[Preview + Feedback] Digit September 2007

[FatBeing]

September 2007 Magazine Contents

Digital Passion

Lead Feature
Sci-Fa
Think science fiction—as in motherships and cyborgs. Then think about what’s gone beyond fiction, what’s not, what’s being said today... think all such thoughts

Insight
Almost Intelligent
While they’re hardly sentient beings, our appliances today baffle us with what they can think of. Here’s what you need to know about the fuzzy logic that drives them

Tomorrow
Alterface!
Tired of the boring old window-icon-menu-pointer interfaces that we’ve been stuck with since the eighties? We are, too. We explore the reasons behind why things are where they are, and present a look at what’s to come

Droolmaal
Gaudy speakers to hang from your ceiling, a classy new cell phone and oodles of portable storage in this month’s Droolmaal. The pictures are pretty, and the things cost a pretty penny. Get your tissues ready!

Take A Crack At
Want to be called a Windows magician? We’re sure you can impress your folks real easy—just make the Yahoo! icon! vanish! from! the! toolbar! But make Explorer’s menu bar vanish at will, and then make it re-appear—and we’ll suitably reward you!

Digital Tools

Cover Story
centrePieCe
Sure, you can be the brave geek and assemble your family PC, but what happens when things go awry? The best thing about branded PCs is the tech support and peace of mind that come bundled with them... Here’s a comparison of the best in the market, for budgets big and small

Agent001
New Ways To Play Old Games
You may be used to the keyboard and mouse for gaming, but what if you want more? Agent 001 goes on the hunt for wheels, joysticks and more!

Know More About
Touchscreens
All you need to know about different touchscreen technologies and how they work—and also about the hype vs. the matter

3 Incredibly Useful Sites
In Theory And In Practise
One for the science geek; getting serious, one for he who seeks management wisdom. One for photo buffs.

Enhance
Access: Granted
Got data? Here’s our primer to Microsoft’s Access, and how it can make your life much easier

Digital Business

Test Centre
All-In-Wonders
It’s the era of the multi-functional device. So here’s our annual test: we’ve tested a bunch of these do-it-alls, starting with the most basic to the powerhouses that even the big corporates swear by

Trend
Cause For Concern
Everyone worries about their organisation’s security, and it’s one area where companies aren’t shy to pay through their noses. India’s companies, too, are taking steps to keep their data safe—they’re all aware of the gravity of the situation

Tech Careers
Powering The Tower
Join the wave of professionals heading into India’s all-too-booming telecom industry!

Smart Business
Cheapest Trumpet
Thought you needed wads of cash to promote your business? Here’s how you can do it on a shoestring budget! All you’ll need apart from small change is time

Digital Leisure

Test Centre
Talk Tonight
Webcams were never so cheap! Choose from among the best, and let your friends and relatives see you from miles away!

Game On
Here in this space, it’s quite an adventure for us: The Darkness is upon us, and we fly into it with Project Sylpheed, wielding the Sword Of The New World...

Touched by Tech
A Chain For The Chasm
Where do you go when you want to help the community? Stick to your armchair... some organisations will allow you to volunteer over the Net


*************************************
Fast Track To The Free Office
*************************************

DVD-DL Highlights

Gaming

Free

Fate By Numbers
Fate by Numbers is a Full Motion Video adventure game filmed against a green screen and featuring 3D pre-rendered backdrops. The adventure games includes over an hour of HD-video with professional actors accompanied by a soundtrack written for the game. Private eye Alice Sanger is assigned to get a briefcase, but quickly finds herself immersed in a web of corruption and shadowy motives. It becomes personal when she finds out that one of mysterious people behind the briefcase is none other than her ex-husband whom was declared dead several years ago. What follows is a mysterious journey through the layers of a future metropolis with 50’s noir influences.

