Multifunction Printers

Computer technology is constantly improving on itself, yet one area that seem appears to receive little attention is printer technology. Many home businesses not only require printing functions but scanning, copying and faxing as well. Frequently, each of these devices is set-up as a separate piece of equipment, requiring not only significant investment of money but of office space as well. One of the newer creations in the field is the multifunction printer, with the ability to print, scan and fax. With a multifunction printer one electronic piece of equipment completes all these jobs and takes up much less space as well as costing much less money than the combination of all devices purchased separately.

However, when the key to a multifunction printer is that it does all of these functions adequately but none of them to the degree of a stand-alone device. There are several features that need to be taken into account when researching a multifunction printer that best meets one's individual needs.

The first feature that needs to be taken into consideration is the type of printer: multi-function printers can be inkjet, laserjet, or color laserjet. Inkjet printers operate by forcing variably-sized droplets of ink onto a piece of paper or similar medium. A laser printer produces text and graphics on plain paper, using the same technology as digital photocopiers; they employ a xerographic printing process but differ from analog photocopiers in that the image is produced by the direct scanning of a laser beam across the printer's photoreceptor.

The speed of a laser printer or inkjet printer is measured by the ppm (pages per minute), the number of pages a laser or inkjet printer can produce in one minute. Print speeds of laser or inkjet printers may vary depending on many factors such as the complexity of the document, page coverage, and the design of the printer itself. Generally, as the speed increases, the quality of the output decreases. A typical inkjet printer may print at speeds that vary between 1 to 28 pages per minute for black text and 1 to 20 pages per minute for color, photographs or graphics. The speed of a mid-range monochrome laser printer may vary between 6 to 25 pages per minute for sharp black texts and 2 to 20 pages per minute for black and white graphics. The print speed of a typical color laser printer's will vary between 6 to 20 pages per minute for black text and 1 to 12 pages per minute for color graphics. Image quality is another feature to examine and depends on the number dots per inch printed. The standard resolution of 600 x 600 dots per inch is sufficient for most everyday printing but is unsuitable for printing quality photographs or graphics. The more dots printed per inch, the higher the image quality.

The scanner function is also of great importance in a multifunction printer that can use two types of scanning technologies. A charge-coupled device (CCD) uses a light-sensitive integrated circuit that stores and displays the data for an image in such a way that each picture element, or dot, in the image is converted into an electrical charge. Contact Image Sensors (CIS), used more with flatbed scanners, place the image sensor in near direct contact with the object to be scanned in contrast to using mirrors to bounce light to a stationary sensor, as is the case in conventional CCD scanners. A CIS typically consists of a linear array of detectors, covered by a focusing lens with LEDs that allow the CIS to be highly power efficient, with many scanners being powered through the minimal line voltage supplied via a USB connection. CIS devices typically produce lower image quality compared to CCD devices but make the printer more durable. Another feature of scanning is how the documents are scanned; they can be fed in a sheet at a time, in which case an automatic document feeder that holds at least 50 sheets facilitates use, or they can be scanned over a flat-bed. The flat-bed ones allow scanning of thicker objects.

The faxing function is properly the one that may be the most simplistic. A minimum fax/modem speed should be 33 Kbps. Other fax features that might be offered are color faxing, fax broadcasting, and/or group dialing, as many multifunction printers do not offer full fax functions.
Finally, given all the functions a multifunction printer requires to carry out, a lack of internal memory is extremely noticeable. While 8 MB of memory may be adequate for home office or small office use, an efficient and effective multifunction printer that have at least 16 MB of memory or more. The greater the amount of memory, the faster that certain multifunction printer processes can be carried out.

Rugged Mobile Printers

Rugged mobile printers are built rugged laptops. Being mobile, they can pretty much fit in your pocket or glove compartment. Rugged mobile printers can be mounted in vehicles next to your rugged notebook or some are mounted directly to a rugged computing device. A rugged printer is made to take a beating and most can withstand drops from nearly 10 feet. The rugged mobile printer is geared around the MIL-STD 810F test confirming its ruggedness and ability to handle the daily rigors of everyday use. From 2.5" to 4" receipt printers, to full sheet 8" x 11" size printers. A rugged printer will handle any job while on the road printing inventory receipts or printing law enforcement issued citations.

