The Management Consulting Group

Whether you’re an advocate of printer manufacturer ink
cartridges or have already tried a compatible brand, the
question will have occured to you: Why do original cartridges
cost so much?

The price of manufacturer branded cartridges can be in many
cases more than twice as much as some alternative brands.

This for many people leads them to conclude that the price
difference is probably justified; and that trying a compatible
brand is likely to be a gamble that will only end with a broken
printer.

Whilst this might be the case in a handfull or cases, as with
many markets there are quality alternatives which offer a real
opportunity to reduce the cost of printing with a virtually
indetectible loss of quality.

The fact is, most of us do not demand that much of our
cartridges, and the results offered by the more reputable of
compatible brands offer all we require.

What also adds to the gulf in price is the profit model employed
by the printer manufacturers. They understand that once the
printer is sold it then becomes a lucrative profit vehicle.
Therefore, the manufacturer sells the printer at a discount in
order to get you to buy into their lucrative ink cartridge
business. With the advent of cheaper compatible cartridges made
by third-parties, they are seeing that business model fail. They
have of course fought back with claims that that the user risks
loss of quality.

While that may be true if you need the absolute best print from
your machine, it’s not if you just want to print out a regular
text document or other standard files. Testing by UK consumer
group Which? has found that some compatible ink cartridges are almost as good as printer
manufacturers’ own and are much cheaper. Indeed there is a
compatible brand Lyson Ink
Cartridges which is prefered over the original brand by many
in the print production and design industry - where high quality
results are imperative.

By choosing one of the best performing compatible ink
cartridges, such as the Phoenix brand (available at www.ink-toner-uk.com) an
average user could save about £100 over three years. Using Epson
ink cartridges would cost a user about £220 over the period
while a supply of generic ink from Print-Rite would cost £50. Of
course the greater your requirement for printing the greater the
gain.

The printer manufacturers’ own cartridges do produce excellent
results on text, graphs and photos, making them all best buys,
but they’re very expensive, Which? said. Generics such as Print
Rite and Ink Again also gain best buy status for a fraction of
the cost. At the other end of the scale, some of the Jet Tec
cartridges used on a Lexmark printer failed during the test,
produced disappointing results and were given ‘Don’t Buy’
status.

The worst cartridges, however,were Cartridge Save for the
Lexmark Z515 printer, which were so unreliable Which? couldn’t
even complete tests on them. By the way the Z515 printer costs
under £35 but will cost you about £700 in Lexmark branded
cartridges over three years. Which? recommends that customers
get rid of the Lexmark and get a printer with lower running
costs, such as an Epson or a Canon that offer savings on
cartridges with out the compromoise on quality associated with
refilled cartridges.

In a world already full of acronyms and codes, who would have thought that something as simple as color could join in the confusion? Knowing the different color models and how they are used is not only helpful in getting the visual results you want it is critical to staying on budget.

Of the many color models available, there are really only three in which you need any fluency: CMYK, PMS and RGB.

CMYK Color

This acronym stands for cyan, magenta, yellow and black. CMYK is also known as process color, full color, 4 color, and 4c. The colors are versions of the primary colors, blue, red, yellow and black. They create full color images like you would see in a magazine. Choose CMYK when you need life-like, realistic color, more than two colors, have a large press run, or are printing only on your office printer.

What you need to know:

• If you are printing your project on a desktop color printer, look at the ink cartridge. If yours is CMYK, save your files and photos in that format for best output.
• Full color commercial printing is typically more expensive than one or two color. Typically, a press run of 1000 or more is needed to make this format economical.

PMS Color

The Pantone Matching System® (PMS) produces a specific color. It contains hundreds of colors, light to dark, bright to pastel; each designated by a number. PMS colors are typically used in one and two color printing and are also called spot color or flat color.

The PMS model delivers reliable color whenever you print it. It is an excellent choice for giving the impact of color to low budget jobs, and maintaining consistent use of corporate colors.

What you need to know:

• Inkjet and color laser printers are not able to produce PMS colors accurately, however some colors work better than others.
• There is no accurate proofing system for PMS color. The closest match can be shown on a high quality digital proofing system, available from your printer. When choosing PMS colors, have your designer show you a swatch from a PMS book to approve the color choice.
• PMS colors can be “screened,” printed as a lighter value of the color, in effect creating many colors from a single ink with no extra cost.

