Digital Britain: Lord Carter reports, we report
Half the UK's digerati are currently poring over Digital Britain: The Interim Report , and if you want to join in the fun, you can download the full 1.5MB PDF . For the Guardian's numerous reports on the report, see * Digital Britain: Lord Carter joins calls for BBC Worldwide/Channel 4 tie-up by Leigh Holmwood * Digital Britain: Lord Carter vows to force ISPs to crack down on web piracy by Mark Sweney * Digital Britain: Government to make DAB 'primary network' for radio by John Plunkett * Digital Britain: Government invites press to join local TV news debate by Oliver Luft * Digital Britain: 'Rights agency' planned to fight online piracy by Jemima Kiss * Digital Britain: Government criticised over commitment to 2Mbps broadband by Patrick Wintour * Digital Britain: 'Report is a rope bridge to the future' by Emily Bell More to come.
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Digital Britain: Lord Carter reports, we report
Is it worth buying an all-in-one PC?
I want to replace an old eMachines PC from 2002. I would prefer a desktop with a flatscreen like the one I used to have at work, but have seen some all-in-one machines that seem very tidy. Are there any downsides for a golden oldie who really only uses his computer for email and internet browsing? Bill Howat All-in-one PCs have been around for a long time but only the Apple iMac versions have ever sold in any volume, possibly because Apple doesn't offer the sort of cheap mini-tower systems that are popular with Windows PC buyers
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Is it worth buying an all-in-one PC?
Converting a file from PDF to Word
I wrote a book on an Acorn Risc PC 600, and a friend produced a PDF and put it on CD for me. What are the disadvantages of the format? Is it possible to make a Word version for my Dell Inspiron laptop running Windows XP? Chris Riley PDF stands for portable document format. The idea behind this Adobe system is that you can capture a whole document, including the layout and any pictures, so that it looks the same regardless of the computer used. PDF files can also be password-protected to prevent copying, and even include DRM (digital rights management) restrictions. This can make PDFs less useful than other documents, depending on the permissions used. There are lots of free programs that will try to convert PDF files into Word files, including Free PDF to Word Doc Converter ( hellopdf.com ). However, if the file is under 100MB, the Zamzar.com website is often the quickest way to do a one-off conversion. At worst, you can usually print out a PDF document, scan the printed version with OCR (optical character recognition) software, then run it through a spell-checker. This can work reasonably well with clean text, such as a book, but may not be much good with fancy, printed brochures.
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Converting a file from PDF to Word
Nicholas Negroponte: the Sugar daddy for future generations
It's not too hard to think up grandiose ideas to change the world, but very few people attempt to put them into effect - and even fewer succeed. Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman emeritus of MIT's Media Lab, made the attempt with the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project, and he isn't beaten yet.
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Nicholas Negroponte: the Sugar daddy for future generations
Ask Jack: January 29 2009
Ask Jack Dealing with Downadup What's the Downadup/Conficker worm all about? Should I be worried about it? Peter Bowyer JS: Downadup/Conficker has become somewhat famous as the biggest worm to hit Windows for several years: F-Secure has estimated that more than 9m PCs have been infected. It exploits a hole that Microsoft patched last October, but if you think you might have missed it, check that you have a folder called KB958644 in C:Windows in the $hf_mig$ directory. If you suspect you have caught Downadup/Conficker, run Microsoft's free Malicious Software Removal Tool, at here . Downadup/Conficker can also attack in other ways, and uses Windows' AutoRun feature to infect computers via USB memory sticks. You can always stop Windows autorunning things by holding down the shift key, but it's probably better to disable this functionality. In Windows XP go to Start, select Run, and type (or paste) gpedit.msc into the box. When the Group Policy console appears, click Administrative Templates, go to System, and look towards the bottom right for the entry called "Turn off AutoPlay". Double-click this to bring up the Properties sheet, select the radio button for Disable, and click OK. In Vista, after gpedit.msc, go to Windows Components and select AutoPlay Policies. Apart from Downadup/Conficker, Symantec has reported "an increase in malicious applications that use USB flash drive devices as a propagation method" ( symantec.com ). All-in-one next?
