Fast Forward Live: Office 2003 and E-Music

Rob Pegoraro (The Washington Post)

Fast Forward columnist Rob Pegoraro was online to answer all your personal technology questions and to talk about his recent review of Microsoft Office 2003 and his review of Napster, iTunes and Musicmatch. An edited transcript follows.

Fast Forward E-letter:

Want to know what upcoming topics are being covered? Sign up for Fast Forward e-letter -- get updated information on personal technology news and product demos. Read past editions of Rob's e-letter online here.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

________________________________________________

Rob Pegoraro: Good afternoon--so many things to talk about today. I see we've already got questions about music services, Microsoft Office, computing security, DSL, how to protect a WiFi network, and how many members of the Yankees organization will still have their jobs by the end of the week (just kidding about the last one :) Let's get rolling...

_______________________

Alexandria, Va.: You said in your review yesterday that Apple has created an "easy-to-use program that copies CDs in either AAC or MP3 format". What about the .wav format? Apple's web site makes note of the fact that iTunes can create either standard CD player-compatible discs or MP3 CDs. I want to make music CDs that I can play in any standard disc player, and I understood that iTunes would convert the AAC/MP3 files to something compatible with those players. I've only got access to Windows 98 and NT right now, so before I upgrade I'd like to know if what I want to do is possible.

Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: The audio CDs that iTunes (and Musicmatch and Napster) creates are completely standard music discs. If your CD player can play back a CD-R at all, it should have zero issues playing an audio CD burned with any of these programs.

BTW, am I correct in reading that it's an *Apple* product that's about to persuade you to upgrade to Windows XP?

_______________________

Alexandria, Va.: How is it that Napster is offering more songs than iTunes?

Rob Pegoraro: Napster (i.e., Roxio) says it's signed deals with more independent labels.

_______________________

Washington, D.C.: I LOVE my new powerbook G4 15 inch screen. Having wireless Internet within my apt is way cool.

However, I think my walls may be made of Kryptonite -- sometimes I have trouble getting reception in my living room, and my wireless router is in my bedroom. It's only a 900 sq ft apt, so there shouldn't be any problems.

Any suggestions on how to extend or boost the reach of the signal? Does router placement matter? I don't broadcast my SSID and use 128 bit wap, so I'm not concerned about other people picking it up.

Rob Pegoraro: Yeah, that's really bad reception. Do you have any 2.4 GHz cordless phones in the apartment? They can cause interference and reduce the range of your WiFi access point.

_______________________

Kensington, Md.: I haven't seen any recent reviews of digital camcorders. What is the best moderately-priced camcorder out there for basic family usage? What should I be looking for?

Rob Pegoraro: Can't tell you, but maybe the other folks here can. Any digital camcorder recommendations for Kensington?

_______________________

Laurel, Md.: Is it possible Office 2003 is part of a "last gasp" my Microsoft to rake in obscene amounts of money before their business model goes kaput. They've been selling inferior, overpriced applications like this one for a while; for which there has been no obvious reason for people to buy them except "it's Microsoft."

To analogize to another industry, airlines stayed in business by selling the same seats for $150 to vacationers and $500 to business travellers, until business started getting wise and using Internet. Now almost all airlines are fighting bankruptcy except the one that just sells its seats retail at a sensible price (Southwest).

Are we near the point where businesses are going to start saying "There's nothing wrong with Star Office, Ability Office, Open Office, Corel Suite or Lotus Suite that we have to pay four times as much."

Rob Pegoraro: Good point. Very good point.... the Student and Teacher Edition price for Office really does seem to be the functional equivalent of airlines' leisure-travel rates. OTOH, most airlines aren't doing more than tinkering with their price structure and, contrary to the post below, some of them (e.g., Continental) are still making money at it.

_______________________

Bethesda, Md.: I'm having a tough time figuring out which, if any, of the paid-music services I can use with my MP3 player, which is an Olympus DM-1.

You said in your article that Napster claims to be compatible with 25 players ... which ones? What about MusicMatch? I gather that Apple's is only compatible with the iPod.

Rob Pegoraro: Musicmatch supports that player, but Napster does not, according to each service's documentation:

Musicmatch-compatible players

Napster-compatible players

_______________________

Arlington, Va.: Hi Rob. I guess I have more comment than question. I recently bought a Creative Labs Nomad Jukebox Zen NX 30 GB MP3 players. This thing is awesome. The software took a little bit of trial and error to figure out but the device itself is amazing. So far I have about 600 tracks stored, and eventually plan to get my whole CD collection on here. Apparently it can store something like 8000 songs. The sounds quality is fine...I'd say on par with my minidisc player. Have used any of the free sites like MP3.com? I have downloaded some pretty good music from there with no trouble. I guess it's mainly indie type artists or bands on smaller labels that have tracks there, and of course it's not whole albums, but it's a good place to try out artists and songs you'd never hear about otherwise.

