cover_Feb 06.

ai 1/28/2006 8:57:16 PM

Ten super gaming mods Ventilating your system

at the heart of technology www.chip-india.com

February 2006 Volume 3 Issue 3 Rs 100

The coolest multimedia, security, office,

Internet, graphics and system utilities:
all full versions, all free! 34
C

CM

MY

CY

CMY

WORKSHOP
GeeXboX
35 graphics cards 60
Novice, veteran or frag-God; here’s your next gaming card
Build a home theater.
122 No hard disk needed!
FEATURE
MS Office secrets 96
Hot tips to become an MS Office guru
Graphics tweaking
Expert tips on juicing
graphics speed
Lockdown your PC 115
82 Set up a Firewall and save your PC from Internet threats
Also available in Bangladesh
Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, U A E ATI Radeon X1900XT: Gaming power redefined
LG.indd 1 12/27/2005 1:14:02 PM

People rarely have
identical tastes. But
they do have identical
needs
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
EDITORIAL 7
Tectonic shifts
G
eography bears a striking similarity to the ebb and flow of our lives. Like the
passage of seasons that drives us indoors and pulls us outdoors, or the impending
onslaught of natural phenomena that causes us to brace ourselves, our lives
are tremendously affected by the movements of the world around us—both subtle
and obvious. Perhaps more than any other sector, technology is what has been most
responsible for these changes across the recent past. From cellular communication
enabling us to achieve more during our waking hours to the Google phenomenon putting
a universe of information literally at people’s fingertips, one often wonders how we lived
in the days before all of this.
If these changes are to continue for the better, there are several aspects that need to
be taken into cognizance:
Content: There was a time when hardware and software products were the prime
factor in a given technology equation. That was the era when brands like Intel, Microsoft
and Nokia ruled the roost with their successful technology products. The scene is
markedly different today. Consumers, especially here in India, have matured enormously
and in a surprisingly short amount of time too. No longer can a technology company
pawn off a second-grade hardware or software product to today’s Indian buyer. With
information freely available to the connected consumer, they know what products are
out there and have a fair idea about their efficacy. Today, the gloss of a new hardware or
software fades surprisingly quickly and leaves behind a void that can only be filled by one
thing—sustained content and services. Be it broadband Internet access, cellular telephony
or desktop applications, the ones that are top dog today are those that are backed up by
solid streams of relevant and enticing content.
Standardization: People rarely have identical tastes. But they do have identical needs.
It’s time that technology companies begin putting their differences behind them and look
to standardizing their services across each other’s platforms. Doing so will probably result
in lower margins with a dip in mindshare initially, but it will spur on greater acceptance
among their consumers. When systems are able talk to one another, information can be
exchanged no matter what the platform or individual choice of hardware and software.
This directly translates into numbers. After that, economy of scale kicks in and at the end
of the day, everyone’s happy.
Easy availability: When it comes to availing content services, consumers do not want
to be inundated by jargon and formalities. The more it is a point-and-click solution, the
better. This obviously translates into more thought and implementation on the provider’s
part, but the results, if executed well, are sure shot. Take Apple’s iTunes for, example—a
brilliant case study of launching a cool product and following it up with a rock-solid, easy-
to-use content stream. With intelligent research and planning, product-service pairings
based on such a model would work excellently across any number of categories.
Indeed, this is the age where the content, consumer and convenience is king.
| Marco Angelo D’Souza
marco.dsouza@chip-india.com
Contents
FEBRUARY 2006
32 Tune into
Mobile TV
NEWSWIRE
22 Breaking even on Downloads
Find out about how SoundBuzz has
revolutionized the move to pay for
songs and ring tones
32 Tune into Mobile TV
Efforts are on to make this new
and sweeping trend for the mobile
popular
COVER STORY
34 What Money can’t Buy!
Make best use of the free software
here. Edit audio, videos, create
professional presentations and
compress them, at no cost.
HARDWARE
44 Top Gear
More products from newer brands.
The Sahara T2300 tablet PC is to
watch out for...
60 Activate Afterburners!
35 graphics cards battle it out to top
the list of gaming powerhouses
74 NAPA has landed
Look out as Intel’s NAPA makes
its grand entry into computing,
promising to give it a new meaning
77 Power Packed Portability
Portable music players are fast
catching the fancy of most music
enthusiasts
82 Full Throttle
A detailed guide that tells you how
to bring out the maximum in your
graphic cards and their performance
APPLICATIONS
86 Software Center
Applications that will protect your PC
from attacks; edit videos and more…
92 Gung-ho about Gaming
One amazing phenomenon is
how Indian gaming studios are
increasingly getting noticed for
their quality work, and of late with
the development of local content,
gaming could take the nation by
storm
34
77 Power Packed
Portability
60 Activate Afterburners!
96 Don’t Miss Them!
Discover hidden tools within oft used
MS Office applications. Working with
these will help you to save a lot of
your time and energy
HANDS ON
110 Make your Phone Sing
Wish you had the latest released
single as your mobile tune ? Fret
no more! This detailed workshop
teaches you how to create your own
tones straight from audio CDs
and MP3s
112 Case Logic
An important but oft ignored aspect
of hardware is casings. Here we learn
how adequate case ventilation can
keep the components of your PC
cool and make it work better, and
last longer
115 Keep ‘em Out!
Find out how a software firewall can
help you defend your system against
infected network intrusions
120 Stop Watching it!
Believable! You can actually install
Windows without having to be at its
beck and call. Learn here how...
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006
 96 Don’t Miss them!
s! 115 Keep ‘em Out!
122 The Geek’s Box
No need to install codecs and
get into a long winding installing
procedure. With GeeXBoX, find out
how you can play your favorite movie
straight off a CD!
UNWIND
132 MODmania
Alter, switch or shift existing games
in your kitty the way you want
through modifications, popularly
known as MODs
134 Indigo Prophecy
One helluva amazing ride of action
from varied roles, decisions and
strategies. And no matter what you
opt for, there is always an exciting
and intriguing steer leading to
another. Play it to know more
82
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
86
135 FIFA 2006
With the World Cup around the
corner, what better way to build up
the steam than to get the action
rolling with this brand new football
experience
136 The Movies
Fulfill your long cherished dream of
creating a movie from scratch. This
captivating game shows you how
137 King Kong: The Official Game
of the Movie
Just as the visually appealing movie
by Peter Jackson, the game too
retains the magic
138 More on Yahoo
Take hold of this latest book on a
motley of tips, facets and contours
that will help you get more out of
Yahoo
Sahara Tanlet PC
(Tablet PC) …45
Software Center
| Products Tested
Hardware 44
Sahara Tablet PC , PixelView PlayTV Box 3
Desktop, Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop6000,
Kodak EasyShare V550, Motorola L6, Biostar
TForce 610-939, Zebronics Antibiotic, Asus
A8N32-SLI Deluxe, Vantec Nexstar NST-250U2,
Altec Lansing 121i, Powercolor HeatBuster,
Corsair Flash Voyager 4 GB
Graphics Card 60
ATI Radeon X1900XT, PowerColor X1800XT,
Asus Extreme N7800GTX Top, GeCube
GC-X1800XTD, Gainward 3500PCX Ultra, MSI
NX7800GTX, XFX 7800 GT, ATI Radeon X850XT,
XFX GeForce 6800 GS, Gainward 2300PCX Ultra,
MSI NX6800GS, PowerColor X1600XT, GeCube
GC-RX1600XTG3, PowerColor X800GTO, Asus
Extreme N6600GT Silencer, Leadtek PX6600GT
TDH Extreme, Big GeForce 6600GT, XFX
6600GT, MSI NX6600GT, Gainward 1980PCX
Ultra, Gigabyte GV-NX66T128D-SP, XFX 6600GT,
Big GeForce 6600GT AGP, ASUS EAX1300PRO,
MSI RX1300 Pro, GeCube GC-RX1300PG2,
Zebronics NE-6600L, GeCube GC-RX550GU2,
PowerColor X550, Leadtek A6600 LE, Leadtek
PX6200TC TDH, XFX GeForce 6200, Gigabyte
GV-RX30S128D, PowerColor 9550SE, XFX
GeForce 6200TC
Regulars
Town Square 16
Letters 18
Technology Landscape 81
Dr. CHIP 96
Tips and Tricks 124
Game Reviews 134
Last Word 148
Disk Contents
FEBRUARY 2006 | VOLUME 3 | ISSUE 3

Developer: Visual Setup 4, Aesthetic Visual Modeler

Freeware: Audacity, Blender , GIMP, OpenOffice.org 2, ThunderBird
1.0.7, PHP 5.1.1 Linux: aMSN, VLC media player Internet: Avant
Browser 10, Portable Firefox 1.5 Utilities: Nero 7, AOL Desktop
Search, FastStone Image Viewer Red Hot: Power Director 5
Multimedia: Saga CD Ripper, Foobar 2000, K-Lite Mega Codecs
System and Security: Latest ATI Catalyst and NVIDIA Forceware
Drivers, NAV Definitions Update

Full Games: BallTris, Icy Tower, Motocross The Force, TuxRacer,

Transfusion, Virtual RC Racing Game Demo: The Stalin Subway
Game Addons: Call of Duty 2 1.01 Patch Game Trailers: Ground
Control 2, Combat Elite: WW II Paratroopers, Age of Pirates
Movie Trailers: Mission Impossible III, Over the Hedge, Silent Hill
Incredible India

$)*1%7%
Videos: Date Movie, LOTR: Battle for Middle Earth II
Full Game: S.W.I.N.E Linux: OpenSUSE Linux 10
Game Addons: Civilization IV 1.52 Patch
Must-haves: AutoPatcher XP December 2005, AVG 7 Free Edition,
Elecard MPEG Player, iTunes, MedalFolders, ReaConverter 4.0 Pro,
VirusBuster Professional
 Quick Quote

FEBRUARY 2006 | VOLUME 3 | ISSUE 3

GENERAL MANAGER - PUBLISHING Chennai
Krishna Tewari O K Gurumurthy
Phone: (044) 28295050-54 Fax: (044) 28295060
EDITOR gurumurthy@infomediaindia.com
Marco Angelo D’Souza
Hyderabad
ASSOCIATE FEATURES EDITOR Vasudevan Iyer
Carol D’Costa
CHIP effectively Phone: (040)55622211 Fax: (040) 23393488

SENIOR COPY EDITOR Kolkata

captures the Sharmistha Dey A. K. Roy
Phone: (033) 2468637, 2468638 Fax: (033) 2462964
WRITERS
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Phone: (011)55303278,79,80,82 Fax: (011)23327884
in India & SAARC Anup Pillai
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DESIGN
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(kumar.mohanani@infomediaindia.com)
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Copyright 2004 INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
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Cover Design: Pramod Jadhav

www.chip-india.com
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006
16 TOWN SQUARE
THIS MONTH ON chip-india.com
Town Square
T
he past month has been quite exciting
with a lot of activity happening on the
web site. And I’m pleased to inform you
that the number of registered users on our web
site has now grown to 19,360. With our user base
expanding rapidly, we are gearing up towards
improving the web site as well as adding more and
more interesting features to it.
This month the Tips and Tricks section has
included some really good tips as well as tricks
posted by our users. A cool tip has been posted
by ‘chandan.singh123’ where he tells you how to
optimize your hard disk when it’s idle and increase
your system performance. It can be done very
easily by following these steps.
Click on Start>>Run
Type regedit and press enter
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\
SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\OptimalLayout
Create a new DWORD value here or modify the
existing one, ‘EnableAutoLayout’ and set its
value to 1 to enable it.
This is a very useful tip and is definitely worth a try.
Then ‘sensational boy’ posted something
that’s very interesting. He tells us that by adding
‘encarta@conversagent.com’ to our contacts
list in MSN messenger, we can ask whatever
queries we have to this address. It will also help
you solve math equations. This information, says
‘sensational boy’, was available on other forums
and he wanted to share this with other users. The
tip from ‘keith’ is also noteworthy. He explains
how we can disable items in the Control Panel. The
procedure for this is as follows:
Click Start>>Run
Type gpedit.msc
Under the ‘User Configuration’ expand
‘Administrative Templates’
Click on Control Panel and on the right panel,
open ‘Hide specified Control Panel applets’
Set it to enabled and click on the ‘Show’ button.
Next click on ‘Add’ and enter the name of the
applet that you want to hide from the Control
Panel. For example, if you want to hide User
Accounts then type the same here and
click OK.
The next time when you open the Control Panel,
you will find the applet hidden.
So keep posting the tips and tricks guys. These are
indeed very helpful.
Apart from these, there are ample suggestions
given by some of our readers to improve the web
site as well as urging us to have moderators. Rest
assured, in due course of time these suggestions
will be reviewed with utmost priority and we will
do our best to incorporate most of them. Also, the
complaints regarding the late delivery of the issue
has reduced significantly, which means we have
tried to address the problem. However, subscribers
who are still receiving the issues late, don’t worry,
we will see to it that you get them on time.
We appreciate that have our attempt at
reducing the game content on our DVD. This
month, for the first time, we have included a
separate folder dedicated to software called ‘Must-
haves’ on the DVD. In addition to this, you will
also find a full game S.W.I.N.E as well as OpenSUSE
Linux 10—one of the most popular Linux distros.
Do let us know how you liked the content on this
month’s cover CDs and DVD. We are also keeping a
close watch on the requests made by our readers
with regards to the software that they would
like to see on the Cover CDs and DVD. We will
definitely try to include most of them when collate
the contents for the next issue.
And please don’t forget to send us your
response because it is your feedback that tells us
whether we are on the right track or not. It also
gives us an insight into what you would like to see
in our magazine, on the web site and on the cover
CDs as well as DVD. So keep writing in to us. See
you guys next month. ■
| Anup Pillai
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006
18 LETTERS
Letters
Dear CHIP,
I am an avid reader of your magazine. I have been
buying CHIP from the newsstand every month
ever since the first issue was launched. I have never
missed a single issue up to October 2005 and have
them stacked safely. The same is the case with the
cover disks.
After I started subscribing for IC CHIP, I didn’t
receive the issue for the month of November
although I did receive the issue after that
(December 2005). It’s sad because this is the first
time that I have missed an issue. Your issues are
very informative. I love your hardware and software
reviews, the ‘Hands On’ which included Tips and
Tricks, etc. You guys have me hooked to your
magazine every month! I give IC CHIP a huge share
of credit for what I know today. Good job on the
December issue and wishing your team all the very
best for the future.
Shailesh
Dear Shailesh
Thanks for the kind words. It’s good to know that
you’re a collector of our magazines and just to make
sure that you’re not missing any of them, we’re
replenishing you with your November 2005 copy!
Team CHIP
Dear CHIP,
Congratulations for completing two successful and
glorious years of publishing one of the best and
most affordable computer magazines available in
the market today. I have been a regular subscriber
of CHIP since May 2004.
Being a computer professional, I am very
impressed with the content provided in your
magazine. The ‘Hardware’ and ‘Hands On’ sections
are particularly interesting and utilitarian. All of
my decisions regarding the purchase of computer
parts and peripherals are highly influenced by the
articles in the magazine. The infographic on how
a laser printer functions (November issue) and the
workshop on assembling an external hard disk drive
(December issue) were fabulous. The cover story
of the December issue was also very impressive. I
also particularly liked the articles ‘Internet Mafia’
and ‘The Memory Effect’—impressive amount of
research done there.
Could you please include some more articles
on networking in the magazine? I would also like
to learn about career opportunities in the field
of networking. Last, but not the least, I’d like to
mention that the content of your CDs and DVDs for
the last few months have been very disappointing—
a major portion of the DVD is occupied with games
which I think is not required. Please allot more
space to software and utilities. I’m eagerly waiting
for the electronic version of the magazines as it
has become very difficult for me to handle the
increasing pile of magazines in my house!
Pankaj Garg
Dear Mr D’Souza,
I’m a subscriber of CHIP. I have a couple of
comments on the article “Dual Duel” (Page 96,
December issue). The article mentioned that special
drivers are not needed to get the card running.
However, I read on www.extremetech.com that
special drivers are required to get a card up and
running.
The second point that was noted in your article
is that the board is supported by almost all Nforce
4 SLI boards from well-known manufacturers.
Again, extremetech.com stated that the listing
of supported motherboards is, in fact, very short,
with just a few boards from each of the top
manufacturers.
I’m perplexed because of the variation in
details about motherboard support and drivers.
The reviewer should have been more specific—I
expected more comprehensive information in the
review. Finally, while your reviewer gave a rating of
6/10, ExtremeTech awarded it 4.5/10, stating that
there was no particular advantage of having two
GPUs on a single board over having two separate
cards operating in SLI mode.
My intention here is not to prove the reviewer
in question wrong. All I’m saying is he should
have been more specific in his review while
comprehensively covering the points highlighted
above.
Regards,
Prasanna Kumar
Hi Prasanna,
Thanks for writing to us and raising the points in our
dual GPU card review. Let’s clarify these one by one.
The driver version we used for the board was
“Forceware 81.94” which was released much later
than the 78.01. The earlier Forceware versions,
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006
20 LETTERS
Letters
which were released immediately after the launch
of the 7800 series had issues which were rectified
in subsequent releases. The latest Forceware driver
(81.94 and above) does not have any issues with
the card running as a normal 7800GT SLI setup.
As you rightly pointed out, ExtremeTech had done
this review earlier when the Dual GPU board
didn’t have stable supported drivers. Besides, we
did have a small issue when the second GPU was
recognized as “7800GTX”—we’ve mentioned this
in the review. The dual 7800GT worked fine after
a reboot and during the course of the test.
Again, as far as the support goes, we clarified
from other motherboard manufacturers that
with the latest driver versions for the chipsets and
the video cards, the 7800GT Dual is supported
by all the SLI-certified boards. This includes
manufacturers such as ASUS, MSI, DFI and Gigabyte.
About the rating, we don’t agree with Extreme
Tech’s view of using dual 7800GTX chips. The 7800GT
is a better choice as it gives best bang for the buck
while keeping temperatures in check. Also, another
strong factor in favor of the card is its pricing in
India—the price of this card at the time of testing
was Rs 54,000 which is almost equal to the cost
of two 7800GTs in our markets. With comparable
price and performance of two 7800GTs in SLI, there
isn’t much to complain on the price/performance
ratio. Also, by using an external power supply,
the card saves a good five to seven thousand
rupees that you’d spend on a high quality 550W
SMPS which would have been otherwise required
for running two 7800GTs. Factoring all these
segments of performance, price and innovation,
we believe the card deserved the rating we gave it.
Therefore, with more polished drivers on the card
and chipset front, the units we tested were stable
and performing at their maximum potential.
Team CHIP
Dear Sir,
I am one of your readers and I suffer from Muscular
Dystrophy (I have limb weakness because of
which I need to use a wheelchair to move around).
In your January 2006 issue, the article titled
‘Building Independence’ talked about the subject
of technology for the physically handicapped
(page 87/88). It was an interesting read and I think
a few of the products described would be very
Umesh Dahiwalkar
useful to me. Would it be possible for you to please
provide me with contact details for the mentioned
institutes/organizations so that I could get in touch
with them?
Thanks and regards,
Priyavrat Goyenka
Dear Mr Goenka,
We’re so glad that you found our article useful.
Regarding your query, we would like to state that
many of the products we referenced in the article
are unfortunately difficult to procure here in India.
Our feature primarily tried to project the effort
that has been taken so far, to facilitate a better
lifestyle for the differently-abled. However, here
are the contact details of the training institutes and
learning centers where research is in progress.
R Kalyana Krishnan (Professor of Computer
Science and Engineering, IIT Madras)
Tel: 044-257-8333, Email: rkk@shiva.iitm.ernet.in
Dr M V Ananthakrishnan (Media
Lab Asia, IIT Mumbai)
Tel: 9820217151, Email: manantha@it.iitb.ac.in
Ability Net
Web: www.abilitynet.org.uk
Tel: 0800 269 545, Email: enquiries@abilitynet.org.uk
We hope you find these contacts fruitful.
Warm regards,
Team CHIP
Dear CHIP,
I simply loved your January issue. Your article
portraying of what our lives will be like in the future
was very impressive and gave an insight into the
exciting times ahead.
Another thing that I must mention here is that I
had lost hope on my ageing and stubborn CD-ROM
drive. But the workshop on cleaning the optical
drive proved to be of great help to me and wound
up saving me money. Your step-by-step treatment
of how to clean the drive made the job very easy.
You make difficult things seem very simple for
people like me. Thank you very much and keep up
the good job!
Rahul Thosar
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006
 © 2006 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Visual Studio, the Visual Studio logo, and “Your potential. Our passion.”
are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.

New Visual Studio 2005. The difference is obvious.

Spot the difference? Once you start coding, you’ll see it immediately.
The new Visual Studio® 2005 has over 400 new features, such as Web
and Windows® controls, that reduce tedious tasks and repetition.
So you can focus on creating great code. Spot the 10 differences
above and log on to microsoft.com/india/msdn/vs2005
McCann/MSFT/1269/05/PCQ
22
Breaking even
on Downloads
We have come a long way from the days of illegal downloads
and P2P file sharing. The success of SoundBuzz proves it
I
t’s quirky how the entire business of
downloading free music better known as
‘piracy’ has helped spawn an entire industry
based on legal transfers. Not so long ago Napster
ruled the roost and free downloads were the
order of the day but today we are witnesses to an
amazing transformation as major record labels
have changed from being hostile spectators to
more than willing partners in releasing their
content. And consumers have moved on from
rampant proliferation of peer-to-peer file-sharing
to paying for music downloads.
And cashing on this idea—whose time has
come—is none other than SoundBuzz, a digital
music service provider with a focus on the
Asia-Pacific markets. Headed by Sudhanshu
Sarronwala, the network spans across
Southeast Asia and boasts a digital library of
over 300,000 songs.
Backed by EMI and Warner Music, SoundBuzz
has music stores in English, Chinese, Korean and
Japanese and serves a long list of Asian markets,
Newswire
including Singapore, India, Brunei, Malaysia,
| Dynamics of the Music Industry
The music industry is extraordinarily complex
and obtaining the requisite licenses to distribute
digital music is not a simple task, with a number
of parties involved.
The songwriter writes the lyrics/melody for
Pramod Jadhav
a song.
The publisher works with songwriters to
promote a song. Since publishers represent
ownership of a song and pitch the song to
users, for example record labels or TV/movie
producers, they also have the license rights to
use a song and charge fees.
Performer—anyone who licenses the song
Thailand, Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia,
Vietnam, Hong Kong and Australia.
The future of music is digital. Mandar Thakur,
General Manager for SoundBuzz in India, relates
how the organization (or rather the team of
music enthusiasts) apart from just digital
music downloads is also intricately involved in
the publicity and distribution of international
and local digital music content through
online, wireless and OEM (Original Equipment
Manufacturers) partners.
Compiling and gathering digital music
content from local and international music
labels, SoundBuzz distributes this content
through various distribution channels—Internet,
wireless devices, mobile phones and PDAs. Better
known as a ‘one-stop-shop’, SoundBuzz offers
technology, creative, and most importantly, legal
services such as IP laws, music copyrights, etc to
progress the growth of digital music.
As the boost in digital listening and storage
for music continues, digital music (in all forms) is
increasingly moving into the mainstream of an
in order to perform publicly. The performer
doesn’t have control of the song (controlled by
the songwriter or publisher) or the recording
(controlled by the recording company).
Recording company (record label)—
Creates, markets and distributes the
recordings. Record labels don’t provide
licenses on a global or regional basis,
and each licensing agreement must
be negotiated on a country-by-country basis.
Performing rights organization (PRO) licenses
the public performance of musical works on
behalf of the copyright owners.
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | NOVEMBER 2005

individual’s life. From playback ring tones
to true tones and singles being released,
music is being eagerly lapped up by users
and players alike. And further boosting this
revolution are companies offering powerful
music-enabled PCs, portable music players
and mobile phones. With SoundBuzz
making headway in India, licensing music
to services for as many consumers, on
possibly every format and device in as many
places and countries is fast catching on.
The cardinal factor for the boom in India
has been the rise of mobile users and the
number of ways music can be sold, through
ring tones, true tones, singles, albums, etc.
Dig this: In India alone, about 300,000
ring tones are downloaded every day, with
annual sales of approximately $500M
derived each year from ring tone downloads.
One fifth of the world’s mobile phone
owners have downloaded content to their
handsets, and this is expected to rise to 60
per cent in the coming months.
While the entire mobile content business
in Asia is currently worth $5 bn, mobile
music is predicted to contribute almost $12
bn to music industry coffers by 2010. All
mobile-related music content is forecast to
be worth almost $36 bn. As for true tones
(edited versions of artists’ performances),
these are predicted to account for almost
$7 bn by 2010 while ring tones currently
comprise more than $4 bn.
Apart from being the sole player with
no competition from anyone so far, India
looks promising but Thakur is also quite
kicked about SoundBuzz expanding into
the overseas market such as the US,
Australia, and the Philippines. One of the
huge features of SoundBuzz is the exposure
that is offered to unsigned or commercially
unknown artists. SoundBuzz can be used
as a platform to promote and distribute
music of unknown and independent
artists. Moreover, with the advantage of
having major label artists partnered with
SoundBuzz, what better opportunity can
there be than to introduce music lovers
to music they would never otherwise find
in a music store. With a licensing system
firmly set in place, SoundBuzz now owns
NOVEMBER 2005 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
| India Scenario
India has the fastest growing mobile
population in Asia, doubling to 100M
from 48M in 2004. (Projected to reach
200M by 2007/08).
Mobile music downloads in the Indian
market are currently valued at Rs 160-
180 crore. (Approximately Rs 50-60
crore in royalties were paid to the music
industry in the past 18 months).
Value added services—of which
music forms the bulk—are estimated
to contribute 15-20 percent to overall
telecommunication company revenues.
The biggest shift in the Indian
marketplace is the growing number
of GPRS mobile users, who can now
purchase monotones and also richer
content. (In 2006, telecommunications
companies are expected to drop GPRS
access charges to make it freely
available to consumers to encourage
mobile music purchases).
About 400,000-500,000 ring tones
are downloaded daily. (Mono and
polyphonic ring tones currently sell at
a 75/25 ratio, while the fastest growing
ring tone genre is ring back tones with
about 3.5 million users).
the entire value chain: sourcing music,
encoding (digitizing), meta-tagging (data
on the music and artiste), encrypting
(using the Windows DRM system), hosting,
integrating with partners (like MSN and
HP), and clearing and controlling the
licensing (for promotions and commercial
transactions).
SoundBuzz’s contention does not
really come from Apple’s popular iPod and
iTunes but in helping mature an industry
sabotaged by illegal and unlicensed web
sites. Around 2 billion songs are traded
illegally each month worldwide and this
figure overshadows the legitimate industry,
which trades only 60 million songs per
month. Nevertheless, the rapid acceptance
of paying for downloads is an encouraging
and growing phenomenon. Come to think
of it, till about a couple of years ago, it was
2 billion versus zero.
NEWSWIRE 23
Thakur believes that shutdown of illegal
digital music web sites does not solve
the purpose, there will always be new
ones popping up and it would be near to
impossible to stop or put an end to them.
On the contrary, he is of the opinion that
because of Napster, Kazaa and Morpheus,
SoundBuzz has been able to make such a
strong impact. “Piracy started our business,”
he says strongly. Also, the success of iTunes
is an indication of the flourishing strength
of the entire industry. Thakur is hoping 2006
to be the landmark year for online music
downloads.
Creative Technology, one of SoundBuzz’s
investors since 2000, recently increased
its stake in the company from 20 per cent
to 30 per cent, and an integral partner in
integrating the online music store into the
Creative Media Source application bundled
with all Creative portable music devices.
SoundBuzz also signed an agreement
with iRiver under which iRiver devices will
come packaged with software designed to
download and transfer SoundBuzz tracks.
The firm has also ventured into strategic
alliances with consumer brands like Levi’s
(in Singapore) and banks to promote the
brand. Currently, half the turnover comes
from the music and ring tone download
business, while the other half comes from IT
services. SoundBuzz offers turnkey solutions
for its partners to start an online music or
ring tone download store, e.g. Indiatimes.
com. Its services in India with TATA Indicom,
Hutch, VSNL, Bharti, Airtel, etc allow mobile
customers to browse and purchase songs
via their WAP-enabled phones while the
purchases are billed to their phone bills.
Consumers are reluctant to use credit cards
for small ticket items and in Asia credit card
usage over the Internet is rarer still. Many
consumers may also be too young to even
own credit cards. Instead, an agreement
with IP servers sees charges tagged onto
the monthly bill by the IP server in the same
way mobile download fees are tagged on to
monthly bills. This has been an essential step
in SoundBuzz’s success, divided about 50
percent each between mobile and online. ■
| Carol D’ Costa
 24 NEWSWIRE
Consumer Electronics Show 2006
L ike every time, gadget lovers witnessed
the glitz in the tech show eagerly
awaited by one and all. Here’s a run
down on some of the gadgets that were
showcased at CES, held at Las Vegas.
Camcorder
The Xacti HD1 from Sanyo is a camcorder
with features like HD video, flash media
recording, 10X zoom lens and an OLED
display. It’s capable of recording 720p
MPEG-4 video on an SD card; it also
functions as a camera capable of taking
5-megapixel shots. The Xacti HD1 is priced
at $800 and is expected to ship in by the
end of March 2006.
Handheld
New toys for the boys it is—the SkyScout
from Celestron is a new-age handheld
allowing you to view the sky and even
identify the celestial objects. A cool GPS
application built into the device makes
this possible. Just point the handheld unit
towards a star and the application displays
the name of the star, the planet, and
other astronomical features like history
and mythology on the screen. The device
has a host of other features to offer all of
which can be found at www.celestron.
com/skyscout. The site has a database of
information, which can be downloaded on
to an SD card. Celestron is planning to ship
the product in March. Iit’s priced at $399.
Projectors
An FPS or RPG experience couldn’t have
been better. Same with cinema—enjoying a
multiplex experience sitting in the comfort
MEX1 GP Car Stereo
SkyScout Handheld
of your home would be the ultimate
entertainment with dream projectors. A set
of three sleek DLP (Digital Light Processor)
projectors—the IN72, IN74 and the IN76
were part of the InFocus stall. All three have
the same curvaceous, black appearance
but differ in resolution. The first one offers
wide-screen DVD resolution of 480p, while
the second one supports ‘Wide PAL’ for
countries where it’s available. The IN76
tops the list delivering HD resolution of
720p. All three have HDMI (High Definition
Multimedia Interface) and DVI (Digital Video
Interface) connectivity along with standard
component video connection. The IN72 is
priced $1,299; the IN74 is for $1999 while
the IN76 costs $2,999.
Car Stereo
Sony very conspicuously stayed away from
displaying any new Playstation pleasures
much to the disappointment of many.
Instead, what it showcased was a unique
anti-theft removable car stereo faceplate
christened MEX 1GP. Like any other modern
car stereo, the MEX 1GP plays MP3 and
WMA from CD-R/RWs, however it has an
additional feature—storage capacity for
1 GB MP3 files. The removable storage
faceplate has an USB connector allowing
you to connect it to your PC for transfer of
your favorite music. Carry your favorite 500
MP3 files to your car. And enjoy the joyride!
3D Goggles
TDVision’s 3D goggles come
with a difference. When
you wear them, you
enjoy a smooth viewing
Xacti HD Camcorder
IN76 DLP Projector
experience without the disturbance
caused by constant flickering, otherwise
the case with most polarized gogs. A
specialized software developed by this
start-up company allows continuously
updated images to be sent to each eye.
Significantly, TDVision has a technology
that enables streaming of 3D data to a
standard video signal. So you can view 3D
video on 2D video standard monitors as 2D
images without any degradation in quality.
TDVision claims that their technology can
be used in fields like military planning and
medical imagery as well. The goggles are
likely to be released towards the end of
2006 and will cost $100.
Battery Recharger
Power Pack from Medis Technologies is a
fuel cell-based battery recharger for mobile
products such as cell phones, MP3 players
as well as for gaming gadgets.
Power Pak has a container of liquid
fuel (sodium borohydrate, glycerol and
alcohol) packaged with a disposable fuel
cell. A separate adapter to recharge a
device is bundled along. It’s lightweight
and therefore can be easily carried along
everywhere. Since it’s a little too bulky for
the pocket, a belt pouch is provided lest
you feel the need for quick fuel access.
Battery life is good with 60 hours of
listening for an iPod and 30 hours for a cell
phone. Medis Technologies has priced the
product at $19.99.
TD Vision’s
3D Goggles
Power Pack
Battery Recharger
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006
 NEWSWIRE 25

Send ‘talking avatars’

with your message
T here possibly couldn’t be an end to things that you can
experience with your mobile. The latest buzz in the cell phone
market is about characters that can talk. Imagine the fun of
sending a birthday or anniversary message with your own ‘talking’
image. Taking note of the importance of voice-based messages,
3Dmsg, the new division of Sensory, has planned to create and
launch talking characters for your cell phones.
3Dmsg specializes in
embedded speech technology;
the characters, using the
company’s homegrown
animation and voice-recognition
technologies, move their lips
exactly like real persons do
while pronouncing various
words. The technology used is a
combination of a hybrid neural
Dinesh Desai
network (representing the
nervous network structure of the human brain) and the hidden
Markov modeling speech technology (used to break spoken data
into components that can be represented visually). The sound
is analyzed and a visual representation form is created. These
visual representations known as ‘visemes’ are arranged together
to project a person is speaking. 3Dmsg’s technology not only
creates visemes from live speech, it can also create them from
text and from a combination of text and speech as well. 3Dmsg’s
greeting card service lets you choose a fully developed avatar
and assign a voice message apart from creating one of your own.
The deliverable will be an avatar either singing an entire song
or speaking out the message. You can send 3Dmsg’s video-like
messages by a talking avatar either by SMS, MMS or IMs.

Remote Lie Detector

T he lie-detector tests currently in use are not enough. The
US Department of Defense is planning to deploy a new
method to find out if a person is lying or not, without his or her
knowledge. The Remote Personnel Assistance (RPA), the device to
detect if one is lying is not, will be used by the defense forces to
detect enemy soldiers hiding in the combat zone.
These RPAs will use laser or microwave beams reflected
off a person’s skin to assess various psychological parameters
wirelessly, without skin contacts. The remotely placed device
will be able to read information from the beams reflected from a
suspect’s body, whether he is idle or moving. As the parameters
that will be used by the RPA are the same as those assessed by
a polygraph lie detector, it’s likely that the RPA will also indicate
the subject’s psychological state—for instance, the agitation or
stress showing on their faces when they are lying. So it serves
the purpose of being a “remote or concealed lie detector during
prisoner interrogation”.

FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

28 NEWSWIRE
Time Out for Malaria
P erhaps one of the things you would
never expect your wristwatch to do
is tackle diseases. Surprisingly for you, the
wristwatch is now capable of detecting the
dangerous and sometimes fatal malaria.
Gervan Lubbe, a South African inventor, has
designed a wristwatch equipped to detect
the malaria parasite hiding in blood.
The watch pricks the wrist of the bearer
four times in a day with a very small needle.
With each and every prick, it counts the
number of parasite cells present. When
the count tops 50, it sounds an alarm and
flashes a brightly colored mosquito on the
face of the watch. The warning implies that
the bearer is affected by the parasite and
therefore needs to be on medication within
the next 48 hours.
Lubbe claims that the watch detects
and destroys the parasite so quickly that
the patient does not feel the early cold
symptoms and the possibility of a fatal
attack becomes nil. Since the detection
happens at a very early stage, it prevents
the victim from taking heavy dosage of
quinine, which comes with additional
side effects. Besides, the victim will not
be bedridden for six months, the period
normally taken by any malaria patient to
get completely cured.
Lubbe says he developed the watch
after being approached by a major mining
company, which found that several
workers in Africa were affected with
malaria. The watch has been designed
in a way that when miners walk through
a scanner, the watch’s radio frequency
transmits the wearer’s information to a
central PC. This way, mining companies
can scan which of their workers have been
already attacked by the disease, and the
health departments can make sure that
the people at risk are put on medication.
The watch will hit the South African
market this month and will cost $280.
Lubbe stated that the cost of the
watch is lesser in comparison to the
cost of treatment for severe malaria.
Lubbe’s company, Gervan’s Trading,
has already received 1.5 million orders
for the wristwatch from government
organizations, private companies and aid
organizations fighting against malaria.
Dual-lens Cam
A ll you photography buffs can now
forget about the hassle of replacing
the lens of your camera every time you
want to switch between zoom and wide
angle. The 5-megapixel Kodak V570 solves
this problem for you. A sleek, black body of
the V570 holds two lenses placed vertically
on a silver panel at the center. While one
is a 5x optical zoom lens, the other is a
23-mm wide-angle lens. Kodak claims that
the V570 is the world’s first dual-lens still
camera.
The panorama feature of the camera
lets you create 180-degree images from
just three shots. Tired of taking stills? Shift
Tackling Global Warming with Algae
W hile assessing the state of the
earth’s eco system, and the impact
it’s having on the lives of humans, it has
been found that the growth of algae can
help clean the environment. A research
spearheaded by Dr Isaac Berzin, a rocket
scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, revealed Dinesh Desai
that algae can be
harvested to reap
biodiesel—algae
filters the power
plants’ exhaust
stack off CO2. The
cleansed exhaust
bubbles skyward,
but with 40 percent
less CO2 and 86
percent less nitrous
oxide. The vegetable
oil extracted from the
harvested algae is highly
combustible and can be used
as biodiesel for automobiles. Even
the dried green flakes that remain from
the extracts can be reprocessed to create
ethanol used for transportation.
to the video mode (packed with most
digital cameras today) to capture videos
at 30 frames per second with MPEG-4
compression.
Viewing images is easy on the 2.5-inch
LCD screen. The camera offers 32 MB
memory with an SD card slot for expansion
of memory when the need arises.
The other features of the camera
include an in-built flash, 22 scene modes,
red-eye correction.
Priced at $330, the Kodak V570 was
recently showcased at CES held in Las
Vegas and is already available in the global
market.
Berzin estimates that using his system
a 1,000-megawatt power plant can yield
more than 40 million gallons of biodiesel
and 50 million gallons of ethanol per year.
And producing the above would require to
grow the algae.
Organic reap
does not come
without
financial reap, at
least, that’s what
has been illustrated
by the success of
GreenFuel, a venture
capital funding and
conducting a field trial
at a 1000 MW power
plant. GreenFuel has
already garnered $11
million.
Such extensive research on
the growth of algae as an earth-
saving mechanism as also an opportunity
to reap huge business profits has resulted
in several firms taking keen interest in
it. Algae-farming will also reduce the
dependence on foreign oil.
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006
30 NEWSWIRE
Google Packs in More
this Year
T he latest to come from the Google
camp this year is Google Pack,
a software package comprising an
interesting combination of programs like
Adobe Reader, Ad-Aware, Google Desktop,
Google Talk, Trillian and Mozilla Firefox.
Looks like Google is following Microsoft’s
strategy of integrating commonly used
applications together. Apart from the
ones mentioned above, a special program
called Google Updater does the job of
downloading, installing and maintaining
all the software in the Google Pack. So if
you have some particular software already
installed, the Google Updater checks to
see if it is the latest version. If it isn’t, the
updater will automatically begin to install
the latest version. The Google Pack beta is
available in English and runs on Windows
XP. Symantec, Adobe and RealNetworks
have joined hands with Google to make
this software available to users.
And if that was not all, Google is
offering another new video download
service to its users. The video store allows
users to search videos of programs played
on CBS and basketball games presented by
the National Basketball Association. All the
die-hard Star Trek fans or sport freaks will
simply love this service—Google provides
low-cost rentals as well as outright
purchase of the NBA and CBS programs.
In its partnership with CBS, for instance,
Google makes available the CBS’ lead series
‘Crime Scene Investigation’ for $1.99 per
episode just after the day it’s aired. NBA
games will be available for $3.75 per game.
A long list of 300 CBS classics is included
in the list including ‘I love Lucy’, ‘The Brady
Bunch’ and ‘Star Trek’.
Apart from CBS and NBA, Google has also
tied up with Britain’s ITN for their archive of
historical videos as well as with Sony BMG
for some of their selected video titles. Times
Warner is also expected to join the league to
contribute their share of titles.
With such a wide array of services
already available right at the beginning of
this year, and most of it free, Google surely
will make users hungry for more.
‘Chipmen’ Make News
L ooking for the apartment key to open
the door is a thing of past for many.
Technology has made it possible for
people to simply wave the hand for the
door to open or log on to a computer. Also,
there’s no need to worry if you forget the
numerous passwords that you have. A
computer chip implant in the body can do
all the above chores making life
so much easier for you.
The tiny Radio
Frequency
Identification
(RFID) chip
implanted
in the body
interacts with the
computer and other
electronic devices,
which read the
information on the chip
with the help of a reader
installed in them.
The chip is activated as soon as it
comes closer (within a range of three
inches) to the reader. The reader captures
the information and behaves like the
obedient housekeeper by either switching
on a television, or drawing the curtains or
opening the refrigerator or any other task
Jeanpod and More…
A nother iPod accessory is out in the
market. And this time, it’s from the
fashion house of jeans, Levi’s. Levi’s’
RedWire DLX’s iPod-compatible jeans,
which will soon be available in the market,
has a docking station in the pocket where
you can plug the device. The docking
station is wired to the coin pocket where
the control panel is located. This helps in
controlling the volume without the need to
take the iPod out of the pocket. However,
this jeans doesn’t come for cheap. But if
you’re iPod-crazy, you probably wouldn’t
mind shelling out another $200 for a pair
of jeans capable of housing your favorite
music player.
And in case you don’t like the idea of
tagging the iPod to your jeans, you can use
Tunebuckle’s iPod Nanobelt. Just dock your
that it’s asked to perform.
And if you’re wondering about how
the implant process is like, it’s so simple
and easy that it can even be performed by
veterinarians and tattoo artists. Smaller
than a grain of rice, the implant process
doesn’t hurt as claimed by people who are
promoting it in the West.
Users currently with chip
implants prefer the chip
EM4102 because it
interacts with a wide
range of readers.
However, users
of EM4102 also
warn about the
security problems
associated with
this chip as any
compatible reader
can read from
the chip within the
specified range of three
inches. Tracking a user
from long distance is difficult
because the chip can neither produce strong
signals nor does it activate from a distance.
However, to tighten the security, HiTagS
chips can be used supporting multiple kinds
of information or tags.
iPod at the buckle of the belt, it displays
as well as protects your device while still
making the controls available. This is
available for $49.95.
And what’s more, ski-apparel maker,
Spyder has come up with a $2,000 leather
jacket, which lets you tag your iPod to it
and adjust the volume using the control
pad built into the sleeve.
Tunebuckle’s iPod Nanobelt
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006
Tune into Mobile TV
Mobile handset manufacturers and service providers are out to keep
you glued to your phone
A
fter all the jazz added to the
ubiquitous cell phone starting from
gaming to downloading Internet
content to using them for taking pictures
and videos, the latest buzz to do the
rounds is broadcasting TV programs live on
handsets. Taking steps to largely make the
mobile an entertainment device, handset
makers, cell phone service providers and
broadcasters have come together to form
one single team to make the service available
on the device for users. And the ecosystem
comprising a consortium of the above and
the available technology, which till some
time ago was not built, is now ready to roll
out the service. Let’s find out more.
The announcements made by several
companies at the Consumer Electronics
Show 2006, held at Las Vegas, triggered
off the fever spreading fast to enable
streaming TV content on the mobile. At
CES, Crown Castle Mobile Media (wireless
tower operator), which has just changed
its identity to Modeo, announced its plans
to launch mobile TV service in the top 30
markets in the United States between
2006 and 2007. The possibilities in turning
the mobile into an all-in-one device seem
endless now as global giants like Nokia,
Texas Instruments and Modeo have teamed
up. In fact, their concerted efforts have
culminated in the formation of Mobile DTV
Alliance, working towards making mobile TV
popular.
Competing Standards
In several countries such as the UK, Italy,
Australia, and Finland, mobile operators
enable viewing of selected TV programs live
via 3G (third generation) networks. But the
quality in terms of audio and video is way
too poor because the ‘broadcast’ signals,
which are one-way in nature get lost in the
clogged voice network. As a result what
happens is that the broadcast time taken is
long with quality dropping to reception of
choppy audio and video.
To do away with this problem, some
broadcasting standards working on a single
dedicated channel have been developed.
Having taking note of the immense business
prospects thrown up by the burgeoning
mobile entertainment services, several tech
companies are promoting these standards.
Vishwanath Vanjire
While DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcasting
- Handheld) is gaining popularity in Europe,
in South Korea trials are underway for an
alternative standard called DMB (Digital
Multimedia Broadcast). Apart from these,
another standard is being developed—
Qualcomm’s Media Flo—that is going to be
embraced by companies worldwide.
Crown Castle (using DVB-H) claims to
have the required bandwidth for mobile
video content generation. And while Italian
operator 3 is working on providing services
via the DVB-H standard, Verizon Wireless is
planning to unveil its services in late 2006
or early 2007 on Qualcomm’s Media Flo
network.
One of the first operators to deliver
mobile TV over a 3G cellular network, Sprint
Nextel, recently announced its plans to
launch a high-powered network for wireless
media services like television and music
by the year 2008. And since the cellular
network will eventually choke because of
the rising demand for live media devices,
Sprint has plans to launch an alternate
network by 2008. This network, which is
basically a ‘fourth generation network’,
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

