uni-ball micro black pen. g4 powerbook. metrocard. single-malt scotch. Not necessarily in that order. M, does booze count as software?

and yes, we had a million year old HP printer at the office that i threatened to throw onto Madison avenue if it wouldn't stop working so that we could upgrade. bless whatever warehouse it continues to print from.

The best thing I've used since it came out was the optical mouse - no ball fuzz (can I say that?), precise and no hassles.

B/W Laser printers seem to just go on forever. I've got one I bought from my old employer for $50. It's an HP 5M. It's big and freakin' heavy, but it just continues to crank.

I've got a 17" Apple monitor from my old Centris 650 that is still going since 1993. I had to get an adaptor to attach it to my G4. It threatens to die every now and then by getting the shakes. It even withstood my attempt to step up to a cinema display a few months ago but I discovered my G4 couldn't run the new display.

Uni-ball micro's ROCK.

Makes my life harder:

Epson 900 $500, died after two years of hard service

Makes my life easier:

RAM purchased 1 gig for about $70 (pre XP/OSX release when the prices hit bottom)

Huge chrome storage rack on wheels place as much as needed on it and it still glides across the hardwood floor

BEST Manhattan Easel I worked for this company for a year. Excellent craftsmanship and generous employee discounts. Finest easel I've ever seen/used. With the turn of a few knobs the entire easel can fold down for easy transporting. I can't say enough good things about the quality.

This strikes me as a technology discussion. Having worked with paste up in the 80s and 90s, I can attest that technology makes things more convenient and compresses the production time. But in no way is it easier. In fact, because you save time with one job, it just means you're off to the next one much sooner.

Neither hardware nor software are easy, nor do they make my life easier. They're like a puppy that never grows up, always needing attention and care. Sometimes they make you smile and mostly they make you curse. When it's time for their checkup, they cost an arm and a leg, but unlike a puppy, you can always upgrade.

p.s. laptop trackpads suck
and Apple should make their own scrolling mouse

Yes, eric, booze is software.

I'm with y'all on the uni-ball pen. Also for drawing I rely on the Pigma Micron 005.

OK, the 2 things I mentioned were from my PC days (though now that I'm on the Mac I still don't have an adequate backup system). From both the PC and Mac another plus worth mentioning is the Wacom tablet -- can't live without it.

But I confess ... that since switching to the Mac, the laser printer has been the bane of my existence. The first one I got was a Xerox, and I rejected it because the type wasn't crisp. That was replaced by a Xante AW1200 -- and although I accepted it because the type was crisp, I realized afterward that it prints too dark. It prints so dark it makes roman type look fatter than bold. I've been through tech support with Xante twice and talked to many Xante reps about this. Their ultimate solution is ... they can allow me to buy a new printer at the amazing discount of $150. Yeah right, like I'd buy another Xante.

Dante has an old Apple Laser 360 that we're going to attempt to hook up to the new system--not sure if we'll be successful.

My favorite tool right now is a handmade exposure unit for burning silk screens. The design of this thing goes back through several "art making screen printers". I have built 3 myself. The one that is about 10yrs old still works, although it would benefit from some new bulbs.

I am all over the uni-ball, but it's gotta be a Micro.

Every Epson that I ever came across has been a big baby. HP's on the other hand are always diehard workhorses.

> What hardware makes your life easier?

My fridge.

hhp

Marian's original post makes reference to her ever-changing backup systems -- a personal obsession of mine.

Given the fragility of computer media (easily corrupted, quickly obsolete, lack of standard formats, etc.) I'm curious if anyone else is familiar with The Long Now Foundation or the Getty Museum's Conservation Institute. Our current digital culture is in danger of disappearing almost as soon as it happens due to the "inherent vices" of such media like DAT tapes, floppy discs, and cheap CD media.

For a brief period in the early '90s, it was common to see stacks and stacks of backup SyQuests in people's offices. Was all that information transfered to more current media? Was more than one copy made?

Personally, for the past decade I've been backing up on DAT tape, knowing full well that isn't good enough. With constant use, DATs quickly develop bad sectors thus forcing me to make three DAT copies of everything: an overall tape series for each year, a redundant year series and a series for each client. After that, I'm still not secure, so I burn the most relevant files for each project to CD.

But then I got to thinking... will we still be able to open our old Quark 3 files in a few years? So, I also raster TIFF files of each piece in hopes that the TIFF format will last longer than some native files.

I openly admit that much of what we do probably deserves to end up in the rubbish heap, but you never know... you never know...

(The references to printers segues into my other main obsession: color reproduction -- a software issue for another post.)

Holy crapoly. On one thread we've got Greg destroying everything in sight and here we have Mark ... doing what??? Rastering TIFFs of each piece to store in 3 different backup locations? WOW.

As much as I think you are totally insane, Mark (in the nicest possible way) I do understand your concern for preserving our digital ephemera. It is history after all, and I could go on, but that too is another post.

everything I have ever owned by Apple. Currently a 15" TiBook G4 and a 20GB 3G iPod

Waterfield Designs Large cargo bag + Sleevecase. Indestructable. Looks cool as hell. Highly designed. Nothing better on the market.