Rob Pegoraro: Yes, I've downloaded a few tracks over the years off MP3.com myself; it can be a convenient way to check out local bands. Speaking of which--warning, gratuitous self-promotion ahead--this site's mp3.washingtonpost.com isn't too bad either :)

_______________________

Reston, Va.: Hi Rob - a settings question: since after a few tracks, Windows Media Player locks up my Dell Precision 210 running Windows 2000. I'd like Quicktime to open and play music CDs I load into the CD tray. Can't seem to find how to get QuickTime to do that. Any suggestions?

Rob Pegoraro: You mean, the QuickTime player app, or iTunes? If you mean the former, I don't think it can even play CDs. If the latter, you should be able to make iTunes the default music program when it first runs, or by setting it as such in the "Set Program Access and Defaults" interface (it's in the Add/Remove Programs control panel if you've installed SP2, I think, or above in Win 2000).

_______________________

Windsor, Calif. : I Tunes has always been a pleasure to work with. The ability to burn mp3 and audio files make Toast a distant memory for me. The iPod hook-up is also flawless. The other two things the iTunes store does that I appreciate (as the father of 4) is the allowance and gift certificate features. Now they can use the store on their own without me wondering if there is going to be $200 on my next credit card bill.

Bruce

Rob Pegoraro: Here's one person happy w/ the iTunes experience:

_______________________

Boston, Mass.: Hi Rob, Much as I was eager to try iTunes for Windows, I couldn't because you need to have Windows XP installed. I still use Windows 98 and so MusicMatch is the choice for me. I'm not ready to spend the money for an upgrade just to buy music, so I won't be doing business with Apple for a while.

Rob Pegoraro: And one person who's not. (I asked Apple why iTunes didn't support Win 98 or Win Me, and the answer was, basically, it's too much work to get things working right on those systems. Musicmatch said about the same thing, but evidently decided it was worthwhile to support at least Win 98 SE and up.)

_______________________

Fairfax, Va. -About iTunes: Hi Rob-

Have you heard the rumors about a Windows Media-supporting iTunes 5 that is supposedly on the immediate horizon? The rumor had it being released on Oct. 16, but obviously that didn't happen. This feature would be the one thing that would make me embrace the iTunes store completely. My girlfriend has an MP3 player that isn't an iPod. I haven't bought a player yet, but would consider an iPod, even though they're at least three times the cost of what I really need. However, at present, there still is no good way that we could share a music library.

Rob Pegoraro: I read the same rumors as you, but I'm skeptical. Although Apple can, I'm told, support Windows Media playback without paying a cent to Microsoft (I'm told this by Microsoft, not Apple :), I'm not sure why Apple would want to help the format that's competing with those it supports.

Also, even if iTunes could play Windows Media files, the iTunes store would still only offer MPEG-4 AAC files, as far as I can tell.

_______________________

Chicago: Panther disappointment!; Not with the program itself, because how would I know? Like many of the other poor souls on the Apple forums, I can't get it to install. Although Jaguar First Aid says there is nothing wrong with my hard drive, Panther First Aid says there is an error that it can't fix. When I tried to archive and install anyway, it quit. Repeatedly.

Applecare says the only thing to do is erase the hard drive and start over.

I really, really don't want to. I also can't return the $130 program. Any thoughts?

Rob Pegoraro: I'm in the middle of testing Mac OS X 10.3 Panther (could these names get any longer??). No install difficulties yet, but I haven't tried my worst-case scenario yet--I asked our news art folks to find the oldest, slowest Power Mac G3 in the inventory :) My report should be in Sunday's Post.

_______________________

Olney, Md.: First, a note to DC about Wi-Fi -- unfortunately, you may be SOL if your NEIGHBORS have 2.4 GHz phones, in which case, the problem is that your walls are NOT made of kryptonite.

Now, my question:

Do you think that if there's a song I really want, that one service might have it while the other two might not? In particular, I would probably go to iTunes first, then maybe Napster, but do you think that MusicMatch, even with a smaller collection, might be worth searching? Did you find a lot or a little overlap?

BTW, thanks for mentioning Roxio's indie deals; I'll have to check them out.

Rob Pegoraro: Good tip about WiFi. I've heard from at least one user who was stymied in using WiFi because of a neighbor's cordless phone--I suggested that he might just have to bribe the neighbor to upgrade.

Yes, the odds are that you will find some songs available on one service but on the others. Exclusive tracks are one example--Apple has a bunch, and Napster apparently will do. But there are also plenty of cases in which one song isn't available on all three services, even though the remainder of the artists' catalogue is (case in point, Mary Chapin Carpenter's "Stones in the Road," which only Napster carries).