Mergers and acquisitions in the technology industry have become more prevalent in recent years as the industry grows and matures. IBM purchased the Lotus Development Corporation in July 1995, which created a tremendous stir in the industry at the time. May 2002 saw the merger of HP and Compaq, two major companies in the industry, forcing the consolidation of many product lines and other corporate resources. Although controversial at the time, these purchases eventually became successful ventures.

After three months of negotiations that began at the beginning of February of this year, Microsoft's attempt to purchase Yahoo ended in May, with many implications for both Microsoft and Yahoo, their customers and the computer industry in general. Microsoft's intention to purchase Yahoo rose out of its goal to obtain a greater market share and foothold in web-based applications against its greatest competitor, Google. Microsoft believed that the purchase of Yahoo was its answer to this goal.

Yet, Google plays a relatively small role in the industry, with only two percent of its company's revenues coming from the sale of searching software to small businesses and offering its suite of Office-like products, hosted on its own servers, for $12 per user per month. Indeed, many businesses are beginning to look to Google for these applications, removing the need to host them on servers in their own organizations. However, Microsoft, whose software model is based on packaged software and the client/server approach to computing, where the major application resides on a server and end-users access this application through software installed on their local computers, was looking for a quick resolution to be offering similar products as Google and was looking to Yahoo as its panacea.

Rather than reinventing the wheel, Yahoo would have provided Microsoft not only with the web-based applications it seriously needed but the engineering capabilities for further development as well as the customer base and distribution potential. Microsoft's business plans typically have involved the purchase of an organization that provides software or service that it needs to maintain its dominance in the market rather than develop software or service in-house. Such practices date back to 1996 when Microsoft purchased Vermeer for its web-production software, FrontPage.

After three months of negotiations, discussions and ultimatums, Microsoft withdrew its offer in May, with repercussions for both companies that has left each endeavoring to determine its own place in the online community. Although Microsoft will need to amend its vision, adjust its plans and deal with the challenges that came about from the attempted acquisition, the real pressure rests on Yahoo, which needs to prove to the industry that the company is worth more than the $33 per share, Microsoft's final offering.

In addition to facing a somewhat uncertain future, Yahoo's stockholders wished to remain independent and now have that opportunity to remain so. In addition, Yahoo will need to deliver on many impressive plans and promises it made in the past three months and prove that it can succeed as an independent company. The burden is on Yahoo to demonstrate its worth of $37 a share, one of the seeds of contention during the negotiation, and to communicate in the very near future its strategies as an independent company.

Microsoft, on the other hand, has its own set of challenges which it needs to meet, including how it plans to build its own Internet strategy, having spent three months explaining why it needed Yahoo to do so. Search ads and display ads are one alternative but because Microsoft has the resources to do so, will most likely look around for other companies that could provide some of the products, services and innovative technologies that it hoped to gain from the purchase of Yahoo. Regardless, industry watchers feel that Microsoft needs to take some definitive steps in the near future to demonstrate to the industry that the fallout with Yahoo was not a major setback.

With the advent of larger capacity USB thumb drives and software coming preloaded on these drives, it is becoming easier for the end user to transfer larger multimedia files such as office training or home videos from one location to another. This will probably become the norm for creating home videos as we see more and more assorted inputs on newer high definition televisions. But this doesn't mean that DVDs will become obsolete at all. In fact, DVDs will be a necessary medium for decades to come due to their permanence and reliability for backing up and archiving data and video.

While hard drives and large file uploading and downloading have reached peak levels of reliability, archiving will still be mandatory and recommended. USB thumb drives and hard drives aren't infallible though. These drives tend to be a frequently high use method for re-recording data and if not maintained and monitored properly with disk utilities, can become corrupt and even fail.

What should one do if they already have gigabyte upon gigabyte of data or videos that they want to preserve for posterity? What about if the amount of data creeps up into the terabyte range? With home videos and the shared media on community websites a terabyte or more of data is easily achieved. It could conceivably take weeks or more to properly author your own DVDs. For many this doesn't pose a problem, but there are those individuals that for a lack of time, the complexity of video authoring software, or the expense, it is just too great of a burden.