Canon CanoScan LIDE 50. This is the thin scanner with only a USB cord and nothing else. The size of my TiBook. works great for normal quality scans. Highly portable.

Sony Ericsson T610 cell phone. Bluetooth so I sync my calendars and address book wirelessly to my TiBook. Just brilliant. I also find the camera surprisingly handy.

2003 Volkswagen Jetts Wolfsburg 1.8t. Love this car more every day. Inexpensive, fast, attractive, well designed, lots of little bells + whistles that make it a great car.

All Clad Stainless Steel cookware. Untill I got a 10" saute pan as a gift recently I had no idea why you would pay $94 for one pan when a whole set of cheaper stuff can be had for $50. Now I know why, and I am saving up to buy more.

As far as pens, I love my Pilot razor Point V pens. Cheap, reliable, great paper feel.

I knew that would get a rise out of you Marian. Don't think of it as insane; consider it thorough.

Actually, such methods come in handy quite often. We've had several clients come back a year or two later for a minor update to a miniscule piece and (a personal favorite) several record labels call looking for 'lost' files. Sometimes after five or six years have passed.

As for the TIFF files... portfolio, website, etc.

It's just part of keeping it together.

One of the things we could never get to keep up with our growing demand was backup systems.

Despite this being a hardware thread, when talking about backing up, I can't help but mention Retrospect. I use both the Workgroup (server) and Desktop (client) editions for all my backup regiments at work and at home. They just released version 6 which works nicely with Panther.

In terms of hardware but staying on the backup issue (although also software specific, sorry Marian) I have found that RAID-1 other wise known as "mirroring" has become a staple in my workflow. For those that aren't familiar with the concept, RAID-1 is when two drives of equal capacity, one to a BUS which makes it speedy, are "stripped" together with software. In my case I use the wonderful SoftRAID. When one writes to drive one, you only see one drive mounted on your desktop, it simultaneously writes the same information to drive two. Instant backup! Should drive one fail, you have drive 2. This however, does not solve off site backups. It's very easy to setup and not terribly expensive. I just set up a 200GB RAID-1 at home in my PowerMac G4 for $500. On a side note, I only use Seagate and IBM/Hitachi hard drives.

Besides RAID-1, I LOVE FireWire. I can't live without my two 60GB FireWire drives from Other World Computing not to mention my iPod.

Honorable mentions include my HP laser printers, Epson Stylus Photo 1280 printer, ColorVison products, Nextel phone and service, Timbuk2 bags, Rotring pens, Burt's Bees stuff, Volvic water...

But then I got to thinking... will we still be able to open our old Quark 3 files in a few years? So, I also raster TIFF files of each piece in hopes that the TIFF format will last longer than some native files.

PDF

I purchased one of the first G4's - and boy was I proud of myself.. even went nuts and got the 17" Apple Studio Display... and besides a memory/system upgrade - I have had NO (knock on wood) problems whatsoever.

My Epson Stylus Photo 600 Printer WAS wonderful.. until they have not created a driver for OS X... that is my only regret for going Jaguar.

And can I say my Exacto set (with the exception of the blades)

JonSel mentioned it and I have to agree with the HP 5M. We've got one here in the office and it's still working hard, as well as an Apple Laser 360 that's working. There's also an old wide format Epson color printer, that sometimes makes me want to go "Office Space" on it.

We used to have an older b/w HP that just, sadly, died slowly a couple months ago. We replaced it with guess what? Another HP. And it's awesome. We also have a very trustworthy Epson 1280, sometimes the printouts come out banded but you can fix that by going to ultra-high quality and waiting for an 8.5 x 11 page for 30 minutes to print…

I still use zip disks and drives to move stuff around. Remember when you would give your life for a Zip? Like, you would send a job to a printer in a zip drive and the only thing that mattered in the end — more than the job itself — was getting the zip back?

We just installed a new backup system, it's some sort of Sony and so far it works great.

Kiran Max Weber writes:

PDF

I've always been hesitant about certain resolution issues with PDF files. But maybe with the gradual improvement in PDF workflow over the past couple years...

Only thing is -- TIFFs are faster to make than high resolution PDFs, especially from Quark files.

Mitch, I agree on the Canon scanner, I got the 30 version. Their cameras are awesome too, I want the SD10 in black. I forgot to mention Acme Made bags and covers, VERY nice stuff. I envy anyone that has a Bluetooth phone. Here in suburbia you can forget GSM.

The Epson 1250 (?) inkjet printer at my old office used to drive me into a frenzy. It hated me; I hated it. The paper jams, the non-feeds, the clogged heads (and yes, the cleaning, servicing and overhauling) and that crazy little tune it makes ... I wanted to kill it.

Now I have an Epson Photo 960 and it amazes me with the ease with which it chugs out those prints. Never a jam, a stripe or a clog. No silly noises. (Alas, no large size tho, on this model.)

