Pismo Screen Problem
Charles,
Sorry for bothering you with this - but you seem to be such a
good soul, offering advice to all comers . . . and I
need an advice.
After HD upgrade (may be just a coincidence) my Pismo's screen has developed yellowish
"shadows". These are mostly along the left edge of the screen
(about inch wide), but also to the right of some objects (windows,
cursor etc.). Initially this has been an on-off problem (coming and
going); unfortunately it became a permanent issue.
I tried to connect the Pismo to the external monitor, and on it
the picture was fine. The shadow is present in both OS 9 and X
from the moment the screen comes on.
In your experience, which is on the way out: LCD lamp, inverter,
cable, or something more serious?
Thank you in advance,
Rudolf
Hi Rudolf,
Since the coincidence you note obtains, it might
be worthwhile to open up the machine and check that all ribbon
cables are properly seated.
Of course, it might actually be a coincidence.
The list of suspects you cite likely includes the
culprit(s), which is good news because they are not logic board
issues. The fact that the problem doesn't show up on an external
monitor pretty much confirms that it's one of the display
components downstream of the logic board.
Diagnosis by substitution is the way to proceed. I
would start with the backlight lamp tube.
Charles
Re: WallStreet Keyboard Failure
From Michael Allen
Thank you again [re: WallStreet
Keyboard Failure]. What size of ribbon cable do I need for the
keyboard replacement? Is there anywhere I could send the old
keyboard?
-M
Hi Michael,
If the keyboard is broken, it would not, IMHO, be
cost effective to pay to have it repaired if that were possible.
However, The PowerBook Guy offers keycap/scissor mechanisms for the
PowerBook G3 WallStreet Keyboard (used) for $5.95.
Wegener Media will sell you a whole replacement
Wallstreet Keyboard for $24. I expect they will also be able to fix
you up with the appropriate ribbon cable.
PowerBook Guy also has replacement keyboards:
Keyboard for PowerBook G3 WallStreet (used), $49.95. Keyboard for
PowerBook G3 Wallstreet (new), $119.95.
Charles
Amplified Bible for Mac Sword?
From Ted Bragg
My studies thru Paul's work necessitated an Amplified Bible
. . . it's the only version of the Bible I can make sense
of some of his teaching. Will MacSword (see MacSword 1.2: A Solid Free Bible Program Made Even
Better) or the other freeware Bible apps have an AMP module
available?
Presently I use biblegateway.com, and it's good
for basic searches and straight read-thru....
-T
Hi Ted,
I also have an Amplified New Testament, and it can
be indispensable for serious Bible study if you don't read Greek
and Hebrew.
As I understand it, the Amplified Bible copyright
holders are not inclined to license for free, so prospects for
inclusion in free software applications are probably not a strong
likelihood.
Charles
Mac Sword Review a Bit Late
Charles:
I just saw your review of MacSword. I
just bought QuickVerse,
but I would have loved to have seen this review before so I would
have the option of keeping my fifty dollars. I will probably
download both of the programs that you have links for. If I can
find it then I will download Bible Browser for those times when I
am using Macintosh instead of Mac OpenStep X.
Thank you for the article and the links.
James Johnson
Hi James,
Glad you liked the review.
The latest version of Bible Browser is called
Bible Viewer. It's $10 shareware.
Charles
Link: Bible
Viewer
Should I Wait for a 64-bit 'Book?
From James Castleberry
Hi Charles,
I will be heading back to school next fall, so I will be in the
market for a new laptop. I have owned my Sony Vaio for almost 5
years and am anxiously awaiting the the new Mactel iBooks and
PowerBooks .
I've been doing research for awhile and have a question. I know
that the G5 chip is 64-bit and the Intel Yonah is a 32-bit chip. As
a student, I will mainly be using my laptop for school, playing
music and videos, and generally Internet browsing. For a computer
user like myself, what would the difference be between the 64-bit
and 32-bit processors? Should I hold out for Merom late next year
or should Yonah be just as good for my needs?
Thanks for the help,
James Castleberry
Hi James,
"For a computer user like myself, what would the
difference be between the 64-bit and 32-bit processors?"
In practical terms, for the sort of computing you
say you do, the 64-bit vs. 32-bit dichotomy is a non-issue and will
remain so for some time to come. IMHO, you're unlikely to be locked
out of anything mission critical with a 32-bit processor for the
foreseeable future.
I would anticipate that Yonah will be very
satisfactory for your needs.
Charles
OS X Version of the One Laptop Per Kid
Program
From Alvin
Hi.
I'd like to encourage all authors if you could write an article
about Apple and Steve Job's inspiration, which is the education
market. I'd like to encourage you to write about (since you are
influential to the Mac community) Apple or Steve to decide to give
away a version for the One Laptop Per Child Program. It would do
better than Linux. Not only would it be humanitarian but it will
also penetrate the government of the entire world. OS X also
look more fitting to the fun, energy efficient design of the $100
laptop.
God bless,
Alvin
Hi Alvin,
You may be aware that Steve Jobs did offer a
version of Mac OS X to the MIT $100 laptop program, but was
turned down because it was not considered Open Source enough.
