The Inkjet printer industry is booming. Office supply companies report they make more money on ink sales alone than on printer sales overall. Due to increasing ink sales, many inkjet manufacturers have introduced innovative products and services to meet the demands of discerning consumers. Customers are now able to purchase refill kits that allow them to handle their inkjet needs at home, without having to purchase expensive new cartridges. Refill kits contain a syringe like instrument that injects ink into the cartridge.

In addition to ink refill kits, some printer manufacturing companies are also designing a chip that can detect when the cartridge is nearing the depletion level. On some models, this service will even report the number of pages left to print. Manufacturers believe this type of service will be beneficial to customers because it will enable them to know they are about to run out of ink, before it actually happens.

Despite the measurers that manufacturers have taken to lighten the financial burden on consumers who purchase ink products, consumers frequently try different strategies to conserve their ink. One of these strategiesis to produce bulk quantities in black ink, under the mistaken impression that this will conserve their more expensive color ink cartridges. Unfortunately, this strategy doesn’t work because color ink is required to make black ink on some machines.

One strategy that will work is to realize that it takes significantly less ink to print a standard page of text than it does to print a color photo. In fact, a color photo requires 30 times more ink than a single page of text. So, use your ink wisely.Another way consumers can save money is in the quality of the printer they purchase.

Consumers frequently purchase printers based on the sales price, failing to realize that by the time they purchase printing supplies, like ink cartridges, it is cheaper in the long run to go with more expensive inkjet printer that has cheaper consumables. The initial cost difference can easily be made up by the difference in the cost of consumables.

In recent years, the inkjet industry has developed printers capable of printing faster than ever before. Some printers are now capable of printing out 20 pages per minute. Before consumers rush to purchase a printer with such lightning fast capabilities they need to give some consideration to the type of projects they will be printing. Some printers are perfectly capable of printing several pages per minute and maintaining print quality at the same time; however some are not. Take the time to shop around in the inkjet aisle to find the printer that will serve your personal daily printing needs.

With all these new changes in the Inkjet industry, it’s important for consumers to take the time to research the many new services and products now on the market. This is the key to understanding the constantly evolving inkjet printer industry.

This article was provided courtesy of Inkjet Printables.com. On the website you’ll find tons of useful information on inkjet cartridges and other inkjet consumables.

Modern Mass Transit is making it easier for commuters, especially with the latest inter connecting wireless technologies. Many buses, commuter trains, shuttles and even trolley cars now have WiFi wireless computer access so no one is out of touch during the travel time. This is being done now in Baltimore to NY trains and in Sacramento to San Francisco Trains thanks to Amtrak. After all we now have WiFi hotspots at McDonalds, Kinko’s, Book Stores, Starbucks, Airports and hotel lobbies already.

By having these amenities we can get people to stay out of their cars and enjoy the commute and or take a high speed train on their next trip; not to mention save the gasoline which is approaching $3.00 per gallon. Once the system is built the operational costs are relatively low considering the costs of expanding airports which tend to have cyclical trends during boom and bust years and thus hard to manage your ROI, with gates becoming empty and then new gates which need to be built in the up cycle. One only has to follow the sector rotations of the airline industry and take a trip through the California desert and look at Billions of dollars of Airliners sitting hibernated which may never be used again. Between the cutthroat price wars, Bankruptcy tactics and now era of International Terrorism we need to rethink our transportation strategy to include other redundancy methods, which can deliver the speed and comfort that we use to have in Commercial Aviation.

We have only a couple Nationwide Bus Companies that deliver people across the country. We need to insure buses are safe also in the era of International Terrorism and at the same time we need to increase usage and ridership. New interconnected wireless technologies can do both. Since you are already on the Internet you can send video feed back to the command and control for the mass transit system and constantly monitor.

