Software Discoveries:
Absolute Backgammon, $US 25
Backgammon game (http://bestbackgammon.com/absolute/) with voice control, 5 skill levels & many boards.
New Hardware:
Portable shortwave player + MP3 player/recorder! ~$60 direct from Hong Kong, or ~$US 90 mail order
Degen DE1123 (or Kaito Electronics KA1123 (http://www.universal-radio.com/catalog/portable/1123.html))
Bargain webcam:
Macally icecam USB (http://www.google.com/products/catalog?client=safari&rls=en-us&q=macally+icecam&oe=UTF-8&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=14767860180432755633&ei=2Ub2SfjGI43KM-no7cMP&sa=X&oi=product_catalog_result&resnum=4&ct=image#ps-sellers), ~$20
[Note: Has since been replaced by Macally icecam 2 (http://www.macally.com/en/product/ArticleShow.asp?ArticleID=220), $US 40,
AbsoluteGadget.com's review (http://www.absolutegadget.com/200808151558/reviews/personal-computing/review-macally-icecam-2-webcam.html)
Got a printer but vendor has no OS X drivers?
Consider: Gutenprint and Gimp-Print for Mac OS X (http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php),
"High quality printer drivers for Canon, Epson, Lexmark, and PCL printers."
These free print drivers are built on CUPS (http://www.cups.org/), the standards-based, open source printing system developed by Apple and used in OS X.
But be careful! It's possible to render your Mac's printing system non-functional, so play it safe and clone your Mac hard-drive first, so you can can get back to a working system,
if you get yourself into trouble.
Software to clone
(create a complete, bootable backup of) your hard-drive (before experimenting)
- SuperDuper (http://www.shirt-pocket.com/SuperDuper/SuperDuperDescription.html), free to clone drives, $US 28 to unlock additional featuresore
- CCC v3, Carbon Copy Cloner (http://www.bombich.com/software/ccc.html), the venerable and free
Any Coffee Drinkers?
Starbucks' Pick of the Week (http://www.starbucks.com/aboutus/pressdesc.asp?id=857)"Each Tuesday, more than 7,000 Starbucks company-operated locations in the US will stock a new Pick of the Week download card redeemable on the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com) for a complimentary song or music video hand-picked by the Starbucks Entertainment team and iTunes."
If you are interested in a copy of my Keynote Presentation "Tips and Tricks for your iPhoto/Book Preparation" click on the following URL and you will get a download, in PDF format.
LeRoy Lees
http://files.me.com/cllees/u3osby