Sitting for the RHCE

By Ken Barber on April 06, 2004 (8:00:00 AM)

I've taken some pretty tough tests in my life, and passed every one of them on the first try. And since I'm teaching Linux system administration at my local community college, I thought I would be hot stuff when I signed up to take the Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE) exam. I don't think that way anymore.

I've always done well on tests. Mensa once offered me a membership in their organization because of my SAT scores. In a former life I was a refrigeration mechanic and earned the coveted CM certification from the Refrigeration Service Engineers Society -- a cert well known in that industry for requiring multiple attempts to pass -- on the first try. I even passed the written exam for a private pilot's license on my first try.

Then I started a new career in IT. I breezed through my MCSE a few years ago, including the notoriously difficult Exchange Server exam. Then I earned a GSEC security certification from the SANS Institute, requiring two open-book exams. I took the first one closed-book, and passed both. When I learned that the Linux Professional Institute was offering its exams for free at Linuxworld last year, I walked in late to one of them on a lark, totally unprepared. I barely squeaked through, but I passed.

RHCE was different. It was the second-toughest exam I've ever taken.

Red Hat vs. other certifications

The day after I earned my MCSE the Dilbert comic strip featured a character in tights and a cape saying, "Step away from that network server! I'm certified!", but he couldn't fix anything when he sat down in front of it. My friends and co-workers thought it was really funny, and made sure I had clippings of it coming in from all over for the next few days.

But the problem of people holding "paper" certifications is not a laughing matter to employers, and the number of "paper CNEs" and "paper MCSEs" has become the stuff of legends. I do not believe there is any such thing as a "paper RHCE."

To my knowledge, there are only two IT industry certifications that require a candidate to set up and repair an actual running system. Red Hat's is one of them; the other is a Cisco exam. There are no multiple-choice questions to answer; you spend the entire session repairing a broken system and then building a new one from scratch. At the end of the day, the things you've been asked to do either work, or they do not -- and you pass or fail on that basis alone.

It's not as easy as it sounds. The failure rate hovers around 40%.

Fortunately, all is not necessarily lost for those unlucky 40% who fail to meet the lofty requirements for an RHCE. For a little more than a year now, Red Hat has been issuing a Red Hat Certified Technician (RHCT) certificate to those who demonstrate competence in the portions of the test that deal with workstation (as opposed to server) administration.

Preparing for the exam

What's on the test? I'm not allowed to tell you, but Red Hat provides a list of everything you need to know. It is safe to assume that you will be tested on every item in that list; if you're weak in two or three of the list's items, don't take the exam until you've done some more preparation.

The choices for "more preparation" are somewhat limited: you can take a class from Red Hat, or you can take a different class from Red Hat! Red Hat does provide a very nice set of online pre-assessment tests (free, but registration required) to help you choose which class is right for you. The exam prep guides being sold by various booksellers can help you prepare for a class, but are useless in preparing for the exam itself. Believe me -- I own two of them.

The main value of the classes is to learn how do the exam's tasks quickly, the way Red Hat wants them done. But I can tell you from experience that even Red Hat's classes are not enough to fully prepare you. If you want to have any hope of passing, you will have to have been installing, repairing, and configuring Linux, in all of the areas mentioned in the list above, often enough and long enough to do most of it without referring to a man page. Yes, you're allowed to use man pages during the exam, but if your system won't even boot when you walk into the room, you had better know your stuff cold.

I took the RH 300 course, the one for people who supposedly already know what they're doing. It runs for the four days prior to test day.

Exam day

On a recent Friday morning eight of us filed into the classroom we'd been calling home for the last week to find our systems re-imaged. After signing non-disclosure agreements, we were given a list of 10 things that weren't working and 2-½ hours to fix them. Five of the items had to be fixed in the first hour.

You must get at least eight of the 10 items fixed to earn an RHCE. If you get only the first five items, in the first hour, you can earn an RHCT.

One of our number didn't make it through the first hour. No one gloated when he shook the proctor's hand and left early. The pervasive feeling in the room was that any of us could have met the same fate. The mood afterward, as we ate our catered lunch, was somber. One of us had already been eliminated. How many more of us wouldn't make it through the three hours to come?

We returned to the test room to find that our hard drives had been erased. We were given a boot CD with instructions to build a server with an unbelievably huge list of requirements. As I looked over the list, my heart sank. "There is easily two days' worth of work here," I said to myself, "and I have to have it all done in three hours?"