RGB Color

RGB stands for red, green and blue and makes up onscreen color. The RGB model is used for projects that will only be seen on a screen and not printed. RGB is the right choice for projects like websites, PowerPoint presentations and Acrobat .pdf files. Be advised that different monitors have different screen resolution and that can affect color display.

What you need to know:

• RGB produces vivid colors that look fabulous on-screen, but are difficult to reproduce in other color models. When converted to CMYK, many RGB colors look muddy and dull, and many have no Pantone equivalent at all. If your project will ever be used offline, be sure to select colors in the printing method it will be used in the most.

Color Matching

Have you ever wondered why the proof you are emailed looks different from the color mock-up from your designer, and different still from the printed piece?

What you need to know:

• Forget about this. Nothing ever matches exactly. The PMS or process color swatch book is the closest representation of the color you will get on press.
• Learn to think of your proofs as an approximation, and clearly explain to your designer what you are looking for. Trust your creative team to get the best match possible.
• If you must see exactly what a color will look like “final” you’ll need to display it on the monitor it will be shown, print to the desktop printer you will use, or order a sample printing of the PMS color you want. For process printing, you should be present during printing to approve the final output.

When using color, choosing the wrong format for your project can produce unexpected or unusable results, costing you both in lost time and money. Mastering the terms that specify color will provide valuable savings in every way.

About The Author

Beth Brodovsky is the president and principal of Iris Creative Group, LLC. Brodovsky earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communication Design from Pratt Institute, New York. Before launching her own firm in 1996, she spent eight years as a corporate Art Director and Graphic Designer, providing a sound foundation in management and organizational standards and structure. Iris Creative specializes in providing marketing and strategic communication services to clients in service industries and small businesses. For more information contact Beth at bsb@iriscreative.com or 610-567-2799.

Have you ever wanted to manage multiple domain names under a
single account in IIS (Internet Information Services)? A common
way to do this is to handle it from code. There are some
disadvantages when handling this directly from code. Static
pages aren’t redirected, non-developers will need to purchase or
dust off their programming books, and evidence remains that a
redirection was done.

Along came ISAPI Rewrite www.isapirewrite.com to solve this
issue. Running at the ISAPI level in IIS, this is done before
any page or code is accessed so it works equally well on static
and dynamic content. It overcomes all the objections mentioned
above.

With common redirection code, the user would see something like
this: http://www.domain1.com http://www.domain2.com/domain2
http://www.domain3.com/domain3

With the ISAPI Rewrite component, the user will see this:
http://www.domain1.com http://www.domain2.com
http://www.domain3.com

Even though behind the scenes the sites can be in completely
different sub-folders, the person visiting the website won’t
have any concept of this. They will simply see the clean domain
names.

ISAPI Rewrite will rewrite (kind of like a redirect) the user to
a sub-folder even though the web browser doesn’t realize this.

This is done very fast and efficiently and managed by a file
called httpd.ini which should be placed in the root of the site.
It controls which domain names are handled by which sub-folder
by utilizing different regular expression rules.

Some tips to remember when creating the rules.

# is used to comment out a line

The following characters must be preceded by a “” to be
recognized as a literal character ( meaning a character that
represents itself)

“.”, “*”, “?”, “+”, “(”, “)”, “{”, “}”, “[”, “]”, “^” and “$”.
This becomes important when typing (www.domain.com) it would
have to look like (www.domain.com)

Parentheses are used to group items together to be marked as
what is to be matched, such as “(apple)*” would match all of the
string “appleappleapple”.

