That’s why, I no longer use our inkjet. The only inkjet printer we have is a multi-function we purchased a few years ago and I don’t even use it for printing – only as a fax machine and scanner. For everyday printing, we have one color laser and one black and white printer.

Don’t laser printers cost a bomb?

That’s the myth. If you go for black and white – which is more than sufficient for everyday use at a home office, do you really need a document in color to read it?, you can get a decent laser printer for under $200 even a wireless one. Sometimes, you can catch sales for under $100. Color laser printers though definitely do cost a lot more but it is not as much as it used to.

But what about toner? They are high!

What is expensive is relative. Yes, I did order a cartridge for my color laser printer this week, and yes, it did cost me $34 for one color – black. BUT, guess when was the last time I ordered toner? August 2007! It is true. I had no idea until I looked at my Amazon account and past orders. WOW. Trust me, that color laser gets a lot of prints for a home office because my husband is kinda print happy. At the end of the day, the cost per page is really low compared to inkjets. Plus, love the fact I don’t have to be running out of ink and having to run to the store regularly.

If you feel your printer is literally sucking you dry – go laser.

Photo by Kris Peterson

Many free conference call services allow you to record your calls. Do read the fine print. Some do charge or require you to be a premium member before you can record and retrieve your recording. Others allow you to do it for free.

Another method is to use Skype with Pamela or other software based recorder like Total Recorder. Skype is free, Pamela is a small investment starting at $21.25 and thereabouts depending on the exchange rate. I personally use Total Recorder which is a separate software, been using it since before Pamela and just haven’t bothered to switch.

Image by Michal Zacharzewski

I may have have done the same thing if I were her but not without having a good talk to get my thoughts across first.

Personally, I’ve never quite got it – maybe because I’m in the bridge generation you know, we were the ones who grew up right in the transition from analog to digital so I still value my gadget-less moments, despite my techie-ness. A few months ago, I went to a tweetup and never once did I feel the urge to check my emails or tweet or text anyone and never once did I do it. I’ll be honest and say I did tweet before and after but not during.

Why not? Because I just didn’t have the time! We were having a wonderful conversation, the ambiance was perfect and we really enjoyed each others’ company. Besides, it is my personal conviction it’s rude. Uhuh, what happened to the good old fashioned good manners?

Which is why I get annoyed when people say, “Oh these technologies nowadays are making us so distracted.” To that, I say, “It’s not the technology it’s people.” We humans tend to mis-use many things. Money is one of them, technology is another. They are both tools. They aren’t living and breathing. They don’t take sides, they don’t tell us what to do they just are. It’s up to us how we use them.

What are your thoughts?

That’s the kind of setup I have had for a long time. Whenever we get a new computer, we don’t buy the monitor it saves us money to just get the tower alone. Then the older one is set next to the new one and I will use that computer for stuff like initiating backups, running processes on auto pilot and also store files. It also serves as a fantastic backup unit if something ever happens to the main computer.

Both of these are hooked up to a KVM switch. It’s a little box or a bunch of cables if you get the smaller ones and lets you hookup two or more computers to the same monitor, keyboard and mouse. To view the other computer, you either flip a switch, press a button of hit a certain keyboard command, depending on the switch. You can get KVM switches for 2 computers and up. I have seen some for 16, but those come at a hefty price. Some also have audio cables that let you share your headset or speakers.

If you only need to hook up two computers, thankfully there are some more affordable ones like the Iogear MiniView which starts at $24.95. These are less bulky and are more like cables than switch boxes. They are a life saver. Something my home office will never be complete without.

• Unplug that cell phone charger when you’re done charging. Actually, it may not be such a bad idea to use a solar powered cell phone or electronics charger and take that off your ‘grid’ altogether.
• Use a power strip with switches where you can turn off selected outlets like the Belkin Conserve Energy-Saving Surge Protector. Or go to any hardware store and get one of those little adapters with a switch on them.
• Adjust your computer power options settings. Even if you’re on a desk top or plugged in, one of the key things is to turn off the monitor after a period of inactivity because the monitor is the most power hungry element of your computer.
• Switch to LCD. They are less energy hungry than CRTs but I’d still adjust the power settings to turn off the monitor after a short time.

The best thing is you don’t have to get super technical with all this either. Products like the Voyager S2 from NewerTech works just like a toaster. You plug the docking station into your computer – it has USB if you’re not familiar with all the geeky SATA plugs. Then insert your hard drive into the slot. You’ll be ready to start saving files onto the drive. You can use as many drives as you want (one at a time).

