HP Color LaserJet 3500 Printer
Company: Hewlett-Packard

Price: $800.00 (rebates are available, so shop wisely)

http://www.hp.com

Hewlett-Packard listened to MyMac.com. Our reviews of the predecessors to their latest SOHO (small office / home office) color laser printers identified annoying problems requiring remedial re-engineering. This new LaserJet 3500 includes many improvements over the 1500 and 2500 series, plus a few ongoing matters of concern.

Size matters. LJ3500 is big and heavy. You’ll need an agile, strong helper (or really substantial muscles) to maneuver the printer out of its shipping carton and into position on your worktable. I did it all by myself, and I’m in no hurry to attempt it again.

Printed setup and installation instructions are adequate, but they may confuse you at first if you’ve never unpacked a color laser printer. Take your time, call HP tech support if necessary, and don’t rush or skip any steps. When you close the huge front “jaw” assembly and hear an ominous crackling or “breaking plastic” noise, you’re doing it correctly and your first prints are minutes away.

Here are several photos, in sequence, taken from unpacking LJ3500 to placing it on its printer stand.

Software installation is quick and easy in OS 9 and X (Panther). HP’s driver was version 1.2 during our review period, with the same number applying to both Mac operating systems. OS 9’s Chooser recognizes the printer software more easily than does Panther’s Printer Setup Utility, which should be corrected soon, according to HP. In OS 9, HP places a small software component that delays slightly your startup sequence and (ugh!) retards Apple’s automatic Sleep feature by up to one hour, even if the printer is not switched on. Please fix!

HP’s custom printer dialog boxes both in X and 9 have annoying idiosyncrasies that we’re not going to tackle in this evaluation. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, we’re stuck with ‘em, which is not a serious demerit when a printer is a winner.

Our review LJ3500 demonstrated some peculiar shifts in color hue and intensity. HP staff worked patiently for hours with MyMac.com to troubleshoot, affirming the company’s commitment to innovative products and first-rate support.

Once we obtained a complete spectrum of color printouts, they met our expectations. Colors are rich and full, and greyscale images also look great. Text is as sharp and clear as on any printer we’ve seen. This model excels at producing printed presentations, as opposed to artistic creations. Annual reports or album covers or holiday letters, among a thousand possible examples, find the printer’s sweet spot.

When we finally saw optimum color printouts from LJ3500 we were impressed. You can use this printer for professional-quality display documents, and they will have immediate impact.

If your computer is new, fast, and powerful, LJ3500 turns out results quickly, with consistently fine results, but text prints not as speedily as from an all-black SOHO model. Prints from older and slower computers take a little longer to emerge, which is acceptable given that the printer taps a computer’s processor and memory. HP’s aggressive pricing for their SOHO units is extremely affordable on account of this “host-based” architecture. Be aware: published print speed specs are biased toward Windows XP, which is optimized for host-based printing, from our experience.

Color LaserJet 3500 powers up quickly. Cartridge cycling and paper feeding are quiet, finally! Low-power energy saver mode is totally silent (amen). Toner replacement and two-tray paper feeding are straightforward. You can read a review comparing LJ3500 to its competitors in the current print issue of Macworld magazine (to be posted online within a month, I expect).

A small LED display gives access to many little-known and hidden power-user features that are beyond the scope of this home office review. The printer’s on/off switch needs improvement, because its flush-mounted toggling is inefficient and clumsy to operate.

HP maintains a dedicated Mac-Connect website for all Macintosh compatible items, and we encourage you to visit it frequently. The company promises more hardware at every price point in 2004 and beyond, as they enthusiastically embrace Apple computers.

In Summary:

For $800 you can’t beat LJ3500, but make sure you read Tim Robertson’s review of a competing Lexmark printer. When consistent color quality is at the top of your wish list, this LaserJet 3500 is HP’s most affordable unit. If black text is your primary requirement, buy a monochrome printer. In spite of a few grumbles, we’d be glad to own one (until it’s replaced with something lighter, perhaps?).

MyMac.com rating of 4 out of 5.

Stopping the Worm

By now most of us, I hope, are aware of the new vulnerability discovered in OS X. It is a very bad one and I’m sure it will be attacked by hackers very quickly. Yesterday I decided to research it and do something to defend our household Macs.

The best information I found was a really well-written article at http://daringfireball.net/2004/05/help_viewer_security_update .

So here is what I did yesterday, for all four active Macs at my house:

1. Download RCDefaultApp from http://www.rubicode.com/Software/RCDefaultApp/ . This is a new pane for System Preferences.

2. Install it by double-clicking it. It asks whether you want it to be there for all users, or just the current one. Answer either way. It will launch System Preferences with the pane open.

3. The pane shows you a list of names of HTML schemes that can be sent from web sites to make your computer do various things. You want to disable five of them: afp, disk, disks, ftp, and telnet.

4. To disable a scheme, select it and then choose <disabled> from the pop-up menu to the right. When you’ve disabled all five, quit System Preferences.

5. Start Safari, open its Preferences, and select General. In the General pane, UNcheck the "Open ‘safe’ files after downloading" checkbox.

6. All better now. The only difference you will see is that when you download something from the web, it will not automatically open in the Finder.

Some Time ago, I was in the Apple store at the North Shore Mall, in Peabody, MA. I’ve spent a fair amount of time there, and a good wad of cash as well. What can I say, I like the place. Anyway, while playing with a new G4, (yes, this did take place some time ago, almost a year, in fact.) this young couple came in, with that "first time here, and we have no clue" look. The young woman had the "big hair" look of a Camaro driver, and the young man, (husband or boyfriend, presumably) looked as though he had a more intimate relationship with Budweiser than with this young woman. No matter, they headed right over to the G4 next to me, and stared at it.

The boyfriend, looking sort of sappy said, "See? This is one of those Apples. They only have a one button mouse." Big hair put her hand on the mouse, and started sliding it about, not really doing anything. She then asked, "Where’s the button?"
"I think the whole thing is button." was the reply.
"Oh, well that’s stupid." answered big hair, punctuating her comment with a loud snap of gum.

She played a little more, again not really doing anything. Then they left the store, as quickly as they came in. They did not ask questions of anyone, and they tried no applications or features of the Mac. I thought nothing of this, but I decided to remember it, filing it away in a corner of my mind. A more recent incident at work caused me to recall it.

I must now ask, what if that Mac, and every Mac in the store that day, had been equipped with a two button scroll wheel mouse? Would that couples have at least tried some features? Would a sale possibly have even been made? If there had been a two-button mouse present, would it have been "stupid"? Would anyone take a guess on just how many times this has happened, at the Apple retail stores, or at any other Apple retailer? Is the one button mouse really that much of a turn off for so many?

I work in a large R & D laboratory, 2300 employees at last count, give or take a few. While windows is dominant, as it is everywhere, our Mac community is growing. Shipping palettes of new G5′s and the occasional iMac are coming in all the time. So are new PowerBooks, including a lot of the seventeen inch models. Note to Apple: These are frequently being ordered by people who would have never considered the Mac platform prior to OS X. In my immediate work group, I’m known as "the Mac Guy", a label I wear with pride, and a little bit of nuttiness. Don’t get me wrong, we have a computer service group that includes an Apple Certified Tech, and he solves some serious problems, (many of which are caused by people doing things they shouldn’t.) but for a lot of stuff, I’m the one they call. So, a few days ago, one of our secretary’s calls me, asking he how to "right click" on something, as her G4 is equipped with the standard Apple Pro mouse, and whatever she was working on had given her directions to right-click.

Of course, I told her to simply position the cursor over the icon, and press the control key, then click the icon. A small contextual menu will appear. She was overjoyed at the result. I then suggested she head to the stock room, as they stock a decent two button, optical mouse from Logitech, and the same company that makes the pro mouse for Apple. More joy; when she was informed that all she would have to do was plug this new mouse into the USB port on the keyboard. She had no idea you could do this, as no one had bothered to tell her. Last time I checked in, she was happily right clicking and scroll-wheeling all over the place.