You can see more helpful expression tips here,
http://www.isapirewrite.com/docs/examples

Some examples of the rules you will see in the httpd.ini file
look like this:

#manual redirect of one domain RewriteCond Host:
(www.)?domain1.com RewriteRule (.*) /domain1$2

#redirecting to another URL RewriteCond Host: (www.)?domain1.com
RewriteRule (.+) http://www.domain2.com$1 [R]

#Rewrite just one domain but keep the old link working
RewriteCond Host: (www.)?domain1.com RewriteRule
(?!/domain1)(.*) /domain1$2 [I]

Many tricks come with a catch, and this is no exception. One
disadvantage that I have come across is that the response.write
from ASP or ASP.NET does not work well in conjunction with this
component. Absolute paths are required since relative paths are
done after ISAPI Rewrite handles the request and aren’t
redirected as would be expected. The workaround is to use
absolute paths with the full domain name in the redirect. If
Server.Transfer is to be used, it should be tested as well. It
runs into similar issues.

Additionally, when using ASP or ASP.NET, the new virtual root
folder should be marked as an application so that the new
virtual root’s folder is used for global.asa(x), web.config and
/bin.

What are the best things to look for when you’re shopping for IT training?
This article gives you five surefire ways you can tell if your IT training will
be the best it can be - before you spend any money!

<ol>

<li>Try Before You Buy. Request free samples of the training if possible, so you know what you’re buying before you get it. Make sure that the content you’re getting will give you the training you need.</li>

<li>Check the Content. Most training only focuses on exam knowledge. This type of training won’t help much on the job because it doesn’t teach you how to apply your certification in the real world. Also, be wary of training that’s nothing more than a thinly-disguised electronic copy of a book. This training is a high-cost alternative that doesn’t give you more than you would get by reading the book yourself.

The best training will give you complete certification knowledge, then show you how to apply that knowledge on the job to do your work successfully.</li>

<li>Research the Company. Look for customer comments on the training company’s website, brochures, etc. Also, do a Google search to see what customers have to say when they’re not being featured in promotional material.</li>

<li>Look for Engaging Training. Compare the free samples you’ve found: which are engaging and easy to learn from? Because training can be a long process, you want an instructor that holds your attention, gives a great learning experience, and delivers tons of content without sounding like they’re reading from a textbook.</li>

<li>Find Training That Works For You. There are many types of training out there, such as books, classes, sample tests and videos. Books are usually the cheapest option, but they can be hard to follow and many people find themselves easily distracted when studying with them. Because classes are instructor-led, they can be engaging and easy-to-follow, but they can be very expensive and inconvenient. Sample tests often only determine if you know the material or not, and are better used to test the knowledge you have than for actually learning.

Training videos are a great option for many people because they are instructor-led and easy to follow. They are a cost-effective alternative to classes, plus they’re very convenient, allowing you to train on your own time and to keep the content so that you can use it as an ongoing reference.</li>

</ol>

Copyright 2005, CBT Nuggets, Inc.
About the Author

CBT Nuggets, Inc. has been producing IT certification training videos since 1999. The videos cover all certification objectives and give real world application strategies, plus they’re competitively priced. Visit www.cbtnuggets.com and register for unlimited free access to more than 50 videos, containing over 25 hours of training.

