Printer Ink – Tips on Printing Digital Photos

Writen by David Hickman

Introduction
This article looks at the issues surrounding printing digital photos and other graphics using an ink printer. It is aimed at users who may not have a lot of technical expertise but who can, with a little help from articles like this, get the best from their equipment.

It is written in New Zealand, for NZers, and while the information may be useful in other countries, it is not intended for use outside New Zealand.

Benchmark your performance
When you buy a new ink printer print some photos using the complimentary paper supplied by the manufacturer. This gives you a benchmark of the performance of your printer and when you use different inks, paper or software you have the original standard of performance to compare against.

Maintain your printer
Look after your printer. Keep it clean and cover it when not in use. Use it regularly. The ink is the lubricant that helps maintain the print heads in good condition so regular use is beneficial. Have it professionally cleaned and serviced, at least annually, more often if you use it heavily. Following these few simple steps will prolong the life of your printer and enhance the quality of your prints.

Troubleshoot methodically
If you’re not happy with your printed page then troubleshoot the problem using the following method:-

1.Print a nozzle test to see that all nozzles are firing. You will find the nozzle test in the printer software under a heading such as “maintenance”, “service”, “utilities” etc.

2.If all nozzles are not firing then run the print head cleaning utility and print another nozzle test to see if cleaning has made a difference.

At this point if you are using Print Head Cartridges put new ink cartridges in the printer. If you are using Non Print Head Cartridges then carry on. If you are not sure about your ink cartridges see the article “Printer Ink – Choosing the right cartridges for your needs”.

3.Repeat the above two steps until you get a good nozzle test. If you don’t get a good test after repeating these two steps at least six times seek help from a qualified printer servicing company.

Warning – cleaning print heads uses ink so you may run low on ink before you get a good result. And a good result is not guaranteed – the print head may have failed.

4.Having either got a good nozzle test, or having changed your print head cartridges, and you are still not happy – what else has changed?

* Are you using the printer manufacturer’s software to print your photos? Other software, perhaps supplied free with photo paper or over the internet, may be easier to use but may not get the best out of the printer.

* Does your printer need servicing? Despite all the care you have taken printers do get dirty and ink or dust in the wrong place can have some surprising effects, particularly in photographs.

* Have you changed the paper you use? Some photo papers and some inks can be incompatible.

* Have you changed the ink you use? Some inks and papers can be incompatible and some inks can react chemically with other inks.

Provided you buy your printer ink and paper from a reputable company they should help you to work through these issues to your satisfaction. Our experience at Second Image is that these problems are generally solved before, or by, the printer servicing step.

Alternative ink and paper If you are doing a lot of photo printing you will find that the cost of original ink and the paper can be quite high.

Alternatives are available and, provided you buy from a trustworthy source, will generally give you good results. If you have done the benchmark exercise suggested earlier you can now compare results.

See the associated article “Printer Ink- Choosing the right cartridges for your needs” for a guide to buying compatible ink cartridges, refilled ink cartridges and ink refill kits. There is nothing wrong with using these alternatives provided you first do your homework and deal with a reputable supplier.

Some papers are incompatible with some inks. This incompatibility can occur between the original manufacturers as well as between original and third party products. The best thing to do is to find a mix of ink and paper that gives you the results you are happy with and stick to that.

Such an approach may mean that you need to experiment with different papers and inks. Remember the golden rule – only change one thing at a time, ink or paper, never both while you are testing, and only use the software supplied by the manufacturer with the printer. When you are happy with your ink and paper combination you can play with different software.

If you follow these simple steps you should have a lot of fun and get great results.

How to Get Rid of Trojan Horse Virus

Writen by Emma Drosy

If you’re talking about Greece, then you know that the Trojan Horse was a clever ploy once used to win a war. Soldiers built a large monument, in the shape of a horse, as a “present” to the city they were battling against. The citizens rejoiced when they saw that the army had departed and left such a wonderful gift, and tore down some of the city walls just to get the large object inside. Little did they know that soldiers were hidden within, and after nightfall they struck to lay waste to the city of Troy. Like that famed Trojan Horse from legend of old, the Trojan Horse virus is a nasty bugger that hides inside a perfectly innocent-looking file. But do you know how to get rid of Trojan Horse virus?