We’ve been using the external hard drive case method which is the same concept, just more physical tinkering and plugging for a long time. It really does work and the savings can be significant because hard drives are a whole lot cheaper to buy than all in one external hard drives. They are also a lot larger than USB drives . The Voyager S2 starts at $59.99.

When things like these happen, one of the first places to look is the device manager. It didn’t give me any warnings but after a few reboots it started to give me a yellow warning that the mouse isn’t working properly – well dOh! Now what?

Uninstall the mouse – you heard me right. Uninstall the mouse, reboot the computer. Windows will always try to re-install it on reboot. Sure enough it did and I have my mouse back

Next time your keyboard or mouse quits, try that as a first step.

A Good Office Chair – he spends a lot of time over that desk / computer so might as well be comfortable.

Stock up his office supplies – men hate shopping even for business. Come to think of it, so do I. It would be a great gesture to surprise him with a cabinet full or paper, pens, ink, toner and while you’re at it maybe tidy up that table of his

Laptop bags – depending on how much he carries his laptop around. I bet those who carry their laptops regularly, the bag could be in need of replacement.

A cordless presenter/laser pointer – if Dad does a lot of presentations, this is a must have to help him stay within the time limit, advance slides in a presentation and highlight key notes. This Logitech one looks interesting.

The Livescribe Smartpen – you read my post last week about this pen. It’s great. The 1GB version starts at $149.99 and is plenty to begin with.

NeatDesk Desktop Scanner – no more pack rat Dad!

Software or Online Services – Evernote makes a great gift too to give Dad a virtual space to save all those tidbits of information he finds. You also almost always won’t go wrong with software that he’s been wanting to have. They can get expensive though. One software I highly recommend for any desktop is DirectAccess to help Dad type less, easily launch software and automate a ton of small tasks he might do every day.

Business learning courses or training programs – this too can get expensive but at the same time, there are many affordable learning products out there too. For example, if he’s been wanting to learn how to setup his own blog, give him the Blogging Starter Pack.

Tablet or fancy schmancy mouse – the Bamboo tablet starts at $99 or go for a fancy, comfortable top of the line mouse for his computer.

Help – Purchase a few hours from a Virtual Assistant as a gift.

Bonus idea, computer wallpaper or screen saver – Well this you can do in addition to what you’re already giving him. Make a collage with your family photos with some handwritten notes specifically for dad then secretly change out his computer wall paper. $0 makes it a fabulous idea.

The app is free and can be obtained from the iPhone Apps Store.

I think that’s so cool. It’ s stuff like these that I simply love helping clients with (Nationwide is NOT my client). It’s not always easy to see the way how to marry your product or service with technology. I give Nationwide 7 out of 10 points for creating the app.

Why only a 7? Well, because the iPhone is not the only phone out there. True, many will make the case that it is popular, they have a huge following and you go where your customers are or want to be. Still, I imagine I’d feel really bummed out if I were a Nationwide customer – I own a Windows Mobile phone and have no plans of switching in the near future. Then, there are Blackberry users too who have a huge following and is very popular. Admittedly I didn’t spend much time to find out if they are developing apps for other mobile platforms. Maybe they are and I haven’t seen it.

So while the idea is great and they are piggy backing on the whole iPhone Apps cool factor, it can also be a slippery slide tech slope. On the other hand, I think they are heading in the right direction, which is in line with my thinking all along that businesses now have to think beyond just web sites and social networks but actually integrating into customers’ lives and making it easier at the same time.

Now, to see how well it works and how well the rest of the company responds or embraces this. Technology is only a helper. Ultimately, Nationwide still has to deliver their ‘goods’.

It depends what I’m buying. When purchasing any computer related – monitor, computer, laptop or any accessories I usually decline because the moment my computer leaves the store it’s already obsolete.

Photo by Thomas Hawk

These things are cheaper to buy again new vs the hassle of having it sent somewhere to be repaired. Some of the warranty companies know this and have opted to allow you to replace the unit instead of repairing.

That may not be such a bad deal yet… seriously, after a year maybe two of your computer you’re probably beginning to gripe how slow it is or how you wish it has this or that. I’m not one to keep up with the Joneses. In fact I have not bought a new car in over 10 years and my home is a modest one built in the 60’s. When it comes to tech though, after a year or more, if the thing breaks I’m a little happy for the excuse to upgrade.

