A Moving Experience

I’ve found a cool apartment! Okay, okay…so it’s not perfect. Just a few bugs. I mean literally! First expense? An exterminator! Is it worth the cash? Well, I can’t afford a more expensive place, so a one-time (please!) cash outlay should be okay. Maybe just a can of “Raid?”

I need a way to move my stuff. Daddy, can I borrow your truck? You don’t have one? Why not? Do you want one? I’ll help you pick it out! Well, it was just a suggestion. No need to get all bent out of shape! I guess I’d better call the truck rental places. What do you mean…$200…PLUS mileage? AND Gas? Good grief!

While I’m on the phone I’ll call the utility and phone companies. Yes, I know I haven’t used your services before. No, I don’t have a credit card; this is my first place. You want what? A $100 deposit? For EACH? Holy cow…do you people have a license to steal?

Daddy, I need $500 for moving expenses! I used all my money for the first and last months rent AND the damage deposit. Well, how was I to know this was going to be so expensive? Sell something? Daaaaad…I NEED my TV!

Boy, this place is pretty empty. Maybe I should buy a couch and a chair. Nah…I have my bed. That’ll be good enough. I don’t need a table; I’ll just use this box.

Renters Insurance? I don’t think so! What do I have to insure?

Just got my first phone call! I’d love to come to your party! Daddy, I need a car. Because it’s too far to walk to work, that’s why. Umm, Daddy…there’s car insurance too! Thanks, Dad…you’re the best! And gas? I didn’t think so…

Time for dinner. Let’s look in these boxes. Oh, No! No dishes or pans. No FOOD!

Uhhh, Mom?

Common pitfalls for designing your own CD/DVD duplication replication package

1 Low-resolution images and photos
For printing a minimum of 300 dpi is required. This means when scanning an image scan it at least 300 dpi, and when using a digital camera use the largest photo size option. You can always size it down when necessary.

2 No bleed
Bleed is an extension of the die line to ensure that there is no white line around your artwork when the product is cut. All our templates have guidelines indicated as bleed so your artwork should be extended to the bleed line.

3 Text too close to die line
All our paper products are machine cut, therefore, there will be a slight tolerance where it is actually cut. Therefore if the text is aligned too close to the die line it might be cut off. It is safer to place all text and images at least ¼" from the die line.

4 Missing or corrupt fonts
Fonts are tricky because of the different versions of operating systems. So we suggest outlining all the text before you submit us the files. If for some reason you cannot, please ensure that all fonts are included.

5 Not using template
Graphic templates basically outline the size of the finish products, plus bleed. So it is a good idea to layout the final design on the template to ensure everything fits perfectly. Templates from other printers might work, but there are always slight variations between each printer.

6 Wrong color mode
CMYK colors are used in the printing world, while all scanned images and digital photographs are in RGB mode. Therefore all images have to be converted to CMYK mode. You might find slight variations in colors when you do so and the image can then be adjusted to your liking.

7 Color matching
It is a common misconception that you can take a printout from your home printer and have the finished product matched exactly to it. A commercial press is calibrated differently from inkjet or laser printer. Therefore it is impossible to match colors exactly like it. The best practice is to have a hard copy proof produced from the press and subsequently the artist can adjust the colors on the art files.

8 Color matching between label and booklets
Even if you use the same color on both the label and booklet, they will never come out to be the same. It is because the materials on the booklet and label cause the same color to reflect differently. The best you can do to ensure the highest level of accuracy is to use a Pantone color on both label and booklet.

9 Silkscreen vs Offset printing on labels
With offset printing on labels becoming more common these days, many would think offset is the best way to do label printing. But the answer should be dependent on the type of artwork. If your artwork consists of mostly solid shapes, lines, text and no graduate fade of colors, silkscreen will give you crisp and sharp disc labels. On the other hand, photographic images look best on offset printing. Keep in mind that silkscreen artwork requires the use of spot colors, which is mostly set up on Illustrator and Quark. Process colors on silkscreen results in a poor look on the disc label. It is recommended that if you are not familiar with spot color setup to solicit help from a professional graphic designer.

