lorin schultz

charlesn said:

Reviewing routers in a meaningful way that measures throughput performance in various networking scenarios is not for the casual reviewer. You can't approach it the same way you would for the newest iOS game-of-the-minute. Yet that is the approach taken here. In the super competitive field of routers, how do you "review" a newcomer to the market--and award it a perfect score no less--without a single measurement of performance and how that stacks up against the competition? All you've provided is an overview of the software package that accompanies a hardware product, with a generic summary of hardware performance ("rivals mesh systems") that's based on who knows what because you appear to have done none of the throughput performance measurement work that goes into a comprehensive and useful router review. This is one of the most disappointing and useless reviews I've read on AI.

If case you're interested in some unscientific, anecdotal observations from someone who knows nothing about networking:

We recently revised our home network. Our needs include connecting both storage and printers, so that eliminated the mesh systems we looked at. We wound up comparing the Apple Airport Extreme, a Linksys EA8500, the Synology, and a brand new, "upscale" modem/router just announced by our ISP. All were compared for coverage, speed, and ease of integration with an extender.

Not surprisingly given its age, the AirPort delivered the least speed and coverage, but it was still very good. It was also by far the easiest to set up. Using another AirPort as an extender was super easy.

The Linksys was about 20% faster than the Apple and was easy to extend with a matching companion device designed specifically for that. We tried using an Apple Airport Extreme tower as the extender, but it refused to be subservient to the Linksys. The only setup option available in AirPort Utility was "Create a new network." Thus the availability of a fast, inexpensive extender that spoke the same language as the primary device was an asset to this technologically-challenged user.

The Synology was even faster than the Linksys and had by FAR the best coverage of the four (plus it supports Time Machine, which the Linksys and ISP-supplied box don't). We had trouble getting it and an extender to play well together, though. We don't know whether that's an issue with the Synology or something that could be overcome by someone with networking expertise. As unsophisticated users stumbling around with setup windows, we found ourselves wishing the Synology offered a simple, fast, inexpensive, easy to set up companion extender like Linksys does. Again, we could not find a way to get the AirPort Extreme tower to act as an extender.

The new modem/router from our ISP is the least sophisticated of the bunch. There's no "matching" extender like Linksys has that makes setup so easy, and it doesn't support Time Machine. Speed and coverage were comparable to the Linksys, which is a little short of the Synology. Again again, the Airport Extreme tower refused to work as an extender to this unit.

The Synology was the fastest of the devices we tried, provided the best coverage to fringe areas like the patio, and it supports Time Machine. The AirPorts were the easiest to set up and extend. The Linksys landed in the middle. It was faster and had better coverage than the AirPort, but not as good as the Synology. It didn't support Time Machine, but the "matching" high-speed extender was almost as easy to set up as the AirPorts.

charlesn said:

[...] I switched from an AE Extreme Tower w/Time Capsule to a new router back in June and I noticed an immediate and significant difference in throughput speed and the elimination of weak signal areas in my apartment. And I'm continuing to use my Extreme Tower as the storage device for Time Machine backups--I simply shut off the radios on the AE Extreme and connected it via Ethernet to the new router. My iMac and MacBook still back up to it automatically with no problems. 

I don't know how you got that to work! The only way I could get an AirPort Extreme tower to work as an extender was when using another AirPort as the router. As soon as I introduced a non-Apple router ahead of the AirPort, the extender options disappeared from AirPort Utility. A web search turned up lots of comments from other people having the same problem, and articles saying it's not possible. How did you set it up?

lowededwookie said:
[...] Corel Draw is still great software and in many respects better that Photoshop

I know your point was about markets and not software capabilities, but for future reference, Draw and Photoshop are very different products. Draw is for vector-based art, while Photoshop works with raster/bitmap images. That means Draw compares to Illustrator, not Photoshop. Corel's answer to Photoshop is Paint.

cgWerks said:
[...] Their products were quite popular and some of the best on the PC side of the fence for a long time.

Popular, yes. Good, no.

I was using Corel's version 5 suite when I switched to Adobe's version 3 and 4 products. The difference was staggering, especially on the raster side (Photoshop vs. Corel Paint). Photoshop's color handling, anti-aliasing, selection tools, and retouching tools were SOOO much better than Paint it was like they were from different planets. Draw was actually easier and more intuitive to use for vector work than Illustrator, but it was notoriously inaccurate. It was like it rounded every calculation to a decimal place or two, meaning objects often didn't wind up where they were supposed to or were sized incorrectly. Conversions between color spaces were a disaster, with the converted result often bearing no resemblance to the original.

I don't know if the gap has closed in the intervening 20 years, but at that time I was kicking myself for having bothered with Corel at all instead of just biting the bullet for Photoshop and Illustrator right away. I still brace myself for the inevitable CorelDraw issues whenever I send a project to a cutter or engraver.

DAalseth said:

I had no idea that Corel, CorelDraw, or WordPerfect still were around. Knew about WinZIP but didn't realize they owned it.

Sign and vinyl design makers use CorelDraw. It's the front end for the cutters. I sent an engraver an Illustrator file and they couldn't use it without converting it to Corel format first.

backstab said:

Why the heck would anybody buy a 27" or 21.5" display for their Mac Mini?

I know why I would, but I'm curious about why you wouldn't? What size do you think is better suited to the mini?

I was planning to use a pair of 32" displays, but after working in a studio that has a 32" beside a 27", I found the 27" more comfortable. The 32 required "looking around" to find stuff -- too big to take in everything in a single point of gaze. Plus it ties up a lot of space and is always in the way when trying to hear the centre speaker.