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Ask Jack: January 29 2009
Technophile: Charles Arthur on Spotify’s universal jukebox
Once upon a time there was a peer-to-peer file-sharing service called Napster, and it caught the record labels completely unawares. For years people had been ripping their CDs into MP3s, but Napster showed them how to get tracks they didn't have (illicitly). And so the universal jukebox was born – though it was quickly extinguished by lawyers. Now Spotify is here, a completely legal service which tries to get close to that universal jukebox idea, where all you have to do is either pay a monthly fee (£10 in the UK) or listen to some ads at the start of a track (and see them on the application's interface) and you can get at a huge range of music. It's not quite every song ever made - give the folks a chance - but it's a big start. The application you download (for Windows or Mac; or in Wine on Linux) connects to the net and streams the songs. You can create your own playlists, listen to the "radio", or – perhaps most interesting – create collaborative playlists that anyone can add to (or subtract from) once they know the URL. (In the picture, the collaborative ones are green.) And when you're playing a track, there's a link - not yet implemented - to let you buy that song from Amazon or iTunes. Logically, Spotify would get a cut of any such transaction. The files are high-quality - Ogg Vorbis (the open-source codec) at roughly 160kbps; you need about 256kbps bandwidth to get it all working. It all sounds like Napster version 1 done right. So is there anything that doesn't work right? I asked on Twitter and found that what people wanted most was a mobile-phone version (I understand that's in the works, though it might be some way off); better recommendation; better collaborative information (so you can see who has added a track to a playlist, say); and streaming to other devices such as hi-fis. Oh, and more songs - though the classical repertoire is good - and better filtering in the searches, which tend to be overly broad - my search for King Crimson turned up tracks that ex-members had made.
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Technophile: Charles Arthur on Spotify's universal jukebox
Adware altercation: software developer provokes divided opinions in cyberspace
To some in the downtrodden kingdom of the geek, he is a messiah. To others, he is the devil incarnate. No one, it seems, divides opinion among the tribes of of cyberspace quite like Patchou. The software creator, real name Cyril Paciullo, is the man behind Messenger Plus! Live – which, he claims, has been downloaded 60m times and is particularly popular among teenagers. An updated version is due out at the end of this month; the forum on his site boasts 80,000 members. Patchou's creation is an add-on to Microsoft's hugely popular Windows Live Messenger, or MSN, the instant messaging and social networking program used by 17.5 million people in Britain alone. Patchou's software adds dozens of extra features, such as custom sounds, colours, clever ways to manage contacts and, for the uber-geeky, the ability to program your own tweaks. And for that Patchou's grateful young disciples sing his praises in thousands of web forums and chatrooms. "You rock," they gush. Such is their adulation that one admirer boasts of making a 100mph dash to Disneyland just to spend a few minutes in Patchou's company. The acolyte proclaims: "It was really cool to meet Patchou, he's awesome." But this is a man who has also outraged millions. His sin? A Faustian pact with dark forces responsible for distributing adware, those pop-up windows that torture PC users the world over
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Adware altercation: software developer provokes divided opinions in cyberspace
Michael Cross on Wales’s Individual Health Record system
In an echo of his predecessor John F Kennedy, Barack Obama has set his nation a massive technological challenge. In his first weekly presidential broadcast, he pledged: "We'll computerise the nation's health record in five years, saving billions of dollars and countless lives." Compared with Kennedy's 1961 ambition to send a man to the moon "before the decade is out", the goal of computerising health data may seem unheroic. However, in many ways it is a more daunting challenge. The moon programme was a triumph of human endeavour, but it was based on rock-solid principles: in 1961, scientists knew exactly where the moon would be nine years hence and roughly how they would go about getting there. Moving target Experts planning the computerised health record enjoy no such certainty. The "nation's health record" does not even exist as an entity today and it would be foolhardy to predict what it will look like in five years' time. For a lesson in how to manage the programme, Obama might do well to look across the Atlantic. Not to the NHS in England, where a £13bn-programme is this year reeling from its latest parliamentary battering, but to Wales. Earlier this month, Edwina Hart, the Welsh assembly's health minister, approved a plan to extend a system called the Individual Health Record (IHR) across the country. The decision comes seven years after the equivalent announcement in England, but no one need apologise for the delay. The Welsh IT team says that, by eschewing political deadlines and working with the NHS rather than trying to impose technology, it has created an electronic medical record that is not only more useful than its English equivalent but will cost a fraction of the price. The secret, says Gwyn Thomas, chief executive of the agency Informing Healthcare, is to listen to users. The contrast with the gung-ho English programme, now enervated by contractual rows and political grandstanding, is graphic. In the latest report, the chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, Edward Leigh MP, said: "Essential systems are late, or, when deployed, do not meet expectations of clinical staff; estimates of local costs are still unreliable; and many NHS staff remain unenthusiastic." Wales and England started off with the same goal - to make computerised medical records available where they are needed. However, the two countries went about it in wildly different ways. In England, the NHS took it for granted that the right technology was available and that staff were enthusiastic about adopting it. The central challenge was seen to be procuring the technology on the best terms, and implementing it to timetable