If you have not figured out my point by now, here it is: Apple, it’s time to dump the one button mouse. There is no longer any reason, or defense for keeping it. A fine job has been done with OS X so far. In a few short years, it has gone from a jittery curiosity, to the release of Panther, which I believe is the envy of the rest of the industry, whether they care to admit it or not. OS X fully supports a two-button mouse with a scroll wheel, with no need for any additional software. I use the Kensington optical cordless, while my Apple pro mouse sits in my sock drawer, unused. The people who are using PowerBooks on the job all use a full keyboard, with a two-button mouse, when they’re using the PowerBooks as desktop machines. Everyone I know who has purchased a new Mac within the past year has quickly plugged in a two-button mouse. Most have bristled at having to spend more cash, after shelling out a good sum for the Mac, but they realize how limiting the single button mouse really is. After a few hours of nominal use with their new two-button mouse, they know it was money well spent.

Often, when a new G5 is unpacked at my company, the person receiving it will trudge down to the stock room, and sign out one of those Logitech two-button mice. (Not a bad mouse at all, I just prefer the Kensington cordless) Sorry Apple, but there are a lot of those single button mouse being stashed away in desk drawers, or just left in the shipping boxes. Understand what I’m saying here?

I have not tried one of the new, two button mouse from Mac Mice, but I hear only good about them, in terms of how they fit the hand, and how they track as well as the Apple Pro mouse. Perhaps this is what Apple should ship with new systems.

But whatever it takes, Apple, will you please get off the high horse, and include a mouse that will not be left in a drawer, or otherwise ignored? The Mac OS has entered a new age; it’s time for the supplied mouse to enter that age.

Raving Maniacs was a great and much talked about fiction story the late Ralph Luciani wrote way back in October 2000. Take a read, I think you will enjoy it. Read it here.

They say the aging process improves on most things. I don’t know who said this, but they were wrong. At least about most things. Sure, a fine bottle wine can improve with the passage of time, and there is nothing that can get my heart beating like the sight of a 1967 Ford Mustang Fastback cruising down the street. Unfortunately, you don’t know if that wine will be palatable to the tongue (with just a whisp of aftertaste), or just turn out to be a very expensive bottle of vinegar. As the years roll by there are fewer and fewer 67 “Stangs” on the road as well. Time is unkind to Super Models and computers too.

Case in point, about two years ago, I decided I needed a laptop. My needs at the time were relatively modest (For Macs anyway). I wanted to be able to play DVD movies, have fun with moderately simple games, and to do some small iMovies. I started with a 12 inch 233 MHz G3 PowerBook. This unit (Code named Wallstreet) was the first portable Mac I had ever owned. Looking back, I’m not sure why I decided to get this one as it was almost a four year old design by then and did not have a DVD player. My next try was a 14 inch 500 G3 MHz PowerBook (Code named Pismo). This one was more to my liking with a combo CD/DVD drive with enough speed to allow me to watch movies full screen and use iMovie. It had FireWire and USB ports and a built in slot for an Apple Airport wireless 802.11b network card. It was also much cheaper than the other new contributions from Apple. It served me well for about two years and then it happened.

When SoundTrack came upon the scene, I was mesmerized by it’s simplicity and power. Unfortunately it was less than impressed with my Pismo. As in, it wouldn’t load, much less play. GarageBand came around after not too long and satisfied my meager song making abilities, but the seed was planted. I needed something better.

There are currently two “Apple Stores” in my immediate vicinity along with a very nicely put together Apple section at a local MicroCenter computer store as well. No matter what I’m doing, or where I’m going, if I’m in the area, I will find a reason to stop by one or more of these stores to drool over the latest offerings from Apple.

The other day was no exception. I stopped at the Clarendon Apple Store and was drawn to the Aluminum G4 PowerBooks like a moth to the flame. So much OS/X-ey goodness! Then I looked at the prices and estimated the amount of time it would take my wife to find a good lawyer and either divorce me or have me declared financially incompetent or both. Just as I was resigned to walking out and going back to work, one of those darn friendly Apple Store employees came over and asked if I needed anything or if he could answer any questions.

We started talking about portable computers and I explained my dilemma. “How about an iBook?” he said with a smile. My thoughts about iBooks always flashes back to those blue and green G3s that looked something like a toilet bowl cover on acid. I knew they had been recently upgraded to G4s, but my initial impression was that they were crippled PowerBooks. In some ways that is true, but a lot of what you buy a computer (of any type) for should depend on what you will use it for as compared to how fast it is.

The iBook is not a PowerBook. Even with a G4 processor, it doesn’t have some of the more advanced features. Of course, whether those advanced features are used or needed is a completely different thing. The iBooks for example do not have a PC card expansion slot that is standard on the PowerBooks. While this is almost a must for PC notebooks, the PowerBooks and iBooks have almost everything built in. USB 2, FireWire, Wireless networking (Airport), 10/100 Ethernet (gigabit is standard as well for PowerBooks), 56K Modem, monitor mirroring (PBs have dual monitor support as well), all there. So while a PC card is a nice to have feature, most people probably don’t need it. Here are some of the other differences between the two.

PowerBooks have a standard 64MB video card while iBooks are down the scale a bit at 32MB.

PowerBooks have slightly faster processors and most models have built in DVD burning SuperDrives, while the iBooks can only have the CD-R/RW/ DVD combo drive with the SuperDrives as a build-to-order option direct from the online Apple Store.

PowerBooks can have more total and faster Ram (2 slots for PC2700 speed DDR SDRAM for a total of 2 gigs) vs. the iBook’s (1 slot for a PC2100 speed DDR SDRAM for a total of 640 megs, though some companies have a 1 gig Ram chip available for a ridiculous price).

PowerBooks have Airport Extreme cards built-in, while except for the top of the line unit, you have to buy and install the same in an iBook separately.

I guess I could sum it up by saying, that unless you need the power of a G5 (notice I said NEED not lust), the PowerBook could be used as a desktop alternative, while the iBook should simply be a portable extension of your existing computer experience. At this point, you might be thinking, “Geez! He REALLY hates the iBooks doesn’t he?” Nothing could be farther from the truth.

While at the Apple Store, I measured the differences between the iBooks and PowerBooks, my individual needs and my decibel level of my wife screaming at me for yet another computer purchase and came to the following conclusion: I didn’t need a PowerBook. I couldn’t justify it since I already had a desktop (QuickSilver 933 G4 with 300GB of hard drive capacity, a SuperDrive, and 768 MB of Ram) that was more than adequate for my current projects. All I wanted was a portable computer that I could use when I travel, that was powerful enough to run SoundTrack/ GarageBand and iMovie/ Final Cut Express.

The iBook fit that description perfectly. However, the mid-range unit is still $1300! I was sadly about to tell the Apple Store employee that I still couldn’t swing it when he mentioned that they had a returned unit in the back for less. I was skeptical until he brought it out and I saw the price. $1050 for a first generation 14-inch G4 iBook (933 MHz). The only real difference between this one and the next gen was a slightly faster processor (933MHz vs. 1 GHz), and the newer one had a 512K cache as compared to 256K of the older one. For almost 20 percent off, I’ll deal with the minor differences.

The iBook is one tough little unit with a white polycarbonate plastic shell and internal magnesium frame. It’s lighter (5.9 pounds) than most comparable PC notebooks and thinner as well. The 12 and 15 inch PowerBooks are a little lighter and thinner, but not appreciably so. It will take the minor bumps of portable life and never skip a beat.

The included software is a pretty good deal as well (especially since being included means it’s free). The latest version of OS/X (10.3), AppleWorks, the terrific iLife suite, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4, Deimos Rising, World Book Encyclopedia, and Sound Studio to name a few. If you can swing it, get Microsoft Office for the Mac. It is far better and much more powerful than AppleWorks. Not to mention the ease of exchanging documents with your Windows buddies.

The standard Combo Drive works with iLife suite with ease and other programs as well (Like Roxio’s Toast 6). The wireless networking card (yes, I bought an Airport Extreme card as well) has terrific range. I sat in a swing we have in our backyard last night that is roughly 75 feet and through some walls from my base 802.11b base station (a Linksys wireless unit with a built-in 4 port switcher) and the reception was almost perfect. As it got darker, I found myself wishing it had the PowerBook’s automatically lit keyboard, but since the unit itself is white, the reflection off the beautiful 14-inch LCD made it simple for a hunt and peck typist like myself to find the keys I needed.

The battery life is pretty good as well. I don’t use the battery life performance setting and I still get over 4 hours of use, more than enough for a typical jet flight, although at some point I will purchase an additional battery as well.

