The Everyday IT Blog
Personal Computing Demystified.
Step away from the computer!
0580 days
by admin
in Personal Computing
We all need time away from technology, whether we know it or not. I had one of those rare weekends when I had the chance to leave the laptop in the bag for 71 of 72 hours and spend a great deal of time with my family and friends, both old and new. The time was refreshing and just what the doctor ordered..stress free. We headed down late Friday afternoon to see one of my high school buddies and his family in Peachtree City, Georgia (@PTCTourism) which is about 20 minutes south of the Atlanta airport. Peachtree City is known for its abundant green space and the laid back lifestyle – so laid back that most residents use golf carts to get around on the 90 plus miles of golf cart path that interconnects almost the entire city. What a novel idea.. taking your time to get somewhere! It is a truly special place.. something you have to really experience. My friend Greg (@gferrara) is a worship leader and songwriter and he credits the environment down there as part of the reason he’s able to concentrate and write music that glorifies God. Greg’s wife Dawn also finds time to think and blog a bit.. go see her at her Unwind Out Loud blog. Greg and Dawn are truly blessed people and I’m thankful to have them in my life.
I got to take the time to meet new people as well.. Greg’s good friend and neighbor Tom (@TomRoyce) turns out to be a very successful blogger and all-around good guy.. take a minute and have a look at his very successful Real Estate blog.
All those URL’s and Twitter feeds aside.. I didn’t meet any of them online. That makes all the difference, I think.. Not gluing myself to my laptop made my weekend. You should try it sometime.
How do you like the new look?
0581 days
I’ve changed WordPress themes to make the site a little easier on the eyes.. so let me know what you think! While you’re at it, take a look at a new feature I’ve added – a discussion forum! Click on the “Forum” link above to get there – you’ll need an account here to post there. Ask me a question.. collaborate.. just keep it clean.
Continuous Ink Systems for EPSON Printers
0679 days
by Neilster1
in Personal Computing
We have a perennial problem at my house when it comes to printing.. we always seem to be out of ink. My wife is a Mary Kay consultant (ladies.. she would love to be your consultant if you don’t have one – go to www.marykay.com/lderryberry) and has a need to print out tons of color flyers, many times on demand. I don’t care whose printer you use – ink is expensive. It is honestly cheaper many times to trash your printer and buy a new one each time you run out of ink because the hardware is a loss leader – the real money is in the ink.
Enter the Continuous Ink System, or CIS. A CIS is a set of ink tanks, attached tubing and dummy print cartridges that are designed to fool your printer into thinking that the ink cartridges are always full. The printer ink is stored in the outboard ink tanks and is delivered to the dummy cartridges via the tubing. CIS systems ship with a full set of ink tanks – that’s the equivalent of about 8 standard-capacity ink cartridges for each cartridge color.. all for about 36 bucks. The cost savings is staggering when you consider that the 4-cartridge system that most printers today use cost about $17 each ($68 for a complete set of cartridges) times 8.. $544 worth of ink. Damn.
The ease of installing these systems really depends on your printer. I prefer Epson printers and is seems that most Epsons are fairly easy to install the CIS on. Bear in mind that with most printers you’ll have to leave the cover open so take a long hard look at your printer before you buy – all-in-one printers might not be the best choice if you do a lot of scanning. Print quality seems to be the same as standard cartridges out of the box, but here’s where you can improve upon the CIS system. You can buy higher-quality ink if necessary so you can really fine-tune your colors.
I’ll put a plug in for the ebay seller I bought my system from.. the ebay store is buyinknow123 and they are located in New York. The provided instructions were top-notch and they offer support after the sale if you need it.
Happy Printing!