Mobile Broadcasting Network
An encoder receives the data from an uploading device (Feed) and sends the data to the
distribution network, where the data is assigned an IP address. An IP manager reads the
address to find out the destination and sends the data to an IP Address Reader. The Reader,
with the help of the address, sends the data to the right handset through a transmitter.
will be launched over BRS (Broadcast Radio
Spectrum). Although Sprint is trialing
several technologies, as of now, it has no
plans to upgrade mobile TV using the two
most talked about networks about to be
launched by Qualcomm and Modeo.
How it works
The standards that are being developed
make it possible for cell phone users to
view TV on their mobiles in a way similar to
digital broadcasting of programs on your
TV. The single difference between the two
is mobile broadcasting would combine
satellite broadcasting and IP (Internet
Protocol) based data transfer.
As the signal flows through an entirely
dedicated channel, it retains the audio/
video quality as that of your living room
television. But when a number of handsets
engage in streaming of data in one area,
the multiple streaming might result in
data collision in that area and eventually
lead to loss of data. Therefore, in such a
case, to avoid data loss, the FEC (Forward
Error Correction) technology ensures that
all sets of data are sent twice to every
single handset. This is done keeping in
mind that if a particular data-packet gets
lost or damaged, there is a replacement of
information
Available handsets
As of now there are very few broadcast-
capable handsets available in the global
market. Nokia’s upcoming model, the N92,
likely to be released some time during the
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
middle of 2006, is one such handset. The
phone’s DVB-H antenna and software will
enable reception of signals and thereby
allow the streaming.
The handset is built in a way to allow
a user to select, purchase and store TV
programs. The N92 will have up to four
hours of TV watch time attached with
stereo speakers and memory card support
of up to 2 GB. At the Consumer Electronic
Show, rival companies, Samsung and
LG also announced their plans to launch
handsets supporting the DVB-H and Media
Flo standards. Ericsson too is not lagging
behind with plans to launch a handset
capable of showing TV programs very soon.
Action in India
In India, so far, mobile operators like
Hutch have been offering the service of
downloading TV content from news and
entertainment channels from their site
on WAP enabled phones. But now we
have what we can call the first mobile TV
channel. Coming close on the heels of the
announcement made by Sprint Nextel,
telecom major, Reliance Infocomm has
introduced an English TV news channel on
mobile phones through its wireless carrier
Reliance IndiaMobile. The channel named
Times Now is a joint venture of Times
Group and Reuters. Reliance IndiaMobile’s
R World will enable streaming of content
live from the channel via 3G network. Users
will be able to view TV on handsets like
the Nokia 6255 or 6235. Users with other
R world models can access the news clips
NEWSWIRE 33
on demand. Though the first of its kind,
Reliance has warned that as the 3G network
in India is not yet in place, the video quality
received may not be good and users might
experience breaks in service.
Next-gen mobile TV
Handset manufacturers, service providers
around the world are very excited with
the way the market is developing, and are
very optimistic about the future. Already,
wireless carriers like Sprint and Cingular in
partnership with MobiTV (global television
and digital radio service provider), are
offering the next version of their service,
MobiTV2, on their cell phones. The new
service will include an improved MobiTV
user interface, with a programming guide
that displays 2 hours of show information
and better audio and video quality as
compared to the older one. This service is
available on over 60 different cell phone
models and MobiTV is aiming to increase
the subscriber base to more than 500,000.
The company also announced its plans to
make its service available to the Palm TX
(it’s already available for the Palm Treo
650 smartphone); the PDA’s Wi-Fi wireless
connection capability will enable this service.
Palm TX users will be able to watch TV at 24
frames per second and view channels such
as ABC News Now, MAXX Sports, Fashion TV,
Fox News, C-SPAN, ESPN 3GTV, etc.
All these are indicative of the fact that
more and more people are hooking up
to TV on the go. A UK-based technology
consultancy, Strategy Analytics predicts
that mobile firms in the UK alone will have
about 50 million users of mobile TV by 2009,
generating an estimated £3.5 bn (Rs 273
crores) as revenue. Broadcasters as well as
TV producers around the world are positive
about the increased availability of mobile TV
services in the next one to two years. With
several mobile marketing strategies being
used by mobile operators in the UK, Italy,
Australia and now India (with a huge mobile
subscriber base), the scope for tremendous
profits in this domain galore. Now that the
action has already begun, millions of mobile
subscribers hungry for entertainment
cravings will get a lot on their plate. Watch
this space... ■
| Pradosh Mitra
34

What MONEY Can’t BUY

There is no dearth of open source applications today. Here is a bagful of
open source software to whet your appetite and crave for more!
Coverstory

Pramod Jadhav
 OPEN SOURCE FREEWARE | COVERSTORY 35

A
OFFICE ll of us like to save money, right?
OpenOffice.org 2.0.1 Complete Office Suite Especially if it is on software since
that is an area a user invests in
Personal Account constantly after buying a computer. A
jGnash 1.10.3
Manager
majority opts for a cheaper alternative
INTERNET —bootleg CDs bought off the road or
Firefox 1.5 Web Browser cracked versions downloaded from the
Internet. No, this is not going to turn into
Mozilla ThunderBird
E-mail Client a righteous speech on how one should not
1.0.7
promote piracy. Rather, in this space, we
GAIM 1.5 Instant Messenger offer you substitutes for the paid software
available today at no cost. In case you’re
PHP 5.1.1 Web Development Tool
finding it hard to believe, take a look at
SECURITY the list on this page—all the software
ClamWin Antivirus mentioned here are open source and
Anti-virus
0.87 free. (There is a lot of confusion associated
Winpooch Watchdog with the terms “open source” and
Anti-spyware
0.5.9 “freeware”. Open Source software can
Ethereal 0.10.14 Network Monitor be distributed at a price or for free.)
Alternative solutions have been provided
MULTIMEDIA across various categories—office, Internet,
Media Center solution
MediaPortal 0.1.3 security, multimedia, graphics and basic
for PCs
utilities. Each category offers applications
VirtualDub 1.6.11 Video Editing Tool that try to answer your needs, be it
Internet browsing or 3D modeling.
Audacity 1.2.4 Audio Editing Tool The software listed here are covered
GRAPHICS by the GNU General Public License (GPL).
Due to space restrictions, the source code
The GIMP 2 Photo Editing
has not been provided on the CD. Instead,
links have been included along the way for
Blender3D 2.40 3D Modeling Tool
you to download if you want. Apart from
Vector Graphics the software being free, they all provide
Inkscape 0.43.2
Application some sort of support in terms of bug
UTILITIES reporting and updates. You will also find
7-Zip 4.32 File Compression Tool a lot of documentation, tutorials—either
with the software or on the developer’s
TightVNC 1.2.9 Remote PC Control web page. Now go ahead and try these
alternatives. We guarantee that you will
Desktop ‘Sticky’ Notes
A Note 4.2.1 not be disappointed.
Tool
 36 COVERSTORY | OPEN SOURCE FREEWARE

ets,
professional documents, workshe
PERSONAL FINANCE MANAGEMENT
Office presentations, calculate form
diagrams and save them in form
ulas ,
ats
draw
that Name: jGnash
ce Operating Systems: Supports any
are either supported by other offi
at. platform using Java 1.4 Run Time
ne of the first applications a first suites or in the OpenDocument form
O time user gets acquainted with on
his or her computer is the office suite
OpenDocument is an XML-based
which means that any appl icati on
format,
that
Environment
Website: http://sourceforge.net/
be able to open the file. projects/jgnash/
that is installed on it by default. But supports OD will
cost be confi gure d to be
buying an office suite software will Documents can also tool
form ats (.doc , jGnash is a simple accounts manager
you somethi ng around a thou sand buck s saved in Microsof t Office have trou ble keep ing
s can open meant for thos e who
e. Ever yone is not willing .xls., .ppt) so that non-OOo user
and even mor iple bank
that track of different incomes and mult
to invest more money on software them too. tool hand les a range
accounts. This one-stop
might not even be used ever yday. In The suite consists of Writer, Calc, of cour se) and
er, Calc of currencies (including INR,
such a scenario, the new and feat
ure-rich Impress, Draw, Base and Math. Writ form at (QIF) ,
osof t’s also supports the Quicken file
OpenOf fice.org office suite is som ething and Impress are equivalent to Micr orts
which is feature intensive and supp
that you could check out. Word, Excel and PowerPoint. rt
s, different formatting styles and repo
Another useful application is acco
unts Base is a tool for creating database can help you create
ss, creating options. jGna sh
management software that can be
used which also supports Microsof t Acce tion,
tool income/expense accounts, reconcilia
to keep a tab on your inco me/expe ndit ure. ADO and MySQL. OOo’s Draw is a char ts, view ing
rams monthly reports, pie
used to create simple visuals or diag les in
printable statements, etc. It saves fi
OFFICE SUITE for your OpenOf fice documents or orts files crea ted
ons XML format and also supp
Name: OpenOf fice presentations. Its formatting opti unting
rt in GNUCash—a powerful acco
Operating Systems: Windows 98\ allow you to create objects, add clipa s.
your software created for Linux/Unix user
ME\2000 (SP 2 or higher)\XP\2003 and manipulate them according to efore
jGnash is written with Java and ther
Website: www.openoffice.org preferences. Java
like it will run on any platform that has
OOo Math is another ‘component’ (vers ions grea ter than
l tool. runtime insta lled on it
The new and improved OpenOf fice. Draw and is basically a mathematica of this cross -plat form
to 1.4). The downsid e
org 2.0.1 (OOo) is a popular office
suite It can be used to compute answers ance
d to a compatibility is a noticeable perform
not just because it is available for free . formulae/equations or can be adde sed mac hine s.
te hit on older Windows-ba
It is popular because you can crea text document.

Internet work with a clear taskbar because

its tabbed interface. There are othe
of saving all the tabs in a Firefox as a
session,
r automatically copying selected text
browsers available that also supp ,
ort this linking the browser to your downloa
feature but Firefox’s intuitive inte d

E quip yourself with the latest set of

applications that will let you surf
Net and download your e-mail safe
the
with an unending list of ‘extensio
the website, has managed to mak
rface
ns’ on
manager and many more are avai
download. The Mozilla Extensions
lable for
makes
ly e its browsing the Net fun and simple.
way onto many a Windows desk top. What
and for free. If you’re an aspiring web The more can you ask for?
site developer, there is another plea new version now allows you to rear
sant range
surprise in store for you. tabs opened in a window, somethi
ng E-MAIL CLIENT
that was found wanting in the earli
er Name: Thunderbird
WEB BROWSER versions (even Max thon and Opera
had Operating Systems: Windows 98/M
that feature). Firefox uses its own E/
Name: Firefox 1.5 caching NT 4.0/2000/ XP
Operating Systems: Windows 98/M techniques to increase the speed
E/NT with Website: www.mozilla.com
4.0/2000/ XP/Server 2003 which it can browse “For ward” and
“Back”
Website: www.mozilla.com web pages. It comes with a very effi
cient Thunderbird, another Mozilla offe
pop up blocker and additional opti ring,
ons to is an e-mail client that supports IMA
maintain privacy just like other com P,
Mozilla Foundation’s Firefox really peting POP mail protocols, HTML formattin
web browsers. Scalable Vector Grap g and
does not need an introduction. (Mo hics at the same time provides security
zilla to the
Foundation is a non-profit organiza support has finally been added into
tion the user. Security is ensured with the
latest version. Initially an Adobe plug help
that has created this web browser -in of its anti-phishing facility and a built
as -in
part of an open source project.) Firef was required to view SVG images
ox but spam filter. Thunderbird also supp
now support for this format has been orts
is just a 5 MB download and lets you RSS feeds so that you can get your
built into the browser. Extensions daily
like dose of news and mail under the
same
 INTERNET MESSENGER WEB DEVELOPMENT
Name: Gaim
Name: PHP
Operating Systems: Windows 98/M
e/ Operating Systems: Windows 98/M
NT/2000/ XP e/
NT/2000/ XP/2003
Website: http://gaim.sourceforge.n
et Website: www.php.net

Import your mail from Eudora, Outlook
or Outlook Express into Thunderbird.
roof. It also allows you to import XML
files that contain RSS feed informa
tion.
You can create multiple profiles (like
Outlook Express) within Thunderb
ird and
color code mails to make tracking
easier.
Thunderbird spell check tries to ensu
re
that the mails you compose are free
of
typos. Though this is a very handy
feature,
it has its limitations.
In addition to all of these, users can
also download Extensions for Thun
derbird
— just like Firefox. There are exte
nsions
to configure your download manager
to
the links in e-mails, add a Contact
s pane
in the Thunderbird window, set mou
se
gestures or switch between Prox y
Servers
to download your mail. This e-mail
client
makes for an excellent solution to
desk top
users. If you are looking for a chan
ge,
Thunderbird is the way to go.
Gaim is an open source instant
For those who are conversant with
messenger (IM) client that supports
multiple C, Java or Perl will not feel out of plac
protocols used by popular IMs like Yaho e
o, working with PHP—a scripting lang
AIM, ICQ, MSN, IRC, Jabber, etc. Gaim uage.
This is simply because much of its
requires the GTK+ Runtime Environm syntax
ent to is similar to the languages mention
be installed prior to its own installatio ed
n. Your earlier. It is an object-oriented lang
GTK+ runtime will need to be upda uage
ted if you and web developers use it to writ
have installed an older version. Gaim e
is very ‘dynamic’ pages. You can also crea
simple to configure and since it supp te
orts so Windows-based applications (whi
many messengers, you don’t need to ch
install also requires the PHP-GTK extensio
them individually. It can also be confi n).
gured PHP is also used to create server-b
to work in a HTTP/SOCKS4/SOCKS5 ased
Proxy applications and interact with data
environment. It has a range of notifi base
cation systems (like MySQL, Oracle). To use
features—for example, if you’ve crea this
ted version of the PHP, you need a web
an MSN account in Gaim, it will noti server
fy you (which could be Apache or Window
whenever an MSN contact closes his/h s’ very
er own IIS) and a web browser. A very
window. The messenger also supports well
a known product of this language is
range of ‘emoticons’ that can be insta the
lled. phpBB, available for free for anyone
If you’re a formatting freak then you who
can wants to star t a forum of his or her
switch spell check on while messagin own.
g. Since the version provided here is
Additional plug-ins available on the not a
web site simple installer, users will need to
allow you to encrypt messages and read the
change install notes first.
Gaim themes too.

team.
regularly updated by the ClamAV

Security ClamWin can be integrated with Micr

Outlook, if it is installed, (not Outl ook
osof t

.
Express) to scan for virus in real time
pyware, malware, Trojans, worms,
S virus—you name it and the Internet
got it. There is reason enough to be
afra
’s
id
Inspite of its real-time scan ning
it’s a simple tool, which is adde d
limit
to
ation,
the
be used
bring right click context menu and can
of these programs because they can ers and Winpooch alerts you whenever a
you to verif y the integrity of files, fold
your system to its knees. Here is how is its program tries to access the registry
self from thes e unw ante d compressed data. A very useful tool
can shield your from a CD or by monitoring the registry and issue
s an
ability to run the anti -virus
pests. ram tries to writ e anyt hing
USB on a system that does not have it alert if any prog
to know whe n and
installed—making it free and port
able! to it. This allows you
ANTI-VIRUS tion on how to what is being writ ten to the regis
try whilst
(You can get more informa
Name: ClamWin installing software. This cont rol allow s you
do this from its F.A.Q. page.)
Operating Systems: Windows 98/ to forbid the program from acce ssing the
ME/2000/XP/2003 Internet. The alert is quite graphic—
with
Website: www.clamwin.com
ANTI-SPYWARE Poochy
Name: Winpooch Watchdog Poochy, the watchdog popping up.
ges
Operating Systems: Windows 2000
/XP can also inform you of all the chan
ClamWin is a GUI-based anti-virus made to the regis try— if you have a sneaky
Website: http://winpooch.sf.net/
application. It is not a real-time virus suspicion that ther e is a hidd en prog ram
if it
scanner; it will scan for a virus only running on your system and you wan t to
not soun d Winpooch Watchdog is an anti-
is explicitly made to. This may s know whether it has made any entr ies
allow spyware tool that prevents maliciou
like a very good feature but it does g insta lled in the registry. Winpooch also mak
es it
virus programs and Trojans from bein
for free virus definition updates. The this simpler to navigate the Registry Edito
r
and on your computer. It basically does
definition database is maintained
 the network can
traversing through all the cables
if you need to access a particular key. be viewed in Ethereal in real time
ng in your LAN, Ethereal is the software
This is similar to other star tup editi and differentiated with the help of
emely to star t with. It can be installed on
programs available today. It is extr for color-coding.
sing Unix systems too and is intended
helpful for those who do not like brow If you are not interested in all the
structur e in network professionals. filter’
through the endl ess folder information being listed, a ‘capture
are The tool is extensive since it
the Windows Registry. This nifty spyw s can be set to assess a particula r prot ocol
and it can be supports different network topologie exam ple).
sniffer works in real time less, only (just UDP packets, for
g it as (Ethernet, Bluetooth, Infrared, Wire
made to work with ClamWin—makin roxim ately 750 of These sort of settings can then be
-virus tool! etc), protocols (app
good as any other real-time anti represented as a graph too.
them), virtual LANs and the regular
real These are just some of the options—
dial-up connection (PPP) too. Ethe
NETWORK MONITOR ware you can also customize the way capt
ured
also supports different hard dled and save d
Name: Ethereal information is han
manufac tured by reputed network ets can
Operating Systems: Windows 98/ to automatically. Captured data pack
technology companies. It can be used tiniz ed so as to
ME/2000/XP rface be monitored and scru
monitor traffic on your network inte
Website: www.ethereal.com ork you avoid virus or denial of serv ice
(or dial-up connection) or the netw
to (kno wn as Prom iscu ous attacks.
are connected
If you are into networking and tran smit ted acro ss
is mode). Packets bein g
interested in knowing what exac tly

encode
deo file or even
Cl ip or append a vi
RAM and the help of
have enough formats with
want to. If you us e it to different to adjust
sk space you ca
n ev en can be added
Multimedia ample hard di
the “time shift
ing” option. Yo
ia Portal to wor
u can
k with
ev
a
en th
th
is tool. Filters
e aspect ratio
, color, satura
can also be
tio
ad
n, etc.
de d from
configure Med w s Ad ditional filters fi nd that
l. It suppor ts th
e Windo is if you ever
ia center remote contro e w eb site—that
ter into a med l a Hauppau ge th t are no t
urn your compu remote as wel ided by defaul
T
op
without invest
er at ing sy st
ing in a whole
em; edit your
ho m
new
e videos
Media Center
on e. Ea ch ke y on the remote
ca
to perform a di
n also
fferent
the ones prov
en ou gh . You can even
e
st
file, if required.
rip th e audio
Batch processin
g
forever with be pr og ra m m ed fr om th
be utilize d
LP records last suppor ts FM tion that can
or make your TV tuner card is another func
ions. ac tion. If your w yo u to th at need to
these applicat rtal will also al
lo ultiple files
radio, Media Po he re . if there are m ttin gs—this
eset channels
from e same se
R control the pr be edited with th handle
MULTIMEDIA CENTE , it runs a sc an ca n
g Media Portal achine that
Af ter installin yo u w ill require a m en ding on
Portal s so that rtably. Dep
Name: Media the media file e tasks comfo
g Sy st ems: Window
s XP to catalog all usic, movie
th es
you can de ne fi the
Operatin
.te am - can browse th
rough your m
e. th e pr ocessor used, lD ub
://w w w ck interfac d set what Virt
ua
Website: http within this sli instructions an
al .c om/ collection from pr ov e on fo r In te l or 3D Now!
mediaport di tio n to th is, you can im sh ou ld us e—SSE/SSE2
In ad plug-ins
puter downloading for AMD CPUs.
turn your com the features by
If you want to site.
but do not w an t to from the web
into a media PC w then
ay AUDIO EDITOR
Center Edition
go the Media Name: Audaci
ty
is wor th a tr y.
It provides an VIDEO EDITOR ems: Window
s 98/
Media Portal nter PC. lDub Operating Syst
r to a Media Ce Name: Virtua s 98/
interface simila es, listen to Sy st ems: Window ME/2000/XP
movies, pictur Operating rceforge.net/
You can watch ://audacity.sou
ings. The ME/2000/XP Website: http
dule TV record irtualdub.org
music and sche you can even w.v
changed and Website: w w can be
theme can be audio editor. It
skin if you Audacity is an d encode it
te yo ur ow n Media Portal n is a very pow
er ful audio, edit it an
cr ea
This applicatio used to record is just a simpl
e
ol. e
Th formats. This
cum capture to into different
video editing t give the . If you ar e
terface does no what it can do
VirtualDub in explanation of ith it a
application aying around
w
a very friendly interested in pl
impression of atures and ea d and add
th lies in its fe m or e th en you can go ah
but its streng well. It can
lit tle dub tracks
of doing a job existing ones,
its capabilit y more tracks to ther. O ther
a capture tempo altoge
us ed to capt ure video from or change the
be frame.
ia o files frame by
ie s, pl ay mus ic through Med ca rd or edit vide
Watch mov ative
Center’s altern
Portal - Media
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006
 is is a very
Ogg Vorbis. Th
WAV, AIFF and used to record
, which can be
intensive tool ce ambient
aser, which g bit rates, redu
ho, reverse, ph audio at varyin ain audio
ef fects like ec plications, are ic file or just pl
dio mixing ap noise in a mus
are found in au u can record the spec trogra
m).
ai labl e in Audacity. Yo analysis (with available
al so av
ayers too for r audio ed rs
ito
o from LP and casset te pl There are othe y price.
au di nt solution come at a heft
is is an excelle out there that (with its
digitization. Th lose their rs a lot of grou
nd
don’t want to Audacity cove sc tch on
for those who does not put a
ra
us. features) and
classics to fung ed to ‘splice’
The au di o ed itor can be us your wallet.
formats
er t them into audio tracks
files and conv It also e and edit
rning to CDs. Record, analys
suitable for bu /3 audio,
ats like MPE G2 with Audacity
suppor ts form

Graphics illustrate colliding objects. It even

has the
ability to playback audio in animatio
n and
facilitates editing. Another advanced
use
E veryone hasat least some pictures
with that annoying red eye or ones
that need the brightness to be redu
of this software is in real time rend
of 3D objects, maps, etc. In addition
ering
to
ced. saving images in all the popular imag
The GIMP is what you need if you e
don’t formats, you can also save your wor
want to use shareware tools or spen k as an
d The GIMP is a popular image editing MOV or AVI file. Blender3D also boas
money on an image-editing tool. Exte tool ts of
nd - an alternative to Adobe Photosho a very active forum where you will
your creativit y to drawing and 3D p get all
the help you need.
modeling with Inkscape and Blen frames and the render tool. The GTK
der3D. +
runtime environment is required
prior to SCALABLE VECTOR GRAPHICS EDITOR
PHOTO EDITOR its installation (it has been included
on the Name: Inkscape
Name: The GIMP CHIP Tools CD).
Operating Systems: Windows XP/2
Operating Systems: Windows NT/2 000
000/XP Website: www.inkscape.org
Website: www.gimp.org 3D MODELING
Name: Blender3D
Inkscape is a very popular vector
GIMP is the acronym for GNU Imag Operating Systems: Windows 98/
e graphics tool. Vector graphics are
Manipulation Program. This imag ME/2000/XP basically
e used in illustrations, creating font
editing software had been reviewed Website: www.blender3d.org s and
in calligraphy, the advantage being that
a workshop last year. GIMP can be
used the quality of vector art is maintain
as an alternative to Adobe’s Photosho Blender is a multi-platform 3D ed
p irrespective of its resolution. Thes
for photo touch ups (like removin modeling software for Windows who e
g red se images are saved in SVG format. It
eye) and creating visuals for greeting minimum system requirements are has a
quite very neat calligraphy tool, which can
cards, letters, etc. Just like in Adobe, modest—128 MB RAM, a graphics be
you card configured in many ways (nib thick
can adjust color levels, create laye with 8 MB RAM. However, once you ness,
rs, get drag, mass, width, etc) to create diffe
support multiple image formats (like addicted to this application, you will rent
TGA , be styles and fonts. Combine it with
JPEG, BMP, TIFF, PNG, etc) and a rang rendering even more complex obje the
e cts, free styling pencil tool and you can
of effects to liven up a picture. Tool which might put a strain on your make
s are system. some truly striking illustrations. Con
provided that can make photographs This modeling software has a pow nect
look erful a ‘tablet’ to it and it will make for
better, older or grainier. Like Adobe, interface filled with multiple wind an even
it ows better drawing experience. Inkscape
supports batch file processing—a and highly configurable layouts. It is an
whole lets adequate substitute to the Illustrato
set of images can be made to go thro you create 3D objects of different r or
ugh types CorelDraw. You can create tracings
the same routine of resizing and colo (polygon meshes, metaballs, vect from
r or fonts) pictures of solid objects with the
correction automatically. It is also and varying textures. Create char help of
a great acters, the built-in ‘trace’ tool. Play around
alternative to MS Paint—take scre automobiles, etc with mesh modeling with
enshots, . layers, gradients, and effects to mak
edit them and save them in the form There are tools like ‘skin weightin e
at g’ to eye-catching visuals.
you like. As you get acquainted with provide realism to object surfaces
GIMP, . Along There is also a very nice collection
you learn how to use the tools to with that comes provision for anim of
create ation tutorials for those who need a help
simple animations with the help of with its capabilit y to use a bit of phys ing
layers, ics to hand in this field.
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Simply Smart
 42 COVERSTORY | OPEN SOURCE FREEWARE

Utilities will be able to complete its tasks faste

7-Zip’s interface is simple and it allow s
r.
you
itsel f
to create archives easily by adding
hile being light, some of the like
W utilities that we have talked abou
here are very func tional. Insta lling them
t
to the right click context menu (just
WinRAR or Win Zip) or even open self-
sure
extractable files. A tiny utility, 7-Zip
of the
is a breeze and the nifty features packs in some usef ul feat ures (incl udin g
. So
utilities make them indispensable 256-bit AES encr yptio n).
r
if you want to control your compute
y, or if you are in Paste your chores on to your desktop
otel
from anot her rem
ook’s
REMOTE CONTROL with A Note’s stickies
search of a utili ty simi lar to MS Outl
Name: TightVNC ts from
Notes—this is the plac e. E/ register the local keyboard as inpu
Operating Systems: Windows 98/M e, which
the remote keyboard while activ
NT/2000/ XP k from
COMPRESSION UTILITY means your shor tcuts will still wor
Website: www.tightvnc.com le lag
Name: 7-Zip far. All this is done without any visib
a
Operating Systems: Windows 98/M
E/ puters in response—unless you try this over
If you need to manage many com
eone ’s really poor conn ectio n.
NT/2000/ XP at a time or need to mon itor som
Website: www.7-zip.org machine on a network, TightVN C is wha t

you should use. Install it on both the DESKTOP STICKY NOTES

it Name: A Note
Available for 32-bit as well as 64-b machines, set an access password
and
E/
Windows operating syst ems , 7-Zip
able to cont rol the mac hine Operating Systems: Windows 98/M
you will be
It
is an efficient compression utility. remotely. Add ition al func tion s can be set NT/2000/ XP
et/
recognizes and is able to arch ive fi les
of acce ss. For exam ple, Website: http://a-note.sourceforge.n
to varying levels
,
in various formats like RAR, CAB, CHM if monitoring is the only mot ive then
RPM, etc. However, while compres
sing rol the This utility is a bit old but its use is
you can disable the power to cont paper
a file or fold er it will only do it in 7z (its can also priceless. If you are sick of sticking
remote desk top. Bandwidth g you of doing
proprietary form at), ZIP, GZIP , BZIP 2 or of the on your monitor remindin
be used judiciously with the help do, then just
TAR format. It also supp orts com man d in all the things you need to
different connection modes offered ly sma ll
line control within Linu x. A plug -in for ). It even install A Note. It is an extreme
TightVNC (fast, best compression in the
the FAR Manager (a text mode inte
rface
rem ote desk top with out application and needs to be present
displays the e isn’t
used to view files, folders and perf orm
noth er band widt h system tray for the times when ther
the wallpaper—a to jot dow na
ided. t and you need
basic editing func tions) is also prov saving feature. Inste ad of insta lling the a pen in sigh
can or addr ess. The stick y note s
Its proprietary compression format the mac hine s, phone number
complete software on all you wan t on the
dow n to a size that is over 30 ” on the can be arranged how ever
pack a file you can install only the “List ener
text you
ller than a fi le arch ived with ired to desk top. You can even format the
percent sma controlling machine which is requ spar ency levels
the Zip format. This format can supp
ort enter or play with the tran
connect to another machine. allow s you
large file sizes and since it supp orts hype r of the note. An alarm feature
The TightVNC connection will also y help ful
threading as well as mul ti-th read ing, it to set a reminder too. That is reall
s on
when there is a whole bunch of note
the desk top to distr act you.
A Note has provided a way you can
s that
reduce this clut ter—dockable note
the desk top! If you
adhere to the sides of
eone , you
need to e-mail a note to som
ork
can do that too. If you are on a netw
hron ize
and part of a team then the Sync
up to
feature is going to keep all of you
date on all assig nme nts. ■
or Ashutosh Desai
Edit TightVNC’s options to monitor
Compress files using 7-Zip using its pute r remo tely
control your com
proprietary compression format

INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

44
Vishwanath Vanjire
T
his month we reviewed products
from some of the newer brands
which are trying to establish
themselves in the local market. One
common thread with all the new brands
is the aggressive pricing and consistent
quality. The Biostar TForce 6100-939
is a fine example of a well-balanced
motherboard offering impressive
performance at honest price. The board is
perfect for the Indian market which thrives
on an all-in-one solution with onboard
graphics and sound. The PC case segment
dominated by a select high-end brand gets
a shot in the arm with the Antibiotic from
Hardware
| 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
Top Gear
Zerbronics offering some unique features
which will excite the enthusiasts.
The biggest surprise of the month
comes in the form an affordable tablet PC
from Sahara. The T2300 is probably the
cheapest tablet PC money can buy without
compromising on core performance. The
Corsair 4GB memory stick and the Asus
A8N32-SLI Deluxe belong to the other end
of the spectrum offering pure features
and quality at a premium. Gadget freaks
will enjoy the Motorola L6 which is an
affordable version of the Razor V3, while
the Kodak V550 will lure you with its 2.5-
inch LCD screen and slick styling.
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 | FEBRUARY 2006

Scribble in style!
I nclude the versatility of a scribble pad to
a laptop and what you get is a Tablet PC.
The SlateVision T2300 is Sahara’s Tablet PC
for all those who hate carrying notepads,
binders to take down notes along with
a 2.5 kg laptop slung over the shoulder.
Like all Tablet PCs, the SlateVision’s screen
can be swivelled around and placed flush
on to the keypad allowing you to hold
the device like a slate. The 12.1-inch LCD
display is touch sensitive to the stylus pen
and Microsoft’s Windows XP Tablet PC
Edition (operating system) provides the
GUI functionality. The SlateVision package
consists of the Tablet PC Edition Recovery
CDs, driver CDs and a USB optical mouse.
An additional stylus pen, however, is not
included with the tablet.
Four USB ports are placed in a line, along
with the VGA port on the rear panel. The
TV-Out, LAN, power, modem and a single
PCMCIA slot are placed on the side panel.
Volume control, audio connections are
placed alongside the DVD writer tray.
When used extensively, the six-cell,
4400mAh battery keeps the tablet going
for almost 4 hours.
The SlateVision came prepped with 512
MB of RAM—a comfortable amount for
a basic user and expandable up to 1 GB.
The Dothan processor, wireless capability
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
and the integrated graphics on the tablet
are good enough for a person who is
constantly on the move and needs to stay
connected all the time.
The display has buttons to change the
orientation from normal to widescreen
as and when required. An additional
scroll button, with a slightly tacky feel
to it is also provided to aid reading long
documents. While using the device as a
tablet you can make use of Microsoft’s
Journal to scribble on and make notes.
Cursive writing and sketching in Journal
with the pen is responsive (and fun) as
you can change the color, ‘ink’ thickness
and the nib style used. The handwriting
recognition is also accurate—it tries to
preempt your scribble based on the pen
strokes. For example, it will be activated
The Sahara in its ‘Tablet’ mode along with
the stylus. The pen is removed from the
LCD frame itself
TESTED | HARDWARE 45
Input Device
Sahara Tablet PC
Specifications: Dimensions: 296x245x37 mm, Weight:
2.4 kg, Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
2005, 12.1-inch display, Intel Pentium M 735 (1.7
GHz), 512 MB RAM, 80 GB HDD, DVD Writer
Price Rs 66,999
Contact Sahara Computers and Electronics Ltd
Phone 012-5397777
E-mail info@saharacomputers.co.in
website www.saharacomputers.co.in
RATINGS
Build Quality
Ergonomics
Performance
Features
Warranty
Overall Rating
Value for money
when you try to launch programs from the
Run dialog box with the stylus. You have
to make sure the pen’s nib does not get
dirty as in that case it begins squeaking
on the screen. When we tested it, there
were times when the pointer on the
screen would just freeze at the bottom
while the stylus was in a completely
different position trying to select a file.
This was the only problem faced whilst
using the device in the tablet mode. Stylus
sensitivity, accuracy and behavior can be
fine tuned from the Control Panel. The
Journal coupled with Microsoft’s Sticky
Notes, display orientation and the stylus
are an excellent solution for those looking
to switch over to a paperless desktop.
Although tablets are ideally meant
for use as scribble pads, they are still not
made as light as the latter (this one weighs
over 2 kgs).
For: Good build quality, it has a strong
LCD frame. The response of the pen on
the touchscreen is very good while writing
or sketching. A small optical mouse is
provided with the Tablet PC.
Against: A memory card reader is not
provided. All the USB ports are placed on
the rear panel—at least two should have
been placed on the side for easier access.
Lack of infrared or bluetooth connectivity.
46 HARDWARE | TESTED
External TV Tuner
PixelView PlayTV Box 3 Desktop
Specifications: External TV tuner, PAL B/G, adjustable
resolution, wide-screen support, picture-in-picture
mode, favourites, S-Video in, composite video I/O
Price Rs 5,000
Contact Rashi Peripherals Pvt Ltd
Phone 022-28221013
E-mail navinderc@rptechindia.com
RATINGS
Build Quality
Ergonomics
Performance
Features
Warranty
Overall Rating
Value for money
Get the TV to your PC now
C onnecting your monitor to a tuner
gives you the convenience of watching
TV on your PC, when you don’t want to
move away from it. Tuners come in various
form factors such as internal TV tuner
cards or external USB devices, using which
you can capture your favorite TV shows or
FM broadcasts. But if you only wish to add
the functionality of a TV to your existing
CRT or TFT monitor without caring much
for capturing video, an external TV tuner
box works out to be the best out of the
lot. The PixelView PlayTV Box3 is one such
device packed with loads of features and
high performance unmatched by most of
the variants we have tested so far.
Features: At first glance, the Play TV Box3
looks like a silver network hub. But looking
at the rear panel you can easily figure
out it’s a TV tuner. It sports RF input to
connect your TV cable, 3.5 mm jacks for
audio input/output and 2 D-Sub ports.
One D-Sub port connects to the monitor
and the other connects to the display card
via the bundled VGA extension cable.
The reason for having 2 D-Sub ports is
to enable switching between PC and TV.
An interesting feature is the presence
of a multi-cable in the package having
composite video, RCA audio and S-VHS
outputs. It connects to a proprietary port
on the rear panel. So if you have a TV with
a worn out tuner, this one can add life to it.
Most TVs have audio/video inputs
for connecting video players and gaming
consoles. The Play TV Box3 doesn’t lack this
feature. Apart from composite video and
RCA audio inputs, there’s also a provision
for S-Video input for better video quality
especially while watching a DVD or gaming
on a console. The front panel has an IR
receiver and buttons to surf channels,
adjust volume levels and switch modes.
The bundled IR remote with rubber
buttons has all the functions necessary
to configure and control the TV. Controls
and menu navigation are so easy that even
newbies will find using it a cakewalk.
Performance: In terms of picture quality
and color reproduction, the PlayTV Box3
The rear and side panels of PlayTV Box3
sports various video I/O
is an ace performer and beats all its
counterparts by a significant margin.
The color and picture quality can be fine
tuned using adjustments for brightness,
contrast, sharpness, hue and saturation.
This of course is common to all external TV
tuners, but this tuner has support to adjust
gamma and tweak individual RGB channels.
The picture-in-picture mode lets you watch
TV while working on the PC.
Big screen lovers rejoice! The PlayTV
Box3 supports resolution upto 1280x1024
at a refresh rate of 75 Hz, including a
16:9 display mode with a resolution of
1280x768. It takes less than a minute to
autoscan and save the available channels.
For channels which aren’t clear, they can
be fine tuned manually. With an excellent
user interface, it’s easy assigning numbers
to channels and adding up to 10 of your
favorite channels to ‘Favorites’.
If you want to make a one-time
investment in the best external TV tuner
device without the need to capture video,
the PixelView PlayTV Box3 is the ultimate
choice hands down!
For: Excellent picture and color
reproduction; stereo audio I/O; S-video in;
composite video I/O; picture-in-picture
mode; 16:9 display mode.
Against: No built-in speakers; heats up.
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006
48 HARDWARE | TESTED

Input Device
Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop6000
Specifications: RF Wireless keyboard, zoom slider, RF
wireless 1000 dpi laser mouse, USB/PS2 interface,
range - 6 feet, requires 2 AA sized batteries each.

Price Rs 7,166
Contact Microsoft Entertainment &
Devices Division
Phone 1600111100
E-mail i-ruchga@microsoft.com
RATINGS
Build Quality
Ergonomics
Performance
Features
Warranty
Overall Rating
Value for money

High-precision combo
A ll of us ask for a clutter free desktop
oozing style and class. With wireless
desktops available now, that’s no longer
a dream. The Wireless Laser Desktop
6000 from Microsoft is a wireless
keyboard-mouse combo, adding style and
functionality to your desktop while keeping
it absolutely neat.
The Microsoft Wireless Laser Desktop
6000 comes in an attractive and stylish
black box. The silver keyboard has
translucent white keys, and though
seemingly it gives the impression of
being backlit, that’s not the case. The
keyboard supports a cushioned hand rest,
permanently fixed to its lower end.
If you intend to keep this keyboard in
a conventional keyboard drawer, you may
be short of space. But stacking it up just
about anywhere within six feet of the
receiver is a breeze. The keys are laid out
on a six-degree horizontal curve allowing
you to type comfortably. The convenience
of keeping the keyboard on your lap, the
cushioned hand rest and the ergonomically
designed key layout is something you will
love getting used to. The mouse is designed
to enable maximum comfort and it looks
cool too! The long and responsive buttons
ensure ease of use for all. On the flip side,
the thumb buttons on the left are a little
inconvenient to reach for users with small
hands. The mouse is specifically designed
for right-handed use.
Features and performance: Multimedia
keyboards have been around for a while
now. So what’s new with this one?
For starters it has a zoom slider allowing
you to zoom into pictures, maps and
documents. But the zoom slider zooms only
at the center of a picture, and not at the
corners even if you would want it to.
The most interesting feature is the ‘My
Favorites’ keyset. You can customize these
five keys on the fly to launch or open files
and applications that you use the most. It
can be used to open any file or folder or web
page. Incidentally, it doesn’t open Firebox
browser.
The laser mouse is built on Microsoft’s
high definition laser technology. It delivers
Ergonomically designed Key Layout
highest level of precision for hardcore
gamers, graphics designers and enthusiasts.
The laser sensor is far advanced than a
conventional optical sensor in terms of
response time and resolution. The smaller
thumb button is pre-configured to enable
the magnifier feature. Just point and press
the magnifier button to enlarge any area on
the screen.
Overall, the keyboard is comfortable to
use and comes with some neat features.
The laser mouse performs well in terms of
accuracy but is limited to right-handed users,
which is a downer. At Rs 7,166, it’s a pure
luxury and is only meant for a select few.
For: Wireless keyboard; laser mouse;
customizable keys; good ergonomics.
Against: Translucent keys make the
keyboard look ordinary; expensive; no caps
lock; scroll lock and FLock key indicator on
Wireless Keyboard/Mouse Receiver

INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

50 HARDWARE | TESTED

Digital Camera
Kodak EasyShare V550
Specifications: 5.3 MP CCD resolution, 3x optical
zoom, 4x digital zoom, 32 MB internal memory,
2.5: LCD, SD card slot, 720mAh lithium ion battery,
Photo Frame Dock 2, measures 3.7x2.2x0.9
(WxHxD) inches.

Price Rs 18,999
Contact Kodak India Pvt Ltd
Phone 9820332479
E-mail madhumita.rudra@kodak.com
website www.kodak.com
RATINGS
Build Quality
Ergonomics
Performance
Features
Warranty
Overall Rating
Value for money

Flaunt this black beauty

T he Kodak V550 is Kodak’s latest ultra
compact point-and-shoot digital
camera with a healthy mix of features
and style. The camera sports a 5.3 MP
CCD sensor combined with a Schneider-
Kreuznach C-Variogon 3x optical zoom
lens. The build quality is excellent and the
brushed metal finish lends a solid look to
the camera. Measuring a mere 3.7x2.2x0.9
(WxHxD) inches, the camera weighs
150 gms without batteries. The camera
features an impressive 2.5-inch LCD 230K
pixel high-resolution indoor/outdoor color
screen boasting of a wide viewing angle
of 170 degrees.
The camera captures images in almost
any condition, thanks to the 19 preset
modes, which ensure you have the exact
settings ready for the occasion without
having to play around with the white
balance and exposure settings. These
preset scene modes along with a live
histogram offered by the V550 helps
a newbie who is not familiar with the
intricacies of digital imaging. As with most
digital cameras, this one too does the
dual job of taking stills as well as shooting
video; it supports 30 fps video recording at
VGA (640x480) resolution.
The cam comes with “Photo Frame
Dock 2”, which is used to charge the
720mAh lithium ion battery. In-built
memory amounts to 32 MB but memory is
expandable thanks to the option of the
SD card slot that lets you increase the
storage capacity.
The V550 offers some very unique
features for the ultra compact segment,
namely the digital image stabilizer and the
ISO 800 setting. The ISO 800 only applies
when the images are captured at the
lowest offered resolution of 1.8 MP.
Performance: From the interface, usability
and operation point of view, the V550 is a
mixed bag. It’s fast and the menus are easy
to understand and master. The placement
of buttons is decent but operating them
gets a bit difficult with the large 2.5-inch
LCD screen dominating the small size of
The excellent 2.5-inch LCD screen
dominates the back side of the camera
the camera. The small buttons along with
a tiny four-way navigator is not particularly
comfortable for users with large hands.
The LCD is brilliant with good performance
in varied light conditions and a wide view
angle. Coming to image quality, the camera
captures good details with accurate color
saturation in good light conditions. In low-
light conditions, the camera can’t match
the crispness of a Canon Powershot. The
speed and response of the camera is above
average in most situations except when
you enter the review mode. The V550 takes
noticeably long to switch to review mode.
The movie mode works well and
the ability to zoom while recording the
movie is a nice feature as long as you can
adjust with slight graininess. The dock
compliments the camera and is a nice
addition to the package. The battery pack
gave us about 150 shots with extensive
use of the LCD and some movie recording
as well. Overall, the camera is a very good
option for a point-and-shoot user looking
for a stylish and feature-rich digital camera.
For: Loaded with features; good movie
mode; excellent 2.5-inch LCD; stylish
and well built.
Against: Noise in low light conditions; can
be sluggish at times; slightly weak flash
range.

INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

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52 HARDWARE | TESTED

Cell Phone
Motorola L6
Specifications: GSM 900/GSM 1800/GSM 1900,
110x49x10 mm, VGA camera, speakerphone,
Bluetooth, GPRS, WAP 2.0, 80gms, Display: 128x160
pixels, 10 MB internal non-expandable shared
memory.

Price Rs 8,905
Contact Everest International
Phone 022-55704646
E-mail chaudhary@roltanet.com

RATINGS
Build Quality
Ergonomics
Performance
Features
Warranty
Overall Rating
Value for money

Your fashion statement

G one are the days of bulky brick-like
cell phones. Today, everyone likes to
flaunt a sleek, sexy phone. After all, it’s not
just a gadget you’re carrying, you’re also
making a fashion statement. Therefore, a
seamless integration of ergonomics and
functionality is what people mostly look
out for in cell phones. Let’s check out where
the Motorola L6 gets this right successfully.
The phone at first glance will remind you
of the Razr V3 because of its ultra slim body.
A neat looking candy bar phone, the Moto
L6 is just 1.1 cm thick. The keypad design is
similar to that of the V3, the only difference
is it’s made of plastic while the Razr has a
steel one. The four-way directional pad is
made of steel though. The tactile response
of the keys is above average; the phone has
narrow key spacing (especially between
No 2 key and down key of the directional
keypad), so people with big hands might
end up pressing the wrong key. The build
quality is excellent with a metal body and
the LCD screen is well protected beneath the
front cover. While being slim, the L6 is also
light—it weighs only 80 gms.
Features and Performance: A trendy
phone can’t miss out on a camera. Keeping
this in mind, the L6 packs along a VGA
(0.3 MP) camera with 4x digital zoom. It
doesn’t come with an integrated flash
though. After you have shot a couple of
pictures, the capture screen lets you know
how many shots are left to go—a very nifty
feature indeed. The video capture quality
is above average. Phone navigation is very
intelligently laid out with options at the
right places. Memory at 10 MB is measly;
there’s no provision for expansion. It has a
healthy talk time of 5.8 hours.
The display at 120x168 pixels with a
screen diagonal size of 4.4 cm is not all
that sharp and supports 65k colors. One
interesting feature is that the AC adapter,
the interface cable and the hands-free
connect through the same mini USB port.
No wonder they managed to cut on the
size so much.
The retail package doesn’t include the
USB interface cable. You can either buy a
The USB port is used for charging, PC sync
and also as a headset
USB cable or get a Bluetooth dongle for
PC connectivity—the L6 has Bluetooth
support. Connecting to a PC with
Windows XP requires a one-time software
installation. Using a USB interface cable
that we had at our Test Center, we headed
straight to Motorola India’s official web
site only to find that the software is not
available. Regrettably, the manual states
that the software comes with the data kit.
Motorola needs to take note of this and
upload the software on its web site.
To sum it up, the L6 is a smart looking
phone packing a host of features and
above-average performance.
For: Slim and sexy; good build quality;
excellent phone navigation; speaker phone.
Against: Low screen resolution; PC
connectivity software not provided; no FM.
The slim body of the Motorola L6

INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

 TESTED | HARDWARE 53

Motherboard
Biostar TForce 610-939
Specifications: Micro ATX form factor, AMD Socket-
939, Nvidia NForce 410 chipset with GeForce 6100
IGP, dual-channel DDR400 up to 4GB, 2 PCI slots,
2 SATA-II connetors, 6-channel audio, optical and
SPDIF outputs, CMOS reloading program.