Providing amenities to commuters and safety at the same time will bring riders back and let’s face it no one wants to pay $85.00 each week to fill up their SUV with gasoline. Now is a good time to coax the public back to the mass transit systems we have already set up and improve the economies of scale to make those old embellished proformas used to float the bond measure a reality. Can technology really do all that? Perhaps it can. Think about it.

“Lance Winslow” - If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs

Stimulus thru Caffiene or Visual Input?

It appears that the Mobi TV feature for Cell Phones may in fact have some positive Bio-advantages in that it exercises the brain thru visual stimulation. We know that visual input stimulates the brain. We know that there are significant peaks in brain wave activity in the first 15-30 minutes of watching TV or playing video games and then the activity slowly declines after that.

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available…ted/jscetd2.pdf

http://education.umn.edu/kls/ecee/pdfs/iea2003horie.pdf

http://journalofvision.org/2/1/2/Ringach-2002-jov-2-1-2.pdf

Watching comedy or movies with a twist or ironic situations happening during the film such a detective stories with multiple twists and the "Who Done It" type detective movies provide additional peak brain waves thru out the show. This is due to the activation of the N400 Brain Wave.

The Mobi TV feature on the new Nokia phone can be watched for up to 2 hours without running out of batteries and it also has a digital phone built in as well as being a regular cell phone. RIMM ? Research In Motion will be coming out with a 3G-unit combination Blackberry with all these features plus email and PDA. The Nokia turns off the TV in five minutes after watching unless you push a button to tell it to continue. The feature is only $10 per month. Such things are not to be unexpected with he latest in algorithm compression technologies at all. And it wasn’t long ago when the 1.5-way and 2-way Pagers allowed for news updates, stock quote, weather advisories and sports scores. Even those interested in Homeland Security can get their update news alerts on a pager or cell phone now.

We are also seeing trends in instant messaging although some plans get pretty expensive, one parent was in shock to find their daughter in Junior High School ran up a $600 bill when they went over their 1000 instant messaging limit with 7000 instant messages in one month, at only $ .10 each, well I guess it adds up? Such reliance on personal communications devices and the trend to put more information, video projection, TV, cameras and video feed into these devices will have an effect on the brain. It will affect the way we learn and the speed at which we learn it. Some might say this is bad, although when looking at the other side of the argument there seems to be a big advantage to faster thinking minds and visual stimulus because 45% of our brains RAM capacity (so to speak) appears to be used up in the visual processing area of the brain. In the future as machine and man become one and rely on each other to accomplish tasks thru computer-human interfaces such crude devices as we are discussing here are a precept to the devices which will allow us to do more assisted and higher cognitive level thinking. These current devices now in the works will play a big part in the future of things to come and assist a more mobile society adapt, work and remain at a higher cognitive level.

Do you have thoughts either pro or con on this issue? How does new technology and mobile devices change they way you live, think and reason? Do you think we are moving too fast and losing our innate human social structure or do you feel such devices enhance our closeness as a culture? The future will tell us soon enough.

“Lance Winslow” - If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs

What is SMS?

SMS, also known as short messaging service, is the rage in Europe and parts of Asia. Gradually SMS is gaining momentum in the US as a low cost messaging solution. SMS is defined as text messages, up to 160 characters in length, sent to mobile phones. In recent months SMS has become synonymous with any text message sent to a cell phone.

Benefits to SMS

SMS is a convenient, cost effective alternative to voice messaging. SMS popularity has grown as a result of:

1.) Cost - SMS is less expensive then the airtime used for voice calls or web access.

2.) Non-intrusive - messages are received in a discrete fashion and do not interrupt an individual if they are in the middle of a meeting

3.) Integration Capabilities - many software programs can be set up to send text alerts to mobile phones when urgent conditions exist.

Short Messaging Explained

Short messages can originate from other phones, personal computers or the Internet. Consumers and businesses alike use SMS for remote communication, allowing for staff to be mobile and stay in touch with those who matter.

Who Offers SMS?