_______________________

Olney, Md.: Probably a dumb question, but here goes:

I know the MusicMatch software can be used just to rip and burn copies of CDs you own, but can I use the iTunes software for Windows as my only media player for my ripped music, without downloading any music from iTunes? It sounds like a great program, and although I may buy some music from them, I own a lot of discs that I like to listen to frequently.

Rob Pegoraro: Yes--as long as none of that music in Windows Media format. The iTunes app itself is completely worth the download, even if you never buy a single song off the service.

_______________________

Arlington, Va.: I've been wondering about camcorders recently too. I was thinking about the Canon Optura 300 which is one of the tiny vertical orientation miniDV models. It just came out so the price is still pretty high so I think I'll have to wait a little while.

Rob Pegoraro: One thought on digital camcorders. Anybody who's actually bought one of these things?

_______________________

Tampa, Fla.: Thanks for taking the time for these chats. I find them very helpful. I have two questions I hope you might answer:

First, should we expect a similar upgrade for MS Office v.X for Mac? Or is MS Office 2003 so similar to Office v.X that you can say Mac users already have the Mac version of MS Office 2003?

Second, does MS Office 2003 change your conclusions on Open Office as a viable alternative to MS Office? After reading your review of Open Office, I installed the Windows version of Open Office on two of my siblings' PC and it works great. (Installing the OS X version is quite another story, however.)

Rob Pegoraro: Some questions about Office programs.

1) Yes, I would expect to see an update to Office for Mac OS X maybe in the next year or so. The Mac Business Unit at Microsoft has, in general, done a really good job at writing and shipping good Mac software--the Mac version of Word, for instance, is now outright preferable to the current Windows release.

2) I'm still trying out OpenOffice 1.1, the latest release. I can tell you that, in offering PDF export, it's got a big lead on Word. But I want to spend more time in OpenOffice's spreadsheet, which impressed me the least over time. Note that OpenOffice has no equivalent to Outlook, so in that respect there isn't much of a comparison (although, if you don't use Outlook in the first place, then you have no business spending a dime on Office 2003).

_______________________

Falls Church, Va.: Hi Rob, posting early. Once again Mr. Gates has released updates/patches that thwacked out my XP system. Downloaded the recent patches and updates and lost my active desktop..over and over again. When my screensaver came on (after the 20 min setting I use) the desktop would whack out when I wiggled the mouse to use the computer. System restore to a prior date worked to "solve" the problem. Anyone else have this problem??

Rob Pegoraro: Not that I've heard of. But I also haven't heard of anybody actually using "Active Desktop" option (where your Windows desktop can display Web pages in the background) in years... that might be the issue.

BTW, System Restore is one of those things that, in retrospect, I really should have talked about more in my first Windows XP review. It's not as high-profile as a lot of the other things I covered back then, but it really does work at what it's designed to do, and it's saved my butt a few times already.

_______________________

Washington,D.C.: I'm in the market to buy a new home computer in the next couple of months and am seriously considering switching to an Apple. I'm looking for an unbiased assessment of the differences between Apples and PCs and what drawbacks there might be. Do you have any thoughts, or can you point me to a good resource? And when will your annual guide to home computers be coming out? I'll gladly delay my purchase until then!;

Rob Pegoraro: The home-computing guide should run Nov. 23. As far as the Mac-versus-PC thing... well, I wrote a column on this years ago, mainly because I just wasn't getting enough e-mail from the fanatics on either side :) Were I to rewrite it today, the primary thing I'd talk about would have to be Internet security--and my opinion of Windows security is none too high at the moment.

_______________________

Washington, D.C.: Re digital camcorders. I have a Canon Optura Pi, which has been superseded I think, but it's a great model with all the common controls literally at your fingertips. Menus are logical, and little changes (e.g. from "auto" exposure to "low light" or "sun and snow") are easy to make. A nice example of useful design, and I would bet that other Canon models are similarly well-thought-out.

Rob Pegoraro: Props for one Canon camcorder model. Kensington, hope you see this one...

_______________________

Bethesda, Md.: Let me see if I understand this. There's a version of iTunes for the PC (Win XP) that will allow me to rip my CD collection into MP3s and burn onto CDs in both Audio CD and MP3 format? Where do I get this?

Rob Pegoraro: Assuming this question isn't really a sly attempt by some Apple spy to get me to point people to Apple's site:

www.apple.com/itunes

_______________________

speaking of wi fi: Is there a good source for locating free wifi, I looked at www.wififreespot.com with medium success trying to find downtown and Virginia locations.

Rob Pegoraro: Try Intel's directory: www.intel.com/go/hotspots/ (it was actually pretty accurate in my neighborhood). Also: www.cawnet.org.

