Month: June 2014

My New Kodak Hero 6.1 Office AiO Printer

On By Michel McDonaldIn Products I LikeLeave a comment

kodak hero 6.1 AiO printer

My new refurbished Kodak Hero 6.1 Office AiO printer arrived today and I could not be happier.

The email that I received mentioned that I would not get a new print head or any ink, but since I had just bought a print head and a bunch of ink I should be fine. They also had to send me a new power cable because the one that belonged to my Kodak EasyShare 5300 printer wouldn’t work, but they didn’t charge me for that. They didn’t send me a new USB cable because the one I had would work, and did work. It sure is a good thing I didn’t get rid of my old printer before the new one came, I would’ve been in trouble if I had recycled the USB cable.

There are several features that my old printer did not have, nor have any other printer I have ever had in the last 17 years that I’ve been using computers. Wow, has it been that long already?

2-sided printing: This is a new concept to me. I have heard of it, but have never experienced it. I tried it as a test and was blown away. It was like someone had just shown me the invention of a thing called “sliced bread” and it blew my mind. It printed the 2nd page, then it sucked the sheet back in and it printed the other side. WOW! I’ve never seen anything like it.

Fax Machine: I used to be able to fax when I had Windows 98. I used my scanner to scan the sheet and since my computer was hooked up to a modem for the interwebs, I was able to use the modem to call a phone number. I was also able to receive a fax that would use my printer to print the fax, or I could just view it on my screen. So faxing is not new to me, but when I upgraded to DSL in 2001, I lost the ability to fax. Of course I have not tried that out, but I am sure when the time will come, it will fascinate me to no end.

Wi-Fi and Cloud Printing: When I got my Kodak EasyShare 5300 AiO printer, I read somewhere that there was a printer that you could print to from another computer through the Wi-Fi, but my printer did not have that capability. I found out that I could have bought a USB stick that when plugged in to my other printer would give me that ability, but it was something like $30 – $60, can’t recall the exact amount, but yeah… no. Couldn’t afford that. We didn’t really have Wi-Fi back then anyway, so it didn’t really matter. I looked in to it when we did get Wi-Fi, but the price tag was too high. I have this connected and it’s neat, but I am not quite sure how to print anything from my Nook or my cell phone yet. I went to my Etsy Shop with my Nook and clicked print on a customers receipt, but nothing happened. When I say nothing happened, I don’t mean that nothing printed, I mean that clicking the link didn’t do any good because a window to open a print dialog did not open. I’m sure it would work if I were using a Windows laptop or my Chromebook, but not my Nook. I haven’t tried my phone yet. It did give me an email address that I could send emails to and it would print out the attachments if that’s what I wanted to print, but that’s not exactly the type of thing I want.

kodak graph and line templatePrintable Forms: I actually did not see this one coming from a mile away. I actually found it by accident. I watched videos and never once did they mention you could print graph paper, ruled school paper, shopping lists, to-do lists, tic-tac-toe and sheet music of all things. I printed a sheet of graph paper and the wide ruled school notebook paper  and was completely blown away. It also has narrow ruled. I would be cool if it could suck the sheet back in and print on the other side, but I’m not going to push my luck.

Another feature that sort of blew my mind was the status monitor because it tells me how much paper I have in the printer. I don’t mean the page count, it says like I have 80% of paper in there. I can have 200 sheets in there, which is pretty freaking cool considering my other printers would only hold 30-50 sheets. It also tells me that my black ink is 100% while my color ink is 45% and that 2-sided printing is enabled. The little screen on the front of the printer shows me the image of how much ink and paper I have, but it doesn’t say a percentage. Not that I need to know, but still.

I’m pretty happy and impressed that I got this refurbished printer for only $89.99 plus tax and shipping for a total of $104 and change. It is on Amazon brand new right now for nearly $449.99, 6 new and used for $139.99. So yeah, I think I got a great deal. The newest version, the Hero 9.1 is sold on Amazon used right now for $199.50. It doesn’t have nearly as many buttons, and a giant touch screen, which I am sure would look awesome, but I am happy with what I have.

I loved my Kodak EasyShare 5300 AiO printer, but I really love this new one. It’s a shame that my old printer died on me, but I’m glad it did. I have had many good years with it, but I was due for an upgrade. I hope to have many years with this one and I look forward to my mind being blown away with the next thing when this one dies.

@Kodak Hero 6.1 Ordered

On By Michel McDonaldIn Computer, Gadgets, Products I LikeLeave a comment

I have some good news for my printer problems. Thankfully I was able to borrow the money to buy a refurbished Kodak Hero 6.1 All-In-One printer. I went back into a chat text with Kodak and gave them the reference number for my previous conversation and of course they told me that to get this, I had to call the number, so I did.

