On our cover disks, you will also find Web packs relating to other tech topics. To start using these Web packs, head over to our website and download the applications and packs from the Webaroo link provided. You will also find these Web packs included on the cover disks bundled with our this issue. We look forward to hearing your feedback on this. And happy offline searching! On our forums, we have seen a steady rise in the number of registered users—we have crossed 26,600 this month. ‘sumit_ind’ has posted an interesting tip on opening Gmail faster—simply use the URL m.gmail.com and you will open a much lighter versions of Gmail, minus all the bells and whistles. Primarily intended for mobile users, this site does not look all that good, but is functional and extremely quick to load—great when you’re pressed for time! ‘georgy786’ has also started a pretty interesting discussion on the upcoming PS2 game console versus the Xbox 360. If you need a spec-by-spec comparison on how these consoles stack up against one another, this is a good read. With the impending release of Sony’s new console, it will be interesting to see if this gaming device lives up to the hype surrounding its Cell architecture. We also came across some neat discussions on hosting free websites and choosing the right web hosting plans from ‘maheshmic88’ and ‘tiger0412’ respectively. Here you will find plenty of real-world suggestions on web hosting. Be sure to check out these new offerings on our website and look out for many more such enhancements over the following weeks. ■ | Marco D'Souza INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

LETTERS

Letters

Dear CHIP, The reason I bought CHIP magazine this month is to read more about the AMD-ATI deal, so that I could find the answers to several questions that I have such as whether it would be wise to buy ATI chipsetbased motherboards instead of motherboards from other brands using ATO processors. However, to my dismay, there was nothing about the AMD-ATI deal. I did, however, find the PC configuration guide really interesting. I will be assembling a computer shortly and therefore it is really relevant to me. I am planning to opt for the budget configuration However, I must say I don’t agree with the motherboard mentioned in the guide. I need a motherboard with a DV port so that I can connect my Canon camcorder and copy digital video to my computer. Can you suggest a motherboard with an onboard DV port? I will be using a socket 754 AMD Sempron CPU. Also can you suggest a computer dealer in Lamington Road where I can get all my computer peripherals? I am looking forward to your feedback. Regards, Mark Pinheiro

Hello Mark, Thanks for writing in. Regarding your query about the ATI-AMD deal, we intentionally excluded carrying a news item on it in our magazine. With a monthly frequency, we believe it would not make sense to cover a subject which, by then, would have been dealt with extensively by every daily newspaper and online technology web site. What we will be doing is to monitor the fallout of this merger and carry articles related to the repercussions it will have on products and technologies in their related fields of platforms, processors and graphics. Do look out for these in our subsequent issues. We’re glad that you liked our PC configuration guide. The choice of motherboard in the guide was one that reflected a general usage scenario. In your case, you have a specific need that needs to be fulfilled and might not be applicable to readers at large. Therefore, we selected a board that offers a good set of general features, adequate performance and priced well. In your case, you might want to consider a XXX motherboard, which would suit your processor and which also includes an onboard Firewire interface which you can use to transfer digital video from your camcorder. Team CHIP

Hi Marco, I am an ardent reader of your magazine. Being a computer buff, I love reading anything and everything related to computers. And I must say your team does a great job of producing amazing editorial content. Through it, I receive a lot of knowledge about the latest technologies. The news section is a good melange about everything new and happening in the world of technology. I especially liked the news snippet about how scientists have developed a wrist-top computer in the US. I am waiting for the time it will hit the commercial market, which I’m sure is bound to happen in the near future as you have stated—“technology is getting personal” (editorial, ‘Small is Big’, August issue). I am waiting to have my hands on it...quite literally! Regards, Sumit Rodda Dear Marco, No, you are not dreaming or watching too many movies (with reference to “Of Movies and Evolution”, Editorial, September issue). What you say makes a lot of sense—viruses are indeed a blessing and do result in making better and stronger software. What appears to be a problem from one angle can actually prove to be beneficial from the other—clearly a case of “a hammer shatters glass but also forges steel”. The possibility of machines becoming more and more intelligent does exist, but I don’t believe they can gain consciousness. For example, it’s easy to build a machine that has the ability to print colors but can it accompany the emotions that we undergo when we see red, white, black or orange? The Perfect World is indeed a distant possibility—I think this could be attributed to greed. Greed results in apathy for the next person who might be suffering. We’ve also seen numerous instances where greed has brought about immense havoc and damage to humanity in the form of wars and strife. As the Mahatma once said, “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed”. We’ve seen it happening so often through history—men like Hitler and Napoleon though considered great personalities, were responsible for untold misery due to their insatiable greed. Sorry if I sound too philosophical, but that’s the way of the world. Regards, Darshan Shinde Umesh Dahiwalkar

OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

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LETTERS

Letters Now you can SMS us! Since we like knowing what’s on your mind and what you think about our magazine, we now bring you another way to get in touch with us. Have something to say about a test review? Liked a feature story? Was the workshop useful? SMS us your feedback! Here’s how: For comments on a story, create the following message: ICCO Example: ICCO The cover story was very useful You can write as much as you want in your comment! To rate a story, product review, etc look out for the story tag at the base of each article and use it as follows: ICCP <Story tag> Example: ICCP PWS 5 The “Story tag” is mentioned at the base of every story in the magazine and the “Rating” is on a scale of 1 to 5. Finally, send your messages to 7007. Cheers!

70 07 IC

at w CO Th

as a fu

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ry

Dear Darshan, Those are interesting viewpoints you’ve raised on the subject. However, I would beg to differ with you on the possibility of machines not being able to achieve some level of consciousness. Classically, consciousness has been a difficult human trait to peg. Scientifically, its description has always been elusive. But going by principles of the Swarm Theory, I believe there exists a possibility of a day dawning upon us, where there will be so many logic elements packed on a processor and so many channels of communication existing between them that it will come startlingly close to what already exists within the human brain. What is the brain after all, if not a set of billions of processing elements connected via a network of high-speed links? The rate at which technology is evolving, I believe we are going to see numerous instances of billions of transistors on processors that drive future computers and appliances. Couple this with the proliferation of high-speed wired and wireless networks and there is bound to be an instance of distributed processing system reaching such a zenith of power that a machine might just transcend into that elusive realm of self-discovery. Sounds fantastic, I know. But I’m inclined to believe that the day may be upon us sooner than we expect. Regards, Marco Dear CHIP, The September issue was super to say the least. Brilliant magician on the cover too! Although I think the theme of the cover story was good, I believe it could have been implemented better. I thought the tricks especially on speeding up Windows and startup programs were a bit too ‘basic’—something I imagine almost every normal PC user already knows about. There were no registry tweaks and no tweaks for Nvidia-based graphic cards either. I understand that you cater to the not-so-geeky folks, but the tricks you provided were known to me since the time I was in the eighth standard. Besides, these tricks are easily available on any Windows web site; you should therefore have provided some expert tweaks on Windows like changing registry settings to speed up your Internet connection or to speed up menus and change the more advanced settings in Window XP. I have also noticed feel that you include too many articles on Office. True, MS Office is important but

for home users such tips become quite boring as there are several dedicated resources to answering these questions. Also, it’s been a while since we’ve seen a software shootout in CHIP. So I request you to carry a security application shootout. At present, you carry standalone application reviews (such as PC-cillin) each month and it isn’t easy to judge the best from reviews on security applications spread across several issues. One last suggestion—please provide more goodies like wallpapers and movies on your Toys CD. Also, I think your choice of games makes them more suited to the younger audience. I am sorry if I sounded harsh in this letter, but nothing makes me happier than to read a fully satisfying issue of CHIP! Regards, Amit Patnaik Hello Amit, We’re glad you liked our cover. The level of the tweaks in the cover story was intentionally chosen to be basic as we like our covers to be ‘approachable’. Since it is meant to reach out to as wide an audience as possible, we stay away from keeping it too technical—we do that in other sections of our magazines like Hands-on, Hardware and Applications. But thank you for the feedback anyway—you can look forward to interesting, in-depth articles on a variety of technologies and products that will be more suited to your level of understanding in the forthcoming issues. Your request for a shootout on security applications is an interesting one. Reviewing an anti-virus of firewall applications is one of the most complex software tests, requiring the use of special test resources that are not generally available outside of the anti-virus laboratories. However, we are working on the modalities on how to conduct such a test in conjunction with external resources. And yes, do let us know how you liked our in-depth test on Intel’s Core 2 Duo processor (“Crowning Conroe”, September issue). We are eagerly looking forward to your feedback. Best regards, Team CHIP With hundreds of SMSes sent to us, this new feedback system has evoked tremendous response. Going ahead, we’re using what you’re saying to incorporate changes into our content. Keep it coming! INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

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NEWSWIRE

Watch what you want! Satellite TV is all set to change your viewing experience, so you can watch your favorite programs any time you want or even repeatedly should you feel like it

M

ost of us still remember the rotating Doordarshan logo we saw on our televisions a few years ago. It’s been a while that we have graduated from Doordarshan’s six to nine pm broadcasting to 24x7 cable broadcasting. Soon you will shift from the cable operator’s controlled program distribution to satellite TV, where you will get to choose your own channels with DVD quality image, CD quality sound clarity and a whole lot more. Many already have. The world has been familiar with satellite TV for a long time now but it took a while for it to arrive in India. The reason was slow penetration of the television, lack of proper infrastructure and lack of proper technical know-how. However, the situation has changed now. Currently, there are 110 million TV viewers in our country out of which 67 million subscribe to cable TV and 43 million still receive terrestrial broadcast. Besides, now we even have better hardware like plasma screens and dish antennas that can digital signals. Also, today’s viewers are more demanding in terms of picture and sound quality. They can differentiate between CD and DVD quality images, radio and CD quality audio. Considering all these factors, the launch of satellite TV services couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. To avail the satellite TV broadcast service, you need to install a personal dish antenna and a set-top box, both of which are offered by the service provider. After that adjust the antenna to match the broadcast frequency offered by the service provider and the entertainment content will be streamed to your TV. The dish receives the signal sent from the service provider and passes it to the set-top box. The box has a computer chip, which first decodes the signal and displays the content on your TV screen. In India, Tata Sky and Dish TV are two of the service providers currently offering this service. You can contact the service provider and place your preferred list of channels to view them. There are plenty of benefits—you get up

to 160 channels although you pay the same amount as you are paying now. You can choose your language from a channel which offers multilingual broadcasting— you can make a choice between Hindi and English while watching Cartoon Network as it broadcasts in both languages. Satellite TV services also offer a bundle of interactive games. You can shift from TV viewing to gaming and play games with just the remote. Interactivity is one of the key features offered by satellite TV. For example, if you are a Tata Sky subscriber, you can watch Star News, Aaj Tak and NDTV India—all on a single screen in four separate grids. All you need to do is select a grid to watch a particular channel. As Tata Sky service is a joint venture between Tata and the Star network, you can view Star News similarly. In four grids you can watch ‘Current News’, ‘Top Stories’, ‘Headlines’ and ‘Features’, all broadcast by Star News. Out of these four grids, the ‘Current News’ is Live and the others are 30 minutes behind schedule. Tata Sky has collaborated with ESPN to offer an interactive sports experience as well. Named ‘Active Sports’, this service will allow you to watch a live match, highlights and a virtual screen at the same time. You can watch the history of a tournament, statistics of a player, team and even choose commentators.

Tata Sky’s interactive news section also lets you check your horoscope while watching news

Jagdish Limbachiya INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

NEWSWIRE

Dish TV lets you download games and transfer them to the receiver through USB On the other hand, Dish TV offers services like storing TV programs on your external hard disk which you connect to the receiver. Dish TV offers digital video recording service allowing you to extract images, music and videos from the TV programs and store on the hard disk. You can also pause live TV and watch your favorite programs at your own leisure. You can record programs to a maximum of six channels simultaneously. The channels can be either six free channels or three free and three pay channels. To record, you need to specify the date and time of your desired program to the Digital Video Recorder (part of the receiver). On the specified date and time, the recorder automatically will start recording all the desired programs. Satellite TV is mostly about convenience. It offers you a program guide for all the channels you have chosen, one week in advance. If you are a Satellite TV user, you get to know about the program schedules, which comprise the program name, program channel, date, day, time

and program synopsis. You can create a list of your favorite programs scheduled in advance to watch them when they will be broadcast. If you get tired of surfing the entire gamut of channels, you can even create a customized surf list of the channels you watch most. This way you can create multiple customized surf lists and store them with different names. For example, you can create a surf list by selecting only the sports channel and name it ‘Sports’. Similarly, you can select only the English movie channels and create another list with the name ‘English movies’. You can enjoy the “Movie on Demand” service offered by the available satellite TV providers. To watch a movie of your choice, you need to check the list of current movies that are available with

Tata Sky service lets you create a favorite channel list comprising 20 channels your service provider and then call and order them, stating the movie name and your preferred time. You have to pay an addition amount for this service. The amount varies between providers. For example, Dish TV charges you Rs 40 for Hindi movies and Rs 50 for English movies.

Subscription

You can order a movie of your choice to broadcast at your specified time OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

To subscribe to Satellite TV, you need to call the service provider. On receiving your request, they will send their trained technicians to install the dish antenna and the set-top-box at your place. If you are looking for a connection for multiple TV sets, you will need multiple set-topboxes—one for each set. The cost for installation may be more than what you are paying for cable TV. To subscribe to Tata Sky’s service, you

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have to pay an initial amount of Rs 2,999 for the dish and the box, Rs 1,000 for installation and activation of the service and an additional Rs 200 for subscription to one TV set. If you want to add more sets, then you need to pay another Rs 100. Monthly charges are Rs 200 for which you need to buy a prepaid card similar to a mobile prepaid card. Scratch it, call the help desk number, spell out the 16 digit number and get your account refilled. If you want to check you account balance, you can even do that on your TV, where you will get a complete and detailed account information. Besides, for any sort of technical problems, you can call the helpdesk number and get account related information or report problems. If you want to subscribe to Dish TV’s service then you have the option of selecting from their bouquet of packages ranging from Rs 3,090 to Rs 3,490. Once the service is activated, you can customize the charges for every month by selecting the channels. For example, if you choose to view only the news channel, you can do that at a monthly cost of Rs 60. Alternatively, if you want to watch only movies, you need to pay only Rs 55— channels such as Zee Premier, Zee Action and Zee Classic will be included only. For monthly payments, you can choose between sending an SMS and paying by credit card. If you want, you can even pay by cash, cheque or money order. Satellite TV is slowly picking up in India. While it offers you convenience, comfort and choice of what you want to watch, it is too early to tell whether it will be everybody’s cup of tea. The primary challenge it may face is the counter move from cable operators—this is because any viewer would be thrilled at being able to avail of the service with its additional benefits and still pay the same amount they’d been paying their cable operators. Also, the initial installation cost may still be very high for a lot of users. We have yet to see how service providers are going to face these challenges. As of now it is for us to wait and watch how the flotilla of unique services offered bring about a change in the viewing experience.  | Pradosh Mitra

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Story code: NFS (See Page 20 for details)

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NEWSWIRE

The mobile vendor

A phone environment

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f you thought only canned coke could tumble down a vending machine, think again. Motorola has come up with their “Instantmoto”, a vending machine for cell phone handsets. These machines work like automated selling machines. In terms of size they are three times the regular vending machines and house 12 different types of models and 18 accessories. Instantmoto, works on the principles of robotics and has a robotic arm. Company spokesperson, Juan Campbell said that this is going to be the future of convenience purchasing, a new concept of purchase from the house of Motorola. As a buyer, you do not need to wait in a store to get the Jagdish Limbachiya attention of one of the sales persons. You can select the model of your choice and use your credit card to buy it. You can make a choice between anything from mid-range to high-end models including the Razr and the Q and you need not worry about the service. You can purchase any model and then decide on which service provider’s service you’ll be using. If you are starting a new service then you can go online and sign up with any package of any service providers, which includes T-Mobile, Verizon and Cingular. You generally need a dedicated handset for the stated service. But these service providers have loosened their strategy to promote Instantmoto, so even if your handset is not a dedicated one you’d still be able to sign up with their services. All you need to do is pick a phone style using the touch screen and make your payment. Motorola started this pilot program which it will expand in the future should it turn out to be successful. Currently one such machine is installed at one of the shopping malls in Chicago.

on’t forget to unplug your charger once chargers once the battery is full. the phone battery is full. Influence your Apart from educating the consumers neighbor to do the same. And if the chain the group will have to examine the current continues then it will save enough electricity recycling strategy and will increase the to light up a thousands homes. So states number of used phones that are returned Nokia as they unveiled a new industry group for recycling. The new recycling strategy that aims to make mobile phones more that the group will come up with will have environmentally friendly. an incentive structure, which the group This group is a joint effort feels will increase the recycle rate. of Motorola, France Telecom, The program also includes a Vodafone Group, TeliaSonera, reduction in the use of hazardous and others. It is created as part of material, used to manufacture a European Commission project phones. For example Nokia decided aimed at uniting members of to stop using any components in different industries to work on its phones that contain a certain reducing the environmental impact type of environmentally harmful of their products. chemical flame retardant. Hemali Gandhi As a part of the program this Environmental organizations group will impart education to their including World Wildlife Fund, phone users on how to use their cell phones the Finnish Environmental Institute, the in an environmentally friendly way. The European Consumers’ Organization and group will also conduct research on the the UK’s Department of Environment, Food different ways to do this. They will display and Rural Affairs are also part of the new reminders on the phone to unplug the initiative.

Get your Office free

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icrosoft is now mulling over plans to offer its application Microsoft Works for free. It has up until now steered clear of this area but with the recent increase in freely available software it has decided to jump on the bandwagon. The application is a basic suite of business software that often comes preloaded on inexpensive consumer PCs. So far plans include a number of options to woo entry-level users; so says Alan Yates, general manager of Microsoft Information Worker Business Strategy. This application package will have email client, a calendar, a word processor, spreadsheets and a web browser. The application also has a library of creative presentations like projects and will allow you to edit digital photographs. If you want to do some research for school or even for personal interests the application assists you with

updated information. The company is putting in a lot of plans to get ‘Works’ to work out for them so that they can give fair competition to Google’s online free applications. To keep it free Microsoft is planning to pull in advertisements and display them on the platform of this application. Alternatively, they are planning to make it subscription-based. Currently, the application is distributed to users at a price of $50. They are already experimenting with Office Live, an application for small businesses, which will enanle them to create e-mail accounts, web sites and collaborate on projects. However, they are bit worried on how to position this application. They fear that Works might hamper the revenue that the company currently earns from the licenses of Office and Windows. INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

NEWSWIRE

Movies on wheels

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ou won’t have reason to crib about the image quality on your mobile video player anymore. Archos’ new Generation 4 line of portable media is set to take your mobile video viewing experience to a new level. Their products Archos 604, 504, and 404 portable media players can record and display DVD-quality digital video. The Archos 640 has a 4.3 TFT wide-screen LCD, with a screen resolution of 480 X 272 and can display at 16:9 aspect ratio. It weighs 9 ounces and measures 5.1 x 3.0 x 0.65 inches. The Archos 604 can play MPEG-4, WMV, and MPEG-2 video files stored on its 30 GB hard drive. The control buttons for managing tracks and programs are located at the right, with full battery charge, it can continuously play video at low brightness for 4.5 hours and music for 17.5 hours. Archos 504 differs only in storage sizes. The Archos 504 will come in 40 GB, 80 GB

OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

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Games phones play and 160 GB versions. This will make the 504 heavier than the 604. The Archos web site states that the 40 GB model weighs 11.2 ounces. On the other hand the 404, differs in screen size. The size of its screen is 3.5 inches and displays video at a 320 X 240 resolution with a 4:3 aspect ratio. The Archos product line can be attached with an optional digital video recorder that lets the device record TV programs in MPEG-4 format. The digital video recorder station will transfer contents onto the hard drive of the Archos 604 and 404. The product supports the Macrovision DRM found on DVDs, this allows a user to record and play back a program on the Archos itself. Archos also plans to announce a Wi-Fienabled version of the 604, with a touch screen and wireless networking capabilities for web browsing, media sharing, and e-mail.

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orget about the virtual games that you’ve been playing on your mobile this far. The GMAE phone is the latest type of phone on the scene where your game content will not be restricted to the screen. The phone has a unique key pad where the buttons can move and change positions. This feature of the phone has generated a completely new type of gaming experience. The phone allows you to play the 15 grid puzzle, a game where you need to arrange the number 1 to 15 in order on a 16 squared field. The right positions of each button are marked underneath the button so that you do not have to struggle to find the right place for the right button. The phone has been designed by Dima Komissarov of plusminus.com.

Poll: Do you play games on a console? (See Readers’ Letters for details)

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NEWSWIRE

The fabric farm

Times is a-changing

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f you consider yourself an environmentalist and you fancy nylon, rayon or polyester outfits you may have to think twice about your choice of clothing. All these materials are by-products of petroleum which add on to the consumption of the fuel. But take heart, two engineers have come up with a feasible alternative. Narendra Reddy and Yiqi Yang, both textile researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, have suggested using farm waste to manufacture these fabrics. They stated that stems from rice plants and feathers plucked from chickens can be used for the process.

Fabric can now be created using alternative materials like rice straw and chicken feathers Reddy said that every year four thousand pounds of feathers are produced in the United States alone. But there aren’t too many uses for them. Projects like converting farm waste to fabric will make the fiber industry more sustainable. The engineers said that chicken feathers and rice straw actually have many similarities to existing natural fibers. Rice straw, like cotton and linen, is mainly composed of the dense plant fiber cellulose and chicken feathers resemble wool which is made up of keratin, a hard structural protein that is also found in hoofs and fingernails. Like other conventional fibers, feathers and rice straw can be treated with chemicals and enzymes to break down unessential components, and then spun into thread with existing textile machinery. The production costs of these fibers will be much less. Each fiber needs to be processed chemically and spun to make the threads. Rice straw and chicken feathers can also be treated in chemicals, for which the existing infrastructure will work just fine.

hile the debate continues about the existence and necessity of news in print, newspaper readers have something else to talk about. “Times Reader” a new application parented by The New York Times and Microsoft lets you read the same news but only on a standalone digital reader. The application attempts to provide an onscreen reading experience that is as familiar as the printed page, only more versatile and interactive. Microsoft used its new Windows Presentation Foundation technology, a feature of the next version of Microsoft Windows that improves the graphics handling and user interface behaviors of desktop applications. The application tries, as far as possible, to stick to the print paper layout. On screen, artwork and photography run

within the text (with The Times’ proprietary font) as integral elements, navigation options are more like you find on a paper than on a web site. The most impressive aspect of the Reader is its navigation. Tom Bodkin, The New York Times’ design director, headed the design team to retain the narrative form which is so typical of The Times. The narrative form is entirely an editor’s choice. The editor decides which story comes on the front page and which comes at the rear, and the stories on the digital reader are given the same amount of importance as they would receive with a printed paper. The contents are downloaded from the web, but users do not need to be online all the time to use the application. The Reader uses the web site’s feed and updates the news throughout the day.

A malware greeting

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he greeting card you received in your inbox may not necessarily be sent with good intentions. It may be a disguised malware. Such is the inference of Roger Thompson, chief technology officer at the security software maker, Exploit Prevention Labs.

After checking a few dozen emails, Thompson found out that apparently these mails looked like regular greetings from services like Yahoo or Blue Mountain. When users clicked on such e-card links, the way they generally do, the link sends users to malicious sites. The site silently downloads a malware that is capable of capturing the user’s key strokes. Once the software

download gets complete the card appears on the screen. The download of the software happens so fast that a user fails to realize that he has been redirected first. Only if he scrutinizes the link, will he be able to make that out. The attacker, yet to be found, exploited a flaw in Microsoft’s Windows operating system to drop the spy software and a rootkit to hide it on PCs. Only those users who have installed a MS06-014 patch, released in May, are not vulnerable to this particular silent drive-by installation of malicious software. This attack appears to have started in April, and the attackers send a new set of emails every week. Each week the attackers appear to collect a 200MB file with freshly captured information from a server. Thompson, however managed to identify the server and reported the matter to the Australian and U.S. authorities. Exploit Prevention Lab has identified that nearly every Australian bank were compromised since April. INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

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NEWSWIRE

Playing it safe

Fashionable fit

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atching American football has become so much easier with technology having infiltrated all aspects of the game. This means that we can easily make out computer-generated yellow lines or scroll through scores or get myriad other statistics of the players and the game. Now it’s about to get easier on the field as well. Joseph (Trey) Crisco, director of the bioengineering laboratory at Brown University along with Rick Greenwald an analyst with Oracle Corporation, developed the HIT (Head Impact Telemetry) System, based on tiny sensors made by Analog

Devices, where six miniature air bags inside a helmet will record how often, how hard, and where the helmet has been hit. These helmets send signals to a sideline computer, which keeps track of the number of hits and their severity. The computer also alerts a coach or trainer if the helmet has been struck especially violently. Crisco’s company Simbex Inc of Lebanon, N.H., has partnered with sportinggoodsmaker Riddell to offer the safety system. Simbex maintains a national database that has recorded some 250,000 head impacts. By keeping a track of helmet hits, Greenwald hopes to find insights that could lead to modified rules, coaching techniques and better equipment. Another hazard involves intensive drills conducted during hot weather, which can lead to serious overheating. So Floridabased HQ Inc has developed the CorTemp monitoring system. The system comprises a hand held receiver and small pill like sensors, powered by a hearing aid sized battery. Players can swallow these pills which track body temperature extremely accurately. The pills emit radio signals which are received by the handheld device, where the temperature is read.

ere is something for the fashion conscious, a body scanner to measure your body so that you get the best fit. Lenda Jo Connell, apparel product development specialist from Auburn University, said that the scanners take body measurements that are converted into patterns from which the garments are cut. Connell added that the scanners help save a lot of time because otherwise it is a one-on-one, hands-on process. The scanners line up with mass customization, that are beginning to link together so that you can get scanned, and that information is used to produce a garment. These scanners, developed by TC2, and used in a two-year survey found that the women’s fashion industry is shifting from its hourglass-figure paradigm. Research findings showed that the hourglass figure is the least dominant shape for women. Only

8.4 percent of the 6,318 women scanned possessed that shape. Cynthia Istook, a North Carolina State University textiles professor and lead researcher identified nine body shapes, before boiling it down to four dominant types, which are, rectangle, spoon, inverted triangle and hourglass to represent the main body shapes . Brooks Brothers has been using TC2 in its stores for almost three years. Custom-tailored suits are fitted for customers within minutes of their stepping inside the device’s chamber. The scanners are being used by custom pattern-making fashion designing firms. Nova Scotia-based Unique Patterns, recently opened its first Fit Place in Hudson, Ohio. Located inside a retail Jo-Ann Store, Fit Place is the first permanent installation of a Unique Patterns bodyskanner, which captures a person’s measurements and uses them to custom draft sewing patterns.

Ring in the cards

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ou can keep your set-top box aside, the Cable Card is here and it is going to replace the box that you have been using so far. These cards are just like the regular PC cards that fit into newer television sets and allow you to watch all cable channels without the box. The card has both the hardware and the software to decrypt the broadcasting signal. One of the benefits of the card is that it is a sleek piece that can easily fit into your television. Also it is less expensive compared to a set-top box. There is no hassle with installation and finally the electronics manufacturers can sell devices capable of tuning in to your full cable lineup directly. However, these cards do have their own disadvantages. They are completely a one-way system, which implies that you will not be able to get the interactive screen of listings or order any pay-per-view program. The good thing is that these cards will allow you to communicate with your cable

A cable card offers the same functionality as that of a set-top box service provider where users can provide feedback, take part in online contests and so on. The cards that are deemed to be released early will have these features; till then you can install two cards so you can watch a program with one and use the other for recording. In order to use the card a user needs to have a new television as well. Since all new television sets do not have such slots ready, only the ones which are marked “Digital Cable Ready” can be used for this purpose. INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

Pay for a year’s worth of India’s leading cricket magazine Get a year’s worth of cricket information absolutely free

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Subscribe to Cricinfo Magazine today and get a complimentary copy of The Year in Cricket, a specially published 100-page mini-book. The Year in Cricket brings together a wealth of trivia, facts, records, and brief reports of memorable matches for each day of the year. This collector’s item is a celebration of cricket’s rich history, featuring information from the Wisden Group’s archives, and over 35 full-colour photographs, and is available only to Cricinfo Magazine subscribers. Cricinfo Magazine comes to you from Infomedia India Ltd, India’s leading publisher of special-interest magazines. It’s packed with insights, information, analysis and comment from the world’s best cricket minds. Every issue has in-depth interviews with the biggest names in the sport, comprehensive match coverage, compelling original features and superb photography. Subscribe today and not only do you get every copy of Cricinfo Magazine delivered to your doorstep, you also get a copy of The Year in Cricket free, and protection against any price increases during your subscription term.

Back issues are available for Rs 100* each (inclusive of delivery costs; discounts applicable for orders of multiple copies) for Indian buyers, and £4 / $8 each for those overseas. For more information on how to order, please write in to [email protected] with “Back issues” in the subject line of your email.

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NEWSWIRE

One solution, no confusion A concept that has been adopted by McAfee to address the consumer’s need for a one-stop solution for security

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| Kartik Shahani Director Sales, India & SAARC

Total Protection is not a suite of products. It is a single product

cAfee has been providing security solutions in the country for many years now and its products have pervaded so many desktops, workstations and servers that I really do not need to explain what they are into. But even though you may be aware of the fact that McAfee is the company that “sells anti-virus software” for your desktop or workstation, it does not just stop at that. Kartik Shahani (Director Sales, India & SAARC) explained how the thought process of a company that is totally focused on providing AV solutions has evolved over the years as intrusions have become more sophisticated. Mr Shahani stressed on these changes that have helped make what McAfee is today.

Virus Growth Trend KS: Initially there was an exploratory phase wherein viruses were pure nuisance value. This moved on to create real trouble, usually done by sending mass mails. Now it has taken a serious turn with financial gain as the objective. Anti-phishing, spyware, adware are all made for financial gain. There are more instances of tools like key loggers that try to gain sensitive information. There are many more avenues to attack because of the kind of devices, which have changed. The number of devices connecting to a network has increased. This results in innovative forms of attacks targeted at these devices (access points). Earlier, an attack was effective only when involved some sort of interaction. Today, intrusions do not require any interaction at all. Blended attacks—where a Trojan and bot is combined—have increased steadily. These might not even activate on the PC immediately. This has been the scene on the desktop front. It might gradually take on a similar pattern for the mobile users also.

The Proactive Approach KS: We found that virus attacks were getting faster in terms of its implementation

worldwide. The timeline when a vulnerability is exposed, to the point when it is exploited has started shrinking. A signature file could not be generated fast enough if an attack was, say, a 3-minute one. By the time any vendor creates an antidote it will be an hour since the attack and there will probably be ten versions of it. This was when AV was very reactive in nature. The only way to solve this was to block the ‘root’ and this was done with IPS. IPS (Intrusion Prevention System) has become a very general term today but we were the first ones to come up this system. We did that using two companies—Introvert and Entercept. The former came up with IPS technology on the network side. But that was not good enough because attacks like an SQL injection, which will look valid when you go through the network. It was required to have a ‘host-based’ intrusion prevention also and Entercept provided this. Now we have a host-based and a networkbased IPS. IPS actually blocks the vulnerability. We took the IPS technology and moved it into the AV making it proactive. The minute a vulnerability is blocked then any virus variants will not affect the machine. In December 2005, we detected vulnerability for the 32-Gen virus, it was patched and early this year the MyWife virus struck. Machines installed with our IPS-based AV products were the only ones that were not affected. The technology of signatures was also implemented in IPS because it is the fastest way to removing any infections in files that are to be scanned. This cross-pollination of technologies has improved the AV’s throughput.

Enforcing Policies KS: McAfee then acquired a vulnerability management and analysis company called Foundstone. The next thing that we did after making Foundstone our vulnerability management tool, was introduce the McAfee Policy Enforcer (MPE). This is an “end point INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

NEWSWIRE

protection” product. This is meant for users who plug-in to an office network. This is very essential if you have a large number of visitors (working on a contract basis) logging into your network. You cannot allow them to log in if their machines do not comply with the organization’s security policies. But they have to have access to network so that they can do the work the organization has employed them to do. The system is first checked to see if it complies with the requirements of the organization. If it does not, it goes into a “quarantine” mode. Only after it is completely patched up it is allowed out of quarantine.

Simplified Administration KS: SiteAdvisor (protects your browser from spyware and phishing sites) is integrated with the rest of our products. If you have it on a gateway then you - as a corporate - can decide that employees should not access any file/site that is assigned as “red”. A system like this can be easily enforced at the gateway with the help of a network-wide policy. The policy template is provided by PreventSys (a risk and compliance management company McAfee acquired recently). This is not domain-based or IP-based, therefore it becomes easier to administer. Let’s take an example of a company that needs to adhere to certain security guidelines in order to achieve an objective. The rules that need to be followed are set by using a ‘compliance template’ – made with policyenforcing and management software like Preventsys or Foundstone. The products are able to audit systems constantly so as to make sure that the desktops continue being compliant to the template that was created. If a user/desktop does not comply to a parameter in the policy, then a report will be generated stating the vulnerability and the reason for the lapse. McAfee is not only looking at detection only. We are looking at providing solutions that have prevention attached to it – IPS does exactly that.

A trusted network solution KS: Cisco has been stressing on the “trusted networks” concept for a while now. It is about OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

NAC (Network Access Control). The problem was that it required recognition on a hardware level. If you had a router from 3Com and a switch from Cisco—it would not work. 3Com router did not support the solution. You needed to have hardware that supported Cisco’s solution for trusted networks. Trusted networks would only work on Catalyst switches over 6500-series. This meant that customers who liked the idea of a trusted network were confronted with a huge expense because of the prospect of a complete hardware upgrade. We came up with a software-only solution called NAC—which is agnostic to whatever switch/router is used in a network. It can be implemented at a fraction of the cost that would otherwise have to be spent in the scenarios mentioned above. You can have a mixed network environment and NAC will still work well along with MPE.

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McAfee is not looking at detection only. We are looking at solutions

A single product KS: We noticed a lot of customers had one grouse – every time they approached us there would be one more product to buy and install. So if you need an anti-virus you would install an AV and if it was spyware then you would have to install anti-spyware. The list could go on—when would it end? At the end of all this the PC will full of these “anti-solutions”, eating up system resources leaving the user with no space to run other applications. This was a cause for concern. We released Total Protection (in April this year)—one agent which included anti-virus/ malware/spyware/adware/phishing, etc. Total Protection is not a suite of products —it is a single product. It collectively uses 40 percent less resources than all the separate products installed on a system. If you were to buy any McAfee product it would communicate with ePO (ePolicy Orchestrator). Every technology that we procure is pushed into this reporting module. This is better than having different consoles for the gateway, host, signatures, etc. Effectively, you have a single “agent”. This means to keep your system secure all you need to do is download a single “DAT” file to update the firewall, AV, anti-spyware, etc.  | Ashutosh Desai

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Story code: NFM (See Page 20 for details)

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Technology in

Dign

Coverstory

Good design is something that has timeless appeal, striking a resonant chord not just in designers, but with consumers at large. We take a look at how creative folks are increasingly using technology to better their art

Jagdish Limbachiya

INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

TECHNOLOGY IN DESIGN

| COVERSTORY

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rt and science are generally considered diametrically opposite on the intellectual plane. Art is generally associated with aesthetics whereas science or technology is generally associated with gadgets and other physical implementation. But today the difference can be easily spotted in our day-to-day lives. According to the dictionary, one of the definitions of art is, “A nonscientific branch of learning; one of the liberal arts”. This clearly states that art and science have always been considered to be completely different disciplines. However, things are changing—with technology being an increasingly integral part of our daily lives, the artistic caliber behind the products we use today are becoming as important as the technology that drives them—a kind of a Yin and Yang between two hitherto disparate worlds. Besides technically advanced products incorporating greater amounts of design in them, we can also see several examples of technology being used in the design process itself—and to good effect. Take the case of the cellular phone—there was a time when the most important characteristic of a mobile device was the audio quality and the strength of the signal. Less than 10 years ago, cellular phones were sold on the basis of signal quality and features. Today, while these parameters are still of importance, there is another factor that has worked its way into the buying process—design and ergonomics. Two closely related fields, they have come to the fore solely because technology has moved from the science labs to the end user. Most consumers today take performance and technical features as a given; it is the overall design and usability of products that swing most buying decisions. Look around, you will chance upon several such examples where design often takes precedence over technology. Even in the automotive industry, car design is perhaps as important a selling point as the power of the engine or the fuel efficiency. This trend shows no sign of abating—the more technology reaches the masses, the greater will be the need for products to be designed to appeal to humans. Coupled with the strides in desktop computing technology, the act of designing products has also undergone a drastic change. Falling prices and easy availability of hardware and software have resulted in computers now being used at every stage of the design process. Best of all, you needn’t own a design firm to be able to access these technologies—many of them are commercially viable even for smaller enterprises. The playing field has certainly been leveled. Let’s take a look at some of the most popular disciplines of art and delve into how technology is making a difference in bettering work of the artists in these fields.

OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

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Story code: CRS (See Page 20 for details)

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COVERSTORY

| TECHNOLOGY IN DESIGN

Have you ever experienced the thrill of driving a fast car? Ever gone out on a long drive after you are stressed out due to work? Or did you ever whistle when you saw a sports car whiz by? There are a myriad of emotions that come to the fore while driving or beholding a piece of automotive art. We explore the birth of such exotic cars. Automobile design is an applied art dedicated to the design of transport vehicles like cars, bikes, trucks, buses, etc. People used to travel in carriages that were pulled by horses as a mode of transportation before automobiles were invented. Ever since the Internal Combustion Engine was invented in 1806,

cars designed with aesthetics in mind was the Benz Velo. Its body was designed with distinct curves—a definite deviation from the angular construction characteristics of other cars at the time. Leather was a prevalent medium for designing seats. Aesthetics was now beginning to take equal footing as functionality. Fast forward a few years and we saw the brass age in car design. This age basically saw cars whose radiators, lights and wheels were designed using this alloy. This design gained popularity as it was more functional than iron (it was more resistant to corrosion). Besides, brass has a close resemblance to gold but

The engine was positioned from the rear to the front and the concept of a bonnet came into the picture. The cars during the World War period used a design where all parts of the automobile were neatly incorporated into the body chassis. Their body designs did not change much in this era but changes to the internal combustion engines made them more powerful. Cars of this era looked more or less like boxes. But during the same era the automobile design industry witnessed a revolution with the Volkswagen Beetle car. This was the first car that had a curved shaped body as it broke away from conventional car designs. The curves helped

is fractionally priced. These improved aesthetics tickled the fancy of buyers of that era. The Ford Model T, awarded the most exemplary car design of the century, belonged to this era. Also, the Model T was the first American car that was made up of vanadium steel. Vanadium steel had three times the strength of the alloys used by other American car manufacturers. Best of all, even though these cars used vanadium steel and brass fittings, they were affordable for the masses. It was during this time that Henry Ford introduced the assembly line concept in automobiles, forever changing the way in which cars were built and cutting down chassis assembly time by a factor of ten.

its aesthetics; this concept is being used in many modern day cars. It was also speedy and had plenty of features for its size at a great price point. The post-war period saw the making of cars that emphasized an aerodynamic body design. Designers also started to experiment with different shapes and sizes while designing a car. The mini car concept of the Beetle also gained popularity leading to compact cars like the Mini Cooper and the Fiat 500. The 60s saw a race for raw power with cars like the Ford Mustang and the Chevrolet Camaro. During the time, many European car manufacturers blended the aesthetics and performance of a car into one body—

Automotive design

the concept of self-powered carriages was only a dream. Karl Benz constructed an automobile powered by the Otto gasoline engine in Germany in 1885; he was later credited with the invention of the modern automobile. In the early days, cars were generally a conversion of a horse carriage and even looked like one; the only difference was an internal combustion engine mounted on the rear end of the carriage replaced the horses. This was the veteran era of automobiles. Cars designed during the 1890s to the early 1900s belonged to this era. These vehicles were designed more with functionality in mind rather than aesthetics. One of the first production

INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

TECHNOLOGY IN DESIGN

especially the Jaguars and the Ferraris. Today most cars are manufactured for utilitarian purposes but with an accent on the design as well. Body styles have changed in the modern era. Four types—the hatchback, sedan, minivan, and sport utility vehicle—dominate today’s market and are relatively recent concepts. All originally emphasized practicality but have now mutated into vehicles that are styled across the various segments with the consumer in mind. A modern-day car is not only designed for great aesthetics but also features safety, fuel economy and most importantly the audience or purpose the car will be used

perspective sketches of a car. Devices like a Wacom tablet or other such input devices are often used to draw this 2D perspective. This facilitates easy digitization of sketches. The advantage of working in the digital ream are manifold—it allows designers to incorporate changes to images in real time, colors can be auditioned on images and many parameters can be changed. Thus subtle modifications to the sketch can be visualized in a very short time allowing the designer to better visualize the product and come up with prototypes quicker. The drawing is taken to the third dimension where a 3D surface model is

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other CAM/CAE software and with the help of specialized equipment where a prototype model of the same can be created at any scale required. High-end peripherals like 3D scanners are capable of converting live models into 3D meshes that can be imported into 3D application software. This saves plenty of time during the prototype creation process. According to Dilip Chabbria, a typical headlamp of a car typically has 35 components. Through the use of computers, the process from the ideation stage to CAD stage and then to the rapid prototyping route is completed in about 15 days as opposed to two months without the use

| Dilip Chabbria Founder, DC Design

Technology usage has granted designers more time to concentrate on the actual design rather than its implementation for. Technology has certainly played a significant role in the development of these cars—the ability to create more products and alternatives with a given time, cost and available resources. Let’s take a peek at how technology is used in the design of a modern-day car. A car design artist first receives a brief of what a target audience requires in the car. This would include the purpose of the car, the price, application, driving conditions, etc. Then a car design artist first creates a 2D design on paper to create a skeletal idea of how the vehicle would look. This stage includes several iterations and alternates. 2D design software like Corel Painter or Adobe Photoshop are also used to create 2D OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

created to get a basic idea of how the car will look like. If any changes in design are required, a designer falls back to the pen and paper technique for optimization, sensitivity and customization. Various 3D modeling software like 3D Studio Max, Maya, Cinema4D, LightWave, etc are used for creating the model. Specialized software like Alias Auto Studio is also used for carspecific 3D modeling and design. Customers can preview the model design with a very high level of detail, made possible by the excellent capabilities of these modeling software. Almost all of the automotive projects today are accomplished using this methodology. The 3D model can be imported using

of technology. “Over the last seven years, all our projects have been facilitated by computers. To give you an example, a breakthrough milestone was the Aston Martin project—the design was not just in CAS form (Computer Aided Styling), but our USP was the fact that we could integrate the hand crafting steel process with the digital data, ensuring very precise and high quality surfaces through our in-house CMM (Computer Measuring Machine) which works in 3D,” said he. The use of computers not only cuts down the number of iterations needed, but evaluation of quality also no longer remains a subjective issue since it is digitally measured.

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In his book, The World is Flat, Thomas Friedman clearly enunciates how different the world is today from what it was 20 years ago. Shorter distances, easy accessibility and new discoveries—it’s a world which has place for the fastest, the most competent and the most costeffective—where web-enabled workflow tools enable utilization of the best talent available regardless of where you are. Modern architecture is not an exception to Friedman’s theory—computers have indeed changed the face of architecture. It is possible to visualize and execute projects faster than one could imagine years ago. We spoke to architect Sanjay Puri, who 1

to be modified on paper—a massively time-consuming process. After finishing the drawings, architects hand delivered the blueprints to structural and service consultants who suggested the requisite changes, all of which would, once again, be modified by hand. Clients were required to place their complete faith in the architect’s vision—the actual concept remained imperceptible to them as they couldn’t look at anything tangible like the appearance of the whole structure, indoor spaces, lighting, color and so on. There was no choice but to wait until the construction finished. But by then, it was too late to reminisce about how other materials could have imparted a 2

Architecture & interiors

recounted work methods 14 years ago. Every morning began with assembling the paraphernalia for the drawings first before getting down to the task of actually drawing. Cutting sheets of “gateway” tracing paper, sharpening pencils, cleaning T-squares and Set-squares would be followed by aligning the paper before architects launched into their day’s work of drawing. The final drawings would then be inked with the requisite pens to achieve the desired thickness of the lines, which corresponded to the types of architectural drawings needed. Drawing on paper was a laborious task indeed. Whenever there was a need to change the designs, the drawings had

virtually evaluate how every material used enhances the design in its totality. Best of all, this happens before a single brick is laid. A panoply of software ranging from 3DS MAX, Softimage, 3DS Viz, Photoshop, Premiere, Form Z, Sketchup, Autocad, etc enable architects to explore every facet of their designs. 3D animation software enables them to walk through their designed structures, even climb up to the roof, take a stroll around the rooms, perceive how much light penetrates through the windows—a virtual look and feel. Executing designs after a first-hand 3D experience is quicker; designs can be exchanged with consultants over e-mail, inputs shared, changes implemented 3

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different feel to the construction. That was not all; architects would often have to take a jaunt to the site and ensure the structure is built exactly as they had envisioned. Many a times, it became imperative for them to make on-site modifications because the construction was not in tandem with what they had in mind. With the advent of computers and the developments in hardware and software, life drastically changed for architects. Application of specialized software has rendered it easy for them to visualize spaces in and out, gauge the relationship between spaces, experiment with materials, colors, textures and study the effects of both natural and artificial lighting. It is possible to

and approved for construction over the Internet itself. Obviously, this results in huge saving in time and effort. Software not only enables successful translation of complicated designs into actual structures but also offers the scope to explore new and innovative designs. The Bombay Art Society project (construction not yet started) demanded a complex comprising art galleries, an auditorium, cafeteria and an office area on a tiny plot of land. The mandate was to conform to the ‘art’ theme while making optimum use of the little space before venturing on the designs. Architect Sanjay Puri elucidated, “While creating a sculptural form for the building (refer to pictures 1&2), INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

TECHNOLOGY IN DESIGN

we wanted to achieve a series of fluid spaces for the volumes to be perceived larger and also to create fluidity that remains uninterrupted within. Without 3D Max and an array of advanced software, it would take way too long to build physical models and modify them to achieve the desired results. Thanks to technology, we were able to finalize the design within a month”. The Eta Hotel project in Dubai (see pictures 3&4) looks like a structure straight out of a 3D movie—designed in 3D, the abstract folded concrete skin of the building punctuated by a series of openings gives it a way-out-the-ordinary appearance. However, this super-futuristic look has a

to urge fashionistas to stop over and look around. Four basic elements—lowered ceilings, gradated floor shades, skewed pedestals and curved columns—combine to guide the visitors to the various sections of the store, establishing a unique identity for each section. The anatomy of the curved multi-brand display section (see pictures 5&6) was conceptualized in the form of 3D drawings on CAD software. According to Kapil, since 3D surfaces were part and parcel of the design, 3D plywood moulds were created by hand-tracing the drawings onto chunks of fiber-board before getting them hand sculpted by local craftsmen. This is perhaps

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the feel-good factor and intensify their shopping experience. This tap-device is made of tactile material and projected on a table-like surface, allowing you to touch the different aspects on the river. The backdrop of the river has been designed in Maya and authored on Flash. Choksee, while illustrating another example of retail value-addition spoke of the history wall that added another dimension to the interiors of the Levis Store in Bangalore. This wall integrates an electronic book, which lets customers interact by browsing through the history of the brand. Programmed in Flash, such an interactive design builds a relationship

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| Sanjay Puri Architect

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Exploring new ideas and creating unique and complicated designs is easy now thanks to advanced software purpose—these openings allow natural light into the hotel room balconies, creating a skin that reduces heat absorption from the outside while in the night it glimmers like a mammoth lamp. Experimenting with such a unique design concept couldn’t have been possible without advanced software. Talking about interior architecture, Thanks, a luxury retail space designed by architects Kapil Gupta and Chris Lee completely redefines the shopping experience. A hotbed of the biggest names in fashion and catering to the society’s bon ton, Thanks houses drop-dead designer ensembles and six exclusive designer brand outlets. It was only natural for it to sport an unusual garb that would be inviting enough OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

the most unique example of transforming technology into an art form. Technology is being extensively used in designs to impart the much-needed value addition to the retail segment. The Xylus store (Mumbai), designed by Lotus Design Services is an example of this trend—shoppers walking into the store will ineluctably have to take a look at ‘river of time’ flowing by—their curiosity piqued already! Being a watch store, the philosophical perception of time has been used to generate interesting trivia on it. Ankur Choksee of Lotus Design Services shed light on how they integrated interactive devices (in this case, the river of time) to impart customers with

between the customer and the brand that few other design elements can achieve. But this is just the present; nextgeneration architecture could very well be functional systems swaying with the wind and altering their shapes—this is the vision of a new breed of architects who believe that “responsive structures” is the future of architecture. These structures will ascertain outdoor weather conditions such as cloudy weather, wind mood swings, climbs or drops in temperature, indoor conditions like a sudden throng of visitors and calibrate the environments while making adjustments in their forms and shapes. The concept known as adaptive construction will bring about a fantastic

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era in architecture, comprising functional and self-changing robot-like structures. The Office of Robotic Architectural Media and the Bureau for Responsive Architecture employs the concept of tensegrity in their designs to increase robustness, minimize mass, reduce embedded energy, transportation and construction costs while also stepping up their capabilities to respond to manifold environmental conditions. So while we reap the benefits of technology to return to natural environments and herald the era of adaptive architecture, we might soon have a Friedman-Part II on our desks…

modeling techniques. This resulted in an obvious lack of time for a designer to think about the aesthetic value of their products, as much of the effort was being channeled into its execution. The case is different today. With technology-driven tools, software applications and even hardware that impart digital perfection to the process of measurement and structure, designers are now able to concentrate more on the design other than bother with the nitty-gritties of maintaining physically accurate dimensions as digital tools take care of this. This has also translated into quicker execution of the design, allowing more space for designers

technological tools like design and inventory management application along with specialized hardware like Crease Recovery Testers (to check how fast a textile can recover from creasing) and Launderometer (to check how fast a textile can recover from stains). It all starts from creating a pattern for a particular garment. Next in priority is to design the blocks for the pattern—popularly known as slopers. Using present-day tools, slopers can be designed by specialized CAD-based applications such as Apparel CAD and ModaCAD. These applications feature vast libraries from which users can select numerous types of slopers and

to impart their own creativity and signature style into their creations. Even the execution time has drastically fallen. In the field of fashion, a designer needs to monitor myriad factors starting from conceptualizing a design, sketching and creating illustrations, choosing the right fabrics, selecting colors, constructing patterns, all the way to the final creation of the garment. This includes plenty of allied factors like quality control for measurements, production planning, production control and design management. If managed singularly, this would rob a designer of quality time—time that could otherwise be used to create. To prevent this, fashion designers now use

further tweak these to their individual requirements. These are primarily librarybased 2D applications. This saves time and enables designers to create technically accurate designs, while allowing for plenty of creative leeway to tread new ground and explore entirely new patterns. Once the outfit is designed, the software even allows you to drape it on to a virtual model, animate the model and find out how it will actually appear, how the fabric will fall and react to movements. Applications like OptiTex 3D Runway are able to realistically simulate cloth movement in accordance with the physical movement of a model. Depending upon the texture and the weave of the cloth, the garment will respond in a

Fashion & jewelry

Fashion and jewelry Fashion and jewelry design are two domains that are indelibly based on aesthetic sense. Along with the inherent artistic sense, both these domains demand quality in execution in order to make the products stand out in the crowd. Although art plays a vital role in designing a fashionable dress or jewelry, a designer stills needs to use several domain-specific technicalities—in fashion, measurements of different body parts and cloth, while for jewelry it requires angles and curves of a gold pendant and the like. Years ago, these measurements were executed manually. Designers were required to spend enormous amounts of time to create their works of art using traditional

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TECHNOLOGY IN DESIGN

physically accurate manner—for example, heavy woolen cloth will fall differently compared to lighter chiffon materials. This application even helps in creating a product documentation sheet (PDS). While creating the PDS, you can choose any model from the application’s model library and drape your designed pattern or you can create models of your own required specification and body type, depending upon the garment being designed. Such applications even have the option of changing the texture of the textile, apply lights on the textile to view whether it will have a glossy or matte finish and more importantly have the model pose in various positions to perceive how the

and innovation. To address echnical issues underlying jewelry design like dimension of stones, designs of filigree work, clamps and clasps, there are applications which you can mold and enhance your designs. Applications like Digital Goldsmith are primarily used to create motifs and 2D designs to understand how an ornament would appear once it is completely designed. This application is also library driven—designers can select a motif from the library and then infinitely customize it according to their needs. Characteristics like color, types of precious stone and variations can all be modified and auditioned before the design is finalized. This application also

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designer can experiment with a number of options before arriving at a desired result.” To see a life-like replica of a product, 3D application like Matrix is used. This application can help create a virtual model of an ornament, where it is possible to view it from any angle during the creation process—much like what a goldsmith would while crafting an ornament. The application will show you a ‘profile ready’ product, allowing it to be viewed across a cross section. This view helps understand the thickness of the metal, the roughness at the edges or corners, the desired angles of the embellishments in the product. Allowing designs to be quickly created, the

| Dolly Minawala Head of Design, Indian Institute of Design

Computer tools supplement our creative vision by speeding up the process of creating technically correct products designed dress will fit their potential buyers. Fashion designing is not just about the attire—it is also about the accessories. 3D applications like ‘Poser’ assist to a great extent with its inbuilt library of props and options to change a model’s look. For example, if you want to dress your model in retro style, it is possible to team this up with a correspondingly retro hair style, retro bags, retro hats and whatever else you might want to impart to the scene—even retro cars and props! With such applications, you can even adjust the movement of the models on a virtual ramp, including the hand sway, hip sashaying, footsteps, etc. Similar to fashion, jewelry design is another field that banks heavily on individuality OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

allows the creation of entire sets of jewelry product lines consisting of pendants, earrings, bangles, rings and so on. Apart from using the motif library, custom motifs can also be created. Dolly Minawalla, head of design at the Indian Institute of Design states, “2D applications are generally used to create a catalog for presentation purposes. It saves time with its ability to help generate a number of complete product lines in a short time span”. She added, “Technology is used in this domain to enhance the design skills. It is used to create designs that are technically accurate. The applications used take care of issues like dimensions, comfort and edge softness. They are also used so that a

application can accept pre-defined technical specifications of the product and go on to create that product in an automated routine mode. Once done, designers can further tweak and tune the ornament, making intricate or large changes. 3D applications such as these can also generate compatible files that work directly with the hardware used to create the mould. Designers generally use Rebo 540—a specific hardware for creating the mould from their design. Rebo 540 is akin to a CNC lathe machine, consisting of a cutter that moves across four axes: X for length, Y for height, Z for depth and A for rotary. The design that you create in Matrix can be saved as Rebo-compatible

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file. After loading the file, the machine reads the information and accordingly uses its cutter to cut a piece of wax to create an exact model of the design. This saves enormous amount of time while auditioning different designs for jewelry product lines. In this market, where individuality and quality spell the success or failure of a product, tools such as these enable craftsmen to translate their skills into actual products faster than they ever could before. While the core of human creativity can never be replaced by machines, these applications certainly help in realizing dreams quicker and with greater precision.

teaching design, we had a freewheeling chat with G V Sreekumar, who teaches at the Industrial Design Center (IDC) in Mumbai. IDC is an institution that offers post-graduate courses in the fields of industrial design and visual communication. The center also interacts with industries and other institutions for the promotion and awareness of design through seminars, short-term courses and workshops. CHIP: How best can a student learn the art of design? GV: Students who eventually select the field of design generally display the inclination at an early age. This generally

produce less than 15 good designers a year; so there is clearly a problem. At IDC, we follow a different methodology as compared to other institutes when teaching the art of design. We primarily concentrate on and hone in to the thinking abilities of the designer. We do not really teach software. Since we offer post-graduation courses, most of the students who enroll with us have already had a background in application software and have fairly advanced knowledge of application software. However, in the hands of a designer the computer only comes in much later. A computer is actually a very dangerous

takes place in the form of a hobby like sketching, sculpting or other such creative areas. However, before students even enter a training institute, there is often a problem with the guidance itself—even after a person completes his higher secondary school, there are times when parental influence diverts their choice toward ‘conventionally popular’ careers like medicine, engineering and finance. Art and design is still not considered a commercially viable option. The significant cause of this is the lack of awareness about the stream. This is why India produces very few designers—there are just two reputable design institutes here in India equipped to arm a person for the world stage. We

tool in a person’s hands when used to achieve hurried results. In India, computer institutes teach applications like 3DS Max, Photoshop or Illustrator, after which they hand out a diploma that certifies a student as a designer. This is a rather serious issue as they teach nothing about the field of design itself. Students, on the other hand, assume that since they know Photoshop, they automatically become designers. Most often, this is never the case. At the end of the day, the quality of design across the country plummets. At IDC, the initial six months of the first semester consist purely of foundations. Here, the students are taught the very basics of design like color theory and

Design education

Academia In the field of design, perhaps the most important aspect is the training. Be it automotive design, architecture, fashion or any of the hundreds of fields where design manifests, it is the formative years of learning the trade where individual styles and skills begin to emerge, and these culminate into the fantastic products of design that we see all around us. Or does it? Teaching design is an art in itself. From the myriad variety of design academies all over the country, there is apparently no dearth of design training institutes. Sadly, the vast majority of these institutes do a paltry job of breeding good designers. To gain insights into the sensitive subject of

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the underlying principles of art. At this point, there is very little dependence on computing tools. Of course, there are parallel courses that use computers but computers do not form the core of the instruction process. So long as the thought process behind the design process is clear, the computer only becomes a tool just like any other—it merely facilitates the creation of good design. Unfortunately, most students have a preconceived notion where computers, the Internet and Google can solve all of their problems. A lot of our efforts involve debunking these fallacies and instiling a philosophy of design. Many of my students appear disappointed when,

the assembly line, and most of the time the designer was only the director of workflow. Therefore, the final output would be largely influenced on the caliber of the people working on the project. For example, in the field of print and publishing, if I were designing a magazine’s cover, I would have had to instruct the person responsible for color corrections over several iterations before the final output was to my satisfaction. This process would invariably stretch across several days. With the advent of Photoshop, I can do this under an hour. The designer now has control of the complete end-to-end process of design. With the removal of the intermediate stages

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pre-Mac and the pre-PC era. This was a time when designers used to grab a pencil and paper and sit down to ideate. This imparted a significantly higher level of quality to the overall output. Sadly, this is missing today. That’s because designers immediately start working on a computer the moment they receive an assignment. Worst still, many designers go to the extent of allowing the computer to make the decisions for them—by allowing applications to select pre-defined options (fonts, grids, alignments, color schemes, materials, etc). Very little of the designer’s input shows up in the final output. Just as good designers exercise the

| G V Sreekumar Associate Professor, IDC

Designers give so much importance to computers that they often do not spend enough time to THINK over a design problem for a particular assignment, I tell them that computers are not allowed! CHIP: How has computing translated into time savings and has this impacted good design? GV: The biggest advantage with computers and related technologies in the field of design is the amount of control it lends to the designer. With the final output in mind, the designer now has complete reign over how a particular project can pan out. In the pre-computing era, there were several waypoints in the process of design where the designer had little or no control over the influence on the output of his or her work. There generally were other people in OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

involving other people, work moves faster. Today, the number of people involved in the design process is far lesser. CHIP: Can technology hamper creativity? GV: As I mentioned before—the computer can be a dangerous tool in the hands of a poor designer. For example, when given a theme, he would first type the topic name in Google, download a load of information and photographs on the subject, create a cover in a couple of hours and hand it over. Earlier, there was a process involving the creation of a scribble along with several iterations of ideas—the actual design of the cover was executed only after the ideation process was complete. This was in the

right to choose the tools before them—be it a paintbrush, a marker, a pencil or a charcoal stick—a computer should be viewed as but another tool. Other than falling into the trap of using pre-created wizard-driven steps that result in packaged designs devoid of inspiration and creativity, artists should be able to call the shots and use the tools they deem appropriate. Visceral sensitivity toward design is something that no computer can impart to a prospective designer—it needs to be born out of experience with design fundamentals and methodologies that train him to think and create.  | Kunal Rupera, Sharmistha Dey, Pradosh Mitra and Marco D’Souza

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Jagdish Limbachiya

Hardware

G

Top Gear

eeks and gadget freaks rejoice! This month there’s something for everyone out there. You must surely have seen the gorgeous Lenovo 3000Q media center PC during television commercials by now. We got our hands dirty with the hottest and highest-end PC in the Lenovo 3000Q series. With a 20-inch widescreen display and great aesthetics, this PC is a perfect fit for your living room. If gadgets are your thing, there’s the Kingston K-PEX 100 and the new Nokia 6130. The K-PEX 100, Kingston’s first portable media player is packed with 2 GB of flash memory and a wide gamut of features and a whole lot of goodies. Want to share the music and videos on

your iPod? Check out Altec Lansing’s best speaker dock for the iPod, the inMotion 9. It’s rugged, it can charge your iPod and it comes with a backpack! We also managed to squeeze in the latest in computer hardware ranging from the first 18x DVD writer by Samsung to the best external hard drive case, the Vantec NexStar 3. If you’re planning to build a new system, don’t miss out the Cooler Master Elite 330 PC case that combines great looks with a splendid performance all for a sweet price. And with the Gigabyte 945GM-S2 mainboard you can build a great Intel Conroe PC. So we’d suggest you sit back and enjoy the ride!

| The Ratings Explained The products in the individual and comparison tests share exactly the same test procedures. Each product in Top Gear is rated on a scale of 5 for different key parameters: Performance, Build Quality, Features, Ergonomics and Warranty. These vary according to the characteristics of the hardware. For instance, ergonomics (ease of use) is not important in a graphics card and therefore, it will not be evaluated for this. A product’s Overall Rating is calculated by assigning weightages to each evaluation

parameter—the more important a parameter, the higher is the weightage allotted to it. In addition, there is a Value for Money rating, which is calculated from the performance and the features of the product in relation to the price. High performance and lots of features at a low price translates into a better Value for Money rating. This rating is calculated using current prices. Note: The prices mentioned here do not include taxes. Hence, they will vary according to the taxes applicable in the city or state where you buy the product from. INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

TESTED

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Media Center PC

Lenovo 3000Q Specifications: Processor: Intel Pentium 4 640 3.2 GHz, Chipset: Intel 945G, Memory: 512 MB DDR2 533 MHz, Hard drive: Western Digital Caviar 160 GB, Optical drive: 16X DVD combo, Graphics: Nvidia GeForce 6200 TC, Display: 20-inch widescreen TFT, OS: Windows XP Home SP2, Misc: webcam, 2.0 speakers, TV Tuner, 8-format card reader

Price Contact Phone E-mail Website Warranty

Rs 88,990 Ravi Gulati 1800-425-3353 [email protected] www.lenovo.com/in 1 year

RATINGS Build quality Ergonomics Performance Features Overall Rating

Value for money

A PC for your living room

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he stylish all-silver Lenovo 3000Q is powered by the Intel Pentium 4 640 3.2 GHz processor on the Intel 945G platform. Being a mainstream PC, it sports 512 MB of DDR2 memory, a 160 GB SATA hard drive and a 16X DVD combo drive. Even though the motherboard has integrated graphics, the PC comes fitted with a 128 MB GeForce 6200 graphics card for better gaming performance. The gorgeous 20-inch 16:10 widescreen display with a native resolution of 1680x1050 will allow you to enjoy highdefinition content and wide-screen gaming. The most striking feature is the Digital Media Platform and the Jog Dial which allow the user to switch between music, movies, games or live television. The Digital Media Platform integrates all the features of the Windows Media Center including the looks. Apart from the Jog Dial with its illuminated ring, the base of the monitor sports audio and mic jacks, along with 5 USB ports on its sides. The case features a state-of-the-art design; the entire PC is cleverly packaged in a tool-free small form factor. The front of the case has a flap which opens to reveal the optical drive, Firewire and USB ports, front audio jacks and an 8-in-1 card reader. The power and reset buttons are located on top of the case. In addition to this, there’s OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

a button at the centre which can bring up the Digital Media Platform without having to boot into the operating system. A set of stereo speakers, webcam, keyboard and optical scroll mouse rounds off the features. You even get a fancy 128 MB USB flash drive with the system.

Performance Considering the system configuration, the performance of the system is very good. But there are quirks which need serious attention. Since the graphics card doesn’t feature DVI output the video interface is analog, even though the monitor has DVI input. Also, the TV tuner card doesn’t have an integrated FM tuner and there is no bundled IR remote control either.

If you’re looking out for a sleek media center PC, the Lenovo 3000Q deserves serious consideration. But remember—good things come at a premium. For: Feature packed; excellent ergonomics and build quality; gorgeous screen. Against: The keyboard doesn’t feel good; no FM radio; no DVI output for display.

Scores SiSoft Sandra 2007 Processor arithmetic Dhrystones : 7745 MIPS Whetstones iSSE3 : 9458 MFLOPS Memory bandwidth : 3695 MB/s Hard drive Drive index : 55 MB/s Sequential read and write : 63 MB/s PCMark 2005 Overall : 3026 HDD XP startup : 7.928 MB/s Multithreaded test 1: Audio compression : 1150.4 KB/s Video encoding : 185.43 KB/s

USB ports on the side of the base

3DMark 2005: 1198 Gaming – Doom 3 640x480 @ low : 39 fps 1024x768 @ medium : 18 fps

SMS us!

Story code: HWS (See Page 20 for details)

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Mobile Phone

Nokia 6131 Specifications: Dimensions (WxHxD mm): 48 x 92 x 20, Weight: 102g, Network: GSM 850/900/1800/1900, Display (pixels, colors): 240 x 320, 16 million (Internal)/128 x 160, 256K (External), Ringtones: 64 channel polyphonic, System Memory: 11 MB, Storage: microSD, GPRS, EDGE, Bluetooth, Infrared, FM Radio, Audio Output: Pop-port, 1.3-megapixel camera

Price Contact Website Warranty

Rs 13,739 Nokia www.nokia.co.in 1 year

RATINGS Build quality Ergonomics Performance Features Overall Rating

Value for money

Press to flip-open

A

“flip open” always adds a bit of style to one’s persona and Nokia’s 6131 will certainly earn you a few brownie points. The phone might not be as sleek or feature packed as the Motorola Razr or Nokia’s Nseries but its simplicity will also get noticed.

Features and applications The Nokia 6131 is a Symbian Series 40 (3rd edition) which comes with a decent set of features. Though this phone looks like a higher-end version of the 6101 it is the successor to the Nokia 6125. The 6131’s special feature is the button near the hinge on the top right hand corner of the phone. Pressing it opens the clamshell phone instantly, making it easier for single-handed use. (But you will hear a

rather unsophisticated “click” when you do that.) The phone comes equipped with a vibrant internal LCD display, capable of reproducing 16 million colors. The external 256,000 display is also sharp and text is legible. There is 11 MB of phone memory available to enter up to 1000 contacts so there is no way you will ever run out of address space. Additional memory in the form of a microSD slot is provided, which can be inserted/removed without switching off the phone. You can transfer files via the Pop-port to the PC or bluetooth/infrared. Audio formats like AAC, MP3 and WMA can also be stored on the phone or on microSD as the built-in media player supports them. Games like

Soccer 3D and Sudoku are a welcome change from the usual Nokia fare.

Ergonomics and build quality The phone’s shell is made up of plastic and metal. The rear panel is composed of textured rubber giving it an excellent feel. The camera, power and volume controls are placed along the edges of the phone for easier access.

Performance The Nokia 6131’s user interface is quick and intuitive. Since this phone runs on the Series 40 platform, there is no way to keep any application running in the background. Audio playback over the speakerphone is good while the earphones could have been better, as they have a tacky appearance.

Verdict

The microSD card can be removed without switching the phone off

A profile view of the Nokia 6131 cell phone

The phone will make for an adequate companion if you need something easy to use, light and small—though the price tips over the ten thousand mark, making it a little over priced. For: Compact design; supports the Pictbridge standard allowing for direct printing to a compatible printer. Against: LCD display not protected; earphone quality is average. INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

TESTED

| HARDWARE

45

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46

HARDWARE

| TESTED

Portable Media Player

Kingston K-PEX 100 Specifications: Dimensions (WxHxD): 94 x 45 x 14 mm, Weight: 65 gms, Screen size: 5 cm, Memory size: 2 GB, Video formats: MPEG 1 and 2, ASF, WMV and AVI, Audio formats: MP3, Wav, WMA, OGG and Audio ASF, Other features: Picture viewer, FM Radio, USB on-the-go, miniSD slot, Li-Ion battery, Rated battery life: 17 hours

Price Contact Phone E-mail Website Warranty

Rs 11,990 Kingston Technology 022-26592961 [email protected] www.kingston.com/asia 1 year

RATINGS Build quality Ergonomics Performance Features Overall Rating

Value for money

Entertainment on the go

A

fter PC and flash memory solutions, Kingston has now leapt into the portable media player market with its latest offering – the K-PEX 100. Let’s see how much punch this player packs in a palm-size form factor.

Features The K-PEX 100 may remind you of a handheld gaming device. You can play games on it, but you can do a whole lot more besides—you can listen to songs, watch videos and movies, share photos, listen to the radio and even read text files. To squeeze in all your media files, the player packs in 2 GB of flash memory. If that’s not enough, you can slide in a miniSD card and boost its storage capacity. The

The K-PEX 100 is bundled with all the accessories including a 256 MB mini SD card

player supports most of the popular audio and video formats. Apart from MP3 and Wav which all players support, it can also handle WMA, Ogg and Audio ASF formats. Video formats include MPEG-1 and 2, ASF, WMV and AVI. The K-PEX 100 also boasts of support for line-in and voice recording, as well as an integrated speaker. If you have media files on a USB flash drive, you can play them off the drive using the USB host feature. Finally, you can enjoy the show on its slick 5 cm TFT display. Like its feature set, the list of accessories runs long! The player comes with a protective silicone case, USB host cable, line-in cable and lanyard. To top it off, you get a bundled 256 MB miniSD card with a miniSD adapter free.

The four-way navigation buttons make the K-PEX extremely user-friendly

Performance and ergonomics The player scores high on ergonomics. With a great button layout and intuitive user interface, you can get used to the player without referring to the manual. The only difficulty is adjusting the volume as the buttons are tacky. Coming to performance, the audio and video output were terrific. However, that’s probably because we used our own earphones—the ones which came with the player don’t do it justice. The K-PEX 100 does, however, have its share of rough edges. Surprisingly, it doesn’t support recording from FM, so you can forget about capturing songs aired on your favorite radio stations. Secondly, if you wish to watch videos, you have to transcode them into the player’s native format (.mpx) before transferring it using the bundled software. The player is great for casual listening and video watching. But if you’re serious about buying a good portable music player, there are better ones out there like the Sony PSP and Creative Zen Vision M. For: Good form factor, intuitive interface, great feature-set, expandable memory Against: Tacky volume control buttons; awful earphones; cannot record from FM radio; videos require transcoding. INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

48

HARDWARE

| TESTED

iPod Speakers

Altec Lansing inMotion 9 iPod Specifications: Dimensions (WxDxH mm): 280x76x198, Amplifier: High Efficiency class D type, Frequency Response: N/A; Output Power: N/A, Weight: 1.8 kgs

Price Contact Phone E-mail Website Warranty

Rs 11,800 Rashi Peripherals Pvt Ltd 022-67090909 [email protected] www.alteclansing.com 1 year

RATINGS Build quality Performance Features Overall Rating

Value for money

Share your music and videos

I

t is inconvenient for two people to share a single set of ear plugs if they want to listen to music or watch a movie on a portable media player. If you’ve ever been in such a situation, you need a set of good portable speakers to carry on your picnics, trips, journeys, etc. Altec Lansing has just the solution for you with the inMotion 9.

Build quality and design The Altec Lansing IM9 is a portable speaker system designed with the iPod in mind. The USP of this device is its compact form factor—it is only 76 mm thick which makes it slimmer than most speakers in this category. The jet black color with silver corners lends the device an understated appeal. It is almost as small as a notebook but slightly thicker. The center of the speaker system contains a recessed area into which the iPod can dock. The top of the speaker system features the power button, volume controls and the eject button which opens out the iPod tray. The buttons were seamlessly integrated into the speakers, but the volume controls failed to impress as they were hard and not so responsive. Although the speakers are lightweight and portable, we strongly missed a handle that could have been fixed on the rear side of the speakers without OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

compromising the shape and build quality. However, it does include a backpack for carrying it around. A rear flap is provided which helps the speakers stay vertical. They can be placed flat as well.

Features The inMotion 9 speakers feature a 2.5-inch driver for low and mid-range frequencies and a 1-inch driver for high frequency sound. The speakers can also operate through four C-sized batteries. This means you can use these speakers any place you like, even on the go where an electric point is not available. Additional plates are provided if you own an iPod nano or an iPod video so that they can be adapted to the iPod bay. The rear bay consists of an auxiliary input jack to attach MP3 players of brands other than the iPod. It even has a 3.5 mm headphone jack for silent listening. A composite video out jack enables you to

Different attachments can be used to connect different iPod products

connect your iPod video to a television set as well.

Performance The battery in the speaker system lasts for almost a day. This should get you through your entire picnic but if you’re planning to take it on a long trip, be sure to carry extra battery packs along. As far as the sound quality is concerned, the lows and the midfrequency ranges are not up to the mark. With its compact design, these speakers do compromise on the bass owing to the absence of bass ports, thereby muffling the overall sound quality. So, if you are planning on grooving to the drums, you will be disappointed. The treble was crisp and clear though and the speakers packed enough of punch to regale a group of friends in a coffee shop.

Verdict Although these speakers have a compact design, they could have been more portable. They retail for Rs 11,800 which is too steep for casual listening. We would suggest you also take a look at the Altec Lansing IM7 as a buying alternative. For: Small form factor; good treble. Against: Average bass; not very portable; expensive. INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

TESTED

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49

Motherboard

Gigabyte GA-945GM S2 Specifications: Socket: LGA775; Processor supported: Intel Pentium D / Intel Pentium 4 / Intel Core 2 Duo; FSB: 1066/800/533 MHz; Chipset: Intel 945G; Maximum memory: 4 GB; Network interface: Realtek 8111B GbE; Audio: ALC883 7.1 channel audio

Price Contact Phone E-mail Website Warranty

Rs 6,750 Gigabyte Technology (India) Ltd 022-26526696 [email protected] www.gigabyte.in 3 years

RATINGS Build quality Performance Features Overall Rating

Value for money

Mainboard for offices

T

he first thing that struck us about the Gigabyte GA-945GM S2 is that this motherboard supports the Intel Conroe processor. Also, this was the first 945Gbased motherboard that we were testing with a Conroe processor.

Features This board supports up to 2 GB of maximum memory which should be more than sufficient for most practical purposes whether you are a designer or a power user. The board also supports one IDE connector for your optical drive and 4 x 3 Gbps SATA connectors which provide ample growth for your storage needs. This setup would only be ideal if you used a single optical drive on the IDE connector and a SATA hard drive for storage. This board does not support RAID so if you are a casual user, it won’t make too much of a difference. Although the motherboard has onboard graphics, it also has a single PCI-E 16x slot for adding an additional graphics card which would keep gamers happy. The motherboard comes with two additional PCI slots and a single PCI-E 1x slot as expandability options. You can easily plug an additional TV tuner card into the extra PCI slot. A Realtek 8111B GbE chip provides network connectivity and ensures that your motherboard OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

integrates seamlessly into your gigabit Ethernet office network. An ALC883 sound processor provides 7.1 channel audio to ensure that users can make full use of your multi-channel speaker system. As far as adding peripherals are concerned, this motherboard supports the RS232 and the parallel port. So, if you are still using a modem over a telephone line or a parallel port printer, you can be sure that it will still work on your brand new system. It also has a single PS/2 port and 4 x USB 2.0 ports, providing ample connectivity options for your USB peripherals. This motherboard also supports front USB headers.

Design and layout The Gigabyte GA-945GN S2 motherboard features the compact MicroATX form factor design. The placement of the processor is neat and uncluttered. The stock heat sink fits perfectly and there is enough space to add larger heat sinks. We feel though that this motherboard may not be designed for gaming enthusiasts but could definitely satisfy entry-level gaming. The PCI-E and the PCI slots are so closely packed together that given current generation graphics solutions, the graphic card would occupy the PCI-E as well as a nearby PCI slot. You will probably need a

thinner graphics solution if you want to make use of the PCI slots.

