When Scanner Comes To Town (call it "Love")

Not to digress before I have something to digress from (is that even possible?) but the version of that song where B.B. King joins U2 (above; it's on "Rattle and Hum") is indescribably great.

Now where was I (going)?

Oh, yeah, scammers.

No, joe, that's not it.

Oh, yeah — my love affair with my new scanner.

It's the Canon CanoScan LiDE 600F (below).

I went to Apple's website to see which scanners were there, knowing they would play well with my Macs.

There were four listed: a Canon for $100, the one I bought ($150 at the Apple store), some HP number for $300 and a Fujitsu for around $500.

I picked window #2 but then saw where it would be a 1-2 week wait until it shipped.

No way!

I mean, I'd put off buying one — because of my TechnoDolt™ reluctance to once again demonstrate why I shouldn't be allowed access to anything requiring more intelligence than a chimpanzee could bring to the task, in the face of everyone I know who has any sense telling me it would make my life easier and better — for years.

No way am I gonna wait a week or two 'cause everyone knows that when you have to have it, it's gotta happen right now.

So I rambled on over to Amazon where I bought it for $135 with one-click and free 2-day delivery.

Not a bad second choice, what?

Anyhoo (yoiks, I'm channelling clifyt, this will not end well, methinks...), it arrived on schedule and I unpacked it and just stared at it for a day or two, trying to will it not to make me go mad with frustration once I tried to get it to work.

Long story short: without following the directions (except when, after nothing happened when I just plugged the thing in, I relented and put the installation CD into my computer), by what I can only term a miracle, I got it to function.

True, so much stuff suddenly appears on my computer screen when I'm scanning (see screenshots below)

I can't believe it, none of which I have a clue about nor do I intend to try and figure out, but the bottom line is, I can get an image out onto my screen that is as good or better than the original print version — and I can use it in bookofjoe.

So much better resolution, and far easier than my old practice of trying to take a photo and then put it up.

I'm sold.

Is it time to move to Leopard and bag my obsolete Panther?

Not quite yet.

I'm wild, but I'm not crazy.