The New Age Computer Printers

Gone are the days when one had to hunt for the right kind of printing technology and the most up to date printing machines in town to get colour print outs. The end result was not always happy either. There were often shoddy prints with the ink weeping in places. Today printers are so savvy that one has to be only smart enough to choose the right option. The kind of resolution, the type of colour, the speed of output and the scanning device are only a few of the options available. Whether one chooses monochrome (Black and white) or colour prints there are various resolutions to opt for.

The latest multi featured printers contain scanning devices which have a maximum resolution of 1200 x 2400 dots per inch and can also print at an amazing speed of even 47 pages per minute. These small and sleek machines also have USB connectivity which helps in making the connectivity even faster. Some of these machines also have wireless connectivity technology which improves the functions of USB, Ethernet and Parallel. The 'All-in-one' printer as they are known these days have a maximum colour compatibility of about 48-bit. These long lasting ink cartridges assures the user uninterrupted quality printing for nearly 250000 pages.

The pictbridge allows the printer to take pictures directly from digital devices such as webcam, camcorder and the digital camera. These printers also deliver pictures with smooth colour gradations. These printers work with the minimum requirement of 128 standard memory, 533 MHz and also 640MB maximum memory. The compact printer machines are as light as 0.3 kilograms and have unbelievable dimensions of 10 cm wide and 16 cm depth and 1.8 cm height.

The media that are available in the printer machines include glossy paper, envelopes, transparencies, plain paper, photos and labels. Pictures and snapshots of loved ones downloaded from the email can be printed within minutes on these wonder printers. Printers come with sheet drawers which can store the stock of paper for continual loading and printing of bulk printing.

There is no need for manual loading. There are slow options for double side printing. There is also a choice of horizontal and vertical printing resolutions both which offers great amount of flexibility and high display resolutions. These computer printers provide high quality results because of the use of Dye based ink and therefore you are at great advantage if you choose to use this machine for personal pictures.

Thus, these new age multi featured printers are guaranteed to fulfil all your expectations and requirements with their amazing quality and reliability.

Read unbiased reviews on Brother, Canon and Epson computer printers at computer printers reviews site.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Victor_Thomas

Joke Writing - Anyone Can Write a Joke

Can anyone really write a joke. There is a simple answer to that question, have you ever said anything funny? If you can answer yes, to that question then you can write a joke.

I have made reference in my other articles about the fact that if you do not write things down, then you are losing 90% of your ideas. Think about that for a moment. All the success that you have achieved so far in your life is a result of 10% of the thoughts you have had so far. Imagine what you could achieve if you could retain the other 90% The same goes for joke writing.

So now lets put the two together. Have you ever said anything funny? I bet you have, then just write it down. I can remember many times when I have said funny things right off the top of my head but did not think to write it down, and of course, now its gone.

The sad truth is that 90% of all the funny stuff that you have ever said, is gone. I have notebooks full of jokes. Whenever I begin writing something, I just need to flip through my notebook to find the joke that fits the topic that I am writing about.

Please remember that very many people are looking for excellent jokes, if you think that you can do it, and if you also develop your notebook full of jokes, then I strongly recommend looking for an agent who might be able to help you.

There is also a very good book on joke writing that you can find at http://www.squidoo.com/cleanfunnyjokes Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Robert_Deveau

Two Classic Malay Dictionaries

Do you worship the dictionary as the ultimate authority? A story leading to birth of the first
genuine Malay-English dictionary may be enlightening.

It was more than 200 years ago, a time when English colonialists needed the service of a bilingual dictionary in a Malay-speaking realm. They had one...full of spelling mistakes in the Malay version. Not all the spellings were wrong, actually, some were correct...by chance. By the way, the Malay words were not spelled according to Malay but to Persian language. Oh dear! Was it possible to figure out the Malay words by relying on the explanation in English? Probably,but the content was almost an exact replica of another dictionary printed 100 years earlier!

How could anyone make a dictionary like that? Readers could easily find his name on it and that
would be shameful. However, the person who lent his name to this dictionary was apparently not
involved in the production. " This bizarre lexicographical curiosity,' was the conclusion of a writer
after examining it and added "it would be interesting to discover more about the precise role and
motive" of the gentlemen who presumably funded the republication of an old dictionary under
another person's name.

How long did the service of this dictionary with a long title-Howison's A Dictionary of the Malay
Tongue, as spoken in the Peninsula of Malacca...English and Malay, and Malay and English, last?
Eleven years until the publication of William Marsden's fine dictionary in 1812.

