200203_Digit_Trouble Free Computing.pdf

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editorial
Uph(old)ing
Customs
he Indian government recently announced its discovery of the fact
that over 80 per cent of cell phone users in India are using instruments that
were purchased from the gray market.
While this might be a surprise to some, it isn’t exactly news. Every major
metro has its own version of the ‘smugglers arcade’—a Palika Bazaar in Delhi
or a Heera Panna in Mumbai—where people flock to buy anything from the
latest Nokia handset to the PlayStation 2 for a reasonable price.
And this also holds true for the computer industry in India. The difference
in the price of a product in the US and here is considerable. The main reason
for the differential obviously is the customs duties levied on products that are
imported into India. A handheld computer that costs a relatively affordable
Rs 8,000 in Singapore ends up costing you about Rs 15,000 by the time it arrives
on our shores.
Is it any surprise then that there exists a thriving gray market for digital
devices? After all, the alternative is to settle for something that is older or lacks
features compared to another that we would prefer. This has also resulted in
the Indian consumers having to accept, in some cases, obsolete technology
products that do not find markets in other parts of the world.
The initial purpose of customs duties was to protect the fledgling Indian
industry and create an environment in which it could grow. While there are
still instances in which such a philosophy makes sense, globalisation means
that in some cases it has outlived its purpose.
Eliminating customs duties might not make sense for products like desk-
top PCs because there exists a thriving industry of local assemblers and man-
ufacturers, but there is no reason that the same rule be applied to components
like processors and graphics cards or other products like digital cameras, which
are just not manufactured indigenously. The likelihood of an Indian manu-
facturer deciding to develop a processor that takes on Intel’s best is extremely
remote.
In the current context, it really makes sense for the government to com-
pletely eliminate customs duties for products or components that are not
being manufactured in India. This would eliminate the need for the exis-
tence of the gray market and will also help us get more value for the rupee
that we spend.
T
Karan Manral
Assistant Editor
“There
is no
reason why
customs duties
should be
applied to
products which
are just not
manufactured
indigenously
”
karan_manral@jasubhai.com
27
contents
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magazine
MARCH
2002
72
All this for FREE
30 FREE software to
add to your kitty
109
126
Take a look at what’s coming your way
in 2002
The games to come
Working with Windows XP
Tips on getting up close and personal
with XP
INSIDE
FEATURES
56
A look into the love relationship
between the Mac user and his
machine
32
Technology
goes to war
The age of the
Terminator
approaches as
technology alters
the way wars are
fought
TEST DRIVE
62
Our laptop test and what the scores
said
84
Agent 001 sniffs out the best in
gaming peripherals
INSIGHT
92
Chop that monstrous DVD flick
down to size with DivX encoding
94
54
86
89
6
GENi beckons
A sneak peek at the GENi
A designer's guide to online
resources for fonts, plugins, filters
and the works!
Getting to know your PC’s BIOS
A comprehensive guide to trou-
bleshooting
The Terapin story
Say goodbye to the old VCR and wel-
come the Terapin recorder
97
98
ARCADE
130
Get into the thick of things with
these tips on
Diablo II
Working the Web cam beat
Lessons on setting up a Web cam,
using it as a security camera and for
still pictures
136
Get a fresh perspective with these
five little-known search engines
MARCH 2002
32
Intelligent machines that
do the fighting for you
109
Crank up Windows XP to
work better for you
98
The PC troubleshooting guide
72
Free alternatives that work
just as good as commercial
software
56
Why owning a Mac bor-
ders on fanaticism for
some while others remain
skeptical
94
Tap the Internet
for fonts, plug-
ins, filters, stock
images and more
126
Great games that you can look
forward to
Reviewed
this month
REGULARS
HARDWARE
NEWS FEED
LETTERS
DROOLMAAL
START UP
BAZAAR
QUICK START
Q&A
GAMES, BOOKS AND CDS
WIDE ANGLE
DIGIT DIARY
BACKBYTE
21
30
54
60
79
97
98
132
136
138
140
79
Asus V8200 Ti500 Deluxe
Creative PC-CAM 300
HP DVD-Writer 100i
HP ScanJet 5400 scanner
Intel Northwood 2.2GHz
Processor
IOGEAR ShareView
IOMEGA Panther
Logitech Clicksmart510
Maxtor D540X 160 GB
hard drive
Philips 107B3 Flat
monitor
Sharp Muramasu UM10
Zenith One Up
SOFTWARE
79
EasyOffice Premium
ISM 2000 Office
MGI PhotoSUITE 4.0
PowerARCHIVER v7.02
The Sleuthhound! Pro 3.2
WebCam-Control-Center
5.5
FREE SOFTWARE
72
LAPTOPS
62
To subscribe to Digit, fill out the
subscription form available online at
www.thinkdigit.com/subscribe
7
ACI Profile 2860
ACI Profile3270
ACI Xtreme
Cerebra
Compaq Armada E-500
Compaq Presario 1722
Compaq Presario 1725
Sharp AR-50
Address Organizer
Antivir Personal Edition
AvirMail 1.70
Bookmark Manager
CesarFTP 0.99e FTP
server
Crazy Browser
CyberKit 2.5 Network
Utility
Dzsoft Favourites Search
EmC 5.0
Exact Audio Copy
ICQ Color Picker
ImageWalker 2.01
Interchat 2.1.43
MBM 5.1
MicroDVD 1.2
PhotoPlus 5
Quickdialer
SmartFTP 1.0.966
Sygate Personal Firewall
4.2.872
TaskZip
Turbo Navigator v1.46
UltimateZip 2.6
UltraWipe 1.51
VNC v3.3.3r9 Remote
Control
WebPlus 1 HTML editor
WebFerret Version 4
We-Blocker 2.0.82
Wingrab 1.5
Xenu Link Sleuth 1.2b
X cleaner
MARCH 2002
content
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digit interactive
Inside the CDs
Software
PhotoPlus 5
Get your hands on the full, free version
of Photoplus 5 and really dig into all
PLUS
FileAmigo LE v2.3.0, Windows
Help Designer v3.1.24, MusIRC
v4.3, Stellar Phoenix v8.0
30 FREE
Software
your image editing tasks. This sofware
is your best bet if you want a cheap
solution for working with images for
print or the Web
Newsletters
bunch of newsletters
on the hottest products
out there
■
A
All that’s FREE
If you’re looking for some alter-
natives to expensive commer-
cial software then we have just
the round up for you. Browse
through this exten-
sive list of 30 free
software under vari-
ous categories includ-
ing HTML editors,
Hardware monitoring
tools, audio encoders/
converters and more
Bookmarks
Take a look at what the
future holds for you with a
Tarot reading from these
horoscope sites
■
Test Drive
■
30 of the best free soft-
ware that can help you
work smarter and save you
some money too.
Arena: Top Gun
Serious Sam: The Second Encounter
The locations may be different, the weapons more
effective but the object remains the same. Its time to get
your hands bloody again with this highly addictive first
person shooter. And this time round there are a lot more
bad guys to put away!
Music
Shake your body to these tracks featuring Gorgeous Girl,
Icebird and John Davies and Nick James
Gallery
Go on a treasure hunt for the coolest of wallpapers,
screensavers, themes and Winamp skins.
and
Droolmaal...
You can stare at these beauties all
you like. They don’t mind!
8
MARCH 2002

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