Venturing into Vista 4: Home Network

Disclaimer: what I write here is NOT in any way intended to endorse, advertise, promote, or put down any commercial or other products. Anything which might be construed as critical may be based on situations and circumstances which do not apply to anything or anyone else, so please don’t feel maligned or assume I’m looking for a fight. Opinions are mine alone and may be under/mis-informed, just like everyone else’s opinions, which is why I’m writing this on my blog and not the Computer Helpers blog.

This series is the result of a search for a Vista-based laptop in April and May of 2008. All this information is subject to being outdated, limited, or highly debatable.

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I matched the laptop’s networking abilities to a wireless router.

Now, I wanted a router that had both wired (for my old desktop PC) and wireless (for the laptop) abilities.

I ended up with a well-known brand model, based on several reasons. You might prefer something else, and that’s fine. Some people won’t have this or that brand as a gift, due to bad experiences, and swear by something else — and person A and person B can have absolutely opposite opinions on that basis. This makes it hard to choose going by reviews and customer feedback, so I figured out my own method.

First: The one I chose had the two methods (wired and wireless).

Second: It handled all the standard specifications:

• Delivers up to 14x faster speeds* and 6x farther range* than 802.11g means Greater Coverage for Your Entire Home or Office [this is hype for the n wireless standard]
• Ideal for streaming HD video or streaming multiple applications simultaneously
• Intelligent QoS technology prioritizes both wired and wireless Internet traffic to enable enhanced gaming and phone calling (VoIP) experience
• Gigabit Ports for Incredible Wired Network Speeds
• Dual active firewall protection (SPI & NAT) helps block malicious attacks on networks from the Internet.

Technical Details

• Device Type: Wireless Router
• Form Factor: Desktop
• Wireless Network Standards: IEEE 802.11g
• Wireless Network Standards: IEEE 802.11b
• Wireless Network Standards: IEEE 802.11n [actually a "draft" version, which we all hope will match this in the final version]
• Wireless Data Transfer Rates: 300 Mbps
• Security Protocols: WPA
• Security Protocols: 128-bit WEP
• Security Protocols: 64-bit WEP
• Security Protocols: WPA2 [and this is VITAL, as it is the highest current standard of security available for home networks, and I would not settle for less -- WEP is weak and outdated, WPA is outdated]
• Networking Standards: IEEE 802.3ab Gigabit Ethernet [the Gigabit is faster, but not essential]
• Networking Standards: IEEE 802.3 Ethernet 10Base-T
• Routing / Firewall Protoccols: DHCP

I kept finding reviews by users that said this or that model of router had died on them. Not encouraging. Of course, it might also mean they forgot to protect their router with surge protection on both the electrical power and the incoming signal (in my case, cable).

So, Third: I used both the store’s owner reviews and Amazon’s owner reviews, until I found a router that met my requirements and had the highest owner approval level I could get on both sites. Amazon is tougher than the store (wider range of users, perhaps, as well as more of them), plus I think Amazon may carry some models longer than some stores, so accumulates more feedback.  You might prefer to use a more specialized source of feedback.

Result was the router I picked, which had the best customer feedback for the ones which I could buy locally. Not perfect (nobody was perfect) but best overall. If everybody’s whatever was bad, then everybody was equal on that aspect.  Bear in mind that the people most likely to post may often be the ones who are unhappy, in some respect. Consider the other factors.

Routers don’t have service plans (at least at this store) so I might have saved some money waiting for a router to ship, but I wanted to get to using the system right away.

I had to replace the wires that came with the router (the router is not the newest model, and came with Category 5 wiring — today you need to use at least 5e or 6 for quality and speed). TV/Internet cable goes to my cable modem, Cat 6 wire to the router, and Cat 5e to my old desktop (that Cat6 is pricey!). There are 3 antennae, and you twist them to stick out at whatever turns out to be the optimum angles for your house.

I was thinking that configuring this setup would be the tough part, and I’d read differing stories about that. Here, however, I got a fairly pleasant experience.

The router came with a freeware program called Network Magic, which includes a trial version of the pay product upgrade. Not only can I recommend it as a freeware product, but the next upgrade version (”Essentials”) isn’t too expensive, and you might get all you need from it in during the 7 days period. It set me up pretty quickly and painlessly, using my old XP system. This software is designed for a lot of different brands and models, so if you have something else, it still might be useful if you’re having a hard time getting set up.

Then I used the same software for the laptop, and since I’d already set up a lot of the basics, I could concentrate on doing the wireless security.

I also used a freeware (for personal use) product called NetSetMan which lets you save network settings for different networks and lets you switch to the one you need. I saved my home network configuration in that.

I set up for WPA2 security, and made sure my passwords were nice and long and nonsensical, which I preserved in my KeePass file. KeePass, of course, could generate long nonsense passwords for me quite easily. (Check my tutorial on it.)

I noticed that I have some other networks in the neighborhood which are not secured as well, since they showed up that way in my list of available networks. Wonder how I appear to them? Relatively impregnable, I hope. My laptop keeps offering to have me join one of them when I boot up, and it’s tempting, but I resist. I might consider notifying the neighbors that I can see them. First, though, I’ll make sure I’m secure before I start warning anybody else.

There’s a practice called wardriving, which involves driving around trying to find other people’s networks. Sometimes this is done just to steal the service, and sometimes it’s to break into those networks and steal or damage data. I don’t want to leave any opening for that kind of thing if somebody comes past my house.

I wanted to share printers via the network, and that gets more complicated. For one thing, I need to have those Vista 64-bit compatible drivers on my laptop, and I have to go to manufacturer’s sites to get those. Some of the advice on getting them to work gets rather complex, too. More on that later.

Venturing into Vista 3: Hardware

Disclaimer: what I write here is NOT in any way intended to endorse, advertise, promote, or put down any commercial or other product. Anything which might be construed as critical may be based on situations and circumstances which do not apply to anything or anyone else, so please don’t feel maligned or assume I’m looking for a fight. Opinions are mine alone and may be under/mis-informed, just like everyone else’s opinions, which is why I’m writing this on my blog and not the Computer Helpers blog.

This series is the result of a search for a Vista-based laptop in April and May of 2008. All this information is subject to being outdated, limited, or highly debatable.

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Okay, I made the final decision and bought a laptop, and a wireless router. I will have to figure out an external backup drive later — that’s another research project in itself, but important.

I used a store offer that allows me 18 months interest-free to pay it off, before all the interest comes crashing back down on me. That should be a practical period of time. I did this by applying on the same day for a credit card for the store.  This is a nice incentive by the store, but you have to be careful that you can pay everything before the deadline.

The important thing to remember (aside from paying this off before the deadline) is that if I charge anything else, I may find that any payment goes to pay off the 18-month stuff first, before it pays off the new stuff for which I’m being charged normal interest. That means that I would have to pay off the big bill while paying interest on later purchases.  So, no using the card again for 18 months, at least. It depends on the details of the offer, so read the fine print, people, whomever you deal with.