Price Rs 3,975
Contact Supertron Electronics Ltd
Phone 033-22131221
E-mail sunil_sharma@supertronindia.com
RATINGS
Build Quality
Ergonomics
Performance
Features
Warranty
Overall Rating
Value for money

Value for gamers

I f you’re an average gamer wanting to
game on a shoestring budget, an SLI
setup would be way beyond your budget.
A better option would be investing in a
board with a built-in graphics processor
and a PCIE slot to upgrade the graphics
later. So, you are not compelled to shell
out money for a display card. The TForce
6100-939, recently released by Biostar, is
one such board with an integrated graphics
processor (IGP).
Features: As the name suggests, the
TForce 6100-939 is an AMD Socket-939
motherboard featuring Nvidia’s new
Nforce 410 chipset with a GeForce 6100
IGP. Like any other motherboard based
on the similar chipset, this one too has a
micro ATX form factor. The board looks
jazzy with fluorescent colored slots and
ports—a treat for gamers with a UV tube
in their cases! Apart from only 2 PCI slots,
the board has almost all the features
found in an ATX board. It sports four DIMM
slots supporting a maximum memory of
4 GB, 2 IDE connectors, 2 USB headers,
2 SATA 2.0 connectors with support for
RAID and a 16x PCIE slot. The rear panel
sports most of the components commonly
found including a 10/100 Ethernet port,
4 USB ports and a 6-channel audio panel.
Surprisingly, the board also has support
for optical and SPDIF out through a rear
panel which connects to a header on the
motherboard. Packed with such features
the board is suitable for basic users as well
as for gamers and power users thirsting for
performance.
Offering a host of features doesn’t
mean compromising on a good layout.
The area surrounded by the PCIE slot is
spacious allowing quick deployment of
a graphics card and more importantly
better air flow. Both the northbridge and
the southbridge chips are equipped with
aluminium heatsinks which do a decent job
in dissipating heat.
The TForce 6100-939 is clearly targeted
towards gamers. Apart from a mention
on the package, it offers an excellent
interface in the BIOS called ‘Overclocking
Navigator Engine’ meant for tweaking
voltage, frequency and memory timings.
We noticed that for the first time a
motherboard included what’s called ‘CMOS
reloading program’, allowing the user to
save up to 50 different CMOS settings into
the BIOS-ROM, which can be recalled later.
It comes handy when you need to save
various overclocked settings and recall
them later.
Performance: It’s quite evident from the
scores that the TForce 6100-939 is an
ace performer. Couple it with high-end
components and you’ll definitely get a
big boost in performance. IGP will suffice
for casual gamers, but if you crave for eye
candy, you’ll need a good graphics card.
If you are looking out for a budget
motherboard with an IGP and good
overclocking features, the Biostar 6100-939
is worth considering.
TEST RIG
Processor: AMD Athlon64 FX53
Memory: 2 x 512 MB Zion DDR400
Hard Disk: Maxtor MaxLine III 250 GB
Graphics card: Nvidia GeForce 6800GS
SCORES
SiSoft Sandra 2005
Dhrystones: 10,028
Whetstones: 3,757
Memory bandwidth: 4,808 MB/s
3D Mark 2003
Nvidia GeForce 6100 IGP: 1,216
Nvidia GeForce 6800GS: 11,503
PC Mark 2004
4,037
For: Good overclocking options; CMOS
reloading program; optical out.

FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

54 HARDWARE | TESTED

Case
Zebronics Antibiotic
Specifications: 3 LED fans, transparent side panel,
front USB and audio ports, LCD display, 400 Watts
PSU.

Price Rs 2,150
Contact Zebronics
Phone 022-26616202
E-mail zebronics@zebronics.com
website www.zebronics.net

RATINGS
Build Quality
Performance
Features
Warranty
Overall Rating
Value for money

Cool and fancy

T he Zebronics Antibiotic cabinet with
its glossy finish attracted quite a few
onlookers when we opened the box; it’s
available in both black and white. The
plastic front bezel with a meshed air intake
grill houses the LCD display. It has 2 front
USB ports and 2 audio ports.
It’s an ATX case, and therefore should
ideally have three drive bays, but the LCD
takes up the space for one, so you are left
with two. The drive bays have a white lid
hiding the front face of your optical drive,
so don’t worry in case there’s a mismatch
between the black drive and the white case.
The white lid with a silver elliptical design
looks overdone. A plain white lid would be
more suitable. The case has a neatly cut
transparent side panel with a green LED fan
and thumb screws. It has a blowhole with
blue LED fan on the top. The blowhole has
a spring loaded sliding cover and the fan is
only operational when the cover is open, a
very nifty addition indeed. There’s a third
(blue) LED fan at the back, all the fans are 80
mm in diameter, and are protected by grills.
Taking a look inside, the frame is made
of brushed aluminum facilitating better
heat dissipation and has no sharp edges.
There are no drive cages, so you have to
align the drives with the holes and screw
them. There is a provision to mount an 80
mm fan on the front (not bundled along
with this). The case comes with a 400
W power supply. With 9.0 A on the +12V
rail, there’s not enough power supply for
gaming with mid to high-end graphics
cards. The default back plate is cut into
the same metal as in the back of the
case and you will need a pair of pliers to
remove it. This back plate is redundant as
motherboards come with their own
back plates.
Functionality: The three LED case fans
are strategically positioned to facilitate
excellent case air ventilation. Besides, the
LED fans throw green and blue lights inside
the case—a visual treat indeed. The LCD
display has four sections—first, to get the
temperature on the LCD, you can position
the temperature probe anywhere in the
case. There is an alarm feature wherein
Top blowhole fan
you can set a threshold value for the
temperature, exceeding which it gives out
an alarm. The alarm is not very audible
though, you hear only tiny beeps. Then
there’s a clock, an HDD activity indicator
having parallel leads with the HDD activity
LED, so it’s pretty much the same thing
with more visual appeal.
All in all, it’s a good looking feature-rich
product. And for the price it comes for,
Rs 2,150, it’s definitely a worthy option.
For: Three strategically placed LED fans; the
top blowhole fan works only when cover is
open. LCD temperature display with clock
and HDD activity indicator; thumb screws
for side panel.
Against: Optical drive lid overdone; power
supply not suitable for mid to high-end
graphic cards; difficult to remove the
default back plate.
Transparent side panel

INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

56 HARDWARE | TESTED

Motherboard
Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe
Specifications: AMD socket-939, NForce4 SLI x16
chipset, 2 full 16x PCIE slots, 3 PCI slots, 8-phase
power design, heatpipe cooling, dual gigabit LAN, 2
IEEE 1394a ports, SPDIF and optical outputs.

Price Rs 18,700
Contact Asustek Computer Inc
Phone 022-40058908
E-mail info_india@asus.com.tw
website www.asus.com.tw
RATINGS
Build Quality
Ergonomics
Performance
Features
Warranty
Overall Rating
Value for money

Mother of all boards

T he Asus A8232-SLI Deluxe features
Nvidia’s latest NForce 4 SLI x16 chipset
boasting two full-bandwidth x16 PCIE
lanes unlike two x8 PCIE lanes in the
present NForce 4 SLI chipset. This makes it
the ultimate gaming motherboard—there
will be no bottlenecks when two high-end
16x PCIE or dual GPU graphics cards are
coupled in SLI, thereby resulting in top-
notch performance.
Features and performance: The A8N32-
SLI Deluxe is an AMD Socket-939 board
and draws power from a 24-pin power
connector. The motherboard is dominated
by a copper heatpipe passing through
major thermal sources. The fanless design
guarantees quieter operation. However,
if you plan to use either a water block for
cooling or heavily overclock the system, a
fan is provided which clips to the heatsink
next to the processor socket.
The A8N32 sports some of the best
features cleverly incorporated by Asus with
great ease and precision to make it the
cream of the lot. It features an eight-phase
power design, which results in less heat,
greater reliability and better overclocking.
It also features two gigabit Ethernet port,
two IEEE1394a ports, SPDIF and optical
out and dual RAID solution supported by
the chipset and the Silicon Image 3132
controller both supporting 300 MB/s SATA
2.0. The board also leverages SATA on-the-
go supported by SATA 2. The external port
on the rear panel connects to a SATA port
multiplier using which you can hot-plug
SATA devices. Four USB ports are provided
on the rear panel and three USB headers on
the board make up for a total of 10 ports,
which are more than sufficient.
The BIOS has excellent overclocking
options to tweak the CPU/memory voltage
and FSB and PCIE frequency using gradual
increments. Even after overclocking,
the system can survive without a fan,
thanks to the heatpipe and the eight-phase
power design.
The layout of the motherboard is very
good. There’s a good amount of space
between the two PCIE slots so that cards
Eight-phase power design and copper
heatpipe cooling render high stability
while overclocking
occupying two slots each in SLI can breathe
comfortably. A notable feature is the
inclusion of a flexible SLI connector in the
package. It can be used with this board as
well as with any other SLI motherboard.
The A8N-SLI Deluxe rocks when it comes
to performance! Couple it with the highest-
end components and it’ll cruise. The scores
clearly indicate this.
So if you have the money, get this one
and get set for next generation gaming!
TEST RIG
Processor: AMD Athlon64 X2 4400+
Memory: 1 GB Kingston HyperX 3200ULK2
Graphics card: Asus Extreme 7800GTX Top
Hard Disk: Western Digital Raptor 74 GB
SCORES
3D Mark 2003: 8,384
3D Mark 2005: 17,329
PC Mark 2004: 6,533
SiSoft Sandra 2005
CPU Arithmetic: 19,881 Dhrystones
Memory Bandwidth: 5,623 MB/s
For: NForce4 SLI x16 chipset; eight-phase
power design; heatpipe cooling; dual
gigabit LAN; flexible SLI link.
Against: None.

INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006


Rugged Portability
O f the various 2.5-inch hard drive
enclosures available, this one from
Nexstar is a step ahead in terms of looks
and class—it has got a dark silver matt
finish exuding style.
Installation is very simple—just align
the USB-to-IDE interface with the HDD IDE
pins and push it in, then slide the assembly
into the case and fit it with the screws. The
screws are very small and in case you lose
them you might have a hard time finding
similar ones. Vantec has thoughtfully
provided two extra screws. You need
an equally small Philips screwdriver,
surprisingly not provided in the package. A
USB cable bundled along attaches to the
drive enclosure. The other end of the cable
splits into two USB connectors, both of
which can be plugged into USB ports when
the HDD requires more power, specifically
in the case of USB 1.1 ports. One distinct
feature is the provision of a 5V DC jack to
power the drive with an external source.
Budget speaker
I f you are looking for moderately priced
stereo speakers which don’t take much
of your desk space and also give you the
luxury of a sub woofer, here’s something
that would interest you.
Design: The Altec Lansing 2.1 speaker
system is clearly aimed at those looking for
a budget speaker and not for the serious
audiophile. The satellites each are about
the size of a coffee mug and don’t take
much desk space while the sub woofer is
just about or a little bigger than a toaster.
The satellites have a smart mix of matt
silver and black color. The woofer is black
in color with a blue LED light. Setting
up the speaker is very simple and well
illustrated in the manual.
One thing noteworthy in this speaker
is that the power adapter is housed inside
the woofer, thereby reducing wire clutter.
The volume, base and treble controls are on
the woofer. A woofer is generally bulky and
large and produces vibrations, therefore
it should never be placed on the desktop.
Ideally, the subwoofer should be placed
on the ground. Now since the volume,
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
TESTED | HARDWARE 57
Hard Disk
Vantec Nexstar NST-250U2
Performance: To test the transfer speed,
we used the Seagate Momentus 4011,
5400 rpm HDD with 2 MB as buffer.
SiSoft Sandra reported sequential read
and write speeds of 24 MB/s and 23 MB/s
respectively resulting in a drive index of
20 MB/s. To test the real world transfer
speeds, we transferred a single file and a
folder with multiple files to and from the Specifications: Interface- IDE to USB 2.0,
HDD. The 505 MB single file resulted in Dimensions- 130x75x12 mm, weight- 65 grams,
aluminum body, supports Windows 98SE/ME/
read and write speeds of 20.5 MB/s and
2000/XP/Mac OS 8.6 and above
19.5 MB/s respectively whereas the 405
MB multiple files folder resulted in read Price Rs 1,200
Contact Apical Impex Pvt Ltd
and write speeds of 19.3 MB/s and 18.5
Phone +91-9821349177
MB/s respectively. Performance is good E-mail sales@apical.in
and at par with the top players but leaves
RATINGS
you asking for more. With other 2.5 inch
Build Quality
enclosures starting at Rs 350, the Nexstar
Performance
at Rs 1,200 is a little expensive.
Features
For: Tough and stylish aluminum body; Warranty
good read/write speeds; two extra screws. Overall Rating
Against: No Philips screwdriver provided; Value for money
slightly expensive.
Speaker
bass and treble controls are on the woofer,
reaching them will be a problem, and
more so the volume knob which you
Altec Lansing 121i
would use more frequently. This is where
you feel the pinch of not having an
in-line remote.
Performance: To test the performance
of the speakers, we paired them up with
a motherboard having onboard Realtek
Specifications: Speakers-5.5 Watts/channel @
AL850 audio chipset (most of the recent 8 ohms @ 10 percent THD @ 40 Hz-20000 Hz, 2
motherboards have it). Results reflected channels loaded, subwoofer- 9 Watts @ 4ohms @
tight bass and decent highs but the mids 10 percent THD @ 20-140 Hz single channel loaded.
Dimensions: speakers- 86 mm (W) x 90 mm (D) x
were average. Gaming and movie watching
120 mm (H), subwoofer- 150 mm (W) x275 mm (D)
experiences were good with the sound x220 mm (H).
quality it offers. The Creative SBS 370 in the
Price Rs 1,399
same category is ahead of this speaker with
Contact Rashi Peripherals Pvt Ltd
better mids and the provision of Phone 022-28221013
an in-line remote. The Altec, however, rules E-mail navinderc@rptechindia.com
the roost when it comes to the woofer website www.rptechindia.com
with tight bass, whereas the SBS 370 lags RATINGS
Build Quality
behind here.
Performance
For: Good tight bass; power adapter built
Features
in the subwoofer.
Warranty
Against: No in-line remote; volume, bass
Overall Rating
and treble control on the subwoofer;
Value for money
average mids.
58 HARDWARE | TESTED
VGA Cooler Chill pill!
Powercolor HeatBuster
T his unique product is a long awaited
one for enthusiasts and overclockers.
The HeatBuster from Powercolor is a dual
fan cooler made for cooling VGA cards as
well as the overall system. The cooler sits
in the PCI slot and is powered by a single
molex connector. The transparent blue
body is made out of light but good quality
Specifications: Dimension (mm) Fan-70x70x15 / plastic and the cooler also houses a tiny
Blower-70x70x15, Speed (RPM) Fan-1600 to 4000 / red LED. The cooler has two fans—one is
Blower-1,200 to 3,500, Airflow (CFM) Fan-10.96 to a blower that sucks all the hot air and lets
29.66 / Blower-1.02 to 6.04, Weight (gram) 170.
it out through the vent at the back and
Price Rs 1,500 the other which throws air and swivels
Contact Mediatech India 180 degrees allowing you to direct the air
Phone 022-26361111
flow to any particular component inside
E-mail chip@mediatechindia.com
the casing. The fan speed is controlled by
RATINGS
Build Quality
a switch, which is positioned right next to
Performance the vent at the back of the card.
Features Performance: The card effectively requires
Warranty three PCI slots, one to ensure that there
Overall Rating is enough room for the blower to suck
Value for money the hot air out, second to occupy the
cooler and the third to leave enough
room for the fan to swivel. We put a fairly
USB Flash Drive 4 gig stick
Corsair Flash Voyager 4 GB I f your storage needs are going through
the roof, the Corsair Flash Voyager is just
what you need. With a mammoth storage
space of 4 GB, it is capable of holding data
worth almost seven CDs. The drive is useful
especially when it comes to carrying large
files and taking huge backups.
The drive’s flash memory module is
housed in a stylish rubber chassis. This not
Specifications: 4 GB flash memory, Hi-speed USB only gives a cool look but also makes it
2.0, rubber chassis, water resistant, USB cable and
neck strap included in package
extremely durable. Corsair claims this drive
to be resistant to water and shock. So even
Price Rs 17,000
if you drop it by mistake, it won’t crack or
Contact Tirupati Enterprises
Phone 0250-3950947
break. The tip of the drive bears a small
E-mail mumbai@tirupati.net elliptical hole to lug it around in a keychain
RATINGS or a neck strap.
Build Quality The package includes a USB cable for
Ergonomics cases, which don’t have a front USB port.
Performance The installation CD includes a utility for
Features creating password-protected partitions
Warranty on the drive. Not only does it hide the
Overall Rating partition in Windows, but it’s also effective
Value for money in Linux. Windows 98 users relax! The CD
includes drivers for Windows 98.
The flash voyager cruised through all
the synthetic and real world tests. The
stiff target of cooling an overclocked rig
consisting of a 2600 Athlon XP@ 2.2 GHz
and 6600GT running at 550/1150. The
installation of the cooler was very simple
and straightforward, we kept the fan speed
at max to check for pure effectiveness. And
we must say that at full speed the cooler
is pretty noisy. The system temperature
dropped from 420C to 400C. Hard drive
temperature came down from 430C to
41oC but surprisingly, the GPU temperature
dropped by a mere 1oC. At full load,
temperature was almost constant at 62oC
with or without the cooler. To make full
use of the cooler, you should ideally have
all the PCI slots free for directing the fan
to throw air at the desired component and
experiment with it till you get the best
results.
For: Unique 180-degree swivel fan; simple
and quick installation; adjustable fan
speed.
Against: Noisy at full speed; requires ideal
conditions which are rare.
test rig consisted of AMD Athlon64 2800+
on NForce 4-based motherboard with 1
GB memory. SiSoft Sandra 2005 reported
a speed of 19 MB/s and sequential write
speed of 10 MB/s.
For our real-world test, we copied a 1
GB file as well as multiple files amounting
to the same to and from the drive. It took
1 minute and 50 seconds to transfer the
single file and just 53 seconds to read it.
For multiple files, it took 2 minutes and
23 seconds to write, and 1 minute and 4
seconds to read. The test results
were very close to speeds advertised
on the package (13 MB/s read and 19 MB/s
write).
If high-performance coupled with
great looks and ruggedness is your style,
the Corsair Flash Voyager will keep you
satisfied for years. With a warranty period
spanning a decade, you need not worry
about its lifetime.
For: Mammoth storage space; excellent
build quality; fast read/write; rugged; USB
cable and neck strap.
Against: Darned expensive!
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006
 Activate
Afterburners! 35 graphics cards put to the grind. Check out
which of these rockets fly highest

Vishwanath Vanjire Shirish Karale


H
ow many times have you faced
the frustration of firing up that
new game, only to find out that
your graphics card doesn’t have the juice to
deliver a good playing experience? With the
recent development in game engines and
special effects used in games, the demand
for powerful graphics cards has really taken
off. Graphics chipset manufacturers have
met the demand with an impressive range
of graphics cards for every segment. The
selection of the right graphics card is the
key to an enjoyable gaming experience.
Gamers come from different segments
and their needs also depend on the type
of games and detail levels demanded.
With heavy usage of ShaderModel 3.0 by
all the game developers, the newer games
deliver life-like environments and physics
to make the experience as real as possible.
The effects are heavy on the computer and
specifically heavy on the graphics card and
hence there is a constant need to upgrade
to a better graphics card that supports
all the new technologies and has the
muscle power to provide a smooth gaming
experience. Our VGA comparison test will
not only help you decide about the right
graphics card but also give an overview
of the performance delivered by all the
popular graphics cards across the
latest and most demanding games
at varied detail levels.
Out of 80 VGA cards that we
received for the comparison
test, we short listed 35 of the
most recent ones spread
over three categories
and covering all the
latest graphics
chipsets.
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
VGA CARD COMPARISON | HARDWARE 61
Test process
Before putting the graphics cards to test,
we segmented them into three categories
based on their affordability. Accordingly,
we had three broad categories—entry level
(below Rs 6,000), mid-range (below Rs
12,000) and high-end (more than
Rs 12,000).
In each of the cards, we looked at the
features, performance, warranty and
support. It made no sense in evaluating
the build quality and ergonomics since
graphics cards are internal hardware
residing inside the case. Let’s take a close
look at what went into each parameter to
know how we awarded points to each card.
Features
Before moving to performance tests, we
logged the features which included the
physical characteristics and technical
specifications of each card. First, we noted
the name of the chipset, manufacturing
process used, type and amount of memory
and core and memory speeds. Scores were
in favour of cards which featured higher
clock speeds and amount of memory.
It’s the Shader Model 3.0 support which
enables the card to render High Dynamic
Range (HDR) lighting, bloom effect and
soft shadows which enhances the visual
treat in games. Thus cards whose chipsets
featured SM 3.0 support were awarded
more points. The overall 3D performance of
the card depends on the amount of shader
units present. We logged the number
of pixel and shader units present and
accordingly assigned points to each card.
Next, we moved on to the physical
characteristics of the card such as the
cooling system, back panel ports.
62 HARDWARE | VGA CARD COMPARISON
Test rigs used for performance tests
PCI Express cards
Processor AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
Motherboard Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe
1 GB Kingston HyperX 3200ULK2
Memory
in dual-channel mode
Hard disk Western Digital Raptor 740GD
The cooling system indirectly influences
the performance of the card. Better GPU
and memory cooling not only results
in stable performance but also has a
direct influence on the life of the card.
Active cooling system coupled with a
copper heatsink results in quicker heat
dissipation and lower temperatures at peak
performance as compared to a passive
cooling system.
We also noted the back-panel ports
available. Cards sporting D-sub and S-video
ports inched a level ahead. Finally, we
logged the package contents. Presence of
power cable, manual, games, applications,
DVI-to-D-sub adapter and video cable was
taken into consideration and points were
allotted to each card accordingly.
Performance: Strength of a graphics card
lies solely in its performance. Hence we
allotted 75 percent of the overall weightage
to this section. Since we had PCIE as
well as AGP-based cards, we set up two
separate rigs.
We installed a fresh copy of Windows
XP, the most recent versions of Microsoft
DirectX, Nvidia Forceware (81.98) and ATI
Catalyst drivers (6.1) prior to evaluating the
cards. All tests were run with vertical sync
off and drivers’ quality settings set to the
highest quality. The reason for using such
Warranty &
Support 5%
Features
20%
Performance
75%
Weightage distribution for evaluation
parameters
demo using console commands. We ran the
AGP cards tests at different resolutions and different
Intel Pentium 4 3.4 GHz anti-aliasing and anisotropic-filtering
Asus P4C800-E settings depending on the type of the card.
The following table explains the
1 GB Zion PC3200 in dual-channel mode
characteristics of the graphics engine of
Western Digital Raptor 740GD the games used to assess the cards’
Warranty and support: It’s important for
Interpreting the tables the card to carry a good warranty period to
We designed different sets of tests for protect your precious investment in case of
cards belonging to each category, the failure. Higher the warranty period, better
reason being the difference in strengths the score in this section.
of the cards belonging to each category. We concluded the test by computing
For instance, it would be impossible for an the value for money ratings. The value
entry-level card to perform at a 1600x1200 for money index is calculated by stacking
resolution at high quality. Hence, compare up features and performance against the
the overall performance scores of the price. Higher the features and performance
cards only within the category and not with respect to price, greater the VFM
across categories. index. We had 2 awards in each category
However, if you wish to compare cards —best performance and best value
across categories, only look at the (highest VFM).
highlighted test scores which are common
to all categories—‘1024x768 at high
quality’.
high-end rigs was to eliminate bottlenecks
and allow the cards to perform their best.
We ran synthetic tests as well as real
world tests to assess the performance of Some cards featured component,
the cards. Both 3DMark 2003 and 2005 composite as well as S-Video outputs
were used to evaluate high-end cards
and mid-range. But we used only 3DMark
2003 in case of entry-level cards since they
don’t have enough power to run a stressful
3DMark 2005 test.
To assess the real-world performance
of the cards we used the most demanding
games spanning across various genres. For
each game, we created our own custom
demo of actual game play and noted the
Actively cooled copper heatsink is the best
frame rate (FPS) after playing back the
cooling system
Games used for evaluating the performance of graphics cards
Name Engine characteristics
Extreme particle effects, bump mapping, soft shadows,
F.E.A.R.
highly detailed models
Intensive application of HDR, real-time shadow and water reflections,
Half Life 2: Lost Coast
high quality textures and lighting
OpenGL-based engine, heavy bump mapping and lighting,
Doom 3
real time shadows
Quake 4 Tweaked version of the Doom 3 engine
Intensive application of bloom, high quality textures and models, real
Age of Empires 3
time shadows and water reflection
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006
 VGA CARD COMPARISON | HARDWARE 63

High End Mid Range

ERFOR M ES
T VA L
PE
RFOR
M
ATI Radeon X1900XT P
PowerColor X1600XT PowerColor X800GTO

U
B
T

T
AN

AN
E
BES

BES
CE

CE
02 | 2006
E 02 |
E E 02 |

T
T
2006 2006
ST R ST R ST R
-CENTE -CENTE -CENTE

Specifications: Chipset: ATI Radeon X1900XT, Memory Specifications: Chipset: ATI Radeon X1600XT, Memory Specifications: Chipset: ATI Radeon X800GTO,
interface: 256-bit, Core/Memory speed: 500/1,200 interface: 128-bit, Core/Memory speed: 587/1,380 Memory interface: 256-bit, Core/Memory speed:
MHz, Memory size: 512 MB GDDR3, Pixel Shader MHz, Memory size: 256 MB GDDR3, Pixel Shader 400/700 MHz, Memory size: 128 MB DDR, Pixel
units: 48, Interface: PCI Express units: 12, Interface: PCI Express Shader units: 12, Interface: PCI Express

Price Not available at present Price Rs 13,360 Price Rs 9,000

Contact Werner Fernandes Contact Mediatech India Contact Mediatech India
Phone 98212 36784 Phone 022-26361111 Phone 022-26361111
E-mail wernerf@pinkandwhiteconsulting.com E-mail chip@mediatechindia.com E-mail chip@mediatechindia.com

RATINGS RATINGS RATINGS

Features Features Features
Perfomance Perfomance Perfomance
Warranty Warranty Warranty
Overall Rating Overall Rating Overall Rating
Value for money N/A Value for money Value for money

Meet the beast! The ATI Radeon X1900XT
sports 16 pipes each having 3 pixel shader
units which make up for a total of 48
shader units—the highest till date. Coupled
with a powerful R580 core clocked at
500 MHz and 512 MB of GDDR3 memory
clocked at 1.2 GHz, the X1900XT is easily
the mother of all graphics cards.
The card looks identical to the
X1800XT—it is a mammoth red color
card occupying two slots with an active
copper heatsink over the core cooled by a
powerful fan. After gaming at maximum
settings and high resolution, the fan whirrs
spewing voluminous amount of heat.
Coming to performance, the X1900XT
rules the roost with an overall frame rate
of 100 FPS. In a game like F.E.A.R., which
is the most demanding FPS game till date,
the beast cruised at a staggering 75 frames
per second at a resolution of 1600x1200,
with maximum settings. If you plan to buy
this card make sure you have a high-end
PC armed with a juicy power supply and a
good bank balance!
For: Four dozen shader units, good cooling
system, extreme performance.
Against: New card or a new laptop?
The X1600XT from PowerColor sports the
latest X1600XT chipset from ATI. Based
on 90nm fabrication process, the chipset
supports all the latest features including
Shader Model 3.0 support. The PowerColor
card is CrossFire ready and offers VIVO
as well. The 256 MB GDDR3 memory is
clocked at 1.38 GHz, which is one of the
highest memory clocks by any card in the
entire roundup. With 12 pixel shader units
and 5 vertex shader units, it’s almost at
par with its closest competitor, the
Gainward 6800GS, which has similar
specifications but is priced above the
X1600XT. The PowerColor X1600XT is
superior to the 6800GS in the power
consumption department. The card does
not need extra power supply, and it’s
considerably smaller in form factor as well.
The card is a perfect fit for gamers who do
not want to game at extreme resolutions
but want to turn on the effects and detail
levels to max.
For: ShaderModel 3.0 support, 1.38 GHz
memory clock speed, does not require extra
power, VIVO capable, excellent pricing.
Against: 128-bit memory bandwidth, no
cooling for memory chips.
The strength of the X800GTO lies in its
256-bit memory interface (the only card
in the mid-range category to have it). It’s
based on the R430 core clocked at 400 MHz
and features 128 MB memory clocked at
700 MHz. Even though this card uses DDR
memory unlike GDDR3 memory used by
the 6600GT series of cards, it leads the
pack with superior performance, thanks to
its 12 pixel pipelines and 6 vertex pipelines.
The core of the X800GTO is actively
cooled by a standard heatsink. The
memory chips don’t require additional
cooling as the fins of the heatsink are
directed towards them. The rear panel of
the card sports DVI as well as D-Sub ports
and S-Video output.
The X800GTO has support for
ShaderModel 2.0. However, ShaderModel
3.0 support would have been ideal for
playing the latest games offering loads of
eyecandy with features like high dynamic
range lighting and soft shadows as seen in
Half Life 2: Lost Coast.
For: 256-bit memory interface, 12 pixel
pipes and 6 vertex pipes, best frame rates
in its category.
Against: No ShaderModel 3 support.

FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

64 HARDWARE | VGA CARD COMPARISON
Mid Range
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Big GeForce 6600GT
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Specifications: Chipset: Nvidia GeForce 6600GT,
Memory interface: 128-bit, Core/Memory speed:
500/1000 MHz, Memory size: 128 MB GDDR3, Pixel
Shader units: 8, Interface: PCI Express
Price Rs 8,325
Contact Big Byte Corporation
Phone 022-23894800
E-mail sales@bigbyteindia.com
RATINGS
Features
Perfomance
Warranty
Overall Rating
Value for money
Mid range card buyers don’t want to spend
a bomb on a graphics card but at the same
time dont mind stretching their budget
for a decent level of gaming experience.
The BIG 6600 GT is the best fit for a
midrange card with agressive pricing. With
ShaderModel 3 support, 128 MB of GDDR3
memory, 8 pixel and 3 vertex shader units,
it’s got all the fire power in its arsenal.
The clock speeds for core and memory
are in accordance with the refrence cards.
It’s got a chunky and well designed copper
cooler which ensures good cooling. It’s a
good over clocker and we could easily push
the core to 550MHz and the memory to
1140 MHz. And to top it all, it’s got blue
LED’s on the fan, a pleasing addition for
the case modders. Performance-wise, the
card is not far behind the X800GTO in most
of the games. The card delivers playable
frame rates at 1024x768 with high detail.
It comes loaded with all accessories
ranging from S-Video and composite cables
to the driver CD and DVI adapter. To sum it
up, its an absolute steal for its price.
For: Good cooling, excellent overall
package.
Against: None.
Entry Level | TERMINATOR
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GeCube GC-RX550GU2
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Pipeline: In relation to graphics
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output on a display. Greater the number
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S-Video: ‘Separate Video’ or S-Video
as we know it, is a type of analog
video interface that produces a higher
Specifications: Chipset: ATI Radeon X550, Memory quality video signal as compared to
interface: 128-bit, Core/Memory speed: 446/554 composite video. The signal is split into
MHz, Memory size: 256 MB GDDR2, Pixel Shader two separate channels, luminance and
units: 4, Interface: PCI Express
chrominance. The S-video connector
Price Rs 4,500 typically has 4 pins and are commonly
Contact Tirupati Enterprises
found in most DVD players, gaming
Phone 0250-3950947
E-mail mumbai@tirupati.net
consoles, laptops and other devices
which have video output.
RATINGS
Features
Vertex Shader: 3D objects are rendered
Perfomance
using polygons which are made up of
Warranty
intersecting triangles. A vertex is a
Overall Rating
Value for money
corner of a triangle which connects
to another triangle. Each vertex has a
The value segment is for the gamer on considerable amount of information such
a budget. Being on budget does not as coordinates, weight, color, texture
call for compromise on the frame rates. and fog. Vertex Shaders analyse these
The GeCube GC-RX550GU2 is based on values and produce realistic lighting
ATI’s Radeon X550 11o nm RV370 core. It effects, complex textures such as hair
straight away distinguishes itself from the and fur, and life-like deformations such
rest of X550 cards, thanks to the factory- as waves rippling in a pool, flexing of
overclocked memory and core speeds of muscle or stretching and wrinkling of
446 MHz and 554 MHz respectively. The clothes while the character is in motion.
ATI reference clock speeds are 400/500
MHz. The X550 uses DDR2 memory, Pixel Shader: They create complex
making it superior to the other budget and realistic textures and surfaces on
cards. The memory interface is also 128 bit. objects, thus making them look life-like.
The RX5500GU2 has the most impressive Realistic refraction and reflection of
cooling in the entry level segment. Using light in water, smoke and fire effects,
a single large aluminum cooler it provides real-time shadows, glows and a
dedicated cooling for memory chips. myriad of unique lighting, and surface
Though the Leadtek PX2600TC TDH effects are all possible, thanks to Pixel
has a slightly better VFM rating over the Shaders.
GeCube GC-RX550GU2, the latter has During game play, millions of pixels
a clear advantage in performance. It is are required to be rendered, lit, colored
pointlss recommending a card which and shaded for each frame. This task is
cannot render playable frame rates. Hence seamlessly handled by Pixel Shaders
the GeCube X550 is the logical choice for to deliver cinematic quality effects.
the best value and performance segment. Since Shaders are programmable, game
For: Factory overclocked, beefed up developers can determine the light,
cooling, 256MB DDR2 memory. color and shade of individual pixels
Against: No support for ShaderModel 3.0 per frame.
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

| VGA card Buying guide
We have divided the buying guide into three
categories and given options depending
on our comparison test results. The overall
system configuration in terms of processor,
memory and motherboard also influence
the gaming experience. Thus before you
go for a graphics card upgrade or prepare
to build a gaming PC, you must ensure
that the computer is well balanced. On an
unbalanced system, the performance of the
graphics card is restricted by other elements
like processor and memory.
To ensure that the performance of your
graphics card is not bottlenecked, make
sure your system meets the minimum
requirement as specified in the table at the
bottom of this page.
Entry level (under Rs 6,000)
This category of cards, being affordable,
is the most dominant in the market. Most
users hunt for graphics cards priced around
Rs 5,000 to enjoy games with smooth
frame rates. Following are the key factors
that you should consider before buying an
entry-level graphics card.
Memory bandwidth: One of the key
factors determining the performance
of the graphics cards is the memory
bandwidth. Almost 50 percent of the
video cards in the market are crippled
due to 64-bit memory bandwidth. Make
sure the memory bandwidth is 128-bit,
ensuring that graphics chipset or GPU
performs at its full potential. Graphics
card with “Turbo Cache” or “Hyper
Memory” might sound like they are faster
or better variants but in reality they are
not. These cards share the main system
memory (RAM), thus compromising
on overall system as well on a gaming
performance. These cards are slightly
cheaper but they mar the performance by
a considerable margin and hence should
be avoided unless you are on a very tight
budget.
Entry level video card
Processor: At least a 2 GHz or equivalent
Power Supply Unit At least 350W
Memory: 256 MB-512 MB DDR333/400 or above
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
Features vs Performance: The latest
features in the form of HDR and smoke
effects look nice but they deliver a serious
performance hit to the entry level graphics
cards. Hence when buying an entry level
graphics card, you need to look at the pure
performance capacity of the card rather
than at the features.
Cooling and overclocking: Budget cards
are known to cut corners. Many of the
budget cards come with passive cooling,
which is not the ideal method of cooling
graphics chipsets. Active cooling in form
of a heatsink and fan combination allows
better heat dissipation and helps to keep
the chipset as well as the overall system
temperature under control. Look for a card
with active cooling to avoid heating issues.
Best buy
GeCube X550 Extreme Edition, Leadtek
6600LE AGP, Zebronics 6600LE
Mid-range (Rs 6,000-Rs12,000)
The most exciting and sought after
category—mid-range cards are a favorite
amongst gamers. These cards are expected
to deliver smooth game play with high
detail levels and visual effects. The only real
restriction comes in the form of resolution.
Mid-range cards are a perfect match for
gaming at 1024x768 resolution or lower.
Following are the key factors to consider
when buying a mid-range graphics card.
Clock speeds: Mid-range cards usually
offer reference clock speeds for the chipset
as well as the memory. In fact, there are
quite a few brands and models that offer
factory overclocked graphics cards. These
cards offer high chipset and memory clock
speeds by default and hence come in the
“Factory overclocked category”. These
cards have distinct naming schemes, for
example, the Gainward Golden Sample
or the Leadtek Extreme Edition cards are
Midrange video card
At least a 2.4GHz or equivalent with minimum
of 512 KB L2 cache
At least 400W branded
At least 512 MB-1GB of dual-channel DDR400 1 GB-2 GB of dual-channel DDR400 or above
VGA CARD COMPARISON | HARDWARE 65
factory overclocked and offer performance
advantage over the regular cards.
Memory: Mid-range cards come in 128 MB
and 256 MB variants. Given the capability
of mid-range graphics cards, the 256 MB
cards give a very limited advantage over
the 128 MB variants and in most cases
the added 128 MB of video memory
makes negligible difference. The memory
clock speeds, on the other hand, make
a substantial difference. Many of the
mid-range cards come with higher clocked
memory which directly translates into
better performance.
Hence the preference should be towards
higher clocked memory than capacity.
Best buy
PowerColor X800GTO, Leadtek 6600GT
Extreme, BIG 6600GT 128 MB
High-end (above Rs 12,000)
High-end cards are obscenely priced in
our country; hence even though you have
a bag full of green to spend on them, you
better pick the right card and ensure you
get all your money’s worth. One of the most
important factors for a high-end card is to
check whether its future proof. When you
spend 20K on a card, it has to serve you
for at least 2 years. To ensure that, make
sure the card is on the cutting edge of
technology with support for all the current
and upcoming features in games. Memory
configuration is also important, a high-end
card with 512 MB of buffer memory is
always a safe bet. Warranty is important for
all cards but it’s crucial in case of high-end
cards. Cooling for high-end cards is always
the best when compared to the mid-range
and low-end categories. Well cooled cards
offer extra mileage when overclocked.
Best buy options for high end
ATI X1900XT, Asus N7800GTX TOP,
Gainward 6800GS, Powercolor X1600XT
HighEnd video card
At least a 3.2 GHz or equivalent with 512
KB-1 MB L2 cache
At least 550W branded
66 HARDWARE | VGA CARD COMPARISON PE
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SpecScan
1 2
Soham Raninga Category HIGH END
soham.raninga@chip-india.com Name ATI Radeon X1900XT PowerColor X1800XT
Contact Werner Fernandes Mediatech India
Phone 98212 36784 022-26361111
After going through 35 video cards
E-mail wernerf@pinkandwhiteconsulting.com chip@mediatechindia.com
I am feelin a little dizzy in the head,
Price* N/A Rs 34,500
wondering which one impressed
Overall
me the most. Personally, I favor the Features (out of 20) 18.33 18.38
mid-range cards. They offer best Performance (out of 75) 73.17 59.02
bang for the buck and don’t leave a Warranty and support (out of 5) 5.00 5.00
big hole in your wallet as well. If I Overall (out of 100) Total: 96.50 Total: 82.40
have to pick a video card, it would be Value for money (out of 5) N/A
the X800GTO. Though the X800GTO Features
Chipset ATI Radeon X1900XT ATI Radeon X1800XT
does not support ShaderModel 3.0,
Manufacturing process 90 nm 90 nm
it is superior to other mid-range
Core speed (MHz) 500 594
cards in terms of pure performance, Memory
thanks to the 12 PixelShader units Amount (MB) / Speed (MHz) 512 / 1200 512 / 1390
and 256-bit memory bandwidth. Type / Bandwidth GDDR3 / 256-bit GDDR3 / 256-bit
Looking at the performance, the Interface PCI-E PCI-E
card almost scored 50 frames per Shader Version(Pixel / Vertex) 3.0 / 3.0 3.0 / 3.0
Shader Units (Pixel / Vertex) 48 / 8 16 / 8
second in all the games at 1024x768
Backpanel (D-Sub / DVI / S-Vid / Composite) ✕|✓| ✕|✕ ✕|✓|✓|✕
with high settings. At the given Cooling System
price, the X800GTO is an excellent GPU (Type / Copper heatsink) Active | ✓ Active | ✓
mid-range card whichever way you Memory (Cooling present / Copper heatsink) ✓|✕ |
look at it. My second choice would Slots occupied 2 2
be a tie between Leadtek 6600GT Factory overclocked  
Extreme and the Gigabyte 6600GT Performance
F.E.A.R 9.9 8.0
with Silent-Pipe II cooling. Both the Low (No AA, No AF) ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
cards are unique in their own ways. High (No AA, 4x AF) ✕ | 118 | 87 | 50 ✕ | 94 | 71 | 52
High (No AA, 8x AF) ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
Max (4x AA, 16x AF) ✕ | 91 | 65 | 75 ✕ | 75 | 57 | 40
Game Index demystified Quake 4 (High Quality) 9.0 8.4
To make the process simpler we have no AA / no AF ✕ | 121 | 111 | 101 ✕ | 101 | 102 | 95
added a nifty feature to the tables no AA / 8x AF ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
called the “game index”. The game 4x AA / 8x AF ✕ | 106 | 109 | 87 ✕ | 100 | 98 | 91
index is a simpler representation 8x AA / 16x AF ✕ | 104 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 98 | ✕ | ✕
of the performance of a video card Doom 3 (High Quality) 9.9 7.8
in terms of frames rendered per no AA / no AF ✕ | 125 | 113 | 93 ✕ | 109 | 91 | 70
second with respect to a particular no AA / 8x AF ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
game. The scores in bold against 4x AA / 8x AF ✕ | 111 | 87 | 70 ✕ | 97 | 73 | 52
each of the games denote the 8x AA / 16x AF ✕ | 111 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 91 | ✕ | ✕
game index. Half Life 2: Lost Coast (High Quality) 10.0 8.1
The following table explains the no AA / no AF ✕ | 106 | 93 | 79 ✕ | 87 | 71 | 56
game index scores in detail. no AA / 8x AF ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
4x AA / 8x AF ✕ | 86 | 72 | 60 ✕ | 81 | 56 | 48
Index
range
Gaming experience 8x AA / 16x AF ✕ | 84 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 77 | ✕ | ✕
Age of Empires 3 10.0 4.8
0-3 Barely playable at 20-30 FPS
High (Low AA, High Shader/Shadow quality) ✕ | 99 | 96 | 83 ✕ | 59 | 49 | 38
Playable with average of
3-5 Max (High AA, V. High Shader/Shadow quality) ✕ | 71 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 33 | ✕ | ✕
30-40 FPS
3DMark 2003 (Default settings) 17,782 16,727
Smooth game play with an
5-8 3DMark 2005 (Default settings) 10,856 8,937
average of 60FPS
8-10 God like! Warranty & Support
Period of warranty (years) 3 3
* Prices are indicative and are subject to change, taxes extra, + Each game index out of 10
Note: All performance scores are in FPS at four resolutions: 800 x 600 / 1024 x 768 / 1280 x 1024 / 1600 x 1200
 VGA CARD COMPARISON | HARDWARE 67

3 4
Asus Extreme N7800GTX Top
Asustek Computer Inc
022-40058894
info_india@asus.com.tw
5 6 7
GeCube GC-X1800XTD Gainward 3500PCX Ultra MSI NX7800GTX XFX 7800 GT
Tirupati Enterprises Mediatech India Micro-Star International Rashi Peripherals Pvt. Ltd.
0250-3950947 022-26361111 011-41758809 022-28221013
mumbai@tirupati.net chip@mediatechindia.com info@msi-india.com navinderc@rptechindia.com

Rs 41,600 Rs 26,500 Rs 32,925 Rs 29,500 Rs 27,000

17.48 17.58 15.55 15.73 14.81

57.77 58.76 55.59 54.29 49.54
5.00 3.33 5.00 5.00 5.00
Total: 80.25 Total: 79.68 Total: 76.14 Total: 75.02 Total: 69.34

Nvidia GeForce 7800GTX ATI Radeon X1800XT Nvidia GeForce 7800GTX Nvidia GeForce 7800GTX Nvidia GeForce 7800GT
110 nm 90 nm 110 nm 110 nm 110 nm
486 594 470 430 450

256 / 1350 512 / 1390 256 / 1300 256 / 1200 256 / 1050
GDDR3 / 256-bit GDDR3 / 256-bit DDR / 256-bit GDDR3 / 256-bit GDDR3 / 256-bit
PCI-E PCI-E PCI-E PCI-E PCI-E
3.0 / 3.0 3.0 / 3.0 3.0 / 3.0 3.0 / 3.0 3.0 / 3.0
24 / 8 16 / 8 24 / 8 24 / 8 20 / 7
✕|✓|✓|✕ ✕|✓|✓|✕ ✕|✓|✓|✕ ✕|✓|✓|✕ ✕|✓|✓|✕

Active | ✓ Active | ✕ Active | ✕ Active | ✕ Active | ✕

| | |✕ |✕ |✕
2 2 1 1 1
 ✕  ✕ 

6.9 8.0 6.9 6.5 6.0

✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
✕ | 97 | 73 | 53 ✕ | 94 | 72 | 52 ✕ | 96 | 74 | 53 ✕ | 93 | 69 | 49 ✕ | 87 | 63 | 45
✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
✕ | 53 | 37 | 26 ✕ | 74 | 56 | 39 ✕ | 53 | 37 | 26 ✕ | 49 | 34 | 24 ✕ | 47 | 32 | 22
8.7 8.4 7.8 7.9 6.6
✕ | 129 | 120 | 117 ✕ | 101 | 100 | 96 ✕ | 114 | 108 | 96 ✕ | 114 | 104 | 94 ✕ | 105 | 102 | 90
✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
✕ | 114 | 106 | 74 ✕ | 100 | 98 | 90 ✕ | 104 | 92 | 72 ✕ | 111 | 96 | 78 ✕ | 90 | 67 | 50
✕ | 68 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 96 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 65 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 66 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 56 | ✕ | ✕
8.1 7.9 7.7 7.3 6.2
✕ | 141 | 121 | 91 ✕ | 109 | 91 | 70 ✕ | 122 | 110 | 93 ✕ | 122 | 107 | 89 ✕ | 104 | 93 | 77
✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
✕ | 107 | 70 | 57 ✕ | 96 | 72 | 52 ✕ | 100 | 74 | 55 ✕ | 95 | 69 | 51 ✕ | 81 | 55 | 39
✕ | 53 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 96 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 51 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 47 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 44 | ✕ | ✕
7.8 8.1 7.8 7.8 7.5
✕ | 85 | 72 | 58 ✕ | 88 | 70 | 55 ✕ | 91 | 70 | 56 ✕ | 84 | 66 | 52 ✕ | 85 | 60 | 47
✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
✕ | 73 | 47 | 39 ✕ | 81 | 56 | 48 ✕ | 75 | 49 | 38 ✕ | 75 | 50 | 39 ✕ | 70 | 47 | 36
✕ | 75 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 78 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 76 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 78 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 74 | ✕ | ✕
5.8 4.7 5.1 5.7 5.2
✕ | 73 | 62 | 51 ✕ | 58 | 48 | 38 ✕ | 72 | 57 | 33 ✕ | 75 | 62 | 50 ✕ | 71 | 58 | 46
✕ | 36 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 32 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 37 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 35 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 32 | ✕ | ✕
17,329 16,619 17,266 15,821 15,515
8,384 8,903 8,270 7,598 7,277

3 2 3 3 3

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68 HARDWARE | VGA CARD COMPARISON ES
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Category HIGH END
Name ATI Radeon X850XT XFX GeForce 6800 GS PowerColor X1600XT
Contact Werner Fernandes Rashi Peripherals Pvt. Ltd. Mediatech India
Phone 98212 36784 022-28221013 022-26361111
E-mail wernerf@pinkandwhiteconsulting.com navinderc@rptechindia.com chip@mediatechindia.com

