Each week we get far more letters than we can put on a page. Here's the full set from which we chose those we printed..
FOLLOW YOU, FOLLOW ME Given today's article on GPS you may be interested in this mobile phone application which will allow most java enabled camera phones to link to a Bluetooth receiver to plot your journeys: www.locoblog.com Dr Paul Coulton, Lancaster University, Lancaster
Tom Hibbard must be very confident that his 24 hour 7 day a week GPS location wont lead to his home being burgled. Councillor Sue Blatchford, Southampton City Council
GPS phones are almost upon us? They are already! I bought a Motorola A780 some months ago with built in (ok, it came on a card) CoPilot Live for the UK and major European roads. I'd been waiting past all the TomToms, etc (that take up acreage on windscreens and leave tell-tale sucker-marks) for an all-in-one phone that didn't have to have a separate GPS receiver as some have. Motorola said that it hoped to build GPS into most or all of its future phones. I drive between private addresses all day and choose to rely on map software printouts for routes that I can change on the fly (Route 66 if you must know). My phone sits in my shirt pocket and guides me only by voice in new cities and in the countyside in the dark. It has its limitations but it does exactly what I need and takes photos, videos and soundclips - as if I need them!. I'd be happy to provide a brief review if needed but check out the Motorola website first to see its capabilities. I've no connections with anyone in the trade but can get one other phone for the £250.00 I paid for mine, SIM- and contract-free. I slotted in my ancient O2 SIM card and away it went. My field supervisor saw mine and bought himself one the next day. I've tested the GPS positioning with that shown on a screen on a cross-channel ferry and sat on trains and timed them at over 100mph - all on this phone. Sad, probably, but still interested in such new technology despite grey hairs. Peter W Skillern (no post town given)
Thank you, Ronan Fitzgerald, for highlighting the promise and pitfalls of GPS tracking ('Follow you, follow me,' technology Guardian, 14.09.06). The article presented in a balanced way the pros and cons of this technology as on the hand GPS tracking can be used in a positive way, for example to assist the emergency services, but also has serious potential for abuse (eg employers tracking workers). I found the article incredibly thought-provoking and share Mr Fitzgerald's conclusion that consent is key: "whether we're using our mobile phone, wandering around on social networking sites, or just going about our daily lives, we want to have agreed to any tracking that takes place". Vicki Combe, Whitstable
Lots of interesting possibilities for GPS location via mobile phones were canvassed in the "Follow you, follow me" article, Guardian 14/9/2006. The worrying possibilities such as tracking without consent would surely be mitigated if the GPS function in a phone could be turned off. But I suppose this wasn't mentioned because the story would have lost an essential journalistic ingredient, to scare. Be that as it may, one potential use of GPS in mobile phones that occurs to me would be in connection with calling taxis. The taxi driver could know where you are immediately. The passenger could also use it to track the journey to the destination. Chris Opie, Clifton Hill, Australia
PRINTER CARTRIDGES (TECHNOBILE) What you say about printer cartridges is true, of course, but the Epson people are no fools. When I installed a Jettec cartridge ordered from Premier Ink Supplies (part of Q Enterprises UK Ltd), my new Epson Stylus C48 printer immediately detected that it was not an Epson-made cartridge, and after a warning, shut down completely. It took a good hour of fiddling, re-installing software, etc to get the thing working again after I put an Epson cartridge into it. Clearly there is now a bit in the printer that detects cloned cartridges. (name and address supplied)
Andrew Brown's article "Technobile" (14th September) touched a raw nerve. I recently purchased a HP PSC1510 Printer Scanner Copier all in one for my iMac G5 in March. During a holiday in Kuala Lumpur this summer, I decided to buy a replacement cartridge as it was relatively cheaper. I made sure it was for the right machine When I got home to install the cartridge, I found it was not compatible. I contacted HP, who said that I should have read the small print on the printer box and cartridges that specified that the product was sale in that region only. This policy was designed to stop people importing cheap cartridges from abroad. It seems me to that HP possibly indulging in restrictive marketing practice. The company needs to grow up and acknowledge that it is a global village out there. I will not be purchasing HP printer products from now on. PS anyone want a relatively new PSC1510? Gary Choo, Keighley, West Yorkshire
The piece by Andrew Brown (Sep14) on the Great Rip off by Printer Makers warmed my heart as it has been almost an obsession with me since I first bought my Canon bubblejet about 10years ago. I started refilling cartridges and did so until I got an Epson Printer and could buy Compatible cartridges which were as good as the originals. I have promoted their use whenever possible and even got Guardian Columnist Michele Hanson using them - to her great delight! All seemed well until fairly recently when Epson threatened to Prosecute Compatible Manufacturers for Infringement of Patent - this was because their Chipped Cartridges had failed to prevent Chipped Compatibles from being made and marketed. Whether there have been as yet, any successful prosecutions I do not know but at the last Computer Fair I attended I was told by one stallholder that there would be no more available form him very soon. It is because the threat of astronomical damages being awarded is a very real one and cannot be risked. If you remember, Robert Maxwell used a similar ploy successfully for many years! What can be done about it? Well if Original Manufacturers reduced their prices to economic levels we would all be happy. However as they expect the gravy train to run for ever and greed rules there is little likelihood of this so may I suggest that Compatible manufacturers refill 'original' cartridges. e.g.. "Send us your cartridge and we'll refill it for you" This cannot be any more illegal than changing the brand of petrol in your car tank! Incidentally, I did e-mail Jack Schofield on September 9, mentioning Ink Cartridges (when I asked him about another problem as well) but have had no reply or comment; in fact he seems to have disappeared from the reach of my PC. Charles Rowbotham, Arnside.