The Winning Choice (for me, anyway)

I finally settled on a laptop of a famous brand which is actually a surprise for me, since this brand of desktops have had their ups and downs on campus (they started up, and went down, and we haven’t used them for some years).  I won’t name it up front here, as this is not a promotional site, but the basis for choosing it is covered hereafter.

I found a review from ZDNet which is pretty favorable. A little condescending, but favorable.  A few others were around, but it was a very recent release so it didn’t have a lot of coverage yet.  I also went by the reviews of the model just before it, and what people wanted improved in that older model — did the new one deal with those complaints?

WARNING: this is not intended as an endorsement or recommendation for anybody else to use in deciding. Maybe I’ll decide it’s a mistake later, but I’ve listed my deciding points here. Use the points to think about what would suit your needs, if they help.

Service, Anyone?

Service for just about anything from anybody seems to be bad: HP, Toshiba, Dell, Gateway — everyone complains about tech help. Like most people, I expect somebody that’s supposed to help me to at least know what they’re doing, and that wasn’t the case for a lot of owners, according to their comments.

Let me emphasize that the telephone service problem seems to be not as often a language difference, as much as it is the lack of help received. That sounds like the company’s fault in training more than the employees, wherever they are actually located. We have domestic and foreign-born student assistants in the library here, and we still expect them all to be able to help or to go get somebody higher up to come help.

So I picked out a store that (along with the 18 month deal) has in-store help and it’s own service center. I got the 3-year contract that works at any store in this chain.

Specs

Here are the specs (with vendor hype), with my comments:

• 4GB PC2-5300 DDR2 memory for multitasking power [and it takes 64 bit Vista to properly use more than 3 GB of memory anyway.]
• Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive with double-layer support records up to 8.5GB of data or 4 hours of video using compatible DVD-R DL media; supports DVD-RAM; also supports Labelflash direct-disc labels using compatible Labelflash media. Double-layer DVD±RW/CD-RW Speeds 2x DVD-R DL; 8×8x8 DVD+RW; 8×6x8 DVD-RW; 5x DVD-RAM; 24×16x24 CD-RW. [I said I wanted DVD-R to be compatible with my existing DVD recorder and media. I don't know if I'll bother paying twice as much per disc just to burn a nice label onto it with Labelflash, though.]
• The next-generation Intel® Core™2 Duo processor is based on the innovative Intel® Core™ microarchitecture, so it runs faster and is more energy-efficient for cooler, quieter operation, 667MHz frontside bus, 2MB L2 cache and 1.83GHz processor speed. [Not fast,compared to a lot of systems out there, but this model might be easily upgraded to a faster processor in this model if it turns out to be too slow. Energy-efficient is good in a laptop, especially.]
• 17″ WXGA+ TFT-LCD widescreen display with Ultrabright technology and 1440 x 900 resolution [and the average17" screen eats battery power like mad, so I lose on energy there. Ah, well.]
• 320GB Serial ATA hard drive (5400 rpm) [slower drive but nice and big.]
• NVIDIA GeForce Go 8800M GTS graphics with up to 512MB discrete GDDR3 video memory; HDMI connection; high-definition audio (2-channel support) [I compared the speed of laptops with slower graphics -- 8600 chip, for example-- and this was noticeably faster in reaction. The HDMI port should let me plug into a HDTV system for large display, if I want to buy a cable.]
• Illuminated metal precision-touch multimedia control panel provides easy access to and control of your media and applications at the touch of a button [and everyone complained about the hard-to-read numbers on the keyboard -- 1 through 0 are in dark red. I used a silver Sharpie to make mine more readable in low light conditions, and have to repeat every so often.]
• Built-in 1.3-megapixel Web cam [and the light from the screen creates so much glare on my glasses that you can't see my eyes anyway... but it's a decent camera, I guess.]
• 5-in-1 digital media manager supports Secure Digital, MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, Memory Stick PRO and xD-Picture Card [well, might come in handy... at least it uses the Fuji xD cards from my camera]
• One IEEE 1394 (FireWire) interface and 3 high-speed USB 2.0 ports for fast digital video, audio and data transfer; eSATA interface [More USB ports are always good these days, and the FireWire can be a fast port for an external hard drive for backups and such. The eSATA port might also work for an external backup drive, although people have been having problems getting it to work with Vista due to drivers]
• Built-in Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR technology [wondered what I'd use this for, and then thought of a wireless barcode reader we have that uses Bluetooth -- wonder if it would work?]
• 10/100/1000 Mbps Gigabit Ethernet LAN with RJ-45 connector [the Gigabit is only for the wired connection to my old XP desktop, but this is standard stuff]
• Intel® Wireless Wi-Fi Link 4965 network connection (802.11a/b/g/n) [the key ones are g and n, which I'll cover with the router later]
• V.92 high-speed modem [never know when you'll need to plug into your hotel room]
• Premium case design with brushed metal keyboard surround and high-impact composite finish (which picks up fingerprints and attracts cat fur like nobody’s business, which is about average]
• Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition (64 bit) operating system with Service Pack 1 (SP1) preinstalled; software package included with Microsoft Works 9.0 [which I won't use], Microsoft Money Essentials [which I've tried before and now don't use], a trial version of Microsoft Student Office Suite [which I won't use], CyberLink Power2Go and more.
• Warranty Terms - Parts 1 year limited Warranty Terms - Labor 1 year limited [I've got the store's 3 year policy to depend on instead.]
• Product Height 1.7″ Width 15.75″ Depth 11.75″ Weight 9.2 lbs. + AC adapter = about 14 lbs. [this is considered quite heavy these days, but that's a 17" system for you. The big battery on this particular laptop is an odd extra bulge at the back of the unit.]
• Pointing Device Synaptics touchpad with vertical scroll [I'm already used to a touchpad, so this is no problem for me. Other people might consider a Bluetooth wireless mouse, perhaps.]

Do NOT rush out and buy this or any system because I “recommended” it. This appears to be the closest that I can get to my preferences for the money I’m willing to spend right now. Your needs might be very different. I checked a lot of opinions, which wasn’t easy since this only came out a month or so before I bought it, but there were some fairly objective reviews on this and the model right before it.

I tend to NOT depend SOLELY on the “professional” reviews by magazines, etc. Using something for a few days or a week is not the same as continuing to use it for months and years. (We’ve had a printer at the library that had good reviews, but it stopped behaving at the end of the 90 day warranty period — something not mentioned in the magazine reviews since they didn’t use it that long.) Users sometimes have some very revealing things to say, or have different priorities for things, or try different software than the standard test stuff.

Then I had to match it up with a wireless router.

Venturing into Vista 2: Vista?

