Day: April 19, 2008

The David Among the Giant Printers

Choices for printers have improved a whole lot since the days of slow black and white matrix printers. Anyone can now have faster quality prints at home that years ago could only be achieved through costly commercial printing press services. Now we have one in our hands. It’s a Brother all-in-one printer 150C model. An impulsive but justified buy. A printer, scanner and copier in one package at the price of just approximately Php 4000 (<USD 100) is money well spent.

This brand may not be as popular as Canon or HP when it comes to printers, but the features it has are competitive enough. The printer’s interface is user friendly. Its overall case and parts appear sturdy which remind me of our Brother portable typewriter that I’ve done a good deal of torture but still remains in operation until now—15 years later. Hopefully this multi-printer will stay strong just like his brother (pun intended).

Scanned images and print outs appear better than expected. At first we got disappointed when the photo prints outs had lines in it but after reading the user’s manual (duh!) and following the instructions a better print came out. I can’t say it’s perfect, but it’s like just any other photo I received from my sister who I know got a Canon photo printer and from some friends who developed their digital images thru professional developing centers. By the way, it has four separate ink cartridges (black, magenta, cyan and yellow) which makes it economical. Only the consumed color gets to be replaced. My resume will use up only the black one first anyhow.

Nothing is perfect though. Upon installation I saw some issues with it. The scanning software doesn’t have a preview unlike my Canon’s LiDE 20 which I find very useful as it lessens scanning time when doing small size papers such as paper bills which I used to test it. I read in the manual that it’s illegal to scan money. Don’t worry I don’t intend to forge my 500 bill. Though I wish it could multiply just like that. Ti abi.

printer
AC Cord on lower left corner. Scanner bed is shown as lifted to access USB port.
printer2
Red arrow pointing at USB port.

Lastly, I find the AC cord and USB connections weird. I expect the AC cord to be at the rear part and the USB port just somewhere visible. The port is hidden underneath the scanner bed which must be lifted in order to connect/remove the cable. I don’t know if the other multi-printer brands are set up like this.

Overall, this neat multi-printer will make the top brands a run for their money. It’s like David vs. Goliath. It’s like AMD vs. Intel. Hmm. It’s a stretch, and let’s not go there. It’s for another blog.

 

Here Comes Bum Days

 

Every working day seems to be getting gloomier and gloomier at work but I still exude a positive look to most people—to my colleagues, to my peers. In short, I’m becoming a professional hypocrite. Ti abi. But that’s the way it should be right now. There’s no point in surrendering even if the fight seems worthless and unwinnable.  Sooner or later I’d be a bum but until that time comes I try to be positive. Remember: choose to be happy.

So what have I done so far to soften the impact of the inevitable? I’ve made sure that I equipped myself with bum tools.

  1. Unpaid car. Nice to drive around with. Necessary to eliminate couch rashes.
  2. Books. Lots of it. I think I’d be able to read most of it while in career hibernation. I’d start to worry when I start re-reading my wife’s Archie comics.
  3. Cable TV and Internet subscription. Other than being certified bum tools, both may be my connection to the outside world.  Which reminds me to check the schedule of the TV show Til Debt Do Us Part.
  4. DVDs. Genuine DVDs. Got to have popcorns and beer to go along with these.
  5. A Brother. Yes, a Brother multi-printer. The brother that can help me distribute my resume print outs while on a job hunt.
  6. Rubik’s cube. I don’t know if the recent recession and attrition is the reason this cube puzzle was revived. I’m smelling conspiracy here.

For now these should suffice to keep me occupied for the bum days to come.