Each Sun sign in astrology, also has its shadow side, which is why the very first thing I do when I fall in love is grab that persons birthdate! I want to know how that person is going to treat me once the first bloom of love has worn off the rose. Most of us are familiar with the positive personality characteristics of each sign, i.e- for example Leos are warm, funny, affectionate, Geminis are ambitious, witty, charming and smart, but few of us are aware of each signs shadow side. Only here in the psychic realm, will you learn the honest truth about your beloveds personality and what is the ABSOLUTE WORST that can happen … so watch out because …
An ARROGANT ARIES will tell you how much he loves you, but in the same breath, that you must be eliminated becuse you are getting in the way of his plans for total world domination. He will also leave his dirty socks around and burn the toast.
A TOTALITARIAN TAURUS will boast and brag and bully you into submission, but just one little words of sarcasm from you and you will find him balled up in the fetal position crying in the closet. Also a Taurus can’t have sex without picking a fight first.
A JABBERING GEMINI will steal your money from you and then help you look for it. Also he’ll make up wild stories about your alleged bisexuality and tell them to his friends. A master of miscommunication, he’ll keep you home alone, by the telephone, waiting fo his call.
A CALLOUS CANCER will give you a gift and then make you pay for it, not with money, but with sexual favours, emotional blackmail and pieces of your very soul. An expert hostage taker, a Cancer uses self-pity and sarcasm to torture his victims and rap them in a prison of low-self-esttem.
A LAZY LEO will do everything to woo you … date you, charm you, move in with you, impregnate you and spend Christmas dinner with your family, yet, while filling out a job application, still check the box that says his status is “single”.
A VENGEFUL VIRGO will turn up his nose at your taste and then slowly begin to mold you into his vision of the perfect woman. You can never please him, but if you try to leave, he will stalk you for the rest of your life to try and get you back.
A LASCIVIOUS LIBRA is the first to tell you “I love you but Im not in love you.” He might as well pee on your leg and then tell you it’s raining… soon you get the sense he/she are keeping their options open in case someone better comes along …
A SCHEMING SCORPIO is voted most likely to try and convince you to have sex without a condom. Later on in the relationship, he will also try to convince you that having three way sex with a hired prostitute is the only way to save your relationship.
A SILLY SAGGITARIUS will chase you and woo you until he has pierced you with his arrow of love. You’ll soon realize your just another pelt on this hunter’s belt after he tells you all about his plans for his next romantic conquest, shortly after having sex with you.
A CAPITALISTIC CAPRICORN will coldly pretend he is in love with you, as long as you are useful to him in terms of social or business connections. This social climber, doesn’t want a girlfriend, he wants a pretty parrot with no mind of her own who faithfully repeats what he says …
AN ASSININE AQUARIUS will go on for hours and hours about your deep connection as soulmates then forget your birthday. Easily distracted by pretty colours and shiny things, this flighty male is easily led astray by other women.
A PIOUS PISCES can only be described as “Christ without, Satan within.” This long suffering martyr has a Ph.d in co-dependency and knows how to reel women in with shiny promises. However once you take the bait, you are trapped forever in the belly of the beast.

About the Author

Sam Steven’s metaphysical articles have been published in many high-standing newspapers and she has published several books. You can meet Sam Stevens at http://www.psychicrealm.com where she works as a professional psychic. You can also read more of her articles at http://www.newagenotebook.com where she is the staff writer. Currently she is studying technology’s impact on the metaphysics.

Have you ever needed to perform search / replace operations on multiple files in a folder and all its subfolders? Have you ever needed to search / replace text in a list of files? How about carrying out multiple search / replace operations on a single file based on search / replace pairs specified in a text file? This article shows how to do each of these common search / replace operations using TEXTools–and believe it or not–in only 7 lines of batch code!

To carry out each of these tasks, we’ll be utilizing TEXTools (TCL.exe) from a batch file. TEXTools is the perfect compliment to batch file programming as it greatly extends the power of batch files. Without implementing a single for loop, a TEXTools endowed batch file can nonetheless easily process multiple files. This is made possible because batch files can be constructed on-the-fly by another batch file and then called by that batch file, (its kind of like a train that builds its track as it goes). The reason that a for loop isn’t needed here to process multiple files is simply because TEXTools can take a list of files that need to be processed and translate that list into a batch file that, when run, results in the processing of each of the files. For example, suppose we wanted to carry out some relatively complex text editing operations on the following list of files:

myfile.txt

yourfile.txt

theirfile.txt

…

One way to do this would be to place the editing logic into a batch file called procfile.bat and then process each file–one after the other–using procfile.bat like this:

procfile.bat myfile.txt

procfile.bat yourfile.txt

procfile.bat theirfile.txt

…

That’s great if you only have 3 files, but what if you have 100 or even 1000 files to process? That’s where TEXTools comes into the picture. If batch files are just text and they can be constructed on-the-fly, then why not use TEXTools to turn our list of filenames into a batch file that, when run, results in the processing of each of the files? If a batch file like procfile.bat is going to be employed in the process anyway, then we’re already half-way to our goal. What we want is for the list of file names to be preceded by “procfile.bat” with one change–procfile.bat needs to be called. Now we have a batch file that will do all the work for us:

call procfile.bat myfile.txt

call procfile.bat yourfile.txt

call procfile.bat theirfile.txt

…

Of course, this is the kind of thing that TEXTools excels at doing. Adding the text, “call procfile.bat ” to the front of every line in a text file containing hundreds of file names–in order to create and execute an on-the-fly batch file is a snap:

type ListOfFiles.txt | tcl InsStr 1 ‘call procfile.bat ‘ >t$1.bat

call t$1.bat

We’re now ready to tackle our assignment except for one missing puzzle piece. We need our procfile.bat. Ours needs to take as arguments a file name, a search text and a replacement text:

ProcFile

Expressing emotions accurately is an EQ competency. Experiencing them and expressing them when appropriate is a matter of mental and physical health. In fact there’s a phrase in psychology called “acting out,” which means if you don’t say it, you’re going to do it. You’ll act it out.