The list was divided into RHCT tasks and RHCE tasks. You must score at least 70% in each area to earn an RHCE, and a high score in one won't help in the other.

A few of the items on the list were easy, but many were not. So I set myself to the task, starting with the things that I already knew how to do and plugged along at my usual snail's pace. For the things that I'd never done before taking the class, the man pages and online guides weren't enough help. There is simply not enough time to read them, and doing a task once in a class exercise isn't enough to remember how to do it cold.

I actually got through the entire list of items about five minutes before the time was up. Only one other candidate had finished; from the sound of feverish key-tapping in the rest of the room I guessed that most were still trying desperately to get as much done as possible before the bell. All of the things I had tested worked, but I didn't test everything. And there were enough of those to sink my boat if they didn't actually work.

I decided there was no use trying to test any more stuff because if they didn't work there wouldn't be time to fix them anyway. So I rebooted to make sure the system came back up with the services running that were needed, and then just shut the thing down and leaned back in my chair. "I'm done," I said to no one in particular. "Either I passed or I didn't, but I'm not doing any more to this machine." I shook the proctor's hand and left about two minutes before the bell rang.

The next morning my head still hurt, and the pain went down into my shoulders. My sweetheart tried to massage my neck, but said that my muscles there were so tight that they felt like bones. In the end, I had to take a muscle relaxer to calm down. Still, I was cautiously optimistic. While I knew I hadn't aced the exam, I thought I had a good shot at getting the double 70%.

A few days later, I received my scores:

SECTION I: TROUBLESHOOTING AND SYSTEM MAINTENANCE
Overall Section I score: 100%

SECTION II: INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION
RHCT components score: 100.0%
RHCE components score: 67.9%

RHCT Certification: PASS
RHCE Certification: NO PASS

It's a brutal exam.

5 Things To Focus on this Short Holiday Season

Since Thanksgiving came a week later than last year, it's got both businesses and consumers flustered. Not only is there a week of less sellin' there's a week of less buyin'! For those of you who aren't retailers this might even be the end of your fiscal year. Couple that with the economy and everyone is freaking out!

So what do you do? Sit down for a moment, relax and let's think about things. How will you treat this short season?

1. Get your email marketing ducks in a row - Because email is so quick, there doesn't have to be a big lead time and a lot of moving parts. However, you need to devote an hour, where you sit down and calendar out your campaigns. Then create them all at once and schedule them out. If you do this now, you can get at least 4 emails out to customers before it's too late.

Click here to read 4 more ideas for this season

How Much $ Did Your Email Campaign Make You Today?

When you send out an email marketing campaign, you probably get a spike in sales, so you think it worked right? Right! BUT, wouldn't it be great to track the sale directly from those who clicked on your links in your email campaign?

We use our own feature for Click-to-Conversion tracking here and we love it, it can really be valuable.

If you've got a confirmation page, you can either use the VerticalResponse Click-to-Conversion tracker, OR you can use your free Google Analytics account.

RESPECT - Find Out What it Means to Me

Well, it's the end of the year and you're not only sending a ton of email but you're getting it too, right? Retailers are going nuts trying to get as much as they can out of the short season. I'm seeing an email every 30 seconds pop into my inbox and I'm sure many of you have it just the same. Bloomie's and Nieman Marcus are up to 2-3 mailings a DAY right now, but they mail every day anyway, so that's not completely out of the ordinary. On top of that, the businesses who market to businesses are feeling the end-of-year crunch so they're having fire sales for their goods and services too.

What really got me this year was the sheer number of retailers I've purchased from last year, that didn't send me one email until November. Now by inbox runneth over with emails from them.

Iomega eGo Portable Hard Drive

Who knew file storage could be so chic? The 160 GB eGo has enough room to hold up to 640,000 digital photos, 2,900 hours of music or 240 hours of video (depending, of course, on the compression rate). A new dual-interface version works over USB or FireWire and comes with both types of cords. If you accidentally knock the eGo off your desk, the shock-absorbing case will protect the important documents and precious media stored inside.

FlyTech Dragonfly

WowWee's flying insect soars, dive-bombs, hovers and glides using authentic flapping-wing action, which makes it the first commercially available toy ornithopter. It's lightweight (about 1 oz.) yet sturdy, and sports a 16-in. wingspan. The two-channel radio remote lets you control wing speed and tail rotor speed and doubles as a charging base (a 20-min. recharge gives you about 6 min. of flying time). The kids will love it — if you can bear to let them have it for a while.