Price* Rs 22,000 Rs 19,000 Rs 13,360

Overall
Features (out of 20) 15.10 15.02 14.74
Performance (out of 75) 38.39 33.45 26.92
Warranty and support (out of 5) 5.00 5.00 5.00
Overall (out of 100) Total: 58.49 Total: 53.47 Total: 46.66
Value for money (out of 5)
Features
Chipset ATI Radeon X850XT Nvidia GeForce 6800GS ATI Radeon X1600XT
Manufacturing process 130 nm 110 nm 90 nm
Core speed (MHz) 520 485 587
Memory
Amount (MB) / Speed (MHz) 256 / 1000 256 / 1100 256 / 1380
Type / Bandwidth GDDR3 / 256-bit GDDR3 / 256-bit GDDR3 / 128-bit
Interface PCI-E PCI-E PCI-E
Shader Version(Pixel / Vertex) 2.0 / 2.0 3.0 / 3.0 3.0 / 3.0
Shader Units (Pixel / Vertex) 16 / 6 12 / 5 12 / 5
Backpanel (D-Sub / DVI / S-Vid / Composite) ✕|✓|✓|✕ ✓|✓|✓|✕ ✕|✓|✓|✕
Cooling System
GPU (Type / Copper heatsink) Active | ✓ Active | ✓ Active | ✕
Memory (Cooling present / Copper heatsink) | | |
Slots occupied 2 1 1
Factory overclocked ✕  ✕
Performance
F.E.A.R 5.5 3.0 3.8
Low (No AA, No AF) ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
High (No AA, 4x AF) ✕ | 72 | 53 | 37 ✕ | 33 | 30 | 22 ✕ | 50 | 36 | 25
High (No AA, 8x AF) ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
Max (4x AA, 16x AF) ✕ | 52 | 37 | 20 ✕ | 24 | 18 | 14 ✕ | 35 | 25 | 15
Quake 4 (High Quality) 4.3 4.8 3.4
no AA / no AF ✕ | 84 | 63 | 50 ✕ | 94 | 77 | 60 ✕ | 70 | 48 | 38
no AA / 8x AF ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
4x AA / 8x AF ✕ | 59 | 42 | 30 ✕ | 69 | 51 | 38 ✕ | 42 | 30 | 22
8x AA / 16x AF ✕ | 46 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 29 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 40 | ✕ | ✕
Doom 3 (High Quality) 4.9 5.0 3.3
no AA / no AF ✕ | 96 | 71 | 51 ✕ | 100 | 81 | 62 ✕ | 62 | 42 | 30
no AA / 8x AF ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
4x AA / 8x AF ✕ | 59 | 42 | 30 ✕ | 64 | 43 | 31 ✕ | 43 | 30 | 20
8x AA / 16x AF ✕ | 46 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 24 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 37 | ✕ | ✕
Half Life 2: Lost Coast (High Quality) 5.0 4.4 3.1
no AA / no AF ✕ | 75 | 57 | 43 ✕ | 61 | 40 | 31 ✕ | 50 | 36 | 26
no AA / 8x AF ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
4x AA / 8x AF ✕ | 56 | 38 | 30 ✕ | 40 | 28 | 23 ✕ | 33 | 23 | 17
8x AA / 16x AF ✕ | 47 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 40 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 29 | ✕ | ✕
Age of Empires 3 4.6 3.8 2.2
High (Low AA, High Shader/Shadow quality) ✕ | 50 | 38 | 30 ✕ | 58 | 45 | 36 ✕ | 30 | 22 | 17
Max (High AA, V. High Shader/Shadow quality) ✕ | 37 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 21 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 15 | ✕ | ✕
3DMark 2003 (Default settings) 12,743 12,731 9,495
3DMark 2005 (Default settings) 6,236 5,657 5,235
Warranty & Support
Period of warranty (years) 3 3 3
* Prices are indicative and are subject to change, taxes extra, + Each game index out of 10
Note: All performance scores are in FPS at four resolutions: 800 x 600 / 1024 x 768 / 1280 x 1024 / 1600 x 1200 INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006
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MID RANGE
PowerColor X800GTO Asus Extreme N6600GT Silencer Leadtek PX6600GT TDH Extreme Big GeForce 6600GT XFX 6600GT
Mediatech India Asustek Computer Inc Topnotch Infotronix Bit Byte Corporation Rashi Peripherals Pvt. Ltd.
022-26361111 022-40058894 022-26616202 022-23894800 022-28221013
chip@mediatechindia.com info_india@asus.com.tw zebronics@zebronics.com sales@bigbyteindia.com navinderc@rptechindia.com

Rs 9,000 Rs 14,600 Rs 10,400 Rs 8,325 Rs 13,000

10.56 13.37 11.87 12.87 11.67

33.16 30.18 30.51 29.17 29.87
5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00 5.00
Total: 48.72 Total: 48.56 Total: 47.38 Total: 47.05 Total: 46.54

ATI Radeon X800GTO Nvidia GeForce 6600GT Nvidia GeForce 6600GT Nvidia GeForce 6600GT Nvidia GeForce 6600GT
130 nm 110 nm 110 nm 110 nm 110 nm
400 500 550 500 500

128 / 700 256 / 1000 128 / 1200 128 / 1000 256 / 1000
DDR / 256-bit GDDR3 / 128-bit GDDR3 / 128-bit GDDR3 / 128-bit GDDR3 / 128-bit
PCI-E PCI-E PCI-E PCI-E PCI-E
2.0 / 2.0 3.0 / 3.0 3.0 / 3.0 3.0 / 3.0 3.0 / 3.0
12 / 6 8/3 8/3 8/3 8/3
✓|✓|✓|✕ ✓|✓|✓|✕ ✓|✓|✓|✕ ✕|✓|✓|✕ ✕|✓|✓|✕

Active | ✕ Passive | ✓ Active | ✕ Active | ✓ Active | ✕

✕|✕ | ✕|✕ | ✕|✕
1 1 1 1 1
✕ ✕  ✕ ✕

3.88 3.01 3.26 3.06 3.11

✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
✕ | 48 | 34 | ✕ ✕ | 36 | 27 | ✕ ✕ | 40 | 29 | ✕ ✕ | 37 | 27 | ✕ ✕ | 41 | 29 | ✕
✕ | 47 | 34 | ✕ ✕ | 37 | 26 | ✕ ✕ | 40 | 28 | ✕ ✕ | 37 | 27 | ✕ ✕ | 36 | 26 | ✕
✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
6.48 6.25 5.53 5.24 5.87
✕ | 88 | 65 | ✕ ✕ | 90 | 64 | ✕ ✕ | 96 | 69 | ✕ ✕ | 92 | 65 | ✕ ✕ | 89 | 62 | ✕
✕ | 85 | 62 | ✕ ✕ | 82 | 57 | ✕ ✕ | 61 | 44 | ✕ ✕ | 57 | 42 | ✕ ✕ | 75 | 52 | ✕
✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
4.21 4.50 5.33 5.04 5.11
✕ | 68 | 44 | ✕ ✕ | 74 | 48 | ✕ ✕ | 88 | 62 | ✕ ✕ | 84 | 58 | ✕ ✕ | 82 | 55 | ✕
✕ | 67 | 44 | ✕ ✕ | 63 | 48 | ✕ ✕ | 75 | 53 | ✕ ✕ | 71 | 50 | ✕ ✕ | 76 | 52 | ✕
✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
3.90 3.00 3.20 3.03 2.92
✕ | 55 | 36 | ✕ ✕ | 43 | 29 | ✕ ✕ | 46 | 29 | ✕ ✕ | 43 | 28 | ✕ ✕ | 42 | 27 | ✕
✕ | 40 | 27 | ✕ ✕ | 30 | 21 | ✕ ✕ | 33 | 22 | ✕ ✕ | 31 | 21 | ✕ ✕ | 30 | 20 | ✕
✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
3.18 3.55 3.73 3.49 3.20
✕ | 37 | 27 | ✕ ✕ | 40 | 31 | ✕ ✕ | 43 | 32 | ✕ ✕ | 40 | 30 | ✕ ✕ | 37 | 29 | ✕
✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
9,236 8,534 8,741 8,674 8,416
4,031 3,739 3,724 3,790 3,759

3 3 3 3 3

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70 HARDWARE | VGA CARD COMPARISON

SpecScan
16 17 18
Category MID RANGE
Name MSI NX6600GT Gainward 1980PCX Ultra Gigabyte GV-NX66T128D-SP
Contact Micro-Star International Mediatech India Gigabyte Technology (India) Ltd
Phone 011-41758809 022-26361111 022-26526696
E-mail info@msi-india.com chip@mediatechindia.com sales@gigabyte.in

Price* Rs 9,600 Rs 10,350 Rs 8,900

Overall
Features (out of 20) 13.27 12.27 12.17
Performance (out of 75) 28.05 28.89 27.46
Warranty and support (out of 5) 5.00 5.00 5.00
Overall (out of 100) Total: 46.32 Total: 46.17 Total: 44.64
Value for money (out of 5)
Features
Chipset Nvidia GeForce 6600GT Nvidia GeForce 6600GT Nvidia GeForce 6600GT
Manufacturing process 110 nm 110 nm 110 nm
Core speed (MHz) 500 500 500
Memory
Amount (MB) / Speed (MHz) 128 / 1000 256 / 1000 128 / 1000
Type / Bandwidth GDDR3 / 128-bit GDDR3 / 128-bit GDDR3 / 128-bit
Interface PCI-E PCI-E PCI-E
Shader Version(Pixel / Vertex) 3.0 / 3.0 3.0 / 3.0 3.0 / 3.0
Shader Units (Pixel / Vertex) 8/3 8/3 8/3
Backpanel (D-Sub / DVI / S-Vid / Composite) ✓|✓|✓|✕ ✓|✓|✓|✕ ✓|✓|✓|✕
Cooling System
GPU (Type / Copper heatsink) Active | ✓ Active | ✕ Passive | ✓
Memory (Cooling present / Copper heatsink) | |✕ ✕|✕
Slots occupied 1 1 2
Factory overclocked ✕ ✕ ✕
Performance
F.E.A.R 2.96 2.82 2.89
Low (No AA, No AF) ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
High (No AA, 4x AF) ✕ | 36 | 26 | ✕ ✕ | 38 | 27 | ✕ ✕ | 35 | 26 | ✕
High (No AA, 8x AF) ✕ | 36 | 26 | ✕ ✕ | 27 | 26 | ✕ ✕ | 35 | 25 | ✕
Max (4x AA, 16x AF) ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
Quake 4 (High Quality) 5.05 5.10 4.99
no AA / no AF ✕ | 89 | 63 | ✕ ✕ | 90 | 64 | ✕ ✕ | 88 | 62 | ✕
no AA / 8x AF ✕ | 55 | 40 | ✕ ✕ | 56 | 40 | ✕ ✕ | 54 | 40 | ✕
4x AA / 8x AF ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
8x AA / 16x AF ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
Doom 3 (High Quality) 5.85 4.95 4.82
no AA / no AF ✕ | 82 | 56 | ✕ ✕ | 84 | 57 | ✕ ✕ | 81 | 55 | ✕
no AA / 8x AF ✕ | 68 | 48 | ✕ ✕ | 69 | 49 | ✕ ✕ | 68 | 48 | ✕
4x AA / 8x AF ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
8x AA / 16x AF ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
Half Life 2: Lost Coast (High Quality) 2.92 3.00 2.91
no AA / no AF ✕ | 42 | 27 | ✕ ✕ | 42 | 27 | ✕ ✕ | 41 | 27 | ✕
no AA / 8x AF ✕ | 30 | 20 | ✕ ✕ | 31 | 21 | ✕ ✕ | 30 | 20 | ✕
4x AA / 8x AF ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
8x AA / 16x AF ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
Age of Empires 3 3.38 3.99 2.10
High (Low AA, High Shader/Shadow quality) ✕ | 39 | 29 | ✕ ✕ | 46 | 34 | ✕ ✕ | 35 | 27 | ✕
Max (High AA, V. High Shader/Shadow quality) ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
3DMark 2003 (Default settings) 8,388 8,580 8,286
3DMark 2005 (Default settings) 3,551 3,847 3,444
Warranty & Support
Period of warranty (years) 3 3 3
* Prices are indicative and are subject to change, taxes extra, + Each game index out of 10
Note: All performance scores are in FPS at four resolutions: 800 x 600 / 1024 x 768 / 1280 x 1024 / 1600 x 1200 INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006
 RFOR T VA L
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19 20 21 22 23
ENTRY LEVEL
XFX 6600GT Big GeForce 6600GT Zebronics NE-6600L GeCube GC-RX550GU2 PowerColor X550
Rashi Peripherals Pvt. Ltd. Bit Byte Corporation Topnotch Infotronix Tirupati Enterprises Mediatech India
022-28221013 022-23894800 022-26616202 0250-3950947 022-26361111
navinderc@rptechindia.com sales@bigbyteindia.com zebronics@zebronics.com mumbai@tirupati.net chip@mediatechindia.com

Rs 9,600 Rs 11,000 Rs 5,600 Rs 4,500 Rs 4,350

11.37 11.24 10.10 9.88 9.71

27.41 27.39 17.17 18.32 16.66
5.00 5.00 5.00 3.33 5.00
Total: 43.79 Total: 43.63 Total: 32.27 Total: 31.53 Total: 31.37

Nvidia GeForce 6600GT Nvidia GeForce 6600GT Nvidia GeForce 6600LE ATI Radeon X550 ATI Radeon X550
110 nm 110 nm 110 nm 110 nm 110 nm
500 500 300 446 398 5

128 / 1000 256 / 900 256 / 400 256 / 554 256 / 526
GDDR3 / 128-bit GDDR3 / 128-bit DDR / 128-bit DDR2 / 128-bit DDR2 / 128-bit
AGP AGP PCI-E PCI-E PCI-E
3.0 / 3.0 3.0 / 3.0 3.0 / 3.0 2.0 / 2.0 2.0 / 2.0
8/3 8/3 8/4 4/2 4/2
✕|✓|✓|✕ ✓|✓|✓|✕ ✓|✓|✓|✕ ✓|✓|✓|✕ ✓|✓|✓|✕

Active | ✕ Active | ✕ Active | ✕ Active | ✕ Active | ✕

✕|✕ |✕ ✕|✕ ✕|✕ ✕|✕
1 1 1 1 1
 ✕ ✕  

2.90 2.96 1.43 1.65 1.25

✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕ | 37 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 51 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 46 | ✕ | ✕
✕ | 36 | 26 | ✕ ✕ | 36 | 26 | ✕ 22 | 15 | ✕ | ✕ 23 | 14 | ✕ | ✕ 21 | 13 | ✕ | ✕
✕ | 35 | 25 | ✕ ✕ | 36 | 26 | ✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
5.03 4.76 2.89 3.23 2.85
✕ | 74 | 62 | ✕ ✕ | 74 | 61 | ✕ 41 | 30 | ✕ | ✕ 47 | 33 | ✕ | ✕ 47 | 29 | ✕ | ✕
✕ | 64 | 40 | ✕ ✕ | 53 | 40 | ✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
4.62 4.61 2.72 1.96 1.78
✕ | 71 | 54 | ✕ ✕ | 70 | 55 | ✕ 45 | 32 | ✕ | ✕ 34 | 23 | ✕ | ✕ 31 | 21 | ✕ | ✕
✕ | 64 | 48 | ✕ ✕ | 63 | 48 | ✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
2.88 2.91 1.72 2.70 2.51
✕ | 41 | 26 | ✕ ✕ | 41 | 27 | ✕ 22 | 14 | ✕ | ✕ 33 | 23 | ✕ | ✕ 33 | 21 | ✕ | ✕
✕ | 30 | 20 | ✕ ✕ | 30 | 20 | ✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
3.38 3.24 3.08 2.81 2.59
✕ | 39 | 29 | ✕ ✕ | 37 | 28 | ✕ 22 | 16 | ✕ | ✕ 21 | 15 | ✕ | ✕ 19 | 13 | ✕ | ✕
✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
8,251 8,183 3,690 3,674 3,345
3,302 3,678 ✕ ✕ ✕

3 3 3 2 3

FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

72 HARDWARE | VGA CARD COMPARISON

SpecScan
24 25 26
Category ENTRY LEVEL
Name Leadtek A6600 LE Leadtek PX6200TC TDH XFX GeForce 6200
Contact Topnotch Infotronix Topnotch Infotronix Rashi Peripherals Pvt. Ltd.
Phone 022-26616202 022-26616202 022-28221013
E-mail zebronics@zebronics.com zebronics@zebronics.com navinderc@rptechindia.com

Price* Rs 5,900 Rs 2,950 Rs 4,500

Overall
Features (out of 20) 10.22 8.87 8.93
Performance (out of 75) 16.01 12.81 11.87
Warranty and support (out of 5) 5.00 5.00 5.00
Overall (out of 100) Total: 31.23 Total: 26.68 Total: 25.80
Value for money (out of 5)
Features
Chipset Nvidia GeForce 6600LE Nvidia GeForce 6200 Nvidia GeForce 6200
Manufacturing process 110 110 110
Core speed (MHz) 300 350 350
Memory
Amount (MB) / Speed (MHz) 256 / 1000 128 / 500 256 / 400
Type / Bandwidth DDR / 128-bit DDR / 64-bit DDR / 64-bit
Interface AGP PCI-E AGP
Shader Version(Pixel / Vertex) 3.0 / 3.0 3.0 / 3.0 3.0 / 3.0
Shader Units (Pixel / Vertex) 8/3 4/3 4/3
Backpanel (D-Sub / DVI / S-Vid / Composite) ✓|✓|✓|✕ ✓|✓|✓|✕ ✓|✓|✓|✕
Cooling System
GPU (Type / Copper heatsink) Active | ✕ Passive | ✕ Active | 
Memory (Cooling present / Copper heatsink) ✕|✕ ✕|✕ ✕|✕
Slots occupied 1 1 1
Factory overclocked   ✕
Performance
F.E.A.R 1.47 0.96 0.82
Low (No AA, No AF) ✕ | 39 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 32 | ✕ | ✕ ✕ | 29 | ✕ | ✕
High (No AA, 4x AF) 22 | 15 | ✕ | ✕ 12 | 8 | ✕ | ✕ 10 | 6 | ✕ | ✕
High (No AA, 8x AF) ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
Max (4x AA, 16x AF) ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
Quake 4 (High Quality) 2.20 2.74 2.56
no AA / no AF 31 | 23 | ✕ | ✕ 40 | 28 | ✕ | ✕ 38 | 26 | ✕ | ✕
no AA / 8x AF ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
4x AA / 8x AF ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
8x AA / 16x AF ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
Doom 3 (High Quality) 2.58 1.34 1.14
no AA / no AF 39 | 29 | ✕ | ✕ 22 | 15 | ✕ | ✕ 19 | 13 | ✕ | ✕
no AA / 8x AF ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
4x AA / 8x AF ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
8x AA / 16x AF ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
Half Life 2: Lost Coast (High Quality) 1.28 1.66 1.90
no AA / no AF 22 | 15 | ✕ | ✕ 21 | 13 | ✕ | ✕ 21 | 14 | ✕ | ✕
no AA / 8x AF ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
4x AA / 8x AF ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
8x AA / 16x AF ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
Age of Empires 3 2.84 1.96 1.48
High (Low AA, High Shader/Shadow quality) 21 | 16 | ✕ | ✕ 14 | 11 | ✕ | ✕ 11 | 8 | ✕ | ✕
Max (High AA, V. High Shader/Shadow quality) ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕ ✕|✕|✕|✕
3DMark 2003 (Default settings) 4,032 2,431 2,256
3DMark 2005 (Default settings) ✕ ✕ ✕
Warranty & Support
Period of warranty (years) 3 3 3
* Prices are indicative and are subject to change, taxes extra, + Each game index out of 10
Note: All performance scores are in FPS at four resolutions: 800 x 600 / 1024 x 768 / 1280 x 1024 / 1600 x 1200 INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006
 VGA CARD COMPARISON | HARDWARE 73

SpecScan
26 27 29
Category HIGH END
Name Gainward 2300PCX Ultra MSI NX6800GS GeCube GC-RX1600XTG3
Contact Mediatech India Micro-Star International Tirupati Enterprises
Phone 022-26361111 011-41758809 0250-3950947
E-mail chip@mediatechindia.com info@msi-india.com mumbai@tirupati.net

Price* Rs 14,925 Rs 25,000 Rs 15,000

Overall
Features (out of 20) 15.12 15.12 14.74
Performance (out of 75) 30.75 30.45 27.49
Warranty and support (out of 5) 5.00 5.00 3.33
Overall (out of 100) Total: 50.87 Total: 50.57 Total: 45.56
Value for money (out of 5)

SpecScan
30 31 32
Category MID RANGE
Name ASUS EAX1300PRO MSI RX1300 Pro GeCube GC-RX1300PG2
Contact Asustek Computer Inc Micro-Star International Tirupati Enterprises
Phone 022-40058894 011-41758809 0250-3950947
E-mail info_india@asus.com.tw info@msi-india.com mumbai@tirupati.net

Price* Rs 7,500 Rs 7,000 Rs 10,800

Overall
Features (out of 20) 12.94 11.74 10.94
Performance (out of 75) 19.43 19.43 19.81
Warranty and support (out of 5) 5.00 5.00 3.33
Overall (out of 100) Total: 37.37 Total: 36.17 Total: 34.08
Value for money (out of 5)

SpecScan
33 34 35
Category ENTRY LEVEL
Name Gigabyte GV-RX30S128D PowerColor 9550SE XFX GeForce 6200TC
Contact Gigabyte Technology (India) Ltd Mediatech India Rashi Peripherals Pvt. Ltd.
Phone 022-26526696 022-26361111 022-28221013
E-mail sales@gigabyte.in chip@mediatechindia.com navinderc@rptechindia.com

Price* Rs 3,500 Rs 3,150 Rs 3,400

Overall
Features (out of 20) 8.38 7.98 8.73
Performance (out of 75) 11.31 11.60 6.46
Warranty and support (out of 5) 5.00 5.00 5.00
Overall (out of 100) Total: 24.69 Total: 24.58 Total: 20.20
Value for money (out of 5)

FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP


NAPA has landed
Intel’s next-generation mobile computing platform promises to deliver extreme
performance backed by ample battery life. Let’s take a closer look....
O
n January 10 2006, Intel India
launched the much expected
new Centrino Duo Mobile
technology platform. Code named NAPA,
the Centrino Duo is the next-generation
mobile platform from Intel. The technology
behind NAPA has been developed and
conceptualized by the Intel India team at
the Intel’s India Development Centre Labs
in Bangalore. Although the chips have not
been manufactured in India, the ‘Made
in India’ label certainly made the launch
special as well as made us proud.
While discussing the NAPA platform
at IDF held at Bangalore on October
15 2005, Intel gave an insight into
more performance and features with a
smaller form factor and reduced power
consumption. From the mobility point of
view, the NAPA platform seems to be right
on the button, aiming to boost the mobile
platform to a new level. Intel has been
aggressively pushing the Centrino platform
in mobile computing. Now with the
Centrino Duo, Intel expects a significant
increase—about 70 percent laptops are
expected to run on the Centrino platform
in the next three years. The laptop market
has been growing at a phenomenal rate
and with the Centrino duo, Intel is surely
gunning for a clear domination.
At the Centrino Duo launch, Intel also
hinted at the next revision to the platform
with processors on two or more cores
and a possible implementation of hyper
threading to mobile processors as well. The
Pramod Jadhav
focus is to offer desktop level performance
on mobile platforms without any hit to
the mobility aspect. While the Centrino
Duo is at its first stage, it surely looks
very impressive and promising. Let’s take
a closer look at NAPA and find out how
it proposes to revolutionize the mobile
computing platform.
Centrino Duo Mobile platform
The Centrino Duo Mobile platform
comprises three parts:
Intel Core Duo Processor
Mobile Intel 945 Express Chipset Family
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network
Connection
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

Core Duo
The core element of the new Centrino
platform is the Intel Core Duo processor
also known as Yonah. Yonah is Intel’s first
mobile dual-core processor and is built on
the 65-nanometer process technology. The
dual core mobile processor has an on-die
primary 32 KB instruction cache and 32
KB write-back data cache. A 2 MB level2
cache is shared by the two cores using the
Intel Smart Cache technology that allows
dynamic allocation of cache to the cores
as per the processing load on the cores.
Therefore, even if one core is idle, the other
core can use the whole of 2 MB capacity.
But many a time one core is not idle, so
it’s important to dynamically allocate the
cache in an intelligent way. Dynamic cache
allocation efficiently allocates the cache
memory according to what is needed
by each core. Core Duo processor also
efficiently shares data needed by both
execution cores. Data can be modified by
one execution core and be subsequently
utilized by the other execution core
without the need to first write the data
to DRAM. Furthermore, with Intel Smart
Cache L2, data is shared by both the
execution cores which means data is
stored in only one cache location rather
than in multiple locations as with separate
L2 caches. This minimizes front side bus
traffic, reducing the latencies related to
data transfer. To maximize cache utilization
for both cores, the processor is supported
with enhanced Data Pre-fetch Logic, which
is basically speculatively fetching data to
the L2 cache even before cache requests
for the data stream. Apart from sharing the
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
The 2MB L2 cache is dynamically shared between the two cores using the Intel Smart
Cache technology.
L2 cache, the multi-core CPUs also share
a single front side bus that operates at
667 MHz higher than the earlier Dothan’s
533 MHz FSB. The increased memory
bandwidth will benefit the dual core
architecture. Under the Intel Digital Media
Boost banner, the Yonah core incorporates
SSE3 (Streaming SIMD Extentions 3).
SSE3 supported by all the latest desktop
processors finally makes it to the mobile
platform with the Yonah core and will
benefit specific applications having the
provision to take advantage of SSE3.
On the power consumption front,
Yonah offers Enhanced Intel SpeedStep
technology and Intel Dynamic
Power coordination. The Enhanced
Intel SpeedStep Technology allows
efficient management of voltage and
frequency. This enables the two cores
to independently and dynamically enter
into Halt, Stop Clock, and Deep Sleep
low-power modes. This means that if only
one core is being utilized, the second core
can still enter an idle state to help save
power. The Intel Core Duo processor is able
to transfer power only to those areas of
the processor that need it. The Dynamic
Power Coordination enables coordinated
transition to Deeper Sleep and an Enhanced
Deeper Sleep mode. With the Enhanced
Deeper Sleep mode, the processor can
enter the ultra low power consumption
mode. The feature is supported with
| The Core Duo processors and thier clock speeds
Processor Cache Clock Speed Front Side Bus
T2600 2 MB L2 2.16 GHz 667 MHz
T2500 2 MB L2 2 GHz 667 MHz
T2400 2 MB L2 1.83 GHz 667 MHz
T2300 2 MB L2 1.66 GHz 667 MHz
FEATURE | HARDWARE 75
dynamic cache sizing. The Smart Cache
can dynamically flush the cache to system
memory based on demand or during
periods of inactivity. When the cache is
completely flushed, the processor enters
the Enhanced Deeper Sleep mode. The
system can dynamically move from this
Enhanced Deeper Sleep state to an active
state in no time. Intel Core Duo processor
also features Dynamic Bus Parking.
This enables platform power saving by
allowing the chipset to power down with
the processor when in low-frequency
modes. So in addition to the processor
specific optimizations, the processor and
chipset also work in harmony to extend
the battery life. Yonah also comes in single
core variants and is sold under the ‘Intel
Core solo’ naming scheme. Budget laptops
under the new Centrino platform will be
sold with the Intel Core solo processors.
These processors are much better in every
sense when compared to the current
Celeron M processors for the budget
mobile platform.
Intel i945 Express Chipset
The Core Duo runs on the Intel i945 Express
chipset offering dual-channel DDR2-
667 support. The chipset comes in two
variants—the Intel 945GM and the Intel
945PM. The 945PM is a pure performance
chipset boasting 28 percent lesser power
consumption as compared to the older
generation of mobile chipsets. The 945GM
offers the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator
950 expected to deliver improved graphics
performance when compared to the
previous generation chipset. With a 256-bit
graphics core running at 400 MHz, the
76 HARDWARE | FEATURE
PC-Mark 2004 system test
3192 Asus W5 PentiumM 750@1.86G
4419 Samsung SENS X60 Intel Core Duo T2300
5759 Asus V6J Intel Core Duo T2500
6597 AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400@ 2.2G
0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000
NAPA performance preview
As I said earlier, the real benefits of the
Centrino Duo platform will depend on
how soon the operating systems and
the applications can take advantage
of the Yonah architecture. We got two
notebooks based on the NAPA platform
and the preliminary round of tests on the
notebooks look very promising.
Specifications
The ASUS V6J Centrino Duo notebook came
with 2GB DDR-II memory operating at 667
MHz and gives 100 GB of
chipset supports up to 10.6
GB/sec memory bandwidth
with DDR2 667 system
memory.
The chipset
allows the
user to
dedicate up
to 224 MB
of system
memory
for video.
As far as the pixel per clock rendering
goes, the 945GM supports 4 pixels per
clock rendering, at par with the entry level
dedicated video cards today. The rest of
the feature set is standard with provision
for PCI Express x16 graphics port and PCI
Express x1 I/O ports, next generation Serial
ATA, and high-speed USB 2.0 connectivity.
Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
The Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG is
basically a sleeker, smarter and smaller
wireless solution. It’s packaged in an ultra
compact form factor known as ‘Minicard’
occupying almost one third of the space
occupied by the older Wi-Fi solutions.
Si-Soft Sandra 2005 CPU Dhrystone ALU MIPS
7913 Asus W5 PentiumM 750@1.86G
15099 Samsung SENS X60 Intel Core Duo T2300
18181 Asus V6J Intel Core Duo T2500
Desktop 19879 AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400@ 2.2G
0 5000 10000 15000
storage space. The Samsung SENS X60
holds 1 GB memory and provides 80 GB
of storage space.
Performance Analysis
We compared the Core Duo based
notebooks with the earlier Pentium-M 750
based notebook operating at 1.86 GHz
and an Athlon 64 X2 4400+ based desktop
computer. The scores in PC Mark and Si-
Soft Sandra clearly indicate a near two-fold
performance increase in the CPU scores
as well as the overall system performance
over the older platform. As far as the
It’s compatible with the latest 802.11e
standard and offers a string of tweaks
in the form of Quality of Service (QoS)
features such as transmission prioritization
that lets you tune the connectivity as per
the application. Another nifty feature
is the Optimal Access Point selection
that allows you to lock the connectivity
to a particular network irrespective of
the strength and range of the preferred
network. In line with the NAPA platform,
Si-Soft Sandra 2005 CPU
Whetstone iSSE2/SSE3 MFLOPS
3302 Asus W5 PentiumM 750@1.86G
6062 Samsung SENS X60 Intel Core Duo T2300
7299 Asus V6J Intel Core Duo T2500
Desktop
9195 AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400@ 2.2G Desktop
20000
0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000
battery performance is concerned, the
dual core processors did not take a toll on
the battery life, the ASUS V6J gave a total
time of 167 minutes in mobile mark which
is close to the 180 minutes rated battery
life. Both the notebooks we received were
reference products for the Mobile
Centrino Duo platform and hence the
pricing and exact configuration with
respect to memory and storage is not fixed
yet. The indicative pricing is in the
range of 1-1.5 lakh rupees, the final price
will vary as per the configuration of
various models.
the Wireless 3945ABG is also optimized for
power saving modes and intelligent power
utilization tweaks for a longer battery life.
What to expect
Overall, the Intel Centrino Duo is a
powerful and intelligent mobile platform
with lot of promise. Tangible benefits
in terms of improved performance
largely depends on the applications
and support for dual core processing.
Windows Vista has native support for
dual core processors; similarly there are
some applications and games that take
advantage of dual core processing. Once
majority of the applications are ready for
the dual core, the performance benefit
over the older Centrino platform will
actually reach near the 70 percent mark as
touted by Intel. As of now, what you can
visibly expect from Core Duo is improved
performance without any compromise on
the battery life.
We are currently testing notebooks
based on the Centrino Duo platform.
Watch out for detailed standalone reviews
of NAPA notebooks in the next issue. ■
| Soham Raninga
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

Power Packed Portability
After MP3 players, it’s the personal media players taking the portable
entertainment world by storm
T
he Walkman marked the birth of
portable audio. In fact, the concept
of personal music was born with
the Walkman. Then came the wave of
the Discman and again audio portability
was re-defined. And then thanks to the
promotion of portable digital music, MP3
players became a part of life for every
music freak. Now meet the new kid on the
block—the PMP or Personal Media Player is
the swiss knife of portable entertainment.
It seamlessly integrates the best in
one single device, while retaining the
portability. Within the size of a Walkman,
the PMP integrates a mini hard drive, a LCD
screen covering the front face of the player
and a removable rechargeable battery.
A closer look at what this multi-feature
portable player can do.
Portable Storage
Most of the PMPs house at least a 20 gig
hard drive. They are straightaway detected
as a portable storage device in Windows XP
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
and you can transfer data to and from your
PC’s hard drive to the PMP as soon as you
plug in the USB connector.
Can replace: Portable hard drives, thumb
drives, pen drives.
Constraints: Its much bigger in size as
compared to a pen drive, but then again its
big on storage also.
Audio/Video Playback
PMPs play almost all kinds of digital audio
and video formats depending upon the
device capability; you can view video files
on the LCD screen. With a 20 gig hard drive
you can carry about 15 divx movies along
with 500 songs. You can carry it around to
watch movies during a long flight or watch
your favorite TV shows or just listen to your
favorite audio tracks while traveling in your
car. They can easily replace LCD screens
in the car. For public viewing, install a
mounting kit or for personal use just strap
it to the back of the seat and it’s ready to
be viewed. You can even playback the audio
FEATURE | HARDWARE 77
Pramod Jadhav
on the car stereo. Just connect it to the
auxiliary jack of the car stereo or use a FM
transmitter. And the best part, you don’t
have to worry about leaving behind your
expensive gadgetry in the car.
Worried about battery life? Don’t. Most
PMPs come with removable batteries;
you can also carry a spare one around, but
these aren’t your regular pencil batteries
but Li-ion batteries, which are expensive.
And you can charge the battery even while
listening to the player.
Can replace: MP3 players, Car LCD screens.
Constraints: Hard drive-based players
are not suitable for jogging and sporting
activities. If that’s your\ requirement then
flash memory-based MP3 player is what
you should get.
Picture/Document Viewer
20 gig storage means being able to carry
almost all your photographs. And the
screen lets you view not just your favorite
pictures but also text files—so you can read
78 HARDWARE | FEATURE
your morning newspaper or your favorite
novel on the go. You no longer have to carry
those bulky novels or your daily newspaper.
Almost all popular books and newspapers
are available for download online. And
with anytime, anywhere Internet
connectivity and more and more devices
offering Wi-Fi functionality it wouldn’t be
long before your paper boy stops delivering
the newspaper in the morning.
Can replace: Books, novels, magazines,
photographs.
Constraints: No hard copies.
Video playback on TV
Almost all PMPs include the TV Out feature,
which means these players can playback
video on TV.
Can replace: DVD players.
Constraints: No optical drive to directly
play your CDs or DVDs. So in case you
want to watch a movie stored on a DVD
disc, you will have to transfer it from the
disc to the PMP using the PC having a DVD
optical drive. (It takes about 5
minutes to transfer a single divx movie of
say 700 MB.)
Personal Video Recorder
You can record anything off your TV, even
schedule your recordings. The recorded
material is stored on the hard drive.
Presently, there are only a few PMPs that
offer this feature.
Can replace: VCRs, DVD Recorders.
Constraints: Since it doesn’t have an
optical drive, you can’t directly record to
DVD discs though you can always sync the
PMP to a PC with a DVD writer and then
record onto a DVD disc.
Some unique features offered by
individual devices
Phone: The Gizmondo is one such device
which offers phone functionality along
with the ability to play games.
Camera: Built-in camera to record video
and click snaps, which are directly stored
on the hard drive. With a 20 gig hard drive
you can record hours of video. Thought it
certainly cannot replace a camcorder, it’s
pretty decent for casual use.
OTG: Stands for USB On the Go, this
allows the PMP to connect to another
portable device with a mini USB
connector to transfer data. For example,
it can connect to a digital camera to
transfer the photos onto its hard drive
without the need for a computer.
GPRS: Some of them offer road
navigation. With a big screen and a thin
frame it can be easily mounted on the
dash board.
Games: Along with multimedia, it has the
ability to run games. The Sony PSP is the
pioneer here.
FM: You can listen to and record FM.
Wi-Fi: Has an in-built Wi-Fi adapter
to wirelessly access the internet and play
movies, music. access and surf the internet
and stream music and video’s. With Wi-Fi
spots springing up almost everywhere, this
is one feature to look out for.
Microphone: For voice recording.
What sets it back
Price! With PMPs priced at above Rs 18,000,
not anyone and everyone can afford it. It’s
almost the cost of an entry-level desktop
computer.
Also, as far as battery life is concerned,
the best of the best run out within 6 to
9 hours. Most of them have removable
batteries but again they are expensive.
Looks like PMPs are here to stay and
with market prices dropping these should
become a part of every gadget enthusiast’s
digital lifestyle.
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006
 FEATURE | HARDWARE 79

Archos AV 500
The Archos AV 500 is certainly the king of all the PMPs available
in the market. This monster has rugged steel looks and comes
in 30 and 100 GB hard drive capacities. The dazzling wide screen
LCD has good viewing angles and is compact enough to fit into
your pocket. Features like TV Out and the ability to record audio
and video from external sources, including TV at scheduled
times, have been integrated into this neat little device. Battery
life is good and as it’s removable you use an alternate battery to
extend your usage time. The accessory list includes a gold plated
audio/video cable, docking cradle and remote control.

Creative Zen Vision

Small and elegant, this player packs a whopping 30 GB hard drive
and a longer list of features including a VGA screen and support
for content recorded on TiVo DVRs. It boasts a high-resolution
screen, excellent interface, FM radio; it syncs with Outlook and
comes with a removable battery and a CompactFlash slot.
Keeping users’ demand for portability on the move, a wireless
remote and docking cradle have been bundled along. So all of
you not wanting to miss out on your music, video, photos, and
recorded TV wherever you go, now know what you need to get
home.

Apple Ipod Video

The new apple iPod Video packs in more storage and a bigger
screen into a thinner package. Higher capacity in terms of figures
means accommodating 15,000 songs, full-color album art, up
to 25,000 photos, over 150 hours of video. Choose between the
30 GB and 60 GB models. While a bigger TFT display entices your
eyes, you can count on 20 hours of battery life. You will notice
that this one has a smaller scroll wheel when compared to the
last iPod. While keeping up the iPod’s tradition of excellent
music playing and organizing capabilities, this one adds the
video capability feature as well. And like the iPod photo, you can
view your digital pictures from your computer or digital camera.
All in all, this is certainly a sexy own-me-please personal media
player.

Sony PSP
A device to go gaga about—that would be the right way
to describe the Sony PlayStation Portable. A combination
of a brilliant high-resolution screen, cutting-edge wireless
connectivity and Internet browser offers you a rich multimedia
experience to live for. Apart from gaming, there are a zillion
other things you could do. The Memory Stick Duo lets you
store digital photos, custom wallpapers and sharing of these is
enabled with the help of the image transfer feature. The player
epitomizes the concept of ‘entertainment in your palm’—you
can watch full-length movies on a pre-recorded UMD. The
dazzling LCD screen makes viewing your favorite movies much
more enjoyable. ■
| Gaurav Seth

FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP

80 HARDWARE | PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY
Media Center, the sequel
M
y PC hibernates in a dusty corner of the
living room. It wakes up on weekends
and becomes a media hub for editing
and emailing digital photos or for listening to MP3
songs. Evidently, the PC has evolved. It’s no longer
used only for running business applications or for
surfing the Net. Functionally, it’s metamorphosing
into an entertainment hub. Yet it has miles to
go before it can catch up with standard audio/
video equipment.
Those who’ve just started using the PC will at
once notice its imperfections. You have to wait
a full minute or two for it to boot. And if you
want high-fidelity sound or video you need to
invest in add-ons: surround sound speakers and
soundcards, graphics cards, and wide-screen LCD
monitors. This is an expensive proposition. When
you add it all up, the cost approaches that of a
high-end home entertainment system.
And even with these additions, there’s still
a lot to be desired in terms of sound or video
quality. That’s because you are simply adding a
layer of (expensive) add-ons over ageing 32-bit
architecture.
If the PC has to level off with standalone
entertainment components, it’s got to be
redesigned inside out, from the grassroots. I’m
talking about a new architecture, consumer-
friendly features like instant-on, simple interface,
remote control, tighter security, low maintenance,
superior sound, video, storage, the same pricing
as standard home entertainment systems. And of
course, we need on-demand digital content and
online services.
The industry has long taken note and
there were some attempts to make the PC
an entertainment hub. Microsoft has been
promoting Windows XP Media Center Edition
software and Intel created the Entertainment
PC platform. PC manufacturers like HP, HCL and
others sell Media Center PCs.
But first generation products have received
lukewarm acceptance worldwide. Yet the industry
is giving it another shot. Sometime in 2006, the
computer industry will launch a brand new digital
home entertainment platform.
In early January 2006, Intel announced its ViiV
(as in “five”) technology for a new breed of home
entertainment PCs. According to Intel, ViiV PCs will
have a dual-core processor and advanced graphics
and sound capabilities (7.1 surround sound). You’ll
be able to control these PCs with a remote, switch
them on/off instantly, and pause or record TV
shows from across the room, and access content
wirelessly from any room in the home. And ViiV PCs
will resemble standard audio/video components
like DVD players.
AMD’s answer to that is LIVE! These will have
Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processors for desktop PCs
as well as AMD dual-core mobile processors for
| Brian Pereira
notebooks. AMD LIVE! PCs will also have built-in brian.pereira@chip-india.com
7.1 surround sound.
Microsoft’s operating system (Media Center
Edition) will power these new PCs. Already, there
are some 110 applications (programs) for this
platform and these can be manipulated by remote
With the PC,
control. The industry will embrace either ViiV or
LIVE! technology, and build components on there’s still a lot to
these platforms. be desired in terms
But you’ll have to wait a bit for these new PCs
because it’s not just a platform but an ecosystem of sound or video
that will be evolving. And this time the bundle will quality. That’s
include broadband Internet access, on-demand
content, and online services.
because you are
The second generation of Media Center simply adding a
PCs (ViiV and LIVE!) will need fast broadband
connections, useful online services, and localized
layer of (expensive)
digital on-demand content (movies, music, add-ons over
games, contests).
ageing 32-bit
Local broadband infrastructure needs to
improve. But we are getting there pretty fast. The architecture
number of broadband connections has scaled
upto 835,000 (as on January 6, 2005).
And coming to content, companies like Eros
International are already preparing on-demand
digital content. Eros offers ‘B on demand” (‘B’
denotes Bollywood) through its digital content
portal. This is a future digital video service
available on demand over the Internet via Intel’s
ViiV technology.
As more Indians get hooked on to content and
services, Media Center PCs are likely to be the
center of attraction in the living room within the
next five years. ■
The writer has been covering personal technology
issues for the past 12 years
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

Sound abound
A guide to buying the right type of multi-channel speaker
Entry level
Models: Creative Inspire 4400,
AltecLansing 151i, Creative SBS560
Budget: Rs 2,500-4,000
M ulti-channel speakers are no longer a
distant dream for budget buyers; you
can buy a true 5.1 speaker setup for your
computer under the 4K mark. But choosing
entry level multi-channel speakers is tough.
The market is full of variants sporting
“4000 W” labels which make you wonder
what you can expect from them. The power
rating should always be taken on the RMS
value of the satellites and woofer. A value
5.1 or 4.1 speaker setup will never sound
anywhere close to what a high-end speaker
system will sound like. Therefore, you will
have to compromise on the quality and
loudness. It’s highly recommended that
you see a demo before you make the buying
decision. Sound quality is very subjective to
individual tastes and preferences and hence
a demo is a must. These value speakers
tend to distort at high volumes and hence
it’s recommended to check that. Go for
the speaker set which distorts the least
and maintains the sound quality at varied
volume levels.
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
TECHNOLOGY LANDSCAPE
Mid range
Models: Creative Inspire 5200, AltecLansing 251,
AltecLansing V3151R,
Budget: Rs 4,000-8,000
T he mid-range segment offers a lot of
choice and variety to the user. These
speaker systems offer good sound quality at
reasonably high volumes, letting you enjoy
positional sound in games and movies. The
target user for the mid-range segment is
someone who enjoys games and movies
on his computer. The speaker systems in
this category won’t really suffice for a large
room but they will surely rock in an enclosed
gaming environment. The placement of
satellites and woofer is very important, the
woofer should be placed on the ground for
optimum results while the satellites should
be ideally at the ear level for maximum
impact and response. Most of these
systems come with a remote for controlling
the volume and switching between 2.1 and
5.1 modes. The V3151R from Altec Lansing
offers great package in terms of a separate
control unit and good sound quality for
gaming. The Creative Inspire 5200 offers
excellent value and well balanced sound for
movies as well as games.
| HARDWARE 81
High end
Vishwanath Vanjire
Models: Creative Inspire T7700,
Logitech Z5300, Logitech Z5500
Budget: Rs 8,000 and above
T hese isn’t too much choice in this
segment due to a very few brands
and limited models. The high-end multi-
channel speakers use dedicated drivers for
the high, mid and low frequency sounds
and hence are well balanced for all types
of applications. The Creative offers 7.1
speaker setups which give two extra
channels for side surround (the latest
games make use of the side surround). For
the high-end category, a soundcard makes
a huge difference, so it’s recommended
that you pair these speakers with a
high- end soundcard. Try the Audigy-2
series from Creative—a good match for
the high-end speakers. For ultimate sound
quality, the THX certified Logitech Z5300
and Z5500 are simply the best speaker
systems in the market. While the Z5300
gives great value in this segment, the
Z5500 is the ultimate solution with a 500W
RMS rating, and a separate “control pod”
offering on-the-fly DTS decoding.
| Soham Raninga
Full throttle
Applying the right settings and tweaks for your graphics card can go
a long way in improving performance

O
ut of all the components inside a computer, the graphics engine is the most sought after for tweaking. There are various driver
tweaks for VGA cards that deliver better performance, quality and features. This guide will take you through a step-by-step
process of tweaking your VGA card for better performance and quality. The guide is spread over two steps. Starting with basic
driver tweaking, we move on to tweaking in-game settings for better performance. The basic driver tweaking using the default control
panel can be done by anyone wanting to finetune graphics performance. The in-game tweaks are for gamers who want to extract some
extra frames for smoother game play.

