The mad scientists at Google unleashed their latest Google Labs experiment, People Hopper, to the world this last Wednesday on January 27th, 2010.  So what is People Hopper you ask? Basically it is an application for Google’s social networking site Orkut, which allows members to take their profile picture and morph it into a friend’s profile picture.  After you install the application you will be able to compare two of your friends (they must be Orkut members) using the People Hooper application. Simply drag your friends’ photo into the application and within a couple of seconds, People Hooper will display a clickable “path” that transitions your image to that of a friends’. Google Labs use image matching technology to power their People Hopper application.

We thought it may be interesting using People Hopper to compare Hillary Clinton with Monica Lewinsky…just for fun of course.

Why People Hopper is Interesting?

First it allows you to discover new connections with whom you resemble. Along the People Hopper path you can actually click on each image and be re-directed to that particular member’s profile. However a significant question emerges from this technology. Will Google eventually try to integrate this sort of image matching into their Google image search? If that were to happen would we really want our public images being morphed and transformed?

Send us your People Hopper Morph!

Think you can create a better People Hopper morph than us? Create your best morph (keep it clean..) and post the link in the comments section below! We’ll give you a few ideas, but we think our People Hopper morph will be pretty tough to beat! You never know the winner might just get something fun

• two clashing public figures…
• compare yourself to your pet or an animal…
• find your look-a-like…

Think you can spare a few minutes to give your printer a little TLC? Doing so can assist in prolonging the life of your printer. By removing dust particles or ink smudges, your printer will work better and hopefully last longer as well. Cleaning your printer eliminates paper jams, ink blotches and abnormal lines. However, if you are careless when cleaning, you can permanently damage the printer.

Before you start cleaning, make sure the printer is cooled down. Unplug the printer also, just to be safe. You might want to try cleaning out the printer when you are replacing ink or toner cartridges, to avoid damage to existing cartridges.

Use a soft cloth to wipe the exterior of the printer. Dampen the cloth, not the printer, with a light liquid. Try distilled water or a light cleaner, but stay away from ammonia or alcohol as they can crack or damage the surface. It’s best to clean the outside of the printer first, while the cartridges and trays are still inside. This way, dust and other small debris don’t make their way inside.

The way you clean the inside of the printer will vary a bit between laser and inkjet printers. Most inkjet printers have cleaning processes that can be initiated from the software that accompanies the printer. This cleaning unclogs the printheads that shoot the ink. Other inkjet printers have cartridges with printheads on them, so the printhead gets replaced with each cartridge change and does not need to be regularly cleaned.

To remove dust and debris from the rollers, paper trays and other parts inside of the inkjet printer, use a small duster or damp cloth to gently wipe all of the parts down. If you are a fancier cleaner, you can use purchase tools such as a computer vacuum or cleaning sheet for a sparkling printer. For example, many printer companies manufacture their own cleaning supplies, such as the Xerox cleaning wipes shown here.

With laser printers, you can clean the inside parts the same as you would an inkjet printer, except a soft brush is recommended instead of cloth or a duster. If you don’t have a brush, make sure to steer clear of the mirror inside to avoid damaging scratches. Also, the transfer rollers are the only part of a laser printer than cannot and should not be cleaned!

The bottom line is that you have to be very careful when removing and replacing all parts. Remember to be gentle and leave out the elbow grease. Again, taking just a few minutes to detail your printer can improve the performance and add pages onto your printer’s life!