OK, I've been told by more than one person that the HP laser printers, being not true postscript, but postscipt emulators, are not so good for running from the Mac -- especially from OSX (and especially from InDesign?) Is this not true? Can I just run straight back into the arms of my one true love, the HP laser printer?

Palm handheld. You always have a place in which to write , sketch or note whatever, and you always have your calendar with you.

An assortment of red sharpies. Never leave my house or office without one in my pocket. I am obsessed with correcting and reworking stuff boldly.

Epson 1520. I had this printer for a few years, using all kind of paper (including handmade), abusing it in any way I could think of and it was forever faithful (I sold it when I graduated, and have regreted it since then).

Pretty much any optical mouse with a scroll wheel ($15 at CompUSA) is better than the elegant, but rather clumsy Apple mouse.

As for backups, Kiran is right about the Raid. Even if you can't do a full Raid, just get a second HD ($100 or so) and manually back up your files every few days. No one really takes the time to back up with tape and CD, and a second HD is a no-brainer way for us lazy people to have at least one back up of their data.

elegant, but rather clumsy Apple mouse.

OK, that makes no sense at all. How about 'pretty, but rather clumsy'...

On one thread we've got Greg destroying everything in sight ....

marian-

To be fair, I don't destroy everything, just rejected work. It keeps my ideas fresh. But that's not what this post is about.

I have a pair of Altec Lansing speakers attached to my computer from somewhere in the mid to early 90's era - they work wonderfully still. But most technology is so ephimeral, that I can't say that anything has been just a workhorse I can't get rid of. The only reason I can't get rid of something is because I can't afford a new one.

Maybe there IS something wrong with me....

Oh you guys are making more aware!

Mircosoft's Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer is great but it sucks batteries.

These are so worth it too. BUMP. BUMP. BUMP.

uni-ball micro black pen. g4 powerbook. metrocard. single-malt scotch. Not necessarily in that order. M, does booze count as software?

Eric, which single malts?

We have one of the first generation graphite G4's that is a nightmare. Hmmm... I think we are going on either the 4th or 5th hard drive and the thing still won't work correctly. Apple really needs to stop putting out hardware before the thoroughly test it.

*c

My iPod is absolutely the best hardware item (or anything item, come to that) that I've ever owned. There's something to be said for objects that are as functional as they are beautiful. Even when I'm not dumping files on it to take to the printer, grabbing material back from him and listening to my tunes as I go there and come back, it's sitting on my desk reminding me of the power of design. Go iPod.

Also, having been reluctant to part with my clumsy/elegant Apple Pro Mouse in favour of uglier and more useful options, I'm now in heaven: a three-button, scrolling mouse that looks just like my old one! It's changed my life.

No one really takes the time to back up with tape and CD, and a second HD is a no-brainer way for us lazy people to have at least one back up of their data.

We are on the third floor of a building and one morning an upstairs neighbor's heating valve exploded -- flooding everything below, including where our computers were. If we had kept everything on a RAID, no matter how 'stable' one thinks it is, all would have been lost.

The whole triple-redundant/cross-media concept comes from Michael Reisman, Phillip Glass' recording engineer. I've seen some high-end photographers like Grant Peterson follow the same methodology. Yes, it's tedious -- but if we are vendors in ideas and images then it seems logical to protect our (for lack of a better word) inventory.

I've been exploring the pros and cons of AIT vs. DLT: backwards compatibility, stability, projected lifespan of the media and so forth. Any thoughts?

And Marian -- you're treading on a software discussion when you mention Postscript printers i.e. the tragedy of Postscript RIPs.

Apple hardware.

I too have a first-generation G4 that's been pretty darn reliable.

I love having two monitors (15"). One for my work space and the other for all of the palettes. It really increases productivity by dramatically reducing the amount of time spent constantly shoving palettes around or collapsing and expanding them. I've been working this way for a number of years now and I can't recommend it enough. I now hate when I'm working with a single monitor. It's so confining and messy. (When I was at Macromedia, one of the multimedia designers, who was a real master at Director, had 3 monitors: one for the workspace; one for the palettes, and the third for frames window.) Now you might think that multiple monitors is unnecessarily expensive. But interestingly, two smaller monitors cost less than one big monitor, and yet the total viewing area is much greater. I do want to upgrade to flat-screen monitors, though: more room on the desk and less radiation.

A year ago, I decided to fire up my old forsaken IIci and see what, if anything, was on it of any value. Hadn't been turned on in like 4+ years. I dusted it off, connected all the cords, plugged it in, and hit the start button. It fired right up without a hitch. There's something kind of awesome about a 12-13 year-old computer that still "chugs" along. I'd probably still use it if it wasn't so god-awful slow. (I've decided to keep it around just in case I ever need to get at artwork in a obsolete format. I mean, the computer still works!)

HP 4-in-1: A printer, scanner, copier, and fax all for about $200. After a year of use, it's proven to be pretty reliable. Granted, it has it's limitations and compromises. But considering the price I paid and the amount of things that this little machine does, and how little problems I've had, it's just been a great value.

