Wordless Wednesday - Halloween Blast from the Past
Halloween 2002 - A Blast from the Past
Archive for October, 2007
Lexmark X4550 Wifi AIO Printer Review
We are a pretty high tech family who loves gadgets and the latest and greatest technology, so when we were given the opportunity to review a new Wi-Fi all in one printer from Lexmark, we couldn’t say no.
The Lexmark X4550 is a Wireless All-In-One - Photo Printing, Scan, Copy and Print - office machine that delivers quality printing at a price that is affordable for families, students, and small businesses. You can purchase it through from Amazon for less than $100.
One of the areas that many companies fall short in is installation and set up. I decided to test Lexmark’s ease of setup by tasking my 11 year old son with getting the printer set up. I am happy to say that Lexmark passed with flying colors! My son was able to set up, install and test the printer and get it working via wi-fi on his first try without any assistance from me. That’s an A for ease of setup and family friendliness!Â
When reviewing its speed and output quality, I had to keep reminding myself that this all-in-one (AIO) is designed primarily for home use. It is not blazing fast, however, it was not extremely slow either. The print quality is also more along the lines of home use - perfect for printing out homework, family letters, and basic printing. It is not high end business grade by any means.
The AIOÂ can function as a stand alone copier and fax machine. It can also be used as a scanner and you can print photos directly from memory sticks and USB devices.
We have decided to put the printer down in the kids “office” area. All three of them have their own computer and teh Lexmark X4550 can easily handle the networking wirelessly.
Final recommendations:
While I would not purchase the Lexmark X4550 Wireless AIO All-In-One Printer - Print, Copy and Scan as a primary printer for my design business, it is an affordable all in one system that is ideal for home and student use.
Monday Motivation - Plan Your Work
Have you ever heard the saying, Plan Your Work then Work Your Plan? The secret of many successful business is just that. Create a 5 year, 1 year, 6 month, 1 month or a 1 week plan for your business then start working it. Without some sort of roadmap to your destination, the chances of you reaching your goals are highly diminshed!
This technique can be adapted to so many scenarios from growing your client base, managing a large project, tackling a home improvement project or even reaching your weight loss goal.
By breaking down larger tasks into smaller steps, identifying intermediary goals, and holding yourself accountable along the way, you’d be surprised at all you can accomplish.
Rather than follow Wendy’s Monday Motivation lead and posting my to-do list for today, I am going to be posting weekly goals instead. My Monday’s are just too chopped up to be overly productive - but they are perfect for knocking out a lot of little tasks.
My goals for this week are:
- For my business:
- Research and begin implementing some new affiliate programs on my sites in preparation for the upcoming shopping season.
- Update my income spreadsheet and identify areas of growth and areas for improvement.
- For myself:
- Increase my water intake and lower my sugar intake
- Start brainstorming Christmas gift ideas so I can start picking up things as I see them rather than waiting to the last minute
How about you? Do you have a plan? What steps will you take today or this week to start working towards that goal?
Casual Friday - Caption Time Again
Welcome to another Casual Friday! As many of you know, our animals - the ones we claim to own and the ones who just invite themselves over, can be quite the source of entertainment around here - especially since we live on the fringe of suburbia.
Last Friday I pulled back into the driveway in front of the detached garage and saw this:
Excuse me! That is not a cat sitting in the window - its a racoon. My husband was on his way home from a business trip and when he got home he attempted to free the racoon (so we could humanely trap it and release it far away from here).
But the racoon wanted to use the wires in the rafters for tight ropes and circus tricks instead.
We had to come up with this contraption to get it down from the rafters. What an adventure!
So today’s Casual Friday task is simple. Caption any one or all three of these photos - LOLCats style or your own style. Creative juices not going yet? Share a funny pet or animal story? Or, just stop in and say hi. We’re all friendly and everyone really is welcome.
Thanks to Neena, Doll Clothes Girl Lisa, Laura, Laura S, Laura W, DevDad Mike, Yvonne, Wendy, Lucy, Brown Baron, Gayla, HomeMom Eliza, and V-grrrl for stopping in last week.
You won’t want to miss next week’s fun - we’re adding something new - so subscribe today and you won’t miss a thing.
Look at your Site through a Different Set of Eyes
Have you ever noticed that you can look at your own work and miss something so blatantly OBVIOUS to the rest of the world? I do it all the time.
The theme template I am currently using here has a little RSS feed button to make it easier for you to subscribe and stay up to date with what’s new here. However, it was so tiny and unusually placed, I’d bet most of you have missed it. Thanks to a few of my blogging friends, you can now find the subscribe links easily - check the top of the right hand column. See that fancy pink chicklet? Hopefully that will make it easier for you and all of my new readers to find the subscription method that works best for them and subscribe.
Why would you want to subscribe instead of just bookmarking the site? Well, it all depends on personal preference really. If you bookmark all your favorite sites, you have to remember to go back to each one individually. If you subscribe to the RSS feed of your favorite sites, you can get everyone’s updates when they occur and view them all at once in an RSS reader or get them in your email inbox.
How is this different than subscribing to an enewsletter? The great part about subscribing via RSS is that you don’t have to share any of your information with the site’s owner. It allows you to monitor your favorite sites on your own terms.
The absolute BEST explanation of RSS that I have seen to date is the video by Common Craft called RSS in Plain English. If you are even the slightest bit confused as to what RSS is all about or need to explain it to someone else, this is the only video you need - and it takes less than 4 minutes!
If you are having trouble seeing the obvious on your own site and need another set of eyes, ask a friend - chances are, they will be willing to help you out. Or better yet, ask Easton! Easton at Business Blogwire has offered to give anyone who asks 5 free tips on their website as part of his blogging birthday. I have been lucky enough to be the recipient of Easton’s advice on more than one occasion - and it is all good. What are you waiting for? Go ask him, now - right after you subscribe to Casual Keystrokes!
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