European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - August 12, 1989, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Full Page monitors. People who use computers Lor word processing lace a vexing problem Standard piece of paper is taller than it is wide while a Standard pc Monitor is wide than it is tall. Writers think in terms of pages but most computers work in terms of half Page screens perhaps someday someone will invent a Utility program that tricks the computer into painting text sideways on the screen just As some Printer programs allow sideways printing of spreadsheets and banners. Then the Standard computer Monitor could be turned on its Side and voila Lull Page monitors at half Page prices. Don t hold your breath. Until then Here Are some suggestions for writers who want to modify their pc to show a full Page or two of text. Bigger monitors Are also of interest to designers desktop publishers engineers and people planning to Migrate to windowing software like Microsoft windows or os-2 with _ presentation manager windowing or having several applications on screen at the same Lime is very efficient but it quickly crowds a Standard screen. About 20 companies make full Page or two Page monitors and adapter cards for ism ps-2 and Industry Standard computers. They Range in Price from less than to ,000 to More than $5,000 the adapter card is needed to allow the pc to take advantage of the larger screen the card is inserted into one of the computer s internal expansion slots and the Monitor plugs into the card. Prices or computer monitors Are higher than those for television sets because they Are much More Complex and have higher Resolution. Even so prices of monochrome Black and while Page monitors have dropped sharply in recent months because of intense Competition. Page monitors that sold for $1,500 to $2.000 last year Are now under $1,000. Prices Lor the higher Quality monitors have remained in the $2.000-Lo $2.500 Range. Color monitors like color televisions Cost two to three limes As much As their Black and White counterparts also because a color image is composed of Many layers of information it lakes a lot of system memory to maintain and update the Imago unless the system is powerful the performance of some software applications slips when Shil cd to color. An alternative is a Gray scale Monitor which displays shades of Gray instead of color in monochrome each picture element Pixel or Dot. Is either Black or White this is referred Loas a two bit display. Gray scale monitors have 4, 8 or 16 bits of information Lor each Pixel allowing the Monitor to show intensities of Gray. While most full Page monitors will work with the older pc or it computers Many perform sluggishly. Makers recommend using a More powerful at class Model which is based on the Intel 80286 Chip or the newer computers based on the 80386 Chip there is no substitute for a lest drive when you shop for a Monitor. Take your word processing software into the store and ask to see How it works with the Monitor when testing the Monitor look Lor Flicker out of the Corner of your Eye watch or fuzzy text in the Corners be wary of Glare and make sure lines Are straight ii it does t look right look elsewhere macintosh owners know thai almost any Woid processing or publishing software they buy will work with whatever Monitor they attach to the Mac pc owners by contrast have Learned that almost every program comes with a swarm of device Drivers. The Lilloo snatches of Soll Ware needed Belore the software can work with any peripheral. Phil ease since the Mac was designed to handle graphic images owners of ism Compaq and compatible pcs on the other hand have a few More hurdles to overcome. For example the 640 kilobytes of random Access memory that is Standard on pcs is insufficient for Many scanning chores. Also Many scanning applications require a mouse and mice Are still not common in the pc world. While hand held scanners offer the cheapest entry into scanning desktop scanners offer the most versatility and features for common computer applications. They can scan a full Page of information at a Ime. Sheet fed scanners digest a single Sheet at a time which Means pages would have to be torn from books or magazines to be entered. Flatbed scanners in contrast do not require such vandalism. Here at american widgets our fictitious Small business we have been using an Apple scanner list Price $2,295 to capture images that we can include in sales brochures Price sheets company newsletters and stationery. We have used it to scan documents including newspaper articles that can then be converted to text files through the use of optical character recognition technology. The Apple scanner is relatively easy to learn to use the manuals and disk based tutorials Are quite Good. Creating a simple scanned image is fairly uncomplicated while scanning photographs and Complex illustrations is something of an Art. The Apple scanner and its preview feature allow the user to produce a Small test scan with a Range of brightness and contrast settings cutting waste. Previewing also allows