_______________________

College Park, Md.: Rob, I am running Apple 10.6.something. Do I really need Panther? It seems superfluous, with bells and whistles I could care less about. My version of Jaguar works like a charm. Also, iTunes for Windows, I heard that it fails to take into account complex firewall issues since Windows is so buggy (and Apple has much less of a problem than Microsoul)--is this true? Although I use an Apple laptop with dial-up at home, I use a Windows comp at work (I know, I know, downloading at work leads to all kinds of issues, but I guess paying for it solves the for the most part--well, I should be working, but I digress...)

Rob Pegoraro: I'll save my thoughts on Panther for Sunday's paper. As for iTunes for Windows, the only firewall trouble I had would've been on the Mac side of the equation, not Windows.

The iMac I tested as a music-sharing server had Apple's firewall running (but with the required iTunes-music-sharing port opened). On the receiving end, the ThinkPad (itself running a Symantec firewall) could see the server but could never retrieve a track list or play any songs.

Oddly enough, things worked fine in the other direction: I turned on music sharing from the ThinkPad and started ripping a CD on that machine--and as iTunes for Windows processed each track, it automatically showed up on iTunes on the iMac. Very, very cool.

_______________________

Easton, Conn.: Based on your recent columns, I really wonder if you do not come to the reviews with a pro-Apple/anti-Microsoft bias. No, I do not wonder, I know you do. I have been using the beta version of Microsoft 2003. There are important, not big, improvements in Powerpoint that make the user experience a lot nicer(e.g., the Getting Started bar on the right makes it easier to get to the recently opened files than used to be the case under the File menu, or the in the Normal, with the slide thumbnails down the left bar it is now possible to magnify the slide thumbnails, without greatly impacting the size of the main slide. This makes navigating between slides a lot easier. I don't have to go to the slide sorter as often). Sometimes I think that reviewers like you, just look for the nig feature list, without actually using the software in normal use conditions. So, you don't fully appreciate the overall user experience "in daily routine usage".

Now, regarding iTunes and Musicmatch. I just downloaded iTunes, and have been using Musicmatch for a while. I have a Platinum membership for Musicmatch Radio. Regarding the ease of use of iTunes, to someone who has not used that software before, there is little that is easy or pleasurable about it. Also, staying with the default settings, as I usually do when I first use a new program, resulted in all of my music and books being wiped out from my iPod when it first got synced. THe software was not even smart enough to recognize that before wiping out such a huge amount of stuff on the iPod it should at least ask the "do you really want?" question.

Finally, let's look at the user experience. With Musicmatch Platinum I can create "radio stations" combining the music of various artists as I desire. Musicmatch works with Philips' Streamium, so as soon as I create a new radio station, I can hear it through my stereo system using the Philips Streamium. Why is this great? Here comes the user experience part you folks seem to miss. When I hear some interesting music on the radio, or on TV, I immediately go to Musicmatch, see if the artist is available there (and surprisingly often the artist is), create the radio station, add related artists to it (thus adding to new music discovery), and within minutes I am able to listen to a whole new music set, on demand, according to my preferences. Further, when creating the radio station I can choose how many consecutive songs to play for each artist, and when listening I can jump to the next song if I do not like the one being played right now.

Try this sometime. It is a great way to listen to music. iTunes is not even close.

washingtonpost.com: Read Rob's weekly e-letter on his review of online music services.

Rob Pegoraro: Here's a contrary opinion about my reviews of Musicmatch and Office 2003. To respond:

1) The only bias I brought to the Office review was the bias of somebody who writes for a living, but spends very little time doing PowerPoint slides. But in my defense, I think that description would apply to most home users.

2) I'm sorry, but Musicmatch is just an awful, awful program. The user interface is just atrocious--it's the only music program I've ever used that told me to "please insert an audio CD" *as it was playing that same CD"! (The problem is that the CD-ripping module in this app apparently doesn't talk to any of the rest of the program.)

_______________________

Atlanta: Re Camcorders: I have a Sony TRV-19, and it's been great. I tried a Canon and a Panasonic, but the picture quality wasn't as good (the Sony has a 1/4" sensor, while the others are only 1/6"). One nice feature: it came with a remote control, so you can hook it up directly to the TV and control playback from the couch, like a VCR. The Sony software is generally mediocre, but if you have Windows XP, the Microsoft MovieMaker software (free) does a great job with downloading and editing.

Now if I could only find a decent DVD burner...

Rob Pegoraro: More on camcorders:

_______________________

Hyde Park, N.Y.: Why do some Internet sites behave differently in France than in the US? For example, when I try to look up information on a US phone no. in google.com in France I do not get any information on the identity of the person who has that phone no. When I input the same phone no. into google in the US, I get complete information on the person's name and address.

