Table of contents for 515 in Computeractive

What was I doing in Dorking last December? I don’t remember going there then, though Google tells me I did, and who am I to argue with the world’s biggest collector of personal data? Sign into Google’s Timeline and you’ll see your own journeys – some of which you may even remember. Disabling Google’s location tracking is one of the many privacy-boosting tips in our Cover Feature, which also recommends Facebook and Amazon settings to tweak. All three are excellent websites that have changed how we work, communicate and shop, and I wouldn’t suggest you stop using them. But you should check what information they hold on you, and follow our tips to prevent them from gathering more. You may have noticed that, regrettably, we’ve had to increase our price…

Microsoft is testing a feature that lets you send files between nearby Windows 10 computers using Bluetooth. It means you’ll be able to send photos, videos and website URLs without using a USB stick or email. The Near Share tool appears in a new preview version of Windows 10 (Redstone 4 Build 17035), available to people signed up to the Fast Ring and Skip Ahead options in the Windows Insider program (https://insider.windows.com). It’s similar to Apple’s AirDrop, which lets users share files between devices running MacOS (for example, MacBooks) and iOS (iPhone, iPad). Google also recently announced a sharing app, called Files Go, that works between Android devices. To use Near Share, you need to switch it on in the Action Center on both computers (see screenshot above right). It…

You can now explore some of England’s most interesting historical sites on your PC, as part of a new collection of rarely seen treasures. Google’s Street View team has collaborated with English Heritage to provide ultra-high definition images of 29 locations, including Tintagel Castle in Cornwall (pictured below), Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire, and Osborne House, Queen Victoria’s holiday home on the Isle of Wight. The project aims to reveal works of art and artefacts that are usually hard for the public to see in any detail. These include Antonio Zucchi’s 18th-century ceiling paintings at London’s Kenwood House, and Frank Wilkin’s vast 1820 painting of the Battle of Hastings, which hangs within a private school in East Sussex (pictured above). Matt Thompson, head of collections at English Heritage, said the images…

Sync or swim? Drag and drop instead Re The Final Straw, Issue 513 (‘Syncing without trace’), please tell Ken Rigsby not to get lost in the depths of iTunes but to use Syncios (www.syncios.com, see screenshot below) instead. As long as he has a PDF-reader app installed on his iOS device, he can drag and drop PDFs to his heart’s content. John Lawrence Please mention missing features in your reviews I read the letter from Charles Shaw in Issue 513 in which he recommends star-watching apps, and it prompted me to relate a recent problem I had. I also like astronomy apps and use a compass app, an excellent sat-nav and a virtual-reality headset. My phone, which ran all these, was a Motorola Moto G2, bought after reading Computeractive’s review.…

Q In March, I bought a Nextbase Dashcam for my car from Halfords, paying an installation fee. In June the suction pad came unstuck from my windscreen. Halfords said it was probably a faulty suction pad and replaced this. But it’s happened again. Can I get my money back or is Halfords allowed to fix it again? Elaine Scott A Yes, Elaine should be able to get a refund and no, Halfords isn’t allowed a second chance to repair the dashcam. The crucial point is that it doesn’t matter whether only part of a device stops working. The broken suction pad means the whole dashcam is not ‘fit for purpose’, so Elaine should make her claim under the Consumer Rights Act. However, because she’s owned the dashcam for more than…

It has taken us some time to warm to Microsoft’s Edge browser. For its first two years since launching in July 2015 it lacked the tools to be a serious rival to Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer. But that’s beginning to change. The latest program to give Edge a chance is Dashlane, which has updated its excellent password manager to work as an extension in the browser, without you having to also download software to your Windows PC. It already worked like this in Chrome and Firefox. Also new in the latest version is an improved auto-fill function, the clever technology that remembers your login details on websites so you don’t have to keep typing them. When Dashlane fails to recognise a website’s login box, it uses “self-correcting” machine learning…

Win 1 of 2 Creative iRoar Go Bluetooth speakers Creative’s iRoar Go Bluetooth speakers have five powerful speaker drivers that include a built-in subwoofer for audio that fills every inch of your room. It also has two amplifiers for balanced audio delivery, and multi-tasks as a built-in MP3/FLAC player, voice recorder, Bluetooth speakerphone, external USB Sound Blaster sound card and a battery bank. It’s waterproof too, so no splashes will spoil your fun. To enter, email your address to cacomp@dennis.co.uk with ‘iroar’ in the subject line by midnight 5 December. Creative’s iRoar Go costs £159.99 from https://uk.creative.com. For more information on Creative’s products follow @creativelabs on Twitter, and ‘like’ its Facebook page: www.facebook.com/CreativeLabs.…

