New Pentium MMX processors and economic printing mode<\/p>\n
By Zatni Arbi<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Unwittingly, I left you with yet another puzzle
\nlast week. A friend from Surabaya, Doug Boyne, faxed me and
\nreminded me that I had inadvertently failed to explain how I got
\nthe memory address 000CC000-000CCIFF that suddenly jump-started
\nSNI's SCENIC Multimedia eXtension Board.<\/p>\n
Actually, in my first report I did tell you that I spent hours
\ntrying to find the right memory address. I guess I must have
\nnudged too much, or too little, to get the 64k free memory space.<\/p>\n
I must have done it hundreds of times before I accidentally
\nhit the right spot. Honestly speaking, I didn't have the
\ntechnical knowledge to know exactly where the device driver
\nshould be mounted, so it was basically a trial and error process.<\/p>\n
And, as our friend Doug said, sometimes the trial and error
\nprocedure works, sometimes it doesn't. But, at least you know now
\nwhat may be causing the problem -- particularly with the Plug `n
\nplay feature standing in the way.<\/p>\n
Just remember that, as Doug also admits, it will be a lot of
\nfun once the thing starts to work.<\/p>\n
Now that you already know a little bit about system resources
\nand their conflict resolution in Windows 95, here's the latest
\nnews from Intel Corp. that you may also be interested in.<\/p>\n
We all have read about the fastest notebook computers on
\nplanet earth. Some of us may have even played around with them.<\/p>\n
Most likely, these so-called desktop replacements run on the
\nPentium 233 MHz processor with MMX Technology. Well, last week
\nIntel announced the arrival of their two new babies: The 166 MHz
\nand the 266 MHz Pentium with MMX for mobile computers.<\/p>\n
Don't be surprised to see a 166 MHz MMX being announced as a
\n"new" processor, because it is.<\/p>\n
The old 166 MHz MMX processor that we saw in the Armada 7350T
\nthat I reviewed not very long ago was a different one. That one
\nwas still manufactured using Intel's .35 micron technology, while
\nthe new reincarnation is a .25 micron version.<\/p>\n
The fresh 166 MHz MMX processor consumed less power than
\nits .35 micron brother. Because of these characteristics, you can
\nexpect to find this chip in mini notebooks or palmtop computers.
\nIt operates at an internal core voltage of 1.8 volts.<\/p>\n
Intel also targets it to those who need a low cost but
\npowerful enough notebook.<\/p>\n
For comparison, the 266 MHz MMX processor operates at an
\ninternal core voltage of 2.0 volts. You won't really see a
\nbreakneck speed difference between the new one and its 233 MHz
\npredecessor.<\/p>\n
However, the performance increase will certainly catch the
\nattention of those who will never settle for less than the
\nfastest -- and, of course, those who are not affected by the
\ncurrent monetary crisis.<\/p>\n
Already Dell Computer Corp. has grabbed the newcomer and put
\nit in its new Inspiron 3000 M266XT.<\/p>\n
According to a news release that I received last week, Dell
\nputs a 13.3" active matrix XGA display, 32 MB of SDRAM, a 3.2 GB
\nhard disk, a 20X CD-ROM drive and a 56K modem.<\/p>\n
Dell says that the performance improvement is between 7
\npercent to 10 percent over their 233 MHz based Inspiron notebook.<\/p>\n
Save ink<\/p>\n
While the lightning fast notebook may not for everybody at
\nthis point in time, here's a small tip to save you a little
\nmoney.<\/p>\n
First, let me tell you what happened to me last week. The
\nblack ink for my HP 1600C ran dry. I realized that this happened
\nat a really inopportune time, but I still couldn't believe the
\nprice I had to pay for a new cartridge.<\/p>\n
Istidata, the HP dealer where I always buy HP consumables,
\ncharged me Rp 258,300 for it based on their exchange rate of Rp
\n9,000 per US$. I was dumbfounded.<\/p>\n
I was prepared to pay twice the Rp 80,000 or so that I used to
\npay for this cartridge, but when I learned I had to pay more than
\nthree times as much, I became so frustrated that I thought of
\njust walking away.<\/p>\n
But as I needed to print out some work, I had no choice. I
\npaid the money with the Idul Fitri allowance that I had just
\nreceived and grabbed the ink cartridge. In all fairness, it was
\nnot the store's fault that its price had skyrocketed.<\/p>\n
But, as soon as I had inserted the new ink cartridge, I did
\nwhat I thought all of us should do in times like this: Change the
\ndefault print mode to EconoFast.<\/p>\n
This mode will not give you razor-sharp printout, but it will
\ngive you more printed pages for your money as it uses less ink.<\/p>\n
Here's what I did: I clicked on the Start button, Settings and
\nthen Printers.<\/p>\n
When the Printers folder appears, I clicked on the HP DeskJet
\n1600C ColorSmart icon.<\/p>\n
ColorSmart is the name of the printer driver that this printer
\nuses. This will give me the ColorSmart dialog box.<\/p>\n
I clicked again on Printer, and then Properties. When I got
\nthe dialog box, I clicked on Details tab.<\/p>\n
I clicked on the Setup button found on the bottom, and this
\ngave me the Setup HP DeskJet 1600C ColorSmart on LPT1 dialog box.
\nI chose the EconoFast under Print Quality, and I clicked on the
\nOK buttons.<\/p>\n
From now on this will be the default quality. It may not save
\ntoo much ink, but it will certainly postpone my next trip to the
\nstore.<\/p>\n
Laser<\/p>\n
Now, if you use an inkjet printer -- no matter what the brand
\nis -- check whether you can set the default printing mode.
\nChances are that the procedure isn't much different if you happen
\nto be using inkjet printers from Canon, Epson or HP. Look in the
\nProperties dialog boxes.<\/p>\n
The same savings can be done with laser printers, too. Use the
\ndraft mode to save on toner, as toner cartridges still have to be
\nimported and their prices are in U.S. dollars. At any time you
\nwant to print out your resume or sales proposals, you can change
\nthe printing mode to a higher quality in order to get crisp
\ncharacters and graphics on to the paper.<\/p>\n
Before I ran out of ink, I had always enjoyed printing out
\ninteresting Web pages in full color with my 1600C. Thanks to our
\nmonetary woes, however, I have stopped doing it.<\/p>\n
From now on I selectively use the Normal print quality, and it
\nwill be long before I'll ever use the Presentation quality of the
\n1600C. You, too, can save yourself or your office a lot of rupiah
\nif you set each of the printers you use to its econo-mode.<\/p>",
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