I needed to purchase a digital camera, but was becoming overwhelmed with the many models available and with the vastly different range of technical features between various models, even within the same price range. I'd considered the Nikon, Canon, and Sony brands, but hadn't seriously looked at much else.
After reading your article ("Lighten the Tech Load," November) and noting your obvious satisfaction with your choice of the Olympus C-3040Z, I decided to take a close look at that model, and found, as you did, that this camera has much to offer and clearly compares very favorably with others that sell for significantly more money.
I decided to buy one, and I am very happy with the purchase, due in no small part to your recommendation. I also picked up two 64MB SmartMedia cards and two sets of NiMH cells. In terms of potential photographic performance for the size (and/or weight), this is a hard-to-beat combination.
Another item that may qualify as the best $30 that one can spend in this area is a SmartMedia USB card reader. I bought one made by a company named SmartDisk and it works perfectly with my Mac G4 and iBook.
The SmartMedia card is immediately mounted as a desktop volume, and data transfers are much faster than via the C-3040 USB interface. Plus, it doesn't use any camera battery power during the download.
Nicholas J. Yasillo
As a longtime fan of Computer Currents, I was apprehensive when the change to COMPUTERUSER occurred.
I want to assure you, however, that I totally agree with your December 2001 editorial assessment that your "content has been the best"--and I would contextualize--in the computer publishing arena.
It is not that there is no excellence elsewhere, but you have personally brought a standard of clarity, directness, sanity, and humaneness to your work which is quite rare.
Your post-Sept. 11 remarks have been the finest example of what a deeply human affair the realm of business can be, contrary to many of the events in Corporate America.
Robert Kimball
When I saw Matt Lake's article titled "Windows XP, down and dirty," I was very interested to get a fellow IT professional's view of installation and deployment in the real world.
All I have heard thus far is either Microsoft's "best thing since sliced bread" rhetoric or others in the IT community condemning it as a black hole of security. I was looking for a view from the trenches.
Alas, my hopes were dashed with one sentence: "And as the kicker, a network protocol I didn't even know I was using, NetBEUI, would no longer be supported, and the protocol I did know I had, TCP/IP, would take over."
As an IT professional, I want to know which protocols are running on my workstations. This is my job. It's not simply something I studied to get a few letters following my name on a business card.
If Lake has no idea that he is running NeBUI on his network, he cannot convince me that I should present management with a price tag to upgrade our servers and workstations. His vast knowledge of IT leaves me underwhelmed and convinced there are too many paper MCSEs in the world.
Michael Brown
I agree very much with your statement about favoring local dealers. I know the guy who puts together my computers.
His prices are always fair, and so when I need a new machine I don't bother with getting a quote ahead of time. And his service is really excellent--you just walk in and if possible, he will fix it right away.
Stephan Bechtolsheim
To start a discussion or ask a question, e-mail james@computeruser.com. Letters may be edited for style, length, or content. No anonymous letters will be published.