De Blob
de Blob is a 3D game in which the player controls a ball of paint rolling through the city. The ball can absorb coloured NPCs to become larger and change its colour. With the paint, the player can then proceed to paint the entire city. Almost everything is paintable: buildings, trees, cars and using the paint trace even the ground. The main goal of the game is to paint all 17 landmark buildings.

FlightGear Live CD
The FlightGear flight simulator project is an open-source, multi-platform, cooperative flight simulator development project. Source code for the entire project is available and licensed under the GNU General Public License. The Live CD lets you start playing the game as soon as you boot—no installation, no changing files on your disk.

-Racer
-Privateer Gemini Gold
-TAGAP: The Apocalyptic Game About Penguins

Demos

Anderson and the Legacy of Cthulhu
The player impersonates Robert D. Anderson, private investigator from New York, who travels to Germany during the first months of WWII in order to solve his most frightening case to research his origins. Arriving at the castle of his ancestors, he discovers an occult secret society among the SS, called “The order of the black sun”, revealing secrets powerful enough to endanger mankind itself.

-Tasty Treats Adventures—The Secret Recipes
-Tribal Trouble

Tools

Multimedia

LEGO Digital Designer
LEGO Digital Designer is quite simply the best virtual building system out there – with its “Click-Stick” method of 3D modeling winning praise from children, parents, teachers and design enthusiasts everywhere. And, as the virtual design platform behind a growing number of LEGO products, LEGO Digital Designer is here to stay. A host of improvements and new features are already in development, including an improved user interface, new connectivity, more life-like building, Technic compatibility and improved train building and animation.

K-3D
K-3D features a robust, object oriented plugin architecture, designed to scale to the needs of professional artists. It is designed from the ground up to generate motion picture quality animation using RenderMan compliant rendering engines.

Anime Studio 5.5
Anime Studio is your complete animation program for creating 2D movies, cartoons, anime or cut out animations. Create your own desktop animated shorts in the style of SouthParkStudios.com and JibJab.com, or use it to produce full-length animation for film, video or streaming over the web.

-CaraQ maker 0.61
-DAZ Studio 1.7
-Stickman 4.8
-StudioLine Photo Basic 3.18.1
-Antechinus Animator Professional
-DigiCel FlipBook 4.55
-Filter Forge 1.009
-Flash Effect Maker Pro 3.5
-Grid Magic Senior 1.0.2
-MAGIX Movie Edit Pro 12
-PhotoProto

System

My Friend Mikey 2
Use your voice and/or your mouse to quickly navigate to any Website, and launch any program. Mikey is animated, moves, floats, and talks to you. Mikey also reads your mail (or any text) to you. Common commands are included.

Autopatcher XP July 2007 Update
The latest update for AutoPatcher. To use this, you’ll need to install the AutoPatcher May 2007 release and June 2007 update from the August 2007 DVD

-AirSnare 1.5
-Microsoft Windows Defender
-NVIDIA PerfKit (Windows XP)
-PC WIZARD
-Vista Transformation Pack 7
-Automize—Linux 7.35
-DataPilot 52
-Direct Access 1.6.2.1
-MindSoft Utilities XP 9.8c
-MobilEdit 2.4.5.4
-Panda Internet Security 2008 12.00.00
-Super Utilities Professional 7.65

PC-BSD

PC-BSD
PC-BSD has been designed with the “casual” computer user in mind. Installing the system is simply a matter of a few clicks and a few minutes for the installation process to finish. Hardware such as video, sound, network and other devices will be auto-detected and available at the first system startup. NOTE: During our tests, we discovered that PC-BSD’s hardware support can be shaky, so it might not install on all PCs

Also Included
-PC-BSD Disc 2 (the essential PBI installer pack)
-Java Runtime (JRE) 1.5.0.07
-KSmoothDock 4.5
-NVIDIA Driver 9746
-The Ur-Quan Masters 0.6.2
-VLC 0.8.6a

Productivity

The Free Office

FreeMind 0.9.0 Beta
FreeMind is a premier free mind-mapping software written in Java. The recent development has hopefully turned it into high productivity tool. We are proud that the operation and navigation of FreeMind is faster than that of MindManager because of one-click “fold / unfold” and “follow link” operations.