Converting files to PDFs normally involves downloading software and creating an account. Neither are necessary with PDF Candy (www.pdfcandy.com), which has over 30 free tools, including options to convert documents, spreadsheets, images and ebooks into PDFs. You can password-protect PDFs, rearrange pages and add page numbers to your converted files.…

ANDROID & iOS Add multiple stops to your Uber journey The app for taxi service Uber has added a new feature that lets you add up to three stops on your route before you confirm your pick-up. Uber recommends you limit each stop to a maximum of three minutes. It’s a great way to pre-arrange things if you’re dropping off or picking up a number of people en route. Previously, you had to arrange any such detours with your Uber driver. To do this, open the Uber app (Android www.snipca.com/26165; iOS www.snipca.com/26166) and you’ll see a new ‘+’ symbol next to the ‘Where to’ field at the top. Tap this, then tap inside the ‘Add a stop’ field (see screenshot below) to add a second destination. Tap inside the field…

Manage ON1 Effects’ performance Image-enhancement tool ON1 Effects (www.on1.com/free, see Best Free Software, Issue 511, page 18) lets you apply complex filters to high- resolution images, but this can slow down your PC – especially if you use an older computer. You can reduce this impact by managing the amount of memory you let the program use. Click Edit, Preferences, then click the System tab. Under Memory Usage, use the sliders to limit how much system memory (System Usage) and video memory (VRAM usage) ON1 Effects can make use of. The default value is 80 per cent for both, but you may wish to bring this down to 60 per cent or lower to be on the safe side. ON1 Effects also temporarily caches files on your hard drive as…

Like Google, Facebook makes most of its money through advertising. And, also like Google, it uses behavioural tracking and mysterious algorithms to show you targeted adverts based on the data it gathers about you. Some of this is gleaned by sneakily tracking your activities, but a huge amount is essentially handed over to the company by users themselves. Straight away, Facebook has access to the personal details you give it when you sign up, and it can learn more about you and your interests through your everyday online activities. The company even has sly ways of tracking your activity when you’re not using Facebook. All this lets the company build a terrifyingly accurate profile of you, which can be used to fill your feed with adverts, ‘suggested posts’ and other…

If you feel that tweaking your Google and Facebook privacy settings doesn’t go far enough, you might want to consider deleting your accounts, once you’ve downloaded your data first. Here’s what you need to do. GOOGLE Download your data… Visit www.snipca.com/26179 and you’ll see a list of all Google services, with each slider on the right showing a tick (see screenshot right). To download all this data scroll to the bottom and click Next (alternatively untick some services, then click Next). You can now choose file type (ZIP is probably best), and the size you want the files broken into (2GB seems reasonable). Under ‘delivery method’ you can decide how to receive the data – by email, or added to Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive. Finally, click ‘Create archive’. …then…

Q Internet Explorer 11 (IE11) recently stopped working, presenting an error code. I followed numerous online suggestions, including resetting IE11’s settings, but nothing worked. I thought reinstalling the browser would work, but Microsoft told me that IE11 is included with my version of Windows 8.1. I then decided to uninstall IE11, but it’s not in the uninstall list. Next, I tried to delete the IE11 folder, only to be told I was not a ‘TrustedInstaller’ — whatever that is! I did some more online research and found out I’m supposed to change file permissions to take control of the folder, but I’ve not plucked up the courage. When did Microsoft introduce this TrustedInstaller thing? What gives the company the right to control what I use, run on or remove from…

3G/4G A set of technologies that deliver faster mobile broadband, so called because they are the third and fourth generation of mobile data networking standards. 5G The next (fifth) generation of mobile networks, to eventually supersede 4G. 4K Video with a resolution of at least 3840x2160 pixels. 64bit A technology that processes information in larger chunks. Most modern computers are 64bit. AAC Advanced Audio Coding. A type of music file. AMOLED Active-Matrix Organic Light-Emitting Diode. An alternative technology to LCD for creating flat-panel displays. ATA Advanced Technology Attachment. An old interface for connecting hard drives. Augmented reality Lets you view the real world on a screen and add elements from the digital world. Bandwidth A measure of how much information can be transferred through a connection at one time. Benchmarking…

