Technology Category Archive

Selecting the best mobile broadband provider for you

5 Replies Joe Linford

When it comes to mobile broadband providers then the options are certainly plentiful, but picking the right one can be a little less straightforward, particularly if you’re not all that savvy with current deals.An O2 dongle pluged into a laptop

There are essentially two options open to you, with one route being the pay as you go option, while the other is the contract route. Both are good bets, although it really depends on your circumstances as to which one you’ll ultimately plump for.

Either way, you’ll need a mobile broadband dongle in order to connect to whichever network it is you end up going with. These are the small plastic USB devices that slot into an available port on your laptop or netbook in order to pick up the signal and there are many to choose from.

Some mobile broadband networks give these away with certain deals, while others may make a nominal charge for them. The great thing about going for a pay as you go dongle is that you don’t need to stick too any one deal and after you’ve used up the available credit you can move to a better deal that might have emerged.

Having said that, you’ll probably find that many mobile broadband providers generally offer more flexible deals when it comes to things like data allowances with contract offers. Pay as you go is handy as it doesn’t require a contract and you’re not tied down for any period of time, but if you need beefier download allowances then contract may be the better of the two.

Of course, knowing which network provider is going to be the best relies on a number of factors as well as this, so lookout for the speed offered, although this is often much more optimistic in advertising than it is in reality. Look too for what sort of monthly cost there will be if it’s a contract deal and also if there is any set-up cost initially.

Mobile broadband providers are always coming up with new deals and incentives to try and get you to sign on the dotted line. Lookout for free laptop deals, which get given to you in return for signing up to a longer contract. Other goodies include free dongles, extra airtime, calls for nothing and all manner of other goodies if you shop around.

And that is where the secret to finding the best mobile broadband provider lies. One of the best ways to get the deal to suit your requirement, and also your wallet, is to use the services of a broadband comparison website. This is a free and easy way of locating exactly the right deal and also comparing precise details with all of the other current options.

Read some reviews too and don’t forget to ask around or check with friends and work colleagues as to their own preferences. One thing is for sure, there are plenty of deals and a little bit of homework up front can pay big dividends in the long run.

The technology army

8 Replies Christopher Roberts

Want to do your bit for your country? Join the forces and fight for your freedom? Many people do.

However, wouldn’t it be so much better if you could do it from a comfy chair, in a climate controlled building, with tea and biscuits on hand?

The front line

When you think of the front line, you usually think of solders in action, often in hostile, dangerous conditions. However in our new ‘cyber’ world, the front line is more the back offices. More and more, the threats to our security are not physical, but cyber.

This is why the UK government have set up Cyber Security Challenge UK. Cyber Security Challenge UK is a project that hopes to encourage individuals into the security industry.

The logo of Cyber Security Challenge UKIn the future it is likely that our wars are not going to be as defined as country versus country, but rather hackers versus data owners. This means that anti-virus firms, and the military will need to work very hard to keep our country safe.

Imagine what would happen if the banking system got hacked. Everyone’s theoretical money could potentially be wiped, and we would have no clue who owned what. Imagine a leading brand had a virus infect their entire internal network.

Cyber threats are becoming more and more real, and more and more scary.

If you think that you could be up to the challenge to become a ‘security champion’ head over to cybersecuritychallenge.org.uk and have a go at their challenges.


The challenges are a series of online games and competitions to test your cyber security abilities, to see if you could train to become a defender of computers.

If you are successful, you may be offered a job or funded through training, so it’s worth a try – you never know, you may discover some hidden potential!

Could you work for an anti-virus firm or the government to protect people against cyber crime/attacks?

Why do printer cartridges have chips?

33 Replies Kyle Prior

Why Do Ink Cartridges Have Chips?Many of you reading this blog will have a printer next to you as you read this and you will also have probably bought an ink cartridge at some point. But have you ever wondered why a lot of modern printer cartridges have chips?

Well first of all let’s have a look into what types of cartridges have smart chips. There are two types of cartridges: Ink Tanks and Ink Cartridges.

Ink tanks are those that just there to hold the ink, they don’t usually have any circuitry, they just plug into your printer and the ink gets fed to a print-head. Ink cartridges usually have a print-head built in and are sort of the ‘all-in-one’ of the printer world.

It is the printer cartridges that have print-heads built in that usually have chips or circuitry on them. They do so for a number of reasons…

Printer Cartridge Smart ChipPrimarily in this type of cartridge they are used so that the printer can communicate with the built in print-head and are necessary for the printer to work. As well as this they communicate other things to the printer such as ink levels.

This is were a lot of people run into trouble, it can be very frustrating when your printer starts telling you that the ink levels are low but in fact you know that there’s still some juice left in there! This is due to the fact that the cartridge doesn’t actually know how much ink is in the cartridge, it just counts down how many pages you have printed.

Another way the chip is used is to, in some cases, stop the cartridge being re-filled by third party companies. Some manufacturers just simply don’t like people re-using their cartridges as this usually means a loss for them, so once one of their cartridges runs out of ink, the cartridge will remember that it has no ink in even if it has been re-filled.

So that little chip on the bottom of your cartridge does a lot really… both good and bad. If you wish to learn more about printers and ink have a look at the blog of the firm I work for, which can be found on our printer cartridge site.