The Dublin-born English Orientalist Marsden was the first person who devoted more pages and
prominence in his dictionary to the Malay-English part. Thus, shifting focus to study of Malay
rather than English. How did Marsden's work fare during an era in which Dutch scholars were
considered the best in the study of Malay language and had already translated the Bible into Malay?

Despite separation of the Malay world after the Anglo-Dutch Treaty 1824, the government of the Netherlands arranged for Marsden's dictionary and grammar to be translated into Dutch and
French. That said a lot about the Dutch's esteem. Naturally, the English welcomed the service of a
good dictionary for a change. Marsden's dictionary remained a respected reference tool only to be
superseded by Wilkinson's dictionary a century later.

No doubt Marsden put in a lot of effort. Modern dictionaries can still learn from his work. For
example, instead of just listing forms of derived words under their respective root words, Marsden
had separate entries for the derived words with cross references to the root words - a helpful feature
for foreign learners. His discussion on the sources of
jawi considered by many to be an adapted form of Arabic in the preface is still a recommended reading material and a delight for serious students.

On the other hand, Howison's dictionary demonstrated the universality and subtleness of
plagiarism. While dictionaries are obliged to be the authority in language learning, they are not
infallible even under the protection of copyright laws today. Do you notice a lot of similarities
among different brands of Bahasa Malaysia dictionaries and how difficult it is to find a different
angle of explaining a word? May the user use his discernment.

About the Author

Wan is an ordinary Malaysian who cannot help observing idiosyncrasies in Bahasa Malaysia and is currently uploading them to http://www.bahasa-malaysia-simple-fun.com

Copyright 2007 - Wan Yee. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in any way, give author name credit and follow all of the EzineArticles terms of service for Publishers.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Wan_Yee

Learn The Art of Making Traditional Asian Desserts - Malay Kuih

Firstly allow me to clear the misconception of Asian definition when it comes to food. If there is such a thing as American cheesecake or British bread pudding, or Australian Carrot Cake, there is indeed no such thing as Asian Dessert anything. There are however a multitude of desserts across different ethnic groups in Asia.

So you can imagine how rich the Asian food culture is, if you collectively identify them as Chinese, Malay, Japanese, Indian, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Burmese, Indonesian, Arabic, Philippines etc. Each culture carries with it a totally different tradition and heritage and this is reflected in their desserts as well.

One particular "Asian" dessert that is little known amongst Westerners are the traditional Malay kuihs. These are delightful chewy and rich desserts that are made from natural ingredients like tapioca flour, sweet potato flour, bananas, palm sugar, coconut milk, glutinous rice etc. There are more than 100 different types of Malay kuihs and these recipes emerged and came from the Indonesian and Malay villages. I grew up with these kuihs and used to watch my grandmother lovingly prepared her goodies over the stove and delighted in feeding us those delectables. She too learned the skill from her homeland in Sumatera Indonesia before she migrated to Singapore.

In those days, the womenfolk discovered resourceful ways to make their desserts and snacks from natural ingredients or whatever they grew in their garden and grew on trees. These kuihs were steamed mostly, sometimes grilled - baking was nonexistent because they not only did not have any oven, electricity was scarce. Besides sweets, there are also savoury version which is often eaten or served during tea time.

Today kuihs are such popular desserts in Southeast Asia mainly inSingapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Yet very few people know the secrets of making kuihs as many recipe books are written in English. Some recipes are available on the internet. I know of many Western friends or those living in the west, who would regularly request for translated version from me. In this part of the world, it is quite easy to find these desserts from the wet market to hotels and restaurants. Many of the recipes have been simplified and subsitutes are introduced for eg fullcream milk is used instead of coconut milk.

Many locals make their living from selling these kuihs as there are more people willing to eat than to learn the art of making these traditional and delicious desserts. The Malays knew the secrets to make these kuihs differently from other desserts through the use of banana and pandan leaves for fragrance and colour, through use of combined flour to give contrasting tastes and use of palm sugar melted like cheese to heighten the eating sensation.

If you love baking and cooking, you will enjoy learning the art of making this "Asian" dessert which belongs to the Malay or Indonesian ethnic group. While Asians are familiar with western desserts, and enjoying a wonderful choice of desserts, the westerners are yet to discover a whole new world of desserts which can be quickly learned and easily made. Not to mention, to impress the entire neighbourhood!

Click the link to get your free Malay kuih recipes and view the pictures and video. Noraini Maskuri is an advertising professional who is also trained in bakery, a food enthusiast and likes to share her love for east/west cooking and baking. Visit her blog at http://www.mycookery.com/blog and download a free chicken cookbook as well. Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Noraini_Maskuri

Two Classic Malay Dictionaries

Do you worship the dictionary as the ultimate authority? A story leading to birth of the first
genuine Malay-English dictionary may be enlightening.