The Video-out port (with the proper adapters) enables you to use your iBook with either a SVGA monitor and any Television set with RCA style audio and video ports. The screen resolution cannot go above 1024 X 768 (Final Cut, iMovie, and GarageBand in particular benefit from a larger screen space), so you cannot expand your desktop beyond that.

I do have a few other complaints. Apple uses 4200 RPM hard drives throughout their portable lines (yes, even the PowerBooks use them) and that causes some unacceptable slowdowns. Faster drives are available for the intrepid explorer types out there brave enough to install them. I have seen 60 gig 7200 RPM 2.5 inch drives that are priced under $300.

All the ports are on the left-hand side, so if you use an alternative mouse or trackball, you have to leave enough cable to swing around to the right-side of the iBook (unless you’re left-handed in which case you probably think it’s perfect). If you work with digital audio, keep in mind that the iBook does not have an audio-in port. Griffin Technology however makes a unit called the iMic that plugs into a USB port allowing for audio in and out.

Overall, I really like the iBooks. I would probably recommend them over the PowerBooks for the needs of most people. Which one to buy depends on how much more above the base unit you’re willing to spend. Prices range from $1100 for the 1 GHz 12-inch, $1300 for the 1 GHz midrange, and $1500 for the 1.2 GHz top of the line unit. I personally don’t care for the 12-inch unit, mostly because of screen size. Of the next two up, unless you want a SuperDrive, get the midrange 1 GHz unit. I base that on the fact that if you’re going to spend an additional $200 for the SuperDrive, you may as well spend the additional $200 above that for the slightly faster processor, the built-in Airport Extreme card and 60 gig hard drive. At roughly $1900, you’re still sitting at $600 less than the 15-inch PowerBook. For that $600, you could get an extra battery, three years of AppleCare, and a .mac account with enough change left over for an additional 512 megs of Ram.

Had this been a review, I would rate the G4 iBooks at 4 out of 5.

Altec Lansing FX6021 2.1 Speaker System
Company: Altec Lansing

Price: $299.95

http://www.alteclansing.com

Wow. I mean, realistically, what else can you say? I have tested or owned over two dozen computer speakers over the last decade. Some, such as Monsoon MM1000 and the Altec Lansing VS4121 Versatile Speakers have sounded great. Others, not so much. So it was with some trepidation that I opened and plugged in the new FX6021 Altec Lansing speakers for review. I had just finished a review of the MX5021 speakers, also from Altec Lansing, which I gave a 4.5 out of 5 rating. I was unsure if I were really in the mood to review yet another pair of speakers, much less a pair from the same company I just reviewed for. But the life of a reviewer never ends, and we don’t always get to review what we would prefer.

The FX6021’s sport a large subwoofer and two very tall desktop speakers. Half as wide as the above-mentioned MX5021’s, the FX6021 satellite speakers are much taller, and sports six 1” drivers in each enclosure. The satellites also have a removable base, which simply slide on and off. This way, you can also mount the speakers on your wall to free-up desk space.

The subwoofer contains a single 6.5” throw speaker, and is quite heavy. All the controls from your computer run first to the sub, and then out to the satellites and control box.

Controlling the speakers is an attractive control box with an infrared pickup for the included remote control, an infinity knob for volume, treble, and base control, and a power on/off switch. While the control box feels less than sturdy, and the knob a little feeble and cheap, it works very well. The three hundred dollars, I would have hoped for a metal, possibly aluminum, and control box made of sturdier stuff. The control box also has a nice slot for storing the small remote control.

If you have a G5, PowerBook, or a newer iBook, the silvery FX6021’s will look quite nice sitting on your desk. While the color match is not perfect, they do match up quite nicely. While the base of the satellites is indeed metal, the speaker case is simply painted plastic.

But those are about the only negatives I could find with the Altec Lansing FX6021 2.1 Speaker System, and they are minor and almost inconsequential at that. The real test in speaker reviewing is somewhat subjective, how these puppies sound!

Back to my opening statement. WOW!

That was my first impression upon listening to these speakers for the first time. In my review last month of the MX5021’s, my biggest complaint was that they simply would not go loud enough. My exact wording was “They simply do not have enough power to suit my every desire. Or, more simply, they don’t go loud enough before distortion kicks in. When the wife and kids are away, I like to kick up the volume and jam! These speakers, while very fine in most situations, simply put, do not rock loud enough.”

With 75 Watts RMS, the FX6021’s have solved that problem. When the wife is away, I can crank out the AC/DC, Tesla, Van Halen, Beatles, or Tool to my hearts content, REALLY ticking off my neighbors. Actually, I had the tunes cranked up really loud one day while working on my porch when my next-door neighbor mentioned how good the music sounded. (Evanescence that day, for those curious.) When I showed him where the sound was coming from, he was simply amazed that such small speakers (albeit largish for typical computer speakers) could produce such clarity at such a volume. While still not as powerful or clear as my home entertainment system, the FX6021’s are fantastic.

The PR on the FX6021’s reads “Features InConcert™ Technology – The fusion of pro audio line-array and tri-amp technologies, Altec Lansing’s InConcert uses three separate amplifiers to power a total of 12 high-performance, full-range Micro Drivers. A frequency filtering system beams intense, concentrated audio straight out. You’ve never heard audio like this!”

I am not usually one swayed by what a PR department writes on any product. A PR department could write something flattering about retail cat feces if they needed to. But in this case, they really did hit the mark on describing the power and near-perfect audio reproduction the FX6021 deliver.

Specs:
75 Watts RMS
Front Speakers: 12.5 Watts per channel @ 4 ohms @ 10% THD @ 180 – 15000 Hz
Subwoofer: 50 Watts @ 4 ohms @ 10% THD @ 40 –180 Hz

Drivers per Satellite: Six 1” Full-range micro drivers
Subwoofer Driver: One 6.5” long-throw woofer

Conclusions:
I am very, very impressed with these speakers. For years, I have used the Monsoon MM1000 as my benchmark for sound quality in computer speakers. Until now, none have quite equaled them. My benchmark speakers have now changed, and the Altec Lansing FX6021 2.1 speaker system now holds that honor.

Loud, crisp, and loyal to the source material, you will love the FX6021’s.

MyMac.com Rating: 5 out of 5. The perfect speakers for their price!

Secrets of the iPod, Fourth Edition
by Christopher Breen
TechTV / Peachpit Press
ISBN 0-321-24564-4
$19.99 US, $28.99 CN, £14.99 UK
364 pages

Macworld magazine star contributor Christopher Breen’s Secrets of the iPod, Fourth Edition is a strong addition to his bibliography. Written in a clear, yet not annoyingly folksy style, Chris takes you through a complete iPod learning experience.

Unlike some recent iPod publications, Breen does not give short shrift to older ‘Pods, so if you have one a first or second generation iPods, you’ll not feel left out. Also included is coverage of the new addition to the iPod roster, the iPod Mini.

After walking readers through mechanical operation of the various versions, Breen gives a thorough explanation of iTunes version 4.1 (the latest as of the early 2004 publication date). Both Mac and Windows software are covered. Even though I’ve been tuned into iTunes since the beginning, I learned several cute new tips and tricks about copying music to and from the iPod, and how to more easily share music over a network.

The Apple Music Store, aka iTMS, is a welcome addition to those of us tired of hassling with peer-to-peer music sharing software, and the attendant legal and technical obstacles. While not perfect, iTMS is legal, convenient, and its digital rights management (DRM) is not overly onerous. After reading Breen’s chapter on how to navigate iTMS, all you need is a credit card and a willingness to spend.

In case you’ve not yet bankrupted yourself at the Steve Jobs Music Emporium, Secrets covers the current choices in iPod accessories for portability, car, and home stereo use. The mini-reviews are worth reading, especially to people shopping for car connectivity accessories. Chris convinced me not to get an FM adapter, and spring for the old but reliable cassette adapter.

If you’re buying an iPod, or already have one but don’t think you’re getting your money’s worth, a couple of hours with Secrets of the iPod, Fourth Edition will be time well spent.

MyMac rating 5 out of 5

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How to Do Everything with iTunes for Macintosh and Windows
by Todd Stauffer
Osborne / McGraw-Hill Publishers
ISBN 0-07-223196-3
$24.99 US, $34.95 CN, £16.99 UK
264 pages

Doing everything is a tall order. Stauffer comes quite close to achieving his goal. This book is a fine guide for iTunes newbies to mid-level users. Unlike the other two books reviewed here, this is not an iPod book. You’ll need to go elsewhere to learn to Pod.