OpenOffice.org 2.2.1
OpenOffice.org is a multiplatform and multilingual office suite and an open-source project. Compatible with all other major office suites, the product is free to download, use, and distribute.

-Action Point Of Sale
-FreeProxy (Windows)
-JAMES
-Maintenance Assistant
-Mozilla Thunderbird
-Squid (For Debian-based Linux distros)
-Tunir Accountant 2007
-WAMP5

Developers

Adobe FrameMaker 8
Adobe FrameMaker 8 software is a powerful tool for technical communicators that combines word processing and XML-based structured authoring with template-based publishing.

Visual C# 2008 Express Edition Beta 2
The next version of Visual Studio, Microsoft Visual Studio 2008, will provide an industry-leading developer experience for Windows Vista, the 2007 Microsoft Office system, and the Web. This is the beta release of Visual C#

-EasyEclipse for C and C++ 1.2.1
-Windows Media Center SDK 5.2
-Audio Formats SDK 1.6
-Zend Studio 5.5

Entertainment

Channel 9

Microsoft Research TechFest—XNA, a depth-sensing camera, an LCD projector, and some genius
This is probably the world’s only example of real-time terrain generation with XNA through the use of a depth-sensing video camera and real world objects. Video provided by Microsoft Channel 9 (channel9.msdn.com)

-Byron Cook: Terminator—Proving Good Things Will Eventually Happen

Audiobooks

Love Among the Chickens by P. G. Wodehouse
Jeremy Garnet, a second-rate novelist, gets talked into joining his old pal Stanley Featheringstonehaugh Ukridge in an insane plan to start a chicken ranch. Garnet should bail out on his crazy friend, but he falls in love with one of Ukridge’s neighbors, Phyllis. Soon he is up to his neck in sick chickens, bad debts, a hostile future father-in-law, a sinister plot, and dirty golf. It all gets a bit thick, what?

-The Adventures of Pinocchio by C. Collodi
-The Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells

Movies

The Amazing Mr. X
On the beach one night, Christine Faber, two years a widow, thinks she hears her late husband Paul calling out of the surf...then meets a tall dark man, Alexis, who seems to know all about such things. After more ghostly manifestations, Christine and younger sister Janet become enmeshed in the eerie artifices of Alexis; but he in turn finds himself manipulated into deeper deviltry than he had in mind...

-Dracula’s Guest
-Dracula’s Message
-Dracula’s Prisoner

Music

The Red Line of Hydrogen by Talley Lambert
This is the first album released by Talley Lambert, home recorded in 1999. The album is mainly guitar-based singer/songwriter folk-rock with a full band. Songs are generally acoustic, laid back, and introspective. Preview this album in the Digit media player!

Port Angeles by Alex Bailey
Port Angeles, the most recent album of Alex Bailey was cut in Winter 2006 in Seattle Washington. Recorded on a mini disc recorder with an upright house-piano, Port Angeles carves through winding country songs celebrating singer/songwriters of the last 30 years.

-Anomalous Material by JT Bruce
-Getting Back From Where I’ve Been by Kelly Allyn
-I Don’t Know What I’m Doing by Brad Sucks
-The Grasping Hands of Possibility by Ruined Machines
-underground horn by Daniel Brandell
-Words and Voices by Aesthetic Evidence

CD Highlights

Digit Exclusive

Ashampoo Magical Security
A Digit Exclusive! Ashampoo Magical Security is the successor to the popular Ashampoo Privacy Protector. The new program is now even easier to use, with a new look and even more powerful security. You need to be connected to the Internet to register for this exclusive full version.

Gaming

Free

Mono
The object, as far as there is one in this game, is to turn the screen from black to white, or vice versa. You do this by controlling a round white circle which is capable of shooting beautifully arranged displays of firepower at faceless coloured circles which float around the playing field.

