Odds & Ends: Get "out-of-print" OS disks; iTunes fries drive?; Reading Memory Sticks; more

Want "out-of-print" OS disks; more? Regarding yesterday's mention of the junkyardjeff site, Mark Mason suggested checking out another site offering used parts: SurTech. Charlie Downs noted a link to Home page of Gamba on the junkyardjeff site, to which he adds: "You've got to see this one. Want System 0.97/1.0? He's got it. Want just about any system boot disk including all versions of System 6 and 7? No problem. There are links to Apple manuals, older versions of popular browsers and much more."

iTunes "fries" drive? As unlikely as it sounds, I think iTunes (for OS 9) may have fried my Sony Spressa USB. I successfully burned a CD this morning - using iTunes to burn a CD for the first time. This evening when I tried to burn another disc, the drive whirred away and the read/write light blinked at me. It continues to do this whether its plugged into the computer or not. Unplugging it from the wall and plugging it back in doesn't seem to fix the problem. I am apparently not alone. A posting at comp.sys.mac.hardware.stores describes almost exactly the same problem with iTunes OS X and an Iomega ZipCD."

Boosting audio output in iTunes? Narayan Nayar claims you can boost low audio output from iTunes if you have Apple Video Player running in the background. He explains: "I was streaming some audio in iTunes while working on some video stills, which I capture on my PowerBook G4 using iRez's Capsure PC card and Apple Video Player. When I launched the Player, the audio output from iTunes jumped up significantly. You may need a video card attached for this to work. The volume slider in Apple Video Player only appears when there's a capturing device, and my guess is this volume slider has to be pumped all the way up in order to get any boost out of iTunes (you'll notice that controlling the volume in the Video Player will also control iTunes output)."

Reading Sony Memory Sticks: a follow-up Regarding our previous coverage of "unreadable" Sony Memory Sticks, Erik Olsen writes:" I think I have found the cause of Memory Stick issues when connecting a new Digital-8 Handycam to a Mac running OS 9.1. The problem does not seem to be associated with anything on the Mac but rather how the free 4 Meg stick that comes with the camera is formatted. I deleted the 20 silly borders that came with the camera on the stick and reformatted the stick through the camera. After doing this I can take stills or MPEG movies on the stick and read them all with Mac OS 9.1, File Exchange, and Sony Camcorder USB drivers on. If you took stills before you tried the USB connect simply save the stills to the Digital-8 tape before you wipe the stick and grab the stills from iMovie frames over FireWire."

HP driver "Dry Time" glitch? A reader notes: "I just updated my HP driver 4.13 to the recently released version 4.2 for an HP990cxi. The printer is connected to a PowerBook via a Macally USB Cardbus. It has been running with no problems. After upgrading, the option for 'Ink Dry Time' (in the "Paper Type/Quality" section of the Print Menu) is grayed out and cannot be adjusted. However, if I reselect driver version 4.13, the Ink Dry Time option once again becomes available. A bug?"

Limitations of ADC connectors? Harry Zink asks: "Has anyone noticed that, with the ADC connector now used on all Apple's shipping displays, Apple no longer has a display that can be directly connected to a PowerBook or iBook? Also, if a user wants to use dual monitors, Apple has pretty much eliminated their displays from consideration - as an ADC connector cannot be used to connect a second display - at least not without an expensive converter."