The more advanced topics that Stauffer covers are in Chapter 9, “Fun with Digital Audio Files.” You’ll learn more detailed information on audio file encoding, and the basics of how to capture and encode analog signals, such as cassette tape recordings.

How to Do Everything has good production values, with plenty of screenshots and straightforward text. It’s a fine manual for iTunes, but if you’ve got an iPod, it’s not the book for you.

MyMac rating 3.5 out of 5

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iPod & iTunes Missing Manual, Second Edition
by J. D. Biersdorfer (edited by David Pogue)
Pogue Press / O’Reilly Associates
ISBN 0-569-00658-6
$24.95 US, $36.95 CN
350 pages

If you like the Missing Manual style of writing, you’ll find this book to be like meeting an old friend. As MyMac.com readers know, I love the Pogue Press / “MM” writing style and production values, and this book is a fine addition to the series.

Author J.D. Biersdorfer covers the required ground; hardware for various versions, including the iPod Mini, iTunes, the Apple Music Store, and the latest and greatest iPod accessories. Windows users need look no further, as MusicMatch software gets plenty of coverage, along with all the other subtle
Windows-specific features.

If you’re torn between this and the aforementioned , you’ll find equally good information in either one. Pick the book whose writing style appeals to you more.

MyMac rating: 4.5 out of 5

__________

And the winner is – Secrets of the iPod, Fourth Edition, with iPod & iTunes Missing Manual, Second Edition only a tiny bit in second place.

Starry Night Pro Plus for Macintosh OS-X and Windows
Company: Space Holding Corp., Canada
Price: $199.95 retail
http://www.starrynight.com

I love looking up at the stars, but trying to find constellations, planets, and other celestial objects has always escaped me. Except for maybe Venus and the big and little dipper, I am mostly useless at finding these objects. And I cannot tell you how many times I have looked at a bright object in the sky and said, “What is that?” So a chance to play with Starry Night Pro, self-proclaimed as “the world’s most realistic astronomy software” sounded like a great opportunity.

Starry Night Pro Plus comes packed with a number of different items in the box. First was the Starry Night Pro CD that installs on both Windows and Mac computers. In addition, 2 “PlusPaks” CDs were included. PlusPak 1 adds additional Mars, Moon, and Earth high-resolution planet-surface and horizon images as well as a 16-minute mini-movie. PlusPak 2 adds 11,000 additional galaxy, nebula and star cluster images as well as 10 additional Milky Way images. Also included in the plus box was a DVD called “Atlas of the Sky” which contains more than 2 1/2 hours of original movies showing some amazing images and visualizations of astronomical objects and phenomena. An additional CD was included in box, which is also called “Atlas of the Sky” and is a multimedia CD similar to the DVD that installs as an option into the program. Additionally, 2 books are included. The first, Starry Night Companion is a 240-page guide to better understanding the night sky while using the Starry Night program, but is not a User’s manual. Instead, it includes Astronomy Basics, Observational Advice, info on Earth’s Celestials Cycles, and info on our solar system and deep space constellations. The other book is the 168-page User’s Guide to using the program. I can see before I start that this is not going to be a trivial program to learn. Time to install the software.

Starry Night is big and has high system requirements. You will need OS 10.1 or greater to us this program, and at least 1 GB of free disk space to install. This is not a typo! If you install all the additional packs and CDs, reserve at least 2 GB! The application alone is 557 MB, and if you choose to install the multimedia movies, add an additional 600 MB of space. The PlusPaks will also require about 500 MB of additional disk space each to install as well. Installing was easy, just insert the Starry Night CD and click on the Install icon. The installer does the rest. You will need QuickTime 6.0 or later to run Starry Night, so install that if not already on your computer. After accepting the license and choosing where you want the software to install, sit back and relax for a while, as there are nearly 6000 files to be installed for the main program. This will take some time, about 10 to 15 minutes depending on your computer. If adding the PlusPacks, add another 10 to 15 minutes or longer to install each of those as well (PlusPak #2 installs nearly13,000 files!) After installing the software, you can then install the Starry Night Multimedia content as well. And although these installers ask for an install location, where they actually put the files was a mystery to me until I rebooted and noted that the StarryNight application “container” for the main application was now close to 2 GB in size. Obviously all files are installed inside the main application container, keeping the install very clean actually.

One final note, if installing version 4.5, there is a 4.5.2 update available from the StarryNight website that should be run before using this software.

While memory requirements are not spelled out, and it ran fine on my 1 GB PowerBook with 5 other programs running, but some animation was not so smooth in this mode. So, the more memory the better, and for best results, run it alone with no other apps running.

Also note that while using this on a PowerBook (or laptop) seems the most logical choice for outside star gazing, the power saving modes of the PowerBooks while running on batteries caused sporadic and jumpy animations and updates. To make things smoother while on batteries, go to the System Preferences and open the Energy Saver panel. Under “Settings for:” select “Battery Power” and then under “Processor Performance:” select “Automatic” for some improvement t. For even better performance, select “Highest” under performance but note that this will use your battery charge up considerably faster than normal, resulting in less than half your normal battery time. Do not forget to set this back to “reduced” or “automatic” when done with the program. (I would love to see Apple add a setting in Energy Saver that allows you list programs that run at a specified processor performance while running on batteries automatically.)

If you are familiar with earlier versions, 4.5 now includes enhanced observations planners and logs, equipment lists, and LiveSky panel (more on this later.) it also includes more than 2.5 hours of multimedia visualizations.

Getting Into Space

When I first launched the program, if connected to the Internet and checked for and download updated information and program patches. New asteroid, comet, and satellite information (if any) as well as other new and updated data and program patches can be checked and downloaded each time you run the program. Startup and Auto Update options can set how often to check, and how much to download on each check.

The first time you launch the program, you will be asked to set your home location (you can change this later) from either a long list of cities, from a very cool world map that shows the daylight and dark areas, or by specifying your longitude, latitude and GMT time offset. A view of the southern facing sky, based on the current time of day (as set by your computer) will be displayed. For me, I first launched this program at 12:30 AM from my home and saw an amazing view of the night sky that was mostly visible just outside my south-facing window at the same time. The horizon appeared to be a grassy field, not exactly what I saw from my home, but this too can be changed. At first view, I must saw I was quite intimidated with the number of options and setting this program offered, and because of space I cannot cover them all here. Suffice it to say, this is a complicated program to master, but easy to use and get started.

Where I Could See the Stars

I am now continuing to write this while on a two-week vacation on a houseboat on Lake Powell. Since I needed my computer to download pictures from my digital camera anyway, I decided to take this program along too. I thought, what better place to see the night sky than from the surface of a dark lake! Using a GPS we had on the boat, I entered the longitude and latitude of our location on the lake and set it to Arizona time, but the program and sky did not quite agree with what we saw. Seems parts of the lake are on Utah time while parts are on Arizona time, and Arizona does not do daylight savings time, so there were some issues of our clock being off by one hour from our view! Setting the view clock ahead one hour solved the problem, but only trial and error solved this.

Once again, the grassy view of the horizon was also wrong as I was looking at wonderful buttes and lots of water. So I went into the options, selected “local horizon” and picked Cabezon Peak, the closest looking horizon to what I was seeing. Not too bad a match, minus the water that is, but it would have to do. And while you can change the horizon to a number of, you quickly start to ignore its picture as there are too few to choose from and none seem to look exactly like any place I have really been! Especially the view from the Mars Rover setting!

This is an amazing piece of software with so many features and options that I could not possibly do them all justice here, so I will not even try. Once the program is running, you can use the mouse to move the view up/down/left/right as well as set the view to see the actual time, or any other time you wish in the future or past. Holding the SHIFT key while using the mouse moves your location on earth. A bar above the view lets you select and enter any time, adjust the rate at which time passes (from 1x to 30,000x) as well as time speed controls to set the direction of time, or pause or stop it like a VCR. Compass point names (N, S, E, W, SE, etc) are displayed in the horizon to aid on setting your viewing direction. You can also switch on other positioning aids, such as grids, meridian lines, pole lines, and equator lines (known as Alt-Az Guides) as the relate to the earth and straight up from your viewing location, as well as Celestial guides (axes, equator, grid, meridians, and pole lines) which set around the north star.