Charles
Sorry State of OCR Software for the Mac
From: Rowland McDonnell
Hi there,
I was interested to read in OCR
Software for the Mac [published 2001.11.27 - ed] that
ABBYY FineReader 5 Pro for Mac is an OCR program
from Russia with a high level of word accuracy and format retention
FineReader - even when converting complex pages and poor quality
documents - and claims to be the most Mac-friendly OCR on the
market.
The url you supply, http://www.macfinereader.com/, redirects to:
http://www.abbyy.com/finereader_ocr/.
I can't see any sign of anything for Macs there at all. I've
looked all over. Except in some press releases and whatnot that
turn up when you do a site search, it's one of those sites that
assumes that all computers run Windoze. I've tried following the
link to purchase software, and there's only Windoze software
available that I can see - it looks very much as if the Mac version
has been discontinued.
Rowland
Hi Rowland,
That article of mine is pretty old, so I'm not
surprised that the URLs are stale.
You can download a trial copy of ABBYY FineReader
Pro for Mac here:
http://www.abbyy.com/download/?param=2270
Charles
Re: ABBYY FineReader Pro for Mac
Blimey - well, thanks for tracking that down. I'm not sure I'd
want to buy from that firm, given that they seem to be hiding their
Mac software.
That much isn't a surprise; what was a surprise was the fact
that I couldn't see any reference to Macs at all on the site.
Cheers,
Rowland
Hi Rowland,
It works well. ReadIris is another potential
solution.
Charles
Link: ReadIris
Re: OCR software for Mac
From Rowland McDonnell
Hello :-)
"It works well."
Righto.
But, erm, regardless of the quality of Abbyy Finereader, I
wouldn't buy it - Abbyy's website doesn't mention Macs at all that
I can see, aside from in a few press releases one can find by
searching. No Mac version available for purchase, no Mac version
available for trial - at least, that's what you find if you just
look at their website in the normal way. Spend money on software
that the publisher is denying? And since the Mac version is
at v5 and the Windoze version is at v8 - well, it looks like
they've given up on the Mac side, doesn't it? Seems silly to pay
full price for software that's already been dropped by the
publisher, doesn't it?
Anyway. Enough of that whining - what's it got to do with
you?
Would you mind telling me how you tracked down the link to the
Mac trial of Abbyy Finereader? I'm curious - I really cannot find
the slightest trace of a link to anything like Mac software on the
Abbyy website - for example, this is the 'downloads' page, as
accessed from the Mac download link you provided above:
http://download.abbyy.com/content/default.aspx
See? No mention of Macs at all.
(I've looked at the website quite a lot - tried again today -
and followed a lot of links looking for it, and even using Search
doesn't get me anything Mac-related except a bunch of press
releases. The only software I can see available for purchase or
download is for Windows - unless I follow the link you provided, so
I'm wondering how you found it. A cunning trick I don't know about,
perhaps?)
"ReadIris is another potential solution."
Umm. I've tried out ReadIris. I wouldn't call it a potential
solution myself. 300dpi scans are the only ones that I can get to
'work' for a low value of 'work', so it seems, and that's nothing
like good enough (you can feed it a 1200dpi scan, but it sometimes
crashes or complains. If does happen to cooperate and you ask for
an RTF/PDF/HTML version, you get a final page that's 16 times too
large if you can persuade it to do anything sensible at all). Its
RTF output files only work with MS Word. Etc. Lousy manual. Pretty
poor OCR accuracy, too. My suspicions were aroused when I spotted
the helpful link to the Mac manual on the trial version download
page - the link to the v9 manual is not what you need when the
software you're downloading is v11.
ReadIris is definitely something I wouldn't spend the
asking price on. I actually used the trial version to scan in a
letter yesterday - printed in 12pt Helvetica using a 1200dpi laser
printer as far as I could tell. It would have been quicker and less
stressful to type it up manually rather than scan-and-correct. And
they want €502 for this? Listen carefully and you might hear
my merry laughter.
At least ReadIris is about the same price for non-USAians as
USAians, which is less of a rip-off than one usually gets in the
computer field - apologies to the Canadians I've just lumped in
with their southern neighbours.
Cheers again,
Rowland.
(pretty disappointed at the state of OCR in the 21st century - I
used OCR software in 1990/91 that was better for my needs than
ReadIris, but I don't recall what it was, and the Macs belonged to
the college, and . . . well, you get the idea)
Hi Rowland,
No mystery or secret about How I got the Abbyy Mac
download link. I just Googled "Abbyy Finereader = Mac" and it
popped up; first hit. Took me all of ten seconds. ;-)
Thanks for the mini-review of ReadIris for Mac.
I've never used it, so it's interesting to hear a hands-on report.
As I said, it was a potential solution.
Personally, I find that the copy of ABBYY
FineReader 5 Sprint Plus that came bundled with my Epson Perfection
4870 Photo scanner handles my (very modest) OCR needs in OS X.
I also still have good old OmniPage Direct 7.0 installed on my
ancient LC 520 that is hooked
up to an almost as ancient Microtek scanner. Still does a pretty
good job, albeit mercilessly slowly with that 25 MHz 68030 chip and
20 MB of RAM.
Charles
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