Canon LiDE 30 Followup

The metrics are scant -- just email received, hit counts and forum linkings -- but it appears that posting stopped hundreds of people from purchasing the scanner.

While not good news for Canon, there could be a good trend here. Traditionally, user interface is almost a non-issue for manufacturers. That is, folks usually don't buy on user interface issues -- they tend to purchase on price and/or features.

I don't think that's because folks think user interface isn't important. Instead, qualifying user interface doesn't boil down to a spec sheet or price point that the maker can print on the box. All manufacturers tout "easy to use", but that's merely the manufacturer's opinion, and is largely ignored by the jaded consumer.

No, it's only when objective third-parties write about a product's user interface does the manufacturer receive feedback. Great UI can result in increased sales, bad UI results in rants like mine which hurts sales. Old-timers like Consumer Reports have been attempting to strengthen this feedback loop for some time, but Internet-spread personal rants+raves are bringing this to an entirely new level.

I also continue to get email from folks who are afflicted by the terrible Looking for devices matching vendor ID... logging behavior, asking me how to stop it. Here's how: Assuming 10.3, open System Preferences->Accounts->My Account->Startup Items. Hover your mouse over the ButtonManager login items. A tooltip containing the app's path will appear. Now you know where they live, for later deleting. For now, just click on them and hit the minus button below. Reboot. Delete original files if you so desire.

Finally, folks have asked what I purchased in replacement of the LiDE 30. For a long time, the answer was "nothing". I didn't really have a pressing need for the scanner, more a future need (I'm fully willing to admit my technoelegance lust drove the premature purchase). Well, that future need hit home about a month back, and after reviewing the marketplace again, I purchased an Epson Perfection 1670 Photo scanner. It requires an external power brick, can't seem to be turned off save unplugging it, but it works and comes with a sane Mac OS X native TWAIN driver. It's not rock, but it's not suck. Apparently, nonsuck is the best the scanner market currently offers.

Update: Darrin replies, supplying a reasonable explanation as to why scanner software tends towards suck.

Update: Eric Shapiro (yes that Eric) writes:

I too was getting the annoying "Looking for devices matching vendor" messages in my log. I fixed it using HexEdit.

Download HexEdit from:
http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=9366

Edit the following file:
/Users/Shared/N067U/N067U_Driver.bundle/Contents/MacOS/N067U_Driver

Do a search for "Looking for devices" within the file and replace the beginning of the string - the L - with a hex zero.

The whole process is a bit more complicated because the file is open by default, so you have to make a copy, edit that, and replace the original file. Plus the file is inside the bundle so you have to choose "Show Package Contents" to actually get there.

If I have some time off, I can write a small app or shell script to do this, but that's not likely anytime in the immediate future.

Just read your rant against the Canon LiDE 30 and was in total agreement, at which point I decided I'd see if anyone had done anything about the lack of TWAIN driver support since your problems. Alas, no, but I did find a program called VueScan (http://www.hamrick.com/vsm.html), which essentially works on pretty much any OS (Mac OS X (and 9 I think) as well as Windows & Linux) and works with around 350 scanners (including the LiDE 30). Not only does it (in most cases) not require any installation of drivers for the scanner, but it provides a simple interface that's the same for all scanners. It's pretty simple to use, with optional Basic/Standard/Advanced modes if you want to fine tune various aspects. It even recognises the buttons (the first two anyway, scan & copy) on the front of the scanner and acts appropriately.

For the record, no, I have nothing to do with this app or the author, and don't profit from it in any way - I only discovered this program tonight. I thought it might be something to add to your rant because I almost gave up after reading it, until I found this program. As far as I can see, its free to use for simple scanning, or for $60/$80 you get some bonus features for those who need things like accurate colours (actually i didn't really see the need for the extra features but anyway)

So far I'm impressed, it hasn't crashed, it hasn't caused my scanner to hang or sat on 100% cpu usage or anything like that. I won't say its the "perfect" scanning program but I think its the best I've seen. (Though I've just been told Canon make some nice scanning software for windows for their latest scanners).

Oh and I also sent off a rant of my own (vaguely following yours) to Canon support, though I'm not expecting any TWAIN drivers too soon.

I considered VueScan, but a big reason I wanted a scanner was to drive it with my own software, so the lack of a TWAIN driver was a deal-breaker for me. If it isn't for you (and it probably isn't), then you should check out VueScan.

Friday, April 09, 2004
12:00 AM