This virus is just as nasty as it sounds, and is designed to break the security of your computer. You may, in all innocence, download a video or music file from the Internet and wind up with a virus that could allow others to view your credit card number, passwords, or other sensitive information. Because this horrible virus exists, you need to know how to get rid of Trojan Horse virus – should the unthinkable happen and your computer be struck with this virus, too.

When it comes to the Trojan Horse virus, an ounce of prevention truly is worth a pound of cure. If you’re extremely careful about what you download, getting your files only from friends and other trusted sources, you will never need to know how to get rid of Trojan Horse virus. You don’t want to have to worry about how to get rid of Trojan Horse virus, because that means you’re already in a fair amount of trouble.

The most successful way to get rid of Trojan Horse virus is through a complete re-installation and thorough cleaning of your hard drive. Though this can be long and tedious, it’s one of the only surefire ways to be rid of the Trojan Horse for good. But, if you’re interested in how to get rid of Trojan Horse virus, you’ll be pleased to know this is not the only option available to you.

There is some anti-virus software that will “attack” the Trojan Horse virus and deal with it, but find software that specifically mentions the Trojan Horse. Not all anti-virus software will attack this virus, so be careful about what you use (so you don’t make the situation worse). There is also anti-Trojan software that specifically serves to get rid of Trojan Horse virus, and in most cases it is this type of software you will want to use. Once you know how to get rid of Trojan Horse virus, you can keep your computer clean by being more judicial about what downloads you receive in the future.

History of the Computer: Real-time Systems, Part 2 of 2

Writen by Tony Stockill

The computer is used to maintain the stock of parts at the lowest possible level, and to do this is able to alert suppliers, or repair shops on the base, when a replacement part is required.

For example a technician needs to replace a malfunctioning radio transmitter. He removes the faulty unit, and replaces it with a spare unit off the shelf. On the computer terminal in the maintenance office he reports the usage of the part.

At the computer, the database of parts is accessed, a count of one is deducted from the stock at the maintenance office, an order to the warehouse is sent to supply a replacement part, a count of one is noted as being in transit from the warehouse. Shipping documents, which could be a multi-part form or just a barcode are printed out. The barcode will be scanned later to confirm transfer of inventory.

If the stock held at the warehouse is at a preset minimum level, a request is sent to the repair shop, for a replacement. If the repair shop inventory, also on the database, shows no spares available, an order is placed to the external supplier, probably by data link, but in some cases by printing out an order.

The technician reporting the usage gets an updated report showing his stock status as being one short, and one on the way. His printer prints out a fault report for him to attach to the faulty part, and a shipping barcode to send with it to the repair shop.

All this has taken possibly 10 seconds, from the time the technician transmitted the usage report to the time he received notification of the new part being delivered, and his printer printing out the shipping forms.

During the time the computer is accessing the disk holding the database, other transactions are ‘locked out’ so that up to date data is available for the next transaction. For example the repair shop could be checking status on the same part.

The key factor in the real-time system is that a database is updated as it happens, so that at all times it reflects the actual status of whatever we are controlling.

A classic example would be another section of the airline, flight reservations. A customer might be wanting to fly overseas at the weekend, and needs to make a reservation. He checks out the airline website for flights on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. He is given a list of possible flights with seats available, and the cost of a ticket in economy or business class, and picks one.

The computer, having first presented the up-to-date availability, now makes the reservation, reduces ’seats available, prints out a ticket, and/or a boarding pass at the reservations desk at the airport (The boarding pass will later be passed through a barcode reader to inform the computer checking the passengers onto the aircraft). Once again this transaction would temporarily lock out any other, in case they also needed the same seat.

At a busy airline hundreds of these transactions are happening at any one time, and the system must be continually upgraded to cope. You may be able to think of other time critical applications. The key factor is that all data always reflects the current status – in real time.