Performance The performance of this motherboard can be termed as average at best. The Sisoft Sandra CPU benchmarks were slightly lower than its 865P counterpart. Its memory bandwidth benchmark was limited to 4675 MB/s which is slower than many of the newer AMD platforms and is definitely slower than the 965 and 975 series motherboards that are currently available in the market. The hard drive throughputs were at par with other similar motherboards. Its 3D Mark 2005 score was only 669 3D marks considering the onboard graphics solution. Therefore gaming without an external graphic adapter is not recommended.

Verdict The Gigabyte GA-945GM S2 provides a decent set of features and enough performance for most processor hungry applications due to its support for Conroe processors. However, it is recommended against hardcore gaming applications. For: Supports the Intel Conroe processor; GbE and 7.1 channel audio. Against: No RAID; no support for FireWire.

50

HARDWARE

| TESTED

Multi-Functional Device

Canon PIXMA MP530 Specifications: Dimensions (WxDxH mm): 468 x 263 x 467, Weight: 12.8 kg, Interface: USB 2.0, Print Resolution: upto 9600 x 2400 dpi, 5 Inkjet cartridges, Scan Resolution: 1200 x 2400 dpi, Bit Depth: 48-bit, Fax Transmission Speed: 33.6 Kbps, Copier: Auto Duplex, Magnification/Reduction

Price Contact Phone E-mail Website Warranty

Rs 20,995 Canon India Pvt Ltd 1-800-3453366 [email protected] www.canon.co.in 2 years

RATINGS Build quality Ergonomics Performance Features Overall Rating

Value for money

Multiple personality

T

he MP530 succeeds the MP500 in Canon’s Pixma series of ‘all-in-one’ multifunctional device. The MP530 multifunction device differs from the latter in size and weight (it is larger and heavier). It has an automatic document feeder and doubles as your fax machine but lacks a flash media reader. It also has support for cameras that are PictBridge or ExifPrint compliant. So, you can connect your digital camera directly to the printer. This bulky printer comes fitted with foldable input/output trays, while the ADF and CD/DVD tray (if you want to print on the face of the disk) needs to be fixed manually prior to software installation. Driver CDs for Windows-based and Macbased computers are also provided. The control panel is replete with most of the functions you will need to get a document copied, scanned or printed with minimal interaction with the computer. In addition to the printer driver you can also install software like Easy-Photo Print, scanning tools like ScanSoft and a CD-Label printing application.

consider the ADF and the rear panel. The control panel has all the controls you need to fax, copy, scan or print a document. You can dial a number using speed dial, choose your paper type, print quality and even the input tray from this panel. The scanner’s hinge can be raised vertically by 10 mm to accommodate a book. Most of the panels and hinges in the device are spring loaded, reducing the impact whilst opening and closing. The printer’s overall build is solid, the trays are sturdy, the print head/cartridge assembly is perfect and the quality of the plastic used is good.

Performance The MP530 is a silent printer though due to its weight and the speed at which

Build quality and ergonomics The MP530 occupies some serious desktop real estate. Apart from the manual sheet feed and output tray, you will also have to

Print labels on CDs by fitting the CD/DVD tray under the MP530’s hood

it prints documents it will need to be placed on a stable surface to avoid undue sideways movements. It was able to print ten sheets of text in 57 seconds while a standard quality print pushed the time to 1 minute 20 seconds. There were no signs of ink smudging and the grey scales were accurately reproduced. Photo printouts have become Canon’s forte ever since they started using their new printing technology (Microfine Droplet Technology). A high quality A4 print took just under three minutes. It manages to print details in a high-res image very well. The color reproduction seems to be deeper than the ones produced by the MP500. The MP530’s photo printouts tend to impart a mild reddish tinge to skin tones, making them appear visibly warmer. Scanning a page and printing it directly without the use of the computer was simple and the quality was stellar. It took all of 17 seconds to scan a B5-size photograph. The MP530 is a silent worker and is suited to a small office that requires a quality as well as a fax machine. For: The 48-bit depth scanner produces quality scans. Photo quality prints are excellent. The copier can be controlled completely via the control panel. Against: Lacks media card reader slots. INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

TESTED

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51

PC Case

Cooler Master Elite 300 Specifications: ATX Cabinet, Dimensions (w x h x d) mm 203 x 413 x 486, Thermal Master 350 watts power supply unit.

Price Contact Phone E-mail Website Warranty

Rs 3,900 Matrix 3D 022-23084511 [email protected] www.matrix3d.com 2 years

RATINGS Build quality Performance Features Overall Rating

Value for money

Elite and cool

W

hen it comes to products related to cooling, Cooler Master is a relatively well known brand. They have introduced a new ATX cabinet which keeps up with Cooler Master’s motto of cooling. The Cooler Master Elite 300 is a sleek black ATX cabinet which has a 350 Watts Thermal Master Power supply unit installed in the cabinet. The front bezel of the cabinet has a black mesh which gives this cabinet a very interesting look. This cabinet is built solidly and is very sturdy in design. The Elite 300 provides you with a tool free design which allows for quick assembly and maintenance for all your peripherals. Since the front panel is designed with a steel mesh, this provides you with superior airflow which in turn enhances your cooling performance. The front panel has a sexy blue power light which improves the Using MultiMeter

overall look of the chassis. The cabinet has two 120 mm fans one in the front and the other at the back, these fans are pretty quiet and provide ample cooling. Another USP of the front panel is that it makes it easier to clean the front air filter. This drive has another good feature, the mounting of all your removable drives like your floppy drive, hard drive and CD/DVD drive has been made very easy. Just slide in your drive and attach the tool-less clip to the drive’s screw holes, twist it around and you are done installing your drive. This cabinet has provided you with a lot of drive bays for installing different drives, it has four exposed 5.25” drive bays and five exposed 3.25” drives. If you want to add an extra card like an audio or a TV Tuner card then just pull the clip of the add on card bay, slide in your card and push the clip back in.

Without Load

With Load

12 Volts

12.19

12.02

5 Volts

5.24

5.21

3.3 Volts

3.39

3.38

Everest

Without Load

With Load

12 Volts

11.97

11.78

5 Volts

5.13

5.13

3.3 Volts

3.33

3.3

OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

The 350 watts Thermal Master PSU is a pretty good power supply for low power requirements. This PSU is a SATA ready PSU although it’s got only one SATA power connector; it doesn’t have a graphics card power connector which is a must for a powerful graphics card. We tested the PSU with load and without load; the load we used to completely stress the PSU was the application RHTDRIBL. The PSU was pretty stable when it was loaded. We also used a benchmarking application, Everest to check the PSU for voltage variations. If you are looking for a sleek cabinet with an average power supply then this cabinet is a good bargain. For: Great looks; tooless installation; ample cooling; good power supply unit. Against: Only one SATA connector; no graphics card power connector.

Tooless mounting of drives

52

HARDWARE

| TESTED

Wireless IP Camera

Level1 WCS-2030 wireless IP camera Specifications: Interface (wired): 10/100 Mbps Ethernet; Interface (wireless): 802.11b/g wireless; Censor type: CMOS; Resolution: 640 x 480 (VGA); Dimensions (WxDxH mm): 72.8 x 28.6 x 115.2; Weight: 215 gms

Price Contact Phone E-mail Website Warranty

Rs 13,500 MINDS(India) Pvt Ltd 011-26312095 [email protected] http://www.level1.com 1 Year

RATINGS Build quality Performance Features Overall Rating

Value for money

Cost-effective surveillance

T

he use of CCTV cameras and other video surveillance systems is generally associated with government security agencies, banks, large corporations, etc and they can generally be seen in spy movies. Such security systems are generally quite expensive and one has to pay a huge premium to avail the features of such a system. For all those home users as well as small and medium businesses on a limited budget, the Level1 WCS-2030 wireless IP camera is an ideal solution.

Features The WCS-2030 is basically a video surveillance system which transmits images using the TCP/IP protocol. It basically uses a digital sensor to capture data unlike a CCTV camera which typically uses the analog mode of data capture. It uses a 10/100 Mbps high speed Ethernet as well as an 802.11g based wireless system to transmit captured data. This leads to seamless integration with an existing computer network system. Although the camera is capable of recording VGA-quality video, it can only do so at 10 fps. So objects that move really fast and really close to the camera, even if they are captured, will only show up as a blur. The frame rates can be increased

by lowering the resolution to 320 x 280. The device features a 4 mm lens with an aperture size of F/2. This implies that the camera will be able to take in a wide field of view. It also implies that the camera should be able to capture images in low light conditions. Lets check later if this translates into real-world performance. It also features an omni-directional microphone for recording audio.

Setup and ease of use The USP of this device is the software that comes along with the package. It is capable of displaying 16 live feeds at any given moment. It can also be used to set up and configure the camera. The camera has a built-in web server that facilitates remote setup. It also supports features

All areas of the house can be monitored simultaneously with the 16 screen output

like motion detection, snapshots as well as scheduled recordings. The motion detection system is particularly useful since it does not record the image to the hard drive when the camera does not detect any movement. The output is 24-bit audio with 320x 280 MPEG-4 video which allows you to save on hard disk space as well as network bandwidth.

Performance The image quality of this camera was above average though not exceptional. It picked up details even in low light conditions, although it did have some trouble detecting motion in those situations. Its in-built microphone showed very little background noise and it could pick up conversations at ranges of about 10 meters. Beyond that, the audio was not discernable. The recorded video takes up considerably less space on the hard drive. The snapshots were VGA quality and could discern sufficient amount of details. The Level1 WCS-2030 retails for Rs 13,500, which seems extremely high, but the software available with it alone will justify investing in this IP camera For: Great bundled software; omnidirectional antenna; wireless connectivity Against: No zoom; no swivel. INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

54

HARDWARE

| TESTED

External TV Tuner

Pinnacle PCTV Pro USB Specifications: High Speed USB 2.0; TV RF-in, Remote Control; Capture analog video; Pinnacle Media Center; Pinnacle Studio QuickStart.

Price Contact Phone E-mail Website Warranty

Rs 4,990 Pinnacle Systems 011-41608211 [email protected] www.pinnaclesys.co.in 1 Year

RATINGS Build quality Performance Features Overall Rating

Value for money

Tiny Media Center

P

innacle has released its latest innovation in the external TV tuner card category, the Pinnacle PCTV Pro USB. The PCTV Pro is small enough to sit comfortably in the palm of your hand and its silver body will look perfect on your desk. The PCTV Pro can be connected to your PC using a USB cable; it supports high speed USB 2.0. You can connect your antenna or your cable connection, to the port on the rear of the Tuner. At the front you will find the audio connector, two video connectors (the S-Video input and the composite ports) and the video input (an RCA connector). The S-Video input can be used to connect your camcorder, video recorder or DVD Player, from which you can view your videos or even edit them. You

The audio, S-video, Composite ports are at the front.

can use any video device that delivers an S-video signal or a composite video signal in PAL, NTSC or SECAM irrespective of the video system used as input to that device. The PCTV Pro has an Infrared remote that gives you access to all your entertainment needs from a comfortable distance (approx. 10 meters). The PCTV Pro comes with the Pinnacle MediaCenter software that offers features like TimeShifting and direct-to-DVD or hard drive recording. This tuner supports formats like MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 and DivX. The PCTV also allows you to record video clips that will run on your iPod or PSP. The MediaCenter lets you schedule your recordings using a feature called the Electronic Program Guide or record on-the-

The USB and the anntenna connectoins are at the back of the card.

fly with a one-button operation. You can listen to Internet radio or watch live TV from anywhere on your laptop. It allows you to view video in either full screen or windowed mode—this is especially useful if you are working on other applications simultaneously. This External TV Tuner can be used as a media center PC as it gives you the option to pause, rewind or play your television shows, so you can watch your favorite programs or even a cricket match the way you want to. You can create your own DVD collection with Direct-to-DVD recording as well. Also, you can capture images, videos or shows from most consumer devices with analog outputs (such as VCRs, camcorders, DVD players, etc.). The PCTV Pro bundles the Pinnacle Studio QuickStart which helps you create your own movies, complete with special effects, titles and music; where you also have the option of editing out the boring stuff from your video creations. Finally this TV tuner has all the power required to turn your boring old PC into a media center PC. For: Doesn’t need external power supply, extensive recording format support, portable. Against: Software provided is complicated. INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

TESTED

The fast and the fancy

T

oday, there are a multitude of hard drive cases available in the market. Most of them take in a 3.5-inch parallel ATA hard drive and interface with the PC through the Hi-speed USB 2.0 interface. Other than this, they are pretty much head-to-head in performance. The only way manufacturers can add more value to these devices, is by throwing in a couple of extra features. The NST-360SU is Vantec’s latest addition to their NexStar series of external hard drive cases which have always been a class apart. It features a glossy “Onyx Black” body with a mirror finish. Unlike most cases which are meant for parallel ATA hard drives, this one supports SATA hard drives. To use the drive, you simply need to power up the case with a power adapter and connect it to a USB port. What sets this drive apart from its counterparts is the inclusion of an eSATA port on the rear panel. This means you can even connect the device directly to an eSATA port if your motherboard supports

S

OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

55

Hard Drive Case it. If your motherboard doesn’t feature an eSATA port, you can still enjoy blazing transfer speeds using the bundled SATA to eSATA bracket. With the eSATA interface, it’s even possible to install Windows on the drive and use it as a secondary boot device. A stand to keep the drive standing vertical is the icing on the cake. So if you want the best external hard drive case, grab the Vantec NST-360SU. There’s nothing to beat this one! For: Terrific build quality, support for eSATA, bundled SATA to eSATA bracket. Against: If you don’t keep it clean, there’ll be fingerprints all over! Scores eSATA interface Sequential Random Read: 64.3 52.5 Write: 64.3 52.3 Hi-speed USB 2.0 interface Sequential Random Read: 64.3 52.5 Write: 64.3 52.3

Speed up amsung is the first company to release a DVD writer with a write speed of 18X. The DVD writer uses the OCTO edge technology which allegedly delivers improved performance. This writer supports all the CD/DVD media available in the market including single layer and dual layer media. It has a write speed of 18X for both DVD±R and 8X for Dual Layer DVD±R which is the highest for any writer at present. This drive also has a DVD-RAM write speed of 12X. In addition to all these, Samsung has incorporated plenty of new technologies like the SAT (Speed Adjustment Technology), TAC (Tilt Actuator Compensation) and Double OPC (Optimum Power Control) into this drive. It also has the mandatory buffer under run protection which is a norm in all drives these days. The drive delivered very good results for our entire gamut of tests. It took a spiffy 7.27 minutes to write 4.34 GB of data using Nero at a 16X write speed.

| HARDWARE

Vantec NexStar 3 NST-360SU

Specifications: Dimension (WxHxD): 123x206x33 mm, Interface: Hi-speed USB 2.0 and eSATA, Body material: Aluminum

Price Contact Phone E-mail Website Warranty

Rs 3,500 Apical Impex

9821349177 [email protected] www.vantecusa.com 1 year

RATINGS Build quality Performance Features Overall Rating Value for money

Optical Drive We had to use the 16X media to test the drive because there is no 18X media available in the market as yet and Samsung did not bundle any 18X media with this drive. In the read test it took the drive 7.57 minutes to read an entire 4.34 GB DVD. It clocked 2.05 minutes to extract a 1 GB VOB file using DVD Decrypter during the DVD video file extraction test (where we extracted a VOB file). In the audio ripping test it took just 86 seconds to rip three tracks from an audio CD. The Nero CD-DVD Speed Tool also delivered impressive results, clocking an average speed of 12.2X.. In the absence of 18X DVD media, it would not make much sense to go in for this drive, given the fact that its overall performance isn’t significantly greater than the rest in its category. For: Excellent write speed, supports all CD/DVD media. Against: No 18X media available in the market as yet.

Samsung SH-S182

Specifications: Read/Write Speeds: CD 48 X, DVD+/- R 18X; Media Supported: CDR/CDRW/DVDR/DVD+R/ DVD-R/DVD-RAM/ Dual Layer DVD+R/-R; Interface: IDE; Buffer Size: 2MB.

Price Contact Phone E-mail Website Warranty

Rs 3,000 Samsung India Electronics Pvt. Ltd

011-41511234 [email protected] www.samsung.com/in 1 year

RATINGS Build quality Performance Features Overall Rating Value for money

Picture-perfect pixels With plummeting prices and great visual quality, there is very little reason not to take home one of these displays. We put the best of them through our wringers

Jagdish Limbachiya

TFT COMPARISON

N

o matter how high-end your computer, there is nothing quite like flaunting a TFT monitor on your desktop. A clear sign of being one of the few who are on the leading edge of the display evolution, your decision to go in for a TFT—be it at home or at office—will significantly upscale your image. However, until not too long ago it was practically unthinkable for the majority of computer shoppers to even consider one of these displays. As opposed to spending so much on them, the choice of spending extra was usually in favor of other system components like a faster processor, additional RAM or a better graphics card. The good old 15-inch CRT monitor (and subsequently the 17-inch monitor) was the mainstay in practically every home and office computer purchase. Until now, the ‘luxury’ of a TFT monitor was reserved exclusively for the affluent home user or the CEO of the company. Times, however, have changed. Over the past year, we have seen a tremendous upheaval in TFT fabrication technologies, many of which have directly contributed to a drastic 30 percent drop in prices. How drastic? An entry-level 15-inch TFT monitor can be bought today for about Rs 8,900. For just 3,000 bucks more, you can get a 17-inch TFT. At these price levels, we are now beginning to see TFTs making their presence well within the realm of entry-level consumers. Most computer manufacturers are now beginning to configure their desktop ranges exclusively with TFT monitors. With the advancements in manufacturing technology today, it actually makes more sense to create larger TFT panels as they turn out to be more economical to produce compared to their smaller counterparts. Due to this, the TFT monitor that strikes a great

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deal today is not the 15-inch variants but the 17-inch versions. Not just the price, even the technology driving these panels has seen drastic leaps—they deliver crisper colors, greater contrast ratios, increased brightness, higher resolutions, all translating into a superb viewing experience. One of the pet peeves in working with previous-generation TFTs was the naggingly high pixel response time which often resulted in discernible blurring and streaking during use. But all of that has changed—almost all TFT monitors today boast a pixel response time of under 8 milliseconds. This means you can play the most intense of games or watch the most exciting car chase movie sequences with no loss in video quality. More that just being a computer display, several TFT manufacturers even integrate TV tuners into their monitors, making them devices around which all the family’s entertainment needs can be met. TFT technology is also ushering in an era of high-definition video and television—with their support of increasingly high resolutions, many of these devices are now HDTV-ready. Therefore, when you do finally decide to go in for that Blu-ray drive or highdefinition video signal later this year, you will certainly be ready for it on the display front. Even though the displays we’ve reviewed here are not the home theater variants (with inputs for DVD players and the like), they can certainly be used to view high-definition content from your computer as their resolutions well encompass the requirements for demanding gaming and serious movie watching. To further sweeten the deal, almost all TFT monitors above 19-inch boast the widescreen form factor, fitting right in for all you movie and gaming buffs out there.

OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

SMS us!

Story code: HCT (See Page 20 for details)

58

HARDWARE

| TFT COMPARISON

Test Process It wouldn’t be fair to compare a 15-inch monitor with a 20-inch widescreen one. To create a fair ground for comparison, we grouped the monitors based on the screen size. Thus, we have three distinct categories—15-inch, 17-inch and 19-inch & greater. We evaluated the monitors on the basis of their features, performance, ergonomics, build quality, and warranty and support. Let’s move on to what went into each of these parameters.

Features We began with noting the dimensions, weight and screen size of the TFT monitor. Here, note that the depth of the monitor is not the depth of the display panel, but the footprint. Next, we noted the technical specifications that directly translate into performance. For a TFT monitor the response time, pixel pitch, brightness and contrast ratio are the most important factors. Viewing angle is equally important especially when you are watching a movie together with your family and friends. Presence of a DVI port in addition to D-sub is preferable since you can take the advantage of digital video signal rather than analog signal. Additional video inputs like component, composite and S-video were awarded extra points. Integrated features like speakers, headphone jack, FM radio, USB hub and card reader extend the functionality of the monitor. We took note of all these features and awarded points accordingly. The menu functions were checked for controls like brightness, contrast, screen position, color temperature and auto-adjustment. Finally, we frisked through the package contents. It’s essential that the monitor comes with the required DVI and D-sub cables, driver

The rear panel of the Asus PW201 features all types of video inputs

10% Warranty & Support

25% Features

Ergonomics

10% Build Quality

10% Ergonomics

dead pixels on black or white screens.

45% Performance

CD, quick setup guide and the user manual. The features made up for 25 percent of the overall score.

Performance Being the most important section of the test, this section carries an overall weightage of 45 percent. For ascertaining the performance of the monitors, we evaluated the viewing angle, reproduction of color gradients and response time. To assess the viewing angle, we viewed red, green, blue and greyscale blocks at the center of the screen from 40 and 80 degree angles. Points were given depending on the visibility of the colored blocks. Reproduction of color gradients is one of the serious weaknesses in most TFT monitors. To ascertain the quality of gradation, we viewed and analyzed full screen gradient images transitioning from black to red, green and blue diagonally. The monitors were graded depending on the smoothness of transition without any banding along the gradations. The response time was evaluated by analyzing the clarity of image and text in lateral motion. The monitors were graded according to the intensity of “Ghosting”. Points were deduced for the presence of

Working with portraits is more convenient with vertical screen orientation

The TFT monitor should be easy to use. The menu buttons should be easily reachable and functions should be well-described in the OSD so that adjusting the settings is easy for the user. Previous and next buttons for menu choices, separate brightness and contrast adjustment buttons, clarity of OSD, etc were all taken into consideration.

Build quality Apart from good performance and ergonomics, a monitor should also be robust with a sturdy screen frame, stand and hinges. The base of the monitor should be stable in all the extreme positions. Usage of metal in body construction was given extra points. We also evaluated the aesthetic appeal of each TFT display.

Warranty and support Since TFT monitors are expensive and delicate devices, they must be backed by robust warranty and support. Should a problem arise, a service center must be present close to where you live. For this purpose, there should be adequate number of service centers spanning across as many cities all over the country. We noted the warranty period, number of service centers in India and the number of cities in which these centers are present. We concluded the roundup with the “Value for Money” index which was calculated by stacking up the features and performance against the price. The better the features and performance with respect to price, the higher this index. Based on this we have the “Best Value” product in each category in addition to the “Best Performer”.

USB hub and headphone jack positioned at the side of the TFT monitor INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

TFT COMPARISON

LG Flatron L1515S

59

17-inch TFT

15-inch TFT

15-inch TFT

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ViewSonic VP720B

BenQ FP51G

Specifications: Dimensions (WxHxD): 350 x 318 x 133

Specifications: Dimensions: (WxHxD) mm 331 x 338 x

Specifications: Dimensions: (WxHxD) mm 376 x 463 x

mm, Screen size: 15-inches, optimal resolution: 1024

136, Screen size: 15 inches, optimal resolution: 1024

229, Screen size: 17 inches, optimal resolution: 1280

x 768, Aspect ratio: 4:3, Brightness: 250 Cd/sq.mt,

x 768, Aspect ratio: 4:3, Brightness: 250 Cd/sq.mt,

x 1024, Aspect ratio: 4:3, Brightness: 280 Cd/sq.mt,

Contrast ratio: 400:1, Response time: 12 ms.

Contrast ratio: 400:1, Response time: 16 ms.

Contrast ratio: 500:1, Response time: 4 ms.

Price Contact Phone E-mail Warranty

Price Contact Phone E-mail Warranty

Price Contact Phone E-mail Warranty

Rs 10,490 LG Electronics India Pvt. Ltd 0120-2560900 [email protected] 4.5 years

Rs 8,900 BenQ India Pvt Ltd 9312378705 [email protected] 2.5 years

Features

Features

Features

Ergonomics

Ergonomics

Ergonomics

Perfomance

Perfomance

Perfomance

Build Quality

Build Quality

Build Quality

Overall Rating

Overall Rating

Overall Rating

Value for money

Value for money

Value for money

The LG Flatron L1515S is quite a performer, in spite of being fairly thin and light, weighing in at just 2.5 kg. This TFT monitor has the lowest response time of 12 ms as compared to other monitors in the category which have a response time of 16 ms. As a result the L1515S had very little ghost trails in fast moving videos making it suitable for movies and gaming on a small screen. Being a 15-inch monitor this monitor has a pixel pitch of 0.294 which effectively translates into an optimal resolution of 1024x768. The monitor features a brightness level of 250 Cd/m2 and a contrast ratio of 400:1. The monitor also features good ergonomics with amply spaced buttons and an OSD with functions clearly explained. As for performance, the image quality was excellent with vibrant colors. If you want a monitor that fits in cramped space and doesn’t compromise on performance then this monitor is the one which you should look out for. For: Good image quality; very good response time; light in weight. Against: No swivel. OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

The BenQ FP52G definitely has the looks when it comes to sleek features—this is exemplified with its silver black color combination which will fit snugly with your desktop. It’s the best-priced monitor in the 15-inch category with a pricetag of just Rs 8,900 and is an average performer. Considering its size, it weighs a bit more than expected at 3.7 kg and has an average response time of 16 ms. As expected, this monitor supports a maximum resolution of 1024x768 at a 32-bit color depth. The brightness of the TFT was 250 Cd/sq.mt. This TFT comes with a D-Sub connector, but there were no DVI connections. The color gradations were near average except for the gray gradations which were visibly bad. While viewing colors at an angle, the screen display quality was reasonably good. If performance is not to important a criterion, this TFT is a great choice for basic home and office use. For: Nicely priced, good-looking, easily accessible menu buttons. Against: Shallow viewing angle, no DVI connection.

Roop Technology 022-26681921 [email protected] 3.5 years

RATINGS

RATINGS

RATINGS

Rs 15,999

The ViewSonic VP720B comes in with best-of-class performance in its category with its good specifications. This TFT has a superb response time of 4 ms, which was the best across all categories. This was apparent from the lack of errors in fast moving video. The monitor offers both D-Sub or a DVI connectivity options (the latter offering excellent video quality when used with a compatible graphics card). This monitor weighs in at 5.5 Kg and stands on a robust base which provides adequate support. In spite of tilting, swiveling, adjusting the height, and pivoting, it remained firmly in place. The portrait viewing mode especially comes in handy for designers who do not want to scroll down when working on documents or images. All this translated into good viewing angles and color reproduction. If you are looking for a great 17-inch TFT, the VP720B would suit even the most demanding of tasks. For: Excellent response time and color reproduction; portrait screen orientation; DVI interface. Against: Expensive.

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HARDWARE

| TFT COMPARISON

ViewSonic VX2235W

AOC LM725

19-inch TFT

19-inch TFT

17-inch TFT

AOC LM925

Specifications: Dimensions: (WxHxD) mm 407 x 215 x

Specifications: Dimensions: (WxHxD) mm 524 x 482 x

Specifications: Dimensions: (WxHxD) mm 425 x 418 x

423, Screen size: 17 inches, optimal resolution: 1280

244, Screen size: 22 inches, optimal resolution: 1680

207, Screen size: 19 inches, optimal resolution: 1280

x 1024, Aspect ratio: 4:3, Brightness: 250 Cd/sq.mt,

x 105, Aspect ratio: 16:10, Brightness: 280 Cd/sq.mt,

x 1024, Aspect ratio: 4:3, Brightness: 270 Cd/sq.mt,

Contrast ratio: 450:1, Response time: 16 ms.

Contrast ratio: 700:1, Response time: 5 ms.

Contrast ratio: 500:1, Response time: 8 ms.

Price Contact Phone E-mail Warranty

Price Contact Phone E-mail Warranty

Price Contact Phone E-mail Warranty

Rs 9,600 AOC Monitor 0124-2806116 [email protected] 3 years

Rs 29,999 Roop Technology 022-26681921 [email protected] 3.5 years

Features

Features

Features

Ergonomics

Ergonomics

Ergonomics

Perfomance

Perfomance

Perfomance

Build Quality

Build Quality

Build Quality

Overall Rating

Overall Rating

Overall Rating

Value for money

Value for money

Value for money

The AOC LM725 has a slew of features and a great price to go along with it, making this monitor the best value TFT in the 17-inch category. It is elegantly designed so it doesn’t take up much space on the desk. It has a pretty good contrast rate of 350:1 along with a response time of 16 ms. The maximum brightness that can be achieved with this monitor was 250 Cd/sq.mt which was average when compared to other 17-inch TFT’s which are about 20% brighter. The maximum resolution this TFT could display was 1280×1024 pixels which is normal for a panel of this size. The menu buttons were pretty well described and nicely placed, making them easily accessible. There was no DVI connection which was surprising for a 17-inch monitor, although it did have integrated speakers. The color gradations were pretty good except for green. With its sub-10,000 price, this monitor hits a very sweet spot for entrylevel applications in homes or office. For: Great price; good color gradations; speakers. Against: No DVI.

The ViewSonic VX2235W is one TFT that delivers great visual performance, a widescreen form factor and blazing fast response times. Weighing in at just 6 Kg, it stands on a solid foot which supports the TFT even in extreme positions. This monitor has a diagonal screen size of 22-inches and a stunning resolution of 1680 x 1050 while led to plenty of screen real estate. The brightness of this monitor is 280 Cd/sq.mt and it has a commendable contrast ratio of 700:1 which is the highest across all categories. The menu buttons were not placed comfortably though, you would need to exert a bit of dexterity to push them. Sporting both the D-Sub or the DVI interface, it can be used at the highest of quality levels. You also have the audio connector for the speakers provided with the monitor. If your needs involve high-end 3D graphics, page layout or video processing, this monitor is the ideal complement to a fast computer. For: Excellent screen resolution and image quality; quick response time, built-in speakers. Against: Expensive.

AOC Monitor 0124-2806116 [email protected] 3 years

RATINGS

RATINGS

RATINGS

Rs 14,500

Coming in at under Rs 15,000, the AOC LM925 is the most affordable 19-inch monitor available in the market. In fact, there are several 17-inch monitors available at this price. This monitor gives a maximum resolution of 1280 x 1024 which is pretty low for a screen this size. The TFT stands on a solid foot which allows you only one degree of freedom and it can withstand the weight of the monitor even at extreme angles. The LM925 has a commendable response time of 8 ms which makes it worth the buy for normal home and office users. The red and blue gradations were really good but the green and gray gradations were visibly washed out. The color performance was below par when viewed at extreme angles—this could translate into a visible image quality loss. If you need to be entertained and play games without shelling out too much, and are willing to settle for a slightly lower performance, the LM925 is a good choice. For: Nicely priced; good response time; built-in speakers; DVI connector. Against: Color reproduction at extreme angles was sub-par. INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

TFT COMPARISON

| Buying guide When out on a quest to buy a TFT monitor most people base their buying decision on the size of the screen and the brand name. There are others who simply want the cheapest TFT monitor or have a fixed budget. This way you may overlook some of the critical parameters such as the response time, brightness, contrast ratio, pixel pitch, viewing angle and so on. As a result you may end up buying a monitor that doesn’t match your requirements. As the saying goes “it’s better to be safe than sorry”, it’s crucial that you make the right decision rather than repenting later. After all a TFT monitor is a long-term investment that will stay on your desk till the end of its life. The right way to make a buying decision is first fixing on your requirements or application area before jumping to the specifications. This buying guide is based on some of the most common application areas. From the range of TFT monitors that we have evaluated, we will suggest certain models that deserve serious consideration. Even if you come across a model that isn’t a part of this roundup, you can use the theory to make your buying decision.

Entertainment (Movies and gaming) When it comes to movies and games, size matters! It’s more fun to watch movies or play games on a large screen. If you’re planning to build a home theatre PC keep in mind that you will need a widescreen display to enjoy DVD movies as most of them are available in widescreen format. A TFT monitor with a screen size of 19-inch or greater having an aspect ratio of 16:9 or 16:10 should really hit the sweet spot. If you want to connect a DVD player to your monitor, it should have the provision for all the necessary inputs, namely composite, component and S-video connections apart from the standard DVI and D-sub inputs. Coming to picture quality look for high brightness and contrast ratio as they directly translate into vibrant colors. Finally, make sure the horizontal viewing angle is at least 160 degrees so that people viewing the screen from an angle get a clear view. OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

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61

| Personal Take If you’re looking towards gaming, you can stick to the conventional aspect ratio of4:3. Most importantly don’t overlook the response time. If the response time of the TFT is high the trailing in fast moving scenes will be very evident. Don’t even consider any monitor having a response time greater than 8 milliseconds. Recommended models ViewSonic VX2235WM, Asus PW201, TCL 983A Price range: Rs 16,000 – Rs 40,000

Design (Imaging, 3D modeling and desktop publishing) If you fall into this application area you will need a large display with extremely rich picture quality. Find out the optimal resolution of the TFT monitor, as this is what you will work at. With a high resolution you will get more workspace on your screen. Look at the pixel pitch too. A tighter pixel pitch means that more pixels are packed into the same amount of space. This will significantly increase the details in an image. Also look for good brightness levels and high contrast ratio for accurate rendering of color levels and contrast. Recommended models ViewSonic VP920B, ViewSonic VX924, ViewSonic VA1912WB Price range: Rs 16,000 – Rs 25,000

Home and office (Office suites, web-browsing, e-mail, etc) Here, the primary objective of the TFT monitor is to substitute the bulky CRT monitor. The viewing angle in this area is not of any importance since you will be the only one working most of the time. Also there’s no need for a display greater than 15-inches for basic applications like word processing, web browsing, e-mailing, etc. But if you want a larger display, you can stretch your budget by a few thousands for a 17-inch screen. If you’re on a strict budget, first take a look at the products which won the ‘Best Value’ award. Recommended models TCL H582B, BenQ FP51G, LG Flatron L1515S Price range: Rs 8,500 - Rs 10,000

Faheem Sayed

[email protected]

The first thing that came to my mind when I saw the ViewSonic VX2235WM 22-inch TFT monitor was that size does matter. What with its sleek black and silver color, it looks way bigger than a 21-inch television. This monitor was the best performer across all the categories and beat every other model hands down. It delivers a resolution of 1680x1050 while skimping on power consumption. At this resolution, locating icons on the huge screen was a tad difficult. Watching movies and playing games on this screen was a marvelous experience with its 16:10 widescreen aspect ratio, its razor-quick response time and an absence of any visible blurring. The screen exhibited good brightness and contrast ratio. There was no sign of any ghosting even when viewed up close. The other monitor that left me floored is the ASUS PW201—a 21-inch monitor which tilts in almost all the directions you want it to. It’s got a camera on top of the screen which can be moved up and down. As for the colors it delivered great visual quality even at extreme angles. It gives you a slew of connectivity options at the rear of the screen like composite video, component, audio inputs and also a USB connection. With such an array of video inputs, it is possible to use this display not just with your computer, but with your home DVD player as well. You also have the option of using the speakers provided with both the above models. The colors in this monitor were pretty sharp and crisp and there were almost no gradations in any of the hues. These monitors, coupled with a good surround speaker system, will prove to be a great addition to your home entertainment. Although both these monitors are quite expensive they are well worth the price if you crave the performance.

