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I don't print very much at all, just a page here and there but when I want to print I want it to work! I got frustrated the other day because, yet again, my inkjet's cartridges had dried up long before being empty. It only takes one little part of the head to get clogged and the print quality goes to c^&p. So I've had enough with inkjet printers and I went out and bought a laser. Laser printer prices, even color laser printers, have come down enough to make them affordable for the home. This is a Brother MFC-9120CN All-in-one Color Laser system with Printer, Scanner, Copier and Fax. At the time of writing this I have only had it 2 weeks and printed a total of 3 pages but this is what I want, something that is going to sit idle for long periods and work when I need it.

The setup was pretty easy, I didn't bother with the network this time and hooked it up directly using USB. I was impressed that the software detected a new firmware version on the internet and make it easy for me to update it. I may not print very much but I do like to scan, papers had been building up in my drawer again so I ran them through. The sheet feeder worked very well, better than the one on the HP I had and the software turned the paper into PDF's without any problems. Although I can't find a way for the provided software utility to add pages to a scan, it is a quick and simple scan to file. I suppose they leave that all to Paperport, which is provided on the CD but I already have a full version on my system so didn't install it. This is all very slick, a bill/receipt comes in and I put it in the feeder, I click the icon in my system tray. Up pops the software, one click and the page is scanned. The paper goes in the shredder, just like that. It is scanned to an incoming Paperport folder and is immediately backed up online to my SugarSync account. Nice!

So far I am very happy with it, I'll update this if my opinion changes. I purchased it at Officemax, already on sale and I had a $15 coupon, so I paid $335 plus tax.

I have a lot of media on my network and that means I need a lot of space to store it all.  So the question becomes not only how to store it all but how to store it safely because drives fail. I have used RAID before with a hardware controller in an old PC but this has its limitations. Yes, you are covered if one drive fails, but what happens if the controller fails? Because the data is stripped across the array and the controller can be proprietary it means you are probably out of luck if something happens to the system. I have heard some horror stories which have made me very wary.

Then I purchased this D-Link DNS-323 which has 2 drive bays and works as a NAS. This has been working fine but what concerns me here is that again, it is a proprietary system. So if the box itself dies then the data on the drives cannot be accessed by anything other than another DNS-323. The drives cannot be removed and just plugged into another system and read.

We now have dual monitor setups at work so I had to have the same thing at home. I've had the Gateway for a while and needed another similar model which had the same bezel width and stand height so it would match. I found the Samsung fitted the bill just fine.

I must say that I am not a big fan of Gateway computers. I seem to get an abnormal number of desktops and laptops in for repair and they don't, in my opinion, use the best parts. But I did purchase this Gateway FPD2185W 21" widescreen monitor. Not only does it have a 1000:1 contrast ratio but it has an amazing 5 sets of inputs; VGA, DVI, SVGA, Component and Composite. So I can use it for my XBox (first generation) as well as my computer by just changing the input using a button on the side.

The Samsung is a Syncmaster 2253LW and has VGA and DVI inputs. I really like Samsung products and have a few different things around the house the largest being the Samsung Plasma in the living room.