Epson Stylus CX5500

Got an all-in-one printer from the Comex fair today: the Epson Stylus CX5500.

The price for all-in-ones has dropped quite a bit from about four years ago. Then, I paid something in the region of the high $200s. My new Epson cost me $118. Yet I paid it grudgingly.

I suppose, when it comes down to it, I just don't like spending money on printers. To me, it doesn't make sense to put money into a plastic machine that will probably jam up, konk out, clog up, or refuse to turn on in about two years' time. Buying a printer also means that I'm stuck having to buy expensive ink cartridges that seem to hold less and less ink over the years so that the manufacturers can "lower" the retail price of their cartridges. I mean, it may actually cost more for me to print at home than to print in school at 5 cents a copy.

Yet, having said all of that, I'm quite happy with my purchase. I chose the Epson over the Canon because it looked prettier and was cheaper, and the Epson over Brother because I could get a $9.90 cartridge of ink. The cost of ink is actually the same for Epson and Brother; it is just that with the Epson, they have smaller capacity ink cartridges. This gives me the option to keep a small capacity cartridge for my colours ($9.90) and a high capacity cartridge for my black ($17.90) if I don't do a lot of colour printing. Canon is always my first love, but the low-end all-in-one was just way too bulky. It's a shame, but I hope this Epson will be as good as my first Canon...

If anything, I'm looking forward to scanning. At least I'll save some money on photocopying! :)

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The Gadget Post

Before I start work at the new place, I plan to get myself a Gadget. This is 20% reward for finally having enough guts to leave, and 80% security blanket. The tools of my trade are technological, and dang it if I will let myself start my new job empty-handed. The way I look it, I need all the help I can get.

The question is: what should I get? Should I stick with what I know and trust, i.e. Acer and an Windows Operating System, or go with something new, i.e. a MacBook 2.0 GHz? Should I get a full-blown laptop, or will a Palm TX suffice? These are a few needs I hope the new Gadget will be able to meet (apart from its role as a security blanket).

1. Presentations
I want to be able to teach using slides. I realise that perhaps this is being too idealistic (no time, no projector), but it feels so much better to be able to be able to have bullet points, pictures, diagrams, whatever, to illustrate what I am trying to say. I'm just used to and confident about this method of conveying information.

2. Information
It is a digital age and there is so much information out there, if you only know where to look for it. I need information and I need it fast. (I also need an online dictionary because my spelling is horrible.)

3. Software
I have come to rely on Photoshop, Excel, PageMaker, Adobe Acrobat, Konfabulator, Calculator, Outlook, Word and Protopage to cope with simple tasks such as organising my life, making brochures, newsletters, calculating figures, creating charts, making PDFs, etc. Software is expensive, and if I switch operating systems, I'll have to start from scratch.

4. Speed & Stability
See point 3. I want a fast machine so that I can have three things open at the same time without having to reboot. (I have 11 tabs and 2 applications open as we speak). And I want it to last a long time. Acers are amazing in that aspect. They rarely break down or have configuration conflicts. There is also a really fast turnaround time if you need to send your machine in for repair. I've seen my friend deal with the Apple Customer Care. Although they eventually replaced the faulty machine, the process was neither easy nor fun.

5. A wow! factor
I want more than a workhorse. I want something that makes me smile and feel confident about what I can do with the machine. I want to be able to do more than what I can do with my current computer and to be able to do things that I didn't think I could do. I want to be surprised.

I and my machine are one.

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I love my bluetooth dongle

I love you in the morning,
I love you at high noon,
I love you in the evening,
I love you till I swoon.

Eighteen bucks and I made you mine,
Smithering smootherin one-of-a-kind!
Give me fifty; no, I won't trade
My bluetooth dongle is heaven-made.

Listen to me, I lay my case:
You make this world a better place!
No more wires, no more walls,
No more trippin', no more falls!

Ah don't you laugh at my serenade
I'm on a bluetooth dongle p'wer crusade!

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Some days I'm such a guy

For breakfast, I order one egg prata and one plain prata from Muhd Ani Rafi.

I spend all day at work fantasizing about techno gadgets and memorising all their specs.

I want a lot of rice for dinner because I am hungry.