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HARDWARE

| TFT COMPARISON

SpecScan 1

2

3

CATEGORY Name

15-inch LG Flatron L1515S

LG Flatron L1520B

BenQ FP51G

Contact Phone E-mail Price*

LG Electronics India Pvt Ltd 0120-2560900 [email protected] Rs 10,490

LG Electronics India Pvt Ltd 0120-2560900 [email protected] Rs 10,490

BenQ India Pvt Ltd 9312378705 [email protected] Rs 8,900

Overall Features (out of 25) Performance (out of 45) Ergonomics (out of 10) Build quality (out of 10) Warranty and support (out of 10) Overall (out of 100) Value for money (out of 5)

13.39 30.90 7.21 7.50 8.75

Total: 67.75

13.03 26.18 7.21 8.09 8.75

Total: 63.26

12.70 29.63 8.36 5.88 4.72

Total: 61.29

Features Dimensions (WxHxD) (mm) Weight (Kg) Pixel pitch (mm) Diagonal screen size (inches) Scanning freq (Hor. KHz/Vert. Hz) Screen aspect ratio Optimal resolution Brightness (Cd/sq.mt) Contrast Ratio Response time (ms) Video input (DVI, D-sub, RGB, S-video, Composite) HDTV capable Integrated TV Tuner

350 x 318 x 133 2.5 0.297 15 63 / 75 4:3 (Conventional) 1024 x 768 250 400:1 12 ✕|✓|✕|✕|✕ ✕ ✕

364 x 331 x 220 3.2 0.3 15 63 / 75 4:3 (Conventional) 1024 x 768 250 400:1 25 ✕|✓|✕|✕|✕ ✕ ✕

331 x 338 x 136 3.7 0.297 15 63 / 75 4:3 (Conventional) 1024 x 768 250 400:1 16 ✕|✓|✕|✕|✕ ✕ ✕

3.0 / 3.0 1.8 / 1.8

3.3 / 3.3 3.0 / 3.0

4.2 / 4.2 2.5 / 2.5

5 3.5 5 3.5

2.5 2.5 3.5 2.5

3.5 3.5 5 2.5

2.5 2.5 2.5

2.5 1.5 2.5

2.5 2.5 2

✓ Good ✓ ✕ ✕

✓ Poor ✓ ✓ ✕

✓ Good ✓ ✕ ✕

✓ ✓ Good ✓

✓ ✕ Good ✓

✕ ✕ Good ✓

3 250 120

3 250 120

3 40 38

Performance Viewing Angle (out of 5) 40 degrees (right/left) 80 degrees (right/left) Colour Gradation (out of 5) Red Gradation Green Gradation Blue Gradation Black to White Gradation Response Time (out of 5) White bouncing square Horizontally moving RGB blocks Pixel Persistence Analysis Ergonomics Functions clearly described All buttons and switches easily reachable Brightness/contrast separate from OSD Concealed cables Feathertouch buttons

Build quality Ease of swivel Presence of sharp edges Sturdiness of stand and hinges Slide-resistant base Warranty & Support Period of warranty (years) Number of authorised service centres Number of cities where service centres are present * Prices are indicative and are subject to change, taxes extra

INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

TFT COMPARISON

4

5

7

8 17-inch Samsung SyncMaster 740N Samsung India Electronics Pvt Ltd 011-41511234 [email protected] Rs 11,000

Samsung SyncMaster 540N

TCL H582B

AOC LM525

Samsung India Electronics Pvt Ltd 011-41511234 [email protected] Rs 9,300

TTE Corporation 022-40080619 [email protected] Rs 8,700

AOC Monitor 0124-2806116 [email protected] Rs 8,500

Roop Technology 022-26681921 [email protected] Rs 15,999

Total: 55.27

11.56 24.98 8.57 5.29 4.20

Total: 54.60

12.89 21.98 6.79 3.97 5.50

Total: 51.12

16.87 33.68 7.57 5.88 7.02

Total: 71.02

15.09 30.23 9.43 6.18 7.83

Total: 68.75

337.5 x 333.8 x 180 3.65 0.297 15 61 / 75 4:3 (Conventional) 1024 x 768 250 450:1 16 ✕|✓|✕|✕|✕ ✕ ✕

439 x 450 x 125 4 0.297 15 83 / 75 4:3 (Conventional) 1024 x 768 250 400:1 16 ✕|✓|✕|✕|✕ ✕ ✕

432 x 440 x 198 3 0.297 15 60 / 75 4:3 (Conventional) 1024 x 768 250 400:1 25 ✕|✓|✕|✕|✕ ✕ ✕

376 x 463 x 229 5.5 0.264 17 82 / 85 4:3 (Conventional) 1280 x 1024 280 500:1 4 ✓|✓|✕|✕|✕ ✕ ✕

366 x 378 x 201 3.4 0.264 17 81 / 75 4:3 (Conventional) 1280 x 1024 300 600:1 8 ✕|✓|✕|✕|✕ ✕ ✕

2.5 / 2.5 2.5 / 2.5

2.5 / 2.5 1.5 / 1.5

2.2 / 2.2 1.5 / 1.5

5.0 / 5.0 4.2 / 4.2

4.2 / 4.2 4.2 / 4.2

1.5 1.5 2.5 1.5

2.5 3.5 3.5 2.5

3.5 1.5 2.5 1.5

3.5 2.5 5 2.5

2.5 3.5 3.5 2.5

1.5 2.5 2

2.5 2.5 2

2.5 2.5 2

3.5 3.5 3

3.5 2.5 2.5

✕ Good ✓ ✓ ✕

✓ Good ✕ ✕ ✕

✓ Good ✕ ✓ ✕

✕ Good ✓ ✕ ✕

✓ Good ✓ ✓ ✕

✓ ✕ Good ✓

✕ ✕ Good ✓

✕ ✕ Average ✕

✕ ✕ Good ✓

✓ ✕ Average ✓

3 140 120

3 24 24

3 60 60

3 102 102

3 140 120

OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

63

6

17-inch ViewSonic VP720B

12.90 20.70 7.21 6.62 7.83

| HARDWARE

64

HARDWARE

| TFT COMPARISON

SpecScan 9

10

CATEGORY Name

17-inch AOC LM725

11

Zenith Z17

BenQ FP71G +S

Contact Phone E-mail Price*

AOC Monitor 0124-2806116 [email protected] Rs 9,600

Zenith Helpdesk 1800-22-2004 [email protected] Rs 11,500

BenQ India Pvt Ltd 9312378705 [email protected] Rs 10,750

Overall Features (out of 25) Performance (out of 45) Ergonomics (out of 10) Build quality (out of 10) Warranty and support (out of 10) Overall (out of 100) Value for money (out of 5)

14.19 33.30 8.14 5.59 5.50

Total: 66.72

15.04 32.55 8.71 5.88 1.58

Total: 63.77

14.92 29.25 8.79 5.59 4.72

Total: 63.26

Features Dimensions (WxHxD) (mm) Weight (Kg) Pixel pitch (mm) Diagonal screen size (inches) Scanning freq (Hor. KHz/Vert. Hz) Screen aspect ratio Optimal resolution Brightness (Cd/sq.mt) Contrast Ratio Response time (ms) Video input (DVI, D-sub, RGB, S-video, Composite) HDTV capable Integrated TV Tuner

407 x 215 x 423 4.5 0.264 17 83 / 75 4:3 (Conventional) 1280 x 1024 250 450:1 16 ✕|✓|✕|✕|✕ ✕ ✕

380 x 402 x 214 4.3 0.264 17 81 / 75 4:3 (Conventional) 1280 x 1024 300 500:1 8 ✕|✓|✕|✕|✕ ✕ ✕

362 x 378 x 135 3.8 0.264 17 83 / 76 4:3 (Conventional) 1280 x 1024 250 500:1 8 ✓|✓|✕|✕|✕ ✕ ✕

5.0 / 5.0 2.5 / 2.5

4.2 / 4.2 2.5 / 2.5

4.2 / 4.2 3.3 / 3.3

5 3.5 5 3.5

5 3.5 5 3.5

2.5 3.5 3.5 1.5

1.5 2.5 3

2.5 2.5 2.5

2.5 3.5 3

✓ Good ✕ ✕ ✕

✓ Good ✓ ✕ ✕

✓ Good ✓ ✕ ✕

✓ ✕ Average ✓

✓ ✕ Average ✓

✕ ✕ Good ✓

3 60 60

1 13 13

3 40 38

Performance Viewing Angle (out of 5) 40 degrees (right/left) 80 degrees (right/left) Colour Gradation (out of 5) Red Gradation Green Gradation Blue Gradation Black to White Gradation Response Time (out of 5) White bouncing square Horizontally moving RGB blocks Pixel Persistence Analysis Ergonomics Functions clearly described All buttons and switches easily reachable Brightness/contrast separate from OSD Concealed cables Feathertouch buttons

Build quality Ease of swivel Presence of sharp edges Sturdiness of stand and hinges Slide-resistant base Warranty & Support Period of warranty (years) Number of authorised service centres Number of cities where service centres are present * Prices are indicative and are subject to change, taxes extra

INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

TFT COMPARISON

12

13

14

Asus PM17TU

TCL 7005L12

19-inch Asus PW201

ViewSonic VX2235WM

ViewSonic VP920B

ASUSTeK Computer Inc 022-40058891 [email protected] Rs 18,000

TTE Corporation 022-40080619 [email protected] Rs 11,200

ASUSTeK Computer Inc 022-40058891 [email protected] Rs 38,000

Roop Technology 022-26681921 [email protected] Rs 29,999

Roop Technology 022-26681921 [email protected] Rs 18,999

17.04 20.78 6.64 4.12 3.80

Total: 52.38

13.82 21.38 8.36 2.35 4.27

Total: 50.18

18.64 37.24 10.14 8.82 3.80

Total: 78.64

15

| HARDWARE

17.62 41.14 6.29 6.32 7.02

Total: 78.39

16

17.41 34.16 7.57 5.88 7.02

Total: 72.04

390 x 416 x 180 4.5 0.264 17 60 / 75 4:3 (Conventional) 1280 x 1024 500 600:1 4 ✓|✓|✕|✕|✕ ✕ ✕

210 x 455 x 460 7 0.264 17 80 / 75 4:3 (Conventional) 1280 x 1024 300 500:1 7 ✕|✓|✕|✕|✕ ✕ ✕

496 x 560 x 280 9.7 0.258 20 81 / 75 16:10 (Widescreen) 1680 x 1050 300 800:1 8 ✓|✓|✓|✓|✓ ✕ ✕

524 x 482 x 244 6 0.282 22 82 / 85 16:10 (Widescreen) 1680 x 1050 280 700:1 5 ✓|✓|✕|✕|✕ ✕ ✕

416 x 479 x 238 6.3 0.294 19 82 / 85 16:10 (Widescreen) 1280 x 1024 250 500:1 4 ✓|✓|✕|✕|✕ ✕ ✕

5.0 / 5.0 3.3 / 3.3

2.5 / 2.5 2.2 / 2.2

5.0 / 5.0 5.0 / 5.0

5.0 / 5.0 3.3 / 3.3

5.0 / 5.0 5.0 / 5.0

1 1 1 1

1.5 1.5 2.5 1.5

3.5 3.5 5 3.5

5 5 5 3.5

3.5 2.5 5 1.5

3.5 3.5 2

2.5 2.5 2.5

2.5 3.5 4.3

5 5 4.3

3.5 3.5 3.8

✕ Poor ✓ ✓ ✕

✓ Good ✓ ✕ ✕

✓ Good ✓ ✓ ✓

✕ Average ✓ ✕ ✕

✕ Good ✓ ✕ ✕

✕ ✕ Average ✓

✕ ✕ Average ✓

✓ ✕ Good ✓

✕ ✕ Good ✓

✕ ✕ Good ✓

3 13 13

3 26 26

3 13 13

3 102 102

3 102 102

OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

65

66

HARDWARE

| TFT COMPARISON

SpecScan 17

18

CATEGORY Name

19

ViewSonic VA 1912WB

TCL 983A

AOC LM925

Contact Phone E-mail Price*

Roop Technology 022-26681921 [email protected] Rs 15,999

TTE Corporation 022-40080619 [email protected] Rs 16,000

AOC Monitor 0124-2806116 [email protected] Rs 14,500

Overall Features (out of 25) Performance (out of 45) Ergonomics (out of 10) Build quality (out of 10) Warranty and support (out of 10) Overall (out of 100) Value for money (out of 5)

16.56 30.08 9.86 5.00 7.02

Total: 68.51

14.86 35.93 8.57 4.85 4.27

Total: 68.48

15.37 33.15 8.14 5.88 5.50

Total: 68.04

Features Dimensions (WxHxD) (mm) Weight (Kg) Pixel pitch (mm) Diagonal screen size (inches) Scanning freq (Hor. KHz/Vert. Hz) Screen aspect ratio Optimal resolution Brightness (Cd/sq.mt) Contrast Ratio Response time (ms) Video input (DVI, D-sub, RGB, S-video, Composite) HDTV capable Integrated TV Tuner

451 x 391 x 197 4.5 0.285 19 82 / 85 16:10 (Widescreen) 1440 x 900 280 700:1 8 ✓|✓|✕|✕|✕ ✕ ✕

440 x 365 x 150 4.8 0.289 19 80 / 76 16:10 (Widescreen) 1440 x 900 300 500:1 8 ✓|✓|✕|✕|✕ ✕ ✕

425 x 418 x 207 5.9 0.294 19 83 / 75 4:3 (Conventional) 1280 x 1024 270 500:1 8 ✓|✓|✕|✕|✕ ✕ ✕

4.2 / 4.2 3.0 / 3.0

3.0 / 3.0 2.2 / 2.2

5.0 / 5.0 3.3 / 3.3

3.5 1.5 5 1.5

5 5 5 5

5 3.5 5 2.5

3.5 3.5 3

3.5 3.5 3

2.5 2.5 2.5

✓ Good ✓ ✓ ✕

✓ Good ✕ ✕ ✕

✓ Good ✕ ✕ ✕

✕ ✕ Good ✕

✕ ✕ Average ✓

✓ ✕ Average ✓

3 102 102

3 26 26

3 60 60

Performance Viewing Angle (out of 5) 40 degrees (right/left) 80 degrees (right/left) Colour Gradation (out of 5) Red Gradation Green Gradation Blue Gradation Black to White Gradation Response Time (out of 5) White bouncing square Horizontally moving RGB blocks Pixel Persistence Analysis Ergonomics Functions clearly described All buttons and switches easily reachable Brightness/contrast separate from OSD Concealed cables Feathertouch buttons

Build quality Ease of swivel Presence of sharp edges Sturdiness of stand and hinges Slide-resistant base Warranty & Support Period of warranty (years) Number of authorised service centres Number of cities where service centres are present * Prices are indicative and are subject to change, taxes extra

INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

TFT COMPARISON

20

| HARDWARE

21

22

23

24

LG Flatron L1950SQ

ViewSonic VG2021M

Samsung SyncMaster 940BW

HP L1906

VU 19W1

LG Electronics India Pvt Ltd 0120-2560900 [email protected] Rs 18,990

Roop Technology 022-26681921 [email protected] Rs 19,999

Samsung India Electronics Pvt Ltd 011-41511234 [email protected] Rs 16,500

Rashi Peripherals Pvt Ltd 022-67090909 [email protected] Rs 19,990

VU Suite 022-64502424 [email protected] Rs 13,000

15.48 29.25 8.14 5.59 8.75

Total: 67.22

16.26 31.13 6.00 5.88 7.02

Total: 66.28

16.85 28.88 7.57 5.15 7.83

Total: 66.27

14.64 25.05 8.64 5.88 9.44

Total: 63.66

15.64 24.68 7.07 2.50 3.80

Total: 53.69

413 x 421 x 230.5 5.7 0.294 19 83 / 75 4:3 (Conventional) 1280 x 1024 300 700:1 8 ✕|✓|✕|✕|✕ ✕ ✕

458 x 465 x 205 8.4 0.264 20 82 / 76 16:10 (Widescreen) 1400 x 1050 300 500:1 8 ✓|✓|✕|✕|✕ ✕ ✕

439 x 327.3 x 200 5.6 0.285 19 81 / 75 16:10 (Widescreen) 1440 x 900 300 500:1 4 ✓|✓|✕|✕|✕ ✕ ✕

422 x 427 x 203 5.3 0.294 19 83 / 76 4:3 (Conventional) 1280 x 1024 250 500:1 12 ✕|✓|✕|✕|✕ ✕ ✕

445 x 373 x 185 5.3 0.285 19 81 / 75 16:10 (Widescreen) 1440 x 900 250 500:1 8 ✓|✓|✕|✕|✕ ✕ ✕

5.0 / 5.0 2.5 / 2.5

5.0 / 5.0 5.0 / 5.0

5.0 / 5.0 3.3 / 3.3

3.3 / 3.3 2.5 / 2.5

2.5 / 2.5 2.2 / 2.2

3.5 2.5 2.5 2.5

2.5 2.5 3.5 2.5

3.5 2.5 3.5 2.5

1.5 1.5 3.5 1.5

2.5 2.5 3.5 2.5

2.5 2.5 3.5

3.5 2.5 3

2.5 2.5 2

3.5 3.5 2.5

2.5 2.5 2

✓ Good ✕ ✓ ✕

✕ Poor ✓ ✕ ✕

✕ Good ✓ ✓ ✕

✓ Good ✕ ✕ ✕

✓ Average ✕ ✓ ✕

✓ ✕ Poor ✓

✕ ✕ Good ✓

✕ ✕ Average ✓

✕ ✕ Good ✓

✕ ✕ Average ✕

3 250 120

3 102 102

3 140 120

3 400 100

3 13 13

OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

67

68

HARDWARE

| PRODUCT OF THE MONTH

Blue-eyed babies

Our products of the month this time are based on the new optical drive technology—Blu-ray. We take a look at how it works and follow it up with comprehensive reviews

T

he need to archive large amounts of data is a common requirement for organizations and individuals alike as access to data becomes simple and speedy. While organizations have a distinct need for large capacity storage for backup of server as well as client data, such storage requirements are not always justified for casual users. With the increase in broadband penetration as well as significant changes in the entertainment industry, high storage space requirements are slowly going to become mainstream. Optical storage consisted only of CD media in a not so distant past and the use of DVD media is getting common with the decrease in prices of DVD writers and media. This month we were part of another breakthrough in optical storage technology with Sony’s launch of Blu-ray enabled devices in India—an optical storage writer and a notebook featuring Blu-ray technology. Jagdish Limbachiya

What is Blu-ray? Blu-ray is the next-generation technology in optical storage after VHS, CD and DVD. The Blu-ray standard was jointly developed by a group of consumer electronics and PC companies called the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), spearheaded by Sony. It is designed for high-density storage of highdefinition video and data. It is currently competing with the HD DVD format for wide adoption as the preferred next generation optical standard.

How Blu-ray works A Blu-ray drive looks and works in traditionally the same way as any other optical drive. The difference is that Blu-ray drives use a violet-blue laser to read data from an optical drive media rather then the infrared light that is used by CDs and red laser light used by DVD writers. The violet-blue color falls into

the higher frequency segment in the visible spectrum of light, thus resulting in a lower wavelength (refer to box). The wavelength of the laser used in Blu-ray drives is 405 nm. To put it into perspective, a CD drive uses an infrared laser operating at a wavelength of 780 nm while a DVD drive uses a red laser operating at a wavelength of 650 nm. So, as we can see, using a light source that has a lower wavelength causes a smaller laser beam. This is advantageous because it can focus better at a point on the media surface from a fixed distance as the wave travels faster and hits the surface before it disperses. Thus the light ray used in a Blu-ray drive is more accurate in pinpointing a particular area on the media surface. As the focusing capability gets finer, media manufacturers can increase the track pitch (refer to box) on the media thus increasing the media’s storage capacity. INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

PRODUCT OF THE MONTH

Advantages of Blu-ray Size

The Blu-ray drive comes in a five-and-a quarter inch form factor which is the same as other optical storage devices like CD or DVD. This means that your Blu-ray drive will look and feel the same as any other optical drive. It will seamlessly integrate itself into the drive bay of PC cabinet or even a laptop. A Blu-ray media supports the 12 cm form factor and also has a thickness of 1.2 mm, the same as a CD or DVD media.

Storage capacity Even though the Blu-ray disc supports the same form factor as a CD or a DVD disc, it supports a whopping capacity of 25 GB on a single layer disk. This means that you can store up to 5 DVDs or 32 CDs worth of data on a single Blu-ray disc.

Copy protection and digital rights management The movies that are distributed on a DVD media use an encryption system called CSS (Content Scrambling System). This encryption system has been defeated thus allowing users to decode (rip) the contents of a DVD movie. This has been taken a step further in Blu-ray which uses AACS (Advanced Access Content System) which makes use of stronger encryption algorithms like AES (Advanced Encryption Standard). The AACS standard provisions each individual player with a unique set of decryption keys which are used in a broadcast encryption scheme. This approach allows licensors to “revoke” the decryption keys associated with the player. Thus, if a given player’s keys are

The transition from infrared to blue laser leads to higher storage capacity

OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

compromised by an attacker, the licensing authority can simply revoke those keys in future content, making the keys/player useless for decrypting new titles. So you cannot rip the BD content like a DVD content unless the encryption scheme is compromised. Blu-ray discs will also have the capability to add information at a physical level (called ROM-Mark in case of Blu-ray) which makes it difficult to make carbon copies of the media. This helps reduce piracy.

69

| Jargon Wavelength We all know that light is a form of electromagnetic waves. Like any other wave, light travels in the form of a sine wave. The distance (measured in the direction of propagation) between two points in the same phase in consecutive cycles of a wave is called wavelength.

Track Pitch The data track of an optical disc is a spiral starting from the center of the disc; The distance (in micro meters) between the two intersection points on the concentric rows starting from the center of the circle is known as track pitch. When the track pitch is reduced, it means that the distance between the concentric rows is lower and that the resulting track is much longer, thus you can store more data.

Performance With the use of a violet-blue light, the track densities can be increased and more data can be stored in the same form factor of an optical disc. Blu-ray drives perform the read/write operations using Constant Linear Velocity allowing them to sustain a constant throughput rate. This would not result in any artifacts or distortions while watching a Blu-ray movie, for example.

Disadvantages of Blu-ray

Disc and data reliability

Costs of drive and media

Just like it happens with any new technology, the initial costs are always high. The Blu-ray drive includes two lasers instead of the single laser system used in CD and DVD drives. This is done in order to facilitate backward compatibility with the existing CD and DVD optical media. This increases the production cost due to the use of additional hardware. The production of Blu-ray disc will involve more cost, because the companies will have to add equipment for the cover layer. Also, because the Blu-ray media use a completely different design, their production is not on the lines of a CD or DVD media.

The distance between two consecutive troughs or crests is called Wavelength

| HARDWARE

The cover layer of the Blu-ray disc is very thin measuring 0.1 mm compared to the 0.6 mm coating of a CD or DVD media. This makes the Blu-ray discs more prone to damage from scratches and smudges. To overcome this limitation, an extra layer of protective material needs to be added to the Blu-ray disc, which in turn increases the cost of the media.

Last word Blu-ray drives are the next step in optical storage. Now that the Blu-ray drives are a reality, we will be able to see 1080p high-definition movies on our computer systems. Also, with HD cameras becoming more mainstream, a two-hour movie can be recorded on the Blu-ray medium. This can be used in Blu-ray players and you can view high definition movies on your plasma or LCD TV. We would also like to add that Blu-ray media is not as easily available as a CD or a DVD disc. Also, the cost of the media is Rs 1,000; instead one can buy six DVDs at a total price of Rs 120 to store equal amounts of data. In future when prices of the drives and media plummet and the media becomes mainstream, Blu-ray might be a good storage alternative.

SMS us!

Story code: HPM (See Page 20 for details)

70

HARDWARE

| PRODUCT OF THE MONTH

Sony VAIO VGN-AR18GP Notebook The Sony VAIO VGN-AR18GP desktop replacement notebook is the first to use the next generation Blu-ray optical drive.

Features Powered by the dual core Intel Centrino Duo T2600 processor (Yonah) running at 2.16 GHz, it has enough horsepower to play your high-definition movie content. It features 1 GB of DDR2 memory which is pretty much standard for all entertainment desktops. Another striking feature of this laptop is the Nvidia Gforce Go 7600GT graphics card that comes with 256 MB of memory making it a complete gaming system. The 1920x1200 high resolution facilitates playing 1080p HD video. With three USB 2 ports, a mini FireWire and an ExpressCard/54 slot catering for modern peripherals. A media card reader supporting memory stick and SD formats are in the front, and a 0.37megapixel webcam is hidden in the top bezel of the screen. The HDCP-compliant HDMI output is welcome, and there’s also S-Video in/out and a VGA output. Connectivity options include a 10/100 Ethernet, a 56K modem, Bluetooth and an 802.11a/b/g wireless LAN. We were not so impressed with the audio capability of the speakers built into this notebook. It lacked in quality sound effects like bass, treble; considering it is an entertainment notebook, Sony could have done better.

A red and a blue laser ensures the Blu-ray drive is backward compatible

Sony VAIO VGN-AR18GP Specifications: Processor: Intel Core Duo T2600, Memory: 1 GB PC4200, Hard drive: 75 GB, Optical

Sony BWU-100A Blu-ray writer Specifications: Interface : Internal ATAPI/E-IDE,

drive: 2x Blu-ray writer, Graphics: Nvidia Gforce Go

Read/Write Speed: BD-R/BD-RE/BD-ROM (2x),

7600 256 MB, Display : 17-inch TFT, Dimensions

DVD+R/DVD-R/DVD-ROM (8x), DVD+RW/DVD-RW :

(WxDxH mm): 416 x 300 x 44, Weight: 3.8 kg

(8x/6x), DVD-DL/DVD-RAM (4x/5x)

Price Contact Phone E-mail Website Warranty

Price Contact Phone E-mail Website Warranty

Rs 1,99,900 Sony India 1800-11-11-88 (Toll Free) [email protected] www.sony.com

1 year

Performance

Value for money

Value for money

The first thing that catches your eye when you look at the notebook is its massive size. The size is justified considering its massive 17-inch TFT wide screen. Picture quality on the LCD is crisp and crystal clear. The notebook is black, complemented with a glossy finish. Although this provides for good looks, it is prone to smudges. It weighs a good 3.8 kg, so you will have a good exercise carrying it around. The expansion slots are neatly covered with a series of flaps coated with a metallic finish.

Performance We were quite impressed with the performance of the VAIO. In our performance tests, the Sisoft Sandra CPU arithmetic benchmark score was at par with that of most high-end notebooks (it recorded scores of 14,732 Dhrystones and 10,864 Whetstones). The heavy duty processor underperformed in the battery mode, which made watching HD movies a impossible task. The filesystem benchmark crossed the 50 MB/s mark—a result of two 5400 rpm drives configured in RAID 0, which was pretty impressive. A record score of 5126 3D Marks ensured top spot in graphics. It meant that we could play Doom 3 at decent framerates, at 1600x1200 resolution with 4x antialiasing enabled. It provided about an hour and 10 minutes of battery life—way too low for watching HD movies.

Verdict The Sony VAIO VGN-AR18GP retails

Rashi Peripherals Pvt Ltd 022 67090909 [email protected] www.sony.com

1 year

RATINGS

RATINGS Performance

Build quality

Rs 44,300

for Rs 1,99,900. Like most other Sony notebooks, it is priced very high. However, it is future proof and you are left in awe the moment you see a HD movie on it.

Sony BWU-100A Blu-ray writer Features The BWU-100A drive supports recording both 50 GB and 25 GB BD-R (write once) and BD-RE (rewritable) discs, as well as 4.7 GB DVD+R/+RW/RAM, 8.5GB DVD+R Dual Layer, and CD-R/-RW discs. Sony bundles the Cyberlink suite along with the drive that can be used to view HD quality movies and a Blu-ray mastering software to write to the Blu-ray writable and rewritable disks.

Performance The drive was able to copy 23.3 GB data on a single sided Blu-ray disk in about 47 minutes at 2x speeds. This means that the drive can write at a speed of about 8.44 MBps which is equivalent to that of a 12x DVD writer but slower than recent writers that can write to DVD media at speeds of about 12 MBps.

Verdict At a whopping price of Rs 44,300, we feel this writer is not meant for the average user. It instead aimed at studio editors who need lots of storage space for editing HD movies.  | Kunal Rupera INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

Gaming No matter what your budget, arm yourself with these configurations for firepower to enjoy your favorite games CATEGORY

ENTRY-LEVEL

PRICE (Rs)

Processor

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (Socket AM2)

5,750

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ (Socket AM2)

8,600

Motherboard

ASRock AM2V890-VSTA

3,800

MSI K9N NeoF

4,900

RAM

512 MB Transcend DDR2 533 MHz

2,900

2x512 MB Transcend DDR2 533 MHz

5,800

Hard Disk

Samsung SpinPoint HD160JJ

3,350

Western Digital WD3200KS 320 GB

6,000

Graphics Card

Forsa 7600GS PCI-E 256 MB

7,500

BIG 7600GT-T2D256E 256 MB

Optical Drive

Lite-On SHW-1635S Dual Layer DVD Writer

2,300

Lite-On SHW-1635S Dual Layer DVD Writer

Network Card

Onboard 10/100 Fast Ethernet

Monitor

Samsung SyncMaster 740N

Keyboard

Microsoft Wired Desktop 500 - Combo

825

Microsoft Internet Keyboard

Mouse

—

Nil

Logitech MX510

2,500

Speakers 2.1

Logitech X-230

3,300

Altec Lansing MX5021

7,100

Speakers 5.1

Logitech X-530

5,900

Logitech Z-5300

Soundcard

Creative Sound Blaster Live 5.1

1,550

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value 24-bit

2,000

PC Case

Blues MF-421 Case and Power Supply

1,375

Cooler Master Elite 330

3,000

Power Supply

—

PowerSafe 400 Watts

1,600

Nil 11,250

Nil

MID-RANGE

PRICE (Rs)

Onboard 10/100/1000 GbE ViewSonic VP920B

10,700 2,300 Nil 18,999 650

11,000

Disclaimer: We’ve mentioned the lowest street prices here. These prices are indicative and subject to change. INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

Workstation No animation or imaging application is too strenuous for this configuration HIGH-END

PRICE (Rs)

CATEGORY

PRODUCT

PRICE (Rs)

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ (Socket AM2)

14,500

Processor

Intel Core 2 Duo E6700

27,500

Asus M2N32 SLI Deluxe

18,000

Motherboard

Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6

16,400

2 x 512 MB Kingston KHX6400D2K2/1G 800 MHz

14,500

RAM

2x1 GB Transcend DDR2 533 MHz

Seagate ST3750640AS

23,200

Hard Drive

Western Digital Raptor 1500ADFD 150 GB

XFX GeForce 7950GX2

38,000

Graphics Card

Leadtek Quadro FX 540 128 MB

9,750

2,300

Optical Drive

Lite-On SHW-1635S Dual Layer DVD Writer

2,300

Network Card

Onboard 10/100/1000 GbE

Monitor

Viewsonic P97F+

Lite-On SHW-1635S Dual Layer DVD Writer On-board 10/100/1000 GbE ViewSonic VG2021M

Nil 19,999

5,800 15,000

Nil 18,600

Logitech G-15 Gaming Keyboard

4,850

Keyboard

Microsoft Internet Keyboard

650

Logitech MX518

2,500

Mouse

Logitech MX510

Klipsch Promedia GMX A-2.1

11,150

Speakers 5.1

Logitech Z-5500 Digital

23,000

Logitech Z-5500 Digital

23,000

Soundcard

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Elite Pro

27,000

2,500

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 4

5,800

PC Case

Antec Performance P180 Silver

9,950

Antec Super Lanboy

5,500

Power Supply

Cooler Master iGreen 500W

6,900

Cooler Master iGreen 500W

6,900

Input Device (Optional)

Wacom Graphire4 Tablet 6 x 8

9,000

OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

SMS us!

Story code: HPC (See Page 20 for details)

74

HARDWARE

| PC PRODUCT CONFIGS OF THE MONTH

Home

This is your no-frills, wallet-friendly configuration for basic home computing

HTPC

If it’s home theater you crave, this system will deliver serious thrills CATEGORY

PRODUCT

3,100

Processor

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (Socket AM2)

5,750

ASRock AM2V890-VSTA

3,800

Motherboard

MSI K9NGM2 with SPDIF In/Out

4,350

RAM

512 MB Transcend DDR2 533 MHz

2,900

RAM

2x512 MB Transcend DDR2 533 MHz

5,800

Hard Drive

Hitachi DeskStar 7K80 80 GB

2,300

Hard Drive

Western Digital WD2500KS 250 GB

4,650

Graphics Card

XFX GeForce 6200 TC 256MB

2,500

Graphics Card

Onboard Graphics

Optical Drive

Lite-On SHW-1635S Dual Layer DVD Writer

2,300

Optical Drive

Lite-On SHW-1635S Dual Layer DVD Writer

Network Card

Onboard 10/100 Fast Ethernet

Network Card

Onboard 10/100/1000 GbE

Monitor

Samsung SyncMaster 793S CRT

Monitor

ViewSonic VX2235WM

Keyboard

Microsoft Wired Desktop 500 - Combo

825

Keyboard

Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop 1000 - Combo

Mouse

—

Nil

Mouse

—

Speakers Stereo 2.0

Creative SBS240

500

Logitech X-530 Logitech Z-5300e Logitech Z-5500 Digital

Speakers Stereo 2.1

Speakers 5.1 (Entry-level, Mid-range, High-end)

Creative SBS370

1,250

Soundcard

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy Value 24-bit

2,100

Soundcard

Onboard

PC Case

Cooler Master Media 260

8,950

PC Case

Blues MF-421 Case and Power Supply

Power Supply

Cooler Master Extreme Power 350

2,100

Power Supply

—

TV Tuner

Compro VideoMate Gold Plus II

3,500

CATEGORY

PRODUCT

Processor

AMD Sempron 64 2800+ (Socket AM2)

Motherboard

PRICE (Rs)

Nil 5,000

Nil 1,375 Nil

PRICE (Rs)

Nil 2,300 Nil 29,999 1,600 Nil 5,900 11,000 23,000

| Anand Tuliani and Kunal Rupera INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

FEATURE

| HARDWARE

75

The physics of PhysX We put Asus’ Ageia PhysX P1 card to the grind to find out whether it spices up your gaming experience

A

step ahead of graphics cards, PhysX cards enhance the visual aspect of games with more realistic details. As of now there are only two players offering these cards—BFG Technologies and Asus in partnership with Ageia. We got our hands on Asus’ PhysX P1 Physics Processing Unit (PPU) with 128 MB of memory. The 256 MB version is yet to be launched. So what is a PPU and how do we use it? The Central Processing Unit (CPU) or the processor takes care of all the complicated computations for any application to run smoothly. The Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) or the graphics card was invented to take the load off the CPU and make it a standalone controller for graphics. The GPU comes handy in running all graphics-heavy

applications such as games, video and photo editing software. It accelerates memory-intensive work such as texture mapping and rendering polygons. It adds units to accelerate geometric calculations such as translating vertices into different coordinate systems to control the physics aspect of games. But now with the advent of the PPU, the physics aspect is taken care of and the load on the GPU is lessened. The PPU has approximately 125 million transistors and is based on the 130nm manufacturing process. The memory used is the GDDR3 RAM with 733 MHz speed. It has 20G instruction/second data transfer speed and 2 Tbps internal memory bandwidth, which is way higher than a high-end GPU with not more than

| Specifications Chart

Pramod Jadhav OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

Processor Type

AGEIA PhysX

Bus Technology

32-bit PCI 3.0 Interface

Memory Interface

128-bit GDDR3 memory architecture

Memory Capacity

128 MB

Memory Bandwidth

12 GB/sec

Effective Memory Data Rate

733 MHz

Peak Instruction Bandwidth

20 billion instructions/sec

Sphere-Sphere collision/sec

530 million max

Convex-Convex collision/sec

533,000 max

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Story code: HFP (See Page 20 for details)

76

HARDWARE

| FEATURE

xxxxxxxxx

| Upcoming Games

xxxxxxxxx

x

Thanks to the PhysX card, controlling objects is a cakewalk in Cell Factor

GRAW

xxxxxxxxxxxx Blow away all the objects and watch the superb effects

With PhysX Card (fps)

Without PhysX Card (fps)

48.36

48.2

F.E.A.R

75

75

Doom 3

130.2

130

350 Gbps internal memory bandwidth. It occupies one PCI slot of your motherboard. While testing we realized that there was an increase in the total power requirement of the test rig with the physics card. The test rig we used consisted of an AMD Athlon 64 FX 60 processor with 2 GB DDR2 RAM and an Nvidia GeForce 7800GTX 256 MB graphics

card. The card has pretty good cooling features with a 2.5 cm fan and a heat sink directly placed on the PPU. When it comes to graphics, this card is a delight—whenever an explosion occurs, you can see flying debris all around. While it would be great to navigate through the debris created, here it disappears quickly

Here are the games based on the Ageia Physics engine: Joint Task Force Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends Diabolique Alpha Prime Cell Factor Fallen Earth Bet on Soldier: Blood Sport Gunship Apocalypse Sacred II Crazy Machine 2 Unreal Tournament 2007 Arena Online Eye of the Storm enough so as to reduce the load on the GPU. The card bundles two games, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter (GRAW) and a demo of Cell Factor. It is mandatory to have the physics accelerator card to play Cell Factor, which has some really good particle effects and mindblowing graphics. The game is a futuristic

INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

FEATURE

Visual effects are enhanced with the PhysX card as you can see in this shot from GRAW shooter whose one demo map is replete with boxes, pipes, and other objects that behave like their real-life counterparts. Boxes scatter and explode when hit by grenades, heavy rolling pipes attack you; thanks to the telekinetic abilities, you can hurl yourself and plenty of objects around the map. What really catches your attention in this game are not effects, but the number of objects that are in your control; it’s a big leap in game developing, undoubtedly. In case of the other game GRAW, you can play it with or without physics acceleration.

OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

In-game explosions look tamer without the PhysX card In-game explosions look more realistic, with bricks falling off buildings and exploding cars with physics acceleration turned on. Without physics acceleration, the explosions look a little tamer (see screenshot below). Except for this little detailed effect, there’s not much to talk about this card as of now. We calculated the fps with and without the card for this game and from the readings we obtained, we came to the conclusion that there’s hardly any difference between the two. Without the card, the average fps was 48.2 and with the card it was 48.4.

| HARDWARE

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We tested the PPU at different resolutions (the highest resolution that the 7800GTX card supports is 1360x786 at 75 Hz), at 1250x1024 and 1024x768 at 75 Hz and the game ran without any hitches. However, we noticed that there were lags in the game with the card rather than without. We tried testing the card with some older games like Doom 3, F.E.A.R., etc. But since these games don’t support the physics engine of this card, there was no visible difference in the gameplay as is evident from the table below, which shows the fps of the games we tested, with and without the PhysX card. However, a slew of games tailor-made for this card are in the pipeline (refer to box above). As this card is pretty expensive (Rs 16,950 with the game bundled and Rs 15,500 without it) and requires you to have a high-end graphics card installed along with a game that supports the card’s physics engine, we don’t recommend as it does not make any tangible difference to your gaming experience.  | Faheem Sayed

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HARDWARE

| TECHNOLOGY LANDSCAPE

Gorgeous Graphics

Want a more realistic gaming experience? Pick from this guide to graphics cards Mid-range

Entry-level

High-end

Models: ATI Radeon X1300 Pro, Nvidia GeForce 7300 GS, S3 Graphics Chrome S27

Models: XFX 6600GT, PowerColor X800GTO, Gainward 1980PCX Ultra.

Models: XFX GeForce 7950 GX2, GeCube Radeon X1900 XTX

Budget: Rs 3,500 – Rs 5,500

Budget: Rs 5,500 – Rs 15,000

Budget: Above Rs 18,000

T

his category of graphics card is mainly aimed at users who are casual gamers and who don’t want eye candy and enhanced performance for the games they play. The cards here don’t have support for DVI-I and have a lower number of pipelines, which are not more than four in this category. Most of these cards support Direct X 9.0c and so will play most of the games but at a lower resolution. In this category the GeForce 7300 GS is the best option as this card uses the GeForce chipset. For its price it pumps out a lot of power with good cooling options and overclocking capability. This card supports Microsoft’s DirectX 9.0 and uses Shader Model 3.0 which enables stunning and complex special effects. If you are a die hard ATI fan then the ATI Radeon X1300 Pro is what you should look out for. In the performance quarters this card lags all the way even with 256 MB of memory. It does not support video capture. So if you a casual gamer who doesn’t want to spend too much then go ahead and give the Nvidia 7300 GS a chance, you will not regret it.

T

he mid-range category of cards will give you good performance and some features at a reasonably good price. This category normally has 12 or more pipelines with Shader 3.0 version support. These cards also have support for D-Sub/DVI/S-Vid. Of all the cards in this category, the Nvidia 6600GT delivers a superb performance. The 6600 GT is one out of a handful of cards to support Nvidia’s SLI technology. SLI stands for Scalable Link Interface and allows boards which support the technology to utilize two similar video cards in tandem to improve the graphics performance. The 6600GT supports Shader version 3.0 and supports GDDR3. This is a PCI-e card with ample cooling. The other card in this category is the PowerColor X800 GTO. Also a PCI-e card, it is based on the X800 GTO chipset. The core speed of the card though is just 400 MHz. It supports the Shader version 2.0 and has support for only DDR memory. The XFX 6600GT is the best card for under Rs 15k. If you want great performance at a reasonably good price, this is the card you need.