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Michael Cross on Wales's Individual Health Record system
Amazon prepares to launch new Kindle reader
Amazon could be preparing to launch a new version of its Kindle ebook reader, according to reports. The Kindle – which allows users to store up to 200 books and read them on a digital screen - originally launched in November 2007, in what was seen as a surprise move from a company better known for being an online retailer of books, music and DVDs. However, speculation about a second-generation version has swirled around the internet since last year - largely based on pictures claiming to show a new model that sports a sleeker, more eye-catching design. Rather than denying the reports, Amazon added fuel to the fire yesterday by announcing that it would be holding a press conference on Monday, February 9 at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York. Chief executive Jeff Bezos will oversee the event, which is being held less than a mile from the hotel where the company unveiled the original Kindle. The company did not respond to a request for comment. The Kindle, which is only available in the US, has been a moderate success – allowing Amazon to quickly take command of the small but much-heralded electronic book market. The current $359 (£253) model sports a six-inch screen and 256MB of memory, although its Whispernet wireless download system only works in the United States. Some observers say they expect a thinner and more robust body and more user-friendly approach – but it remains unclear whether the gadget will ever be available to buy in Europe. "We're fairly sure that it will be a new Kindle, one that will feature a colour screen and better battery life," electronics analyst Richard Doherty, of Envisioneering Group, told the LA Times . Although sales figures for the first-generation Kindle remain unclear, industry analysts have regarded it as a good first step: the gadget sold out at launch, and demand has continued to outstrip the company's inventory. Prospective buyers currently face waits of four to six weeks to get their hands on one. The Kindle is just one part of the company's plan to diversify and become less reliant on retail sales – and Wall Street is hoping that such moves can help insulate it from the financial turmoil that has struck the rest of the economy. What started as an online book shop in 1994 now covers a vast array of goods, as well as an MP3 download store, hi-tech hardware and web infrastructure services. Amazon is due to unveil its quarterly financial results on Thursday, with investors keen to see how it fared over Christmas. In December the company claimed its "best ever" holiday season, without revealing any of the precise financial details – and some have expressed concern that the figures may not live up to their billing
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Amazon prepares to launch new Kindle reader
New £12.7bn NHS computer system on brink of failure, warn MPs
Key parts of a £12.7bn programme to upgrade the NHS's information technology are on the brink of failure, a powerful cross-party group of MPs warned today. The Commons public accounts committee (PAC) said recent progress in deploying a new care records system to hospitals across England was "very disappointing". The system was supposed to link 30,000 GPs to nearly 300 hospitals across England, providing NHS staff with instant access to the medical notes of 50,000 patients at every stage of diagnosis, treatment and discharge. The NHS is currently forecasting a completion date of 2014-15 - four years later than originally planned. But the MPs said even this revised schedule looks over-optimistic. By the end of last year, no hospital was yet able to use the Lorenzo version of the care records software, which had been due to operate throughout the north, Midlands and east of England. The committee said: "There must be grounds for serious concern as to whether Lorenzo can be deployed in a reasonable timescale." Plans to instal an alternative Millenium system in the south of England were also in doubt after the government terminated the contract of the service provider Fujitsu. The committee said: "The programme is not providing value for money at present . . . Unless the position on care records system deployments improves appreciably in the very near future (ie within the next six months), the Department of Health should assess the financial case for allowing [hospital] trusts to put forward applications for central funding for alternative systems." The MPs also called on the department to spell out how it will punish staff who breach the security procedures that are supposed to stop patients' confidential medical information falling into the wrong hands. They said: "Ultimately data security and confidentiality rely on the actions of individual members of NHS staff in handling care records and other patient data. To help provide assurance, the department and the NHS should set out clearly the disciplinary sanctions that will apply in the event that staff breach security procedures." Edward Leigh, the PAC's Conservative chairman, said: "It is worrying that, if trusts decide not to deploy the patient care records systems, the taxpayer can still be obliged to make payments to the suppliers concerned." Responding to the committee, the NHS Confederation said hospitals are frustrated by delays in introducing the care records system. Nigel Edwards, the policy director, added: "The time is quickly approaching to make tough decisions on what the future of the project should be ... Many of our members still do not know if they are going to get a system that works or does the things they want it to." The Department of Health defended the IT programme. It said: "New IT systems in the NHS are delivering better, safer and faster care. Current costs have declined because of the delays to implementation due mainly to adding extra functions to the system. Costs are also controlled by the contracts which only pay to providers once the service has been successfully delivered." NHS Health Health policy Inside IT Computing Politics and technology guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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New £12.7bn NHS computer system on brink of failure, warn MPs