By Gerry Morris
The subject of this month’s article is a device that isn’t really all that high tech. The reason I’m writing about it is because it works and works well. I’m talking about the piece of equipment that eats my junk mail, discarded drafts of documents, old credit cards, DVDs and CDs, paperclips and all. My topic is the Fellowes Powershred SB-97C Shredder.
Shredders aren’t as sexy to write about as high tech gadgets but when I find a piece of equipment that works as advertised and is priced reasonably I like to pass the information along. Even in my reduced paper office I still have a lot of waste paper to contend with. We print what we think are final copies of documents only to discover something that must be changed. I received documents from other sources that I review and decide not to keep or scan. I also receive a ton of junk mail every day just like everyone else. Regrettably the forests are going to be endangered for years to come.
All this paper has to go somewhere. The best way I’ve found to manage it is to have shredders in everyone’s office or workstation that is an end recipient of the paper flow. We shred it, and dispose of it. This obviously isn’t rocket science. The only challenge was to find shredders that are capable of handling the volume but don’t cost an arm and leg.
The first couple of shredders I tried couldn’t keep up the pace. I started with small shredders with capacity ratings of about 11 sheets at a time. These shredders overheated frequently causing them to shut down until they cooled. I eventually did a little more comparative shopping and purchased a Fellowes Powershred SB-97C. I then purchased another and another.
The 97C is a “confetti” shredder which means that it cross cuts the sheets into 5/32”x1 1/2“ particles. This makes it extremely difficult for anyone to get any information from your discarded documents unless they really are serious about trying. It shreds up to 17 sheets of paper at a time and up to 204 sheets per minute. I’ve found this to be plenty of capacity for our volume of paper. Like all shredders, the 97C will shut down if it overheats but I’ve never had mine quit on me.
This shredder also cuts up credit cards, CDs and DVD, and just about anything else within reason. It will cut right through paperclips and staples so you don’t have to separate your documents before shredding them. It has a 10 gallon pull out wastebasket that accepts a plastic trash bag so it’s easy to get the shredded documents to the trash or recycling bin.
Features include a sensor on top near the intake slot that stops the shredder if hands get too close. It has the standard auto stop on jamming feature and a reverse switch.
Although Fellowes lists the suggested price as $419.98, the 97C sells for about $200 on line. (I just bought one from Amazon for $196). After about a year and a half of continuous use, I haven’t found a flaw in this machine.
E. G. “Gerry” Morris is a small firm practitioner and has practiced law for over 29 years in Austin, Texas. He is certified as a Criminal Law Specialist by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His firm web site is at www.egmlaw.com. Email your comments and questions to Gerry at tech@egmlaw.com.
Showing posts with label Office equipment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Office equipment. Show all posts
March 17, 2008
Stuff I Use Every Day
By Gerry Morris
I’ve written about a variety of hardware and software products over the past couple of years. I’ve mostly written about gadgets and applications that either I or a close colleague use so that I can give you a first hand review of how it does or doesn’t work. Some of the products I’ve written about are now gathering dust somewhere, but there are a few that I’ve come to depend on to help me run my practice and my life in general. This month I want to briefly recap some of my past reviews and add one or two new ones to make up an all-star list of ten useful products. These products, listed in no particular order are the stuff I use every day and recommend. Some are pricey, but some are inexpensive or even free.
1. Amicus Attorney – Small Business Edition. This is the practice management software application I use in my office. I chose it over its competitors because the graphical user interface is the most intuitive in the field. It does everything I need it to do in my small firm practice and is extremely user friendly. I’ve also found it to be very reliable. You might also take a look at Time Matters for larger installations or more sophisticated functionality.
2. Google Desktop. I thought I would throw in something that is absolutely free. This program can be downloaded from, where else, Google.com. This desktop search engine indexes everything on your network and desktop PC much as Google’s Internet search engine indexes all the materials on the gazillion web sites on the World Wide Web. Type in what you are looking for in the program’s search box and, in less than a second, a list appears in a browser window with links to every relevant document, email, chat or previously visited web site. It’s amazing.
3. Splash ID. This program works with my Palm Treo. The product includes a desktop application and an application for the handheld. This program is basically a small database in which I enter all my web logon information, my credit card and bank account numbers, my wife’s clothes sizes, my frequent flier account numbers and so on. I can enter them in the desktop application and sync the information to my Treo. Splash ID allows me to carry with me all the information that I may need to get through a busy day of logging on, checking in, and paying up. Of course, all the info is password protected so I can safely keep it all in one place.
4. Publicdata.com. This is an online service that allows me to search driver’s license records in several states by name. There are also criminal records from several jurisdictions and a few state’s DMV records. The service costs a few cents a search but is well worth the meager cost. Not a day goes by that we don’t have occasion to find a current address for a witness or someone otherwise connected with something we’re working on.
5. Paperport. This document management program interfaces with our scanner and allows my legal assistant to drag and drop scan documents into Amicus Attorney. On each of our desktops we use Paperport’s stack and unstack feature to manipulate scanned documents. We can separate documents into individual pages, combine documents and turn scanned documents into fill-in-the-blank forms. We also use Paperport to convert documents into Adobe Acrobat pdf format.
