523
Shiira & Preview
USB Printer Cables And CardBus
Re: new Ted Landau book
Re: OS Preference[/url]



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Shiira & Preview

From Jim Boyle

Hi Charles:

I have tried to download Shiira three or four times from websites listed in your columns but all I get is another tab that loads pages & pages of Japanese text, many ?????, and other gibberish. I noticed there was another download link for the source code but that was not what I selected. Any ideas for what might be happening? I am really pleased with Firefox and just downloaded v0.9 but thought I'd try Shiira based on your comments.

I also have a problem with selecting Preview as my Default for opening .PDF files. My problem started when I selected an old .PDF in Classic and I got a box telling me Classic didn't support Preview and would I like Acrobat Reader to be the Default? I assumed it applied only to Classic but the monster became the default in Panther as well. I thought I had it solved by using the "open withPreview" command which gave a prompt asking if I wanted Preview to be the Default for .PDF to which I selected yes. That solved most of my problems with files on my hard drive but when I get e-mail or download from Firefox with .PDF attached it always opens with Reader and again asks if I want Reader to be the Default, upon selecting "No" it gives a prompt that states I can change the default by the Tools Options menu item. My Tools menu does not have "Options" listed. Sorry to be so long winded. Any suggestions as to restoring Preview as the Default?

Thanks for your great work, Applelinks is my daily read even though I'm an iMac user not a 'Book.

Blessings
Jim

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Hi Jim;

Hey, iMacs are cool too. I'm not an anti-desktop bigot.

I just tried this URL for Shiira,and it came up nicely in English with download links: http://hmdt-web.net/shiira/index-e.html

Letme know if it works for you. Shiira is really worth checking out. Blows me away how good it is.

Don't just take my word for it.check out this review. http://www.apple-x.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=968&mode=thread&order=1&thold=0

I've foundthe "open with" routine can be flakey in OS X.Does the Acrobat Reader default only happen in FireFox?

Charles







USB Printer Cables And CardBus

John Campbell 

Hi Charles,

I'm looking for a USB 1.1 PCMCIA card for a Wallstreet II and the cable to connect it to an HP AIO.

What is the configuration of the cable needed to connect the USB card to the printer, specifically the end that connects to the card? Would it be any different than a standard A?

TIA, John

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Hi John;

I haven't used the particular printer you refer to, but the MacAlly USB CardBus adapter in my WallStreet just uses a standard USB cable to connect to my Lexmark printer.

Charles







Re: new Ted Landau book

From Eric Matthieu

Charles,

Thanks for your 2�‘.

Amazon has a deal going right now on Scott Kelby's Mac OS X Conversion Kit, where you can purchase it with Pogue's OS X: TMM for only $41.35 (normally they retail for a combined $59.94). The discount isn't any different than if you bought them separately, but by getting over the $25 threshold you can get free ground shipping (something you wouldn't get if they were purchased individually).

As for the Landau book, Amazon has a similar deal on it as a companion to OS X: TMM. In this case, the two are sold for $46.79 -- a savings of $23.15 (that includes an additional discount over their usual sale price; separately they total $48.15).

I think I'll be getting OS X: TMM. Which would you choose, between Kelby's or Landau's book, to go with Pogue's (with the understanding that you haven't actually read Landau's Help Line)? I may opt for Kelby's. At this stage it's more suited for my needs. I can always pick up a copy of Help Line later -- which by itself qualifies for free shipping.

I have the 4th ed of Sad Macs, but I've seldom turned to it. Not that it isn't a good resource, as it's exhaustive in its breadth, but I've rarely felt the need. Still, I'm glad to have had it just in case something came up.

Eric

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Hi Eric;

I think you've answered your own question, since you perceive the Kelby book as being better suited to your present requirements.

It is a bit of an apples and oranges comparison. All three of these books would be great to have in your library, but for your present purposes, I would lean you toward Pogue and Kelby.

Charles







Re: OS Preference

From Ken Hagler

Charles W. Moore wrote:

I'm wondering what version of X you're using and on what type of system. I found that Panther is roughly 20% faster on older, slow Macs like mine than Jaguar was.

It's 10.3.4 on a dual 1Ghz G4. It only has 256MB of RAM, though--I've noticed that OS X is even more memory-hungry than Windows, so I'm sure that doesn't help.

However, I have to disagree about reliability, while I have no real reliability complaints about OS 9 for the sort of stuff I do with it, OS X is rock solid as well, and pre-emptive multitasking really gets addictive. Ditto for Expose in Panther.

I haven't had any software reliability problems with my Mac OS systems (plenty of hardware problems, alas). I have had significant problems with OS X, though -- it constantly suffers from random flakiness interferes with the builds I'm trying to run. Restarting fixes the problems, but I lose quite a bit of time this way.

This is the same sort of thing that goes wrong with an XP system, although it doesn't happen nearly as often with XP. From talking to co-workers with experience on older versions of Windows, it seems like OS X is comparable to Windows 98 in reliability.

A less frequent but more severe problem is that CodeWarrior crashes during a build (which are frequent) cause irreparable damage to the volume header block, requiring me to spend many hours restoring my build machine. As someone who used to make jokes about Windows troubleshooting being "reinstall Windows," I found that very depressing. We've migrated to Xcode now, so I'm hoping that a repeatedly trashed build machine is a thing of the past, but the fact remains that the whole thing was not exactly a ringing endorsement of OS X stability and reliability.

I actually don't care one way or the other about pre-emptive multitasking. To the extent I think about it, it's a mild annoyance--when some program I forgot was running on my PC pops up in the middle of a game.

The way I look at it is, I don't want to switch OSes at all. But if I'm going to be forced to, I find XP to be... If not the better choice, at least the "less inferior" one.

Ken Hagler

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Hi Ken;

Gak! You really need more RAM. I consider 256 MB inadequate for even light-duty use of OSX, let alone the kind of stuff you're doing. I have 640 MB in both my OS X laptops, and find that much less than desirable much of the time.For your purposes, I would suggest 1 GB od RAM minimum. I think you would find that most of your OS X flakiness would clear up with more RAM aboard.

If restarting temporarily clears things up, that's a strong indication that you're getting bogged down in swapfile issues due to less than adequate hardware memory.

Charles


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Charles W. Moore


Note: Letters to Moore's Mailbag may or may not be published at the editor's discretion. Correspondents' email addresses will NOT be published unless the correspondent specifically requests publication. Letters may be edited for length and/or context.

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