A

modern high-end graphics card is an extremely complex device as it consists of an immense number of transistors and has to provide stable operation at frequencies above 500-600 MHz. The power consumption of such a card should also be as minimal as possible. These cards have commendable cooling features not present in the entry-level and mid-range cards. These cards also offer a wide range of overclocking options. The XFX GeForce 7950 GX2 is the newest entrant in this category. It possesses tremendous power and comes at a more jaw-dropping price. The card comes factory-overclocked and has a completely different design. It is actually two GeForce 7950 video cards coupled together. So it has two GPUs and a total of 1 GB of DDR3 video memory. Each GPU found on GeForce 7950 GX2 normally runs at 500 MHz accessing its memory at 1.2 GHz. So if you are an avid gamer and price is not an issue and you like your cards overclocked then go for the GeForce 7950 GX2. ■ | Faheem Sayed INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

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Story code: HTL (See Page 20 for details)

PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY

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Lost in modulation S

ony ex-chairman Akio Morita enjoyed listening to his Walkman while playing tennis. Back in 1979, the Walkman player was a hit because it offered both portability and hi-fidelity audio. But the late Mr Morita wouldn’t have enjoyed his music on an airplane. On a flight to Europe in 1978, Dr Amar Bose was trying hard to appreciate the music on his standard issue airline headphone. But the soft notes were overwhelmed by the roar of the engines. And Bose wondered if headphones could actually reduce noise. Back-of-the-envelope calculations on that flight indicated it was possible. That led to Bose Corporation to set up an entire research group dedicated to noise reduction technology. It was only after a whole decade of research that the first Bose Acoustic Noise Cancelling headset was ready. When products with such technology emerged from research labs and went commercial, prices were prohibitively high. But in recent months prices have steadily fallen. If noise canceling headphones challenge your budget, then consider the more affordable earphones with sound-isolating designs. Serious music enthusiasts are investing in noisecanceling technology. In fact, the technology is aimed at those who listen to music while traveling. Some airlines have taken note and offer noisecanceling headphones on-board. Noise canceling technology is available in two forms: Active and Passive. Active noise-canceling headphones are obviously more expensive. Headphones with active noise cancellation have special circuitry that generates a counter signal to cancel surrounding noise. Naturally, these headphones are battery-powered. Light, rechargeable batteries ensure that such Signal cancellation

Ambient noise Phase-inverted signal Signal cancellation

A 180 degree inverted signal is created to neutralize the low frequencies or noise OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

headphones are comfortable to wear over extended periods. But it’s the circuitry within the ear piece that deserves all the credit. Here’s a technical explanation of how active noise cancellation works. Miniature microphones in the headset pick up both ambient sounds as well as music coming through the headphones. It is assumed that most noise occurs at the low frequencies. So the mid- and high-frequency sounds are immediately filtered out of the signal, allowed to pass through, and you hear them. The circuitry in the headset analyses the low frequencies in real time, and applies a technique called ‘phase inversion.’ A 180 degree inverted signal (see graph) is created. This neutralizes the frequencies, though not entirely, because you do need to listen to low frequencies in the music (bass sounds). And that’s how the noise in the headset cancels itself out. The Bose Quite Comfort series and Sennheiser’s PXC series of headphones employ active noise cancellation. The Bose Quite Comfort 3 headphone (US$ 350) is now smaller and lighter than its predecessors. It uses a rechargeable lithium-ion battery. The kit includes a battery charger, case, ¼-inch stereo plug adapter, and a five-foot extension cord. Passive noise cancellation or sound-isolating technology is used in special earphones that have a modified in-ear design. The nozzle on the ear piece goes deep into the ear canal. Effectively this is a ear plug that blocks out ambient sounds, but directs sound from its tiny speaker deep into the ear canal. So you only hear the music. The Shure E series earphones (see picture on the right) have sound isolating designs. Earphones with sound isolating technology can block 70 - 80 percent of ambient sounds. This means you’ll hear only the music while traveling in an aeroplane, and less noise from its engine. But be ready to spend anything between US$ 100 - 550 for these high-tech earphones. Noise cancellation and sound-isolating headphones cannot block out 100 percent ambient sounds. But they significantly improve the listening experience, especially while commuting. These products are not yet mainstream; for now they are only for enthusiasts. The writer has been tracking personal technology for the past 12 years

| Brian Pereira [email protected]

Earphones with sound isolating technology can block 70 - 80 percent of ambient sounds. So you’ll hear more music while traveling in an aircraft and less of its engine

The Shure E5c earphone employs sound isolating technology to keep out ambient sounds

The Bose Quite Comfort 3 headphone employs active noise cancellation technology

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HARDWARE

| INFOGRAPHICS

Satellite TV

You won’t need cable operators to watch your favorite TV shows anymore, which means no disturbance and no deprivation

I

t’s rare to find a home today without a television. For those of you who want more than what the television offers can choose the alternative broadcast system—satellite TV. Today you can bypass your cable operator and still watch your favorite soaps or news or sports channels. Programs can directly reach your TV set from satellite TV service providers and enjoy shows without compromising on the picture and sound quality. You might still remember television broadcast containing fuzzy images and unclear sound decades ago. Those were the days of analog broadcasting (where electromagnetic waves travel in a straight line beamed from a distant location in a city). Here in India, this transmitting tower as well the content generated from it was under the control of Doordarshan. The problem that Doordarshan encountered

1 Programming Sources If you follow how cable operators work, you will realize that they don’t create any content for broadcasting. It is channels like HBO, Star TV or ETV who are sources for the content you view. Your cable operator only receives these programs and distributes them to different homes. Similarly, in the case of satellite television, channels like HBO, Sony and the rest will create the digital content and upload it to a satellite through their own arrays of dish antennas. These content streams are then downloaded at the processing centers of satellite TV service providers like Tata Sky or Dish TV. It is not feasible to broadcast the video data directly in an uncompressed format—the data needs to be compressed to make optimum use of the available bandwith and then encrypted to ensure security. Both of these functions happen at the processing center of the service provider.

very frequently then was interference and long distance transmission, due to which the analog signal lost out in quality. Besides, Doordarshan was the only content provider, so the channels were limited and there were virtually no options to choose from. Gradually, cable TV was introduced and the transmission quality became better. This was because the long distance distribution of data was carried out with the help of a direct cable connection to your television sets. This experience is poised to be further enhanced with the advent of satellite TV. In case of satellite TV too you receive electromagnetic signals, but these signals are far clearer being digital and not analog. You will also have your own small satellite dish which is powerful enough to accept data beamed from a satellite in space!

2 Compression The data, received by the service provider, is compressed using MPEG2 compression. This compression procedure can bring down the size of data stream from 270 Mbps to 5 or 10 Mbps. The compression is done using an application called MPEG encoder. (very similar to the process used to encode videos on to DVDs). This encoder scans and analyses video data, determines irrelevant and redundant data and deletes them to bring down the size. All of this happens without any discernable loss of video quality. The encoder generally applies one of the three types of encoding techniques to compress video data depending upon the type of the video content and the available bandwidth. The satellite picks up the data signal with an onboard dish set at receiving frequencies that fall within the Ku band (see box). The satellite beams back the signal to your dish.

1

3 Downloading Your home dish antenna is a regular antenna that has just been designed in a special way. The surface of this antenna is parabolic in shape and has a central receiving unit known as the feed horn. The data signal hits the surface and gets reflected inward due to its parabolic shape. It is similar to the reflection of light on a concave mirror. The reflected signal converges towards a single point. In this case the point is the feed horn. The feed horn has an element placed in its center known as low noise breakdown converter or LNB. This LNB amplifies the received signal and filters out the noise (radio signals not carrying any information). Once the signals get amplified and filtered, the LNB sends the signal to the receiving equipment (like a set-top box) which is placed beside your television. INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

INFOGRAPHICS

| HARDWARE

81

2

3

4 Pramod Jadhav

4

The Receiver

Finally, the receiving equipment or the receiver gets the signal and enables the display by decrypting the signal. All receivers have decoder chips which are in sync with the encryption settings of the service provider. A service provider can even communicate with the receiver through this decoder chip to make necessary adjustments. This even allows the service provider to change the encryption settings without hampering your viewing experience. A service provider also sends signals to this decoder chip with the purpose of blocking illegal usage. Such signals disrupt the broadcasting, if the chip used is not authorized by the service provider. If you connect your receiver to your analog TV, then the receiver reads the digital MPEG 2 format and converts it

to an analog signal so that the signal becomes compatible for viewing on an analog device. Some receivers even support the HDTV format. Apart from this, the receiver even picks up program schedule information and displays that on the screen. It is also capable of extracting information from the received signal. The signal that your dish antenna sends to your receiver holds composite information of all the channels that you have subscribed to. The receiver extracts every program of the individual channels separately and stores them within. For example, when you change from Star Movies to Set Max with your remote, the signal hits the receiver box. As the information regarding the channel is already stored in the box, the change takes place immediately. However, you need to keep in mind that your receiver can transmit only one type

| Ku Band It is a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum and it falls within microwave range. The frequency of the waves within this range falls between 12 GHz to 14 GHz. Being electromagnetic, it supports satellite-based communications. This band allows a larger number of transponders within an orbit. In an orbit, 360 transponders with K u band can be placed. This allows for more data transfer. of signal at a time. If you have two TVs and want to watch different programs, or want to record a program from one while watching another, then you need to install an additional receiver. Many receivers have a parental lock feature and video recorders to pause live broadcasting and allow recording.  | Pradosh Mitra

OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

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Jagdish Limbachiya

Software Center Applications

I

n this month’s selection of software, we have a bouquet of some interesting applications maintaining a fine balance between shareware and freeware. The collection consists of an image editor, a sound editor, an anti-virus, a designing software and so on. The freeware reviewed this month are some of the best in their respective categories and would meet your application needs without you having to pay a paisa for it. The software of the month is Ulead PhotoImpact 11, a splendid image editor allowing you to modify images the way you want; it even allows you to create a new picture by adding certain tweaks. For all you music lovers out there, we have Adobe Audition 2.0, a sound editor that

lets you customize your music files. On the multimedia front, we have KaraFun—a free karaoke application that lets you sing while it plays music without the vocals. SmartDraw 7 requires a special mention as with it you can design anything from flowcharts to certificates to scientific diagrams. While we have given importance to entertainment and fun this month, we have not ignored security. Kaspersky Internet Security is a complete security package that ensures your computer is free from the threats of cyberspace. Those who want their web browsers to do more than just browsing, we have the SeaMonkey, an all-inone Internet suite consisting of a browser, an e-mail client, an IRC instant messenger and HTML editor, all built into one.

| The Ratings Explained The parameters used for evaluating software are assigned a graphical rating out of a scale of 5. These measures include performance, features and ease of use. The overall rating shown in the reviews is based on all these factors. In addition, there is a value for money rating for each application. This rating is obtained

by compiling the features and the utility of the application against its price. In case of freeware and shareware tools available for downloading from the Internet, we replace the price with the download size (and therefore, the time taken to download the application) for arriving at the value for money rating.

INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

TESTED

| APPLICATIONS

83

Image Editor

Ulead PhotoImpact 11 System requirements: Win 2000/XP, Pentium III compatible or faster, 128 MB RAM (256 MB recommended), 600 MB available hard disk space, True color or hi-color display adapter with 800x600 resolutions or higher, CD-ROM drive

Price Contact Website

$89.99 (Approx Rs 4,140) Ulead Systems Inc. www.ulead.com

RATINGS Ease of use Features Performance Overall Rating Value for money

For that perfect picture

T

here was a time when people used to hand-paint pictures and portraits. Then came the printing press, which translated hand-painted pictures into prints. But it lacked the personal touch. Fast-forward to the 19th century and the invention of the camera gave photographs the much-desired personal touch. Today with the availability of high-resolution digital cameras and camera phones, the concept of photography has been revolutionized. Today every digital camera user has a repository of pictures, but once you have such an archive, the need to manage all of them and also edit them the way you want arises. Ulead PhotoImpact 11 is your answer to these needs. To begin with, the main interface has a simple design, with all the required menus

Object Extraction being performed on an image to select a specific portion

and tools aligned in a very user-friendly manner. The My Workspace tab offers you a variety of options to choose from—the Basic Photo option displays a minimum set of tools, the Advanced option displays all the tools available and yet manages to keep the workspace spacious. One of the new features included is the Object Extraction Wizard with the help of which you can extract part of an image, for instance you have a photograph of you and your friend, crop your face in the image and paint the area surrounding you. You can then paste your photograph onto a different one. Another feature worth a mention is SmartCurves—an automatic image adjustment that compensates for camera response curve anomalies by using

Modify your image using the Creative option

advanced HDR (High Dynamic Range) imaging technology. PhotoImpact allows you to use various effects on the picture, including a slew of animation effects from the choices available. The various choices in the Special Effects option let you spiff up your pictures—you can try an artistic look, a distorted appearance and so on; basically it lets you explore your creative skills to the fullest. It has an improved photo browser— as it only rescans images after they have been edited since the last time the file was opened, the pictures open very quickly. The menu tools are also worth a mention especially the undo tab allows you to undo all of the options performed randomly unlike the usual sequential mode. Also, combining photos of a single scene having dissimilar exposures can be performed. For instance, if you have two photographs of the same scene but shot in different lighting conditions, you can combine both into one using PhotoImpact 11. PhotoImpact 11 allows you to import pictures directly from your scanner or digital camera onto your computer. It also allows importing of RAW files, which is useful if you want to work on a lossless image. For: Simple interface; loads of features. Against: Object extraction not up to the mark.

OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

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84

APPLICATIONS

| TESTED

Audio Editor

Adobe Audition 2.0 System requirements: Win XP with SP2, Pentium III compatible processor or higher, 512 MB of RAM (1 GB recommended), 700 MB of available hard-disk space (5.5 GB recommended), 1,024x768 display (1280x1024 recommended), soundcard with DirectSound or ASIO drivers

Price Contact Website

$299 (Approx Rs 13,800) Adobe Systems Incorporated

www.adobe.com

RATINGS Ease of use Features Performance Overall Rating Value for money

Find it on

Spice up your music

“M

usic is food for the soul’—If your life revolves around this adage, then at some point in time you are bound to get world-weary if the food (in this case music) is the same day in and day out. So how about flavoring it a bit? There are various audio applications that can make a lot of difference to your music. But the one that stands out in the crowd is Adobe Audition 2.0. This application from the Adobe stable assists you with its set of splendid tools in adding the much-needed spice to your music. Also known as Cool Edit Pro, Adobe Audition 2.0 is a complete audio production application. It can be used to edit, mix and process sound. It has a flexible and user-friendly interface; you can resize, dock, hide and recall panels on the interface, which in turn gives you a spacious environment to work around with. The most interesting feature of Audition 2.0 is its ability to display the sound in three spectral forms (frequency display, pan display and spectral phase) as also in the usual waveform display. Creating multi-track sessions is possible in Audition 2.0. You can select tracks, which are pre-installed and alter them or even add new files. You can also extract audio from video files of formats like AVI,

MPG, WMA, MOV, etc and change them from the array of tools available. A lot of options are available to alter the music as per your wish. The Mastering Rack is relatively new and is a mind-blowing feature in Audition 2.0. It has a set of Rack Presets, wherein you can select the plug-in of your choice from the dropdown menu and accordingly alter the various aspects of the sound. In all, there are sixteen plug-in slots provided. Additional controls are present on the Rack interface including Power, Pre/Post routing, Freeze Track and Effects. Master Rack also features Dynamic Processing, which lets you preview the sound even while making changes to it. The sound is graphically represented wherein the sound can be altered by

Use the multi-band compressor to emphasize certain parts of the track

varying the slope of the graph. Editing and recording sound is an effortless task in Audition 2.0. Along with the regular clipboard and fading features, there are others like mix paste, trim and the mute process. But it is the effects integrated into Audition 2.0 that had us floored. The Time/Pitch effect offers numerous options such as the Doppler Shifter effect which provides various acoustic upshots transforming the overall sound. Another sound effect called Delay offers a variety of options such as Chorus, Echo and Reverb effects. The Chorus effect offers a couple of interesting presets—for instance, the Chaos Pits effect adds a sort of spooky touch to the sound while the Broken Stereo effect lends a distorted feel. You can also create personalized presets in all of the above mentioned effects and save them along with the other presets. Once you’re done with this, you can sort the effects you regularly use and save them under Favorites. Overall, Adobe Audition 2.0 meets all your expectations on sound and is a good choice for professionals. But remember, it is heavy on system resources. For: Loads of features. It is very easy to configure this application. Against: Expensive. INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

TESTED

Defragment logically

I

f you create and delete files and folders on a regular basis, it wouldn’t be surprising if your computer’s performance deteriorates gradually. The only way to rectify this problem would be to defragment your hard drive. However, if you have a massive hard drive brimming with data, it will take you ages to defrag using the good old Windows defragmenter. But with Auslogics Disk Defrag, this task can be achieved in a comparatively less time. The striking feature of Auslogics Disk Defrag is its simple interface and support for FAT 16, FAT 32, and NTFS partitions. Using this software is a cakewalk. The pilot screen has a dropdown menu from where you can select the fragmented partition. This menu also gives you the basic details of the partition such as the format and the space details of the hard drive. Once the partition is selected, the next screen displays the operation being

T

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System Utilities performed and the entire partition space is explained by colored legends. There are a couple of options, one being to pause the defragmentation and the other to stop it altogether. Once the defragmentation is over, you get a detailed report of the entire process, including details of the fragmented files and other miscellaneous fragmentation details. The features of Auslogics Disk Defrag are quite limited. For instance, there is no option to analyze the disk before defragmentation and no auto shutdown after it. In our tests, the application gave us an 8 percent increase in the computer’s performance. Note that this application utilizes less system resources as compared to the usual Windows defragmentation tool—about 8 MB memory was utilized. For: Speedy defragmentation and a simple and easy-to-use interface. Against: Limited features.

Secure in cyberspace his is an age where everyone is dependent on the Internet. But the Internet is not a safe place anymore with zillions of viruses doing the rounds of cyberspace. Therefore there is a constant need to keep this threat at bay. This is where an anti-virus comes to the fore. There are numerous Internet security applications available but only a few have proved their reliability. Kaspersky Internet Security 6 is one such application. Though it is a relatively new Internet security application, it has strong virus, spyware, spam, and firewall tools to compete against established names such as Norton Internet Security 2006 and McAfee Internet Security Suite 2006. Kaspersky Internet Security 6 is a combination of an anti-virus program and a personal firewall, along with an anti-spyware protection program, which makes it an excellent security suite. The Anti-spyware succeeds in detecting and blocking web sites that contain malware even before the site is loaded. There is also an anti-spam plug-in for Outlook

| APPLICATIONS

Auslogics Disk Defrag 1.0

System requirements: Windows 2000/XP, Pentium III compatible or faster, 128 MB RAM, 10 MB available hard disk space

Price Contact Email Website

Free AusLogics Inc [email protected] www.auslogics.com

RATINGS Ease of use Features Performance Overall Rating

Find it on CHIP

CD

Internet Security Express and The Bat!, which blocks spam mails without any flaws. Installing it is a cakewalk; once you’re through with the step-by-step wizards, it offers the option to run a virus scan. The suite’s interface is designed intuitively—the main screen displays the numerous options wherein you can easily configure the settings of the anti-virus, anti-spyware, firewall and anti-spam. Each of these settings have numerous options under them, for instance under the firewall settings you can select the level of priority you desire for any application installed in your PC. Overall, Kaspersky Internet Security is not only fast and reliable but it also offers more updates than application suites like Norton Internet Security and McAfee Internet Security. With loads of features, a large virus database, easy configuration, and a comparatively low price tag, Kaspersky Internet Security 6 is an excellent security application that you can try your hands on. For: User friendly and reliable. Against: None.

Kaspersky Internet Security 6.0

System requirements: Win 98SE/Me/NT/2000/XP, Intel Pentium 300 MHz or higher, 128 MB RAM, 50 MB available hard disk space

Price Contact Phone Email Website

Rs 1,400 Communication Links 022-26736767 [email protected] www.kaspersky.com

RATINGS Ease of use Features Performance Overall Rating Value for money

Find it on CHIP

CD

86

APPLICATIONS

| TESTED

No monkey business

Internet Suite

SeaMonkey 1.0.4

T

System requirements: Win 9x/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003, Intel pentium class processor (233 MHz or faster recommended), 64 MB RAM, 100 MB of free hard disk space

Price Contact Website

Free Mozilla Foundation

www.mozilla.org

RATINGS Ease of use Features Performance Overall Rating

Find it on CHIP

CD

KaraFun 1.10

O

System requirements: Win 9x/Me/NT/2000/XP/2003, Intel pentium class processor (233 MHz or faster recommended), 64 MB RAM, 100 MB of free hard disk space Free Recisio Sas support karafun.com

www.karafun.com

RATINGS Ease of use Features Performance Overall Rating

Find it on CHIP

easily accessible Cookie Manager and Image Manager. Browsing experience with SeaMonkey is comparable to Firefox. However, it lacks many extensions and the themes feature available in Firefox. The e-mail client and newsgroups features of SeaMonkey are similar to that of Thunderbird. There is a tool to detect phishing. Accessing mail from several accounts in a single inbox is possible. You can import address books mails and settings from other e-mail clients such as Outlook, Outlook Express and Thunderbird. ChatZilla (an Internet Relay Chat) program is built into SeaMonkey, which comes handy for those who use IRC programs frequently. The HTML editor of SeaMonkey known as Composer provides various tools to edit the HTML code of a web page and also to create new ones. The inclusion of HTML tags and HTML source makes the work easy. For: Multi-platform; ease of use. Against: Lackluster interface.

Sing out loud!

Multimedia

Price Contact Email website

here existed a time when Internet power users needed to open multiple windows in order to surf various web sites simultaneously. This of course resulted in a cramped taskbar. Then came the age of tab browsing which eased the task of surfing. But then again there are many users who want their browsers to do more than just basic navigation. This specific need has given birth to the all-in-one Internet application suite, SeaMonkey. If you use Mozilla products such as Firefox web browser or Thunderbird e-mail client frequently, then SeaMonkey is just the application you need. It is a multi-platform application integrated with the features of a web browser, an e-mail client, an IRC chat client, and a HTML composer. Although it has a lackluster interface, the navigation features are pretty much the same as that of Firefox; it also has the popular Tab Browsing feature along with the

CD

ften while listening to our favorite number, we begin to sing along with the artist. But then we don’t get the pleasure of listening to our voice only, no matter how well our rendition is. With KaraFun, this is possible. It is a feature-rich karaoke application capable of displaying the music and the lyrics of the song without the vocals. Features are numerous with voice recording, Key and Tempo control in order to control the pitch and the pace of the music respectively. The presence of Vocal Reducer for MP3 files alters the vocal effect of the music. Playlist management and fullscreen or windowed display is also present. It supports various audio and video file formats such as MP3, MIDI, OGG, WMA, MPEG, AVI, KAR and KFN. The settings window of KaraFun offers quite a number of options especially associating files that are required by KaraFun in either the Karaoke mode or the KaraFun mode. There are settings for microphone and display as well. The most interesting option is the Training mode, wherein you can select the type of

fonts and color so that you can get familiar with the lyrics. Recording sound in KaraFun is very simple. For instance, once you connect the microphone to the computer, you can record your voice by simply clicking on the record button. The recorded sound is saved as a WAV file in the designated folder. The built-in KaraFun editor has some excellent features namely importing of KOK, KAR, LRC files, support for MP3, OGG, MID and KAR files and real-time rendering, etc. KaraFun supports the KFN file format, which is a compressed file containing all information and files of the karaoke song. A single KFN file can contain all the karaoke information such as music, lyrics, images and sounds. You can download KFN files for you favorite numbers from the Internet. However, these files are not very easily available. Despite its glitches, KaraFun is must try software for all music lovers, who want to try a hand at karaoking with a little bit of assistance. For: Easy usage; loaded with features. Against: KFN files not easily available. INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

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Smart ideas

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ogical communication is very essential in every aspect of life. Naturally then, you must apply the same rule in your presentations as well—a step-by-step explanation of the idea you want to sell. So, is there an application that gives you the liberty to express your ideas logically? Yes, SmartDraw 7 does and very aptly indeed. It is a feature-rich drawing application which lets you create flowcharts, certificates, calendars, floor plans, maps, scientific diagrams, marketing graphs, family trees, software designs and much more! Working with SmartDraw 7 is an effortless task—the interface is simple to maneuver; by selecting from the array of built-in templates, you can simplify the task of drawing. For instance, to create a flowchart all you need to do is select the Flowcharts tab and select the appropriate template of flowchart you wish to design. You can also make changes in the flowchart with the help of the tools available such

T

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Presentation Tool

SmartDraw 7 Suite Edition as the various geometrical figures. In case you’re lost within the interface, which is nearly impossible, the wizard on the left hand side guides you through the usage of the various tools. If you still encounter problems, the ‘Show Me’ button provides an animated illustration. After SmartDraw 7 is installed onto your computer, it installs plug-ins for Microsoft office applications. Therefore it is possible to access SmartDraw directly from Word, Excel or PowerPoint and import the design, which has previously been worked upon in SmartDraw. You can also easily copy and paste text and graphics from other programs into your SmartDraw drawings. SmartDraw 7 is an excellent design application for engineers, programmers, architects, accountants, and for all those who need to communicate information graphically. For: Feature rich; user friendly. Against: Expensive.

Unlimited downloads orrent is the latest buzzword in file sharing, fast replacing the good old FTP clients. The latest entrant in the BitTorrent client’s space is µTorrent 1.6. Other than its name, which has been derived from the Greek letter µ (spelt ‘mew’), this torrent proves to be anything but Greek to its users. µTorrent 1.6 has a straightforward interface with most of the basic features required by a BitTorrent client. It is small in size, free and requires low system resources. Its features include multiple simultaneous downloads, global and per-torrent speed limiting and easy configuration that lets you make appropriate usage of the available bandwidth. If a file transfer is interrupted, it can rapidly resume the process. The main interface of µTorrent 1.6 is divided into three parts. On the left hand side, the files are categorized according to their status. For instance, it displays the files that are currently being downloaded or completed or whether their status is active or inactive. The center window shows the list of torrents in the queue and the third window displays the information of the

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System requirements: Win 2000/ XP, Pentium III compatible or faster, 128 MB RAM (256 MB recommended), 600 MB available hard disk space, True Color or Hi-Color display adapter with 800x600 resolution or higher, CD-ROM drive

Price Contact Email Website

$197 (Rs 9,086 approx) SmartDraw [email protected]

www.smartdraw.com

RATINGS Ease of use Features Performance Overall Rating Value for money

Find it on CHIP

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Torrent Client file, the peers, and allows you to monitor download speeds, peers and other details of the active downloads. The download speed is also displayed graphically. The toolbar provides various options such as including the torrent file in the list and adding a torrent from an URL. It also allows you to create your own torrent. An RSS downloader is also present. When you open µTorrent 1.6, it opens a speed guide wherein you can run the speed test at www.dslreports.com. Also, it has loads of advanced features like associating with .torrent files and automatically taking over whenever a torrent is open. Other features include skin support, file management, proxy support, UPnP port mapping and more. The Preferences window offers a number of options to configure µTorrent 1.6 such as selecting the destination folder for all your downloads. The configuration for the connection can also be done from this window. For: Easy usage; requires low system resources. Against: Low on features.

µTorrent 1.6

System requirements: For Windows 95 (Winsock2), 98/ME, NT/2000, XP and above, Intel Pentium III class processor or higher, 128 MB RAM, 100 MB of free hard disk space

Price website

Free www.utorrent.com

RATINGS Ease of use Features Performance Overall Rating

Find it on CHIP

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Damn right distribution! A minimalistic distribution that runs off a USB thumb drive and surprises you with its super fast speed—DSL-N can make your decrepit PCs come back to life

H

Want to try out

DAMN SMALL

LINUX?

There are ten 1 GB drives to be won! Simply answer this question: Who was the creator of Damn Small Linux? Send in your replies to [email protected]

aving tried our hands on Live CD distributions like Knoppix and Ubuntu, we became well aware of their limitations. Such operating systems load themselves into memory and all the data that you have worked on is lost as soon as your system is rebooted. If you want to store data, you will have to connect a USB thumb drive or your hard disk. Although storage of data is possible using a Live CD, it does not allow you to retain your network and application settings, browser bookmarks, themes, desktop wallpapers, custom changes made to configuration files, etc. It is also generally slow and takes up a large amount of system resources to run with decent response times. It provides ease of use in terms of getting used to the system without touching your existing hard drive. Our quest for a solution that is not only easy to use but can also store enough data ended with a distribution that could run off the USB thumb drive. After analysing a couple of options, we zeroed down to DSL-N (Damn Small Linux-Not) that is not only lightweight and easy to use, but also provides a decent set of features, flexibility and speed of an installed operating system.

Setup and installation To get started with Damn Small Linux - Not, you can either download the latest version of the .iso from http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/dsl-n/ download.html or find it on this month’s DVD. The entire distribution is only about 95 MB in size and can easily fit on a 128 MB flash drive. Unlike Feather Linux, you cannot install DSL-N directly to a USB flash drive. Burn the iso file that you just downloaded with your favourite CD writing software to convert it into a Live CD. Booting off the newly created Live CD takes you to DSL-N’s default desktop interface system. Right click to invoke the main menu and select “Tools | Install to pen drive”. To install this on the USB flash drive, select “USB ZIP pen drive”. The Install to thumb drive menu is invoked. Make sure that your flash drive has two partitions for your applications, settings and data. Also make sure that your USB flash drive is formatted with the FAT32 file-system and inserted directly into a USB port and not into a USB hub. Once you are done, boot up from your shiny new USB flash drive.

A menu inside the operating system facilitates a easy install to the USB flash drive

Pramod Jadhav

INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

FEATURE

The distribution booted off perfectly on our 2.0 GHz Celeron system with 256 MB of memory. All hardware including the graphics, network and sound was detected and worked flawlessly. The scroll function of the mouse worked perfectly too. We installed it on a 500 MHz Celeron system with 128 MB of memory and the operating system was responsive. Although this distribution should work on most Intel and VIA hardware, don’t expect it to work on your latest AM2 platform—like most other Linux distributions, ATI chipset support is still missing.

At the desktop Damn Small Linux-Not features a neat image of the sea as the default wallpaper. The first thing that catches the eye is the graphical system monitoring system. The system monitor sits on the right side of the desktop and provides real time information about all aspects of your PC. Some of the information provided includes network bandwidth, number of active processes, CPU usage (percentage), memory and swap file usage, file system usage, system uptime and battery life if the system in question is a laptop. It also displays the current kernel version, hostname and IP address of the system. This information can be particularly useful in analysing how your system is being used. In the lower right corner lies the master volume control as well as the mount feature. The mount feature is particularly useful if you want to access storage devices like

| Note Only get into this whole exercise if your PC BIOS supports booting of a USB flash device. Most motherboards will recognize our Flash drive as an external USB ZIP device.

OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

floppy, CD/DVD drive, another flash drive, internal or external hard drive if attached, etc. The lower left corner displays the complete desktop workspace and how objects are placed in the workspace. Objects like forms, applications, etc can be dragged and dropped into different work spaces and can be accessed with the click of a button. The top half has easy access to a command terminal for manual system control. It also has shortcuts to programs that facilitate easy management of hardware as well as software. The ‘mydsl’ extension tool provides an easy way to install additional software contributed by users. The DSL panel is like a control panel system that can be used to set networking, printing, wireless, broadband connection, X server, backup and restore of data, etc. The lower panel at the bottom of the screen shows the current time and date as well as holds the taskbar.

Applications DSL-N although being a minimalistic distribution, does not skimp on the basic necessities. It features a fully featured web browser and a mail client called the Mozilla SeaMonkey suite. This suite even includes an IRC chat client system. Its office productivity software includes AbiWord, a fully featured word processor and Gnumeric, a fully featured spreadsheet software that you can open, edit and save in Microsoft Office format. But don’t expect these office productivity tools to run all your VB macros although they would sufficiently run all your formulae. For audio and video enthusiasts, it includes a version of mplayer that plays almost

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any audio/video file format. However, it is not as simple as double clicking on the file. We got the DivX movies and MP3 audio working by invoking mplayer at the command line. The distribution even includes an all-in-one messaging system called Gaim to keep in touch with your online buddies. Most documentation out there on the Internet is in the PDF format and the Xpdf viewer does a good job of displaying PDF documents and files.

Performance and usability When we first used DSL-N, we were very impressed with its minimalistic installation process and super fast speed. In fact, for normal office applications, we saw no visible decrease in system response even on a low-end P3 system. So it’s time to make use of the older computers that you were perhaps prepared to dump as you thought they were not worthy of running Windows XP. To cite you an example, the research work for this review as well as writing it was done using DSL-N off a PQI 256 MB USB flash drive. The CUPS printing system seamlessly integrated into our office network while also being able to print perfectly to the HP 4100 mono laser printer. Its Samba shares also integrated seamlessly into our Windows network although it was not as simple as a double click in LinNeighbourhood.

Verdict Damn Small Linux-Not satisfies most basic application requirements. For a distribution that is under 100 MB and runs entirely out of RAM, it provides blazing fast performance and a decent set of features. Don’t believe us? Fire up DSL-N on your computer and find out for yourself.  | Kunal Rupera

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Symbian Gear

If you use your smartphone only to send and receive phone calls then it’s about time you used some of these tools to extract the most out of it

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ll smartphones usually need some additional application to spice it up in some way. It could be a visual feature or some application that increases your productivity. I came to realize the potential of these third party tools through a series of events that I am going to share with you. Two years ago, I owned a Nokia 3350 and at that point in time it served my purpose, which was namely, to be reachable at all times of the day, set reminders and use the stopwatch during hardware reviews. As time went by, the phone started to seem a little outdated in the palm of my hand. I gave in to temptation and opted for the ‘candy bar’ Sony Ericsson T630. It looked good, fit my budget and had enough features to keep me happy. Unfortunately, it turned out to have a mind of its own so it would momentarily lose control of its ‘motor functions’ and vibrate incessantly until I physically removed the battery. I exchanged it for a Nokia 6600 (I had to cough up extra, of course) hoping this would future-proof my phone for a while. I was doing quite well with the phone until the day I had to run a printer test. I took my phone out to use the stopwatch only to find out that there is no such tool in the 6600! The phone has image editing software and a wireless presenter but no stopwatch. This made me scour the Internet for an alternative solution. The search resulted in my installing “Pocket Counter” – a free timer tool. While searching for a Symbian stopwatch, I came across many other applications that allowed the phone to do much more than just remember notes, buzz at a particular time and send multimedia messages. Here are some of the tools available for download, both free and shareware. All these tools will work across a range of Symbian Series 60 phones. It also depends on the Symbian OS version your

phone uses. A quick way to find that out is to look up www.gsmarena.com against “OS” to know the version and series it belongs to. However, most of the tools I have mentioned will work on a Series 60 phone running Symbian version 7.0. You should also visit the “Support” section of www.nokia-asia.com to look for software specifically for your phone. If you receive an error while trying to run a newly installed application then it could be because it is loaded on the memory card. Uninstall the application and install it on the phone memory.

FExplorer – File Browser

Type: Free, OS: Symbian version 6.1 Smartphones have their own built in file manager, which lack basic “cut/copy/paste” functions. It only allows users to browse through some fixed folders created on the phone or card memory. FExplorer (or File Explorer) for Symbian phones makes it easy to travel through folders on the phone or card easily and quickly. This free utility makes saving files received via Bluetooth a breeze—simply because it allows you to browse the “Inbox” and move the files within it to another folder. Apart from the user interface, the functions are similar to Windows Explorer and the keypad shortcuts are helpful too. It even has a

Pramod Jadhav

screenshot utility, ideal for transferring files via Bluetooth.

CellTrack - (Signal Strength) Type: Free, OS: Symbian version 7

If you are wondering why you experience network outages or patchy reception it is probably because of a weak signal. CellTrack will tell you how strong or weak the signal strength is in a particular area. If you are not interested in knowing your service provider’s signal strength then you can just use “PhoneInfo”. Make sure this one is installed on the phone memory instead of the card. This tool will display your phone’s IMEI number (unique to each phone), CellId, processor speed and memory details.

BlackList

Type: Shareware, OS: Symbian version 7 There are times when you want to avoid somebody’s calls—your landlord’s or your boss’, maybe. BlackList can be configured to disconnect calls from certain numbers in your contact list. You can even add groups you have created in your address book. BlackList will not disconnect the call unceremoniously. The caller will get a busy tone every time he dials your number and

FEATURE

your phone will not even ring. The BlackList logs will also inform you of the number of calls it has thwarted for you.

Oxygen Phone Manager – (Backup) Type: Shareware, Symbian OS: 7 Always make sure you have taken a backup of all your contacts on the PC. When you decide to upgrade your phone, you’ll have to transfer all your contacts, messages and notes to your new phone. This is where the Oxygen Phone Manager will save you from the pain of losing any data. OPM works in conjunction with a client file installed on the phone to transfer your messages and contacts to the PC. It is a good idea to keep these details backed up regularly in case of any eventuality. “Pro Backup” can also be used in place of OPM if you want a one-stop solution in phone backup.

Media Safe – (Folder Security)

Type: Shareware, Symbian OS version: 7 Media Safe is for the paranoid and for those who don’t like people getting nosy with their personal files stored on the phone. It provides advanced security with 256-bit encryption (Blowfish method) for audio and video. It can be used to encrypt files on your memory card too.

Dictaphone – (Voice Recorder) Type: Free, Symbian OS version: 7

You won’t have to carry your Dictaphone everywhere if you install “Dictaphone” on your Series 60 phone. It can be set to record

phone conversations automatically or with the press of a preset button. Offline, it will even record regular conversation and store it on your memory card in AMR or WAV format. It will even record multiple conversations serially instead of overwriting. For AMR playback you can install “Nokia Multimedia Player”—it is simple and light. “Total Recall” is another application that offers the same features as Dictaphone.

ETI Camcorder Pro – (Video Recorder) Type: Shareware, Symbian OS Version: 7 The video recorder on a Nokia phone captures only a minute’s worth of video and also offers a limited set of features. The Camcorder Pro extends the shooting period by making it depend on the amount of available free space. The footage can be saved in AVI or 3GP format, whichever you find convenient. You can edit these files later with Acala 3GP movies—a free video editing software.

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studying for their GRE. To be able to use this tool you need to subscribe to a GPRS connection, access the Internet and register on www.studystack.com to create your flash cards. These flash cards can be made public as well so that other can also download them onto their phones for reference. The web site already contains material on history, math and geography.