A zoom control allows you to set the magnification of the field of view, and an altitude control lets you set your height from your starting point, which can also be used to fly you off the planet into space from a few meters in height to many light years in distance. The view from outside the Milky Way at .15 million light years from Earth is amazing! Sadly though, as you climb in altitude the view begins to look “down” back at the earth, and a strange splitting of the local horizon line and the “visible horizon” line appears which is confusing (basically indicating what the earth would block you from seeing as you move up.) Not sure why this was different from the local horizon however. If you continue to go up, you will leave the earth looking back at the planet and fly off into space. An interesting and fun thing to do once or twice.

And if you get totally lost, simply go to the Options menu and pick your home location “with reset: option to reset everything and start over again at your home.

So Many Options, So Little Time…

Along the left side of the window are a series of tabs for accessing almost all the program’s functions, in most cases duplicating items available under menus as well (Note in the full screen view the menus disappear.) Clicking on any tab slides open a panel into the active window to access the controls of that tab.

At the top is Find, which lets you find and center the view on major planets, the sun, the moon, satellites, asteroids and comets. This pane also tells you where these items are at the current time, indicating if they are visible or not by graying out the non-visible items. For example, the moon had just set, and this program displayed the moon at –2 degrees below the horizon, invisible. Double clicking on a visible item in the list will scroll the display to a centered view of that item and turn on a label to point to the object. Double clicking on an item that is not visible will give you the option to hide the real horizon, or pick the best time to view the object. Clicking on a small ‘i’ gives additional information on each object as well. Lastly, typing the name or part of a name of an object will display a matching list of items that can be found. For example, typing “ple” listed three items, “Pleiades”, an open cluster; “Pleiades, Seven Sisters (M45)” an open cluster; and “Pleione”, a star. All were marked as being below the horizon at this time.

The Options tab, gives quick access to turning on and off objects in the sky as well as grids, guides, labels, and indicators settings. Here you can switch on and off daylight, the local horizon, and local and distant light pollution. You can also choose to display (with or without labels) Asteroids, Comets, Meteor Showers, Planets and moons, earth/moon shadow outlines, and SOME satellites. I say some as looking into the night sky from the lake we saw dozens of satellites orbiting overhead in the night sky that did not show up in the program. (Perhaps I can download these when I get home?) Here too you can switch on stars, clusters, pulsars, and the constellations in many forms (including a strange illustration mode which was more annoying than useful) as well as deep space items. I found myself using this tab quite often to turn on and off items in the sky view.

The Favourites (sic) tab lists popular pre-saved views of the solar system, stars, constellations, and deep space items. One such example, the Autumnal Equinox as seen from 122 km NE of Chibougamau, Canada on 9/19/2002 at 7:32 AM with time moving forward at 30,000 x gave a view of the sun crossing the Celestial Equator. If you set up a view you like, you can save it here as well. These views save everything about the current state of the program, so you can easily return to something you really liked at a later time. The long list of items

The Status tab give a great deal of info on where and when you are, where you are looking, and other info on settings, plus a view labeled “Hertzsprung-Russell”, which I had no idea what this is, but I guess it controls what stars you can see based on brightness and distance. (Should have brought the manual.)

The Info tab gives you info and data on the last item you looked (select an item and click on it) with the ability to add log entries, export the information, or obtain additional info from LiveSky.com, which is well integrated into this program. Also listed here is the “position in the sky” based on the 12 signs of the zodiac of the object chosen. So I went to Favourites, selected the Moon, and right now, at 5/12/04 at 2:40 PM, the moon is in the Constellation Aquarius, and the azimuth, altitude, and both galactic and ecliptic longitude and latitude are displayed.

Just for fun, I set the time ahead to 3,000x to see when it entered the next sign. I let it run until it changed, then set the time back slow (300 x) to find the exact time and date of the change. After a short time, I discovered that from my position at Lake Powell, the moon would enter Pisces on 5/13/04 at 10:53:45 PM. Not sure why I wanted to know this, and I am sure there was an easier way to find this out, but it was fun doing it.

Also in the Info tab is the ability to turn on tracking of an object in the sky. This will draw a line from data point to data point and drag a line across the sky showing you the objects path, with data points placed strategically along the way. For example, the comet “Neat (C/2001 Q4)” is visible in the night sky these days just after sunset. I set the time to today at 6 PM and turned on labels for Comets, then went to the Info tab. All the info about the NEAT comet was there to read about. I went to More Options and selected “Local Path” and then set the time to 3000x forward. I stopped the time forward when the comet hit the horizon. There in front of me was the path this comet would take with markings about every 20 minutes or so, and I went outside on May 12th to see it!

The Field of View tab lets you enter data about your own telescopes and binoculars and the program will generate a small circle on the screen that lets you see what you would see if you were looking through them.

Just below this is a tab called Telescope. Unfortunately, I do not have a telescope, but if you do have a newer one that has a computer interface, you can have the screen follow where the telescope is pointing. And if your scope is motor driven, you can use this area to move the scope to the area of sky you are looking at on the screen. Currently, 12 scopes are supported (Meade LX200, LX200 GPS, LX200 Compatible, and ETX Autostar, Clestron MexStar 4 GT, NexStar 5/8, NexStar5i/8i, NexStar8/11 GPS. CGE series, Advanced series, and Astro-Physics German Equatorial) and all connect via something called “Bluetooth-PDA-Sync”, but I am not sure exactly what that means.

A tab labeled LiveSky allows you to view images that can be downloaded from a “real time” system of images from various satellites around the globe. Clicking on an entry will display the last image loaded into the program while double clicking on the image will fetch a recent new image if available. For example, you can view solar images from the SOHO satellite, or see Earth images from satellites taken in almost real time like GIES-E/W N.A. infrared satellite. This is cool, but you have to be on line to see the latest images, and updates were often not available.

Other tabs include access to saved movies, and a viewing planner for future events you mark while playing with the program.

Playing With The Program…

Suffice it to say that there are enough features and options in this program to keep you playing for a long time, especially if you own a telescope that will connect to it. But even if you do not, this program is a lot if fun and very educational as well. It was great to sit atop the houseboat and stare into the night sky, find a star or group if stars, and find them again on the screen to determine what they were. Or look on the screen for a planet or star, and then find it again in the night sky using the guide marks given.

One very cool feature is to select Earth from the “Favourites” / Solar System menu. This will swing to a view of the earth from 5829 km out in space. You can rotate the planet around (which actually rotates your view above the planet) and moving your cursor over the earth’s surface will indicate major cities and locations. Now select your hometown from the “Options” menu and you will be ‘flown’ to the view from your home location again in a very cool animation. You can also do this from the Milky Way view, flying through space to return to earth.

Starry Night is an excellent program for anyone interested in amateur astronomy or simply enjoys looking into the night sky and wants to learn more about what they can see overhead. Since I am heading onto Lake Powell early next month where I will get a GREAT view of the night sky, I plan to take my computer along so that I can locate and view stars I could never see in the city, or never find without this program.

I was also impressed that the program knew of my 17” wide screen, and expanded the window to fill the monitor. For a program that runs on both Mac and Windows, the interface is very Aqua complete (I do not know what it looks like on Windows) and operated correctly in the Mac environment. This is not some Windows conversion but rather a program written for the Mac.

A Few Disappointments…

One unfortunate issue for our nightly stargazing was the fact that the moon was not only up during the night, but was close to full for the first 4 to 5 days. While this program did show the moon in the sky, it did not seem to add to the “light pollution” the moon causes when displaying what stars should be visible. There are two options for local and distant light pollution, which add haze and light to the horizon and block out dim stars, but I found nothing for the moon. So the same stars where shown to be visible when the moon was full as when the moon was not present at all, and that is just wrong. Perhaps there is an option I missed because this seems like a very simple oversight for such a complex program. The bottom line, a full moon night showed the same stars as a no moon night in the program, but that is not what I saw!

My other issue is with the way the view works when going up in altitude. Lake Powell is near 3600 feet, yet raising the altitude does not seem to change what objects you can view near the horizon in this program. And the splitting of the picture of the horizon and the “blue arc” that represented (I believe) the visible sky over the curvature of the earth also did not take into account altitude, as I would expect. I also did not like the fact that you start looking down as your altitude increases, which is not what I wanted to see. If I climb the 1000-foot peak near me, I want to see what I would see from that peek, not that location at sea level or that location looking down at my feet!