Then I sulk because the Nasi Goreng (Indian style fried rice) I ordered turned out to be yucky, and there is nothing else to eat at home, except for cold boiled yams with sugar, which I eat anyway because I am hungry.

It is 11:30pm. I am still hungry. I am still checking out mobile phones.

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Sony Ericsson k618i

I've got my eyes set on you. This 2 megapixel 3G phone with mobile blogging capabilities is going for only $98 at M1.

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Update: I'm having a serious case of gadget-envy. The k618i is at the moment out of stock. Tetanus's heart is stolen by the Sony Ericsson k800i, a mobile phone with a cyber-shot 3.2 megapixel camera. Surprisingly , it is retailing for $368, which is substantially cheaper than the Nokia N73 (also 3.2 megapixel) that is going for $498.

Check this black beauty out:



My heart throbs. Should I pay $270 more for a camera with a flash and higher resolution? I think I'll wait for the weekend to see what deals may come.

Links:

• Check out sergio recabarren's jaw-dropping photos taken with the K800i here.
• A comparision between the camera functions of the Sony Ericsson k750 and the Nokia N70 (both 2 megapixel).
  

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Palm Zire 31

I have a palm. It was a gift. It is a pretty spiffy looking gadget. The only thing is that the screen resolution isn't too hot. It is advertised as "thousands of colours" in its specs because the company's reasoning is that anyone in the target group for the Zire 31 wouldn't care about the exact numbers, but it is plain that the number of colours is in the "low thousands of colours".

But otherwise, I've been having fun learning how to use it. The most useful thing for me right now is that it hotsyncs perfectly with my Microsoft Outlook Calendar where I keep all my work appointments and meetings. It hotsyncs with tasks, notes, and the contact list as well.

The bible reader with daily readings is neat too (download royalty free versions from www.olivetree.com). There is a built-in search engine that is useful if you can't remember a reference to a verse. You can write notes linked to specific verses and retrieve them later; you can bookmark verses for easy reference; you can even download John Wesley's entire Journal if you wanted to.

The best game is potello, a palm version of otello. I think I downloaded this one from tucows.com. You can play with the computer or play with a friend. Hours of entertainment! tucows.com has an array of programmes you can download at your peril.

The downside of the Zire 31

• No documents to go included in set-up. Documents to go allows you to read and edit Microsoft office documents (word, excel, powerpoint) on the go.
• Non-intuitive placement of databases. I downloaded three versions of the bible. One ended up in my expansion card (path: palm/launcher) and the other one in the handheld. I can get the one in the SD card out by copying it into my computer, but the one in my handheld is visible in the info section, but un-beamable. Maybe I haven't got the hang of the palm's insides.
• Low screen resolution
• Non-user-replaceable battery.
  

The pluses of the Zire 31

• Expansion slot for SD card included.
• Hotsync capability to Microsoft outlook
• Lots of fun programmes in basic setup: expenses, notepad, real player.
  
• Cheapest usable low-end palm in the market, with colour.

Someone has offered $200 to buy this palm (original price $288) and I don't know if I should sell it. I never needed a palm to begin with, yet I've grown a somewhat attached to this toy, so I don't know. We'll see.

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Toys

I haven't done this in a while, but today, I finally capitulated to my need to buy everything in Sim Lim. Between 8:15pm and 8:30pm, I bought:

1. A4 Tech Extra-slim keyboard, S$12
2. A4 Tech optical mouse (white), S$12
3. A4 Tech optical mouse (black), S$12
4. USB card reader, S$10
5. Headphones with microphone, S$9
6. Headphones with microphone, S$9
7. A4 Tech ViewCam, S$35

All together, S$99. Not bad, for the value added to my life. Now I can type and mouse at work without swearing, surf with my mouse from home without the batteries falling out, load up my pictures with my SD card reader from home, store and move my files between computers (I'm thumbdrive-less at the mo 'cos I've given mine to Smole), talk and listen to my friends and family overseas, and transmit a live video of me doing the fancy pants all across to the US, if I want to. What a life.

I am installing the driver for the Video Cam even as I speak. Will post a photo once I get it all up. Yeeha!

That's me grinning after I took my first shot with the Video Cam. Sweet!

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