6. Fujitsu sheetfeed scanners. The exact model of Fujitsu scanner I use, the 620C, has been out of production for some time. If the two I have ever wear out I’ll replace them with the current model. However, I don’t think that will happen anytime soon. These scanners operate at about 20 pages per minute and work flawlessly. We go months between paper jams and when they do occur, it’s usually because of a paperclip or staple. Speed is important but reliability is paramount. It doesn’t do any good to have a 50 page per minute scanner if the sheet feeder jams every 25 pages. From what I’ve read and heard, the newer Fujitsu models have carried on the tradition.
7. Palm Treo 755p. Apple iPhones are sexier, Blackberries are all the rage, but I prefer my Treo. The palm operating system enables me to take advantage of the thousands of low cost applications such as Splash ID mentioned above. I can create and edit Microsoft Word Documents and Excel Spreadsheets. I can even view PowerPoint presentations. I can listen to music on a MP3 player and to unabridged books downloaded from Audible.com. I can receive and send email when I’m out of my office. Of course, the standard calendar, contact and task functions are included and the Treo syncs with Amicus Attorney without first having to sync with Microsoft Outlook. My new 755p has more built in memory than its predecessors and a faster processor. Treo’s market share is declining but, for me, it’s still the best smartphone available.
8. Audible.com. This one is purely for entertainment. Audible.com is a wonderful web site where, I can download to my computer and ultimately on to my Treo, any one of thousands of popular books ranging from the classics to today’s best sellers. The membership fee is about $16.00 per month which entitles me to two books per month with no further cost. If I want more books than that, additional ones can be purchased. I can knock out the average book on about 4 or five trips to one of the surrounding counties for court appearances. However, something like the unabridged version of Moby Dick took about nineteen hours of total listening time. Audible.com is well worth the price.
9. Onlymyemail.com spam blocker. This is a web based spam blocker which means that it retrieves your mail from your ISP, filters it, and then delivers it to your desktop. All the spam is retained off site. After I wrote about this service several months ago, I received several favorable emails from readers who tried it. There are a couple of downsides. If you sign up for the basic version for $4 per month, there is about a 5 minute delay from the time your ISP receives an email until it reaches your desktop. The advanced version for about $30 per month eliminates this issue. Also, the basic version has an attachment size limitation. I suggest creating a second email account on your ISP strictly for sending and receiving large attachments.
10. Brother HL-5250DN Laser Printer. For years I was strictly a HP devotee when it came to laser printers. They were reliable as the sunrise and the consumables were widely available. I occasionally strayed to try some new brand and always regretted it. However, after reading several reviews of the Brother HL 5250DN, I decided to give it a try. The twenty something page per minute, (Brothers says thirty) dual sided, three paper bin (on the model I have) networkable printer performs like a champ. All of our PCs are connected to it via our network, which mean that there is no dedicated printer server PC that must remain turned on. The print quality is excellent and the consumables reasonably prices and easy to find. The purchase price for one complete with extra paper trays is around $260.
Thank you for the kind reviews several of you have given me about this column. I always enjoy the feedback. I also enjoy hearing about technology you use in your offices.
E. G. “Gerry” Morris is a small firm practitioner and has practiced law for over 29 years in Austin, Texas. He is certified as a Criminal Law Specialist by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His firm web site is at www.egmlaw.com. Email your comments and questions to Gerry at tech@egmlaw.com.
I’ve written about a variety of hardware and software products over the past couple of years. I’ve mostly written about gadgets and applications that either I or a close colleague use so that I can give you a first hand review of how it does or doesn’t work. Some of the products I’ve written about are now gathering dust somewhere, but there are a few that I’ve come to depend on to help me run my practice and my life in general. This month I want to briefly recap some of my past reviews and add one or two new ones to make up an all-star list of ten useful products. These products, listed in no particular order are the stuff I use every day and recommend. Some are pricey, but some are inexpensive or even free.
1. Amicus Attorney – Small Business Edition. This is the practice management software application I use in my office. I chose it over its competitors because the graphical user interface is the most intuitive in the field. It does everything I need it to do in my small firm practice and is extremely user friendly. I’ve also found it to be very reliable. You might also take a look at Time Matters for larger installations or more sophisticated functionality.
2. Google Desktop. I thought I would throw in something that is absolutely free. This program can be downloaded from, where else, Google.com. This desktop search engine indexes everything on your network and desktop PC much as Google’s Internet search engine indexes all the materials on the gazillion web sites on the World Wide Web. Type in what you are looking for in the program’s search box and, in less than a second, a list appears in a browser window with links to every relevant document, email, chat or previously visited web site. It’s amazing.
3. Splash ID. This program works with my Palm Treo. The product includes a desktop application and an application for the handheld. This program is basically a small database in which I enter all my web logon information, my credit card and bank account numbers, my wife’s clothes sizes, my frequent flier account numbers and so on. I can enter them in the desktop application and sync the information to my Treo. Splash ID allows me to carry with me all the information that I may need to get through a busy day of logging on, checking in, and paying up. Of course, all the info is password protected so I can safely keep it all in one place.
4. Publicdata.com. This is an online service that allows me to search driver’s license records in several states by name. There are also criminal records from several jurisdictions and a few state’s DMV records. The service costs a few cents a search but is well worth the meager cost. Not a day goes by that we don’t have occasion to find a current address for a witness or someone otherwise connected with something we’re working on.
