Beaten by a girl
I was delighted to read Rhianna Pratchett's thoughts on the "novelty value" of girl gamers. I play games. I am a girl. The two aren't necessarily related. I once worked in a shop that specialises in games and was regarded as something of a novelty - to the extent that staff from other branches rang up to find out if it was true that there was a girl talking knowledgeably about games... However, despite all this, there is always some pleasure to be taken in uttering the statement: "You've been beaten by a girl..." Lucy Anscombe
lucy@doog.eidosnet.co.uk
Choice sites
In the Online cover piece (Show me the money, Online, April 11), you failed to mention Nochex.com, which is probably the service of choice for UK auction users and almost certainly the biggest and most important service of its type in the UK! Give it some publicity and help out one of the better UK sites. Luke Phillips
lukep@dai.ed.ac.uk
Email in a hat
Has Paul Astles ("Does anyone else find it absurd that Online's Adobe Photoshop competition requires entrants to send in answers on a postcard and has no provision for email entry?", Feedback, April 11) ever tried to draw an email out of a hat? Adam Williamson
aw280@cam.ac.uk
Quality control
Sorry, Alistair Kilgour (Feedback, April 11), but I have to disagree! The audio and video quality perceived by the digital TV viewer is likely to be no better (and possibly inferior) to what that viewer would experience on a good quality receiver in a good analogue reception area. In theory, it should be better, but the maximum possible number of channels will be allocated (for maximum financial return), which means that the bandwidth allowed to an individual broadcaster will not be enough to provide superior audio and video quality - even if he wanted to. The biggest problem that still has not been addressed sensibly is that of programme recording. With the analogue system, it is possible to buy for about £80 a decent Nicam stereo VCR, which will allow the recording of one programme while watching another, the recording of an assortment of programmes on different channels in the viewer's absence, PDC, Videoplus and the possibility of archiving by simply removing the cassette.
At present, to get anywhere near that capability on digital TV, one has to spend initially at least £300 and then pay out a monthly subscription of around £10. And this for a ridiculously complicated device that even decides that I might like a programme recorded!
If I want to archive a recording, then I still have to download on to my VCR. I have no objection to paying a licence fee for good programmes, but I refuse to pay a subscription either for programmes or a machine that would just infuriate me. As far as I am concerned, the Digital Delay can become permanent!
Derek Roughton
pandder50@hotmail.com
Crusader
The picture of Richard Stallman and his rucksack at a railway station (On the groovy train, April 11) reminded me of a homeless, rootless individual, only differentiated by his laptop. I read that Stallman lived in his office at MIT for 11 years. A man with a crusade! Gordon Joly
gordon.joly@pobox.com
Sleep easy
In reply to Mick Harper's dilemma (Feedback, Green sleeves, April 4) there is a solution that will allow him to save money and sleep easy in bed while also doing his bit for society in general. Buy the £19.99 printer, keep the cartridges, and donate the printer to a local school or a charity. They may already be buying printer cartridges in bulk, or may be getting them at a special rate, and if you ask around, I'm sure you'll find someone who'll benefit from taking the empty printer off your hands. PS. What's the name of this local computer store? Philip Brocklehurst
philip.p.brocklehurst@btinternet.com
