I've heard horror stories about off-brand inkjet cartridges, and I'm wondering if similar dangers apply to off-brand toner for laser printers.  I've found online stores with good ratings on Google Shopping, selling discount toner cartridges for mid-to-high-end HP enterprise printers, for a fifth of the price HP charges for the same cartridges.    What's the general consensus on these types of products? Are they known to be less dangerous to laser printers than off-brand inkjet cartridges?
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Printer manufacturers usually recommend that you only use their branded, OEM toner cartridges in their products but generic ones are commonly available for far less cost.  Print quality will of course vary between different brands/makes/models and personal experiences, so that discussion is one of opinion, however:  Does using generic toner cause any damage, or otherwise have any negative effect on the printer's lifespan? I'm struggling to find any unbiased studies.  There is a similar but different question on ink/toner refill kits , but I'm referring to generic already-filled cartridges that can be bought online or in some discount stores.
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I was hoping I would find some people in the industry that could help me decide what's the best price to charge to design (in this case) business cards.  What are standard prices for professional designers?  From a firm point of view? From a freelancer?  I don't want to overcharge clients but I don't want to ruin the industry by underselling my services.
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I was wondering if someone can help me out in finding which speedlites I can use on a Canon 4000D, as this camera does not have a centre connection on it.
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I'm attempting to make an EEPROM burning circuit using an Arduino Uno. Due to the lack of pins on the Uno, I opted to use shift registers for the address and data pins of this EEPROM. Aside from my current issue, everything will be powered from the 5v pin.  Before I ask my question, I'd like to clarify that I am an electronics beginner. Sure, I could have purchased an EPROM burner for ~$100 USD for this chip, but I'm a very DIY kind of guy and I only have a couple of these to burn, so the price doesn't seem to justify the cost.  The issue I'm examining now, before plugging in my circuit is I can't seem to find the maximum current allowed through a Q pin on this dual flip flop (). I want to ensure I won't release the magic smoke from this IC by simply plugging it in. The purpose of this flip flop (as of now) is to toggle between read and write states for the EEPROM. As such, I've wired the VCC pins of an  and  to Q and !Q (unsure how to notate that here on SE) such that if one is on the other is off, and vice versa.  The CD4013B is running at only 5V, that's power and all inputs.  Here is what I think I know, and please correct me if I'm wrong!  (I mean, I bought extras just in case, but still...)   The SN74HC595 should not draw (or be loaded) over 35mA, or more likely 30 for a safety margin. The SN74HC165 should not draw (or be loaded) over 25mA / 20 or so for safety.   Now, being as these are both being used as for EEPROM data pins, I can imagine that the actual power draw will be significantly less than those maximums (though by how much I am really unsure).  Looking at the CD4013B datasheet, I can't seem to find any information regarding how much current this chip can handle.  Also, while I'm here talking about this specific IC, I'm finding the datasheet somewhat confusing.   The output high current is always listed as a negative amperage... I didn't even realize this was possible. Is it due to the transistor logic of this particular device that current flows (I would assume) backwards?  I also find it strange that the pins on this device are Vdd and Vss rather than Vcc and ground. Anybody care to explain why this is?
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When my print rep talks about five-colour printing, what does he mean? I know you have cyan, magenta, yellow and black - but what's the fifth?
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I've discovered spots on the image sensor of my DSLR camera that cannot be cleaned using a blower bulb, so I would like to know the risk of problems, such as further image deterioration or damage to the sensor or low-pass filter, associated with wet cleaning the image sensor.  Just how high (or low) is the risk?  Is this a difficult task to perform?  The products I expect to use are as follows:       In my research, I have also found the following products, for which there is a greater degree of trust because the manufacturer  when used properly:       Additionally, the reviews are generally positive, so is it worth it?  My biggest concern at this point is further staining or residue from the cleaning process.  How likely is this going to affect image quality, and would it be worse compared to the dust or other contaminants?
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I recently identified 2 companies who are actively targeting ads through Google AdWords using our trademark (registered in the UK). I filed a complaint with Google, although they are not willing to remove these ads.     Please note that we will not be able to process this complaint for   your trademark * because you requested that we remove all   ads that are currently using your trademark as a keyword.       We do not investigate keyword complaints for trademarks, as described   at .   As a result, we won't be able to remove ads that are using your   trademark as a keyword.   If Google allow other competitive firms to leverage traffic through AdWords off the back of an established brand where does that leave us? Must we also use AdWords to outbid our competitors on our own company name?   I'd be interested to know of anyone who has experienced something similar. If Google won't do anything to police this then is litigation the only option available?  EDIT  It seems Google have recently changed their policy on this and are no longer arbitrating trademark disputes when used in keywords, only in ad copy. This can't be good for search quality!!?
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I have been trying to install my Canon Pixma MP620 printer via cable network on my Ubuntu 13.04 64bit OS for two days. Previously I also tried to install the printer on Linux Mint 15, but failed.  There are lots (really tons) of well written tutorials how to install the printer (e.g. this  on ubuntuusers.de). However nothing seems to work.   After messing up my system with lots of packages and different drivers I did a complete reinstall of the operating system.
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Is there a place where I could download the Windows Vista Home Premium OEM and simply use the Windows Vista key on my PC?  The reason being is that when I use the HP recovery disc, what happens is that HP installs a lot of HP applications which does not help and simply makes the installation a disaster.  I would rather want to perform a clean install of Vista itself without the unnecessary HP gunk.  Appreciate your response. Thank you.  P.S. I saw on most forums that you could use an installation of the version of Vista installed on your PC and when the activation comes, simply enter the key posted on the PC.
