On The Net - Computing News

with Chris Goh

Printers Part 1

After my first computer purchase, an Amiga 500, I saved for a further three months to buy a $399 9-pin full colour Star dot matrix printer at age 15. My assignments never looked so good and when I wasn't printing, I'd put the ribbon in the fridge to make it last longer.

I scored my first bubble jet printer for $50 at the Lismore Police auction, then lo and behold found an HP 3420 ink jet at Sydney's MegaMart for $39!

Printers are the peripheral you'll most likely keep after computer upgrades. They are probably the most reliable part of your system, but the one that will probably cost you the most money depending on your usage. They vary greatly in type and price, and for many people choosing which one to buy is very daunting.

The first thing you ask yourself is what you'll use it for. There are four key things to consider – how often will I use it; what type of printing you do (photos, reports, assignments etc); what quality do you expect and how much are you prepared to pay. Most home users will opt for either an ink jet or laser printer.

Black and white laser printers kick in around the $500 mark. Colour versions, like Minolta, hover above $1000. A number of people use a combination of an inkjet and low-end black and white laser printer, which costs around $700 all up. Then there are MFD's (Multi Function Devices), which scan, print and even fax.

If your usage level is high – a 500 sheet ream a week or more – then laser is the practical choice, particularly for black and white. Ink jets, on the other hand are a good balance, with today's printers offering good, clear text, and the majority produce excellent, photo-quality results for images.

But the contentious issue for ink jets is ink prices, which can vary considerably. I've found prices vary from $15 for a single colour in a Canon to $65 for Lexmark (combined colours). Special, photo quality ink costs even more.

Over the next fortnight, I'll look at some printers compare them for quality and price.

I'm also planning to look at other computer devices, like recordable media (like DVD rewritable), which now sell for as low as $299, plus scanners, video cards, sound cards.

I'd welcome your feedback for my reviews over the next couple of months.

Printers Part 2

HotNews

In a bid to reduce credit card fraud, the British have made it mandatory that all financial institutions use new smartcard technology to replaces magnetic strips. The specially secure strip stops conventional card readers from reading the data without the cardholder keying in a special pin. Trials in Northhampton last year saved an estimated $4.5 million in fraud. This new card called EMV (EuroPay Mastercard Visa) will hopefully now be adopted across Europe.

Among the Nobel Prizes this year, the co-developer of the MRI scanner, Professor Mansfield was recognised. His journey to develop the scanner which gives a 3-dimensional view of the insides of the body, is an inspirational one. Leaving school at 15, he became a printer, then put himself part-time through university before ultimately working out the mathematical processes that would allow the MRI scanner to decipher the signals it was getting back from the human body.

With the Iraqi telecommunication system shot to pieces, there's welcome news that Iraq's Ministry of Communications has granted three firms mobile spectrum to allow them to create an extensive mobile network in the war-torn country.

Cookies are a sore point for privacy 'experts'. They allow a website to track users in certain ways when they return to the site that created the cookie. For many developers, it is the only way to permit the personalised services many clients require. Now Google, the top search engine, will use them so it can track usage, and usage patterns for regular users. If you enable the check on cookies on your browser and it asks you whether you want to accept it, you know you're one of the lucky few. I've worked with cookies for a long time and it doesn't bother me. But if you're concerned about them, you can download a number of free cookie eating software on the web.

More worrisome than cookies is the growing number of spyware software. Xupiter is one of the biggest culprits, with porn peddlers creating a system that makes your home page point to porn sites and loading gambling programs on your system that conventional users find nearly impossible to eliminate. Two teenagers, annoyed by its waste of time, used all their spare time to track down the creators and even have even made contact. Jay Cross and Christopher Carlino are on a mission to ensure they know that people are really ticked off.

Is it possible to be addicted to SMS? Apparently it is with 55 UK patients have been admitted to an exclusive clinic that deals with SMS addiction. The 73,000 SMS messages sent from Telstra Stadium during the Rugby World Cup opening suggest we're at least very fond of typing rather than watching the action.

Hotsites

www.recalls.gov.au

The Federal Government has created an excellent site to make consumers aware of product recalls. It's good if you want to check up on products before you commit to buying it. The recalled products range from produce to computer equipment.

www.nobel.se

If you are interested in who are the Nobel Laureates this year, or previously, then here's the official Nobel site.

femexplorers.com

This site is great, it looks at inspirational and mostly unknown female explorers who have had to struggle through many tests to pursue their dreams.