It was more than 200 years ago, a time when English colonialists needed the service of a bilingual dictionary in a Malay-speaking realm. They had one...full of spelling mistakes in the Malay version. Not all the spellings were wrong, actually, some were correct...by chance. By the way, the Malay words were not spelled according to Malay but to Persian language. Oh dear! Was it possible to figure out the Malay words by relying on the explanation in English? Probably,but the content was almost an exact replica of another dictionary printed 100 years earlier!

How could anyone make a dictionary like that? Readers could easily find his name on it and that
would be shameful. However, the person who lent his name to this dictionary was apparently not
involved in the production. " This bizarre lexicographical curiosity,' was the conclusion of a writer
after examining it and added "it would be interesting to discover more about the precise role and
motive" of the gentlemen who presumably funded the republication of an old dictionary under
another person's name.

How long did the service of this dictionary with a long title-Howison's A Dictionary of the Malay
Tongue, as spoken in the Peninsula of Malacca...English and Malay, and Malay and English, last?
Eleven years until the publication of William Marsden's fine dictionary in 1812.

The Dublin-born English Orientalist Marsden was the first person who devoted more pages and
prominence in his dictionary to the Malay-English part. Thus, shifting focus to study of Malay
rather than English. How did Marsden's work fare during an era in which Dutch scholars were
considered the best in the study of Malay language and had already translated the Bible into Malay?

Despite separation of the Malay world after the Anglo-Dutch Treaty 1824, the government of the Netherlands arranged for Marsden's dictionary and grammar to be translated into Dutch and
French. That said a lot about the Dutch's esteem. Naturally, the English welcomed the service of a
good dictionary for a change. Marsden's dictionary remained a respected reference tool only to be
superseded by Wilkinson's dictionary a century later.

No doubt Marsden put in a lot of effort. Modern dictionaries can still learn from his work. For
example, instead of just listing forms of derived words under their respective root words, Marsden
had separate entries for the derived words with cross references to the root words - a helpful feature
for foreign learners. His discussion on the sources of
jawi considered by many to be an adapted form of Arabic in the preface is still a recommended reading material and a delight for serious students.

On the other hand, Howison's dictionary demonstrated the universality and subtleness of
plagiarism. While dictionaries are obliged to be the authority in language learning, they are not
infallible even under the protection of copyright laws today. Do you notice a lot of similarities
among different brands of Bahasa Malaysia dictionaries and how difficult it is to find a different
angle of explaining a word? May the user use his discernment.

About the Author

Wan is an ordinary Malaysian who cannot help observing idiosyncrasies in Bahasa Malaysia and is currently uploading them to http://www.bahasa-malaysia-simple-fun.com

Copyright 2007 - Wan Yee. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in any way, give author name credit and follow all of the EzineArticles terms of service for Publishers.

Malaysian Language and Malay

The identity of the national language in Malaysia is an ongoing debate. Is it the Malay language or, the Malaysian language? Is Malay language the same as the Malaysian language? A close inspection gives us a definite answer: NO.

Let's begin with the Malay spoken during the Sultanate of Malacca. After Malacca fell to the Portuguese, the Malay ruler ship of Malacca moved to Johor and then retreated further to Riau to reemerge as the glorious Johor-Riau empire. Anglo-Dutch Treaty 1824 separated this empire: Johor to the British and Riau to the Dutch.

The Dutch established Riau Malay schools in other parts of Indonesia and upon it Bahasa Indonesia is based. How about the Malaya side? The commonly known version is the man who later became the first Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tunku

Abdul Rahman, talked ethnic Chinese into accepting Malay as the national language, by allowing Malay to be written in Romanized letters apart from Jawi. Also as part of the government's effort to prevent a recurrence of the bloody May 13, 1969 racial riots, the national language is named the Malaysian language or, language of Malaysia - apparently to give it a more universal appeal. This is also the language the government is standardizing.

In view of the development of Riau Malay in Indonesia, what happened to this language at the other side of Johor? It has demoted from the status of a lingua franca to a dialect. Despite the popular notion that the national language of Malaysia is based this dialect, the Johor-Riau dialect, linguistic authorities are
strangely silent, inconsistent and some even denied the connection !

For instance, a reference work dealing with pronunciation of standard Malay noted that there are many speakers of Johor-Riau dialect throughout the states of Johor, Malacca, Selangor and Perak. While acknowledging "more or less some variations of standard Malay is based on the Johor-Riau dialect," this reference work went on to say standard Malay has developed to a stage of forming its own image and
therefore should no longer be regarded as any dialects including Johor-Riau dialect.