Oh yeah, I love my Opti Jr. optical mouse with its scroll wheel and left/right click functionality. It's so much better than an Apple mouse, which is minimal to a fault.

Uni-ball Micros are the bomb.

you're treading on a software discussion when you mention Postscript printers

OK, well it's my thread and I say "tread here." What is the tragedy of postscript RIPs? Do tell. Anything I can get from this dscussion that will lead me to a laser printer that prints postscript really really well will make me happy.

And yeah, second hard drives and all that are all very well in the event of meltdown, but don't help much in the event of [knock on wood] fire, flood or theft. What's an AIT or a DLT?

Steven, my next monitor will be a 15" Apple flatscreen. It will sit beside my 17" flatscreen anf the wonders of 2 monitors shall be revealed to me at last. By the time I get it it will be dirt cheap, too.

throw out your mouse. buy a wacom tablet (a small one goes for about US100 and is perfect for most designers). i've got two that have been working faithfully for about eight years, through several different system upgrades. my hand never hurts.

Marian, you'll never go back to a single monitor again. Trust me. You'll wonder why you didn't do it sooner (other than the price).

And pk, I've heard similar statements from other Wacom tablet users, who similarly swear by it. It's on my list of things to eventually get.

And as pk hinted, it's not necessary to get a big tablet. I have a little 4x5, the size of a mousepad; it's all I need. A friend of mine had a great big honkin' 12xsomething and to use it you had to sweep your whole arm across in an arc--it was just utterly ridiculous, and it took up half his desk.

Who was it who said drawing with a mouse was like drawing with a bar of soap? They were right.

As far as the Wacom goes, I completely agree - its a delightful piece of hardware. I have an Intuos A4 and it has never failed me.

Just a hint for anyone looking to buy one: go make friends with your local Mac geek at CompUSA, Wacom offers a VERY good employee purchase program for thier retail partners - I got my $470 tablet for only $260 this way.

what is it that designers love so much about uniball pens?? every place i've ever worked buys them...i hate them... if you hold them at the wrong angle no ink will come out of them and the ball always seems to break and they dont write anymore.

...and who came up with this fruit-flavored iced tea that all restaurants have now? that's a technological advance i could do without. when i go to a restaurant i want tea that tastes like TEA...if i wanted that crap i'd buy hawaiin punch or something ;P

ok, seriously...i find wacom tablets to be really hard to use. with a mouse you can pick it up and put it down in another spot, and the cursor stays in the same spot on the screen —�so you dont actually have to move it all over your mouse pad. why cant the wacom tablet do the same? with a mouse, i dont move my wrist much, just my fingers — and ive never had any problem with carple tunnel syndrome.

actually, it can do the same - just set it to "Mouse" mode.

Help!

Although my b/w HP printer is a faithful workhorse my color Epson ink jet 3000 gives me trouble. Even after I cleaned it and made sure the heads are not clogged it still won't print a solid black without white lines. It didn't used to do this. Anyone had this problem? Is there a cure?

I have to go with the HP5000GN also. Better then any other laser printer HP makes, will take just about any paper stock you throw at it, and keeps on going. If you want to see how you type is going to look, you have to front for a 2400 dpi xante, or send test files to your service bureau for repro output. (we do it all the time to test text settings in books)

Poloroid SX70 land camera, iPod, airport/wi-fi, french press, LaCie monitors, timbuk2 bags, tea kettle.

Staedtler liquid point pens are my new fav.

> Mircosoft's Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer is great but it sucks batteries.

It is insane how fast they consume the batteries. Try rechargeable batteries though. I have two intellimice, one at home and one at the office. Love 'em!

> Double monitor

SO SO SO So very Cool!

I'm another happy uni-ball vision user. The best part of the pens for me is the ink, which is (claimed to be) waterproof and fadeproof. I sign my artwork with them. I use the blue for signing documents. Very nice writing feel.

Most Epson printers I've used have been an annoyance, but in general I've been happy with their flatbed scanners.

For a while I couldn't do without my Handspring Visor Edge, but these days I'm back to writing by hand in an address book.

I won't give up my Aeron chair just yet, though.

Oh, and just about any Apple product that I use, I become quite attached to.

OK, well it's my thread and I say "tread here." What is the tragedy of postscript RIPs? Do tell. Anything I can get from this dscussion that will lead me to a laser printer that prints postscript really really well will make me happy.

Many RIPs for Postscript printers actually rip a CMYK file to an RGB file, then send this to a CMYK printer. The end result is 'black regeneration' i.e. your blacks are 4-color blacks (usually with a greenish cast) instead of a straight black. Companies like Birmy PowerRIP (EFI based) are happy to charge up to $500 for their RIPs yet deliver less than brilliant results. I for one, have never been happy with EFI/Firey RIPs; even though it is a de facto standard. The results seem thin and desaturated and I always have suspicion in my heart whenever a service bureau or pre-press person claims a 100% calibrated workflow based on it.