5. Paperport. This document management program interfaces with our scanner and allows my legal assistant to drag and drop scan documents into Amicus Attorney. On each of our desktops we use Paperport’s stack and unstack feature to manipulate scanned documents. We can separate documents into individual pages, combine documents and turn scanned documents into fill-in-the-blank forms. We also use Paperport to convert documents into Adobe Acrobat pdf format.
6. Fujitsu sheetfeed scanners. The exact model of Fujitsu scanner I use, the 620C, has been out of production for some time. If the two I have ever wear out I’ll replace them with the current model. However, I don’t think that will happen anytime soon. These scanners operate at about 20 pages per minute and work flawlessly. We go months between paper jams and when they do occur, it’s usually because of a paperclip or staple. Speed is important but reliability is paramount. It doesn’t do any good to have a 50 page per minute scanner if the sheet feeder jams every 25 pages. From what I’ve read and heard, the newer Fujitsu models have carried on the tradition.
7. Palm Treo 755p. Apple iPhones are sexier, Blackberries are all the rage, but I prefer my Treo. The palm operating system enables me to take advantage of the thousands of low cost applications such as Splash ID mentioned above. I can create and edit Microsoft Word Documents and Excel Spreadsheets. I can even view PowerPoint presentations. I can listen to music on a MP3 player and to unabridged books downloaded from Audible.com. I can receive and send email when I’m out of my office. Of course, the standard calendar, contact and task functions are included and the Treo syncs with Amicus Attorney without first having to sync with Microsoft Outlook. My new 755p has more built in memory than its predecessors and a faster processor. Treo’s market share is declining but, for me, it’s still the best smartphone available.
8. Audible.com. This one is purely for entertainment. Audible.com is a wonderful web site where, I can download to my computer and ultimately on to my Treo, any one of thousands of popular books ranging from the classics to today’s best sellers. The membership fee is about $16.00 per month which entitles me to two books per month with no further cost. If I want more books than that, additional ones can be purchased. I can knock out the average book on about 4 or five trips to one of the surrounding counties for court appearances. However, something like the unabridged version of Moby Dick took about nineteen hours of total listening time. Audible.com is well worth the price.
9. Onlymyemail.com spam blocker. This is a web based spam blocker which means that it retrieves your mail from your ISP, filters it, and then delivers it to your desktop. All the spam is retained off site. After I wrote about this service several months ago, I received several favorable emails from readers who tried it. There are a couple of downsides. If you sign up for the basic version for $4 per month, there is about a 5 minute delay from the time your ISP receives an email until it reaches your desktop. The advanced version for about $30 per month eliminates this issue. Also, the basic version has an attachment size limitation. I suggest creating a second email account on your ISP strictly for sending and receiving large attachments.
10. Brother HL-5250DN Laser Printer. For years I was strictly a HP devotee when it came to laser printers. They were reliable as the sunrise and the consumables were widely available. I occasionally strayed to try some new brand and always regretted it. However, after reading several reviews of the Brother HL 5250DN, I decided to give it a try. The twenty something page per minute, (Brothers says thirty) dual sided, three paper bin (on the model I have) networkable printer performs like a champ. All of our PCs are connected to it via our network, which mean that there is no dedicated printer server PC that must remain turned on. The print quality is excellent and the consumables reasonably prices and easy to find. The purchase price for one complete with extra paper trays is around $260.
Thank you for the kind reviews several of you have given me about this column. I always enjoy the feedback. I also enjoy hearing about technology you use in your offices.
E. G. “Gerry” Morris is a small firm practitioner and has practiced law for over 29 years in Austin, Texas. He is certified as a Criminal Law Specialist by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His firm web site is at www.egmlaw.com. Email your comments and questions to Gerry at tech@egmlaw.com.
July 18, 2007
Things to Consider When Buying a Printer
By Gerry Morris
If you have a computer in your office you’ve got to have a printer. That is unless your office and every person or business you deal with has gone completely paperless. Unless you have a highly specialized practice with just one or two clients, that’s not likely. Selecting a printer can be a bit confusing. There are different technologies available, and a lot of manufacturers and models out there. Here are some considerations that may help.
As with purchasing any piece of office equipment, I suggest that you start with analyzing your needs. What will the printer be used for? How many pages per month will be printed? How much, if any, of the printing will be in color. Will photographs be printed? How important is print speed? How many computers will print through the same printer? Would it make sense to buy a multifunction machine that also scans and faxes?
The two major technologies available for office printers are inkjet and laser. Inkjet printers make an image by squirting small quantities of ink out of near microscopic jets. The jets are contained in the ink cartridge itself and are replaced with every cartridge change. The precision of this technology is amazing. The jets are like tiny guns that go off several times per second shooting out just the right amount of ink to make the letters in this column or an 8” x10” photo print from your digital camera.
Laser printers statically charge the paper on the areas where the ink should go, pass it by an ink source where the ink sticks to the static charge and then presses and heats the ink to make it stick. There are variations of the basic technology, but it’s all relatively similar. I’ve recently read about a new inkjet technology that prints up to sixty pages per minute utilizing a print cartridge that is the width of a piece of paper. The cartridge is not required to move from side to side so the printing process is much faster. Printers with this technology will be available in a year or so.
