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Printer Page Yields
It was just a couple of weeks ago that I discussed looking at the on running costs of any printer you were looking to purchase as the initial purchase price should only be the smallest part of the equation when choosing what to buy. It seems somewhat coincidental therefore that today I heard news regarding a new standard allowing consumers to compare the potential ongoing running costs was being pushed through by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).
I hear a collective sigh as it's assumed this...
The Pitfalls of Refilling
Whilst I make an effort to stop my articles becoming promotional for my company, but as a businessman who deals with computer consumables from dusk till dawn each day and also writes articles on general tech related topics sometimes it is unavoidable. In the last 12 months we have started offering a refill service and my knowledge of the subject has increased dramatically.
Thanks to adverts such as those commissioned several years ago by JR Inkjet (the ones featuring motoring journalist...
Cooliris a cool new visually enhancing add on for Firefox and Internet Explorer
There is now a new way to view certain sites online with Firefox and Interent Explorer. Cooliris changes and enhances the way you view certain compatible sites online.
The main draw is the impressive way it presents you with an endless wall of images from your chosen page and allows you to browse them by dragging the page and then enlarging the picture/video of your choice. My description does not really do the effect justice, by comparison it is somewhere between Sci-Fi style smart boards...
RSS Feeds
As you are no doubt aware the Internet is a huge place and with billions of pages at your disposal it can sometimes be a little tricky keeping up to date with the information that you require. Luckily a technology known as RSS (Really Simple Syndication) makes it easy to have the latest news and features delivered directly to you rather than you having to go searching for them. By using an RSS reader or compatible browser you can easily get the latest headlines and articles from your...
Buzzwors Podcasting
Another common 21st century buzzword is 'podcast' which is a curious portmanteau of the words iPod and Broadcast; the iPod being, of course, a popular portable MP3 player developed by Apple. The term is used to describe a technology that allows a user to automatically download an audio file of some description for listening to later, and is no longer specifically related to the iPod as many software and hardware combinations can potentially be used.
The roots of podcasting most likely lie in...
CD and DVD Formats
On a daily basis I'm still asked about the different forms of blank disc available on the market and the differences between them. For this reason I thought this week we would look back at all the commonly available disc based media formats and the differences between them; from the humble CD to the more recent BluRay and HD-DVD.
CD-R - Whilst the CD format has been available since the early 1980's, the specification for the writable version (CD-R) was published further down the line, in...
Firmware
A consistent problem that we're having at Refresh is customers purchasing DVD discs and then returning them as being 'faulty' because they refuse to work correctly on their machines. Once they come back in to store we then run a couple of tests and they check out as being absolutely fine meaning that quite often a customer has just returned to us dozens of completely fine discs.
The reason for the media being incorrectly identified as being faulty is that each brand of DVD disc uses a...
Connecting your Computer to a TV 1
It surprises me than more people haven't taken the plunge when it comes to connecting their TV to their laptop in order to watch films. It really is an extremely easy process and saves having to burn films to disk, it also has the added advantage that now most TV's support high resolutions meaning you can use it in place of a conventional monitor making the possibilities endless!
There are a number of ways to connect a TV and computer and below are the three most popular:
S-Video (Separate...
Epic Technology Fails
The world of technology is full of bright new ideas that promise to change the way we live; however, for every success there are numerous failures. Some technologies genuinely surprise us when they fall by the wayside, but others we realise were doomed to failure from the very beginning:
Doomsday Project - The BBC Doomsday Project was a partnership between Acorn Computers, Philips, Logica and the BBC and was designed to mark the 900th anniversary of the original doomsday book. It was...
Google Checkout
One of the most generous and interesting offer potentially in the history of the internet has recently been extended by google to raise awareness of its new google checkout service. Since the offer is only on for the next ten days I thought i would alert you so you too can benefit.
has recently been designed to act as a third party between retailers and their customers on the Internet. Such a service looks like it could prove very popular now that many are cautious of giving Internet sites...
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