Briefs

Let's hear it for the Mac

"Once again the blinkers of the IT reporter are made evident. Why do such people forget there is another world out here, not wholly focused on Windows?" So says David Fitzpatrick in one of the letters we have had excoriating us for failing to mention Macintoshes in our review of notebook computers on 5 June.

There was a reason for this: the tests were carried out for What Personal Computer? magazine, which excluded Macs. Gail Robinson, the author, is editor of that magazine. Here, to make up, is Mr Fitzpatrick's view: "The Apple laptop or notebook computers are exceptional. Even my 180c is streets ahead of many IBM clones. The advent of Lithium has removed my main complaint, and the latest Macs are even better."

Myth of female technophobia

Last week's "Women in Cyberspace" feature attracted some flak, too. Sarah Wakes, of the University of Hertfordshire, wrote: "I was appalled at the attitude of the writers on the page (that they were females made it a greater sin) about females' understanding of modern technology. I have been a user of e-mail and the Net for at least seven years and do not find it a difficult thing to comprehend and know of many other women who also use it. The insult was compounded by assuming that women would only be interested in newsgroups about weddings, children, food and gossip."

Christopher Garcia, User Support Co-ordinator of the BBC Networking Club, said: "Let's hear the views of the real Internet widows out there. For your readers who have Net access, we are conducting a questionnaire on the World Wide Web. We would particularly like responses from women that use the Net. The questionnaire will be at http://bbcnc. org.uk/internet/questionnaire.html

Caveman on the Net

The Museum of Antiquities at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne has put an exhibition called "Flints and stones: real life in prehistory" on the Web. To tap into the the world of hunter-gatherers look at http://www. ncl.ac.uk/nantiq/index.html.

On the right tracks

More on on-line railway timetables. Paul Grice (Paul_Grice@mon. bbc.co.uk) says that you can get European timetables via the Net at http://rzstud1.rz.uni- karlsruhe.de/ ule3/info-trn.html. Only trouble is, you have to wait for an e-mail reply.

Network has been comparing CompuServe's on-line system with BR's Journey Planner discs. CompuServe is fine for trans-European travel, but if you want to know clever ways of getting from Leeds to Tenby, Journey Planner wins hands down.