Jess, are you trying to print through the Airport Express from a Leopard machine?

I had a similar problem trying to install the printer onto S's new laptop. First, I specifically needed to download new 10.5 drivers from the Brother web site (so maybe scanner drivers for print/scanner/fax machines don't play nice with Leopard). It sounds like Epson's site sucks ass, but check their downloads section to see if there's an update or driver just for 10.5.

Now, once I'd done that with S's laptop, I *still* had problems installing the printer -- the laptop just did not want to see the printer over the network, even though the installer gave the option to look for the printer over a network (wireless or otherwise). Eventually, I had to unplug the USB printer cable from the Airport and plug it directly into the laptop for the computer to see the printer and finish installation.

Now that installation is finished, the laptop sees the printer just fine over the Airport.

So, unfortunately, that's all very general advice, not specific to you, but I hope it helps.

Also, what's your specific model of Epson?

Jesse, it's pretty darn easy. We ran into a problem where we had to update the BIOS on the laptop to get it to properly recognize the memory, but the actual opening the case and installing the memory is very easy.

Jesse, I've done the RAM thing also (though on a mac) and it was not hard.

That laptop isn't very LIGHT, though, if you're worried about carrying it around--looks like it's over 5 pounds.

The one I have now is almost 7 lbs, so.... It's not like I want to carry it anywhere regularly, so it's not a huge deal.

It just seems like there's a pretty big jump in price between the "value" laptops and the good ones, and I don't think I care enough to spend double the money.

Wow. This discussion of laptop weight led me to check the weight on the laptop I'm looking at purchasing, and it's almost 7 lbs. S's is a nice, light 5 lbs.

Well, I was planning on picking up a backpack for it anyway.

this [link] seems to suggest that it's the default directory for external media volumes

I don't think that's what they mean. I think they mean a directory where the mp3s are located, but I'm not sure how the mp3s are to get there in the first place--do I install something iTunish on the Linux box? Or do I just install Firefly and copy mp3s over and let everything do its job. If so, how can I sync my iPods?

OK, so there's this one: [link] with 2GB DDR2, Intel Pentium Dual Core, 250GB hard drive

The other one is $50 less, has 1GB RAM, AMD Athlon 64 X2 TK-57, 120 GB hard drive. Worth the $50?

I'd definitely pay $50 for double the hard drive space and an extra GB of RAM.

Sean, I'm running Tiger, but updating the drivers is probably a good idea nonetheless. If I don't get this fixed it's not a huge deal because both computers can at least print the way it's set up now. And if DH really needs to scan something, he'll probably want to be sitting at my computer anyway, since it's the one next to the printer and has Photoshop installed. (He'll have to move the printer cable from the Airport to my USB hub, but eh, whatever.)

ita, you can just copy mp3s over and let Firefly do its thing to scan the metadata. Or not copy them over, and let Firefly do its thing, if you mount the drives on the linux box.

An iTunish thing is only necessary for playback on the linux box, or for syncing -- although note that the new generation of iPods is said to not play nice with anything other than iTunes. We have old-as-dirt pods, and syncing works fine with them. I like Exaile for that part.