The RSPCA has warned the public about a rise in scam websites that contain fake premium-rate 0844 phone numbers for the charity. A spokeswoman for the charity said it has contacted Google and complained to telecoms regulator Ofcom, after it found “eight different websites with incorrect numbers in the first ten pages” of an online search. It added that the numbers are “designed to rack up a heavy bill for the caller” and give the false impression that they are affiliated with the charity. When you ring the number, you’re told you’re being diverted to the RSPCA’s National Control Centre, which makes the scam sound more convincing. Dave Allen, head of education and advice at the RSPCA, said some of the sites show real messages from the charity’s Twitter and…

Microsoft will soon close one of the remaining options to upgrade to Windows 10 for free – the so-called ‘assistive technologies’ loophole. The company confirmed online that the offer will end on 31 December (www.snipca.com/26108, see screenshot). Since 29 July 2016, Microsoft has said that anyone using assistive tools, such as the screen-reading program Narrator, can upgrade without paying anything. For a year up to that date, it was a free upgrade to everyone running Windows 7 and 8.1. Assistive tools are designed to help people with disabilities use computers. But Microsoft was criticised for not checking whether people upgrading were disabled. This means users don’t have to prove they use the tools to get Windows 10 for free. Microsoft did issue a statement a year ago discouraging people without…

WARNING: JUNK AHEAD Junk offender: GOM Player In Issue 514, I caught the Free YouTube Downloader trying to foist an unwanted video-player program called GOM Player on to my PC. That’s unacceptable, of course. But it got me wondering whether GOM Player might actually be a decent program when it’s not pushed on you by someone else’s shifty installer – so I visited its official site (www.snipca.com/26189) and prepared to download the free version myself. I was in for a shock. Over the course of the installation, the software made not one, but five attempts to get me to install unwanted junk. The first attempt happened before I’d even downloaded the software. Clicking the download link prompted me to install a Chrome extension (see screenshot) that could spy on all…

Tell us what’s on your mind Email: letters@computeractive.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/computeractive Twitter: @ComputerActivewww.twitter.com/computeractive Hooray for Readers’ Tips! I was greatly encouraged by your Readers’ Tips Special Issue (Issue 514) because it reassured me that the spirit of sharing computing advice is in good health. I’m a living example of how sharing your PC knowledge can lead to tangible benefits in life. About 10 years ago, after several years absorbing tips from Computeractive, I gained a reputation in my local community for offering PC advice. I’d recently retired, but didn’t want to spend hours doing nothing so I was looking for something to do. Fortunately my local PC-repair shop heard about my eagerness to pass on advice, and offered me a part-time role. I said yes straight away, and a decade later…

Reader gets suspicious after Mesh changes its tune Readers often tell us that what really annoys them, more than a faulty product, is sloppy customer service. It’s why, ultimately, Michael Doran asked for a refund from Mesh for a custom-built computer he spent £976 on. As we explained in Issue 512, Mesh told Michael just one day before delivery that one of the PC’s components was found to be faulty after testing. It said another would have to be ordered and then tested for 72 hours before being installed. It meant Mesh couldn’t deliver it for a number of days after the original date. Michael then emailed us, concerned that he wouldn’t be able to demand a refund for the computer because it was custombuilt, and therefore ‘personalised’. But the…

PDF READER Foxit Reader 9.0 www.snipca.com/26110 What you need: Windows 7, 8/8.1 or 10 There’s no shortage of free PDF readers available. However, if you don’t want to install anything, you could just use Microsoft Edge, which now – following the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update – includes the ability to annotate PDFs. But few free PDF programs offer as many useful features as Foxit Reader – and a major new version release has just added even more handy tools. Among these is a new selection of very useful new singlekey shortcuts that let you quickly carry out common actions using your keyboard. So, hitting the S key now lets you open a new sticky note, for example, while pressing X switches you to the text-box tool. These new shortcuts…

Launched in 2015, Affinity Photo is one of the best photo-editing programs you can buy. With a huge toolset specifically engineered for creative and photography professionals, whether you are editing and retouching images, or creating full-blown multi-layered compositions, it has all the power and performance you will ever need. The latest version (1.6) is even faster, smoother and more powerful than before. Valuable added features, such as brush stabilisation and enhanced text handling, sit alongside a realm of useful performance tune-ups and improvements. Correct, adjust, retouch Affinity offers professional corrections and adjustments, including Levels, Curves, Black and White, White Balance, HSL, Shadows and Highlights (pictured below). You can preview your adjustments at any time, making any photo easier to edit. It also has all the retouching tools you’ll ever need.…

