I’ve anointed a new computer and had a hassle with moving my address book.. If you know someone who is supposed to get it and doesn’t let me know. dmeilach@msn.com. Or check it out at www.smalladdictions.com/Skateboard.
1 OLYMPUS ZOOM CAMERA IS A WINNER
2. LEXAR FLASH MEMORY
3. ON A POSITIVE NOTE: CLIPMATE
6.1
By Dona Z. Meilach
Early in my computer writing career, beginning with CPM systems (who remembers those?) it seemed the hardest items to review were the spate of printers that rapidly came on the market, were updated, numbers changed, features expanded, etc. Today, digital cameras run circles around the challenge of reviewing the old printer market.
But there is help in the form of reviews, price, and feature comparisons on the Internet. You need time and patience to digest the infinite charts and what they offer. And, as soon you have a decision and hit the stores, bingo! Out comes another version.
1.OLYMPUS ZOOM CAMERA IS A
WINNER
Right now, I have the new (it was when I received it 3 months ago) Olympus C7000 Zoom digital camera with a 7.1 mega pixel rating. It’s one of about 4 cameras with that high a rating. It’s sleek, easy to use, and produces pictures anyone would be pleased to have for both amateur and professional shoots.
The 5x Optical by 6x Digital zoom gives it the oomph required for shooting close up…as close as 2 cm. in super macro mode. In normal macro mode, you can get sharp images as close as 8 cm. to your subject.
After admiring the compact 7.1 oz. unit made of rugged aluminum with a titanium finish, you’ll be delighted at the easy to install rechargeable battery and the small battery charger that won’t add much weight or bulk to your travel case. Thanks to Olympus’ advanced TruePic TURBO image processor there’s practically no wait for the image to load. The Olympus C 7000 Zoom offers 12 shooting modes and a range of manual controls.
There are also still and movie modes along with 12 selectable shooting modes. You can customize some of those modes to your specifications. There’s an in camera red-eye setting and a slide show mode. The viewing LCD is 2” square so you don’t have to squint to view or review any image.
The Olympus C7000 Zoom is such a high
precision camera loaded with too many features to review here. I suggest you go
to DCRP Review: Olympus C-7000 Zoom, by
Jeff Keller at www.dcresource.com/reviews/ olympus/c7000z-review. You’ll also
find prices from various distributors ranging from about $450 to
$600.
2.
LEXAR FLASH
MEMORY
When my computer began
acting flaky I decided I needed a larger flash memory unit than the 128
Vision-Tek Jump Drive I extolled in a recent column. With no time to shop I
bought the first one I saw with a decent size, reasonable price, and a rebate…a
1 gigahertz Lexar Jump Drive. I had the tech support person at the store use it
to back up files from the server that contained my files that they would hold
for 30 days.
When it came time to
restore files from the Lexar, I realized it needed a driver that had not come
with the unit…no CD, no nothing. The plug and play setting on my WIN 98 system
couldn’t find a driver so I downloaded one from the Lexar Web site (none
apparent for the unit I had but I got lucky and selected one that worked). The
installation went well until the very end when I was notified I needed a
specific .dll file. I thought I’d check the company’s 24 hour 7 day a week
interactive help they boasted about. After several 15-minute wait sessions, and
a 3-minute wait on the phone that told me to check the Web site, I gave up and
sent an email. My next day response told me to download the required dll file
but now where to get it.
It took me a while to find
it, and then find where to put it to make the unit work. Why can’t these
processes be simple? And non-frustrating?
Putting the Win 98 system
back up required a 3-hour session with MSN via two high pitched fast speaking,
thickly accented young women from India who had to shunt me to superiors when
they couldn’t fix the problem. One insisted I go to the Internet using a dial-up
line that I no longer have. She was SURE that was the problem. It was only the
Adelphia help desk, manned by an English speaking male, who knew what the
problem was and had me fix it almost instantly.
All this turmoil and loss
of 3 weeks working time convinced me it’s time to buy a new computer.
Admittedly, XP on the new system found the driver immediately for the Lexar
Flash memory so that vindicates it…almost. Now that I have a new machine set up
and humming, I don’t feel like working at it.
One by-product of a
computer break down is the discovery that a favorite program has an update.
CLIPMATE, the one add on program I find indispensable, keeps your deleted files,
words, sentences, graphics, anything, then lets you paste them when and where
you want. I was thoroughly happy with version 5.0 but couldn’t resist loading
6.0 from Thornsoft Software. Unfortunately, I lost the necessary pin
registration number but I don’t mind buying the up-grade because it deserves to
be supported.
Clipmate has so many neat
features that are hard to describe without looking at the screen. So do yourself
a favor and go to www.clipmate.com
and download a 30-day trial version. Whether you use repeat paragraphs for
writing, bookkeeping, eBay
transactions, for anything, ClipMate is the one program that will make your life
easier. The most you’ll pay is $29.95 and it’s worth every cent. It has a Screen
print feature, too, so you won’t need an extra program for that capability.
======
Dona Meilach is the author
of over 85 books with 10 on computers. Her newest books are WOOD ART TODAY from
SchifferBooks.com. And a new cookbook, THE 50 BEST PUDDINGS AND SOUFFLES from
www.Bristolcookbooks.com.
Other computer organizations interested in running this column should contact
the author. The column is also available as a free E-zine. Subscribe DCC:
Contact dmeilach@msn.com. Dona’s
Computer Capers may also be found at http://www.smalladdictions.com/Skateboard.