Save Money on Ink Part Two

As a follow up to my previous article Save Money on Ink, I discovered something that I hadn't noticed before.

You might not have to shell out money for InkSaver, because your printer might already have that feature built into it. When I go into my Printers folder, right-click and bring up the Properties window of my printer, there is an Advanced Features window. Your printer driver may have this listed as something else, or it may not have it at all; you should look at all the options you have.

Under Advanced Features, I have an option called Ink Volume that says "Adjusts the amount of ink printed on a page. The lighter the ink volume, the faster the printout will dry." What they don't mention is that the lighter the ink volume, the less a printed page will cost! The slider control goes from Light to Heavy, and defaults to the midway point.

For the last month I've been using draft mode for almost everything, and I've noticed that my ink level indicators have barely moved. This should only enhance my savings, so check to see if you have this feature!

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Protect Your Privacy With BugMeNot.com

Not all web sites allow the public to view everything. Some, like the New York Times, require that you register and log in before they allow you access. I am always hesitant to give out my personal information to even well known companies, especially when all I want to do is simply read something on their web site. Thankfully there is a solution:

BugMeNot.com

BugMeNot lets you type in a web site address, and it will list any public usernames and passwords in its database. You can then use this public username/password instead of giving out your own personal information. Why not just register on these sites that ask for it? This is what BugMeNot says about the matter:

• It's a breach of privacy.
• Sites don't have a great track record with the whole spam thing.
• It's contrary to the fundamental spirit of the net. Just ask Google.
• It's pointless due to the significant percentage of users who enter fake demographic details anyway.
• It's a waste of time.
• It's annoying as hell.
• Imagine if every site required registration to access content.

The best example is nytimes.com, where you have to register and enter personal information in order to view news stories. Enter "www.nytimes.com" into BugMeNot and it will list a username/password combination that will get you in, no personal information required!

I recommend that you read their FAQ if you have any further questions.

QUICK DEFINITION OF "FAQ" - FAQ stands for "Frequently Asked Questions" and is typically used to mean a web page with answers to people's most frequently asked questions about the web site or its function.

The main reason that I wrote about BugMeNot was that in my next article, I will be showing you some resources on a site that requires registration! BugMeNot is a good service for quick access, but if you plan to contribute comments or any material to a site, it is a good idea to register.

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Time to Update Windows

A number of important updates for Microsoft Windows has been released today.

If you aren't sure if your computer has updated itself, just open Internet Explorer, go to Tools, Windows Update to check manually.

Windows also has an Automatic Updates feature to take care of this for you. Go to Start, Control Panel, Performance & Maintenance, System, then click Automatic Updates. Select "Keep my computer up to date" and select automatically downloading the updates at a convenient time that you won't be using the computer, such as during lunchtime or after midnight.

It's important to keep your computer's system files up to date so that you aren't vulnerable to viruses, worms and other threats.

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Save Money on Ink!

The post title sounds like spam mail, but I promise you I neither sell this product nor make any money for telling you about it. I've seen this advertised before and thought that one day I'd get around to trying it out. My previous article on the high cost of inkjet printer ink is the reason I'm writing about it now.

The product is called InkSaver which describes exactly what this product does. From the company's web page:

The best way to save ink while maintaining print quality
InkSaver 2.0 allows you to control the amount of ink used by your inkjet printer, making your ink cartridges last longer. Using patent pending software algorithms, InkSaver optimizes printer data so that your printer uses less ink – even when printing at your inkjet’s highest resolution.

Guess what, folks, this really works. You program runs in the background on your taskbar and allows you to set how much ink your inkjet printer uses. Apparently it works with any brand and model, and it worked flawlessly on my HP 2175. You can choose any percentage between 0% (no savings) and 75% (max savings), but somewhere between 25% and 50% work the best. At 75% your printout is very light.

I use my printer's lowest quality draft setting (even for most business correspondence) and the 25% mark worked fine for me. The difference was negligible. The best results are if you use normal or high-quality mode, and you can set InkSaver to around 50% with good results. The program even displays the annual dollar savings that you can expect.

There is a free trial available, it installs and uninstalls easily and quickly. The program is very straightforward for even beginners to use, and I recommend it if you want to save money on ink.

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