TV-STREAMING BOX❘ £70 from Amazon www.snipca.com/26151 Amazon’s new Fire TV box is smaller, more advanced and 10 quid cheaper. That’s the kind of update we like. Not to be confused with the £40 Fire TV Stick (see Issue 506, page 26), the Fire TV was previously a set-top box and is now a dongle that hangs off your HDTV’s HDMI port. Since HDMI ports don’t deliver power, there’s a USB cable too. A few smart TVs will provide enough juice through their USB ports, but for the rest a mains adapter is supplied. The Bluetooth remote control has Alexa, so you can tell it what you want to watch and it’ll find which service has it. It can also control gadgets like Philips Hue lightbulbs, although the ‘Drop In’ intercom…

Amazon has added several useful features to its Kindle app to make it easier to read ebooks on your tablet and phone (Android and iOS), many of which are built into Amazon’s Kindle Fire devices by default. As well as a new light theme and page-turn effect, there’s a new one-tap icon that lets you continue reading your ebook from where you left off. You can customise your theme and font, and there’s also a new section that makes ebook suggestions based on your reading preferences.…

WINDOWS 10 Delete redundant files in the Downloads folder automatically In Issue 514’s lead Workshop (see page 35), we told you how to update your PC to the Windows 10 Fall Creator’s Update. One new feature of this update lets you set Windows to automatically delete files in your Downloads folder that haven’t been changed for 30 days. This stops your Downloads folder getting clogged up with junk. To enable this, open Settings, System, then click the Storage section on the left. Now switch on the ‘Storage sense’ slider, then click the ‘Change how we free up space’ link. In the section that opens, tick the three Temporary Files boxes (see screenshot above). Doing this will delete unused temporary files, files that have been in the Recycle Bin for over…

What is it? A very serious security flaw spotted in the WPA2 Wi-Fi protocol that lets hackers break the encryption between routers and devices. This enables them to intercept internet traffic, and inject malware into non-secure websites. It’s a hacker’s dream. Remind me - what’s WPA2? Standing for Wi-Fi Protected Access II, it’s a form of security that protects wireless computer networks. It was developed by non-profit organisation Wi-Fi Alliance, and was made available in 2004. Its complex encryption technique makes it much harder to crack than the first WPA. But it’s not infallible? Clearly not. Belgian researchers Mathy Vanhoef and Frank Piessens discovered Krack (or Key Reinstallation Attack) last year, but waited until this October to go public, launching a website (www.krackattacks.com) along with a logo (see main image).…

I have forgotten the method to log into Windows without having to type my password. Could you please give me the formula to do this? Brian Watson A You didn’t tell us which version of Windows you’re using, but it doesn’t much matter because the method hasn’t changed since XP. First, press Windows key+R, then type netplwiz.exe and press Enter. Next, select the Users tab and then choose the relevant user account. Note it must be an administrator account and password that makes this change. If you’re not sure, check the selected account’s status in the Group column. Next, remove the tick from the ‘Users must enter a user name and password to use this computer’ box and click Apply (see screenshot). You’ll now be asked to supply and confirm…

YouTube says it will crack down on spoof videos that trick children into watching violent or sexual content. These videos look like innocent cartoons, often featuring much-loved characters like Elsa from Frozen and Peppa Pig, but contain disturbing material that many parents say has upset their children. In one clip, Peppa Pig is attacked by a zombie (pictured). In another she screams as a dentist pulls out her teeth. These videos appear first in the main YouTube app, restricted to adults, before moving to the Kids version (kids.youtube.com), where they can be easily found by searching in the YouTube Kids app. The site will now ask users to flag adult content in the main app that children may mistakenly think is aimed at them. It will then place an age-rating…

PAY MORE FOR AMAZON PRIME NOW Amazon has angered customers by doubling to £40 the amount you need to spend using Prime Now without paying extra for delivery. Any order below that will incur a £3.99 delivery charge, plus an optional £2 tip to the driver. Prime Now, which launched in 2015 and costs £79 a year, delivers food, health, beauty, and home products within two hours. YAHOO BLAMES RUSSIA FOR HUGE HACKS Yahoo’s former boss has blamed Russia for the huge hacks in 2013 and 2014 that affected all its users. Marissa Mayer, who left the company with a $209m severance deal, pointed the finger at “Russian intelligence officers and state-sponsored hackers” while testifying to the Senate Commerce Committee in Washington. She apologised for the breach, saying that the…

