Monitors for $50

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Al

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Jan 23, 2012, 4:31:11 PM1/23/12
to La Crosse Linux Users Group
I was asked after one of our meetings about the college selling flat
panel monitors. At that time, we didn't have enough resale surplus to
sell them separate. Well, times have changed! The 17" flat panels with
VGA and DVI inputs are now selling separate from the main systems for
$50+tax. The boss is also open to group deals if the number requested
is high enough.

Linux-wise recently, I loaded two Latitude D610 laptops with xubuntu
just to see what would happen. Even with only 512MB, I am pleased by
the performance for surfing and light duty work. I even gave one of
them away to a friend for Christmas. She's taking to the non-M$ system
like a duck to water...even showing me things I haven't had time to
look into.

One more WIN for Linux

Bob Haugen

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Jan 23, 2012, 5:31:36 PM1/23/12
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On Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 3:31 PM, Al <wiscon...@gmail.com> wrote:
>The 17" flat panels with
> VGA and DVI inputs are now selling separate from the main systems for
> $50+tax. The boss is also open to group deals if the number requested
> is high enough.

Can anybody buy these things? If so, what to do to get one?

(Please forgive my ignorance, probably most of the LCLUG members
already know the ropes...)

Scott Neader

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Jan 23, 2012, 6:12:42 PM1/23/12
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It sounds like Al works at Western Tech?  You can bookmark this URL and always see the latest stuff that they have for sale:


Anyone can buy them.  They take checks right at the Help Desk area, otherwise you have to go to a cashier to pay by credit card.

- Scott


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mrri...@gmail.com

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Jan 23, 2012, 7:50:56 PM1/23/12
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I would like two of them

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Al

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Jan 24, 2012, 9:56:16 AM1/24/12
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Scott is correct

You can get them from the WesternTC help desk which is in the basement
of the Business Education building located at 8th and Pine. If I
receive a request for at least 10 monitors from group members, I'm
authorized to sell them to our members at $42 + tax. Please contact me
directly at Lo...@westerntc.edu or (608)789-6034 so I can keep an
accurate request count.

Al

On Jan 23, 5:12 pm, Scott Neader <sc...@qth.com> wrote:
> It sounds like Al works at Western Tech?  You can bookmark this URL and
> always see the latest stuff that they have for sale:
>
> https://www.westerntc.edu/technology/pdf/ComputerPrices.pdf
>
> Anyone can buy them.  They take checks right at the Help Desk area,
> otherwise you have to go to a cashier to pay by credit card.
>
> - Scott
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 4:31 PM, Bob Haugen <bob.hau...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Mon, Jan 23, 2012 at 3:31 PM, Al <wisconsinw...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > >The 17" flat panels with
> > > VGA and DVI inputs are now selling separate from the main systems for
> > > $50+tax. The boss is also open to group deals if the number requested
> > > is high enough.
>
> > Can anybody buy these things?  If so, what to do to get one?
>
> > (Please forgive my ignorance, probably most of the LCLUG members
> > already know the ropes...)
>
> > --
> > You received this message because you are subscribed to the "La Crosse
> > Linux Users Group" on Google.
>
> > To visit our web site, go tohttp://www.lclug.org

Pete_Gruendeman

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Feb 9, 2012, 9:41:53 PM2/9/12
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Hi:
Can anyone suggest a color printer for ubuntu/ linux?, perhaps one that is presently stocked at Best Buy, or similar store?

Best Buy stocks these HP models:
DeskJet 3050, Photosmart 5510, 6510, 7510
some version of 3000, 4500 and a 6500a, the latter being the size of a suitcase. Only the 6500 shows up on
http://linuxdeal.com/printers.php
list of well supported printers.

The budget for this is $200 max. suggestions?

thanks,
Pete


Pete_Gruendeman

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Feb 11, 2012, 9:39:28 PM2/11/12
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Hi:
>     Can anyone suggest a color printer for ubuntu/
> linux?, perhaps one that is presently stocked at Best Buy,
> or similar store? 
Absent the requirement for me to buy it locally, are there any members of lclug that own a printer they would recommend? Somebody must have one they are happy with.

thanks,
Pete

bja...@jamesgang.dyndns.org

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Feb 11, 2012, 11:13:07 PM2/11/12
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Sorry I only use B&W

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Brad.Turnbough

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Feb 12, 2012, 10:17:18 AM2/12/12
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HPLIP supports over 2000 HP printers in Linux. Check out their
products supported. This should give you a good start:

http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/supported_devices/index.html

sudo apt-get hplip


On Feb 9, 8:41 pm, Pete_Gruendeman <gruende...@att.net> wrote:
> Hi:
>     Can anyone suggest a color printer for ubuntu/ linux?, perhaps one that is presently stocked at Best Buy, or similar store?
>
> Best Buy stocks these HP models:
> DeskJet 3050, Photosmart 5510, 6510, 7510
> some version of 3000, 4500 and a 6500a, the latter being the size of a suitcase.   Only the 6500 shows up onhttp://linuxdeal.com/printers.php

dragon

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Feb 12, 2012, 1:46:14 PM2/12/12
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Pete,

I don't recommend HP printers! The reason why is that they put the print head on
the ink cartridge and the cost of ink is then astronomical. Canon and Epson
both have a real print head and the ink cartridges are just that, ink.

