Taking the measure of the HP LaserJet 4050 printer is a fairly pleasant exercise, it has to be said. One of the most pleasant aspects of this printer is its price tag, with it listing at only $130. For a networked workgroup printer, this is a quite-impressive figure. In addition, it delivers 1,200 dpi print resolution with the C4127A toner cartridge, making this a hard printer to pass over when considering such units for a workgroup.

Basically, this is a monochrome laser printer that delivers product in black and white. It also is capable of delivering that product at a max speed of 17 pages per minute, making it a very impressive printer for the price. Generally, units at this price point can deliver about 12 pages per minute, but the 4050 exceeds that standard with relative ease.

Physically, the 4050 is considered a lightweight, literally. Weighing in at only 40 pounds, it occupies a physical space of only 15″ x 24″ x 13″, making this the little printer that could. Just about every IT specialist, given the task of joining this printer to a network, will remark upon its light weight and small size, both qualities that are valued when having to move a workgroup printer around.

When it comes to joining this particular printer to a networked workgroup, it actually won’t be very hard at all to do. It comes with wireless technology and with Ethernet 10/100 Base-TX, meaning that this little printer will be very easy to join to most any network. Truly, for the price, one would expect a printer that’s a bit more difficult to handle, but that isn’t the case with this Hewlett-Packard model.

When it comes to the quality of the printed product that the 4050 will deliver, finding out that this model is capable of 1,200 dots per inch print resolution is a pleasant surprise, as well. In most any workgroup printer, 1,200 dots per inch would be considered more than enough for the needs of the workgroup. The product produced, in other words, will look sharp, crisp and clear under almost all circumstances.

Nobody would ever accuse the 4500 of being a real speed demon, with it making use of a 133 MHz processor, but it’s been found that most of the workgroups for which the 4050 has been intended really have little need of anything faster. At any rate, printed product will be handled fairly quickly and with a minimum amount of fuss, which is all that anybody can ask of a workgroup printer.

The 4050 comes with 16 MB of RAM, though that can be upgraded to a maximum of 200 MB if needed. That range of memory should be sufficient to accommodate the needs of even a very busy workgroup, it must be said. The LaserJet 4050 can handle, as well, a wide variety of media stock, including transparencies, business cards, envelopes and plain paper. It can also hold up to 600 sheets of paper, as well.

Taken altogether, the 4050 printer is an impressive unit, when one considers that it’s also an extremely inexpensive unit. Able to deliver 17 pages of printed product per minute at a 1,200 dpi resolution, the toners ensures each page is crisp and sharp.  This printer should be able to hold its own when it comes to the needs of many a workgroup and the HP 27A toner cartridge will give great results.  The low cost of toner cartridges is sure to be an attractant to a business on a budget, it must be said.

This is not the car he was driving.

Despite cutting a impressive figure at 2.02 meters, having the finest weaponry and starfighters Imperial credits can buy, and controlling the Force, it seems that Darth Vader has gotten stuck on the side of the road.

Dave Prowse was the physical form of Darth Vader for the original Star Wars trilogy, with James Earl Jones as the voice. The BBC reports that Lord Vader was en route to the 501st UK Garrison’s (which ironically is dubbed “Vader’s Fist”) reunion at the National Space Center in Leicester when his car broke down. Traffic officers assisted Lord Vader in getting from the M1 in Northamptonshire to the event. Officer Chapman later remarked, “Meeting Darth Vader is definitely one of the strangest situations I’ve been in.”

The car that Lord Vader was driving also has a interesting bit of history to it. The Mercedes was previously owned by actor Kenny Baker. At only 1.12 Imperial standard meters (which are identical to Earth measurement units), Mr Baker was the man inside R2-D2 for the original trilogy. Lord Vader told the BBC, “He used to keep a little ladder inside the boot so he could climb up and put his suitcases inside. When he had finished, he’d put the ladder back and used a cord to shut the boot. I decided to leave the cord there as a reminder of the car’s previous owner.”

The jig is up, and the Silver Penguin award has been presented to the winner of the Fake Linus Torvalds competition! Before you learn who won, though, you need to know who was actually playing. As you recall, four famous people were pretending to be Linus on Twitter and Identi.ca, and the community selected their favorite.

The participants were:

1. Dan Lyons (aka Fake Steve Jobs), reporter for Newsweek
2. Matt Asay, blogger for CNET.com
3. Joe “Zonker” Brockmeier, openSUSE Community Manager at Novell
4. Jono Bacon, Ubuntu Community Manager at Canonical

And the winner of the Silver Penguin is: Matt Asay! The runner-up was Jono Bacon.

Here’s a terrific quote from Matt:

Linus Torvalds is such an impressive figure, even being his facsimile is an honor. Linus is, of course, the founder of the Linux kernel, but he also represents the soul of open source: open without being dogmatic, collaborative while still being sharp-witted and sharp-elbowed, and quality and performance above all. I won’t be faking his voice anymore, but I do hope to emulate it.

Congratulations, Matt, and great work to everyone involved!

The history of Sony Ericsson started in October 2001, when the Japanese company Sony and the Swedish corporation Ericsson decided to collaborate for the design and production of cellulars. The headquarters of the company are as follows: the head office in London, UK and the incorporated in Sweden. The company has its research and development teams in Sweden, China, Japan, the US, Germany, Pakistan, India, and Great Britain.

sony ericsson mobile

PThe reason stated for this venture was to combine the consumer electronics expertise from Sony with the technological leadership in the communications sector from Ericsson. As a result both companies ceased making their own mobile phones. Due to their policy and seriousness, by 2008, the company had turned into the fifth largest manufacturer of mobile phones in the world. Sony Ericsson comes after companies like Motorola, LG, Nokia and Samsung. Sony Ericsson’s sales of products very much increased after the launch on the market of the Walkman and Cyner-shot series.

sony ericsson mobiles

Among the numerous Sony Ericsson’s products, we ought to count wireless voice devices, hi-tech accessories, mpbile music systems and many others besides phones alone. The company’s total profit of the overall sales reached the impressive figure of 73 million Euro in 2008. Plus, there were almost ten thousands people working for the corporation in July 2008 which pretty much tells something about the extent and importance of the business. Sony corporation has 50% of the company with the other half belonging to Ericsson AB.

As we’ve already said, Sony Ericsson started being incredibly successful with Walkman and cyber-shot. In 2005, on March 1, the company released the K750i incorporating a 2 megapixel camera and its platform mate the W800i, which were the first Walkman cell phones ever produced. The performance of this telephone was its capability of playing 30 hours of music playback and two low-end phones. In October 2005, the company launched the P990, the first mobile phone based on UIQ 3. The other major achievement that Sony Ericsson fulfilled was the Cyber-shot brand, issued in 2005 by the K750.

sony ericcson

This was one of the most popular Sony Ericsson phones. Back then, the memory card space was very innovative, ensuring its success. The difference between the Walkman and the Cyber-shot stands in the quality of the media viewing and cameras which are superior in the Cyber-shot. Sony Ericsson has further developed five of the largest categories of products : the W Walkman series music phones, the Cyber-shot branded line of phones, the BRAVIA-branded collection, the UIQ smart phone line of mobiles, and the Xperia range of mobile phones.