What's the best way to get photos from my digital camera to my computer? The cable that came with the camera or a card reader? Is there any advantage to one over the other?

I'd have to say the card reader is the better of those two choices.

From a pure data transfer standpoint, both methods use USB on your computer to transfer the photos.

The cable that came with your camera might be USB at both ends or it might be proprietary, but unless you lose it on vacation it doesn't matter.

A cheap and small card reader that plugs into your computer's USB port is always a good way to go.

One reason to favor the card reader over the cable is power.

During the transfer, your camera has to be powered on, and the battery is draining.

Popping the card out of the camera for use in a reader doesn't drain the battery.

If you buy a reader that can read multiple formats, you might just be a hero with your traveling companions who may need to borrow it from you.

I always recommend carrying more than one memory card for your camera even if you think you'll never fill that 4-gigabyte card in a million years.

I've seen plenty of cards go bad, only to leave the user with a paper weight to carry around for the rest of the day.

Spending an extra $20 on a second card might save your bacon someday. In the information technology business we call that a "single point of failure." We try our best to eliminate situations where the failure of one piece of equipment takes down a whole system.

Of course, I realize you're probably only going to carry one camera, which is also a single point of failure, but hey, you do what you can.

Jim Rossman is technical manager for Macintosh support for A.H. Belo Corporation.