Tweaking driver settings
through the control panel
Nvidia and ATI both have their own VGA
driver control panels offering all the driver
settings. Instead of sticking to a specific
chipset manufacturer, we chose to discuss
the settings and features of the VGA
chipsets in general. Since most of the key
settings are common to both the VGA
chipsets and their driver control panel,
a generic approach has been taken. Also
keep in mind that the guide primarily deals
with performance tweaking and hence
the elements related to performance are
specifically discussed.
Image settings/Mipmap detail: The image
settings tab normally gives you four
options—High performance/Performance/
Quality/High quality. By default, the tab is
locked to “Quality”. While the quality mode
is the safest of all the modes, it might not
be the best one. For entry-level cards, the
high performance mode will help to up the
frame count by compromising slightly on
the performance. Similarly, the upper end
of the mid-range segment and the high-
end cards rarely take a hit when pushed
from “Quality” to “High Quality” mode.
VSync: Vertical Synchronization or VSync
is the synchronization of your monitor and
graphics card’s abilities to draw a certain
number of frames per second on the screen.
In case of monitors, it is referred to as
“Refresh Rate”, and is measured in Hertz
(Hz). Monitors can provide multiple refresh
rates at various resolutions and hence the
refresh rate is not constant for everyone.
If your monitor is set to 75 Hz, it basically
corresponds to the screen redrawing itself
75 times per second at the given resolution.
If Vertical Sync is enabled, your maximum
FPS cannot exceed your monitor’s refresh
rate at your chosen resolution, and hence
the performance of your VGA card might
be restricted by the refresh rate. Disabling
VSync will allow you to exceed the FPS above
the refresh rate. Some games like Doom
3 causes some screen “tearing” with the
VSync but it’s not always noticeable. Hence,
it is strongly recommended that Vertical
Sync be disabled in all games to allow your
VGA card to perform at its optimal levels. By
default, the VSync is always set to “enabled”
or “application preference”. Ensure that
VSync is disabled all the time unless you
experience severe tearing and issues with
particular games or resolutions.
Anisotropic Filtering: Anisotropic filtering
(AF) is primarily applicable to textures. The
higher the level of anisotropic filtering,
sharper is the texture. Usually, there are
4 modes of filtering ranging between
2x-16x. The overall frame rate does take a
hit when using higher levels of anisotropic
filtering and the extent of hit depends
on the resolution and the potential of
the VGA chipset. Since most of the new
games allow you to change anisotropic
filtering settings within the game settings,
it is recommended to arrive at a setting
depending on the VGA card and the
resolution. Low-end cards generally are the
worst hit by anisotropic filtering while the
mid-range and high-end cards suffer the
least. It’s advisable to leave the anisotropic
filtering settings to “Application
preference” unless you wish to force
filtering on all games and applications.
Anti-aliasing: Anti-aliasing (also known
as AA) is a technique used to minimize the
jaggies or the “stair step” effect sometimes
seen along the edges of 3D objects. Your
selection can range from turning anti-
aliasing completely off to selecting the
maximum amount possible for a particular
application. Anti-aliasing is heavy on
the graphics chipset and hence is not
recommended for low-end VGA cards. Even
the weaker mid-range cards can’t deliver
playable frame rates with anti-aliasing
turned on. Usually, there are 4 modes of
anti-aliasing ranging between Off-8x.
Some of the high-end cards do offer 16x
anti-aliasing but the performance benefit
as well as implementation is not consistent
with 16x AA. For mid-range cards, the
recommended range of AA is 2x-4x, while
the high-end cards can take 6x, 8x and 16x
AA as well. All of course depends upon
the rest of the settings and resolution. A
combination of 8x AF and 4x AA works well
with high-end cards, offering the right mix
of quality and frame rates.
In-game performance tweaking
The newer chipsets support a lot of
complex rendering and special effects,
which add to the realism and eye-candy
factor in games. These effects take a heavy
toll on the performance. Some of the

INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006


features
are almost inconspicuous
and can be traded for better
performance. Let’s discuss all the common
features and settings that can be tweaked
for better performance.
Model and Effects Details: The level of
detailing on the human models, vehicles
and other elements can be adjusted using
these settings. Higher detail levels not only
require a powerful graphics chip but it also
eats up on the video memory. If your VGA
card has low memory and doesn’t provide
enough horsepower for these effects,
you can set them to medium or low for
playable frame rates.
Texture and Shader details: Shader
details decide on the complexity of shader
intensive tasks. Rendering of realistic water
or smoke effects is handled by shader
units. The higher the detail level, more life-
like and real they appear. These settings
also offer varied levels and stepping down
from high to low or medium can improve
performance significantly. If a particular
game makes intense use of shaders, the
performance impact can be huge and
hence it’s highly recommended to play
around with the settings to arrive at a
favorable equation.
Lights and water reflections: Games like
F.E.A.R, Doom 3 make heavy use of lighting
effects. Volumetric lighting which basically
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
refers
to realistic
lighting play a key role
in providing realistic graphics. The way
in which light falls on an object and the
details of the effect of light on the object
depends on the level of volumetric lighting
applied in a particular scene. If you are not
too keen on observing the effect of light
on the environment inside the game, you
can set the level to low or even turn it off
for a significant boost. Water reflections
again require keen observation to make the
difference between intensity and accuracy
of reflections and hence can be tweaked
for better performance. High-end card
owners should crank these settings up
and do full justice to the capabilities of the
graphics chipset.
Shadow details: These are one of the key
culprits when it comes to sudden drop
in performance. Rendering shadows is
complex and most of the games struggle
to deliver precise and realistic shadows.
Soft shadows implemented in all the
latest games turn out to be very taxing
on the graphics chipset and hence are
only recommended for high-end cards.
Mid-range as well as low-end card owners
are better placed disabling the shadows
completely and enjoying the higher frame
rates instead.
FEATURE | HARDWARE 83
HDR and Bloom:
High Dynamic Range
(HDR) in gaming is a
technology that attempts
to emulate real life lighting in games.
Dynamic Range is the normal range of
lighting while High Dynamic Range extends
the overall range, giving brightness and
contrast values that are higher than the
normal dynamic range. In simpler terms,
HDR allows you to make the objects
brighter by allowing them to use the full
brightness capabilities of the monitor
and not just the brightness level at which
they have been shot or rendered with.
The Bloom effect used more frequently
is a step-down version of HDR or you can
even call it a step behind HDR. Bloom is
basically an effect to simulate the shine
and glow that is normally experienced
around the light sources. HDR is very heavy
on the system and especially the graphics
chipset. Even the mid-range cards struggle
to deliver playable frame rates with HDR
enabled. We strongly recommend disabling
of HDR for entry-level systems and VGA
cards. Users with mid-range cards should
experiment with Bloom and HDR to find
out the exact difference in frames and
choose the best settings. Bloom is almost
50 percent less demanding than HDR and
hence is a nice balance for mid-range cards.
High-end cards will let you apply full HDR
and still deliver playable frame rates. ■
| Soham Raninga
Full throttle
Applying the right settings and tweaks for your graphics card can go
a long way in improving performance

O
ut of all the components inside a computer, the graphics engine is the most sought after for tweaking. There are various driver
tweaks for VGA cards that deliver better performance, quality and features. This guide will take you through a step-by-step
process of tweaking your VGA card for better performance and quality. The guide is spread over two steps. Starting with basic
driver tweaking, we move on to tweaking in-game settings for better performance. The basic driver tweaking using the default control
panel can be done by anyone wanting to finetune graphics performance. The in-game tweaks are for gamers who want to extract some
extra frames for smoother game play.

Tweaking driver settings
through the control panel
Nvidia and ATI both have their own VGA
driver control panels offering all the driver
settings. Instead of sticking to a specific
chipset manufacturer, we chose to discuss
the settings and features of the VGA
chipsets in general. Since most of the key
settings are common to both the VGA
chipsets and their driver control panel,
a generic approach has been taken. Also
keep in mind that the guide primarily deals
with performance tweaking and hence
the elements related to performance are
specifically discussed.
Image settings/Mipmap detail: The image
settings tab normally gives you four
options—High performance/Performance/
Quality/High quality. By default, the tab is
locked to “Quality”. While the quality mode
is the safest of all the modes, it might not
be the best one. For entry-level cards, the
high performance mode will help to up the
frame count by compromising slightly on
the performance. Similarly, the upper end
of the mid-range segment and the high-
end cards rarely take a hit when pushed
from “Quality” to “High Quality” mode.
VSync: Vertical Synchronization or VSync
is the synchronization of your monitor and
graphics card’s abilities to draw a certain
number of frames per second on the screen.
In case of monitors, it is referred to as
“Refresh Rate”, and is measured in Hertz
(Hz). Monitors can provide multiple refresh
rates at various resolutions and hence the
refresh rate is not constant for everyone.
If your monitor is set to 75 Hz, it basically
corresponds to the screen redrawing itself
75 times per second at the given resolution.
If Vertical Sync is enabled, your maximum
FPS cannot exceed your monitor’s refresh
rate at your chosen resolution, and hence
the performance of your VGA card might
be restricted by the refresh rate. Disabling
VSync will allow you to exceed the FPS above
the refresh rate. Some games like Doom
3 causes some screen “tearing” with the
VSync but it’s not always noticeable. Hence,
it is strongly recommended that Vertical
Sync be disabled in all games to allow your
VGA card to perform at its optimal levels. By
default, the VSync is always set to “enabled”
or “application preference”. Ensure that
VSync is disabled all the time unless you
experience severe tearing and issues with
particular games or resolutions.
Anisotropic Filtering: Anisotropic filtering
(AF) is primarily applicable to textures. The
higher the level of anisotropic filtering,
sharper is the texture. Usually, there are
4 modes of filtering ranging between
2x-16x. The overall frame rate does take a
hit when using higher levels of anisotropic
filtering and the extent of hit depends
on the resolution and the potential of
the VGA chipset. Since most of the new
games allow you to change anisotropic
filtering settings within the game settings,
it is recommended to arrive at a setting
depending on the VGA card and the
resolution. Low-end cards generally are the
worst hit by anisotropic filtering while the
mid-range and high-end cards suffer the
least. It’s advisable to leave the anisotropic
filtering settings to “Application
preference” unless you wish to force
filtering on all games and applications.
Anti-aliasing: Anti-aliasing (also known
as AA) is a technique used to minimize the
jaggies or the “stair step” effect sometimes
seen along the edges of 3D objects. Your
selection can range from turning anti-
aliasing completely off to selecting the
maximum amount possible for a particular
application. Anti-aliasing is heavy on
the graphics chipset and hence is not
recommended for low-end VGA cards. Even
the weaker mid-range cards can’t deliver
playable frame rates with anti-aliasing
turned on. Usually, there are 4 modes of
anti-aliasing ranging between Off-8x.
Some of the high-end cards do offer 16x
anti-aliasing but the performance benefit
as well as implementation is not consistent
with 16x AA. For mid-range cards, the
recommended range of AA is 2x-4x, while
the high-end cards can take 6x, 8x and 16x
AA as well. All of course depends upon
the rest of the settings and resolution. A
combination of 8x AF and 4x AA works well
with high-end cards, offering the right mix
of quality and frame rates.
In-game performance tweaking
The newer chipsets support a lot of
complex rendering and special effects,
which add to the realism and eye-candy
factor in games. These effects take a heavy
toll on the performance. Some of the

INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006


features
are almost inconspicuous
and can be traded for better
performance. Let’s discuss all the common
features and settings that can be tweaked
for better performance.
Model and Effects Details: The level of
detailing on the human models, vehicles
and other elements can be adjusted using
these settings. Higher detail levels not only
require a powerful graphics chip but it also
eats up on the video memory. If your VGA
card has low memory and doesn’t provide
enough horsepower for these effects,
you can set them to medium or low for
playable frame rates.
Texture and Shader details: Shader
details decide on the complexity of shader
intensive tasks. Rendering of realistic water
or smoke effects is handled by shader
units. The higher the detail level, more life-
like and real they appear. These settings
also offer varied levels and stepping down
from high to low or medium can improve
performance significantly. If a particular
game makes intense use of shaders, the
performance impact can be huge and
hence it’s highly recommended to play
around with the settings to arrive at a
favorable equation.
Lights and water reflections: Games like
F.E.A.R, Doom 3 make heavy use of lighting
effects. Volumetric lighting which basically
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
refers
to realistic
lighting play a key role
in providing realistic graphics. The way
in which light falls on an object and the
details of the effect of light on the object
depends on the level of volumetric lighting
applied in a particular scene. If you are not
too keen on observing the effect of light
on the environment inside the game, you
can set the level to low or even turn it off
for a significant boost. Water reflections
again require keen observation to make the
difference between intensity and accuracy
of reflections and hence can be tweaked
for better performance. High-end card
owners should crank these settings up
and do full justice to the capabilities of the
graphics chipset.
Shadow details: These are one of the key
culprits when it comes to sudden drop
in performance. Rendering shadows is
complex and most of the games struggle
to deliver precise and realistic shadows.
Soft shadows implemented in all the
latest games turn out to be very taxing
on the graphics chipset and hence are
only recommended for high-end cards.
Mid-range as well as low-end card owners
are better placed disabling the shadows
completely and enjoying the higher frame
rates instead.
FEATURE | HARDWARE 83
Dinesh Desai
HDR and Bloom:
High Dynamic Range
(HDR) in gaming is a
technology that attempts
to emulate real life lighting in games.
Dynamic Range is the normal range of
lighting while High Dynamic Range extends
the overall range, giving brightness and
contrast values that are higher than the
normal dynamic range. In simpler terms,
HDR allows you to make the objects
brighter by allowing them to use the full
brightness capabilities of the monitor
and not just the brightness level at which
they have been shot or rendered with.
The Bloom effect used more frequently
is a step-down version of HDR or you can
even call it a step behind HDR. Bloom is
basically an effect to simulate the shine
and glow that is normally experienced
around the light sources. HDR is very heavy
on the system and especially the graphics
chipset. Even the mid-range cards struggle
to deliver playable frame rates with HDR
enabled. We strongly recommend disabling
of HDR for entry-level systems and VGA
cards. Users with mid-range cards should
experiment with Bloom and HDR to find
out the exact difference in frames and
choose the best settings. Bloom is almost
50 percent less demanding than HDR and
hence is a nice balance for mid-range cards.
High-end cards will let you apply full HDR
and still deliver playable frame rates. ■
| Soham Raninga
84 |
HARDWARE INFOGRAPHIC

OLED Displays
Thinner, lighter, flexible and power savers—
OLED displays have a lot going for them
What’s an OLED?
OLED is the acronym for Organic Light Emitting Diode. OLEDs emit
light just like Light Emitting Diodes (LED) with the main difference
being in their fabrication and application areas. OLED displays
are used today in many devices like cell phones, digital cameras,
flexible displays, car displays, large overhead displays and now
even televisions.
OLED over conventional displays
Displays built using OLEDs are well suited for all the products
mentioned above because of their capability to produce brighter
light and consume less power. In that sense, they are better than
conventional displays. Best of all, they can be made to be very
thin—foldable, even.
What is an OLED device made of?
An OLED is a solid-state device made up of semi-conductor
materials, just like an LED. It is made up of a couple of layers of
organic material and yet just 200 to 500 nanometers thick. Human
hair is approximately 120,000 nanometers thick—making the
OLED device over 200 times thinner! As mentioned earlier, layers of
organic material are placed between terminals of a power source.
Each layer has a certain function and the way they are arranged
also makes a difference (as you read on). In an OLED device with
two layers of organic material, the components are as follows:

Cathode: This is the

negative terminal. Anode: This is the
When current flows positive terminal. When
from an external current flows through
power source, electrons the device, it attracts
move from the cathode electrons (negatively
towards the anode. charged particles)
Emissive Layer: It is made towards it. This creates
up of plastic molecules but vacancies (known as
different from the material ‘holes’) in the layers
used for the Conducting above. Due the loss of
Layer. The Emissive Layer is an electron the hole is
one that emits light. considered as a positive
charge, attracting
an electron to fill the
vacancy.

Conducting Layer:
This is the first organic
layer made up of
plastic molecules. As
the name suggests,
this layer attracts the
flow of electrons from
the layer above it (the
emissive layer) to fill Substrate: This layer
‘holes’. supports the OLED and is
made of glass, foil or plastic.
This layer can be made to be
transparent.

INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

 INFOGRAPHIC | HARDWARE 85

How does an OLED device emit light?

Conductive Layer to Anode: Opposites attract—the positive terminal
(anode) attracts electrons (negative charges) from the Conductive Layer towards
it. This migration of electrons causes vacancies to be formed in the layer. The loss
of an electron—a negatively charged particle—creates a “positive hole” in the
Conductive Layer.

Cathode to Emissive Layer: When terminals of an OLED device receive power

from an external source (a battery), current flows from the cathode to the anode
(negative to positive terminal). Passage of current through the device is because
of the movement of electrons; therefore electrons are injected into the layer
below the Cathode—the Emissive Layer.

Emissive Layer to Conductive Layer: As the positive terminal attracts more

and more electrons from the conductive layer, the ‘holes’ created are perfect home
grounds for the electrons that are pumped into the Emissive Layer. Whenever
an electron moves into a ‘hole’, energy is released. This energy is in the form of
visible light. The color of light depends on the type of organic molecule used and
the intensity depends on the amount of current applied (directly proportional to
the number of electrons flowing through the device) by the battery source.

Different types of OLEDs

OLED devices are differently based on the application requirements. Each type
has its layers arranged differently, consumes different amounts of power or
allows light to travel in a particular direction only.
A passive-matrix OLED has Anode and Cathode strips arranged perpendicular
to each other. Each strip is connected to an external power source. This sort
of a display consumes more power and suits smaller screens like that of cell
phones and MP3 players.
In an active-matrix OLED, the Anode and Cathode layers are complete and
includes a Thin Film Transistor (TFT) matrix as part of the circuitry that decides
which pixel is turned on. The active-matrix type uses less power and has a
better refresh rate, making it suitable for larger displays like signboards and
televisions.
Then there are transparent OLEDs, top-emitting OLEDs, foldable OLEDs, white
OLEDs, which consist of layers that either allow light to emit in a particular
direction, allowing one to fold it or just produce bright white light.

How good are OLEDs

OLEDs are better than liquid crystal displays and LEDs because they
are thinner, they use even less power to emit brighter and more
coherent light. They even have a terrific viewing angle of up to 170
degrees as they don’t work on the LCD’s principle of blocking
light. The foldable type of OLEDs is especially useful as these
displays are wearable. But In spite of all these advantages,
OLEDs are expensive to manufacture and have a shorter
life span. ■
| Ashutosh Desai

Pramod Jadhav
86 86 APPLICATIONS | TESTED
Software Center
A
wide bunch of applications again
brought to you from the software
center, each with a good set of
features. The first of the lot—the Cyberlink
PowerDirector 5 is a video editing tool
that aims to speed up the entire process of
video editing while making it a lot simpler.
And if you want to make your own good
quality home video, you will be pleased
with this one.
Applications
Trend Micro’s security suite called
the PC-cillin Internet Security 2006 has
features that sets it apart from the rest in
its category available today.
Tired of using the numerous IE front
ends available today, lacking in good
features? Check out Avant Browser in that
case as it’s very feature-rich. We also have
for you the latest avatar of Norton
| The Ratings Explained
The parameters used for evaluating
software are assigned a graphical rating
out of a scale of 5. These parameters 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
Pramod Jadhav
Personal Firewall that allows you
to safely browse the Internet.
While keeping a close eye on
entertainment applications, we decided to
bring for you the free and very easy-to-use
audio player, the Foobar2000. It’s a good
alternative to Winamp and Windows
Media Player.
If you’re in search of a system utility
that can diagnose as well as perform
benchmarking tests and give you a
complete picture about the hardware and
software installed on your system, then do
check out the review of Fresh Diagnose.
Also, we have reviewed the ‘Create
Ringtone’ app and just as the name
suggests, it allows you to create ring tones
from your favorite MP3 files, either from
your hard disk or from an audio CD.
by stacking the features and the utility of the
application against its price.
In the case of freeware and shareware
tools that are available for download 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 | FEBRUARY 2006

Movie buffs will love this!
If you are in search of a video editing
application that features editing tools,
that automatically speeds up the entire
editing process as well give you more time
to explore your creativity, then CyberLink
PowerDirector should be in the reckoning.
The main interface is user friendly
and all the video editing options are
present right on the interface itself. This
application features six powerful video
editing tools namely Magic Style, Magic Fix,
Magic Clean, Magic Motion, Magic Music,
and Magic Cut. Each tool provides you
with a variety of options and ensures
hassle-free editing.
The Magic Style tool provides you 12
different styles of creating a wide range of
video titles. And if you feel these styles are
not enough, you can log on to the CyberLink
web site and download additional styles.
Each style consists of a preset combination
of video effects, transition, frames and
titles. Even though these effects are
preset, they can be later edited on the
timeline interface.
The next tool, Magic Fix, allows you to
refurbish your video clips as well as your
photos. You can stabilize shaky video by
enabling the video stabilizer feature. You
can also sharpen images of photos that are
out of focus. Interestingly, you don’t have
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
to do anything manually in case of red eye;
it automatically detects the face, locates
the eyes and corrects the red eyes.
Many a time the pictures or videos that
you shoot in low light conditions result in
poor quality. The Magic Clean tool, using
the CyberLink Eagle Vision technology,
allows you to easily boost the insufficient
colors of your photos as well as that of your
videos. The Magic Cut tool automatically
cuts your video clips to match the music
length or allows you to specify the length
of the video clip. It also performs an
intelligent video analysis and then decides
which shots to keep and remove. The
analysis is done by giving a score to each
shot based on various parameters like
camera movement, good colors, length of
The main interface which allows you to
use the six magic tools
TESTED | APPLICATIONS 87
Video Editor
PowerDirector 5
System requirements: Windows XP/2000, Pentium 4
2.4 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 2400+, 512 MB of RAM,
minimum of 1 GB of free hard disk space, CD or DVD
Burner for burning VCD/DVD/SVCD titles.
Price $89.95 (Approx Rs 4140)
website www.cyberlink.com
RATINGS
Ease of use
Features
Performance
Overall Rating
Value for money
the clip, etc. Magic Cut summarizes these
scores and then decides the final selection
of video cuts.
The Magic Motion tool allows you to
add zoom and pan effects to your still
images and you can specify which effect
you want to use. You can even combine
the two effects and then add it to
your images.
The last of the six, Magic Music, adjusts
the duration of the background music to
the length of your video clips. It helps you
create a single and non-repetitive music
composition. This application also
supports a wide range of formats for
video files including HD MPEG-2, DivX,
SVCD, etc.
Cyberlink PowerDirector is a useful
software that helps you edit as well create
your own videos without compromising on
the quality. It even allows you to burn them
onto a disc allowing you to show off your
creative skills to your friends and relatives.
It’s suited for the novice as well as for the
advanced users.
On the downside, this software is quite
resource hungry, so you will need to be
quite patient if you have a slow system.
For: Very good video editing features;
simple and fast video editing process.
Against: Resource hungry.
88 APPLICATIONS | TESTED
System Security
PC-cillin Internet Security 2006
System requirements: Windows All, Pentium 300 MHz
or above, 128 MB of RAM, 120 MB of free hard disk
space.
Price Rs 2500
Contact Trend Micro
Phone 011-42699000
E-mail Sales.in@trendmicro.com
RATINGS
Ease of use
Features
Performance
Overall Rating
Value for money
Get multi-protection for your system
P roviding you with a personal firewall,
the PC-cillin Internet Security 2006
from Trend Micro prepares you to block
all types of viruses, worms, Trojans and
hackers while providing protection against
phishing scams. It also guards your wireless
network by alerting you when an intruder
tries to use your Wi-Fi connection.
If you have any other anti-virus
software installed on your system then
you will have to first uninstall them before
the installation of this application can
begin. Before installing this software you
can install Anti-Spam for both Microsoft
Outlook and Outlook Express directly from
the CD. The main interface will provide you
with a variety of options, the simplicity of
the design making it easy to use. If you
are using this software for the first time
then you can use the quick walk-through
wizard. From the various options provided
on the main interface, you will come
to know about the security levels of
your system.
Unlike other Internet security suites that
look for programs remotely resembling
a malware, PC-cillin Internet Security
actually looks for viruses, Trojans, etc. It
also features a powerful anti-virus security
that detects and removes virus from your
e-mail, files downloaded from the Internet,
your hard disks and removable media.
We all know of the serious threats
posed by spyware. This application detects
and removes most of the spyware already
present on your system. The new ‘Anti-
Fraud Toolbar’ points out the risk levels of
a web site that you’re currently viewing. It
provides you with improved Wi-Fi wireless
protection. So as soon as an unauthorized
user gains access to your wireless network,
this application immediately alerts you.
The personal firewall is much more
enhanced as compared to the previous
versions and provides you with greater
level of security. This application performs
regular scans of your system and gives you
constant updates regarding your operating
system or browser loopholes that
Find information about the security levels
of your system here
could be exploited.
Today most of us are troubled by
spam mail. These unwanted mails not
only occupy a lot of inbox space but you
also end up wasting a lot of time as you
have to manually keep deleting them.
So get respite from spam mails with
the software’s advanced spam filtering
technology that blocks spam from
flooding your inbox.
And parents worried about what
content their kids are surfing over the
Internet, PC-cillin comes to the rescue. It
allows you to manage your children’s
web activity by blocking web sites with
adult content.
The PC-cillin Internet Security is a good
security application that offers you a
good protection package for your system.
Features like Wi-Fi wireless protection and
advanced parental controls help to
increase the overall utility of the product.
But even though the anti-spyware
protection is good, it needs much
improvement in order to match that
of the other Internet security suites
available today.
For: Easy to use; provides Wi-Fi wireless
protection; advanced parental controls.
Against: The anti-spyware feature needs to
be improved.
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

PC watch dog
Y our search to find a firewall program
to secure your system and the
freedom to do what you want on the
Internet ends with the Norton Personal
Firewall software.
The installation utilizes a lot of your
system resources, so it’s important that
you don’t have any programs running in
the background till the installation process
gets over. A simple interface retaining the
look of the previous versions is what you
notice first. The interface gives you all
information about your system’s security;
it also tells you whether the Personal
Firewall is enabled or not. Customization
of each filter category is also allowed.
The program explains all the choices very
clearly making it simple for all and sundry
to use it. You can add new rules to allow
or block connections to your PC. A web
assistant to your browser allowing you to
change the settings for a web site that you
are currently viewing is also part of the
package. You can instantly turn off ads,
Fast and stable browser
I f you are searching for a fast and stable
web browser then Avant Browser
should fit the bill perfectly. It is basically
a multi-window browser with lots of
useful features like Flash animation filter,
integrated cleaner, etc.
The interface is user friendly and
you can quickly start surfing the web
soon after the installation is over. It’s
very elegantly designed while staying
put on stability. Often you must have
experienced web sites taking long to load
because most of the bandwidth is used
up by the flash-based ads on the web site.
Thankfully, this issue has been taken care
of by this browser—it allows you to save
bandwidth by blocking the download of
these flash files. There are options to block
downloads of pictures, videos, sounds,
and ActiveX components also resulting in
fast loading of pages.
Avant also gives you the liberty to
specifically set what you want it to
handle. For example, if you want this
browser only to handle .html files and the
remaining to be handled by IE, it can be
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
TESTED | APPLICATIONS 89
System Security
pop ups and cookies. It even allows you to
configure your security settings in a jiffy.
Scared of making any monetary
Norton Personal Firewall 2006
transactions online? Relax! The Norton
Personal Firewall lets you hide your
private financial data in a file so that it
remains safe and secure.
One of the top firewall programs
available, Norton Personal Firewall
provides enough features to keep your
System requirements: Windows 2000/XP, 300 MHz or
PC safe from hackers, viruses, unwanted
higher processor, 256 MB RAM, 125 MB of free hard
pop ups. The web assistant feature disk space, CD/DVD drive, Internet Explorer 5.5 or
that enables you to change the settings higher.
for a particular website is noteworthy.
Price Rs 2080
However, no anti-spyware programs are Contact Ingram Micro India (P) Ltd
bundled along with it. This sure would Phone 09324604427
have increased the overall utility of the E-mail shreekant.c@ingrammicro.co.in
software. RATINGS
For: Good features to keep your system Ease of use
protected from hackers and viruses; Features
scope to add new rules to allow or block Performance
connections to your PC. Overall Rating
Value for money
Against: No anti-spyware program
bundled along.
Internet Browser
Avant Browser 10
done very easily. Interestingly, unlike in IE,
here when you drag toolbars or columns,
you can see a transparent copy of the
same making it very convenient to drop it
wherever you want.
In addition to these features, it also
has features common to other IE front
ends like advanced cache cleaning, toolbar
customization, anti-phishing tool, pop-up
blocker, etc. System requirements: Windows All
Additional features make Avant Bowser
Price Free
stand out from the other available IE front website www.avantbrowser.com
ends. The only drawback, though, is that
RATINGS
few of the pages don’t load properly with
Ease of use
this browser. So you will need to use some
Features
of the other browsers available to view
Performance
these sites. Overall Rating
For: Stable browser; user friendly
interface; allows you to save bandwidth Find it on CHIP CD
by blocking the download of flash-based
ads; you can specifically set this browser
to handle a particular file; scope to easily
drag toolbars and drop them wherever
you want
Against: Some of the web sites don’t load
properly with this browser.
90 APPLICATIONS | TESTED
Multimedia Sound of music
Foobar2000 0.9
C oming from the experienced hands
of the developer of Winamp 3, the
Foobar2000 audio player surely makes you
expect a lot from it.
Foobar2000 is an advanced audio
player for Windows. Once the installation
gets over, you’re asked to select the
audio file formats that you would like to
associate with Foobar2000. It supports
almost all of the audio formats available
System requirements: Windows All
today. But playing your own choice of the
Price Free files is a breeze. The interface is simple
Website www.foobar2000.org and easy to comprehend but is quite
RATINGS ugly when compared to that of the other
Ease of use media players. The silver lining here is
Features the option allowing you to customize the
Performance look of the interface. All the options are
Overall Rating present on the interface itself. If you’re
used to Winamp, you will miss the skins
Find it on CHIP CD in this. But fortunately, it doesn’t eat into
your memory much while it’s running as
compared to the other media players.
The open component architecture
allows third party developers to extend
System Utility
Fresh Diagnose
Fresh indeed!
F resh Diagnose is a comprehensive
tool for both diagnosing as well as
benchmarking your system. It provides
you with lots of information about the
hardware and software of your system,
devices installed into it and its resources.
The size of the installation file is
very small and the installation process
wraps up very quickly. All the options are
System requirements: Windows All provided on the interface itself, which is
quite informative. It tells you which of
Price Free
Website www.freshdevices.com
your system files are protected, also giving
you information about which programs
RATINGS
and services are loaded during system
Ease of use
startup. It includes several benchmark
Features
tests to test the reliability of your
Performance
Overall Rating
hardware. It even allows you to print the
results directly or save it as a text, html or
Word document.
Find it on CHIP CD
The most significant feature of this
application is that all the information
about your computer’s hardware
as well as software is divided into sub
modules. For example, if you
want information regarding your
computer’s hardware, all you do is
the functionality of this player. By
downloading add-ons, you can easily
enable the application to support more
audio formats. It can also handle large
playlists very effectively. It allows you
to customize the playlist display as well
as keyboard shortcuts so that you are at
ease while using this application. Make
the most of features like a good set of
processing plug-ins, advanced playback
settings, etc.
Foobar2000 is a worthy alternative to
other popular media players like Winamp
and Windows Media Player. Most of
the standard components of this player
are opensourced under the BSD license.
Although it’s ugly, you can manually
modify it if you want to make it look more
attractive.
For: Allows third party developers to
extend its functionality as its standard
components are opensourced; simple
interface; ease of use.
Against: Ugly interface.
select the ‘Hardware System’ module.
The memory module contains all the
information about the operating system
memory and the memory manger. A
comprehensive scan is carried out by
this application giving you a complete
report about your motherboard, buses,
peripherals, networks, etc. There’s
a benchmark to test your system
performance so that the result can be
compared with other systems. You can
also schedule these tests at your
own convenience.
A useful system utility, Fresh Diagnose
provides you complete information
about your system’s hardware as well as
software. The only glitch though is you
need to register this software if you want
to continue using it for more than 11 days.
Worry not, the registration is free!
For: Simple and informative interface;
providing complete information about
the hardware and software installed on
your system.
Against: Registration is required for using it
for more than 11 days.
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

Quick and free!
I f you’re searching for a free software that
would be a good alternative to WinZip
then you don’t need to look beyond Quick
Zip. Quick Zip is a neat little archiver that
can open and extract 14 kinds of archive
including zip without using any external
programs. It can also create tiny setup
programs.
The interface is simple and all the
options are present on the interface itself.
This application allows you to turn zip files
into self-extractable files with program
bars, list the archive in html or text format.
An important feature is the advanced
context menu that shows you how to zip
contents and different icons for each type
of archive.
The archive loads up very fast even if
it contains thousands of files. Choosing
the ‘Settings’ tab from the interface will
present you with a variety of options. It
allows you to configure default font and
toolbar skins, toolbar buttons and also
the multimedia viewer settings. When
Ring tone maker
V ery often you want to use your
favorite song as the ring tone on your
phone but fail to do so because of the lack
of good software. So what you end up
doing is spend money to get these songs
as ring tones for your phones. But you
can forget about spending now because
Create Ringtone gets you your desired ring
tone easily, without too much effort and
spending no extra buck.
The main interface is simple, so a
novice can use it without much difficulty.
The action begins with you selecting a file
either from your hard disk or an audio CD.
Then decide whether the entire audio file
is to be converted into a ring tone or just a
part of it. Do remember that if you choose
to convert the entire audio file into a
ring tone then the memory required
will also increase.
Next, you need to select the sample
rate, bits per sample and the channels.
Don’t fret if you don’t know what the
ideal combination for a good quality ring
tone is because adjacent to these options
you are provided the information as to
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
TESTED | APPLICATIONS 91
Compression Utility
you open archives and select a directory
to extract, Quick Zip automatically saves
these settings for you and also allows you
Quick Zip 4.6
to save your password when extracting so
that you don’t have to retype it.
The Clam anti-virus plug-in
automatically scans your files when an
archive is opened. If you feel that you don’t
want to use this anti-virus, you can use
your default anti-virus to scan the files
System requirements: Windows All
simply by changing the settings. Other
new features in this version include a Price Free
completely new archive finder, compiler website www.quickzip.org
update, etc. Thankfully, it doesn’t use much RATINGS
of your system resources. Ease of use
Overall, Quick Zip is a good compression Features
utility that has very good features. The best Performance
part is that it’s free. The Clam anti-virus Overall Rating
plug-in is a noteworthy feature. It also
handles archives with large files very Find it on CHIP CD
effectively.
For: Free; managing of archives with large
files easily; Clam anti-virus plug-in feature.
Against: None.
Multimedia
Create Ringtone
what settings you need for an optimum
quality ring tone. You can use these
recommended settings so that the ring
tone that you create is of good quality.
Once this is done just save your ring tones
to a folder and then transfer them to your
mobile phone via Bluetooth, Infrared or
a data cable. Want to identify a caller
with a ring tone? This app lets you create
customized ring tones for everyone in your System requirements: Windows 2000/XP, Pentium II or
address book. higher, 128 MB RAM, 40 MB of free hard disk space,
Ease of use is what makes this sound card.
software appealing. You don’t need to Price Rs 199
spend for downloading ring tones on Contact Aladdin Multimedia Pvt Ltd
your mobile phone, you can simply create Phone 022-56936795
E-mail aladdin@vsnl.com
your own. However, if you set the sample
rate to the maximum then the memory RATINGS
required by the ring tone on your mobile Ease of use
Features
phone will swell significantly.
Performance
For: Creation of ring tones with ease, Not
Overall Rating
resource hungry; creation of customixed
Value for money
ring tones for every contact in your
address book possible.
Against: Setting the sample rate to
maximum will result in ring tones eating
up a lot of your mobile phone’s memory.
Gung-ho about Gaming
Game development is seeing a new wave with the creation
of more and more localized content wooing the West
Q
uiz outlanders about their knowledge
of India and you would in all likelihood
hear ‘snake charmers’ or in these
modern times perhaps ‘outsourcing’. And if
it’s the latter, it’s not exactly wrong because
(the snake charming spiel is done to death
with) outsourcing is bang on target and this
time around not just in the business
processing domain, but as a rising new
phenomenon—game development.
And why not? Game development
studios are slowly mushrooming across
the metros taking advantage of India’s
prime skills and efficient labor not just
in outsourcing gaming content for well
known names (Sony, Codemasters,
Atari, Microsoft and EA are just some
of the companies involved) but also
creating original content for the
country and the world. With the
golden fusion of technological and
creative power (think Bangalore and
Hyderabad programming interbred
with Bollywood potboilers) as well
as the predomination of English as a
second language, a new generation is
on the rise, passionate about games
and wanting to make their mark.
Nascent as it may seem, the seeds of a
future revolution is subtly underway as the
West eyes India for gaming outsourcing and
the spotlight gets brighter. Not so much as in
video gaming but mobile gaming is certainly
big in India what with industrious and valued
labor hard at work churning out games and
foreign firms outsourcing animated content to
India for the global market. Apart from having
wooed the West, the mass market within the
country has also taken up mobile gaming in
a big way, thanks to the burgeoning mobile
industry. The growth of this market sector has
attracted publishers, developers, animators,
musicians and content providers, and is also
stimulating the development of innovative
business models.
The business of gaming constitutes PC,
video and mobile games. In the international
scenario, the development of games is
approximated to be a $30 billion industry and
India is quickly rising as a central terminus
for game development. The production of a
regular game nowadays would be around $4
to $10 million while futuristic games would
be anywhere between $5 and $20 million. Not
content, taking possession of the BPO and
KPO, gaming outsourcing is destined to be the
next big thing by 2009, where In-Stat/MDR
expects that the Indian mobile gaming market
will generate $336 million annual revenue by
2009. According to the NASSCOM report on
Animation and Gaming industry in India, the
market for gaming is expected to witness a
CAGR of 78 percent and reach USD 300 million
by 2009 from USD 30 million in 2005.
India is known to have fine programmers,
thrifty production costs and a speedily
developing market, and this is exactly why
we can hope that the gaming bastion will
seemingly be within our grasp in a few years’
time, as global giants outsource gaming
development work to the country. At present,
Indian developers are in a take-off mode.
A vast number of animation and gaming
professionals are stepping into global
assemblies as outsourcing gains ground.
The blink on the radar is poised to grow
exponentially in the days to come as gung-ho
game developers and animation firms in India
excitedly discuss the future of the gaming
industry in the country.
Take for example, Dhruva Interactive,
which has churned out international favorites
such as Pat Cash and Slyder (award winner in
February 2005) and Maria Sharapova titles for
the mobile platform. The firm has also bagged
the license for Charlie Chaplin and has recently
partnered with Cricinfo for games on cricket.
Hot off the oven is India’s first 3D multiplayer
PC game known as Pool on the Net. Rajesh Rao
of Dhruva Interactive feels that this is a sign of
times yet to come.
Way back in 1997 when it was first formed,
INTELLIGENT
INTELLIGENTCOMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006
COMPUTINGCHIP 2005

Dhruva Interactive concentrated on
developing programs for the global market
and was actively involved with Microsoft
Game Studios’ Xbox, and some time in
the past with Infogrames Entertainment
in making a portion of the then famous
game, Mission: Impossible. After more than
nine years in that field, Rao believes Dhruva
has come of age and has finally managed to
make a stand in the global market and earn
the expertise of creating localized content.
Dhruva was introduced in the European
market with the induction of the Maria
Sharapova Tennis, launched by British
game company I-Play. The game figured in
the top downloads list of mobile service
provider Vodafone Group PLC during the
Wimbledon championship.
Mumbai-based Indiagames has also
hewed out a place for itself in game
development with games such as The
Day After Tomorrow, Bruce Lee, Buffy
the Vampire Slayer and Spiderman.
Interestingly, TOM Online Inc, a leading
wireless Internet company in China,
recently acquired approximately 76.29
percent of Indiagames for US$17.7.
Indiagames today is a non wholly-owned
subsidiary of TOM Online. Cisco Systems
Inc and Macromedia have together
invested $4 million in Indiagames for 18.2
percent ownership. Indiagames recently
signed an exclusive licensing agreement
with Electronic Arts, the world’s leading
interactive entertainment company that
will bring EA’s roster of mobile games to
consumers across multiple mobile carriers
in India. The games initially released
through Indiagames would include Need
for Speed Underground 2, Need for Speed
Most Wanted, NBA Live 06, Tiger Woods
PGA Tour 06, EA Sports FIFA 06, FIFA Street 2,
Madden NFL 06, SimCity and The Sims 2.
In the BREW 2005 Developers
Conference held at Mumbai in October
2005 , Indiagames announced that it’s
currently in the developing stage of creating
3D mobile games for QUALCOMM’S
BREW solution. The BREW 3D games
Indiagames plans to develop are Bruce
Lee - Iron Fist 3D and Ashoka intended to
be a cross-platform, current-generation,
third-person, action/adventure game. The
mobile version of Ashoka will be released in
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
June 2006, followed by a console game in
late 2006. Indiagames will focus primarily
on porting the demo level of Ashoka onto
QUALCOMM’s enhanced platform chipsets.
The various factors in play for the
increasing popularity of local games, says
Rao, are the rising levels of consumerism,
prosperity, evolution of middle class, wider
acceptance of entertainment and more
indulgent consumers. The other factors
are growing exposure and availability of
gaming platform, like PC, console and
mobile phones.
Another interesting statistic Rao
observes is that in the field of mobile
phones, about 20 percent of the devices
that consumers own are gaming enabled.
Also, in comparison to the growth of
PCs, mobile growth has been simply
fantastic. V C Bhalotia of Dawsen Infotech
shares the same buoyant sentiment,
“Gaming is becoming a passion in India,
and the industry is growing up at a
phenomenal pace.”
While A K Madhavan of Crest Animation
Studios says that with the demand for
Indian developers growing phenomenally,
it’s not surprising that international
gaming companies are approaching him,
Munjal Shroff of Graphiti adds that it is the
right time to hitch onto the bandwagon as
the going is good and the potential is rising
higher. However, he does admit there is a
need to infuse more local flavor and with
fresh ideation and content, India can be set
apart as a distinctive notch from the rest.
So much so, Shroff and his animation team
at Graphiti have now decided to take the
plunge into developing gaming content for
the local market after having watched the
scene evolve over the years.
Simply put, in a gaming chain, game
publishers assign a developer the task of
developing a game around their content.
Once the game is ready, the developer
is paid his development fees and the
publisher then releases the game to its
partners, which are carriers and portals,
who offer the game to the consumer via
downloads or consoles.
Dhruva is now keenly looking at setting
up an internal training division with the
rising business potential , and as the
growing need for talented people especially
FEATURE | APPLICATIONS 93
in the mobile gaming space has been felt.
Mobiles are leading the gaming market in
India. With around 65 million mobile users
and 30 per cent of them having game-
enabled phones, India certainly seems a
lucrative market to all those watching the
sub-continent. In a few years from now, the
country will be a complex gaming market
with mobiles, PCs, multi-players PC and
consoles.
Mauj Telecom, a leading wireless
solutions provider has launched mobile
games in eight Indian languages—Hindi,
Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Tamil,
Malayalam, Telugu and Urdu and developed
three games, titled Mastibhari Udaan,
Saahas ka Yudh, and Jaanbaaz for mobile
users in B and C towns.
While creating the
game, keeping in mind
the user in the smaller
towns
and
cities,
Mauj
maintains
that right
from the
introductory
menu to the
help section
and technical
detailing, care
has been taken
to sustain a local
flavor and ease of use.
Moreover, Mauj employed
approximately 30 translators
and over 20 technicians in
http://www.postmaster.co.in
Flexible
Add-on modules to provide
single point protection from viruses, spam,
malicious and objectionable content and
for a regulated Web-access environment.
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For a free trial call QuantumLink Communications Pvt. Ltd.
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Or write to - sales.ho@postmaster.co.in
94 APPLICATIONS | FEATURE
developing the games.
Mauj games in Indian languages are
now live and available by logging on to
www.wap.mauj.com or by sending an
SMS to 7007 on Idea, Hutch, Spice, BSNL
and MTNL. Games in these languages
are available on all Nokia, Samsung, Sony
Ericsson, and Motorola handsets. Mauj
has entered into tie-ups with Ram Gopal
Verma’s K Sera Sera-Verma Corp, Nitin
Manmohan’s Neha Arts, Fourth Wall
Productions, Harry Baweja, Anil Sharma’s
Movieworld, Rajshri Films, Fish Eye
Network, Bubby Kent, EMI Music India and
Planman among others.
The company has created games of
all genres including arcade, board games,
strategy, role-playing, etc to address the
vast spectrum of consumers using mobile
phones. It also holds marketing rights for
over 800 international mobile games.
Mobile game development is a viable
option for most development studios
aiming to enter the field of PC and
console gaming. Even though the price
of developing a mobile game title is way
lesser as compared to PC or console games,
the game developer still has a global
audience to cater to. These days, it takes
not less than two-and-a-half years to
develop a full-fledged game.
Backed by Reliance Infocomm,
another well–known game developer
Mumbai-based Paradox Studios has done
several ‘mobile advergaming’ projects for
companies such as Coca-Cola India and
has partnered with mobile operators,
handset manufacturers, and technology
providers like Intel, Sun, Sony Ericsson, LG,
and Qualcomm for its gaming initiatives.
The development studio recently won the
Special Jury Award at FICCI FRAMES 2005
for BomberBabe, an arcade game and also
won the Conitec’s Spring 2003 Award for
BattleDust: The Championship, India’s first
3D fighting game. Currently involved in
developing 3D wireless, Session Initiation
Protocol (SIP)-based and Location Based
Services (LBS)-based games for next-
generation handsets, Paradox is all
set to establish new standards in the
gaming industry.
In the Indian scenario, there is no dearth
of storyline. The nation is blessed with
a rich and varied mythology. However,
the crux lies in the way the story is
presented by writers and developers that
will eventually rope in players and also
appeal to the global market, as even if the
content is local, the presentation style
has to be global. Bhalotia points out that
Indian mythology and folk tales are filled
with war and magical sequences, thereby
leaving ample scope for the game makers
to plan a game and then exploit it to the
fullest extent possible. And Rao reiterates
that to reach the masses, it’s important
to generate regional content and subject
matter based around Bollywood, cricket or
social cultural events that are of pertinence
to the Indian public.
Delhi-Based Lakshya Digital focuses on
3rd party game development and develops
game content for PC, console (Xbox,
Playstation and Gamecube) and Massively
Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs) with
its dedicated team for mobile games.
INFECTED, a fast paced over-the-top third
person shooter for the PSP was developed
by Planet Moon Studios and published
by Majesco Entertainment while Lakshya
Digital is known to have created graphics
for the game. The game casts the player
as a lone cop fighting against a tidal wave
of infectious zombies intent on ripping
New York to shreds. As a game outsourcing
contractor, Lakshya has recently secured
a contract from Seattle-based Sandlot
Games to conceptualize graphics for a
game called Tradewinds. In the next few
months, Lakshya will conceptualize 1,000
characters and objects and visualize 7,000
original battlefield scenes and graphic
interfaces for Tradewinds Part II.
With an amazing spurt of gaming
activities to take place in the months to
come, a host of players have set shop in the
country. From Los Angeles-based Jamdat
Mobile Inc that opened a 25-person office
in Hyderabad in December to MFORMA
Group Inc, a Bellevue (Wash.) maker of
a game based on X-Men 2 has emerged
with a team of 35 developers in Bangalore.
Britain’s Babel Media Ltd has lined up 20
staffers in a testing facility near Delhi.
Commenting on the growing popularity
of game development at the recent
Animation and Gaming exhibition 2006
in Hyderabad, Kiran Karnik, President of
Nasscom emphasized on the rapid growth
of mobile telephony, increase in PCs and
greater use of animation content to fuel
the further growth of the domestic market.
“If India continues to focus on developing
the talent pool and leveraging the cost
competitiveness, animation and gaming
will surely be the next promising fields,”
he added. ■
| Carol D’ Costa
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

