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Your leading article makes a convincing case for using the power of PCs not normally employed as tools for research (Keying into the global computer, June 13).

Those who are not interested in extra-terrestrial intelligence (SETI) might well like to support Oxford University's cancer research project in computational chemistry, which is supported by Intel and run by United Devices - www.ud.com.
Ivan F White
ivan.white@dsl.pipex.com

Loose chips _
I love it. Just as the rest of the wired UK is up in arms about the amendment to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, Paul May (Feedback, June 13) wants multimedia messaging (MMS) traffic subjected to detailed monitoring.

Every mode of communication facilitates actual crimes of varying kinds, so let's have everything we say monitored. Freedom of movement likewise. And since Mr May is principally concerned in his letter with crimes of child abuse, the single "device" that enables up to 90% of crimes of child abuse is the family, so let's have all families subject to close and ongoing scrutiny at all times.
Ian Shuttleworth
shutters@cix.compulink.co.uk

More message
I was dismayed to read Paul May's letter regarding the supposed dangers of MMS. We live in a world where rights to privacy are continually being eroded. His suggestion, therefore, that not monitoring all images on the network is somehow sanctioning the technology for use by child-sexual abusers is as dangerous as it is idiotic.

Perhaps we should have all mail in the country routinely opened and checked for this disgusting material. I can almost hear the chest beating of Victorian paranoids as they rail against the introduction of the Penny Black and its infernal "abuser-to-abuser technology".
Greg Rankin
grankin@yahoo.com

Strike back

Another issue that seems to be overlooked with Sony disabling the playing of CDs on PCs is the transfer of music to the new breed of Net Mini Discs (May the fraud be with you, June 6). I have recently purchased a Net MD MZ-N505 and I am very pleased with it and the software it comes bundled with. It enables me to upload CDs or MP3s on to my PC, convert them to the MD format and transfer them extremely quickly to the Net MD (up to five albums - 320 minutes). If my PC is no longer able to view Sony CDs, then their own software and hardware becomes useless to me.

This is obviously ridiculous but when has that ever stopped big companies from not displaying joined-up thinking!

Incidentally, a lot of modern CDs also seem to have some sort of coding on them that stops me transferring them to the Net MD at the full level of compression (LP4) -another hidden feature of this issue?
Keith Maggioni

maggionikl@hotmail.com

Now, listen

I read with great interest and disgust Tony Smith's article on copy protection of audio CDs. I think the solution to the sales crisis, if indeed that's what it is, for the international record companies would be to reconsider the price policy for music CDs.

What was not mentioned in the article is that Apple Macintosh CD players may be destroyed by some of the protection techniques. Mac owners should be warned of this and the consequences.

Apple Computer has determined that customers void their warranty if they attempt to use its products to play copy-protected CDs. Apple offers several actions that may correct problems caused by the discs, but adds that if none of them works, then an authorised repair service will be necessary, and the warranty will be void because "any attempt to use nonstandard discs with Apple CD drives will be considered a misapplication of the product."
Kjell E Eriksson
kjell.eriksson@infografen.com

Light relief
The price of printer cartridges is a scandal (Feedback, June 6) and I am amazed that there is not a continual howl of protest. As for the outrageous Epson IntelliSense cartridge chip, this can be reset with a charger kit. The firm I got mine from no longer supplies them but they are available from the links below for about £28 and include a black and colour compatible cartridge.

Once you have this, get a bottle of refill ink and a hypodermic syringe and at least your black ink will cost very little. I can send step-by-step directions for refilling Epson cartridges from a refill bottle to anyone who asks.
Brian Light
brilight@dial.pipex.com