Preserving the ink in my DCP-130C printer

I purchased this DCP-130C multifunction inkjet printer for RM199 only in one of the PIKOM PC Fair last year.

It is pretty small and compact in size, and function well for me. It can do printing, copying and scanning. With the help of faxing software, I can use it to fax out scanned documents too.

Its control buttons are easy to use, I can copy documents both in colour or mono directly without the PC switch on. It has a paper input tray able to hold about 100 sheets of paper, convenient to feed-in paper.

It uses separate ink cartridges for black, yellow, cyan and magenta printing.

Now, the problem I faced with this printer:
Everytime I wanted to print, it went into Cleaning mode, and I had to wait for more than 1 minute for it to clean the print head before it started the actual printing. And because of this cleaning process everytime it was switched on for printing, the ink used up very fast. Worse still, any 1 of the 4 cartridges ran out of ink, the whole printer will refuse to print until the empty cartridge is replaced.

Later, I found out the solution to fix this problem. I just need to keep the printer in sleeping mode, don't switch off the power supply to the printer. This will make the printer perform routine cleaning based on its own timer, and it will directly print out document without having to go through the cleaning process anymore. I find its ink consumption also reduced a lot and can last a much longer period.

Congratulation to AirAsia being listed in Fast 50

In the March 2008 issue of Fast Company magazine, their panel of editors has nominated a list of The World's Most Innovative Companies, they called it Fast 50. Being a Malaysian, I am proud to notice that AirAsia, our Malaysian company had made it and ranked #43 in this list.

Below are what they've written about AirAsia.

Seven years ago, former music exec Tony Fernandes paid 25 cents for an ailing carrier with two creaky planes and $12 million in debt. Today, AirAsia's bottom-of-the-pyramid strategy has created one of the world's fastest-growing, most-profitable carriers, with the lowest operating costs in the industry and fares as cheap as $3. "It's like our bus," says Yap Choo Ying, who runs a market stall in eastern Malaysia and now regularly jets to Kuala Lumpur to see her grandkids. In November, the Malaysian company made a risky bet by going long-haul, adding flights to Australia; this year, it will add flights to China and India, where billions of people have yet to take to the skies.

Click here to read about The World's Most Innovative Companies (Fast 50) presented by FastCompany.com.

The giant size Jumbo kitchen sink

This is the giant size Jumbo single bowl sink in my kitchen. It is like a double bowl sink without the center divider.



I find this sink more practical and useful than its double bowl counterparts, especially when there are a lot of dishes, pots, pans and woks to wash. Its gigantic volume can fit in all in one go. It is deeper than most double bowl too.

This stainless steel Teka brand Jumbo sink comes with a basket strainer which can be put on top, and covers up half of it. The strainer can fit in both its left hand side and also right hand side.

The only problem with this sink is that, there are some minor scratches on the stainless steel surface after being used for some times.