Digital Brand Management
How to manage a brand portfolio in the new media
O
nline marketing and development
strategies as a rule stretch
brand management ability.
The proliferation of dedicated portals
addressing everything from alliances
to training poses a huge challenge for
companies that want to ensure consistent
brand representation on the web.
Organizing brand standards on the web is
an accessible tool for internal and external
parties, it helps to accelerate marketing
processes, and your chances of delivering
a consistent user experience are improved.
The net effect is improved brand value and
greater revenue.
Digital brand management tools: Sound
brand management involves human
interaction, training, and common sense.
Some off-the-shelf tools can make the task
a little easier. Digital asset management
systems enable companies to repurpose
digital media, including page templates,
logos, images, photographs, and video for
marketing purposes.
Brand protection and trademarks: The
strongest form of brand protection is a
registered trademark. The letters ‘TM’
marked on a business’s products or services
denotes a non-registered trademark. The
symbol ® after a business’s products or
services denotes a registered trademark. If a
trademark is registered, special rules apply
which make it easier to protect. Businesses
should hence consider obtaining registered
trademarks to protect their brands.
National protection: To obtain a registered
trademark, you must apply to the national
trademarks registry; in India this is the
Office of the Registrar of Trademarks. To
qualify for trademark protection, a mark
must be capable of (i) being represented
graphically, and (ii) distinguishing the
goods and services of one business from
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
| Rodney D Ryder
rodney@preconcept.com
those of another. Once registered, a
trademark grants its owner a statutory
monopoly to use it. In India, under the
present system, trademark registrations
are valid for seven years and are renewable
for another seven-year period thereafter.
Management of trademark: Protection and
maintenance of trademarks is best achieved
through periodic audits of the portfolio,
keeping thorough records, prompt renewal
of registrations, using the trademarks,
advertising to strengthen brand awareness
and promoting a tough policy towards
infringers. Trademarks are valuable assets
and may be exploited through assignment
or sale. When a trademark is to be licensed,
the licensor should ensure that the value of
the trademark is preserved by controlling
the manner and circumstances in which the
mark is used. A periodic trademark audit will
confirm what marks the company owns and
ensure that the appropriate policies are in
place to protect their value. Such a review
might also include valuation of the marks.
License provisions: There must be
a checklist on the license provisions.
The following must be considered in a
trademark license:
Grant: Inclusive, non-exclusive or sole
license.
Territory: The extent of the territory should
be certain and unambiguous.
Royalties: Rate set for royalties, when
COLUMN | APPLICATIONS 95
the royalty year should end, whether
it’s necessary to include calculation
provisions for currency conversion, where
the payment needs to be made, what
accounting records will be required from
the license, etc.
Termination: It’s important to know
whether there is a provision for remedy of
breaches; how the notice of termination
is to be given and to who it’s to be given,
and what the consequences of termination
could be; provisions to survive the
termination if any.
Sub licensing and assignment: The
possibility to sub-license or assign.
Indemnities and warranties: Warranties
regarding ownership of relevant registered
and unregistered rights, whether the rights
are in the name of the licensor.
Insurance and product liability: Addressing
any specific product liability or labelling
issues, whether the licensee needs
governmental or other administrative or
regulatory approvals, etc.
Competition: Are any provisions of the
license agreement and restrictions on the
licensee likely to raise questions over their
anti-competitive nature?
Jurisdiction: Which national courts should
have jurisdiction? Whether a provision for
arbitration or alternate dispute resolution
exists, and whether any specific arbitrator
or arbitral tribunal is to be identified.
Registration: Provision for registering
the license and at whose expense must
be clear.
Administration: Who will have the mandate
to negotiate the license? Full registered
address and company registration number
for each party, who will sign the license on
behalf of the licensee and licensor. ■
Rodney D Ryder heads Preconcept (www.
preconcept.com), a service law firm with
cutting edge specialization in Intellectual
Property, Media and Technology Law
rodney@preconcept.com
Don’t miss them!
Many features offered by the Microsoft Office Suite remain unused because
we are unaware about them. Let’s take a look at some of the hidden features
here that can not only save time but also improve your efficiency

xxxxxxxx

Vishwanath Vanjire

INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006


W
ith each new version,
Microsoft Office, just keeps
getting better. And every
new Office release is easier to use and
comes with a host of features. But it also
gets bloated with all those additions and
enhancements; in fact there are too many
features in MS Office. Studies show that
most people use just six to 10 percent
of these features. Did you ever spare a
thought for those features hidden away in
dialog boxes and deep level menus?
Do a bit of digging and you’ll discover
some uncut diamonds and nuggets—
features you were unaware of, but are
actually useful. We’ll begin the ‘mining
expedition’ with some general Office tips
and then examine the popular programs in
the MS Office 2003 suite.
Which version?
It’s a good idea to be aware of which
version of Office is installed on your
computer. And if you plan to get an
upgrade, then do evaluate all the different
editions that Microsoft offers (See table).
Start any Microsoft program (Word,
Excel, or PowerPoint) by clicking “Start |
Programs | Microsoft Office”. Then click
on the program name. You should see
a ‘splash screen’ —a box that appears
briefly, shows the name and version of the
program. If that happens too fast for you
to notice, then click “Help | About…”. The
version (year of release) is displayed.
You will probably have one of these
versions: Office 2000, Office XP/2002,
Office 2003. If you have Office 95 or
Office 97 then your computer is really old;
consider replacing it. Don’t even think
Student
Standard
& Teacher
Edition
edition
Word ✓ ✓
Excel ✓ ✓
Access
PowerPoint ✓ ✓
Outlook ✓ ✓
Publisher
Small Business
Accounting
(*) – means Outlook with Business Contact Manager update.
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
about using your old computer with Office
2000 or later! Its memory capacity would
be insufficient to handle recent versions of
Office.
The other important thing to note is
that Microsoft offers different ‘flavors’
or editions of Office. Do you want to pay
more for an edition whose features you will
never use?
Each edition has various modules (see
table). Choose your edition accordingly.
Many ways, choose yours
In many cases, Office provides several ways
to access the same feature. For instance,
take text formatting. One option is to use
the buttons/commands on the Format
toolbar, or shortcut keys (described later in
this article), or the menus and dialog boxes.
To make a selected piece of text bold, click
the bold button on the format toolbar, or
click [Ctrl] + B, or click “Format | Font” and
then click “bold” under Font Style.
You will learn about these alternatives
as you use the program. Choose the
method that you are most comfortable
with, then use it often to remember it.
Use the Help menu and type the
function in the search box. Help also
shows you the different ways of applying a
particular command.
Learn the shortcut keys
The term ‘shortcut keys’ means a
combination of two or more keys pressed
in sequence. The keys are held down
together while the last key is pressed. For
instance, holding down the [Ctrl] key and
pressing the letter key B (denoted as [Ctrl]
+ B in this article).
Small Small Business
Professional
Business Management
Edition
Edition Edition
✓ ✓ ✓
✓ ✓ ✓
✓ ✓
✓ ✓ ✓
✓ (*) ✓ (*) ✓ (*)
✓ ✓ ✓
✓ The Customize dialog box must be
FEATURE | APPLICATIONS 97
You can work really fast by using
shortcut keys for the most used
commands/features in Office.
Made a mistake? Just undo
Did you delete a piece of text by mistake?
Perhaps you applied the wrong formatting?
Slip of the finger? Don’t worry, you can
revert to the original form. Just use the
Undo feature that’s included in all Office
programs.
Pressing [Ctrl] + Z is the fastest way to
undo an operation. But you can also click
the Undo button on the toolbar, or click
“Edit | Undo”.
Customization
Office lets you add or remove commands
from its program menus and toolbars. This
is a very useful feature; it is more relevant
if you frequently use certain commands.
You can add or remove buttons for
specific commands or features. On the
“Tools” menu click “Customize”. The
customize dialog box is shown. Under
the “Toolbars” tab you can specify which
toolbars are to be displayed, by clicking
in the check boxes. We suggest that you
uncheck toolbars whose commands you do
not frequently use. This will free up some
space at the top of the screen, and display
more of the document area on the screen.
When you click the “Commands” tab
in the customize dialog box, you’ll see the
various command categories on the left.
Click on a particular category and on the
right you’ll see all the commands under
that category. Right click on a particular
command, then drag it out of the dialog
box, to the top of the screen, and drop it on
a toolbar (to add a button).
displayed while you modify a toolbar or
menu
98 APPLICATIONS | FEATURE
To remove a button from the toolbar
just right click on it and drag it into the
document area (not into the dialog box).
But to do this you’ll have to follow the
above steps and display the customize
dialog box.
In this manner, you can also add or
remove commands from specific menus or
make your own menu.
Using Help
The Help system in any program is rarely
used. In fact, one uses it as the last resort
to seek a solution to a problem. But the
help system in Microsoft Office is actually
a great source of knowledge. Explore it
and you will learn a lot about a particular
feature. The help system provides help on
related topics too.
Press the [F1] key or click the “Help”
menu and an option. Alternatively click the
Help icon (a blue question mark) on the
toolbar. In Office 2003, the Help system
appears in a task pane on the right side.
The Help system is linked to a support web
site, so you will need to be online (connect
to the Internet).
There are different forms of help. The
easiest way is to type the topic name in
the search text box; then click the green
arrow (“Go”) button. This will reference the
Microsoft support web site. Alternatively,
download and go through the Table of
Contents and look for your topic. You
will first have to download the Table of
Contents from the Microsoft web site, by
clicking the relevant in the help task pane.
The help task pane has links to other
support web sites like Assistance, Training,
Communities, and Downloads. Those who
yearn for more knowledge can explore
these sites and participate in discussions
on forums.
The easiest way
to get help is to
type the topic
name in the
search box
A tip a day
Another nice way to learn more about the
features in MS Office, is to read the tip
that appears when you start a program.
For instance, when you start MS Word,
the Office Assistant animated character
(a paper clip, dog, cat, robot, or wizard)
appears with a tip.
To activate the “tip on startup” feature,
do the following:
On the “Tools” menu, click “Customize”.
Click the “Options” tab.
Under “Other”, select or clear the “Show
ScreenTips on toolbars” and “Show
shortcut keys in ScreenTips” check
boxes.
The next time you start Word, Excel, or
another Office program, you’ll see a tip.
The Office Assistant shows all kinds of
tips, some of which may not be so relevant.
Here’s a way to set it up so that it shows
only the important tips or the type of tips
that interest you.
If the Office Assistant is not displayed,
then click “Help | Show the Office
Assistant”.
Right click on the Office Assistant and
choose “Options”.
Under “Show tips about” click in the
checkbox for “Only show high priority
tips”.
Select or unselect any other options,
and then click “OK”.
Status bars and indicators
It’s easy to miss the Status bar and its
indicators, because this bar is at the
bottom of the screen, and the text on this
bar is quite small. The Status bar is like the
dash board behind the steering wheel in a
car. Both give important information in real
time. And if you understand the various
indicators on the Status bar, it becomes
easier to use the program.
Open a new document in MS Word or
MS Excel and look at the bottom of the
screen. The Status bar will be displayed by
default.
In MS Word the Status bar indicates
the current page number (the page on
which you are entering text), the position
of the cursor from the top of the page,
and the position of the cursor on the page
(line number and column number). It also
indicates the chosen language. But what’s
really useful is the indicators for Tracking
& Reviewing (TRK), the Insert mode (OVR),
and macro recording (REC). Keep your
eye on these indicators when using the
respective functions.
In MS Excel the status bar indicates the
status of the Caps Lock and num Lock keys
of the keyboard. When recording a macro,
the word ‘Recording’ is shown on the
status bar.
Task pane
The Task pane feature was introduced
from Office XP/2002 onwards, and it has
been well received by users. The task pane
groups together all the commands and
options required for a particular task. The
advantage is that you get it all in one place.
Before Office 2002, you had to reach into
various menus and dialog boxes to get a
task done. Because dialog boxes are big
and occupy screen space, they tend to hide
the text area in the document---which
is what you need to see while applying a
command.
The task pane is conveniently located
to the right of the screen. To display the
task pane, press the [F1] key. Click the drop
arrow at the top of the task pane to see
other types of task panes named Getting
Started, Search Results, Research, Clipboard
etc. The more useful task panes are: Help,
Styles and formatting, Clipboard, and
Getting Started.
Click the drop arrow at the top of the task
pane to see other types of task panes
Document protection
Is your document confidential and meant
for a few privileged people? Then why
not “password protect” it. In MS Word
click “Tools | Options” and then click the
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

“Security” tab. You have the option of using
a password to open a document, or for
making a document “read only”.
Word tips
There are plenty of tips for using Microsoft
Word 2003. Here are some useful tips and
features that you may have forgotten, or
may be unaware about.
Templates
Every document that you create is based on
a ‘template’. A template is like a checklist
that states all the current settings for the
document. This includes the page size,
margin measurements, the text font and
font size, text indents, paragraph and line
spacing, etc. In short, templates determine
the overall look of the document.
A fax document has a unique
appearance. Examine a fax message and
you’ll see lots of “white space”. Lines are
double-spaced. The text font is clearly
readable, even if it’s a small size. And
the recipient’s name and fax number at
the top, are in large, bold font. MS Word
offers a ready template for fax documents.
Just open this template, replace the text
with your own text and print it out. You
may not need to format the text at all,
since formatting is already present in the
template. As you can see, templates are
very useful and can save much time.
Select a readymade template for a fax
document and just type the text. It is
already formatted
To access a template
Start MS Word.
Click “File | New”.
In MS Word 2003, you’ll see a Templates
section in the task pane. Click the link
“On my computer…”
The templates dialog box will appear.
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
The templates are organized under
various categories like Letters & Faxes,
Memos, Reports, Legal Pleadings, etc.
Click on a tab (template category) of
your choice. Various templates will be
seen under that category.
Click on a template and see how it
appears in the preview box.
Then click “OK” to select it.
You can also create your own templates
for future use. First prepare a document
and format it using the Format menu. Then
click “File | Save as”. Type a name for the
file. Click the drop arrow near Save as type
and select Document Template. Then click
the “Save” button. The next time you open
a new document (“File | New”) you should
see your template.
Also in MS Excel.
Format Painter and Styles
Want to apply the same formatting to
other pieces of text? There’s no need to
repeat the steps. Just use the Format
Painter tool or use Styles.
To use the format painter tool:
Select the text whose formatting you
want to copy.
Click the Format Painter button on the
toolbar (it is a paint brush). Alternatively,
click [Ctrl] + [Shift] + C.
Now select some other text on which
you want to apply this formatting.
If you need to use a particular set of
formatting settings often, why not create
a “Style” and save it permanently. A Style is
a collection of formatting settings that are
collected together and are given a name.
To create a style in Word XP/2003 do the
following:
Open a document.
On the “Format” menu click “Styles &
formatting”.
The Styles task pane appears on the
right. Click “New Style” within it.
Type a name for the new style.
Click the “Format” button at the bottom
of the dialog box. Select an option
accordingly and define your style.
Also in MS Excel.
FEATURE | APPLICATIONS 99
AutoCorrect, AutoFormat
This is one of the most useful features
in MS Word. Although you don’t see it,
Autocorrect quietly monitors what you
type and then quickly corrects common
typing errors (misspelled words). For
instance, if you type “yuo” and press
the [Space] bar, Ms Word automatically
changes it to “you”.
AutoCorrect also corrects punctuation
and usage of symbols/characters. Type (c)
and it is changed to © (copyright symbol).
AutoCorrect maintains a table of
common mistakes and the corresponding
corrections.
If you want to view this table or add
some entries to it then click the “Tools”
menu and click “AutoCorrect Options”.
Within the AutoCorrect dialog box
explore the tabs “AutoFormat” and
“AutoFormat as you Type”.
Also in MS Excel.
Change case
Sometimes you may type a couple of
words, and then realize that the [Caps
Lock] key was mistakenly switched on. So
everything is in capital letters or in upper
case. No problem! Just select the text and
press [Shift] + [F3] once to convert it to
lower case (small letters). This can also be
done by selecting “Format | Change Case”.
Save in RTF format
There are different versions of MS Word. If
you prepare a document in a newer version
of MS Word and send it to someone who
uses an older version, chances are he my
not be able to open the document. This
problem may occur if you save in the DOC
format.
To be on the safe side, save your
document in the RTF format. Here’s how to
do this:
With the document open, choose “File |
Save as”.
Type the name for the file.
Click the drop arrow in the “Save as
type” box and select Rich Text Format.
The second part of the file name will
be .rtf
Spell check and grammar
The Word and Excel programs have built-in
100 APPLICATIONS | FEATURE
spell check and grammar check options.
You will see misspelled words underlined
in red ink. Phrases with incorrect grammar
are underlined in green. You can right
click on misspelled words and choose the
correct word from the context menu. If you
think a word is spelled correctly, but Word
thinks it is wrong (and underlines it) then
simply right click on the word and choose
“Ignore”.
If you want to change the way Word
checks your spellings and grammar, then
select “Tools | Options” then click the
“Spellings & Grammar” tab. Choose any of
the options.
Also in MS Excel.
Track revisions
If you share documents with colleagues,
and allow them to make changes, then
you’ll want to keep track of what changes
they make. This can be done if you enable
the “Tracking and Reviewing” feature in MS
Word before sharing the Word document.
Click “Tools | Track Changes” and save
the file.
There are certain indicators that show
that the tracking feature is enabled. The
Status bar at the bottom of the screen
shows “TRK” to confirm that tracking is
On. Also notice that the Tracking toolbar
appears near the formatting toolbar at
the top of the screen. Hence forth, any
modifications made to the text will appear
in a different color “ink” (there’s a separate
color for each user). To see which color
corresponds to which user, click “Show” on
the tracking toolbar and select “Reviewers”.
With tracking enabled, inserted text will
be underlined and deleted text is struck
out (has a line running through it).
After everyone has made their
modifications, you can choose which ones
to keep and the changes to be rejected.
Click the “Accept Change” and “Reject
Change” buttons on the tracking toolbar.
Finally switch off the tracking feature by
selecting “Tools | Track Changes”.
Also in MS Excel.
Use Macros
Macros are small programs (a series of
steps or instructions) for automating
routine tasks (for example, printing with
specific settings). There are two ways of
| Shortcut keys in MS Word
[Ctrl] + F6 If more than one document
is open, then you can
quickly change between
documents with this key
combination.
[Ctrl] + [Home] Puts the insertion point at
the top of the document, so
that you can view the top of
the document or edit it.
[Ctrl] + [End] Puts the insertion point at
the end of the document,
so that you can view the
end of the document or edit
it.
[Shift] + [F3] With some text selected,
you can press this key
combination once, twice,
or thrice to change the
casing to all capitals, small
letters, or title case (first
alphabet in capitals).
[Ctrl] + B Applies the bold style to
selected text.
[Ctrl] + I Applies the Italics style to
selected text
[Esc] Cancel current operation.
[Ctrl] + [Z] undo the most recent
operation.
You can print a list of shortcut keys in the
following way:
On the “Tools” menu, point to “Macro”,
and then click “Macros”.
In the Macros in box, click Word
commands.
In the Macro name box, click
“ListCommands”.
Click “Run”.
In the List Commands dialog box, click
Current menu and keyboard settings.
Click “OK”.
On the “File” menu, click “Print”.
creating macros in Word and Excel—one is
to use the menu system (the corresponding
instructions are automatically generated).
The other (more challenging) option is
to learn a scripting language called VBA
(Visual Basic for Applications) and write the
instructions line by line, yourself.
Before you start recording a macro, we
suggest that you rehearse the steps for
a particular task. Make notes if needed.
Then start the Macro Recorder (click “Tools
| Macro | Record New Macro”. Type a name
for the macro. The macro toolbar will
appear with “Stop” and “Pause” buttons.
Perform the menu operations (that you
may have rehearsed earlier) in the normal
manner. Click the “Stop” button when you
have finished.
To run a macro click “Tools | Macro |
Macros” and select the name of the macro.
Then click the “Run” button.
Also in MS Excel.
Excel tips
Help with functions
Most Excel users are familiar with the
SUM, AVERAGE, MIN, MAX, and COUNT
functions. But there are other sets of
functions. Here’s how to learn and discover
a new function.
Place the cell pointer in
the cell where the result
should appear.
Now locate the
AutoSum button on the
standard toolbar. Click the drop arrow
on this tool.
Select “More Functions…”
In the search box, you can type what
type of calculation you want to perform.
Excel will then suggest the appropriate
function.
Click “Go”.
Excel will list the possible functions.
Double click on the appropriate one.
Type the parameters for that function
(range, etc). Read the help notes at the
bottom of the dialog box.
In the search box, you can type what
type of calculation you want to perform.
Excel will then suggest the appropriate
function
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

Click “OK” to perform the calculation.
In step 4, you have another option.
If you have a good idea of what kind of
calculation needs to be performed then
click the drop arrow and select the category
of the function. Then locate the desired
function in the list.
Name your ranges
A Range is a set of contiguous cells. For
instance, if there is data between the cells
A1 to A9, that set of data qualifies as a
range and in Excel’s terms it is written as
A1:A9. As you can see, we use the first and
last cell in the range to denote it.
Obviously, it is difficult to remember
something like A1:A9. So Excel allows you
to name ranges with a word. To name a
range, do the following:
First select the range of cells (by clicking
on the first cell and dragging across to
the last cell).
Click “Insert | Name | Define…”.
Type a word for the name.
Click “OK”.
Once you name the range, you can use
it in formulas and functions. For instance,
if you want to add up all numbers in the
range A1:A9 and you have named this
range as “Numbers” then the SUM function
becomes =SUM (Numbers).
Range names are not case sensitive,
meaning you can write the word
“Numbers” (in this case) as “NUMBERS” or
“numbers” too in the function or formula.
Select multiple ranges
A range is a group of consecutive cells. To
select a range, you click on the first cell in
the range, and then drag the mouse either
downwards or to the right, adding cells to
the range as you do this. But can you select
more than one range at a time, even for
non-adjacent cells? Yes, it is possible.
Select the first range of cells (as
described above).
Hold down the [Ctrl] key and select the
next range of cells in the same manner.
You can next apply formatting or copy
the ranges (“Edit | Copy”) or perform
any other operation.
Press the [Esc] key to unselect the
ranges when done.
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
Adjust column width
Lengthy text entries in a column may be
partially displayed, especially if the column
on the immediate right is filled with data.
Excel can choose the best width for the
column according to the widest entry. Point
to the column border on the right of the
column letter. The cell pointer changes
shape to a double headed arrow. Click
twice on the column border. The column
width will be adjusted and all entries in the
column are displayed.
AutoSum function
There is a really fast way to add numbers
in an Excel spreadsheet. If the numbers are
in consecutive cells and these need to be
added, use Excel’s AutoSum function.
Place the cell pointer in the cell after the
last number in the series.
Click once on the AutoSum button in the
Standard toolbar above.
Excel will highlight the range of
numbers in the series to be added.
Press the [Enter] key to confirm.
The total will appear in the cell.
AutoFill a series
If you need to enter a series of consecutive
numbers then Excel offers a time-saving
feature. Type the first two numbers in
consecutive cells (odd, even or consecutive
numbers). Select the two cells with
numbers, just as you normally select a
range of cells. You will see the fill handle, a
small square, at the bottom right corner of
the selection. Place the cell pointer on the
fill handle so that it changes its shape to a
thin “+” sign. Now drag the fill handle down
or across to as many cells as required to
extend the series. This can also be done for
week days (Sunday, Monday…), months, or
quarters (QTR-1, QTR-2…).
Select the first two
cells in the series, then
point at the Fill handle
and drag it down to
the remaining cells to
form the series
Take a Picture
We bet you didn’t know that Excel has a
nifty little tool that allows you to create a
picture from a range of cells, from a chart,
FEATURE | APPLICATIONS 101
or from another object in your worksheet.
But what use might that be? Well, if you
want to send someone details (by e-mail)
about how a certain part of a worksheet or
a graph looks, then capture a picture of it
You can take a
snapshot of a
selected range in the
Worksheet. This can
later be pasted in any
other document
in Excel and paste it in the e-mail or even a
Word document. Here’s how to do it.
Select the cells or some other object
(like a graph) that you want a picture
of. (If you select cells, they must be
contiguous.)
Hold down the [Shift] key as you click
the Edit menu.
Click the “Copy Picture” option. Excel
displays the Copy Picture dialog box.
In the top part of the dialog box, specify
if you want the picture shown as it
would look on the screen or on the
printout.
In the bottom part of the dialog box,
specify how you want the graphic saved
(bitmap or picture format). A bitmap can
be edited, pixel by pixel in the MS Paint
program.
Click “OK”.
The result is that you now have a
graphic in the Clipboard (memory) and
you can paste it (“Edit | Paste”) anywhere.
Paste it in another spreadsheet if you like,
paste it in an e-mail, or paste it in a Word
document. You can paste it just about
anywhere because it is no longer an Excel
object, but an actual graphic.
Transpose rows and columns
When creating a table, you may find that
the headings in the columns would be
more suitable if they were arranged row
wise. That is, you may feel the need to
interchange the positioning of row and
column data. The table and all its data is
already prepared, so typing the whole thing
again would be time consuming.
Don’t worry. Excel offers a way to
interchange the positioning of row and
column data. This is called Transposing.
Here’s how it’s done.
Select the entire table including the row
102 APPLICATIONS | FEATURE
In the Paste Special dialog box, click on
the Transpose box to put a check mark
in it
and column headings.
Choose “Edit | Copy”.
Click on a blank cell to the right of the
table (or below it).
Select “Edit | Paste Special”.
In the Paste Special dialog box click on
the Transpose box in the lower right
corner.
Click “OK”.
Excel transposes the table in the new
location that you selected. But the original
table is still left behind. You may delete
the original table and move the new
transposed table to the original location.
Select the original table.
Choose “Edit | Clear | All”.
Now select the new transposed table.
Choose “Edit | Cut”.
Click on the first cell where the original
table was located.
Select “Edit | Paste”.
Save the file again.
Recover workbooks
You are working on an all-important
worksheet with intense concentration. And
you haven’t bothered to save it even once.
Then the power fails, the lights go out and
your computer screen goes blank… When
the power is restored you search for your
Excel workbook. Naturally it isn’t there
(because you didn’t save it even once). To
avoid this situation, use the AutoRecover
feature.
With the worksheet open, select “Tools
| Options”.
Click on the “Save” tab.
Select the option “Save AutoRecover
info every:”
Change the time interval (default 10
minutes) if needed.
Click “OK”.
Excel will now save your workbook every
10 minutes. Of course you can change this
interval (depending on how frequently you
make changes) using the above steps.
If your computer fails while you are
working on a spreadsheet, then the next
time you start Excel, the recovered file (up
to the last backup) will be shown. So you
won’t lose too much information, just the
changes made between the last backup
and the power failure.
You can save the recovered file in the My
Documents folder using the “File | Save As”
command. Then re-open it and continue
working on it.
Fit it all on the page
Ever tried printing a worksheet with several
columns? If you’re inexperienced you could
end up with some unwanted surprises.
Columns may print on separate pages, so
you could have a page with just the last
two columns (from the right). This results
in paper wastage and frustration. Fitting it
all on the same page takes some skill and
experience. Here are some tips that are
sure to help.
Preview before you print. Use the Print
Preview feature to see exactly what
is about to print on the various pages.
Click “File | Print Preview”. Then click
the “Next” and “Previous” buttons
to check out other pages. Finally click
on the “Close” button. You can then
make the necessary adjustments
(discussed below) if some columns are
overshooting the paper width. This is
sure to save paper.
Too many columns? Try printing in the
Landscape mode. This usually solves
the problem and fits everything on
the sheet of paper. Click “File | Page
Setup”. If necessary click the Page tab.
Then under Orientation, click on the
Landscape option. Then click “OK”.
Reduce the margins and you can fit
more within a page. This will work only
if there are just a few columns (or rows)
overshooting the page. You can do this
| Shortcut keys in MS Excel
[Ctrl] + F6 If more than one workbook
is open, then you can
quickly change between
workbooks with this key
combination.
[Ctrl] + [Home] Puts the cell selector in the
very first cell (A1) at the top
of the document.
[Ctrl] + [End] Puts the insertion point at
the end of the document
(after the last filled cell).
[Page Up] Move one screen up at a
time.
[Page Down] Move one screen down at a
time.
[Esc] Cancel current operation.
[Ctrl] + [Z] Undo the most recent
operation.
[F2] Edit mode for the currently
selected cell.
[F5] Go to a cell whose address
you specify.
[Ctrl] + [Page Up] If you work with
multiple sheets (within the
same workbook) then this
key combination can be
pressed (more than once)
to switch to the next sheet.
[Ctrl] + [Page Down] Use this key
combination to switch to
the previous sheet.
directly in Print Preview mode. Click
“File | Print Preview”. Then click the
“Margins” button. The margin lines will
appear. Drag the left margin to the left
and the right margin to the right so as to
create more space for the column that
is outside the page. Once all columns fit
within the page click the “Close” button.
Is it necessary to print all columns? Hide
columns that you do not want to print.
Click on the column letter to select the
column. From the “Format” menu select
“Column | Hide”. Hide other columns
if required. Hidden columns are not
printed. You can now preview and then
print. To unhide the columns select the
whole worksheet by pressing [Ctrl]+A.
Then select “Format | Column | Unhide”.
Click anywhere to unselect the worksheet.
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

Adjust page breaks
When printing large worksheets you may
observe that Excel prints data of the first
few columns on the first page, and later
prints the remaining columns on the last
page. In between, Excel prints data from
rows and columns on pages in an order
that seems to create much confusion. You
can solve this mystery doing two things.
Excel splits a large worksheet into
multiple pages by inserting page breaks.
So first understand where the page breaks
have been inserted.
Click “File | Page setup” and then click
“OK”.
Reduce the zoom factor to 50 percent
from the toolbar above. You will now
see the page breaks.
If you want to manually adjust the page
breaks to accommodate columns on
a page, then click “View | Page Break
Preview”.
The page breaks are shown as blue lines.
You can drag these lines and make the
necessary adjustments.
Click “View | Normal” to get out of page
break view.
Rounding Powers
We normally use the ROUND function to
round numbers to the right of the decimal
point. If you use a negative rounding value
with the ROUND function, you can also
use it to round to different powers of ten.
If you want to round a number to the
nearest 10, 100, or 1000, you can use the
ROUND function with negative values
for the second parameter. This approach
works fine.
For instance, if you have a value in
cell D6 and you want to round it to the
nearest 100, you could use the following
formula:
=ROUND(D6,-2)
This rounds to second digit to the left
of the current decimal place. For instance,
if D6 contains the value 12345, then the
formula returns 12300. Similarly, if D7
contains 12351, then the formula returns
12400.
You can use the same technique to
round to the nearest 10 by using -1 as the
second parameter, or to the nearest 1000
by using -3.
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
Enter data simultaneously
Let’s say that there is a lot of data to be
entered into a worksheet and you don’t
have much time. So round up a few helpers
and get them to enter data into the same
worksheet simultaneously. Yes, Excel
allows you to do that, but all the computers
used to work on this worksheet must be
connected over a network.
Copy the worksheet file into a folder
that is accessible to everyone on the
network. You can make the folder
containing the worksheet sharable on
a temporary basis. Right click on the
folder and click “Sharing and Security”.
Select the option “Share this folder…”.
Also select “Allow network users to
change my files”.
Next share the worksheet itself.
Open it and select “Tools | Share
Workbook”.
Click to put a check mark near “Allow
changes by more than one user…”
Then click “OK”.
Outlook Express tips
Don’t send e-mail immediately
It’s a good idea not to send messages
as soon as the “Send” button is pressed.
Queue up all your messages in the
“Outbox” folder and then send them
together as a batch. To switch off the
immediate send option do the following.
Select “Tools | Options”.
Click the “Send” tab.
Remove the check mark near the box
“Send messages immediately”.
Click on “Apply” or “OK”.
This also prevents accidents! In a hurry
you might reply to all recipients by mistake
and then regret it later. But if the message
is queued in the Outbox folder, you can
open it from there and still have a chance
to change things before sending it out.
Trim excess quoted text
By default, e-mail programs include the
original message in the reply. This can
lead to unwanted information being sent
to various recipients and even breach of
privacy. Adding the original message bloats
the reply, so avoid doing this. You not only
FEATURE | APPLICATIONS 103
help your recipients save mailbox storage
space, but also help to transmit it through
the Internet faster. Here is a simple way to
disable the feature.
Go to the menu and choose “Tools |
Options”.
Click on the “Send” tab.
Un-check the box next to “Include
message in reply”.
Click on “Apply” or “OK” and you are
done.
Don’t CC everyone, blind-copy them
If you need to forward or send information
to more than one person, send blind carbon
copies (BCC). It is definitely a better way of
forwarding an e-mail message when you
don’t want to disclose the identity of all the
recipients.
Here’s how you can use the BCC feature:
Click on “To”, next to the e-mail address
box in the e-mail. This opens your
address book window.
To the right you will see three boxes into
which you can insert addresses. “To”
and “CC” (carbon copy) will include each
person’s e-mail address in the outgoing
e-mail.
“BCC” will not include the recipients’
e-mail addresses in the outgoing e-mail,
protecting their privacy.
Simply type the principal recipient’s
address in the “To” column and the rest
in the “BCC” column.
Automate e-mail checking
Most of us check for e-mail two or three
times in a day, especially if it’s work e-mail
ID that is expected to be active throughout
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104 APPLICATIONS | FEATURE
Outlook can download new messages
automatically after a specific interval of
time
the day. If you find the process of launching
Outlook Express and connecting to the
server every time you need to download
e-mail a tedious and repetitive job, you
can automate the whole process and the
mail client will automatically check for new
e-mail at specified intervals.
Here’s how you can check for e-mail and
download them automatically.
In the menu go to “Tools | Options”.
Click on the “General” tab.
Under the “Send/Receive Messages”
section, select the third option: “Check
for new e-mail message every …
minutes”.
Specify the interval at which Outlook
Express should check for new e-mail,
by selecting the time in the drop-down
menu.
Further down, below the “Send/Receive
messages”, you can also instruct
Outlook Express to connect to the
Internet in case you happen to be
offline.
Click on “Apply” or “OK”.
Request a Read Receipt
If you find yourself waiting for someone to
reply to your mail, or wonder whether it’s
reached the person at all, there’s a way to
confirm whether the recipient has opened
the message. Request a Read Receipt.
From the menu choose “Tools | Options”.
Click on the “Receipts” tab.
Under the “Requesting Read Receipts”
section, enable the option “Request a
read receipt for all sent messages”.
Click on “Apply” or “OK”.
Import an address book
Manually filling up an address book can be
quite a cumbersome task. It’s a good thing
Outlook Express provides many easy ways
to keep your address book updated. One of
them is by importing an address from the
mails you have received in your inbox.
If you wish to add a sender of an e-mail
in your Inbox to your address book, simply
right click on the message who’s sender
you wish to add and select the option “Add
Sender to Address Book”.
And If you get a mail with multiple
recipients from which you wish to add e-
mail addresses in your address book, here’s
how to do this.
Open the e-mail containing the required
addresses.
Go to “Tools | Add to Address Book |
Everyone on To List”.
Click “OK” for each new contact.
If you want just a few addresses from
the recipient list, you can just click on the
names of the contacts in the “Tools | Add to
Address Book” menu.
Security for lethal attachments
As an attempt to boost Internet security,
Outlook Express has a feature that
prevents you from opening some e-mail
attachments. This could be a problem
for many users as often some important
attachments are suspected to be
dangerous and blocked without the user’s
consent.
This tip will show you how to disable
this feature in Outlook Express. Please
try it only if you have a capable anti-virus
software installed and if you’re sure
you won’t end up opening a harmful
attachment by mistake!
Go to “Tools | Options… | Security”.
Un-check the option “Do not allow
attachments to be saved or opened that
could potentially be a virus”.
Click “OK”.
Forward a group of messages
Forwarding messages in Outlook Express is
as easy as clicking the forward button, but
what if you wish to forward 10 messages
to the same recipient? Forwarding every
message separately is not only tedious
but also congests the receiver’s mailbox.
Here’s how you can forward multiple
mail messages as attachments in a single
message.
Go to your Inbox in Outlook Express.
Hold down the “Ctrl” key and
individually click on the messages you
wish to forward. Let go of the “Ctrl” key
| Shortcut keys in Outlook Express
[F5] or [Ctrl] + M Check for New Mail.
[Ctrl] + M Send and receive mail.
[Ctrl] + N Compose a new mail.
[Ctrl] + R Reply to mail sender.
[Ctrl] + [Shift] + R Reply to all.
[Ctrl] + [F] Forward the mail.
[Ctrl] + I Go to Inbox.
[Ctrl] + [Shift] + F Find text inside the
message.
[Ctrl] + D Delete an e-mail
message, contact,
calendar item, or task.
once all the messages are selected.
Right click on any of the selected
messages and select “Forward” from
the pop-up menu.
A new message window will open up
with all the selected messages attached.
And that’s it—now you can send all your
messages in one shot!
Embed pictures in e-mail
Generally we tend to upload pictures as
e-mail attachments. Instead, what you
could do is put pictures into the main body
of the e-mail itself. This way the image will
not have to be opened separately; it will be
part of the e-mail message.
However, you need to make sure that
the recipient can receive HTML messages,
or set the e-mail client to do so. If the
receiver does not have HTML messages
enabled, he’ll still receive your mail, but as
an attachment in HTML format.
To embed an image into a mail message,
do the following while composing your
message—just click “Insert | Picture”, and
navigate to an image you wish to insert.
The image will now be received as part of
the message instead of an attachment.
Drag-and-drop attachments
Here’s a quick way to add attachments to
your e-mail. Instead of going through the
menus to add e-mail attachments, simply
drag and drop the file into the text area of
your mail. Outlook Express automatically
inserts it as a file attachment. You can
also drag and drop file attachments from
received e-mail directly to a folder. ■
| Brian Pereira
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006
106
Dr. CHIP
Right Click Problem
Dinesh Desai Q> I have a strange problem in which
when I right click on a file and choose
‘Mail Recipient’ from the ‘Send To’ option,
nothing happens. I have no clue as to how
I can get this to work. It’s a very helpful
Hands on
shortcut.
-Gopal
There are a few reasons as to why
you are facing this sort of a fix. It could be
| How to Read the Code
All code lines and commands are
written in the following manner:
netsh•int•ip•reset•tcpreset.txt
where the • symbol denotes a space.
Hence, the above code line should be
typed as
netsh<space>int<space>ip<space
>reset<space>tcpreset<dot>txt
because of an invalid or missing entry in
your registry (related to MAPIMAIL, which
is used to send mail to specific recipients).
Another reason could be because a mail
client might not be set as default yet. So
first you should define a mail client as
the default one. Click on Start | Settings |
Control Panel | Internet Options (if you are
using Windows XP and the Control Panel
is in Category View then click on ‘Network
and Internet Connections | Internet
Options’.) Click on the ‘Programs’ tab and
from the drop down list against ‘E-mail’
select Outlook Express. Now, type these
commands in the Run dialog box (Start |
Run).
msimn.exe /reg
Click on Ok and now type another
command,
regsvr32 “%ProgramFiles%\
Outlook Express\msoe.dll”
If these options do not work then click on
Start | Run and type “regedit” and click on
Ok. The Registry Editor will open; navigate
to the following key,
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\. MAPIMail]
Make sure the value for this key (in the right
hand side pane of the Registry Editor) is,
“CLSID\\{9E56BE60-C50F-11CF-9A2C-
00A0C90A90CE}”
Enter the above value if it’s different by
double clicking on the ‘Name’ and entering
Set the default mail client from the
Internet Options dialog box so that the
“Mail to Recipient” starts working
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

the default value. If there is none then right
click antd select “New | String Value”.
Also navigate to the following key and
delete it,
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\
Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\
Explorer\FileExts\.MAPIMail]
Close the Registry Editor. Restart the
computer. If doing all this also does not
help, click on Start | Run and type,
regsvr32 sendmail
Click Ok.
File Recovery
Q> I have Windows XP installed on my
computer. Recently, I lost an entire folder
full of downloaded programs and files
totaling about 400 MB. This happened
when the system converted the entire
folder into a single file of just 8 kilobytes
during its subsequent bootup. I haven’t
made any backups of this file and I’ve
even tried using Windows System Restore
to recover that file, but to no avail.
Unfortunately, I also uninstalled Norton
Anti-virus a week ago (I’m assuming that
might have helped me recover my lost
folder). The converted file is still there and
I’ve also retained my temporary Internet
files. Please tell me if there’s any hope of
me recovering my lost files using a third
party utility.
-Sreedhar
It looks like you lost your folder to
a ‘cross linking’ error. This could be due
to several reasons—a virus attack, a hard
disk error resulting from a power failure
or incorrect restart, a rogue program, etc.
When this happens, the reference to the
folder on your hard disk gets corrupted
(its entry in the File Allocation Table) due
to which the address information of the
folder is lost. When this happens, Windows
tries to recover this addressing information
the next time it starts, during the scandisk
process. However, this doesn’t always work
well and if you choose to convert these lost
files, the problem could get worse than
when you started off.
You cannot use your anti-virus program
to recover from this error but your anti-
virus program would have safeguarded
your system against malicious programs,
viruses and Internet threats—all of which
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
could have caused this error in the first
place. However, you could try using a
program such as ‘Restoration’. This is a
tiny free utility that attempts to restore
deleted or lost files and directories. You
can download it from http://www.
snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html. It
would have been best to use this program
immediately after you found the error in
order to reduce the chances of your files
being overwritten. But try it out anyway.
And remember to install an anti-virus
program and immediately scan your hard
disk. Remember to always create backups
of your critical files.
Non-functioning USB
Q> I’m facing two problems with my
system. The first is with my AGP driver.
Several of my games give me a notification
of an AGP card/video problem and as
a result they either hang or return an
error before crashing. According to the
crash notifications, it mentions to check
my DirectX version. I do have the latest
version of DirectX installed but yet this
problem occurs. The second is the USB
problem—no matter which USB device
I plug into my computer, it reports it to
be non-functioning or disconnected. As a
result, I’ve had to add a separate PCI-based
USB hub for plugging my peripherals into
my computer. Can you tell me what’s
happening to my computer?
-Abhinav
First of all, make sure that the
temperatures in your system are within
check. Overheating due to faulty or
failed system fans is the root cause of
instability in systems. Next, check to see
that your motherboard’s drivers are up
to date—since both of your problems
point to integrated components on your
motherboard, a motherboard chipset driver
update could solve your problem. (Visit
your motherboard/VGA manufacturer’s
web site for the same.) You can find out
your chipset noted at the base of your
screen during the system bootup while the
splash screen appears with your processor
and RAM listing. Hit the ‘Pause’ button on
your keyboard to freeze this screen in case
it goes by too quickly.
In the case of your USB problem,
DR. CHIP | HANDS ON 107
make sure that it’s enabled in the system
BIOS—very often it isn’t by default. If
you are using the USB ports on the front
panel of your system, make sure that
the wires from the USB headers on the
motherboard are correctly connected. Refer
to your motherboard manual for more
information. Finally, for added stability in
your system, search for new BIOS updates
for your motherboard to ensure it’s
working at its full potential.
Writing Multi-session CDs
Q> I would like to know if I could burn two
different sessions on the same blank CD
using different writing speeds. Will this
cause any problems?
-Suansh
Sure, Suansh, you can create two CD
sessions at different speeds. The CD will be
readable on virtually every newer optical
drive. However, older drives could give
reading problems since they are known to
be unreliable with multi-session CDs. In
this case, the problem could be either the
multi-session itself (that it can’t read—it
might just read only one session) while the
higher speed used to burn the data could
be the second reason for the failure to read
correctly. If you are going to use the CD on
older optical drives, stick to the same speed
to rule out such issues.
Hidden Network Card
Q> I had installed some monitoring
software but it has been uninstalled a
long time ago. Then once I tried to change
some TCP/IP properties from the Local Area
108 HANDS ON | DR. CHIP
Connection Properties box. Unfortunately,
whenever I click on Ok to save the changes
I get a very strange message saying, “The IP
address 192.168.20.31 you have entered for
this network adapter is already assigned to
another adapter”. I have only one network
adapter! I cannot make any changes to
the TCP/IP properties. How do I get rid of
this error?
-Mahesh
This may sound strange but this
error is because of the existence of a
network adapter in the Device Manager,
which is hidden. It could be because of the
network monitoring software you installed
or it could also be because of moving the
network card to another slot. There is a
way to view the hidden devices in the
Device Manager but this information will
not be helpful since you will not be able
to distinguish between the real network
adapter and the ‘ghost’.
This will require a registry edit. Here is
what you need to do to identify the ghost
adapter and uninstall it. Click on Start |
Run, type “cmd” and click on Ok. This will
bring up the MS-DOS console window.
Enter the following command press [Enter].
set devmgr_show_nonpresent_
devices=1
Now, type
Start DEVMGMT.MSC
Press [Enter]. This is basically another way
to bring up the Device Manager from the
command prompt. In the Device Manager,
click on ‘View’ and then ‘Show Hidden
Devices’.
Now, expand the Network Adapters tree
(click on the ‘+’ sign against this category).
CHIP-INDIA KNOW HOW | (www.chip-india.com/knowhow)
Virtual Memory in Windows XP more hard disk access. This could result in
Whenever I play any game, a window pops
up saying that Windows is increasing the
virtual memory. How do I increase virtual
memory in Windows XP once and for all?
- hassan
Solution
Right click on ‘My Computer’ and select
Properties. Click on the ‘Advanced’ tab
and then under the ‘Performance’ section
click on the ‘Settings’ button. In the
‘Performance Options’ dialog box, click on
the ‘Advanced’ tab. In the ‘Virtual Memory’
section, the system shows the total paging
file size. You can increase this size with
the ‘Change’ button. After setting this
new value, you will be asked to restart the
computer for the change to take effect.
You can manually set the RAM to a higher
value. It is normally recommended to be
1.5 times the RAM you have. Setting aside
more space for Virtual Memory means
You will notice that all the ‘hidden’ (ghost)
adapters appear dim—similar to those
hidden folders in Windows Explorer. Right
click the dimmed network adapter from
the list and select ‘Uninstall’. Close the
Device Manager. Now you will be able to
make changes to your LAN Connection’s
TCP/IP Properties.
Windows Vulnerability
Q> I have heard there is a new Windows
vulnerability that makes use of a
‘vulnerability in the Graphics Rendering
Engine’. I have a Windows XP machine,
which means it can also be affected. Is the
The ‘set’ command displays the hidden
devices as dim objects in the Device
Manager. Left: Before the command,
Right: After using the command
a few hiccups while you game. So you will
have to draw a line as to how much space
you want to assign Windows to function as
the Virtual Memory.
- Tirumarai & htnakirs
Increase the virtual memory to
approximately 1.5 times the amount of
RAM on the system
threat great? There does not seem to be a
patch out yet.
-Sindhu
Yes, you heard right. There is a
new vulnerability that has been reported
and if exploited then it can affect many
operating systems including systems
installed with Windows XP (Service Pack 1
and 2) as well as Windows 2000/2003. It
all started with a link that was displayed
on a web site. Clicking on it will make
the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer
open while a Trojan is executed in the
background. Basically, a Windows Meta
File loads, which contains the Trojan.
A Windows Meta File usually contains
additional information of a media file. The
browser will also prompt to download an
anti-spyware, which apparently is a fake
one. This Trojan has also been sent via
MSN and e-mail, as an attachment. This
exploit allows for what Microsoft calls
“remote code execution”—plainly said,
it results in your computer becoming a
zombie (controlled by the Trojan). As of
now, McAfee and Symantec are providing
solutions for this exploit and Windows
has put up a patch for download. You
can download it from here: http://www.
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/
MS06-001.mspx. It is just a 711 KB file.
Make sure you download the one meant
for your operating system.
Disable Auto Log On
Q> I use Windows XP and there is only one
user that has been created on it. The problem
is that Windows XP logs in automatically
and reaches the Desktop. I have enabled the
Guest account in case someone else wants to
use the computer but I don’t get that option
since XP logs in directly. How do I get the
welcome screen again?
-Rajshree
There are a few methods you can try
to get the welcome screen back so that you
can log in manually each time.
Click on Start | Run and type “control
userpasswords2” and click on Ok. In the
‘User Accounts’ dialog box that will appear,
check the option ‘Users must enter a user
name and password to use this computer’
and click Ok. Restart to see the changes
take effect.
Prevent XP from logging in automatically
by forcing it to ask the user for a password
Alternatively, you can also edit the
registry to disable XP from automatically
logging in for you.
Root Certificate Error
Q> I had installed ZoneAlarm on my
computer a long time ago. Now when I
try to run the firewall it gives me errors
saying that some ‘root certificates are
missing with VSINIT.DLL’. Another file that
is also mentioned is VSDATA.DLL. I cannot
understand what could have caused
this ‘root certificate’ to disappear. I tried
uninstalling ZoneAlarm but even then I got
the same error. What do I do?
-Rohan
DLL files need to be registered—
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
DR. CHIP | HANDS ON 109
some are registered via the Windows
Need a hand with your PC travails?
“REGSVR32” command or with the help
Log on to www.chip-india.com/
of ‘certificates’ for authentication. In
knowhow and post your query. Voila!
this case, the root certificate is missing
You’re on your way to a glitch-free
either because of a rogue program or by
future.
accident. This certificate can be re-instated
by uninstalling the software, installing a
new root certificate and then installing Info | For Accurate Diagnosis…
ZoneAlarm once again. Here is how one
goes about uninstalling ZoneAlarm. Restart 1. Mention system specifications.
the computer and tap the F8 key after the 2. Mention new hardware or software
initial memory test screen. The ‘Advanced installed recently.
Startup Options’ appears. Select ‘Safe 3. Note the error message, including the
Mode’ with the arrow keys and press Enter. action or event that triggers the error.
It will take a few minutes for Windows For instance, the error message comes
to boot in Safe Mode. Click on “Yes” to up only during startup or shutdown, or
proceed to the desktop. Open Windows when starting a particular application
Explorer, click on Tools | Folder Options and so on.
and click on the ‘View’ tab. Select the radio 4. Mention any changes you’ve made
button “Show Hidden Files and Folders” just before you started getting the
and uncheck “Hide Protected Operating error. For instance, have you deleted
System files (Recommended)”. Click ‘Yes’ some files recently or uninstalled
when you get a warning and click on Ok some application?
to save the changes made. Now go to
the ‘Program Files’ folder within the “C:” where you will be asked to click on “Accept”
to install a new root certificate. Click on it
and save the certificate to the desktop or
just run it directly. Follow the instructions
to install the certificate—use the default
recommendations to do so. Restart your
computer and install ZoneAlarm again. The
installation should begin and the firewall
should work again. If you still get any DLL
errors related to missing root certificates,
Install the missing Root Certificate from check to see if the time has been set
the Verisign web site and get ZoneAlarm
to work again correctly. There seems to be an issue with
the time and the recognizing of the root
Drive. Double click on it and delete the certificate as well. ■
ZoneAlarm folder within it. Now go to the
‘Internet Logs’ folder—you will find this
under “C:\Windows\” folder. Delete this
folder. (In Windows 2000, the Windows
folder is labeled as WinNT.)
Now go to “C:\Windows\System32”
and delete the following files: vsdatant.
sys, vsutil.dll, vsinit.dll, vsdata.dll. Close
Windows Explorer and restart the
computer. Now to reset the root certificate
on your computer go to the following web
site: https://getca.verisign.com/
On this Verisign page, click on the link to
update your browser. Click on “Yes” if you
are prompted to install any component (in
Internet Explorer). You will reach a page