Real time systems have been around since the 1960s Many developments have taken place in this field. These include audit trail techniques, and rapid access disks with redundancy, talked about elsewhere. Software to handle the database transactions has also seen big improvements.

Cost-Effective PC Maintenance with the PC Power Suite 2.0

Writen by Patrick A. Wilson

PC maintenance is a necessary means of assuring the fast and smooth performance and functioning of your computer, and securing it from malware infections and hacker attacks. This is because registry problems, unnecessary files, and unoptimized memory allocation settings would leave your operating system damaged beyond repair or with frequent system crashes. This is no different from what a viral and spyware infection can do to your system. But, the worst thing that can happen is for you to lose your most important files or documents.

To prevent these from happening, Maximum Software has released the PC Power Suite 2.0, a program which acts as a complete PC maintenance and security tool for your computer. This program has a set of tools which are all useful in delivering maximum security and maintenance systems to your computer system. Thus, keeping the tools of this program regularly running as a background service and regularly accessing its defragging and optimizing functions found on some of its tools provide a hassle-free means of getting the maximum performance out of your computer.

The PC Power Suite 2.0 program was developed by Maximum Software with maximum usability in mind. This means that even newbie computer users would have no problems whatsoever using it to regularly maintain and protect their computers. This program also has a very user-friendly interface, and most, if not all, of its functions and features are accessible and highly usable to all people who need maximum protection and optimization techniques for their computers.

Maximum Software’s PC Power Suite application could be obtained from the company’s website. This is a program which works with all Windows-based computers. By getting the application from the website of Maximum Software, you are assured of updated versions. Plus, given the reputable and credible standing of the software suite provider, there is no question that all transaction processes made with the website are safe.

A downloadable evaluation version can also be acquired from the website of Maximum Software. This provides users time to test out its functions and features, totally free of charge. But once the evaluation version runs out, you could get the licensed version of the program from the company’s website.

Most PC maintenance tools don’t have the complete set of functions and features that are all necessary to provide your computer maximum protection. This is where the beauty of having the PC Power Suite 2.0 comes in. With the tools found on the PC Power Suite 2.0, you are given a cost-effective and efficient means of regularly assuring your computer’s fast performance, as well as its complete security.

A number of its useful tools are its memory optimizer, system registry defragger and optimizer, safe uninstallation function, and spyware detector. It has lots of great and important tools to fully optimize the performance and functionality of your PC and protect your computer system from malware infections and hacker attacks. These are among its most useful tools, and these tools can’t usually be found on a single program, other than, of course, on the PC Power Suite 2.0.

Computers at War in the 70’s and 80’s

Writen by John Gibb

The ’70s and the ’80s could be easily described as the ‘computer war’. Every company had a new kind of computer, better than the last that they wanted to change the world. Everyone knew it was only a matter of time before one was adopted as the standard, with all the advantages for software compatibility this would bring – and they were desperate for it to be their model that made the big time.

In the ’70s, two computers nearly became dominant: the Apple II and the Commodore 64. Both of these computers sold in the millions, inspiring a whole generation – they were used for everything from office tasks to games.

It was in 1980, however, that IBM launched its IBM PC, and things really went crazy. IBM’s PC wasn’t patented. IBM went to a small company named Microsoft to get an operating system for this computer, and ended up with DOS, but Microsoft was willing to license DOS to anyone else who paid their fee. By 1984, ‘IBM PC compatible’ computers were available, and a de facto standard was born. Software makers could finally write their programs for one operating system and one hardware configuration – and anyone computer that didn’t follow the specification to the letter was quickly left with no programs to run.

In 1990, Microsoft released Windows 3.0 (the first version of Windows to be really successful), and the PC’s lock on the marketplace was set in stone. The release of the Pentium and Windows 95 made it finally the fastest, cheapest and easiest system around, and it quickly stopped making sense to develop software for anything else.

From then on, the PC was the dominant computer – today, it is estimated to have between 95% and 98% of the market, with almost all the rest being held by Apple Macintosh computers.