Doctors have warned that a new NHS pilot scheme letting patients talk to GPs on smartphones risks alienating older people. In the trial, covering 3.5m people in greater London, patients will be able to check their symptoms through the ‘GP at hand’ app (www.gpathand.nhs.uk), then ‘see’ their GP on video within two hours of booking. Once patients sign up to the service, which runs 24 hours a day, their medical records are moved to a group of five central London surgeries. Patients sign in with facial recognition, and watch their appointment by playing it back. Nearly 3,000 people have used the app since its launch. Babylon, the healthcare company behind the serivce, claims 90 per cent have given it a five-star rating. But Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chairwoman of the Royal…

Apple My wife loves her iPhone, but Apple gear ain’t cheap. The new iPhone X costs a cool grand to buy outright, which is a frighteningly large amount of money to pay for a phone – especially since it costs Apple only about a third of that to make it. Still, if you want to pay a thousand pounds for a phone, that’s your business. What’s more of a problem is the fact that Apple isn’t playing fair with the proceeds. The Paradise Papers have revealed that Apple is hoarding the vast majority of its revenues tax-free in Jersey, and paying almost no tax in the countries where iPhones and its other (often more expensive) gadgets are actually sold. Apple loves to be seen to be doing the right thing…

I share some of Ken Rigsby’s misgivings about Boots’ new plan to send you offers on your phone when you walk into their stores (‘The Final Straw’, Issue 514). On the surface it sounds intrusive, and will surely put many people off shopping there. But there’s another way of looking at it – a clever way for the high street to fight back against the online-shopping revolution. I run a small shop and could never afford to set up a similar scheme. But I would certainly consider it if I had the money to invest. If I could automatically text people offers based on what they bought last time, it would be a similar tactic to the personalised adverts that follow you around the internet, and presumably lead to millions…

Q I’m having a problem cancelling my subscription with US software company Acronis. It took £30 from my account, but the terms and conditions say if I cancel I can’t get a refund. This sounds like sharp practice in the UK but perhaps US law is different? Elwyn Greenland A US consumer protection is not nearly as strong as the UK’s. However, Acronis sells directly to UK customers and has a UK website (www.acronis.com/en-gb, see screenshot), so legally it must abide by our laws. Elwyn should have been able to cancel this subscription within 14 days under the Consumer Contract Regulations and receive a full refund. Making a foreign company adhere to our laws isn’t easy, though, and chasing them can be complicated and expensive. But there are bodies in…

How can I stop playback after a track? I sometimes give presentations with music and host music quizzes. I need to stop each track at its end to continue speaking. I could, of course, just press the pause button, but it would be better if each track stopped automatically. Any suggestions? Nora Wood Q A There are a number of programs that let you stop or pause playback automatically after a track has finished, but it’s often not clear how to do this. Clementine, for example, is a great free music player that offers a couple of options for stopping playback after tracks. Download and install it from www.clementine-player.org, then add your tracks to its library. It supports loads of file types, including MP3, Ogg, FLAC, AAC. Double-click a track…

PHONE❘£629 from Google www.snipca.com/26081 Last year’s launch of Google’s Pixel phones left us a bit nonplussed. They had great screens and decent performance, but no more so than Samsung’s offerings. Their cameras were excellent. They were well made, but their distinctive look wasn’t so much futuristic as slightly old fashioned. And, well, that was about it. Oh, and they were expensive. “A sharp screen, decent speakers and a camera that impresses in any light” Rather than produce more attractive devices with more exciting features, Google has updated the two Pixel models with equally confusing choices. The Pixel 2 XL (from £799) looks amazing, but uses a new screen technology that appears to be a big mistake: colours look good from straight on, but at even a slight angle they shift…

LAPTOP Asus ZenBook UX310UA £700 from www.snipca.com/26126 Tested: Issue 503 Gradually being replaced by the 410 (which we haven’t tested yet), the i5 processor version of this is now harder to find, but the i3 version is more than good enough for general use. The highlight is the super-sharp QHD screen. ALTERNATIVE: Dell XPS 13 This premium laptop starts at £1,149, but our pick is the i7 with QHD touchscreen. £1,379 from www.snipca.com/26123 DESKTOP PC Wired2FirePyroVX £781 from www.snipca.com/25607 Tested: Issue 511 Has a six-core Ryzen 5 1600 processor, a GTX 1050 graphics card, a 240GB SSD, a generous 2TB hard drive and 16GB of memory for exceptional performance, despite a microATX motherboard. Unlike some rivals, it runs quietly too. ALTERNATIVE: Palicomp i5 Titanium Good all-round performance from a Kaby Lake i5…