Text Messaging: A Necessary Tool For Business And Personal Use

Text messaging, also identified as Short Messaging Service (SMS), is rising up as a trendy form of digital writing. It is rapidly becoming the favorite over e-mail in sending private messages from a computer or cellular phone. Teens along with the hearing impaired have embraced this electronic form of keeping in touch. Even schools are utilizing text messaging as an alternate form of emergency contact. Rapidly Advancing in the Messaging World Originally directed at businesses as an additional feature, Short Messaging Service (SMS) has advanced in the United States as an inexpensive plan for long distance or local communication for everyone. SMS is characterized as text messages, giving up to 160 characters in a message to be sent to or from mobile phones. This form of messaging has become a convenient alternative to voice messaging and e-mail because it is private and it means less usage of airtime minutes. Likewise, consumers and businesses utilize text messaging for their personal or professional communication needs. Teenage cellular users have picked up on the “texting” fad also. Teens and Text Messaging What is the ordinary teens’ preferred writing tool? Well, it sure isn’t a pen or a #2 pencil. Believe it or not, it’s not a computer either. Their favorite composition tool is a cellular phone. Though mass amounts of adults complain about e-mail, instant messaging, and the text messages that sent juvenile fingers dancing over their cell phone keys, numerous experts take a firm stand that teenage authorship is as robust as ever. This proliferation of composition, in all its vexed, hurried contours, has in reality produced a generation more skilled with the scripted word. American teenagers have been the leaders in worldwide trend setting; and actually were trailing behind when it came to the text-messaging trend. This has been fashionable in Asia and Europe for a few years. Text messaging has presently become a favored form in which American teenagers pass notes to each other. It will thrive, as today’s text-grasping teens grow older. The next generation of teens will proceed to use text messaging because it is inexpensive, quick and a discrete way to communicate. Teenagers and adults alike can opt to receive text traffic updates, updates for local weather conditions, breaking news of a favorite pop artist or daily horoscopes. Some sports teams have even begun using SMS to keep in touch with fans. While attending entertainment events such as an amusement park or concert, you could program your cellular service to alert you when anyone on your buddy list enters your area. Or maybe use the same service to locate your roaming teens in a shopping mall. The service, which is location-based, could alert you when your teen has come within close proximity. In return you would be able to text your teen and arrange a meeting place. Dissimilar from e-mail, a single text message may cost the transmitter as much as 10 cents per message, and receiving the message may likewise cost the recipient a few pennies. Therefore, heavy spamming is not as likely as it is through e-mail. As a result, businesses find it less of a hindrance than e-mail; therefore they have utilized “texting” for employee reminders of upcoming meetings or audits. Texting for Businesses Not very often will you find a business owner perched at his/her desk. They have much to oversee which keeps them busy, allotting little to no time for siphoning through e-mail that is at most times rubbish. With text messaging, employers are able to inform members of their staff of rush orders, emergency meetings just planned or a surprise audit entering the building. A majority of cellular users have their cell phones with them wherever they go. If an employee is not at their desk, a text message is more accessible than e-mail. Text messaging is also a great tool for business owners who employ the hearing impaired and it’s an efficient method for communication with hearing impaired employees. Text Messaging Assists the Hearing Impaired The deaf or hearing impaired has embraced this engineering science rather advantageously. When there is interconnectivity of cellular phone reticulations, users transmit with their phones and are able to reach anyone who has a mobile phone. Text based cellular messaging has staggeringly benefited the hearing or speech impaired. By utilizing text messaging, such people can order take out, invite over company, do research and send or receive messages on their own. Text messaging has been very popular among hearing or speech impaired ensuring that their group of friends extends beyond and does not confine them exclusively to their shared community. Schools Can Benefit Text messaging has brought a few benefits to schools as well. Past studies have demonstrated that up to 40% of a school's phone bill consists of calls to locate absentee students and calls to ascertain substitute teachers at short notice. With many parents off to work, text messaging is a sure way to communicate without the possibility of erased answering machine messages or intercepted calls. The payback on this investment could be a significant growth in student attendance and their parent’s involvement with the school itself. Choosing the Right Plan Virtually, all cellular phone carriers offer a text-messaging plan. Many cell phone carriers offer a potpourri of plans to oblige an individuals or businesses needs. The text messaging plans usually offered by cellular providers can be similar in plans yet differ in cost per message. Text messaging can be included with a particular plan or a consumer can be charged a monthly fee allowing a certain number of text messages without an additional fee. Text messages are dispatched in a variety of modes; depending on which mobile provider you choose to go with. Cellular phone providers envision you as the cornerstone of their business. It's a serious benefit for you to acknowledge this before you shop for a cellular phone plan. Cellular service providers require your business to help advance their business, so they will try to romance you with their finest service plans. Choosing a desirable cellular service provider with the most advantageous text-messaging plan may necessitate more than checking out one or two diverse providers and comparing their service plans to your text messaging needs. You may have to check into your own usage as well. For example, how many text messages do you send in a month? While a provider may offer a low rate per message, you may find it less costly to go with a monthly plan or go with a text-messaging plan that is already included with another plan. For whatever the purpose, text messaging is taking off at high speeds in the communications field. The hearing impaired, parents, teens and businesses alike have all benefited from this electronic form of conversing. It has been a necessary tool in many consumers’ lives. Text messaging is an inexpensive, timesaving way to keep in touch.

