briefs

Desktop freebie

Computer Life, the home computing magazine, is giving away 500 copies of its desktop publishing guide to. Network readers. The book is aimed at at anyone who has a computer and who wants to have a go at their own design. The first 500 readers to apply will get a copy free. Send a postcard with your name and address to Indy/DTP, PO Box 797, Croydon, Surrey, CR9 1XF.

Set your own budget

It's Budget Day fun with the Institute of Fiscal Studies. Go to the Web page at http:// www1.ifs.org.uk and calculate the effect of tomorrow's Budget on your finances. You can change tax rates, allowances, beer and cigarette duty and 20 other tax variables to see how you will be affected. You can also set your own tax rates to cheer yourself up.

Vision on

This picture of the bridges over the Tyne, by Picrosso (Picrosso@sv.span.com), is for sale via the Net. Art Online is a new service that allows artists to show off their wares in a virtual gallery. So far there are few pictures and photographs, but plenty of graphical work. See http://www.quay.co.uk/artwork.

Racing Demon

CableTel, the cable company, expects to be the top Net provider soon with its new service Cable Online. Prices start at pounds 12.95 a month, plus a pounds 20 joining fee. By mid-1996, it says, 90 per cent of the population could link up for the price of a local call. But Demon, the market leader, is determined to keep ahead of the upstarts. It says it provides local dial-up to everyone in the UK, and has installed so much new equipment that a trial showed that 99.92 per cent of callers got through first time - a transformation from earlier in the year.

CVs on CDs

Following our piece on a CV-Rom, the recruitment agency MacTemps says it has put a selection of applicants' portfolios on to CD-Rom. The discs contain portfolio samples of the job-seekers, most of whom are in the creative industries.

World Aids Day ...

Statistics on HIV and Aids in the UK are now available on a Net page set up to coincide with World Aids Day on 1 December. The charity Avert is maintaining the site, which will be updated monthly. It will also contain news about Aids and links to other sites.

See http://www.oneworld.org/avert/

Cafe Internet,at 22 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1, is holding a special evening event on 1 December. Visitors will be offered free access to the Net to find out more about Aids and HIV. The homepage for the evening will be an exhibition, Loving and Living, by Jane Palm Gold, which has images and text relating to Aids. See http:// gaia.gn.apc.org/comistes/L&L/lov&liv.html

Retail sales

Though 90 per cent of top European retailers are on the Net or considering it, most are doing so for defensive reasons, a new study shows. Cap Gemini Sogeti, the French computer services company, found that only 4 per cent of chains were using the Net to communicate with suppliers, while "most were looking to gain technical experience or explore the Net market". Retailers do not evidently feel the Net will affect them much. "The vast majority expect only a half per cent of sales to be via the Net in two years' time and 4 per cent in 10 years," CGS says.

How to contact us

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