the user to Experiment with different halftone and Gray scale settings. When the Best possible image is achieved it can be saved in a variety of popular graphics file formats or exported to graphics desktop publishing or advanced word processing programs. It can also be stored printed or sent by fax facsimile Modem. Scanners Are also especially Handy for preparing documents to be sent through pc fax boards. Stand alone fax machines come with a simple built in scanner but pc fax boards need an external scanner if the user wants to Send anything other than text or computer generated graphics files. The scanner also comes in Handy when making computer copies of paper documents. For example to convert reams of old american widget documentation into a form that can be stored and updated on the computer each Page is scanned creating a picture of the text then it is processed with character recognition software. The result is a text file that can be edited with any word processor.  High end i i by Kim Baker Cox news services n the world of audio there Are plenty of Basic stereo systems that will play your recorded music adequately. Then there Are unsophisticated systems designed by teams of physicists classically trained musicians and electrical engineers. These Are the audio products you won t Lind at the local discount Chain lore. In the Industry this area is called High end Hili the upper Echelon of stereo equipment the kind that s very Allor Dable if you re an Oil Sheik or a shipping tycoon if you re fiercely determined to make your music listening sessions an ultimate audio experience you might Start off by choosing a pair of Infinity s Best loudspeakers priced at about $50,000. Next you might consider electrostatic speaker panels from sound lab priced Between $3.200 and $20.000. Then maybe a Goldmund lab reference turntable for $24,950 the Arm and Cartridge Are extra add to that the vacuum tube Chiban tube amps Tor $15,000. Welcome to the world of music reproduction taken to extremes. The aim is to extract the maximum music information from a recording and reproduce it in the most lifelike manner possible even if it Means mortgaging the House. The zealots who pursue such perfection Are known in the i i Biz As tweaks those with an endless exuberance and willingness to nearly exhaust financial resources when it comes to building the finest Hili system known to  tweaks spend their disposable income on equipment read tweak magazines and listen to records All night Why do they do it Well if you listen with a critical car to your Cho Apio stereo system you May notice that Bass produced by Drums Bass guitar or double Bass All sounds the same. Or that aretha Franklin sounds like she was recorded while singing through a hollow log classical music Lares the worst on Low end music reproduction systems violin and woodwind sections become sonic smears and other instruments simply evaporate. A Fine i i will reproduce music that begins to sound like live music. In fact serious audio professionals use live music As the ultimate reference Standard for evaluating i i equipment. While the Price of the very Best High end equipment can Cost More than a new sports car. There Are plenty of excellent choices available for As Little As $1.000 or $2.000 for a Complete system and you owe yourself at least a visit to one of the High end stores if you re considering a new music system used components Are also a possibility if you re on a lighter budget yesterday s technological wonder can sometimes be purchased today for a song but it will still sound better than a new mediocre mass produced component made in Asia. The Best Way to choose a Good i i system is by using the same measuring equipment that the tweaks use your ears. Tweaks evaluate components by taking a few records to the High end store and listening. Good music reproduction systems reproduce the sound of each instrument with clarity and detail and the Best systems will create an aural image of each instrument in its natural place in the band orchestra or stage. Listening is the Only Way to adequately evaluate music reproducing components. Ignore the specifications provided by component manufacturers because the reproduction of Complex recorded information music that is cannot be effectively measured by any device known to Man. Reviews in the supermarket i i press Don t count for much either. Most of the More popular magazines won t print negative reviews for fear of alienating their advertisers. Tweaks read publications such As the absolute sound which writes uncompromising and occasionally scathing articles describing pluses and minuses of High end i i components in All Price ranges. Select three or four Well recorded is or cd from your collection and carefully listen to each one on your prospective i i Purchase. Probably the most difficult sound to reproduce is the female voice so Arm yourself with a Linda Ronstadt emmy Lou Harris or Beverly Sills recording. A system that does a Good Job of producing the Solo voice with clarity is probably a Good Choice. Saturday. August 12,1989 the stars and stripes Page 17