Adventure Ausrama Blog

The paper-free culture is impacting on sales of printers. Many consumers now tick the box to have their bill sent my email. They must pay by BPAY or some other auto method. You still need a paper copy of a bill to pay at the post office. Printer sellers have seen a big bumpy fall this year. Industry analyst IDC recorded a decline of 8.8 per cent to 446,000 units in the first quarter. Fewer inkjet and laser printers are being purchased: 9.3 per cent and 8.6 per cent respectively. Canon was hit the hardest. It had a drop of 21.2 per cent. It seems the Canon product is being avoided (could be those fixed page inkjet replacements). Market leader HP retained almost the same sales as last year. Brother did the best of all with a rise of 17.3 in sales. Traditional laser producers Ricon, Xerox and HP were ignored by buyers. Most took home a Brother laser. Fuji Xerox had a massive hit of 30 percent. Analyst Jimmy Lee says the traditionals are now aiming at the prestige end of...

The era of academic journals being closed off from the general public by financial barriers is coming to an end. Publishers are terrified by this. It means they will have to get funding from other sources rather than annual subscriptions. There will be a time limit placed on articles, so after a short period they will have to be released so everyone can read them. This move is being put forward by the UK government. It is pushing for open access from the very beginning of publication. Unfortunately, the government intends to make authors pay publishers. This is unrealistic. Admittedly, university lecturers are in a secure financial position. However, scientists find it difficult to get funding and allocating part of income on publication is another financial burden. Universities are saying that the government is looking after publishers, protecting their income while passing the cost onto educational institutions. Martin Hall says we must move forward to get full funding in ...