The best RIP that I could find was Adobe PressReady. It drives my Epson 3000 almost perfectly -- what I see on screen is what comes out of the printer, with a few minor glitches in PMS color simulation. It was released towards the end of System 9's life, when Apple was hinting that OS X would have a totally redone color management system. Unfortunately, Adobe must have listened to Apple, since they stopped development at version 1.0 and let PressReady die a lonely death.

In September, I had the opportunity to talk Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen's ear off about PressReady -- along with every Product Manager and Color Scientist I could get a hold of. It seems that not enough designers understood how great the product was and there wasn't enough of a market share to warrant further development. Alas. It's our loss.

So here I am -- stuck in System 9 because the drivers for OS X are either not available or create black regeneration. And that's the tragedy Marian. Because not enough designers are obsessive about color (to the point of madness, that is), because designers design for both screen and print (lack of standards, projected vs. reflected light), because a different driver would have to be written for each printer model, because many color printer consumers are photographers who work in an RGB color space, because enough consumers don't see the failings of color management -- we're stuck with a less-than-perfect work flow.

Font management was enough of an issue to all computer users -- not just in the graphic design/desktop publishing ghetto -- to force a solution from the market. I dream of the same for color RIPs, but I'm not holding my breath.

And yeah, second hard drives and all that are all very well in the event of meltdown, but don't help much in the event of [knock on wood] fire, flood or theft. What's an AIT or a DLT?

AIT is short for Advanced Intelligent Tape, a dense and fast helical scan medium with transfer rates around 12MB a second and projected cassette capabilities of 200 Gigs in the AIT-4 format. There are different 'binders' on the tape, thus no need for head cleaning and there is a small chip in each cassette which stores a file catalog, thus faster access times. The format also features lower tension when accessing the tape, giving it a longer projected life than other methods like DLT or DAT.

DLT is Digital Linear Tape -- the format commonly chosen for larger companies' network backups -- which has a higher density rate, so it holds much more information. Compared to the twisting of AIT's helical scan method, DLT has a gentler tape path and consequently a gentler tape handling.

The verdict is still out in my mind about which to chose or if I should even bother moving away from DAT. After reading way too many white papers, I find AIT somewhat more attractive but am uncomfortable about the fact that only one company, Sony, makes the format.

Finally, to join in on the love pile -- I'l like to recommend the Lexmark T520 or T620 laserwriters. 1200 dpi and quick; with adjustable blacks.

Are you people INSANE? It's all about the Sharpie Ultra Fine Line and the spiral-bound sketchbooks, preferably 9x12.

Epson Stylus 1280. Microsoft 5-button mouse (and the Schick 4-bladed razor, thanks to a thread I read on SpeakUp). The Palm T2. My cross-cut shredder. All things I cannout live without.

...and I'd like to nominate "Firewire" as a category all its own. SCSI is not a distant-enough memory.

-Rick

Leslie gnashed her teeth and cried to the heavens:

my color Epson ink jet 3000 gives me trouble. Even after I cleaned it and made sure the heads are not clogged it still won't print a solid black without white lines. It didn't used to do this. Anyone had this problem? Is there a cure?

I don't have any miracle cures except these, at times, contradictory bits of advice:

1. If you have such a problem, sometimes multiple cleanings can help.

2. Do you run the occasional cleaning sheet through the paper path? You may be having some slippage issues.

3. You may be experiencing worn rubber bits in the paper path. If so, its time to get a new printer -- cheaper than repair.

3. Make sure to turn off the printer at night. Keeping it on 24/7 exerts constant pressure on the heads, encouraging clogs.

4. They don't like to sit unused for weeks on end. That seems to encourage clogs too.

I guess you're dammed if you don't and dammed if you do.

And finally,

5. Have you rummaged around Epson's support pages?

Thank you Mark. I'm very glad I unleashed that floodgate--or allowed you to unleash it or whatever. You told me more than I ever thought I'd want to know about colour RIPs--but actually, now I'm glad I know. Sortof. I'm trying not to take this tragedy to heart and feel sad that one more aspect of once attainable perfection is denied me. I gave up on getting even close to true colour out of an inkjet years ago--I had no idea it was so close, and that now it is so, so very far away.

I know I will return to your post in the future and stare at it, and wonder.

As for the AIT and DLT, now I just feel a little bit smart. Now when the topic comes up in conversation I can say, "Oh yeah, I've heard of that."

A Lexmark, eh? So you're not afraid of the postscript emulator?

As for Sharpies --- yeah, they're essential to have around for inking things in, but I never write with them. In fact I consider writing with a pen that bleeds abhorrent.

and Rick G--5 buttons? What is that, a piano?

What hardware makes your life easier?

My current Mac, a 17" Powerbook: I bring (almost) everything with me: anytime, anywhere.

And at home or at studio, plugged into a second monitor (double monitor) with LaCie d2 drives, it doesn't make me miss my previous G4 desktop setup.

It's a perfect machine when you have to travel between two different locations - 150km of distance, every week, with all your files with you!

An old HP 4p Scanner, super A4 size, that lasted 6 or 7 years: it died last month.

Netgear 10/100 Switch to power up the home LAN.

