There to serve
There has been so much in the press recently regarding Napster and the whole P2P (peer2peer) issue, and of possible alternatives if Napster is fully shut down. What I don't understand is why no-one has mentioned Napigator? This is surely the Napster users' saviour.
It is a while since I downloaded my version, but a search on Google would no doubt turn up the relevant website. Once downloaded, Napigator will list all Napster servers, including unofficial non-Napster run servers. These servers run openNap, MyNap or similar, and do exactly the same job as real official Napster servers, providing login facilities for the Napster client and a database of all other logged in users and their shared files. Napigator will show around 160 servers, 60 odd of which will be Napster servers. The rest are run by those wishing to help out the global online music sharing community. Clicking on a listed server will start the Napster client and connect it to that server. Thus even if all Napster servers are completely shut down, there is absolutely no reason why the Napster users community can't continue sharing their files exactly as before. The server software is also freely available.
Richard Hill
Ricky@mangamail.net
Primary link
Pat Kane (Second sight, March 29) shares my affection for Finland. The first time I visited, nearly 30 years ago, I felt at home there, despite the alien language. I have read that the Finnish education system has a strong emphasis on music, with all children at primary level participating in choral singing and many in instrumental playing. This has demonstrably resulted in a very high level of musical creativity in that country. Given the close association between music and mathematics, could this have anything to do with the burgeoning creativity we see in the IT world there? Perhaps David Blunkett, Chris Smith and Patricia Hewitt should get together. Tim Pearce
commonweal@co-op-party.org.uk
Put in order
Harry Beck did not revolutionise the map of the London Underground by "fudging the actual locations of the stations" (Online, March 29). He realised that the key question was not "where is station X?", but "how does one get to station X?" Thus he was able to replace unwieldy topographical maps by a diagram which preserved information about the order and connectedness of the stations on the network. He changed the criteria of representation to what was appropriate for the needs of most passengers.
Bernard Hrusa-Marlow
bernard@hrumar.freeserve.co.uk
History rewrite
Thanks for the edited version of my Mac OS history (OS X odyssey, Online, March 29), but something has gone a little wrong.
The operating system project abandoned in May 1996 (1994-1996 section) was Copland, not Rhapsody. Rhapsody was the code name for the earliest version of what became OS X.
In addition, the second and third screenshots have been printed the wrong way round. The second from the top shows Copland and the one at the bottom shows NexTStep.
Cameron Paterson
cameronp@lineone.net
Free icons
In the article X marks the spot, about the new Macintosh operating system, Craig McGill mentions that he would like new icons to improve the default set that comes with Mac OS X. There is a large collection of free new icons for Mac OS X at http://xicons.macnn.com
Tony Swash
tonyswash@blueyonder.co.uk
OS overdose
Regarding your piece on the launch of OS X, I wish you'd sent somebody with half a clue to meet the fanatics. I've been using protected memory and quashing badly behaved applications under Windows NT for years, and now do the same under Windows 2000. Your screen shot of the force quit dialogue looks similar to that found when you press Ctl-Alt-Del in Windows 95. "The first operating systems written from the ground up"?
Excuse me, isn't this NextStep's take on Unix we're talking about? Not to mention the fact that Mac aficionados have been claiming for years that their machines never crash.
Don't get me wrong, I have an extensive vocabulary of swearwords for when my Intel/Microsoft machine decides to mess me around. I just get irritated when the latest Mac is touted as a panacea to cure all computing ills.
Steve Jeffery
Steve.Jeffery@catalyst-uk.com
No internet
With reference to last week's article about the release of Apple OS X, I am currently experiencing Mac mania of the opposite kind. OS X contains great promise, but as delivered, it is basically dysfunctional, since, as hundreds of messages from disgruntled customers on Apple's own website testify, it is impossible to establish a reliable internet connection with it. I am seeking my money back.
Strictly speaking, only unopened software can be returned and refunded, but how is one to know the software doesn't work without opening it?
Is that because Apple knew something we didn't?!
Alan Waters
A.Waterts@lancaster.ac.uk
Mouse trap
According to Ashley Norris, this year's CeBIT show included "the first cordless mouse from Logitech". I wonder what one would call this rodent-like thing, devoid of wires and made by Logitech, that I've been using for two years now? Roger Whitehead
rgw@office-futures.com
In search
Veggie Links: http://uk.search.yahoo.com/search/ukie?p= veggie&y=y (March 29) Wow! If I go to a search engine, and enter a term, it might actually provide me with a list of web pages that mention it? What will they think of next? Owen McShane
owen@dub.org.uk