Disclaimer: what I write here is NOT in any way intended to endorse, advertise, promote, or put down any commercial or other product. Anything which might be construed as critical may be based on situations and circumstances which do not apply to anything or anyone else, so please don’t feel maligned or assume I’m looking for a fight. Opinions are mine alone and may be under/mis-informed, just like everyone else’s opinions, which is why I’m writing this on my blog and not the Computer Helpers blog.

This series is the result of a search for a Vista-based laptop in April and May of 2008. All this information is subject to being outdated, limited, or highly debatable.

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Windows Vista has been — and still is — a big topic of debate.

At this point, Windows Vista is (according to some sources) suspected of being a miscalculation, in that Microsoft expected computing power to continue to increase (due to the famous Moore’s Law), and created software to run on more powerful PCs. Manufacturers, on the other hand, seem to have looked for ways to cut costs, and that often meant reducing or limiting the power, at least in terms of the demands of Vista. At least that seems to explain why Vista, according to a lot of user complaints, runs like a tortoise on a lot of PCs that were supposed to do better with it.

A lot of voices are now saying, wait for the next version of Windows and just skip Vista entirely. That assumes that Microsoft will take a different direction.

On the other hand — and a very authoritative one — are bloggers like ZDNet’s Ed Bott, who believes that with SP1, Vista has come of age and should be not just a decent but a good and fast operating system, as he has stated and offered detailed instructions to make possible.

However, whichever view one takes, right now we have students and faculty on campus who are getting computers and dealing with Vista, like it or not, and it’s hard to just sit smugly and say “I’m waiting for the next version; I’ll be able to help you once I learn about that.” That’s not much of an attitude for a service-oriented library professional, IMHO.

So, Vista.

Vista Home Basic came out early, and is still around here and there. You find it on the computers that sell with only 1 GB of RAM. This is what a lot of the class action lawsuits are about: Vista was supposed to be this and that, and people bought computers that were labeled as “Vista Ready” or “Vista Capable” or whatever, and got what amounted to a dumbed-down version of Vista that didn’t do what they expected from all the hype.

You can find Vista Home Premium on a few 1 GB computers, but that’s not enough to run it decently. You need at least 2 GB of RAM, according to Microsoft and everybody else, to run it at tolerable speeds.

Now, pick a real working version. You have Home Premium, Business, and Ultimate. Business leaves out some Premium things, adds some Business things. Vice versa on Premium. Ultimate has all the features (but Microsoft considers Vista Ultimate, an upgrade from Vista Home Premium and Vista Business, to be a “consumer product,” reducing the company’s support for Ultimate to a maximum of 5 years rather than 10. Bummer.)

Home Premium has Media Center, DVD Maker, Movie Maker, and the usual games. Business has Backup, Fax and Scan, and Remote Desktop. Ultimate has all of those plus disk encryption. That’s pretty much it. If you need both the media stuff and the fax, you get Ultimate.

I considered the Remote Desktop, since it might help with testing access to our services without having to drive home. Otherwise, not much reason for me to bother upgrading to Ultimate.

Outside the U.S., there are other variations, but I’m going to leave that to some librarian who blogs in Europe or somewhere to cover, and good luck.

But — that wasn’t all.

Vista is lately available in 32 bit and 64 bit versions, too. What is that all about?

Technical details aside, the idea seems to be that a 64-bit version is more powerful, and some people seem to find it runs faster on more powerful PCs (than the 32 bit version of Vista). Certainly, it is closer to the theoretical “state of the art” than a 32 bit operating system. So, apparently in order to get around the complaints of Vista being slow, manufacturers started putting out their latest, more powerful computers with the 64-bit version of Vista so they’d run faster.

But there’s a couple of catches.

Catch 1: not all software is compatible with 64 bit Vista, even if it works on 32 bit Vista. While there is a “compatibility” function in Vista, it doesn’t always help with running 32 bit software on 64 bit systems.  You can forget (usually) about running anything older without a lot of extra hassle.  That favorite software that worked on Windows 95 or even 98 may not be accepted on 64 bit Vista without a convoluted workaround.

Catch 2: 64 bit Vista versions require that all the software drivers be digitally signed by the developer. You can’t install them at all unless they meet that requirement. Meaning, a lot of drivers for one thing or another are not going to install — legitimately, that is. (There is already at least one third-party program available to get around this limitation, which is one reason I was willing to consider 64 bit anyway.)

This limitation is intended to make the system more stable and reliable, but it could be a problem if you can’t find a signed driver for what you want. It would seem that a lot of people don’t want to bother with signing their drivers when they create software, or more often the driver came out before Microsoft put out this requirement. And like me, a lot of people don’t want to buy new peripherals like printers, scanners, etc., just to get something that might have 64 bit drivers available at some point.

64 bit drivers means that older printer you (or I) own may not work with a new Vista 64 bit system. Or that camera, or scanner, or whatever. Or that favorite program, or game, or — et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. I had to research ahead of time on what I had and see what might — or might not — still work.

Innovative Interfaces’ Millennium software is supposed to work on it, according to a reply I got on the Innovative Users Group e-list. Cross my fingers and hope, I guess. It will be an early test.

I also wanted to try out, for example, the Xitel INPort system for converting audio cassettes and phonograph record from stereo directly into digital files. Will this work on a 64 bit system? The manufacturer’s site just says “Vista” but no other details…. which is pretty common.

And what about the other software? I’m a bit fan of open-source and freeware software, but how much of what I want — and recommend to others — is going to be available in Vista, and in Vista 64 bit?

Of course, I could just change the operating system to something else. While some newer computers are optimized so that they can’t even run Windows XP very well, I could change to 32 bit Vista.

The thing is, a lot of the computers I’m most interested in are equipped with 64 bit Vista, and the stores are not enabled to change that (at least, not without extra charges and work). And, a lot of the students are going to end up with 64 bit Vista without even realizing it.

So, I have to seriously think about all that.

Plus, there are all the articles about Vista. The fact that Microsoft admitted that the User Account Control was created to “annoy users” into encouraging 3rd-party vendors to make more secure software seems like a rather odd attitude.

But a lot of people haven’t enough background to make a choice other than what the stores carry. Maybe I should act the same, just to be in the same situation so I can try to work around the problems? Or would I actually be better off with 64 bit?

These days, a lot of manufacturers don’t provide a Windows disk with their system.  You just make your own backup which essentially re-creates the same original setup, and you have to supply your own blank disc for that.  If you can find a system that actually gives you a Windows disk with both 32 bit and 64 bit on it, so you can change if you want, that would be as close to ideal as possible.  But can I find that?

Venturing into Vista 1: What to buy?