PDF+ - (PDF Reader)

Type: Shareware, Symbian OS Version: 7 If you don’t want to create flash cards out of your study material, you can try making PDFs of your documents (or use QuickOffice on Nokia phones). Adobe also provides a free PDF reader for Symbian phones but it is mainly for phones running Symbian OS 8.0a (Nokia 6680).

Opera 8.60, Agile Messenger and IM+ Bluetooth (Online Applications) Type: Free, Symbian OS Version: 7

This dictionary will occupy approximately 5 MB on your phone because it contains 240,000 words and phrases. Not only will you understand the meaning of the word, you will also be taught where to use it. If you are interested, MSDict will also tell you the origin of the word you looked up.

If you are going to use your phone to surf the Internet then you need to have the Opera Mini installed on your phone. It is free and very configurable. You can set cached images to load on a page, saving your surfing time. Agile Messenger can get you chatting with your friends on MSN, ICQ, Yahoo, AOL and Google. Quite honestly, the list is endless. Some of the applications are a little rough around the edges but they will only get better with time as they proliferate across handsets. I will leave you with a few more applications that will surely interest you.

StudyME – (Educational)

Additional Tools

MSDict Concise Oxford English Dictionary – (English Dictionary) Type: Shareware, Symbian OS Version: 7

Type: Free, Symbian OS Version: Javaenabled phone StudyME is apt for students who are

IM+ Bluetooth: Bluetooth IM tool. ZScreencapture: A free screenshot utility. OggPlay: A free player that accepts OGG and MP3 files. Control Freak2/Nokia Wireless Presenter: A Bluetooth remote control to control your computer and its applications.

Web sites to Visit http://www.allaboutsymbian.com http://www.softpedia.com http://my-symbian.com  | Ashutosh Desai

SMS us!

Story code: AFS (See Page 20 for details)

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Alternative backup It is important to maintain a copy of your hard disk partition for exact restoration in case of a hard disk failure. There are numerous tools that help you achieve this. Here are a few...

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nyone who has lost data once knows exactly how it feels when a doctoral thesis or your only tax return sheet that you had taken so much time and effort to prepare is irretrievably lost. According to a survey conducted by Maxtor (now Seagate), about 73 percent of users suffered due to hard disk failures at least once. The survey revealed that users are generally not in the habit of taking regular data backups. In several case, the hard disks were not even partitioned. Therefore, a virus attack or a system crash invariably resulted in a complete data disaster. The only way of arming yourself against such disasters would be using a hard disk suite that comprises a partition tool and a drive image program. The drive image program is your insurance against data loss while the partition tool provides for the logical formating and administration of the hard disk. Unfortunately, there is no single package that boasts both these features but what

we do have are individual products. After testing the latest programs, we bring you a selection of the best out there. We did not limit ourselves to simple test scenarios like creating partitions and images. Instead, we used the example of a power user who uses networks and runs Windows XP Professional. We looked out for special features such as image encryption and backup over LAN. The partition tool should also recognize external USB drives. In case of special file systems used in Windows 2000 such as software-based RAID controllers. In the following test you will find out whether these tools support special features like these.

Partition tools All three contenders—Disk Director, Partition Manager and PartitionMagic— are almost perfect when it comes to delivering basic feature such as creating partitions, formating, deleting, moving, copying and resizing images without

any difficulty. However, as far as special operations is concerned, these programs are sometimes inflexible to work with. For instance, if you want to move a partition from a hard disk that is already partitioned, only Partition Manager from Paragon is trouble-free as it does so without you having to implicitly create free space on the drive. In case of PartitionMagic from Symantec and Disk Director from Acronis, you first need to create space before creating a partition. However, creating a partition using Partition Manager is unnecessarily complicated because it does not mount a newly created partition in Windows. This may not be a problem for experts, but it is definitely a major drawback for general users who expect it to happen automatically. Also, the partitions are hidden—so when you restart Windows, the partition is not displayed in Windows Explorer. If you have a large number of multimedia files that you want to INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

FEATURE

reorganize, it is preferable to split the partitions or merge them. This is faster than copying the files individually. Disk Director performs both these operations without much of a problem, but there is a snag here. The program displays an empty merged partition in the preview. However, all data actually remains intact. However, this is not the same with the other tools. The split partition feature is absent in Partition Manager and although PartitionMagic does offer both these features, partitions can be merged in this program only if they have the same file system. If you want to merge your hard disk partitions, for instance, update the old FAT partitions to the NTFS partitions (this does not result in any data loss). In this case, only Partition Manager delivers a satisfactory result—it not only converts FAT 16 to FAT 32 but also FAT 32 to NTFS. Also, the old NT systems can be updated by converting the outdated NTFS 1.02 to NTFS 3.01. While PartitionMagic converts FAT to NTFS partitions, Disk Director is limited as it can only convert FAT 16 to FAT 32. However, Disk Director and Partition Manager can hide partitions and delete them as well, so the data you don’t want to share is safe. The old data in such a shredded partition can no longer be restored, even in laboratory conditions. But when you look up the old partition tables in the hard disk, both the programs can conjure up partitions that have been deleted accidentally. Only PartitionMagic does not offer the restoration feature. Large external USB drives of over 120 gigabytes are getting more and more affordable and serve as additional practical storage carriers. If you want to partition such disks, Disk Director and Partition Manager can be used without any problem. PartitionMagic has been in the market for a couple of years now but we do not recommend it for this purpose. When using the program in DOS mode, it does not recognize USB drives. Due to this reason PartitionMagic cannot find the hard disk in the first place. The problems just seem to increase when one uses a software-based RAID controller to OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

work with partitions. For experts, a major highlight of the Disk Director is its editor which lets you view the partition content on a code level and even manipulate it. These are features for which one normally needs an additional tool. Most of the times, these are not free. Fortunately, all the three programs prepare you for emergencies like system crashes. Disk Director boots from the program CD. You can create a boot CD in Partition Manager. As opposed to that, PartitionMagic still relies on a boot floppy to start the system in case of emergencies. This is disadvantageous as most new PCs exclude the floppy drive. The OS selection capabilities of Disk Director has the most to offer when it comes to the boot manager. It comes along with its own small operating system which includes the partition tool. The boot manager’s interface has been designed to adapt itself with XP and offers a multitude of features. It does not however recognize an operating system in a dynamic volume. So we deactivated the boot manager to boot the system with the regular Windows boot manager. The boot managers of both Partition Manager and PartitionMagic are no better than the Windows boot manager, and in fact while using them, dynamic volumes cannot be

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| Test results The winners: It was difficult to pick the the perfect solution for safeguarding and managing your PC. When it comes to partition tools and image programs, every manufacturer has a serious weak point. However, from our tests, we can pinpoint the ideal tools for the perfect system suite. We recommend Norton Ghost 10 from Symantec as the image tool and Acronis Disk Director 10 as the partition tool. No other system suite apart from Ghost restores an image without any problem. It also works perfectly well on a local network. While rival programs throw up errors, this program partitions without any hitches. seen in Windows XP. And if that wasn’t complicated enough, PartitionMagic reinstalls the boot manager from the CD, but only on a FAT partition. If you are using XP, and have completely changed over to NTFS, then you first have to create a primary FAT partition before loading the boot manager. This is disadvantageous as neither of these programs can create partitions in dynamic volumes. When we tried this, Disk Director led to a system crash. Only Partition Manager converts logical drives into physical partitions without data loss. This can also be used

| Free system suite Partitions and backup in Windows If you are looking for unsophisticated partition and backup features, then the Windows Tools is a good option. We help you find the corresponding tools. Partition tools: It is more useful to use the Windows feature for the initial setup, considering that with Windows you can only create and delete partitions. To access “Computer Management”, go to “Start | Control panel | Administrative tools”. Click on “Data carrier administration” to open the partitioning option. Right click on the “Free storage location”, which is shown graphically in green. Select “New logical disk drive” to create a partition. In the object menu, a number of options

like the following are given: “Change disk drive designator and disk drive path”, “Format” and “Delete logical disk drive”. Backup: Before starting, you need to reinstall the corresponding tool from the program CD to your Windows XP Home. You will find it under “VALUEADD\MSFT\ NTBACKUP\ NTBACKUP.MSI”. After installation, you can find the backup option by clicking on the Start menu and following the given directorial structure - “Accessories”> “system programs” >”backup”- in the program list. With the help of an assistant, you can either provide a backup for individual files, an entire disk drive or even the most important Windows system files. The backup can be time controlled and even incremental as you wish.

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Expert tool: The Editor of Disk Director allows experienced users to change entries in the boot sector manually to undo a software RAID system. This feature is also present in Windows XP Professional but after the operation, it removes all data from the disk. After all of these scenarios, it is essential that the partitions remain stable because if they crash, it will result in a complete data loss. Through the tests we conducted, only Disk Director proved to be resilient against system crashes but only as long as it had nothing to do with logical drives. In this case, Partition Manager failed to redistribute free space on the drive—a rather easy operation. The progress bar was stuck on 0 percent and we had to end the task by rebooting. Partition Manager returned the same results even after restarting. Then, we also tried to restore deleted NTFS partitions using PartitionMagic. The program kept throwing up “error 117” and repeatedly shut down. Only Disk Director could detect the lost NTFS partitions and restore them. Disk Director was also successful in making other applications

on the hard disk accessible. When it comes to usability, Disk Director far outperforms PartitionMagic and Partition Manager. For additional hard disk related functions, Partition Manager offers the best set of options. It features a file explorer, which opens all supported file systems. In addition, it offers the capability to edit the Master File Table (MFT). This is very practical because a lot of small files are directly saved in the MFT under NTFS.

Drive image programs All the three tools—Norton Ghost, True Image and Drive Backup perform the basic features of creating a partition image, compressing and restoring it over a network. Therefore, if one PC which is part of a home network fails, you can restore a backup from another PC connected to the same network. However, differences would arise in the partition depending upon the system configurations. First up, Symantec Ghost 10 uses a special Windows version (Windows PE) for its restoration console. No problems arose during restoration and there were no hitches in the connection to the network. However, we did not get the same results with Paragon Drive Backup 7, which uses a Linux system for its console and takes a while to configure to a network. Restoring a network backup with Acronis True Image 9 was even tougher as it does not have an input window for a network password; so access was denied to the backup on the network. An external storage device like a

USB hard drive is a useful storage location for the backup data. The advantages are evident—the configuration is not only faster and easier, but it also lets you carry your image with you. During the tests, all the three tools provided a backup to the external USB drives and even restored the data from these drives later. Acronis goes a step further with its True Image, which not only saves on a network drive or a USB drive, but also offers an option to create a protected and hidden partition in a local disk. It is here that the images are stored. This prevents users from deleting images accidentally. Although this is a neat feature, it contradicts an important rule of backups—never create a backup on the same drive. It is a myth that each backup must contain the complete data of the partition. Incremental backups provide a backup of only the changes made since the last image. This is a feature offered by all the three tools, resulting in efficient use of space. However, this is only useful if you don’t restore a basic system frequently, and would instead like to add important data like pictures, MP3s, documents and so on a regular basis. Encrypted partitions were supported by all of these programs during the tests. Protection is top priority not only for backup but for other features as well. It is thus important for each program to provide an option of backing up the image with a password, which in turn protects the image against any unauthorized access, a feature supported by all the three.

The interface of Paragon Drive Backup 7 drive image tool is very complicated especially for beginners INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

FEATURE

Next, we tested the ability to restore individual files from an image. This feature is helpful when you require a small Word document from the backup. In addition, all these programs offer a tool with which you can check and extract the contents of a backup set. This feature is particularly impressive in Acronis True Image. Here, the application temporarily assigns the letter of a drive to the image. With this, you can access the backup files through Windows Explorer or through any other application. In case of the other programs, you first need to extract the data, which is indeed time consuming. The image creation feature should ideally be quick and easy. The Symantec and Acronis tools offer an option of creating backups in the background, thus allowing you to carry on with your work without any difficulty. This feature is absent in the Paragon tool (ranked third by us). As with other programs, users can set the CPU utilization for this program. However, this feature is missing in Paragon. For instance, if you want to edit a picture in Photoshop, you can change the amount of CPU usage during the backup process and alleviate load for your tasks at hand. In addition, the program should be able to execute image related tasks as per a user-defined schedule in the background. This works very well with tools like Ghost 10 and True Image 9. In fact, in True Image you have the option of starting a program before or after the backup process. However, this timetable feature is absent in Drive Backup 7. Unfortunately, it is not possible to operate all tested products easily and

95

| KNOW HOW Partitions in the hard disk When you boot your computer, the BIOS first controls the Master Boot Record (MBR). The MBR is always in the first sector of the hard disk and the first 446 bytes mainly contain the Boot Loader. The MBR polls the start partition. It later calls a partition table of 64 bytes, which allows a maximum of four entries. This also means that only four of such so-called primary partitions are possible. The entries in the primary partitions comprise the start and end points as

well as the identification of the file system and a specification stating whether an extended partition is involved. If a primary partition is marked as ‘extended’ then more than four partitions can be created in the hard disk The extended partition has its own partition sector and its size corresponds to the MBR. Since a BootLoader is not present there, this partition table offers space for further 23 so-called logical disk drives.

Hard Disk 1st primary partition

2nd primary partition

3rd primary partition

Extended partition Logical drive

Logical drive

Logical drive

A maximum of four primary partitions are allowed in a hard disk. One of those—the expanded partition contains additional contain drives intuitively. Above all, in case of add-ons like backup over the network drive, they hardly assist the user, irrespective of whether the assistant features are in-built or not. It is especially irksome for beginners, who would be expected to be acquainted with jargon. The Paragon program is an ideal example of this case—it does a substandard job of offering any usable assistance to new users. On the other hand, the Acronis True Image interface is pleasant and actually assists the user even during difficult tasks like planned backups and using the network functionality, etc. Its only shortcoming

The Symantec Ghost 10 application displays the available backup size very clearly in a window OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

| APPLICATIONS

is that features have not been explained substantially. Another drawback of this program is that its task planning icon is not easily recognizable. The Symantec Ghost interface emerges a winner. After launching, it offers an overview of all its features and a detailed description of each of the tasks. Additional features can be accessed using tabs. Users can quickly and easily create a backup with the help of step-by-step wizards. Thanks to the special Windows PE version, users feels at home even while restoring data.  | Markus Mandau

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This is how Chip tested Partitioning and image tools were installed on a logical drive in Windows XP professional. In addition, we connected an external USB drive to a 2.55 GHz P4 computer.

Partition tools The programs must create, delete, transfer, copy and convert partitions. We paid special attention to complicated operations like dividing, merging and restoring. We additionally tested the performance of the tools with USB drives, which are increasingly being used. Besides, we took into consideration the fact that the test candidates should be able to deal with dynamic disks.

Ergonomics How robust are the partition tools? In case something goes wrong, can the user stop or cancel the action? Besides, during the tests we also paid attention to error messages displayed by the programs and whether the features offered by these programs are of any further help to users. Additional points were given for functionality and usability.

Functionality What is the use of the accompanying boot manager and does it display Windows on the logical drive? The partition tools should at least master the operations of the latest file systems along with additional tasks like changing the drive alphabet or the cluster size. They should have alternate mediums, ideally a CD at their disposal. This can be helpful in case of an emergency and a user can boot a backup system to undo the damage. A Disk Editor offers users additional advantages for the task partitioning.

| How CHIP assessed Functionality

Partitioning

20% 50% 30% Ergonomics

Partition tools

1

2

3

Product

Disk Director Suite 10

Partition Manager 7.0 Pro

Partition Magic 8.05

Price (approx)

$49.99 (Rs 2,293)

$70 (Rs 3,211)

$69.95 (Rs 3,209)

Internet

www.acronis.com

www.paragon.com

www.symantec.com

Overall placing 1

50

100

1

50

100

1

50

100

Partitions (50%) Ergonomics (30%) Functionality (20 %) Price/performance Conclusion Partitions Creating/deleting/ formatting Splitting/merging Moving/copying Resizing partition Converting

Very good A robust partition with powerful professional features

Satisfactory A powerful partition, but not stable and not very comfortable

Fair Outdated software with only basic features included

•/ • / •

•/ • / •

•/ • / •

•/ • •/ • • • (FAT 16 to FAT 32)

–/• •/ • • • (From FAT to NTFS, NTFS 1.02 to NTFS 3.01) Hiding/deleting •/ • •/ • Restoring • • In external hard disk Works when rebooted Works even without rebooting Working with dynamic Does not work; leads to Converts dynamic in data structures * a system crash basis data carrier Ergonomics Assistant features Has integrated the Has start assistant assistant feature Usability Well-designed interface Simple interface Reliability Stable, but the system When an action crashes in case of cannot be executed, it dynamic data structures freezes Help Detailed help Well-structured help Error report, Reports when an Partly incomprehensible hard disk state operation cannot be messages in case of executed failed tasks Functionality File systems NTFS, FAT, Ext2, Ext3, NTFS, FAT, Ext2, Ext3, ReiserFS, LinusSwap ReiserFS, LinusSwap Boot manager Starts OS from all Starts OS only from partitions, finds deleted primary partitions, OS entries, comprises can invoke old MBR, Disk Director, does and does not have a not have a good de-installation routine de-installation routine De-fragmenting hard • (Uses Windows •(Separate even the disk defragmentation) MFT) Testing hard disk Easy check Intensive check Boot medium Program CD Recordable recovery CD Additional options Extensive Editor for Data protection during experts with an access power failure, complete to MBR and partitions physical copy of a table creates a backup partition, has script copy from MBR control

•/ • •/ • • • (FAT to NTFS) •/ • – Works only if rebooting is not required Does not work

Has integrated the assistant feature Well-designed interface Does not function at all when it detects an error Detailed help Partly cryptic error messages

NTFS, FAT, Ext2, Ext3, LinusSwap Starts OS only from primary partitions, requires FAT partition for installation • (Uses Windows defragmentation) Easy check Recordable disks Rearranges references to delayed files, determines the boot partition newly

CHIP assigned score boxes as per this grade key: 100–90 points = 5 boxes, 89–75 = 4 boxes, 74–60 = 3 boxes, 59–45 = 2 boxes, 44–20 = 1 box, 19–0 = 0 c. [• = ja – = nein] * Used in external drives INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

FEATURE

| APPLICATIONS

97

This is how Chip tested

Image programs

1

2

3

Product

Norton Ghost 10.0

True Image 9.0

Drive Backup 7.0

Price (approx)

$69.99 (Rs 3,209)

$49.99 (Rs 2,293)

$70 (Rs 3,211)

Internet

www.symantec.com

www.acronis.com

www.paragon.com

Overall placing 1

Images (50%)

50

100

1

50

100

1

50

100

100

90

65

95

98

55

Ergonomics (20 %)

100

58

56

Price/performance

Satisfactory

Good

Fair

Conclusion

An excellent image tool that is easy to use. Does a good job with the network report, which is optimal and easy to handle

The program is convincing thanks to its pleasant interface. However, the absent network report is met with some disappointment

Although the basic features work fine, the tool neither supports the backup in the background nor a time table

Functionality (30%)

Images Creating images on • With its own network • Difficult installation of network drive possible report the net driver

• Without password

Creating images on USB dives possible

•

•

•

Creating incremental image possible

•/ •

•

•

Support for dynamic data carrier available

•

–

•

Functionality Compression stages

Four stages (standard, Four stages (standard, Four stages (standard, middle, high not middle, high not middle, high not present) present) present)

Automatic backup (time table)

Possible

Possible

Absent

Adjustment of backup speed as per the system resources

Adjustable through elevator bar

Adjustable in three stages

Absent

Encryption through password

•

•

•

Restoring individual files from image

Possible

Possible

Possible

Backup in the background

• (Adjustable through elevator bar)

• (Adjustable through the – option menu)

Backing up system partition without restarting

Without problems

Without problems

Displaying image as disk drive in the Explorer

–

• (Integrates the images • (Integrates the images through a virtual disk through a virtual disk drive) drive)

Without problems

Assistants

Has integrated assistant

Has integrated assistants

No assistant

Usability

Simple interface with tab

Simple interface but not always clear (task planning)

Complicated interface

Detailed manual with an Brief manual with in-depth insight into the the most important program features questions explained

OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

Images Till now, saving and restoring was never as simple as this. The programs must support backups on the USB and network drives. The process of incremental image saving should exist on the feature list. Additionally, we took the stability factor into consideration—the programs must secure the system and not cause it to crash or create faulty backups.

Functionality Compression and safety of the images are two crucial factors. Besides that, it was important for us to know whether a backup process can run in the background and whether it can be compatible with the system capacity. The Hot-backup feature is of great importance especially in case of new versions of image programs. In this case, the tool saves the data in an image during a Windows session. The programs should also have an image explorer.

Ergonomics

Ergonomics

Manual

Partition and image tools were installed on a logical drive in Windows XP professional. We connected another external USB drive to a 2.55 GHz P4 computer. Mentioned below are some of the few factors we kept in mind before going ahead with our tests.

The programs should be easily functional, must be efficient, easy to find and operate easily beginners. Above all, we focussed on the assistant features, because beginners, in particular, should be able to work with the tools without any problem. Programs with detailed descriptions of jargon were given additional marks.

| How CHIP assessed Ergonomics

Images 20% 50% 30%

Brief manual with the most important questions explained

Functionality

98

APPLICATIONS

| FEATURE

Chat Security Chatting online is dangerous. After tormenting e-mails and browsers, hackers have now turned their attention to instant messengers. With ICQ and other IMs installed, is your PC well protected from viruses, spyware and phishing?

“H

ey, I’ve found a picture of you.” If you were conned into clicking on this link, then you won’t get an image file instead an I-Worm. NewPic file instead. Any guesses what kind of a file this is? A classic backdoor spoof, it prepares an entry point for hackers to retrieve data from victims. The Internet mafia has made instant messenger applications its new target and has started spreading malicious programs through them. According to research conducted by ‘FaceTime Security Labs’, the number of attacks on chat programs have increased 20-fold in the last year alone. The hacker’s current favourite is Microsoft’s MSN Messenger although ICQ, Yahoo, and AOL are all experiencing increasing attacks as well. A poll recently revealed that nearly 50 percent of online chatting via instant messaging is done in the office, thereby allowing attackers to slip through enterprise networks, firewalls and other available protection.

CHIP has tested six instant messengers, including the latest Beta versions from Microsoft and Yahoo. We bombarded test accounts with infected links in an attempt to penetrate firewalls and exploit chat sessions and the results were astonishing. The security holes left open by instant messengers were extremely dangerous. Worse still, not one messenger managed to offer protection for child users. In this article, we discuss the methods used by Internet hackers and how you can avoid potential threats while chatting online.

Phishing and spyware Hackers exploit the natural curiosity in humans in order to plant Trojans and steal passwords. Usually, users are sent a short message which contains a link to a ‘photo’ or ‘video clip.’ When the user clicks on this link, an embedded micro-program will put a stop to any safety and protection program that may be running. After the programs are suspended,

the hacker is free to enter the system and download any information or file which is of particular interest to him. If that isn’t bad enough, hackers usually insert a backdoor which leaves the victim’s PC open to attacks in the future. Phishing in messengers works in pretty much the same way as in the case of phishing-mails. A common phishing practice would be to lure a victim to a false web site and thereby lead him into providing personal online banking information. The recent case of AOL and MSN messengers being attacked by the ‘Maniccum’ worm provides further evidence of the increasing rate of phishing attacks through instant messengers. Dangers: Advice not to open files from unknown senders is already outdated with newer worms choosing to directly take advantage of a user’s contacts list. Expect to receive messages asking you to ‘click on this image link to view a photo’ from your INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

FEATURE

| APPLICATIONS

99

| Security Check  Be cautious with links and download Don’t accept files from unknown senders. If the file is sent from a friend, verify this with them before downloading the file.  Installing updates Spyware and Trojans may gain access to your PC through any messenger program. It exploits the same security hole that Windows has. Remember to

Security through encryption: Encrypt your chat conversations with SimpLite to prevent

frequently run automatic updates to

hackers from getting access to them

Bugs open doors to hackers Any program that connects to the Internet has a possible risk of being attacked. Even if instant messengers have not been

| Test Summary We seldom get so many negative results from one batch of programs, but this is indeed a fact. Microsoft Live Messenger which won the test also faltered at two important Security Check points. The test showed that chat clients created a hole in the firewall which could be exploited as an entry point for hackers. Before fixing or upgrading, we advise you to stop using Internet messengers if your PC or network contains sensitive information. Not only at workplaces, users at homes should also learn to protect themselves. OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

Dangers: Half of the messengers tested by CHIP did not offer any software updates even with known security threats. The dangers of not plugging these holes have already been made known to many web sites that offer hacker tools. Exploiting this security could not only cause the messenger to crash, but might affect Windows as well. For script-kiddies or a newbie this might be a tad too complicated, but for expert hackers, this is a cakewalk. Solution: Maintain the quality of your messenger program. It’s best to use an IM with automatic update functions such as the one found on Microsoft’s Live Messenger. Other tools such as AOL and Trillian also have their own update functions. If you are chatting through Yahoo Messenger, Google or ICQ, you should regularly check their web sites to download the latest versions. The lack of

 Activate firewall and virus scanner Without a firewall, the PC is more vulnerable to attacks from hackers. Virus scanners may also provide extra protection for your PC.  Don’t allow others to spy on you Each conversation you have could be recorded. You should encrypt your chat conversation with a tool like SimpLite.

How we test IMs Phishing filters, child protection, update functions, and encryptions merit extra marks. Facilities to block unknown senders and the messenger’s ability to work with a firewall or virus scanner are important factors as well.

Survey

Which chat program do you use? 40 35 30

30.43 %

35.59 %

25

14.70 %

20

14.49 %

15 10 1.03 % 5 0.83 % 0 AOL Google Messenger Talk

2.93 % ICQ

Microsoft Messenger

Trillian

Yahoo Others Messenger

Source: www.chip.de

Solution: As currently there are no existing tools to filter spam or phishing effectively, the most important safety principle would be NOT to open ANY links sent through chat windows. If you really need to click on that link or receive a sent file, confirm whether the sender wants you to do so first. Formulate your question in a way that worms will not be able to give questions with standard replies. You can also try installing basic protection from new Internet security suites available in the market.

cover these holes.

targeted as much as other programs all this while, it doesn’t mean they are safe from attacks. Most of the time users chat using a specific instant messenger. When this becomes a hacker’s target, it becomes your main cause for concern. To attack a chat client through the Internet, hackers need to penetrate security holes open to them. For a chat program, that defence breach is in the form of ports used for sending or receiving Internet packets. The typical scenario would be a buffer-overflow attack when the packets start transferring. Here, the hacker sends a packet which gets misinterpreted by the target’s PC and therefore allows a Trojan to run.

From this global survey, we can see that ICQ is still the hot favorite.

Attack Watch Attacks on Messenger 900 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 100 0 Q1 ’05

PROGNOSIS

Q2 ’05

Q3 ’05

Q4 ’05

Q1 ’06

Source: FaceTime Security Labs

friend or colleague listed on your contacts list. More impressively, there are worms which can participate in chat sessions and answer basic questions accurately leading users to believe that they are chatting with real people.

Q2 ’06

Since early 2005, the number of attacks on IMs has increased dramatically.

100

APPLICATIONS

| FEATURE

an automatic update feature is an obvious weakness and should be made compulsory for all instant messengers.

Children targeted “They act like children to gain the kid’s trust”, said Joerg Pecanic, an authority from Coalition Against Child Pornography when asked about paedophiles on the Internet. Despite severe criticism from security experts, many chat programs have still not adopted any security mechanism such as having a master password for required for setup. ICQ, for instance, has an option to block any unknown contacts from sending messages. However, curious children will not find it difficult to deselect a checkbox. All other IMs have also failed in this child protection test. Dangers: Instead of coming up with a solution for providing security for children, providers dodge the responsibility and cover their own ignorance with a special clause found on their End User License Agreement (EULA) which states, “Kids under the age of 12 may not use this service”. If it comes to attention that a registered user is a child under 12 years of age, the provider cancels that user’s account. This is not a measure to prevent kids from creating accounts. There are

Phishing: Links or file names like Humor.txt intend to deceive the curious user. Little do they know the ‘humorous’ joke is on them

several instances where children below 12 years of age chat on the internet without any restriction. Our tests proved that none of the instant messengers prevent this from occurring either. If the date of birth is not provided by a registering user, there is no way providers can identify their age. Moreover, even if the date of birth was keyed in, there still isn’t any mechanism in place to verify whether the provided age is true or not. Solution: Parents should explain the dangers of chatting online to their kids. They should realize the importance of setting clear guidelines and should tell their kids not to meet other chat users in person.

Who knows your secrets? Technically, chat providers can spy on your conversations but no one actually pays attention to this fact. In ICQ’s EULA, it is stated that instant messenger providers are legally allowed to read your conversations. Any information sent through the provider may also be publicly published. The EULA from ICQ says clearly, “You agree that ICQ Inc has the rights to use any material sent… including publishing it”. Dangers: Regardless of which instant messenger you are using, data transfers between participants are not encrypted. Besides that, any chat session can be stored in a log file which may be read by other users of the PC. It’s not only the providers you should be worried about but hackers too. Usually hackers attack hotspots and cybercafes. To spy on one’s conversation, the hacker has to be within the same network as that of the IM user. Tools such as Ethereal or Cain & Abel allow the hacker to record all of the conversation data and proceed to filter out sensitive information such as passwords or home addresses. Solution: You can prevent hackers from reading your conversations by encrypting your chat and log file. The easiest way is

not to save a conversation log file in the first place. Most programmes allow this feature to be turned off. On Microsoft, AOL, and ICQ, the logging function must be activated manually. As long as you didn’t turn it on, you’re safe. For other messengers, the log file setting can be done during setup. If you fail to turn this feature off, the program automatically creates unencrypted log files. Google Talk gives an extra line of defence for protection against hackers. By default, all your conversation logs are saved in your Gmail account server. This means, your log files will not be obtained even if a hacker gains access to your PC. If you’re conscious about saving a copy of your conversations in spite of these risks, then use an open-source tool called TrueCrypt. With the help of this tool, you can create an encrypted drive and install messenger there. Every time you start up the PC and want to start a conversation, you will be prompted to access the drive with a password. That’s not all. Whether your private conversations are being recorded or not, you still have the lurking fear that the messages you are sending over the Internet are being read. To solve that problem, you should install a plugin or tool such as SimpLite, which can encrypt the data while it traverses. SimpLite can be used on any messenger program which supports a firewall. It allows you to create a strong cryptographic key which protects messages traveling in and out of chat programs from being attacked. In case of most chat clients, the configuration is automatically set. However, lesser known chat programs need to be configured manually.

Trojans posing as chat programs The first voice-chat program to have become popular with users is VoIP Skype. It’s been a while that users around the world have been communicating over Skype and ever since then security experts have warned of the possibility of attacks by Trojans and bots pretending to be normal chat or VoIP programs. The MyTob bot is one such example. INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

FEATURE

| APPLICATIONS

Overview Developer Freeware/Hardware Internet Security Test Security Score

Position1 Live Messenger Microsoft http://ideas.live.com

Position2 AIM AOL www.aim.com

Position3 Trillian Basic Cerulean Studios www.ceruleanstudios.com

Position4 ICQs ICQ www.icq.com

Position5 Google Talk Google http://talk.google.com

Position6 Yahoo Messenger Yahoo www.yahoo.com

74 Points

67 Points

67 Points

61 Points

48 Points

47 Points

Phishing Filter Anonymous User Block User Authorization Auto-Update Child-protection Chat encryption Deactivate log file Virus scanner: Firewall support Other features VoIP Support Video Chat Themes Conference Chat File sending

● (only filter links)

Email support SMS Extra functions

• yes

no

●

●

● Plus reminder

●

●

●

—

●

●

●

●

●

● via Win-Update ●

●

— —

— —

●

●

— — —

— — —

●

●

●

Proxy only

Proxy only

Proxy only

— — — On Google Server — Proxy only

● (ignore mode) — — — — — Proxy only

Only in America

Direct Connection Direct Connection Direct Connection Direct Connection ● ● Pro version only — ● ● ● — ● ● — — General folder, General folder, General folder, — direct sending direct sending direct sending AIM and POP3 Pro version only — Google Mail ● — — — City map service, Pro version only Games support, — stock-market-ticker partner-finder

●

Wallpaper+icon — 1 folder per user Live/Hotmail ●

Games support, MTV

Excellent (100-90)

Good (89-75)

Average (74-45).

Dangers: Malware infects the system and allows the hacker to assimilate all the conversation data without letting the user know about it and therefore the firewall is not able to prevent these packets from entering your system. Solution: Security experts have warned against the use of chat programs. If

●

— Proxy only

Yahoo via-Voice ● ● ●

Direct sending Yahoo Mail — Games support, newsticker

All scores are calculated based on points (maximum 100)

administrators decide to block all chatting activities, surely the Internet will be a safer place. However, this can only be realistically implemented in offices rather than home users. So if you intend to continue chatting online, it’s best to use a proxy or firewall with password protection. However, if a Trojan gains access to the data stream then passwords

Hacker’s paradise: Programs like Ethereal allows a hacker to easily spy on a chat conversation over the Internet OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

101

will also be of no help. The best form of protection is offered by security suites, firewalls and updated virus scanners. Needless to say, even with the latest updated protection programs (Recently, Symantec released an enhanced security suite catering specially to instant messengers) there will always be newer Trojans and viruses released by hackers.  | Loh Ken Wei

102

APPLICATIONS

| FEATURE

Dddddddddd

INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

FEATURE

OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

| APPLICATIONS

103

104

104

Dr. CHIP Dr. CHIP

onHands on

Garbled display

memory that is failing – if you have two Q> I own an Intel 865either Mobile screenshotsmodules (of 128 MB each) then until you move it som based computer with one or both are faulty. If it isn’t the RAM Q> I use a Symbian-based cellular instance to a memo a Pentium 4 running then it could be the memory slots on phone. also in-built digital memory. at 2.4GHzIt and 512has anthe motherboard that is the reason. The MB of memory. I have way screenshots to find out is to actually remove camera. I have tried only taking been intermittently your RAM modules and try them one at of my phone’s screen but when I experiencing a strange a time in different RAM slots. This will take a look at the result, always problem with my isolateitthe problem area. If swapping computer. does notIthelp and you only have a appearsThere completely slots different. is as are times when my single 512 MB memory module then try if the phone’s capture utility ‘sees’ totally computer’s display replacing your memory with a working different colors! The image neither goes berserk. The graphics one. is If you cannot get hold of one become totallynor illegible and module of temporarily smooth accurate in terms its colorthen you will need gets transformed into gibberish. to give your memory/motherboard to a reproduction. Are there some tweaks or It looks like something out of technician. some that have been overlooked? a movie. The settings problem seems XP Activation Problem to be worsening as the display -Atul Q> The strangest thing happened the has started getting garbled right Just like the times when you need other day. I had to reinstall Windows XP after initial boot screen. When to capture an entire andbecause you hitof a virus. After the Professional the problem wasn’t that bad I PC screen I tried activating my copy had reinstalled the video drivers the ‘PrintScreen’ button,reinstallation there is a similar of Windows XP but it refused to do so. I thinkingutility that it would help. But it for the mobile phone. Download kept getting an error saying, “exceeded did not. What could the problem be? ‘ScreenTaker’ from www.symbianware. - Sanjay number of installations”. I have reinstalled The image dis only need tothe past but com. After installation, you and activated XP in thisentire is You are experiencing a hardware the firstClick time I ‘Hide’ have ever received canand be captured usin the directions. run it and read related problem. If the video is getting an error like this. I never knew there was SymbianWare to hide the application before capturing garbled even before Windows XP boots such a thing as an “activation limit”. What Remove old restore screenshots. Now all youdohave to do is then it has nothing to do with the video I do now? drivers installed in Windows. You will Q>- IMaheep am running out run the application that you would like to need to check the memory installed my computer. After capture from or any other items displayed. Yes, disappointing as it sounds on your motherboard. It could be the around I found that By pressing the combination there isofan‘ABC+ activation limit that Microsoft has set to thewill operating After “_restore{05BB0736 Menu Key’ or ‘ABC+ *’, ScreenTaker snapsystem. installing the operating system you need D92F52FD225C}”. W theand screen. On Nokia All code lines commands are phones, the ABC key to activate the installation within 30 written in the following manner: delete this folder? It has a pencil icon. If donedays. correctly, youofwill A maximum three activations netsh•int•ip•reset•tcpreset.txt can be carried out in these 30 days.MB! ApartSomeone t 700 a menu toaname symbol denotes space. the image captured. where the •get from this, Microsoft allows only eight to something to do wit This code image then linewill should be be stored (default scr. Hence, the above eleven activations per product – which typed as utility jpg). When the text ‘Image Saved’ appears, is what you might have exceeded. It in XP and rem netsh<space>int<space>ip<space also happen if you change your advisable. What sho press ‘Back’. You can seecould the results in the >reset<space>tcpreset<dot>txt hardware. For this you should get in touch

| How to Read the Code

‘Images’ folder on your phone. ScreenTaker INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBERYes, 2006 the folde will store the image in the phone’s memory Restore. Each partiti

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Select the location to obtain countryspecific toll-free numbers so as to change your product key with Microsoft on the toll free number and get yourself a new product key. The old product will work to complete your installation since there is no limit to the number of times you reinstall Windows XP. But it will not help during the activation. You can call Microsoft India’s tollfree numbers for this. BSNL/MTNL lines can call 1800 111100. You will find the numbers at, “http://www.microsoft. com/india/connect/tollfree.aspx” You will get a computerized phone service, which will request you to enter the “Installation ID”. Make sure you punch the entire ID without the hyphens. Alternatively, you can also get the tollfree number from the activation window when you choose to “activate by phone”. Select the country and you will get the numbers you need to call.

USB Malfunction

Prevent Windows from shutting the USB root hub down so that other devices can connect to it obtain power from an outlet and not from the notebook’s port. Or make sure your handheld is connected to a power source so it does not require the hub’s power. It could also be that your handheld device is not communicating all the time since your external USB hub is going into a “power save” mode. This causes the hub to close down all communication to the ports. Your laptop may have “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power” enabled for the “Root Hub” in the Device Manager. This sets the hub to power down when not in use resulting in its ports to go stop communicating with the devices connected to it. Have you tried connecting your handheld directly to your notebook? Try it. Alternatively, turn off power saving on USB in the Device Manager. You can do this by opening the Device Manager (from “System” in “Control Panel”), right click on “Root hub” (under Universal Serial Bust controllers) and select “Properties”. Click on the “Power Management” tab and uncheck “Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power”.