Toshiba Portégé R500-S5004

This ultra thin-and-light notebook is a dream machine for road warriors. It runs on an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and offers 2 GB of RAM, an integrated DVD burner and graphics card and built-in wireless capability (both wi-fi and Bluetooth). The 12.1-in. widescreen LED-backlit display is super slim and displays in high-definition (1280 x 820 pixels). With the S5004 model you get a solid-state hard drive, which means no fragile spinning parts, so the machine is less likely to suffer damage if dropped or bumped. Total weight: 2.4 lbs.

Samsung P2

The slim and sexy P2 sounds terrific and plays a variety of music file formats: MP3, WMA and songs from subscription services like Rhapsody and Yahoo Music. The pretty 3-in. screen has touch controls for viewing photos and watching videos, which are displayed at a DVD-quality rate of 30 frames per second. The device also works with BlueTooth headsets and speakers, and soon you will be able to receive forwarded calls from a BlueTooth cell phone. (You'll have to download what's called a firmware upgrade from the Samsung website, but don't worry, it's not as difficult as it sounds.) Comes with 4 GB of memory for $200, or 8 GB for $250.

Sony Handycam HDR-CX7

The CX7 records rich high-definition footage straight to a flash memory card (Sony's Memory Stick PRO Duo), so it feels light and compact in your palm, and the 2.7-in. LCD screen features touch controls for set up and playback. Should you get the shakes while shooting, the CX7 has the ability to stabilize the image (using optics, which is more effective than a digital correction) and smooth out the action. A built-in HDMI port lets you connect the camera to an HDTV and watch your home movies in all their high-def glory.

Palm Centro

Do you secretly covet your friend's smart phone while dismissing it as way overpriced? The new Palm Centro provides an opportunity to get all the essential smart-phone features without breaking the bank. This light and bright device supports Web surfing, emailing, instant messaging and text messaging, and sports a 1.3-megapixel camera and a touch screen that works best with a stylus. A mobile version of Google Maps comes preloaded. The qwerty keypad is seriously small, but the bubble-like tactile design of the individual keys makes them easier targets.

Netgear SPH200W Wi-Fi Skype Phone

This cordless wi-fi phone comes with Skype software already built in, so you can log in to an existing account and start making cheap Internet calls immediately. If you've never used Skype before, do not fear: It takes a few moments to create a new account and you can do it right from the phone's keypad. (The first 10 minutes are free; after that, you'll want to visit Skype.com from your computer to sign up for a service plan with a credit card.) The phone will also work at most public hotspots (including T-Mobile's) so if you have lots of friends overseas, you may not want to leave home without it.

Top 10 Gadgets

1. Apple iPhone

The iPhone changed the way we think about how mobile media devices should look, feel and perform. The design is exceptional inside and out: It's got a slick glass-and-stainless steel case and an elegant touch screen loaded with eye candy. It's an iPod and a 2-megapixel camera. Images and video clips display vertically or horizontally — they reorient themselves depending on how you hold the thing. When the phone detects a wireless network within range — your own home wi-fi set up or somebody else's — it lets you tap once to connect, and then proceed with your Web surfing, Google mapping, emailing and other activities that can otherwise be painfully slow over AT&T's cellular network — the only one, unfortunately, that carries iPhone calls.

2. Nikon Coolpix S51c

Have you ever maxed out your digital camera's memory card midway through a vacation? The 8-megapixel Nikon Coolpix S51c point-and-shoot is tricked out with built-in wireless capability, so you can email your images or beam them directly from the camera to your Flickr account or to Nikon's own online photo bank. It's also got a 3x zoom and a roomy 3-in. LCD screen — and it comes in black.

Planning For Construction Cost Escalations

By Richard

Since late 2003 construction costs nationwide have been rising faster than the rate of general inflation, especially in the arid West. Various indexes have put national construction cost increases at 4 to 10 percent over the past year. Moreover, material costs nationwide have increased more than 2 percent just this September alone. And, with the impact of the recent hurricanes now being felt, construction costs are expected to rise 5 to 10 percent nationwide in the future.

Why is the West feeling the pinch? Increasing construction costs can be attributed to two major factors: an increase in new construction starts, and a shortage of materials. Current and planned construction starts alone are currently at $1.5 billion.