Rob Pegoraro: Good question. As soon as the Post buys me a plane ticket to Paris, I will get right on it :)

_______________________

Washington, D.C.: Re Panther install problems: I had a bear of a time installing Panther on my aging 466MHz iBook (my official 'sacrificial computer'), due ultimately to a disk error that Apple's Disk Utility couldn't fix. Disk Warrior, however, had no trouble at all with the glitch. Thereafter (after deleting all of the several stray 'archives' of my prior OS X, as well as the stub of 10.3 created by my failed attempts) installation proceeded smoothly, and all is well now.

DiskWarrior does only one thing. I've never been precisely sure what that "one thing" is, but Disk Warrior does it well, without fail, -always- improves matters, and it's a program that should be in every Mac owner's CD box. And anyone who's having Panther install troubles should give it a try.

Rob Pegoraro: Thanks for the tip!

_______________________

Playa del Rey, Calif.: I've read about how great Outlook 2003's spam-blocking was, but it doesn't seem to be much help at all, even though I've set it for the highest level. Is there some secret I'm missing?

Rob Pegoraro: It may be that the pre-programmed spam profiles in Outlook aren't matching the spam you get (remember, this isn't a "learning" spam filter). You may need to add your own mail rules to get things working--for instance, Outlook 2003 doesn't seem to be coded to recognize the "PROBABLE-SPAM" prefix that the Brightmail filter on one account appends to each spam message's subject header.

_______________________

Annapolis, Md.: How did the Panther debut and party go on Friday? The Apple reseller store I drove by looked to be packed, just like a Harry Potter release party.

Rob Pegoraro: Wish I'd known. I was having a, um, Sunday Business Personal Technology release party (aka, late deadlines) and got out so late that my sole concern was getting dinner.

_______________________

Takoma Park, Md.: Office 2003:

I got catapulted into it involuntarily last week.

Took me almost two days to turn off all the intrusive "convenience" and "collaboration support" features and get back to the relatively simple interfaces for Word and Outlook that I can use quickly.

MS, as usual, has default settings that make an impressive demo but hinder efficient work for the poor mutts who have already bought the program.

Yecccch.

Rob Pegoraro: Another Office 2003 review. One of these days, I'd love to see Microsoft provide the option of running Office in a standalone mode--just give the user a big button to turn off all the server-centric features. The Student and Teacher price is quite attractive, but a Student and Teacher interface would be even better.

_______________________

Manassas, Va.: I have Comcast Broadband and have been relatively happy with the service. The city is now going to offer broadband through the electric outlets. What are the plus and minus issues to switching?

Rob Pegoraro: I don't know--I hadn't heard about any municipal broadband plans in Manassas at all. Can you point me to a Web page with any more info on this?

_______________________

Alexandria, Va.: What did you think of Walt Mossberg's piece last week on Macs as the answer to concerns about cybersecurity?

Rob Pegoraro: I was pleased to see that Walt evidently agrees with my Aug. 24 column, "Microsoft Windows: Insecure By Design" :)

_______________________

On the Download heated debates about piracy: Rob

Good to see that the industry is finally taking its first steps to being part of a technology evolution that happened five years ago. I've got to believe that in those five years some children, who passed through their formative years, will be permanently inclined to see free downloads as part of life.

I myself live in the "Piracy is wrong, but ? " camp; and cite all the typical reasons for dabbling in downloads. Artist I would never have discovered if not for Napster, albums that are 85% filler, and of course CD prices.

Part of my argument has always included the fact that while RIAA has been leading the charge against piracy, they themselves were found guilty of some form of price gouging. This is what I'm looking for help with; what exactly were they found guilty of - artificially inflating prices? Or something like that?

Thanks

Rob Pegoraro: Thanks for sharing your thoughts. The CD-pricing issue, if I'm remembering it correctly, was about "minimum advertised price"--the labels required stores to print a price no lower than this, although stores could still offer non-advertised discounts.

_______________________

Olney, Md.: Doh, I forgot to mention, the Canon ZR series is pretty nice. I have the MC-30 and my parents have the MC-45. They're not the cheapest videocameras, but they're a good value and they are small and easy to use.

Oh, and I've really saved a lot of time and hassle by using System Restore, but tech support seems to have replaced the "Reboot. Did that work? No? Reformat" canard with "System restore. Did that works? Try another system restore point. No? Reformat."

Rob Pegoraro: Thanks for the continued camcorder feedback!

_______________________

Alexandria, Va.: Rob, should I be worried about the security of my Apple AirPort? i.e. can some savvy hacker sit outside my house and access my computers?

