By Bob and Joy Schwabach
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December
2000, Week 1 --
More Hardy Copy |
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In the never-ending struggle to save a few dollars on printing costs,
we're continuing to look at laser printers. |
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The new "Okipage 8Z" from Okidata is the smallest, lightest and
cheapest we've found so far. (Could be something cheaper on the horizon,
though.) The printer has a remarkably small "footprint" of only
7.5 by 12 inches (19 by 30 centimeters) and weighs less than eight pounds.
List price is $250. |
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At 8 ppm (pages per minute), this printer is slower than the 12 ppm
Brother HL 1250 we looked at last week. That one costs $399, however,
confirming the trend that what you get as you go up in price is speed. |
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Though they're called laser printers, the Okipage printers have never used
lasers. They use two rows of very tiny LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes) which
light in the right pattern to reproduce letters and images. The advantage
is fewer moving parts than a true laser printer, the disadvantage is more
limited resolution. Resolution is limited to 600 X 1200 dpi (dots per
inch). Though this resolution is more than adequate for text and graphics
in black and white. |
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The Okipage 8Z works with Windows or Macintosh, parallel port and USB
connections. Cost: $250, lowest we've found. Phone info: 800-654-3282 or
856-235-2600 (856-222-5276 for Spanish); web: www.okidata.com. |
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Free
database |
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GS-Base 5.1 is a free database that can be downloaded from www.zdnet.com.
Up to 512 fields for each record you create and the fields can contain
almost any type of data, including links to pictures. You can send
personalized e-mail messages to each member in large groups, verify
Internet addresses and convert database files to HTML code for posting to
the Web. Handles an unlimited number of records. Do a search at zdnet on
the key words "gs-base." |
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The
shopping report |
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A study by Verizon Corp., the former Bell Atlantic, found that 21 percent
of those browsing the Web's shopping sites are just browsing, nothing
more. They are merely selecting what they want to buy, the study found,
and then go out to a traditional store to buy it. No wonder it's so hard
to park. |
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Wholesale
Charity |
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www.charity-checks.org A
new site with an interesting idea. You buy checks to be given out as
gifts, and the recipient then gives it to the charity of their choice.
Individuals can buy blocks of charity checks but the service is aimed
primarily at businesses and large organizations, who would buy charity
checks to hand out as presents. |
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Internuts:
Fun with sound |
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NOTE: If you right click with your mouse button on any of the following
sound clips, you can save the clip to your computer. |
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www.soundamerica.com This is a
really fun site, by far the best sound clip site we could find. There are
29,500 sound clips and sound effects from cartoons, movies and records.
Sound bits from Abbott and Costello, Tom Lehrer, Jack Benny, the Marx
Bothers, Humphrey Bogart, etc. |
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www.findsounds.com The place to go
for special sound effects. There are 100 frog sounds, for example, all
different; 48 sounds clips of lightning and thunder. |
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www.sonymusic.com Johnny Cash
singing the Folsom Prison Blues, cellist Yo Yo Ma playing "Fancy on a
Bach Air." All of the music is from
labels and TV shows owned by Sony near as we could tell. |
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www.ballisticdrums.com A
personal site by a drummer. Lots of interesting drum routines and lessons
on how to reproduce them with your own drums. |
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More
Internuts: |
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www.imira.com From the Sanskrit word
for light. This is a site for uploading your photos and a rich source of
tools for image editing. The site is sponsored by Ulead, makers of "PhotoImpact." |
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www.simpli.com and www.searchhound.com
Two new search engines. Use different search engines, you often get
different results. SearchHound seemed more effective of the two here. |
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Oddities
of the language |
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A few weeks ago a reader who's a stickler on correct usage pointed out
that there is no "burn" in burning a CD with one of the new CD-R
or CD-RW machines for recording your own CDs, nor is there any
"cut" in cutting a tape or a new CD. He pointed out that what
the laser does is change the reflectivity of a spot on the disk. |
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Agreed. Still ... almost all telephones have buttons these days, yet we
still say we "dial" a phone number; that's the way language is. |
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Child's
play |
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"Dear America" is a charming program for young girls, from
Knowledge adventure. The child "corresponds" with pen pals from
six periods in American history. Clever. For Win/Mac, ages 8-12, $20; web:
www.scholastic.com/dearamerica. |
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"Kids Games," under the Hoyle label from Sierra, was
surprisingly good fun and more than just for kids. There are 12 familiar
children's games to play. For Win/Mac, ages 5-12, $20; web: www.sierra.com. |