Are you acting out your emotions and sabotaging yourself instead of experiencing and dealing with them appropriately in a mindful way?

I have a friend who calls this, “acting in the grip of a strange compulsion.” Well, we needn’t be so dramatic about it, but did you ever find yourself acting strangely, knowing it’s not like you even as you’re doing it? Usually you’re doing something that doesn’t help your own cause, that you wouldn’t ordinarily do, and that you “know better than to do.” You surprise even yourself!

An example of this would be forgetting to pick up your wife’s laundry. Ordinarily you’re an organized and efficient person and this is part of your weekly routine. It’s not like you to forget to do it. Often if you think back, it can be traced to an emotion you didn’t acknowledge, express, or deal with appropriately. For instance you may have had a fight with your wife and failed to resolve it. The resentment lingers and if you aren’t mindful, you’ll forget to pick up her laundry as a way of getting back at her and expressing your anger.

Another example would be being criticized unfairly by your boss, failing to deal with your anger about it, and then failing to get a report in on time. Suddenly you can’t find the energy to do the work. The creativity to do the research leaves you, your fingers just won’t write the report, and every little thing distracts you from the task. Failing to get the report in on time sabotages you, which adds insult to injury. It’s the kind of thing you might do when you aren’t mindful.

In each case the healthy way of handling the emotions is different, but they must be dealt with or else they will find their own way of being expressed.

In intimate relationships, you’ll find you might as well go ahead and say it, because not saying it will damage the relationship more. Resentment will build up, old wounds will fester, and soon you will have made a mountain out of a mole hill. It’s much easier to deal with things right away, using your emotional intelligence - your communication and interpersonal skills.

In the career situation, you can’t count on the boss caring about how you feel, or being interested in a personal relationship with you, but you do have a right to be treated with respect. You must be attuned to what you’re feeling and stand up for yourself in a professional manner, or find somewhere else to work if you care about your health. And one of the first things I caution someone who comes to me for career coaching because they’re dissatisfied with their job, is to get very mindful. Otherwise, it’s likely you’ll end up getting yourself fired to get yourself out of there. It happens all the time and there’s a much more gracious way to make your exit.

Emotional Intelligence is all about being mindful. If we experience our emotions and pay attention to them, they can guide us. If we express our emotions appropriately and accurately, we can address a situation before it becomes an issue. If we ignore our emotions, bury them, or fail to listen to their message, we lose a guide and we also a sense of ourselves. It has been said “we are our emotions” because without emotions we would all be alike and all like machines. There would be no reason for choosing one thing over another, no reason for doing one thing rather than another. If we are our emotions, we are also our choices, and our choices often revolve around emotions.

Studying Emotional Intelligence can greatly enrich your life and should be given at least as much attention as your intellectual and academic education. Unfortunately it has been ignored in our formal educations, and its up to us to close the gap. Certified Emotional Intelligence coaches can help you assess your EQ and develop it. The benefits will be all yours.

About the Author

©Susan Dunn, MA, The EQ Coach, http://www.susandunn.cc . Coaching, distance learning, and ebooks around emotional intelligence for your continued personal and professional development. I train and certify EQ coaches. Get in this field, dubbed “white hot” by the press, now, before it’s crowded, and offer your clients something of exceptional value. Start tomorrow, no residence requirement. Mailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc for free ezine.

Should I buy a cheap laptop or a cheap desktop?

You may find yourself asking that question many times while shopping for a computer. This guide offers you the pros and cons of owning a laptop versus a desktop pc.