Andrew Brown's "Technobile" today is one of the most useful things I have read for ages. More please. We need two things: some green or progressive entrepreneur shoul design and sell printers which can be filled from an ink bottle. They would quickly conquer the market. Some Dyson of the IT world. In the meantime you should publish a weekly table showing the capitalised cost of buying each available printer and its cartridges over a few years and the availability of generic/cloned/refillable cartridges. Compared with the massive data tables in other Guardian supplements (interest rates, university rankings) it would not be much work and it would be truly valuable to us all. Michael Edwards, London
>> Do you know how much per sheet your printing costs you? I don't. Hewlett-Packard cartridges are apparently particularly poor value. What make of printer do I have? Hewlett-Packard. A twin pack Tri-colour cartridge costs £47 on their UK website; but in the States I could get the same item for $62.99 (about £34). And I can't even be sure I'm getting the same number of copies. Andrew Brown says: Their chips actually vary from country to country... Their current slogan is: HP Invent. Invent what: diferent ways to make you pay? http://aristophanes2006.blogspot.com/
NATIONAL ARCHIVES Michael Cross (14 September, p3) should know that the Family Record Centre is not where one goes to obtain wills (High Holborn for that) but the successor to Somerset House for Births, Marriages and Deaths, plus a sizable computerised facility for census and other data. It is central, accessible, busy and should be profitable, so therefore a clear target for the McKinsey-trained brain. Philip Ralph, Ivybridge
GADGETS (Ion Turntable Ashley Norris writes 'There are many ways to transfer audio from vinyl records to PCs, but for the most part they are complex and not very effective,' (Technology 14 September). Whether these 'many ways' are effective depends on whether you know what you are doing, the quality of the software you use, and how much trouble you go to. The results can be extremely effective. The new Ion turntable is doubtless less complex than other ways, but I cannot imagine how it could be more effective, given that the editing software it uses is quite modest. Allan Jones, Yardley Gobion
In your issue of 14-Sep you featured the Ion USB Turntable in the Gadgets column. The device is fine and the Audacity software is pretty good, if a little quirky. However the alleged support address (support@ion-audio.com) is staffed only by an email server that tells you your message has arrived. I sent an email nearly two weeks ago and there has been no response at all. Garrett Simpson, Reading
PHILIP K DICK [We had an incorrect URL in the article "Do robots dream of copyright?". The first link should have been to http://home.autotutor.org/aolney/resource2.htm (and should have been given as http://tinyurl.com/ftj35 ).
SOLAR ENERGY Just emailing to point out an error in the paragraph "Arnold Schwarzenegger (turning out to be the ideal politician, more interested in pragmatism than party politics) has initiated a scheme to put 3kW of photovoltaic capacity on 1m Californian rooves - to generate as much electricity as three power plants - in the next 10 years." The California Million Solar Roofs Bill really ought to result in more than 3kW of installed capacity. 3GW is closer to the mark for a programme costing USD 3bn and leveraging private finance. [The sentence was meant to imply "on *each* of 1m rooves - Technology Ed.] I'm also dubious about the assertion in the article that the biggest silicon manufacturing plants are in China (though Scandinavia is correct). China is a huge manufacturer of solar modules and cells, but it imported nearly all its silicon in 2006 from the West. For example, Chinese cell manufacturer Suntech just signed a 10-year silicon wafer supply contract with US semiconductor manufacturer, MEMC Electronic Materials. This may well change in the next few years as companies like Tianwei Yingli and the Jinglong Group intend to expand feedstock capacity significantly. Jenny Chase, Senior Analyst, New Energy Finance magazine
BROADBAND With all the buzz about broadband and the faster speeds being rolled out, I think people's attention should be drawn to a rather unpleasant fact. A network is only as fast as its slowest link. In this case it's the local loop. BT are busy spending money on 21CN, but this is their backbone and will have little effect for consumers. They are doing nothing about the local loop. This has serious consequences for broadband which is very sensitive to the length and quality of the line from people's homes to the exchange. BT are only required to provide a voice service. They push broadband very hard with ads proclaiming "up to 8Mps", but the reality is very different. If you are on a line which is either very long or of poor quality (not the same thing), then you are basically left to rot. As long as you can just about hear someone speaking to you at the end of the damp piece of string, BT refuse point blank to do anything at all to investigate concerns about line quality which causes poor ADSL performance. Nor are they required to do so. I could go into much more painful detail. Suffice to say, that until a regulator forces BT to change its ways, many of us are going to be left behind on poor connections which BT is under no obligation to do anything about. Given the lack of competition, they have very little incentive from a commercial point of view, either. Switching to a cable operator isn't a good choice for me right now, but that may change. Simon McNab, Southsea
