Brittany Waldrep

Archive for the ‘Product’ Category

Constructing a house or building requires power tools to do the job. Any construction job is always cheaper when done quickly. This is especially relevant in developed countries where labor is highly paid and craftsmanship paid highest. Since work is often paid by the hour, reducing construction time results in cost savings. Reducing construction time is dependent on two things, manpower expertise and the use of power tools. Tools speed up work. A skilled carpenter can probably saw through a 2×4 wooden plank in  ten seconds, power saws can do it in at most three. This simple act results in a 3-fold increase in production time. Using this analogy for all power tool use, like power drills and such, it can be safely said that construction time is reduced at least 2-fold when using power tools, barring other problems.

This 2-fold increase actually cuts labor costs in half. With a job lasting 2 month with tools, labor cost at minimum wage is roughly US$800 a month or US$1,600 per construction worker. Without tools this extends construction time to 4 months or a cost of US$3,200. Assuming the job requires 10 workers, this becomes US$32,000 compared to US$16,000. Also, the cost of tools is a one time investment which can be used in multiple jobs. Thus, the cost is amortized over a series of jobs, making most tool related cost minimal. Thus, most good contractors will always provide the best tools.

The Epson Stylus S21 is a budget printer designed to perform everyday tasks like printing letters, emails and the odd photo now again. The printer goes beyond expectations for a budget printer but is slightly let down by the cost of the printer ink cartridges. Although no more expensive than another inkjets in its class the Epson S21 ink cartridges are expensive in relation to the cost of the printer itself and this is a slight disappointment as it means every though is doesn’t do as much as better equipped printers it still cost the same amount to run. Apart from the printer cartridges it hard to find fault with the Stylus S21 it does exactly what it says on the tin and not only that, it does it well. One thing it doesn’t shine at is print speed, this is highlighted in Epson’s exaggerated claim that the Stylus S21 is capable of printing 25 pages per minutes, while this maybe true when the printer is in draft quality mode in standard quality mode the speed is more like 2 ppm which is a bit of different from 25 ppm. One other slight complaint about the S21 is the noise level when printing it is a little higher than what we have come to expect from other brands of inkjet printer even fro a budget printer. Overall The S21 is a good little printer and ‘little’ is the correct word to use because its very compact, so shouldn’t take up too much room on the desk.