Inkjet and laser printers each have their advantages and disadvantages. Inkjets do colors better than lasers. Color lasers are good, but a good photo quality inkjet printer can produce amazing photo quality prints, so much so that the photofinishing industry is in trouble. However, inkjet printers are, on average, slower than lasers and, in the long run more costly.
The purchase price of an inkjet can create the false impression that they are the better value. However, purchase price isn’t the whole story. Quoted in the July issue of Small Business Computing.com, Jeremy Shulman, an executive with a company that makes remanufactured ink cartridges said, “What manufacturers of these printers don’t fully explain to consumers is the true cost of ownership of a low-cost color printer. The general rule of thumb is that the cheaper the printer, the more expensive the disposable costs for refills and so on.” The articles goes on to compare the per page cost for a popular inkjet printer to a popular laser. The inkjet’s total cost for 2100 pages worked out to be an ink bill of 235.60 for a Canon i320 Color Bubble Jet Printer. Let’s say that you print about 40,000 pages a year (3333.3 pages a month). The cost with the Canon printer would be about $4,487.71 plus the cost of the printer, around $50 bucks back in 2005.
In comparison, an HP Laserjet printer costing about $400 can do the job for about $460 worth of toner. As some point the drum will have to be replaced in most laser printers costing maybe $150. Even with this cost the per page printing cost is much less than that of an inkjet.
Of course the technology is getting better and the per page price of an inkjet has come down some since the 2005 article. But, so has the cost per page from laser jets. Basically, the industry is not set up to provide low cost consumables for inkjet printers. For instance the same article quoted above states that the major printer manufactures profit tremendously from the sales of inkjet cartridges. HP, for example, according to the 2005 article, makes over $10 billion from ink supplies, more than half its total revenue.
So why buy an inkjet? The answer is that they are superior in their ability to print color images. I have an HP 6122 Deskjet in my office that we use to print photos. I also used it for several years to print letterhead. It does an excellent job of both. For color printing you can’t go wrong with a photo quality printer from HP, Epson, Canon, Dell, or Lexmark. I prefer the HP models because they are extremely reliable. Epson and Canon are rated higher for image quality but I can’t tell the difference. The purchase price of a good inkjet printer is so low that having one around just for photos makes sense.
However, for the usual printing in my law office, pleadings, correspondence and miscellaneous documents in black and white, a laser printer is the obvious choice. When I recently upgraded our workgroup printer I looked at cost, of course, but there were other considerations. Print speed was important. While most of the six computer users in my office have a small desktop printer in their offices for quick small print jobs, the large jobs are directed to a workgroup printer. I decided to upgrade because the HP Laserjet 1200 I’d had for years was just too slow. At about 10 pages per minute, it was a bottleneck. Also, in order to be accessible over the network the computer to which it was attached had to be running. That wasn’t always the case after hours or on weekends. Also, it is occasionally convenient for me to print a document on both sides of the page so that it can be placed in a notebook and read in book format. Double sided printing was a feature I was interested in.
I settled on the Brother HL-5250DN. It was hard for me to abandon HP after years of faithful service but the Brother printer appeared to be too good a deal to pass up. This model is rated at 30 pages per minute and it will come fairly close to that speed when printing pleadings and other documents that are comprised of double spaced fonts rather than graphics. It will print on both sides of the paper by printing the first side, then sucking the page back into the printer to print the other side. This is a fairly quick process. The printer is network ready when mean that you can plug it into your Ethernet network and it appears as a device like any other network member. The driver for the printer installs on all computers connected to network that will use the primter. Printing goes directly to the printer and it operates without being dependent on any computer in the network for spooling or any other function.
A review of the HL-5250 DN in the December 20, 2005 addition of PC Magazine gives it a four out of five star rating for heavy duty use in a home office or small office. It lists its pros as “compact size, fast performance. Excellent text and good graphics. Ethernet connections.” It lists its cons as “photo quality just fair.” I think PC Magazine was really reaching to come up with a negative about the HL-5250. Who would expect a black and white laser printer to have great photo quality?
The article lists the duty cycle for the printer at 20,000 pages per month. That’s a lot more than my six user office (three attorneys) will need. The cost per page is estimated at 1.4 cents. I shopped on line for mine and found one for $250 with an extra 300 sheet paper tray included. The standard setup includes one 300 sheet paper tray.
My experience with all-in-one printer fax copier scanner devices hasn’t been especially good. As I’ve written before, a good scanner is essential to the efficiency of my reduced paper office. I haven’t found a small office all-in-one machine that includes a decent scanner. It is helpful though, to have the printing and faxing function combined just to save space. We use the laser all-in-one machine we have as our primary fax and a backup printer. We don’t use the scanner function at all.
If your printing needs require more speed, color, greater paper capacity or more paper handling functions (such as collating and stapling) the higher end models such as the high end HP color or black and white laserjets may be the best choice. Also, Xerox and other companies offer document management systems with printing, copying, scanning and faxing wrapped up into one machine that looks like a traditional copier. The scanning function on these machines is first class. These alternatives are a bit pricy for the average small law office but may be a consideration for any office that outputs a high volume of printed material. I would suggest shopping the different brands and perhaps hiring an office technology expert for consultation when choosing one of these high end systems.
