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April
2002, Week 4 --
Hard to Put a Label On It |
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One of the true annoyances of computers and their printers is the
difficulty of printing a single label. |
If you have a mailing list with a couple hundred labels to print out, it's
no problem. Word processing programs and databases can pump the
information out as fast as you feed those self-adhesive label sheets into
the printer. But one label, that's a sticking point, so to speak. |
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Some computer printers handle the one label problem, some don't. So we use
a Dymo label printer. We also have a Seiko label printer. And recently we
got a Brother P-Touch 1500, which also prints strip labels for things like
warnings or identifying package contents. It's $90, which isn't much
really, but then there are additional costs for supplies. Some people
would argue that anything more than ten cents is expensive just to make a
label. |
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Everything about printing single labels seems expensive. The Dymo 330
Turbo LabelWriter we're using costs $250; the Brother PT-9200DX costs
$400; the Seiko SLP240 is $300. Even the names make them sound like race
cars. But you don't have to go that high: bottom of the line label
printers run $80-$90. |
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Most of these small printers can put out labels for shipping packages as
well as the small envelope address size. They save time and frustration
and they're worth it for that alone. They are all able to add company
logos to a label, some with color, and print several styles of bar codes.
Best of all, they automatically shrink addresses and typefaces to fit the
label; no more retyping or working out abbreviations to make things fit.
So they seem expensive at first, but they're worth it. |
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Label printer web sites: www.brother.com;
www.dymo.com; www.seiko.com. |
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USB:
2B or not 2B. |
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The $50 "Pocket Hub" from Kensington www.kensington.com
solves a problem we have on every computer we own. I bet a lot of other
people have it as well: there aren't enough USB ports. |
USB, which stands for Universal Serial Bus, has become, well ... nearly
universal. The problem is, most computers come with only one or two USB
ports, and almost all the new computer accessories come with USB
connectors. In fact, our IBM NetVista machine accepts only USB connectors,
so the days of being able to plug something into a parallel or serial port
are fast disappearing. |
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The Pocket Hub adds four USB ports to any computer that has at least one
USB port. Plug it into that one port and bingo, as somebody or other once
said, you have four USB ports. We had a USB expansion box from Belkin last
year but that didn't work well. It also required software. The Kensington
Pocket Hub needs no extra software and works just by plugging it in. |
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If you don't have any USB ports on an old computer, you can buy an
expansion card that adds USB ports to PCs for less than $25. On PCs, you
must be running Windows 98 or higher for the operating system to recognize
USB. |
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USB2 cards are also available now for around $50-$75. This is a recent
upgrade to the USB standard and it increases the data transmission speed
by 40 times, making it the equal of the FireWire system developed by
Apple. Higher speed is always useful but especially so for digital
photography, video and music. Though no computers are being sold with USB2
right now, it figures they will be soon. In any event you can add it for
relatively little cost. |
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Internuts |
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www.sfskids.com A wonderful
site where children can compose their own melodies on their own keyboards
and post them here. It's a kind of music laboratory for young people to
learn about composition. Is it time for "A little night music?"
The director of the San Francisco Symphony offers advice. A
"radio" on the site plays one-minute selections from many
composers. The site opens with Aaron Copland's majestic "Fanfare for
the common man." |
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www.acronymfinder.com
Never be thrown by an obscure acronym again. Don't know what NGO stands
for? It's "Non-Governmental Organization," a class of
organizations that may or may not actually be sponsored by a government.
It's also the international code for the Nagoya, Japan, Airport. |
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www.annoyances.org The
"Windows Annoyances" book from O'Reilly & Associates are
based on the tips and tribulations found on this site. What to do if you
hate the "start menu?" How to get rid of the little yellow
speaker on the system tray. Add and remove destinations from the
"send to" menu. All this and trouble-shooting too. |
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www.driverguide.com Got an
odd printer? Look here for all the drivers fit to print; 58,000 of them in
fact. |
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Kid
Stuff |
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"Moop & Dreadly," for ages 5 and up, and "Ollo," 3
and up, are from a new game company: Plaid Banana. What makes this worth
noting is that the company founders were formerly with Humongous Software
and created "Backyard Baseball," "Putt Putt" and
"Freddi Fish." Those three are among the best children's
programs we ever ran, and Backyard Baseball in particular is a classic. In
certain circles, famous programmers are like rock stars, and these are
them. Their new efforts are $20 each, for Windows and Macintosh www.plaidbananagames.com. |
NOTE: Readers can search nearly four years of columns at the "On
Computers" web site: www.oncomp.com.
You can e-mail Bob Schwabach at bobschwab@oncomp.com
or bobschwab@aol.com. |