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Not only is FireWire 400 faster than USB 2, but FireWire 800 (IEEE1394b) is even faster than that. Built into new PowerMacs and PowerBooks (except the 12"PB), and available here here here and here (quick Google results).

...that's really, really tough.

I've been mulling over this issue myself lately. I know you mentioned iDVD as a requirement, but is that specifically iDVD, or "something easy and cheap compared to DVD Studio Pro"?

For me, it's the latter, and I don't need to burn on the road, so I've been thinking about getting something like LaCie's external unit, which comes with CaptyDVD bundled for a total of $299. I think the mechanism in the linked product is the new A06, but I could be wrong.

I've never used CaptyDVD and I haven't been able to find any substantive reviews on it, so maybe it's a dog. Or maybe it's great. Undoubtedly, it's not as powerful as DSP, but I would guess it holds it's own against iDVD as far as features go (and probably doesn't have some of the built-in limitations iDVD does).

Maybe you'll take the plunge and let us know ;)

-h3

Me.

I work on this 20" cinema display mainly to do page layout, gives a nice and crisp result at 1680 x 1050 resolution and a I also use19" Lacie Electron blue for colour correction and Photoshop work.

And if I may add: nothing comes close, in terms of picture quality, to the Lacie.

Don't laugh, but their kettle, toaster, coffee maker and citrus press are all worthy of drooling over too.

Oh, and so is the Data Bank, a FireWire external hard disk drive that they designed for LaCie, that's styled to look like a silver ingot.

I'd link directly to their kitchen accessories but their flash-based site is annoying. If you're interested in viewing them, look at them here, courtesy of Amazon.co.uk.

The problem is that quality can vary drastically from unit to unit... What do you do to make sure you get the sort of high-quality display that'll last you through the next couple hardware upgrades?

You haven't exactly defined quality, so I'll assume you mean accurate color rendering.

In this case you want a monitor like a LaCie or Sony Artisan Series, both of which come with a calibration device.

Other monitors by NEC and Mitsubishi sometimes come with calibration color strips you can lay over your monitor while displaying preset colors from a software application.

Failing a device or software and strip, one can load a browser while using the monitor and head to EasyRGB where you can attempt to calibrate it. I've just calibrated my monitor by matching it to my office wall, which I recently painted in Benjamin Moore "Buckland Blue." (RGB values of 95 134 150)

He could've just used 500GB HDD's. Although it wouldn't have been half as fun...

jesus man you've been around long enough, figure out how to link the damn thing.

In that sort of world, it's a lot easier to specify how big you want things to be than to specify how many pixels anything should be.

You should check out lacie monitors. Notice the little screen "hood" they use? Not that I'm suggesting you buy one, but I've worked with guys who did the same thing with some cardboard & scissors or an umbrella. One guy even brought in a kiddie pool (turned upside down) - he won major style points for that one.

Maybe once management sees the proliferation of umbrellas and cardboard they might get the idea that if they don't solve Engineer's problems, they're going to solve it themselves, no matter the cost to the company's "image". Yeah, the execs outlawed umbrellas and cardboard where I used to work, but the Engineers developed the attititude: "What are you going to do, fire me?". Sure you could argue that it would just give them a reason to fire you, but I found it actually only gave them reasons to get rid of the programmers who couldn't cut it anyway, so it worked out for the rest of us. I left 'cause my internship was over and I had to go back to school, but last I heard neither side had budged, and had become a moot argument.

You should check out lacie monitors. Notice the little screen "hood" they use? Not that I'm suggesting you buy one, but I've worked with guys who did the same thing with some cardboard & scissors or an umbrella. One guy even brought in a kiddie pool (turned upside down) - he won major style points for that one.

Maybe once management sees the proliferation of umbrellas and cardboard they might get the idea that if they don't solve Engineer's problems, they're going to solve it themselves, no matter the cost to the company's "image". Yeah, the execs outlawed umbrellas and cardboard where I used to work, but the Engineers developed the attititude: "What are you going to do, fire me?". Sure you could argue that it would just give them a reason to fire you, but I found it actually only gave them reasons to get rid of the programmers who couldn't cut it anyway, so it worked out for the rest of us. I left 'cause my internship was over and I had to go back to school, but last I heard neither side had budged, and had become a moot argument.

Yeah that's right, Monitor Hoods! [google.com] I know they lok a little goofy but after having the please of using a LaCie monitor with one of these things a while back during an unexpected outdoor coding session, I swear by them. PS: no affiliation to LaCie or any monitor hood company, honest

Now this makes me wonder, I thought most graphic designers used Mac, but Apple only supplies these with LCD's these days..
Has anybody told Apple that this probably isn't a good idea?

True, though there is always the option of buying an G4 without an Apple-brand LCD and instead opting for a Real Monitor.

You call this bulky?

That's true of any of the firewire pocket drives.

Check out LaCie

Also feature USB hubs built in, and an optional colour calibration unit that plugs into the handy USB plug on the front bottom left corner. See 'em in person, they rock!
3 Year warranty, and dual inputs too.

A friend of mine has a PC and a G4 hooked up to a single 22" and controls them both through the same mouse and keyboard, switching between them with the A/B switch.

"I would also like to point out the connectors. I would assume firewire was made partly as competition to usb. Thus it would be relatively easy to assume that firewire carries more current to power some lower powered devices."

Yes, this is true. LaCie, for example, ships a portable hard drive that can be powered by the Firewire bus.

Yup, Fantom, FirePower, LaCie, ProMax, and others all have current products.