Continued to research my kiosk device and have chose the back mountable Elo ‘15 industrial CRT touchscreen ($150 used w/shipping included on ebay) and the HiTi 630PL photo printer ($80 w/shipping on ebay). Unfortunately, HiTi does not create Linux drivers for their photo printers, so it looks like the program will have to be developed in VB.net. I was considering the HiTi 640DL “mini-lab” 20lb heavy duty photo printer with double the paper capacity (the less human maintenance, the better) but they cost $700 (would be the most expensive item in the kiosk). It also has a temperature monitoring device which would be useful because I think air circulation might be a problem in an enclosed kiosk. If I were sure that the kiosk would be profitable, the HiTi 640DL would be my choice but since this is only a demo I’ll stick with the cheaper solution. Steve’s Digicam: Photo Printer review gives an excellent review of the various printers. HiTi printers apparently have a per print cost of only 40 cents compared to upwards of 80 cents for competing brands (profit margin!!!).
I also decided on a mutual fund family to use for investment in small cap companies (a gap in my current investment portfolio). The Laudus Rosenberg U.S. Small Cap (BRSCX) funds have relatively low expense ratios, small market capitalizations, and have consistently produced returns in the lower deciles. Currently I’ve been using the Dodge & Cox Balanced and Stock (DODBX/DODIX; I also use their Bond/Income fund DODIX) fund for Large-Cap investment and the Muhlenkamp Fund (MUHLX) for Mid-Cap domestic equity investments and excellent tax efficiency. I also used the Matthew’s Asian Family Funds and the American Century Real Estate Investment Fund and Capital Value Investment Fund (REACX/ACTIX).