The Refresh Orlando Heirs

Just the other day I was talking to Ziggy, my Helping Hands capuchin monkey, and she looked at me quizzically and said, “Huh? Speak up!”

I have been operating under the assumption that her eyesight and hearing was equal to or better than ours. What made me think that? Well, we live at the top of a hill and, as a result, cars coming up the steep incline can generally can be heard lowering into a heftier gear just before their approach. When K-9, our Dalmatian was alive, even though she was a bright dog, Ziggy used to bark the arrival of an approaching vehicle before K-9 did. Therefore, I’d just assumed that the monkey’s ears were keener. Now a new study comes out from some researchers at the Michigan State University telling me I’m wrong. That monkeys’ hearing is “discernibly less acute than that of people for the frequency range in which human speech is expressed and heard.” In fact, the clinical truth of this has been known for a long time, but a fundamental explanation as to why has forever been lacking. Until now.

Physics is a field dealing with the properties and interactions of matter and energy. Currently, a new subfield of physics, biological physics is providing answers to questions such as why monkey ears, while so similar to our own, work differently.
Michael Harrison, a Michigan State University physicist, has written a paper for the American Physical Society outlining, for the first time, his results explaining this phenomenon. And apparently size is the all important key.

To begin, Harrison tells us that we can think of our ears as holding pens for all matter of sound. Human ears register pure tones, which our brain eventually translates into meaningful sound such as speech or music, but the tones must fight their way through a lot of noise. The noise is created from the amount of air that is found inside the ear canal, under certain ambient air temperature. In other words, Harrison explains it like this: “Air molecules are like people moving around in a crowded room at a cocktail party. The warmer it is, the more molecules—or cocktail guests—run around, and it creates noise. With this random noise, it’s harder to hear an individual conversation.”

The constant ambient air temperature is the physical mechanism which, in random fashion, creates sound waves that resonate within the air column leading to the eardrum. It follows then, that these incoherent sound waves create a “resonant pressure” on the eardrum, similar to what it is like when you hold a seashell to your ear and the sound waves bounce around. The resonant pressure fluctuates and increases the random firing of nerve cells in the auditory system. Transmitted from the auditory system to the brain, these random firings result in noise that masks or obscures a signal that contains speech or other useful information.

The smaller shape of the monkey’s ears means that the monkey is faced with a lot more “seashell-type roar” and noise than humans take in. “So that’s what the average monkey is faced with—a lot more white noise is created in the little ear that blocks the outer ranges of sound. This also explains the historic bank of data that indicates that monkeys hear a smaller range of sounds than humans do.

So, in essence, my little Ziggy’s ears get a lot of ambient noise and those dumb looks in a chaotic setting can be written off to her diminished hearing, or, let’s say her not hearing at a comfortable level.
###

Andrea Campbell is the author of Bringing Up Ziggy: What Raising A Helping Hands Monkey Taught Me About Love, Commitment, and Sacrifice. She frequently writes about monkeys, forensic science, criminal justice, writing and parties….

About the Author

Andrea Campbell is the author of eight books on a variety of subjects including forensic science, criminal law, and primatology.

Over the last 25 years China’s economy has drastically changed. They went from a centrally planned system that relied heavily upon international trade, to a system that is now more market oriented.

In 2005, China had the second largest economy in the world; being edged out only by the United States. During this time, economic development is taking place mostly in coastal areas as opposed to interior cities.

Over the past couple of years the government has struggled with a couple of issues that has held the economy down. The first problem came when there were mass lay off at state-owned enterprises. This made a lot of people unemployed, and has been holding the economy down for some time. Also, the government has had its hands full trying to stop corruption, and reduce other crimes related to business. Environmental damage has also presented a lot of problems. The rapid growth took off so quickly that the state of the environment has become compromised.

In 2005 China reevaluated its currency system, and transitioned to an exchange rate that takes into consideration a number of different currencies from across the world.

China currently has a plan in place to conserve resources and protect the environment in the upcoming years.

Computers are becoming commonplace in homes and offices around
the world. The problem is that most people know so very little
about their computers, that when something goes wrong, they do
not know how to begin the troubleshooting process.

The ugly truth is that we could opt to call the technical
support phone number that came with the computer, but you never
really know what you are going to get at the other end of the
phone. You could literally spend several hours just waiting to
get to a technician, and then once you have the human on the
line, there is just as good of a chance that they will not have
a clue, as there is that they will find your solution.

I know this because I used to work in a computer technical
support call center. You would be amazed who can pass as a
technician! For most new hires, the only pre-qualifying
knowledge that is necessary is being able to navigate the
current Windows Operating System.

Management feels that if you can navigate Windows, then you can
navigate the database to dig up a solution. The problem with
this kind of thinking is that the person at the call center is
often lost to find a solution that is not yet in the database.

Of course, all front line technicians have a help desk to call,
but in my own experience, help desk posts were assigned based on
politics and not technical knowledge. We ended up with some real
idiots at our help desk. Call those people once or twice, and
you will eventually decide that you stand a stronger chance to
succeed on your own, than you would be able to accomplish going
upstream in the support systems.

The Business of Printing Support

Fortunately, computer printers do not break that often. But when
they do, troubleshooting can be a painful process.

There are some basics that you can cover to streamline the
troubleshooting process.