Rob Pegoraro: Yes, if you set things up unwisely. If you don't want strangers tapping in to the connection, make sure you have WEP enabled, then use Apple's software to make your network private (i.e., it won't broadcast its name). Unfortunately, Apple has yet to release the update that be most effective in ensuring AirPort privacy--support for WiFi Protected Access.

_______________________

Washington, D.C.: Hi Rob- a DSL question: Is it possible to have DSL connectivity while having NO phone service?

Background:

I have dsl and a phone line. For the past couple of months I forgot to pay my phone bill (woops) and consequently have been 'temporarily disconnected' all week.

While i've been 'temporarily disconnected' my DSL connectivity continues to function as normal.

My Question: Does this indicate that I can cancel my phone service and continue to have normal DSL connectivity??

Further background:

I live in an apartment building in Adams Morgan- I can't think of any reason why my Dsl connectivity won't continue to work should I cancel service- the phone company certainly won't take the time to remove my copper wire(particularly b/c i live in an apt building) AND my understanding is that DSL uses the copper wire as a conduit for the signal BUT does not use a phone call session to transfer the data (as a traditional dial-up modem does.) However, maybe a "temporary disconnect" is not truly a full disconnect since most consumers wind up paying the bill & to have service restored. Perhaps the phone company never completely disconnects for this reason as its cheaper than killing an account and creating a new one. No idea though.

MySpecs:

ISP: Earthlink

Local Phone service: Verizon

DSL MOdem: Westell WIrespeed

EtherNet Card: 3Com Etherlink 10/100 TX NIC(3c905b-TX)

There is a FAQ on DslReports.com related to my question- but really answers the question: "Can I set UP DSL w/ no phone" rather than "I have DSL + Phone, can i get rid of the phone" www.dslreports.com/faq/201

I have heard some ISP's won't give customers service if they have no phone number. However, I plan to use my current cell phone for all my future calling needs.

I'd love to cancel my phone service since I use my cell for all my calling needs. I already reduced my regular phone service to the cheapest option, but it is still a waste of 20/ month since I don't use it.

Any thoughts are highly appreciated. Thank you!;!;

-Chris Mohan

PS- I often check out your live-chats.. BUT often miss them as well as I'm busy w/ working, etc. Should you answer this in your column or chat.. can you shoot me an email: chrismohan-earthlink.net. Thanks again.

Rob Pegoraro: Hmm. Hmmmm. This one's a real head-scratcher. I suspect that asking Verizon would get you a very quick, but possibly inaccurate, response of "no." In engineering terms, yeah, it should be possible to employ the existing copper wiring--as you said, it's not like the phone company's going to rip it out--for just DSL, with the voice part of that capacity kept dark.

But this isn't a technical issue, it's a billing/marketing/strategy issue for telcos, which I expect all still think of themselves first as voice-service providers. (Not without reason, either.)

_______________________

McLean, Va.: If I have been using Outlook Express (bundled with XP) with few complaints, are there advantages in MS Office's Outlook that should make me want to purchase the new Office package? Same question re bundled XP Word and new version in Office.

Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: Outlook Express has about as much in common with Outlook as I do with the Pope. The two apps offer vastly different features. And Outlook is the only one of the two that actually gets any attention from Microsoft; OE hasn't had any new features in years. If you use e-mail a lot and have an ever-growing address book, Outlook will be much, much better than Outlook Express.

OTOH, there's no reason to go from Word XP/2002 to Word 2003.

_______________________

Bethesda, Md.: I enjoyed your recent review of PDAs, but have a question that the factory sites don't seem to answer.

Do either the Treo 600 or Tungsten E have limitations (BIOS or otherwise) that limit the capacity of memory card that they will accept? If someone comes out with a 1GB SD card, with these PDAs be able to access that memory?

Additionally, some have complained about the absence of a Palm Universal Connector on the Tungsten E. For what is this connector used, and should I be worried that it's not there?

Many thanks from a PDA virgin!

Rob Pegoraro: No, I'm not aware of any limits to SD Card size. I tried a 256-meg card in my last review and had no issues with that, and I couldn't find any reference to such a limit in a quick search at Palm's tech-support site. (But that could only mean that Palm's search engine isn't any good).

The Universal Connector's primary utility has been to add on keyboards and a few other devices--for instance, modems. Palm now makes an infrared-connected keyboard that's cheaper than the old Universal Connector model... I would have no worries about buying a non-Universal Connector Palm.

_______________________

Washington, D.C.: iTunes, etc:

I agree that iTunes is the most forward-thinking and sensible service yet, but I still find the terms of use fairly restrictive. I've got a WiFi net at home with four PCs regularly on it and frequently listen to music on the main machine off the closest machine's speakers.

Why are there restrictions/requirements for sharing the music PC to PC as long as it's being grabbed off a LAN?

