The sheer comprehensiveness of Microsoft's top notch multimedia encyclopedia program makes it simply impossible to cover the full breadth of its work in one single review. Frankly, the numbers can get bewildering. This time around, over ...

This edition of the Britannica encyclopaedia is stamped with a 2002 date, although it has just been re-released this year at the budget price of £9.99. So what do you get, exactly, for your tenner? A ...

It's easy to review route planning software without ever leaving the comfort of your posterior. However, anyone who has battled with some of the, ahem, 'less accurate' online route planning resources will appreciate that this doesn't ...

Space cadets out there, rejoice. And no, we're not talking about bong-toting hippies or avid Star Trek anoraks, but those disciples of the night sky who like to spend the wee hours gazing up into space ...

Okay, let's throw out a tangential line here. What if you were an alien, visiting Earth - imagine that. If otherworldly inspiration lets you down, just pretend you're Bill Bailey or Grace Jones. What's the first ...

Route planners are part of the staple diet of software your average PC might expect to encounter. They can work out some pretty fancy stuff these days; not just telling you how to get from A ...

Planning a journey on the UK's embarrassingly inefficient rail network can be problematic. It's simple enough - at least in planning terms - if you only want to travel within one franchise's area, but as soon ...

CD-based reference software can seem a bit dull. For example, encyclopaedias been given away with new PCs for so long that they're hardly even noticed any more. That's a shame, because while the idea may not ...

Once you reach the age of 12 or so, learning a new language becomes progressively harder. Various techniques have been employed to help make the process easier, including audio and video tapes and structured evening classes, ...

Ordnance Survey maps are the staple of ramblers, walkers, climbers, cyclists and other outdoorsy types all over the UK. They're highly detailed maps showing contours, roads, railways, rivers, lakes, sites of interest and all sorts of ...

Explaining the concept of stars, galaxies and the universe in general is a tough task, but multimedia titles such as this can certainly help to dispel some of the confusion. Deep Space Explorer lets you take ...

I wonder how many people have Stephen Hawking's "A brief history of time" on their bookshelves, unopened and gathering dust. It seemed like a good idea at the time; an accessible, easy to read book about ...

We've been reviewing each new version of the CD/DVD Encyclopaedia Britannica for the last few years, and a thought occurs... Has so much really happened in the last year compared with the entire history of human ...

The Louvre is without doubt the world's most impressive greenhouse, although it's depressingly bereft of fruit and veg produce. What were those foolish Parisian architects thinking...? Apparently there's a few reasonably famous doodlings underneath it, though. ...

It must be said that Focus likes its space titles - it wasn't that long ago that the company unleashed RedShift 4 on us. This program, however, is very different in tack, presenting an encyclopaedic overview ...

The words "Red Dwarf" probably make you think of a comedy programme, and "White Dwarf" a role playing game magazine (depending on how mis-spent your youth was). However, if your mind immediately leaps to images of ...

The Hutchinson effort is acknowledged as one of the heavyweight contenders for the multimedia encyclopaedia top spot, and the year 2001 version brings with it the usual round of enhancements. It sings, it dances, it juggles ...

We reviewed an earlier version of this reference tool in January 2000 (you can read the review here), and found it to be stunning, packed full of fascinating articles which were linked together in ways that ...

AutoRoute 2001, the latest (and just a shade early) upgrade to this well-established route planning tool, now covers roads and cities in continental Europe as well as Great Britain and includes GPS support. However, in most ...

Despite being around for many years, route planning tools are routinely criticised for being too slow and inaccurate. Can Route 66 Route Britain 2000 do better? Things start well: this package offers an accurate postcode and ...