The effect is that architects, general contractors, engineers and sub-contractors have an abundance of work from which to chose, and therefore can now be more selective than in past years. Accordingly, competition is less price-sensitive. Since we have emerged from the "contractor surplus" seen in the early 2000's, there is now a relative "shortage" of qualified professionals to fulfill the demand of current and future projects.

Material shortages are another reason for construction cost escalations. Local material shortages are now being compounded by the nation-wide effect that the natural disasters in southeast United States have brought on. Material shortages not only add to the direct costs of materials, but can also add additional lead time to procurement. This can potentially extend the duration of project construction and additional costs in areas such as general conditions as well.

So what should owners do to put themselves in the best position for a smooth project? The following are the three most important concerns an owner should be aware of when beginning a new construction project:

1. Pick a sharp design firm. You want to ensure that the design firm you choose can give you the design aesthetics and functionality you desire, but is also looking for cost-effective solutions behind the scenes.

2. Pick a contractor with strong preconstruction services. Preconstruction is responsible for setting costs, scheduling, and determining alternative methods solutions. A reputable Construction Manager/General Contractor (CM/GC) will identify long-lead times associated with certain materials and plan for them accordingly so that there are no interruptions in construction. Also, if there are materials that are about to rise in cost, your CM/GC can order early to lock in a lower price. Additionally, it is in the preconstruction phase where your schedule is reviewed to identify if a possible shortening or shifting will enable you to realize additional savings. As you can see, having expert Development Support is critical.

3. Involve your general contractor early in the process. Many projects are started with an under-funded budget. You need to have accurate, real-time costs and data to properly prepare a budget for a project. Too often, budgets rely on dated or inaccurate information. This is why it helps to bring in a contractor early on.

While owners, architects and contractors all work together as a team, architects naturally have more control over design, while contractors have more control over costs. The earlier you bring all parties together, the less budget problems you will have later down the line.

Construction cost escalation is an issue that is not going away soon. There is no way to completely negate the issue, but with proper planning and the right construction and design teams, budgetary issues can be identified early on, and alternative method solutions can be pursued to keep your project moving forward on time and on budget.

Rich Allison oversees the Colorado office of Adolfson & Peterson Construction. He directs all estimating, scheduling, and construction project management activities, and is responsible for the strategic planning, risk management and operational decisions of the Colorado Region. For more information, see A&P's construction management resources. Rich has been involved in all aspects of A&P's business development and construction management for more than 25 years. He can be reached at 303-363-7101.

Rich Allison oversees the Colorado office of Adolfson & Peterson Construction. He directs all estimating, scheduling, and construction project management activities, and is responsible for the strategic planning, risk management and operational decisions of the Colorado Region. For more information, see A&P's construction management resources. Rich has been involved in all aspects of A&P's business development and construction management for more than 25 years. He can be reached at 303-363-7101.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Richard_Allison

LEED - Impact on New Construction

By Jeff Schaefer

We've all seen the signs indicating a new construction project is underway. In this day and age more and more are becoming environmentally conscientious. What does that mean for those who are in the Construction field? It means they need to be on the cutting edge of green technology.

What is LEED? Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is basically a third-party certification program. It is a nationally accepted organization for design, operation and construction of high performance green buildings. This ensures the buildings are environmentally compatible, provide a healthy work environment and are profitable.

LEED certified buildings are commanding higher rental rates and great occupancy than the non-green buildings. This trend cannot help but impact the Investment community. The supply while gradually increasing is not keeping up with the demand for green buildings. LEED buildings are awarded points for sustainability for things like energy-efficient lighting, low-flow plumbing fixtures and collection of water to name a few.

Recycled construction materials and energy efficient appliances also impact the point rating system. In the political climate of today's world, as the earth's natural resources are being depleted at an alarming rate the construction industry is being compelled to look at alternatives to traditional construction materials and styles.

More and more legislation is being passed that impacts not only zoning but environmental impact for new construction. LEED certification and Energy Star ratings seem to be the future of construction projects. It's important to not only build beautiful buildings but buildings that are energy efficient, healthy for their occupants to exist within and that they not harm the environment.

Those of us who populate those buildings can feel good about the part we are doing to help the environment and preserve what is left of the environment after years and years of taking natural resources for granted. Green technology as it continues to catch on will generate additional jobs and challenge conventional wisdoms. Look what happened in the auto industry with the electric cars. It didn't really catch on despite the fact that many who had the opportunity to test drive them wanted to keep them. Instead they were basically scrapped because of big business. Now we have hybrids and more and more companies are looking for ways to create cars that are more environmentally friendly.

click here for details....