The bottom line for the typical small office is that a laser printer is the better choice for production printing. Inkjets are superior for photo printing so you may want to have one around just for that purpose. Color lasers are an option where the quality doesn’t have to the “picture perfect.” For most small offices the 20,000 page duty cycle of the Brother HL-5250 DN is more than adequate. The initial cost and the cost per page of that printer makes it an attractive choice. However, HP has a near 50% market share for a reason. HP printers just keep going and going. I have replaced several because of obsolescence, but never because of malfunction. I’ll have to see how the Brother printer is doing in ten years before I can pronounce the two brands comparable as far as durability is concerned.
E. G. “Gerry” Morris is a small firm practitioner and has practiced law for over 29 years in Austin, Texas. He is certified as a Criminal Law Specialist by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His firm web site is at www.egmlaw.com. Email your comments and questions to Gerry at tech@egmlaw.com.
If you have a computer in your office you’ve got to have a printer. That is unless your office and every person or business you deal with has gone completely paperless. Unless you have a highly specialized practice with just one or two clients, that’s not likely. Selecting a printer can be a bit confusing. There are different technologies available, and a lot of manufacturers and models out there. Here are some considerations that may help.
As with purchasing any piece of office equipment, I suggest that you start with analyzing your needs. What will the printer be used for? How many pages per month will be printed? How much, if any, of the printing will be in color. Will photographs be printed? How important is print speed? How many computers will print through the same printer? Would it make sense to buy a multifunction machine that also scans and faxes?
The two major technologies available for office printers are inkjet and laser. Inkjet printers make an image by squirting small quantities of ink out of near microscopic jets. The jets are contained in the ink cartridge itself and are replaced with every cartridge change. The precision of this technology is amazing. The jets are like tiny guns that go off several times per second shooting out just the right amount of ink to make the letters in this column or an 8” x10” photo print from your digital camera.
Laser printers statically charge the paper on the areas where the ink should go, pass it by an ink source where the ink sticks to the static charge and then presses and heats the ink to make it stick. There are variations of the basic technology, but it’s all relatively similar. I’ve recently read about a new inkjet technology that prints up to sixty pages per minute utilizing a print cartridge that is the width of a piece of paper. The cartridge is not required to move from side to side so the printing process is much faster. Printers with this technology will be available in a year or so.
Inkjet and laser printers each have their advantages and disadvantages. Inkjets do colors better than lasers. Color lasers are good, but a good photo quality inkjet printer can produce amazing photo quality prints, so much so that the photofinishing industry is in trouble. However, inkjet printers are, on average, slower than lasers and, in the long run more costly.
The purchase price of an inkjet can create the false impression that they are the better value. However, purchase price isn’t the whole story. Quoted in the July issue of Small Business Computing.com, Jeremy Shulman, an executive with a company that makes remanufactured ink cartridges said, “What manufacturers of these printers don’t fully explain to consumers is the true cost of ownership of a low-cost color printer. The general rule of thumb is that the cheaper the printer, the more expensive the disposable costs for refills and so on.” The articles goes on to compare the per page cost for a popular inkjet printer to a popular laser. The inkjet’s total cost for 2100 pages worked out to be an ink bill of 235.60 for a Canon i320 Color Bubble Jet Printer. Let’s say that you print about 40,000 pages a year (3333.3 pages a month). The cost with the Canon printer would be about $4,487.71 plus the cost of the printer, around $50 bucks back in 2005.
In comparison, an HP Laserjet printer costing about $400 can do the job for about $460 worth of toner. As some point the drum will have to be replaced in most laser printers costing maybe $150. Even with this cost the per page printing cost is much less than that of an inkjet.
Of course the technology is getting better and the per page price of an inkjet has come down some since the 2005 article. But, so has the cost per page from laser jets. Basically, the industry is not set up to provide low cost consumables for inkjet printers. For instance the same article quoted above states that the major printer manufactures profit tremendously from the sales of inkjet cartridges. HP, for example, according to the 2005 article, makes over $10 billion from ink supplies, more than half its total revenue.
So why buy an inkjet? The answer is that they are superior in their ability to print color images. I have an HP 6122 Deskjet in my office that we use to print photos. I also used it for several years to print letterhead. It does an excellent job of both. For color printing you can’t go wrong with a photo quality printer from HP, Epson, Canon, Dell, or Lexmark. I prefer the HP models because they are extremely reliable. Epson and Canon are rated higher for image quality but I can’t tell the difference. The purchase price of a good inkjet printer is so low that having one around just for photos makes sense.
However, for the usual printing in my law office, pleadings, correspondence and miscellaneous documents in black and white, a laser printer is the obvious choice. When I recently upgraded our workgroup printer I looked at cost, of course, but there were other considerations. Print speed was important. While most of the six computer users in my office have a small desktop printer in their offices for quick small print jobs, the large jobs are directed to a workgroup printer. I decided to upgrade because the HP Laserjet 1200 I’d had for years was just too slow. At about 10 pages per minute, it was a bottleneck. Also, in order to be accessible over the network the computer to which it was attached had to be running. That wasn’t always the case after hours or on weekends. Also, it is occasionally convenient for me to print a document on both sides of the page so that it can be placed in a notebook and read in book format. Double sided printing was a feature I was interested in.
