What a mess The roll out of ADSL by BT is, as Victor Keegan (Online, February 24) says, a mess. Two weeks ago, a BT engineer fitted an ADSL line and modem in my house. He did it for Video Networks as part of its Home Choice business. The cost was £40 for the set-top box and remote control, and £5.99 a month for the television service. Home Choice makes it clear that the modem is BT's, and that there are no phone charges. Home Choice plans to offer internet access in March but this will entail connecting the set-top box to a PC by the serial port.
What I cannot find out is whether I can connect straight to the modem, with the appropriate card in the PC. The BT ADSL helpdesk was not even aware BT was fitting modems. So, I now have a free broadband line but no internet access through it. The internet revolution stops here.
Keith Holroyd
Girls' gaming
Further to Dr Mark Griffiths' postulations on why fewer girls play computer games, I'd like to add that the packaging, marketing and sales of games is offputting to females.
I like computer games of the puzzle-solving/adventure variety. However, whenever I go to Virgin Megastore to look for a new game, I am put off by the aggressive, male-oriented packaging of games which, when played, are not in the least bit aggressive.
We're not asking for feminine, flowery stuff (or - Heaven forbid - "female" versions of existing games), but often the packaging belies the intellectual nature of the game. Games companies are definitely missing a trick by excluding female consumers.
Also, staff behind the counters in games stores are invariably males in their late teens. You can't help but get the impression that they're laughing at you, Beavis and Butthead style, while you browse.
Dr Griffiths may be a psychologist, but what is all that rubbish about girls and low scores? Even I know that girls are collaborative, not competitive, and we don't care about "winning". We're more likely to favour the games that don't feature "scores" anyway!
Fiona Campbell-Howes
Windows pain
I wonder how many home and small office users realise the compatibility problems that can arise when upgrading to Windows 2000?
I am very dependent on my computer for my own business and I have always tried to keep my system up to date. So I bought a copy of Windows 2000 when it first came out. On installation, it produces a compatibility report that scared me to death and made me abort the installation.
• I may have to upgrade the flash Bios on my Dell Dimension R350. Dell has been helpful here and it appears that is worth doing anyway.
• I have had to download new software for the Zip drive. Quite easy from the Iomega website and the new software is much better.
• But my Canon LBP-660 laser printer and my HP ScanJet 4100C may not be supported by Windows 2000.
In fact, the printer and scanner issues will probably mean I will not proceed with the upgrade. Having spent the money, I am a bit sore that there was no indication of these problems on the box or in any of the advertising.
You can apparently download a compatibility test from www.microsoft.com/windows2000/ compatible and I would urge anyone to do that before parting with money.
Robin Shipp
Too slow
I have just tried to access Vavo, which I thought sounded great. However, it takes a vast amount of time to load, so I gave up. It does not seem very equitable to have sites with such complicated images they take forever to load.
Joyce Edmond-Smith