Do you feel the same way?

Viewing A Report on My Phone

Yet, sometimes, I very much wish more business learning resources and tools are created for us who like to consume our content ‘on the go’. Granted, I hardly go anywhere on any given week BUT the flexibility to unplug from the computer, kick up my feet and listen, watch or read my learning materials in bed or at the beach while the kids play is very attractive to me. Unfortunately, not many Internet marketers make their content mobile friendly. So what do I do?

I convert the videos using my favorite tool Super and yes, it can convert from flash too which makes it ideal since flash is the choice for many marketers.

For PDFs, that has been tricky until now. I use Mobipocket. The unfortunate part is you have to use the desktop version to add your PDF’s. In the past, I never liked that. There are apps that allow you to read PDF’s directly but I’ve found those apps very memory intensive and they are difficult to read, no automatic continous scrolling. For now, Mobipocket works great for me.

Check out the screen shot of a report from Jimmy D Brown’s List and Traffic as seen on my cell phone. Looks pretty good and the auto scrolling is awesome.

My natural reaction is “How do I get my blog on there?” And voila! Found the link.

Unfortunately, they are working through a backlog but I’m very pumped about submitting.

Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W120

As a web publisher, frequent conference speaker, mom, and hobby photographer, I take a lot of pictures. I even studied photography in college for two years. So when I was offered the opportunity to check out the new 7 megapixel Sony Cyber-shot, I jumped all over it.

Let me start out with the Pro’s:

This camera gives a GREAT first impression – it is adorable. I was given a pink one, and my teenage daughter immediately started ‘borrowing’ it before I could get my hands on it. But it also comes in black, silver, and powder blue, so it’s not just a girly camera. The back LCD screen is very large for such a portable camera. And that tiny size is one of the biggest plusses of all – I could fit this camera in my pocket if I had to.

It is also very easy to use – I cracked the user guide only once, but it turns out I didn’t really need to. Settings are intuitive and it gives plenty of options for shooting up close, in low light, in portrait mode, and also has a video setting. It also has some smile-recognition technology so that it knows when to snap the shutter at the right smiling moment (great for kids pictures). That being said, I didn’t use that setting very much because I prefer to have more control over my photos.

And now the Con’s

Like I initially stated, I’m kind of a photo nut. So I pushed this camera to it’s limits – and found those limits sooner than I wanted to. I also compared results to my way-more-expensive Fuji camera, which was completely unfair, because these two cameras are apples and oranges.

The biggest drawback I found was that the auto-focus feature left a lot to be desired. It held up well in the middle of bright, sunny days. I’d even say the image quality rivaled my Fuji in bright light. But even as the sun was getting low in the sky, pictures were blurry. It also had a hard time figuring out what to focus on sometimes, even when my camera subject was smack-dab in the middle of the frame.

My other complaint was that any photo taken in less than bright mid-day light was also very grainy when you tried to blow up the photos (viewing or printing). That’s where my camera “elitism” turned me off.

Who would this camera be good for?

If you are picky about photo quality, need a reliable focusing mechanism, or need to professionally reproduce your images, the Cyber-shot DSC-W120 isn’t your camera (unless all of your shots take place between 10:00am and 2:00pm).

But I could have given this camera away to readers, and I can’t bear to part with it – here’s why:

1 – This camera really is IDEAL for my teenage daughter. She LOVES this thing, doesn’t care about my picky photo quality quirks, and was able to use it immediately without any help or instruction. In fact, from now on, the camera will be hers and I will “borrow it back” from time to time. She is ecstatic.

2 – There are times when I don’t want to risk bringing my big expensive camera to places (sandy beaches, swimming pools, etc.). I’m completely willing to sacrifice quality for the peace of mind I get knowing I will still get fairly decent pictures and my expensive equipment is safe at home.

3 – For web publishing, 7 megapixels is completely overkill. Even 800×600 photographs need to be reduced in size. So this camera has come in handy to take quick shots when I don’t need the high-resolution power of 7 megapixels.

Disclosure :: Sony provided this camera to me for free with the request to review their product. They also encouraged me to write a fully honest review, which I have done (as you can tell!). Sony did not pay any money for this review and did not receive anything in return from me or my company for taking the time to review their product.

Buy the Sony Cyber-shot DSC-W120 on Amazon