For me, I like the idea of having an iPod shuffle as a companion to a white iPod. The Shuffle lets me leave the “big” one at home when I go to the gym or need to not be distracted when it’s crunch time on some work. It’s still an iPod—I should mention that the coolest thing is that such amazing sound is coming from something so small and nearly weightless. Solid review, guys. Nice e-zine you got going on here.

—Steve Harris

Like you, I was dragged pretty grudgingly to using a Mac. If OS X were not based on Unix, I never would have conceded. I used Macs for many years in the late 80s and early 90s and never felt like they were much more than glorified word processing machines.

Kinship through compatible plugs? Could there be some social engineering going on? Is there soylent green inside? Is Logan running?

—Erin Ptacek

Thanks for this review. I Googled “user review axio swift backpack” and this is the best review that came out of the search.

I recently bought an Axio Swift a few days ago. But despite being very careful in handling the backpack, e.g., setting the bag down on straps and not the shell, I notice that the glossy polycarbonate shell scratches easily. You can see this when its viewed at an angle under the lights. The scratches are not deep but in these areas the glossy finish is no longer present.

Here are my questions:

1. What’s the best way to maintain its glossy like-new finish?

2. For the scratches that are already on the shell, what’s the best way to remove them?

—Leo D. Venezuela

There are 2232 tracks in my music library, and when I load a random selection onto the Shuffle there are usually one or two that I can’t place; they might be tracks from a compilation CD I bought ten years ago, or recent free downloads by artists I’m unfamiliar with. I don’t see the lack of a display as cause for complaint—I knew what I was buying—but what’s so hard to figure out about having music on your hard disk that you can’t immediately identify?

—Miche Doherty

You are definitely writing a best-of-breed series of articles. Thanks.

You said, “If there’s interest in this,…” I say, “YES!”

I just spent huge chunks of time (read days) trying to move a large set of notes from Tinderbox to OmniOutliner. Despite the fact that Tinderbox can generate just about any HTML, I spent hours and hours in BBEdit working out the incompatible details. There are huge differences in how these programs generate and deal with text markup—the stuff between the quotes in the _note element. When OmniOutliner sees something it can’t understand (like an HTML <b></b> tag or a special character) it just quits the import. Repeatedly trying and failing allowed me to isolate the issues, but it was a definite one-time, one file effort. Quotes in the Tinderbox notes were a particular rub since they confused the OPML syntax. Amazing how both Tinderbox and OmniOutliner both support bold text in notes, but moving from one to another requires manual massaging of every instance of bold text.

If I read your goals correctly, tweaking some DTD or XSL code once could solve these issues for any data I may want to move and give me the means to go back and forth between outliners without loss of meaning (unless one of the outliners just don’t handle a specific meaning). I think this is a most worthwhile endeavor and would be willing to contribute my meager talent to it.

—Con Rodi

I am not a Mac owner, but the next machine I buy will probably be one. From my few visits to the Apple store in NYC, it looks like there is plenty to be had. If I went to Macworld, I too would seek out the small (or not small) vendors with creative, useful products, not just a bunch of cute gimmickry. I would be hesitant to return if my experience was being overstimulated mostly by flashy, low utility products.

—Neil B

It was as if I was there. I particularly liked your insights on just how much Macworld has veered from being a technology-based tradeshow.

Right on target about the marketing spin, and the glass block idea should really catch on.

—Donald Crease

I think you’re missing a huge part of MWSF, which is the opportunities for training and education. MW is much more than just the commercial exhibits.

I’ve attended MWSF for the last decade or so. During that time there has been a lot of change. A silent change of sorts has been the high level of integration we now see in Apple hardware and software. There used to be booths for add ons like RS-232 interfaces, SCSI accessories, CRTs, video cards, etc. New hardware now is fairly complete. Software is in a similar situation. There used to be all sorts of little companies offering add-ons that are no longer needed.

Another change is that so many things we now buy have become very cheap. Ink jet printers, hard drives, laser printers, scanners, memory all used to cost thousands of dollars. Now you can get good quality in all those categories for under $500 and sometimes under $100. That reduction in sales price means those companies can no longer afford to have a booth

I hope IDG and Apple can find a way to keep the event alive. It is very much worth it to attend the workshops and classes, to meet other users, to visit the booths and to meet some of the people who build the products we use.

—John Konopka