Construction Company - Requirement For Everyone

By Omar S Mahmood

Home Construction is a cumbersome task because it needs lot of time and dedicated efforts to produce desired results. Every people does not have that much experience of building construction. Its really a tough science, its does not matter you are building a new home from scratch or renovating your existing home, You need experts help, or advice every time you think of it.

Well, there are several construction consultants or construction companies with several years of relevant expertise to assist people in building their homes, shopping malls, or offices. They are not only helpful in construction, in fact they provide one stop solution of all tasks related to building or any type of civil constructions including planning, elaboration, construction, furnishing as well as interior and exterior decoration.

There are several things which only an expert can suggest better, like materials needed in making different portions, their ratio and proportion depending on the geographical location and other factors. Another problem is with the need of civil equipments needed in construction, a normal person cannot arrange every equipment for quick, efficient and perfect work. This is what you can achieve by hiring services of a construction expert only.

Construction Companies helps you determine the time required in construction as well as the budget required. There are other requirements too which needs to be finalized before shifting to your new home of office, that includes several licensing and permissions like electricity license, phone connection, cable connection, fire alarms and emergency facilities (in case of offices). Another important issue is insurance of home as well as mortgage loans installments fixation. Construction companies helps you with everything, making you relax from all worries of construction.

5 Easy Steps to Improving Your Computer Performance

By: Grant Eckert

You don't have to be a computer expert to realize that your computer isn't working as well as it once was. Over time, that brand new computer - laptop or desktop - begins to have troubles. It runs slowly or it freezes up for no apparent reason, ruining your computer experience. But before you run out to the store for a new model, you need to try these five steps. All of them are easy enough for anyone to do - and you will see a vast improvement in just a few minutes.

Get Rid of Extra Files

If you've ever tried to find something in a room that's cluttered, you already know how difficult that can be. The same can be said of your computer. When you have too many files and too many programs, it can lead to troubles with the performance. What you need to do is get rid of the excess bloat that's on your computer. But while this is easy, you do need to be careful along the way. There are some programs on your computer that you do not recognize by name that are vital to your computer's performance - and these should not be deleted.

The good news is that most PCs are careful about letting a user delete something that might be important, so you will be warned if you are heading into dangerous territory.Right now, you might want to go into your Documents menu to remove any excess files that don't need to be there. If you do need these files, think about storing them on a flash drive instead of on your hard drive. In the documents folder, you will also see that you have pictures and other files that you are storing. If you don't need them or they can be taken off the hard drive - take them off.

Get Rid of Extra Programs

When you get a new computer, not only does it have the latest specifications, but it also tends to have extra programs on it - programs that you may never use. To help your computer's performance, you will want to remove as many of these as possible.

In a PC, go into your control panel folder to 'Add/Remove Programs.' You will find a list of all the games and other programs on your hard drive. Each of these programs is not only taking up space on your drive, but they can also be potentially slowing down the performance. Take some time to look through these files to see what you use and what you can remove. Games tend to be a big filler on a computer's hard drive, so unless you play these regularly, they can be removed. Just follow the prompts on your computer screen in this folder.

Free Up Space on your Hard Disk

To further help your computer's performance, you will want to head back into your control panel to the option to free up space on your hard disk. This is helpful especially to a computer user that doesn't know a lot about what is okay to delete and what isn't. This program gathers the information on the computer (temporary internet files, things in the recycling bin, etc.) that can be easily deleted without any troubles. All you need to do is click on this option, allow the computer to gather the files, and then tell the computer to remove them.

Defragment Your Computer Regularly

Another option in your Control Panel is to defragment your hard drives. This option allows your computer to rearrange the remaining files on your computer so that they run more quickly and efficiently. This process basically assesses your current hard drive and then sees how it can rearrange everything. The process should be done on a regular basis, even weekly if you can. It's best to do this after you have deleted the excess files because you can then just rearrange all of the remaining programs and files in the process.There may be some files that can not be moved during the defragmentation process, but this does not cause any major problems for most people.