Be forewarned that if you ever crack the case of your printer,
you should make darn sure to disconnect the power source before
you do so. Printers that are connected to a power supply can
actually charge you up with enough current to kill you. Don’t
take chances with your life.

Long before you get to the point of trying to crack the case to
reach the internals, there are several troubleshooting steps you
can take.

* Always check your power supply to see that you have a good,
solid connection. I know that it seems the most logical step to
take, but you might be surprised how often a powerless machine
is discovered to be an unplugged machine.

* If the printer has power going to it, then turn off the
machine and then turn it back on. Each printer has an internal
brain in it. Removing power temporarily from the machine will
force the computer chip inside of the printer to reset. Often
times, this will solve any issues.

* Make sure that your printer cartridge is properly seated.
Make sure the cartridge is in the printer the way that the
manufacturer intended.

* Use the printer’s “self-test” feature. The manufacturer has
included this to help you to eliminate common printing problems.

These four steps will help you to overcome the problems most
commonly associated with printers.

For a complete breakdown of generic troubleshooting steps, the
following URL points to the most comprehensive and
easy-to-follow checklist I have seen:
http://www.5starsupport.com/info/printer.htm

Drivers Are the Software Applications That Power Printers

A driver is the software package that enables your printer to
communicate with your computer’s operating system, and vise
versa.

The manufacturer of your printer sent out a software disc with
the printer. On this disk, you can find the default driver for
that printer.

As computing evolves, printer manufacturers upgrade their
drivers to either improve the printer’s performance or to keep
up with changing Operating Systems.

Of course, you could go to a website that has been established
to give you a one-stop shop for finding hardware drivers online.
A couple of the most common sites of this type are:

* http://www.windrivers.com

* http://www.driverguide.com

While these global sites are good, they don’t always deliver the
most up-to-date drivers that are available from the
manufacturer.

Here is an assortment of the Support / Driver Download URL’s for
most of the major manufacturers:

Brother -
http://www.brother.com/E-ftp/info/index.html

Canon -
http://consumer.usa.canon.com/ir/controller?act=SiteMapAct&keycod
e=model&functionid=2&fcategoryid=205

Compaq -
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Product.jsp?task
Id=110&prodTypeId=18972&prodCatId=236252

Dell -
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums?category.id=printers

Epson -
http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/support/SupportIndex.jsp?expan
sion=1000000

Hewlett Packard -
http://h20180.www2.hp.com/apps/Nav?h_pagetype=s-001&h_product=236
252

IBM -
http://www.printers.ibm.com/internet/wwsites.nsf/vwwebpublished/s
upportoverview_ww

Konica
Minolta -
http://printer.konicaminolta.com/support/index.html

Lexmark -
http://support.lexmark.com/cgi-perl/selections.cgi?target=http://
support.lexmark.com/cgi-perl/support.cgi

Okidata -
http://my.okidata.com/home.nsf/solutions%26support?openframeset a>

Panasonic -
http://www.panasonic.com/business/office/support/downl_drivers_pr
inters.asp

Pitney Bowes -
http://www.pb.com/cgi-bin/pb.dll/jsp/GlobalNavigation.do?moduleNa
me=CustomerSupport

Samsung -
http://samsungdp.com/eng/

Sharp -
http://www.sharpusa.com/products/TypeWizard1/1,2230,18,00.html >

Xerox / Tektronix -
http://www.support.xerox.com/go/prodselect.asp?Xcntry=USA&metrics
=HDR

The Unseen Printing Industry

Printers are cheap to replace as a general rule. If you have a
printer whose transport motor failed, it might actually be
cheaper to throw the printer in the trash and replace it with a
new one. Sure, it might seem logical to buy a new motor and to
replace the dead motor, but do compare pricing options first.

What most people fail to realize is that the printer companies
are not making their money on manufacturing and selling
printers. Sure, they do still make a profit when you buy your
printer, but that is not the activity that keeps their
stockholders happy.

When buying a printer, it really does make a lot of sense to
compare the prices of replacement cartridges before you buy the
printer. I bought a laser printer one time and was really
excited about my new tool that is until I priced a replacement
cartridge for it. $180 a pop for a remanufactured laser printer
cartridge. Egad! That was more than I paid for the printer. I
even bought a replacement printer for less money.

Sometimes, there is a challenge to find your printer toner
cartridge at your local shopping center. With so many varieties
of printers out there, most supply stores will not keep all of
the various replacements on hand.

While it might make sense to go to the manufacturer website to
buy replacement toner kits and cartridges, they generally charge
a premium for those replacements. The manufacturer premiums can
sometimes be as much as three times more expensive than what you
can buy from a good third-party provider — even when that
third-party provider bought the replacement from a middleman. It
is just like the airline industry. It is often cheaper to buy
your plane tickets from a travel company than from the airline
itself.

With the printer currently sitting on my desk, I save $14-$17 on
my color cartridge by buying my printer supplies from Toner-R Printing Supplies. By
using this third-party provider, I save $14 against the
manufacturer’s website, and I can save $17 against Wal-Mart’s
prices. On the black toner cartridge, I still save money buying
from http://www.tonerr.com. I
can save $5 against buying the replacement from the
manufacturer, and I can save $6 against buying from Wal-Mart.
And, we have been trained to believe that Wal-Mart always has
the best prices. Imagine that.

When it is time to buy a printer, never think that the
manufacturer has your best interests at heart. They are in this
business to make the most money they can, period.