What makes it harder?

In a studio I worked for we had a G4 Cube with all sort of problems: rejected some firewire devices, had problems with mouse and, most strange thing I ever seen on a Mac, last year it started having problems with flash movies: the power on led on the case used to blink (following music rythm) while the Mac played flash movies, causing the computer to crash after a while!

Since the machine (on of the oldest Macs in the studio) was used for Flash production, it was useless :)

Epson Stylus 1250, died exactly one month after warranty's gone: repaired, died again, now prints only black and white.

Errata Corrige:

Epson 1520... sorry!

I second the wacom tablets - used them for about 9 years now could not live without. and the dual monitor setup is a must! Lacie monitors, iPod, Ti book and we too have the HP (laserjet 4MV) that just keeps putting out - must be 10 years now.

Ditched the Epson (think it was the 1280) for a new HP colour (sorry, forget the model - at home now) which is smooth - some setup quirks but once they get nailed down I have high hopes for her.

and our Olympus digital camera (sorry, don't have the model here - I'm useless aren't I?) its a few years old 3.3 megapixel that takes sweet photos. Have purchased 2 newer cameras in recent years (Kodak and Cannon) but they just don't compaire in quality.

Most beautiful and reliable piece of hardware i've got is my own head. Probably.

my beautiful new Cuisinart coffee maker, my LG cell phone (I can get my email on it, and that makes me happy), my Barber Wilsons kitchen faucet from London (so I can't get replacement parts, ever), my ipod, my two-year old HP digital camera (which looks really horsey and outdated, but I actually figured out how to use), and I know I am being redundant but: #2 pencils.

Boo to epson printers.... I've never used one that I liked (2000, 1280, 740, 900...)

And Boo! to THe Uniball -- the thing bleeds everywhere! I would love my mind without the Pilot G2 pens (in ultra fine point) and fresh sharpies that havent had their points mashed.

Nikon cameras from waay waay before I was born (my FM and FT3 are my life), but too bad the Nikon Scan software for the 8000 sucks for OSX.

I have to also say my Wacom tablet. I used to look at Wacom users as though they were flashy designers that just HAD to be different... until late nights of Quake III left my mouse hand a mangled, painful mess.

When one of the other designers at the firm I used to work at got fired, I appropriated his tablet and took it for a spin. There was no looking back. It's WAY faster than using a mouse and much more precise. I especially like to use the smaller versions as they speed up movement even more... and are a lot cheaper.

And of course, this saves my mouse time specifically for fragging!

Makes job easier:

First of all, any writing instrument and paper!

Wacom tablets.

I can't understand how others can use a mouse, especially for design work. Tablets need a little time to get used to (very little once you realize there's both a proportional pen-mode for drawing and a mouse mode for, mousing), but the benefits for both your work and the health of your wrist are vast.

Apple computers. Though they can also cause headaches, they're far more elegant and reliable machines than PCs.

Apple iPod. Music, storage and handy information in one small, elegant device.

Canon cameras, especially the Isux S400 or S500 for portability and great features (panoramas) and the 300D DSLR for freedom and affordability.

Makes job harder:

Computers in general when they go wrong. Printers in general when they go wrong. Hard-headed employers who might as well be a piece of cold, dumb hardware.

Does anyone have any opinions on office chairs?

I have been looking into purchasing either an Aeron Chair, Eames Aluminum Management Chair, or the Hi Back Freedom Chair.

I realize that these chairs are a sizeable investment, but if I need to spend hours on end in one, I don't want to be in physical pain because I saved myself from financial pain.

If we had kept everything on a RAID, no matter how 'stable' one thinks it is, all would have been lost.

No doubt. My point being that a second HD is better than NO back-up at all.

My ideal backup system would be:

- two mirror-raided drives (this is a HD backup...one fails, just reboot into the other)

- a third drive used for manual FILE backups.

- A nightly tape backup that you rotate off-site daily

- a seperate server for job archiving, that, ideally, is mirrored to an off-site server daily.

OK, that's a bit extreme, but I'm a geek and if I had the money...

Does anyone have any opinions on office chairs?

If you are a mouse jockey, the absolute best-spent money will be on (in this order): a good chair, a good desk, good input devices, a good monitor.

Chairs are personal...you need to sit in one and actually work sitting on it for a period of time to really decide if it fits you. Neither the Aeron or Eames office chair fit my body (the eames' chairs were actually great, but apparently designed for people under 5'). I found a cheap, low-back $80 POS chair actually was the best for me. So, it all depends on your own body.

...and I'd like to nominate "Firewire" as a category all its own. SCSI is not a distant-enough memory.

This is my biggest hold out. I use Firewire and love it, but my SCSI setup runs rings around everything else. Geek report: ATTO UL3D and two 73G Atlas III 10k I've been lucky though, as much of a pain SCSI is for some people I've never had any problems. I also refuse to let go of my Laserwriter 360. And I second (third?) the iPod props. I got mine in Nov 2001 and it's still chugging along, and without any battery problems if you can believe it.