I settled on the Brother HL-5250DN. It was hard for me to abandon HP after years of faithful service but the Brother printer appeared to be too good a deal to pass up. This model is rated at 30 pages per minute and it will come fairly close to that speed when printing pleadings and other documents that are comprised of double spaced fonts rather than graphics. It will print on both sides of the paper by printing the first side, then sucking the page back into the printer to print the other side. This is a fairly quick process. The printer is network ready when mean that you can plug it into your Ethernet network and it appears as a device like any other network member. The driver for the printer installs on all computers connected to network that will use the primter. Printing goes directly to the printer and it operates without being dependent on any computer in the network for spooling or any other function.
A review of the HL-5250 DN in the December 20, 2005 addition of PC Magazine gives it a four out of five star rating for heavy duty use in a home office or small office. It lists its pros as “compact size, fast performance. Excellent text and good graphics. Ethernet connections.” It lists its cons as “photo quality just fair.” I think PC Magazine was really reaching to come up with a negative about the HL-5250. Who would expect a black and white laser printer to have great photo quality?
The article lists the duty cycle for the printer at 20,000 pages per month. That’s a lot more than my six user office (three attorneys) will need. The cost per page is estimated at 1.4 cents. I shopped on line for mine and found one for $250 with an extra 300 sheet paper tray included. The standard setup includes one 300 sheet paper tray.
My experience with all-in-one printer fax copier scanner devices hasn’t been especially good. As I’ve written before, a good scanner is essential to the efficiency of my reduced paper office. I haven’t found a small office all-in-one machine that includes a decent scanner. It is helpful though, to have the printing and faxing function combined just to save space. We use the laser all-in-one machine we have as our primary fax and a backup printer. We don’t use the scanner function at all.
If your printing needs require more speed, color, greater paper capacity or more paper handling functions (such as collating and stapling) the higher end models such as the high end HP color or black and white laserjets may be the best choice. Also, Xerox and other companies offer document management systems with printing, copying, scanning and faxing wrapped up into one machine that looks like a traditional copier. The scanning function on these machines is first class. These alternatives are a bit pricy for the average small law office but may be a consideration for any office that outputs a high volume of printed material. I would suggest shopping the different brands and perhaps hiring an office technology expert for consultation when choosing one of these high end systems.
The bottom line for the typical small office is that a laser printer is the better choice for production printing. Inkjets are superior for photo printing so you may want to have one around just for that purpose. Color lasers are an option where the quality doesn’t have to the “picture perfect.” For most small offices the 20,000 page duty cycle of the Brother HL-5250 DN is more than adequate. The initial cost and the cost per page of that printer makes it an attractive choice. However, HP has a near 50% market share for a reason. HP printers just keep going and going. I have replaced several because of obsolescence, but never because of malfunction. I’ll have to see how the Brother printer is doing in ten years before I can pronounce the two brands comparable as far as durability is concerned.
E. G. “Gerry” Morris is a small firm practitioner and has practiced law for over 29 years in Austin, Texas. He is certified as a Criminal Law Specialist by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His firm web site is at www.egmlaw.com. Email your comments and questions to Gerry at tech@egmlaw.com.
October 18, 2006
Choosing a Projector
By Gerry Morris
Whether in the courtroom or boardroom it’s becoming increasingly important to make effective presentations utilizing audio/video equipment. In my practice I find that more and more of my adversaries are preparing presentations of some sort for juries that require projection of an image. This may be, for instance, displaying evidence to the jury, playing a video, or using a PowerPoint presentation to guide the jury through argument. My personal experience as well as studies conducted by jury researchers has shown that visual presentations are effective. In boardroom and conference room settings, A/V presentations have become the norm.
In the larger counties, the courtrooms are often equipped with “built-in” A/V facilities so that all a litigant has to do is find out ahead of time what format the visual material must be in to work with the system. For instance, in Travis County, all the courtrooms either have an A/V system installed or have a portable system available that accommodates input from the VGA output of a computer, audio/video input via the three standard RCA plugs and has a document camera that will project opaque images such as hard copies of documents. The system projects the images on a wall mounted screen. Other courthouses I travel to have screens available but no built in projection equipment. Still others have no A/V equipment whatsoever.
If your practice takes you to courtrooms with no or inadequate A/V equipment or to meetings in settings where a projector is not available, you may want to consider investing in a projector. Like all other electronic devices, in the past few years the price has continued to go down while the quality has steadily gone up. There are many good projectors on the market now for under $1000. If what you want is a standard projector for under a grand, take a look at the InFocus IN24 or the Epson PowerLite S4. However, for a much more versatile device that is especially useful in the courtroom I suggest you consider spending about $1,500 and take a look at the Toshiba TLP-XC2500U.
The Toshiba TLP-XC2500U is a DLP projector rated at 2500 ansi lumens (plenty of brightness for a semi dark room). Its resolution is XGA 1024 x 768 resolution, and delivers a 400:1 contrast ratio. But, the feature that makes this projector worth the money is a built-in document camera. The projector has a folding arm with a 3 megapixel document camera attached that makes it possible to project just about anything including hard copies of photographs, documents, objects or anything else that might be introduced into evidence or that might be relevant to your presentation. The projector also accommodates input from a computer through a VGA port, Video through either a standard RCA jack or S-Video port and audio through either RCA jacks or a stereo mini-jack. The remote control operates all functions of the unit. In short, if you bring this projector to your courtroom or meeting room, there’s not much that you can’t project onto a screen.
