Monday, December 18, 2000		Lead Article

Get the whole cake, not just a slice

While there could be virtually infinite unconventional uses of a PC, for the purpose of this article only a few conventional uses have been put into three major categories — 1) Communication 2) Entertainment 3) Utility

Communication: Computers can play a major role in the world of communication. Till now we have been using them only for sending and receiving e-mail. Very few use the fax modem for sending faxes as most still opt for a fax machine. A good fax modem normally has a speed of 14.4 kbps for faxes, while in the case of normal fax machines a speed of 9.6 kbps is common. However, there are better fax machines also available, which support a data transfer rate of 14.4 kbps, but they come with a higher price. The price of a fax modem is fairly low in comparison. Normally users are not aware of this fact and they end up paying extra in the form of communication bills, while they could have saved by sending faxes through a fax modem. Moreover, using a fax modem is a good idea for a paperless office, too.

Besides faxes, the world of communication offers a lot more PC users. Using your computer and some communication software, of which there is a surfeit on the Internet, you can set up your own digital telephone answering machine, which could otherwise leave you poorer by a few thousand. A large number of these communication software are free and can be easily found on the Internet. Once such software is installed, you can be assured of not missing any calls as your computer will store the messages on your behalf in your absence.

You can also plan a fully functional voice mail system on your computer. This system is similar to what you find in big corporate offices. The only difference is that it does not have an EPABX. But even then this is a great communication utility as you make a voice mail system for your users. The system is not limited to just one user as you can design it for as many people as you want. Thus, on a single computer, your whole family or your whole office can have separate voice mail boxes, which can announce individual messages and can also take the messages separately in the specific voice mail box. There are several software, like the Trio communication suite, which also offer the facility to retrieve your voice messages from a remote location through a telephone.

You can also set up a complete office suite on your computer, which would include the voice mail system, answering machine and also a fax, all on one line and one computer. Thus, when a caller calls up, he would get various options — if he wishes to go to your voice mail box, he can choose the option from his touch tone phone or can also send a fax on the same call. Thus, you need not have a separate telephone line for your fax system as it can be managed on a common line by the computer.

That’s not the end of the story. You can also use your computer for a caller line identification program, which can otherwise be used only by separate equipment. Interestingly, these caller ID software are also available free on the Internet. These days a new service called "Fax back" is becoming popular. This service is actually the opposite of a normal fax. In "fax back" you request a fax from a machine and receive it on your fax machine rather than sending it. Now using computer software, you can design your communication suite for the fax back services. These services are very popular in restaurants in some countries as people normally request the fax of the menu, before actually going to a restaurant. Education institutes can also offer this service for their catalogue of information.

Such applications in the world of communication make a PC look like an extremely versatile communication tool, rather than a piece of simple office equipment.

Entertainment: The scope of entertainment is very wide. Some people enjoy playing games for entertainment, while others listen to music or watch their favourite TV program. Though all these kinds of entertainment are different in nature, you can still have them all on one PC. There is no other equipment that can offer you such a wide variety of entertainment. However, not all that is possible in entertainment on personal computers is fully explored.

Normally, people play default computer games that are installed with the original Windows set-up. Some young computer users try thousands of other games also. While a majority of these games do not require the use of any special hardware, there are many gadgets in the market that can enhance your computer gaming experience beyond imagination. Joysticks, drive wheels, 3D monitors, etc, give you a real-life experience and also do not cost much. Some people have even opened game parlours, where the computers are never used for any other purpose but playing games. So, the use of computers for high-end games is one more unconventional application, and it gives you good entertainment.

Not every one knows that you can convert your computer into a complete real-world home theatre. Home theatre means that you can actually have a screen in your house and can see your favourite TV programs, or even movies, on a screen larger than that of TVs. All you need to have is one good-quality TV tuner card installed on your multimedia computer and one LCD projector. Having a TV tuner card in your system, you can watch TV programs and good-quality TV tuner cards are actually excellent AGP cards also, with good memory. Thus your video performance is greatly enhanced by having a good-quality AGP card. LCD projectors are normally being used for presentations in conferences and summits. Since you can project your computer monitor display on a larger screen on any flat surface, using a projector, TV programs or even movies on your DVD ROM can give you a cinema-hall experience in the comfort of your home. Thus, with such add-ons to your computer a new dimension can be added to the definition of entertainment. However, it should be mentioned here that the projectors are normally very expensive — Rs 80,000 onwards.

Utility: The term utility is very subjective and may mean different things to different people. However, with respect to a computer, anything beyond the conventional use that adds value to your normal working life is a utility. For example, if you have a scanner and a printer along with your personal computer, then you can practically presume that you have a photocopier. Using these, you can scan a document and send it directly to the printer, which prints it as if it has been photocopied. There are many software available that give you a skin that looks like a photocopier on your computer screen and also work the same way. They offer you the typical features of a photocopier, like increasing the intensity, reducing or enlarging the output, photocopying a number of copies, etc. However, the best part of using the scanner and the printer as photocopier is that you get a colour photocopier at a very reasonable price as scanners support high resolutions of colour and today even high-quality printers are available. This combination of scanner and printer can not only give you immense value addition, but is also extremely cost effective.

Now it is entirely up to your creativity to derive multi-purpose benefits from your computer, making it a workhorse for both conventional and un-conventional jobs.