- Perusing this Sunday paper's ads and reviews in the latest PC magazines, I just fail to understand the need for printers that read digital camera memory cards. The idea is that you don't need a computer to print your photos - you just pop the card into the printer, select the photo on the printer's LCD screen, perhaps do a bit of adjusting, and then print the image. What's wrong with that?
-For starters, the LCD screens in those printers are very small and low end. Even if the software in the printer allows you to do minimal photo editing, you really can't see very much in them. So any editing you do is going to be fairly crude. I am not sure, but I would suspect that you couldn't actually save the edited image, so if you ever do download the image to your PC you will have to start the editing process all over again.
-And can you imagine having to squint into a little screen while trying to edit a photo full of detail?
-I suppose if you need a quick print and there is no PC to be found, that these things might be of some assistance. But the card reader, software, and LCD screen have to add significant cost to the product - why pay for something you don't need?
-Photo editing in the PC is a major component of the digital photo hobby. Instead of leaving your work up to the hands of an invisible technician in some far-off photo lab, you can do it yourself. The creative possibilities are endless. But you won't be able to do that in the printer. Somebody send me an email and tell me what I am missing.
-- Microsoft bit me again this week. After MS issued a bulletin about a severe hole in the MS Outlook program (note: not Outlook Express), I installed the Service Pack 3 (SP3) update for Outlook 2002. Now my Norton Anti-Spam doesn't function properly and actually hangs Outlook if you tell AS that an unflagged email is in fact spam. The reason is that MS tightened up access to the Outlook Address Book, which AS needs to do its job. Now Symantec has to upgrade its software to fix the problem. When I don't know, and they aren't talking.
-But at least I am in good company. I first went to Google and searched for similar symptoms and, sure enough, there are a whole lot of people seeing the same problem. Misery loves company!
-- Speaking of spam, the Norton Anti-Spam software really does a good job at flagging spam. This comes in the Norton Internet Security package, or you can buy the AS component by itself. I got a lot of spam these days, because I asked my email host server not to use their spam pre-filter on my email as it was causing me to miss some emails. Thus, I depend on the software in my PC, and the Norton AS seems to handle about more than 95% of the spam accurately.
-- I have to confess that I am getting quite concerned about the poor state of technical support. I get lot of calls to help people and as natural they often attempt to fix their problems first themselves. But calling the software or hardware vendor these days results in a lot of frustration. Language problems abound, as much of that work has been sent offshore. Even if you do get someone who speaks American, you often don't get a correct answer. I won't regale you with examples, but many of them are downright funny (to me) and some actually damaging. I know that comment seems a bit self-serving, but that is how I am seeing it.
-On the other hand, I called a BellSouth representative recently on a DSL problem recently and had a really excellent experience. Although the request was fairly trivial (a lost password), the support rep was extremely courteous and knowledgeable. The experience was so sweet that I could have squeezed maple syrup from the phone! Keep it up BellSouth!
-(Bob Seidel is a local computer consultant in the Southport / Oak Island area. You can visit his website at www.bobseidel.com or e-mail him at bsc@bobseidel.com).