Add More Memory

If all of these steps simply do not help your computer, your best bet is to add more memory to your hard drive. This will help your computer to run better and more efficiently. When all the programs have enough room to run, this will enhance the speed of your programs as well as your ability to run multiple programs at the same time.These simple steps will help you improve the performance of your computer without necessitating any additional costs, unless you need more memory. And this adds up to savings for you and for your computer. When you can maintain the performance, you will be able to keep your computer for a longer period of time without having to replace it.

Print from your Mobile Phone

By: Alan Wilson

If your Bluetooth-enabled camera phone is full of snapshots you'd rather see in print, a Bluetooth-enabled printer can set them free.

Let's say you're out and about, and you find yourself in the midst of a scene that you just have to capture on (digital) film. Do you stop and dig around in your pocket for your camera? Do you even have your camera with you? Maybe not. But you do have your camera phone. So you snap the picture with your mobile, and there it is. In your phone. What's the next step? You can beam it to a friend's phone. You can download it to a computer. And now that phone companies and printer manufacturers are embracing the world of Bluetooth, you can make a quick, easy, good-looking print.

Although camera companies are quick to espouse the high pixel counts of their latest offerings, the truth is that you don't really need a 10-megapixel SLR for quick snapshots, even if you plan to print your pictures. In fact, you can make a high-quality 4 by 6 print with only two megapixels. Two! And now that phone companies are installing higher-quality cameras in their products, two-megapixel camera phones aren't that difficult to find.

Printer manufacturers are also aware of the upswing in camera-phone photography. In response, many have integrated Bluetooth technology into their machines. This means that if your phone supports the Bluetooth Printing Profile (BPP), you can wirelessly send a photo straight from your phone to your printer, and end up with a hard copy to hand to a friend. (Just keep in mind that BPP support is an important detail—just because your phone offers Bluetooth doesn't mean it supports everything Bluetooth can do.)

Many photo printer manufacturers offer optional Bluetooth adapters that plug right into the USB port on the printer. We examine dedicated photo printers from three of the main manufacturers offering this facility and determine a best buy for your budget.

HP Photosmart A717 is the latest compact photo printer available from HP, it has all the usual features common with the photosmart range, has memory card slots for all the major formats, is PictBridge and iPod compatible and has an optional Bluetooth wireless capability.

The 2.51in LCD screen is acceptable and the 4GB internal memory will allow you to store a massive 4000 photos which can be printed out in a variety of sizes up to 13x18cm. One improved feature over previous models is that waterproof output is now a standard with the improved ink and paper used with this printer.

Output quality, including indoor and outdoor shots, close-ups of faces, landscapes and more – qualified as true photo quality. There were some minor flaws on close inspection, including a slight loss of detail in bright areas of some photos but certainly not common enough to be offputting.

Cost per print using the HP110 Value Pack (hpq8700a) which includes an HP110 cartridge and 120 sheets of 10x15 photo paper is just over 20 pence which is less than most photo printers.

Epson PictureMate 500 Epson is one of the main manufactures of photo inkjet printers and its dedicated, small format PictureMate 500 is interesting because it prints in six colours rather than the three colours provided in the above HP printer.

Whilst the three colour print processes used by HP produce high quality photo prints, the extra colours offered by Epson produced noticeable improvements, particularly in lighter shades. Here the photo cyan and photo magenta inks produce brighter and more vibrant colours.

Cost per print using the T557 picture pack is also about 20pence per print and all major memory cards are supported along with PictBridge and of course the optional Bluetooth capability.

Canon Selphy CP740 is the final printer to be considered in this group and if looks alone were your criteria it would win hands down.

The CP740 weighs a mere 940g and its 179x127x63mm dimensions are smaller than a tiny loaf of bread. Its Apple-like creamy colour is clearly designed to complement your Mac and iPod and the range of buttons that control mode, layout and the welcome auto Red Eye correction icon are easy to use.

Quality of the finished image is impressive, although not quite up to the standard of the Epson. Each print takes four passes to complete and it's intreaging to watch the sharpness and clarity emerge with the final pass adding a high gloss protective layer.

The major downside of this machine is the awkward front photo tray whose fitting can take a while to master, all other features are similar to the other printers reviewed and considering the Canon currently sells for about £30 less than the opposition, it looks a bit of a bargain.

So which printer is best for my mobile prints? If out and out photo quality is your primary concern then the Epson is clearly your best option, if however all you want to do is produce respectable photo prints quickly and with minimum fuss then the bargain priced cute looking Canon is the printer for you. The HP does everything well but ultimately fails to be best at anything.