Dinesh Desai
W
ay back when cell phones were
launched, they used to produce
a pattern of beeps to alert the
user of an incoming call or a message. There
was nothing such as ‘ring tones’. The best
you could get was what the fanciest phones
offered—a wide selection of monophonic
ring tones ranging from a couple of standard
tones to a few classical tunes. There was no
way a user could create a ring tone.
The ring tone buzz started with phones
packing in built-in ring tone composer
using which it became possible to create
personalized tones and share them
through SMS. But using the composer
wasn’t easy for the users as they needed to
Ring tones from Audio CDs
STEP 1. To get started, you just need two
applications—an audio CD ripper to grab
clips from audio CDs and a sound editing
tool to edit and optimize the clips. Go to
www.audiograbber.net and download
‘Audiograbber’, an audio CD ripping utility. Also
download ‘Audacity’, a sound editing tool from
audacity.sourceforge.net. Both are freeware!
Make your
phone sing
Create your own ring tones from audio CDs and MP3s
know how to read music notes.
So what we had in hand were
monophonic ring tones with
only one note playing at a time
through the phone’s beeper.
Today, with phones having support for
polyphonic, Wav and MP3 ring tones, it’s
possible to make them sing any tune or
even a song. Even though phones have a
good bank of ring tones, it tends to get a
bit boring after a few days. It’s much more
fun turning clips of your favorite songs
into ring tones. You can download these
ring tones from many web sites for free.
But hunting for these ring tones is another
tedious job. Another way of getting these
ring tones is by downloading them from
your service provider or WAP sites by
shelling out a few bucks. But here, the
problem lies in ending up with something
you weren’t looking out for. Besides, it eats
STEP 2. Start Audiograbber and insert an
audio CD from which you would like to grab
ring tones. After the tracks are listed, select
the desired tracks using checkboxes and
type their song titles. Alternatively, you can
perform a CDDB search to get the song titles
from the Internet to minimize the effort of
typing.
up a lot of your time.
So how about creating your own
ring tones then? I’m not talking about
creating ring tones using the phone’s
built-in recorder, but grabbing them from
your favorite audio CDs and MP3s. Just
imagine… the possibilities are limitless!
You don’t need to spend time and money
downloading your favorite tones. And the
best thing is that you can never go wrong!
This workshop is a step-by-step guide
on grabbing ring tones from audio CDs
and MP3s and also optimizing them so
that they sound loud and clear on your
phone. Of course, you need to have a smart,
semi-smart or a multimedia phone running
Symbian, Linux, Windows Mobile or Palm OS.
Now gear up with your favorite songs,
grab your mouse and get set to make your
phone sing!
| Anand Tuliani
STEP 3. Since most phones have support
for ring tones in the Wav format, it’s
recommended to change the output format
of Audiograbber from MP3 to Wav. To do this,
click the MP3 button on the toolbar which
brings up the MP3 settings. Under the ‘Grab
to’ section, select the option ‘Wav file’ and
click ‘OK’ to apply the settings.
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

Ring tones from Audio CDs
STEP 4. Using the checkboxes, select the
songs from which you would like to extract
the ring tones. After having selected the
songs, you need to select and extract your
favorite clip from each song to be used as ring
tones or message tones. Proceed to the next
step to learn how.
STEP 7. It is recommended to normalize your
ring tone collection so that they all have
a uniform volume level. Select the entire
wave form by pressing ‘Ctrl + a’ and select
‘Normalize’ from the ‘Effect’ menu.
Click ‘OK’ to apply the normalization after
previewing.
Ring tones from MP3s
STEP 10. If you have a massive MP3
collection, you’ll be thrilled to know that you
can even grab ring tones from MP3s. First, play
a song using any MP3 player and note the start
and end positions (mins:secs) of the selection
to be used for the ring tone. Next, load the
MP3 file in Audacity from ‘File | Open’.
STEP 5. Bring up the ‘Properties’ dialog box by
double clicking on the track name. Click ‘Play’
and use the ‘Set start’ and ‘Set end’ buttons to
mark the desired section of the song. Drag the
progress bar to forward or rewind the song.
Apply the settings, and click ‘play’ again to
preview your selection. Click the ‘Grab!’ button
to rip the ring tones off the CD!
STEP 8. If you export the ring tone to the
phone at this point, it may not sound loud
enough even though the phone’s ring volume
is set to full. To ensure that the ring tone plays
loud and clear, it’s recommended to raise the
gain. Drag the gain slider in the track control
panel to right till it reaches the 9 dB mark.
STEP 11. Refer to the noted positions and
select the required section from the waveform
by clicking and dragging over it. You can verify
the selection looking at the status bar. Now,
copy the selection (ctrl + c) and paste (ctrl +
v) it into a new window (ctrl + n). Steps 6 to 9
remain the same to complete the process.
WORKSHOP | HANDS ON 111
STEP 6. Since most phones have a single
speaker, it’s pointless having stereo ring tones.
To convert a file to mono, load the file in
Audacity, and select ‘split stereo track’ from
the drop down list in the track control panel to
the left of the waveform. Delete the right-
channel by closing the right waveform. From
the left-channel’s dropdown list, select ‘mono’.
STEP 9. The ring tone is ready! Now all you
have to do is save it and upload it to your
phone. Select the option ‘Export to Wav’ and
save the file. If your phone supports MP3 ring
tones, you can choose the option ‘Export to
MP3’. However, you’ll need ‘lame_enc.dll’ from
the Lame MP3 encoder pack which is freely
available on http://lame.sourceforge.net.
Finally, upload the ring tone to your phone.
| Tips
Since the phone doesn’t ring for more
than 30 seconds during an incoming
call, it’s no point keeping ring tones
longer than 30 seconds. And if you are
grabbing a SMS tone, keep it short and
sweet, or else it may be quite irritating
when you get a message.
Apart from using ring tones only for
incoming calls and messages, they can
also be used as caller tunes to amuse
callers while your phone is ringing.
If you have a memory card, use a card
reader rather than a Bluetooth dongle
to transfer files quickly.
 112 HANDS ON | WORKSHOP
Case Logic
It’s important to ventilate your case adequately to bring down
the component temperatures and to keep your system cool,
and thereby make it last longer
W
hen you work on your PC,
components like the processor,
graphics card and hard drive
generate heat. And when you engage in
intensive tasks like gaming, the heat generated
is much more. The PC components have a
certain temperature operating range exceeding
which they either shut down or get damaged.
In the case of graphic cards and processors, for
instance, the core slows down and eventually
shuts down. The excessive heat generated
also decreases the life span of the component.
To prevent this, processors and graphic cards
have heat sinks and fans to keep them cool.
In case of hard drives, when the temperature
shoots beyond 55 to 60 degrees, they eventually
crash leading to the loss of important data. To
80mm Top Exhaust
Fan (Blowhole)
120mm Rear
Exhaust Fan
80mm Side Intake Fan
120mm Front
Intake Fan
Ideal fan Orientations
tackle this problem, special hard drive coolers
are available in the market. But despite the
availability of these, we still need to ensure
that the case is properly ventilated. This is
because the ambient case temperature has a
direct influence on the temperatures of the
components. If hot air generated from the
components is not exhausted, it circulates inside
the case thereby increasing the component
temperatures. For example, an overheated hard
drive may run just fine in a adequately ventilated
case, but poor ventilation may reduce the life
span of the hard drive.
Lower case temperature allows overclockers
to push the clock speeds, thereby letting them
extract more performance from the hardware.
This workshop tells you how to keep your PC cool
by following the right case cooling technique.
STEP 1. Case Selection
Cases are usually made of steel or aluminum. In
addition to being light, aluminum is also better
than steel in terms of heat dissipation. So if you
haven’t purchased a case yet, an aluminium one
would be the ideal one to go for.
The case should ideally have two 120 mm fan
slots, one for intake and the other for exhaust.
In addition to this, there should also be a 80 mm
side intake fan and a 80 mm top blowhole fan.
The slots are basically empty grills where fans
can be fitted.
In case there is no provision for 120 mm fan
slots, it should at least have 80 mm fan slots,
(almost all cases have provisions to mount 80
mm front and rear fans). But although generic
80 mm fans are available for as less as 50 bucks,
it’s important to keep in mind that 120 mm fans
(these are costlier than the 80 mm ones) can
move a higher volume of air and are less noisy.
A power supply unit with two fans is an
added bonus—it further helps in cooling as one
fan takes in hot air from the case while the other
exhausts it. The intake fan can either be 120 mm
or 80 mm but the exhaust is always 80 mm in
accordance with the power supply dimensions.
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

Negative Pressure
20 CFM
25 CFM
30 CFM
In: 30CFM, Out: 20 + 25= 45 CFM
STEP 2. Setup
All same sized fans don’t move the same
amount of air. The amount of air a fan can
move is measured in terms of CFM (Cubic
Feet per Minute). Higher the CFM, more
volume of air the fan is capable of moving.
You have to look at the CFM ratings of
the fan to find out how capable it is. The
generic 80 mm fans mostly don’t have CFM
mentioned. Therefore, it’s recommend you
invest a little more and go for the branded
2 3
Cable Management diagram Labeling
1 PSU cables tied with insulating tape.
2 Sleeved Power cable.
3 Optical drive is placed in the third drive bay so that the tied PSU cables can be tucked above it.
4 The IDE cable tucked inside the empty floppy drive bay.
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
Positive Pressure
20 CFM
25 CFM
60 CFM
In: 60CFM, Out: 20 + 25= 45 CFM
ones which have specifications mentioned.
The prices range between Rs 100-200 for
80 mm fans and about Rs 200-300 for
120 mm fans.
Some of the popular brands Antec,
Coolermaster and Vantec but they come at
a premium.
After you select a case, the next
step is to decide about the air pessure
technique—whether you want to allow
more airflow into the system (positive
pressure) or more airflow out of the system
1 on the amount of dust coming inside
4 recommended that filters are used for
WORKSHOP | HANDS ON 113
(negative pressure). Both the setups have
their advantages and drawbacks.
Negative Pressure Setup
In a negative pressure setup, the volume
of air forced out of the system is higher
than the volume of air taken in. Thus the
CFM-out (CFM sum of all the fans blowing
air out of the system) should be more than
the total CFM-in ( CFM sum of all the fans
blowing air into the system). This creates
a vacuum and produces a steady stream
of cool air coming into the case from
all the air vents and gaps. However, the
drawback of a negative pressure setup is
that along with the air, there are chances
of dust getting sucked into the case
through the vents and gaps leading to dust
accumulation and higher temperatures
inside the case.
Positive Pressure Setup
In a positive pressure setup, the idea is
to have more air forced into the system,
which means the total sum of CFM-in
should be more than the total CFM-out.
This setup is good if you want to cut down
the case as the air coming into the case
would only be through the fans blowing
air into the case.
Also, note that case fans tend to blow
dust and dirt into the case. Therefore, it’s
fans that blow air into the case. In case
your local computer store doesn’t have
them, you can use the air filters used for
air conditioners and cut them according to
your fan size.
http://www.postmaster.co.in
Reliable
Tried and trusted components and
architecture based on the ongoing dialogue
with over 4000-installations
Truly Next Generation
For a free trial call QuantumLink Communications Pvt. Ltd.
Mumbai - 26820004. Bangalore - 51152792.
New Delhi - 26691152 / 927. Pune - 9373307992
Or write to - sales.ho@postmaster.co.in
114 HANDS ON | WORKSHOP

80 mm front intake & 120 sensor. We logged the temperatures

No Fans 80 mm rear exhaust
mm rear exhaust
using Everest diagnostics utility. (Refer to
idle load idle load idle load the table for recorded temperatures).
Case 39 44 37 42 33 37
CPU 40 52 38 50 34 46 Silent Systems
GPU 59 82 56 77 51 73 The fans produce noise. With cases having
HDD 40 47 39 46 37 43 as many as 4-5 fans (including the processor
and GPU fan) the whirring noise is surely
All temperatures are in Celcius
going to irritate you. This is where silent
fans come to rescue. Every fan manufacturer
120mm & STEP 3. Cable Management generally mentions the decibel (dB) rating
80mm Fans For proper case ventilation, you need of the fan in the
unrestricted flow of air into the case. Flat IDE specifications.
and floppy cables act as a major hindrance The decibel (dB)
to the smooth air flow into the case. You can is a measure of
tuck the cables inside empty drive bays or
you could use a rounded cable. In case you
don’t want to spend on a rounded cable,
you can refer to the tutorials available on
the Internet showing you how to make a
rounded cable from a flat IDE cable. Next
Meshed comes the messy PSU wires. Use cable ties
Fan Filter
to tie them up. Insulating tape can also be
used to tie them up. Arrange the cables in a sound intensity. Higher the decibel rating,
manner so that they don’t restrict smooth more noisy the fan is. Silent fans have a low
air flow. decibel rating. Anything below a decibel
rating of 30 is relatively silent. Generally fans
Now let’s look at some real world results. at higher rpm make more noise, especially
Test Rig 80 mm fans. But then with a higher rpm
AMD 3200+ socket 939 Winchester they move more air. So you have to select a
Asus A8V Deluxe fan with a low decibel level but with a good
Gigabyte 6600 GT AGP or above average CFM rating. The Vantec
Seagate 160 GB SATA HDD STEALTH fan series are silent fans with a
Corsair 512x2 Value RAM nice mix of low decibel level and a good CFM
rating. The 80 mm variant gives out 21 dB
We conducted the tests after operating the of noise@27 CFM and comes for Rs 499. The
Rounded IDE Cable PC for 30 minutes. And to create ideal load 120 mm fan gives out 28 dB of noise@53
conditions, we recorded temperatures after CFM and is for Rs 811.
a rigorous session of NFS Underground 2.
Results
Recording & Reading the temperature The real world tests clearly show a drop in
For measuring the case temperature, we case temperature by 6 degrees, temperature
placed the temperature probe inside the drops in the processor by 7 degrees and
second empty drive bay. This is because in the graphics card by ten degrees. While
the case temperature is generally higher in deciding on the fan size, always use a 120
Insulating Tape the upper region of the case, this is also the mm fan if mounting holes are available.
reason why we orient the blowhole fan to They are more efficient and less noisy. You
blow air out of the case. The temperature will have to play around a little for getting
probe gives out the reading on the LCD the best settings. Results depend on a
display (similar to the one used in the variety of factors so you will have to arrive
Cable Tie Zebronics Antibiotic case, check the review at the settings that work best for you. A well
in our ‘Hardware Standalones’ section). ventilated case gives you a cooler system; a
The processor, graphics card and the cooler system will have a longer life span. ■
hard drive have an onboard temperature | Gaurav Seth

INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006


Keep ‘em Out!
Stop intrusions from infected networks and the Internet dead in their tracks before
they wreak havoc on your machine. Do it with a software firewall
H
ow well is your PC protected from
the Internet and other machines
on your local network? Most
of you might have an anti-virus solution
installed that you religiously update but at
times even this precaution fails to live up to
expectations. This is because an anti-virus
detects an anomaly (an infected file or
executable) on the PC only after it has made
its way into the system folder or wedged its
way into the Temporary Internet Files folder
(that’s good enough to set off all the alarms).
Advanced users usually know what to
look out for and how to prevent unwanted
attacks on their computer—either with the
right software or with smart surfing habits.
If you plan to host a web site, play games
online, connect to a local network then you
need to protect yourself against intrusions
even before they try to enter your computer.
This is the role of a firewall—to monitor
and alert you of information entering as
well as leaving the PC (known as incoming
and outgoing). Even if you don’t intend
to do anything other than surfing the
Internet, checking mail and chatting, you
need to have some sort of defense against
computers trying to access your machine
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
without your knowledge. Other than rogue
machines or zombies (infected computers
sending broadcasts to infect more) accessing
your machine’s ‘open ports’, there might be
programs that connect to the Net to send
information. Did you know even MS Word
tries to connect to the Internet? A firewall
will alert you of any such activity. Specific
programs that periodically access the Net
can be restricted in more than one way (it
will become clearer as we proceed through
the workshop). Options available within the
software firewall allow it to work alongside
the anti-virus installed on the system too. At
times even e-mail protection is integrated
into the software. A firewall also has the
ability to ‘mask’ the IP address of the
machine it is installed on, making it invisible
to external (infected) computers or hackers.
This workshop throws some light on
the options available across three different
software firewalls—ZoneLabs’ ZoneAlarm
6.1, Norton Personal Firewall 2006 and
McAfee’s Personal Firewall Plus (Build 7).
ZoneAlarm 6.1 is free and is ideal for a
standalone PC or for a small home network.
For larger networks or greater configurability,
there are other versions of ZoneAlarm
Dinesh Desai
available (other than Norton and McAfee). If
you’re always on the move then a software
firewall should be installed since you will
need to connect to different networks.
Norton provides a simple “Location” feature
that allows you to switch access restrictions
based on your location (just like a profile).
With the help of these screenshots of the
various options in a software firewall you
will gain a better idea on how you can avoid
unwanted intrusions and restrict programs
from gaining access to the Internet.
There are some precautions you must
take before installing a firewall. Even
though they keep our PCs safe, some
users might face problems when the
application itself crashes or certain files
get corrupted. Problems might arise from
too many settings blocking the Internet
traffic altogether. So the best thing to do is
to create a System Restore point before an
install and after you have configured the
software firewall correctly (i.e. you have
confirmed access to your network and the
Internet). If there ever is a problem you will
be able to revert back to earlier settings
without giving yourself a headache. ■
| Ashutosh Desai
116 HANDS ON | WORKSHOP
Configuring ZoneAlarm
STEP 1. This is the main ZoneAlarm window
with the ‘Overview’ section (left hand side of
the panel) selected. As the name suggests, it
gives a summary of the number of blocked
intrusions. A count of programs that have
been given access to the Internet is also
mentioned here. The top panel of this section
allows you to stop network usage.
STEP 4. If you encounter some problems
with a program that requires an Internet
connection, click on ‘Add’ and give it
persmission to access the Internet. Here,
MSN Messenger has been added to the list of
programs that access the Internet. Remember
that an application that’s given access does
not necessarily have to be a ‘Trusted’ one.
STEP 7. If your computer is part of a
network or you want to specify a friend’s
IP address as a trusted one then click on
‘Firewall’ and then on the ‘Zones’ tab. In
addition to your network and loopback
adapter, add a range (for a network) or
a single IP (for a specific PC) and give it
explicit access.
STEP 2. In the same section click on the
‘Preferences’ tab. This tab has settings that
affect the entire application. Configure the
updates section to manual if you want to
conserve bandwidth. Make sure ZoneAlarm
loads at startup for an ‘always on’ connection.
Check “Hide my IP address...”. Click on
‘Options’ to enter a Proxy address if needed.
STEP 5. This is the ‘Main’ tab in the Program
Control section. It is very basic and consists
of the overall control you want to give to
the applications on your system. Set this
to ‘Medium’—each time a program tries
to access the Net and is not present in the
application list then ZoneAlarm will alert you
asking you to make a decision.
STEP 8. The ‘Alerts & Logs’ lists all the
programs and connections made—both
incoming as well as outgoing. This will be
of use when you notice a drop in bandwidth.
This could be because of a device accessing a
free port or shared folder. IP details and port
number are the most important details in
these logs.
STEP 3. If you want to view the list of
applications that have tried to establish a
connection (in search of authentication or
updates), click on ‘Program’ tab in Program
Control. Here, one can explicitly allow or block
a program from accessing the Internet. If you
are not sure what the program does, right
click on it and set it to ‘Ask’.
STEP 6. If you tend you leave your computer
idle and connected to the network/Internet
then you should leave the Automatic Lock
‘On’. All incoming and outgoing traffic can be
blocked during this period of inactivity. Only
programs that have been allowed access stay
connected. For example, MSN will stay signed
in while all other activities will stop.
STEP 9. Click on ‘Firewall’ in the left hand
side panel. The Internet Zone Security has to
be set at a level equal to or higher than the
Trusted Zone Security. Set TZS to Medium if
you want to share folders on a network. Else
leave it at High. Click on ‘Advanced’ to lock
the host file—this will prevent spyware from
making changes to it.
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006
Configuring Norton Personal Firewall 2006
STEP 1. In the main Personal Firewall
window, click on Options. Select ‘Firewall
Options’. These configuration options are
very basic and are related to updates, the
way alerts are displayed and the integration
provided with e-mail. The Firewall tab is the
most important. Make sure “Stealth blocked
ports” is checked.
STEP 4. Click on the Advanced tab to create
“rules” for specific kind of network activity.
Ping requests should be disabled from the
firewall. Therefore Incoming ICMP (Ping)
Requests should be denied access. Click
on ‘General’ to create rules. Windows File
Sharing is blocked by default—external
computers will not be able to access shares.
STEP 7. Click on ‘Ad Blocking’ from the main
window and select ‘Configure’. Enable all the
pop up and ad blocking, click on ‘Advanced’
to add any web site that is not listed. Once
again, you can further customize the amount
of information you want your browser to
divulge, block flash pop ups, etc.
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
STEP 2. Click on Norton Personal Firewall
(NPF) | Status & Settings | Personal Firewall.
Make sure it is on and click on ‘Configure’ and
then on the ‘Networking’ tab. The ‘Location’
option includes different profiles for different
connections. Add a Trusted Zone—a network
range, a network address for a subnet or a
specific IP—for each Location, if necessary.
STEP 5. The Windows File Sharing setting
can be changed by clicking on ‘Modify’
and changing the “Action” to Permit,
Block or Monitor. Numerous settings on
the connection, location, tracking can be
changed from here. You can even decide on
the direction of connection—inbound or
outbound.
STEP 8. Editing the ad/pop up blocker setting
further here can either be ‘Global’ or ‘User’
specific. If you want your changes to reflect
across all users then you must do so under the
Global Settings tab. For the web site you add
you can add the ad server address or under
the Ad Blocking tab you can add addresses of
the pop ups you want to block.
STEP 3. Click on the ‘Programs’ tab. This
is similar to Program Control in Zone Alarm.
Once again, the Locations will help you block
certain programs from accessing the Internet
or computers on the network from accessing
your shares. This is extremely configurable. If
you select ‘Custom’ Internet Access, you can
disable specific aspects of the application.
STEP 6. Select ‘Privacy Control’ and then
‘Configure’, check “Turn on...” and move
the slider to High. This will prevent private
information from being sent at all. There is
no need to fill in any ‘Private Information’
either. This will also block cookies from being
created. Browser information also will not
be sent.
STEP 9. Finally the Log Viewer. You can
access this from ‘Statistics | Logs’ in the
main window. This is an extremely detailed
listing of the result of your settings. All
the connections attempted, allowed or
denied, suspected intrusions, history, etc
are mentioned. The history of all settings
changes is of great help.
118 HANDS ON | WORKSHOP
Configuring McAfee Personal Firewall Plus
STEP 1. The McAfee Security Center console
is very simple. All the settings listed within
this console leads you to a particular section
in another Personal Firewall window. In
the main window you can view a summary
of everything that is going on within your
firewall, block your computer from the
Internet, track a web site or test your firewall.
STEP 4. The Internet Applications section is
where all the applications that need access
to the Net are listed. This where you can right
click and give full access or completely block
it from communicating over the Internet. The
“more information” option will also connect
to the Internet but will tell you more about
the service.
STEP 7. In the Event Log Settings tab
make sure you log every event and have it
archived. When you suspect an intrusion or
unnecessary resource usage, you can refer to
these logs. Enable “Show Port numbers” so
that you know which ones are being accessed
excessively. Click on ‘Configure’, check all
options except “Do not log events”.
STEP 2. Clicking on Summary will give a
brief on all the services that were blocked
and the ones that are currently still active on
the system—each of them being clickable for
further information. Viewing the network
traffic is also possible from here. It will also
state the number of rules that have been
changed. Regularly check these details.
STEP 5. The Options section consists of
three parts. Click on Security Settings to set
the level of security. Keep it at ‘Tight’—you
will be alerted each time a program tries
to access the network/Internet. Uncheck
“Accept ICMP Ping requests” and “Allow
restricted users to change Personal Firewall
settings”.
STEP 8. Trusted IP Addresses within Options
add a range of IP addresses if you are part
of a home network or office LAN. If there is
just one more computer, add that IP only. You
can even set a rule to block an IP for a certain
period of time. This the same place where you
can add IP addresses or a range in the Banned
IP section.
STEP 3. View the Internet Traffic to get
a brief on all incoming and outgoing
information. This is spread across two
tabs—Statistics and Applications. You can
view your bandwidth usage over the month
too. The Application tab will just list all the
programs and services that are active at
that given point of time.
STEP 6. Change the way McAfee informs
you of incoming/outgoing connections
in Alert Settings. Enable “Red and Green
Alerts” so that you get to know when
communications are being made across the
network. Only Red Alerts require a decision—
Allow/Deny. The “Enable Gaming Mode” is to
prevent on-screen alerts while gaming.
STEP 9. Click on System Services to view
a list of all the functions like FTP, Mail, SQL
Server, etc that will need to communicate
over a network. These are disabled by default.
Enable your Mail Server (POP and SMTP, IMAP)
services. Make sure Remote Assistance is kept
disabled (port numbers are also mentioned
for your information).
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

I
t’s only after installing Windows
that you can start using your PC. But
installing Windows is a huge task in
itself and makes you feel you’ve spent ages
before the PC whereas you’ve spent only
an hour. Right from the time you insert the
CD till the time when Windows is up and
running, you are forced to keep your eyes
glued to the screen to monitor the process
and fill in the various dialog boxes. And if
your PC is slow, you’ve had it! You’ll need
to spend more time gazing at the progress
bars waiting for the dialog boxes to appear.
How about a CD then that can install
Windows automatically, putting in all the
details and answering all the dialog boxes?
Automated Windows installation
STEP 1. To begin with, insert your copy of the
Windows XP installation CD into the optical
drive and copy the entire contents of the CD to
a folder on your hard drive. Make sure the drive
has at least 700 MB of free space.
Stop
watching it!
An unattended Windows setup guide
With this, your job of monitoring the
installation process will be over.
This workshop will walk you through the
entire process of creating an unattended
Windows XP setup which won’t require
any user interaction after specifying the
partition details.
The secret behind the unattended
nature is the answer file which tells
Windows what to do while it’s installing.
The answer file can be created using
‘Windows Setup Manager’ that can be
found under Support tools on the Windows
XP installation disc. Using the tool you
can make the answer file so powerful that
you can even tell Windows to include or
STEP 2. Navigate to the folder ‘Support |
Tools’ on the CD and double click the file
‘Deploy.cab’. Copy all the files to a folder on
your hard drive. The reason for doing this is
to extract ‘Windows Setup Manager’ and the
related help files needed to create the answer
file which will be automating the entire
installation.
exclude individual components, set the
display resolution, specify user data and
regional settings and so on. And if you’re
an advanced user who likes tweaking,
you can even automate the process of
installing device drivers and hotfixes. All
that you need to create an unattended
setup is a licensed copy of the Windows XP
installation CD.
So, the next time you install Windows,
you can leave the setup running and in
the mean time you can take your dog for a
walk or have a cup of tea or simply take a
short nap. And by the time you come back,
Windows will be up and running.
| Anand Tuliani
STEP 3. The most crucial part of the
workshop begins now—creating the answer
file. To execute the ‘Windows Setup Manager’
double click the file ‘setupmgr.exe’ from
the contents of ‘Deploy.cab’ which you just
copied on the hard drive. The next step
explains the options you need to select from
the first few dialog boxes which appear.
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

Automated Windows installation
STEP 4. The first few steps of the wizard are
self-explanatory. Select the following options
from the successive dialog boxes: ‘Create a
new answer file’ > ‘Windows unattended
installation’ > Select the appropriate
Windows version > ‘Fully automated’ > ‘No,
this answer file will be used to install from a
CD’ and finally accept the license agreement.
STEP 7. Use the ‘Advanced Settings’ section
only to configure telephony, browser and
shell settings and installation folder. Under
browser and shell settings, click the browser
settings button to set the home page and add
Favorites. If you are on a network, you can
also specify the proxy settings.
STEP 10. Nothing better than Nero Burning
ROM for burning CDs! Launch Nero and select
CD-ROM (Boot) from the ‘New Compilation’
dialog box. Under the ‘Boot’ tab specify the
boot sector file which you extracted. Set the
emulation as ‘No emulation’ and keep the boot
message blank. Most importantly, remember
to set the ‘Number of loaded sectors’ as 4.
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
STEP 5. Under ‘General Settings’, you can
customize the installation of Windows by
providing default name and organization,
display settings, time zone and the product
key. Fill in the fields using drop down lists or
by keying in the details. If you don’t select any
option from the drop down lists, the default
values will be taken.
STEP 8. After you’re done, click the ‘finish’
button and save the answer file as ‘winnt.
sif’ when you are prompted. Advanced users
can further tweak the answer file by referring
to the help file named ‘ref.chm’ in the same
folder as the setup manager. Finally, copy the
answer file to the ‘i386’ folder in the Windows
XP installation folder which you created in the
beginning.
STEP 11. Under the ‘Burn’ tab, set the write
speed to 24x and the write method to disc-
at-once to ensure reliability. Click the ‘New’
button to begin adding files and folders to
the compilation. Drag all the contents of the
Windows XP installation disc that you copied
on your hard drive (with the answer file in the
‘i386’ folder), into the left pane.
WORKSHOP | HANDS ON 121
STEP 6. Under ‘Network Settings’ configure
the computer name, administrator password,
networking components and workgroup. If
you are specifying the admin password, make
sure you check the option to encrypt the
password in the answer file. If you have a static
IP address, you can specify the settings under
the networking components section.
STEP 9. To burn a bootable installation disc,
you need the boot sector of the Windows XP
CD. Download it from http://www.tacktech.
com/pub/microsoft/bootfiles/bootfiles.
zip and extract the boot sector file to a folder.
This file will be used with Nero Burning ROM to
create a bootable disc.
STEP 12. Insert a blank CD into the optical
drive and hit the burn button. Wait for 5
minutes and there you go! Your unattended
Windows installation disc is ready!
Before you begin using it, keep one thing in
mind. As the installation is customized, refrain
from lending the disc to anyone.
 The Geek’s Box
Vishwanath Vanjire
Forget about codecs and play your movie straight off a bootable CD
T
ake a moment to think about the
different kinds of media file types
you know about. VCD, DVD, DivX,
XviD, MP3, MPEG4, WMA, RealMedia,
Ogg/Vorbis, AC3—the list goes on. And
every other day you hear of some new
format springing up that is amazing and
so much better, but you need to install
the codec. And before you know, there’s a
veritable codec conflict happening under
the hood. The answer to this comes in the
form of GeeXboX, a standalone media
player and a bootable operating system in
one. Built around Linux and Mplayer (open
source media player), GeeXboX can boot
right from a CD and play any media file
that is available out there. You don’t need
to use Windows. Moreover, GeeXboX is a
free, open-source software; this means you
can modify it and build your own release of
the GeeXboX.
Sounds interesting? Let’s get started.
First visit www.geexbox.org/en/
downloads.html and download a copy of
the following:
1. GeeXboX x.xx.x English Edition for i386
(PC) from the GeeXboX ISO section
The GeeXboX boot splash screen
The ISO image of the your bootable CD
should look like this
2. GeeXboX x.xx.x ISO Generator (i386 (PC)
Target) from the GeexboX ISO Generator
section
The first one is the simplest way of
using GeeXboX. It’s a bootable ISO image
file with all the necessary stuff (check the
box for dope on an ISO image file). All you
need to do is burn a copy of the .iso file
using any standard CD burning software
like Nero Burning ROM. Check out the
second part of this workshop to know how.
Pop the CD in your drive, set the first
boot option to CD-ROM and reboot.
GeeXboX will boot off the CD and present
you with the On-Screen Display (OSD)
menu. At the same time, it will also eject
The GeeXboX on-screen display with the
open media center (OMC) theme
your GeeXboX boot CD. Now is the time to
insert your movie CD and enjoy. The OSD
menu can be navigated with a keyboard,
joystick or a supported remote control like
the ATI Remote Wonder or Pinnacle PCTV
Remote. Once the CD has been inserted, use
the right arrow button to go to a sub-menu
and the left arrow to go back. The menu
items are pretty self-explanatory and lets
you play around with various kinds of media
like VCD, DVD, audio CD and single files like
DivX, WMA, MP3 or MPEG. It also gives you
playback control and allows you to change
things like aspect ratio and subtitles.
But this is all so plain jane. The actual
fun begins when you tweak the source
files and create your own GeeXboX release.
For that, you need the second file we
downloaded. This one is a tarball (Linux
speak for zip file) with a tar.gz extension.
Winzip does not handle such files. Use 7-Zip
(www.7-zip.org) to unzip this in Windows.
The files you get look like that as displayed
in the screenshot above.
Remember that it’s critical to maintain
this structure for the GeeXboX to operate.
Double click on “Generator.exe” to invoke
the GeeXboX ISO Generator. This lets you
make changes to the source files by using a
GUI for us non-geeky kinds.
STEP 1. The Interface tab is primarily
meant for localization. You can change the
menu language, menu font, even change
the font of the subtitles in your media
file. In addition, you can also change the
theme of GeeXboX. The generator ships
with two themes by default (OMC and

Movies). Advanced Linux users can create
their own themes. Check the GeeXboX wiki
(http://www.geexbox.org/wiki/index.
php/Theme) for that.
1 Here’s where you configure the
GeeXboX interface characteristics
STEP 2. The second tab tweaks audio
properties. If you have two soundcards, you
may want to route the audio through your
spanking new “Creative Live! Platinum”
instead of the onboard Realtek chipset. “0”
generally denotes master or onboard audio
controller. You can also select analog or
digital outputs of your soundcard and the
channel configuration, for example, 2, 4 or
6-channel surround.
2 Like any good home theater, you can
configure multi-channel audio
STEP 3. Next select your preferred
Remote Control and Receiver. In India, the
ATI Wonder and Pinnacle PCTV are pretty
much all you will get.
3 GeeXboX also has built-in support for
infrared remote control
STEP 4. If you want your GeeXboX to use
your network and access media files on a
connected PC, the Network tab allows you
to play with settings. It lets you select any
Ethernet or Wi-Fi network but play safe
and keep it in the Autodetect mode. You
can even specify your custom IP address for
network resources.
4 On the network front, it has DHCP and
WiFi support too. Wireless freedom!
STEP 5. Remember, GeeXboX is built on
the Linux kernel. So, to access Windows
PCs on the network you need to have
a SAMBA system up and running. The
services tab lets you specify authentication
for SAMBA shares. It also lets you start
services to connect to the Internet. This is
important for the last tab.
5 Your GeeXboX can also access files from
other networked Windows computers
STEP 6. The Packages tab allows you to add
fonts, drivers, codecs or firmware upgrades
that are not a part of the standard GeeXboX
ISO. Select the items and click on Download.
If you set up your Network and Services tabs
correctly, the Generator will connect to the
Internet and add them to the ISO.
6 You can use a variety of audio and
video codecs to play your media files
STEP 7. The last and the most interesting
feature doesn’t come with a tab. You can
create your GeeXboX ISO with the media
file in it. Just copy your file to the ISO
folder of the Generator folder structure.
All you need to do now is “Compile!” it.
The Generator will create your custom ISO
image ready to be burnt.
Now go to the next step to burn an ISO
image file using Nero Burning ROM.
WORKSHOP | HANDS ON 123
| What is an ISO
An ISO image file with the .iso extension is
basically a way of distributing software by
means of a single file with information like
file system, boot sequence, attributes and
other metadata. It is very similar to a zip
file but the difference is that using any CD
burning software, you can burn the .iso file
onto a CDR and get the correct structure
that it was intended to distribute with
all the files required for the application
to function correctly. ISOs relieve you
of using multiple files and installation
procedures. Just download, burn and go.
ISO files are most commonly used to post
and download Linux distributions on the
Internet.
7 After creating your custom GeeXboX
configuration, you compile it
STEP 8. Start Nero from your Start Menu
or desktop shortcut. Select the ISO tab and
click New.
8 Use your favorite CD writing software
to burn the image. You’re now ready!
STEP 9. Locate your .ISO file from the
explorer on the left and drag and drop it to
the right.
STEP 10. Click the Burn button to invoke
the burn settings dialog.
STEP 11. Select Write and the Disc-at-once
option and click on Burn. Wait for the
burning process to complete and your
custom designed GeeXboX is ready. Pop it
in and enjoy! ■
| Raunak Roy
124 HANDS ON | TIPS & TRICKS

Tips&Tricks FEBRUARY 2006

WINDOWS 125
1 Windows XP Run older applications in Win XP
2 Windows XP Protect your identity
3 Windows XP Increasing the capacity of Start menu
4 Windows XP Enable Administrative tools in the Programs menu
5 Windows XP Disable Windows Messenger
6 Windows XP Stop highlighting new programs
7 Windows XP Shortcuts for all user accounts

Umesh Dahiwalkar APPLICAIONS 126

8 Network Application Ethereal
Tip of the month 9 Network Application TightVNC

Using the front panel 10 Winamp Total music played

I’m quite apprehensive about connecting devices 11 Winamp Cool looks
to my PC. How do I connect them with any hassle? 12 Media Player Playing all popular video files
13 Word Applying text formatting
Many of you dread the idea of connecting
14 Word Disabling startup task pane
a new audio or USB device to the computer simply
because it requires you to stretch and reach out 15 Word Changing measurement units
to the back of your PC to plug that speaker or 16 Word Setting default language
headphone cord, or the USB cable. If you have just
bought a new PC, chances are that the case has a INTERNET & COMMUNICATION 129
front panel that offers various connectivity options
17 Instant Messenger Tweaking MSN Mesenger
so that you don’t have to stretch all the way to the
18 Instant Messenger Uninstalling pre installed version of MSN Messenger
back of the case to connect devices.
19 Web Page Trimming a URL
The front panel of the computer provides
connectivity for audio devices like speakers and 20 Web Browser Backing up Firefox settings
headphones, USB devices like digital cameras
and MP3 players, and at times it even provides a HARDWARE 130
Firewire port to connect your Handycam. 21 Mobile Phone Using alarm in mobile when switched off
So check out the front panel and start using your 22 PC Protection against power surges
computer to the fullest. If you plan to buy a 23 PC Cooling your system
new PC, you must insist on front-panel 24 Speakers Place your speakers correctly
connectivity!
25 DVD Drives Upgrade your DVD drive for free
26 Scanners Scan those images right

INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006


Windows
1 | Windows XP
Run older applications in
Windows XP
How do I run applications for older version
of Windows in Win XP?
Though it’s not a dedicated solution,
the “Compatibility mode” offered by
Windows XP just might be useful when
attempting to run an application intended
for an older version of Windows. Success
is not assured, but there is no harm in
trying it out. To run an old application in
compatibility mode, do the following:
Right click on the executable or shortcut
of the application that you intend to run
in compatibility mode.
Select the tab labeled as “Compatibility”
and activate the very first option called
“Run this program in compatibility mode
for”.
Using the drop-down menu, choose
the version of Windows for which the
application was made. Now click on
“Apply” to confirm the procedure.
1 Select the desired option to run the
program in compatibility mode
2 | Windows XP
Protect your identity
How do I stop the monitoring connection
feature?
You might be aware of the fact
that most of the software audio players
connect to the Internet, providing you
with additional information about the
CD or MP3 tracks that you load in the
playlist. Some of this information, such
as song title and album art is useful but
the Windows Media Player that comes
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
2 Prevent the Media Player from
connecting to the Internet by disabling
the retrieving option
as a default bundle with Windows XP
operating system also identifies your
copy of Media Player to the parent site.
According to the documentation in the
help file: ‘The server uses this unique
identifier to monitor your connection. By
monitoring your connection, the server can
make adjustments to increase the playback
quality and to alert you about events that
occur when receiving streams over the
Internet’. Not everyone will be thrilled by
this feature, and many might consider this
as an invasion of privacy.
If you’re perturbed by this exchange of
information, here’s how to disable it.
Launch Windows Media Player, and go to
“Tools | Options”.
Click on the Player tab and, under “Player
settings”, disable the option “Connect to
the Internet”.
In the “Tools | Options” tab itself, click on
“Library”.
Ensure that the option “Retrieve
additional information from the
Internet” is disabled.
After you’re done, click on “Apply”.
3 | Windows XP
Increasing the capacity of
Start Menu
How I do add more programs to the Start
menu?
By default, the “Start menu” in
Windows XP displays six programs,
allowing you to launch them directly from
the menu. You can change the number
of programs displayed here. Go to “Start”
and right click on the blank space above
the “Programs” menu. Select “Properties”.
TIPS & TRICKS | HANDS ON 125
Click on the “Customize” button next to
the “Start menu” description. Under the
“Programs” option, you will find a drop-
down list; this allows you to define the
number of programs that you want on the
“Start menu”. A maximum of 30 is allowed.
Though 30 will be impractical, you can
certainly extend the capacity of the Start
menu from 6 to 8 or 10, allowing you to
launch more programs quickly from the
Start menu.
4 | Windows XP
Enable Administrative tools in
the Programs menu
Is there a way to quickly access
Administrative Tools?
Those who constantly monitor
network activity and administer their
computers are frequent users of
“Administrative tools”. Finding your way
to these tools through the Control Panel
is a long and cumbersome process. Here
is a simple tip that allows you to have
the “Administrative tools” menu in the
“Programs” menu itself, allowing quick and
convenient access.
4 Enable Administrative tools in the
Programs menu
Go to “Start” and right click on the blank
space above the “Programs” menu. Select
“Properties”. Click on the “Customize”
button next to the “Start menu”
description. Under the “Start menu items”
option, scroll down to the last option
“System Administrative tools”. By default,
the option “Don’t display this item” is
selected. Change the selection to the
very first option, “Display on All Programs
menu”. Click “OK” and you are done!
126 HANDS ON | TIPS & TRICKS
5 | Windows XP
Disable Windows Messenger
How do I deselect the Windows Messenger
that comes preloaded with Win XP?
Every time you load Windows XP,
the Windows Messenger is loaded by
default and there’s no straightforward
way to permanently disable it through the
Control Panel or Messenger. The startup
might offer you an option of deselecting
the messenger from the list of startup
options, but it’s definitely not the end of it
and some applications do override those
settings, causing the Messenger to load at
startup nonetheless.
To permanently avoid the messenger
from loading at startup, you should use
the “GPEDIT.MSC” command. Click on
“Start”, go to “Run” and enter “GPEDIT.
MSC” and click on “OK”. For "per machine"
restriction, go to “Computer Configuration
| Administrative Templates | Windows
Components | Windows Messenger”.
Change the settings as you wish; you can
either disable Messenger completely by
double clicking on “Do not allow Windows
Messenger to run” and enabling the option
(by default it is not configured). Or you
can also select the second option “Do not
automatically start Windows Messenger
initially” and enable that option to simply
stop Messenger from loading during
startup. Similarly, for "per user" restriction,
go to “User Configuration | Administrative
Templates | Windows Components |
Windows Messenger” and modify the
settings according to your wish.
5 Select whether you would like
to disable Windows Messenger
completely, or simply prevent it from
loading at startup
6 | Windows XP
Stop highlighting new programs
How do I disable the highlighting feature
in Win XP?
The concept of highlighting all the
new applications that you installed in the
programs menu sounds practical in the
beginning, but it does not make sense
when you realize that you remember the
latest applications you installed and don’t
need to be reminded. Here is a simple way
to disable the highlighting feature.
Right Click on “Start” and select
“Properties”.
On the “Start” menu tab click on
“Customize”.
Select the “Advanced” tab.
Uncheck the box labeled “Highlight
Newly Installed Programs”.
Click on “OK”.
No more highlighting the obvious.
7 | Windows XP
Shortcuts for all user accounts
Upon installing certain applications, their
shortcuts get created in ‘Start menu |
Programs’ only for the current user. How
do I make it accessible to all user accounts?
Most applications give an option of
creating Start menu shortcuts for all user
accounts during installation. However,
if it doesn’t give the option and creates
shortcuts only for the current user, here’s
how you go about it:
Right click on the shortcut or the
program group from the Start menu and
click copy.
Navigate to ‘Documents and Settings
| All Users | Start Menu | Programs’ on the
7 The easiest way to make shortcuts
available in the Start menu of all user
accounts
drive where Windows is installed and
paste the contents.
The shortcuts or the program group will
now appear in the Start menu of all user
accounts.
Applications
8 | Network Application
Ethereal
Can you tell me more on software to
monitor data sent across a network?
Ethereal is a GUI-based monitoring
tool that browses and captures data
packets that is sent across a network. All
one has to do to begin monitoring the
data sent across a network is to install the
software, select the network interface
(your network card) and start capturing
packets. You can do this by clicking on the
Capture menu and clicking on Interfaces.
In the Interfaces dialog box, select the
network interface you want to monitor. If
you are using a dialup connection then click
on its corresponding Capture button. If you
access the Internet or in case you’re on a
network, then select the network interface
(for example, Intel Pro Adapter). Clicking
on “Prepare”, open the configuration
dialog box called “Capture Options”. This
is where you can change Ethereal’s default
settings. If you want to monitor data
traveling to and from your computer only
then uncheck the option “Capture packets
in promiscuous mode”. (If this option is left
enabled then it will scan the network for all
data packets that the interface can see.)
By default, if you click on Capture, a
dialog box will appear displaying a list
of all the protocols being sent across the
network. But a list will not be shown in the
main Ethereal window. To show a live list
of all packets on the network, check the
box “Update list of packets in real time”
under Display Options. As the packets are
listed while the packet capture is on, click
on the View menu and select “Auto Scroll
in Live Capture”. This will keep the focus on
the latest packets being captured and the
window will keep scrolling automatically.
Additional options in this dialog box
(also accessible from Capture | Options)
like specifying particular protocols that you
want Ethereal to monitor can be added
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

by clicking on the “Capture Filter” button.
Select protocols like IP, TCP or ICMP from
the list and click on OK. If you are going to
monitor the network or your interface over
a long period of time then it is preferable
to create separate log files every few
minutes. Under “Capture File(s)” section,
check “Use Multiple Files” and choose the
condition under which new log files will
be created—total packet size or minutes. If
you want to stop the capture after creating
a few files, use the “Stop capture after”
under “Capture Options” or use the “Stop
Capture” choices.
8 Make the list of packets captured by
Ethereal scroll automatically by choosing
the Auto Scroll option in the View menu
If you do not like the way the elements
are laid out in Ethereal, you can change
it by clicking on the Edit menu and select
“Preferences”. Click on “Layout” from the
list on the left hand side. Choose the layout
of your choice and arrange the packet
list, details and bytes according to your
preferences.
If you want to create a visual
representation of network traffic to and
from your interface, click on the Statistics
menu and select “IO Graphs”. In the
‘Graphs’ window you can either simply
specify the X and Y axis to get the overall
8a The layout option in Ethereal’s Preferences
allows you to arrange the details making
it more customizable to the user
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
8c Create a graph of network traffic
the interface is exposed to with
another representation of all network
broadcasts (in Blue)
visual representation of traffic. Use the
filter buttons to create another graph,
superimposed onto the present one.
9 | Network Application
TightVNC
How do I access a workstation from a
single place?
To access workstations remotely,
you can use the software TightVNC. It is a
very light utility and needs to be installed
on the machine you want to control as
well as the machine that will be used as
the ‘controller’. Consider Computer X and
Y and say “X” is the computer you want to
control from “Y”. You will have to install
TightVNC Server on computer “X” (the
9 Configure TightVNC on the computer
you want to control remotely via its
Properties and Advanced configuration
options
TIPS & TRICKS | HANDS ON 127
9a Configure the way you want to connect
to the PC you want to control remotely
through the VNC Listener Connections
Options dialog box
one you want to control remotely), while
“TightVNC Viewer” will need to be installed
on computer “Y”.
There are two modes to run TightVNC—
as an application or as a Windows Service.
If you run it as an application then you will
need to activate the server and its listener
each time you restart whereas using it
as a Windows Service will make it launch
after every restart. The service can be
installed from “Start | Programs | TightVNC
| Administration | Install VNC Service.
This will register the service and list in the
Services menu as “VNC Server”. This service
can be removed from the same place
(Administration) or temporarily disabled
by clicking on Start | Run, typing “Services.
msc” and clicking OK. Disable the service
VNC Server in the list. That’s all.
On computer “X”, run the “Launch VNC
Server” from Programs | TightVNC. Right
click on the VNC icon and select Properties.
If you have installed the VNC Listener on “X”
also, then the icon in the system tray will
sport a smaller “V” letter to help you discern
between the server and the listener.
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128 HANDS ON | TIPS & TRICKS
In the Properties dialog box, set the
password first and click on Apply. If you
only plan to monitor “X” and not control it,
then you should check the “Disable remote
keyboard and pointer (view-only mode)”.
This is perfect for simple monitoring of PCs
on a network.
Note that this setting has been made
from computer “X”, so if you need to
switch back to the interactive mode then
you will need to visit the machine and
change it back to the defaults. An easier
method would be to right click on the
VNC Listener (the icon with the smaller
“V” in the system tray) and select “New
Connection”. Enter the machine’s IP
address or hostname and click on Options.
In the Options dialog box, enable the
option “View Only (inputs ignored)”, click
on OK and then OK once again to connect
to “X”. You will be prompted to enter a
password—one you set on “X” earlier.
Enter the password and click on OK. When
X’s desktop appears in a new window you
will only be able to monitor activities on
the desktop. If network bandwidth is a
precious commodity, click on “TightVNC
Viewer (Best Compression)” or “Fast
Compression”—this will display the remote
computer but low detail.
10 | WINAMP
Total music played
How do I check the total time played by
Winamp till date?
After starting Winamp, press ‘Ctrl
+ p’ to bring up the ‘Preferences’ dialog box.
Under ‘Plug-ins’ in the left pane, select
‘Output’.
Double click on the ‘DirectSound
output’ in the right pane. Select the
‘Status’ tab and there you are! If the player
is stopped, it will just show the total time
played. Else it will appear in the second-last
10 Check out how much music you’ve
listened to using Winamp
line of the tab.
If you are a music freak, you’ll be
amazed to see how much you have
listened!
11 | WINAMP
Cool looks
Is it possible to make the Winamp window
translucent?
Translucency gives the Winamp
window a cool look. But for that you will
need the latest version of Winamp.
It is possible to make the player window
translucent only in the ‘Modern skin’ mode.
If you are not using the ‘Modern skin’,
enable it from the skin browser which can
be accessed via the shortcut ‘Alt + s’.
Now right click on Winamp’s title bar and
navigate to ‘Window settings | Opacity’.
Select the opacity percentage depending
on the level of translucency you like. Lesser
the opacity, the higher is the translucency.
Opacity between 70 percent and 80
percent looks very cool.
11 Make your Winamp window
translucent to jazz it up
12 | Media Player
Playing all popular video files
I have recently got movies encoded in
the divx, xvid and various other formats.
In spite of installing quite a number of
codecs, some of my movies don’t play.
Can you recommend a single media player
capable of playing almost all the popular
formats?
One media player well known for
its capability to play a wide variety of
formats is VLC. VLC (initially Video LAN
Client) is a highly portable multimedia
player for various audio and video formats
(MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3,
ogg…) as well as dvds, vcds, and various
streaming protocols. You can download the
free software from their official web site,
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/. Once on
this page, select the player suitable for your
operating system. It supports a wide array
of operating systems including Windows,
Mac OS X, Debian GNU/Linux, Mandrake
Linux, Fedora core, Red Hat Linux and even
Windows CE/Pocket PC. You can even get
the source code. Once downloaded, install
the software. The interface is like any other
media player. Once in a while keep looking
for newer versions of the software, which
would include support for newer formats.
13| Word
Applying text formatting
I have formatted text in MS Word. I would
like to apply the same format to some
other paragraph. Rather than applying
a couple of changes all over again, is it
possible to do it in a few clicks?
Word has a very useful tool called
‘Format Painter’ which is an option in the
‘Standard toolbar’. It is located between
the ‘Paste’ and the ‘Undo’ button. It’s
specifically meant to copy and apply text
formatting within or between documents.
Using it is very simple.
First select the text that has the
formatting that you want to copy.
Click the ‘Format Painter’ button on the
‘Standard toolbar’. This makes the mouse
pointer change to a paint-brush icon.
Now select the text that you wish to
format and you’re done.
To apply formatting to more than one
block of text, double click on ‘Format
Painter’.
It saves a lot of time especially when it
is across documents.
14 | Word
Disabling startup task pane
Each time I start Word, Excel or
PowerPoint, I get the startup task pane.
How do I disable it?
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

14 If you get bothered by the task pane
you can disable it
If you don’t use the startup task
pane, it’s a bit irritating when it pops
up each time you start Word, Excel or
PowerPoint. To disable it, go to ‘Tools |
Options’ and select the ‘View’ tab.
Under the section ‘Show’, uncheck the
option ‘Startup Task Pane’ and click ‘OK’.
This is applicable to all applications in
MS Office 2003, which show the startup
task pane.
15 | Word
Changing measurement units
How do I change the measurement units in
Word to centimeters or millimeters instead
of inches?
By default, MS Word uses inches as
measurement units. However, if you want
to change it to centimeters or millimeters
15
Change the measurement units in
Word if you’re not used to ‘inches’
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
or other units such as points or picas, it can
be done in the following method:
Go to ‘Tools | Options’ and select the
‘General’ tab.
In the ‘Measurement units’ drop down
list, select the type of unit and click OK.
This will affect the units globally—ruler
bar, page setup, etc.
Millimeters and Points are extremely
useful for high precision.
16 | Word
Setting default language
By default, all word documents have the
language set to English (US style). As
a result, certain words which are spelt
correctly according to the British dictionary
get underlined red denoting a spelling
error. How do I set the language to British
English permanently?
If you wish to change the language
to British English only for the current
session, you can do so by going to ‘Tools |
Language | Set Language’. Select ‘English
(U.K.)’and click OK to set the language for
the current session.
If you are accustomed to ‘English (U.K.)’
and want the change to be permanent
for all the documents, click the ‘Default’
button after you select ‘English (U.K.)’ from
the language options. Click ‘Yes’ when
you are prompted to make the change
permanent.
16
If you’re used to the British dictionary,
set it as the default language in Word
After you change the language to
‘English (U.K.)’, any word spelt in the
US style will get changed to UK style
automatically. For example, if you type
‘favorite’ by mistake, it will automatically
get changed to ‘favourite’.
TIPS & TRICKS | HANDS ON 129
Internet & Communication
17 | Instant Messenger
Tweaking MSN Messenger
When I check my Hotmail account using
MSN Messenger, it opens up in Internet
Explorer even though I have set my default
browser as Firefox. Is there any way to
make MSN messenger open my Hotmail
account in the default browser?
17 StuffPlug allows opening links in
the default browser through MSN
Messenger
When you open your Hotmail inbox
using MSN Messenger, it will inevitably
open up in Internet Explorer. And it’s
not possible to open it in some other
browser set as default unless you use
some third party tools. Download the
latest version of Messenger Plus
from www.msgplus.net, which
is an add-on to MSN Messenger.
It adds a big chunk of tweaks
to MSN Messenger making it
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130 HANDS ON | TIPS & TRICKS
more versatile. This includes options to
fine tune your contact list, chat windows,
messages and so on. It also has an option
to use plug-ins, which further enhances its
functionality. One such plug-in is StuffPlug,
which adds more features to Messenger
Plus. It gives an option to open the links
in default browser instead of Internet
Explorer. Apart from this, it has 20 other
tweaks that you can try out.
18 | Instant Messenger
Uninstalling pre-installed version of
MSN Messenger
I use the newer version of MSN
messenger—version 7.5, but the older
(version 4.7) which came pre-installed with
Windows XP, also exists. How do I uninstall
the older version?
To install the older version of MSN
Messenger, Click on start and then click on
Run. Then type the following into the open
run box:
RunDll32 advpack.dll,LaunchINFSection
%windir%\INF\msmsgs.inf,BLC.Remove
You will get a prompt asking you to exit
the old MSN messenger from the system
tray in case you’re running it. Close all
other programs that display the contact
list, for example, Outlook, Outlook Express,
MSN explorer and make sure you close all
programs for all users who have signed in
to the computer. In the end, you will get a
prompt saying that it has been uninstalled.
19 | Web Page
Trimming a URL
I need to tell someone over the phone
about a web page with a very long URL and
it’s not possible for me to mail the link to
him. What do I do?
You can go to www.tinyurl.com,
enter a long URL into the box and hit on
the button that says “make a tinyURL!” And
you have a tiny URL that never expires. For
example, you want to tell someone about
this URL: http://www.chip-india.com/
townsquare/viewtopic.php?t=5391, which
opens the page for the prize winners of the
‘Monster PC’ contest. You just have to copy
and paste the URL in the box and hit the
button that says “make a tiny URL!” And
this is what you will get: http://tinyurl.
com/9nzna. This URL opens the same page
and can very easily be read out to someone
over the phone.
20 | Web Browser
Backing up Firefox settings
and preferences
I’m in the process of moving companies
and I want all the settings in my Firefox
browser on the new PC exactly as it was on
the old PC. Is there a way to back up all of
my Firefox settings, themes, bookmarks,
extensions and customizations?
A superb program called MozBackup
packages all your essential Firefox and
Thunderbird settings: bookmarks, mail,
contacts, history, extensions, cache etc.
Download the program from http://
mozbackup.jasnapaka.com/. Install the
program and run it. Pick your Mozilla
program and your user and choose “Backup
a profile.” You will be able to password-
protect your backup file. Please note that
you can’t run Firefox when you’re backing
up. When you’re done, the resulting .pcv
file will contain all your settings. Email the
file to your account and download it on
your new computer. Install MozBackup on
your new computer and run it. Now choose
the option “restore a profile”. This should
set your Firefox in the same way you had it
on your old computer.
Hardware
21 | Mobile Phone
Using alarm in mobile when
switched off
I own a Symbian Series 60-based cell phone.
And I prefer keeping it off at night for a
peaceful sleep. However, I also use it as an
alarm clock to wake up. Is it possible to use
the alarm clock while the phone is off?
The Symbian Series 60-based cell
phones have a clock utility featuring an
alarm with support for snooze, which
repeats the alarm a few minutes after you
switch it off.
To set an alarm, run the clock utility
usually present under ‘Extras’. Choose
‘Options’ and select ‘Set alarm’. Set the
time using the dial pad.
The best thing about the alarm feature
is that the phone need not be on for the
alarm to work. Even while the phone is off,
it beeps at the set time and gives you the
option to snooze or stop the alarm. It also
gives an option to switch on the phone
after the alarm.
This way you’ll save battery life and
most importantly enjoy a peaceful sleep!
21
There’s no need to keep your Symbian-
based phone on for the alarm to work
22 | PC
Protection against power surges
How do I protect my computer against
lightning? I also have frequent voltage
fluctuations at my house. In such a
scenario, how do I safeguard my PC?
A power surge is a sudden brief
increase in the line voltage, usually caused
by lightning or power outages, short
circuits, tripped circuit breakers, etc. It can
damage your electrical equipment or at
least reduce its life span. When lightning
strikes a power line, it creates an extremely
large power surge that overpowers almost
any surge protector, so don’t rely only on
a surge protector. The best way to protect
your computer is to unplug it. Also unplug
any phone or coaxial cables.
To tackle voltage fluctuations, it’s
advisable to use a good quality surge
protector. The quality is generally
proportional to the price; a cheap spike
guard (spikes and surges are pretty
similar, difference being a surge lasts for 3
nanoseconds whereas a spike lasts for 1 or
2 nanoseconds) would do little more than
just providing power outlets. It should also
have an indicator light indicating whether
it’s functioning properly or not. It should
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

have a fuse that burns out if more than a
particular amount of voltage passes through
it. Power surges can also travel through your
phone lines and coaxial cables—the phone
line connects to the modem and the coaxial
cable is used to provide broadband Internet.
Look for a surge protector with a telephone
and coaxial cable line-in jack. Some UPS
units also provide surge protection.
23 | PC
Cooling your system
Please tell me how I can keep my system cool.
Computers are becoming faster
by the day, promising more power and
capacity than you can ever need. But with
all the power comes some heat. The heat
generated by the chips running at high
speeds is cooled by the coolers and fans
inside the case. To ensure proper cooling,
you should avoid cutting off the airflow to
your computer.
Depending on the design, your
computer draws air through vents in the
front, sides or bottom. Keep everything
at least an inch away from obvious vents.
(Tip: If your computer starts running hot,
don’t take off the case in an attempt to
give it more airflow. That usually diffuses
the air too much. Instead, find out why it’s
running hot and get it fixed.)
24 | Speakers
Place your speakers correctly
I want to know if there is any particular
way I should place my speakers.
If you have just upgraded your PC
speakers to more powerful and advanced
ones, you should learn how to use them
optimally. These days PC speaker sets
come with woofers and multiple speakers
referred to as satellites. The placement
of these speakers can go a long way in
deciding the final output and quality of
the sound. Whether you upgrade to a 2.1
speaker system (which comprises two
satellites and one woofer) or a 5.1 speaker
system (five satellites and a woofer), make
sure you place the woofer in the corner of
the room or the listening area.
The woofer should be placed in a corner
but not too close to any wall or other
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
objects; the more open space it gets the
better it sounds. The placement is also
very important; it should be placed on the
floor and not on any objects or shelves.
Also make sure that it’s away from the
computer or any other electronic device.
Woofers are generally not magnetically
shielded and hence may cause interference
with other devices. Satellites should ideally
be placed at ear level in terms of the height
from the floor. This creates an ideal sound
field, which plays a key role in delivering
positional audio—a dominant feature for
DVD movies.
25 | DVD Drives
Upgrade your DVD drive for free
Please tell me how I can upgrade my DVD
drive.
Most of us have DVD drives,
allowing us to read DVD discs and play
DVD media. But many of us might not be
aware of the DVD Region Protection Code
(RPC), a standard that was implemented
to avoid piracy of DVDs when they were
initially launched. Now that DVD media is
universal and has become part of popular
entertainment, newer DVD drives are
generally not region-protected. In case you
have a relatively older DVD Drive, chances
are that it is region protected and hence
will only allow you to change the DVD
region codes five times. The fifth change
will be permanent and the DVD will stay
locked to a particular region, allowing
you to only play DVD movie discs that
correspond to that region.
The solution lies in flashing the firmware,
or installing a particular utility that unlocks
the DVD drive. Doing this will convert your
DVD drive to RPC-2 standard, which denotes
a region-free DVD drive like all the latest
DVD drives sold in the market. Flashing the
firmware is complicated and should be done
correctly and with precaution. The latest
firmware will be listed in the “Downloads”
sections of the manufacturers’ web sites.
Make sure you identify the exact model
number of your DVD drive and download
the correct firmware. The manufacturer
provides a detailed documented method of
how to go about flashing the firmware to
upgrade the drive.
TIPS & TRICKS | HANDS ON 131
Another substantial advantage of
upgrading the firmware of your DVD drives
comes in the form of support for latest
formats of DVD discs. Many of the older
DVD drives only support DVD-R format and
are unable to read the later DVD+R format.
In many cases, flashing the firmware also
adds support for DVD+R format discs.
26 | Scanners
Scan those images right
How do I ensure that the documents I scan
come out perfect?
Scanning images and documents
is a simple job but it does call for some
guidelines to ensure that the scanned
images and documents come out the
way you want them to. For instance,
placing the document/photograph in the
flatbed scanner can also influence the
final output. Most modern scanners are
intelligent enough to correct any accidental
placement errors. Many of us don’t align
the pages properly, so some scanners
have incorporated a feature to correct
misalignments automatically.
However, the auto correction feature
in most scanners works only to a certain
extent. The pages/photos that are just
slightly skewed on the scanner bed are
corrected. If your original is tilted by more
than 10 degrees, the scanner assumes
that you intentionally put it that way. So
don’t can’t assume that all the scans will
be corrected irrespective of the placement,
and try scanning the document or
photo again. ■
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 MODmania
A look here at 10 popular MODs for some of the best games

M
odifications or MODS as they are popularly called change your gaming experience
altogether—when you’ve finished playing a game and want to play it again with
some changes made to it, MODS are just what you need. MODS could either change
the storyline or add new characters or even convert the genre of the game. They are not
1 developed by the actual developers of the game but by gaming enthusiasts around the globe.
You can download these MODS directly from www.moddb.com. A look here at the 10 popular
MODs available for popular games.

1 Half-Life 2: Capture the Flag MOD

This MOD aims to bring the familiar Capture the Flag game to Half-Life 2. It pits the Rebels
against the Combine in a high-paced battle over the flags. The most noticeable feature of this
MOD is the graphic-rich environment. It includes many other familiar features found in other
Capture the Flag modifications.

2 Unreal Tournament 2004-Alien Swarm: The Telic Campaign MOD

The Telic Campaign builds upon Alien Swarm by giving you eight new and unique
2 missions in the form of complete game play. Not only this, it has also expanded Alien
Swarm with new weapons, original mission objectives and modified rules. It also has
varied mission environments ranging from industrial facilities to high-tech labs and
underground caves. Watch out for vibrant non-stop action and numerous challenging
situations that require a good level of cooperation among your team members.

3 DOOM 3: Last Man Standing Coop MOD

This MOD is a cooperative modification that aims to bring back the feel of the old
Doom game in Doom 3. It’s all about your survival in nature. Get ready to face legions
of monsters with hardcore heavy metal playing in the background. No matter how
many monsters you kill, they just keep coming at you thick and fast. This mod is
certainly not meant for the faint hearted!

4 The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth Elven MOD
All of you who played The Battle for Middle Earth must have craved for a glimpse of Liv Tyler in
the game. Well, your wish is granted with this MOD. The Elven MOD apart from adding an Elven
faction to your game will make certain changes to your other factions. The new heroes that you
get are Galadriel, Elrond, Haldir, Gamling, and Gothmog. Spearmen of the Havens, Mirkwood
Scouts, and Riders of Rivendell are among the new units. The Elves faction will also offer new
strategies for cavalry,
Vishwanath Vanjire 4
stealth, and sieges. This
will definitely help you
3 in your fight to defeat
the dark forces of
Mordor and protect the
Ring bearer, Frodo.
 10
5 Quake 3 Arena: Tremulous MOD
The Tremulous MOD for Quake 3 Arena is an open source
modification that combines a team-based FPS with elements of an
RTS. You can choose from two unique races, Aliens and Humans.
Just as in a RTS game, you will have to build structures that will
provide you with a wide array of functions, the most significant
being spawning. Player advancement is different for each of the
two teams. If you are playing as humans, then you are awarded
credits for each alien kill which may be used to purchase new
weapons and upgrades. If you are playing the role of the alien,
you evolve into a new class when you kill your human enemy. The
overall objective in this MOD is to eliminate the opposing team.
6 WARCRAFT III: Divine Right MOD
This Warcraft III MOD is for The Frozen Expansion. It changes all
four races to new ones, features brand new spells, units as well
as heroes. It also has naval units. The Four races are the Sarenae,
Adranti, Elves, and Humans. This MOD has its own story and
history and is independent of the regular Warcraft series. It can be
played in multiplayer or in singleplayer mode against computer AI.
7 Dungeon Siege: Copperhead – Retaliation MOD
This MOD transforms the game into a sci-fi setting with
completely new characters, new weapons and levels. Features
include new character models with varied attacking styles, new
sounds, completely new story and events, and amazing effects. It
also gives you 17 new weapons. And not to forget the new terrains
and buildings that come bundled.
FEATURE | UNWIND 133
8 Call of Duty:
Heat of Battle MOD
The Heat of Battle MOD for Call of Duty allows you to have a
unique game play experience. It uses a capture and hold objective
similar to that of BattleField 1942. Gear up for gripping struggles
to control areas and total domination over other teams. Look out
for a great deal of variety in terms of game play. Every map has an
entirely different game play style. Overall, it gives you a realistic
and fun gaming experience.
9 Max Payne: Kung Fu MOD
The Kung Fu MOD for Max Payne is the most popular. Features
include a hand-to-hand and a stick fighting mode, over 20
different moves, kung fu style flips and spins. In addition to these,
there are two extra shoot dodging techniques, it also allows you
to juggle bodies and slam them into walls. The ‘DOJO’ training
area teaches you the basics of the kung fu fighting mode.
10 Age of Mythology: Defensive MOD
Most of us believe that ‘attack is the best form of defence’. But
this MOD for the Age of Mythology changes this perception. It
allows you to play a defensive role by building strong walls and
towers. But it takes long as well as costs you more resources to
build them. The costs for upgrading the walls and towers are also
raised. But the price you pay is well worth it when you find out
how strong your walls and towers are and the kind of protection
they give you. ■
| Anup Pillai
7

Top: Indigo Prophecy begins
with a rather grisly murder.
Bottom: A rattled Lucas sees a
policeman at his door. Will he
lose his nerve or hold it? It’s up
to you.
Price: Rs 1,499 Publisher: Atari
CPU, 256 MB RAM, 8x or faster CD/DVD drive, 2 GB of free hard disk space, video card with 32 MB or more memory
Vishwanath Vanjire
Get ready for multiple role-playing in this amazing
puzzle-oriented game
I
ndigo Prophecy, aka Fahrenheit, gets
underway with an absolute bang. You
begin by playing the role of Lucas Kane,
a young man who stops over at a diner for
a snack. But suddenly some strange force
overpowers him. He slashes his arms
wildly and brutallys stab a man to death.
Strange visions fly through his mind and
then suddenly, Kane snaps out of it. He
sees the dead body, looks at the knife
in his hand, and is horrified.
As Lucas Kane, you now have
to decide what to do. Since there
is a policeman in the diner, your
first task is to get out of the
restaurant in one piece. Do so
without leaving too many
clues—after all, the cops will
be along in a while. In fact, it
might not be a bad idea to
leave the odd clue behind.
Because it’s you who will be
investigating the murder!
And that is the real beauty
of Indigo Prophecy. You don’t
play it from just one perspective but
four. You play a murderer, two of the police
detectives (Carla Valenti and Tyler Miles)
investigating the crime Kane has committed
and Markus Kane, Kane’s brother. And
when these characters interact with one
another, you can opt to play as one of them
and then switch roles and play the role of
the other. Quite simply, Indigo Prophecy is
like a story that unfolds depending on the
decisions that you take in accordance to
which character’s shoes you have stepped
into. And no matter what character you
RATINGS 9 / 10
For: Terrific story; amazing sound and
music; great replay value.
Against: Autosaving system; new
interface might take some time getting
used to.
Distributors: Milestone Interactive Software Ltd Tel: 022-28203319 System: Windows All, Pentium III 800 MHz or faster
play, you will seldom find yourself with only
one option. Your choice will send the story
spinning in a particular direction.
As the story progresses, Lucas is in
the curious position of knowing that he
committed a murder, even though he does
not know why he did so. He is also disturbed
by the strange visions haunting him. On the
verge of doubting his own sanity, he also
has to dodge the police who are hot on his
heels. He confides in his brother Markus,
thus putting him in a bit of a spot as well.
Meanwhile, a number of murders come
to light and the city faces unprecedented
snowfall. Is Lucas guilty? What is the secret
force driving him? Is the city under threat
from not just a serial killer but also the
sinisterly increasing snow? These are just
some of the questions whose answers you
have to seek in the game.
And you do so in a glorious cinematic
setting. The graphics and environments
may not be as dazzling as that in Half-Life
2 or Myst 5, but are more than sufficient.
The voice acting, sound effects and music
coupled with a gripping storyline are superb.
However, Indigo Prophecy is not free of
glitches. It does not allow you to save at
any place you wish, preferring to autosave
at certain locations. The game play does
take some getting used to. And while the
ability to play different characters is fun, it
can leave you dreadfully confused at times,
especially if you happen to take a break from
the game for a while.
But all these pale into insignificance
when compared with what Indigo Prophecy
offers—hours of compelling game play
with arguably one of the most riveting
stories ever told in gaming history. Also,
this one has phenomenal replay value—
you will find yourself trying different
approaches even before you reach the end.
■| Nimish Dubey
135 UNWIND | FEATURE
So what if you can’t kick off on the
field? You have the choice to live this
realistic football experience
W ith the year 2006 being an
important one in the soccer
calendar (the World Cup is scheduled in
June), it became imperative for EA Sports
to make FIFA 2006 the best game in this
series. And honestly, they haven’t let
us down because FIFA 2006 is the most
advanced as well as the most realistic
football game to have ever been released
by EA Sports.
Once you select your favorite club from
a plethora of clubs in different countries,
you are challenged to play a match against
a formidable ‘Classic XI’ squad. Win this
match and you will be awarded 1,000
points that you can use to unlock the
locked features.
If you are playing FIFA 2006 for the
first time, then it is better to become
familiar with the controls by selecting the
Practice option. Choose Kick-Off to play
a friendly match or start your managerial
career (spanning over 15 seasons) by
selecting the Manager Mode. But prove
your credentials first by playing for some
of the lesser known clubs before the
bigger clubs can come knocking on your
door. In addition to managing your team,
you will also have to keep a check on your
team’s finances, your club’s fans, your
support staff, player contracts, etc. You
must try to utilize your player’s skill and
efficiency to the maximum. Your sponsor
will also contribute to your club’s revenue
depending on the successes of your
team. Before the season begins,
the Board of Directors will inform
Price: Rs 1,299 Publisher: EA Sports Distributors: Gayathri Impex Pvt Ltd Tel: 022-23881443
RAM, 8x or faster CD/DVD drive, 2.7 GB of free hard disk space, video card with 32 MB or more memory
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
FEATURE | UNWIND 135
you of their expectations from the team.
Your team’s performance has to match
the board’s expectations else you will be
shown the exit door. The Tournament
Mode enables you to choose the
tournament as well as the team you want
to play for. It also lets you create your own
customized tournaments with the teams
that you select. You can also go online and
test your abilities with a host of other FIFA
enthusiasts or play against a friend with
the Multiplayer option.
Game play is similar to that of the
previous versions in this series. New
features include a Performance Meter that
increases as your team gains momentum
while attacking, Player Styles that tell you
how good the player is, and Team Chemistry,
which lets the players bond better. But in a
one-on-one situation your goalkeeper does
not come out of his goal line immediately
to gather the ball. Also, sometimes when a
certain section of the pitch is crowded with
players, the game lags.
FIFA 2006 is a must buy for all FIFA fans.
The atmosphere in the virtual stadium with
the crowd chanting is electrifying, inspiring
you to outplay your opponent. ■
| Anup Pillai
RATINGS 8.5 / 10
For: Excellent graphics; new features like
Performance Meter, Team Chemistry and
Player Styles.
Against: Slow response by goalkeeper
during one-on-one situation; game lags
when a particular area is crowded.
System: Windows XP/2000, 1.3 GHz or faster CPU, 256 MB
Pramod Jadhav
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

Y
our long cherished dream of making your
own movies and owing a studio will now
come true with The Movies. However, if
your think running a studio in a game is pretty
easier, you will be surprised to find that it’s not.
After installation, when you begin with
the tutorial you are told how to build your
own studio from scratch, construct sets, hire
actors and directors, crew members and most
importantly, you are instructed how to make
movies that will earn you studio money as
well as recognition. The game begins in the
year 1920. You need to hire builders as well
as cleaners to ensure your sets as well as your
studio premises are in perfect condition. For
the first two movies, the script is automatically
provided to you but after that you will have to
build your scriptwriting office by hiring some
good scriptwriters. On the top of the screen is an
information bar that will keep you posted about
the latest news; it’s here that you come to know
which genre of movies people want to see at
that time. So if you want to rake in good money,
make sure your scriptwriters write a script on
the genre in demand or else your movie could be
Top: A bird’s eye view of a big dud at the box office. The available genres
your studio
include horror, comedy, romance, sci-fi and
Middle: Assign the action with sets built specifically to shoot the
costume of your choice
to your stars
Bottom: Zoom in to see
RATINGS 8 / 10
For: Simple and addictive game play; sharing
the movie being shot
your movies possible; good graphics.
Against: Game lags when played at the
highest settings.
Price: Rs 999 Publisher : Activision Developer: Lionhead Studios Distributors: World Wide CD ROMS
98SE/2000/ME/XP, Pentium III 800 MHz or faster CPU, 256 MB RAM, 8x or faster CD/DVD drive, 2.4 GB of free hard disk space, video card with 32 MB or more memory
Pramod Jadhav
Build your own movie studio
and rake in moolah in this
addictive strategy game
films belonging to these genres.
The success of the movies produced by
your studio will depend on a variety of factors
starting from the mood of your director and
actors, the maintenance of your sets, the
script quality, etc. Initially, your movies will
not be rated very highly but as your staff gains
experience the ratings for your stars as well
as your studio will go up. But maintaining the
ratings is another tough job as one bad film
could bring these ratings down. If you feel your
scriptwriters are not doing a good job then you
can try a hand at scriptwriting and then assign
actors and directors to take the script forward
at the casting office. At the ‘post production
office’ you can add subtitles, give some finishing
touches to your movie before you release it.
Another noticeable feature in this game is
that with newer technologies researched by your
scientists, you will able to make movies in color
as well as add sound effects. Your job doesn’t
end here though, you will need to keep the
stars you hire happy by catering to their needs,
assigning trailers to them, giving them an image
makeover as well as an occasional pay rise. Last
but not the least, there’s an awards ceremony
that takes place every five years. Based on the
awards that your studio earns you will be able to
unlock new sets as well as climb up the ratings
charts.
Game play is simple and based on the drag
and drop concept. The graphics are superb and
the overall look of your actors as well as your
movies keeps changing as the game progresses.
You can upload your movies on the web as well
as watch the movies created by other players on
the home site.
On the downside, the game lags when played
on the highest settings and does not give a good
response. ■
| Anup Pillai
Tel: 022-56973894 System: Windows
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

King Kong is a superb illustration of a fine combination
of action, adventure and survival gameplay
I
n the movie King Kong, Peter Jackson
proved his mettle again. Audiences
worldwide were pleased with the
stunning visual effects in the film staging
the return of the king. Having watched the
film, the question that came to mind was
whether Ubisoft would be able to create
the same kind of magic in the game. But
after playing King Kong: The Official Game
of the Movie it can be said that Ubisoft
doesn’t disappoint. The game is
as appealing and visually stunning
as the movie.
You are introduced to the game with
Carl Denham cruising with his movie crew
(Jack, the screenwriter and actress Ann
Darrow are part of it) to ‘Skull Island’ for
shooting a film. The actual game play
begins once the crew lands at ‘Skull Island’,
which has been brillianty re-created.
Initially, you play as Jack and your main
aim is to protect yourself and Ann from the
ferocious creatures you encounter and get
yourselves out of the island. Therefore, you
will have to use the ammo available to you
very wisely else you will have to use bones
or spears as your primary weapons. Action
includes the captain of the ship dropping
crates full of guns from his plane for you
to pick up while he looks for a clear space
to land. Some of the ferocious creatures
like the packs of Tyrannosaurus rexes that
pop up periodically can’t be shot down,
no matter how hard you try. You will have
to distract them with gunfire and spears
Price: Rs 1,299 Publisher : Ubisoft Distributor: e-xpress Interactive Software Pvt Ltd
higher CPU, 256 MB RAM, 8x or faster CD/DVD drive, 1.5 GB of free hard disk space, video card with 64 MB or more memory
Vishwanath Vanjire
FEBRUARY 2006 | INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP
FEATURE | UNWIND 137
so that you buy yourself enough time to
escape. When you are hurt, the screen
turns red which means that you will have
to take cover and another hit could be fatal
for you.
As the story proceeds, you get to play
as King Kong. However, this part is short
as compared to the portions of the game
where you play as Jack. Playing as Kong
(the highlight of the game) is total fun and
you just have to keep swinging through the
jungle and lay off your enemies with raw
power. Replicate the scene in the movie
where Kong snaps T-Rex’s jaw simply by
using a few keys. Sometimes when playing
as Kong, you will need to enlist the support
of the Ann in order to progress further in
the game.
Majority of the game takes place at
‘Skull Island’ with a small part being in
Top: Kong snapping
New York where Kong is brought after he
T-Rex’s jaw and finishing
has been captured. But if you’re expecting him off
Kong to go on a large-scale rampage in
Bottom: Kong’s first
New York then you will be disappointed encounter with Ann
to find the rampage scaled down to a
great extent.
Game play is simple while letting
you be a part of an exhilarating gaming
experience. The effects are also superb.
On the flipside, the game is very short.
RATINGS 9 / 10
For: Excellent graphics; game play keeps
You could finish playing the entire game
you on the edge of your seat, great sound
very quickly. But these drawbacks apart, effects.
this game truly offers quality adventure,
Against: Kong portion is short; game is
something that you will enjoy thoroughly. of a very short duration and gets over in
| Anup Pillai about six hours .
Tel: 022-28870016 System: Windows 98SE/2000/ME/XP, 1 GHz or
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006
138 UNWIND | BOOK REVIEW
More on Yahoo
Your chance to optimize your web experience with the
mélange of features and services that Yahoo offers
P
aul Bausch’s Yahoo! Hacks, Tips and
Tools for Living on the Web Frontier is a
comprehensive compilation of interesting
tips and tricks allowing you to enrich your
Internet experience—it lets you optimize what
Yahoo offers in the best possible way.
The preface begins with a brief introduction
of Yahoo and highlights how Yahoo’s ‘Fuse’ (Find,
Use, Share and Expand) philosophy has been
ingrained in all of Yahoo’s newest services. The
basic idea is to let you walk into those uncharted
Yahoo territories and familiarize you with all
the new Yahoo services; examples abound on
the various ways people are expanding and
customizing Yahoo to reap the maximum benefit
out of it. Most importantly, the book demystifies
the term “hacks”, which thanks to the press,
has been oft misquoted. The Hacks series is an
attempt to reclaim the word and show how the
quickest way to learn a new technology
is by observing how others approach
systems and problems.
The book covers chapters like
Yahoo ‘Search’ (touching upon
how to fine-tune web
search queries, saving search
with web short cuts et al); Yahoo ‘Services’
telling you how to track your investments, how
to build your own stock update e-mail; Yahoo
‘Communicating’ including a combo of tools
to enable you to communicate and collaborate
seamlessly on the web; Yahoo ‘Web Services’
such as programming Yahoo with Java, etc and
Yahoo ‘Applications’, and ‘Webmastering’.
The panorama of hacks covered in each chapter
is wide and each hack is well described for
the reader to comprehend and practically
implement it.
The author has taken care to do away with
jargons as much as possible; at places where
jargons can’t be avoided, the
| Yahoo! Hacks author has made sure he
Authors : Paul Bausch deconstructs the meaning.
Price : Rs 400
Publisher : Shroff Publishers and Distributors Pvt Ltd
The hacks are categorized into
Phone : 022-27634290 Beginner, Moderate and Expert,
E-mail : spdorders@shroffpublishers.com depending upon the complexity
of the coding. So those who have not tried their
hand at programming can start with the first
set of hacks and then move on to the other
advanced ones.
What’s worth mentioning is the way the
book has been organized—there are reference
numbers for hacks in the chapters, so in case
you want to refer to a particular hack, you can
straightaway jump to that. Besides, the scripts
are exhaustive and customized. Interestingly,
apart from the hacks, there is an abundance of
warnings and suggestions, which come handy.
The book has noticeably excluded numeric
index for screenshots (as we have in product
manuals). The size of the pages being
considerably small, it would have been a better
idea to index the various elements in a page
numerically for better understanding of the
readers as and when they need to refer to the
screenshots. Also, tips for beginners should
have had more screenshots for better
understanding of the hack.
As the subtitle suggests, the book is indeed
a wide and interesting collection of tips and
tools for a richer experience on the web. It’s well
organized and modulated. However, it must be
noted that the book is meant for users who
already have basic knowledge and experience
of the Internet. ■
| Pradosh Mitra
| What you can do
Fine-tune search queries with keyboard
shortcuts and advanced syntax.
Store, sort, blog, feed, track, and share
photos with Flickr and RSS.
Visualize search results and topics, mash up
images from around the web and remix other
web content.
Manage and customize Yahoo Mail, use it as
your universal e-mail client to access all your
other accounts.
List (or hide) your site with Yahoo and
integrate Yahoo Groups, Messenger,
contextual search or other Yahoo features.
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006
140
PRIME ABGB
Shop No.16,Laxmi Building Compound,
390,Lamington Road, Mumbai-400004
Phone: 23896600,23855500 Fax: 022-23885500
Email-primeservices@vsnl.com
Classifieds
Banlgore 09845028869 Hyderbad 09848052085
Calcutta 09830045322 Mumbai 09821035100
Chennai 09840077334 Kolhapur 09890690655
146 Classifieds

INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006

148 LAST WORD
The Last Word
B
esides an eternal fondness for my homeland
(the great state of Goa), I particularly like
visiting hill stations near Mumbai as often as I
can. Earlier in January, I had the good fortune to travel
a bit farther and visit Kodaikanal, a charming little hill
station located on the southern tip of the Palani Hills
in the state of Tamil Nadu. Actually, I also happened to
get married a couple of days before I left on this trip!
Blanketing a mere 21 kilometers square, this
township is a curious mix of old-world Anglo-Indian
charm and South Indian hospitality, enrobed in a
film of misty mornings and spectacular panoramas.
However, in the midst of all this natural wonder I
noted a distinct air of progress. Much of this is spurred
by the presence of the
sprawling Kodaikanal
International School
that houses about
500 students from
over 45 countries
with a campus and
facilities that make
it look like it’s been
plucked directly out
of America.
As you stroll
through this little
town, you find
m an at Ko da i Lake
Ramu, the boat there’s nothing
too rustic about the facilities.
Barring the occasional power outages, the town center
has all the trappings of a bustling city suburb with
modest supermarkets rubbing shoulders with Internet
cafés and handicraft shops. Catering to the throng of
Indian and foreign tourists that visit this lake city (yes,
there’s also a fairly large artificial lake in the city which
is the mainstay of most postcards or T-shirts you buy
from there). Known for its homemade chocolates and
eucalyptus oils, these are on the must-buy list of every
self-respecting Kodai visitor. Then, like any other hill
station, the most important activity for any tourist is
sightseeing. Tourism, being one of the most significant
sustainers of the Kodaikanal economy, there are tour
operators everywhere. Besides bus operators that take
you to places like Pillar Rock, Coaker’s Walk, Devil’s
Kitchen, Berijam Lake and Silent Valley, you’ll even
find local taxis that offer similar but personalized
sightseeing services (albeit at a stiffer price).
Though the place was gorgeous and was a
welcome change to the mad pace of city life, I did
however begin to miss my mailbox. Yes, I know, it does
sound a bit pathetic but hey, it’s a lifeline for many of
us as I’m sure most of you will agree. Therefore, three
days into our stay there, I began succumbing to the
pangs of e-deprivation. That’s when I began to notice
the sheer influence of technology on a place as small
as Kodaikanal. Take the cellular services—you can
receive a signal from one of the four operators in the
city and more often than not, the signal connectivity
is pretty good. Obviously, it’s plain to see the effect
this has had on its local residents and the visitors.
Cellular telephony has clearly changed the lives of
people there—everyone from the taxi drivers to the
chocolate shop owners is connected.
On the Internet connectivity front, I didn’t find a
plethora of places where one could get connected, but
in the places that did offer such services, they were
once again wireless-based. In fact, several of the mom
and pop cyber cafés across the town consisted of a
few computers networked together and each time
a client needed to get onto the Internet, the owner
(several of them being young enterprising locals in
their late teens) would step in, end his cell phone call
and use his handset to hook up to the Internet!
Another thing that I noticed was that
entrepreneurship was rife in the little town. Even the
boatman who took us on a splendid hour-long ride on
the lake did a fantastic job of using my digital camera
to take photos of us at various points on the lake! My
jaw hung as I saw him deftly cycle between settings
on my Fuji FinePix S5500 and use different modes
to achieve different picture effects. Apparently, he
learnt these nuances from the several digital-camera-
equipped tourists that passed through his boat these
recent years. He went on to proudly share with us
that even though he could only study till the 6th
standard, he had a son in his final year of Electronics
engineering and a daughter pursuing her BA. Truly,
it was heartening to witness this man’s success
story—a living example of the grassroots progress
that is spoken of and splashed across every business
magazine in our country these days.
Well, it’s good to be back at work closing issue
and diving into technology all over again. Until next
time, cheers. ■
| | Marco D’ Souza
INTELLIGENT COMPUTING CHIP | FEBRUARY 2006
 2006
02

Free Software | 35 graphics cards | MS Office secrets RNI Registration No. MAHENG/2003/12687