Before that it was my Lasermaster Unity 1800XL0 imagesetter that for as much as I loved it hated me with a passion. I don't think I've seen better prints since. I miss that thing and I'm glad it's gone. It seems like the love/hate relationship most designers have is with our printers. And the pen debate: for me it's a black Sharpie ultra fine and uniball in assorted colors.

Neither the Aeron or Eames office chair fit my body (the eames' chairs were actually great, but apparently designed for people under 5').

The Aeron chair artually is available in three sizes. You make a good point about trying them out for yourself.

I never found a desk that I liked so I designed and built my own. I can't stand 90� corners on desktops. Why do they do it? My desk is a two level corner desk with half inch round beveled desktops. The legs are black gas pipes painted with a special effects paint to give it a hammered finish. The desktops are aspen joined using piano hinges so that I can unscrew the legs and fold the desktops together for transporting.

artually

My new word. POS Outlook spellcheck -- oh, wait that's sofware...

hello all - especially to all of the people decrying the lack of OS X drivers for printers. we had this problem last year with the pson 2200 we got for the media lab at my school. it wouldn't print worth a damn off of all the OS X machines we had set up. Either it didn't work at all or the drivers caused the color registration to be totally and severely off. We tried an open source set of drivers called GIMP that's available on sourceforge. It worked like a charm - it supports not only printers that OS X supports, but also a whole bunch it doesn't. Install is a little tough, but the documentation is good, it worked really well for us, and it's totally free. Its printing feature set is also out of this world (for lasers too).

Won't keep the epson from blowing through a sackful of ink for every page, though.

[Macs] ... more ... reliable machines than PCs

I'm not going to start something here, I'm not, I'm not--but I just want you all to know that I worked on a PC for many years (designing, using Quark, InDesign, Photoshop & Illustrator) and when I switched to Mac, I spent a year working on and comparing both, and the Mac under OS9 was equally as unstable as PC/Win98 (but the PC was faster) and the Mac under OSX was marginally less stable than the PC/Win2K (but the PC was faster).

So when I got my Mac, I have to tell you it was so, so not my favourite piece of equipment. I now love my Mac the way you love a good, honest person you've been living with for a few years, and I'm here to stay, but it pains me to let comments like this go unremarked on.

That's all.

We tried an open source set of drivers called GIMP that's available on sourceforge. It worked like a charm - it supports not only printers that OS X supports, but also a whole bunch it doesn't. Install is a little tough, but the documentation is good, it worked really well for us, and it's totally free.

GIMP is a collaborative open-source Ghostscript project (aka Postscript emulator) -- no single company is responsible for development and support. I don't know if you saw their discussion board, but if you have a problem, sometimes you're given a bit of code that you plug in yourself. As a small business owner, I would be hesitant to commit the time and energy away from making money and redirect it to dicking around with a collective science project. I do type, not code.

I can see the logic of tackling this problem in an educational environment, but in a small design studio; where one person is the tech guy and the account manager and the designer and the janitor and the bookkeeper... yikes.

Remember, Adobe invented Postscript.

Why has the company that gave us ATM and PressReady for System 9 dropped the ball on OS X? Not enough consumer demand? Did the Healing Brush take up too many programming hours?

questions... questions...

i was so worried about buying my AlBook and beating it up in transit. every solution offered seemed to be cloth or neoprene or something that wouldn't be impact-resistant. a friend of mine reccomended LM Engineering and their briefcase was the best $82 i ever spent. i used to worry about damaging my laptop when i got in the car; now i worry about damaging my car with the laptop! seriously, it's that heavy duty. plus, it's a great conversation-starter - "what do you have in there?" also, they custom make the cases, so you 17"ers can probably get one

they custom make the cases, so you 17"ers can probably get one

17" bags (at least here in Italy) have insane prices.

I bought a wonderful motorbike backpack, since I always move by motorbike, .

It is not reinforced, but it's quite good and comfortable to carry the laptop on my back.

As a small business owner, I would be hesitant to commit the time and energy away from making money and redirect it to dicking around with a collective science project.

Alternatively, you can spend the time and energy (and money) paying for poorly trained techsupport for poorly written software.

We had a large Epson at my last firm. It was shit. A good printer, but the drivers were bad, we'd often 'loose' jobs on the way to the printer, the printer couldn't understand different paper sizes. Ugh. I finally called Epson. I'm paraphrasing, but this is the jist of the conversation:

me: We're having all these problems

Epson: What driver are you using?

me: version x

Epson: Oh...that's a really bad one...there's lots of bugs in it. W

me: umm...is there an update?

Epson: Yes. But you'll have to pay $100 for it. Besides, it won't fix any of the problems you are having.

me: *sigh*

Point being, I guess, is that the quality and/or support differences between open source and commercial products have less to do with the licensing model and more to do with the specific product.

BTW...semi-on-topic, a few of you mentioned your Palm handhelds. I love mine too. Sadly (stupidly?) Palm just announced that they will no longer support Macs with their new OS. Will this be the final push to get Apple to re-think the Newton?