Repair parts are available for the epsons, though not as many parts for the
consumer models. I have a wide carriage Epson R1800. It uses archival inks, but
has one of the lowest ink prices out there. Heather and I have won a couple of
blue ribbons at the county fair with pictures from it. Epson has been great
about both supporting open source driver development and also provides binary
blobs for most of their printers. I set up an all in one epson for Mr. Hanson
that is running off of the wireless AP on the windmill. He can print, scan, and
fax from anywhere on the farm, and move the printer to anywhere on the farm.

Cannon does not support the open source community like epson does, but they are
well engineered printers.

If you are just going to be printing pictures, go to wallgreens or someplace
similar. Even with the very low cost for consumables on my pro level epson, I
don't break even, by comparison, until I get to an 8x10 or larger print. For
smaller stuff it is cheaper to have someone else print it unless you need
close color control. Pigment based inks are the best for photos. Dye based inks
are great for documents.

When it comes to printers you get what you pay for. They give away the cheap
printers to make money off of you buying ink, and new print heads constantly.
They also make them as cheap as possible to reduce their losses should you not
buy ink. I would say that $200 is the starting point for a 'REAL' printer.
Maybe a bit higher for an all in one.

For b&w, you can not beat the brother led printers, though the samsungs are
close.

My above opinions are based not only on opensource aspects, but I also repaired
printers, copiers, etc. for a couple of years. With the exception of the $700+
lasers, HPs are throw away, money makers, sold on their name. Lexmark doesn't
even support opensource for their high end business models and copiers. I
once talked with one of their engineers and he said they are one of the
most proprietary companies in the business. Cannons are well built with parts
available but opensource drivers are hit and miss.

Run like hell from the heat transfer printers (melted wax). We have an
extremely expensive Xerox one at WDRT and it is the biggest POS yet. There is
also short life spans on the consumer level heat transfers, and color rendition
is always off.

Color laser printers are over priced with high cost of ownership, poor color
reproduction, and resolutions are quite low by comparison. Not anywhere near
photo quality.

My $5 worth,
Dragon

Ed

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Feb 12, 2012, 3:12:17 PM2/12/12
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dragon wrote:
> Pete,
>
> I don't recommend HP printers! The reason why is that they put the print head on
> the ink cartridge and the cost of ink is then astronomical. Canon and Epson
> both have a real print head and the ink cartridges are just that, ink.


The caveat about Epsons is that you have to use them at least a couple
of times a week or the printhead plugs up and it takes several cleaning
cycles to clear. They do a good job.

>
> If you are just going to be printing pictures, go to wallgreens or someplace
> similar. Even with the very low cost for consumables on my pro level epson, I
> don't break even, by comparison, until I get to an 8x10 or larger print. For
> smaller stuff it is cheaper to have someone else print it unless you need
> close color control. Pigment based inks are the best for photos. Dye based inks
> are great for documents.

Right on.


> For b&w, you can not beat the brother led printers, though the samsungs are
> close.

Laser/LED printers are the way to go for B/W.


> Color laser printers are over priced with high cost of ownership, poor color
> reproduction, and resolutions are quite low by comparison. Not anywhere near
> photo quality.
>

I've got a color laser, it's nice but pricey as described. If you can
use a b/w designation for the driver so it does not use the color
cartridges unless you want to print color. Call it VGA or a little
better for resolution and rendition.

Ed.

Rick Hallock

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Feb 12, 2012, 8:52:02 PM2/12/12
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Here is my two cents.
If your doing much printing get a laser.  I bought a cheap lexmark to tie me over while I decided on which laser to buy, and in the three months I was deciding, spent $200 on ink (half the cost of the HP3600 that I bought). If your only printing once and a great while ink jets are bad cause the ink dries up. if you print just a few pages and every a week inkjets are good.  The picture quality isn't as good as a good inkjet, but plenty good if your aren't looking real close. and no problems if a rain drop lands on your picture either.  

Ubuntu wise, that lexmark printer doesn't work,  but I still use the scanner portion of it.  The HP3600 has been very good, up untill 11.04 (I think it was) came out and then printing would go crazy, blank pages and a cups crash, only way I found to fix it was to set the quality to the highest and use full color. not sure if that is still a problem or not.  But a month or so ago printing any pdf that was shaded made the whole page practically black, I switched from Document Viewer to Okular to take care of that one.

As far the Xerox goes we did have one, liked it at first, the printing is neat because it ends up being raised,  but like dragon says, it was expensive to use, and the colors were always off.  not recommended.

Rickle  


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Thanks
Rick

Gerard Ferrari

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Feb 13, 2012, 10:40:50 AM2/13/12
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My HP works great, no problems.
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