Specifications

APPLE FOR THE STUDENT
“BACK TO SCHOOL” (August 19, page 90) is a great guide
to buying
PCs for students, but I feel you misrepresented
Apple in your findings. Your choice to review the high-
end desktop iMac, with its 17-inch
LCD screen, made it
the most expensive of the systems you reviewed. And
you were quick to point out its “hefty price tag.”
The iMac was the only model in the roundup with a 17-inch
LCD;
choosing a comparable Apple system—such as the 15-inch–
LCD
iMac or 17-inch–CRT eMac—would have shown Apple to be much
more cost-competitive. I realize that the iMac is perhaps Apple’s
most widely recognized desktop system. But in that case, the 15-inch
model would have been a fine choice. The lack of a SuperDrive on
that iMac would not have been a detriment, because most of the ma-
chines you reviewed do not have
DVD-burning capabilities.
M
IKE WALLINGA
We asked each manufacturer to submit a PC that would “carry a stu-
dent through at least 4 to 6 years of college or high school.” Apple chose
to send us a SuperDrive-equipped, 17-inch iMac. Please note that the
Sony
VAIO Digital Studio PCV-RSS220 in that roundup also has a 17-
inch
LCD, along with a DVDV-RW drive and a larger hard drive than
the iMac. The
VAIO costs about $400 less than the iMac.—Ed.
THE RIGHT TO SWAP FILES
A RECENT PIPELINE ITEM (“Game Over,” August 5, page 25) quotes
an Associated Press story in which Senator Orrin Hatch (
R-UT) ex-
presses support for a system where illegal file-swappers receive two
warnings and then have their
PCs destroyed.
One has to wonder if the man has any familiarity with the Con-
stitution. The Fifth Amendment states: “Nor shall any person...be
deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law.” It
does not appear that Hatch has any idea what “due process” means.
A
NDREW L. JONES
NOT YET PAPERLESS
BILL HOWARD IS LIVING in a fantasy world, or so it seems from his
recent column “Scanning Lives On” (August 5, page 65). Businesses
would love to convert entirely to electronic documents, but paper
has two advantages over e-files that have yet to be
overcome: (1) You don’t need a special device to read a
paper document. Will the
IRS accept an electronic re-
ceipt? Can you use an electronic birth certificate or a
computer-printed version to get a driver’s license? (2)
What happens when
PDF and JPG are no longer stan-
dards for documents? Can your computer still read
documents on 5.25-inch floppy disks? If Bill plans to upgrade his
document archive as formats and media grow obsolete, he has more
time for archiving than I do. I’ll stick with paper.
D
AVI D MARKS
A BRIGHT IDEA
“NOW PRESENTING” is an informative and useful review of
portable projectors (August 5, page 104). One small criticism: The
review stresses the crossover segment, but you don’t mention the
very high price for replacement lamps. For home use, $300 is a lot to
spend on a spare lamp. Granted, the average life seems to be around
2,000 hours, but I think it’s a point that should have been raised.
P
ETER RUSCOE
DIVERSITY AT RISK
IN HIS COLUMN OF AUGUST 5, Michael J. Miller says he’s concerned
that the recent
FCC ruling on media consolidation may have a com-
promising effect on diversity of opinion in media outlets. The
FCC
dismissed that argument by saying that diversity of opinion would
remain despite consolidation.
The most crucial element that needs to be preserved is local opin-
ions—framed by locals on local issues. How else can communities ef-
fectively control policies and processes if the only significant opin-
ions they can access are framed by (admittedly diverse) outsiders?
J. V
ALADE
MILLER SEEMS TO BELIEVE
that since anyone can set up a Web site,
it’s fine if all the mass-communication media are monopolized. Do
you really think blogs will counterbalance the tremendous power
and influence of organized propaganda systems? Miller is just echo-
ing the naive techno-hippies’ idea that computer technology will
make the establishment crumble. They said the Internet would
reroute itself around any attempt to control it. Well, the Chinese gov-
ernment blocks Web sites with ease. And don’t forget that our own
federal government has fearsome Web usage–monitoring capacities.
J
ASON ZENITH
“Do you really think blogs will
counterbalance the tremendous power and influence
of organized propaganda systems?”
www.pcmag.com SEPTEMBER 16, 2003 PC MAGAZINE
49
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n In “Brave New Apps: The Development Tools” (August 5, page 114), we reviewed BEA
WebLogic Workshop 8.1 in a sidebar. That product should not have received a rating, as
we did not compare it directly against the other tools in the story.
Corrections and Amplifications