Disclaimer: what I write here is NOT in any way intended to endorse, advertise, promote, or put down any commercial or other product. Anything which might be construed as critical may be based on situations and circumstances which do not apply to anything or anyone else, so please don’t feel maligned or assume I’m looking for a fight. Opinions are mine alone and may be under/mis-informed, just like everyone else’s opinions, which is why I’m writing this on my blog and not the Computer Helpers blog.

This series is the result of a search for a Vista-based laptop in April and May of 2008. All this information is subject to being outdated, limited, or highly debatable.

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Why?

“Some people have children in order to buy toys. I feel it’s cheaper and more dignified to cut out the middleman and buy toys for myself.” — bumper sticker

So, I decided I needed to buy a laptop. Why? (Always make the decision that gets you the new toy first, then figure out your justifications. That’s the American way, after all…)

1. I needed to become familiar with Windows Vista, warts and all, so I could have some understanding of what was going on and how I might be able to help others with it. A lot of our students were buying new PCs for college, and had no idea how to deal with them. I was the one who got a lot of referrals in the library, and I was stumped far more often lately due to Vista.

2. I wanted a portable computer, because I wanted to be able to move to different parts of my home and do some recording from my stereo in another room, or do inventory in my library room (hey, I’m a librarian — of course I have a library room at home!).

3. I wanted a portable computer, because there are times when I would like to do demonstrations elsewhere and putting my software on the Library’s laptops or those available from the campus may or may not work out (based on previous experience). It would also be interesting to see what I needed to do to be able to do something like that, if it’s possible at all.

4. I was starting to run into more and more limits, even after upgrading the memory, on my old XP desktop, and the hard drive was filling up rapidly now that I was getting buying music or ripping it from my CDs.

5. I could learn about setting up a home network by using the old desktop and the new laptop, and share that experience. Also, I could learn how to switch between my home network and the campus network, and any tips for doing that.

All those good reasons, and I get a new toy. What more could a guy want?

Wellllll….. there’s the matter of enough money to buy it, and that’s a factor that many students and faculty have to deal with, too.

So, this is how I went about it, and what happened. And if it goes well or badly, I’ll put it down here.

What?

First, I checked for the requirements for our library automation software and the client software. If there’s something you have to use for anything, be sure you can get it to run on the computer you buy.

In my case, Innovative Interfaces Inc. has a listing for the latest release:

• An Intel Pentium 4, Pentium D, Xeon, Core or similar processor running at 3 Ghz or faster (2 Ghz or faster for the Core 2 Duo), or an equivalent processor such as the AMD Athlon 64, Opteron 64, or Turion processors with comparable performance. (They said that it would work on slower processors but not as fast. I’m running it at work on a Core 2 desktop at 1.86 MHz without difficulty.)
• At least 1 GB of RAM (they said if you run anything more at the same time, you’re going to need more RAM memory. With Vista, my reading had already established that anything less than 2 GB of RAM was useless for Vista Home Premium version and up.)
• At least 500 MB of free disk space (I wanted better than 200 GB, at least)
• Sound card for audible system warnings and notices
• A mouse or other pointing device (in this case, a touchpad as laptops usually have)
• 800 x 600 resolution or better (I wanted much better)
• A browser (specifically “a modern browser capable of supporting current Web standards” meaning IE 7 and Firefox 2 — which I already was using — or better would be fine)
• III’s client software

They stated that these “workstation requirements listed are neither “optimum” nor “minimum” requirements. These requirements are realistic recommendations intended to guide a typical library in workstation selection.” They have other requirements if you have a Mac, or run Linux, or whatever, of course.

The operating systems included Windows® NT 4.0 (service pack 6a or later), Windows® 2000 (service pack 2 or later), Windows® ME, Windows® XP, or Windows® Vista (Business or Home). (They did not, however, specify Vista 32 or 64 bit, which came up later.)

So, any really decent laptop that ran Vista well should suffice. What else did I need to look at?

Oh, sure — I considered the possibility of buying a Mac (very seriously considered, in fact) and having a dual boot of Vista and the Mac operating software. Then I looked at what it would cost just for the laptop, and that was that. Nice operating system, expensive hardware. Some people have hacked desktop PCs so Mac software would run, but I didn’t want to get into trying to make a laptop do that.

Plus, while I do not consider myself a Windows “loyalist”, Macs aren’t perfect either. And Linux versions are still limited in what can be run on them for my personal purposes, and required more setup to get the full benefits, from everything I’d seen. I’d like the option to also boot a Linux “distro” to try it out, but not as a primary operating system at this point.

Price: I started out thinking under $1,000, but ended up thinking under $1,500 for the graphics and hard drive size I wanted, along with other wants. I still had to add the service plan costs to that, plus a good wireless router. Oh, yeah — I’ll have to research routers for this project, too.

Screens

Did I want lightest weight, or go for big screen? The way I expected to use it, a big screen would be better. I wear full-lense glasses for use with computer screens (which saves me from that notorious crook-neck you get from trying to use bifocals with a computer). Okay, look for 17″ screens.

That narrowed the field quite a bit right there. Yes, I could have gone larger, but I wanted to be able to carry it myself…. so under 10 pounds would be a good idea (17″ laptops seemed to run 9 plus pounds), especially inside a carry-on case with other stuff, running through the airport to make a connecting flight (based on experience, of course) and then (I hoped) fitting under an airliner seat in a suitcase (a little commuter jet).

A higher resolution would be nice, but not that vital for me. I’m not trying to cram a detailed wide-angle view of a photo editing session or a game battlefield on the screen all that often, so I could go with a lower number here compared to what artists or gamers want. I’m using 1024×768 normally on a 19″ desktop monitor, and that is about as high as I usually want it. Higher than that, and I might even reduce the resolution if I needed to.

Brightness is a factor, especially in varying light conditions. Having some fancy name for it, however, didn’t really tell me much. Most of them seem to be “Brightview” or “Ultrabright” or “Eye-blinding” or something. Most reviewers just checked to see how it looked in direct sunlight, or something like that. I tended to pull the screen out into the bright store lights to check for things like glare, since most stores frown on you hauling their display items out into the parking lot.

Yes, a larger screen does use up battery power faster. But after spending a conference trying not to trip over the extension cords of laptop users sitting on the ends of rows by the wall, so they could plug in…. it didn’t seem to be as big a factor. Get a big battery, and/or get a spare battery and charge it. Plus, there are ways to reduce the power use somewhat even with the screen.

Oh, yeah — be sure you can get a spare battery for it, too. The battery is absolutely guaranteed to die, even if the rest of the gear holds up, so be able to replace it. Laptop battery life can be measured in time span, whether you use it on battery power much or not, so once it gets old enough, it won’t hold a charge even if you didn’t depend on it much.