The Breakdown—A Snack-Sized Adventure Game
The Breakdown is a fairly short point-and-click adventure game where you’ve broken down in the desert and are in need of repairs so you can return your lottery ticket in time.

-NaaC
-Eternal Daughter
-Halo: Hell on Earth Trilogy Edition
-Wandering Knights
-Zep’s Dreamland

Demos

-People Shooter
-RIP 3: The Last Hero

Entertainment

Short Movies

ExtraStrong
ExtraStrong is a short stop-motion animation that tells the story of a fight between two pieces of paper.

-Star Wars: A Clone Apart—Episode 1

Fun Software

Sketch Studio
Sketch Studio is an easy to use drawing program for children. Although there are a number of drawing programs available for children, Sketch Studio is unique in that it contains built-in drawing lessons.

Magic Whiteboard 1.8
Magic Whiteboard is a fun and colorful network drawing software, designed especially for kids’ entertainment

Music

Lies and Speeches by HYPE
HYPE is a Parisian band of 4 musicians whose taste for the pop melodies coupled with power rock’n’roll is somewhere between the West Coast and the London fog. They wish to share their sound—a “perfect blend of electric, pop lyricism and ‘entêtante’”—to fans all over the world

Tools

Multimedia

Flookey
Flookey is a free audio player that learns which music you like through observing your listening behavior and looking at your music library’s metadata. It then uses this information to suggest songs from your library that match your listening preferences, to create dynamic playlists, and to provide an intelligent way of navigating your audio library.

M.I.R. 1.2.05
Manual retouching of long image sequences with thousands of images can be a time consuming and tedious task. With M.I.R. HS-ART offers an efficient and easy to learn solution for manual retouching of any kind of single image defects. For example dust spots, bad splices, tears, and the like can be fixed with a few clicks. M.I.R. can also be used for real-time player of long image sequences. You’ll need a graphics card with at least 128 MB of RAM to use this program.

-Free Fast MPEG Cut 2.3.2.1
-SCREEN2EXE
-Wavosaur
-A4 Flash Menu Builder 2.14
-HyperCam 2.14.01
-Livid Union 2.1.2

[Charan]

Nice Content, Thanks for providing Ashampoo Magical Security

[max_demon]

:O no fast track to C
i was eagerly waiting

[bkpeerless]

nothing exiting in the dvd/cd mag looks good

[emailaatif786]

Nothing good

[Ankur Gupta]

Doesnt seem as exciting as the previous issues...lets wait and watch....

[Pathik]

Just tell me wich cellfone u r reviewing in droolmaal..

[Garbage]

^^ +1

Nothing much expected !! Previous issue was ROCKING !!!

[sumigizlov]

this seems like apathetic issue
i am tired of these portable storage reviews

[Gigacore]

bad disc contents.

mag content, nice

[utsav]

i noticed a considerable degrade in the disc contents after moving to DVD-DL.

why so? more space but lack in quality content.

awaiting a mobo and proccy review from a long time and also fast track to C++.

[sachin_kothari]

^^ +1

[azaad_shri75]

ok ok contents ,wait and see.

[azzu]

not so good ,..........

[siniranji]

Still in India, folks who are not bothered to upgrade their hardware or software exists, so keep it in mind, some where out here, P-III exists so
atleast provide a tool or a game to satisfy them (you can start a nostalgic section to rejuvenate the feelings of prospective buyers, i mean a section deals with softwares especially for older pc's)

[a_k_s_h_a_y]

Originally Posted by siniranji

Still in India, folks who are not bothered to upgrade their hardware or software exists, so keep it in mind, some where out here, P-III exists

++1 yes man many ppl hv old comps..why not some lil usefull stuff for them ?