Also: I'd like to see record labels offering free download of all an album's tunes off iTunes, etc., when you buy the actual CD. Yes, you can rip the CD yourself, but I think they should come out and say: buy this! you get clear and unambiguous right to make digital versions for yourself.

Rob Pegoraro: I agree with you on both points. On the first, I think Apple's going to have to make some shift on LAN sharing before long--especially if, as I think, it, or a partner company, ships a WiFi digital-music receiver for living rooms.

On the second, though, I don't think the labels will budge on this. If they allowed that, then they'd also have to acknowledge that all the people who downloaded MP3s off Napster/Limewire/Kazaa to replace old cassette tapes were only getting fresh copies of music they already paid for.

_______________________

Arlington, Va.: RealPlayer has taken over my computer. Every time I load a CD into the drive even if I am using or trying to use another piece of music software RealPlayer muscles its way in. This is very annoying. But I can't figure out how to make it stop. There's nothing obvious under "preferences". Any ideas?

Rob Pegoraro: Try Set Program Access and Defaults--Control Panel, then Add/Remove Programs. Unfortunately, RealPlayer is a major pest of a program; it's as if Real designed it solely to spite Microsoft's own attempts to gain ownership of the PC, regardless of what users actually want.

(That, incidentally, is one big reason why I like iTunes so much in comparison to either Windows Media Player or RealOne. Looking at what Apple's accomplished, both Microsoft and Real ought to be a little embarrassed.)

_______________________

megapixels: Rob

I recently referred to your articles regarding different digital photography media formats and the variety of options for printing digital pictures, as I ventured deeper into the world of Mega-pixels.

One consideration that I don't remember you discussing was price. After buying my printer, I discovered that Shutterfly will do a 4x6 for $0.25, where as the first batch of 4x6 paper I bought was $0.30 a sheet; and that doesn't include ink. I've since found paper I'm happy with for $0.10, but I'm curious about budget inks. Any thoughts on if they are safe or if they disappoint for the price. Of course any other thoughts of cheap nice photos would be appreciated.

Rob Pegoraro: We did a story comparing these costs this summer. Our writer's cost estimates didn't match yours, but his overall judgment was the same--online print ordering is easiest. If, however, you want 8 by 10s, the cost advantage returns to do-it-yourself printing.

_______________________

Bowie, Md.: One trademark of Microsoft applications is that they hijack some of your operating system settings: new background colors, new system tray programs, default e-mail or browser settings, junky things like "help movies" on your desktop.

Did anything like that happen when you installed it?

Rob Pegoraro: No--I found Office 2003 to be quite polite in this respect. It respected my non-Microsoft browser choices and even left intact the OpenOffice file associations on one test computer (although Outlook somehow failed to hand off Word file attachments to OpenOffice).

_______________________

North Potomac, Md.: We take a lot of digital photos and videos, and think we need a DVD writer to save them onto discs as backup - is the DVD writer totally necessary - if so, what should we expect to pay for a solid, reliable model? And what specific type of media do we need for saving the files? Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: A DVD writer isn't necessary for this; it's just a convenience to save you the trouble of "spanning" a backup across multiple CDs. If you do decide that's worthwhile, get a name-brand DVD+RW (that's "plus" RW, not dash-RW) model; that format is much better for backup purposes than DVD-RW.

_______________________

Washington, D.C.: You write:

...I don't think the labels will budge on this. If they allowed that, then they'd also have to acknowledge that all the people who downloaded MP3s off Napster/Limewire/Kazaa to replace old cassette tapes were only getting fresh copies of music they already paid for.

You're probably right. Ironically, my first forays into downloading stuff off Napster and later other services were specifically to replace my old cassettes with digital music...

Rob Pegoraro: Yup. There's a different mental model of ownership with digital files, but the music business--along with many other markets--is still figuring out what it is, let along how to react to it.

_______________________

Rob Pegoraro: I'm going to stick around a few minutes to tackle some questions I missed before...

_______________________

Alexandria: What does the monthly subscription to Napster get you? I've read around a bit and can't really find anything of value besides radio stations. Is that it for $10/month?

Rob Pegoraro: There is no monthly subscription required at all. You can pay $10 for a "premium" subscription that gets you custom radio, but that doesn't affect your ability to download/transfer/burn individual songs and albums.

_______________________

Washington, D.C.: Hi Rob - I am starting Grad School in January and would like to invest in a personal laser printer.

I have done some research (CDW, various manufacturer sites) and am willing to pay an extra $50 or so for something reliable rather than going on the cheap and have it fail halfway through a 30 page paper. Although, saving money is always good.

What, in your expert opinion, would be the best way to go? (ps. I have an iBook, so it has to talk to my Mac.)