The question then remains, should you just save the video files to USB storage drives and shelf them or have a dedicated professional authoring company create the DVDs for you to enable you to enjoy on any television with a DVD player? The short term solution would be to use USB thumb drives for this purpose, however, should an individual have a large library of video and audio data, constantly purchasing USB thumb drives would become expensive. DVD authoring is the best viable solution.

In order of increasing complexity thumb drives for the most part are all the same, but there are differences in blank DVD media and different formats that yield there own benefits. For the average person DVD-R/RW will suffice, but there are more inherent weaknesses that this format possesses as opposed to DVD+R/RW. There can also be differences in longevity and quality when burning one's own DVD as opposed to utilizing a professional DVD authoring company that can create your data on stamped DVDs.

It comes down to a person's choice with what they wish their end result to be. Each method yields its own rewards: saving time and some frustration to costing more financially, but having a greater quality finished product. Choose wisely. You don't want to risk the loss of those special memories or vital information.

A few million people have at least a few homemade video DVDs and the majority of the entire U.S. population or world has a few homemade CDs. They may have made them or received them from friends. But what are your choices and which do you need? Very few individuals ever think about the DVD-R format verses the DVD+R format and how each could benefit the end user. They just want it to work. Which should you choose?

The similarities of each are that they are compatible with the majority of all home DVD video players. The older the DVD player means that chances are the media won't be fully compatible, although this has largely become a concern of the past.

Similar to the opposing high definition standards fight, there are two differing formats of blank DVD media. The two consortiums that exist today are the DVD+RW Alliance and the DVD Forum. The DVD+RW Alliance support the DVD +R/RW format while the DVD Forum advocates the DVD -R/RW format. The standards set forth by these two organizations have created many differences, but the most important ones should be examined when deciding which format to use.

The discs themselves are essentially identical to each other. The drives are what create the incompatibility. The biggest difference is that there are a myriad of microscopic wobbles created by the drive of the DVD+R/RW discs. This wobble is detected by the recording/playback drive to greatly increase the timing accuracy of storing and locating the information that is stored on the disc itself. DVD-R/RW drives also create this wobble, but at a much lower frequency. This essentially means that DVD+R/RW discs can store and retrieve data with more precise timing and accuracy.

Another difference that should be considered is the importance of error detection. DVD+R/RW drives utilize error correction at a much higher rate of 100% of all data and storage space on the physical disc. The error correction with regard to DVD-R/RW drives is not as effective and can result in more errors allowing for the creation of a shiny new coaster.

The other key difference between the two formats is regarding multi-sessions. While both formats support multi-session writing, the total amount of storage space on DVD-R/RW discs will be sacrificed and dwindle the more multi-session writing is used. When the user writes any amount of data onto a DVD-R/RW disc and then ends the session, the drive needs to "finalize" that session in order for any other drive or video DVD player to be able to read that data. This finalizing of each session can take up to 18 MB. Without realizing it, you can be cheating yourself out of valuable storage space. DVD+R/RW also needs to "finalize" its multi-sessions, but only requires 2 MB per session. Very quickly one can see that 4.7 GB disc end up being a 3.9 GB disc.

The most common difference, and the one most people use to decide which format to use, is cost. DVD-R/RW media is much cheaper than the competing DVD+R/RW media. This is partially due to differing brand names and the type of metallic surfacing and sealing that is used on each disc. There are differences and these can play a role in quality. Generic blank media may suffice for some; however, the idiom, "You get what you pay for" can accurately be assigned to this type of product.

With these key differences outlined above, one can begin to see why DVD+R/RW media may be a better choice. The end quality of the product you wish to create is what should guide you to your choice. For basic everyday temporary storage, an office may decide on the cheaper alternative, but for the self-authoring video hobbyist, the choice is clear.

Well, every Linux user worth his/her salt has a list of why Linux is perfect for [adjective] users, so I sat down and thought up a list for myself! 9 Reasons why Linux is for the average user. The reasons aren't in any order, just the order that I thought of them, so don't think that I place particular importance on the ones at the top, or that the ones at the bottom are a bit useless really. Anyway, read on to see why I think that Linux is perfect for the average user!

