Top London DJs are reputed to make many thousands of pounds a gig; one way to start the long journey to such lucrative superstardom might be to invest in PCDJ Pro Edition, a piece of polished and professional DJing sofware. The blurb claims it "enables you to mix, remix, and DJ music like never before". Setting aside the grammatical infelicities, and the understandable hype, that's a pretty fair and sensible claim. This CD ROM package has it all. From the automatic detection of beats-per-minute to the turntable brake for those somewhat-too-jiggy moments, from the pitch locking device (with bridging) to the synched-up "auto mix", the toolbag is commendably full. All you gotta do is move that mouse, and mix those trax. And when you're done with being cool, and you feel like reverting to your trainspotter roots, well then the software helps you to sort your trax by groove, song title, artist, star sign, you name it. You can even publish your own playlists, which the computer will follow when you want to nip down to the kitchen for a cheese-'n'-ham toastie. And that's about it. All else you need to know is summed up by megadeej DavidSloly: "PCDJ is a serious piece of kit". [+]

PRESTIGE ED UK

BERLITZ GERMAN PREMIER BOX GR

Everyone likes to complain about poor service or lack of workmanship, but there's an art to making effective written complaints that the authors behind Personal Letters & Contracts have mastered. This program produces a series of so-called intelligent documents-standard letters-that can be personalised to your specific requirements based on the way you answer a set of questions. As you go through the questions in the right hand column (consulting the advisory notes along the way) the personalised letter builds before your eyes in the left hand column. When you've finished, you can review the letter full screen and make any final edits manually before printing off a copy and posting it. As well as complaints, the program also handles personal contracts (for example house-sharing and pre-nuptial agreements) requests for mediation in a dispute from watchdogs such as OFTEL and OFWAT, along with change of address, termination of contract and refusal of compensation letters. As you'd expect, the content is good. The letter complaining about a hotel room not only offers plenty of scope for outlining the problem, but also quotes the 1982 Supply of Goods and Services Act in support of the complaint, while the refusal of compensation letter is so forceful that recipients will almost feel compelled to cough up. Make sure you register though to receive updates and information about changes to the law, and read the accompanying notes very carefully. Of course, you can make up your own letters for most occasions, but the complaints here have the right tone, and the contracts use the right jargon and refer to the appropriate legislation. For the price, this is well worth a look. [+]

The idea that creative writing cannot be taught seems to be challenged by recent history. The creative writing course at Norwich, for instance, has produced authors including Kazuo Ishiguro, Ian McEwan and Andrew Miller; the latest attempt to impart the "rules of fiction" is Newnovelist-Start Writing Your Novel, a CD-ROM designed to assist the aspiring writer's learning curve. Newnovelist aims to help writers hone their ideas, guiding them first to select the concept of their book, and then its category-be it an epic narrative, plot-driven or character-driven. After further honing the idea into a type of story (whether the tale is driven by a chase motif or revenge, for instance) the package gives tutorials on essential elements in creating the atmosphere of the novel and helping to picture the world that the characters inhabit. The final stage is to move from this to the creation of the story itself, with advice on the passages that will be necessary to realise the world and the characters successfully. There is much that is valuable here in terms of plot and character, but some elements of the package are less helpful, particularly the section that asks the writer to give a one-line summary of their proposed book-nothing is more infuriating or awkward for an author than being asked to describe their book in half a dozen words. There is also no concentration on the importance of writing from inspiration and experience, and scant reference to the significance of prose style; in the end, without these elements, NewNovelist-Start Writing Your Novel can only be a piecemeal addition to the growing "industry" of teaching creative writing, although its tips on character and plot may well be helpful to some. -Toby Green TRIBEKA CREATIVITY SOFTW NEWNOVELIST.

A complete library of bird songs and calls in your pocket, plus expert commentaries from Dave Gosney to help you identify species in your garden or in the field. iDentify is a series of CDs preloaded with fully annotated audio files ready to upload to digital music players. If you already own an iPod or other portable player that can handle standard mp3 or mp4 formats, then all you need is an iDentify CD. If you don't yet have a player, then BirdGuides has carefully selected suitable models that are compatible with the iDentify range. Whether you want to brush up on bird songs during your commute, or take the guide into the field to help identify those tricky warblers and flyover waders, this is the ideal product. Just follow the simple instructions which explain how to load the library of songs and calls onto your existing player. Any of the three titles will fit onto a small 256 MB player. All the files are already carefully labelled and sorted into a menu structure that allows you to swiftly find any species when in the field. Songs, calls and commentaries can all be individually selected for each species. As you play the tracks on your player you will see a title which tells you which bird you are listening to and, if applicable, what sort of song, call or commentary. [+]

Joanna Hall is something of a health and fitness guru-more than likely you've seen or heard her on television or radio. Joanna Hall's Step by Step Guide to Weight Loss CD-ROM is a weight management programme covering exercise and healthy eating, and provides plans that can be followed over periods of six, eight or 10 weeks. You need to give the software quite a bit of information about yourself-a range of measurements (including height and weight), what you like to eat (do you include read meat, for example) and how (on the run, at home, at work). You also need to tell it what days you are able to exercise. Once this information entered you are provided with a menu comprising a two-week eating plan that you rotate throughout your programme. You also get two exercise regimes, one of which involves physical activity (including jogging, skipping, stair climbing, walking) and the other comprising resistance sessions (exercises to stretch and strengthen different parts of the body). You can pick and choose meals from the provided database to vary the food intake and change exercises to suit your requirements. To keep you focused each week you also get a task to focus on-week one's task is to sort out your water intake. Joanna Hall's Step by Step Guide to Weight Loss is an all round programme which is flexible enough for you to tailor to your requirements, yet rigid enough to have the desired effect. The only irritation is the computerised voice of 'Active Annie' your on-board help system. [+]