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Lexmark's invocation of the DMCA fails miserably
[link=http://arstechnica.com/archive/news/1067455401.html]ArsTechnica[/link] has informed us that Lexmark's inane invocation of the DMCA against printer cartridge manufacturers has fallen flat on it's face. Hopefully this will prevent more abuse of the DMCA by other greedy corporations.
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It's cheaper to go purchase a new Z25 printer and use the included ink cartridge each time than to buy a new color & black ink cartridge.
Greedy corporate bastards. :thumbsdow :thumbsdow :thumbsdow
My i850 was around $200 when I bought it. It uses CMYK cartridges, and to me, that's a godsend for accurate prints. Cartridges are only $15 each too, therein I don't have to buy a whole new cartridge when one color runs out and spend $40 to do so.
I guess companies figure that most people will be "married" to their brand, once they get you hooked. The printer I replaced was a 7 year-old HP; I probably ran through $700 in ink with that thing.
Of course, my old Apple ImageWriter II is still chuggin, just got to oil the ribbon occasionally... It's great for making banners, with the dithered color ribbon and fanfold tractor-feed paper.
-drasnor
-drasnor
My Mom however, got herself a Lexmark Z73 scanner, copier, printer combo for their computer. Its not even being made anymore, in fact, the product was withdrawn from the market shortly after she bought hers, and all remaining printers were pulled off the shelf! She even had a tough time even getting the other features of the machine to work with WindowsXP correctly, and even now, the scanner portion will freeze up, and then the printer will print a all black page when a scan and print command is given
We had Apple IIgs's for a while, but then the school got Mac LC's and LC II's (with a GUI!, no more ProDOS!). Our lab had one machine with a Logitech trackball, can't remember the model. I got in trouble for holding it in my lap as opposed to the awkward position it was placed on the desk. I need to find a copy of LogoWriter (logo programming language interpreter), because logo is the sh!t.
My dad has a Canon all-in-one job (print/scan/fax) that we bought when Pentium II Deschutes was a new thing. Naturally, Windows XP drivers are nonexistant (the original driver was a TSR and resided on the taskbar, not the system tray), though he got the printer part of it working with a hacked bubblejet driver. That thing is on it's last legs anyway.
-drasnor
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2761688416&category=4608
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2761807108&category=4601
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2761690050&category=4608&sspagename=rvi:1:1
Someone had the print head up for grabs a little while back, but he'll have it up again later (Ye Olde Mac Milt never fails).
-drasnor
No seriously, they actually do exist. I've seen them with my own eyes... They DO draw the pictures right onto the paper. It's eerie.. I think they have them in Japan.....
I was one of the geeky kids in elementary school that actually had an Apple (][e) computer at HOME! Not only did it have an internal modem (yes, the Apple ][e did in fact have a modem), but it had a color monitor!
I still have it actually. When my dad and I were cleaning out the basement, we couldn’t bring ourselves to throw it and it’s accessories away, or any of the 100+ disks we had for it. Just looking at it brings back too many memories....
ANYWAYS, the ink cartridges for my HP DeskJet 712c printer cost anywhere from $25 to $45, depending on how much trouble my parents and I are willing to put into getting them.
Our IBM 4019 laser printer's toner cartridges cost anywhere from $40 to $80, which makes the HP's ink carts' prices look like pocket change.
...but we refill the laser with a $20 toner refill kit anyhow... and each fill lasts for ~10,000 pages, so I dunno.....
The apple ][e story brings up a point though: Why did we get so attached to those old 8bit or 16bit computers? I still have my Atari 1040STe which is totally useless, but I can't get rid of it. We certainly don't feel so attached to our modern 32 and 64bit computers (maybe because they are a collection of parts instead of a computer purchased as a whole)
hahahahaha. LIES!!! .... machines drawing pictures .... yah .... riiiight.
I have a Lexmark z45 here at work, not too impressed by the image quality, and I HATE print monitoring software.
But now I use a Canon S330 photo for any graphics or colour stuff, and a HP Laserjet 4L for anything else.
Cheap Laserjets are well worth it, you can pick them up stupidly cheap on eBay and its even better if you can find one localy so you dont have to pay a fortune in shipping.
Its strange, my laser printer is listed as 4ppm, but it takes 10 seconds to print the first page, then it just reels them off one after another with no brake and takes about 5 seconds to print a page, so it actually gets about 12ppm. Which is nice.
NS