They are sending me a refurbished Kodak HERO 6.1 Wireless Color Printer with Scanner, Copier & Fax. It was $89.99 plus $7.31 tax and $7.50 shipping, so it was $104.80. Not bad considering this printer is on Amazon for $449.99 (price keeps changing so it may be more or less when you click the link.)

The dimensions are around the same, or near the same as what I have now, so I don’t think I will have to worry about that. The woman I spoke with told me that it doesn’t have a power adapter, but they will ship me one. I asked how much that was going to be and she said nothing. Thank goodness because the email I got said the discount on that was $66.50. YIKES! For an adapter and power cord?

Another email I got from them said that this printer will not come with a print head or any printer ink, which kind of sucks, but I think they didn’t include it because I told them that I bought a printer head and more ink on Amazon. So thank goodness those aren’t going to go to waste, but it sucks because I was hoping to have it as a back up. But, ink has already gone through it from when I tried using it on my other printer, so it’s a good thing I am going to be using that because the ink would have dried out making it useless by the time I would actually need it.

I am very happy that this has a fax machine on it because I can count a dozen times when we had to go to a FedEx Kinko’s to fax something. I’ve been asked at least a dozen times if I could receive a fax and I could never say yes, so now I can.

The email I got said

“You will be receiving a replacement printer in 3 to 8 business days. If the printer replacement order is created after 3:30 P.M. Eastern Time (EST), the order will be placed the following business day.”

The woman I spoke with from Kodak told me that she was placing the order now (or when I was on the phone with her anyway) but didn’t mention that because it was after 3pm on Friday that it wouldn’t be placed until Monday, but that’s okay, I’m sure it won’t take that long to get to me. I am sure I will get a shipping confirmation as soon as they ship it out with a tracking number that I can obsess over and check it 20 times a day to see that it hasn’t been updated in hours. I have OCD lol.

So I look forward to receiving a new refurbished printer. It isn’t the newest model which is the 9.1, but I’m flexible. I am happy with what I have. I am sure we will have many years of fun printing, scanning, copying and faxing. It’ll be fun.

No More @Kodak Printer

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

kodak easy share all in one 5300

I have had my Kodak EasyShare 5300 All-in-One printer for many years. My partner bought it for me the year it came out. He bought it on one of those home shopping shows with a credit card. I believe it was the NBC home shopping channel.  I’ve had issues before and Kodak has sent me a new print head and it fixed it, in fact that happened twice. This time my issue is that it wasn’t printing anything, I was getting blank sheets. I figured the same problem was happening so I bought a new print head from Amazon along with more ink which I paid $40 for. Yeah, um… that still didn’t work.

I went to the Kodak website for help. I clicked the contact button and I spoke with a Kodak tech support via instant message through their website. I told them what happened and that I bought a new print head and new ink and I was getting blank sheets. He told me after about 20 minutes that it sounds like a hardware issue. In all fairness, my printer is pretty old. I would say it is about 6 to 8 years old, so I am sure it is just ready to die lol. He told me that he can offer me a refurbished Kodak Hero 6.1 for $89.99. I don’t have the money now, I have spent $55 this month on a print head and ink, so I can’t possibly afford to spend any more money considering I am down to about $15 in the bank and $15 on PayPal and I need every dime I can get to buy groceries, and we’re only in the middle of the month.

kodak hero 6.1

This is the Hero 6.1. It is a nice printer. Not only does it print and scan, but it also works as a copier and it has a fax machine in it and it is wireless, which means we can print from our respective tablets. But, without money, there is no way I can afford this.

I had to close my Etsy shop because I can’t print shipping labels or receipts. I reopened it because I really need the money to survive this month. $30 isn’t going to go very far. When someone buys something on my Etsy shop, they will get a receipt via email so I really don’t have to print a receipt, and I can bring all packages to the post office to mail them, it will cost me twice as much in postage, but I am still in business without my printer.

I told the Kodak tech support guy that I can’t buy the printer now, but I would love to have the option next month when I have the money and asked if I could still buy it and he said to keep the chat reference number and to open a new support chat and mention the reference number when I am ready, which I will.

After I left the chat I tried printing again and it did print the demo sheet, but it was all blue. I tried to print the calibration sheet and it printed it with the blue and the red, although it was more pink. It didn’t print any other color. I tried printing the back of my friendship bracelet business cards which is all black text and it was a blank sheet. I tried it 5 more times and got 5 more blank sheets. I definitely need a new printer.