Today nearly all the cellular carriers provide some level of SMS or text messaging capabilities. Cost and features vary, with carriers offering a variety of packages to suit individual or business needs. Typically there are three options that carriers provide:

1.) Free of Charge - text messaging is included as part of a select plan.

2.) Per Message Fee - users are charged per message.

3.) Monthly Fee - a set monthly fee includes a specified number of text messages.

How Do You Send SMS Messages?

Messages can be sent a variety of ways, depending on the service provider that you use.

SMS Software

The most popular way to send text messages is using software. When using software there is no cost associated with the sending of messages. Depending on the carrier that you are sending to messages can be sent any number of ways. Different carriers use different standards or protocols, the common protocols supported by most software is: via modem (TAP, UCP), the Internet ((SNPP, WCTP) and via email (SMTP). Software is flexible and often allows for group or scheduled messaging. Another benefit to software is the ability to automate processes, sending SMS alerts when specific conditions exist often without the need for human interaction.

SMS Software - free trials available for download and evaluation http://www.notepage.net

Public SMS Gateway

Public gateways are often referred to as SMSC or SMS centers. The centers typically run a robust software application (like advanced versions of those mentioned above) and subscribe to a large database that allows for the messages to be routed to the appropriate carriers using the appropriate settings. When using an SMSC the sender incurs a per message charge. Cost will vary depending on the SMSC used to send the message but its not uncommon for it to cost .05 per message.

Phone to Phone

Many of the new mobile phones and those on the GSM network allow for messages to be sent from phone to phone. The keypads are rudimentary and not conducive for long messages but are effective when time is an issue and a concise message is needed.

Win for everyone

SMS messaging has been helpful to consumers and carriers, as the cost of sending and delivering SMS messages is relatively low. SMS messages have proven to be a lucrative revenue stream for struggling telecom providers.

The Future of SMS

SMS will continue to grow as part of the telecom industry. As software processes become more complex users will exploit text messaging capabilities in order to allow for additional mobility in the workplace.

About The Author

NotePage, Inc. develops SMS, alphanumeric paging and wireless messaging software solutions. http://www.notepage.net

Let’s take a moment to think about the topic of ink cartridge recycling. In our modern world we just keep throwing our trash away without sparing it a second thought. But where does all this left over trash go? It all goes to the local landfill polluting the land and water table. Is there anything we can do towards "saving the planet"? What if you could help save the planet and make some money doing it? It sounds too good to be true doesn’t it? Right now there are companies that will take away your empty ink cartridges and give you money in return!

A number of companies will be more than happy to take those old cartridges off of your hands and give you cash for your troubles. Visionary companies see the benefits of recycling for the planet and also the employment potential of such projects. If there are particular inkjet brands you tend to use like Apple, Canon or Epson the recycling companies will happily buy the empties from you. You can go through a list of cartridges and select the type you have they will tell you how much you’ll get in return. The rest is done through e-mail or over the phone. Isn’t that a neat way to reduce waste and help the planet at the same time?

Another popular place to find information on recycling inkjet cartridges is at www.fundingfactory.com. They will help your non-profit organization, school, sports team or library achieve their goals in fund raising. Funding Factory offer their servicesa as the biggest free recycling fundraising program in the United States and Canada. They’ll give you top dollar for your old cartridges which in turn will allow many schools to reach their potential goals with their fundraising projects. This is a great site and it’s free! What a great way to rid yourself of your old ink cartridges.

Ok, so what if you want to do the recycling yourself? There are plenty of options available to you. A number of companies sell kits that are specifically designed to allow you to refill your inkjet cartridge. Prices vary from vendor to vendor - as can quality so buyer beware. A refill kit contains a syringe like instrument, some rubber stops and the replacement ink itself. The “syringe” is filled with ink and inserted into the cartridge to quickly top it up. Some people find this whole process a little too messy. For other people it’s a money saver that’s well worth the effort. In addition, you are also saving the planet by reducing plastic waste. Refilling your ink cartridges is worthwhile in terms of saving you money and also helping the environment.