I have the predecessor model to the TLP-XC2500U, a LCD unit with a document camera of much less resolution. I have used it now for about 5 years and wouldn’t consider a projector without the document camera. I bought mine refurbished but still paid about twice what the TLP-XC2500U costs new.
If you already have a projector, you can purchase a document camera that will work through the VGA port of a standard projector. Toshiba makes one as does Epson.
E. G. “Gerry” Morris is a solo practitioner and has practiced law for over 27 years in Austin, Texas. He is certified as a Criminal Law Specialist by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His firm web site is at www.egmlaw.com. Email your comments and questions to Gerry at tech@egmlaw.com.
Whether in the courtroom or boardroom it’s becoming increasingly important to make effective presentations utilizing audio/video equipment. In my practice I find that more and more of my adversaries are preparing presentations of some sort for juries that require projection of an image. This may be, for instance, displaying evidence to the jury, playing a video, or using a PowerPoint presentation to guide the jury through argument. My personal experience as well as studies conducted by jury researchers has shown that visual presentations are effective. In boardroom and conference room settings, A/V presentations have become the norm.
In the larger counties, the courtrooms are often equipped with “built-in” A/V facilities so that all a litigant has to do is find out ahead of time what format the visual material must be in to work with the system. For instance, in Travis County, all the courtrooms either have an A/V system installed or have a portable system available that accommodates input from the VGA output of a computer, audio/video input via the three standard RCA plugs and has a document camera that will project opaque images such as hard copies of documents. The system projects the images on a wall mounted screen. Other courthouses I travel to have screens available but no built in projection equipment. Still others have no A/V equipment whatsoever.
If your practice takes you to courtrooms with no or inadequate A/V equipment or to meetings in settings where a projector is not available, you may want to consider investing in a projector. Like all other electronic devices, in the past few years the price has continued to go down while the quality has steadily gone up. There are many good projectors on the market now for under $1000. If what you want is a standard projector for under a grand, take a look at the InFocus IN24 or the Epson PowerLite S4. However, for a much more versatile device that is especially useful in the courtroom I suggest you consider spending about $1,500 and take a look at the Toshiba TLP-XC2500U.
The Toshiba TLP-XC2500U is a DLP projector rated at 2500 ansi lumens (plenty of brightness for a semi dark room). Its resolution is XGA 1024 x 768 resolution, and delivers a 400:1 contrast ratio. But, the feature that makes this projector worth the money is a built-in document camera. The projector has a folding arm with a 3 megapixel document camera attached that makes it possible to project just about anything including hard copies of photographs, documents, objects or anything else that might be introduced into evidence or that might be relevant to your presentation. The projector also accommodates input from a computer through a VGA port, Video through either a standard RCA jack or S-Video port and audio through either RCA jacks or a stereo mini-jack. The remote control operates all functions of the unit. In short, if you bring this projector to your courtroom or meeting room, there’s not much that you can’t project onto a screen.
I have the predecessor model to the TLP-XC2500U, a LCD unit with a document camera of much less resolution. I have used it now for about 5 years and wouldn’t consider a projector without the document camera. I bought mine refurbished but still paid about twice what the TLP-XC2500U costs new.
If you already have a projector, you can purchase a document camera that will work through the VGA port of a standard projector. Toshiba makes one as does Epson.
E. G. “Gerry” Morris is a solo practitioner and has practiced law for over 27 years in Austin, Texas. He is certified as a Criminal Law Specialist by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His firm web site is at www.egmlaw.com. Email your comments and questions to Gerry at tech@egmlaw.com.
August 18, 2006
A Bluetooth Headset for Your Office Phone
By Gerry Morris
I spend an awful lot of time on the phone. During just about every call I need to write something down, type a note, or otherwise use my hands for something other than holding the telephone receiver. My natural impulse had been to cradle the receiver between my shoulder and the side of my head. But, the fatigue and neck aches caused by this contortion motivated me to find another way to free my hands while using the phone.
Most phone systems now come with a standard 2.5mm headset jack. My Panasonic wireless handset is no exception. I tried using a standard wired headset but was always getting up from my desk with it on and dragging my phone off the desk. By far the better solution, in my opinion, is a wireless headset.
There are several wireless headsets on the market made especially for desktop phones. However, after some experimentation I decided to go with a setup actually intended for cell phones without built in Bluetooth capability. I use a Bluetooth transmitter unit that plugs into the headphone jack of my handset. It’s the Jabra A210 Bluetooth adapter. A description and specs can be found at www.jabra.com. The adapter can be paired with any Bluetooth earpiece. This means that you can use the same type of lightweight Bluetooth earpiece with your office phone that you use with your cell phone. I use the Jabra BT250 earpiece, a behind the ear unit. The transmitter and receiver can be easily purchased on Ebay for under $100 total. If you want to pay retail, it will cost you about $175 for the pair.