RAM

RAM? Random Access Memory, nowadays expressed mostly as “SDRAM” for the latest type commonly available, is part of the intelligence of the computer. As I explained to an elderly lady who asked the difference, “I GB of RAM is just barely thinking, and 2 GB of RAM is twice as smart”. (Hey, I do analogies people can understand, if they are not interested in high-tech explanations.) Usually comes on a “card” or pair of cards, and preferably should be balanced on each card if you have it on two cards (2 GB on one, 2 GB on the other, say).

So, Vista Basic (which is described by many people as “no better than XP” can run on 1 GB, but to run Vista as recommended, with all bells and whistles, you need at least 2 GB. An extra GB could help, especially when running several programs at once (which I sometimes tend to do). Then there’s the 32 bit/64bit difference…. Anyway, I would probably prefer at least 3 GB, even if the cards aren’t balanced. If I get the 64 bit Vista — which can handle 4 GB — I might as well go for the 4 GB.

Hard drive storage

Hard drive? In the future, you’ll start getting a choice between a spinning hard drive and a solid state (which would be less vulnerable, especially in a laptop), but not yet in my price range. So, two considerations right now: capacity and speed.

Most of the newer PCs are Serial ATA drives, a.k.a. “SATA” drives. They start at a speed of about 5400 rpm and go up to about 7200 rpm, for regular purchases.  I figured I could stand a slower drive if I exchanged it for capacity — more room. I wanted at least 200 GB of storage space, and more if I could get it. A lot of laptops may be fast and have great components otherwise, but have only 160 GB. A few combine a couple of 160 GB drives for a total of 320 GB, which would be fine. Or, if there was space (which may or may not be the case in a laptop), perhaps I could add a second drive. Or just replace the drive entirely. Be able to do that kind of replacement easily — that’s a good qualification, if you can find it.

Can you run something from it, say a video or movie you copied to it? If so, that’s probably fast enough for me.

Graphics, graphics, who’s got the best graphics?

The graphics card turned out to be a big deal, and a major turning point. I had to read up on those from a number of sources to get the latest information. I got a lot of different opinions.

I finally decided that getting a card that did a half-way decent job of running games (according to some reasonably well-researched sources) was important, and it was probably the best way to judge graphics. Well, at least one way… at least it let somebody else do all the testing for me, so I could read their reviews.

One tendency now is for PC manufacturers to combine the graphics card with the rest of the system by sharing memory, and maybe even combine it with the rest of the system. Lighter weight, lower price — and it tended, from the reports I saw, to slow down the graphics. A lot, in fact, by comparison with the better cards that were dedicated solely to graphics with their own graphics memory.

Okay, so a separate company making the graphics card would result in better performance. I did a lot of comparisons, and staying away from the ultra-high-end cards that true fanatics drooled over, I narrowed it down. And, I went to the stores and checked out the PCs that used each kind, when possible.

Example: NVIDIA has a group of cards called “GeForce” and then a number, and then a letter code, such as NVIDIA GeForce Go 8800M GTS. Generally speaking, a higher number = better card on this brand. Now, in the store, just for an example, I compared a laptop with an 8600 card and one with an 8800 card, one right after the other. The 8600 had a slight perceptable delay in responding to the touchpad, while the 8800 moved immediately. Of course, experts will say there’s a lot of other factors involved, but I wasn’t going to use these cards in isolation, or try them out in different computers — I wanted a setup where everything together did what I wanted, as fast as I needed (within my price limits, of course!).

Laptops often had that hesitation (at least in my price range!), and I suspected that it would start to bother me in time.

I Googled a lot of graphics card names, and read evaluations of them, and I learned one thing: gamers always think there’s a faster card out there than whatever you’re asking about. I wasn’t trying to meet their high standards, however — just use them as a way to find a card they could barely tolerate (at least) for the latest graphics-heavy games, which should mean I would probably do great with it. Anything I would use, even if I played a few games or did some Google SketchUp design with this laptop, would be much less rigorous (any games I get tend to come from the bargain bin, so they’re not that demanding!). Even on the 8800 card, though, I found two different versions, one of which was not as good as the other (according to the gaming fanatics). Making a choice here would be difficult.

It helped if the card had its own memory on it, rather than borrowing too much — or all, which would be worse — from the system.

I did, however, want it to handle DVDs and movie downloads well, and watched for that. It seemed that was an easier standard to meet for most cards, so it wasn’t as much of a problem.

DVD/CD/Whatever

I wanted a DVD read and write drive, too. It had to handle DVDs and CDs, and I preferred to have it use DVD-R format, since I already had a DVD-R recorder and I wouldn’t need different discs. These days, rather than have multiple CDs, more PCs have DVD-something drives anyway. I wasn’t into editing, but if I got into it, that would be useful. If it printed a label directly on the disc, that would be nice, but it wasn’t vital — you have to buy special discs for that to work.  Best would be DVD plus-and-minus R and RW, as well as CD-R and CD-RW designations.  Of course, the CD capability is almost assumed now, but it doesn’t hurt to double-check.

There are still some laptops around with the HD DVD format… and how long you’ll be able to buy DVDs for that is not worth guessing, IMHO. Blu-Ray? Prices on that pushed the total well above what I could spend, plus — I don’t even have Blu-Ray on my television yet. Wait for prices to come down, and stick with the more standard original DVD format. After all, HDTV doesn’t really impress most people until it is on a large enough screen, which certainly is not on a laptop.

CPU

The CPU would most likely be a dual core, preferably one designed for use in a laptop so the power requirements would be low. Dual cores (two CPUs in one, basically) really weren’t being properly used that much at present since the software hadn’t caught up to take advantage of it, but predictions were that more software would have this option or requirement in the future. Something at least 1.83 GHz seemed like a minimum, 2 GHz better, and so on. III’s requirements seemed to prefer 2 GHz but didn’t rule out something slower.

My old XP system, a Hewlett-Packard, was based on an AMD CPU, and I noted that the new SP3 (Service Pack 3) just out for XP was having problems with those. So, I became a little wary of HPs with non-Intel CPUs just because of that. Otherwise, my old AMD-based desktop had done fine by me up to now and was a bit cheaper than the same thing with an Intel CPU chip. I just wouldn’t be in a big hurry to get SP3 for it.

Networking and the router connnection

I would need to buy a wireless router (that also handled wired connections, for my older XP system) in order to make the laptop portable, and to share files with the older computer. (More on that in a later post.)

So, I needed to coordinate the wireless in the laptop (which would be the higher standard) with the capabilities of the router — if the laptop I ended up with didn’t do something, there was no use buying a router that did, since the laptop would be the more demanding computer.

And that led to the wonders of the cryptic “802.11a/b/g/n” code and what I needed my wireless to use.

The standard for networking is set by the IEEE 802.11 code for wireless local area networks (in my case, what I would be connecting to at home or at work). Not leaving well enough alone, the code was revised to allow for an “a” standard, and then a “b” standard, and then a “g” standard.