Rob Pegoraro: We haven't looked at laser printers in a long time (although color lasers might be worth a review if they keep dropping in price). So I'd go to one of the Mac-centric sites--macworld.com, for instance--and look up what models they've tried out lately.

_______________________

Springfield, Va.: Could you recommend a wireless email device/service that alerts you when an email has come in ("Always on" some call it). And do they offer this in conjunction with a cell phone?

Rob Pegoraro: I'll recommend two:

1) The Handspring Treo 600--$450 from Sprint, about the same when AT&T Wireless, Cingular and T-Mobile offer their own GSM versions in the coming weeks--can log into pretty much any standard e-mail account, although you may need to install extra software.

2) Blackberry handhelds--about the same price, available from most carriers--can also pull down e-mail for you. But as a home user, I disliked the way you can't turn off this mail checking for a standard e-mail account. The Blackberry is also a terrible handheld organizer compared to any Palm or Pocket PC device.

_______________________

Petaluma, Calif.: Do you read other tech columnists (Mossberg, Pogue) reviews. If so, does it affect what you write? Or do you make a point not to read them? Or can you read them and just do your own review regardless? Thanks.

Rob Pegoraro: I read both Mossberg and Pogue, along with many other tech-news sources, all the time--but if they've written about something that I'm still in the middle of reviewing, I set their column aside until I've written my own. I'm sure they do the same.

_______________________

Vancouver BC Canada: I understand that you use OpenOffice for your day to day work. What would your biggest worry be if today they say you can only use OpenOffice and there is no MSOffice to fall back on? (aside from the fact that you would still have data kept in MS files). ie What feature would you absolutely feel you need from MSoffice?

Thanks again

Rob Pegoraro: I had to mull this one over for a while. For writing, I don't think I'd miss anything from Office. For spreadsheets, however, I find that Excel feels a little more polished than OpenOffice's equivalent; the auto-complete option, for example, is easier to control in Excel than in OO 1.0.3 (haven't tried 1.1's yet).

I spend so little time in slide-show apps that I could probably live a full life without ever seeing either PowerPoint or OpenOffice Impress again :)

_______________________

Germantown, Md.: This may be too late, but there ARE cheaper phone plans than $20/month. If you look in the phone book, there are plans for in the $5 neighborhood if you're willing to pay 10 cents per local call. And it sounds like that would be ok for DSL guy if he mostly uses his cell anyway.

Rob Pegoraro: Almost too late. Thanks for chiming in...

_______________________

Reston, Va.: After attending the Office Systems launch, I wonder when the anti-trust folks will come down on Microsoft. It really looks like Microsoft is using its 90% of the office suite market to force you to upgrade your server.

Rob Pegoraro: We did a news story about this--most of the new features in Office 2003 require you to run Microsoft's server software. As the personal-tech guy, I didn't get into this aspect in my review. Personally, though, this doesn't strike me as being all that new. Office 2000's collaboration tools, as I recall, also required Microsoft server software to work.

_______________________

Manassas, Va.: RE: Broadband Here's a quick reference to a WP article. A google search yielded several.

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39379-2003Aug9.html

Rob Pegoraro: Thanks. Will try to read my own employer's output a little more often :)

_______________________

Bethesda, Md.: I read with interest your colleague's review of some new wireless keyboards and mice, but the problem is that none of them make any sense to me. What's the point of having separate devices if you have to juggle them both in your lap? Plus, it seems clear to me that many repetitive strain injuries are caused by people reaching for mice, so why not place the pointing device where you don't have to reach for it?

There are a few integrated keyboard and pointing devices, but the wireless one that I tried didn't work that well:

www.fentek-ind.com/rf-wireless-keyboard.htm#kbtbrfp

I'm now using a wired one which works pretty well:

www.adesso.com/products_detail.asp?productid=60

It sure would be nice to have a wireless one that works as well as the reviewed devices reportedly perform.

Rob Pegoraro: Thanks for the comment (which I completely overlooked at the start of the chat -- sorry).

_______________________

Rob Pegoraro: And that's it for today! Thanks for all the questions. We'll meet again soon...

- R

_______________________

For Chicago and Panther Installation Problems: I'd suggest trying another disk utility (DiskWarrior has always been my favorite since it was released) before giving up on the install. Of course, that does incur more cost if you don't have the software already.

If you're feeling adventurous, you might also want to try booting into single-user mode in Jaguar and running the UNIX fsck command to try to clean up the drive.

These folks have a good primer on fsck.

Rob Pegoraro: Oh, wait, one other item, if anybody's had trouble installing Panther. (For the uninitiated, single-user mode means booting up into the Unix command-line interface and forgetting everything you ever knew about the Mac OS.)

_______________________