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PUBLISHER’S LETTER www.siliconchip.com.au Publisher & Editor-in-Chief Leo Simpson, B.Bus., FAICD Production Manager Greg Swain, B.Sc.(Hons.) Technical Staff John Clarke, B.E.(Elec.) Peter Smith Ross Tester Jim Rowe, B.A., B.Sc, VK2ZLO Rick Walters Reader Services Ann Jenkinson Advertising Enquiries Leo Simpson Phone (02) 9979 5644 Fax (02) 9979 6503 Regular Contributors Brendan Akhurst Rodney Champness, VK3UG Julian Edgar, Dip.T.(Sec.), B.Ed Mike Sheriff, B.Sc, VK2YFK Philip Watson, MIREE, VK2ZPW Bob Young SILICON CHIP is published 12 times a year by Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd. ACN 003 205 490. ABN 49 003 205 490 All material copyright ©. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Printing: Hannanprint, Noble Park, Victoria. Distribution: Network Distribution Company. Subscription rates: $69.50 per year in Australia. For overseas rates, see the subscription page in this issue. Editorial & advertising offices: Unit 8, 101 Darley St, Mona Vale, NSW 2103. Postal address: PO Box 139, Collaroy Beach, NSW 2097. Phone (02) 9979 5644. Fax (02) 9979 6503. E-mail: silchip<at>siliconchip.com.au ISSN 1030-2662 The change to nanofarads This month readers will notice a small but significant change to our circuit diagrams. Instead of capacitors being labelled in values such as .015mF and 0.1mF, they are now labelled as 15nF and 100nF. A number of readers have taken us to task in the past for not making this change years ago and now they should be happy. Not that we have made the change to make those people happy. It is more to keep the circuits in line with the labelling actually being used on capacitors. For some time we have been including a conversion table to show the equivalence between specified values and the two codes most frequently used: EIA (Electrical Industry Association) and IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission). Now the values we will be using for capacitor values will be very similar to IEC labelling. For example, a capacitor labelled as 10nF will be labelled “10n”. To those unsure of the change, one nanofarad is the same as 1000 picofarads (1000pF) or .001mF. Similarly, 10nF is equivalent to .01mF and 100nF is the same as 0.1mF. Values of 1mF and above will still be labelled in “mF” and values less than 1nF (1000pF) will be labelled in “pF”. To help with the change, we will continue to give the equivalent capacitance values (in brackets) in the parts list and we will also include them in the conversion table in project articles. Up to now we have resisted making this change because we have felt that it was one more hurdle for beginners (and the old-timers) to deal with. But now that so many of the MKT (block) style capacitors use IEC labelling, we felt that it was appropriate to make the change. Mouses should have keyboard equivalents For years now, I have hated using a computer mouse. I would much rather use control keys or function keys to move around the screen and select functions. Call me an old fogey if you like but now it has been proven to be better for you. It seems that protracted use of the mouse leads to poor posture, neck and back strain and related problems. The recommendation now is that you should at least swap the mouse over to your left hand for periods during the day, to give your right arm a rest. But better still is to use control keys wherever you can. I must also admit that part of the reason that I don’t like using a mouse is that I have fairly large hands and therefore I find that the mouse, even larger ones, is awkward to use, particularly when “double-clicking”. Apart from that, I find it much faster to use Ctrl or Alt keys. In many programs you can do virtually everything without having to touch the mouse. Drop down menus are great for complex programs but given the choice between a keystroke and a mouse command, I will use the control key every time. Unfortunately, in many programs there are lots of functions which cannot be called up by keystrokes – you are forced to use the mouse. But now that excessive mouse use has been shown to be undesirable, maybe software designers will give more thought to this aspect and provide their software with more control key functions for mouse actions. Leo Simpson * Recommended and maximum price only. 2  Silicon Chip www.siliconchip.com.au