(Why the gap between “b” and “g”? Why do we never hear about Preparation A through G — only Preparation H is advertised….?) Even that’s not enough, because at this point, a draft version of a new standard designated “n” is available. (And no idea what happened to standards “h” through “m”, either.)

So, if you get the latest and fastest — that would be “n” — you might get a version that wouldn’t quite match the final non-draft version of “n”.

Fortunately, this stuff can be set up to use “g” or “n”, whichever is available.

On the down side, one reason “n” was developed is because “n” can use the radio frequency range of 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz. “b” and “g” can only use 2.4 GHz, which is the same as a lot of cordless phones, baby monitors, Bluetooth devices, and microwave ovens. “a” could only use 5 GHz, but that didn’t travel as far.

So, use “a” to avoid interference, but “b” or “g” to move further away but risk being scrambled by somebody microwaving lunch or making a phone call. “n” gives the advantages and disadvantages of both frequencies, but it’s faster than any of them — provided that the manufacturers of both the laptop and the router didn’t have different ideas from each other, or the final “n” standard, about how it should work.

(Apparently there’s some reason why they can’t just use another frequency that goes further and isn’t as heavily used, but I didn’t bother with it — I had to accept the choices offered. Maybe the baby monitor makers grab up all the good frequencies before anybody else….)

Draft “n” would give me the fastest connection, if I was willing to risk it. Since I can always change my phone if it argues with the laptop (phones are much cheaper), I don’t have a baby monitor (I’ve never hooked up a monitor to a baby, but I understand finding compatible plugs can be tough if the baby isn’t VGA or RCA-equipped), and I can adjust my use of the microwave to allow for my computing needs, it didn’t seem like an insurmountable problem.

Also, with hard-wired connections, a “Gigabit” router would send data faster, although I doubted that was going to be a major factor in my network, since my old XP system wasn’t all that fast to begin with. Still, the speed of the data was usually a bigger factor than the speed of the computer.

I would have to come back to this stuff later, once I selected a laptop, in order to pick a router.

Goodies

Okay, what else?

• USB ports — as many as possible, but I could multiply them with a separate router hub that plugged into one of them.
• a output port for a monitor, so I could connect one if I wanted it. It might also let me use a dual monitor setup, which would at least look cool even if I didn’t really have a need for it. There were two basic standards in the past, VGA and the DVI, but the DVI was dying out due to the introduction of the television HDMI connection, so VGA would be okay.
• HDMI, come to think of it — once I had a digital TV, with an HDMI port, so I could play anything from my computer to my TV, if I wanted to. Either that, or S-Video (not quite as good but more versatile for TVs at this time).
• A card reader might be nice, but not vital. I have a digital camera that uses xD cards.
• A modem might be nice, but not that vital except in hotel rooms, these days.
• A Firewire connection would be optional, but handy. Officially known as IEEE 1394 ports, these were (I read) originally intended for Macs but show up on PCs. Since they’re faster than USB, it’s a good place to connect an external hard drive.  There are two speeds, but the slower one is more likely to be useful at present for connecting.
• Speaking of hard drives, if the laptop has a SATA hard drive, an eSATA port would be nice as an alternative to Firewire.
• Webcam? Not such a must. Some of the separate ones have more features. Still, would save buying one.
• Comfortable keyboard layout. Not all laptops have this. I prefer a split ergonomic keyboard, normally, but I could make do with a decent keyboard alone on the laptop. I wanted to try it out, first, if I could. Some laptops have weird placements on keys to get used to — I have no idea why. The touchpad (which I was used to already) had to be decent, and responsive.

Software

These days, manufacturers put a lot of “free” software on for you. There are two kinds: manufacturer software, to help you use the PC in a manner they hope won’t allow you to mess it up too quickly, and the other kind, often referred to as “bloatware.”

Bloatware is stuff that is usually advertised as “free” but is really “free trial period” stuff. You can actually pay some store’s tech people to remove it (or at least get it off the desktop and out of the menus), or get a program that will remove it.

I’m not impressed by a program that refuses to be uninstalled unless you install it first (and maybe not even then…. ) such as the Symantec Norton products.

(Admitted opinion here: I had a bad experience with Norton way waaayyy back in Windows 3.1, and haven’t heard too much in favor of them since then. They are often reported to have a lot of compatibility problems with other programs, seem to frequently conflict with Microsoft’s updates — more than most programs, anyway — right up through Vista, and I tend to avoid Norton software in general. Your mileage may vary, however — if so, I’m happy for you and don’t worry about me.  Norton is often recommended by magazine reviewers.)

And “Adobe Acrobat Reader” is free, so come on, manufactureres, listing that is not a big deal.

Microsoft Works? Librarians here hate Microsoft Works, for the reason that students would show up with stuff in the proprietary and unique Works format and find they couldn’t print it anyplace on campus. “Go home and save it in another format” is not good advice when it’s 5 minutes before the class when the paper is due. We finally managed to get a copy of Works on one PC here in the library so we could convert those, but it caused years of headaches and frustration for students before that.

(Admitted opinion here: Microsoft deliberately, In My Humble Opinion, made the default format in Works incompatible with everything else so they could tell people who complained of that very problem that “you should just buy our (more expensive) Microsoft Office Suite instead, like you use at the office/university, and not have that problem”. No wonder a lot of manufacturers ended up putting the WordPerfect Suite on instead. Another admission: I much prefer WordPerfect over MS Word, like it or not, if they’re going to put a suite on the computer for me.)

I’m thinking I might stay with Jarte and OxygenOffice (the upgraded OpenOffice), however, for small and suite software instead of Microsoft Office.  They’re both free and quite functional for what I usually need, and OxygenOffice can import Office Open XML (Microsoft Office 2007), Works, my old WordPerfect files and  WordPerfect Graphics graphical files too.

And whether they use Microsoft Money or Quicken, they always seem to put on whichever one you don’t use to balance your checkbook.  Maybe I can find something free for that, too.

I was hoping to use mostly freeware and open source software on this, when practical, as a demonstration of how to save money (as if I needed another reason for that!).

And of course, the big software question comes down to Windows Vista, in the next part of this.

So, off I go….

Bookplates idea

Back from the IUG (Innovative Users Group) 2008 conference, I was inspired by the Brown University session on providing bookplates for donations to the library. They based an improvement in fundraising on being able to show bookplates to contributors.

Frankly, though, I wasn’t satisfied with their system, which used 856 links to separate files. You had to click to get to the bookplate. And me– well, I never leave well enough alone. I just have to tinker to see if I can get something I like better.

So, I checked on what I could do using the Millennium Media function of our Innovative system.

Importing the file (as one would do to attach, say, a PDF file to a bibliographic record) meant that a thumbnail view was shown of the bookplate. Not good — it was just a little too small and hard to read.

So, I tried importing a jpg file to the server, and then using MilMedia to link to the file on the server. While I had to fill in the same address in the file and the thumbnail blanks, it shows up as the full size bookplate.