I was also disappointed at the size and processing need of this beast. Granted there is a lot of information in here, but when installing, you have no idea what you will need to so naturally everything gets installed. And performance on a 1.3 Ghz PowerBook 17” laptop while on batteries was disappointing as stated above. However, given the amount of mathematical calculations this program has to make each second to keep track of all its objects, I am not surprised at the amount of power it needs.

All in all, this is one amazing piece of software that will take me some time to master, but it is still very fun, even at my beginner level. I highly recommend it if you are at all interested in watching the night sky. Now I want to go out and buy a Telescope to attach to this program!

MyMac.com rating is 5 out of 5

Lexmark C510 Color Laser Printer
Company: Lexmark
Price: $599 – $1,100 (US)

If you print an average of 20 items a day on your inkjet printer, it is probably time for your to save some time and money and move on to a laser printer. Unlike an ink-jet printer, a laser printer does not use ink, but rather toner. They also print, on average, much faster than an ink-jet printer.

Lexmark introduced the C510 full-color laser printer to much fanfare, and I for one was especially looking forward to seeing what the printer could do. After a month of use for this review, I must say I am impressed.

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For started, this is a full-color laser printer, meaning you can use it to print out very good looking color prints from either a standard color Word or Excel document, as well as an high-resolution PostScript file. Yes, the C510 has PostScript 3 Emulation. I printed many PS files directly to the printer, using CMYK and RGB images, as well as checking for Pantone color accuracy. All test showed that the C510 did an admirable job of accurate print color, good enough for a mock-up, but not 100% color accurate.

The price, at under $700(US) is an amazing figure. A four-color laser printer with PS, network, and duplex capabilities for under a grand is amazing. Add $300 to the cost and you have yourself an amazing network printer as well.

For this review, I used the C510n model, which is the networkable built-in Ethernet 10/100 option. Setting up the printer for network use was fast and easy, which is a time saver for small business that simply want a networked printer to work without all the fuss of complicated setup steps usually associated with network printers. Out of the box, the printer saw my network and was ready to go.

Print quality, the most important factor in any buyers’ decision when purchasing a printer, was fantastic. The C510 prints very quickly, even full color prints. It’s consumable usage is not too extreme, though similar Xerox I have used unit, though much more costly, uses much less consumables. Does the initial, sub-$1,000 price tag offset the expensive consumables? I would have to say yes.

I was surprised when, after unpacking the heavy crate the C510 arrived in, to find that the printer weighed as much as it does. Coming in at just fewer than seventy pounds, the C510 is one heavy printer. It is not a large printer, and as a sturdy guy, I figured I would be able to move it around without much of a problem. I did, but it was far from simple. This is seventy pounds of awkward, dead weight.

Set-up was simple. The C510 uses four different CMYK color toner cartridges, which are installed by opening the front of the printer and simply sliding them in their color-matching slot. As a person who has changed many a toner cartridges in the past, I can honestly say this was of the easiest printer to change the toner cartridges I have ever used. The waste bottle also was simple.

Besides the expensive replacement toner cartridges, my biggest gripe with the C510 would have to be the level of noise it makes, not just in operation but the warming-up period as well. Imagine two hair-dryers on high, and you start to get the volume of noise the C510 puts out. Warm-up time was fast, comparing it to other units I have used in the past, but the noise level was too loud. Thankfully, with the network option, you can put the printer in another, unoccupied room rather than in your office or cubicle. The unit does have a power-saver mode, which puts the printer in hibernation unit you send a print-job to it, so that alleviates much of the noise. However, if you are printing enough documents to warrant the purchase of a laser printer, be aware that the noise level will be an issue if you keep this printer close to your working area.

Add-ons for the C510 include 530-page paper draw that fits underneath the included 250-page drawer. An automatic duplexer, which I did not have for review, is also an option. Both are pricy add-ons, but perhaps well worth it if you are in need of those features. Lexmark also offers wireless printing with an 802.11b wireless adapter for under $200.

Some of the long-term costs include:
$99 per toner cartridge. That is $400 a pop for all-new cartridges.
Photodeveloper cartridge will also set you back $212, and are rated at around 10,000 color pages.
Waste toner bottle, which fills up as you use the printer. Those cost less than ten-bucks.
Fuser unit, costing $240 or less. The fuser is listed for 50,000 prints.

No laser printer can escape those costs, however, so don’t feel that Lexmark is simply putting the screws to its buyers. These are costs associated with any laser printer purchase, so be aware that if you print often, it will cost you.

What was distressing, however, is that Lexmark ships the C510 with toner cartridges that are only half full. I thought perhaps this was simply a shipping error, but I have read the same thing in other reviews of this printer. This forces the buyer to purchase new toner cartridges before they should need to. I feel this is a cheap and tasteless tactic on Lexmark’s part, and they should be called on it. Shame!

All the controls for the menu are located atop the C510. The easy to read LCD display is very intuitive, and even a novice will not have too hard a time navigating the various controls.

The specs:
Print Resolution, Black 2400 Image Quality: Color 2400 Image Quality

Print Speed (letter, black) Up to 30 pages per minute: (letter, color) Up to 8 pages per minute
Processor 500 MHz

Memory base model, standard 64 MB
Memory base model, maximum 320 MB
Expandable Memory Options Yes

Apple Macintosh Operating Systems Supported Apple Mac OS X

Paper Handling Configuration (Standard) 250-Sheet Input Tray 250-Sheet Output Bin

Paper Handling Configuration (Optional) 530-Sheet Drawer Duplex Unit

Media Sizes, Supported A4 (8.27″ x 11.7″ or 210mm x 297mm) A5 (5.83″ x 8.27″ or 148mm x 210mm) Executive (7.25″ x 10.5″ or 184mm x 267mm) Folio (8.5″ x 13″ or 216mm x 330mm) JIS-B5 (7.17″ x 10.12″ or 182mm x 257mm) Legal (8.5″ x 14″ or 216mm x 355mm) Letter (8.5″ x 11″ or 216mm x 279mm) B5 Envelope (6.93″ x 9.84″ or 176mm x 250mm) C5 Envelope (6.38″ x 9.02″ or 162mm x 229mm) DL Envelope (4.33″ x 8.66″ or 110mm x 220mm) 9 Envelope (3.875″ x 8.9″ or 98.4mm x 225.4 mm) 10 Envelope (4.125″ x 9.5″ or 105mm x 241mm) Universal

Media Types, Supported Card Stock Envelopes Glossy paper Labels Plain Paper Transparencies Refer to the Card Stock & Label Guide
Standard Ports USB Compatible with USB 2.0 Specification Centronics IEEE 1284 Bidirectional Parallel One Internal Card Slot

Network Connectivity Using an Optional MarkNet Print Server

Printer Languages (Standard) PCL 6 Emulation PDF V1.2, 1.3 PostScript 3 Emulation

Size (base model), Height 15.2 inches, Width 19.5 inches, Depth 16.5 inches
Weight (base model) 67 lbs.

Warranty One-Year LexOnSiteSM Extended Warranty Options Available

In the Box Color Printer Starter Toner Cartridges (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) Photodeveloper, Waste Toner Bottle Quick Reference Clear Jams Quick Reference Setup Guide Publications CD with Online User’s Guide Drivers, MarkVision and Utilities CD Power Cord

Conclusions:
I like this unit. I am constantly amazed at the price of technology going down (unlike, for instance, gasoline prices) but I never would have expected such a high-quality laser printer to fall under the $700 (US) price range.

This is an exceptional printer, even with the costly add-ons and high noise level. Price per print may be higher than other laser printers, but the initial cost of the C510 more than offset it from its competitors.

MyMac Rating: 4.5 out of 5

HP PSC 2410 Photosmart All-In-One — Review — Part Two

with help from David Weeks

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HP PSC 2410 Photosmart All-In-One Print/Scan/Copy/Fax Machine
(Second of two parts — see part one, complete with extensive Article Discussion thread here)
Company: Hewlett-Packard Company
Price: $300 US

Info and specs here:

or by going to HP.com and doing a search for: PSC 2410

This second-of-two-parts review concentrates on using PSC 2140 as a standalone multi-card-slot photo printer. Our first observation was no LED adjacent to the card slot region, for verification of complete card insertion. Instead, the computer serves as interface coordinator (for lack of a clearer description), and the printer’s color graphics display (CGD) gets into the act from time to time. More on that soon.