Secure

Linux is very secure by design, mostly due to the file permissions system, which prevents you from tampering with any files you don't have write access to. This more or less makes a Linux virus that does more than mess with your own files impossible to get as a normal user. If someone runs as root all the time, all the security in the world it useless - but not using root for everyday tasks is an important lessen taought in many distros.

The average user just wan't to use their computer, they don't want to fiddle around with getting it secured. Linux's inherent security is therefore a boon to them.

Stable

As long as you're not running beta, alpha, or software in any other stage of development other than "final", Linux is very stable. This is partly due to the separation of GUI and Kernel, which is not present in Windows. This means that if the GUI does freeze, the computer doesn't need to be rebooted - the GUI just needs to be killed and started again, with a keyboard shortcut.

The average user doesn't want their computer crashing all the time when they use it, they just want to use it with no hassle. Again, a good reason to use Linux.

Free

Linux, and most of its software, is free as in speech, and free as in beer. The user has the right to edit the code, and do whatever they want to it. This allows patches and bugfixes to be developed incredibly quickly by a myriad of developers using that particular program, and sent to the project maintainers upstream.

>The average user doesn't like paying hundreds of pounds for an operating system or software, freedom of price is therefore a good reason to use Linux. The average user also doesn't want buggy software, so the freedom of speech is a good reason to use Linux.

Packages

Most distributions (all?) have some form of package manager, which makes it easy to install, remove, and update software. Coupled with online repositories (such as many distributions have), this enables the user to update the entire system with one command, or even a click if a graphical package manager is present.

The average user doesn't want to wander across the internet looking for updates for all of their software, yet many of them think this is the only way due to what I call "Windows Sheep Mentality". A package manager which can upgrade all of their software, including the OS, for free is therefore a good reason for the average user to switch to Linux.

Hardware

Linux actually supports more hardware out of the box than Windows does. Okay, so the supported hardware is often specialist, that is because Linux is very popular on servers and similar things that need to just work and use the Right Thing. However, if installed on any given computer, Linux is likely to work. Windows will probably not, especially if you have some esoteric hardware or something, without umpteen driver discs.

The average user doesn't want to upgrade their computer just to use the next version of their OS; Linux works with very old hardware as well as very new, which is a reason to use Linux.

Support

Many Linux distributions offer paid support, and almost all have a large and (usually) welcoming community who will go out of their way to help someone who needs it. This community support is usually the same quality professional paid support would be, yet is free. There are also a lot of generic Linux communities online who will help with anything if they know how, and their generic solutions will often help on many distributions.

The average user doesn't want to ring tech support and talk to an Indian person, after their call has been outed across the world, only to be told they have to reinstall Windows. Free and in-depth support is therefore good.

Variety

Linux has a lot of variety in ways that Windows and OS X just can't. One example would be the abundance of window managers and desktop environments. Another, would the base system - no two distributions are the same. This variety, coupled with the fact that there are over 300 distributions, means that there is a distribution for everyone.

The average user wants to use what works best for them, they don't want to have to use someone else's standard which may not fit them very well, this huge variety is therefore an advantage.

Customisability

Without the customisability of Linux, the variety wouldn't exist. Every aspect of Linux can be edited and customised by the user - from the widget theme, right down to the init scripts controlling the booting of the system. Compare THAT to a Windows user's ability to change the wallpaper, colours, or a couple of icons.

The average user wants their computer to be, well, their computer. They want it to look how they want it to look, and the customisability gives them that.

Compatibility

Linux is compatible with most propriety file formats, including the incredibly popular Microsoft Office file formats. This means that a Linux user needn't worry about probelms sharing files with Windows users, as they can save the file in the Windows format - or even in a format such as PDF which is the same on all operating systems.

The average user doesn't want to jump through hoops for other people to be able to use their files, and Linux provides an easy way to use the same file formats as everyone else.