Brown decided to do without bookplates in the books themselves, but I didn’t think that would be popular here, so I set everything up so we could print bookplates, use the screen capture to get a jpg file of the bookplate for the catalog, and do the typing just one time for each donation.

We still use the indexed 690 field for donor and honoree names (along with other uses for the 690), but once we convert all the entries into bookplates, I’ll take the 690 field out of the OPAC record. You’ll still be able to search with it, but when you get to the record, you’ll see the bookplate instead, which looks much nicer than the rather sterile 690 entry.

Now, if I can only find some way to get IE to display the bib_display.html with the cover and bookplate graphics on the right, like Firefox, instead of the bottom of the screen….

[updated 2008/5/29] I’ve finally tracked down the right CSS and gotten the sidebar with the cover and bookplate to show on the right side of the page in IE.  Yay, me.

Here are the instructions I wrote up. The use of the one-up Zebra label printer and the Wasp labeler software is optional; you could use other methods for creating the bookplate, whether or not you wanted to print a paper label. There’s a link to a sample record at the top.

===================

Bookplates

Example of record with bookplate.

All bookplates are designed for the Zebra label printers. Only those printers can be used to print bookplates.

Bookplates are created using Wasp Barcode Label software, with templates mastered on the N: drive, and the label is updated to current information on donor(s) and honoree(s), and then copied to a .jpg file using screen capture software such as PrintKey 2000. Labels are 2.5″ x 2″. (Actual label on the Zebra printer is 3×2.) While label in OPAC is color logo, the version printed by the Zebra printer can only be black and white.

Note to other libraries: the label could be generated using MS Word or other software instead. For that matter, if you have labels for another program, that could be used as well. The important part is to have WYSIWYG view of the label at the size you want to appear in the OPAC’s bibliographic record.

Bookplate files are .jpg format, titled “bp_” followed by the name of the honoree using underscore between words and in place of any periods after initials [example: bp_J_Emerson_Wattingly.jpg].
Then import into the III server using MilAdmin’s Web Master function.
Following this, link the URL in the Media Set for the bib record.
(Simply importing it into the bib record causes it to appear as a small thumbnail file, which is hard to read. A linked URL, on the other hand, shows it full size.)

1. • Enter one 690 field for the honoree, using last name first:
     Example: Doe, John (Chancellor, Faculty & Staff in memory of the father of Jane Doe)
     Example: Smith, Rita (given by Sara Jane Smith in memory of her mother)
   • In the case of donations only (not Chancellor honorees), enter another 690 field for the donor:
     Example: Smith, Sara Jane (given by in memory of her mother Rita Smith)

   • for Chancellor honor books, open bookplatechancellor.lbl
   • for donations, open bookplatedonation.lbl
   • for older (non-UA Fort Smith) donations, use bookplatewestark even for the FS Jr. College.

2. Open MilCat, MilAdmin, and the Wasp labeler.
3. Switch (Alt-Tab) to MilCat and load the bibliographic record.
4. Enter the 690 field(s) for the information.
5. Save the bib record.
6. Write the last name of the honoree on the paperwork.
7. Switch to Wasp Barcode Label program.
   [If you reduce this, it can appear on top of the bib record and let you see the 690 field(s).]
8. Open the appropriate bookplate label:
9. Doubleclick on lines to be updated with honoree/donor information, and update.
   Each line is a separate field; they do not wrap.
10. Single click outside the field to close the field.
11. Single click on the field to get the multi-arrowed cross and re-align to center the field on the label.
12. Save the label with CTRL-S.
13. Print the label.
14. Use screen capture such as PrintKey 2000 to capture entire label.
15. Save label image to the c:\graphics\bookplates\ directory on computer, titled “bp_” followed by the full name of the honoree in .jpg format
    [example: bp_J_Emerson_Wattingly.jpg] (the “bp_” groups all these together in the MilAdmin listing)
16. Switch to MilAdmin and open the Web Master function.
17. Select the live/screens directory.
18. Import the c:\graphics\bookplates\ .jpg file just created into the live/screens directory.
    You do this using the Get PC button and changing to the correct directory on the computer you are using. If you are doing several, you will stay in this directory until you change it during this session.
19. Switch to the bib record, and click on the Media button at the top of the screen.
20. Create a Media Set titled “bookplate” and leave the Publisher Code at 000 and the dollar amounts to zero.
21. Uncheck the Use Image Viewer box.
22. Click on the Link URL button at the bottom of the screen and enter the URL of the file:
    Example: http://libcat.uafortsmith.edu/screens/bp_J_Emerson_Wattingly.jpg
    The Keyboard Express is set for Alt-b to fill in http://libcat.uafortsmith.edu/screens/bp_ for you.
23. Enter the same path for the Thumbnail URL entry.
24. Save the Media Set.
25. Click on Edit and go back to the bib record.
26. Change the BStatus to “-” (hyphen) for Available and Save the bib record.
27. Click on View, then select Public and see if the bookplate displays properly in the OPAC view.
    Remember that for IE, you may have to scroll down to the bottom of the record to see the bookplate.
28. Switch back to the bib record and change the BStatus back to “r” for Received, so it no longer shows in the OPAC.
29. Close the bib record.
30. When all label printing is complete, attach the appropriate label to the paperwork for that book, using the last name of the honoree as a clue.
31. Optional: you may delete the bp_ files on the local computer, to reduce the number you have to search through next time. The file is now on the III server.

The bookplate will appear in the bib record under any cover display. When using the non-standard-following IE browser, this may be at the bottom of the bib record.

Zebra TLP2844 printer manual is up

The manual for our new Zebra TLP2844 thermal transfer printer is up.

We needed a one-up label printer for our serials, that could also print the routing list as part of the process.

The TLP2844 is a thermal transfer printer, which means that instead of using thermally -sensitive labels (which fade over a short time, we’ve found to our dismay), the TLP2844 uses a thermal process to tranfer ink from a ribbon to the plain label. This should last for years.

For books, you can get spine/pocket label combinations, and those can be printed with a more durable resin ribbon.

For the serials, however, I went a little cheaper and got paper labels, and printed on them with a wax ribbon directly from the Innovative Interfaces Millennium Serials module. The setup info for all that is on the manual page. These will work for in-house circulation until we bind the serial.

Unfortunately, MilSer does not recognize the particular size of label (3×2) we use from the Zebra, so I have to tell it that we’re using 4×4 labels instead of 3×2, and the spacing is a bit wonky after the serials label prints if we have a routing list. If there is no routing list, the next label comes out blank. Still, it does the job, quickly and neatly.  We stick on the serial label, and staple the routing list labels (still on the backing) and pull them off later after routing is completed.

