News and other tidbits that Chad Cloman finds interesting enough to share
In a move that is long overdue, Microsoft has added a “printer” to Windows 10 that will generate a PDF file of what you’re printing. It will show up in your printer list, just like the XPS Document Writer has for all those years, but this will be much more useful.
Adobe PDF documents have security settings which can, among other things, prevent anyone from modifying the document. This is helpful, for example, when sending electronic copies of contracts for review. But it can also be a pain when the document needs to be changed but the password has been forgotten or the person who knows the password is no longer working for the company. The linked article has a solution that works in Windows systems: print the PDF to an XPS file (the XPS “printer” is automatically supplied by Microsoft), then open the XPS file and print it to a PDF file. This will give you an identical copy of the original document, but without any security restrictions.
Windows users: ever had one of those stalled print jobs that won’t go away? I’ve gone to the extreme of unplugging the printer and rebooting Windows in order to get rid of them. “Stalled Printer Repair” is a free utility that forces the removal of stalled print jobs.
Link: http://www.fantasticfreeware.com/…
(via Lifehacker)
We all know that brand-name printer ink is expensive, but the actual numbers are incredible. According to the linked article, HP ink-jet printer ink can cost up to $8,000 per gallon.
Link: http://arstechnica.com/…
To promote its ink cartridge refilling service, Walgreens will refill one cartridge for free. This offer is good for today only.
Link: http://www.foxnews.com/…
(via Kim Komando)
A recent study has revealed that office printers release a significant amount of toner particulates into the air. Some printers were as bad as cigarettes in the amount of particles released. Printer manufacturer Hewlett-Packard, of course, was very quick to send out a press release denying the claims.
Link: http://arstechnica.com/…
Don’t believe your inkjet printer when it tells you the ink cartridges are almost empty. This study determined that the average cartridge is half full when it’s thrown away. Admittedly the study was biased, but still…
Link: http://arstechnica.com/…
Kodak, still reeling from the collapse of the film industry, is entering the inkjet printer market with a novel scheme: cheaper ink. The prices, $9.99 for black and $14.99 for color, are about half of what I used to pay for my Epson cartridges. The printers themselves are a bit more expensive—probably because they’re not selling them at a loss to gain ink customers—but the extra cost will be recouped over the long term.
Link: http://arstechnica.com/…
Link #2: http://www.kodak.com/…
(via The Consumerist)
A company named Zink has developed a photo printer that uses no ink. The secret is in the paper.
Link: http://crave.cnet.com/…
If you purchased or received a qualifying Epson inkjet printer between April 8, 1999 and May 8, 2006 and also purchased an Epson ink cartridge for the printer, then you are eligible to receive one of the following (your choice) as part of a class-action settlement:
This settlement is for each printer purchased during the period, so if you bought 10 printers, you can get $250 cash. Note also that the cutoff date is in the future (May 8th)—as far as I can tell, you could purchase a qualifying printer now and treat this settlement as a form of mail-in rebate.
Anything printed on a color laser printer these days includes a barely-visible “watermark” intended to help determine when and where the document was printed. This, in addition to the fact that some of the popular image-processing programs now censor out images of currency. While I’m not a hard-core privacy advocate (I’ll leave that to others), I still think it’s good to know about this type of stuff.
