Sunday 4th February at 5.03 pm
(repeated Wednesday 7th February at 6.03pm)

Opening New Windows

Bill Gates was in the UK last week to launch Microsoft's much-heralded new operating system, Windows Vista. It's the biggest overhaul of Windows since XP five years ago and Microsoft promise a "new digital workstyle and lifestyle" and an operating system that's nicer to look at and use and a lot more secure. So, does it live up to the hype? Paul Allen, Deputy Editor of ComputerActive magazine and mousemat's own PC Doctor Simon Zerafa have both had their hands on Vista and they give their verdict on this week's programme.

Love Online

Valentine's Day is just around the corner and love is on the air. Farmers in North Wales have been looking for a soulmate by putting pictures of themselves on cartons of milk but if you're looking for that special someone and you're not into dating based on portraits on dairy containers you might consider using the Web. There are hundreds of internet dating sites in the UK and it's estimated that around two million people in the UK are looking for love online. Adam talks to Marc Zakian, co-author of the guide to internet dating Love @ First Site, about the growing popularity of internet dating and the latest developments in dating using your mobile phone.

Q & A

As well as reviewing Vista in this week's programme, PC Doctor Simon Zerafa also answers a listener's question. It comes from Norman Jewell:

Q: "Why is it that I can listen to live BBC radio programmes online, but the Listen Again facility doesn't work? I use Windows XP with the firewall activated. RealOne player is installed. Is this the same thing as the BBC Radio Player?

I have a dial-up connection (not broadband). The sound does not start for about 30 seconds and is interrupted occasionally on a live feed, but using Listen Again produces no sound at all, even after waiting five minutes for it to start. What am I doing wrong?"

A: One of the biggest clues to the problem here is that Norman is using a dial-up connection. In practice these are quite a lot slower than the 56KB which is the advertised speed of a dial-up connection. His PC will have software which might well be using some of this bandwidth for updates etc. so he may simply not have sufficient bandwidth for Listen Again or uninterrupted streaming. In this respect a broadband connection would help.

The Radio Player uses Real Player as its platform for playing sound files but Real Alternative freeware is also worth considering if you're having problems with Real Player.

Any problems for PC Doctor Simon Zerafa can be e-mailed to mousemat@bbc.co.uk

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