From John Worth, JWM Creative
Lewes, East Sussex
As the producer of the Health Education Authority’s D-Code disc, I feel that
I have to point out that Barry Fox’s article is misleading
(This Week, 13 September, p 13).
The article states that D-Code “can mess up your computer” when the user
attempts to reset the colours. The disc isn’t in operation for the performance
of this function and therefore it is not the disc that is at fault but this
particular computer.
Contrary to his suggestions, 8-bit and 16-bit display options are standard
settings in both new and old machines. Using either option will obviously
necessitate a minor change in settings in those machines set to default to the
other. In later versions of Windows 95 it is not even necessary to reboot.
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D-Code was very rigorously tested at an independent software testing
laboratory and passed all the compatibility and functionality tests carried out
on a broad cross section of system configurations. It would not have passed had
it caused any fatal crashes at all during testing.
Fox claims that calls have been “coming in” to the technical support
helpline. They have indeed. Out of approximately 50 calls to date, 11 have been
from people who are not confident in using their computers and wanted to be
talked through it (one wished to know where to plug in the headphones, for
example), three experienced system configuration problems with their machines,
two had impaired computer memory capacity and one said he had heard Fox on the
radio and was worried about putting the disc into his machine. Between 30 and 35
calls were from people either offering congratulations or asking where they
could obtain more discs.