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I recently had some business cards printed, and was warned to use the CMYK colour space if providing TIF files.  When I tried saving from Paint Shop Pro to a CMYK, of course the colours came out very much duller, so I provided a different file type that preserved my colours using RGB. To my horror, the cards came back nevertheless converted to the CMYK dull shades.    A few months previously I had been in a hurry and had printed my own one-sided quasi business cards using glossy photo paper and a cheap home printer.  This reproduced my desired colours perfectly.  Since the whole point of using professional printers is quality (though I admit bulk as well), why do they not use printers that can cope with the RGB colour range?   FYI: the main colour in question, which I chose very carefully, is a slightly yellow-tinged lawn green, which I understand doesn't feature in the CMYK gamut.  So why use that gamut, and is there anything I can do to overcome this issue and get cards printed in the colour I have chosen?
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Hplip is the software that drives most hp printers. Usually new printers are only supported in newer versions of the software. Canonical doesn't backport new versions packages to older Ubuntu versions, that means that newer drivers are not going to be available in the Software Center of older Ubuntu versions.  As an example yesterday I needed to hook a hp 1005p to a computer running 8.04. I was forced to install a newer hplip than the version available in the repositories. I installed it using the script from the hp page, but I'd like to know other alternatives.  Which is the best (technically, not the easiest) way to install it and why?.
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A search on google for "iphone developer" turns up loads of websites which have "iphone" in them, a trademarked name by Apple.  So I'm led to believe that having a domain such as iphonedeveloper.com is ok? Well, you're still using Apple's trademark, but it would be hard to brand yourself otherwise. You're an IPHONE DEVELOPER... right?  Well, what if I want to provide a website where users pay to get a list of the best offers from Ebay? I might have a domain like ebaydeals.com (I don't... i'm just speculating!).  Now I've heard that places like Ebay are really hot on the trigger and fire out emails to people who register domains like that straight away. But whats the difference?  In both cases I'm making money from the trademark, effectively, so is it just down to how lenient the company who owns the trademark is? Or are there rules? Is there a specific "line" you don't cross?  Thanks
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Last week I ordered 2 kits of impact drivers due to the unbelievably low price.  The product was discounted from 300EUR to 100, so I bought 2 of them. Next day I received an email from the company, that the given price was a mistake and that the order will be cancelled any my money was refunded.  But to my surprise, today I received the package that I have ordered, but my money was already refunded so I haven't paid for them but receive them. What should I do next? I ordered from the UK and it was shipped to Slovenia - both EU countries.
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I recently came across  (to a question on implementing echo cancellation in Java) in the :  The only way to supress echo is to use &quot;C&quot; libary of AEC and call it from Java. AEC is a very computationally extensive algorithm and only &quot;C&quot; code allows optimization under your platform. Commercial optimized AEC can be found for example here . Btw, AEC will work properly provided you have done proper integration with audio drivers...  Without forming any opinion on the technical content of the answer, I viewed it as a valid answer (albeit perhaps lacking thorough detail) and clicked &quot;Looks Good&quot;.  In response, I saw the following banner:  This post has severe quality issues.  It is abusive nonsense, noise, spam, blatantly off-topic or otherwise irredeemable - readers will find it offensive or repulsive rather than helpful. You should delete or recommend deletion when reviewing such posts. Don't worry, we've already handled this post appropriately - but please take a minute to look it over closely, keeping in mind the guidance shown above.  In what way is the post &quot;abusive nonsense&quot;, &quot;noise&quot;, &quot;spam&quot;, &quot;blatantly off-topic&quot; or &quot;otherwise irredeemable&quot;?  In what way will readers find it &quot;offensive&quot; or &quot;repulsive&quot;? Should one really &quot;recommend deletion when viewing such posts&quot;?  I'm not entirely sure how to differentiate between &quot;such posts&quot; and 99% of the posts on SO.  Grateful for some guidance!
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I discovered red/blue/white pixels on my night photographs tonight. Trying to confirm this, I took a black image with the lens on and indeed I saw a whole lot of them (I didn't count them but at least a good fifty on the whole picture).   I'm not exactly sure if they are hot pixels, stuck pixels or anything else.  I quickly gave a check to my last exported JPEG files (I get RAW out of the camera) and couldn't find anything. After a quick search, I've seen that Lightroom is caring about those pixels after RAW conversion.  I've read that, with Canon DSLRs, there is a software process that could take care of that directly on my camera. I don't know if I can use it without getting things even more messy.   My question is: Considering my crazy pixels are not visible on my pictures, should I get too emotional about them? My camera is under warranty but is it really worth it to return it to Canon? If it's only to receive it back 1 month later after Canon just used the very same menu to map out the pixels, it's a bit ridiculous. Could this be a sign that my camera has a bigger problem?  It seems related to shutter speed. When shooting a black image at 1/250s I get nothing. When shooting the same setup but 1s, I get a few of them. The more I increase the shutter speed, the more crazy pixels I get.
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I'm wondering if anyone has any tips, tutorials or templates on how to 'fake' a printed effect. I want to make it look in my portfolio like I have printed business cards and other collateral without doing so.
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I am interested in making a widget to sell, but it will probably have a small market and small volume.  At what level of complexity should I consider UL listing (or otherwise certifying) my widget?  I presume that device complexity is the range I should measure the device against to obtain a safety certification.  I understand it costs several thousand dollars for such things.  For a widget with only a few dollars in parts (off the shelf/eBay prices), and a small market or run, it doesn't make much business sense for sure.  However, in general, what level of complexity should I consider to procure some kind of safety certification?  The particular widget I am thinking of right now is a PCB with connectors and possibly a small 24V to 12V transformer (&lt;100ma).  Basically, something that was wirenutted/butt-spliced together will now be more professional looking on a board in a box.  Don't let the example distract you from the overall question though.