One final note is to check with the manufacturer of your inkjet cartridge to see if they operate their own recycling program. At the moment Hewlett Packard, Epson and Lexmark operate a defined inkjet cartridge recycling program whilst Canon are still catching up the rear. Lexmark even go as far as paying for the postage!

This article was provided courtesy of Inkjet Printables.com. On the website you’ll find tons of useful information on cheap inkjet cartridges

Like all plans, there is an ultimate goal to achieve. The goal in a business continuity plan is simply that: to continue your business in the face of a disaster or a disruption. A business continuity plan is not just for a disaster. It’s also for the smaller things in life, like your friendly neighborhood burglar who decides to borrow all of your computers or the small power interruption, which causes loss of data and downtime or the fire five floors below you, which causes a 5 hour building shutdown. These are a few of the many things, which do occur every day and do happen to companies like yours.

Disaster recovery has traditionally been associated with computing systems and data storage and recovery of data. Different than business continuity, disaster recovery is focused more on after the fact, quickly and effectively recovering from a disaster or disruption.

There are many good sources of information on both business continuity and disaster recovery. Some of the more authoritative sources are: Disaster Recovery International (www.drii.org), Disaster Recovery Journal (www.drj.com), and Global Continuity (www.globalcontinuity.com).

It’s, of course, not realistic to think that you can guard against every risk. However, through risk analysis, business impact analysis, selecting effective strategies, documenting detailed recovery plans and testing your plans, you can significantly reduce many of your risks, often in a very cost effective way. You have an important management responsibility to safeguard company assets. Reducing your risk profile through a well thought out business continuity and disaster recovery plan is an effective way to do so.

About The Author

Robert Mahood has significant technology and management experience in data communications, internet, storage, disaster recovery and data recovery. He is currently the president of Midwest Data Recovery. www.midwestdatarecovery.com

bmahood@midwestdatarecovery.com, 866 786 2595, 312 907 2100

With the new technology used to transfer information to from your digital camera to your laptop or PC using memory sticks which hold significant amounts of data it appears such technology will be perfect for net-centric cars. Where all the data is stored in a black box situation as many cars now have these features already. If you were in an accident your memory stick would be connected to a USB output. The officer could immediately put the memory stick into his computer and determine fault or in case of a speeding driver, could simply say driver’s license and memory stick please, which would denote the data of all the previous 2 hours worth of driving. And there would be instant verification of the radar detector too.

This would also be great because it would have all the recorded data for your fuel consumption data, maintenance and pollution output. The automobile could be a self healing car with a sophisticated black box with all life times data. This would also be good for aircraft, ride on lawn mowers and would make it extremely valuable for hand held diagnostic devices. Wonderful for rent-a-cars, government vehicles on loan to employees to prevent tax payer abuses, teen drivers fro parental control to help reduce insurance costs. The military uses are also significant for deployment, routine maintenance and data could be uploaded via satellite during non-peak net-centric usage periods to the logistical base for notification of over run of maintenance period or extreme conditions such as heat, salt air near oceans or hard driving meaning addtional care during next check up, thus prolonging life and preventing future break downs of fundamental parts whcih could lead to loss of life, loss of mission or loss of physical asset.

Memory chips could be saved for maximum resale value, or used as part of ignition system or recharging

“Lance Winslow” - If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs

Voice Mail put simply
In its simplest form a voice mail system is essentially just another phone answering system. They store their messages on a computer disk. Each user is assigned a mailbox where they only have access to his or her messages. They are also password protected so only the assigned user can access the messages in their mailbox. Voice mail systems also allow each user to create their own greeting message. This enables the user to pass on instructions or important messages without taking the call.

Voice mail systems can allow companies to redirect callers to other company employees. A voice mail system can answer calls rather than a member of staff; provide them with a common greeting, then guide the caller to an appropriate department through a selection process. This is more commonly known as the voice mail systems Auto Attendant feature.