The Hero 6.1 is $366 on Amazon and they sell the refurbished ones for $100 so $11 less is good. I would have to pay for taxes and shipping, so I’m sure it would come to about $110 to $120, but that is still better than $366. Who knows if I will be able to buy it though. If I get a bunch of orders then I might be able to (hint hint wink wink).

Bike riding

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

image

I just love riding my bicycle on the Bakersfield bike trail. I usually start riding in March or April depending on the weather. I don’t like to ride when it is too cold because I get sick easily. When it’s still cool outside I will go out in the mornings when the sun is up because it’s just warm enough and I might get a little tanned in the spring. In the summer, I go out before the sun comes up because it gets too hot and I get a heat stroke out in the middle of nowhere, so I try to avoid that.

A few years ago I bought a few things to help me out on the bike trail. I have 2 skull caps that are supposed to keep my face dry. They soak up all the sweat so it doesn’t drip down my face and onto my glasses. It sucks to have to keep pulling over to wipe my glasses dry. I will wear 1 during the first half of my trip and switch to the dry one when I’m turning around to head back home.

A Camelbak which is like a backpack, but it holds 3 liters of water that I can drink from through a hose that is attached to the shoulder strap. When I need water, I simply grab it and put it in my mouth which only takes my hand off the handlebar for a second. When I’m done, I simply let go with my mouth and the hose drops. When I have to use a bottle, I have to reach down to grab it which can make me lose balance and ride into the sidewalk or a moving car. That hasn’t happened, but I worry it will someday.

I have your typical biking gear like fingerless gloves meant for people with carpal tunnel syndrome. Bib shorts and sports shirts that both wick away the moisture from my sweat. I have my regular walking shoes because they work just fine for me. I recently bought a new pump because I can’t afford to keep buying Co2 cartridges because they are really expensive and they only work once. Finally the most essential accessory, a helmet with a rear view mirror attached.

My bike has been out of commission because the tubes kept deflating every day and I didn’t know why. I pulled the tubes out and checked for holes, but never found any to patch up. I was getting very frustrated that every morning I would get ready to go only to have to put air in the completely deflated tubes. I used a box of 30 Co2 cartridges in a month. I would fill the tires before I left the house, but then I had to fill them again while I was on the bike trail. It really ruins the fun of it when you spend your entire session worrying about the tubes deflating.

I went to Target this week and bought 2 new tubes and a new pump with a gauge on it. I didn’t need the tubes because both tubes filled with air and are still inflated after several days. Now that is frustrating to me.

Well, I am taking care of my partner who just had spinal surgery and he requires 24 hour attention, so exercise will have to wait until he is able to walk to the bathroom on his own. But as soon as he is healed up, I will be ready to go out and get exercise. In the meantime, it is up to me to ride my bike to the store for groceries, so I’m trying to use that as an excuse to ride the bike as much as possible. It will also get my legs used to the exercise so when I do go out on the bike trail, my legs will be able to handle 2 hours of constant riding. So the store runs are good practice. Which reminds me, I need to run to Food Maxx now 😉 .

My diet disaster

On By Michel McDonaldIn Birthdays, Diet, Exercise, Food, Health, Noom, WeightLeave a comment

I’m feeling very dumb these days because I am making the worst possible food choices and I can’t seem to stop gaining weight.

Last year I lost 70lbs and I bragged and my partner bragged, and we keep bragging despite the fact that I only lost 70lbs in 6 months time, and then stopped because I couldn’t seem to lose any more, so I slowly started gaining the weight back. That was 1 year ago almost exactly and I am 30lbs heavier now.

Here’s why. I know this is going to come off as blaming other people and I need to take responsibility for my own actions, but it’s really hard when you understand my situation. My partner isn’t on a diet. Plain and simple. He wants to go to buffets and eat ice cream and cookies and chips and this and that. I can pretend that I don’t want to eat those things, but let’s face it, I’m an addict. If you took an alcoholic to a bar during a beer bust, what do you expect them to drink while you drink beer? Milk? No, they are going to drink beer. If you live with a heroin addict and you bring home some heroin, what do you expect them to do? Watch you? No, they are also going to do heroin. So you simply cannot expect to bring a food addict to an all you can eat buffet and expect them to eat 1 plate with nothing but veggies, because that isn’t going to happen. They are going to leave that buffet feeling like they want to vomit during the ride home.

I spent all year last year faithfully eating weight watchers smart ones frozen dinners, fruits, veggies and denying myself treats that I love to eat. When the plateau hits and the next 6 months is all work with no payoff, you feel betrayed and you wonder why bother and then start slipping and eating whatever the heck you wanted. Well, that’s exactly what happened to me.