[vijayanand]

i bought u r magazine and it seems that dual layer dvd is not functioning.
and the cd is functioning properly .i checked my sony dvd rd/wr drive and it is working properly. The last month's dual layer dvd is working .

what i should do to replace it.

[FatBeing]

Originally Posted by siniranji

Still in India, folks who are not bothered to upgrade their hardware or software exists, so keep it in mind, some where out here, P-III exists so
atleast provide a tool or a game to satisfy them (you can start a nostalgic section to rejuvenate the feelings of prospective buyers, i mean a section deals with softwares especially for older pc's)

Most of the software we give will run on any PC that can run Windows XP (and I've run XP just fine on a PII), including a large percentage of the games, so there's really no need for a special section, is there?

[dissel]

Just a couple of months ago (Probably Dec 2006,can't remember exactly) you review webcam and now again.....What about Digital Camera's...there are many in the market...and Every Issue when I open up "The A-List" Section I got W50 is high-end...it's irritating...You last review Digital Still Cam in Sep 2006.

Hey Look at that section in your Mag....All other stuff are upgraded but the Camera space is still old.

And this Mag again MFD...You are continuously reviewed the printer(I know diff between MFD and Printer) last couple of month....and it makes me tired.

this issue is not so interesting like previous one.

[qams]

!!! Best Silly Contents ever seen !!!


!!! Best Silly Contents ever seen !!!


!!! Best Silly Contents ever seen !!!



Go Digitians go for other magazines, like CPU !

[gary4gar]

Bad DIsc contents, avg mag contents

[rajasekharan]

naaa, i will give this month issue a pass...

last month was the best ever ...
i though something like this was about to happen , but not so suddenly .
but this months issue sucks..

[utsav]

you know why digit is so costly than other mags ,bcoz they give repeated pages very often. when i first started reading digit in may 2006 i found repeated prints of almost 20 pages and this year also there were repeated prints twice.

[gary4gar]

Now, i have to think whether i will buy this months Mag or not

[deba_2k_1]

became wise this January and stopped buying DIGIT.....

[utsav]

@ slugger, if they reduce the price by 20 Rs and discontinue giving cds then its worth it.

[Garbage]

^^ yeh... Any way the CD contains only Games & songs...

[ratedrsuperstar]

why would digit give so many crap movies and albums.ols school cartoon videos like duck tales,etc and rock or trance albums from upcoming artists would be so much better or atleast game videos.

loved to read about fuzzy logic.hope digit brings tech used in various household devices too.

how many times do u do shootouts of mfd's,printers,etc. here in india we don't buy 30k mfd's.most of us can't afford a 10k graphics upgrade but still we love to see mobo,GC,procc tests plz pay attention to customer demands or atleast do some s/w shootout rather than some lame peripheral shootout

this month the tech vs old way segment was also missing

the tips and tricks section was soooooooo lame.u know that no basic user will ever try to use virtualdub for encoding so majority who use VD know a thing or two about pc's.same goes for FG and IDM.

totally dissapointed

[shreyadr]

surprisingly i have received my Sept,07 issue today,too early to believe. as usual Dl dvd is not being recognised by my dvd writer. i made a complain to digit thru email.
will anyone explain me why my drive is not able recognise the dl dvd's of digit ? Digit is not listening to me ? once they sent me replacement in Jun,07 but that too couldn't worked. later last month they asked me to use some lens cleaner. BTW, when all other DVD's r just working fine and even July,07 of Digit too...i don't feel it necessary to use any lens cleaner, also i fear to make my drive unusable by using lens cleaner which i faced for dvd player 2 yrs back.
will anyone give me solution for this ? Digit is not listening to their subscribers. Anyway, i already have decided not to renew with Digit by these experiences , frustrations and humilations.

[anilm001]

Dear Digit,

The Adobe Framemaker Trial does not work!!!!. Why does'nt Digit Test the Trialsbefore burning it to a DVD?

Thanks

Anil Mahadev
anilm001@gmail.com
Digit Avid Reader
Bangalore