Voice mail systems can merge fax, e-mail and voice messages into just one screen of a users PC. Some voice mail systems even offer voice recognition technology. A caller’s voice is recognised by the voice mail system and the system acts accordingly to pre-defined instructions. This is known as Interactive Voice Response.

What to look for in a voice mail system
Voice mails systems are usually additional features of existing in house phone systems. When deciding which voice mail system to purchase you need to look at two key aspects of each one: the number of user ports and the hours of memory that is allocated to messages.

A good voice mail system will have enough ports to handle incoming calls without delay. If all the ports are full, then any new callers will be delayed in the system until a port becomes available. If a voice mail system has too many ports then its capacity is wasted. The trick is to balance the number of ports with the estimated number of potential customers.

The capacity of a voice mail system depends on the hours of memory it has available. A system with a large number of ports and traffic may need a large number of hours, where as a system with low traffic will need fewer hours. The term hours of memory refers to capacity of a voice mail system to store any messages.

Selecting a voice mail system, check list

1. How do you use your voice mail?
This depends on how heavily your staff will be using the voice mail system. A port is in use whenever the voice mail system picks up a call, someone leaves, someone is transferred, or whenever a message is picked up by a user. All these factors need to be taken into account when looking at suitable voice mail systems.

2. Many older phone systems may not support a modern voice mail system.
Unfortunately many business phone systems that are above five years old will not be able to fully support a fully featured voice mail system. The only solution would be to replace your phone system with a more modern one.

3. Adequate memory.
Most voice mail systems have an adequate amount of memory, usually more than you will ever need. When selecting an appropriate voice mail system it is important that you enquire about the systems memory capacity, because some suppliers now provide relatively inexpensive voice mail systems that do not have a hard disk for message storage. All the messages and greetings are stored on chips, which seriously affects the amount of memory available. These small inexpensive voice mail systems are only really suitable to companies or offices with only two or three phone extensions and not recommended for a growing company requiring a fully featured voice mail system.

4. Expansion and how much it will cost.
When choosing a voice mail system, you need to make sure that any quotes gathered from systems suppliers include a cost for expansion. If you decide upon a voice mail system that is only sufficient for your current requirements, then consider what will happen if and when your office/company expands, and the need for more voice mail capacity outstrips that of your current system. You will also need to ask any prospective supplier how long they will honour their quotation for the expansion of your voice mail system.

5. Remote maintenance costs.
Before purchasing a suitable voice mail system from any supplier, you need to find out what their costs are for remote maintenance. All voice mail systems will at some time require a little care and feeding, which more often than not can only be provided by the system supplier.

6. Voice mail system training.
It is important that all users attend the training sessions of any new voice mail system. Though voice mail systems are not usually difficult to use, some staff may require one to one or even extra tuition. When evaluating the training cost section of any proposed voice mail system suppliers quotation, it is important to ascertain that a low price does not mean a low standard of system training.

7. Additional training.
It is advisable that you acquire a cost for any future additional training sessions that may be required from time to time, as staff come and go and for the re-training of existing staff.

8. Should I purchase a larger voice mail system?
There are two main questions you need to ask yourself in order to determine whether or not you should purchase a larger voice mail system.

Thanks for reading my article

Jason

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Jason Morris is co-author of Business Phone Systems Direct. An established communications company, offering advice and implementation of high quality business phone systems.
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1) Mechanical: This is a type of computer mouse that has a rubber or metal ball on its underside and it can roll in every direction. Sensors within the mouse, which are mechanical, detect the direction in which the ball is moving and moves the pointer on the screen in the same direction. A mouse pad should be used under the mouse to run on.

2) Optomechanical: This type is the same as the mechanical mouse except that it uses optical sensors to the motion of the ball. A mouse pad should be used under the mouse to run on.

