CONTENTS
4 JANUARY2020|COMPUTERSHOPPER|ISSUE
Contents
Issue 383 January
Regulars
6 Letters
Your monthly missives of wit and wisdom,
tips and tricks, and moans and groans
8 Mel’sWorld
Gig economy workers of the world, unite–
you have nothing to lose but your zero hours
contracts!Mel Crouchermans the barricades
to lead the technology-led revolution that
could free mankind from its chains
10 Kay’sCorner
Youmay think it’s an antiquated programming
language,but around 65% of codeused
todayiswritten in Cobol.KayEwbankthinks
budding coders should considerlearning it
12 Rants &Raves
Want to get ahead in life? The answer is
to become aspreadsheet wizard. Who
knows, if you can excel at Excel, you
might even end up as the vice-president
of amajor corporation
130 Zygote
Taking abreak from the massage parlour,
Zygotesticks his trademarked two fingers
up to authority and reveals the latest
officially sanctioned internet scam
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108Perfect
Presents
From vintage-style
smart speakers to
state-of-the-art TVs,
our Xmas gift guide has
everything you need to fill Santa’s sack,
whether it’s foryour loved ones or yourself
88TheEndof
Windows
Worried about the
imminent demise of
Windows 7? Fear not
- David Ludlowis
here to explain how you can staysafe, and
looks at some of the alternative options
Features
100TheDigital
CrystalBall
Computer simulation
allows us to forecast
everything from the
weather to the economy.
Mike Bedfordlooks at what’s involved
112Retro:SAMCoupé
It could have been acontender to match the
ZX Spectrum, but the
SAM Coupé failed to
take off.David Crookes
meets the retro fans
reviving the memory
of the 8-bit machine
Learn
120 Helpfile &BusinessHelp
Got aPCproblem, app annoyance or
Windows woe? Fear not:Simon Handby
is here to answer all your queries
124Advanced Projects
Relive the glory days of rock’n’roll and create
your very own digital jukebox.Clive Webster
puts adime in the slot and shows you how
News
All the latest news and views from the
technology world, including:
14 News Round-up
Microsoftunveils innovative new Surface
devices, while Nvidia aims to bring ray-tracing
tech to classic games titles
16 From the Lab
In-depth coverage of all the latest scientific
and technological advances
17TheLowdown:
Surface Neoand Surface Duo
It’s not been renowned forits innovation
in recent years, but Microsoft’s latest
hardware could change that
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