Digital praise
Hello,

I enjoyed the article on digital cameras in the latest issue. Jason Dunn is spot-on regarding the value of the Sierra Image Expert software. On my own vacation, a Carribean cruise, I took my brand new HP Jornada 820 and Nikon Coolpix 950 digital camera. Each night, back on board, I loaded the day's pictures into the Jornada for editing and annotation. I brought an extra 32Mb CompactFlash card for the purpose of building an album.

Although the 256 color, dual-scan display on the Jornada left a lot to be desired in the viewing, overall the process worked very well. By journey's end I had the entire trip captured in a digital album, ready to print on return home. However, a near-disaster almost ruined everything.

On the final day, the Jornada awoke me with its insistent alarm. When I turned it on, I got a message indicating a bad file entry in one of the folders in the CompactFlash card. There was also an offer to repair the problem, which I selected.

Within seconds, I had another message, indicating that the card was beyond repair, and an offer to format it. Thirty-five years of experience in the computer field told me that formatting was a *REALLY* bad plan, so I quickly removed the card and put it in a case for transport home. Later I inserted it into my notebook PC using a PCMCIA adapter and recovered all but one picture.

The moral of the story is: backup is a good idea. Keep a spare CF card, and don't leave the CF card in your CE device when you aren't using it.

Jim Stutsman<BR The Sewing Room<BR Lewisville, Texas<BR jim@sewingroom.com<;BR http://www.sewingroom.com

P.S. How about a link to send a message to the editor? I did quite a bit of searching until I realized there wasn't one. And thanks for a good magazine that equals "print" in quality!

David Gewirtz replies
There's an info@windowscepower.com mail entry at the bottom of most screens, but a "letter to editor" button might be cool, too. Maybe I'll put it on "the list". Thanks, I really like your comments.

More praise
Thank you for the fine job on your electronic magazine. I don't know how much feedback you get, but I wanted to at least let you know that one reader lives and breathes your every word daily. I have a Compaq Aero 2130PC with the upgraded 24MB of RAM, 56K modem, and a few other goodies, and rely very much on your great articles and information. Keep up the great work!!

P.S. I am hoping that you will be included in the Avantgo.com list in the near future.

Pete Radike
MSN
pradike@msn.com

David responds
Well, it's still in beta and not an official announcement (and we take it up and down from time to time for improvements), but you might want to check out http://www.windowscepower.com/avantgo/.