At least that helps us to define the Malaysian language as the 'standard Malay' in Malaysia.

Malay language in comparison with the Malaysian language, comprises of bewildering numbers of dialects. Riau Malay for example, is divided into two major dialects: Archipelago Riau Malay and Mainland Riau Malay. Archipelago Riau Malay is again divided into 18 sub-dialects spreading throughout the Riau islands. This dialect retains much characteristics of traditional old Malay. Mainland Riau Malay consists of 13 sub-dialects and is beginning to come under Minangkabau influence.

Within Malaysia itself, the Kelantanese Malay is spoken in Kelantan and its neighbouring states of Terengganu, Pahang, Perak and extending into South Thailand. It is a very distinctive dialect similar to Patani Malay, incomprehensible even to most Malaysians. At the boundaries, Kelantanese Malay is mixed with other dialects to produce more variations. In the Borneo territories, the Sabahan Malay distinguishes its speakers with unique expressions. Of course these are only some samples, it is not feasible to discuss all the dialects in this article.

So, which one do you prefer? The Malaysian language still undergoing standardization, or Malay language comprising of many, many different dialects?

Wan is an ordinary Malaysian who cannot help observing idiosyncrasies in Bahasa Malaysia for more information on Malaysian language http://www.bahasa-malaysia-simple-fun.com

Copyright 2007 - Wan Yee. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. Reprint Rights: You may reprint this article as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in any way, give author name credit and follow all of Ezinearticles.com terms of service for Publishers.

The History of Malay Language

The history of Malay language is divided into four periods : Old Malay, Early Modern Malay, Late Modern Malay and Contemporary Malay. The above divisions excludes inconclusive "scholarly" debates pertaining to pre-historic Malay in which diverse origins of Austronesian speakers, from which Malay is derived, are proposed.

Old Malay ( 682 -1500 C.E.) begins with records of poems and thoughts on writing materials made from plants described as the sharp cursive Rencong, an ancient script believed to be native to South-east Asia.
Unfortunately no evidence from that early period survived. When the Indians set their feet on the Malay Archipelago, they brought along Vatteluttu or Pallava, an ancient Tamil script from South India. Pallava
was accepted as the Malay writing system and gradually evolved into an ancient royal Javanese script called Kawi.

Even though Islam most probably introduced Arabic script to the Malay world as early as the seventh century, Old Malay was very much under Indian influence with its extensive use of Sanskrit vocabulary.
The Malays tried to use Pallava and Kawi to express their new Islamic faith but found both to be unsuitable to pronounce the verses of the Quran and Hadis. They thus experimented and created Jawi script based on Arabic. The Jawi script has been in used for more than 600 years by now and is synonymous with the Malay language itself.

Early Modern Malay ( 1500-c1850 ) This was a time of turmoil and radical change. The Malacca Sultanate as a patron of the Malay language played an important role in using the language to spread Islam thus changing Malay's pro-India nature to pro-Arabic. Portuguese conquest of Malacca in 1511 and subsequent persecution of Moslems caused them to disperse throughout the Malay Archipelago, establishing new regional centers.

This was also a time of flourishing classical literature. Adapting Arabic into Jawi script enabled the Malays to record their experiences, religious laws and oral literature into a collection of Malay classical literature. An example is the Malay Annals preserved by British Historian Sir Richard O. Winstedt.

Late Modern Malay ( c1850 - 1957 ) By this time Malay has absorbed numerous loan words from the colonists namely: Portuguese, Dutch and English. Standardized dictionaries and grammars appeared together with a study of regional Malay dialects and codification of literature. A prominent figure in this field was Zainal Abidin bin Ahmad, better known as Za'ba, exerted great influence on pre-independent Malay by codifying Malay grammar and modifying the Jawi spelling system. Malay was elevated to the status of the National language of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore when all of these nations gained independence, a process hastened by the Japanese Occupation.

Contemporary Malay ( after 1957 ) Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei set up their respective national language planning agencies, in an effort to unify their different versions of Malay. There were trials and errors and for a while, obstacle due to Indonesia's confrontation against the formation of Malaysia. As relationship between Indonesia and Malaysia normalized by 1966, their linguistic collaboration continued, resulting in a common spelling system in 1972. Thanks to this project, instead of several spelling systems, today there is only one spelling system for Malay in Malaysia.

Above is a brief recap of the history of Malay language covering a period of 1,500 years, in a more digestible form.

Wan is an ordinary Malaysian who cannot help observing idiosyncrasies in Bahasa Malaysia, for more information on the history of Malay language, go to http://www.bahasa-malaysia-simple-fun.com

Copyright 2007 - Wan Yee.