Even though I was skeptical, I did checkout it out. I must say that it is one site which has some nice features that other sites don't. For a beginner, you can add multiple links and convert them to one small link, similar to shrinking many links, it being a definite advantage to send that link through email or SMS or any other portable networking device. I do have to give credit to other sites though, with the fact that on clicking on the URL assigned to a link, it automatically redirects you to the encoded site. That seems a good thing even when the link is automatically opened through a mobile phone browser.

Being a person paranoid about security, I realized after much use that most of the links redirect me to a porn site or one with enough number of viruses to keep me off my computer, and even my cell phone!! That's a disaster for me. Anyways, I believe in giving second chances, so I check out this new site's service. It has a simple interface with lots of options, like - encoding your entire bookmarks into one link. It's an easy and simple way to share link pertaining to specific topics to your peers and colleagues. Since there is no redirection even with one link, I had full control of which sites to view or not. The same short URL can be sent through a mobile devices' browser without the risk of infection.

The concept is a must checkout for efficient collaboration amongst peers working towards a common goal, or simply for those who need access to their bookmarks on-the-go efficiently.

The most rapidly growing area and possibly the most fascinating in the computer industry is graphics and animation. There are new programs and techniques being developed and tested continuously, resulting in some tremendous new ideas being showcased during an animation competition.

There are many different areas that are included in the judging, as well as several different skill levels. There are always new animations being presented in all areas of the competition and for some people the competition may result in a job offer as well.

Some of these competitions have qualified entrants from around the world selected on an individual basis, as well as in teams. Usually, judges select the most qualified from a "pool" of animations reels that have been submitted. The categories are as varied as the industry itself, with areas including cartoon animations, animations flash, gif animations, animations backgrounds, animations video and just about every other form of animation you can imagine.

If you have any doubts about the importance of an animation competition or whether or not anything useful ever comes from it, then just turn on your TV. It wasn't too long ago that cartoons were just for kids, but prime time has its share as well, with animated shows that appeal to adults. For instance, The Simpson's, King of the Hill and Family Guy are just a few of the cartoon animations that have quite a loyal audience.

Recently, several companies got together to combine a few of their specialties of game development, film rendering and interactive platforms and host a competition of their own. This was a huge success and produced many new animations, new ways to design computer animation, along with several other techniques which were showcased with the best of the best.

In another area of the competition contestants had to create animations with a storyline about a pivotal moment between an antagonist and a protagonist. There were some really great results that should be showing up on your tv screen fairly soon.

Computers are a large part of our lives and not just adults or professionals, but for children as well. Many of the larger companies also host an animation competition that has been designed with children in mind. This is a great way to get children interested in computers and lets them create some awesome new animations as well.

The areas in the competition are similar to those in the adult contest, but aimed at their skill and age levels. This stimulates their imaginations and may even result in a possible career within the computer industry.

IT sector has never failed to surprise its admirers. The great potentials of IT that awaited its discovery have finally been unleashed. Practically, there is no field in life where software has not made its presence felt. This is just the beginning, as more lies ahead. Software as a service has long way to go and is best suited for all industry verticals. Outsourcing to offshore software development India with proper planning can fruitfully be the means for achieving competitive parity.

Initially, development work was considered as an expensive project. Now the clients have found development work can applicable for their changing business strategies. People across the world are outsourcing their software projects to India. The quality standards and timely delivery of projects has been contributing factors for boost in software work from India.

Gone are the days when software once developed has to be adopted as it was. Millions of software applications are available but they are of no use if they do not meet the client's specific requirements. Development of customized software offers more understanding to individual significance and contributed to attainment of overall objectives of the project. Custom software in India incorporates a wide range of technologies to accomplish projects in hand. Following industry-standard custom software development practices, they have actually offered financially reasonable development model to clients across the world. Precise communication with the client is needed, as it is essential to understand the client's requirement thoroughly for error free customized software development.

Customized software builds a platform for software as a service. The outsourcing companies take advantage of the high quality service and the access to latest tools for building their business. Indian software outsourcing development companies too establish objectives related to committed work, and they make sure that customized software is delivered at projected milestones. One of the basic ingredients of successful customized software delivery in continuously changing software industry is training of employees. One had to keep pace with the latest release of tools and technologies. This will help to get the most out of the new release of software development techniques. Companies having well equipped human resource deliver quality oriented ready for deliver.