Again, I’m not trying to blame this on anyone because I’ve done it to myself, I realize that I can say no and I need to start saying it more often.

A week or so ago I started my Noom diet from scratch and then my birthday came and I ate cake and ice cream, buffet, chips, bread… And today someone brought me a Marie Calendars pie.  Chip doesn’t like lemon because it gives him acid reflux, so I ate nearly half of the pie on my own. I’m out of freaking control! I gave the other half of the pie to a neighbor because I just can’t take it anymore. I’m starting to look fat again. I looked in the mirror and my face is getting plump and so is my neck. I just can’t keep going like this anymore!!!

Tomorrow I am going to ride my bicycle to Food Maxx and I am going to buy 20 Weight Watchers frozen dinners for myself and 20 Michelina frozen dinners for my partner since he will eat anything and those are way cheaper. I can’t print the Weight Watchers coupons until my printer head and ink come next week, so I will have to deal with losing $6 – $8 from the lack of coupons because I just cannot let this wait another day. I need to take my life back and make better choices.I refuse to get fat again dammit!

For breakfast I will enjoy what I eat every morning, only this time I will measure my food. After breakfast, once I’ve had enough coffee in my system I will get on my bike and ride to Food Maxx and buy healthy frozen food and more generic crystal light. I’ll also buy some apples and oranges for snacks. I’ve been eating bananas every day, but I need to add other fruits so it’s less boring.

I always say that people will change their lives when they are ready, but the people we live with need to respect that and not tease us by putting bad things in front of us. I wouldn’t sabotage someone with what they are addicted to, so I expect to be treated with the same respect.

Anyway, rant over. I will hope to do my best and stick to my new diet starting tomorrow. Also, riding the bicycle is a huge help because it’s exercise. I will also start riding my bike again on the bike trail, but I will need new lights first. Target has rechargeable lights for $30 which I am saving for. I don’t have the money now, so I will have to ride after the sun comes out, not before. I’ll need all the will power I can muster.

Kodak EasyShare 5300 Issues

On By Michel McDonaldIn Computer, Gadgets, Products I LikeLeave a comment

Chip bought me this printer many years ago for Christmas. I believe it was in 2006 and I was coming home from visiting my aunts in Texas and he surprised me with it when I came home from the airport. But I could be wrong about the year and when he surprised me with it. I do remember that I was coming home from visiting someone and this was my Christmas present, but I digress.

I believe in Kodak. I believe they make a quality product and they don’t sell crap that you only own for a few years and have to buy a new one. I’ve had this printer for a lot longer than I had my HP, Dell and… Oh I can’t seem to remember the name of my very first printer. Every printer I’ve ever owned before this one has let me down. This printer has worked every single time no matter what.

The issue I am having has happened a couple times before and the solution was the same both times. My printer shoots blank sheets out and I do the deep clean and all that does is drain my ink cartridges and then I have to buy more just to have those drain the same way. Both times Kodak sent me a new printer head along with brand new ink cartridges to replace the ones I lost from the deep cleaning.

I’ve often wondered what happens to all the ink or where it goes and this answered my question.

image

This is bad, and for some of reason the sponge material that is under the cartridge touches the paper as you can see here.

image

I wasn’t exactly sure how I could handle this issue. I got ink on my fingers when I removed the paper and was able to wash it off with just water and a wash cloth, so I figured that if it came off my finger so easily, it might come out of that spongey material. I wet some paper towels and let the ink soak into the paper towel, which it did. I had to use another one and then a dry one and it seems to have worked to clean the ink that was drained from my brand new black ink cartridge that by the way I just bought this week at Target. My color cartridge was also full and now they are both empty.

Since a new printer head was the solution before, I figured since I’ve had it for so many years that I would just buy it from Amazon and not ask for a free one it from Kodak. Then again I don’t know if they would give me a free one, they might sell it to me for $50 for all I know. The one I bought on Amazon was only $16 with free shipping if my order was $35 or more. I bought some Kodak compatible ink to replace the ones that I drained from the deep cleaning. They were only $22 and I’m getting 2 XL color and 3 XL black cartridges. My total was $40.

When I was at target buying ink this week, I also bought a new bicycle pump and 2 new tubes. I wanted to buy rechargeable bike lights for $30, but I figured I wouldn’t have enough money for the rest of the month, and now I’m glad I didn’t buy them. The most important thing to me right now is to be able to print receipts and shipping labels for my Etsy shop which is in vacation mode until my printer works again.

It seems that everything is happening to me this month. I’m just waiting for a giant safe or grand piano to fall on my head lol. Let’s just hope the rest of the month doesn’t continue on this path, but just in case it does, I’m laying low.