One of Microsoft Word’s little-known features lets you create address labels that you can print and stick to envelopes. We’ll show you how to create label formats and explain how you can buy A4-size sheets of sticky labels that you can use with your printer. You can also use this method to create labels for household items.…

I love using the free service IFTTT (If This Then That, www.ifttt.com). It includes lots of useful rules you can set up on your phone, tablet or email to automate certain tasks. For example, I use it to automatically save all the screenshots I take on my iPhone to my OneDrive account. I recently came across a new service called Ellp that lets you do the same thing for tasks on your PC. You can, for example, set it to notify you whenever you accidentally download the same file twice, or ask you whether you want to delete items that are more than a few months old. Go to www.ellp.com to download the program and see the type of task ‘cards’ you can set up. When the program launches, you’ll…

Add a video to your document There’s an easy way to add a Windows Media Player (WMP) window (with playback controls) to a Word document and use it to play a video file. It’s only really suitable for short video clips, otherwise you will increase your document file size too much, which might make it difficult to share by email. First, click in the document where you want to insert your video. Next, click the File tab, Options, Customise Ribbon, the Developer box on the right, then click OK. Now click the Developer tab, the Legacy Tools (hammer icon) in the Controls section on the left, then click More Controls at the bottom right. Scroll to the bottom of the window that opens, select Windows Media Player, then click OK.…

YOUR BRAND NEW CREDIT-CARD NUMBER Have you ever received a replacement credit card, only to find that Amazon somehow already has your new payment details on record, before you’ve even input them? This might sound troubling, but it’s not sinister. In fact, it’s thanks to littleknown systems operated by both Visa (Visa Account Updater) and Mastercard (Mastercard Automatic Billing Updater), which automatically update cardholder details, such as card numbers and expiry dates, with retailers that subscribe to the schemes – sometimes before you’ve even received the new card in the post. It’s nothing to worry about and actually stops your purchases being declined. But if you’d prefer to opt out of this type of scheme, you’ll need to take it up with your card provider.…

I decided to root my Nook HD+ tablet (pictured) and updated it to Android 7 (Nougat) using a download I found online. However, I’m told that my tablet is now not secure. Even Malwarebytes tells me it cannot guarantee protection. What’s the risk? If I stick to apps I know are safe, am I OK to keep using it? Charles Williams It’s less secure for precisely the same reasons you rooted it in the first place – which is that this ‘jail-broken’ state lets you do things that would normally be impossible. Crucially, it also allows others to do the same, so hackers targeting rooted devices have many more ways in to do bad stuff than they otherwise would. Sticking to known ‘safe’ apps is sensible but you used a…

Q We are gathering a collection of external equipment connected to our TV. Several devices now require internet access, and although some have built in Wi-Fi, this is never as good as a wired Ethernet link direct to our Virgin Media router upstairs. However, we only have one Ethernet cable installed to the TV area, and three or four of the boxes need this connection at different times. At the moment I just move the cable between them as required. We have a spare Netgear WGR614 router with a four-port switch. Could this be set up to let all the devices share the connection to the main Virgin Media router? John Allin You could press your Netgear WGR614 into service as a fourport switch, but you’ll need to change two…

I have a Maxtor DiamondMax 60 hard drive, manufactured around at the turn of the millennium. I think that it came out of an ancient Evesham desktop PC. I can’t remember if there’s anything useful on this drive but I’d like to find out, preferably without spending much if any money. Can I buy some kind of ribbon cable and attach it to a modern PC to read the contents? David A Jarvis A Your drive is equipped with an old-fashioned 40-pin IDE connector, latterly dubbed parallel ATA, or PATA. This means you can’t just plug it into a modern desktop PC, which have serial ATA (SATA) interfaces inside for drive connections. Adapters are readily and cheaply available that’ll allow you to hook up your drive to a USB socket,…

Do you remember that classic and rather moving TV advert featuring an old chap who’s looking for a book called Fly Fishing, by someone called JR Hartley? In spite of his advancing years this determined gent spends days traipsing the high street hunting for this elusive tome. Eventually, he gives up, returning home dejected, where his daughter hands him the Yellow Pages. Our forlorn fellow flicks through the bookseller listings and notes down some phone numbers. A few calls later and he has located a stockist who has the book. The shopkeeper wants his name, for the reservation. And that name is, of course, JR Hartley. This heart-warming commercial, immortalised on YouTube (www.snipca.com/25991), is now terribly dated. These days Mr Hartley would simply fire up a web browser and execute…