Using HP’s usually-comprehensive printed booklet, we weren’t certain which instructions apply to a PC and which ones relate to the Macintosh. A little editorial clarification will help, please.

HP’s new CGD has decent slide show capability with acceptable quality for such a tiny screen. David says “the small thumbnail-quality screen is adequate to the task” of previewing images, and I agree. We used it to print our proof sheets efficiently but not quickly, because direct printing with PSC 2410 suffers the same slow, jerky output process I encountered during routine printing from computer-based documents.

Proof sheet quality on ordinary paper is “C rating,” or nothing special, neither terrific nor horrible, but once a proof sheet is finished, several unusual opportunities become available. Proof sheets can be used to create picture packages (not too different from Photoshop or Elements), or to instruct PSC 2410 which images to print directly. A pen fill-in space is provided on the proof sheet, just like on 1960’s standardized tests. Deja vu all over again.

If you don’t use PSC frequently, head cleaning (easy to accomplish, but wastes valuable ink) is required for accurate proof sheets and other printouts.

HP’s full-service direct-print software (for better or worse) takes the computer offline when accessing images via the color graphics display. Apple’s Image Capture is then launched in a confusing, undocumented sequence that continues to baffle us. We got used to being bossed around by HP, but again, improved documentation will help.

Direct media card printing provides a large range of built-in possibilities covered on pages 26 and 27 in the manual, which is very good in this regard. What PSC does best (top-quality printing) it does great, but be aware of inherent glitches and bugs that become less annoying with continued use and darn good results.

A few annoyances:

• HP’s uninstaller doesn’t work, when you need to remove any or all of the bundled software.

• Their “driver removal,” which happens when you switch from computer-driven to printer-driven printing, is a pain.

• Fast user switching is not supported. Why not?

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Because media card access is a major selling point for PSC 2410, we’re not going to recommend this product for that purpose, due to inconsistent interface and incomplete documentation. Once your prints emerge, you’ll be happy with the unit, in spite of its expensive cartridges.

Nearly a thousand dollars of advanced hardware technology and semi-integrated software is included for a modest price of $300 with HP’s Printer-Scanner-Copier-Faxer 2410. We applaud HP for ingenuity and a comprehensive approach to consumer and small office equipment.

Faxing was not tested, because Tim Robertson, MyMac.com publisher, evaluated almost identical fax software features, near the bottom of his review of the OfficeJet 5510.

We also decided not to investigate the creative applications bundled with PSC 2410. They are not major selling points, and most users won’t take advantage of them, but MyMac.com will dig a little deeper in that direction with our next review of a multifunction HP.

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Deciding on an overall MyMac.com rating for this product is tricky, because it does some things well and others less so. If your requirements are modest, or your tolerance for techie inconsistencies is high, or you actually use all the hardware and software this machine offers and you don’t mind pouring your paycheck into HP’s proprietary ink downspout, you’ll consider PSC 2410 worthy at 4 out of 5. Many users will agree with David and me that a strong 3 out of 5 is closer to the mark.

Hoodman Eclipse E2000-15 Sun Shade for PowerBook
Company: Hoodman Corporation

$28.95 US

http://www.hoodmanusa.com

Most people stay indoors to use computers, but now and again PowerBookers and iBookers need to compute in the great out of doors. Flat panel LCD screens are not known for their viewability in direct sunlight or even in the shade here in hot, dry, Tucson, Arizona. Hoodman’s Eclipse E2000-15 for PowerBooks was created to solve this problem.

Clearly this is one product where form follows function, meaning extra fashion points are not awarded. The Eclipse looks like an oversized Mickey Mouse ear, or something to that effect. Hoodman’s E2000-15 has no moving parts, no batteries, no power cords, no glue, and few sentences of instructions.

Remove Eclipse from its storage bag and the E2000-15 pops into proper shape. Place it over your PowerBook screen, and you’re ready to compute.

Our E-2000 was tested under severe environmental conditions: the Sonoran Desert at high noon in April. Using the hood under a covered patio made the screens of both our PowerBook G4 and Blueberry G3 iBook easily readable.

The only problem that Hoodman must address, aside from confused stares of passersby, is that Eclipse rests above a silver PowerBook keyboard in such a manner that the first rows of its keys are not very visible. How about a white bottom section, for enhanced reflectance?

Having dropped out of typing class in my junior year in high school, I’m still a huntnpeck typist, unable to see the eclipsed keys well enough to type. Hey — maybe that’s why it’s called — bad joke.

My aluminum 15′ PowerBook has an illuminated keyboard, but its light sensors are not shaded by the hood so the keys don’t light up. My colleague Nemo, in contrast, who burns up the keyboard in excess of 90 wpm, has no such trouble when performing touch typing.

After concluding phase 1 (shaded patio) we moved into phase 2, direct sunlight exposure. We took my PowerBook out into scorching Sonoran Desert light with the sun at our backs
and found that my G4/PB’s screen was still bright enough to be useful.

PowerBook keyboard illumination is not a problem out in direct sunlight, nor with Nemo’s mighty Blueberry iBook in the bright shade, because it has white keys!

My wife saw the Eclipse, laughed and said “Whazzat?” then placed it in an usual location. Wise guy comments not welcome.

Would I purchase and use Hoodman’s E2000-15? If I had a need to compute outside and wasn’t concerned about ungainly appearance I’d buy it in an instant. But I’d need to learn to touch type.

Nemo reminds me that the three “Hoodman Hoodlums” at last January’s Macworld Expo were indeed very fashion-aware, being the best dressed reps and vendors at Moscone Center.

MyMac.com rating: 4 out of 5

p>BUMMER!!! One day couple of weeks ago, my beloved 700MHz iBook (16 VRAM) became suddenly ill.

On waking from sleep, it would freeze up completely – no cursor, no nothin’. I would shut it down the only way I could, by holding down the power button, and then when I restarted, the poor thing could see its own hard disk. After several tries, it would start up successfully, but the frequency of the failure and the number of tries required to start up again both increased rapidly over the next 48 hours or so. At some point I did have the wit to back it up onto my trusty 200GB LaCie FireWire drive. At one point I was able to boot in Target mode, and ran Disk Utility from another machine, but it saw no problems.

I tried all the voodoo I could think of. I booted from the hardware test CD that came with the iBook, and that worked fine and reported no problems. I booted from an install disk, and the Installer ran fine but didn’t see the hard disk. So finally I headed for the Apple Store.

It was a Sunday morning, and the Genius Bar was jumping. But as soon as one of the two Geniuses on duty saw me, he directed me to go to any Mac in the store and click the "Genius" icon on the desktop, and get in the queue by filling in a form. "Oh, but don’t use any of the Macs in the kids’ area. The kids get real mad if you do that."

So I went over to a G5 with 23" Cinema Display, started the Genius application, and filled in the form, giving my name and a very brief note about the problem. The application told me I was third in the queue and the expected wait was 30 minutes. It even told me what time to show up at the Genius Bar.

I spent the half hour browsing around the store, occasionally checking the display over the Genius Bar, which showed the status of the queue every minute or so. I must say this automation of the queue is pretty slick; I hadn’t seen it in action before. When you have to wait, it’s nice to have constantly updated information on how long you’ll be waiting.

When my turn came, the Genius heard my sad story and tried booting the iBook. He saw what I had seen. Then he booted from his iPod, which had Panther installed. Boy, those iPods are handy. This worked fine, but the hard disk was nowhere to be seen. He ran DiskWarrior, and it couldn’t see the disk either. So he got on line, checked my serial number, and told me just what I had been hoping for: my iBook is in the series covered by Apple’s iBook Logic Board Repair Program (http://www.apple.com/support/ibook/faq/). He would send it in and it would be repaired for free. I could have it shipped to my house, and it would take about five days.

On the fifth day, the iBook arrived on my doorstep. I quickly started it up, wondering if they had left the hard disk intact so I wouldn’t have to restore everything. They had! It was as if the whole nightmare had never happened.

BUMMER!!! Two days later it failed again in exactly the same way as before.

Back to the Apple Store. Again it was a Sunday, and the same Genius was there. He remembered me, so there was less explaining to do. He verified that the iBook was busted, and got on line to look at the repair records. He said "They saw some corruption of the hard disk," and this prompted me to ask "But they fixed the logic board, didn’t they?" He rooted around on line a little more – their screens are set up so you can’t look over their shoulders – and I thought he looked a little embarrassed when he answered, "No, they didn’t actually do anything at all."