We had a large Epson at my last firm. It was shit. A good printer, but the drivers were bad, we'd often 'loose' jobs on the way to the printer, the printer couldn't understand different paper sizes. Ugh.

Yes. Epson drivers are crappy. Hence PressReady.

To Marian

Who was it who said drawing with a mouse was like drawing with a bar of soap? They were right.

Scott Kelby Editor Photoshop User Magazine.

Most reliable hardware. My Devilbiss Airbrushes and five liter silent double tank air compressor.

Those trackballs are terrible.

---

Christopher Johnston’s comment is:

"... We have one of the first generation graphite G4's that is a nightmare. Hmmm... I think we are going on either the 4th or 5th hard drive and the thing still won't work correctly. Apple really needs to stop putting out hardware before the thoroughly test it."

---

What this sounds like is a brownout condition from the power. Dead drives are a very common result of low power. Either the power supply is bad, or the outlet. Or perhaps you have some piece of machinery that uses an electric motor on the same circuit (as the motor will cycle the electircity up and down).

Nice tip Teal.

That reminds me of another hardware tip. If you have a shaky image on your monitor it can be the result of pollution from surrounding electromagnetic fields. Namely speakers that are to close, or in my case, I had placed a power strip behind my monitor which docked a couple large AC adapters.

I have to say that 802.11g wireless ("Airport Extreme" in the Apple world) is just about the best thing in my hardware life right now. 11Mbps wireless was great -- I could take my PowerBook around the house and work from wherever, or even outside -- but you really felt the slowness when transferring large or lots of files back and forth. 54Mbps is still noticably slower than being plugged in via Ethernet cable, but not enough to make me pull my hair out and scream. And, with the iSight -- also great from a hardware coolness point of view -- I can run around the yard and make my video conference partner sick!

I'm really happy I hung on to my 9+ year-old Mac Performa [remember them?] We got it when we had very little $$$ & needed to write in Word a lot. When I go upstairs to pay bills or work on the laptop, I use it to play CDs. Threw out the damn printer we got with it. It just sits in the corner & churns out music. I'm not an IPod kinda guy; it is not a good idea to have music with you all the time: listen to the world more often. It is nice to keep old computers around & working.

powerbook g3 (pismo) running os9, has been more reliable than the g4 powerbooks on X

having all our work stored on a trusty PC running windows 2k server edition with macintosh support packets (allows for windows and os 9 to network with each other). This has been a reliable choice for us to use as a system backup since we can also log-in to our server from anywhere and ftp our files to store/archive.

just about every ink-jet printers we've owned had to be replaced. all our laserprinters, well the only one we ever purchased is still working to this day.

My god, 70 posts, and no one's mentioned a color laser printer.

We bought an HP8550 Color Laser printer years ago, and the thing has been a blessed joy. I don't understand why offices continue to lease Canon color copiers. For the price of 1 year's lease on a color copier, you could buy a HP8550. It prints flawless color outputs up to 12x18" -- and takes any media you would send through a copier.

Rotring rollerball pens also rock.

Just got a new Bose noise-canceling set of headphones for my bday. They're just amazing.

...

Zoelle -- get an Aeron. Eames aluminum group chairs are beautiful, but they don't benefit from modern ergonomic research and materials.

But if you want to spend less -- Knoll makes an affordable line called SoHo. A few years back, we couldn't pony up for Aerons, so we bought a bunch of SoHo task chairs for the office. They were still $350 each, and only had 2 simple adjustments. But they had perfect ergonomics, and was as supportive and durable as the Aerons which we later bought. I still have a couple of them in my home office. Great looking design too.

If looking into aerons, I would also look into the Mirra chair. Cheaper then the Aeron, and, so says Metropolis, better. Also by Hermann Miller. But go sit on one first, and when buying an aeron, get the right size.

Thanks for the tips Tan and Ben.

I think I'll need to take a field trip to a store which carries them. Has anyone heard anything about the Freedom Chair offered by Design Within Reach? It looks intriguing. I don't think I'll get a chance to sit in one in this area until DWR opens their Chicago store(s).

I bought a replacement remanded cartrige for my lexmark T520 printer from Corporate Express in SoCal for my Lexmark T520 printer in my pharmacy. The Cartrige fell apart in my printer and made it unusable. 1. I always bought lexmark approved products from a Lexmark approved dealers. I returned the defective cartrige to lexmark to Jeff Beard a Lexmark employee. He then sent the cartrige to the engineering department and they determined that I had forced their remanded cartrige into their printer. well all I can say is I have replaced cartriges in their printers for 9 years and never had a problem until I used one of their official remanded cartige. I have followed everything they have required. But now I have a T520 printer that is totally unusable because of the toner that was dumped inside of my working printer. Jewff Beard informed that their remanded cartrige is actually an oringinal cartrige priced to compete with other companies rebuit T520 cartriges, so it is actually a new product. I should have known when I pulled it out of the box and it had a ring of toner around the drum unit something was wrong, but you know it came in a Lexmark box so I installed because I trusted the brand more than my own common sense.