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Book Reviews

 Rooney, Kathleen: Reading with Oprah

Obviously Rooney sees herself as one of the high culture as she jumps back and forth on whether Oprah is doing good or bad with her book club. According to Rooney, Oprah's first book club wasn't in depth enough, but the second book club is too much work. She does favor Oprah's newer book club - with the classics - that runs more like a college class, than the old book club. Rooney's book reads like a senior paper, which it very well could be.

Merry Lane

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Computer hardware Reviews

 Brother MFC-3240C
 all-in-one printer/scanner/copier/fax

I recieved it free. It happened to be one of those gifts on the credit card reward sheet (wow, something vaguely useful for a change).

It is adequate. More than adequate. I would be fairly happy had I bought it, and am extremely happy since it was free. The ink is expensive, though, for something that's supposed to be a copier and fax machine. It prints images well; I guess it can't have both "drain half the tank and print a photo" and "use the smallest fluid measurement ever recorded to print text" modes. Darn.

Every time it runs out of paper, it disconnects my computer from the internet (don't run your computer telephone line through it). Also, it tends to go from ink low to ink out if you open the lid (after using no ink). The copy/scan/fax function uses a roller-feed scanner, not a flatbed one. As a result, no staples or small pieces of paper. It works reliably only with standard-sheet (and close to standard paper sizes). Also, the all-in-one unit does not come with a USB cable (required to connect it to the computer), and the cable iself plugs in inside the printer and exits through a notch in the lid. I would reccomend installing the software that comes with it. The lid is a bit rough on the opening and closing.

Though the power button does not always work (sometimes distressing), the cancel works really well. As long as it has not started putting ink on paper, you're fine (even after it has fed the paper). It even works multiple times. If you press it five times it will cancel the next five pages (a neat function when you realize that the last 4 pages out of a 15 page document are wrong).

Even with giving it the strain of printing photo-quality images on this printer (at least 50 this year), it is still running after intense use. I have probably put 3000 sheets of paper (at least) through it in under a year. And I haven't started the fax up yet.

Jo Allen

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