So he took it from me again, to be sent back with, he said, "a lot more comments on the need for repair." It would take about five days….

Sure enough, on the fifth day, there it was again on my doorstep. This time, the letter in the box specified that Apple had replaced both the logic board and the hard drive. OK. I started the iBook. It started up just great. But it was running Jaguar, not Panther, so I decided the first thing to do was install Panther. I got out my trusty Panther install CDs, which are a souvenir from when I worked at Apple, and booted "Install 1."

It booted just fine, and then the Installer started up.

BUMMER!!! The video went crazy.

The screen was overlaid with a shifting pattern of narrow, vertical bars in various colors. I shut down toot sweet with the power button, and as it was too late to head for the Apple Store Again, I fixed a Martini.

Next morning, you guessed it; I’m back at the Genius Bar. It’s Friday, so there’s a different Genius. I tell him the whole story, which by now are not only a sad one but also a long one. He listens attentively. Then he boots the iBook from his iPod, which has Panther on it. This is really a great trick. Panther starts up on my iBook just fine, and looks perfect. Then we try installing Panther. Yup, same thing I saw at home. "Wrong video drivers," says the Genius. He mentions that the new logic board Apple installed is a later version than the original one. No surprise. And the new board wants later video drivers.

Well, we shilly-shallied around trying this and that, without learning much, and the Genius says, "OK, let’s just go ahead and install, even if it looks funny. Can’t hurt anything, can it?" So it’s barely possible to work with the screen, since the text is obscured by the color bars and the position of the cursor is somewhat mysterious, but we get it going. This is pretty good: the Genius is not just trying stuff, he’s actually working with me, and hey, maybe when Panther is actually installed, the right video drivers will be in place and everything will work. Flowers and bunny rabbits.

BUMMER!!! When Panther starts up, the video is still hosed.

At this point the Genius figures out what he and I both should have figured out in the first place. When he booted from his iPod he was booting 10.3.3, the latest, and it worked fine. But when we installed Panther, it was only 10.3.0, older than my new logic board. Like I said, we both should have figured this out – but he figured it out first. I am definitively outGeniused.

So (says the Genius) let’s run Software Update and get up to 10.3.3. And, again squinting through the crazy video, I get Software Update going. Let me tell you at this point that I spent four hours at the Apple Store that day, with my car in a two-hour parking spot. But guess what, with another brand of computer (or without easy access to an Apple Store) I might have spent twice as long on the phone with some guy with two weeks of training, in Chechnya or Haiti.

FLOWERS AND BUNNY RABBITS!!! Once I was running 10.3.3, everything just Worked.

Finally, I asked the Genius "Suppose I wanted to purchase a copy of Panther to install on this machine?" And he answered, "I guess you’d have to wait for the next set of boxes with Panther 10.3.3 in them."

I give Apple an A- on this. I give the Geniuses, both of them, A+. I give the Genius Bar system the Nobel Prize.

p>The study of ancient cultures can be a fascinating but frustrating experience. Take for instance, the study of the cryptic Box People who lived thousands of years ago, right before the last great rising of the seas.

Here is a civilization that once was vast, perhaps ruling the whole world in its day, such a very long time ago. They might have had a highly advanced technology, and they may have been a great people with their laws, morals and character. But alas, as with so many obscure ancient people, their thoughts and writings are lost to us, – which is why the study of their culture is so frustrating. Perhaps it is because the medium they used to record their thoughts and their works was very short-lived, and perhaps was of an electrical or digital nature. Almost nothing may be found among the few ruins and trash heaps of their once great nation except their immortal boxes, which is why we call them the Box People.

What we do know of them is that they where totally materialistic, and that they used boxes for everything in their lives. They lived in large square boxes. They transported their cargoes in long moving lines of boxes across their landscapes. They traveled across their world in small boxes on wheels, designed to hold only their small families. Every item of productivity they created was neatly stored or contained in boxes. And when they died, they were even buried in boxes. From what little we can tell, they thrived and grew great by the manufacture, and the buying and selling of everything they consumed – in boxes.

Can you imagine? This is why we think their civilization is so fascinating, because some minor invention, like a simple box, could be utilized to such an extent that all that is known of them to this day is from the crumbling remains of their boxes.

We have made extensive studies of the contents of these eternal little boxes, and of the fantastically indestructible printings on their surfaces, but little progress has been made from these to understand who and what they were as a people, except that they had an elaborate pharmacology.

Their medicines and even their foods were stored in boxes in a vast and bewildering variety of sizes and shapes, and they even had round ones! The materials used in the creation of these little boxes is unknown to us, but these were mainly made out of an unknown carbon based, pliable substance, or out of a pulverized woody material – all of which seems fantastically durable.

Some of the boxes we have unearthed in their landfills had cryptic purposes. It is supposed, mainly because of the phosphered glass faces, which perhaps they were used for individual communication or entertainment, but such a thought is almost beyond belief in our collectivistic culture.

Oh, we do have a small number of bound codexes unearthed, which are in surprisingly good shape, but the language of these Box People is cryptic and remains enigmatic, since individual words in their language seemingly could each stand for a great variety of meanings – so their thoughts and inspirations remain rather closed to us.

But because of what does remain of their once great ancient civilization – these eternal boxes, one is left to wonder if this is what they intended for future generations to inherit of their wisdom and greatness. These Box People; the ultimate consumers, also known as the “Printed in US_,” or the “Proudly Made In Amer____.”

Dancing Barefoot
By Wil Wheaton
Illustrations by Ben Claassen III
Publisher: O’Reilly
ISBN: 0-596-00674-8
$14.95 US $21.95 CAN

The five stories in Dancing Barefoot originally appeared on Wil Wheaton’s very own website http://www.wilwheaton.net. The first four stories are written blog style, with short sentences and short paragraphs and run from two to five pages long. The fifth story, The Saga of SpongeBob Vegas Pants subtitled "How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Star Trek" could arguably be the only reason this book was published. At 72 pages, it caters to the Star Trek fan base, the group that Mr. Wheaton describes on page 86. "They can be the most hyper-critical audience in the world. They have booed me off the stage. They’ve marched up to me at conventions to tell me how much they hated me. Some of these people have a sense of entitlement that you’ll never see anywhere else."

Part of the SpongeBob story relates Mr. Wheaton’s distaste for WILLIAM FUCKING SHATNER, (his words, not mine.) Not having met Mr. Shatner nor been a fan of his I cannot say if the stories of his arrogance are true or not. However, I found it distasteful that every time he’s referred to in the story, it’s always in capital letters and always as written above. We got the point, Wil, after the first ten times you wrote his name.

The other four stories and their subject matter in the book are "Houses in Motion", about his deceased Aunt Val’s house; "Ready or Not, Here I Come!” about playing hide and seek with his stepchildren; "Inferno", a flashback about his encounter with a girl at age 15; and "We Close Our Eyes", about walking in the rain with his wife. The best of the lot is "Houses in Motion."

Personal stories by interesting people with good writing skills are always enjoyable to read, and in fact is one of the greatest draws of the internet these days. Bloggers abound, and there is no lack of exceptional reading material. I find Mr. Wheaton’s stories neither interesting nor enjoyable. Part of the reason could be that I am not a Star Trek fan. In fact, I’m not much of a movie star fan. I was looking forward to reading his book when I saw it announced because I often run across references to Wil Wheaton’s blog in my daily Internet travels. I could have done myself a favor and checked that out before committing to read this book. I found his stories banal and trivial, and possibly interesting only to his fan base. What happens to Wil Wheaton in ordinary life that he writes about is not much different from anyone else’s life. I don’t find it particularly courageous of him to share that with us, simply because he’s a movie star.

The illustrations by Ben Claassen III are simple line drawing cartoons that minimally relate to the subject matter. The book cover drawn by the same artist, however, does have a certain charm and appeal. The cover itself may be the best thing about the book.

If you are a Star Trek fan, and especially a fan of Wil Wheaton’s character Wesley Crusher you may find the insights to his personal life entertaining. Even if so, I have a notion that you could glean as much from just visiting his website and save yourself fifteen bucks. If you are not a fan, I’d definitely say don’t waste your money on this slim volume of stories.

MyMac.com Rating: 1 out of 5