Initially the transmitter and headset must be paired by following the included instructions. This procedure simply sets both units to the same operation channel so that they can communicate with each other. After pairing, when the receiver of the desktop phone is lifted either to place or answer a call the Bluetooth earpiece is automatically activated. So, to answer a call, I simply lift the handset (or press the talk button on my portable handset) and I immediately hear the call in my Bluetooth earpiece. I carry on the conversation just as I do when I use my Bluetooth earpiece with my cell phone. When I place a call, I lift the receiver or press the talk button and I hear the dial tone in the earpiece. I place the call and talk. My hands are free to write or type and I can get up and walk around my office as long as I stay within about thirty feet of my handset.
The difference in the way I feel after a day of talking through my Bluetooth earpiece versus squeezing the handset between my shoulder and ear is dramatic. This simple setup is extremely important to my overall comfort during the work day. The comfort and convenience of the Bluetooth setup is worth the minor irritation of occasional technical difficulties. The A210 goes into its dormant battery saving mode after it has been idle for some time. Occasionally, after a dormant period, the unit will no longer transfer the handset signal to the earpiece without pressing the answer button on the earpiece a few times or turning the transmitter on and off. I haven’t figured out how to eliminate this problem but it’s not significant enough to outweigh the benefits.
The transmitter and earpiece each come with AC chargers and a charge will easily carry me through a day’s worth of conversations. I place the earpiece back in its charger when I’m not in the office and the transmitter will actually function with its charger connected. The transmitter has three different settings that regulate the sensitivity of the unit. You should experiment to determine which setting yields the best results.
The sound quality is not quite as good as holding the handset up to your mouth but it is far better than a speakerphone. The party on the other end hears slightly more background noise when I use my Bluetooth earpiece. This may be a function of the model of earpiece I use. You might try out a couple to see which one gives you the best result.
E. G. “Gerry” Morris is a solo practitioner and has practiced law for over 27 years in Austin, Texas. He is certified as a Criminal Law Specialist by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His firm web site is at www.egmlaw.com. Email your comments and questions to Gerry at tech@egmlaw.com .
I spend an awful lot of time on the phone. During just about every call I need to write something down, type a note, or otherwise use my hands for something other than holding the telephone receiver. My natural impulse had been to cradle the receiver between my shoulder and the side of my head. But, the fatigue and neck aches caused by this contortion motivated me to find another way to free my hands while using the phone.
Most phone systems now come with a standard 2.5mm headset jack. My Panasonic wireless handset is no exception. I tried using a standard wired headset but was always getting up from my desk with it on and dragging my phone off the desk. By far the better solution, in my opinion, is a wireless headset.
There are several wireless headsets on the market made especially for desktop phones. However, after some experimentation I decided to go with a setup actually intended for cell phones without built in Bluetooth capability. I use a Bluetooth transmitter unit that plugs into the headphone jack of my handset. It’s the Jabra A210 Bluetooth adapter. A description and specs can be found at www.jabra.com. The adapter can be paired with any Bluetooth earpiece. This means that you can use the same type of lightweight Bluetooth earpiece with your office phone that you use with your cell phone. I use the Jabra BT250 earpiece, a behind the ear unit. The transmitter and receiver can be easily purchased on Ebay for under $100 total. If you want to pay retail, it will cost you about $175 for the pair.
Initially the transmitter and headset must be paired by following the included instructions. This procedure simply sets both units to the same operation channel so that they can communicate with each other. After pairing, when the receiver of the desktop phone is lifted either to place or answer a call the Bluetooth earpiece is automatically activated. So, to answer a call, I simply lift the handset (or press the talk button on my portable handset) and I immediately hear the call in my Bluetooth earpiece. I carry on the conversation just as I do when I use my Bluetooth earpiece with my cell phone. When I place a call, I lift the receiver or press the talk button and I hear the dial tone in the earpiece. I place the call and talk. My hands are free to write or type and I can get up and walk around my office as long as I stay within about thirty feet of my handset.
The difference in the way I feel after a day of talking through my Bluetooth earpiece versus squeezing the handset between my shoulder and ear is dramatic. This simple setup is extremely important to my overall comfort during the work day. The comfort and convenience of the Bluetooth setup is worth the minor irritation of occasional technical difficulties. The A210 goes into its dormant battery saving mode after it has been idle for some time. Occasionally, after a dormant period, the unit will no longer transfer the handset signal to the earpiece without pressing the answer button on the earpiece a few times or turning the transmitter on and off. I haven’t figured out how to eliminate this problem but it’s not significant enough to outweigh the benefits.
The transmitter and earpiece each come with AC chargers and a charge will easily carry me through a day’s worth of conversations. I place the earpiece back in its charger when I’m not in the office and the transmitter will actually function with its charger connected. The transmitter has three different settings that regulate the sensitivity of the unit. You should experiment to determine which setting yields the best results.
The sound quality is not quite as good as holding the handset up to your mouth but it is far better than a speakerphone. The party on the other end hears slightly more background noise when I use my Bluetooth earpiece. This may be a function of the model of earpiece I use. You might try out a couple to see which one gives you the best result.
E. G. “Gerry” Morris is a solo practitioner and has practiced law for over 27 years in Austin, Texas. He is certified as a Criminal Law Specialist by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization. His firm web site is at www.egmlaw.com. Email your comments and questions to Gerry at tech@egmlaw.com .
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