I have used quite a lot of printers here and there, and I have had some experience with the quality of these printers. The results are different. I tell you. Sometimes one printer can be a joy to work with, and the next moment it’s just a pain. Oh, don’t get me started on my experience in replacing the toners and inkjet cartridges – I’ve spent many hours in college cursing under my breath when in the middle of the night I find that my school papers weren’t going to be printed because the cartridges were empty.

And then, there were the paper jams, and of course printer spooling – all of which happens when I’m in a hurry. What can I say? I consider myself a competent techie, but those printers can confound me really good.

Now I haven’t found the perfect printer for me to use with my laptop, but I’m rolling off a bunch of features that I want to see in future printers. Call it a wish list or a pipe dream.

• Portability – of course, with me running around everywhere and finding solace in whatever coffee shop I first walk into, it’s going to suck when I have to run home to get something printed when my destination is a couple of blocks away. It happened, and it sucks. I want something easy to carry around.
• Speed – I want a printer that spits out printed paper like there’s no tomorrow. I know, I know, printers today are way faster than the ones from the dot-matrix era, but it’s still not fast enough.
• Efficiency – I’ve complained about paper jams and printer spooling over in the first paragraph, and there really isn’t anything more I can add to this.

A few friends have recommended the latest Brother a3 printer, though. You can bet I am going to try that one out.

When you’re on your laptop and you need to print out your work, it’s a hassle to go around and connect your printer manually. I don’t know about you, but going down two flights of stairs just to connect my laptop to the printer so I can print out just one page every time is a killer. I’m not one for punishment, and printing wirelessly is a huge convenience – I did this on my Samsung colour laser printer and it was a godsend. You should also learn how to do this.

The Basics – You will, of course, need a wireless router. That’s a given, considering you’re going to connect wirelessly. Don’t have one? Stop leeching off your neighbor’s wifi and get your own! You also need a print server. A print server is what you need to connect your printer to your router – it provides a connection between the printer and your home/work network.

Connect the print server to the router. Follow the instructions in your print server’s router so you won’t have a problem. Now you need to connect your printer to the print server as well. At this point, your router will assign an IP address to your print server. Take note of it, because this will come in handy later.

You will need to use your printer’s CD, because you will need to install the drivers on every computer on your network. This is going to be a bit tedious, but if it means you’ll get a whole lot of convenience in return, why not, right? You will need to enter the print server’s IP address on the computers when prompted. Choose your laser printer as the default computer. Now print a test page on your duplex colour laser printer just to make sure that your printer setup is working properly.

If you’ve followed the instructions and you’ve managed to successfully print on every computer on your network, congratulations!

Do you have a shirt that you purchased one drunken night? You know, one of those things that you tend to forget you ever owned, and then one day you’re clean your closet, and then you see an oversized shirt with Milli Vanilli’s faces printed on them? Like you, I’ve made lots of questionable t-shirt purchases in the past and I’d like to put these ugly shirts to good use. (DISCLAIMER: I may or may not have a Milli Vanilli t-shirt somewhere in my closet) Read more…

Ever wish you can bring your laptop around, and not worry about battery life at all even when you don’t have your charger with you? I’m talking about working at that laptop of yours for more than six hours without the need to charge it. Yeah, the laptop brick can be pretty unwieldy to bring around at times. I feel you.

Now it’s probably going to take a couple of years more before we see this technology becoming really useful, but RCA has developed a charger that charges your gadgets via wifi signals. You read it right folks, wifi. Read more…

Netbooks are meant to be taken everywhere. That much we know. We all know that the diminutive sizes of netbooks make them ideal for lugging around everywhere. But then if you do decide to carry your mini laptop everywhere, there’s the simple matter of safety. We don’t want to drop our precious netbooks when we’re working in rugged places, right? (Although there’s the matter of bringing your netbook – which isn’t made of top notch materials to begin with – to a rugged place, but whatever floats your boat.)

But if you do insist on bringing your netbook to a potentially dangerous environment, to protect it you might need a MiniMount. It’s basically a rack that allows you to mount a netbook in the home or car for easier use. You need MiniMount’s hard shell case – it’s the one that easily lets you set your netbook on their mounting kit.

From the MiniMount website:

Mounts are available in preconfigured kits containing what you need to attach your MINIMOUNT case in most any imaginable setting. From passenger car to forklift, from big-rig to RV, from office cart to exercise bike, from work bench to laboratory, from bed post to tripod, from quad to tractor, it goes where you go.

Both RAM-Mount and Manfrotto integrate for clamp mount, direct surface attachment, or in-vehicle bolt-on applications. Our Quick Plate™ system allows the MINIMOUNT to be easily detached from mounting arms without tools and without protruding hardware.

Prices start at $79.