Auto supplies
I recently bought a Ford car, and was horrified to find the manufacturer had 'bundled' wheels, and engine and stereo with it. Sure it was more convenient, but it restricted my rights to choose to buy these from other suppliers, abuse of monopoly etc, etc. Tony Evans
stonybonytony@hotmail.com
Home straits
Two items from a Staples advert in the Guardian of November 1: 800MHz laptop computer with Lotus SmartSuite and Windows XP - £699.00. Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition on its own - £179.99. Even Michael Jackson doesn't charge that much for a CD and a booklet! Paul Scott
paul.scott@infmansys.com
Acorn antics
Derek Bourgeois's justifiable enthusiasm for the Sibelius music processing system, as it now exists for PC and Mac, overlooks the fact that Acorn-based RISC PCs, for which the programme was originally written, are still in active development. It's a huge pity that Acorn couldn't keep pace with the Finn brothers' remarkable achievement, with the result that they were unable to develop it further for the platform after 1998. The original Sibelius 7 still works superbly on RISC OS, and even now has advantages of stability and speed of input over the PC or Mac versions, although it lacks their sophisticated extras. Sibelius is a success story: the story of Acorn, and its successors, deserves to be better known. Colin Matthews
cmatt@argonet.co.uk
Melody maker
I was interested to read Derek Bourgeois's review of the Sibelius music package (Online, November 1). Next time I have £595 that I do not know what to do with, I must buy a copy! Meanwhile I will continue to use the Guillion brothers' Melody Assistant, which costs about £10 for PC or Mac from www.myriad-online.com.
This does pretty much all that Sibelius does, plus lots of esoteric stuff like baroque lute tablature and Gregorian neumes. Its bigger brother Harmony Assistant, at £40, will do even more tricks such as harmonising your melodies and printing out punched cards for barrel organs or player pianos.
For another £10 you can get the OMeR music recognition add-on, which enables you to scan in, edit and play printed sheet music. OMeR works well, but for sheer accuracy is pipped by Graham Jones's PC-only SharpEye (£30 for the basic version at www.visiv.co.uk). Good software need not be expensive.
Bob Venning
jvls17252@blueyonder.co.uk
What's good?
Tom Potts (Feedback, November 1) seems to ignore the rather self-evident fact that web pages can be linked to one another by tags in the HTML. Yes, programming skills can enhance a good web page or site, but they do not make it good. Good web design comes about just as much through the aesthetic "graphic design" skills Mr Potts treats so dismissively, allied to the ability to prepare concise content in a good prose style. Most of all it comes from consideration for the end user.
polaw@lucs-02.novell.leeds.ac.uk
Traffic light
I'm not sure John Harper gets it (Second Sight, November 1). IP (and more specifically the internet) is the mechanism by which universal videotelephony will become feasible. To work together in the internet world, two UK-based carriers need no more than a connection each to the LINX (London Internet Exchange) and a bilateral peering agreement, whereby they agree to exchange IP traffic. As their demands become greater - and more distributed across the UK - there is nothing to stop two carriers setting up "private" peering in multiple locations, as is routinely the case in the US. Nobody needs to develop "videophone and other advanced services".
Just give users the bandwidth and they'll figure that bit out for themselves. BT's residential ADSL at 512k downstream and only 256k upstream just doesn't cut it. One thing Mr Harper does get right - I believe we do need unified ownership of the broadband "last mile", at least in residential areas. It's just too expensive for multiple companies to build this out. But since this is a natural monopoly I'd suggest handing over ownership to local government. Is that too radical?
Giles Heron
giles@packetexchange.net