Q> I use an Windows Pocket PC-based HP iPaq handheld. Sometime ago when I connected it to my notebook via the cradle I got an error stating, “USB Device has malfunctioned and Windows does not recognize it”. Ever since this problem has started I have not been able to use my handheld. I have other USB devices connected to my notebook at the same time too – this is via a USB hub. Could that be the problem or is this related to my iPaq? - Jo

Q> I use an HP printer to print most of my project work and other personal things. These days, whenever I restart my computer the “Found New Hardware Wizard” will start. What do I do? I have reinstalled the drivers many times over. - Pradhan

Does your USB hub obtain power from the notebook? It should be able to

This might be because the device is not “Plug and Play” or it does not use

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“Plug and Play” for its installation. It could also be because of a damaged registry key. First of all try to resolve the problem by downloading the latest HP printer drivers from the main website. If that does not work then restart the computer. If you still get the “Found New Hardware Wizard”, don’t worry. Uninstall the drivers from the Device Manager, disconnect your printer and open the Registry Editor to delete the damaged key. Click on Start | Run, type “regedit” and click on Ok. Navigate to the following registry key in the Registry Editor, [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ CurrentControlSet\Enum\LPTENUM] Right-click the registry key and Delete it. Confirm the removal and close the Registry Editor. Restart your computer. Windows XP will detect the printer once again. Install the drivers again and the next time you restart XP will not ask you for the drivers again.

Zlob malware Q> I have Spybot – Search ‘n’ Destroy installed on my machine. It has detected “zlob.downloader” on my computer but it is unable to remove it. It also mentions a file name “stdole3.plb”. How do I remove this piece of malware? - Suboddh To remove Zlob you will have to download and install the fix file from http://siri.geekstogo.com/SmitfraudFix. php. It is a zip file so you will need to extract it to another folder. After extraction, run the “SmitfraudFix.cmd”

New Hardware Wizard

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| DR. CHIP CHIP-INDIA KNOW HOW | (www.chip-india.com/knowhow) Host a site I want to host a site. What would be the cost for 100 MB of hosting space? - Vipin Radhakrishnan You can take up the Rediff 100 MB package. It offers the following for Rs 3200 per year, No. of Subdomains – 5, ODBC Data Source Support – 5, MySQL Free for Linux (Using Microsoft’s SQL

will cost you extra), Microsoft .net Applications 1.1, Active PERL, Free Web based Control Panel, Hosting platform - Windows and Linux. You can read more about the packages they offer at: http:// hosting.rediff.com/hosting/scripts/ HostingSolutions.phtml - sunny1552

Use the SmitfraudFix file to locate and remove the Zlob.downloader malware. file. In the command prompt window that appears, press [1] and then [Enter]. This will run a search and create a report in the root drive as “rapport.txt”. Restart your computer in Safe Mode. This involves pressing the F8 key after the memory test till the Advanced Startup Menu appears – select Safe Mode and press [Enter]. In the Safe Mode double click on the file “SmitfraudFix.cmd” again and then press [2] and [Enter]. This will remove the infected files. Press [Y] and [Enter] to confirm a registry cleanup. This will remove the desktop background and remove the infection left behind in the registry keys as well. You might also be asked if a “wininet.dll” file can be replaced. This might appear if the file is found to be infected. Press [Y] and [Enter] to confirm and restart the computer. (The option 3 in the fix command prompt window is to restore the Trusted Zone settings in IE. If you want you can run that command also.)

Rediff offers three web hosting packages depending on the storage space required

Mobile Videos Q> I own a Motorola L7 camera phone. I have some video files stored on the phone that I transferred to my computer. The files do not play in Windows Media Player. I have the latest version of the player but it refuses to play. There aren’t any additional codecs provided by Motorola on their CD. The files have a “.3gp” extension. What sort of files are these? - Surendran Media Player cannot play the 3GP (or 3GPP) format simply because it does not provide support for it. This format supports the MPEG-4 standard of compression and is mainly used in 3G phones – both GSM and CDMA2000 handsets. Quicktime player will play the 3GP files. You can also install K-Lite’s Mega codec pack and view the files in Media Player Classic.

Cannot check DMA Q> I have been able to burn CDs on my machine easily all this while. Lately

whatever I copy onto any brand of optical media, it is not read properly on my machine. I do not get any errors while copying and when I try to access the media later on, it just does not respond. Even the icons of the files on the CD are not displayed correctly. They are just blank boxes (like the displayed for batch files). Accessing my drive also has been quite slow. I decided to check the DMA settings of my optical drive from its properties in the Device Manager. To be able to see the DMA mode it is working in there should be an “Advanced Settings” tab but it does appear on my computer. What could the problem be? - Rajat You have not mentioned the motherboard you use. You will have to uninstall and reinstall the IDE controllers from the Device Manager. In the Device Manager (click on Start | Settings | Control Panel | System and then on the “Hardware” tab) expand “IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers” and right click on the ATA Storage INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

DR. CHIP

and even if I have one, I am not using it. This pop-up is extremely annoying. How do I get rid of this? - Dhruv This pop-up is a known issue with NVIDIA older video drivers – version 91.31, to be precise. The issue is harmless but nonetheless, it is annoying. You can either edit the registry to disable this notification or you Select the Standard Storage Controller if the “DMA can just install the latest Settings” tab is not visible. video drivers from NVIDIA’s Controller (it will be above the Primary/ website (you will get the Secondary Channel”. Depending on your latest drivers on the CHIP DVD). To edit the motherboard’s chipset, the controller registry click on Start | Run, type “regedit” will be Intel, nForce or VIA. Right click on and click on Ok. Navigate to the following it and select “Update Driver”. During the key, update wizard, choose “Install from a list [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ or specific location” and then “I will choose NVIDIA Corporation\Global\NVTweak] the driver to install”. Click on “Next” and Right click in the right hand pane and select “Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE select “New | DWORD Value”. Rename Controller” and click on Next. Restart your it to “NvCplEnableMultiGPUConfigura computer and now check to see if the tionPage” and double click on it. Make DMA Settings tab re-appears. If you have sure the “Base” is “Hexadecimal” and the an Intel-based board then try uninstalling Value is “00000000” (8 zeros). Click on Ok. Intel’s Application Accelerator first before Close the Registry Editor and restart your trying the above steps. Only if uninstalling computer. IAA does not help, update the storage Mobile Anti-virus controller. Q> I own a Series60 Nokia phone. I do not SLI Multi-GPU pop-up have any anti-virus software for it. I use Bit Q> I own a PCI-Express motherboard, Defender as my anti-virus solution on my which is fitted with an NVIDIA-based computer. I was wondering if I can connect graphic card. Windows XP Professional to my phone via a data cable and scan my is the operating system that has been mobile phone for viruses. Is it possible to installed on my computer. Every now scan the multimedia card that is installed in and again a little balloon pops up from the phone also? Is it a safe way to do this? the system tray saying, “SLI multi-GPU - Nilesh rendering has been disabled.” As far as I You can scan the memory card know I do not own an SLI motherboard in your phone with Bit Defender if it is detected as a “Mass Storage Device” in the Device Manager. But you cannot use Bit Defender to scan a mobile phone simply because the software does not contain signature files with which it can detect any infections on your Nokia phone. The anti-virus you are using is specifically meant for PCs and does not The DWORD value is Hexadecimal and contains eight zeros to disable the Multioffer additional protection to handheld GPU notification devices. This is because an infection built OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

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Need a hand with your PC travails? Log on to www.chip-india.com/ knowhow and post your query. Voila! You’re on your way to a glitch-free future.

Info | For Accurate Diagnosis… 1. Mention system specifications. 2. Mention new hardware or software installed recently. 3. Note the error message, including the action or event that triggers the error. For instance, the error message comes up only during startup or shutdown, or when starting a particular application and so on. 4. Mention any changes you’ve made just before you started getting the error. For instance, have you deleted some files recently or uninstalled some applications? for a Symbian phone will only affect devices that run the OS. For example, viruses affecting the Windows platform have no effect on a Linux machine. If you want to scan your mobile phone then install an anti-virus solution on it. After installing the software just make it run in the background so that it will detect infectious files in real time. It will also scan your memory card. Here are a few you can consider installing on your phone: F-Secure: www.f-secure.com SimWorks: www.simworks.biz Symantec Mobile Security for Symbian: www.symantec.com 

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The third eye

Play James Bond—with a few devices up your sleeve you can monitor your home even in your absence

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t has become very important to keep an eye on your house considering the stories we hear frequently on how easily houses are broken into. Also, it is necessary to keep a watch over all the happenings inside your house, be it keeping an eye on your children or the servants or the front door for instance to see if anyone has meandered in the premises. Also, keeping an eye on the surroundings is something you have to do if you live alone or spend most of the day alone in the house. In this workshop we tell you how to monitor your home easily.

We all know security cannot prevent any crime from being committed but at least you’ve the satisfaction that the accused will not be scot free. Today with terrorism on the rise, devices like CCTV cameras and monitoring devices like proximity detectors, motion detectors, metal detectors, etc are being used extensively. These devices are easily available in the market. These can be connected easily to your PC or notebook and can record videos and take pictures of intrusions if any, while you’re away. In this workshop, we used the WCS-2030

wireless IP camera from Level1. We opted for this camera as it best suits the requirements of home users and small businesses. It is also quite affordable when compared to other devices in the same category. This camera is a video surveillance device that makes use of Internet Protocol (IP) to transmit images. It also supports the 802.11g standard, enabling wireless transmission for video surveillance. It can be connected to a high-speed 10/100 Mbps LAN. You can record VGA quality video at 10 fps at the highest resolution of 640x480 and directly save it as a MPEG4 file. Being entry-level, this cam doesn’t have a zoom or swivel feature present in other expensive CCTV cameras. However, this feature is not required for home or small office surveillance. The built-in microphone records audio at 24-bit; it can also capture audio within a range of 10 meters with very little background noise. The surveillance software bundled along is capable of letting you view 16 different live feeds at a time. You can view these feeds in a 4x4 matrix simultaneously. The motion detection system takes pictures only when there is a movement in the line of sight of the cam and thus doesn’t take up unnecessary space on your hard drive. You can also schedule recordings.

What you need

Pramod Jadhav

To use the WCS-2030 wireless IP camera as a wired device, you need: A PC with an Ethernet card and sufficient storage space on you hard drive. IP cam with the surveillance software. Ethernet cable. To use it as a wireless device, you need A PC with a PCI wireless card or a laptop with Wi-Fi built in or a wireless access point. IP cam with the surveillance software. Sufficient amount of hard drive space.

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Step 1 Connecting the camera

Step 2 Installation

Step 3 Changing IE settings

First configure the camera while it is connected to your PC via an Ethernet cable. Connect one end of the Ethernet cable to the PC and the other end to the camera’s Ethernet port. After connecting the Ethernet cable, connect the power adapter to the camera otherwise the camera won’t get detected. Plug the adapter into an electrical outlet. A blue LED will flash while the camera is initializing after which you are ready to set up the software for the camera.

Insert the installation disk into the CD-ROM drive. In case it doesn’t run automatically, click on “Start” on the lower left corner of your screen and open “My Computer”. Then double click on the CD-ROM icon and the IP surveillance recorder installation window will appear as in Figure 1. Click on “Install Software DVR”. Next, set a password and confirm it—this will be your administrator password. Select the location where you want to install the files and click on “Next” and then on “Finish”.

After you have finished installing the surveillance software, you will need to change one of the IE settings so that you are ready to start running the Monitor program. Enable the option for submitting non-encrypted data after clicking on “Start | Settings | Control Panel | Internet Options | Security | Custom Level”. After the new window opens up, search for the “Run component signed with Authenticode” and then click on “Enable” as shown in the above screenshot.

Step 4 Authentication

Step 5 Monitoring window

Step 6 Alerts and recording options

The next step is to click on “Launcher”. This step walks the user through the process of configuring the camera. The first things it will ask you for is the username and password. This is known as the Root username and password and is used to authenticate users once the camera is connected. To further configure the camera, you will need to log in using these details. You can then proceed to configuring the Server/Network Camera in the “Camera Configuration” option, as shown in the figure in step 2.

A new window will open up which asks for the camera’s IP address and once the PC detects it, the monitoring window will open up. If you want to use more than one such camera, then use the “Insert” option to insert a remote Network Camera to the camera list. Click on the “Insert” button, and you will see the “Insert New Channel” dialog popping up. Specify the IP address, port and root password of the remote Network Camera series product, and click on the “OK” button to close the dialog box.

On the top of the monitoring window, you have the alert and recording window. In the alert window settings, enable motion detection and specify the recording time or recording type i.e. whether you want to record video or voice or both. Here you can also configure the video input—for example, specifying alerts for motion detection and also the type of triggering you want for the digital input. Once this configuration is over, the camera is ready to record.  | Faheem Sayed

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Image makeover If all the scanned images of your last trip seem blurred, dull and lifeless, you can color-correct them with a little help from Photoshop

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ave you ever compared a scanned image with the original source? You’ll notice that the scanned image is never as accurate as the source with regard to details like sharpness, color, contrast, brightness, saturation and so on. The results will be close to accurate only if you have a high-end scanner which is properly color-calibrated. However, for most of us who own neither a multifunctional device nor a conventional flatbed scanner, getting accurate results is a distant dream. The accuracy of a scanner depends on the quality of its CCD sensor and the lamp present on the carriage assembly. The better the CCD sensor, the more details it can register and hence, higher the output quality. Other than the scanner itself, the output also depends on the postprocessing done by the imaging application that comes bundled with the scanner. Since, most of the factors that determine the output quality cannot be controlled, you have no other option but to save the scanned image as it is. If you haven’t yet bothered to check the difference between the scan result and the source try this—scan a photograph and compare the scanned image with the actual photograph and note the difference.

Set the scan resolution to 300 dpi for good image quality

The most visible difference will be a slight loss of sharpness and mismatch in color levels, brightness and contrast. In some cases you will even notice the presence of noise in the scanned image. The only way to correct scanned images is using a power imaging application like Adobe Photoshop. You can eliminate noise, sharpen the details, manipulate color levels, adjust the brightness and contrast and do much more to bring your scanned images nearer to the original. The reason that most people hesitate to correct scanned images is because they feel that Photoshop is tough to use or they’re afraid they might do more damage. But in reality, it’s very simple. You don’t have to be a wizard at Photoshop. It takes just a few minutes to correct an image. This workshop will guide you through the entire process of correcting scanned images from scratch and achieving the best results.

| Note Before trying this workshop, make sure you first calibrate your monitor so that it displays colors accurately with right levels of brightness and contrast. You can use the Adobe Gamma Tool which is a part of Photoshop, for calibrating and profiling your monitor. Before you hit the scan button, here are a few tips that will help you achieve better scanning results. The default scan resolution in some scanning applications is 150 dpi. For better details step up the resolution to 300 dpi. When saving a scanned image, set the image format to TIFF. If you want to save images in JPEG format, make sure you set the image quality to maximum.

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1

2

3

If your scanned image is tilted, first rectify the tilt: Right-click on the image and select “Fit on Screen” after selecting the Zoom tool from the Tools sidebar. Keep pressing “Shift+i” until the Eyedropper tool located above the Zoom tool changes to Measure tool. Now, drag a line across the border of the scanned image and select “Image | Rotate canvas | Arbitrary”. Click on “OK” to rectify the tilt.

After fixing the tilt, crop the required area using the Crop tool from the Tools sidebar. The actual image correction process starts now. In the first stage, get rid of the noise in the scanned image. Go to “Filter | Noise” and select the “Dust and scratches” filter Set the Radius to 1 pixel keeping the Threshold to 0 level. You can check and uncheck the “Preview” option to view the effect. Click on “OK” to apply the filter.

The “Dust and scratches” filter gets rid of most of the noise. However, if you take a closer look at the image, you’ll still see a little bit of noise. To get rid of this, use the Gaussian Blur filter. Go to “Filter | Blur” and select “Gaussian Blur”. Set the radius between 0.3 to 0.5 pixels. Check and uncheck the “Preview” option to notice the effect of the plug-in. Keep the radius low or else it may affect image details.

4

5

6

Before Auto Contrast

Applying the Gaussian Blur results in a slight loss of details. To compensate for this, you need to sharpen the image. Go to “Filter | Sharpen” and select the “Unsharp mask” filter. In the filter’s dialog box, set the radius to 2 or 4 pixels with the threshold set to 0. Now drag the amount slider to 25 percent and note the difference using the “Preview” option. The value should be between 25 to 30 percent.

If you have Photoshop CS2 installed, you can go a step further and use the “Surface blur” filter. This filter is useful for further eliminating noise and graininess. It uses the blur effect while preserving the sharpness of the edges. Go to “Filter | Blur” and select “Surface blur”. Set the radius to 1 pixel and set the threshold value to 27. If you aren’t satisfied, you can further increase the threshold by 3 to 5 levels.

After Auto Contrast

Finally, it’s the overall tone of the image which has to be corrected. The easiest way to correct the colors is by using the “Auto contrast” feature. To do this go to “Image | Adjustments” and select “Auto contrast” or simply use the keyboard shortcut “Alt+Shift+Ctrl+L”. You’ll immediately notice the increase in vibrance. If you’re familiar with Adobe Photoshop you can even try adjusting the color levels manually.  | Anand Tuliani

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Jagdish Limbachiya

One-stop recreation zone Get a kick out of your system... build a media center PC. This workshop tells you how

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one are the days when a television set and a DVD player were considered the best home entertainment devices. Today, the entire scenario is beginning to take a sharp turn with media center PCs being the most powerful entertainment platform. It’s true that DivX players can play diverse audio and video formats. Most of them even have provision for digital multi-channel audio and digital video outputs. But at the end of the day, there’s nothing to beat a PC that integrates hundreds of other functions. The biggest advantage that a PC enjoys is the presence of a storage device on which you can store hundreds of movies and thousands of songs and photographs. A television set only allows you to surf channels or connect your gaming console. But a computer gives you the flexibility of pausing live TV and capturing your favorite programs at the press of a button. What if you feel like tuning into your favorite radio station? With a media center PC, there’s no need for a separate radio set – all the functions are integrated in a single box. If you wish, you can

even grab songs playing on the radio to MP3 format. Last but not the least, a media center PC is a full-fledged PC. Apart from entertainment you can use it for gaming, surfing the net, imaging, video editing, burning CDs and DVDs, office suite and so on. Media center PCs are available off the shelves in the market. But you have to stick with what the manufacturers offer. If you don’t want to settle for a branded media center PC, the only option you have is to build one yourself. In fact, building a media center PC is the best option because you have the choice of components such as the graphics card, hard drive, processor, motherboard, monitor and so on. You can build a media center PC that can double up as a gaming machine. Or you can build a PC with a fixed budget in mind. The reason why most people refrain from building a media center PC is the availability of suitable hardware and Windows XP MCE. The reality is, you can build a powerful media center PC using standard hardware without the need for Windows XP MCE. Read this workshop to find out how it’s possible! INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

WORKSHOP

What you need There are various components that go into builing a PC. But in case of a media center PC, you need a collection of certain specific components.

In case of the processor, memory, hard drive, optical drive, monitor and speakers, you can take your pick depending on your requirement. But with regards to components like the motherboard, Price (Rs)

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graphics card, and TV tuner card, you are restricted to very few models as they should fit into the case. The table below elaborates what specific components you need and why.

Components

Recommended models

PC case

Cooler Master C Media 260

8,950

If you’re going to keep your media center PC in your living room, you’ll need a sleek case which looks more like a player than a PC. We recommend this case as it doesn’t require special hardware. If the PC is not going to be placed in your living room, go in for an ATX case of your choice.

Motherboard

Gigabyte GA-945GM-S2 Asus A8N-VM CSM Asus M2N-PV-MX MSI K9NGM2

6,750 5,300 4,800 4,200

The Cooler Master C Media 260 case supports only micro-ATX boards. Also, it makes more sense to opt for a motherboard that offers onboard DVI output and high-definition audio. AMD users, stick to the Nvidia GeForce 6150 chipset. The Intel 945G chipset is recommended for Intel users.

Graphics card (Optional)

BIG 7600GT XFX GeForce 6600 BIG 7300GT

TV tuner card

Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-150 Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-350

Wireless keyboard and mouse

Microsoft Wireless Desktop 1000 Logitech Cordless Desktop LX 300

1,600 2,000

If you want to control your PC from afar, you’ll need freedom from cords. Hence, we strongly recommend a desktop combo comprising a wireless keyboard and mouse.

Power supply unit

Cooler Master Extreme Power 350W Cooler Master Real Power 450W

2,000

A regular 350 watt power supply unit will suffice for a basic media center PC. But for a high-end PC with multiple hard drives and a graphics card, you’ll have to invest in a better PSU that will provide enough juice for the components.

11,000 4,300 5,000

Why you need

Are you going to use your media center PC for gaming? If your answer is ‘Yes’, then spend some extra cash for a good graphics card. However, keep in mind that the C Media 260 only takes in a single-slot PCIE card. For compatibility with Media Portal or Windows XP MCE, the TV tuner card must comply with certain hardware requirements. So far, TV tuner cards by Hauppauge are best suited for media center PCs.

Optical disc drive

Standard ATX Power supply with a 120 mm base fan

A compact case calls for serious cable management

40 mm side fan

Outlet for the power cord

Standard PCI & PCIE cards can be IGP-based Micro ATX motherboard fitted using the riser card

Hard drive mounted in the rack

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Media Portal

Listen to the radio

If you thought using the features of a media center PC is difficult, you are mistaken. The brilliant interface of Windows Media Center will let you use the basic functions of a media center PC with ease. The interface is so intuitive that one can switch between live television, radio, music, pictures and movies at the press of a button. You don’t require a copy of Windows XP Media Center Edition to build a media center PC. There are many applications which offer all the features that Windows Media Center does. These applications also sport a similar interface. One such application is Media Portal. And you don’t have to have to pay a paisa for it as it is available free of cost! The look and feel of the interface is also completely similar to that of Windows Media Center! After installing Media Portal, you have to configure it at the first run. You have to specify the different locations of your music, video and picture files so that they get displayed as items under the respective sections. Here are the list of things you can do with the Media Portal:

If you’re in a mood to listen to the radio, you can tune in to your favorite radio station. You can switch between the various stations using the “Previous” and the “Next” buttons.

Watch TV Apart from watching live TV, you can record what’s being aired on TV. If you don’t want to miss the show but have to uproot yourself from your couch for a compelling reason, you can hit the “Time shifting” button to pause live TV and then resume the program when you get back to your seat. Using the scheduler, it is possible to schedule recording at a specified time.

View and capture live television; you can schedule recordings using the scheduler

Watch videos If you have movies or video clips on your hard drive, you can select and watch what you want. You can view VCDs and DVDs and even create video playlists.

The interface of Media Portal is similar to that of WIndows Media Center

Groove to the music Do you have thousands of songs on your PC? Add all of them and your music library is complete! Sort the songs by artist, album or genre. You can create playlists, listen to audio CDs and do a lot more.

View pictures After specifying the location where all your pictures are stored on your PC, click on the “Create Thumbs” buttons to create a thumbnail of all the images. Once done, you can view the images as thumbnails along with the preview or view them in full screen. If you have photographs to share with your friends and family, you can create fancy slideshows with transition effects.

Weather forecast and games Don’t underestimate the capabilities of Media Portal. It’s much more powerful than Windows Media Center. It allows you to view weather forecasts and also play games through plug-ins. So transform your PC into a complete entertainment hub by install Media Portal. You can find it on the CHIP DVD.

View pictures and create slideshows with transition effects

Organize your music library by defining artist, album and genre

What you miss out on As I mentioned earlier, a media center PC should look more like a player than a system especially if it’s for your living room. If you’re willing to shell out extra bucks you can build a powerful system. However, you will encounter some shortcomings only because of the case. Firstly, the cases available for media center PCs are very few. If you want to buy a case, they you will have to spend as they come at a premium. Some cases are so expensive that they cost nearly four times as much as a regular PC case, excluding a power supply unit. Secondly, since the case is compact, it can only take in bare minimum components because of the space constraint within. You cannot have more than one optical drive and two hard drives. Furthermore, it is not possible to throw in a full-fledged ATX motherboard. This means that you have no choice but to stick with a micro-ATX motherboard. And finally, even though provision has been made to add a PCIE graphics card, it’s difficult to fit in a powerful mammoth graphics card that will occupy two slots.  | Anand Tuliani INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

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Tricks Tips& OCTOBER 2006

WINDOWS 1. 2. 3. 4.

Windows XP Windows XP Windows XP Windows XP

117 Removing Shared Documents Removing My Sharing Folders Preventing auto-run of CDs/DVDs Commands & shortcuts

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Microsoft Word

Batch print Word documents

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Microsoft Word

Customizing dropdown menus

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Microsoft Word

Text animation

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Microsoft Word

Increasing the recently used file list

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Obtaining the file size of current document

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Microsoft PowerPoint

Package your presentations

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Media Player

Reducing cache for Winamp

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Speeding up Acrobat reader Optimizing Flashget Auto virus scan in Flashget Removing Thunderbird from the taskbar Accessing Gmail through Mozilla Thunderbird Viewing message headers Sorting downloads by file types Reading mail in full browser window Accessing Gmail via Outlook Disabling automatic resizing of images Removing username/password for a site Sharing your Internet connection in Windows XP Applying colors on multiple outlines Reducing anchor points Editing images on a layer

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Optimum use of the IDE channels Handling internal PC components

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APPLICATIONS Umesh Dahiwalkar

Tip of the month | Hardware Front audio connection My PC’s case has a front audio panel, but it doesn’t give any output. This causes a lot of

5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11.

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inconvenience when I want to hook up my headphones to the PC. How do I get the front audio working?

For the front audio panel to work, it must be connected to the front audio header of your motherboard. If your front audio doesn’t work, it means that the front audio panel of your case isn’t interfaced with the motherboard. To get the front audio panel working, first open your case and locate the front audio header on your motherboard by referring to the user manual. By default, the front audio header has two jumpers fitted. Remove these jumpers and then refer to your motherboard’s manual for the front audio panel connection. Since the connectors of the case’s front audio panel are labelled, connecting them shouldn’t be a problem. If done correctly, both the rear and the front panel audio should work without any problem.

INTERNET & COMMUNICATION 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22.

Adobe Acrobat Download Manager Download Manager Web Browser Mozilla Thunderbird Mozilla Thunderbird Opera Opera Outlook Internet Explorer Internet Explorer

23. Internet Connection Sharing 24. Adobe Illustrator CS 25. Adobe Illustrator CS 26. Adobe Illustrator CS

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Windows 1 | Windows XP Removing Shared Documents How do I remove the “Shared Documents” folder from My Computer? To eliminate the Shared Documents folder from My Computer: Launch the registry editor by typing “Regedit” in “Start | Run” Now navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_ MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\ MyComputer\NameSpace\ DelegateFolders “DelegateFolders” has a subkey: {59031a47-3f72-44a7-89c55595fe6b30ee}. Once you delete this subkey, the Shared Documents folder displayed in My Computer will be gone. The effect is immediate. You don’t need to reboot your PC.

2 | Windows XP

4 | Windows XP Commands & shortcuts Can you give me a useful list of “Run” commands for Windows XP, and shortcuts for Microsoft Word? Useful Run commands for Windows XP are: devmgmt.msc – Device Manager fsquirt - Bluetooth Transfer Wizard desk.cpl – Display Properties main.cpl – Mouse Properties gpedit.msc - Group Policy Editor compmgmt.msc - Computer Management Some of the useful Word shortcuts are: Ctrl + Shift + W - Underlines the words but not the spaces in the selection. Shift + F7 - Finds a synonym for the selected word (Thesaurus). Ctrl+D - Brings up the “Format | Font” dialog.

APPLICATIONS 5 | Microsoft Word

Removing My Sharing Folders

Batch print Word documents

After installing Windows Live Messenger, a new item called “My Sharing Folders” has appeared under My Computer. How do I remove it?

I mainly work on Microsoft Word documents. There are times when I need to print a whole bunch of Word documents at a go. Is there a way I can quickly send all files to print without having to open each one separately?

Go to “Start | Run” and type the following command and press [Enter]: regsvr32 -u “C:\Program Files\MSN Messenger\fsshext.8.0.0xxx.00.dll” where “xxx” is the version of MSN Live Messenger (found in “Help | About Messenger”) If you get a message saying, “DllUnregisterServer in ... succeeded”, it means everything went fine.

3 | Windows XP Preventing auto-run of CDs/DVDs How do I prevent CDs and DVDs from auto-running when I insert them into the optical drive? It is very irritating when CDs and DVDs auto-run particularly when you don’t want them to. So the next time you insert a disc into the optical drive, close the drive tray keeping the “Shift” key pressed and release it after the drive’s LED stops flashing.

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saved. Make sure only the files you want to print are placed in that folder. Click on “File | Save As”. In the “File Name” field, enter the file name along with its extension—all within quotes. For example, if this script is to be named “Print All” then this is what you should type (with quotes): “Print All. vbs” and click on “Save”. Now, whenever you want to print files from the “Test” folder (for example), all you need to do is double click on “Print All.vbs” and it will run the print command on all the files without you having to manually select and right click on them.

6 | Microsoft Word Customizing dropdown menus Can I animate the dropdown menus in Word? To customize dropdown menus: Click on the “Tools” menu and choose “Customize”. On the multi-tabbed dialog box that follows, select the “Options” tab. Next to “Menu animations”, you will find a pulldown menu. Click on the pulldown menu and select from the options “Random”, “Unfold”, and “Slide”. Then, press the “Close” button.

Making multiple Word documents print with a single command is quite straightforward. All you need to do is open Windows Explorer, select the files, right click and select “Print”. This is one way of doing things. Multiple Word files can also be printed with the help of a VB script. When this script is run, it references a particular folder (which you set in the script) and prints all the files in it. To create the script, open “Notepad” and copy these lines, set shApp = createobject(“shell. application”) set shFolder = shApp.namespace(“C:\Test”) set shItems = shFolder.Items() for each shItem in shItems shItem.invokeverb “&Print” next “C:\Test” can be replaced with the path where the Word files you want to print are

7 | Microsoft Word Text animation How do I use different underlines and also animate text in Word? To animate text in Word: Highlight the text with your mouse, then right-click and select “Font”. Now, underneath the “Underline Style” pulldown, select your desired underline type. You can use a solid line, dashes, waves, and more. Underneath “Underline Color”, you can turn underlines into a different color other than the normal text color. Check out the “Preview” section to see how your underline will look. To animate your text, select the font you want to animate and right click on the text. Click on “Font” on the multi-tabbed

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dialog box that follows, and select “Text Effects”. Now, select an effect for the text and press “OK” when you’re done. Note: These animated effects will not be visible while printing.

8 | Microsoft Word Increasing the recently used file list Can I make Word remember more number of files that I opened in the file menu? Normally, when you click on “File”, Microsoft Word 2003 will show you the names of the last four files used. If you want, you can increase this list up to 9. Select “Tools” and then on “Options”. When the multi-tabbed “Options” dialog-box appears, click on the “General” tab. Next to the text “Recently used file list”, enter 9. Click on “OK” to close the dialog box.

When the “Properties” multi-tabbed dialog box appears, select “General”. Next to “Size”, you can view the current document’s file size on disk.

10 | Microsoft PowerPoint Package your presentations I need to take my PowerPoint presentation to my college. I am worried that the campus computer might not have the fonts and styles that I have used. Should I take the font types with me also? There is a way you can take your PowerPoint presentation with you wherever you go without the fear of unavailable fonts or even the application itself. PowerPoint has a feature known as Pack and Go (in Office 2000/XP) or Package for CD (in Office 2003), which lets you do this.

9 | Microsoft Word Obtaining the file size of current document How can I obtain the current document’s file size without going back to Windows Explorer? To obtain the current document’s file size, save the current document. Use “File | Save” or “File | Save As” if you haven’t already given the document a name or want to save a backup copy. Once the file has been saved, choose “File | Properties”.

10 Select PowerPoint Viewer if the destination computer does not have it installed In Office 2000/XP: Open your presentation and click on “File | Pack and Go”. You will, in all probability, be prompted to install this feature. Go ahead with the installation and keep the Office CD, just in case. The Pack and Go wizard will appear. Follow the wizard and select the presentation you want to take with you to another location. Select the destination folder for the packaged files. Make sure you have a folder created specially for this. It is better to use a USB storage device or a CD instead of spanning a presentation across many floppies. If you are using linked files and True Type fonts in your presentation, check “Include linked files” and “Embed True Type fonts”. If the destination computer does not have PowerPoint, include the

“Viewer” in the package. This will require the Office CD or download it from the Microsoft web site. That’s all; the folder is ready to be saved on CD or external storage. Now you will need to unpack it on your destination computer. Any changes made to the presentation after the packaging means you will have to repeat the process again. Unpacking the presentation: There are multiple files in the folder where the packaged presentation has been stored. Double click on “pngsetup.exe”. The unpacking begins with the Pack and Go setup. Select the destination folder where the presentation should be unpacked. Once the unpacking is complete, you only need to double click on the presentation to start it. If you have to use the PowerPoint viewer, then double click on that first to install it. If you use Office 2003 then it is referred to as the Package for CD feature. If you use Windows XP then it directly allows you to package the presentation on to the CD. The CD will auto-run the PowerPoint viewer to display the presentation. It also provides the option to save the package to a folder on the computer.

11 | Media Player Winamp When I use Winamp for a long time my PC becomes sluggish. Is there any way I can use Winamp and still make my PC work faster? While playing files on Winamp, your PC slows down because Winamp starts using the cache to save up all your MP3 files being played in your Winamp player. You can reduce the amount of cache you want Winamp to use while saving these files. Open up your “system.ini” file, which can be found in the Windows directory. Find the line entitled “[vcache]”, and add these lines given below: [vcache] MaxFileCache=X MinFileCache=Y INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

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Where X and Y are the largest and smallest sizes, you want to allow for the file cache (in kilobytes) respectively. I suggest putting in a value that is about 25 percent of your system’s RAM. Restart Windows for these effects to take effect.

12 | Adobe Acrobat Speeding up Acrobat reader My Adobe Acrobat files (PDF) take a long time to open. How do I speed up the process? PDF files take time to open because Adobe Acrobat reader loads all the plug-ins at the startup. However, you can disable the plug-ins from loading in order to decrease the time required for Acrobat reader to start. For this purpose, you can use a utility called Adobe Reader Speed-Up available on this month’s CHIP Tools CD. On running Adobe Reader Speed-Up for the first time, you will be presented with a dialog box with an option saying “Speed Up”. Check the radio button next to it and proceed. In the next dialog box, set the speed-up mode as “Speedup – Fast”, which is the recommended setting and click on “Start” Click on the “Finish” button after the settings are applied. Now PDF files will open as quickly as Word documents, not taking more than a few seconds!

13 | Download Manager Optimizing Flashget It takes ages to download large files on a dialup Internet connection. At present I

am using Flashget to manage downloads. Besides pausing and resuming downloads, what are its other useful features? When using a dialup connection, what worries you the most is the thought of getting exorbitant telephone bills. Downloading in parts by pausing and resuming downloads is the best way to download huge files. Other than this, you can instruct Flashget to hang up the telephone line when downloads get completed. To enable this feature: Go to the “Tools” menu and select the option “Hang up when done”. This way you need not be at your computer when your files are downloading. You can also tell Flashget to shut down the computer after the download is complete by selecting “Shut down when done” from the “Tools” menu.

14 | Download Manager Auto virus scan in Flashget How do I automatically scan downloaded files for viruses in Flashget? To protect your computer from viruses, it’s recommended to scan files for viruses as soon as they get downloaded. Flashget has an option to automatically scan downloaded files for viruses. To enable this feature: Go to the “Tools” menu and select “Options” to bring up a dialog box. Under the “File Manager” tab, check the option “Use virus scanner to scan the downloaded file(s)”. Click on the “Browser” button next to the empty field and specify the path to the executable file of your anti-virus. The executable file resides in the folder where your anti-virus software is installed.

Thunderbird doesn’t have a built-in option to minimize it to the system tray. But there are some third party utilities with which you can do this. One such nifty utility is Thunderbird-Tray, which you can find on this month’s CHIP Tools CD. After installing Thunderbird-Tray, it sits in the system tray. You can launch Thunderbird. Now, when you minimize Thunderbird, it will minimize to the system tray instead of the taskbar. The context menu also gives an option to instantly compose an e-mail message.

16 | Mozilla Thunderbird Accessing Gmail through Mozilla Thunderbird Having been invited recently for the popular Gmail account, I decided to give it a shot and was quite happy using it. I have lots of important mails on my Gmail account but I would like to have a copy of them on my hard drive. I use Mozilla Thunderbird as an e-mail client. Can I configure Thunderbird as a mail client for my Gmail account? Yes, it is possible. Here is a stepby-step guide to setting up Thunderbird to access your Gmail account. First of all make sure that POP3 is enabled in your Gmail account. Log into your Gmail account and click on “Settings”. Select the “Forwarding and POP” tab followed by “Enable POP for all mail”. Click on the “Save Changes” button to enable pop access. Select “Tools | Account Settings” from the menu in Thunderbird mail client. Click on “Add Account”.

Internet and Communication 15 | Web Browser Removing Thunderbird from the taskbar I use Mozilla Thunderbird as an e-mail client. Since it automatically checks for mails every few minutes, I have to keep it running at all times. Is there a way I can minimize Thunderbird to the system tray instead of it occupying space on the taskbar?

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Make sure “E-mail account” is selected and click on “Next”. Type your name under “Your Name.” Enter your Gmail address under “Email Address” and click on “Next”. Make sure POP is selected under “Select the type of incoming server” you are using. Type “pop.gmail.com” under “Incoming Server” and click on “Next”. Enter your full email address (“[email protected]”, for example) under “Incoming User Name”. You’ll just have to append “@gmail. com” to what Mozilla Thunderbird has already entered for you and click on “Next”. Give the Gmail account a name (something like “Gmail”, for example) under “Account Name”. Now click on “Done”. Highlight “Server Settings” under the new Gmail account. Make sure SSL is selected under “Use secure connection”. To setup SMTP in Thunderbird, Select “Outgoing Server” (SMTP) in the list of account on the left and click on “Add”. Type “smtp.gmail.com” under Server Name. Type “587” under Port. Make sure “User name and password” is checked. Type your Gmail address under “User Name”. Make sure TLS is selected under “Use secure connection” and select “OK”. Highlight the Gmail account that we created beforehand. Under “Outgoing Server” (SMTP), make sure “smtp.gmail.com” is selected. Open “Server Settings” under the Gmail account. Select TLS under “Use secure connection” and click on “OK”.

