ISYS OUTDOORS Newsletter 2005/04 - England redivided
In this Newsletter
- New MapWise Products
- Version 5.5
- Astronomy
- Computer News
- Hillwalker e-Mail addresses
- Hints and Tips
- Humour?
This is the Newsletter for user of ISYS OUTDOORS Software: Hillwalker, MapWise and Alpiniste.
Yes, really! I know that the last newsletter was March, but all will be explained. In that Newsletter, I promised some new products and here they are:
Currently England is divided into ENGLAND NORTH and ENGLAND SOUTH with the dividing line running through the northern suburbs of Birmingham. People living near the divide didn't know which to buy and were not impressed with idea of buying both or all ENGLAND. The first new product is MapWise 50 CENTRAL ENGLAND and EAST ANGLIA.
MapWise 50 CENTRAL ENGLAND and EAST ANGLIA provides an extension southwards for those who have LAKES and PENNINES and it covers the area from Lancaster to London, and is roughly the same area as the ENGLAND NORTH and ENGLAND SOUTH CDs. It integrates with all other MapWise and Hillwalker products.
The other two new products are also MapWise 50: ENGLAND SOUTH WEST and ENGLAND SOUTH EAST.
ENGLAND SOUTH EAST includes London and South Foreland to the New Forest and was created by request of the many walkers in that area. It slightly overlaps the new CENTRAL ENGLAND CD.
ENGLAND SOUTH WEST includes the Scilly Isles to Swindon with a slight overlap on to the other two new areas. In fact Swindon is on all three new CDs.
ENGLAND NORTH and ENGLAND SOUTH will continue.
MapWise 50 CENTRAL ENGLAND and EAST ANGLIA is £65 MapWise 50 ENGLAND SOUTH EAST is £30 MapWise 50 ENGLAND SOUTH EAST is £30
All are available on the website: www.isysoutdoors.com from the new secure shop.
v 5.5 was the reason for the lack of Newsletters in April and May. Newsletters always generate correspondence and other activity and here at ISYS we did not need any more activity! My thanks to all of you who wrote asking what had happened to the missing monthly Newsletters.
v5.5 was created and released and the world seemed to fall apart. Normally ISYS SUPPORT has maybe one outstanding support call and perhaps another comes in before the first is cleared. Three outstanding queries is not unusual but also not common. After the release of v5.5 we had three calls in the first day and an unprecedented twelve within the week. All that had been changed was the addition of a GPS button to use the new GPSU program even easier to access. Even more confusing was that we could not reproduce any of the problems our users were seeing.
At one point I was convinced that we had some incompatibility with Windows XP Home but the culprit was eventually traced to a hardware failure in January when we lost a hard drive controller. We all felt very happy that we restored all files from backup and carried on as normal. What we did not realize was that some files on different drives had become corrupted at the same time and had been used in the new release. I thought that Windows reported corrupted files. I guess it doesn't!
We withdrew v5.5 immediately and have now settled on v5.6 which seems to be back to the usual stable releases which we have become used to. Current releases are v5.3, v5.4 and v5.6.
During this time, it is quite possible that some calls were not answered completely. Support is now back to its normal level.
We are now planning the next release. If you would like any new features, please discuss on the Yahoo site http://groups.yahoo.com/group/hillwalker.
For some reason, the Newsletters have contained comments about the night sky which really don't have a lot to do with walking. I was thinking that the northern summer solstice has come and how the standard television news now reports on the solstice, even if from the point of view of druids. Very early on Sunday morning (00:40) I was walking the dog, wondering if I should say anything about the solstice and the recent full moon in this Newsletter. I was looking at the northern sky and noticing how it was not black but quite a light blue. Suddenly I saw a very bright object travelling at great speed. It was egg shaped, with the blunt end leading. Its diameter was about half a moon diameter and it was a very bright pale blue outlined in a stronger colour. The tail was long (about two degrees) and thin and white; just like a meteor. There was no noise. I expected an impact but none came. If anyone had been with me, I could not have pointing it out; the event was over too quickly.
I assume that it was a meteor, but it is by far the biggest that I have seen.
My thanks to Iain from West Lothian who tells me that ISYS Software runs happily on the new 64-bit Windows. This looks good for Longhorn, the new Windows due out later this year. The 64 bit Windows is available as a free upgrade, but of course you need a 64-bit processor to run it.
I started a mini series of discussing free software available on the web. John from Colchester writes:
I was interested to see the plug you gave for AVG free AV software. I run this, and since getting the recent download [which came automatically with file updating] I have had difficulty getting some e-mail out, improved, but not cured by disabling scanning of outgoing mail. According to various bulletin boards, I am not alone in this!
Such are the vagaries of Windows that I have not experienced this problem.
This month's freebie comes from Microsoft and is another AntiSpyWare program in direct competition with AdAware. Go to www.microsoft.com and download the program. It will ask you to certify your Windows but this is not necessary and there seems to be no benefit except to Microsoft. The Microsoft AntiSpyWare is faster than AdAware and removes some SpyWare that AdAware cannot handle but it is not so thorough as AdAware. Perhaps you need both!
Would you like a hillwalker.net email postbox? ISYS are offering these for just £1 a month. You keep your existing email supplier and emails to your new, easily remembered address are forwarded to you. When you change your ISP, your email address stays the same; you just redirect the mail to your new ISP.
Examples of a new email are
johnsmith@hillwalker.net
maryw@hillwalker.net
We can also offer single names for £1.50 per month
john@hillwalker.net
mary@hillwalker.net
and 1 to 3 character names for £1.75 per month
ab@hillwalker.net
If you want one, just call. 0845 166 5701 - UK local call.
How do you get a Landranger map of a particular area in just 3 mouse clicks?
The great power and simplicity of ISYS Software is shown in this one.
1. Click the Vector Map button. A Vector map is drawn. 2. Right click on the Vector map where you want the Image Map. A popup menu appears. 3. Mouse over Create Image or Raster Map Centred Here and click Create OS Landranger map centred here. Image Map is drawn: job done.
How do you change to a new area in just three clicks?
1. Close the Image Map using the cross at top right. The Vector Map re-appears. 2 & 3 as above
If the distance between the new and old map is large, this beats scrolling by about a fortnight.
When you have created a route, check that you have not missed any great dips or peaks along the way.
1. Mode | Route Card | Route Profile 2. Right click the Route Profile and select Show Profile Height
This technique is also very useful for determining intervisibility. Just create a two point route card and look at the profile!
If you do send us an e-mail, please check that your user number is in the subject line. This ensures that the email gets through our filtering system. Your user number is given in the subject line of this email.
If you are getting duplicate newsletters, let us know the user numbers and we can send you get just one copy in future.
Walk long and safely
Iain R White ISYS OUTDOORS www.isysoutdoors.com support@isysoutdoors.com
Q: What's got four legs and an arm? A: A happy pit bull terrier
Teacher: So little Boris cannot come to school today? Too bad! Who is speaking? Voice on phone: This is my father.
Following the Chemical theme of the last Newsletter humour -
Q: What is Copper Nitrate A: The amount of pay received by a policeman for working in the hours of darkness
Gordon of Harrow can take the credit / blame for that one!
Comment on proposed enhancements:
Iain from West Lothian suggests a "Book fair weather" button but I favour a "Bad Weather" button on the grounds of greater success and fewer complaints in the event of failure!