3) Optical: This type uses a laser for detecting the mouse’s movement. You don’t need a mouse pad but you can use one made for optical mice. Optical mice do not have any mechanical moving parts. This type responds more quickly and precisely than the mechanical and optomechanical mice and now that they have been around awhile the price is pretty comparable.

How does a computer mouse hook up to the computer?

Serial mouse: these ones connect directly to an RS-232C serial port or a PS/2port. This is the simplest type of connection.

PS/2 mouse: connects to a PS/2 port. USB mice

Cordless mouse: These are not physically connected to the computer. They rely on infrared or radio waves to communicate with the computer. Cordless are more expensive than both the serial and bus mouse. The nice thing is that there is no cord to constrain or get in your way.

About The Author

Bonnie Archer is a successful author and publisher of http://www.A1-computers.net. A great source of information about computers and computer accessories.

Simone is exasperated. She has to work on her university assignment but her PC is not working properly. For example: She would like to open a single Internet Explorer window but a whole series of windows are opening up. Simone is not alone when it comes to this sort of problem. As a matter of fact, most of us will come across these kinds of problems in our life. When you fall sick you go to a doctor and he/she asks you a couple of questions as well as taking a look at your case history before giving any medication to you. In a similar way you have to find out what’s wrong with your PC before treating it, if it’s working in an aberrant manner. This article will help you in finding out what’s troubling your PC.

The first symptom that shows us your PC has got some problem is an error message. For example you get a pop-up box on your screen, a Window message, asking you to send an error report and says the application will be subsequently closed. Error messages just tell you that something is wrong so that you can then work at getting to the cause of the problem. When you get an error message try to analyze the situation in respect to what you were doing when you received it. Write down the error code. At times error messages can be very bewildering. For example: you want to open some file but it’s saying some other application is using that specific file. If you do get error messages like this then it is time to question some of your recent activities such as:

* Did you install any software or hardware recently?

* Did you install anything from the Internet?

If you have installed some software and after this your PC has become unstable, by using System Restore you can remove any system changes that were made after the last time your PC was working properly. It automatically creates restore points (or system checkpoints) when you make a change to the system. If your PC has become unstable after you made some changes, open system restore, choose a restore point, and return your computer to its previous stable state. To use the System Restore utility:

1. Click Start
2. Point your cursor to Programs.
3. Point to Accessories
4. Point to System Tools
5. Click System Restore and follow the instruction on the wizard.

If the error messages or the recent history of your PC doesn’t provide much information to you, you have to explore your PC in some of the following ways:

1. Scan you system for viruses, Trojan horses, spywares or other malwares.

2. Use a Process Explorer (freeware program) tool. Windows Task Manager shows which processes and files are currently being used and how much memory they are using, but some process names aren’t clear. Process Explorer not only gives all this information to you but also tells you which application started a process and which resources that particular application is currently using. It also has a potent search capability that quickly shows which processes have particular handles opened or DLLs loaded so that you can close any unwanted application. Process Explorer works on Windows 9x/Me, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Server 2003, and 64-bit versions of Windows for x64 processors.

3. Go through the error log file created by Dr Watson. Dr. Watson is a program that is used to help detect, debug, and log errors that are encountered while Windows or Windows programs are running. It automatically creates a text file when an error is detected. When running Windows 2000 the error is logged under the file “drwtsn32.log” or “user.dmp”, and when running Microsoft Windows 95, 98 or ME the file is logged with a .WLG file extension and stored under the WindowsDrwatson or Documents and SettingsAll UsersDocumentsDrWatson folder.

4. If you are having a networking-related problem you can use a Network Diagnostics system utility tool. You can run various tests using this so that it can collect different types of information. It scans your system to see whether you have network connectivity, and whether or not your network-related programs and services are running.

By going through these basic procedures hopefully you will find out what’s troubling your PC, and once that is known you can commence treatment.

Source of reference: www.microsoft.com

Priyanka Agarwal
http://www.m6.net
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