Processing speed

Comparing processing speeds, laptops usually lag behind their desktop counterparts. With the rapid advance in microchip technology, the gap between them will become smaller.

Wireless

Most laptops especially those with Intel mobile chips come with wireless capability out of the box. This means you can get online from any location at home easily without ugly wires if you have a wireless network setup at home. Desktop pcs do not typically provide this capability out of the box although that may change in the near future.

Memory

Memory chip tends to be more expensive in Laptop than desktop pcs. If you buy a laptop with less than 512MB ram, be prepare to pay more for memory upgrades than you have to with a desktop pc.

Graphics Display

Because of the size of a laptop, most business or entry level laptop use integrated graphics with limited ram. This means most laptops even some expensive ones cannot run graphics intensive applications or 3d games as well as a desktop pc. With a desktop pc, you can buy a dedicated graphics card just to serve a graphics intensive application.

Portability

Portability is why everyone wants a laptop these days. Because of their size and weight, it is easier to carry a laptop around as opposed to a desktop pc.

Screen Display

Everyone buy laptop for their portability so laptops usually do not come with screens as big as their desktop counterparts. The screen technology used is usually not as good as those used by desktop pc. Furthermore with a desktop pc, you can always upgrade to a bigger and better screen whereas for laptop you are stuck with the same screen display for the whole lifespan of the laptop.

Upgradeability

Laptops do not offer many upgrade options. You can only upgrade memory and hard disk. With a desktop you can upgrade almost anything and only limited by the motherboard. This means a cheap desktop pc offers a longer lifespan than a laptop.

So whether you should buy a cheap laptop or a cheap desktop, ask yourself what are your needs? If you want to be able to use a computer wherever you go, then you are looking at a laptop to fulfill your needs. However if you do not require the portability of a laptop, play a lot of 3D games, graphic intensive applications, if you care about upgradeability to prolong the lifespan of your investment, then desktop pc is a smarter choice for you.

Charles Wee runs a free hosting service at BloggerHaven. He also owns and runs a website at CheapLaptopGuide which provides free guidance for buying of cheap laptops and notebooks

Nokia, as we all know, is now 1 of the planet’s most large makers of telephones and this is compared with other first class competitors for instance, Samsung & Motorola (as well as others). Nokia construct mobiles for each dominant sector and back in 07 Nokia was voted the most valuable global brand. Their commodities fall into four various divisions - mobile devices, multimedia, networks & enterprise solutions.

The telephone revolution headed by Nokia would seem to be irrepressible. The stocky bricks made in the nineties for example, the Nokia 2110 that was almost 236 grams have nowadays been succeeded with light-weight, slender hand sets for example, the Nokia 6282 that comes in at 115 grams or what about the Nokia 7380 that weighs primarily 80 grams. The phones all have the most current in communications jiggery-pokery along with a solid fashion sense.

Deciding on a set was an effortless business on the other hand when you think about the products possible to each of us today, it becomes somewhat harder. Consumers will often buy their handset with the thought of various extras, - might it be a statement of fashion an object which makes someone look spiffing - or could it be only for the advantages that the telephones currently offer, for instance, e-mail & WAP, etc.

Additional technologies are also consolidating in Nokia cell phones to allow the customer the occasion to communicate with more than simply speech. Nokia mobile devices which include cameras are also becoming familiar as is the facility to produce video and broadcast them to friends and associates through multimedia messaging. You can furthermore see full color graphics on every one of their telephones and in excess of 1/2 are available with the facility to show WAP info (URLs altered only for the smaller display on your telephones). Also obtainable is the phones which are built with radios & MP3 facilities just for listening to your tunes. The price of their cell phones range from little if anything up to a few hundred pounds, it primarily depends about what one require.

Nokia, as we mentioned, is still the the earth’s #1 maker of cell phones, even though some reckon that Nokia’s top spot might be threatened specifically by Sony Erickson. Even so, Nokia now have the advantage of decades of experience in handset fabrication & has wonderful loyalty from its usual consumers allied with with their reputation only for reliability & user friendliness. Getting mobile phones from people other than Nokia can be a risky business!

As emerging technologies become even more vital in today’s handsets, the space between Nokia and all its competitors will become additionally obvious.