Inexpensive ink cartridges

Printer ink often costs as much by weight as gold and especially for A4 printers the manufacturers sell the printer at a loss and aim to make their profit on selling replacement cartridges at exorbitant prices, hence they put chips in them to prevent refilling. Cartridge World does a good job of getting past these chips so they can refill cartridges, however it is not viable for them to do this for all cartridges. I have recently bought an Canon A3 printer which Cartridge World does not service. Fortunately I have found a supplier of new cartridges with the required chips and they are only $7 each plus delivery of $3 for a set of seven.
The website is: http://www.inkvenus.co.nz/shop
So far these cartridges have worked well and are guaranteed. It is a shame they do not refill them.

Melco technologies supply suitable ink and with my Canon Pro 9000 the cartidges can be filled in situ I hope - haven't tried it yet. www.melcotechnologies.co.nz/index.php

Cellphone design

Now here is a poor design. This phone has both the 'delete' button and the 'off ' button on the same pad ( the LH crescent shaped one) So, when composing a text message, it is very easy to go to delete and instead switch the whole phone off and lose what you have written so far. Start again!!!
Some TV remotes have the 'off' button and the 'mute' button close together; this also can lead to unintentional results.

Gas lighter

When we moved back to our home in NZ we found the tenants had melted the piezoelectric gas lighter ( a lighter that needs no batteries or gas). We went to buy another but found they are no longer available in NZ so we imported one for £4.98 + £3.75 shipping (= $22NZ) which is a similar price to the refillable gas lighters .
Kitchen Craft Dual Stone Piezoelectric Gas Lighter sold by The CookBookShop (Google it). We very satisfied with it after a year of use and find it excellent ergonomically. However you will need someone in the UK to forward to you as the shop does not post overseas.

Just found this:-

What is DRM? Digital Restrictions Management

Big Media describe DRM as Digital Rights Management. However, since its purpose is to restrict you the user, it is more accurate to describe DRM as Digital Restrictions Management. DRM Technology can restricts users’ access to movies, music, literature and software, indeed all forms of digital data. Unfree software implementing DRM technology is simply a prison in which users can be put to deprive them of the rights that the law would otherwise allow them.

~~~When we moved back to NZ we had to buy another DVD player because our prefectly sound DVD player was region 2 and NZ is region 4. This was not done with video tapes. Seems to be an unethical method of selling more DVD players and/or DVD's. Our Apple MacBook could be changed to region 4 but only 5 times so it is now stuck at region 2.

WWW

This is a start for a blog on grumps about products that are frustrating and poorly designed from a functionality point of view and a blog to share info about the well designed plus ideas for improvements