MaximumPC 2005 03

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LETTERS POLICY: MAXIMUM PC invites

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ANALOG TO DIGITAL—

AND BEYOND

Watch as Maximum PC mercilessly

tames even the trickiest of PC tasks:

taking analog video and putting it into

digital form. We’ll show you which

hardware does the best job of captur-

ing; which software makes editing,

converting, and burning the most

enjoyable and trouble-free experience;

and top it all off with a soup-to-nuts

primer on tweezing, squeezing, and

easing your video onto DVD.

THE FIFTH ANNUAL

GEEK QUIZ!

Did you enjoy last year’s geek quiz?

Hold on to those fond memories, Junior,

because tHis year’s test of your PC

marbles will absolutely draw BLood.

So whip out your slide rule and don

your pocket protector, because only the

smartest geeks will survive the big-

gest, baddest, meanest, and most com-

prehensive gauntlet of questions we’ve

ever assembled in these pages.

PLUS...

Hands-on reviews of all the latest

hardware, including:

➤ Seagate’s monstrous 7200.

400GB hard drive

➤ Pentium 4 Extreme SLI vs.

Athlon 64 SLI mobo showdown

➤ GeForce 6600 GT SLI Benchmarks

➤ PalmOne Treo 650 vs. Samsung

TPC-6601 PDA shootout

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE!!!

Look for a special Super-Sized “In

the Lab,” with our new benchmarking

guide and lightning-fast new testbeds!

bag, or banners on the Maximum

CD—are a fact of life.

Having said that, Maximum

PC’s ad-sales and editorial depart-

ments maintain strict separation

of church and state: We don’t tell

them about review scores, and

they don’t tell us which compa-

nies are buying ads.

As for the 16-page ad for 1&1,

there’s a difference between a

display ad and an insert. Display

ads are counted as pages within

the magazine; inserts are not. That

means the insert doesn’t impact

the magazine’s ad-to-edit ratio.

We try to avoid placing inserts in

the middle of stories, but that’s not

always possible. If the insert bugs

you, you might consider tearing it

out of the book or stapling those

pages together, turning them into

a single page turn.

If you don’t like the AOL discs,

but don’t want to throw them in

the trash, AOL will accept them

for recycling if you’re willing to

spend a few cents on postage.

Mail them to:

AOL

Attn: Disc Recycling

22000 AOL Way

Dulles, VA 20166

WE’RE GAIM

I enjoyed this year’s Softy

Awards and was happy to

see that I own almost all the

programs you honored. I also

was impressed with GAIM

because of its tabbed windows;

so were the creators of Trillian,

I guess, because Trillian version

3.0 now also includes tabbed

windows.

Maybe Trillian should be

given a make-up Softy? Take all

the bells and whistles that were

carried over from the previous

version (skins, emoticons, etc.)

and add tabbed windows and

some other cool new features

(such as Instant Lookup via

the Wikipedia) and Trillian 3.

basic blows away GAIM.

—ADAM PERKOWSKY

EXECUTIVE EDITOR WILL SMITH

RESPONDS: Unfortunately for

Trillian fans, version 3.0 wasn’t

available when we went to press

last month. Since shipping the

February issue, I’ve spent a little

time testing both the Basic and

Pro flavors, and I have to say I’m

very impressed. Although the

basic version adds tabbed IM

windows, we’ve had trouble get-

ting them to behave in a way that

we understand. The Pro version

also adds Rendezvous IM, so we

can message with Mac-based

iChat users. Awesome!

We’re becoming concerned,

however, that Trillian’s develop-

ers are adopting an “Everything

aNd the kitchen sink” mental-

ity: Features such as Wikipedia

searching have absolutely

nothing to do with instant mes-

saging. That’s why we stand by

our selection of GAIM: It does

one thing—IM—extremely well.

Trillian 3.0 (or whatever the latest

version happens to be) will get its

shot next year.

TRAGEDY IN C MINOR

I couldn’t help but notice

your rendering of Beethoven’s

opening motif of his 5th

Symphony in the January issue.

Fate knocking on the door is

quite proper for the terrible

tragedies on page 62; however,

I just wanted to drop a line and

say that the flat on the C-space

is incorrect. Even though the

piece is in C minor, the first flat

is always on the B line.

—CARLOS LARA

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF MICHAEL

BROWN RESPONDS:

Congratulations, Carlos! You

passed associate art director Boni

Uzilevsky’s musical IQ test.

NICE STACK!

The first issue in the stack is

December 1997. I have not

missed an issue since. I have a

total of 86 issues, plus 6 special

issues. It’s not 100, but it’s close!

—CLYDE ROBERTSON

PERIODICAL INFIDELITY

I’m sorry! I bought another

brand of computer magazine.

ARGH! I found my self yelling

at the magazine. I won’t

mention it by name, but I will

tell you that one of the articles

mentioned a P4 750, and the

editors recommended that you

have at least 256MB of system

memory if you’re going to edit

any video.

Need I say more? Next time, I’ll

just go back and read my

latest issue of Maximum PC

for the fifth time.

—ROBERT MARTIN

8 MA XIMUMPC MARCH 2005

➤ Our story on Microsoft’s MSN

Search (page 18 of the January

issue) incorrectly reported that

Google does not offer local search.

Google has actually been beta-

testing local search at http://www.local.

google.com for some time.

➤ The table on page 14 of the

February issue incorrectly reported

that the average Internet connec-

tion enjoyed by users of Valve

Software’s Steam content-delivery

system was 256Mb/s. The correct

number is, of course, 256Kb/s.

➤ In our “Reading Into the

Future” feature story (page 34

of the January issue), we incor-

rectly reported that Intel’s 925

chipset supports the upcoming Port

Multiplier technology. The fact

is that Port Multiplier technology

will supported in a future version

of Intel’s Advanced Host Controller

Interface (AHCI). In that same story,

we also incorrectly reported that

hot swappability was “coming

soon” to the SATA hard-drive spec;

fact is, Intel’s 925 chipset already

supports hot swapping.

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