Commercial Printing Methods

What are my choices for printing my catalog? What are the different types of catalog printing and which ones are the best for my catalog? In this article I will go over several types of catalog printing to help you answer those questions.

Let’s start with the different types of presses that are used for printing catalogs.

Web Press: This is the most commonly used type of press for printing catalogs. It uses a roll of paper to make the catalog printing process faster. There are two types of web press. The Heat-Set Web Press and the Cold-Set Web Press.

Heat-Set Web Press: The heat-set web press has a built-in heating unit that dries the ink. This gives the press the ability to produce a high volume of catalogs quickly. Another advantage it has is It can handle printing your catalog on coated and high-gloss paper. A heat-set web press is also the best choice if your catalog needs to have high quality photographs and images.

Heat-set web presses are good for large catalog printing jobs or where the cost of setup is irrelevant. It is a huge press and takes a staff of people to set it up for one catalog printing job. This is where you run into setup fees from your printer. On a large run, say 10,000 copies or more, the setup fee when divided by the number of catalogs is not too bad. If you were to apply those same setup fees to a run of only 1000 copies, the cost per catalog printed might be out of your budget requirements.

Cold-Set Web Press: This type of web press does not have a heating unit. The ink must be air-dried. The cold-set web press is used with text stock paper where the ink will absorb into the paper of your catalog. It will not print on coated and glossy paper. In addition to that, the photos and images for your catalog will not be quite as sharp as those printed on a heat-set web press.

However, if you are printing less than 10,000 catalogs or your primary needs are not the sharpness of the images, a cold-set web press might be the right choice for you. It will save you money over the heat-set method.

Sheet-Fed Press: Another good choice if you are not printing a high volume of catalogs is the sheet-fed press. The paper for your catalog is cut to size before the print run. One of the advantages a sheet-fed press has over the cold-set web press is that your images and photos will come out a much higher quality. Both are good for small runs, so if you are only going to print less than 10,000 catalogs and your artwork is important to you, the sheet-fed press might be the best way to go.

The sheet-fed press can also use various weights of paper, giving it another advantage over a cold-set web press. The downside is that sheet-fed presses run much slower. That is why they are usually only selected for a small run of catalogs or catalogs that require high quality graphics.

Digital Printing: This is much newer than the other methods described in this article, but it will become mainstream. This is where the images for printing your catalog are sent directly from the computer to the press. There is no film involved. All of the images are digital. This also eliminates the need for plates. Finding a printer for your catalog that uses this method might be difficult though since it has not been widely adopted yet.

The advantages of digital printing are fast-turnaround time and for producing high quality full color catalogs. The downside is that you may be limited in your choice of paper types.

Electrostatic printing: Only good for very short runs of catalog printing jobs. This is similar to photocopying documents in that it uses toner from a drum to thermally fuse your text and images to the paper.

Embossing: This catalog printing method uses a die your printer makes according to your design. It makes an impression or raises the image or letters onto the page.

Engraving: This is the catalog printing method that produces the highest quality images. You would only use this on the covers unless cost is not a factor. With engraved images, you can run your finger along the edge and fell that it has been indented or raised.

Gravure: This method of printing is used to produce a high volume of quality catalogs. It is much more expensive than other methods, but it is the best way to produce high quality catalogs.

Letterpress: This method of catalog printing goes back to the 15th century. It uses a rubber stamp like process. The images or text are raised on the stamp and ink is applied and the pages are stamped.

Offset lithography: This is a common catalog printing method with little setup time and one that is very cost effective. It’s also good for printing on textured paper. It uses less ink than other methods as well.

I hope this has been a helpful guide to the different printing methods you can choose for your catalog. Keep in mind that every printer you go to will not be able to offer you all of these methods. Each printer buys the equipment best suited to his or her business. So if you are set on a particular type of catalog printing you may have to shop around to find a printer who uses your method.

Sony Laptops Are Still Part Of The Sony Family

Sony laptops are among the most well known laptops on today’s market. Sony is a name that over time has established itself as creating a solid product with a stellar reputation. In addition to all the good press that Sony has, Sony is known for making the best ‘small’ laptops. This means that they pack a ton of features into a much smaller packet and do it better than most laptop companies around. If you are in the market for a laptop it makes perfect sense to look around, compare your options and decide on the laptop that will ultimately work best for you. There are many companies out there that offer similar products; some are superior, some inferior, some at a premium price, and still others at bargain prices. The laptop industry isn’t always an industry where you get what you pay for. When choosing a laptop, it is never a good idea to buy what others think you should buy, buy the laptop that has the features that you need at a price that you can afford. Don’t buy a laptop that has bells and whistles you will never utilize. Perhaps, that is what I like most about Sony and the products they offer. Sony Laptops aren’t about stuffing computers full of features that will never be useful to the average consumer. Instead, they build a computer that the average consumer can use and offer upgrades beyond their basic computer setup. When you buy a Sony laptop you are not only buying a great laptop, you are buying a solid name from a company that over time has proven it will stand behind its products and services. Sony products have been around for years and the company is on solid ground, they will be around for years to come. Their laptops are made with the same attention to detail and technological evolution that has made Sony famous, that being said, it’s a fair assessment that a Sony laptop is a good investment as far as laptops go.