We had been using a standard dot matrix printer (remember those?) but had a continuing problem with the label feed. I insisted they “waste” the first label, leaving it blank, and feed it through into the guide bar so the remaining labels would go through properly. Often somebody decided to “save” that label (and avoid the extra task of detaching it) by not feeding it into the guide bar, so when the printed label came out, it jammed in the guide bar.  Then they took the guide bar off the printer to avoid that, and so the labels kept jamming because they didn’t feed properly through the ribbon guide without the guide bar holding them flat against the platen.  On top of that, they had to feed out the printed label, and doing that by using the platen knob on the side stripped the gears (because people forgot to disengage the gears first) and made it even harder for labels to go through properly.

They needed a “black box” kind of printer that didn’t need any adjustments (or have removable parts).  The standard dot matrix printers were designed for batches, not one-at-a-time labels, but that increased the chance of mismatching labels to issues.

I’m hoping that the new customizing of III’s labels in Release 2007 (due out RSN: Real Soon Now) will allow me to print a barcode on the labels. We use a barcode for counting circulation of a serial within the library, but right now, with no barcode on the issues, we have to go to a rolodex full of cards with the barcodes for each serial title.

While I created a barcoded label using our Wasp Barcode Labeler software, which pulled the right title and barcode for it from an Excel file, it’s an extra step and shifting back and forth between softwares, and it was decided not to do it.

Wasp will let me do book labels (I got a roll of spine/pocket labels and tested), and once I see how the new Release 2007 (or the next version) allows me to customize, we might see about getting another Zebra for Tech Services. I’m also looking at the option to print book bands for ILL.

Legal or not? site links & copyright

I’ve been getting the MakeUseOf posts for possible inclusion in Computer Helpers, but I have to carefully examine some of these sites.

For example, I saved a bookmark for a site that said it had MP3s of TV show theme songs.  When I checked, however, some of the tunes the site claimed to have earlier were missing, such as the theme from the show “Friends.”  That particular one worried me.

Now, I know the “Friends” theme is sold commercially on records and online, so I suspect that it wasn’t on here very long after somebody from the network discovered it and sent a notice to take it down.

I don’t want to lead people to sites that put up violations of copyright, so I’m going to pass on linking this one except as an example of what I avoid.  The owner’s intentions may be good, and they may take down anything for which notice is received, but the fact that it appeared in the first place, and that the site asks for others to submit tunes, bothers me from the copyright angle.

Star SP542 printers and our manual

[updated 4/19/2008 -- see below]

I’ve put up a page for our new Star Micronics SP542 printers that have been added to the two circulation workstations. Software settings for Millennium, for the printer software, for Windows printer settings, and so on.
We have finally retired the old Gaylord Model C card chompers, may they rest in well-deserved peace. I’ve trained a lot of people on them (here and at my previous job/library) and they were great in their time, but I’m not sad to see them go now. I’m not nostalgic about no longer hearing that loud noise they make when they jam, either….

With some parameter setting, I’ve gotten the Stars to print out a list of everything each patron checks out on our Innovative Interfaces Inc. ‘Millennium’ system, when the checkout is completed as a date due slip. We elected to do everything on one slip, rather than one item per printout. The Fort Smith Public Library does it the same way, and it saves paper. The function is built into the Millennium software, plus setting up things in the printer software and Windows.

I also experimented with using it to print out receipts for payment of fines, etc. We are required to use something with sequentially numbered receipts, which has restricted us to handwriting in multi-carbon receipt books up to now. I found trial software which will allow us to print out everything we should need, AND sequentially number it automatically, but we still need to get the arrangement approved formally before we license the software and proceed, if that happens. It is possible to do it, however. The software has no connection to our Millennium system (since Millennium doesn’t have the sequential numbering as of Release 2006) but it’s not too hard to type in the info, scan in the barcode of the patron, and print enough copies automatically. One copy for the patron, one for us, one for the accountants. All originals, since it’s cheaper to print multiple copies for the occasional receipt, than to use multi-copy paper all the time for date due slips.

The possibility of using the printers for receipts, which need to last a long time, is why we went with the SP542s rather than a thermal printer. Our experiences with thermal printers is that, without a ribbon, the thermal print fades over time. We can’t have that happen with financial records if we want to get approval for this system. The SP542s are dot matrix printers using ribbons.

[update 4/19/2008]

We’ve had some trouble with both of these printers after several months use.  I think I’ve narrowed down the problem, however.

They have a design flaw regarding how difficult it is to clean them.

The standard paper rolls (same ones used in calculators) used in these always has the possibility of trim fragments coming off, and the cutter action tends to create a lot more.  All these bits and pieces go down inside, and eventually jam or trip a sensor and the printer signals Windows that it’s “busy”.  Windows, of course, refuses to forget that message and won’t print until you fix the printer and reboot the computer.

So, I turned off the bidirectional capability, and opened up the older printer, shook it out, picked out pieces, vacuumed it (carefully!) and put it back in use.  Still not working.

When I open the printer, I can flip up the cutter mechanism, and remove the ribbon.  Under that is a plate, held down by one tiny (about #4) sheet metal screw, and some places where it snaps in.  I finally opened that up (last thing before sending it back to the vendor), carefully removing the little spindle that turns the ribbon, which is held in place by it, and lo — LOTS of fragments still inside.  So, cleaned those out, replaced the spindle, and the plate, and all, and got it back in action.  The older one still slowly blinks red — which seems to indicate it hasn’t reset after replacing the paper roll, according to the manual — but it’s printing again.  I’d about given up on it.  The newer one also needed cleaning, but it’s red light is now off and it’s behaving itself.  So far.

I call this a design flaw because it is not simple to remove this plate — it’s rather awkward, and takes a little maneuvering, but it comes out — and it will need to be done every month or so from now on.  Remember the little drawer in the old Gaylord book chargers, that you just yanked out and dumped?  Well, that’s the single thing about those that should have been copied by Star.  At least, they should have made it easier to get into the areas you need to clean.  Not a fatal flaw, but one that should have been addressed in the design, IMHO (In My Humble Opinion).

So far, I’d still recommend these, but I’d warn buyers that they’ll have to do regular cleaning like this.

Staffmark

I use a web page on our server for the bookmarks most often used by library staff, called  staffmark.  That allows staff to have one bookmark that gets them to all the others.  It includes links to the staff manuals we use.  Some of those are still being updated, and perhaps some more could use it, but I’ll get to them all eventually.

blstaff wiki goes public

I’ve taken the passwords and confidential stuff out of the library staff training wiki at blstaff.pbwiki.com and made it public.

I’m looking at writing an article for Arkansas Libraries and it would help if I had it for a comparison of what a wiki is, as opposed to a blog.

It’s HIGHLY informal, and of no particular interest to anyone but Boreham Library staff and maybe a few other librarians looking for examples of library training wikis (maybe it’s a bad example, but an example, nonetheless).