17 Enable detailed headers to get complete information about an e-mail Detailed mail headers help you troubleshoot mail problems as well as give you more information about a particular e-mail. In order to view detailed mail headers in Thunderbird: Select the “View | Headers | All option” in the main window.

18 | Opera Sorting downloads by file types I use Opera as my default web browser. Is there any way I can save all the files that I download to different folders based on the file type? For example, all the .zip files should be downloaded to a zip folder and the .exe files to an executable folder. If you have downloaded files off the Internet using Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox, you will often find managing the downloaded files a cumbersome process. You have to select the destination manually in IE while Firefox downloads all your files in a single folder. The process of sorting the files becomes a time-consuming process, especially if your download requirements are very heavy. Opera web browser has a neat little feature that will allow you

17 | Mozilla Thunderbird Viewing message headers I use Thunderbird as my e-mail client. By default, Thunderbird only shows short message headers. How do I get it to display full headers for all messages? OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

18 You can also manage other file types by adding additional extension types

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to sort all your files into different folders according to the type of file in question. To setup this feature in Opera, go to “Tools | Preferences” and click on the “Advanced” Tab. Select “Downloads”, followed by the appropriate file type. Also make sure that the “Save to disk” option is checked. Select the “Do not ask for folder, but save directly to” option. Choose the folder to download the particular file type and click on “OK”.

19 | Opera Can I read my mail in the full browser Can I read my mail in the full browser window in Opera? Yes you can read mail in the full browser window. First eEdit the following three files. Close Opera before editing any .ini file Edit the Menu.ini file, Item, “View in browser” = Go to page, “%s” Edit the Toolbar.ini file Button, “In browser” = Go to page, “%s”,,,View Edit the Input.ini file m = Go to page, “%s” Open Opera, and your mail folders or newsgroup lists will have “view in browser” in the context menu, and there will be a button “In browser” on the folder toolbars. Use the menu, or click on the button to have the mail items open in full browser windows. An added bonus is you can now also refresh a web page by pressing ‘m’.

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20 | Outlook Accessing Gmail via Outlook How do I access my Gmail account using Outlook? It is very simple to access your Gmail account in Outlook. You can do this using the POP3 server. You can specify if you want to keep the mail read in Outlook in your Gmail account or delete it. The following steps will guide you as to how this can be done: Turn on POP access in your Gmail account. Open Outlook and select “Tools | E-mail Accounts”. Select the option “Add a new e-mail account” from the new window that opens up. Click on “Next”. Choose POP3 as the server type and click on “Next”. Enter your Gmail account details in the Internet e-mail settings (POP3) dialog: 1. Put in your full name under the option “Your Name”. 2. Type in your Gmail email address under “E-mail Address”. 3. Type your full Gmail address under “User Name”. 4. Type your Gmail password under the option “Password”. 5. Type pop.gmail.com under “Incoming mail server (POP3)”. 6. Type smtp.gmail.com under “Outgoing mail server (SMTP)”. Click on “More Settings”. Go to the “Outgoing Server tab”. Make sure “My outgoing server”

(SMTP) authentication is checked. Select the option “Use same settings as my incoming mail server”. Go to the “Advanced tab”. Make sure “This server requires an encrypted connection (SSL)” is checked under both Incoming server (POP3) and Outgoing server (SMTP) Type 465 under Outgoing server (SMTP). Check if the number under Incoming server (POP3) is changed to 995 automatically; if not then enter 995 manually there. Click on “OK”. Then click on “Next” and finally on “Finish”.

21 | Internet Explorer Disabling automatic resizing of images Each time a high-resolution image loads in Internet Explorer, it automatically gets resized to fit in the browser window. To view it in its actual size, I have to manually expand it. How do I disable automatic resizing of images? Disabling automatic resizing images is easy! Here’s how you do it: Launch Internet Explorer and go to “Tools | Internet options” to bring up the “Internet options” dialog box. Select the “Advanced” tab and scroll down to the “Multimedia” section. “Enable automatic image resizing” is the first option. Uncheck it and click on the “OK” button to apply the changes.

Press the down arrow until the name to be removed is highlighted and then press the “Del” key. Internet Explorer will ask whether you want to delete the username and password information. Click on “Yes” and it’s gone.

23 | Internet Connection Sharing Sharing your Internet connection in Windows XP I have just installed a broadband Internet connection at home and want my PC as well as laptop to access the Internet simultaneously. How do I connect both? If you have a broadband connection, chances are that you are connected to the Internet either by a USB DSL modem, a cable modem or you have a direct Ethernet line to your PC. Many Internet service providers provide an ADSL router that allows you to share the Internet connection off the shelf. If you don’t have a router, you can use Windows XP to share your Internet connection with some additional hardware. To share your Internet connection using Windows XP, make sure the PC that is connected to the Internet directly has

22 | Internet Explorer Removing username/password for a site Is there any way I can remove the saved username and password of a single web site and keep all of my other saved password data of other web sites intact? It’s really simple to remove a stored username/password for a particular site: First navigate to the site. When Windows prompts you for the username and password, click on the username box and press the down arrow. This will show all the usernames stored for this particular site (usually just one).

23a Enabling ICS allows you to effectively share your single broadband connection

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two network cards. The PC and the laptop can be connected to each other via a hub or a switch or if you want to save costs, they can be connected directly via a cross over cable. Once you have established physical connectivity, follow these steps to share your Internet connection. [Note: You cannot share your Internet connection if you are running Windows XP Home Edition.] Open “Network Connections” in Control Panel or right-click on the “My Network Places” desktop icon and select “Properties”. Here, you should have at least two connections listed: one for your Internet connection, and one for your local area connection. Right-click on the entry corresponding to your Internet connection, and select “Properties”. Choose the “Sharing” tab, and turn on the “Enable Internet Connection Sharing” option. Click on “OK” to finish setting up ICS. On the client side, Open “Network Connections” in Control Panel or right-click on the “My Network Places” desktop icon and select “Properties”. Right-click on the Local area network connection and select “Properties”. Select TCP/IP and click on “Properties”. Change the IP address to 192.168.0.2, subnet mask to 255.255.255.0 and the gateway system as 192.168.0.1 and click on “OK”. Fire up the web browser and you should be ready to access the World Wide Web.

24 | Adobe Illustrator CS Applying colors on multiple outlines How can I create a logotype with multiple outlines and apply different colors on them? There may be occasions when you need to add multiple strokes or outlines to a logotype or headline, which add a certain weight to the graphic. Below are the steps to get the desired effects: Type a headline with a big font size, so that you have the space for bigger text on the artwork. Convert the text into graphic by clicking on “Type | Create Outlines” OCTOBER 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

24a Change the thickness of a stroke either by selecting a preset or by typing a value

24b Apply complementary colors to your strokes to create a glow effect from the menu bar. This will create separate outline for each and every text character. Apply a stroke color and then increase the stroke weight. Make sure the stroke is really thick. Next, to convert this stroke to a graphic so that you can apply a color to its outline, click on “Object | Path | Outline Stroke” from the menu bar. Reduce the stroke weight to half of what it was earlier. Apply a different stroke color and you will get an object or text with multiple strokes or outlines. You can repeat the last step. Remember that every time you apply “Outline Stroke”, reduce the stroke weight to half the last value.

25 | Adobe Illustrator CS Reducing anchor points Whenever I trace an image in Illustrator, it creates numerous anchor points. Is there a way I can reduce the number of these anchor points? It is really cumbersome to work with an image, which has numerous anchor points. Adjusting the points to modify

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25a The Autotrace tool creates a graphic by selecting similar colored pixels

25b The Simplify window lets you reduce the number of anchor points the shape of the image is a tedious and complex process. To reduce the number of these anchor points, follow the steps mentioned below: Place an image on the art board by clicking on “File | Place” from the menu bar. Select the “Autotrace tool” from the toolbar, the third one from the bottom, and click on the image. The Autotrace tool will select all the pixels with similar colors and apply one single fill color to give a flat appearance. In the process it creates numerous anchor points.

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All these anchor points eat up a lot of virtual memory, which eventually leads to your machine slowing down. To reduce the number of the anchor points, click on “Object | Path | Simplify”. This will open the Simplify window; check the “Preview” and the “Show Original” box for the shape of the new path when you adjust the settings against the original path that got created while using the Autotrace tool. Adjust the “Curve precision” slider to reduce the number of anchor points. When you decrease the curve precision percentage value, the number of anchor points gets reduced and along with it even the path loses the details. Once you are satisfied with the number of anchor points, click on “OK” and return to the path to get better details.

26a The Smart Objects Layer clubs the two objects in one layer but allows you to edit them separately in a different file

26 | Adobe Photoshop CS Editing images on a layer My artwork has two images on a layer. I want to edit them separately but as they overlap, it is difficult. What is the way out? In case of such an artwork, you don’t have any option of editing the images on one layer separately. However, you can try out the following option: Create images on two layers separately. Next, select both the layers and click on “Layer | Smart Object | Group into New Smart Object” from the menu bar. This will bring both the images on one special layer known as the “Smart Object layer”. To edit the images separately, double

26b Save to apply the changes on the Smart Objects Layer

click on the “Smart Object layer”. When the dialogue box appears, click on the “OK” button. This will treat that layer as a separate file, and will open it showing two layers with your created images separately. The canvas size of the new file will be in proportion to the objects. You can also adjust the canvas size from the menu bar by clicking on “Image | Canvas size”. Remember to increase or decrease the canvas size proportionately. Once you are done with setting the proper canvas size, you can edit the images without any problem. Crop the images proportionately otherwise they will appear distorted and you might have to resize them. Finally, save your file and you will have two images in one layer in your artwork.

Hardware 28 | Storage Optimum use of the IDE channels When I try to burn a DVD or copy data from a DVD media to the hard drive, data access is slow. What do you think is causing this? I have a 7200 rpm IDE hard drive with 8 MB cache and a fast 16x DVD writer.

The reason you could be facing this problem is because you have probably linked up the IDE hard drive and the optical drive on the same IDE channel. When both the devices are on the same channel, the bandwidth gets divided between them. The same amount of data needs to travel through the bus in both the directions thus causing a bottleneck. Under such circumstances, put the IDE hard drive and the Optical drive on seperate channels if your motherboard supports 2 IDE Channels. If not, consider investing in a SATA hard drive. They cost the same as their IDE counterparts and provide better performance when simultaneous access to he hard drive and the optical drive is required. If you only have a single cable but two IDE ports, consider investing in a seperate IDE cable for each device and it will pump up the performance of your hard drive and the optical drive.

27 | PC Handling internal PC components I am about to assemble a PC for the first time. I have heard that static electricity can harm the internal components. Can you also tell me what precautions I need to take while assembling a PC? Static electricity is created when there is friction and separation between certain types of materials. When two materials are separated, a transfer of electrons takes place from one to the other. The amount of static electricity generated depends on the type of material and the amount of friction generated. Conductors like metals easily transfer electrons and get charged unlike in the case of non-conductors like plastic. When a conductor is charged, the less number of free electrons gives it the ability to rapidly discharge when it comes in close proximity to another conductor. Plastics generate a high amount of static electricity. Follow these steps when you plan to assemble a PC. Before installation, always store the components in anti-static bags. Wear an anti-static wristband attached to a metal part of your case. Hold internal parts by their edges.  INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

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Down to the Core Take a ride on our trivia train that brings you to the very source of next-gen gaming

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e have seen a huge transition in computer gaming in the past few years—the seventh generation of console gaming is a reality now. Thanks to supercharged hardware, we have highdefinition games that look realistic and provide for a fantastic experience replete with fun and thrill. In our past issues, we have talked about how advanced hardware has enhanced gaming. In this feature, we will narrow down to game engines and how they affect gameplay. Today there are more than thousand 3D engines, but only the special few like Unreal Engine 3, Doom 3 Engine, CryENGINE2, RenderWare and Gamebryo provide abundant visual development tools in addition to reusable software components. Take a look at our mapping on seven such extreme game engines.

used as a demo platform for upcoming Nvidia graphics cards. Running graphic demos, this engine was way before its time—its intricate coding and multi-tasking capabilities were awesome for a first version engine. Nvidia and Crytek made use of this kernel to develop the real-world first person shooter, Far Cry. The engine has multiplatform support for the PC as well as for consoles like the Xbox, Xbox 360, PS2, PS3. The sequel to this game, Far Cry: Instincts Predator was released next for the PC and then for the Xbox 360. But the immovable in-game physics was a big glitch. The engine had to be modified further too boost gameplay. Crytek having mastered realworld levels wanted to step up and this is how CryENGINE2 was born. The CryENGINE engine has been licensed to NCSoft for their forthcoming MMORPG, Aion.

The Cry Series

CryENGINE2

The engine developed by Crytek was initially

In 2004, Crytek in cooperation with ATI spawned the v2 engine. The latest core is

CryENGINE

a heavily extended version of the original CryENGINE supporting Shader model 2-based HDR (High Dynamic Range), depthof-field and motion blur. No official details of the engine’s capabilities and features have been released, but the demo of Crytek’s next-generation game Crysis slated to be released in March 2007, will prove its credibility. The engine supports features like volumetric clouds, dynamic ambient lighting, soft shadows and extremely detailed models. Crysis will raise the FPS bar with its player-defined environmental reactions, which means when you shoot a leaf, it will drop to the ground. Keep an eye out for this one!

Renderware RenderWare, developed by Criterion Software is committed to game development—having powered over 500 games till date. This engine is home to titles like Burnout 3: Takedown. Call of Duty Finest Hour, Grand Theft Auto as well as

Pramod Jadhav

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FEATURE

Black. Boasting multi-platform support, the engine did not really seem to be a nextgeneration engine and went through three facelifts since v1. The latest RenderWare release is the v4.x engine, taking over its predecessors—the v2.x and v3.x kernels. Thanks to its active GUI, this tiny engine gave its competitors a run for their money. Its biggest advantage is its rendering capabilities. Its power lies in the fact that it allows computers with lower configurations to run games at high frames per second. Some of the hot releases based on this engine are: Burnout: Revenge PlayStation Call of Duty: Finest Hour Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Black

Doom 3 Engine Doom 3 is one of the most sophisticated and highly modified engines. Developed by id Software, it was designed by John Carmack who also created the previous Doom and Quake engines. Although the Doom 3 engine was originally modeled on that of Quake 3, the current one hardly bears any resemblance to it. In fact, the Doom 3 engine filled up for several effects absent in Quake 3 such as bump mapping, normal mapping and so on. The original version of the Doom 3 engine needed high hardware requirements to run it optimally. The engine’s texturing did not support quality outdoor scenarios and the need for detailing was apparent. The Mega Texturing technology solved the problem of outdoor scenes with the help of a single massive texture covering the entire

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map. Hence the desired effects were achieved. Another flaw was overtly detailed shadows in Doom 3, for instance, the edges were too sharply defined. This was corrected in subsequent releases of the engines as seen in the game Prey. Apart from this game, the other hot releases based on this engine are: Doom 3 Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil Quake 4

RAGE RAGE, short for Rockstar Advanced Game Engine, is a game engine crafted by Rockstar Games poised to unlock the potential of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles to the fullest. The Grand Theft Auto IV is going to use the RAGE engine and if the visuals seen in the new Rockstar Table Tennis game are in any way indicative, we could well be in for a surprise. The previous Grand Theft Auto games were however powered by the RenderWare engine. GTA IV is slated for release in October 2007. So will all future Rockstar games released on the Xbox360

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and PlayStation 3 be also powered by the RAGE? Watch this space.

Gamebryo The Gamebryo engine is one of the most flexible engines present today and supports a variety of game types. It is a successor to NDL’s (Numerical Design Limited) NetImmerse engine. This engine takes game development to a new level—now the scenes appear as if they are in the high definition format. This is a multi-platform engine supporting PC, PS3, PS2, Xbox 360, Xbox and GameCube. Gamebryo has been around for quite a while now and has powered loads of arcade, simulation, action and strategy games as well as 3D software. Some of the multi-genre games built on this engine are: Empire Earth II The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Zoo Tycoon 2 Sid Meier’s Civilization IV

The Unreal Engine This powerful engine developed by Epic games was first used in the 1998 first person shooter Unreal. It lay the foundation for many such games since then including Unreal Tournament and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield. The engine is truly versatile as it has been used in myriad areas other than gaming such as construction simulation, design training simulation and driving simulation. The engine’s blistering speed has been raved about. The 3.0 core in Unreal Tournament 2007 enables terapixel graphics and high-speed vehicular battles against three story monsters. The engine supports HDR, soft-shadows, depth-of-field, rag-doll dynamics and volumetric environments. The INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

FEATURE

engine has gone through two transitions from v1.0 to v2.0 and v3. Unreal technology is currently working on the v4.0 version to power next-generation consoles. Some of the games powered by this engine are: Postal2 Unreal Tournament 2007 XIII Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield

Source Engine Source Engine has been developed by Valve Corporation. Basically coded in C and C++, it boasts of all the best features such as HDR2, soft-shadows, depthof-field, rag-doll dynamics, buoyancy, volumetric environments, lip sync and facial expression technologies. Games running on this engine are superb to play because of its powerful and efficient physics system. Advanced characteristics seen in CryEngine such as motion blur and depth-of-field are present in Source. Halflife: Episode Two, powered by this engine, will in all probability come packed with the HDR2 feature. It is being speculated that it will support DirectX 10 as well. Landscape is depicted more realistically with open gorge-like environments in Half-life: Episode Two, unseen in Episode 1. Soft particle systems will be seen as well,

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along with in-game cinematic physics. Scenes depicting a two-story building or a large bridge collapsing without animation will be an experience worth waiting for. As part of this engine’s transition to next-generation consoles, multi-processor optimizations have been added. This has resulted in faster processing in PCs and the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles that run dual core processors. A significant advancement in Half-Life 2’s Xbox release was file streaming, in which a map’s resources could be loaded as the player moved around in it. One of this, the loading time was reduced to as little as 15 seconds. This is one the most widely used game engines today. Here are some of the titles powered by Source: Counter-Strike: Source Day of Defeat: Source Half-Life: Source Half-Life 2 Half-Life 2 Episodes (One, Two and Three) SiN Episodes You must have played all or some of these games mentioned in this article and we can bet at least one of these titles would be your favorite. So the next time you witness an in-game effect, you have the game-coding geniuses to thank!  | Erick Rustomji

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Slash, cut, hack and loot this sunday afternoon...

P

eople who have sworn allegiance to the legendary pirate Captain Jack Sparrow, have one more thing to rejoice about with Bethesda Softworks’ recently released game, based on the much talked about movie Pirates of the Caribbean. It’s a little late though, considering the sequel to the movie has already been released. The game starts off with both our pirate heroes Captain Sparrow and blacksmith turned pirate Will Turner, hunting down a valuable jewel hidden in a Spanish fortress off the Spanish coast, only to find themselves double-crossed, captured, and getting ready for a public hanging. While standing at the gallows, Jack attempts to buy some time by recounting past exploits and this is when the game really gets going. The game can be played as a single player or with a friend, with player two taking on the role of Will Turner or Elizabeth Swann, depending on the story Jack is currently thinking of in flashbacks. You can easily swap between the characters you want to play with just the click of a button. Though it seems to take the friendly AI a few more slashes to cut the enemy down to size,

they generally stay out of the way, and you never have to worry about them dying on you. The enemy AI is nothing to write home about. It is as stale and bland as it can get. Your enemy stands right beside you doing nothing waiting for you to cut him to bits and pieces. At some point in the game you have to use a ram to open a huge door. Now in order to do that you have to keep pressing a particular button that will show up as an icon on the screen, but if you don’t manage to do it in time, you start all over again. In addition to the lackluster gameplay, the game has a series of glaring programming flaws. For instance, when playing alone, you’ll notice the AI controlled allies get stuck behind barrels and walls. When not trying to sprint through a doorway, they’ll sometimes just stand and stare while your enemies tear you to shreds. The good part is your enemies don’t fare any better either. They also just wait and watch even when you’re walking right next to them. The swordplay is the same with just two basic sword slashes that you can later string together into three-hit combinations. You RATINGS can block attacks, perform rolling dodges, and toss objects around For: Good storyline, superb soundtracks from the movie. with absolutely no idea how or where it’s going to end up. There Against: Stupid AI, stale gameplay, tough controls.

6.0 / 10

are Molotov cocktails, hand axes, and fish to use as grenades or just to cut or break something. There is this bit of interactivity in each of the game’s environments where you can slash at pillars and support beams to bring down evil pirates. You can also place explosive barrels throughout each stage to unlock secrets, and certain objects like lifts and mine carts can be manipulated in different ways. The graphics aren’t anything special— except for some environments, most of it looks pretty dull. The characters look pretty much the same as in the movie. Jack, for example, is instantly recognizable in his drunken stupor, and he remains his crafty, cunning self . It would have been a lot more convincing, however if Elizabeth didn’t fight quite so much like a man. The storyline is pretty good considering the fact that you experience it from Jack Sparrow’s point of view. You get to travel to China, Spain and lots of other places which were not featured in the film. Come and join in the thrill of hacking, slashing, cutting and looting to your heart’s content. If you have nothing better to do on a boring afternoon and would like a little action or a throwback to your childhood when you played pirates with makeshift swords, then this is the perfect game for you.  | Faheem Sayed

Price: 1,299 Publisher: Bethesda Softworks Distributor: e-xpress Interactive Phone: 022-28843736 e-mail: [email protected] System: Windows XP, Pentium III 800 MHz or Athlon 800 MHz or higher, 256 MB RAM, DirectX 9.0c compatible graphics card with 32 MB, hard disk with 3.5 GB free space, 4X CD/DVD drive.

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Joinin’ the Mafia ain’t exactly a walk in the park. The shootin’ and cursin’ is cool, but will you live to tell the tale?

T

here are some people who love Quentin Tarantino’s movies and others who don’t. Me? I’m one of the former. Modeled on the cult-inspiring Quentin Tarantino movie in ’92, Reservoir Dogs promises a lot. After spending time with this PS2 title, we found that it delivered on some counts but disappointed on others. Fans of the movie will appreciate the various nuances that went into defining this groundbreaking movie—from the snappy wit, funky soundtrack (all of which you hear as the game’s background score) and of course the characters. However, with the movie’s cult status primarily emerging out of the snappy dialog sequences in the warehouse, the developers needed to take obvious liberties from the original storyline to impart the requisite amount of action sequences in the game. It all starts off in the warehouse where you, as a new recruit need to prove your mettle in displaying competence for joining the group. This serves to introduce you to the various weapons like the pistols, shotguns and submachine guns, and provides a training ground in learning to use them correctly. More than just shooting, your survival depends heavily on the ability to take hostages and use them to disarm security personnel along the way. From guards to cops to SWAT teams, the amount of coercion you need to exercise varies, but if you do it right, you can have them drop their arms and back up against a wall—just the

RATINGS

way you want. To drive home your point with especially hardened opponents, butt-whacking your hostage with your weapon will make them take you seriously. True to the movie, the game begins from the diamond heist that went wrong. You get to play each of the characters in the movie where you will proceed through alleyways, deserted garages and industrial complexes. Depending on the ferocity with which you plough through the levels, you will either be rated as a professional, a criminal or a psycho! At the zenith of your adrenalin rush (this is visible from an on-screen indicator) you can unleash a ‘Bullet Festival’ which takes you into a Matrix-inspired slow-motion sequences of bullets. Besides moving around on foot, there are regular opportunities to hop into a car to get across a level. The in-game driving largely consists of either getting between two points within a predefined time or staying above a speed limit to shake off pursuing cops and is functional more than exciting. However, it isn’t difficult to get accustomed to the scripted nature of the game. A generous number of checkpoints let you save your progress at regular intervals. The banter, along with the signature mafia one-liners are fun, but remember to turn down the volume as the profanitystudded humor might not appeal to all at home.  | Marco D’Souza

Jagdish Limbachiya

7 / 10

For: Engaging gameplay, entertaining voiceovers and funky retro soundtrack. Against: Linear level flow. Price: 2,499 Publisher: Eidos Interactive, SCi, Volatile Games Distributor: Milestone Interactive com System: Playstation 2 console, 128 KB free space on memory card for saving games, controller

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Ultimate Collection Model railroads and control realistic locomotives in a lifelike simulation

I

f you’re a fan of simulations, by now you surely must have driven a Ferrari or flown a Concorde at full throttle. But if you haven’t yet jumped into the cab of a locomotive, here’s how you can! Trainz is an all round railroad simulator that has something to offer every railroad junkie right from modeling railroads to controlling your dream train. To begin with, the complete installation of the game takes around 700 MB of drive space after which you don’t require the game disc to play. The game is very light on resources and doesn’t require a fancy graphics card. Even a decent graphics card like the Nvidia GeForce 6200 can run it at the highest settings—at a resolution of 1024x768. Trainz can be played in three modes— Surveyor, Driver and Scenario. In the surveyor mode you can model railroads. With a complete set of tunnels, bridges, buildings, vehicles and flora and fauna, you can create a fully featured layout with great details. With an easy-to-use interface, creating lavish landscapes featuring rolling hills, lakes, mountains, beaches and other geographical formations is a breeze. It is possible to model the railway network of your city also if you have a railway map! The Trainz ‘Driver’ module provides an opportunity to step in the cabin of a locomotive and take complete control of the train. You can build trains of your choice using locomotives, passenger cars, tankers, wagons and hoppers

RATINGS

from a list of over 130 different engines and cars! When driving a train, you have complete control over the degree of realism. You can set the control mode as DCC or Cabin. While in the DCC mode, you only need to control the speed, in the Cabin mode, you have to control the pressure brakes, throttle and speed. For those who wish all rules to be similar to that in real life, the level of derailment can be specified. With the derailment level set to maximum, you dare not speed up at turns and bends! Finally, there’s a Scenario mode wherein the gameplay is mission based. The easy missions are the ones where you’re in charge of passenger trains. Signals and speed limits have to be obeyed failing which the scenario comes to an end. Complex missions involve manually switching tracks and carrying out complex shunting maneuvers. While the game is enough to thrill any railroading buff, it does have its share of quirks. The interface isn’t intuitive at all. You cannot master the controls without referring to the manual. Apart from the manual, there isn’t any way you can learn the controls—the control map is missing from the game! And since the controls are mapped on the numeric pad, it will be difficult playing this game on a laptop. If you’re a fan of railroad simulation, you shouldn’t miss this game.  | Anand Tuliani

6.5 / 10

For: Great details and realism. Against: No in-game tutorial; the interface isn’t intuitive. Pramod Jadhav

Price: 399 Publisher: Auran Distributor: Aladdin Multimedia Pvt Ltd Phone: 022-56936795 e-mail: [email protected] System: Windows 98 SE/ME/2000/ XP, Intel Pentium III or above, 128 MB RAM, 8x CD/DVD Drive, DirectX 9.0c compatible graphics card, 600 MB free HDD space, soundcard

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Post: J2EE Developer Company: Liquid Hub Profile: Should have experience working on J2EE Technologies with experience in JSP, Servlets, JSP and JDBC. Exp.: 2-5 Location: Hyderabad Email: [email protected]

Profile: Should have lead a team of 50 - 80 members that would comprise of software engineers, team leaders and senior software engineers with 8 to 11 years experience in the related field. Exp.: 8-11 Location: Pune Email: [email protected]

Post: Technical Specialist- UAS Company: CSR India Pvt. Ltd. Profile: Candidate must have experience in developing UMTS RLC/MAC Layer protocol. Knowledge of Configuration and Process Management tools. Exp.: 7-12 Location: Bangalore Email: [email protected]

Post: Technical Specialist Company: Wipro Infotech Profile: Candidate should have knowledge of TCP/IP with basic understanding and familiarity of oracle database. Exp.: 5-9 Location: Gurgaon Email: [email protected]

Post: Testing Practice Head Company: JK Technosoft Ltd. Profile: Should be a team player with excellent people management skills & experience in managing full scale projects. Exp.: 9-14 Location: Delhi/NCR Email: [email protected] Post: Solutions Architect- Embedded Company: Adya Systems & Software (P) Ltd. Profile: Should have understanding of OS Kernels, device drivers, embedded system hardware, software architecture for networking applications. Strong coding experience in C++. Exp.: 8-10 Location: Delhi Email: [email protected] Post: Sr. Developer Company: Ventrum India Profile: The candidate should be a BE/ BTech/ MCA with mandatory Skills C, C++, MFC, Active X, Windows Programming, good grasp on OOAD UML principles is plus. Exp.: 4-8 Location: Bangalore Email: [email protected] Post: Project Leader- Mainframe Company: HSBC Software Development (India) Pvt. Ltd.

Post: Associate Head- IT Company: DS Group Ltd. Profile: The Candidate must be an Engineering Graduate in Electronics or Computer Science. CCNA & MCSE will be preferred, with an experience of more than 7 years in the IT administration field. Exp.: 6-8 Location: Noida Email: [email protected] Post: Project Manager Company: Conexant Systems (PB) Pvt. Ltd. Profile: Candidate should have embedded system development experience in Linux2.4/ Linux2.6, kernel or any other RTOS with knowledge in broadcasting standards like DVB, ATSC/ ARIB. Exp.: 6-11 Location: Noida Email: [email protected] Post: Solution Architect- Domain Expertise Company: Satyam Computer Services Ltd. Profile: The Candidate should have 6 to 15 years experience with Domain expertise. Exp.: 6-11 Location: Mumbai Email: [email protected] Post: Sr. Developer Company: Aithent Technologies (P) Ltd. Profile: Should have 5+ Years Experience with Unix , DB2 with good Communication Skill.

Exp.: 4-7 Location: Mumbai Email: [email protected] Post: Sr. ASIC Engineer Company: Portal Player Pvt. Ltd. Profile: The candidate should have Master’s Degree in engineering with over 6 years of experience or a Bachelor’s Degree in Engineering with over 8 years of experience with project management skills. Exp.: 6-10 Location: Hyderabad Email: [email protected] Post: Sr. Test Engineer Company: Xansa Profile: The candidate should be BE / BTech / MCA / M.Sc with 60% and above and 5.5 to 9 years experience of functional and non functional testing using tools. Exp.: 5-10 Location: Noida Email: [email protected] Post: Unix Administrator Company: Unisys India Pvt. Ltd. Profile: Candidate must be a graduate in computer science/ IT or equivalent with 4+ years of experience and knowledge of Administration. Exp.: 4-7 Location: Bangalore Email: [email protected] Post: Java Specialist Company: ACL Wireless Ltd. Profile: Candidate will be responsible for timely development of all services, work with client team for client server protocol refinement and definition. Exp.: 5-7 Location: Delhi/NCR Email: [email protected] Post: SAP Portal Developer Company: Kanbay Software (India) Pvt. Ltd. Profile: Candidate should have implementation experience with excellent communication skills. Exp.: 4-7 Location: Hyderabad Email: [email protected]

Post: System Analyst Company: Southern Ocean Software Solutions (P) Ltd. Profile: The candidate will be responsible for business analysis, functional verification and validation of the deliverables. Exp.: 4-6 Location: Chennai Email: chennai@southernoceansolutions. com Post: General Manager- Software Company: TVS Infotech Ltd. Profile: Candidate must be a Senior Management person who is technically sound and has good people management skills. Exp.: 12-22 Location: Chennai Email: [email protected] Post: Tech Lead- Software Engineering Company: Yahoo Software Development India Pvt. Ltd. Profile: Candidate must have a B.Tech degree or better and a minimum of 7 years experience in developing high quality C++ applications in a UNIX environment. Exp.: 7-9 Location: Bangalore Email: [email protected] Post: Project Manager Company: CLC Technologies Ltd. Profile: Incumbent should be competent enough to handle a team with complete knowledge of ERP, VB 6.0, SQL Server, & Crystal Report. Experience on CODING is a must. Exp.: 4-8 Location: Gurgaon Email: [email protected] Post: Sr. Software Engineer Company: AOL Bangalore Development Center Profile: Candidate should have experience in designing and developing back end systems. Exp.: 4-6 Location: Bangalore Email: [email protected]

Post: ASP.Net Professional Company: Blue Star Infotech Ltd. Profile: Candidate should have knowledge of ASP.Net and C#. Exp.: 4-7 Location: Bangalore Email: [email protected] Post: Project Leader- J2EE Company: Polaris Software Lab Ltd. Profile: Should have 5+ yrs in IT with 4+ yrs exp in Java/J2EE with atleast 1+ yrs TL/PL Exp in Struts, EJB, JSP is mandatory. Sun Certified Professional will have an added advantage. Exp.: 5-7 Location: Chennai Email: [email protected] Post: Team Leader Company: Aspire Systems India (P) Ltd. Profile: Should be highly proficient in atleast one of the following technology streams: - ASP. Net, VB.Net, C#, Core Java, JSP, Servlets, EJB, RMI, CORBA. Exp.: 4-9 Location: Chennai Email: [email protected] Post: UDB Professional Company: Syncata (a ProQuest Co.) Profile: The candidate must have 5 years of DBA experience using UDB, logical and physical design of database, ETL tools and OLAP tools. Exp.: 5-9 Location: Delhi/NCR Email: [email protected] Post: Sr. Software Engineer- .Net Company: Procentris India Pvt. Ltd. Profile: Candidate should have knowledge of .Net Framework with strong knowledge of caching mechanism, .Net data providers, server and user controls, validation etc. Exp.: 4-7 Location: Mumbai Suburbs Email: [email protected] Post: Quality Manager Company: Adobe Systems India Pvt. Ltd.

Profile: Should have Quality Manager/ Testing Manager with strong testing skills & experience on all kinds of testing. Prior experience in Product testing would be desirable. Exp.: 8-12 Location: Delhi/NCR Email: [email protected] Post: Lead Software Engineer- Dot Net Company: Interglobe Technologies (CMM i Level 5) Profile: The candidate should lead team of Dot Net Professionals. Design and implement small to large size projects. Exp.: 5-8 Location: Delhi/NCR Email: [email protected] Post: BI/DW Analyst Company: Agile Software Enterprise Pvt. Ltd. Profile: The candidate should have 5+ years of technical/systems analysis, 3-5 years experience in Database, Process Mapping / Diagrams, Data warehouse architecture , ETL experience. Exp.: 5-8 Location: Bangalore Email: [email protected] Post: Sr. Software Engineer- Java Script Company: Corbus India Pvt. Ltd. Profile: Should have 4 years of Development experience using Java, JSP, Servlets. Must be familiar with OnsiteOffsite Model. Exp.: 5-7 Location: Delhi/NCR Email: [email protected] Post: Sr. Java (J2EE) Engineer Company: Bebo Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Profile: Must be a BE/MCA with relevant experience in JAVA/J2ee/EJB/ JMS/WebLogic/IBM MQ Workflow/ Webmethods. Should know script programming, with ability to take initiative. Exp.: 4-7 Location: Chandigarh Email: [email protected]

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LAST WORD

Intelligence where? A

fter being surrounded by geeks and mind-boggling technologies right through the week, and with deadlines squeezing every ounce of life out of me, I was left desperately seeking a weekend. Though the weekend seemed light years away, it finally arrived, though it seemed to me it was I who rushed towards it with lightning speed! Whatever the case was, all that matters is once Friday beckoned, I was out of the office in a jiffy. I wanted to run away from the clutches of technology and sink in the serenity of nature. But when one is so used to the maniacal demands of city life, getting away from it is a tad difficult; also nature seemed far far away. So it struck me that the perfect thing to do would be to hang out with friends, who were free men unlike me—a faithful slave to technology. But this seemingly temporary detour from this world of technology proved to be an unforgettable and enlightening experience.

20 GB PATA + 60 GB = 80 GB SATA! I met this friend (whose identity I dare not reveal, since I don’t want to risk personal injury), an engineering student with a tech handicap. He recently shifted his loyalty from Intel to AMD. The new PC he purchased has an AMD Athlon 64 processor while the old one had an Intel Pentium 4 processor. When I heard about it, I couldn’t resist asking him about his PC’s configuration. While he answered most of the obvious aspects like brand of the monitor and speakers, answering queries about the internal components made him a tad uneasy. The blank look on his face was discouraging; so instead of bothering him, I decided to take a look at the computer myself. I figured that an 80 GB SATA hard drive was installed in his computer; so I asked him what he had done with his older 20 GB PATA hard drive. I of course had an ulterior motive here. My hard drive was brimming with data and getting a second-hand drive for a friendly price would be a blessing. But his reply left me dumbfounded. His exact words were, “The computer assembler added 60 GB of space to the older hard Jagdish Limbachiya

drive, which resulted in a new 80 GB disk”. I concealed my laughter and explained to him calmly that a hard drive cannot be upgraded to a higher capacity; it needs to be replaced. The appreciation I received in return was equivalent to the accolades a person would receive had he managed to avert the Third World War!

Head-spinning experience The next day, the same friend who by now regarded me his Gadget Guru, urged me to accompany him to purchase a Discman he so wanted to possess. I agreed. We checked out a reputed electronic store in our vicinity. The sales personnel at the store were so presentable that I got an inferiority complex. Forget about being immaculately dressed, I looked like something the cat dragged in. Anyway, I inquired about the various brands of Discman available, in the most impeccable manner possible. After browsing through a fairly large number, we narrowed down to a Panasonic Discman featuring a transparent panel and capable of reading audio CDs, MP3 CDs, and VCDs. My friend noticed something peculiar about the Discman—when the music played, the disc would rotate for a brief period and then come to a standstill even though the music continued playing. So he inquired about this rather odd feature. Before I could explain that the music was buffered in a RAM chip from where the music was played even though the disc did not rotate, the salesman’s prompt reply made my jaw drop. His masterpiece quote, “While playing the disc, initially the disc is spun and later the lens is spun and that explains why the CD is stationary after a while.” Before yours truly— crusader of technology could strike the salesman in frustration, I decided it would be wise to pay for the Discman and get out of there. When we stepped outside the shop, a Motorola banner caught my attention. It proudly proclaimed, ‘Intelligence everywhere’. I looked at my friend next to me and thought of the techchallenged salesman and sighed. To me, only ‘Intelligence nowhere’ seemed more apt!  | Sharon Lobo INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | OCTOBER 2006

2006

11

Rs 100

Technology in Design | 24 TFTs reviewed | Build a Media Center PC

RNI Registration No. MAHENG/2003/12687