Something Old...

Gomen! I have failed to blog anything in two weeks! Yikes! So much for that goal :)

So, to make up for it, I will give you something old, and something new.

From the "archive":

Original Post: Content Advisory
Original Posting: Sunday, August 19, 2007

So...for this year I decided I should get my own printer for Kristy (me laptop). That way, if my mom is doing someting on her computer (or there is a good show on tv) I won't have to bug her everytime I need to print something (or miss half the show b/c I am babysitting her cantancerous printer [it loves to spit paper everywhere when it is not getting jammed]). I told mom my idea and she thought it was good too, so we went printer shopping today (or, rather, yesterday by the time this is posted.)

We found a good looking printer at office max for $74.99. Ink Jet, 4800x1200 resolution, 30 pages per minute, ect. We asked a salesperson if it could be hooked up to my laptop and he said "sure, if your laptop has USB ports." Yup. Kristy has 4. He went on to explain briefly how the serial plugs are being phased out and USB is talking over. I was just thinking "Yay, one last port for me to figure out."

So we ask for the printer, buy it and take it home, making sure to ask if it already had ink (it appearantly did). I eventually got around to opening the box to put it together around 11:30pm, due to the fact I was cleaning off my new "work space" for the printer and Kristy all day. (Short explanation: My "work space" used to be my sewing table/craft storage area, so all the sewing/craft stuff had to be boxed up and put away to make it into my "work space".) I pull the printer out and put it on the "space" take the power source and the plug out and give the printer its juice. Now to hook it up to the computer Kristy. THERE IS NO USB CABLE ANYWERE IN THE BOX. I figured maybe the sales guy was mistaken and it was a wireless model. I could live with that explanation. I open the "User Guide" and look for the setup chapter. The first chapter is for "printing without a computer". Well, why the fuck would anyone buy a printer, then? Sure, it has slots for memory cards for printing pictures, but, where I come from, printers primary readon for being is for printing DOCUMENTS. Printing good pictures is a added bonus. I finally found the chapter (4) for printing with a computer, but it yeilds no info about how to hook the damn thing up to a computer.

I'm not dumb enough to believe that a printer under $80 magically "knows" what to print without some kind of input source from a computer, so I tear through the rest of the booklets and find the one called Quick Start Giude. Apperantly it's the one you are really supposed to look at, the other one is just incase this one does not make things clear enough.

Step 1: Unpack the printer

Step 2: Connect power

Step 3: Add paper

Step 4: Install Ink

Step 5: Install Software

The pictures that accompany these steps do not show a USB cable until Step 5, when one magically appears with no explanation. So, I go back and read the smallish print that has 3 languages.

Step 1 of Step 1: Purchase a USB cable seperately.

What. The. Fuck?

Soooo....yeah....

I don't feel dumb though, because two salesmen appearantly missed this step too, since neither the one who was telling us about it, nor the one who rang us up mentioned anything about purchasing the cable separately. I checked the box and it makes no mention of either needing or having a USB cable. So, for now I am left with a printer that can't print, and no time to get the said cable.

But I'm not worried, beacuse I have the urinary system under by belt.