Monday, June 27, 2016

Scholarship2u website and Scholarship Fair 2016

Scholarships2u.com is an interesting website, acting as a one-stop gateway portal to scholarship information and application for Malaysian students of secondary school, college, or university up to Master degree, to study either locally or abroad.


The website aims to make finding the right college and scholarship faster than before with just a click of the button. Students can apply to scholarship offered by multiple institutions, and are required to sit for a scholarship test as assessment to the application.

The basic criteria to meet scholarship eligibility are school transcripts, achievements, family background and etc. The criteria, however, differs from country to country, state to state and even college to college.

The website is a good initiative for parents and students seeking for scholarship as financial aid to study. However, I find that improvement could be made for the website to list the scholarships offered in a better way, and to provide a better search function. Apparently, the website is using Wordpress as its platform, which has many limitation for its feature expansion and future growth.

The website is organizing Scholarship Fair 2016 with over RM10 million worth of scholarship to be offered for studying in  world class schools, colleges and universities from Australia, Malaysia, Switzerland, USA and United Kingdom.

Date: 23 July 2016 (Saturday)
Time: 1pm - 6pm
Venue: Eastin Hotel, Petaling Jaya
Admission: Free for first 1,000 registrations

For registration and more information about the Scholarship Fair 2016, click here to visit to Scholarships2u.com website.

Monday, June 20, 2016

Updated the firmware of my Samsung Xpress M2885FW printer to version 3.00.01.13

I have just updated the firmware of my Samsung Xpress M2885FW printer to version 3.00.01.13.

You can download the latest firmware from Samsung support webpage of this MFP here.

Firmware update can be done via the Samsung SyncThru Web Service, by accessing the printer's IP address using your web browser.

Note that you need to login as administrator user in order to perform the firmware update.

Here are the steps to perform the update:

  • Download the latest firmware, and unzip the file.
  • Locate the firmware file with extension .HD, such as M2885_V3.00.01.13.hd.
  • Open your web browser and access to the printer's SyncThru Web Service.
  • Login as administrator.
  • Go to Maintenance > Firmware Upgrade.
  • Click the Upgrade Wizard button.
  • Select the firmware file, e.g. M2885_V3.00.01.13.hd.
  • The file will be uploaded, and the firmware update process will begin.
  • The printer will restart, followed by the firmware reflash procedure.
  • Upon successful update, you can check the firmware information in Maintenance > Firmware Version screen.

And here is the changelog of the firmware for this printer for your reference.




Upgraded my home MFP to Samsung Xpress SL-M2885FW/XSS mono multifunction laser-class LED printer from Dell 1355cn colour multifunction LED printer

My Dell 1355cn colour multifunction laser-class LED printer has served me for more than 4 years before I hit with a paper jam problem that I'm unable to resolve by myself (probably due to faulty in either its sensor or paper feed roller alignment).

Considering its high toner price and I found difficulty to get a printer repair shop who are willing to repair this Dell printer, I decided to replace it with a new Samsung Xpress SL-M2885FW/XSS mono multifunction (print/scan/copy/fax) laser-class LED printer.

 


I have chosen a mono laser printer this time rather than a colour laser printer, as I found out that I seldom need to do colour printing. This BLI award-winning mono laser MFP which cost me RM698 (inclusive 6% GST) is much cheaper than the colour laser MFP available in the market. In addition, it only has black toner to replace instead of 4 toners which cost a lot when replaced at the same time.

One of the beauty of this Samsung M2885FW printer is that its imaging unit is separated from the toner, which helps to bring down the cost of the toner. The imaging drum unit MLT-R116 has a page yield of up to 9,000 pages and cost around RM175 for replacement, while its high-yield toner MLT-D116L  with page yield of up to 3,000 pages cost about the same price with the imaging unit. There is an alternative standard-yield toner MLT-D116S with page yield of up to 1,200 pages cost around RM100 only.

The easiest way to setup this Samsung M2885FW printer is to first connect it to the computer using USB cable, configure its TCP/IP settings so that it is accessible with network cable or WiFi LAN. The printer also supports WiFi setup using WPS method.

There are 2 ways to obtain and install its required drivers and software applications. One way is to install from its installation CD, another way is to install the Samsung Printer Software Installer and Samsung Printer Diagnostics which you can download from Samsung support website for SL-M2885FW/XSS.



You can make use of the Samsung Printer Diagnostics software to install and update the drivers and related applications to the latest version.


Other ways to setup the printer's TCP/IP network settings including using its control panel with 2-line LED display, which might not be convenient, and to connect to the printer using WiFi Direct, then continue with the configuration, which might need some technical know-how before the attempt succeed.

There are 2 important software that you need to install namely Samsung Easy Printer Manager and Samsung Easy Document Creator.

The Samsung Easy Printer Manager has 2 modes. The Basic Mode (or I call it end-user mode) is a clean and straightforward screen that tells you the printer's status, and provides quick button access to its scanner functions (which handled by the Samsung Easy Document Creator application), fax functions, user's guide (which is a comprehensive user manual) and some other basic functions.


The Advanced Mode (or I call it administrator mode) provides more detailed information about the printer, including its serial number. It also allows you to perform some settings configuration here.


There is a reason I said setting up TCP/IP for the printer is important. Apart from making the printer accessible via the network once the TCP/IP setting is done, it also enables you to have access to its powerful Samsung SyncThru Web Service which you access by connecting to port 80 of the printer's IP address using your web browser.


The number of information you can get in SyncThru Web Service is even more than Samsung Easy Printer Manager Advanced Mode. It also provides you much more control to the settings of the printer.

You can gain even more access by login as administrator in SyncThru Web Service. The default username is admin and its default password is sec00000. Once logged in, you can replace this username and password with your own.

You can also perform print, scan or fax function from your mobile device through the Android app called Samsung Mobile Print. If you are using iPhone or iPad, there is Samsung Mobile Print for iOS too.


What I like about this printer?
  • It prints and/or copies really fast, at speed of up to 28ppm. Much faster than the Dell 1355cn.
  • Its print output is of high quality. Resolution can be as high as 4800x600 dpi.
  • Its scanner support high resolution of up to 1200x1200 dpi optical, and 4800x4800 dpi maximum.
  • It has built-in support for automated double-sided printing, which is a feature normally available in printers of higher range.
  • It has built-in support for ID copy to easily copy double-sided cards (e.g. IC, driving license, business card, ...) onto the same page of A4 paper.
  • It has built-in support for Google Cloud Print, Samsung Cloud Print, and Apple AirPrint.
  • It is small in size, even slightly smaller than the Dell 1355cn.
  • It has low power consumption of 1.6W during power save mode, 2.4Wwhen sleeping with WiFi direct on, 50W during standby, and 400W when printing.
  • Its paper tray is of drawer type, not exposing the papers in front of the printer. The tray has input capacity of up to 250 sheets of papers.
  • It has easy to use Eco Mode which helps to save toner and/or paper usage.

What I dislike about this printer?
  • Its 2-line LCD display panel has limited display area. It is not practical to perform setting directly using its control panel.
  • When putting in A4 paper in its paper tray, there is still slight exposure of the paper at the back of the printer.
  • It supports NFC, which needs to function together with WiFi Direct. However, my phone's NFC contact with the printer most of the time not successful to bring up the Samsung Mobile Print app. It is not easy to make use of this function.
  • The Samsung Printer Installer unable to detect and download the latest firmware for the printer, and the Scanner Driver is always in "update needed" state even if the latest version already installed successfully.



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