Color printing by the experts

Are you looking to have professional color printing? The number of products that you can purchase from color printing professionals will amaze you. In fact, with all of the products available, you will find that an array of unique services is on offer that can assist you in a variety of endeavors.

Maybe you are looking to have professionally printed brochures for your business. Why struggle with your home printer and panic while you search for just the right kind of paper for your brochures in your local office supply store?

Instead, you can specify the type and size of brochure you desire and have your business brochures professionally printed and delivered right to your door. Of course, you will be required to specify the number of brochures you need and will be sent a proof of your brochure once it has been printed.

Perhaps you are in need of business cards. Again, professional printing could be just the thing you need. All you need to do is advise the printer what you want on your business cards, what design you like and within a few days you can be receiving your professionally printed business cards in your mailbox.

With business cards, you will have the opportunity to select different styles and layouts from a number of templates offered by the printing professional. Finally, the printing professional may require that you purchase a minimum number of cards before they agree to produce them: typically the printer sets a limit of a minimum of 500 cards, but some printers will print as few as 250 cards at a time.

If your business is in need of catalogues, again a professional printing company can help you. You can give the printer all of the specifications for the catalogue with the layout and easily have them printed in no time whatsoever.

You will be required to select the weight of paper you desire, to specify if you want black ink or colored ink, whether or not you want a glossy or matte finish, and what shipping method you prefer.

Other products that you can purchase from a professional printing company include customized stationary, postcards, greeting cards, booklets, posters, artwork, calendars, envelopes, presentation folders, statement stuffers, advertisements, flyers, CD covers, newsletters, bookmarks, note cards, door hangers, rack cards, wedding invitations and more.

Printing professionals offer a variety of services for a number of occasions. Whatever you need, check with your local printing professional to see what kind of services they offer - you may be surprised to find that they can handle your job quickly and with ease.

Should You Build Your Own PC?

Many people are intimidated by the inside of a computer case. At first glance all those wires and components look confusing and impossibly high-tech. The thought of actually putting all the parts together may seem impossible. Not to worry! Even though they are the product of advanced technology, the various components of PCs fit together with relatively simple connections. Putting together a PC is about as complicated as repairing a toaster. If you can use a screwdriver and follow simple instructions, you can build your own PC. Advantages You are probably asking yourself why anyone would bother to build their own PC. After all, you can buy a cheap computer in almost any retail store. If cost is your only consideration, you are probably better off buying one of those cheap machines. But if you have special requirements for software or hardware, building your own PC gives you total control over the quality of the components. You can save some money too. Although you probably can't match the price of the cheapest preassembled PCs, once you start asking for customized hardware installation the cost of building your own computer becomes cheaper. And don't forget -- those super cheap PCs are bare-boned systems. Unless you only need a computer for basic word processing and e-mail, you will probably have to upgrade. Building your own PC is a great learning experience. You will gain better understanding of how the various components work together - knowledge that can be useful when troubleshooting. If your computer ever breaks down you may be able to pinpoint and fix the problem yourself, saving on those expensive service bills. Disadvantages The major disadvantage in building your own PC is that you don't get a system wide warranty. For example, if a malfunctioning motherboard fries your memory chips, you may be unable to get compensated for the damaged memory. If something like this happens with a store-bought system you could probably get the computer repaired under the warranty. However, if you buy all the components at the same time and from the same retailer, they may be more likely to compensate you for this kind of situation. Getting the Best You are pretty well guaranteed to get the best computer when you build your own system. Big retailers often use cheaper OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) components to cut down on costs. Components like these can compromise the performance of a computer system. Although you can buy OEM components retail, the trade-off in reliability and stability is usually not worth it. Brand name components are usually just a bit more expensive and well worth the cost for the extra performance they offer. The Bottom Line Building your own PC has a lot to offer. You'll be assured of getting the best components available which translates as the best and most reliable computer for the money. You will learn a lot about computer components and how to choose parts that offer the best performance. When it comes to servicing your computer you may be able to pinpoint the problem yourself and replace the problem parts. Don't be worried about the task of connecting the computer components together. Many of the internal connections are molded so that it is impossible to fit them together the wrong way. If you have ever assembled a child's toy you are more than capable of assembling a computer!